| ATLAS F1 Volume 6, Issue 29 |  Email to Friend  Printable Version |
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The F1 FAQ | ||
| by Marcel Schot, Netherlands | |||
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Have a question about Formula One statistics or history? Well you're not the only one, and it's about time someone came up with the answers to Formula One's most Frequently Asked Questions. Send us your questions, to faq@atlasf1.com - we may not know everything, but we will sure make the effort to find out
On 16 March 1975, the Race of Champions, a non-championship race, took place at Brands Hatch and was indeed won by Tom Pryce in a Shadow. Pryce also set Pole Position and the fastest lap. In the same season he also took Pole Position in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, his only Pole in a World Championship event.
Article 1.9 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations says it all : "1.9 Weight : Is the weight of the car with the driver, wearing his complete racing apparel, at all times during the event." In article 4.1 the 600 kg number is mentioned : "4.1 Minimum weight : The weight of the car must not be less than 600kg." The rest of Article 4 then goes on about ballast etc. The full Technical Regulations can be found on the FIA site at http://www.fia.com/regle/reg_tec/F1tec-a.htm.
To my knowledge there hasn't been a race where no car finished. However, there has been a race where all cars from the grid finished the race. On 22 May 1961, all 15 who started the Dutch Grand Prix finished it. The result was a 1-2 for Ferrari, Von Trips winning ahead of Phil Hill, with Jim Clark finishing third in his Lotus. After a little over 2 hours, Carel Godin de Beaufort and Hans Hermann, both driving Porsches, finished 3 laps down in 14th and 15th respectively, enough to be classified.
The traditional laurels indeed have been long gone. At some time during the 1980s it gradually disappeared. I have been looking through a few books on Formula One history and the most recent winner with laurel wreath I came across was John Watson when he won the USA-West Grand Prix at Long Beach in 1983. The reason for getting rid of this tradition? Probably money, since the wreath kept quite a few sponsors' names out of view.
At this time, the chances are quite small that Lotus will re-enter Formula One. The FIA rules limit the number of teams to 12 and as we already have 11, there is only one spot left. This place, however, will be taken by Toyota in 2002, so the only chance Team Lotus would have is to buy one of the currently competing teams. In 1997, Team Lotus announced plans to rejoin Formula One - http://atlasf1.autosport.com/news/1997/465.htm - but these plans haven't since turned into reality.
Although not exactly on the difference between us ordinary people and Formula One drivers, Formula One's medical chief Professor Sid Watkins describes his experiences about the limits of the human body in Appendix I (The Physiology of Motor Racing - The Limits of Human Performance) of his book 'Life at the Limit - Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One'. Despite having not a lot of understanding about the actual medical terms Professor Watkins uses, I found this a very good read. The book contains several anecdotes as well as a detailed description of how the medical service at Grands Prix has improved over the decades. It also contains several figures displaying pulse of for instance Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi, in which we can see that even for two persons doing the same thing, there can be a great deal of difference in how the body reacts.
The Concorde Agreement was signed in the heat of political battle. Eventually this battle didn't remain in the offices alone, but also found its way onto the track. At Zolder and Monaco the audiences didn't notice much, but drivers of several teams refused to take part in the manditory drivers' briefings, which cost them rather large fines as well as FISA threats of withdrawing their licenses. The point where the audience really suffered was the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, where Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Renault didn't race because the FISA, then the governing body of Formula One, had declared the race illegal. The other teams drove the race, now sanctioned by Bernie Ecclestone's FOCA, but it was never entered in the recordbooks.
The next race was to be the French Grand Prix and was under serious threat until both parties finally agreed in a nine hour meeting five days before the race. All this fighting had a negative influence on the audience who just wanted to see racing and no political mayhem influencing things. TV ratings had taken a sharp drop throughout the season and sponsors feared their investments were going down the drain, so they stepped in with more cash to ensure the TV coverage. In all of this, the circuits were never a party of importance as they were already in a position where they had to pay over $500,000 for the circus to show up in the first place.
The first McLarens in 1966 were white with a black nose and a black line running from the nose to the cockpit. After that there was a short period where McLaren used black cars with an orange nose, followed by entirely orange cars until 1972, when they turned white again. First with some orange parts, but from 1974 they ran the famous red and white Marlboro livery. This continued until 1997 when West replaced Marlboro as main sponsor and the cars received the silver and black look they still have today.
Darren Galpin has an excellent collection of tracks on his website at http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/tracks/tracks.html. On FORIX, you can find information on every Formula One circuit that has been used in a World Championship race at http://www.forix.com/asp/nc.asp?z=0&k=0&l=0
Since the start of this season, FORIX also provides Formula 3000 results at http://www.forix.com/asp/f3000.asp?z=0&k=0&l=0
This has been discussed over at The Nostalgia Forum on AtlasF1's Bulletin
Board. Twice the #13 has graced the racetracks of the world in World
Championship Grands Prix. Moises Solana raced a BRM P57 at the 1963 Mexican
Grand Prix for Scuderia Centro Sud. After qualifying 11th the car finished,
well, was classified 11th, and last. The car had had an engine failure
after completing 57 of 65 laps, but it was enough to be classified.
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| Marcel Schot | © 2000 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated. |
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