How long will Walkinshaw suffer the under-par performance and reliability problems of the Yamaha? Has this engine proven anything positive in F1 racing? Has it even showed any glimmer of improvement since Ken and the lads got a hold of it?

Walkinshaw does not strike me as a man who suffers losing gracefully...ditto for Mr. Hill. It is bad enough to watch last year's champion subjected to this display of mechanical ineptitude only to have this view further exacerbated by the unequal driving results of one H.H. Frentzen.

Ward Hargreaves
cwh.1@sympatico.ca

...When the rule for grooved tyres came about, how many of the drivers and fans jumped for joy and said "Hurrah!" My guess, none. How many people said, "What the heck for?" My guess, everyone. Even the tyre companies, especially Bridgestone who have spent millions on developing slick tyres, are probably pissed off. It will cost a great deal in developing these spastic tyres and send everyone back to square one basically.

Mike Cox
tmc@fl.net.au

What Happened to the Qualifing Gaps chart?

Gary Biggs

Atlas F1: We may run Qualifying Differentials alongside SuperGrid and SuperRace. However, it will switch from one to the other depending on the issue for now. Drop me a line if you want to have them both on each issue. If demand is great, we will try to work something out.

Paul Kaizar
kaizar@atlasf1.com

Dear Atlas F1:

I enjoy reading Atlas, and the news section is excellent, informative and up to date, Mike Viveen must be a very busy man, all in all an excellent job that you should be commended for.

However, my praise for your interzine stops a la Yamaha when I read your readers comments section. Is everybody really interested in conspiricist style "this is what really happened....no honestly" theories about how Ayrton Senna died?? I don't think so, this page really seems to be a mixture of conjecture and vague supposition, which in my mind doesn't do a whole lot for the good of the sport or the departed drivers.

Aryton Senna's head may have rolled around before he hit the wall, he may well have been looking down into the cockpit (lost contact lense theory) he may even have been trying to hold his breath the whole race, or even trying to stuff his head up his arse, basically the only person who knows for sure is no longer in a position to talk about it.

Of course what you really need on your comments page is some decent ranting and swearing about German drivers... that would be much more interesting. <g>

Chris Barker
christy@salterns.co.uk

Gentlemen:

I like your analysis of comparing qualifying times of teammates. That's something I hadn't thought of before.

Maybe Damon Hill won't win any races this year, but he should wind up with a cracking differential against his teammate, Pedro Diniz.

It just seems like the cars are so much faster this year. A pole position time for 1996 may not make it under the 107% rule for 1997!! Amazing.

Cheers,

Andy Cofrin
ascofrin@execpc.com