Irrelevant F1 Facts and News and Stuff

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Well, I was bored, and procrastinating since I have my history final tomorrow. I entered the topic of "2008 Formula One Season" and took a look at the reserve/test drivers of that year. Out of all test/reserves of 2008, all these have gone on to race in Formula 1 at least temporarily:

Luca Badoer
Michael Schumacher
Christian Klien
Romain Grosjean
Lucas di Grassi
Sakon Yamamoto
Nico Hülkenberg
Sébastien Buemi
Kamui Kobayashi
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Pedro de la Rosa

11 drivers from 2008, 4 of which are permanent F1 race drivers in 2011!!

Anyone else finding some weirdo facts, or am I the only one crazy enough? Probably so

Yeah, probably just you.  Just 11 test/reserve drivers in '08 - give Renault another couple of years and they'll have a dozen of their own.

If only that exam was on the history of F1....

I know F1 history fairly well from around 2004 to today, but the further back the less I know. I'd say I have merely a general understanding of the 90s

... but 'History of F1' would've made for an interesting course.  How went the actual history exam?

It went well, I got an A in that class (had I actually been studying at University, I'd have a GPA of 3.92 )


Hey hey, I renamed this topic to fit this in:

http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/50699.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

Not actual important news, but hey, who gives a bloody ?

HA!  What a muppet.  Looks like he was trying to leap the car....

Oh yeah, I've no idea what a GPA of 3.92 equates to, but based on your choice of smiley it's obviously pretty good.  So well done with that.

Heh, well.. I had 6 A's (2 of them A-), 1 B+ and 1 C+. The GPA of 3.92 was for the second semester only, where I had all A's (one A-)

So... a 3.63 overall?

Hmm, I'm looking up my WebPortal stuffs grading...  3.62 overall!

Force India is to auction off a hand-painted VJM01 (their first car), with money raised split between Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and Force India's Academy - which supports motor racing initiatives for Indian children.  The car was lovingly painted by Dexter Brown, pictures of car below:

- Dead links to dead pic host -

Too bad he didn't go with scenes of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the African plains, at least on one side of the car - perhaps elephants on the other.

If someone allowed me to paint anything I liked on an F1 car, I'd paint boobies.

Didn't doubt that for a second. 

Dunno where to put it, but it's so brilliant I have to share it. Today's best line from our commentator: "Tyres for dry rain."

Sounds like you have a Slovenian Murray Walker - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Walker - on your hands. Cherish it.

Some on-air Murray quotes:

"Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus sounding rough?"

"Alboreto has dropped back up to fifth place"

Murray: "What's that? There's a BODY on the track!!!"
James: "Um, I think that that is a piece of BODY-WORK, from someone's car."

"I don't want to tempt fate but Damon Hill is now only half a lap from his first Grand Prix win and..and HE'S SLOWING DOWN, DAMON HILL IS SLOWING DOWN..HE'S..HE'S STOPPED."

Murray: "And look at the flames coming from the back of Berger's McLaren."
James: "Actually, Murray, they're not flames, it's the safety light."

"...and there's no damage to the car.....except to the car itself."

"This is an interesting circuit because it has inclines, and not just up, but down as well."

"Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is."

"Andrea de Cesaris...the man who has won more Grand Prix than anyone else without actually winning one of them."

Ah, we have our very own take on that. The difference is, Murray Walker just found the wrong words and our commentator is just completely incompetent and useless and rubbish. Take this race at the Hungaroring: When it started raining and Hamilton spun, they said (after Button had passed Hamilton and after the two lapped the Force India) "I'm hearing reports about rain on parts of the track". Meanwhile, it had been pouring for at least 10-15 seconds on camera. I can't believe they don't just WATCH the damn race, I could spot the rain despite using a stupid proxy stream

Ah, so you're burdened with an idiot rather than an intelligent but occasionally tongue/brain-tied M. Walker type.  You know I do miss the Murray moments... although he was getting worse as the years went by.

Indeed. The same guy has been doing the commentating since forever. He's got the perfect TV voice but he's a retard (The Hangover movie pronunciation)

Ah, sounds familiar Chrill. Same situation here. The man's jumping around in his little commentator's room (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sgpe2pdNZI), shouting and generally missing all the action on the track; always very slow, etc. etc. He's kinda good as a journalist(?), but he's just not doing his job on commentating. Plus, he just won't shut up when there's 'team radio'. Then when he's supposed to translate it, he's all like "I didn't here that well." Of course you didn't, you were talking. At least he manages to say something funny often enough.

The man's jumping around in his little commentator's room (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sgpe2pdNZI), shouting and generally missing all the action on the track;

Good grief.  He would drive me mad within 15 minutes; I prefer my commentary on the calmer side.

I absolutely love the Brundle-Coulthard line-up. They are amazingly entertaining. During the Canadian GP a few months back.. Heck, they kept doing commentary during that break and I was never bored. Talking about birds and boats and all. It was entertaining even then because they're just great

Echoes my feelings exactly.  Sadly we must enjoy them while we can - I'm almost certain Sky will poach Brundle (in the sense of luring him over as presenter rather than what one might do to an egg), but suspect they may pair him with one of their own over DC.  Though whether or not he follows Brundle is kind of irrelevant unless you have Sky Sports....

Well.. I heard some Tweets from Brundle about the Sky deal. He was "not impressed"

Yes, not impressed to find out with the rest of us poor slobs that the BBC walked (ran?) from its exclusive F1 deal.  I'm sure the number of noughts on a BSkyB offer to Brundle will impress him in a more positive manner.

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A quirky little good news story (albeit with a somewhat misleading title) - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/8700621/F1-fan-receives-bionic-hand-from-Mercedes-team.html

That actually is a lovely story to read. Seems the hand is more or less as useful as a real hand, too, which basically eliminates the handicap (once he knows how to use it properly, of course)

The dream of every heterosexual man on the planet taken by Mr. Cruise.
http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Article/tom-cruise-red-bull-f1-021243071792929

Well he's the right build for it.  I'd struggle to get my shoulders in an F1 car....

The dream of every heterosexual man on the planet taken by Mr. Cruise.
http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Article/tom-cruise-red-bull-f1-021243071792929

I'd want to see a video of that

Back from the dead!

Rosberg vs. Villeneuve at Long Beach GP of 1982 - commentary by Murray Walker & James Hunt (posh voice): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=y0kdfyNpzYU

Got to smile at Ferrari with their sneaky double rear-wing, although not clever sneaky as they were subsequently disqualified from the race.

It's not THAT sneaky, it's pretty obvious really

Only one driver competing in the 2000 Formula One Season is also competing in 2013 - Jenson Button! However, Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber were all test drivers that season.

If we move to the 2003 season (ten years ago) only four 2013 drivers were competing. Button, Raikkonen, Alonso, Webber. Massa raced in 2002 but not in 2003, I guess you can count him in. So only 5 out of 22 drivers have an F1 career lasting 10 or more years. Not even any 2003 test drivers on the grid this year; the most noteworthy 2003 testers include Alex Wurz, Allan McNish, Takuma Sato and Antonio Pizzonia (and aforementioned Felipe Massa).

EDIT: Actually, it's the exact same for the 2005 Formula One season too. Button, Raikkonen, Alonso, Webber, Massa. 2005 also included Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa to name a few drivers who left us after 2012! In 2005, though, we had more test drivers; Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel. In 2006, those names joined the grid. Then, in 2007, we also got Adrian Sutil and Lewis Hamilton. Then there's Super Aguri of course. Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson.

Actually, only 9 of the 2013 drivers also raced in 2008. That's a lower number than I expected. 2008 racers who we have forced out from our memory include Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Bourdais and... No, actually most 2008 drivers are fairly respected and not really pay drivers. I mean, we have Fisichella, Barrichello, Kubica, Heidfeld, Trulli and Coulthard. Not exactly rookie pay drivers, that lot.

... definitely wouldn't accuse any of them of being rookies!

Having just five off the 2005 grid really illustrates F1's constant churn; in fact I doubt that dropping all bar five racers over an eight year timeframe is anything unusual, so let's compare driver lists for the opening round of the '98 and '90 seasons: http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1998/164/  and: http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1990/215/

So there's Alesi, and, erm, nobody else.  Now that may well be an exceptional case, but if we do the same with '86 and '94 there are still only four drivers who spanned both seasons - and tragically one of those wouldn't see much more of 1994.

Well then, there you go. I just feel like we've had an exceptional amount of rookies joining the F1 series too early, often replacing those who deserve to stay. Kovalainen is a prime example of that, so is Glock. To an extent, perhaps also Trulli and Heidfeld.

This year's line-up is something of a rookie-fest; five from twenty two is quite some ratio... I hope the new Caterham & Marussia chaps are well behaved backmarkers.

Can't believe you didn't mention Kamui in your 'drivers who deserve to stay' mini-list, I'll assume 'twas just an oversight.  I'd say Algyswearee is another who got the F1 boot to soon.

I overlooked Kobayashi on purpose. The names I mentioned are all drivers with long experience in Formula 1. I can't really say Kobayashi has long experience. I agree that both Kobayashi and Alguersuari should have been given a new chance.

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Fangio's 1954 Mercedes W196 is up for auction: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/classiccars/9939569/Ex-Fangio-racer-could-fetch-more-than-10-million.html

One wonders whether today's F1 machines will generate such interest sixty years down the road....

I guess this topic fits... We all know people complained about the changes made to F1 regulations, forcing the new front and rear wings. Take a look at the 2006 world champion.



That is a hideous front wing but a sweet rear wing. Why can't we have a combination of the pre-2012 front wings (before stepped noses) and the old rear wings? PLZ.

Because the FIA hates us?  Kidding, well sort of, but don't forget the wide front wings did have a purpose to them in allowing one to more closely follow another car through the twisty bits, or at least that was the theory; I do like those old-style rear wings though.  Shame F1 teams rejected the ground effects and skinny wings route proposed a couple of years back, could've been an interesting (non-DRS) path to take.

I don't mind the wide front wings really. The tall narrow rear wings are what troubles me! I prefer these low wide rear wings.

Don't we all.  Well, we both do, which is a fine start.


Minardi at their best, smoothly servicing Esteban Tuero's car during the '98 Argentine GP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuOOy9DgIVg

Minardi at their best, smoothly servicing Esteban Tuero's car during the '98 Argentine GP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuOOy9DgIVg

Heh.. Hah. HAHA. It just keeps getting better. Oh my. That is worse than when McLaren forgets that Button requires all 4 tyres to be fitted.

Love the mechanic about 20 seconds into the stop who runs a tyre (still in blanket, of course) right round the back of the car, stops dead, realizes he's on the wrong side and just casually hands it across the car's nose.  What the hell was going through Tuero's mind as he saw all this.  Don't get moments of such comic genius anymore, although McLaren does try.

The following is an actual quote from the Wikipedia page for the 1998 Argentine Grand Prix:

"When Esteban Tuero came into the pits, one of his tyres was missing. Eventually, one of the mechanics found it in the garage."


Here's a bit of an old news piece (well, a month old) regarding Felipe Massa:

http://www.yallaf1.com/2013/03/21/massa-gets-record-for-longest-win-drought-by-a-ferrari-driver/

Interesting.  To be fair to Alesi & Alboreto the Ferraris they raced weren't known for their reliability: Michele's 55 consecutive races without a win, which began after his victory in Germany '85, included 29 retirements; Alesi's 67-race winless streak contained 35 DNFs; whereas Massa's now 71-race winless run has a mere 7 DNFs peppered through it.  Of course is Massa allowed to beat Alonso...?

Massa would indeed have won during this streak had he not been told Alonso was faster than him in Germany.

Well. Maybe. Was Alonso actually faster than him? Would it have taken opposite team orders to keep Alonso behind him?

Fernando, Felipe is slower than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

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Michael Schumacher back with the Merc F1 team for Nurburgring: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/04/25/schumacher-drive-f1-car-nurburgring-nordschleife/


Micky boy lapping the Nordschleife in a 2011 Merc F1 car: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/05/28/onboard-with-michael-schumacher-on-the-nurburgring-nordschleife/

Lapping it damn slowly... after the first few minutes the car seems to be hitting the rev limiter at a pretty low speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkoneMw2sV0

Well. Maldonado.

What a rare find... a Maldo video where nothing gets hit.

Well, that is true. Still, it's classic Maldonado.

Yes, but I always expect contact... typically with another car: http://youtu.be/97s07SpF8tU

Interesting.  To be fair to Alesi & Alboreto the Ferraris they raced weren't known for their reliability: Michele's 55 consecutive races without a win, which began after his victory in Germany '85, included 29 retirements; Alesi's 67-race winless streak contained 35 DNFs; whereas Massa's now 71-race winless run has a mere 7 DNFs peppered through it.  Of course is Massa allowed to beat Alonso...?

I know this is rather an old topic but I was just reading through now.  Alboreto would have probably have broken his win-less streak at Monza in '88 had the pits not been telling him he was running out of fuel as he was catching team mate Berger hand over fist.  Oddly enough it turned out that he had plenty left in the tank when he crossed the finishing line, which just goes to show how much he had fallen out of favour at Maranello that they stopped an Italian from winning his and their home race...

Aaaaaah they're doing a raceday show of Formula 1 in my former town Örebro in about three weeks. Marcus Ericsson will drive a Caterham through the city center, they'll have some old F1 cars too (old Jaguar with a V10 for example) and lots of other cars from other series. ADHASDDHJASOU. I'll have to be there.

At least Ericsson will have a chance of finishing first.  I remember when F1 did a demonstration run through London a few years back, it's a great chance to see the cars close up so don't miss it...

So I just found out today my boss at work is co-owner of a team racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC (Nordic European Cup), Prizma Motorsport team. A series where Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Danil Kvyat have raced. This year, they are fielding a 16-year old Swede who is also part of a Red Bull simulator program, Pontus Fredricsson. Very amazings!!

As posted on f1fanatic, here's a real blast from the past http://www.pacificgrandprix.com/

No updates in twenty years....

I had completely forgotten about them. 35 employees, eh? Lean...

Splendid website there!

Another fact(s):
Excluding Kevin Magnussen and Alexander Rossi (or counting Merhi/Rossi as one) and further excluding test sessions, so rather focusing on the actual GPs, the 2015 driver line-up started their careers in 10 different teams (or 8 if we ignore buying/renaming teams). Most current drivers started their career in (perhaps surprisingly) Williams (5 drivers). Second on the list is Sauber with 4 drivers (and here we could add 1 driver starting his career in BMW-Sauber), then there's Toro Rosso with 3, Manor Marussia with 2 and tied with 1 driver each are Renault, Minardi, McLaren, HRT, Caterham and already mentioned BMW-Sauber.

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That looks nice. A sort of semi-canopy solution where the driver is extractable but still protected. How good would their vision be behind that?

That's going to need some big old tear-off strips to clear the muck spewed out by the car in front.

That's going to need some big old tear-off strips to clear the muck spewed out by the car in front.

Spolarvätska. Or, you know, windscreen washer fluid. I don't know the English term for it.

Looks an awkward shape for windscreen wipers....


McLaren's F1 concept, the MP4-X:  www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/12/03/mclaren-is-latest-team-to-reveal-an-f1-of-the-future-car-design/

Without these (or with better shaped) triangular tank front wheel things, it'd look pretty sexy. Still better than that Ferrari a few posts above, because that nose... just no.

Agree with all that.  Front wheel lumps aside it's a fine looking concept.


Max Verstappen, an RB7, and an Austrian mountain: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/01/14/verstappen-takes-to-the-ski-slopes-in-a-red-bull-rb7/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFuPaD3w-8

Let's take a look at Mika overtaking the Michael.

Reckon it must be the move at Spa back in, what, '99 or 2000.  Now I'll give the link a click....

That's the one.  Mika calling him 'The Michael', great stuff.

Isn't it ironic?
https://twitter.com/autosportnewsf1/status/719120014746357760

If we could just slide an 'Ex' in at the start....

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I wasn't sure where to put this, but Bernie is an irrelevant fact of F1 and it is news so...

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/36086363

I bet Bernie walked off stage and thought "bugger, I forgot to rant about the disabled."

The way it's going there won't be many fans around if/when F1 has another woman racing: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/04/20/f1-has-lost-one-third-of-its-tv-audience-since-2008/

Don't worry, we can all switch to MotoGP. Any female riders?

Not in the premier category, I think there's a couple of Spanish in moto3 and Jenny Tinmouth competes in bsb...

Being a bit bored, I did some math. Since Max Verstappen joined Red Bull, he has scored 108 points. In that time, Ricciardo has scored 125 points. This despite Max winning in Spain.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. Ricciardo is fantastic. Not that anyone doubted him.

If Red Bull do their thing and adapt with style to next year's new regs, and who would bet against them, then we could have one seriously tasty fight for supremacy between Dan & Max right at the pointy end of the grid.

How many of these can you name? I could name all but one of these guys (one of the Sauber boys). DO YER BEST.

Not a ton since I didn't start watching until 2003. I can basically name anyone who was still around in 2003.

Top: Button, Ralf
Middle: Jos, de la Rosa, JB, HHF, Gene
Bottom: Fisi, Coulthard, Hakkinen, Schumacher, Rubens, Heidfeld

Top: Diniz, Salo, Button, Ralf, Irvine, Herbert
Middle: Jos, de la Rosa. Villeneuve, pass , Frentzen, Trulli (train), Gene, pass
Bottom: Fisi, Wurz, DC, Hakkinen, Schumacher, Rubens, Alesi, Heidfeld

Very good. Villeneuve was partnered by Zonta and Gene by Argentine driver Gaston Mazzacane. I failed to name Diniz though.

So that's what Ricardo Zonta looks (looked) like, who knew?  Mind you, that Gaston chap made such an impression I don't even recognise the name.

I recall Mazzacane's name simply from playing F1 2000 a lot and 10-year old Chrill found it funny.

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Lewis Hamilton is a video game character.

Max Verstappen is the youngest driver to finish third, fourth, and fifth in the same Grand Prix.
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Magnussen is the first Magnussen to not get fired after the Canadian Grand Prix since 1997, when Magnussen did not get fired.
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Esteban Ocon is the first F1 driver called Esteban since Esteban Tuero, apart from Esteban Gutiérrez.
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Haas is the first F1 team called Haas since Haas, which wasn't Haas.
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Current F1 cars are 15 seconds a lap faster than they were at a completely different circuit.


These, and many other IMPORTANT F1 FACTS, can be found at Twitter account @BadF1Stats. Good fun.

The 2016 cars are actually the fastest ever F1 cars. Williams FW38 reached 372.5 km/h (231.5mph) in Mexico which is the highest official speed measured in a session of the F1 calendar.

In Baku, they went even faster according to their own telemetry, 378 km/h (235mph). Not bad, Williams. Not bad at all.

A record that will likely stand for some time as next year's changes means they'll be slower in a straight line (more drag), but of course significantly faster round all the twisty bits.

Quite. We'll definitely smash lap times in 2017 on most tracks. Probably not Monza.


Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to win a race without making a pitstop since Mika Salo in Monaco in 1997, who didn't actually win.

Marcus Ericsson has outqualified every other Swedish driver on the grid for the first time since the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix.

Lance Stroll will be the oldest 18 year old to make their debut in the history of F1.

Them's some quality stats....

Can we expect The Donald to replace Nico?

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http://www.formula1.com/en/video/2016/12/8-Bit_F1_2016_Season_Review.html

This is fantastic.

Once every year, Swedish charity "Radiohjälpen" (literally the Radio help) arrange a 7 day continuous broadcast from a glass box placed on a square in a Swedish city. The 3 hosts broadcast for 7 days straight (sleeping 6 hours per day, broadcasting 18 hours per day). This year, it's arranged in Örebro which is where I used to live and where Marcus Ericsson comes from.

One way of raising money is through auctions on basically the Swedish eBay. Marcus Ericsson is auctioning a race helmet from the 2016 season. After an hour, highest bid is 30000 SEK (£2560, $3200). The auction is open for another 72 hours. That's a pretty large sum for a sweaty old helmet used by someone finishing at the top of the back of the pack.

Loved the 8-bit season review.  Very well done if a little on the short side; well, that's really just me being greedy and wanting a few more minutes of retro action - for starters why no Max V. in Brazil?

Loved the 8-bit season review.  Very well done if a little on the short side; well, that's really just me being greedy and wanting a few more minutes of retro action - for starters why no Max V. in Brazil?

I'm guessing the review was made prior to that and no time left to update it.

Updating Ericsson's helmet, we've sprinted past the 50k mark and the bid stands at 56,000 SEK which is £4800 or $6000 or ¥703,000 or 3700 Latvian Lats or 196,877,042 ﷼  (Iranian Rials) or 1823 د.ك (Kuwaiti Dinars - the strongest currency in circulation today) or 7 and a half bitcoins.

The only driver to score points in all his races this season is Stoffel Vandoorne. Good job. 100% hit rate on them points.

Based on that, I'm expecting a stellar 2017 for this Van Door chap.

Lewis Hamilton on the cover of TIME Magazine.
http://time.com/lewis-hamilton-formula-one/

[Chrill]

"Bad F1 Stats" at Twitter have done it again:

With a current streak of one, Sebastian Vettel only has to win the next eight Grands Prix to match his record for the most consecutive wins.

The Race of Champions Miami circuit is 38 seconds long in honour of how long Felipe Massa was champion for.

Also, following Nico Rosberg announcing his retirement from racing after his world title:
This is Nico Rosberg's first retirement since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

Rosberg is the first Rosberg to win the championship since Rosberg.

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The last one is indisputable.

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The Chinese Grand Prix was Fernando Alonso's 275th race. Coincidentally, it was also the 275th time he drove 'the best race of his career'.

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... he also had another 'best ever' qualifying lap.  Man, is he ever on top form.

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We must've been good to deserve this: it's another round of 'F1 concept car'!  This time we have Renault pushing their crystal balls into overdrive as they peer deep into the future (well, ten years) to delight/amuse us with this vision of racing's future:




More words to read & pictures to peruse: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/04/19/renault-reveals-1300bhp-f1-concept-car-2027/

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That's... interesting. I don't like it.

I like the idea of the engine, but the car looks like "trying too hard to look retro-futuristic". Meh.

[Chrill]

I giggled.