Irrelevant F1 Facts and News and Stuff

[Matt]

To be fair, Kovalainen and Glock were both pretty good drivers. That?s why they ended up on this list, Manor and Caterham (or whatever they were called at the time) wanted to hire them as experienced drivers.

[Chrill]

Sure, but Marky Mark Eric Wahlberg Son is ahead of names like Karthikeyan, Albers, and Chilton.

[Chrill]

Well this was a sweet and unusually kind article about Ericsson:
https://wtf1.com/post/why-well-miss-marcus-ericsson-from-formula-1-next-year/

[Penfold]

An F1 survey about DRS states that 56% of those asked believe the system makes overtaking too easy: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.f1-fan-voice-fans-have-their-say-on-drs.3Vwphuskn6gukaO08U2aSu.html

I'm somewhat disappointed that it was only 56%. 

[Chrill]

I think people have become accustomed to DRS by now. Yes it makes overtaking DRS but until they build cars capable of racing we sort of need it.

[Matt]

Yeah, the alternative is no passing. It's still the lesser of two evils. But F1 will lack in the racing department until they can find a way to have passing without DRS again.

[Chrill]

Agreed. The 2019 regulations aim to change that somewhat, 2020 will develop it further and 2021 (supposedly) will be the full iteration of this overtaking group that F1 has got going under Ross Brawn.

[Penfold]

Pity F1 made a bad situation worse with the 2017 regs by going against the findings of the 2008 Overtaking Working Group; people did say at the time that said regs would worsen the dirty air issue, but the FIA ploughed on regardless in its usual arrogant manner.

It's immensely depressing (within the very limited context of how much I actually care about F1) that overtaking has become ever more reliant on DRS, a supposedly temporary measure, in these past eight years, but it's even more depressing when they go and give a track like Spa a massive DRS zone which strips away any excitement/tension from the racing.  If nothing else, you would hope by now that they'd be tailoring DRS use so that it makes overtaking a possibility rather than a foregone conclusion, and at some circuits (the ones not blessed/cursed with hugely long straights) that is the case, but then they go and ruin Spa and take another small piece of my affection for the sport.

[Chrill]

Since Ferrari announced Leclerc as Kimi's 2019 replacement, Vettel has finished in third at best and scored a total of 50 points. Kimi has won a race and scored 57 points. Leclerc has finished in the points twice, at best 7th in Russia.

[Penfold]

It goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway, that Ferrari should take note of these recent results and announce Kimi & Ericsson as their drivers for 2019.

Post no. 999.  Better make the next one a classic....

[Penfold]

... or perhaps a good news story -  Niki Lauda has left hospital and is in good condition after having received a lung transplant back in August: https://www.racefans.net/2018/10/24/lauda-released-from-hospital-after-lung-transplant/

[Chrill]

Really happy to hear. The Austrian rat surely has 9 lives too, just like a cat. Can't wait to have that grumpy man back in the paddock.

[Chrill]

Three drivers have won 5 or more World Championships - Fangio, Schumacher, Hamilton. The Mercedes F1 Team has always had one of these guys in a car whenever they enter a race. Dating back to the first Mercedes entry in 1954, at least one of those three man have raced a Mercedes whenever the team entered a race. Neat little factoid.

[Chrill]

I'm sure you have heard of Alx Danielsson. No? Well, he once tested a Renault F1 car back in 2007 after winning Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2006. He's part of a Swedish F1 fan group on Facebook, and today confirmed that in late 2007 he signed a 3-year agreement to race for Super Aguri 2008-2010. Now, Super Aguri folded four races into 2008, but those four races were saw Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato driving them Super Aguris. Aww how close we got to having a Swede in F1 back then!

[Penfold]

Oh yeah, Alx Danielsson, of course I remember him from back in his Formula Renault days....