Office by Alex Penny
Ronnie Peterson explaining how a bee once did fly up his nose, just before the flag dropped to start a race.
I found this sweet clip of Ronnie Peterson to make an animated gif-series from, why won’t Photoshop let me use it? Why are you doing this to me?!
The last few laps of the Malaysian Grand Prix were pretty exciting, but what I found incredible was the poor performance of the wet tyres. I think this is because the tyre manufacturers know there will always be a red flag if there’s heavy rain, and the race won’t restart until the track is nearly dry. When it does, the field remains behind the Safety Car for a few laps, as in Montréal last year and, at that point, everyone then pits to put on intermediates! That, to me, is flawed.
I understand they red-flag races or use the Safety Car for safety reasons, but I remember when you had to live with a wet track because that’s the way it was. Now, as soon as it gets a bit slippery everyone says it’s undriveable. Nowadays drivers aren’t used to driving in these conditions because, more often than not, they don’t have to. I think tyre manufacturers know this, so wet-weather tyres are not their priority. It’s the fans who lose out because they’re sat in front of their TVs for an hour wondering why there’s no racing.
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Jacques Villenueve, F1 Racing May 2012.
I bow to you, Jacques.
Alessandro Zanardi goes off at the pit entrance and fails to notice that his Lotus is on fire when he rejoins.
Elio de Angelis testing the Lotus 88 at Laguna Seca, 1981.
