Day five and six: Fighters

So, I missed my blog yesterday - whoops!

I've written separately on blogs about drivers who inspire me, who I call legends.

It's drivers that fight. They fight their way past others, they never give up because they simply just do not know how. It's drivers who are tough.

Niki Lauda - The toughest driver ever to grace a track in my opinion. My eyes well up, I'm not ashamed to say it, when watching Rush; particularly at the moment he finishes 4th in Italy after being practically burnt alive just a few races before. He emerged from the car and the wounds on his face, nowhere near fully healed, were bloody! This guy is the toughest fighter out there, past or present.

In fact, all the drivers I have followed throughout my life have the fighting/ never give up attitude (perhaps aside from Damon Hill who was always quite a smooth driver and a pretty placid chap off track - though, he certainly fought back hard against Schumacher!).

Nigel Mansell - Perhaps the most balls out racer in recent times. He used to muscle his way past people. Piquet at Silverstone in 87...just wow. He would not be intimidated by anyone, ever. One of the most famous bits of footage from "yesteryear" (snigger) is him and Senna at the first Barcelona GP in 1991, side by side for the whole start/ finish straight. Neither willing to yield.

Gilles and Jacques - Like father like son (Murray Walker says so himself). Both these guys existed to race. Both had a fighty, on the ragged edge style. Both liked exploring the limits of the car.

Witness Jacques setting himself the target of going through Eau Rouge flat out during his leaner BAR times, just because it was something to do!

Video from "Formula Spy" - though he won't get much traffic as nobody reads this :-).

Video by John Cash


Alonso - Valencia 2012 - What a fighter!! Erm there are loads of tribute videos to this drive alone.

F1 Hero Series: Gilles Villeneuve

Justin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3tXJm9tYGM

5 minutes and 10 seconds - this pass tells you everything about Gilles Villeneuve.

The guy just raced. He was a pure F1 racer. He went as hard and fast as he could - end of. If he had to finish 5th to win a world title, he would rather go hell for leather and try and win the race and fail. You could say this was a massive achillees heel - would he ever have won a world title driving like this? Who knows?

He despised politics in F1 and nothing made him more happy than getting in the car and thrashing the hell out of it, at the expense of many fine F1 drivers. He'd usually be driving a bucket of shit Ferrari - the only time he wasn't was 1979 when Scheckter won the title. He was more a tactical driver who went as fast as was needed - team orders helped him win the 79 title too, but thats another story. It's a bit like Hamilton and Button now - Hamilton goes for it (until this year at least) and burns his tyres out, whereas Button has a much more smooth, considered approach.

Gilles Villeneuve was purely a balls out racing legend. He overtook where people didn't think it possible. He won and got good points in a Ferrari that was by no means the best car on the grid (as touched upon in a previous blog...remind you of anyone?).

To put it bluntly - I see Gilles racing and the F1 fan in me just stands on in utter amazement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVyLEM-0wE
This win in Spain in 1981 has to be his greatest. From 2 minutes onwards in the footage....he had a train of cars behind him and didn't put a foot wrong. Lets be clear - it was a train of faster cars.

I delved more into/ got into the legend of Gilles through his son Jacques coming into F1 in 1996 (even though during his career Jacques never spoke about his Father - it's only recently he has opened up about him). Jacques racing style was very much like his Dad's it has to be said - and I'll visit Jacques in this hero list another time.

It seems that whilst many of those who raced alongside him thought he was the most ridiculous talent of the era, there were some who called him reckless and blatantly dangerous. He was always pushing himself beyond what the car was capable of - as Jacques would always do...."exploring the limits of the car".

Those that knew him, and indeed those same colleagues who appreciated his blatant talent, speak of his extraordinary car control - but whilst he'd push the limit, he'd never put anyone else in danger.

I openly admit, as touched on earlier, that Gilles may have struggled to win a title had he carried on at Ferrari - he seemed far too loyal to them. Had he gotten himself into the best cars, as all the greatest generally do, then he'd have been able to drive as fast as he liked, as hard as he liked, as the car would finally have matched his outstanding talents. 1982 was the year that had 11 different race winners, so he may have done it, who really knows?

James Hunt spotted him driving in Formula Atlantic in....76/77 I think, if memory serves, and Mclaren did try to sign him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbRnPwS178g

Another legendary bit of footage - some of his colleagues thought this was dangerous, and you can't disagree with that. However, it's his inbuilt never say die attitude...."Oh I have 3 wheels, lets get to the pits, get another and go racing!"

You can see Jacques was a chip off the old block - trying to go through Eau Rouge flatout (in the days when it was still a big risk) just because he wanted the challenge and excitement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dPJMxJlcr0&feature=related

Of course, one cannot speak of Gilles without touching upon his tragic death.

This absolutely titanic battle (always nice to hear James Hunt go "ooooohhhhhh") completely and totally soured Villeneuve's relationship with his team-mate. Villeneuve believed Pironi had disobeyed a direct team order/ agreement. If you search for the podium footage you can see the hurt in Gilles eyes. They never spoke again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua70zL52pt0
Many people have stated their belief that at Zolder Villeneuve was going absolutely over flat out to beat Pironi, which lead to him crashing.

He was just 32 when he died, 30 years ago.

I'll leave it to Niki Lauda ( 3 times world champion...knows what he is talking about) on ending what has been an emotional blog for me.

"He was the craziest devil I ever came across in Formula 1... The fact that, for all this, he was a sensitive and lovable character rather than an out-and-out hell-raiser made him such a unique human being"

And Scheckter....

"I will miss Gilles for two reasons. First, he was the fastest driver in the history of motor racing. Second, he was the most genuine man I have ever known. But he has not gone. The memory of what he has done, what he achieved, will always be there."

Good news - this blog is officially international with readers from the USA, Brazil, Germany, Latvia...fantastic.

Dog food

Phil: Only four days until the lights go out for the inaugural Korean Grand Prix, with Charlie Whiting having visited the track immediately after Suzuka and given it the green light for this weekend's race. Sebastian Buemi hasn't been there, but he says it's another 'typical' Hermann Tilke design (overtaking strictly prohibited, then). In case you were wondering, I thought I'd get the obvious joke in early. Formula 1 is becoming an ever more global sport, with a race in India for the first time next year, and, it was announced recently, one in Russia in 2014.

The BBC's offering of classic F1 grows apace, and this week my co-blogger will be thrilled I'm sure to hear there's a double header from Villeneuve pere et fils: Gilles' maiden victory (I think) at Kyalami in 1979, and Jacques taking on Schumi and Damon Hill at Estoril in 1996.

Almost forgot to give it a title!

Phil: Welcome to the Grand Prix They Couldn't Think of a Half Decent Name For, sometimes known as Valencia, Europe, or even the other Spanish Grand Prix. Which brings me straight to my point: how much will the home team be worth to Alonso? I'm guessing my co-blogger blogged before quali (he likes nothing better than a nice log blog in the morning), as Ferrari's new double diffuser put Alonso and Massa 'only' fourth and fifth on the grid respectively, behind Vettel, Webber and Hamilton.

Further down the grid, both Renaults and both Williams have outqualified both Mercedes, with Rosberg a disappointing 12th and Schumacher a hopeless 15th (but then I probably over-indulged in Schumi-bashing in Canada, so am going to leave him alone this time, unless he makes me do something). If a move by Kubica from Renault to Mercedes was on the cards before today, he should think very carefully before taking the offer up, particularly as he is clearly undisputed team leader at Renault, and would have a serious rival in Rosberg at Mercedes. But I don't think it's anything more than idle speculation.

Finally, I really think Jacques Villeneuve ought to be 110% exploring the limits of comedy facial hair, fannying about on the guitar and even having another crack at Le Mans before he explores even 1% of getting back in an F1 car.

Tyre degradation is more interesting than you think

Phil: Well, I managed to avoid the news between the race on Sunday evening and my finally managing to watch it on iPlayer on Tuesday evening, so the result was a surprise. And a very pleasant surprise: I have to say I enjoyed watching this race probably more than any other so far this season (with the exception of Monaco, naturally, when I was joined by my co-blogger). I'd forgotten what a great and challenging track the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is.

In the first 15 laps we had enough excitement for several races: Hamilton and Alonso going wheel-to-wheel in the pitlane, a visit to the Wall of Champions, Schumacher taking to the grass, Massa and Liuzzi colliding no less than three times in the first corner, Kovalainen in the Lotus running as high as seventh, and even a dash of overtaking. No less than five drivers led the race: Hamilton, Vettel, Webber, Alonso, and, for the first time in his career, Sebastian Buemi. The Red Bulls, who started on the hard tyres, fought a race-long battle with Alonso and the McLarens, who started on the soft tyres, and Alonso fought his own battle with Hamilton, starting with the nail-bating pitlane moment I've already referred to. I'd agree with my co-blogger's synopsis, however, that on balance the five drivers who lead the championship - Hamilton, Alonso, Button, Webber and Vettel - were the only ones likely to win this race, and I agree that one of them will be world champion. Which one is that this stage anyone's guess, as all of them, except I think Vettel, have at one stage led the title charge. When was the last time we had a five-horse race for the title?

Montreal is a track that's so challenging for the drivers that it perhaps wouldn't be fair to name a Skiver of the Day, not even one of the many who nominated themselves by picking up a penalty or two for pitlane speeding or some other dodgy driving misdemeanour. Except that there is a very obvious candidate, and he is the most succesful driver in the history of the sport. Martin Brundle called this the worst race of Schumacher's career. It's not clear whether this means his post-comeback career, or his career since 1991, but the latter wouldn't be unfair. Scrapping with Kubica after his first pitstop was messy, particularly cutting across the grass to avoid conceding the place, but probably just about within the rules. Shunting his former protégé Massa and breaking his front wing in an effort to retain a place his pace didn't really justify was unsportsmanlike. Giving away his points on the last lap but letting both Sutil and Liuzzi pass him was just plain crap. If only he'd stuck to passing Alonso behind the safety car at Monaco - at least that was classic Schumacher rule-bending. This looked like plain incompetence. If you saw this race, and only this race, you would never believe he had been world champion seven times. Hopefully preparing for next year means asking Top Gear if he can go back to being The Stig.

Normally I agree with almost everything my co-blogger writes, and given the depth of his knowledge about Formula 1 there's every reason to, but I have to disagree with his point about Jacques Villeneuve's rumoured comeback. Schumacher's comeback has shown every semi-retired Formula 1 driver how hard it is, and I would suggest has given the likes of Villeneuve plenty of food for thought. Could we really expect Villeneuve to do better, given that he has been away much longer, and arguably reached his peak longer ago than Schumacher? Kimi Raikkonen, who has been linked to a seat at Renault next season, should be thinking along the same lines, although I think his future now lies in rallying.