Schumacher has a new Playmate

[Fax]

Hmm, I don't necessarily agree with that Nordic regarding Lotus ability to prepare cars. In 1985 Ayrton and Elio were pretty evenly matched, with well prepared equipment under the supervision of Bob Dance. DNF's usually resulting from Renault engine failures (one of the them resulting in a huge shunt for Senna at Ricard) or running out of fuel.  I think Senna's veto of Warrick just a case of asserting his authority within the team.
Spider, that was the point I was making with my remark about Rory Byrne, I've always felt Schumacher gets a dis-proportionate amount of credit for Ferrari's recent success.
Fax

[Nordic]

Senna was asserting his authority within Lotus when he got them to pass up Warwick, But one of the reasons was the retirements that both he and Elio had suffered from daft problems associated with preparation, both from Lotus and Renault, hence his wish for them to focus on one car, his.

7 DNF 's out of 16 for senna compared to the 3 DNF's for Elio may have convinced him that Lotus prepared one car better than two. His ego would never let him admit that he may have had a hand in those DNF's I suspect

Once he left lotus the team did seem to fall apart, Nelson P was passed his best when he arrived and once he was gone the the writing was on the wall I felt.

What did you think of Warwick? he always seemed to be in the right team, but at the wrong time, but was then not able to drive the team in the right direction. I admit at Renault that may have been almost impossible, but Brabham with the lay down engine there did seem to be some potential that he was never able to unlock.

[Ferrari Spider]

Fax, i was agreeing with you too.  I might have a couple of the beasts but it doesn't make me love Mr Schumacher come what may.  Most of them are flawed, it would be a boring world if they were all perfect, they might all be like Kimi.  Mr no personality.

[Fax]

Nordic & Spider,
Agree with you guys on both last postings.  As far as Warrick?  I thought after the 1980 F2 season that he was going to be something special but it never really translated to success in F1.  There  were a few occasions in 1982 when he had the Belgrano going alot faster than it should have but that in a way kind of sums up his career, flashes of brilliance but just couldn't seem to put it all together.  Always seemed like a good bloke though, which goes a long way in my book and had some nice success in sportscar with TWR & Pug.
Fax

[Fax]

Got me thinking about that '85 season and how good of a year that was.  The battle between Keke and Nelson at Ricard was exciting as hell with the two of them slipstreaming back and forth down the Mistral and Keke's pole lap at Silverstone is still after twenty years a thing of beauty.  And how about the battle between Prost and Lauda in the last GP at Zandvort.
I thought Silverstone was really the story of the season wrapped up in one race, Senna would take off like a scalded cat from pole, run up a big lead but by the last third of the race he was out of fuel, out of brakes, tires shot and a red & white McLaren looming in his mirrors.
Fax

[Ferrari Spider]

For some light hearted relief

German GP

James Allan: “The braking point seems to be the problem; (Karthikeyan)’s just not getting the car slowed down to the right speed, is he?”

Martin Brundle: “No – a bit of a pivotal job when you arrive at a corner. It can’t be surprising him – [the corners] are all in the same place as when he first went round the track.”

[Fax]

Very nice Spider, some good Friday humor.  Over here on Speedchannel we have Bob Varsha, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.  Varsha's good, Matchett superb and Hobbs is...well he's Hobbs.  I need to correct my last post, at Silverstone Keke was on pole of course, not Ayrton but if my memory is correct (which is getting dodgy with each passing year) Senna started alongside Keke and led most of the race before being caught by Messr Prost.
Fax

[Ferrari Spider]

Fax, quick write up on the 85 British GP

65 Laps, 4.719
The big rumor at the British GP was that Renault was planning to close its factory team at the end of the 1985 season. The Silverstone entry was the same as it had been at the French GP a fortnight earlier, where Nelson Piquet had given Brabham-BMW (and Pirelli) a much-needed victory. Piquet was very competitive again at Silverstone and set the second fastest time in qualifying for the British GP although Keke Rosberg had everyone talking with the first 160mph lap of the track. Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG) was third fastest ahead of Ayrton Senna (Lotus-Renault) and Nigel Mansell (Williams-Honda). The top 10 was completed by World Championship leader Michele Alboreto (Ferrari), Andrea de Cesaris (Ligier-Renault), Elio de Angelis (Lotus-Renault), Teo Fabi (Toleman-Hart) and Niki Lauda (McLaren-TAG).

At the start Senna made a great start and took the lead from Rosberg, Mansell, Prost and de Cesaris. Piquet was only sixth. There was an accident at the first corner when Patrick Tambay (Renault) got sideways and was hit by Stefan Johansson's Ferrari. The crash also resulted in a collision between Piercarlo Ghinzani (Osella) and Philippe Alliot (RAM). In the early laps it was de Cesaris who was showing best, passing Prost and then Mansell. The Williams soon fell behind Prost as well and on the ninth lap Prost retook third place. Soon afterwards de Angelis retired from sixth place with electrical trouble and on lap 17 Mansell dropped off the pace with clutch trouble. He would retire soon afterwards. Four laps later Rosberg's race ended with a turbo failure.

All this left Senna ahead but with Prost closing while Lauda had moved to third ahead of de Cesaris and Piquet but the Brabham was under attack from Alboreto and would soon lose the position. Things remained stable until de Cesaris disappeared with clutch failure on lap 42. By then Senna and Prost were running nose-to-tail, fighting it out for the lead. The battle continued until 12 laps from the finish when Senna's engine began to behave oddly. The battle went on while Lauda went out with an electronic problem, allowing Alboreto to move to third. On lap 58, however, Prost went into the lead. Senna fought back and retook the lead but Prost responded and moved ahead again. And then Senna dropped away and retired, having run out of fuel. The chequered flag was shown a lap early with Prost winning, Alboreto second and Jacques Laffite third, having overtaken Piquet with a few laps to go. After the flag Laffite ran out of fuel which annoyed Piquet who would have had an extra point if the flag had been shown at the right point. Derek Warwick (Renault) ended up fifth with the final point going to Marc Surer (Brabham) sixth

[Rhino]

Have only ever been to one practice at a grand prix and it was the 85 at Silverstone.
The commentator was waffling on when the other one broke in to say "Keke's on a quick one" There was a light sprinkling of rain, and keke crossed the line slightly oversteering with one tyre on the grass. Post practice interview, he stood there with his cig going telling how he had a slow puncture as well

[Fax]

Yep Rhino, as one journalist famously said,"The sound of big brass ones clanging together usually heralded Keke's arrival".
Senna was fourth on the grid? Wow, that didn't happen very often. During his era you just automatically assumed he was on the front row if not on pole.
Fax

[Kate Shaw]

Now, does reading and writing all that about the good old days before everyone was handed his post-race thoughts on index cards typed up and run past the censors ... make anyone think that today's F1 is more than a pale shadow of what we used to have?

I think once Ferrari gets rid of That German Fellow, F1 will become just like hockey became when Bobby Orr retired -- suddenly everyone will have to start actually stepping up, instead of bowing the Red Car past.

And I devoutly hope that I will never again hear Peter Windsor ask a young up-and-coming World Champion To Be, "Did you ever think of [throwing the race to Schumacher] and settling for Second?" with a straight face -- although Alonso's expression was priceless, compared to his reasonably response!   

[Fax]

I like to read and talk about the old days simply because they were better than the steaming crap they call F1 now.
The cars are boring, the circuts are boring and the drivers are boring. Its marketed to the stick & ball crowd now.  Maybe all F1 fans should just shave their heads and turn into a walking Vodaphone advert.
Fax

[Kate Shaw]

Are there enough of them left to spell "Vodafone"?   

I'm reading James Hunt's Bio that Gerry Donaldon wrote, and enjoying James' ascerbic comments when he worked with Murray Walker; and imagining Jacques doing the same service in livening up James Allen's woeful commentary. 

"In James' view, Alessandro Nannini lacked brainpower behind the wheel, Mauricio Gugelmin was slow in all the lesser formulas, even slower in Formua 1 and ahd no reason to be there; Rene Arnoux was a menace to other drivers, Andrea de Cesaris was an embarrassment to himself, his team and the sport; Alain Prost's motivation was suspect; Nigel Mansell (the next English World Champion after James) made silly mistakes,d efamed the office of World Champion by not staying in Formula 1 to defend his title; and so on."

Now imagine what Jacques would say about the current field!

[Fax]

Kate,
Donaldson's bio of James is probably one of the top two motor racing bios ever written, the other of course being his bio of GV.  As Donaldson writes, both were flawed (read...human) but brilliant men.  The bio of James is both at times very hillarious and deeply sad.  The hillarious?  Read about the time he hugely shunted a Formula Ford at Brands and one of his friends ran to the scene expecting the worse to find James furiously punching the starter button shouting "f**k*ng thing won't start, f**k*ng thing won't start"...took some time to settle him down and explain to him the reason it wouldn't start was because the engine was on the other side of the track.  The sad?  His role in Ronnie Peterson's fatal accident at Monza...
Peter Warr and Jane Birbeck's describing how James came to the Wolf motohome, ashen and hands shaking.
How James saw the terror in Ronnie's eyes.
Brilliant read for anyone who's never read it before.
Fax 

[Bob U]

Sounds like a great read. Any idea who the publsher is please I can't find it on Amazon.