The legend of all legends.

[mep]

When I was a schoolboy I was working in a machine building company at evenings. At nights I drove back with my bicycle trough a forest down a hill in total darkness without any light. Even when I could not see it I hit one special stone, pointing out of the gravel road and exactly in the middle of it, every night in consecution. Sometimes I even closed my eyes for some time. If you just see a tiny bit trough your balaclava you can manage a track you know very well.

[alelanza]

alelanza, you beat me to it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hl_NO4A ... re=related[/youtube]


He even changes the multimap(engine brake) settings with his left thumb several times.


+1sec.

Oh wow, within 1 second, I thought it was more but there you go, quite impressive, thx for finding the link!

[CMSMJ1]

I have also tried to visualise my racing laps around Cadwell Park here in the UK on my bike - I am actually not very good and cannot get within 5 second in my head. I seem to always fast forwards the straights!

Great skills from Ferdinand..great skills

[alvinkhorfire]

alelanza, you beat me to it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hl_NO4A ... re=related[/youtube]
He even changes the multimap(engine brake) settings with his left thumb several times.
+1sec.

Driving around a race track blindfolded seems possible if you have strong mind visualization skill, something any F1 driver, like Alonso, should have.

[marcush.]

talking about legends.
walter röhrl one of the rally legends was once during a rally (don´t remember which one San Remo or Corsica?) there was heavy fog with NO vision at all and he destroyed the opposition in that stage driving within seconds of his normal vision time.
He did something similar in the fog at the 24h race on the famous Nordschleife when he lapped the ring at his normal speed when everyone else said the conditions were zero visibility...How he managed to avoid the slow cars is beyond me,maybe he drove on the green.

[strad]

marcush.,,,, Shades of Rosemeyer in '36 also at the Ring......
.
Petersons driving ability was beyond question as long as the equipment held up, but the most admirable thing about him was his sense of honor. A real Man

for 1978 he returned to Lotus as a number two to Mario Andretti.
Mario at first questioned this arrangement as he well new that Ronnie was no number two. As an indication of his character Ronnie accepted this position without malice; a far cry from the political intrigue that is Formula 1 today. Together they dominated the 1978 season in the Lotus 79 with Peterson scoring a pair of spectacular wins. Peterson acted the loyal number two but there were time when his brilliance could not be masked. He out qualified his teammate at Brands Hatch even though he was using hard compound tires, rather than the qualifiers which were held for Andretti, and a half tank of gas! After his victory at Zeltweg in Austria he trailed Andretti by only 9 points with 4 races remaining. It was well known that he would be with another team in 1979 and some suggested that he should just go for the championship with nothing to lose. Nothing except his word: "I'm going to McLaren next year", he said. "It's not announced yet, but Mario knows, Some of these people," he sighed, "who say I should forget our agreement now... I don't understand them. I had open eyes when I signed the contract, and I also gave my word. If I break it now, who will ever trust me again?"

[xpensive]

That Brands Hatch episode is a piece of Swedish folklore, Mario going through set after set of goodies, without coming close to Ronnie on woodies. They tried to alter Ronnies set-up to compromise him but he kept within 0.2 sec nonetheless.

Finally, Warr gives up and asks Ronnie what more he would want from his car; "Um..err, I don't know?"

[segedunum]

Driving around a race track blindfolded seems possible if you have strong mind visualization skill, something any F1 driver, like Alonso, should have.

Every driver has to have it at that level. You never think about the corner that you're actually in. Your mind has already switched to the corner after the next one. If you can't do it you'll never be fast.

It reminds me of a few stories where someone like Senna was driving people around on public roads and he'd throw the car into blind roundabouts and his passenger would ask him what would happen if there was a tractor there or something. He just shrugged his shoulders because he was never thinking about what the car was doing or where it was at that moment. That's why rally drivers are even more nuts because they have to think ahead to something that they don't yet know about and have to pay attention to their passenger.

I'm actually not surprised that Alonso hit that wheel in Brazil in 2003. He didn't expect it to be there, and if he didn't expect it it can't be there.........

[segedunum]

Finally, Warr gives up and asks Ronnie what more he would want from his car; "Um..err, I don't know?"

Ronnie was a tragic loss and he really should have been a World Champion. There was no 'potential' about it.

The best drivers always talk like that. Jim Clark used to get asked often how the car was and he'd say "Errrr, OK". Nothing. No feedback and certainly not the much vaunted six tenths. You had to get them annoyed to get anything out of them.

[strad]

Peterson should have been champion but he wouldn't renege on his deal.