F1 Quiz Chain

[timbo]

Wow, WB even in my shabby English there's a difference between name and designation. Because the name was obviously Dino.

[WhiteBlue]

Wow, WB even in my shabby English there's a difference between name and designation. Because the name was obviously Dino.

But as I pointed out there was only one Dino engine which did fit the description that I gave. Considering that there are many Dino engines and at least two F1 Dinos I feel justified to insist on a proper identification. If you ask for a chassis you also make difference between a Lotus 33 and a Lotus 43. Equally a Dino 156 and a Dino 246 are different beasts. If someone feels misguided by my poor English I do apologize. At least I hope it wasn't a boring question.

[xpensive]

Never mind, I think most of us has posted less-than-perfectly formulated questions?

When I'm bold enough to grab the ball with both hands, here's a quick and easy one;

Who am I?

I was a F1-regular in the late sixties, only to see my career gradually fade due to poor judgement on my part, at one point I even turned down an offer from MrE to drive a most decent car. But I made a remarkable comeback in the mid seventies, once putting my kit-car in 3rd grid position.

Note, the short biography above might overlap other drivers, but I don't think so.

[andrew]

It's not Chris Amon is it?

[xpensive]

Of course it is Chris, you noticed my avatar, didn't you?

Your go Andrew!

[andrew]

Thanks X. I've actually got avatars switched off. On your usual form, I was trying to think of Swedish drivers as I thought of Chris Amon when I first saw the question and thought that was too obvious an answer.

Don't know how easy this one is but here goes:

Name the driver who holds the record for the shortest distance covered in their F1 career. What was the distance covered?

[xpensive]

Ken Richardsson qualified his BRM V16 on 9th position for the 1951 Italian GP, but was not allowed to start as it was discovered his racing-licence was incorrect, distance covered was zero meters. Difficult to beat that, eh?

[andrew]

Not the guy I was thinking of. But I'll give you it seeing as there is a huge F1 car shaped hole in my question. Incidently, I was thinking of Marco Apicella who started the 1993 Italian GP and was finished in F1 by the first corner - a whole 800m!

[Gary]

Well... just lightheartedly, you might say that the term "shortest distance covered in their F1 career" could well include competing in an F1 event, not just the race itself.

In which case we may never know. But if we count participating in an F1 weekend, two unlikely candidates might pop up!

Colin Chapman in the Vanwall at Reims before he embarrassingly clobbered Hawthorn's sister car or dear Bernie's abortive attempt to qualify one of his Connaughts at Monaco in 1958.

[xpensive]

Sorry about that one, but honestly, I stumbled on it while looking for something else, when it was just too good to pass.

Anyway, to the 70s! Tricky this one, why I certainly will get stick for it, but as part of Swedish folklore, what can I say?;

The Italian Grand Prix at Monza in the 60s and 70s, before those chickens were introduced, was a terriffic slip-stream affair, which made positioning yourself on the last lap long before the flag was crucial. In the classic race of 1971, Francois Cevert fell victim of that, what "mistake" did he make on that famous last lap?

[WhiteBlue]

It appears that Gethin played a very clever game by never going into the lead before. The lead had changed 24 times. So the others probably did not have him on the radar. It was also said that he fine tuned his gear ratios for optimum traction out of parabolica for the run to the finish line and that he switched off his rev limiter for that sprint. Cevert had led the race before parabolica and one can think that this was the "mistake". It is true that Gethin was slipstreaming into parabolica. But I believe it wasn't the decisive issue.

I believe this was an issue of the final line through parabolica and the power of the car. Peterson and Cevert did not cover the inside in parabolica which provided Gethin the opportunity to brake latest of them all and make his run for his single attack on P1 in that race on the shortest line through parabolica. Peterson who was suffering from a broken exhaust was next over the line and Cevert who was even further outside around parabolica came only third. So the "mistake" was probably not considering Gethin, leaving him the inside line and not having enough power to beat him. Gethin's BRM engine was in fine shape and must have given him the best finishing power in addition to the shortest line to the flag.

[xpensive]

That's a very plausible one WB, but as I warned you, this is a tricky question paired with various folklore and myths of the last lap of the old Monza, how to position yourself long before, like half a lap, the chequered flag.

Apologies in advance for the less than crystal clear message, but I'm going to let it ride for a little while longer to see if somene picks up on the same myth as me, ok?

[WhiteBlue]

I added a bit more info by editing my post.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx-lopdB9bU[/youtube]

And here we go with a bit of analysis of the relevant frames





Cervert leading the gagle of five cars with Peterson and Gethin in his slip stream. Disregard the leading car which is lapped.



Peterson with Gethin in tow goes inside out of the slip stream of Cervert, who stays outside. Gethin is offset to the outside behind Peterson.



Gethin lines up more behind of Peterson as Peterson covers the inside.



Peterson drifts outside and Gethin starts to move to the inside



Gethin gets out of the slip stream of Peterson gaining the inside. Cevert falling back.



They enter parabolica with Peterson leading in the middle line, Gethin on the inside line and Cevert on the outside.



Gethin come out ahead of Peterson, who is close to him and Cevert already well behind.



Peterson lines up behind Gethin for the last slip streaming



Gethin, Peterson and Cevert all nicely lined up



Cevert moves out of the slip stream



Peterson moves out of the slip stream



Gethin passes the back marker to his right while the three podium finishers are in a staggered order.



Peterson is gaining on Gethin as Cevert is falling back



Peterson's momentum is not sufficient to beat Gethin. Cevert way behind now.


IMO this race shows that highly restricted aerodynamics can give you exciting racing. They "only" had 460 bhp at that time. So with modern engines delivering 760 bhp one could probably allow quite a bit more but not the excess we have since 20 years.

[xpensive]

What I was looking for was a legend saying that the one who led through Lesmo on the last lap in those days was doomed, until 1971 nobody had managed to win from that position. Cevert's "mistake" was leading through Lesmo.

Having said that, I will give this to WB anyway, for the fantastic display of an epic Formula One finish. Thank you!

Regarding Ronnie's March 711, please notice that he's running with no front-wing and just a trim-tab in the rear, at an average of 240+ km/h, bet that car had positive lift as a result. Some drivers in them days.

[Gary]

Sir, sir... may I say something please? Some years ago I read an article about Peter Gethin in Motor Sport. The journalist who interviewed him asked him, as I recall, about the fact that he waved one hand in victory as he crossed the line. Surely, enquired the interviewer, you couldn't have been sure that you won at that point?

Gethin replied that he wasn't sure at all, but he knew that it was awful close and if it came to a photo finish to determine the winner, he reasoned that the 'confidence' he showed in waving might just persuade the adjudicators that he had crossed the line first!

I like that wee story.