Back again with some quirky facts, including a few about Lewis Hamilton,team budgets and the strange 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix Liuzzi once skipped a test drive because apparently he was getting a new bed. Since Formula 1 began using standard car numbers, in 1973, the number 5 has had an illustrious history. Cars with this number have won eight world titles: Jackie Stewart (1973), Emerson Fittipaldi (1974), Mario Andretti (1978), Nelson Piquet (1981 and 1983), Nigel Mansell (1992), Michael Schumacher (1994) and Damon Hill (1996). At the 1983 Long Beach Grand Prix McLaren scored a 1-2 finish from 22nd and 23rd on the grid Roberto Moreno raced in his first GP (Japan 1987) 5 years after he first failed to qualify (Holland 1982). The 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix had no second place finisher. The explanation: There was briefly a rule that if a driver was disqualified drivers behind him would not be bumped up a place. Whilst the rule was in place this was the only time a driver (Keke Rosberg) was disqualified from a points paying position. Nobody was therefore classified as finishing second and points were only awarded for first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth places. A wax figure of Lewis was unveiled at Londonââ¬â¢s Madame Tussauds wax museum in 2009. Lewis underwent 300 measurements for the immortalisation, which was reported to have cost nearly ââ¬160,000. His figure is complete with his full McLaren overalls and race gear, depicting him holding his helmet and gloves Lewisââ¬â¢ 2008 victory parade through the streets of McLarenââ¬â¢s home base in Woking was cancelled after the Woking council said it was unable to find ã110,000 to provide security for the event. In May 2008, it was revealed Lewis and Adrian Sutil escaped a blackmail plot after a man was arrested for having tried to sell a computer hard drive that used to belong to Adrian to a German magazine for 10,000 euros (ã8,000). The disk contained personal information such as Adrianââ¬â¢s financial records, Swiss bank account transactions, photographs and private e-mail correspondence between the two friends In December 2007, Lewis was caught speeding in France, resulting in him losing his license for three months. Lewis was clocked at 196 km/h. Lewis received a fine of 200 Euros in his first GP, the Australian 2007 GP, for speeding in the pit lane during qualifying Jenson Button was handed a ringing endorsement at Sundayââ¬â¢s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with former world champion Nigel Mansell saying the Brawn driver can ââ¬Årelaxââ¬Â. Monaco 09 facts Jenson Button has not changed his engine since Bahrain. That means that he has won three consecutive races using an old engine The 19th position start for Lewis Hamilton was the lowest race start in the British driverââ¬â¢s F1 career while the 12th place classification was the second lowest of his career. There were 25 instances during the race when the fastest lap time was broken which is a record number for the 2009 season. These 25 fastest lap times were held by six different drivers (Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg) This was Heikki Kovalainenââ¬â¢s fourth retirement in six races of 2009! (certainly not a record to write home to Finland about!) Both BMW-Sauber cars finished out of points, something that happened for the fourth time this season. Rubens Barrichello had a problem with his seatbelt coming lose during the race. He said later that this slowed him down during the second stint of the race as he had to drive ââ¬Ådifferentlyââ¬Â due to the problem H H Frentzen won the French grand prix of 1999 taking just about the right amount of fuel in his car, he probably had only half a litre of fuel left at the end of the race, considering that a F1 car uses about 1 litre for 2 km Nikki Lauda had retired in 1979 without a word, but had to return in 82 because his Airlines werenââ¬â¢t doing well. The great driver signed with Mclaren and it was in 1984 that he won his 3rd and last world championship by just half a point, literally. The Italian GP 1986 started with no cars on the front row (both pole sitter Teo Fabi and second place starter Alain Prost had problems on the warm up lap) - Elio de Angelis won the 1985 San Marino GP despite never leading a single lap of it (winner Prost was disqualified for being underweight) - Alain Prostââ¬â¢s middle names are Marie Pascal In a gearshift process, the existing gear is released and the new one already engaged in a matter of 0.004 seconds. It takes 50 times as long to bat an eyelid The kitchen is kept busy feeding and watering team members and guests: in 2008 average consumption per Grand Prix weekend amounted to 140 kilograms of meat, 100 kg of fish, 100 kg of fruit, 90 kg of vegetables, 40 kg of cheese, 1,000 eggs, 1,800 bread rolls plus 2,500 litres of water and soft drinks Briton Nigel Mansell is the only driver to have led every lap of a race except the last one in Canada in 1991. 2008 Team Budgets Toyota....$445.6m McLaren..$433.3m Ferrari....$414.9m Honda.....$398.1m Renault...$393.6m BMW.......$366.8m Red Bull..$164.7m Williams..$160.6m Toro Ros.$128.2m Force I....$121.85m Super Ag.$45.6m ....... TOTAL......$3.07bn. 2007 Total Revenues TV Rights..............$380m Circuit fees...........$330m Track ads.............$150m Corp Hosp............$140m F1 Partner Prog.....$60m Misc.....................$50m GP2 Parts.............$20m GP2 Rights............$20m ...... TOTAL......$1.15bn It takes around 40 working hours to assemble a new BMW gearbox A Formula One car running for the full course of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend will consume in the region of 500 litres (~132 USG) from the first laps of practice on Friday to the chequered flag and completion of the race on Sunday. Nonetheless, a Formula One engine is over 20 percent more efficient at turning fuel into power than even the most economical small car. Thanks for reading .
