Interesting facts about F1

Im back again with some facts that you will hopefully find enjoyable :


An f1 steering wheel is worth as much as a nascar engine.

Jim Clark only finished second once in his 72 race F1 career. That was at the 1963 German Grand Prix.

In 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve and runner up Michael Schumacher never featured on the podium together.

Teo Fabi scored three pole positions during his F1 career but never led a lap.


Niki Lauda’s last pole position was at the 1978 South African Grand Prix, 6 years before he won his third and final World Championship.

Williams facts some are a bit old

- This season the team will practice an average of 1,000 pitstops over the year

- AT&T will assist the team send 10 gigabytes of data from the race track to the factory and back again, equivalent to 15 CD-ROMs or the total amount of bandwidth used per household over a whole month

- Over a race weekend, 70 radios will be used in team communications

- Williams’ 4 race trucks will travel a total distance of 12,000kms each transporting the team’s equipment across Europe

- 160 visa applications are made over the course of a season for Williams personnel

- 50,000 man hours have gone into the production of the FW31

- After each race, the car will be stripped down and 150 diagnostic checks will be carried out before the next event

- The drivers will typically change gear up to 2,800 times per Grand Prix. At twistier circuits, such as Monaco, this number can increase to 4,000 times

- The energy required to slow a car from 315kph to 185kph is the same amount needed to make an elephant jump 10 metres in the air!

- The team’s drivers will get through 64 sets of overalls, 32 pairs of race boots, 112 sets of fireproof undergarments, 142 pairs of race gloves and 150 balaclavas over just one season

- The drivers will sign approximately 250 autographs at every Grand Prix

- The drivers will carry out an average of 20 interviews per race

- Drivers’ heart rates reach peaks of 190 beats per minute during a Grand Prix.

During practice for the 1995 Australian Grand Prix Mika Hakkinen suffered serious injuries and doctors went on to predict that he would never race again. He returned in 1996 and took the Drivers’ world championship twice – in 1998 and 1999.

Lewis Hamilton facts (some of you will enjoy )

Ron Dennis has promised him a McLaren F1 LM. There are only six of these 240mph road cars in existence and the McLaren boss has said Hamilton can have one if he wins two world titles by the end of 2009.

His greatest fear is being eaten alive by a great white shark.


F1 steering wheels have the computing power of a current laptop computer and cost as much as a moderately priced hatch-back

McLaren, Ferrari and Toyota’s annual budget for F1 is bigger than the Samoan GDP. Their aggregate budget is roughly ? 1.3 billion, some 200 million more than Samoa’s GDP.

Some drivers are very superstitious. They have certain rituals that they do before each race. David Coulthard for example wore his old lucky underwear during races. Fernando Alonso however sings before every race and according to his mechanics… he’s not so bad at it. He said the only time he didn’t was in Canada

Did you know that Alain Prost used to join certain stages of the Tour de France to prepare and train for the races

Kimi Raikkonen’s two favorite sports are hockey and racing and the reason why he chose racing… he said was because he didn’t have to get up early

In 2002 as test driver, Fernando Alonso used to entertain his engineers and mechanics by performing magic tricks or card tricks... he also cooks for the team

Kim Raikkonen actually fell asleep at the grid during his first race for Sauber. He actually dreamt of something, but can’t remember what it was

Michael Schumacher red dekra caps cost 0.90 cents for production and retail for $30.00. 5 million were sold in 1997 alone. They sold 60,000 when Schumi drove for Benetton

Spa 1997 was the first ever race in f1 to start behind a safety car.

Red Bull Racing driver David Coulthard was in Istanbul. He drove on the famous Bosphorus Bridge, which links Asia and Europe and he has drove his car from European side to the Asian side then back to the European side. yeah and he even got fined 20 pounds for not paying the toll tax before driving across the bridge.

Jenni Raikkonen was Ms. Scandinavia before she met Kimi on a blind date. Right now she’s into equestrian sports and a modeling career. that’s why she is often not with Kimi during race weekends.

Some Quotes

“ Money makes the world go around and in Formula One it greases the wheels too.”
-Roger Horton

“Life is strange, but F1 is simply crazy.”
Eddie Irvine following his disastrous performance in the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring 99.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment if you know any facts yourself.

 

'Did you know that Alain Prost used to join certain stages of the Tour de France to prepare and train for the races' - was this as a cyclist or in one of the team cars?!

 

Wow...
Having fun?

 

I would say as a cyclist.

 

OMG is the Villeneurve and Schumacher podium fact true?