Interesting facts about F1

Im back again, hoping to intertain you with the wonderful and strange facts about F1.

In the 1987 season Andrea de Cesaris in the Brabham retired from every race apart from one. In the one race he didn’t retire from, he came 3rd (Belgium).

Sebastian Vettel became the quickest driver to be fined (2007, in Turkey during practice) after he was found speeding in the pit lane only 9 seconds into his F1 career. He was slapped with a $1000 fine.

The first can of Red Bull was sold in the same year as Vettel was born – 1987.

When the GP’s are outside Europe it takes three Boeing 747 airplanes to get all teams equipment - 450 ton - to the paddock.
During testing the amount of employees is about 60. 15 take care of the engines and 5 take care of the catering.

During one GP the team needs about 100 radio head sets

F1-cars are built completely again in between the races. They are taken completely apart and they do about 200 different measurings and checkings on them.

McLaren’s windtunnel needed 400 tons of 8-10 mm steel - the same amount is needed for building a big ship

Since 1975, car #1 has been exclusively reserved for the reigning world champion. Since then, John Watson is the only driver to pilot car #1 whilst not being a world champion. He subbed for an injured Niki Lauda at the European GP in 1985 at Brands Hatch.

Watson also holds the record for the greatest number of places gained en route to victory; at Long Beach in 1983 he started 22nd and won. Teammate Niki Lauda started 23rd, and came 2nd.

Andrea de Cesaris holds the record for most consecutive retirements (18 in 1985-6) and most consecutive retirements in a single season (12 in 1987). He also holds the record for overall number of retirements in a season (14 in 1987). Despite his reputation, the majority of these were for mechanical problems. Of 208 races he started, Andrea retired from 136.

In 1981, he was given the nickname ‘De Crasheris’ after his inability to keep the car on the road, apparently, with practice and qualifying taken into account he was causing so much damage the McLaren mechanics were protesting having to mend them. Nevertheless, the same year he was able to bring home an undamaged Lancia sportscar in second in the classic endurance race, 6 Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen. His co-driver was Henri Pescarolo.

Michael Schumacher-Rubens Barrichello have been as team mates for the longest time in F1. 103 GP’s whereas David Coulthard-Mika Häkkinen drove in 98 GP’s.

Rubens Barrichello drove 124 GP’s before he won his first race. Jarno Trulli’s victory in Monaco 2004 was his 119th GP and Jenson Button’s victory in Hungary 2006 was his 113th GP

almost 37,000 litres of mineral water and soft drinks will be consumed in the pit lane alone

Rubens Barrichello is one of the top F1 drivers in anagram terms with a staggering 58,824 variations on his name, including our favourite ‘Rhubarb Niece Rolls’, though somewhat predictably Michael Schumacher beats him by one (and you can check this) with 58,825

Australian GP 09 Facts
Brawn GP became the first team to win their first race in 32 years. Jody Scheckter gave Wolf a maiden win in the 1977 Argentine Grand Prix at Buenos Aires.

Jenson Button scored his second career win, following his maiden victory at the Hungaroring in 2006. He also set his fourth the position, the last being at the same circuit three years earlier.
Button led every lap of the race. The only other driver to have done this at Melbourne was Michael Schumacher in 2004.

Button scored the first victory for a Mercedes-engined car that wasn’t a McLaren since Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, driving for the works Mercedes team.

Mercedes-powered cars filled the podium for the first time since the 1955 British Grand Prix, when the entire top four were Mercedes cars. Stirling Moss won at Aintree from Fangio, with Karl Kling third and Piero Taruffi fourth.

Sebastien Buemi became the 69th driver to score on his debut, finishing seventh. He is the seventh ex-GP2 driver to score a point in F1

Malaysian GP 09 facts
The Malaysian Grand Prix will be remembered as one of the shortest F1 races ever.

Nico Rosberg led a Grand Prix for the second time in his career - the first time was at Singapore last year.

Timo Glock scored his second podium and his first third place finish. He finished second at the Hungaroring last year. It was Toyota’s tenth podium in 124 races.

Nick Heidfeld extended his record for most second places without a win - he now has eight.

The 1982 Williams FW08 in 6 wheel spec with 500bhp was calculated to have lapped Paul Ricard 4 secs quicker than the 1000bhp FW10 from 1985.

F1 fuel at the height of the Turbo era was pure Toluene with a few added chemicals to make it legal.

Ayrton Senna once bet Ron Dennis $5000 he couldn’t eat a whole bowl of Chilli Sauce in one go at the Mexican GP. He achieved the bet and immediately gave $1300 to Alain Prost to settle an earlier bet.

 

Cheers for another evening of interesting facts