F1 driving style

[C M Smith <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

Besides the courage needed to be really fast (anyone see Raikkonnen flat 
out into the smoke of a Panis' blown engine during qualifying at Spa? now 
that takes guts, maybe the brain a little disconnected but gutsy 
nonetheless, and it was for a fast lap and he knew it) the truly great 
drivers do and did feel every nuance of all four contact patches. Senna was 
the all time great at that. I remember him trying for a no stop race at 
Monza I think it was, during the old fuel economy days. His tires were 
absolutely shot but he calculated he could win without stopping. Just 
before the end he lost it on a bend and went into the gravel trap. He 
literally skipped that car over the gravel as you would skip a stone 
over  a pond, drifting the chassis to make the bend on the gravel trap !! 
and rejoined without losing his place. Unbelievable. Jensen Button did 
something similar. I've seen Raikkonnen "lose it" on the grass and keep on 
driving. Montoya has that sort of skill also but he loses it too easily in 
his head. But Senna could do it anytime, any race, any car. Someone who 
drove said he passed Senna during one of his rare spins, at Brands Hatch, 
and could hear the great driver blipping the throttle to downshift to the 
correct gear while counter steering and looking down the race track the 
whole time (well, except when absolutely backwards of course) riding out 
the spin and terminating it just when he was pointing the right way and 
booting it on down the track, amazing talent.

Schumacher is just amazing. He can drive on three wheels. He drove a 
Benneton to second with only fifth gear once, including a pit stop. Imagine 
restarting a F1 car in fifth? Some guys can't do it in first!

Great to watch the truly greats and Schumacher is among the Pantheon of 
greats: Fangio, Moss, Clark, G Hill, Stewart, Senna, Prost, and so on.


Michael Smith
Calgary, Alberta,Canada
91 Alfa 164L
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided