gary
22-11-2013, 01:45 PM
Coverage of the Qualifying session for the F1 in São Paulo will commence at 02:30 AEDT
on Sunday morning. It will air simultaneously both on ONE and TEN.
Coverage of the race itself will commence at 02:00 AEDT on Monday morning on
TEN only.
The Interlagos Circuit can be notoriously wet and rain is forecast for this weekend.
Regular viewers will be familiar with how a small storm cloud might appear on the
RADAR there only to miss the track but one following thirty minutes later will
happen to pass right over and start pouring down. Drivers and teams get stuck
with the dilemma whether to pit for a change of tyres or skate around on slicks
hoping the driving line will dry.
This will be Mark Webber's last F1 race before moving to the Porsche team for a return
to Le Mans.
There will be a lot of us who have driven many a lap with Mark from our lounge
chairs, right and left feet moving invisible pedals, most of the time with our
right foot firmly planted to the floor as we hunt down the car ahead.
Or have found ourselves rising out of the comfort of our chairs and jumping up
and down in front of the television and shouting as we cheer, "Go Mark! Go! Go! Go!".
There was that wonderful moment of the first win which took place at the
Nürburgring in 2009. It was long overdue. Then the amazing 2010 season.
Five polls. Four wins including Monaco and Silverstone. Then in Valencia
the terrifying flip in the air, landing upside down and the crash into the barrier at
high speed. For the man that seemed to have a larger share of bad luck than most,
for a few seconds I feared the worse and that he would be killed. It was such a relief
to see him get out of the car and testimony to how much the safety has
improved.
Then there was the in-car view of the same crash -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kNZzqqdhM0
For guys who have reaction times you sometimes need to measure in hundredths
of a second, that period where he realizes that he is airborne and that no
input to the pedals or wheel will make any difference, that must have felt like
an eternity.
But despite the bad luck, the move to Red Bull had been an enormous piece
of good luck. He has been fortunate to be behind the wheel of what is beyond
doubt the best engineered car for several seasons and one that has solid
financial backing.
During 2010, he had lead the championship until Korea and we got down to that
final race in Abu Dhabi where it was between he, Vettel and Alonso. So close and
it transpired that Mark had been sporting a fractured shoulder from a mountain
bike accident for those last four races.
It does make one ponder which is the more dangerous, the mountain bike
fall or this horrific crash in the Jaguar F1 car at Interlagos in 2003 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4BwvnP5JyE
When you consider Mark won at Monaco twice - hard enough to do
one lap around without losing a wing let alone win it - and won at Silverstone
twice - I would argue that he was the most talented of the cream of the current
F1 drivers never to have won the world championship. Alonso, Hamilton,
Raikkonen, Button and of course Vettel have all won. If we only go back last
year we would also include Schumacher in the same group of extraordinary drivers
of the past decade.
Hopefully Mark's talent and experience will become a major asset for the return
of Porsche to Le Mans next year.
Short promotional video here -
http://www.porsche.com/microsite/mission2014-resettozero/france.aspx?gclid=CP-u1KGp97oCFYLvpAodRXMAEA
As a piece of career advice, Jackie Stewart had urged Mark to align himself with a
major car maker before he left F1. One could do worse than to have your name
associated with the Porsche brand. After all, he is still only 37 and it's not
a bad place for the man who was once the boy from Queanbeyan to be at that age. :)
Thanks for the ride Mark! :thumbsup:
on Sunday morning. It will air simultaneously both on ONE and TEN.
Coverage of the race itself will commence at 02:00 AEDT on Monday morning on
TEN only.
The Interlagos Circuit can be notoriously wet and rain is forecast for this weekend.
Regular viewers will be familiar with how a small storm cloud might appear on the
RADAR there only to miss the track but one following thirty minutes later will
happen to pass right over and start pouring down. Drivers and teams get stuck
with the dilemma whether to pit for a change of tyres or skate around on slicks
hoping the driving line will dry.
This will be Mark Webber's last F1 race before moving to the Porsche team for a return
to Le Mans.
There will be a lot of us who have driven many a lap with Mark from our lounge
chairs, right and left feet moving invisible pedals, most of the time with our
right foot firmly planted to the floor as we hunt down the car ahead.
Or have found ourselves rising out of the comfort of our chairs and jumping up
and down in front of the television and shouting as we cheer, "Go Mark! Go! Go! Go!".
There was that wonderful moment of the first win which took place at the
Nürburgring in 2009. It was long overdue. Then the amazing 2010 season.
Five polls. Four wins including Monaco and Silverstone. Then in Valencia
the terrifying flip in the air, landing upside down and the crash into the barrier at
high speed. For the man that seemed to have a larger share of bad luck than most,
for a few seconds I feared the worse and that he would be killed. It was such a relief
to see him get out of the car and testimony to how much the safety has
improved.
Then there was the in-car view of the same crash -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kNZzqqdhM0
For guys who have reaction times you sometimes need to measure in hundredths
of a second, that period where he realizes that he is airborne and that no
input to the pedals or wheel will make any difference, that must have felt like
an eternity.
But despite the bad luck, the move to Red Bull had been an enormous piece
of good luck. He has been fortunate to be behind the wheel of what is beyond
doubt the best engineered car for several seasons and one that has solid
financial backing.
During 2010, he had lead the championship until Korea and we got down to that
final race in Abu Dhabi where it was between he, Vettel and Alonso. So close and
it transpired that Mark had been sporting a fractured shoulder from a mountain
bike accident for those last four races.
It does make one ponder which is the more dangerous, the mountain bike
fall or this horrific crash in the Jaguar F1 car at Interlagos in 2003 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4BwvnP5JyE
When you consider Mark won at Monaco twice - hard enough to do
one lap around without losing a wing let alone win it - and won at Silverstone
twice - I would argue that he was the most talented of the cream of the current
F1 drivers never to have won the world championship. Alonso, Hamilton,
Raikkonen, Button and of course Vettel have all won. If we only go back last
year we would also include Schumacher in the same group of extraordinary drivers
of the past decade.
Hopefully Mark's talent and experience will become a major asset for the return
of Porsche to Le Mans next year.
Short promotional video here -
http://www.porsche.com/microsite/mission2014-resettozero/france.aspx?gclid=CP-u1KGp97oCFYLvpAodRXMAEA
As a piece of career advice, Jackie Stewart had urged Mark to align himself with a
major car maker before he left F1. One could do worse than to have your name
associated with the Porsche brand. After all, he is still only 37 and it's not
a bad place for the man who was once the boy from Queanbeyan to be at that age. :)
Thanks for the ride Mark! :thumbsup: