Motorsports Trivia Thread!

  • Thread starter Cap'n Jack
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Pete05
Charles Knife > Karl Kling
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Clark
Peter Kox @Liquid ?
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Ding.

A Klingenschmied is a middle high German term for a knifesmith. Kox means Cook (cf: koken) in a roundabout way via Cockx, a name historically found in Belgium and the South Netherlands.

TenEightyOne
Nobody for Harry Smith? One-racer then tried building his own, if that helps.
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In a stream of typing consciousness, I have concluded that it could be Enzo Ferrari.

Harry can be short for either Harold or Henry, which could he Harald, Henrique, Enrique, Heinrich, Henrik or Enrico. If Enzo is a variant of Enrico, Ferrari could mean "Smith" in the sense of ferrous meaning metalwork or metallurgy.
 
Liquid
Ding.

A Klingenschmied is a middle high German term for a knifesmith. Kox means Cook (cf: koken) in a roundabout way via Cockx, a name historically found in Belgium and the South Netherlands.



In a stream of typing consciousness, I have concluded that it could be Enzo Ferrari.

Harry can be short for either Harold or Henry, which could he Harald, Henrique, Enrique, Heinrich, Henrik or Enrico. If Enzo is a variant of Enrico, Ferrari could mean "Smith" in the sense of ferrous meaning metalwork or metallurgy.
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I think Ferrari is Italian for "Cooper" though, so probably not.
 
Liquid
In a stream of typing consciousness, I have concluded that it could be Enzo Ferrari.
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Jimlaad43
I think Ferrari is Italian for "Cooper" though, so probably not.
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Ferrari means "blacksmith", and Enzo is a diminutive of Henry/Harry, so Harry Smith.

@Jimlaad43, cooper is a specific kind of blacksmith, so I guess Enzo Ferrari could be also be Henry Cooper... so you're both right :D
 
Having watched replays from several angles of the 1978 Italian GP, I can't think of a more inept & tragic start to a GP.

The cars were still rolling up to their grid slots when the flag was dropped. Chaos ensued & one of the greatest drivers to ever sit in a Formula 1 was lost as a result.

And yet the F.I.A still didn't learn their lessons :banghead:
 
Pete05
Having watched replays from several angles of the 1978 Italian GP, I can't think of a more inept & tragic start to a GP.
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It's a tough one, that. It is a fact that Riccardo Patrese did not touch James Hunt or Ronnie Peterson and Patrese was not the only driver hurtling down that extra width of Monza's start/finish straight but Hunt never stopped blaming Patrese for the rest of his life. As you say, the race was stupidly and dangerously started with the cars towards the back of the field still rolling and travelling at speed compared to the stationary cars at the front of the field. This resulted in the cars in the closest bottleneck of a race arriving at a narrowing straight at much greater speeds than usual at the fastest track on the calendar.

It's also true that Peterson's crash injuries were severe (27 fractures - there are lots of bones in the feet) but not life threatening and he subsequently died of a fat embolism well after he was under professional medical supervision. But that hardly makes any of it any better. A total shambles how that race went. :indiff:
 
I find it disgraceful that Hunt had such a hate-boner for Patrese while seemingly completely overlooking the inept starter and doctors.

Can't blame individual drivers when things outside of their control result in unpredecented mayhem.
 
Carbonox
I find it disgraceful that Hunt had such a hate-boner for Patrese while seemingly completely overlooking the inept starter and doctors.
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I kind of got the impression that Hunt might have felt a bit guilty because he actually did touch Peterson. Not to blame him for the incident but he, Hunt, kind of needed to blame someone.
 
Hunt had a hate-boner for a number of drivers.

Jean-Pierre Jarier was another, but I suspect that developed from on-track battles they had.
 
Having seen a suggestion in the F1 driver thread (jocular, thankfully) that we could run an entire season at Circuit Paul Ricard, a trivia question came to mind.

Which was the flattest F1 season? That is to say, which season across all the tracks on the calendar had the least elevation change? And of course, conversely, which F1 season was the hilliest?

I don't have answers ready, but I trust in the Google powers of the thread regulars to find them :)
 
Probably the Zeltweg airfield, because it was a runway and one bit of taxiway. That said, it's bumps were legendary so calling it "flat" is a stretch, but least elevation would be accurate.

Aintree is also flat because it's a horse racing circuit, and they like it flat.

Other contenders would be Buenos Aires, Caesars Palace, Hockenheim, Indianapolis, Melbourne, Mexico City, Montreal, Nivelles, Sebring, Sochi and Valencia
 
MaxAttack
Having seen a suggestion in the F1 driver thread (jocular, thankfully) that we could run an entire season at Circuit Paul Ricard, a trivia question came to mind.

Which was the flattest F1 season? That is to say, which season across all the tracks on the calendar had the least elevation change? And of course, conversely, which F1 season was the hilliest?

I don't have answers ready, but I trust in the Google powers of the thread regulars to find them :)
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I can think of two circuits that could not be included - Nurburgring Nordschleife & Spa Francorchamps.

That would have to make the flattest season sometime between 1977 and the return of Spa in the mid-80s.
 
Detroit and Dallas as well as Silverstone and Hockenheim. 1984 could be a shout.

Might not be the flattest overall because the Österreichring was on the calendar that year. Lots of tracks have a bit of elevation like Zandvoort and Imola. Even Monza is only mostly flat apart from the run down after the Lesmos.
 
Liquid
Detroit and Dallas as well as Silverstone and Hockenheim. 1984 could be a shout.

Might not be the flattest overall because the Österreichring was on the calendar that year. Lots of tracks have a bit of elevation like Zandvoort and Imola. Even Monza is only mostly flat apart from the run down after the Lesmos.
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Detroit had a big dip at the tunnel area around the back, one of the steeper slopes on the calendar.

Stowe to Club is a big downhill at Silverstone, as is the climb up from Club to Abbey, and the dip added under the bridge to give clearance is certainly notable.
 
Jimlaad43
Detroit had a big dip at the tunnel area around the back, one of the steeper slopes on the calendar.
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Ah, I think I was getting confused with Caesars Palace which was 1983.

Jimlaad43
Stowe to Club is a big downhill at Silverstone, as is the climb up from Club to Abbey, and the dip added under the bridge to give clearance is certainly notable.
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Stowe to Club was flat in 1984, as was the pre-complex Bridge chicane. Silverstone was a lot flatter then than it is now but that was kind of what I was intimating with Monza; almost every track has some sort of elevation with Silverstone's being the rise from Club to Abbey. Even airfield tracks like Silverstone and Thruxton have a little something.

Plus, if the earth is curved then a straight line is impossible. Only the Flat Earth society can believe in zero elevation tracks. :P
 
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Dotini
I would nominate 1959 as being an interesting year for flatter tracks. No Spa, no Nurburgring, no Silverstone. But including Indianapolis and Sebring, as well as Monsanto, Aintree, Avus and Rheims.
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Rheims had a "hilly" section, iirc? Still, I think you've found the flattest F1 season :)
 
I tried to discover the elevation change at Monsanto Park. Unable to do so, I did find this charming race report from the viewpoint of the Aston Martin team, and found it was by no means flat, nor very safe. Poor Jack Brabham struck a telephone pole, thrown out of his car and almost hit by the bespectacled Masten Gregory.

 
The Styrian Grand Prix will be the first race since the 1996 Australian Grand Prix to be held in the same country as the previous Formula 1 race. How many other consecutive championship races in the same country have occurred?
 
Weirdly, the two most recent times ran back to back for four races in succession.

1995 Pacific GP - 1995 Japanese GP - 1995 Australian GP | 1996 Australian GP

Damon Hill even joked with journos after winning the 1996 Australian GP. He quipped "When was the last time a driver won two races in the same country consecutively?". The answer was Michael Schumacher at the exact two preceding races before Hill...
 
Jimlaad43
The Styrian Grand Prix will be the first race since the 1996 Australian Grand Prix to be held in the same country as the previous Formula 1 race. How many other consecutive championship races in the same country have occurred?
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The 1980 season ended at Watkins Glen, and 1981 began at Long Beach following the stripping of the South African round's championship status. Also Detroit and Dallas were consecutive rounds when the latter made its only appearance in 1984.
 

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