2017 F1 Random Discussion Thread

Philthy82 · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 1:16 am

kals wrote:

Bleu wrote:

micha wrote:

Why even have bids? There are 3 slots available. Grab em while you can

Probably worried that someone on the level of MasterCard Lola would take a spot.

Do you know the truth behind the Lola attempt and failure? Most people see what happened in 1997 and laugh about it without realizing what actually happened.

Lola were supposed to enter F1 with MasterCard as main sponsor in 1998. Late in 1996 MasterCard insisted / forced Lola to enter a year early. Lola only had a preliminary chassis from 1995 to work with and it was hurried into preparedness for the start of 1997 along with some aged and underpowered Ford V8s. Additionally MasterCard's sponsorship plan was to fund the team based on the revenues from a special F1 / Lola team credit card membership fee. And guess what, MasterCard never came up with any funds for Lola and as such bankrupted Eric Broadley's operation.

But yes, let's keep using them as the punchline for a joke.

It's easy to cast Mastercard as the villain there, but Lola sound like absolute idiots for agreeing to that and not protecting themselves more contractually. The fact there was no lawsuit out of that story shows that Lola left themselves wide open.

Ian-S · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 1:20 am

Scotty wrote:

Bleu wrote:

micha wrote:

Why even have bids? There are 3 slots available. Grab em while you can

Probably worried that someone on the level of USF1 would take a spot.

FTFY

Seriously, they need to be bidded on and properly vetted. Criminal enterprises could find F1 a good form of money laundering. Rich people with no brains and no technical ability could find a way in.

"Criminal enterprises" literally built this sport to what it is today.

kals · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 1:21 am

Philthy82 wrote:

kals wrote:

Bleu wrote:

Probably worried that someone on the level of MasterCard Lola would take a spot.

Do you know the truth behind the Lola attempt and failure? Most people see what happened in 1997 and laugh about it without realizing what actually happened.

Lola were supposed to enter F1 with MasterCard as main sponsor in 1998. Late in 1996 MasterCard insisted / forced Lola to enter a year early. Lola only had a preliminary chassis from 1995 to work with and it was hurried into preparedness for the start of 1997 along with some aged and underpowered Ford V8s. Additionally MasterCard's sponsorship plan was to fund the team based on the revenues from a special F1 / Lola team credit card membership fee. And guess what, MasterCard never came up with any funds for Lola and as such bankrupted Eric Broadley's operation.

But yes, let's keep using them as the punchline for a joke.

It's easy to cast Mastercard as the villain there, but Lola sound like absolute idiots for agreeing to that and not protecting themselves more contractually. The fact there was no lawsuit out of that story shows that Lola left themselves wide open.

Yeah for sure. There are always two sides to a story and this is no different. That said, most don't know what happened and believe it was a Lola only failure. That isn't true. Had MasterCard come through with some of the funds rather than none and not pulled the plug so early, Lola may well have been able to develop its car.

Philthy82 · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 1:25 am

I actually have a photo of Rosset in the Lola-Mastercard from the '97 Melbourne GP practice, I should see if I can find and scan it. I don't think my 14 year old photography skills were there yet so it's probably pretty blurry - less blurry than the faster cars though

kals · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 1:46 am

Philthy82 wrote:

I actually have a photo of Rosset in the Lola-Mastercard from the '97 Melbourne GP practice, I should see if I can find and scan it. I don't think my 14 year old photography skills were there yet so it's probably pretty blurry - less blurry than the faster cars though

I'll see your 14 year old self Rosset photo and raise you a 17 year old kals photo of Rosset from the 1996 British GP

Plus, because I like this one, here's a photo I took of JV (from the same spot) during the 1997 British GP pre-race warm up

micha · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 8:08 am

Scotty wrote:

Ian-S wrote:

"Criminal enterprises" literally built this sport to what it is today.

True, but every high profile sport has criminal enterprises to thank in some way for their success (just look at FIFA).

I'd like to naively think that times have changed.

We have Force India who's owners are either incarcerated or have an arrest warrant. We have Williams and Lotus who in recent years have been sponsored by a very questionable government (personal sponsor Maldonado) and the series has been run by someone who had bribery charges against him (and iirc bought off the trial). For many years teams have been funded by companies that lied about their products (tobacco industry). We have multiple races in questionable regimes each year.

But god forbid money laundering. That's just too evil.

aerogi · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 8:56 am

About Andrea Moda, when Moreno qualified for Monaco, I cheered for that! That was a huge achievement.

micha · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 9:58 am

aerogi wrote:

About Andrea Moda, when Moreno qualified for Monaco, I cheered for that! That was a huge achievement.

And thats why we need more teams than starting spots.

Gaara · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 4:00 pm

kals wrote:

Plus, because I like this one, here's a photo I took of JV (from the same spot) during the 1997 British GP pre-race warm up

Ah the days when GP venues could have their own local sponsors.

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 4:04 pm

micha wrote:

and the series has been run by someone who had bribery charges against him (and iirc bought off the trial)

and when he was young used to sell cars with rigged mileage, then befriended with an italian tractor driver who told to his driver to crash on purpose to keep his job

I can remember two cases of crooks into the sport. First was Onyx and that weird belgian from the Moneytron scheme and when a group called Shannon bought Forti and used for money laundering

codename_47 · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 5:23 pm

No one checks racing cars when they're shipped from one country to another it seems, people just stand back and admire them

I've heard stories (albiet not at F1 level) of race cars being chock full of drugs that customs officers came down to have a look at, but because they were fans of the sport they just chatted about the car and its performance etc.
The team boss had to continue to pretend everything was A OK as he was quietly bricking it thinking "If they ask to sit inside the car, I'm going down for a LONG time"

Also, on a related note, isn't that exactly why there aren't any Peugeot's in the BTCC any more?
Vic Lee, the team boss, went to jail for drug smuggling didn't he?

Gaara · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 5:30 pm

codename_47 wrote:

Also, on a related note, isn't that exactly why there aren't any Peugeot's in the BTCC any more?
Vic Lee, the team boss, went to jail for drug smuggling didn't he?

Yeaa he did but that's not the reason for Pugs not being on the grid.

Ian-S · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 5:41 pm

Vic was smuggling drugs in the Beemers iirc.

I've heard stories of F1 teams and contraband, but they're too hot to talk about here lol

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 6:13 pm

so they were using cocaine packs as performance ballast?

pimmy · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 6:51 pm

Gaara wrote:

codename_47 wrote:

Also, on a related note, isn't that exactly why there aren't any Peugeot's in the BTCC any more?
Vic Lee, the team boss, went to jail for drug smuggling didn't he?

Yeaa he did but that's not the reason for Pugs not being on the grid.

He was caught at customs the first time with cocaine in a hidden compartment of the transporter. He was caught red-handed the second time in the middle of a deal in a hotel car park.

kals · PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 6:58 pm

pimmy wrote:

Gaara wrote:

codename_47 wrote:

Also, on a related note, isn't that exactly why there aren't any Peugeot's in the BTCC any more?
Vic Lee, the team boss, went to jail for drug smuggling didn't he?

Yeaa he did but that's not the reason for Pugs not being on the grid.

He was caught at customs the first time with cocaine in a hidden compartment of the transporter. He was caught red-handed the second time in the middle of a deal in a hotel car park.

Cocaine was being hidden in oxygen / gas canisters. It happened while Tim Harvey was heading to the 1992 title. It seems customs got suspicious with the amount of testing the team was doing in continental europe.

And then he got busted for smuggling again in the 2000s along with fellow scumbag Jerry Mahoney (an ex-BTCC racer who ran the BTCC version of the Paddock Club).

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Mon May 08, 2017 4:35 pm

35 years without the real owner of the #27 Rosso Corsa

Salut Gilles, simply unforgettable

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Mon May 08, 2017 7:27 pm

https://www.instagram.com/p/BT1lVtKDJYY ... lglocktimo
any chance this is real?

micha · PostPosted: Mon May 08, 2017 8:05 pm

He has a mic on him and people said the blue hoses is for air to simulate g forces so very likely a simulator item for RTL Germany.

or a seat fitting for goodwood or pirelli.

The ignorant hate comments are pathetic however

Justin Time · PostPosted: Mon May 08, 2017 8:24 pm

That came out of nowhere. I'd love to see him back in F1, but I suspect that he'll just do show runs or something like that.

The airbox shape looks like a Ferrari, but they're stuffed with drivers

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2017 F1 Random Discussion Thread

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