Thursday,
30/4/1994, Roland Ratzenberger dies.
I first met Roland Ratzenberger back in 1982, I was racing in Formula Ford 2000 and he was wokring as a mechanic for German gentlemen drivers to finance his own first steps in Formula Ford 1600 in Austria. I was happy to learn that he’d won the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in 1986 and got a BMW factory touring car drive as a result. But trying to finance a season in British F3 failed, so Roland accepted to race in Japan as a well paid professional in Formula Nippon and sports car racing. With the support of Barbara Behlau, a Monaco-based sports manager, Ratzenberger was able to sign a deal with the new Simtek team at the start of 1994, hoping to raise money to complete the season as he went along. We had a chat in Interlagos about how that whole deal had come about and I couldn’t believe the story that got him the drive. He didn’t qualify for the Brazilian GP with the brand new chassis that hadn’t even seen a propore roll-out, but managed to get onto the grid of the Pacific GP at Aida. We last spoke on Saturday morning in the Imola paddock, he was cool, perhaps a bit more serious than usual. A couple of hours later I was among those assisting Roland being placed in a rescue helicopter. Little did we know, while ingeniously hoping for a positive outcome of the horrifying high speed crash he had suffered in practice for the San Marino Grand Prix, that our friend had left us upon impact at the Villeneuve bend.
Born: 4th of July 1962 in Salzburg, Austria;
Died: 30th of April 1994 at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy.
Wednesday,
29th of April – Riccardo Patrese’s record of 256 Grands Prix starts have been beaten by Rubens Barrichello in 2008 and this season his further record as the driver with the longest time span between his first and final point scoring season has als tunbled. However, back in 1984 the Italian might have been unsuspecting that his career might stretch that long at all. Here Patrese is shown at the Belgium GP in Zolder where he celebrated his 100th participation in a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Tuesday,
28th of April – 35 YEARS AGO: Niki Lauda wins the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix at the Jarama circuit, his first victory in Formula 1 and the 50th win for Ferrari. To the left you see Luca di Montezemolo, then team manager of Scuderia Ferrari, celebrating the end of a winless streak of nearly two years.
Monday,
27th of April - In recent years Dr. Helmut Marko has been in the headlines for spotting talents for Red Bull-boss Dietrich Mateschitz. But back in 1972 Marko, shown above in a fight with Brazil’s José Carlos Pace during the Belgian GP, was Austria’s motor sport showcase talent on his own right while one Niki Lauda happened to be an also ran. Sadly his career was cut short by a stone hitting his visor at the French GP and severely damaging his left eye. Actually: Who was the first Austrian ever to score in the Formula 1 World Championship standings?
Sunday,
26th of April – in Bahrain today, Jenson Button won for the 3rd time in 4 Grands Prix of the 2009 season, beating Sebastian Vettel and pole sitter Jarno Trulli to the flag as well as scoring Mercedes-Benz’ 70th win as Formula 1 engine supplier. Talking about Trulli. What amazing record has the Italian established on race day?
Saturday,
25th of April – With Jarno Trulli on pole position for the 2009 Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix and Timo Glock alongside in the first row, Toyota scores its first 1-2 in the World Championship. It’s Toyota’s 3rd pole in total and Jarno Trulli’s 4th, the last one dating back to the 2005 US GP at Indianapolis, when the Italian scored the German based team’s 1st ever pole position. By the way: Which driver holds the biggest gap between 2 pole positions to date?
Friday,
24 th of April - Today’s the anniversary of Rolf Stommelen’s death and sadly in Germany he is mainly being remembered in connection with the ill fated Eifelland Formula 1 project. The pre-season testing version shown above was the original D1 layout created by exuberant German designer Luigi Colani. It was soon to be reduced to the cockpit scoop and its particular rear view mirror arrangement. Everything else turned out to be too bulky and causing the car to overheat. At temperatures near freezing point… Anyway: Which was the next German team owner to try to turn F1 upside down with his ideas of how aerodynamics (should) work?
Thursday,
23rd of April – 20 YEARS AGO: Gerhard Berger’s crash at the Tamburello bend during the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix seemed to make the point, as fiery and gruesome looking it may have been, that nowadays race drivers don’t die in high speed crashes anymore. Five years on we would learn from Roland Ratzenberger’s tragic crash at the same circuit and Ayrton Senna’s fatal accident at precisely that same spot not to take things for granted. It is safe to say that Berger’s guardian angel was doing extra-hours that day.
Wednesday,
22nd of April – Today is Esteban Tuero’s birthday and the Argentine driver is perhaps best remembered when he cut the Tyrrell Racing Organisation’s last Grand Prix participation short at the Suzuka track in 1998 by taking Tora Takagi, the team’s sole driver to qualify for the race, out of the competition big style.
Tuesday,
21st of April – This one is for those with attention to detail. It seems straight forward at first, but then again…
Monday,
20th of April – A year ago Danica Patrick wrote motor sport history at the Motegi Twin-Ring in Japan by winning the 3rd round of the 2008 IndyCar-Series, becoming the first woman to win a monoposto race on international level.
Sunday,
19th of April – Vetteltastic RBR 1-2 debut win: Rainman did it again, Sebastian Vettel takes Red Bull Racing’s first Grand Prix win from pole position trailed home by team-mate Mark Webber to make it the perfect 1-2 for the Milton Keynes based, Austrian run outfit. He also established a new record. Do you know which?
Michel Costa
Michel Costa 1950 Apr 18:
Saturday,
18th of April – Fangio remains unbeaten: Juan Manuel Fangio remains the only driver in Formula 1 history to put a brand new car of a debutant team on pole position in the first 3 Grands Prix, a feat achieved by the late five times World Champion back in 1954, placing a Mercedes-Benz W196 silver arrow on the best starting spot in the grids of the French, the British and the German GPs. Jenson Button could have equalled this record today in qualifying for the Chinese GP by securing his 3rd pole in a row for BrawnGP. But the Brit lost out to Sebastian Vettel, who secured Red Bull’s 1st ever pole position in F1
Friday,
17th of April – Today is Riccardo Patrese’s 55th birthday and while the Italian has definitely driven far better cars throughout his Formula 1 career, the Arrows A2 certainly was the most radical one. By the way: Riccardo held a singular achievement in F1 history up until this year’s Australian Grand Prix. Do you know which?
BENOIT DAILLIEZ
BENOIT DAILLIEZ
Nationality : french
Date of birth : april 16, 1980
Main fields of activity : chassis
2000-2003 : graduated engineer of the French Institute of Advanced Mechanics (IFMA) , machine, mechanism and system department
2002-2003 : MSc in mechanical engineering and finite elements, University of Clermont-Ferrand
feb 2002-jul 2002 : engineer in a nuclear power plant > ESKOM (Cape Town)
aug 2002-jun 2003 : engineer > Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI – Honolulu)
2003-2005 : R&D engineer. Calculation , design, programming, test bench testing, track testing, communication and project management > Toyota (F1)
2005-2009 : senior R&D engineer, responsible of car regidity and suspensions > Toyota (F1)
Publications on work done in Hawaii in collaboration with the HNEI :
Analysis of Electric Vehicle Usage of a Hyundai Santa Fe Fleet in Hawaii
A Combinatorial, Concurrent Approach to Predict Battery End-of-Life
Thursday,
16th of April – Ron Dennis retires from Formula 1 and the shot above is document of the beginning of 3 decades of successes under the leadership of this perfectionist team principal. You must have guessed already what this is about and where it took place, right?
Wednesday,
15th of April – Although there’s quite a resemblance with an Auto Union Grand Prix car, the proportions aren’t quite right for one of those 16 cylinder pre-war monsters. So which car is this and who’s driving it? Little hint: This picture actually portraits a very special moment in the World Championship’s history. Easy one, huh?
Tuesday,
14th of April - Probably far too easy for the experts. But what the heck: Car, driver and venue plus year, please?
Monday,
13th of April – Sorry for the mess this place has been the last couple of days. Had to rush to an emergency earlier last week and it turned out to be a bit of a rough time up until now. Anyway, everything is fine now, it seems. Remember the driver I asked for you guys to identify last Monday? Well, no-one guessed it. Maybe this pic from roughly 10 years later than the previous one is going to help you to solve both quizzes.
Sunday,
12th of April – Figure this: Top Formula 1 driver decides three years after his retirement of the echelon of motor racing to have a go at rallying right at World Championship level in a one-off showing and scores a podium right away. “I don’t think so” I hear you saying? That’s exactly what Carlos Reutemann did at the Argentine WRC round in 1985. at the wheel of a Peugeot 205 Turbo 16.
Friday,
10th of April – Karl Wendlinger scores 5th fastest time in qualifying for the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donningotn with his Sauber C13. His team-mate JJ Lehto had already qualified in 3rd row for the team’s debut at Kyalami but this should remain the team’s best starting position for quite a while. How many attempts will it take until Sauber can place a car on 2nd row of the grid?
Thursday,
9th of April - I found this report about the 1956 Indy 500 and Pat Flaherty’s cool firstand only win at the Brickyard. You can’t help to be impressed and the original narration of the video is quite entertaining, too. Enjoy. it.
Wednesday,
8th of April – 30 years ago: Pole Position, fastest lap and a race win in the 1979 USA-West Grand Prix at Long Beach, nothing could stop Gilles Villeneuve that day. But not without drama in the beginning. And for Ferrari it was a special mark as well. Do you know what I mean?
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