In another era

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Interesting concept.

Anyone think this can be applied to modern F1 drivers?

We have always had a few good drivers except in the 00's when it was only 'the Michael' and Mika. Personally I would have loved to have seen Lewis in f1 between 1960 and 70. Likewise Alonso between 80 and 90 where complete car management was key. I'd also like to see Jenson in a much older machine, same era as Lewis. And the big one... I'd like to see Vettel v's Senna in qualifying :p

btw - I hate Murray.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

would've been interesting, but i've always believed the best drivers were the ones who helped raise the bar.

what i mean is, in 10 years from now a few f1 drivers would have had influenced their styles by great drivers (Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel. etc) but these same great drivers we have currently have been influenced by drivers from the past (Senna, Prost, Schumacher)

the whole sport evolves when a new super talent enters it, some people say Schumacher only had a great car and he was able to drive it home, no. i dont think these that say that ever watched him race. he raised the bar, his work approach, his driving style, everything, and now we have a few who followed his tactic and make the game more competitive.

for me Schumacher will always be the greatest, not just because of his talent, but the influence he had in the sport, he raised the bar on the most competitive racing sport whilst being surrounded by a few already talented drivers, he was just so far ahead of them that very often people say Schumacher had no real rivals.

the same thing happened with Senna, Prost, Clark and all the greats that bring their quote of contribution to make the sport more competitive. unintentionally of course.

it happens in other sports as well, but in F1 i can see Schumacher, Senna, Prost being winners in any era. Schumacher first raced an F1 car in 1991, it's been 22 years and the guy is still competitive, whilst being surrounded by an already competitive grid. it takes talent.
but having said that a few of those who are winners today have been influenced by greats from the past and not neccesarily entered the sport bringing a radical approach that will influence drivers from the future.

I would've liked to see Lewis racing against Piquet Snr. It would be like watching either of those two drivers racing himself.

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A scary way to look at it...had Schumacher started his career the same 22 years worth BUT 22 years earlier in 1969, he'd still be racing in 1991.
That sort of time spanning career is madness, and even he isn't as experienced as Rubens per races.
Think of the change in car type in that period...


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

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Personally I would have loved to have seen Lewis in f1 between 1960 and 70.

If he drove like he drives in these cars, then Lewis wouldn't have lasted a season in that era before he'd killed himself or a fellow competitor.

Still, I presume he wouldn't have driven like he does, as driving standards have steadily decreased among most drivers over the past decade or two. Still, if he's complaining about tyres and not being able to race them lap after lap, then he'd not have finished a race anyway, as the cars had to be nursed, often from the start of the race.

If I could choose any era/car to drive, it would probably be the 1986 season, driving a Lotus or Benetton. OMG, all that turbo power. Sexy.

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wow Dan!! Amazing stat. I always appreciated the variety of cars Patresse (Sp?) drove. Amazing evolution of cars.

Gav - good points, I think I had more of a romantic view about it of Lewis drifting round Copse :p. I suppose Button would have faired well in that era.

Taking the topic in a backwards fashion, I would like to see a peak performance Jackie Stewart in a car today. Anyone who's watched the series of him driving various cars will know the guy speaks with outstanding knowledge of how things should be with a race car. His feedback to modern engineers with modern equipment would be amazing IMO. I'd say his approach would be taking the best of Alonso and Button.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Patrese's career will probably always be the stand-out one in terms of changes in the eras he drove in from start to end. The 1977 Shadow and 1993 Benetton were like night and day in terms of technology as well as appearance.
Two things maybe worth noting about Patrese:
(1) With the obvious comparisons between him and Rubens, they did race together in F1 in '93;
(2) As much as James Hunt disliked him, Patrese was the only driver who drove in every race Hunt commentated on(bar San Marino '82) and whose longevity as a driver outstripped Hunt's longevity as a commentator. They say karma's a bitch. :P

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Hunt blamed Patrese for crash that ended up killing Peterson, this was the root of lot of Hunt's ire towards Patrese, but he mellowed towards him over time.

If anything I think he had more of an attitude problem towards Patrese as time went on. There are several races from the early 90s(Especially South Africa '92, where he was bitching about Patrese virtually all race) where he was pretty vitriolic towards Patrese, but there seems not to be much bitching from Hunt in the commentaries from earlier years.

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He hated Alliot too ... "the guy who crashes in every race anyway..." unless that was de Crasheris.

loque Wrote:
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> He hated Alliot too ... "the guy who crashes in
> every race anyway..."

Yeah, Portugal 1990 he said that after Alliot drove into Mansell.
But yeah, he used to slag off de Cesaris too, and his comments about both those drivers were awesome. When de Cesaris spun off on lap 1 at Portugal 1990 Hunt immediately said "That'll be no great loss to the race", and at the British GP in 1989(I think) when the cameras cut to de Cesaris pulling into the pits, Hunt said "There's de Cesaris, removing himself from the race and doing everyone a favour" or something very similar.
But probably his best ever rant on air was about Jean-Pierre Jarier during the 1983 Austrian GP(Thoroughly deserved too, as Jarier had been driving like an absolute f*ckwit). That's a real LOL to listen to.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2012 01:08AM by EC83.