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I only started watching in 1983 and then only watched the end to get the results for my new husband.... so I never actually got to see Giles race. I have seen footage and I wish I had been interested earlier but that is life...

jacfan wrote:I only started watching in 1983 and then only watched the end to get the results for my new husband.... so I never actually got to see Giles race. I have seen footage and I wish I had been interested earlier but that is life...

He should have been on a calendar.......all the girls would have been on time

I miss Senna-Prost battles...

gkaytaz wrote:I miss Senna-Prost battles...

Ah they were the days....

jacfan wrote:

gkaytaz wrote:I miss Senna-Prost battles...

Ah they were the days....

I miss the Senna-Prost-Mansell-Piquet battles!!

RE30B#16 wrote:

jacfan wrote:

gkaytaz wrote:I miss Senna-Prost battles...

Ah they were the days....

I miss the Senna-Prost-Mansell-Piquet battles!!

Yeah, them too

I miss Johnny Herbert

RE30B#16 wrote:I miss:

Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux;

Niki Lauda (behind the wheel);

Keke Rosberg;

Jody Scheckter;

Jacky Ickx, Ronnie Peterson, Jackie Stewart, and Peter Revson;

Super Mario and Emerson Fittipaldi;

Andrea deCesaris, Vittorio Brambilla, Bruno Giacomelli, and Beppe Gabiani;

Damon Hill;

Mansell;

And Senna!!

Take out Damon and its almost perfect.

And don't forget Eddie Jordan

GhoGho wrote:

RE30B#16 wrote:I miss:

Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux;

Niki Lauda (behind the wheel);

Keke Rosberg;

Jody Scheckter;

Jacky Ickx, Ronnie Peterson, Jackie Stewart, and Peter Revson;

Super Mario and Emerson Fittipaldi;

Andrea deCesaris, Vittorio Brambilla, Bruno Giacomelli, and Beppe Gabiani;

Damon Hill;

Mansell;

And Senna!!

Take out Damon and its almost perfect.

And don't forget Eddie Jordan

JV's Dad< Giles
Yup, I miss Eddy,
Yup, I miss watching Johhny having big ones in F3 or whatever.
I don't miss Damon, He is now an interesting guy.
Senna?
The Thread's title is "Personalities"

Julian Mayo wrote:

GhoGho wrote:

RE30B#16 wrote:I miss:

Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux;

Niki Lauda (behind the wheel);

Keke Rosberg;

Jody Scheckter;

Jacky Ickx, Ronnie Peterson, Jackie Stewart, and Peter Revson;

Super Mario and Emerson Fittipaldi;

Andrea deCesaris, Vittorio Brambilla, Bruno Giacomelli, and Beppe Gabiani;

Damon Hill;

Mansell;

And Senna!!

Take out Damon and its almost perfect.

And don't forget Eddie Jordan

JV's Dad< Giles
Yup, I miss Eddy,
Yup, I miss watching Johhny having big ones in F3 or whatever.
I don't miss Damon, He is now an interesting guy.
Senna?
The Thread's title is "Personalities"

Now, now! Damon was a great competitor. He certainly rose to the occasion in the aftermath of Senna's death. Before that, he gave Alain Prost hell. Who can forget Hungary '97 in the Arrows!

I also miss Stefan Bellof, Stefan Johannson, Patrick Depailler, John Watson (especially on street circuits), Didier Pironi, and Francois Cevert.

Let me relate a story about an astonishing drive I witnessed:

The USGP at Detroit in 1985 is one I will never forget through the downtown streets of my hometown.

A few laps into this race, the right front brake pad came off of Stefan Johannson's Ferrari rendering the Ferrari virtually brakeless on a circuit of straights and 90˚ turns! Johannson had started 9th and moved up into third behind his teammate, the late great Michele Alboreto. Ayrton Senna was in the lead in his Lotus-Renault looking like nothing could stop him until he slid into the wall on some oil around lap 10. Keke Rosberg was a flying Finn and took the lead never to relinquish it. Alboreto dropped back with a fuel pickup problem giving up 2nd place. Stefan Johannson drove nearly the entire race with no front brakes! By the end of the race, his left front brakes caught fire briefly. He was using the gearbox to slow the car. This required an adjustment to his racing lines making him virtually impossible to pass. The grinding metal sound was awful to hear but beautiful to watch. It was a masterful display of car control and stamina by one of F1's very best drivers ever. Stefan Bellof was going great gang busters in this race as well and very nearly passed the struggling Alboreto for 3rd by the end.

After taking the checkered flag, Stefan's Ferrari could not make it back to the pits. When he got out of the car in front of us, the cheers were deafening. You would've thought he had won! If I recall correctly, 6th place finisher Nelson Piquet stopped and gave him a lift back to pit lane.

May I point out that there were 7 different teams represented in the top 10 quali positions. [Lotus, Williams, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Brabham, and Alfa Romeo] Stefan Bellof came from 19th on the grid to 4th despite not having a turbo charged engine! Only Tyrrell campaigned that season without a turbo.

RE30B#16 wrote:Let me relate a story about an astonishing drive I witnessed:

The USGP at Detroit in 1985 is one I will never forget through the downtown streets of my hometown.

A few laps into this race, the right front brake pad came off of Stefan Johannson's Ferrari rendering the Ferrari virtually brakeless on a circuit of straights and 90˚ turns! Johannson had started 9th and moved up into third behind his teammate, the late great Michele Alboreto. Ayrton Senna was in the lead in his Lotus-Renault looking like nothing could stop him until he slid into the wall on some oil around lap 10. Keke Rosberg was a flying Finn and took the lead never to relinquish it. Alboreto dropped back with a fuel pickup problem giving up 2nd place. Stefan Johannson drove nearly the entire race with no front brakes! By the end of the race, his left front brakes caught fire briefly. He was using the gearbox to slow the car. This required an adjustment to his racing lines making him virtually impossible to pass. The grinding metal sound was awful to hear but beautiful to watch. It was a masterful display of car control and stamina by one of F1's very best drivers ever. Stefan Bellof was going great gang busters in this race as well and very nearly passed the struggling Alboreto for 3rd by the end.

After taking the checkered flag, Stefan's Ferrari could not make it back to the pits. When he got out of the car in front of us, the cheers were deafening. You would've thought he had won! If I recall correctly, 6th place finisher Nelson Piquet stopped and gave him a lift back to pit lane.

May I point out that there were 7 different teams represented in the top 10 quali positions. [Lotus, Williams, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Brabham, and Alfa Romeo] Stefan Bellof came from 19th on the grid to 4th despite not having a turbo charged engine! Only Tyrrell campaigned that season without a turbo.

What a wonderful story.

jacfan wrote:I only started watching in 1983 and then only watched the end to get the results for my new husband.... so I never actually got to see Giles race. I have seen footage and I wish I had been interested earlier but that is life...

Watching Gilles Villeneuve race was something to see. As Niki Lauda once said, he was the toughest bastard he ever had the pleasure to race, but totally fair! Unfortunately, Gilles was killed in practice for the race just prior to the first USGP in Detroit, so I was jipped out of seeing him in person.

The only other driver that had that kind of fire and commitment was perhaps Stefan Bellof. Ayrton Senna had the same fire and commitment, but he was a much more sophisticated professional driver, setting up his cars and team to provide the maximum results. This was the Senna difference. Al Unser (senior) was very similar to Senna in that way.

Villeneuve, on the other hand, could probably win a grand prix driving a Greyhound bus! He was absolutely masterful. Superb car control. Competitive as hell. No matter where he finished in the order, it was always an incredible drive! He was very exciting to watch. Bellof was the same way.

As great as Michael Schumacher is and was, I place him in a league with Prost, Mansell, Lauda, Piquet and Stewart. Very canny and opportunistic using everything at his disposal as an advantage. There is another league, however, and that league is for Senna, Clark, Nuvolari and Gilles Villeneuve. They were simply the best of the best!

I miss them all!

And Fangio

Julian Mayo wrote:And Fangio

I never got to see Stirling Moss drive F1, but I know some older race fans who say that no one was better than Stirling in his time.

There are some other drivers that I remember as being absolutely phenomenal without a lot of fanfare. Here's a short list:

Brian Redman
Mark Donohue
Jacky Ickx
Al Unser, Sr