Tag: Formula One

Remembering Wolfgang

When I was a teenager my father took me to the French Gran Prix and I fell in love with Formula One Auto racing…..my favorite driver was Wolfgang von Trips of Team Ferrari…….I bring this up because today is the Italian Gran Prix at Monza and in 1961 my favorite driver was killed in a horrendous crash that also killed 13 spectators…..

So before the race I had a drink to remember my favorite driver…..plus the Wall Street Journal also remembered von Trips back in 2011 with the 50th anniversary of his death…..

They began the race as friends and rivals, knowing that one of them was almost certain to be crowned world champion at the end: Phil Hill of Santa Monica, Calif., and Count Wolfgang Von Trips of West Germany. They were Ferrari teammates, each a master of speed. The date: Sept. 10, 1961. The place: the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Two hours, three minutes and 13 seconds later, Hill had become America’s first Formula One champion. Von Trips was dead along with 14 spectators-killed when his Ferrari scythed into the crowd like a helicopter blade.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903285704576556971867897488

I still have fond memories of my favorite driver…..

If It Is 2018 It Must Be France

Formula One is my one sports passion……it began in 1959 and I went to my first Formula One race in France….and now today France returns to the Formula One schedule after a few years away.

The race calls for champagne and snacks as I watch…..

I bring this up because I would like to bitch about something the Formula One is considering…..you see they have a full schedule every year of 20-22 races to determine the championship……well the new owners of the Formula One is considering a race in  Miami…….which I think is bullshit.

Formula One, the world’s preeminent auto racing league, is actively scouting downtown Miami as a potential site for a new Grand Prix.

Executives and engineers with the global racing brand were in town this month, meeting with Miami’s new mayor and the city’s head of film and culture to go over potential racing circuits and logistics. Racing planners have already put together a half-dozen routes that would have high-performance vehicles zooming around AmericanAirlines Arena, over the causeway to Dodge Island, down Biscayne Boulevard and — in what sounds like a non-starter — through the PortMiami Tunnel.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/downtown-miami/article186841413.html

Every country has one race that has always been the way of things…..and the US already has the United States Gran Prix so  we do not need a Miami Gran Prix.  As a matter of fact I feel that we do not need other races like Singapore or Bahrain or Abu Dhabi ……..NO other country has a second race on the schedule…why should the US get special treatment?