Ferrari Mailing List: Re: F1 but no spoiler

[Dennis Liu (bigheaddennis]

Rick - entirely to the contrary, I'd loooooove to hear more about your F1
insights, particularly from the POV of someone on the ground.  Fascinating
stuff!  And in addition to this sort of cool technical details, feel free to
throw in random pit gossip!  Do people like Scott Speed?  What about Ralf?
What about Flavio?  Who has the best food?  How risky are the photographer
positions around the track?  Do the drivers "date" the brollies?  Which
track do the teams hate the most?  Etc.

I think this stuff is entirely appropriate for the list, even if it doesn't
include Ferrari per se.

And for anyone else interested in the background of F1, among the books you
should read are the ones by Steve Matchett - current Speed F1 commentator
(and the best by far) and former World Championship winning Bennetton team
mechanic.  (and currently restoring a house in France!)  

Little known fact - drivers can sense, and teams will adjust, ride height by
a MILLIMETER.  Can you imagine that???

Go getcherself Steve Matchett's book, "The Chariot Makers : Assembling the
Perfect Formula 1 Car".  Awesome read.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0752865242/sr=8-1/qid=1143479078/ref=pd_bbs
_1/104-6791200-5916756?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Heck, used paperback versions are $7.95!

Also, consider "The Mechanic's Tale: Life in the Pit-Lanes of Formula One",
and "Life in the Fast Lane : The Story of the Bennetton Grand Prix Year".

Vty,

--Dennis 


-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Lindsay [mailto:rolindsay [at] yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 10:32 AM
To: Dennis Liu
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: [Ferrari] F1 but no spoiler

Hello All,
   Its a rare moment when I post anything here now, but the F1 comments have
me thinking...
   Working in the pits at the US F1 GP has changed my whole view of F1.
Starting with the cars, what Doug writes is true - the cars are incredible,
down to the last detail.  In fact, everything is over-the-top! 
Even the containers and scoops used to handle the dry ice for radiator
cooling are carbon fiber!  Why?  Who knows?!  Ferrari has cans of red spray
paint to touch up scratches.  You can see the lesser mechanics out there at
6am making the back-up front wings
'presentable'.   McLaren uses GOLD foil on suspension
members because it reflects radiant heat better.  Each of their suspension
members has not only strain gauges but also cemented-on maximum temperature
reading thermometers.  When we push the cars, either after incidents or into
the scrutineering station, we are instructed to push only on the rear wing
uprights, not the wing.  That's lesson one.  My guess is that the wing is
designed to withstand forces in preferred directions and may be weak in
other directions.  The analogy is a car's windscreen.  They're easy to break
from the inside but tough from outside.  The second thing we learn is to not
get our feet caught under the rear tunnel turning vanes when backing the
cars up. 
They're less than a shoe-toe distance off of the ground and can mess up a
foot pretty easily (Lord know what might happen if a marshal broke one of
the vanes!!).
   Working with all the teams also changes one's viewpoint of the teams and
the 'sport'.  The winning end of the garages houses people existing in their
own isolated world.  They don't even know the marshals and scrutineers are
there.  On the other end of the garages, the mechanics, engineers and team
principles are nice, friendly people - even the drivers.  My son is also an
F1 marshal and was helping Minardi when they scored their first-ever point.
They grabbed him and included him in their celebration; Pats on the back,
laughter, partying and fun all around.  I was working the other end of the
garages - and was invisible.
   There are zillions of other stories that I could tell (like helping Ralf
after his horrible crash at Indy a couple of years ago!) but this is the
Ferrari List, not an F1 list.  But without a doubt, in the pits the whole
thing is viewed by the organizers as an entertainment service, not really a
sport.  The teams, especially the lesser teams, still love the competition.
That's why I enjoy watching the mid-pack racing far more than watching the
run-away leaders.

Regards,

rick
'79 308GTB