Weird/Funny F1 stories

After reading this I thought we should have a thread for similar incidints within F1 maybe people should list some old one they remember .

TAKEN FROM ITV-F1.COM

Davidson all hot and beavered

Sunday, 10, June, 2007, 22:41

Anthony Davidson was gutted to have missed out on a spectacular result for the Super Aguri team when he hit a beaver while running third in the Canadian Grand Prix.

The race, which Davidson described as "carnage" featured four Safety Cars and several penalties to leading runners, which allowed some of the less fancied cars to play into the mix with unorthodox fuel strategies.
The Brit was one such driver and was on course to cause a major upset when he made contact with the animal after the second Safety Car period.

“It is such a shame about the beaver, it had it in for me for sure!" he said.
"I was on a clear, one stop strategy and it damaged the front wing."


Then when he pitted for repairs his crew wasn't ready for him. "I couldn’t even see it at high speed and I could not understand why suddenly I locked up the front tyres and so I had to come in to the pitlane," he said
"The guys were taken by surprise in the garage when I came in, but they were really on it with the race strategy after that, telling me to overtake the safety car to get my lap back and it was a really enjoyable race at the end."
Davidson eventually finished 11th, while his team-mate Takuma Sato finished in the points in sixth.
"I equalled my best result and it is great news for the team who did a great job today," he added.
"I was out there on the option tyre, realised there was lots of graining and reported it to the team.
"I came in under the safety car to change the tyres and before Taku had even done any fast laps they knew to change the tyres back to the prime and the tyres paid off.
"It was really good team work so I am extremely happy.”

well, further proof of the harm a beaver coming at you at the wrong spot can do for you

Stefan Johansson hit a deer during practise for the Austrian GP in 1987




I'm not linking to the middle pic. You can find that yourself if you're that way inclined.

Damn, that deer got sliced.

Jesus.

Deer 1 - McLaren 0 lol

Sting

Deer 1 - McLaren 0 lol

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I think it was a no-score draw personally.

It could have been a Tom Pryce-like incident, but fortunately for Stefan, he hit it with the right-front wheel, not the nose of the car. As said by Stefan Johansson: "That deer was running around the circuit for about 20 minutes until I'd hit it. The organizers really need a kick in the backside."
- Autocourse 1987-88

One of the downright dumbest things to happen in F1 was in 1977, when the BRM team, in their last season of Grand Prix racing, had delivered their P207 to the airport in a crate, so that it could make the journey to the race at Interlagos, Brazil. However, the crate was too big for the cargo hold of the jet, so the entry was scratched.
- Directory of Formula One Cars 1966-86

Also in 1977, Hans Heyer failed to qualify for the German Grand Prix, which was his one and only appearance in the ATS-entered Penske. He was the 27th-fastest qualifier, so he was to sit out on Sunday. Since the rules allowed for a "substitute entry" to be ready for race day (many teams and private entries didn't have spare cars, let alone spare parts back then), Hans had his car ready to go. All 26 cars started, but the organizers weren't paying attention when the marshals allowed a 27th car to race out of pit lane. He was black-flagged after 7 laps, but by which this time, he had suffered an engine failure. So the question remains...does Hans Heyer get credit for his one and only "start"? He's the ultimate asterisk of Grand Prix racing.
- Grand Prix! Vol.3 1974-80

Andrea Moda anyone?

I think Andrea Moda is an interesting story. It's up on F1rejects.com. They had bought Coloni apparently and that guy Perry McCarthy (who is the stig apparently, not sure on that one) drove for them. According to the story, they always gave a bad car to McCarthy. It was more like 1 and a half car operation rather than 2 cars. McCarthy would always have a faulty car which the team apparently knew about.

Best result was a DNF at Monaco after 11 laps where Moreno managed to put the Andrea Moda on the grid by beating Damon Hill in the Brabham by 0.038s or something like that and qualifying 26th.

The story of Life F1 team is funnier though. They were using W12 engines made by themselves.

From f1rejects.com

In Brazil, Brabham was forced to park the Life having driven no more than 400 metres out of the pits, and recorded no time. That was enough as far as he was concerned, and he did the wise thing and left the sinking ship. In came jovial Italian Bruno Giacomelli, the former works Alfa Romeo F1 driver who had been in the wilderness for several years, but who was testing for the Leyton House team in 1990, and was happy to waste some race weekends trying to coax the Life along. Rumours had it Franco Scapini was part of the farce too, as Life's 'official test and reserve driver'. He may even have driven the car once, at Monza.

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daan

I'm not linking to the middle pic. You can find that yourself if you're that way inclined.

Click to expand...

Mommy, why is Bambi flying through the air? And where'd all that raspberry jam come from??

MustangSVT

I think Andrea Moda is an interesting story. It's up on F1rejects.com. They had bought Coloni apparently and that guy Perry McCarthy (who is the stig apparently, not sure on that one) drove for them. According to the story, they always gave a bad car to McCarthy. It was more like 1 and a half car operation rather than 2 cars. McCarthy would always have a faulty car which the team apparently knew about.

Best result was a DNF at Monaco after 11 laps where Moreno managed to put the Andrea Moda on the grid by beating Damon Hill in the Brabham by 0.038s or something like that and qualifying 26th.

The story of Life F1 team is funnier though. They were using W12 engines made by themselves.

From f1rejects.com

Click to expand...

Most of F1 Rejects it worth a look for this thread. Best. Site. Ever.

Serioulsy funny of course not true but still

Taken for ITV's Gravel Trap

NOW JV CRITICISES BEAVERS




After lambasting Lewis Hamilton, Jacques Villeneuve has now turned his ire on the antics of the beavers living at the Canadian GP circuit.

The beavers, some of whom have set up home at turn 15, location of the so-called ’Wall of Champions’, are believed to be in the process of building a dam, made from the nibbled remains of F1 packing crates.

Villeneuve said today: “Everybody seems to think that what the beavers are doing is acceptable but I don’t think it is, and I’m amazed the FIA don’t take any action.”

He went on: “If I had behaved like this when I was in F1 then I would have been black-flagged – it’s one rule for the beaver and one for the rest of us.”

A spokesman for the beavers retorted: “Jacques always has too much to say. This is just water off our backs, so to speak.”

Funny read, but they are marmots (AKA groundhogs, AKA woodchucks) and are part of the squirrel family, and not anything like a beaver.

With that in mind, maybe that's why one of them went after Ralf Schumacher...



Squirrels like nuts.

Ralf... when you are slow enough to get chased by a rodent, it's time to hang up the racing gloves.

(credit Mark for the GIF)