Motorsports Trivia Thread!

[Liquid]

Who were the only two F3000 champions that never drove (as of this post) an F1 car during a world championship weekend?

Gary Paffett and... uh, Anthony Reid?

Paffett was a perennial test driver and Reid had a contract for Jordan which fell through; he kept it framed in his home! Not even sure they were F3000 champs though.

 

[SagarisGTB]

I updated the question to specifically refer to International F3000 champions only, as that was my original intention. There are plenty of British/Italian/Japanese F3000 champs that never got near F1.

Gary Paffett and... uh, Anthony Reid?

Paffett was a perennial test driver and Reid had a contract for Jordan which fell through; he kept it framed in his home! Not even sure they were F3000 champs though.

Neither were International F3000 champions, and I'm not sure either was a national F3000 champ either.

 

[Liquid]

Hmm, okay. I was thinking about International F3000 but I'm actually not very good with my F3000 drivers apart from Nick Heidfeld so I can only think of test drivers who never made it. Drivers like Pizzonia and Wilson got at least a few drives.

Emanuelle Pirro?

 

[SagarisGTB]

Pirro isn't an F3000 champion and has raced in F1 previously, for Scuderia Italia if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Liquid]

Ah, forgot about that. I'll have to mull this one over.

By which I mean not simply look it up.

 

[Kingofweasles]

Jorg Muller & Bjorn Wirdheim? Bruno Junqueira never got a shot at F1 either...

 

[Carbonox]

Pretty sure Wirdheim appeared in a bunch of F1 weekends as a practice session driver.

 

[SagarisGTB]

Muller and Junqueira are correct. Wirdheim was an FP1/FP2 test driver in 03 or 04, for Renault or Jaguar(?). (Edit: 2003 and 2004, for Jordan and Jaguar)

 

[Kingofweasles]

Muller and Junqueira are correct. Wirdheim was an FP1/FP2 test driver in 03 or 04, for Renault or Jaguar(?). (Edit: 2003 and 2004, for Jordan and Jaguar)

I can recall that Muller tested BMW's early F1 Mule in 1998 but was never a serious candidate for an F1 ride, while Junqueira was tipped to race for Williams before getting dumped at the last minute for Juan Pablo Montoya... Interesting that Wirdheim was at least given a few FP1/FP2 Test Days as well, as I had thought that his driving stock plummeted greatly after infamously losing the F3000 race at Monaco on the pit-straight.


What pre-war driver received a congratulatory telegram from Benito Mussolini for winning a major race? (Bonus points for correctly guessing the year and the race)

 

[TenEightyOne]

What pre-war driver received a congratulatory telegram from Benito Mussolini for winning a major race? (Bonus points for correctly guessing the year and the race)

A British driver who won Le Mans in an Alfa... but that's all I can remember

 

[Liquid]

Open question: Is the 4th and 5th scored by the Jordans of Andrea de Cesaris and Bertrand Gachot at the 1991 Canandian Grand Prix the best result anyone from pre-qualifying ever got?

In the final qualifying they were 11th and 14th on the grid but scraped into that session by qualifying 3rd and 4th in pre-qualifying, which are the last two successful pre-quali slots into final qualifying. You can argue that this would put them 29th and 30th out of the 34 entrants to that race.

Can't think of anything better. I thought Christian Danner's 4th at USA 1989 was also a pre-qualifying job but no. Somehow his Rial didn't need to go through pre-quali.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Open question: Is the 4th and 5th scored by the Jordans of Andrea de Cesaris and Bertrand Gachot at the 1991 Canandian Grand Prix the best result anyone from pre-qualifying ever got?

In the final qualifying they were 11th and 14th on the grid but scraped into that session by qualifying 3rd and 4th in pre-qualifying, which are the last two successful pre-quali slots into final qualifying. You can argue that this would put them 29th and 30th out of the 34 entrants to that race.

Can't think of anything better. I thought Christian Danner's 4th at USA 1989 was also a pre-qualifying job but no. Somehow his Rial didn't need to go through pre-quali.

Stefan Johansson, 3rd place at the 1989 Portuguese GP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Portuguese_Grand_Prix

 

[Liquid]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

 

[Kingofweasles]

A British driver who won Le Mans in an Alfa... but that's all I can remember

Very close... Just a name would suffice.

 

[daan]

Open question: Is the 4th and 5th scored by the Jordans of Andrea de Cesaris and Bertrand Gachot at the 1991 Canandian Grand Prix the best result anyone from pre-qualifying ever got?

Stefan Johansson, 3rd place at the 1989 Portuguese GP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Portuguese_Grand_Prix

Stefano Modena got 3rd at Monaco in 1989 with his Brabham. Martin Brundle was on course for 3rd but he had to stop for a new battery which dropped him down to 6th. (Caffi got 4th also from pre-qualifying.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Monaco_Grand_Prix

 

[Jimlaad43]

Stefano Modena got 3rd at Monaco in 1989 with his Brabham. Martin Brundle was on course for 3rd but he had to stop for a new battery which dropped him down to 6th. (Caffi got 4th also from pre-qualifying.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Monaco_Grand_Prix

7th to 13th on the grid was all Italians xD

 

[Carbonox]

7th to 13th on the grid was all Italians xD

And the Italians and French put together made up over half the field.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Very close... Just a name would suffice.

Sadly that's the part of the memory I'm lacking!

 

[DK]

And the Italians and French put together made up over half the field.

That's staggering, when you realise there's only one driver from Italy or France on the grid right now.

 

[Jimlaad43]

I can recall that Muller tested BMW's early F1 Mule in 1998 but was never a serious candidate for an F1 ride, while Junqueira was tipped to race for Williams before getting dumped at the last minute for Juan Pablo Montoya... Interesting that Wirdheim was at least given a few FP1/FP2 Test Days as well, as I had thought that his driving stock plummeted greatly after infamously losing the F3000 race at Monaco on the pit-straight.


What pre-war driver received a congratulatory telegram from Benito Mussolini for winning a major race? (Bonus points for correctly guessing the year and the race)

A British driver who won Le Mans in an Alfa... but that's all I can remember

Henry/Tim Birkin

 

[TenEightyOne]

Henry/Tim Birkin

I'm pretty sure that's it, one of the Bentley Boys

 

[Kingofweasles]

Henry/Tim Birkin

I'm pretty sure that's it, one of the Bentley Boys

Correct! Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin had won Le Mans in 1931 with Lord Earl Howe in a privately-entered Alfa Romeo and promptly received a telegram from Mussolini congratulating them on their "Win for Italy" (When, in fact, the Alfa was chosen due to Bentley's withdrawal from motorsport and the failure of Birkin's "Blower Bentleys")...

Jimlaad has the choice to pose a question.

 

[Jimlaad43]

OK, to carry on the previous theme.

Which former MotoGP circuit is this the startline to?

 

[Legro]

I'm going to say Imatra, but that wasn't part of MotoGP, was it.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Nope

This track is listed as a MotoGP circuit on Wikipedia.

 

[Legro]

Tampere Circuit then, it's still technically not a MotoGP circuit, but I don't think that they have held any events on street circuits after the series was given the name MotoGP, and I'm fairly certain that those are Finnish road markings.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Tampere Circuit then, it's still technically not a MotoGP circuit, but I don't think that they have held any events on street circuits after the series was given the name MotoGP, and I'm fairly certain that those are Finnish road markings.

Yep, it's Tampere

 

[Legro]

In the 2006 season, which is the longest time someone has kept throttle wide open in the highest gear in a World Rally Car on a stage of a World Rally Championship event?

 

[JR98]

7 Seconds?

 

[Legro]

7 Seconds?

Not even close. And I'd like to see more specific answers.