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Equal treatment when it comes to wristwear

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Christian Horner dispelled any suggestion that Red Bull is favouring one driver over the other at a Casio event this afternoon.

There was one question we wanted the answer to. Which driver got his new RBR-branded watch first? "They were given their watches at the same time," deadpaned Horner. "We also have plenty of spares and they're all of the same specification, so I can't see there being any issues with watches this weekend."

The event was hosted by BBC double act David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan. EJ stumbled onto the stage not making a lot of sense, and then skipped a page in the script which confused everyone on the stage - not least Casio's global marketing bod who didn't seem to speak much english and spoke off an autocue even more incomprehensibly than the Irishman.

DC struggled to introduce the politely smiling man, complaining he had a hard time getting his tongue around Japanese names. "But I had a Japanese girlfriend once, and didn't have any trouble getting my tongue around her."

The answers to Murray's missing words...

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At Silverstone I gave you a multiple choice quiz to find just what bonkers pearls of wisdom Britain's greatest ever commentator had blurted out. Match them up here:

1.    a
2.    d
3.    d
4.    b
5.    b
6.    b
7.    c
8.    c
9.    d
10.    b

Currency race

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Some readers might remember that in Turkey us journos got to compete in the FX Pro Currency Race in the Virgin motorhome, where one lucky git who knew more about the value of Yen versus the Dollar than me managed to walk home with an oversized comedy cheque. Well, now you can play it too.



Your performance is dictated by the value of whatever you're (pretend) buying, in live time. Click here and if you come out on top you could win prizes to some prestigious sporting events. Currently the leader is a chap called RSchumacher, which sounds unlikely.

Speaking a Ralf, here's a message from our friend Sniff Petrol.



Murray's missing words

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The best thing about the British Grand Prix is we get to see Murray Walker walking around. The veteran commentator was at the first grand prix held at Silverstone in 1948. He retired from F1 in 2001, aged 77, but still shows up here every year as energetic and passionate as ever.

Murray is famous for getting things wrong...

Here are some of the most famous 'Murrayisms'. Can you correctly identify the missing words? I'll bring you the answers next week.

1. "Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus ............ rough?"
a) Sounding
b) Feeling
c) Driving
d) Looking

2. "I should imagine that the conditions in the cockpit are ............."
a) Cramped
b) Hot
c) Exciting
d) Unimaginable

3. "It's raining heavily and ................................."
a) The track is drying out
b) It's quite dusty off line
c) The visibility is poor
d) The track is getting wet

4. "And the Williams pit are getting ready for Hill, the tyre .............. are coming off."
a) Warmers
b) Coolers
c) Treads
d) Blankets

5. "We're now on the 73rd lap and the next one will be the ........."
a) Final lap
b) 74th
c) First lap
d) Next one

6. "Senna 1st, Prost 2nd and Berger 3rd. That makes up the top ......."
a) Three
b) Four
c) Five
d) Six

7. "He's obviously gone in for a wheel change. I say obviously because ..........."
a) His pit crew are out
b) His tyres are bald
c) I can't see it
d) His wheels are being changed

8. "And Mansell can see the car behind in his .........."
a) Mirrors
b) Slipstream
c) Earphone
d) Bodywork

9. "The beak of Ayrton Senna's ........... is pulling ahead."
a) McLaren
b) Ferrari
c) Benetton
d) Chicken

10. "And we've had five races so far this year: Brazil, Argentina, Imola, ............ and Monaco."
a) Barcelona
b) Schumacher
c) Russia
d) This one

Lewis and Jenson go on a history trip

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McLaren/Vodafone have released another viral. This one's one of my favourites so far. JB and Da Ham give the most successful McLaren ever - the MP4/4 which won 15 out of 16 races during the 1988 season - the once over, and reminisce about their hero, Ayrton Senna.

Walking into this scene of covered cars in the MTC, it's a bit like the ending of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Just look at all that history!



Bruno Senna: the Hispania inquisition

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I've been chatting with Brazil's favourite nephew, and asked a few pertinent questions.

How many times do you get asked about Ayrton every day?

Every 30 seconds on average! Ninety percent of the interviews I do, I get asked about Ayrton. I'm used to it. I think in a couple of years that will wear off. As much as I've answered the same questions over and over again a million times since I started racing, there are always different people reading the articles. Hopefully in a year's time I'll get some new questions.

Is F1 harder than you thought it was going to be?

Oh yes. F1 is really difficult. It's extremely competitive. But it's a friendly environment too.

Do you share hire cars with your team mate, Karun Chandkok?

Yeah quite a lot. We drove all the way from Barcelona to Monaco together actually, and I worked out how to make Karun shut up. All you have to do is go fast in the wet. When a car is aquaplaning he's very quiet.

That's a very smart watch you're wearing. What is it?

It's a Hublot Aerobang, and it's my favourite. I have a few Hublot watches as they're my sponsor, and this one is very hard to get off my wrist. My friends keep trying to steal it but they'll never succeed. It's the best freebie I've ever been given.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever received from a fan?

Some fans send me their own photos, and what am I supposed to do with them? They send me photos of their families, which I appreciate but if I did an autograph session a year ago I can't be expected to remember who they are. So I just get all these random photos of people I don't recognize.

What's the last tune you downloaded?

Kid Cudi with David Guetta - Memories. [sings] All the crazy shit I did last night....

What was the last film you saw?

Inglorious Basterds, though I didn't quite finish it. I was watching it on the plane and we landed early. Tarantino is really good.

What's the oldest VHS recording you own?

That would be the 1986 or 1987 F1 championship tape with Ayrton. But it's mouldy now, I can't watch it.

When was the last time you were in a fight, and what was it over?

I've never fought with my fists. But I fought with words maybe last weekend.

What's your dream car?

That's a complex question because you want different cars for different things. I think the McLaren F1 is pretty high on the list. I drove a Porsche 997 GT2 and that's a very nice car. The Porsche Carrera GT has the most lovely engine note, I love that car.

What's your fancy dress costume of choice?

I would go as a stick of chewing gum. In Brazil there's an advert for Trident chewing gum where a guy dresses up as a stick of gum.

What's your most treasured possession?

My PC.

You're allowed to invite three celebrities to dinner. Who do you invite?

Can they be girls? This is going to get me in trouble.... Sienna Miller, Scarlet Johansson, and the Victoria's Secret model Doutzen Kroes.



Top 5 Great Escapes

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Mark Webber's huge crash at the European Grand Prix proved how far F1 has come in terms of safety. Here are another five near misses

1.    2007 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX
Driving for BMW Sauber, Robert Kubica clipped the rear of Jarno Trulli's Toyota on lap 27, was thrown across the grass and slammed powerlessly into a wall at 180mph. He then bounced back across the track, the wrecked tub rolling over and over, until he scraped down the side of a crash barrier. Amazingly, his only injuries were a slight concussion and a twisted ankle. The following day he drove home from the hospital.



2.    1998 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
The biggest pile up in F1 history was caused when David Coulthard lost his McLaren in slippery conditions, and thwacked into the pitwall, setting off a bomb of shattered carbon fibre and smoke. Thirteen cars were involved, and four cars were so badly totaled they couldn't take the restart.


3.    1996 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
Martin Brundle's new Jordan lasted just a few corners when he hit the back of another car and, like Webber on Sunday, went airborne. As it rolled across the gravel trap the car broke in two. "I felt liquid running down my face, and I could smell oil," he tells Metro. "Turned out it was just my energy drink, but I got out quick. When I saw the red flags I thought 'that's a bit of luck', and ran back to the pits for the spare car."


4.    1989 SAN MARINO GRAND PRIX
Most drivers have pictures in their house of them winning. Gerhard Berger has photos of him crashing, and his favourite is this one. He hit the Tamburello corner with such force his Ferrari burst into flames. A marshall pulled him out of the blaze after 16 painful seconds. He suffered only minor burns. One newspaper headline cried 'You Lucky Berger'.


5.    1985 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX
Andrea de Cesaris made 208 grand prix starts, and in that time earned the nickname 'de Crasheris'. His most notable smash came at the A1 Ring. He flew off the track after misjudging a left-hander, rolled across a grassy slope and flipped end-over-end five times. Afterwards, team boss Guy Ligier declared: "I can no longer afford the services of this young man."



Vettel vents his frustration?

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Just going through my pics from Canada, I found this one of Sebastian Vettel's loaned M-class. There's no better way to get over a big inter-team bust up that driving to a muddy field and doing doughnuts, is there?



Lotus takes on Williams

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One of the paddock traditions in Canada is the mechanics raft race. Behind the paddock is an Olympic rowing basin, left over from the '76 games. This year just two fun-loving teams entered, Lotus and Williams.

The Williams berth was a conventional looking kayak, but was in fact constructed from front-wing travel cases.

The Lotus raft was shorter and wider, with front and rear F1-style wings. Unfortunately the weight distribution was totally out of whack and it seemed in capable of going forwards.

The course was around 400m long, the crews having to paddle, turn around, and come back. Lotus weren't even half way before the Williams crew were on the home stretch, so sabotage was the Norfolk boys only chance - they jumped on the Williams kayak and capsized it.

In a stroke of genius forethought, the Willys boys had written 'HELP!' on the bottom.



Casting call

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Here are some other classic roles from the screen, and the drivers who could play these parts:

Fernando Alonso as Zorro


Jenson Button as Austin Powers


Mark Webber as Crocodile Dundee


Robert Kubica as Frankenstein