MSport Talk: Frank Motorsport Opinions & Debate

On the 2nd of June this year, the Williams F1 team headed to Silverstone armed with an impressive batch of their F1 machinery - and more from the 1970s right up to the present day and offered fans a unique opportunity to see some of these machines run on track.  Many of the teams former drivers were also in attendance along with machinery from other motorsports and outside of motorsport entirely. Below is a brief gallery showing off just a little of what was going on on track that day, and a thank you to two people who allowed me to use some of their (better than my) photographs. A crowd of photographers assemble as drivers past and present along with Sir Frank Williams, Sir Patrick Head and Claire Williams pose with Williams machinery old and new. The latest of the Williams F1 machines, the FW40 prior to being crated up ready for shipping to Canada, while Sky's David Croft interviews David Coulthard for the benefit of those in attendance. Not the only Red 5 on display, a...

Earlier today (Wednesday) I saw the Mclaren Honda Andretti @MclarenIndy  twitter page using the hashtag #RaceOfTwoWorlds which, got me thinking about a little known event in the late 1950s, Yes many F1 fans already know that the Indy 500 was a part of the F1 championship up until 1960 and, many F1 fans also know that the likes of Jim Clark, Graham Hill and a few others took on the challenge with varying levels of success in the 60's. But, to celebrate the opening of the oval at Monza, an event was planned as documented in the short video above, teams and drivers from the USAC (United States Auto Club) National Championship - effectivley what we know as IndyCar today, were invited to compete against team from Europe. The inaugural event is pretty much covered above but, for 1958 a few more European teams squads chose to race, Ecurie Ecosse bringing a pair of D Type Jaguars and a Lister for Maston Gregory, Ivor Bueb and Jack Fairman, while 3 Ferrari's of various construction ...

Now, this little rant for the want of a better term has come off of the back of the horrendous accident that Billy Monger suffered on Easter Sunday. As you follow and read my musings you are no doubt already familiar with the incident and, the fantastic showing of unity of the "Motorsport Family", raising over (at current time of posing) £700,000 for the young guys future. However, it's got me thinking. "Without incidents like this, would Billy Monger or F4 be in the headlines?" Now, I'm not trying to detract from the incident, quite the opposite in fact but, that Sunday night, while searching online for updates in conditions etc I was faced with lazily thrown together article after article from the major press all reporting the incident as "news" yet nothing on the WEC race that had happened the same day at Silverstone, nothing of the rest of the BTCC rosta, nothing about Aiden Moffat taking his first BTCC victory, little on anything un  -F1...

OK, something a little different but sort of motorsport relevant. Yes, I purchased a Lego Porsche, at 40 years old I am still building Lego thanks in part to my children reaching that age and becoming re acquainted with the Danish brick and, partly because in the last few years some truly awesome motorsports themed sets have become available featuring F1, Le Mans and GT machinery. The Porsche on the other hand is a different beast all together. Weighing in at over 2700 pieces and with over 800 steps in an instruction book that also depicts Lego and Porsche's involvement with the project this 1/8th scale offering is as big in size as it is in fun to build. It took me a week of evenings to put the set together and now, it sits atop my bookcase next to another of my larger technic creations! Anyway, back to the Porsche, yes at £200 it is an expensive luxury for something you will probably only build once, especially as there appears to be no alternative model to build from...

Historically many drivers have competed in more than one race series in a single season, Le Mans, Daytona and the Indy 500 being the big events attracting drivers worldwide from various disciplines, however more recently once a driver had secured an F1 seat it was very unlikely that we would see him driving in any other series save for promotional reasons due mainly to sponsorship and manufacturer conflictions, yes we may have seen Lotterer take a short race stint at Spa for Caterham in one of his many Le Mans winning years and, of course Hulkenberg becoming a Le Mans winner while doing a full F1 season but. This is a little different. On the 12th of April 2017 it was announced that two time F1 champion and current Mclaren Honda driver, Fernando Alonso would be racing in the Indy 500 instead of the Monaco Grand Prix. Now, this is the difference. A lot of people are seeing this as a good thing, teams giving their drivers the chance to experience a different car or championship but...

I want to use this part of my blog to bring to attention those who didn't quite but should have or would have made it to the top of the motorsports ladder. The history books will always mention the likes of Ratzenburger, De Angelis, Villeneuve, Paletti and those associated with F1 who succumbed at the wheel of a race car but, what of those who were still on the way up? Unless you were a fan in the day or follow the series involved a lot of these drivers become just another statistic. Yes, Clarke, Bellof, Winklehock, Pironi and Alboreto lost their lives in non F1 machinery but, due to their own F1 involvement were more publicised. Young Austrian, Markus Höttinger was one of those drivers, he should have been more of a name in the world of Motosports in the 80's, maybe if things were different we would have seen both him and Bellof fighting for Group C or F1 victories. Unfortunately we will never know. Markus Höttinger made an early name for himself in sports and touring cars...