Jordan’s Narain Karthikeyan was very lucky to escape unharmed from a massive accident after crashing into a wall during the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix.
Tag: jordan
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F1 engine builder Brian Hart dies
Former Formula One racing driver and engineer, Brian Hart, has died at the age of 77 after a long battle with illness.
Hart is well known for having built engines for the likes of Jordan and Toleman.
Starting his racing career in 1957, Brian Hart enjoyed great success in single seater racing even and qualified for the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in 1967 – his sole outing in F1. He retired from racing in 1971 after starting his own company, originally preparing Ford engines for F2 cars before developing his own engine for Toleman’s F2 team.
Following a one-two in the 1980 European F2 championship, Toleman graduated – along with Hart – in to Formula One. With their limited budget the opening seasons were a struggle, but by 1984 Hart was also supplying engines to Spirit and RAM.
Their engine secured its first podium finish at the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix when Ayrton Senna finished second for Toleman.
More podiums followed and 1985 saw Toleman’s Teo Fabi take the first pole position for the pairing, but a year later Hart dropped out of Formula One, not able to compete with the large budgets available to the likes of larger engine manufacturers like Honda and Renault.
In 1993 Hart returned to F1 with Jordan and enjoyed a podium a year later at the Pacific Grand Prix with Ruben Barichello while the Brazilian driver also claimed a pole position in Belgium.
When Jordan then opted for Peugeot engines, Hart supplied Footwork – yielding a podium at Adelaide in 1995. Tom Walkinshaw Racing bought the engine company in 1997 and Brian Hart left TWR in 1999 after deciding to quit F1.
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Eddie Irvine brands double points rule as “insanity”
Former Formula One driver Eddie Irvine has branded the idea of double points for the season finale as “insanity” and vows he won’t be watching another race “until the rule is kicked out”.
Irvine, who drove for Jordan, Ferrari and Jaguar during his decade-long career, is not one to be shy of giving an opinion and has already voiced his displeasure with additions such as DRS to the sport.
Now, in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Irvine has lashed out at the new regulation changes in the sport, more specifically at the new double points rule which will see drivers receiving double points for the final race in Abu Dhabi at the end of the 2014 season.
“I think Formula One has lost its way,” he told Belfast Telegraph.
“This latest rule of double points for the last race is insanity. That actually made me realise I am not going to watch another race until that rule gets kicked out. That is just embarrassing. It really is. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
“I just think the people involved in these decisions have lost the plot. They have no understanding of reality and the people who are in there have been in too long. They have blown up the history of the sport by changing the points, changing the qualifying and now double points for the final race!”
“It’s ridiculous, I’ve never heard such a joke in all my life. Talk about tinsel town bullshit!”
Irvine also had a few things to say about Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
When asked whether he thought that Vettel is on the same level as his former team mate and seven time world champion, Michael Schumacher, Irvine seemed to think that Vettel is proving nothing by staying at Red Bull.
“Vettel’s record is amazing, though he has kept the best car pretty much every year which Michael didn’t have. The one thing about Michael was when he won his first two championships he felt ‘this is boring, I’m going to go to Ferrari and re-build Ferrari’ and that was very admirable. He struggled there for four years before he won another championship. Vettel just staying at Red Bull winning trophies is boring. I don’t see what he’s trying to prove. Okay, he’s going to collect a lot of championships, but you know what, who cares?”
Irvine didn’t hold back about Hamilton either, saying that he’d “lost the plot a little bit because he went too showbiz.”
He continued, “His entry into Formula One was fantastic and his talent was amazing. Then he wanted to be a movie star or a rapper or something else. People want their sports stars to be 100% committed to being sports stars. I think he is coming back from that now and it would be nice if he could challenge Vettel. Lewis and Fernando Alonso are the two guys capable of taking Vettel on if their cars are up to it. Unfortunately, they aren’t at the moment.”
Irvine put a final little dig in at the current state of Formula One saying that he much prefers watching the Discovery Channel and doesn’t keep in touch with anyone other than Kimi Raikkon who “rings me the odd time when he’s drunk!”