Post by Hammer on Sept 29, 2016 14:55:45 GMT
Seriously!? No Webber thread?
I understand he's not an "F1 driver" at present but surely he deserves a thread...even Maldonado has one!
So why am I starting this thread now? Earlier today, I was waiting for a client and went to a bookstore and saw Mark Webber - Aussie Grit staring at me from the sports section! So I had some time...flipped through for about 15minutes....and got completely absorbed until I had to tear away from it since I had to meet my client. And after that, went back to it and now back at home. Some things in the intro section was fantastic, I can't forget some the amount of detail he went through in regards to being an F1 driver. In point form, the parts which stuck out for me from the parts of the book I managed to get through -
- Strapping yourself in an f1 car, you're almost immobile and Webber was on painkillers due to his ribs being hurt in an F3000, during a race which he ended up winning. This was still early on in his career in a very powerful racecar
- On Monza the guy had to open his (massive) jaw just to keep the helmet straight due to the sheer power of wind blowing his helmet back
- Explaining how your senses are heightened so much so that you even rely on smell, he mentioned being able to smell the cut grass in the corner ahead due to another car going off track before actually seeing the incident
- Race starts - He put his bad starts generally down to the fact that he couldn't 'feel' the Pirellis, since the clutch is so sensitive and starts depended on track temperature, temperature of your tyres at the time and how quickly you respond to too much wheel spin and letting go too soon to bog down on low revs. It's like more than 5 different factors playing out during your start
- Oh and the warm up lap! Loved it....he said generally RB had Sector 1 for you to keep your engine cool (running on high gears to keep the revs low) and then Sector 2 is all about brakes, getting brakes up to temp for all four sides...and Sector 3 then is for burnouts and a 'free to do what you want' and RB used sponsorship logos to advise the driver from which logo they were 'free' to play with the car and get the feel for it until the line
- Webber mentions genetic make up determines how your reaction time corresponds to your heart rate! Apparently Seb always beats him by 4-5 metres on average during starts due to Sebs reaction time being better when all drivers are waiting for the lights. Apparently Webbers reaction time is better when he's on a resting heart beat. And he mentions Irvine was famous for being much better than Schumacher at starts also for this reason, same with Massa.
- Webber always had his engineer radioing him to switch to First gear when the 17th car had slotted in its place
- RB talked many times about doing a very quick warm up lap due to the Merc cars being very fuel sensitive, whenever RB had the front row, but they never really ended up putting this idea in practice
- As for the RB rivalry I must say the media kept us quite well informed in regards to what was happening in RB....the gist of it being Marko being a the big d!ck in the team running the show, Horner playing puppet to keep senior management happy and Webber ending up the sacrificial lamb. In the end he says he has no animosity with Seb, but he has a problem with how RB handled the issues....which is public knowledge.
Anyway, quick skimming through almost bought it...but a lot of it was also about his pre F1 years and some specific incidents at Minardi, Jaguar and his personal life. Oh one part got me a tearing a bit, a difficult period in his life when Milo, his dog gets cancer and had to be put down. Webber held the dogs head in his arms and ended up bawlling out when the dog passed. And later he carried its ashes during a run and stopped at the dogs fav spots, spreading its ashes in those spots.
Top guy, one of the few personalities in F1 no one can dislike.
I understand he's not an "F1 driver" at present but surely he deserves a thread...even Maldonado has one!
So why am I starting this thread now? Earlier today, I was waiting for a client and went to a bookstore and saw Mark Webber - Aussie Grit staring at me from the sports section! So I had some time...flipped through for about 15minutes....and got completely absorbed until I had to tear away from it since I had to meet my client. And after that, went back to it and now back at home. Some things in the intro section was fantastic, I can't forget some the amount of detail he went through in regards to being an F1 driver. In point form, the parts which stuck out for me from the parts of the book I managed to get through -
- Strapping yourself in an f1 car, you're almost immobile and Webber was on painkillers due to his ribs being hurt in an F3000, during a race which he ended up winning. This was still early on in his career in a very powerful racecar
- On Monza the guy had to open his (massive) jaw just to keep the helmet straight due to the sheer power of wind blowing his helmet back
- Explaining how your senses are heightened so much so that you even rely on smell, he mentioned being able to smell the cut grass in the corner ahead due to another car going off track before actually seeing the incident
- Race starts - He put his bad starts generally down to the fact that he couldn't 'feel' the Pirellis, since the clutch is so sensitive and starts depended on track temperature, temperature of your tyres at the time and how quickly you respond to too much wheel spin and letting go too soon to bog down on low revs. It's like more than 5 different factors playing out during your start
- Oh and the warm up lap! Loved it....he said generally RB had Sector 1 for you to keep your engine cool (running on high gears to keep the revs low) and then Sector 2 is all about brakes, getting brakes up to temp for all four sides...and Sector 3 then is for burnouts and a 'free to do what you want' and RB used sponsorship logos to advise the driver from which logo they were 'free' to play with the car and get the feel for it until the line
- Webber mentions genetic make up determines how your reaction time corresponds to your heart rate! Apparently Seb always beats him by 4-5 metres on average during starts due to Sebs reaction time being better when all drivers are waiting for the lights. Apparently Webbers reaction time is better when he's on a resting heart beat. And he mentions Irvine was famous for being much better than Schumacher at starts also for this reason, same with Massa.
- Webber always had his engineer radioing him to switch to First gear when the 17th car had slotted in its place
- RB talked many times about doing a very quick warm up lap due to the Merc cars being very fuel sensitive, whenever RB had the front row, but they never really ended up putting this idea in practice
- As for the RB rivalry I must say the media kept us quite well informed in regards to what was happening in RB....the gist of it being Marko being a the big d!ck in the team running the show, Horner playing puppet to keep senior management happy and Webber ending up the sacrificial lamb. In the end he says he has no animosity with Seb, but he has a problem with how RB handled the issues....which is public knowledge.
Anyway, quick skimming through almost bought it...but a lot of it was also about his pre F1 years and some specific incidents at Minardi, Jaguar and his personal life. Oh one part got me a tearing a bit, a difficult period in his life when Milo, his dog gets cancer and had to be put down. Webber held the dogs head in his arms and ended up bawlling out when the dog passed. And later he carried its ashes during a run and stopped at the dogs fav spots, spreading its ashes in those spots.
Top guy, one of the few personalities in F1 no one can dislike.