Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: Chopping

http://www.autosport.com/asknigel.cfm?id=18224&series=5&type=f
Dear Nigel,
Weaving at the start of grands prix has become a feature of Formula 1. When
did weaving become acceptable, and how much is launch control exacerbating
the problem?
Nigel Johnson, Canaan, New York
When did weaving become acceptable in F1? For many people - and I am one of
them - weaving has never been acceptable, and never will be, but then I'm in
my 50s, and thus able to remember a time when a batsman, knowing he was out,
didn't wait for the umpire's decision, but simply 'walked'. I guess anyone
who behaved like that now would be ridiculed.
Similarly, in motor racing there was a time when weaving, blocking,
baulking, call it what you like, was decried as 'dirty driving'. People in
their 20s and 30s tend to blink in disbelief when they hear something like
this, but, believe me, it was once the case. For one thing, 'sportsmanship'
was considered important, and there was the belief that chopping across a
driver who had beaten you to a corner was not only unethical, but also
rather pathetic: anyone, after all, could keep ahead if he were prepared to
do that.
For another, back then if you interlocked wheels with someone, and got
upside down, chances were high you would leave the circuit in a box.
Consider the thoughts of three great drivers from the '50s and '60s. First,
Phil Hill, World Champion for Ferrari in 1961, who admits that the driving
tactics of today leave him bemused. "They feel they can get away with it, I
guess. That's the only possible explanation. If guys drove like that in my
time, they usually sorted themselves out pretty quickly. Back then it was
just unthinkable, really, to touch another car, because of the potential
consequences. I know it sounds corny, but those were the facts. Over the
long term, you just couldn't do it, and get away with it."
Next, Tony Brooks, perhaps the most underrated Grand Prix driver of all
time, who won at places like the 'old' Spa, the 'old' Nurburgring, the 'old'
Monza. "The big attraction was driving a racing car on closed roads, and we
accepted that the name of the game was keeping the car on the island. If you
went off, you were in the lap of the Gods. You might get away with it, you
might not. Nobody will persuade me that there isn't more of a challenge to
the driver if he knows he might hurt himself if he goes off the road. So,
believe me, there was no messing around with this weaving business - trying
to intimidate another driver into backing off."
Last, Stirling Moss. "I always get criticised for saying this, but, in my
opinion, racing has become too safe. By that, I don't mean that I want to
see the little boys hurt themselves, but that I think all this massively
increased safety has had its price - which you see in the track manners of
the drivers. They feel so safe that they do things that would never have
been contemplated at one time. I mean, we had Giuseppe Farina, who was the
most ruthless bastard on the track you ever saw, but he was the great
exception."
All right, these three raced a long time ago, and the world has changed out
of sight, but similar thoughts have gone through the minds of more recent
drivers, too. In the '70s there was an extremely average driver by the name
of Mike Beuttler, who was sponsored in F1 for reasons we needn't go into
here; Beuttler was notorious for chopping across other drivers into
corners - but, the thing was, that kind of behaviour was so unusual back
then that he acquired a nickname: 'Blocker'...
Everything really began to change in the '80s. "Today," said Keke Rosberg,
in 1984, "we're coming to a situation where weaving and blocking are totally
acceptable - even praised! And I find that a shame. What angers me is when a
guy chops across straight at you, so you either give way - or hit him.
That's not Grand Prix racing. There's a difference between being tough and
being unfair. If someone outbrakes me, I take my hat off to them and say
well done. But when someone swerves around in the middle of the straight,
that's a different matter.
"I guess I'm basically talking about respect. And today I don't think there
is very much respect in this business. I think the common attitude - the
discipline - has changed."
At Spa in 1998 Martin Brundle drove some demonstration laps in a 1955
Mercedes-Benz W196. Drove them pretty quickly, too. Afterwards, exhilarated
by the experience, he allowed that it had given him pause for thought.
"What's never changed about Grand Prix racing," Brundle said, "is that the
limit is the limit is the limit. In other respects, though, I'm starting to
understand there are huge differences in the job of the driver from one era
to another. Physically, I found the car easy, because the g-forces are low,
but mentally it was incredibly hard.
"When you're up around 150, going through fast corners, you begin to think
about the absence of seat-belts, roll-over bars, and the like. In a modern
car, if you're going to crash, you make sure you do certain things
beforehand, but in this case I really had no idea what I'd do.
"All right, in the back of a current driver's mind is the acceptance that he
might get hurt doing this, but then it must have been right at the front of
your mind, I'd have thought."
What's really different about this era, however, is that blocking and
weaving are tacitly allowed by the powers-that-be, for we now have the
unwritten rule that 'one move' is permissible. And once you get into the
mindsight that blocking once is all right, then, hey, who's counting?
Undoubtedly, launch control must be to some extent exacerbating the problem,
because now 'good starts' and 'bad starts' are only relative: everyone gets
away pretty well, and therefore there is even greater incentive to protect
your position any way you can.
All I can say is, when there is an accident at the start in which someone
gets badly hurt, I don't want to hear that no one could have seen it coming.
And, for that matter, I'm not really too interested in hearing drivers moan
about safety: what happens at the start - and elsewhere - these days is a
quite unnecessary danger, for which they, and they alone, are responsible.

 
ottimo FF, grazie.
-- 
*.#14
La formula 1: 
www.forix.com

 mindsight that blocking once is all right, then, hey, who's counting?
Il punto e' che non e' nemmeno "unwritten", ma e' pure scritta chiaramente. 
Certo che se poi uno la viola spostandosi N(>1) volte e nessuno dice nulla, 
si crea un clima di Far West, con tutte le conseguenze relative

 opinion, racing has become too safe."
Questo concetto relativo a Moss lo espressi già tempo fa: nel passato i
piloti erano molto più attenti nei sorpassi e si tenevano bene a
distanza. Oggi ci si sfiora con molta più facilità, si lotta di più in
curva, c'è più corpo a corpo. Indubbiamente la maggiore sicurezza e il
lassismo di alcuni presidenti senza fare nomi, Balestre che ha lasciato
correre comportamnenti "aggressivi" di Senna e Prost hanno fatto si che
oggi la guida sia più rude. Nonostante questo non ritengo che siamo ad
un livello allarmante, credo che ancora i piloti abbiano paura di farsi
male per cui a parte scaramucce che si autoestinguono non vedo pericoli
eccessivi (almeno così mi auguro). Non vedo oggi una guida più "sporca"
che 10 o 20 anni fa.
-- 
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - 
http://www.Mailgate.ORG

 Non vedo oggi una guida più "sporca" che 10 o 20 anni fa.
La guida in effetti non è più sporca; lo è solo la partenza visto che i 
piloti normalmente si incrociano solo lì .......

 piloti normalmente si incrociano solo lì .......
infatti in partenza si incrociavano anche 10 o 20 anni fa


 che 10 o 20 anni fa.
Certo, se da 20 anni guardi i GP dietro il televisore, lo spettacolo e' 
sempre quello.

 infatti, per taglio di chicane non per guida rude
Invece no, rileggiti gli eventi reali : per il taglio della chicane fu 
squalificato dal GP Giappone. Poi, in appello, la squalifica di 6 mesi 
venne data per la pericolosita' (presunta) di Senna, con tanto di esempi 
portati in tribunale di gare diverse dal GP Giappone 1989.