16 replies to this topic

[Ross Stonefeld]

How tall is he, officially?


In the new F1 racing which I actually broke down and read, they were discussing Wurz being Mclaren test driver and how the car would be designed around his 6'1 frame. I was under the impression that Coulthard was 5'10/5'11 or so, and Wurz is quite large.

Ross Stonefeld
Aztec International
NSPCC

[Rainstorm]

Ross,

You can look at the Atlas F1 News - they have the drivers' bio pages there, which include height (it looks official ). I just had a look and apparently Wurz is 1.86m (which is approximately 6'1) whereas Coulthard is 1.82m (approximately 5'11). So your data is right.

They're both rather tall (or compared to the other drivers).

Regards,

Rain

[Clatter]

There are some new rules being introduced next year regarding the cockpit size. This is supposedly to cater for larger drivers, so maybe there is some advantage to Mac having a larger driver on the books.

[AlesiGOD]

Are you sure Coulthard is that tall(average height where I live) , heh heh maybe it's just his head that looks weird

[Ross Stonefeld]

Wurz has gotta be bigger than taht though, he absolutely dwarfs the other drivers. And how bad can 6'1 be if Coulthard is 5'11?

Ross Stonefeld
Aztec International

[AlesiGOD]

I heard he loses a second a lap to Fissi because of his size... (from Benneton I believe)

[mtl'78]

A problem in F1 is that the car are so light and weight matters so much that bigger drivers are precluded from the sport entirely. I read the story about Wurz as well. It mentioned that the weight penalty was increased with grooved tyres. It makes sense. His seasons have gotten progressively worse.

[arcwulf7]

He's listed at 82.5 kg. too. That's 10 - 12+ kgs more than some of the smaller drivers. You can almost hear the the engineers reflecting on what that would mean in litres of fuel, pit strategy and 10ths of seconds per lap. But i doubt it'd be a second a lap. Until recently Fisichella was just the faster driver.

[Diffuser]

According to the Swedish comentator Wurz is not 186 cm (he calculated his height by standing next to him at Monza). Maybe 182 or something. And I don´t think Coulthard is 182 either. David is probably below 180 cm like almost all drivers are.

I think we get these numbers because their heights are being translated from the metric system to the ancient one they´re using in the States and then translated back again.

[Pacific]

Wurz was able to outqualify Fisichella this weekend. Apparently there was a bet, now Giancarlo has to get his hair cut. So I've read.

As for Wurz, I think he technically has more driving abilitiy than Giancarlo, but his weight is a disadvantage and the team is not as behind him as Fisichella, although this may have changed a bit considering the US GP and now that Alex has defeated Giancarlo again at Suzuka. Wurz is gone next season and his two options appear to be McLaren test driver or Sauber driver. McLaren is most likely. That would be a good opportunity for Alex, tool around in the best or second best car next season. He has a lot of technical ability, and will be more helpful than Panis I would imagine.

Alex was always a good test driver for Benetton and dynamite upon entry to F1.

Can't believe Zonta has decided to be the Jordan test driver. I mean, it beats being co-test driver at McLaren in that he will get the opportunity to test a rather competitive car...well, engine at least, next season. But Jordan look primed to get passed up by Williams. Well, that's already happened. But also, BAR is looking sharp. Villeneuve has put in some great performances and Zonta has looked decent too. BAR seems to have gotten some of their reliability woes under control, next season I'd expect Oastler and crew to make the BAR a bit faster since reliability is under control. BAR has to beat Jordan to keep Honda's faith or at least stay equal to Jordan next season. BAR has an edge with Villeneuve. Jordan now has an advantage on the test-driver scene now with Zonta. Ricardo will resurface in F1 again. I guarantee his times are close to Frentzen and Trulli's next season testing.

This makes things interesting for Sauber. It now appears either Diniz stays (since Telefonica and Gene may be moving to Prost, something I actually speculated on a while back, not knowing PSN was going to save Minardi to a degree.) or Raikkanon comes in. Or Wurz, but again...Alexander Wurz is what Sauber needs, but Wurz doesn't really need them. Sauber needs somebody to replace Salo as a competent car developer. Diniz isn't bad, but if Diniz leaves...Heidfeld is good, very good in fact, but he's still rather young. Hard to believe Nick has been staying so close and beating Alesi quite often. Heidfeld probably is not too far behind Button in talent, if he's behind at all. But Jenson is racing for Williams BMW while Nick has been tooling around with Prost. And of course, as soon as Nick announces he's going to Sauber, Prost announce they're getting Ferrari engines. (They couldn't have gotten Ferraris with Mercedes protege Heidfeld there anyway.)

Sauber...Raikkonen appears highly talented, but you need somebody there to develop the car. Sauber is going kind of slow this weekend. Although, Diniz' two best times were elminated by penalty. Diniz has done a fine job of keeping up with Salo in top speeds this season. It's just that Salo puts it together for a whole race. Diniz might actually have more sheer speed nowadays. Or, Salo is just disinterested in the Sauber team with his Toyota future. McNish is setting out to equal Salo's times. He wants to be the next Damon Hill. If you ask me McNish already has more skill than Damon Hill, but he's not going to get a real chance to prove himself and become and F1 champion with newcomer Toyota. (Watch me eat those words later, Toyota probably comes out of the box a top 5 team...I doubt it though.)

[Mansell]

DC is basically 6 foot.

182.7 is 6 foot so hes close enough.

[Yelnats]

Alain Prost was the most succesfull of the 'Midget drivers' at less than 5'5" tall. But who was the shortest (male) driver of them all. I vote for Arturo Francesco Merzario who completed the last of his 84 F1 races in 1979. In his ever present cowboy boots and 10 gallon Stetson hat he never exceeded 5 1/2 feet which would make him just over 5 feet tall I estimate.

His claim to fame as far as I'm concerned is failing to qualify in 25 of those races. Can this be true? And is he the record holder in this department? Would an F1 trivia buff come to my aid with this statistical department please?

[karlth]

I thought Wurz had stopped moaning about his weight problem a long time ago. According to reports he is somewhere between 5 - 12kg heavier than Fisichella. Ralf Schumacher is 10kg heavier than Jenson Button and Eddie Irvine is a massive 12-13kg heavier than Johnny Herbert and we don't hear either of them complaining.

In fast Go-Karts which weigh around 100kg and produce 25hp it is said that each extra kg results in 0.1sec lost per lap. If we interpolate warning unscientific calculations ahead we find that each kg should in a F1 car result in ((0.1 / 6 weight ratio) / 32 power ratio)*2 lap ratio = 0.001sec lost per lap.

Wurz could though complain about his height, 1.86m, which can affect the aerodynamics of the car. I'm sure Briatore has suggested some ways of shortening him, but personally I think Wurz should focus on improving his driving.

Regards
Karl

[Yelnats]

Driver weight is a pretty insignigficant factor in F1 as cars all start at the same weight including driver. It just means that some cars carry less ballast that others and have a very slightly C/G or perhaps a poorer front to rear weght bias. These are miniscule differences and are not nearly as significant as driver discomfort because of a too short cockpit. The new cockpit rules have eliminated this problem so driver heighth and weight, within limits, is moot. <(an old scottish term meaning - MEANINGLESS )

[AlesiGOD]

Well I believe it was Benetton mechanics(team) that said he lost almost a second a lap(may have been David Richards?) a while back.

[AlesiGOD]

Heh heh heh 6 foot is average height in Denmark...

[colejk]

Originally posted by Yelnats
Driver weight is a pretty insignigficant factor in F1 as cars all start at the same weight including driver. It just means that some cars carry less ballast that others and have a very slightly C/G or perhaps a poorer front to rear weght bias. These are miniscule differences and are not nearly as significant as driver discomfort because of a too short cockpit. The new cockpit rules have eliminated this problem so driver heighth and weight, within limits, is moot. <(an old scottish term meaning - MEANINGLESS )

Yelnats, you nailed it bang on. saves me from having to post that. All the cars weigh the same!, as they all use ballast to make up the difference. If there was a .1 sec disadvantage, why would a team use a driver disadvantaging them from the start? It costs millions of dollars for ever.1 sec they have to find, so it doesn't make sense. So the question is the difference in the amount of ballast, does it make that much difference? If more posters thinked logically, it'd eliminate so many meaningless threads.