14 replies to this topic

[f1sl]

Does any one know why we use the term Pole Position, and why it means first place

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f1sl
phuck the phutur before it phucks you

[Don Capps]

This is a literal carry-over from the days of horse racing. The distances around a horse track are marked by a series of markers, usually poles. The races were started from various points, but always finished at the finishing pole. The inside of a track being the shortest way around the track was always the favored starting position, hence, the term pole position for the first starting position on the grid.

This help? Any others are free to join in...



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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Ray Bell]

Just bowing to your superior knowledge of horse racing, Don... if you know how many saddles are on a racehorse you know more than me...

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[f1sl]

Don Capps, thank you for your answer. i would have never tought that the term pole position came from horse racing:-)

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f1sl
phuck the phutur before it phucks you

[Dave Ware]

Didn't we also get the term "paddock" from horse racing? I always assumed that was the case.

I wonder where "pits" came from.

Dave

[green-blood]

You know you come into the Pits when something is wrong, it the Pits like...you know, the pits, forget ti

[Don Capps]

The Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France is the source for that bit of racing nomenclature.

The trackside working areas for the mechanics to work on the cars during the 1908 GP de 'ACF at Dieppe were literally trenches or pits dug along the fininshing area. The crews stayed in the pits in the pits during the race and emerged to service the machines during their service stops. (BTW, Christian Lautenschlager in a Mercedes won the event.) This arrangement was used a few other places as well and the term "pits" survived long after the use of actual pits had been dropped. Since the GP de l'ACF was THE event of the year, the term caught hold almost immediately.

I did this off the top of my head, so any others may feel free to chime in...

Correct, the term "paddock" is another term borrowed from horse racing. It was used almost from the first race meetings at the term of the 20th century - and on both sides of the Atlantic interestingly enough.

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…


[This message has been edited by Don Capps (edited 06-01-2000).]

[Roger Clark]

I think don is right about the derivationof the word "pits". I have heard that the word was used in 1907, but can find no confirmation.

In the 1908 Grand Prix, the replenshment depots were in front of, and on the same side of the road as, the main grandstand. The pits were dug so that people in the front few rows could see the track.

[Ray Bell]

This is a somewhat narrow discussion. What about the other languages?
'Pits' are called 'boxes' by most Europeans, are they not? What other terms are different or unique in other languages?
This could lead to some funny stuff...

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Pascal]

In French, the pits are refered as "stands" (or "puits", but only by French Canadians like Jacques Villeneuve), while the grandstands are called "tribunes". For paddock and pole position, the English terms are used.

[Darren]

Box is a German term, and apparently easier to get across in a radio transimission where your driver doesn't speak English as his first language. Maybe Nelson Piquet had radio well before we thought it was common and he was only carrying out orders when he took on Salazar. Common language has become an increasingly important issue in modern F1 where you might have an Italian driving for an English team with an Australian chief mechanic. Perhaps another interesting question given this situation is the evolution of driver feedback to engineers in trying to find the best setup. Who would you rate as the best at communicating information to technical people?

[Ray Bell]

Mika... he speaks at their pace...

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[MattC]

Nice one Ray.

[FlagMan]

Some other motor racing terms that come from Horse Racing -

Stewards, Clerk of the Course, Stewards Inquiry.

I believe it mainly stems from that fact that the early meetings at Brooklands where organised by the Jockey Club of Great Britain.

I have seen some film of early races from Brooklands, teh comemtator refered to the drivers as being 'on' the machines - again a term used in horse racing. They also wore 'colours/silks' as jockeys do.

[Leif Snellman]

The Swedish word for pit is depå (pronounced depó),
the same word as depot. The Finnish word is varikko,
also meaning depot.

Merriam-Webster gives the following explanation for depot:

depot n [F depot, fr. MF depost, ML depositum, fr. L, neut. of depositus] (1795)
1 a: a place for storing goods or motor
vehicles b: store, cache
2 a: a place for the storage of military supplies b: a place for the reception and forwarding of military
replacements
3: a building for railroad or bus passengers or freight