141 replies to this topic

[Nobody]

Blatantly ripping off an entire car from the previous season then straight face lying they designed it themselves in under six months.

 

was a pretty big shock for me

[masa90]

1999 wdc battle, 2007 final few races, 2008 final race. 2009 shake up to the front teams. Kimi retiring so young and the coming back. MSC comeback, whole 2012 season. Halo, I was sure that they could just not run it cause it is so horrible looking.

And well, lastly I have to say sadly how dominant one team has been for seven years. I would never guessed it since saw how hard they worked before to spice the show when someone was dominant.

[FirstnameLastname]

Markus Winckelhock's F1 career.

I know, most successful driver ever in terms of percentage of races led -

🐐

[JG]

Jerez 1997, Championship decisive Grand Prix, 3 cars qualify with the exact time down to 1/1000 second including the two drivers who fought for the championship. Villeneuve, Schumacher and Frentzen.

Edited by JG, 12 August 2020 - 06:04.

[Roadhouse]

Roger Williamson's fatal accident at Zandvoort in 1973. Him burning to dead while the race went on. Even though I was far from being born I'm kind of ashamed for that to have happened in 'my' sport in 'my' country.

[absinthedude]

Roger Williamson's fatal accident at Zandvoort in 1973. Him burning to dead while the race went on. Even though I was far from being born I'm kind of ashamed for that to have happened in 'my' sport in 'my' country.

 

And all broadcast live on TV. How times have changed.

[ensign14]

Blatantly ripping off an entire car from the previous season then straight face lying they designed it themselves in under six months.

 

was a pretty big shock for me

Are we talking Toro Rosso or Haas here?

[Ali_G]

3 words.

Pits. Adelaide. Coulthard.

[frosty125]

Mclaren not winning the WDC in 2007

Mclaren 2013 season

Mclaren Honda hybrid era

Rosberg retirement

Canada 2011

Edited by frosty125, 12 August 2020 - 09:00.

[Sterzo]

Jan Magnussen's F1 career when his junior record screamed megastar in the making.

I can relate to this. Still waiting for Rodney Nuckey and Tony Trimmer to become world champions.

[Piif]

Final moments of Brazil 2008.....Biggest shock i've ever seen.....

 

This is still one of the biggest dissapointments I've felt for a driver watching the sport for 30+ years. What a victory it would've been for Massa...   The underdog nobody thought was even gonna beat his teammate could win the championship in front of his home crowd. And did as he crossed the finish line, only for it to be taken away at the last corner.

Edited by Piif, 12 August 2020 - 09:53.

[Nobody]

Are we talking Toro Rosso or Haas here?

 

Six months to design and build is the give away

[Tombstone]

Blatantly ripping off an entire car from the previous season then straight face lying they designed it themselves in under six months.

 

was a pretty big shock for me

 

I'm not sure how long the Arrows FA1 took to design since it was 70% identical to a Shadow DN9. Not surprising as it was Tony Southgate who did both.

[Collombin]

I'm not sure how long the Arrows FA1 took to design since it was 70% identical to a Shadow DN9. Not surprising as it was Tony Southgate who did both.

Just 70%? I just remember the famous quote "*uck me, it's an Arrows" that got read out in court!

[TomNokoe]

I know everyone has said it, but Max winning his debut race with Red Bull really was unbelievable. I think Ben Edwards commentary captured the pure disbelief very well.

[TheWilliamzer]

Pastor winning in Spain 2012

[Izzyeviel]

I'd watched virtually every GP between 1990-2006. The first european GP i missed was Hungary 2006. I was in the park with friends, and we were all pissed we missed it. 'Hungary. You cant overtake at Hungary. It never rains, theres only been 2 good races. Nothing exciting will happen if we miss it.'

 

And then there was that time when Vettel won in the 'minardi'

[Cornholio]

Definitely Brazil 2008. That was a day to never forget. Talk about a rollercoaster of emotions! It was won...then it was lost. Then it was won again...I'm still recovering from that now!

 

Lewis signing for Mercedes in 2012. I knew Lewis wanted out of McLaren but I was half-expecting him to stay at McLaren considering the form of Mercedes at the time. I was very pleased that day.

 

Rosberg retiring. I didn't see that one coming at all. I remember I was in the car when the news came over the radio...it's a wonder I didn't crash!

 

McLaren not winning a single race since 2012. 

 

As far as "long-term" shocks like this one, if you'd said in 1997 that in 2020:

 

All championships since 2009 would be shared between the Stewart and Tyrrell teams, and that from 2005, Minardi and Williams would win the same number of races, they'd have probably sent for the men in white coats.

 

If the Tyrrell->BAR link is too tenuous, swap for 2000-2003, Jaguar and BAR (i.e. when Williams were looking back on the up and those two teams were both mid-pack at best).

 

Or if sticking with 1997 you could probably add something about Ginger Spice being married to a tail-end F3000 driver and him being the more well known/relevant

[Atreiu]

Hockenheim 2018.
I woke up and went to twitter to see Lewis had won and I immediately thought ‘how the feck did that happen’?

[absinthedude]

Are we talking Toro Rosso or Haas here?

 

Ligier.

[absinthedude]

Just 70%? I just remember the famous quote "*uck me, it's an Arrows" that got read out in court!

 

It was 100% a copy. The Shadow design team all defected and joined Arrows and took their designs with them thinking that they and not Shadow owned them.

 

The court simply decided that the Arrows was "more than 70%" the same as the Shadow....but in fact the two cars were identical, and made from the same set of blueprints by the same design team.

[messy]

Blatantly ripping off an entire car from the previous season then straight face lying they designed it themselves in under six months.
 
was a pretty big shock for me

Fisichella and Massa put in some quite good drives in that.

[DeKnyff]

It was less of a shock because news came little by little, but Alonso coming back to McLaren, with Ron Dennis still on board, was something I never would have expected after 2007.

[NewMrMe]

As far as "long-term" shocks like this one, if you'd said in 1997 that in 2020:

 

All championships since 2009 would be shared between the Stewart and Tyrrell teams, and that from 2005, Minardi and Williams would win the same number of races, they'd have probably sent for the men in white coats.

 

If the Tyrrell->BAR link is too tenuous, swap for 2000-2003, Jaguar and BAR (i.e. when Williams were looking back on the up and those two teams were both mid-pack at best).

 

 

Even a good way into the 2008 season if you made the same prediction you would have been certifiable.

[pathogen]

That, and the catestrophic start to the 1978 Italian GP, is a big part of the reason why Bernie mandated strict starting procedures for every race with an official F1 Race Director who would travel to every race, and oversee the start procedure. 

This... the morning after Monza 78 and Argentina 77

[Rubicon]

Six cars taking the start at Indianapolis 2005.

Eight different race winners in 2012.

2003 season turned on it's head by FIA Michelin tyre ruling.

Edited by Rubicon, 13 August 2020 - 03:13.

[absinthedude]

This... the morning after Monza 78 and Argentina 77

 

A year before I started watching but I should think Sheckter winning in the Wolf in Argentina '77 was a story nobody would have believed beforehand. Plus taking two more wins that year.

[BobbyRicky]

I know, most successful driver ever in terms of percentage of races led -

 

It gets even better than that. From Wiki:

 

"Winkelhock is the only driver in Formula One history to start last on the grid and lead the race in his first Grand Prix, and due to the red flag and restart, is also the only driver in Formula One history to start both last and first on the grid in the same Grand Prix."

 

Now thats a GOAT-record.

[Ali_G]

3 drivers with exactly the same qual time at Jerez in 97.

[TomNokoe]

I know everyone has said it, but Max winning his debut race with Red Bull really was unbelievable. I think Ben Edwards commentary captured the pure disbelief very well.

In the spirit of "commentator disbelief" ... here's one for the LH44 fans, as he very nearly upstages Alonso on debut in Australia 07 qualifying.

 

Streamable link (10 mins)

 

Very nostalgic

[d246]

Confirmation announcement that the Piquet Jr Singapore crash really was premeditated.

[MLC]

Who would believe that Pierluigi Martini, driving a Minardi, would qualify it on the front row, a couple places ahead of reigning WDC Senna's McLaren?

 

USGP Phoenix 1990

[Collombin]

He was even further ahead of the reigning WDC than you claim!

[Izzyeviel]

Who would believe that Pierluigi Martini, driving a Minardi, would qualify it on the front row, a couple places ahead of reigning WDC Senna's McLaren?

 

USGP Phoenix 1990

 

I started watching F1 in 1989, 1990 was first full season, I could never understand why Minardi kept getting worse. If you said in 1990 Minardi would be a team 3-5 seconds off the pace and would struggle to score points in a few years, you'd have been laughed at.

[Dolph]

It was less of a shock because news came little by little, but Alonso coming back to McLaren, with Ron Dennis still on board, was something I never would have expected after 2007.

 

And it went tits up for both of them again, albeit in a different way

Edited by Dolph, 14 August 2020 - 14:23.

[Dolph]

Confirmation announcement that the Piquet Jr Singapore crash really was premeditated.

 

Briatore not keeping his word really bit him in the ass bigtime there.

[Dolph]

My biggest shock in F1 was also one of the most healthy things happening to me: the failure of Jos Verstappen in F1. I had followed his career since he drove around a 4-year old Formula Ford around at record speeds at Zandvoort and friends alerted me to this guy. Jos was so absolutely gob-smacking good in all the feeder-formulas, so good in testing F1-cars, I knew for certain he was going to be great.

First he got smacked by Michael Schumacher. Then he got out-qualified by Rubens Barrichello... Mika Salo... Enrique Bernoldi. That was the absolute downer. And that, together with the snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory habit of the Dutch soccer-team between 1978 and 2000, cured me. I never since 2001 invested real emotions and expectations in ANY sport or sportguy/girl/whatever.

 

You see you problem was being too focused on the Dutch. They'll never have a top level talent in F1 again 

[Dolph]

Rosberg retiring days after claiming the WDC has to be up there - it's just something nobody was expecting. I wonder what he was feeling as he claimed the title knowing that his plan was to retire after that and that was the last time he would be in the car... must have been so many conflicting emotions. That took a lot of courage I think, deciding to prioritise your family life and leave the sport you love because of the intensity of the energy needed to put together a WDC year. I was sad that he left but have enormous respect for his reasoning.

 

He was feeling freed probably. Like the last day of school before summer break - you take your report card with all A's on them, being top in class and off you go to an endless summer of freedom with the means and the time to do whatever you want.

[masa90]

That pretty much only things that save any overtaking in f1 currently are the "cheesy" Pirellis and DRS. Without those there would be pretty much  none at all. Seeing how much work f1 has put into it since atleast the early 2000s is laughable.

[NewMrMe]

I don’t think a Minardi on the front row for USA 90 was a huge shock. Martini had several strong qualifying performances at the end of 1989, 5th in Portugal, 4th in Spain and 3rd in Australia. At the time Minardi looked on the verge of a major breakthrough.

The grid in general for that race was a huge shock. About as close as a grid has ever come to looking like it had been drawn at random. Even more surprising, rain in Arizona contributed to it as the second qualifying session was wet so nobody had the chance to improve.

[BCM]

Hearing over the two way in the middle of night shift that Senna had died. 

[HerbieMcQueen]

It's probably been mentioned, but I was just a boy when Schumacher "crossed" the line at Silverstone in '98. The sheer excitement at waiting to find out who won, my word. I also distinctly remember him pushing like a madman after he'd come out of the pits even though the race had finished. Infact, that's the clearest memory I have of that day. Then again, I'm currently loaded up on some Woodford Reserve so it might be clouding the memory somewhat. Regardless, love you all.