10 replies to this topic

[Derwent Motorsport]

Was the 2021 podium the youngest in total years?   A total of 70 (23+26+21)

 

[Tim Murray]

According to Statman in the Racing Comments forum it’s now third on the list, by two days:

third youngest podium by average age:

1. Brazil 2019: 23y 08m 13d
2. Italy 2008: 23y 11m 16d
3. Monaco 2021: 23y 11m 18d

3rd was previously Italy 2020

[Risil]

Fun lesson in statistics -- if you just add together their ages then Monaco 2021 (23+26+21) comes ahead of Italy 2008 (21+26+24), but if you count them properly according to the number of days the drivers have been alive, the order is reversed.

[Hati]

The question in that form in this forum begs for a witty answer, no, it's nowhere near the youngest. For example in this picture, where then a karting driver but later a Road Racer Taru Rinne had won before some young blokes, average age is much younger than in Monaco podium.

 

Spoiler

Bloke in left is Mika Häkkinen and blondie in right is Mika Salo.

[10kDA]

I have to wonder... after her multiple Finnish National Karting Championships, did she spray the crowds with Jaffa from the podium?

[2F-001]

Is that Mika Salo on the right? I know she raced against (and beat) Salo, Hakkinen and (I think) Lehto.

[uechtel]

Is that Mika Salo on the right? I know she raced against (and beat) Salo, Hakkinen and (I think) Lehto.

See the "Spoiler" at the bottom of the picture...

[2F-001]

Ah, thanks Uechtel - I missed that!

I wondered about Hakkinen but was less sure...

[Tim Murray]

There seems to have been a great rivalry between her and the two Mikas. Sometimes she won, as above. Sometimes Salo won:



and sometimes Häkkinen won:



(Jyrki Järvilehto with Taru and Mika H on this one)

What might she have achieved if she’d got the right breaks, on either two or four wheels?

[Hati]

There seems to have been a great rivalry between her and the two Mikas.

Häkkinen thinks so too. (Hope that translation from Germany works.)

https://translate.go...edchen-17111601

 

Mika is little wrong about the end of her career. I didn't find English version but in Finnish article it reads that she was planning to return after her accident and she had sponsor deals ready for -92 season when she got a letter from Bernie Ecclestone (who controlled the series at the time) that she isn't allowed to compete, Bernie thought that a woman doesn't belong among men. (When interviewer asked if she still has the letter she said no, it was probably burnt in a fireplace.)

[Michael Ferner]

Nice photo - I didn't know that Taru Rinne raced karts!!

 

As for the end of her career, let's keep with the facts. Rinne had a very poor 1990 season, followed by an even more disastrous one in 1991 - before her accident, she hadn't qualified for one single race all year. 1992 was the year in which Dorna took over the World Championships, and one of the first measures was to stop the allcomers policy of the FICM and restrict the fields to teams and riders who would commit to a full season of GP racing, just 30 per class with an option for promoters to invite six "wild cards" per event, iirc. With the 125cc category oversubscribed many times. Rinne was just one of many dozens of applicants, and the team's association IRTA, tasked with the selection of teams and drivers, had no choice but to deny her application due to her results in the preceding years, there were just too many other riders with better credentials available. It's interesting to know that BE thought girls don't belong into racing (wasn't that the same year Giovanna Amati tried her hand at F1?), but his opinion had zero relevance in this matter. I'm not even sure he had an interest in TWP any longer - in my recollection, it was all Dorna from 1992 onwards.