The voice of L J K Setright
Discussion
paulguitar said:
Limpet said:
I've been driven around Brands Hatch by Mark Webber, albeit a year before his F1 debut. I also got to drive him, although I suspect he got much less pleasure from that (he was remarkably polite and gently encouraging though) 
. The car was a track prepped E36 318iS, so hardly a ball of fire compared to his usual machinery, but it was an incredible experience.
Three things struck me:
1) He was completely and utterly relaxed while driving the car at its absolute limit. Chatting away, cracking jokes and sitting very comfortably. There weren't any lurid slides or any showboating. There were no sharp inputs. Everything was smooth, measured, and to my mind, completely at odds with what was going on outside the windows.
2) Despite being driven to its absolute limits, the car felt 'comfortable' (if that makes sense). It didn't once snap, bite or feel ragged. Gearchanges were swift but super smooth, throttle blips on downshifts were absolutely perfect, and there was no sense he was fighting or wrestling the car in any respect. He drove the wheels off it, without it ever feeling like the car was stressed or being damaged in any way.
3) He was absolutely, metronomically consistent. Using every inch of the track (the exit from Paddock was remarkable in particular), and consistently just kissing the dirt at the edge of the rumble strip on the exit. 5 laps, flat out, and although the laps weren't timed, I would have been amazed if there were more than a tenth or two difference between any of them.
I know you could have given me that car, a full tank of fuel, and an empty track, and I couldn't have done in hours what he did so effortlessly off the bat in those five laps.
That's a great read, and it must be an amazing memory for you to have.. The car was a track prepped E36 318iS, so hardly a ball of fire compared to his usual machinery, but it was an incredible experience.Three things struck me:
1) He was completely and utterly relaxed while driving the car at its absolute limit. Chatting away, cracking jokes and sitting very comfortably. There weren't any lurid slides or any showboating. There were no sharp inputs. Everything was smooth, measured, and to my mind, completely at odds with what was going on outside the windows.
2) Despite being driven to its absolute limits, the car felt 'comfortable' (if that makes sense). It didn't once snap, bite or feel ragged. Gearchanges were swift but super smooth, throttle blips on downshifts were absolutely perfect, and there was no sense he was fighting or wrestling the car in any respect. He drove the wheels off it, without it ever feeling like the car was stressed or being damaged in any way.
3) He was absolutely, metronomically consistent. Using every inch of the track (the exit from Paddock was remarkable in particular), and consistently just kissing the dirt at the edge of the rumble strip on the exit. 5 laps, flat out, and although the laps weren't timed, I would have been amazed if there were more than a tenth or two difference between any of them.
I know you could have given me that car, a full tank of fuel, and an empty track, and I couldn't have done in hours what he did so effortlessly off the bat in those five laps.
I think there is quite a lot of ignorance amongst the general public and even to some extent motorsport fans about just what a surreal level one has to be at to reach F1. They are on a totally different planet just to get there.
They just seem to have more bangles, tattoos and ear rings. And be paid a lot more.
SidewaysSi said:
I don't think they are any better than other drivers in other forms of Motorsport.
They just seem to have more bangles, tattoos and ear rings. And be paid a lot more.
Don't agree with you on this one, old chap.They just seem to have more bangles, tattoos and ear rings. And be paid a lot more.
Just to get to F1, with very few exceptions, a driver has to be insanely talented. Then...F1 tends to very quickly really weed out the greats from the 'merely' brilliant. It's fascinating to me how from time to time we get a new driver in F1 who is reportedly going to be the 'next Jim Clark/Senna' etc who then turns out to struggle in F1. I am thinking Jan Magnussen, Nico Hulkenburg, Stoffel Vandoorne, for example.
That's not to say there are not exceptional drivers in rallying, Le Mans, etc, there are, of course.
I assume from your post you are referring to a certain Mr Hamilton, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt if you are saying you think he is not the real deal!
SidewaysSi said:
I don't think they are any better than other drivers in other forms of Motorsport.
They just seem to have more bangles, tattoos and ear rings. And be paid a lot more.
Helluva generalisation - of course there are people like Buemi and Kovalainen , in recent years, who never had long enough in F1 to make as big an impression as they might . And the bloke driving the no 23 bus may be a great undiscovered talent for all i know . And yes. I have seen a few drivers at national level who are sublimely talented enough to make one wonder how far they might go had the cards fallen differently. But most people in F 1 are on a different level - as confirmed by just about everybody who is an informed position - the Brundles of this world . They just seem to have more bangles, tattoos and ear rings. And be paid a lot more.
I've seen drivers like Hunt ,Pace Peterson, Senna , Button, Hakkinen, Coulthard and Hamilton race in lower formulae , such as FF1600/2000 / F 3 /F Renault , and I even saw Hamilton win his very first single seater race - and it was obvious how much better than they were compared to most of their peers .
Mind you there are always questions such as - just how good would Dave Coyne been with the right breaks ? Bit big to fit an F1 car now though ...
The maddest and best bit of racing driving I have ever seen live was Schumacher in an early 1990s Benneton F1 car overtaking a bunch of back markers to catch up with Senna, Prost, and Mansell who were at the front, after the safety car went off. Schumacher jumped the slower cars and then had to negotiate the next corner, a fast one, starting from completely the wrong part of the track. Balls of steel, and megaskillz.
JPvanRossem said:
It's a great shame that, to the best of my knowledge, no footage exists of the sodden qualifying session at Watkins Glen in '79 when Villeneuve qualified on pole by 11 seconds. If footage does exist, you can probably barely see the car.
That was a Friday practice session. I'd imagine the majority of the drivers did not go out or at least did not go for a time, but it is still pretty amazing, nonetheless!coppice said:
rockin said:
IMO Setright's writing was the equivalent of John McCririck's dress code.
It is a tragedy , if largely unremarked . that the inevitable fate of some of the most lustrous pearls is to fall amongst swine . JPvanRossem said:
Breadvan72 said:
The maddest and best bit of racing driving I have ever seen live was Schumacher in an early 1990s Benneton F1 car overtaking a bunch of back markers to catch up with Senna, Prost, and Mansell who were at the front, after the safety car went off. Schumacher jumped the slower cars and then had to negotiate the next corner, a fast one, starting from completely the wrong part of the track. Balls of steel, and megaskillz.
It's a great shame that, to the best of my knowledge, no footage exists of the sodden qualifying session at Watkins Glen in '79 when Villeneuve qualified on pole by 11 seconds. If footage does exist, you can probably barely see the car.Search
Motorsport memories: 1979 and the genius of Villeneuve
By James Page
Features
|4 Jun 2019
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Friday practice at Watkins Glen in 1979 was wet. Very wet. Few of the drivers bothered to go out, but one who did was Jody Scheckter.
The newly crowned world champion later admitted that he thoroughly scared himself en route to posting a lap of 2 mins 11.029 secs in the torrential conditions, and his time put him well clear of the next car.
But it was good enough to be only second fastest in the session. His Ferrari teammate, Gilles Villeneuve, knew that race day was also likely to be wet, so he was another to venture out. Quite apart from anything else, he loved to drive in the rain.
And it was Villeneuve who ended up topping the timesheets. His best lap? It was 2 mins 1.437 secs – more than nine seconds faster than Scheckter.
On the pit wall, Ligier driver Jacques Laffite watched with journalists Denis Jenkinson and Nigel Roebuck.
“Look at him,” said Laffite as Villeneuve splashed past once more. “He’s different from the rest of us. On a separate level.”
skwdenyer said:
Lol. It is probably safe to admit after 30 years that I got an engineering placement at Shell in part by quoting more-or-less verbatim a part of an LJKS treatise about Citroen suspension
Fantastic! I can well imagine (I've done similar although I wish I could point to my Car magazines as the inspiration / source). Schumacher, Italian GP 1992. He clobbered a car in front on the first lap and had to come in for a new nosecone. He tore though the field like a man possessed and came third behind Senna and Brundle.
Jenson Button, 2011 Canadian GP, came from nowhere in torrential rain to hand Vettel his arse on the last lap. As exciting as any of the Senna/Mansell/Prost duels. If you can find the whole race to watch, do it.
Jenson Button, 2011 Canadian GP, came from nowhere in torrential rain to hand Vettel his arse on the last lap. As exciting as any of the Senna/Mansell/Prost duels. If you can find the whole race to watch, do it.
For those who condemn Setright's writing as too ornate, here is an example of some plain but elegant writing for a mainstream newspaper. The subject is front wheel drive in general, and the Fiat 128 in particular.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/...
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/...
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