It's ridiculous how good Murray was. I come up with a different thing every time, this time it's how his incredibly early and always accurate OUT OUT OUT OF THE RACE calls (see the Schumi/JV crash in this race) would be wasted today as drivers can recover easily from almost any incident that doesn't involve the car being destroyed.
Loved the BETTER, BETTER, BETTER! for Schumacher's quick getaway as well. Ex advertising man and a champion of the rule of three.
If I had video editing skills I'd make a one hour documentary on his vocal brilliance.
I wish all the old Touring Car races from the 90's were up somewhere, he would do comms for that and Rally Cross. I have abiding memories of 'Out out it's Tarquini!' as he rolls into a hedge and the classic 'I'm going for first says John Cleland' while he's furiously flipping off Alain Menu (I assume).
There's a few videos on Dailymotion. Like season review types, couple of hours.
Turns out it was Steve Soper.
That Cleland interview at the end is amazing, straight out of a mockumentary script.
The very audible, "Fuck off!" is my favourite bit.
That old BTCC is the pinnacle of motorsport viewing.
Rumours the final chicane at Catalunya is getting removed for this year.
Fucking please. I swear I've heard that a few times though and it never happens.
As long as they shorten the DRS, that is, or else the main straight will just be drive-bys all afternoon.
They had a crack at fixing it, got dead proud of themselves but then realised not long after that it was still shit.
It's been so long the old layout takes me by surprise in Gran Turismo.
This bloke keeps posting these and there's fuck all else going on so here we go with 1998.
Australia brings us the awful grooved tyres, the beginning of 'compounds', Mclaren being good again, and a touch of racial profiling from dear old Murray Walker.
Lovely bit of British bias at the end too 'Coulthard was robbed', if by robbed you mean opened his front door and threw all his money out onto the street.
I think this race is when the 90s glory era really ends. Grooved tyres, red Williams with a 'messy layout' (cheers Murray), and the first of many stupid team orders disputes which will run long into the 2000s.
I wouldn;t disagree with that, we're still a couple of years away from it being ruined by aerodynamics but the path is well and truly laid out here in a way it somehow wasn't in 96 or even 97.
Not a bad year for liveries despite the red Williams, Petronas Sauber is in full swing, the lovely black Arrows, the Jordan snake nose thing, and Mclaren being a reflection of the inside of Ron Dennis' soul.
The red Williams.
There's something about seeing tyres with stickers on them that's kinda cool.
Villeneuve / Frentzen must be the flakiest lineup imaginable too.
The driver lineup is possibly at its weakest as well (other than maybe late 1994 which was a joke). Berger, Alesi and Hill are all retired or past it, none of the Alonso/Montoya/Raikkonen trio who will make the early 2000s bearable are yet on the grid, Rubens is good by this point but still in a dog car, so it's really just Mika vs Schumi and DC sniffing for scraps. I can't take Eddie Irvine seriously even in retrospect.
The young talent that is there is Ralf, Fisi and Wurz who you can all argue are maybe as good as they'll get. Oh, and Trulli. I got excited for Wurz, whatever that says of me.
Shame on you all for sleeping on Esteban Tuero.
He's no Gaston Mazzacane.
I liked Tora Takagi having a little sympathy crash and backing it into Ralf Schumacher.
Last edited by Disco; 23-01-2023 at 02:52 PM.
F2 lineups for this year; Hauger, Martins, Pourchaire, and Iwasa the ones to watch I would say.
I see a Barbados flag and immediately have a favourite.
Nice to see the Brit sneering at the all-French superteam in that graphic.
I always see Maserati before Barbados but people only get murdered rather than born in them. And while I'd normally be right on board with laughing at the French I'm holding out for Victor Martins to be JEV 2.0.
The Goat Roy Nissany back for another year.
His dad is the GOAT.
Bought himself a free practice session with Minardi. First off complained that there was too much grip then beached it in the gravel and was unable to remove the steering wheel so had to be towed away in the car.
Brazil 98.
A proper track in any era, these cars look 1000x better here even with Saubers stupid news wings. Mclaren a mile off the front (the controversial third pedal would have commanded entire days of programming now, here we deal with it in about 4 seconds) and Hakkinen in a league of his own. Cracking race behind them though.
Last edited by Disco; 26-01-2023 at 09:14 AM.
We're getting into my childhood now. I didn't remember Round 1 but that's probably because of it being Australia. I definitely recall this though. Banging.
I've never heard someone pronounce debacle in that way. Granted, I've never been to France. Sort yourself out, Rosenthal.
Say what you like about Formula E but the qualy duels are a decent idea, or they would be if there was anyone watching. Monaco qualifying (the only good bit of the weekend) would be immeasurably improved by the format.
They go at the same time but staggered by 10 seconds or so and the faster one goes through.