#European Grand Prix 2012

[racingliners]

Michael Schumacher celebrates with his Mercedes mechanics in parc fermé after finishing in third place at the European Grand Prix, his first podium finish for Mercedes - Sunday 24th June 2012

[chibrary]

Some at the team knew he was the man for the job, but Charles Leclerc's procurement of a seat relied on a neat bit of manoeuvring in order for their boss to agree to a deal.

We're not talking here about the delay that followed Sergio Marchionne's death before Leclerc gained a 2019 Ferrari Formula 1 drive, rather his maiden season of car racing in the '14 Formula Renault ALPS series.

Fortec Motorsport engineer Martin Young knew all about the talents of the 16-year-old Monegasque driver.

"My background is in karting," he explains. "I used to work for the factory teams in Italy. I knew the drivers to watch from karting would be Max Verstappen, Ben Barnicoat and Charles Leclerc, and Fortec wanted to run teams in Eurocup, NEC and ALPS."

It's worth explaining here that in those days Formula Renault 2.0 operated as a pyramid structure, with the Eurocup at the top, and the Dutch-promoted Northern European Cup and Italian-run ALPS series as the base. Fortec was already established in Eurocup and NEC, but was venturing into ALPS for the first time.

"At the time it looked like Verstappen would be doing Eurocup, and we had Ben signed for NEC," continues Young. "I spoke to Jamie Dye [Fortec managing director] and said that if we wanted to move forward in ALPS we needed to get Leclerc.

"We did a test day at Motorland [Aragon] and we sort of lied about his times - we'd put Charles up against a lot of experienced drivers, so he was 1.2-1.3 seconds off - so that Richard [Dutton, team principal] would stay interested in giving him a bit of a deal. Richard was asking, 'Is he really good?', and we said, 'Yeah, we know he's really good.'"

Barnicoat, now a factory McLaren GT racer, was already familiar with Leclerc - as a Racing Steps Foundation protege, he was part of the ART Grand Prix line-up in international karting in 2012 and '13, while Leclerc belonged (and still does) to the All Road Management stable of ART shareholder Nicolas Todt.

"I had two years as team-mate to him in karting," says Barnicoat. "The first year I was directly racing with him, and in the second he went into gearbox [KZ] karts. He was one of the best team-mates I ever had, if not the best. A great guy.

"That first year, Charles won the WSK series and I won the European championship - that was up against the likes of Verstappen, so the competition was extremely high. I feel sort of left out!

"He had a bit more track knowledge so in the first half of the year he was beating me, but then we pushed each other really hard and that worked for the team - we got a lot from that.

"Looking at how good he is, it's nice to know I beat him on occasions, to know that I had the talent and ability to do that."

Fortec was one of the teams that tested Verstappen, and was also eyeing a deal with another talented karter: George Russell, whose plan was to combine Renault ALPS with what was then BRDC Formula 4.

Russell, who now is on course to succeed Leclerc as Formula 2 champion, eventually joined Prema Powerteam for ALPS, but that deal fell over on the eve of the season and he secured a last-minute berth at Koiranen GP.

"We wanted George; we tried to sign him," says Dutton of what could have been a mighty line-up had Russell joined Leclerc. "But he signed for Prema and then [Lawrence] Stroll [who had taken a majority shareholding in Prema] stopped him from going there."

"Me and Charles were testing for Fortec," says Russell, "and at the same time Verstappen was there with Josef Kaufmann Racing, I think. We were in talks with Fortec, but we decided to sign with Prema."

When it's pointed out what a mega line-up that would have been alongside Leclerc, Russell laughs: "In hindsight that could have worked out better for me than Koiranen. That [the late Prema split] put us in the shit a little bit, and three weeks before the first race I didn't have a deal. We took the gamble on Koiranen."

Autosport reminds Dutton of an awards evening over the 2013-14 winter when, asked about Russell, he said: "We've got someone even better - a lad from Monaco..."

"It was really quite a late deal," recalls Dutton. "He missed most of the winter-test programme. But you just knew he was the real deal. In and out of the car he knew what he wanted. In lots of ways he reminded us of Verstappen when we tested him."

Young confirms that the sum total of Leclerc's pre-season mileage was four days at Aragon, and two at Barcelona, before going straight into the pre-weekend test for the Imola opener.

"The first three race weekends his experience was a bit low," says Young, "but as soon as he got on the podium he was there every weekend.

Leclerc went on to finish runner-up to the flying - and experienced - Nyck de Vries in the ALPS points, with two race wins at Monza under his belt, but perhaps the more impressive performances came in his three 'wildcard' outings in the Eurocup. The first was at Spa, one week before the Belgian track's ALPS round.

"He was 30th in qualifying at the Eurocup," says Dutton. "We changed everything - we couldn't understand what the hell was going on. One week later he qualified third for ALPS. That was really, really special."

In his next Eurocup outing, Leclerc took a fifth and a second at the Nurburgring, and in his final one he took a brace of seconds at the Hungaroring.

"I was looking after Matt Parry and Jack Aitken in Eurocup," says long-time Fortec driver coach Matt Howson. "I'd heard [Leclerc] was something maybe a bit special, but you hear that all the time, and wait until you see it yourself.

"Usually you understand the driving style straight away - what's good, what's bad - and the thing with Charles is it didn't matter whether there was understeer or oversteer, he seemed to deliver a lap time."

The cerebral approach of Leclerc and engineer Young frustrated Howson at the Nurburgring.

"He'd never seen the place, and there were only two 45-minute [test] sessions, and furthermore Martin was determined to try things on the car," says Howson.

"I said, 'Don't do it, leave him out'. He was last in the second session, and then he was P3 on the grid for the second race - that's unheard of in Eurocup [for a newcomer]. Renault is a very finicky formula, and it all has to come together to deliver results, but Charles seemed impervious to everything.

"Based on that first year, I knew he was a little bit special. Whenever he was tested in Eurocup, he defied his experience. That's a marker - that you can break all the accepted rules."

Talking about that Nurburgring episode, Young says: "That literally sums up Charles Leclerc. That year we were struggling in Eurocup, and I said I'd come in with Charles and we'd do some testing. Going into qualifying he'd never run new tyres, but he went from last to the front. Nothing ever fazed him."

In Young's view, he also compared favourably to Lando Norris, who tested FRenault cars with Fortec in 2014 before his first steps into single-seaters: "I worked with Lando towards the end of the year, and Lando eventually got to the same point [as Leclerc] but needed a lot of testing, but Charles could just get in and drive. It was second nature to him."

Russell took a distant fourth in the ALPS standings, although he did claim the 2014 BRDC F4 title.

"With Nyck winning the championship it didn't make any sense to me, but I think at the time there were a few dodgy chassis around," he says. "When I tested Nyck's car it was extremely different in terms of characteristics. I wasted a season there, but it was character-building."

He also suffered from chicken pox that caused him to miss the Monza round, where Leclerc took his two wins.

"I didn't think it affected me at the time, but I struggled a bit for no reason in the following few F4 races," says Russell. "It was quite severe - I've still got some bad scars. I put my family off their dinner a few times!"

But Russell trumped Leclerc by joining Tech 1 Racing for the final Eurocup round at Jerez as a wildcard - and winning: "I got my self-confidence back a bit, jumped in that car and won."

Both Russell and Leclerc had initially targeted a full season in Eurocup in 2015, but such were their reputations by the end of '14 that each went to the Formula 3 European Championship, Russell with Carlin, and Leclerc with Van Amersfoort Racing.

Fortec tried to hang on to Leclerc for F3. "We tried so hard to get him for F3, but we lost him to VAR," says Dutton. "We did some tests with him in the F3 car and he was straight on the pace. At Silverstone he was quickest of everybody there, and then we went to Valencia with him and we had a nightmare with mechanical issues. I think that didn't do us any good."

All who worked or raced with Leclerc agree about his qualities as a man.

"Of all the drivers in F1 who've come through us, Charles is the one who gets [guest] passes for the British Grand Prix," says Dutton. "He had Martin [Young] and Jamie [Dye] there this year the whole weekend, in Sauber hospitality. He's a proper guy."

"I still speak to Charles every week or so on various topics," adds Young, who attended Leclerc's initial grand prix free practice outings in 2016. "He's still exactly the same person."

Barnicoat, who is one of the drivers for the McLaren hot laps at F1 events, bumps into Leclerc regularly.

"When we raced against each other in Renault there was quite a lot of rivalry from what we'd had in karting," says the Briton, who added three 'wildcard' ALPS outings as direct team-mate to Leclerc to his title-winning NEC campaign.

"But it would have been nice to get more direct comparisons. In 2013, when we were in karting, I went to the grand prix with him in Monaco and stayed on his uncle's boat, and had a really good time. We spent a lot of time together, and although we were rivals we helped each other out. He was a good friend of mine and still is."

Leclerc is also resilient. "Jules Bianchi came to the Hungaroring Eurocup round to mentor him," says Howson, "and I understood then how close they were. After that incident [for Bianchi] and his father [who died in mid-2017], he's probably been tested off track more than anyone else, but it's not bled over into anything on track.

"He's incredibly mature. He's relatively introverted - he doesn't come in and make lots of noise, but he's polite, considerate and always looks you in the eye when he talks to you. It doesn't matter whether he's got loads of cameras on him, he'll always come over for a chat."

Russell, meanwhile, is "100%" sure that Leclerc will flourish at Ferrari.

"Charles is one of a handful of others I put in the best-of-the-best group," he says. "In my opinion he absolutely deserves his chance at Ferrari. He's got the speed and the talent, and I'm excited to see how he fares next year. I've no doubt that he will be competitive."

[web4teen]

some webbonso podiums through the years🫶

happy webbonso wednesday to those who celebrate!

1° european grand prix, 2007 - 2° spanish grand prix, 2010 - 3° hungarian grand prix, 2010 - 4° singapore grand prix, 2010 - 5° turkish grand prix, 2011 - 6° european grand prix, 2011 - 7° british grand prix, 2011 - 8° germany grand prix, 2011 - 9° monaco grand prix, 2012 - 10° british grand prix, 2012

[boxboxblog]

Driver Profiles: Max Verstappen

Updated December 2024

Name: Max Emilian Verstappen

Age: 27

Nationality: Dutch (grew up in Belgium)

Years in F1: 9 (Toro Rosso 2015-May 2016, Red Bull May 2016-Present)

Number: 1 (as reigning champion) and 33

WDCs: 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024

Driving Style: Aggressive, and fearless, Verstappen is known for his strong understanding and control of his car. Famously, drivers have stated that when Verstappen is behind them, its not about if he will overtake it is about when. He is also know for his late-braking on corners and the absolute trust he seems to have with the car to keep him safe, enabling him to take bold manuvers. Other drivers who have been in the same car as him have described his style of car as being highly reactive and 'sharp' in response to movement. This gives us a glimpse of how Verstappen races, as his preferred car shows he has precise handling and pushes to the limit. He does not drive well when he feels the car is not responding precisely to his instructions.

History: Son of F1 driver Jos Verstappen, Verstappen grew up in the public eye. He started karting when he was four and started competing when he was just seven years old. He dominated his national karting stages between 2005 and 2009, winning his home provinces championship, VAS championship, the Rotax Max Challenge, the Belgian Cadet Championship, and more. He was known to be a prodigy from a young age, and reportedly during races his father would tweak something about the cart to help him learn how changes feel. This helped develop a strong intuition for his future F1 cars.

(Verstappen, around 2010)

In 2010 he entered into the international karting scene, and finished second at his first KF3 World Cup after Alex Albon, but won the WSK World Series. In 2011, Verstappen won the WSK Euro Series. In the following year, Verstappen won the WSK Master Series in the KF2 class, and the South Garda Winter Cup in the KF2 class. He was the youngest driver taking part in the World Championship in KF1 class and finished eighth. In 2012 He finished second at the World Cup in the KF2 class. 2013 was his biggest year however, having progressed to the senior level KZ and KF categories. He was fifteen when he won three CIK-FIA championships in a single season: two European Championships and a World Championship, an unprecedented feat. He went only to only lose one of seven championships that year.

(Verstappen when he started single-seaters)

He debuted in single seaters in 2014, driving for the Florida Winter Series. He went on to drive in F3 that year for Van Amersfoort Racing, and at age 16 placed third in his first real single seater championship.

When he was seventeen, he drew the attention of F1, and drove his first F1 car during a practice session for Toro Rosso. In 2014 he officially joined the Red Bull Junior Program, and was signed for Toro Rosso's 2015 season. He became the youngest person to ever start an F1 Grand Prix at seventeen. He had an extremely successful first season, becoming the youngest person to score points, and regularly finishing in the top 10.

(Verstappen in his first year with Toro Rosso)

In 2016, Verstappen started out in Toro Rosso but by May he had been pulled up to replace Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat due to Kvyats poor performance. His first race with Red Bull was the Spanish GP, and astoundingly it was Verstappen's first win as well. This would set the tone for Verstappen's career going forward.

He had increasingly successful seasons as time went on, already fighting for the championship by 2019. But it was in 2021 that he won his first WDC, in a controversial race held in Abu Dhabi. After that Verstappen dominated F1, winning both 2022 and 2023. In 2023 he had perhaps the most dominant season aa driver ever had, and amazingly won almost every single race. In 2024, he started the season strong but midway his car seemed to lose its pace. While Verstappen is still winning the championship, it is possible there could be a major title fight in the last few races.

Key Races:

2016 Spanish GP - His first win and first race with Red Bull.

2016 Brazilian GP - A race in the wet, it is considered one of the best drive sin modern F1. He dropped down the order after a pit mistake, but through intense rain and dangerous conditions was able to take a podium place. Hailed as one of the most masterful rain races anyone has ever seen

2019 Austrian GP - Famous for a late-race move on Charles Leclerc that is often seen as controversial, this was his first win in 2019. It highlighted his uncompromising attitude toward racing and pure aggression.

2021 Monaco GP - Considered the turn around in Verstappen's 2021 season, he drove a flawless race and took the championship lead

2021 Abu Dhabi - Another controversial race, with Verstappen finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and clinching his first WDC. Controversial due to safety car in last few laps.

Any 2023 Race but Singapore, Baku, and Jeddah - Verstappen won 19 out of 22 race this season, an excessively dominant display. he lost only to his teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz

Brazil 2024 - Perhaps the most masterful wet race in F1 history, Verstappen drove from P17 to win the race in incredibly tense and dangerous conditions. His overtakes were brilliant, his pace was stellar. No words.

Cheers,

-B

[hulkscannibal]

A random essay that I wrote about nico for school that i thought i’d share, it’s below the cut!!

Word count : 1975

✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦

Nico Hulkenberg, born on August 19th, 1987 in Emmerich, Germany, is a high performing athlete who partakes in the FIA formula1 world championship. Nico holds the record for the most Grand Prix’s started with no podium, currently at 226 as of October 2024. But this does not define Nico’s racing career and I hope to show you why Nico Hulkenberg is still insanely talented, despite his lack of titles and podiums.

In 1997, at ten years old, Nico began his racing career by entering several German karting leagues and championships. He won the German Junior Karting championship in 2002 and won several more in the following years. Nico continued karting for another year until he moved to motor racing to start his journey to Formula one. Though this was a successful move, speaking as Nico would’ve been the German BMW champion until he was deemed of cheating by the Stewards and demoted to a third place finish in the championship in 2005. He moved to formula three after his failure to finish first in the BMW championship, but chose the less competitive German series rather than the European, where he finished fifth after one win. He entered A1 grand prix in 2006-07, where he won 9 races, leading his team from 15th to the champions. He moved back to formula3 in 2007, where he won a few impressive races and overall finished third in the championship with four wins. He followed with another year of formula3, becoming champion while also working as a test driver for the formula1 team Williams. He moved to GP2.

During the off season, Nico scored several poles in the Asian GP2 races, causing an impression on formula1 teams watching the young driver. These pole positions he scored may have been the reason Williams chose him as the first to test the newly modeled FW30. Nico won three consecutive races with ART in the main GP2 series, bringing him to the championship battle with Grosjean, who graduated to F1, leaving Nico to be the first rookie to win the championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2006.

This then led Nico to his debut in formula1 as a full time racer for the Williams team. Nico’s rookie season consisted of him constantly chasing points and performing well, though he was outperformed by his veteran teammate, Rubens Barrichelo, and finished 14th by the end of the season. His best moment of the season was his pole position in Interlagos, which was a complete surprise to everyone, though it did not lead to a win nor a podium.

Nico left Williams after his rookie year and spent one year away from an official seat in 2011, now working as a reserve driver for Force India and usually racing FP1 for the team, then followed by taking a full time seat for the team in 2012. Nico had nearly earned himself several more wins and podiums in his time with Force India, but seemed to always lose them when he was so close to reaching them. Nico finished the 2012 season with eleventh place in the standings before announcing his departure from the team after an earlier signing with Sauber. Nico raced there for the entirety of the 2013 season but had no outstanding moments and finished with a dull season before returning to his previous team, Force India, once again for 2014. The car had benefits from the Mercedes high-classed power unit, and Nico often took it into points but did not get a podium. He finished the season in 9th with 96 points, finishing above his teammate, Sergio Perez, even though the Mexican had stood on the podium that season.

In 2015, Nico continued another season with Force India, where he faced many problems with his car and his own doings. He finished the season in 10th behind Perez, his best finish being 6th in Austria. Nico still failed to receive a podium, but instead won the 24 hours of le mans in a Porsche 919, being the first active formula1 driver to do so in 24 years. 2016 was a similar season where a podium did not come to him, yet again to teammate Perez. Nico finished 10th in the standings, and soon decided to move to a manufacturing team, Renault.

His first season with Renualt was another of the same, followed by constant Q3 qualifying results, trios of sixth place finishes, and DNFs when he was so close to a podium. He finished the season in 10th and scored a total of 43 points. He was a promising contender to help the new Renault team to be a competitive team once again. Nico’s next season with Renault was promising, taking 7th and 6th several times throughout the season, though the pressure from Sainz continued to grow throughout the season. Nico finished the season in an impressive 7th, proving to be the best of the midfielders, finishing just behind both Ferraris, Mercedes and Red Bulls. Nico still was unable to gain a podium, but was beyond ready. For the 2019 season, Nico was no longer racing with Sainz, yet now Ricciardo, who took the higher results for most of the races, where Nico faced pressure from both his teammate and the aggressive McLaren drivers, the rookie Lando Norris and his previous teammate Carlos Sainz, Nico finished the season in an overall 14th with 37 points. A month after Nico had a rough crash, Renault confirmed his departure for the team and their decision to replace him with Esteban Ocon.

For 2020, Nico failed to find an official seat to race with, and everyone had deemed this as his retirement. He returned as a reserve and test driver for Racing Point in this year, and replaced Perez twice after the Racing Point driver tested positive for Covid19. One race was unsuccessful after an issue with the car, and the next he finished 7th. Nico did not race in a formula1 car again, other than occasional testing and reserve, until 2023.

He returned to the sport with Haas, racing alongside Kevin Magnussen. This was a complete shock to everyone both in the sport and watching. He replaced 7 time world champion Micheal Schumacher’s son, Mick Schumacher, who did not receive a seat for 2023. Nico finished the uneventful season in an overall of 16th, his highest finish being 7th. Most of his races resulted in no points, but he outperformed his Danish teammate who finished the season with a mere 6 points compared to Nico’s 9.

The 2024 season, which is not finished by the writing of this document, Nico is tenth in the standings, right behind both Mclarens, Redbulls, Mercedes, Ferraris and one Aston Martin. Nico has had a swell season, constantly making it into the points and having 31 points for the season. He has finished all races, minus Monaco where he DNF’d due to a battle between Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez, where the spinning car of Sergio took Nico out with it.

Now that I’ve given you a full recap of Nico’s career and its lack of wins and even podiums, I’m going to explain why he is a talented driver, if his results didn’t do it for you. Nico was described as “the best driver that never was” by Frederic Vasseur, the team principle of Scuderia Ferrari, which is a lot coming from a person who owns a team with 16 world championships to a driver without a single podium. Haas has been around since 2016, having 6 drivers, and Nico has been the most consistent driver out of all of them, finishing constantly around 10th-5th, which I personally believe is beyond impressive. Even though Nico has just recently stepped up to be a constant Q3 contender, he has always been known as a threat to everyone else in the mid-pack. I also believe it is a matter of the car Nico is driving. Though he has managed to bring all of his midfield cars to their best results, he lacks the powerful car to challenge the Redbulls, Mercedes, Ferraris and no McLarens. It was later revealed that in 2014, if Mercedes hadn’t signed Lewis Hamilton, they would have taken Nico. I think this would have absolutely made Nico a champion. The multi time junior champion was thought to be the next world champion, and could’ve done so just with a faster, more powerful car. Nico has an adaptable and quick driving style, adjusting to anything thrown at him. I mean, it takes a pretty adaptable driver to have driven for 7 teams, right? His driving style in early GP2 days and rookie year was so aggressive and he drove the car to its limits to keep it in its grip limits, but modern tires required smoothness that his driving style did not fit. Nico is an early breaker and is insanely talented when it comes to managing the pedals, though his style changed from aggressive to smooth to be kinder for the tires, he is great at qualifying for his quick one-laps, where he’s constantly on the grip limit.

The difference between Nico and his teammates, Magnussen in specific, is the fact that Nico breaks earlier than the Dane, leaving him with less speed on the turns and giving him a better exit than Magnussen, where he then accelerates faster by a quicker ability to full throttle. Even through the chicane, he can hold out a faster speed through all parts, including the quick turns, which gives him an overall faster time compared to his teammate. He keeps a higher minimum because of this. He decelerates way harder and gets a huge advantage on the turns.

As Nico is a veteran driver on the grid, third oldest behind Alonso and Hamiltom, he is experienced, more so than some of the younger drivers. Nico doesn’t rely on dangerous and harmful driving, yet his smooth and level headed mannerism and his very important adaptability that draws teams in to consider the German as a contender for a seat. If anything changes in the race or doesn’t go how Nico had wanted it to, he is quick to adapt and continue out the race with the challenges or changes that were thrown at him.

While most drivers are described to be all bark, no bite–like Norris, who talks himself up then ;proceeds not to perform in the way he said he would–Nico is quite the opposite, all bite no bark. This goes in the sense that the veteran driver is insanely humble and quiet, doesn’t speak up and is not very boastful. This also goes on the track. Nico is speedy and there’s no telling that he’s behind you until he’s pressuring and takes a late break overtake.

Nico Hulkenberg is seen as a champion in waiting and the career he deserved never came to him. He spent years being crowned champion, winner, podium sitter, then entered the sport he’s been waiting his entire life to be in, to never stand on even the lowest step of the podium ever again. Nico had won Le Mans, and sometimes I start to wonder if his career was fit for WEC instead, and how it would’ve changed if he stays. June 14th, 2015, was the last time Nico had ever sat on a podium, and it wasn’t even for the career he loved most. Nico never succeeded, and his talent was left to waste and rot and never seen for what it truly was. Nico truly was the greatest driver that never was.

[dearsenna]

fernando alonso → european grand prix of 2012

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Scottish dart player Peter Wright.

Peter was born in Livingston on March 10th 1970, but spent most of his childhood in England, he chose the country of his birth as his home nation when playing darts and helped Scotland win their first World Cup of Darts title in June 2019, defeating the Republic of Ireland 3-1 in the final in Hamburg.

Originally a qualifier for the 1996 Lakeside Championship, it would be more than a decade before Scottish-born Wright joined the PDC circuit on a full-time basis, he has since given up his job as a tyre fitter and gone from strength to strength.

After making progress up the rankings during 2011 and 2012 - which included his maiden ranking title at a Players Championship in Killarney - the following year saw Wright reach his first televised semi-final at the UK Open. He went on to reach the 2014 World Championship final, losing out to Michael van Gerwen but securing himself a spot in the Premier League and World Series of Darts, where he reached the final on his debut in Dubai.

The most colourful character on the circuit - with wife Jo, a hairdresser by trade, providing the painted hair to match his unique dress sense - Wright’s rise to third in the world included him being a finalist in back-to-back UK Opens and World Series of Darts Finals in 2015 & 2016 as well as in the PDC World Cup of Darts and a World Series event in Japan.

Wright began 2017 in style as he followed up an appearance in the World Championship semi-finals with three UK Open Qualifier wins, before going on to finally claim victory on the big stage with his triumph in the UK Open finals in Minehead, where he saw off Gerwyn Price in the final.

Three European Tour triumphs followed a treble of UK Open Qualifier victories, while Wright also claimed a Players Championship victory to consolidate his status as world number three in a brilliant start to 2017.

Wright went on to reach the Premier League Play-Offs for the first time in May 2017, finishing second in the final league table before defeating Taylor in the semi-finals, but he would pay for six missed match darts as Van Gerwen edged a thrilling final.

The Scottish ace claimed a European Tour title at the start of July 2017, before reaching the final of the World Matchplay later that month, only to lose out to Taylor in his last appearance on the Blackpool stage.

Wright picked up another European Tour win, followed by the German Darts Masters World Series crown, before going down to van Gerwen in the final of the Grand Slam of Darts in November 2017.

Having reached the final of the 2018 World Cup of Darts in June, Wright then won a first title of the year at Players Championship 14 in Wigan and then claimed his second World Series triumph at the Melbourne Darts Masters.

Wright backed up his Australian success with a third title of the year at Players Championship 17 in Barnsley in September and reached the World Grand Prix final for the first time the following month, losing out to Van Gerwen.

In the World Championship in December 2020 Wright survived a match dart at bullseye to win a sudden-death leg against Noel Malicdem in the second round, before beating Seigo Asada and Jeffrey de Zwaan, to reach the quarter-finals, where he triumphed 5–3 over Humphries to reach the semi-final for the first time since 2017 where he played Welshman Gerwyn Price winning through 6-3 in a bad tempered match.

In the final he again met Michael van Gerwen and won 7–3 in the final to become the 2020 World Darts Champion on January 1st.

In a season that was affected by the covid pandemic Wright picked up two of darts “majors” winning the Masters in February and  2020 Unibet European Championship in November, beating England’s James Wade 11-4 in the final. However  Wright had a poor showing at the Grand Slam failing to get through from the group stages, he later admitted it hit him hard and said “ I could have walked away from the sport quite easily.“ His form improved in his next event  with a run to the semi-finals of the Players Championship Finals  making him just the third player in history (after Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor) to exceed £1,000,000 on the order of merit.  Peter returned to defend his world title but Peter was eliminated in the third round after losing 4–3 to Gabriel Clemens who became the first ever German player to reach the fourth round. But Peter was back on top at this years  2022 PDC World Darts Championship on January 3rd, only the third Scot to win it twice, the others being, Gary Anderson and  Jocky Wilson, who will be featuring in a post later in the month.

Peter is currently ranked No. 2 in the world, he went out in the third round of the World Championship, he bounced back to win the 2023 Nordic Darts Masters in January, but just got knocked out the UK Open last Saturday to Welshman Richie Burnett, a shock for Snakebite, Burnett sitting at a lowly 71 in the rankings

[wrestlingwiththoughts]

Low Ki vs. Necro Butcher, IWA Mid-South We're No Joke!, November 1, 2006

There's a kick at around the 3:28 mark in the match, which is free to view on IWA-MS's YouTube page, where Low Ki's leg makes a sickening thud with Necro Butcher's face. There are other kicks throughout the match where Ki is clearly making full and direct contact with Butcher's face, but the thudding smack from that kick encapsulates the match more than any single image...except one.

At around the 8:00 mark in the match, Ki and Butcher are brawling outside the ring. Butcher's thrown Ki into chairs in a couple of different sections of the Midlothian Park District Rec. Center at this point, but Ki is able to seize the advantage by blocking a Butcher suplex to the outside with a knee to the head and sending Butcher to the floor with a shotgun dropkick. As Ki sizes Butcher for another stiff kick to the chest, we see this fan, dressed in suit pants and a jacket, yell at Ki from no more than two feet away and demand that Ki "kill him."

That is the lasting image of the match and the summary of the sentiment that 2006 afternoon: the crowd wanted Low Ki and Necro Butcher to kill each other for our entertainment no matter the cost to themselves for the low, low price of $10-15 a ticket.

A quick check of Butcher's match history showed that 2005 was a transition year for Necro Butcher. He teamed with Mad Man Pondo as the Death Match Kings and advanced to the quarterfinals in Chikara's Tag World Grand Prix in February. The juxtaposition of deathmatch kings and the family-friendly promotion is striking. The Death Match Kings' first round victory over ROH Wrestling School trainees Anthony Franco and Matt Turner set up the second oddity in Butcher's 2005 match history, when he faced Samoa Joe at IWA-MS Something to Prove on June 11. The match is famously violent and often hailed as one of the greatest matches shorter than 10 minutes ever held. Lastly, Butcher participated in IWA-MS Revolution Strong Style Tournament, the precursor to IWA-MS Ted Petty Invitational, one of the most prestigious indie wrestling events of this mid-2000s peak indie wrestling era. Butcher reached the finals, where he lost to Chris Hero.

By 2006, Butcher had already wrestled 280 matches over 8 years, mostly in deathmatches in stints in BJW, CZW, and IWA-MS. The trend away from deathmatches continued that year: he had a rematch with Samoa Joe at IWA-MS New Year's Resolution: Revenge! on January 12, a European Rules match against Chris Hero at IWA-MS No Retreat...No Surrender on on January 21, wrestled under a fursuit as CP Munk at Chikara's Tag World Grand Prix in February, and became a key figure in the ROH vs. CZW feud that dominated indie wrestling discourse that year. He also wrestled his first match in PWG against Joey Ryan at All Star Weekend 3: Crazymania Night 2, showing that his notoriety caught the attention of American independent wrestling tastemakers. Indeed, even Pro Wrestling Illustrated recognized Necro Butcher as Butcher was ranked in 2006 at #299 in the PWI 500.

We had previously revisited Butcher's match against Roderick Strong in the middle of his remarkable 2006, so it was only natural to chase it with Butcher's match against Low Ki.

In my mind, this is the perfect match of two men who take pro wrestling too seriously in very different ways. To Low Ki, pro wrestling is a way for him to get as close to a real fight as he can without putting himself at real jeopardy. Ki is infamous for his "professionalism," hitting his partner in the match a little too hard when they weren't expecting it, possibly taking advantage of his partner in the match, especially if they're young and early in their careers. The most commonly cited examples are the time he beat up Deranged at ROH Final Battle 2003 and the time he knocked out Athu and continued to do moves on him at Evolve 10 in 2012.

In contrast, Butcher projects his gimmick with visual indicators of his recklessness. He wrestles barefoot and in torn jeans and shirts. He has a bald spot that he takes no effort to cover because he isn't vain. His hair and beard are unruly. He looks like he's missing teeth. He sometimes looks untrained in the ring, and his swings are wild and forceful. Where Ki takes what he does (too) seriously during the match, Butcher owns what his image is during and after the match. (It's why his later turn as Dylan Summers, Hollywood star also works so well.)

This match doesn't quite match the sudden and shocking violence of the 2005 match with Samoa Joe; I'm not sure anything can, but a match that lasted 21 minutes certainly couldn't. You can't maintain the intensity crammed into 9:49 over 21 minutes. It is, however, a better match than the one against Roderick Strong because Ki and Butcher don't peak the crowd early with something like a backbreaker over the two chairs' top rails. Ki starts hot early with punches, chops, and kicks, but Ki and Butcher tell the story about Butcher simply will not go down and is able to hit Ki back hard. Even after Ki hit a double stomp to Butcher's back from the top rope, Butcher, renowned for his toughness, will not accept defeat. Butcher has his moments in the advantage, so the match seems like a back and forth affair, but the match isn't about Butcher beating Ki as much as it is about Butcher teaching Ki the meaning of pain. As Ki staggers away from the match, it's clear that Butcher has earned Ki's respect.

[identifying-f1-in-posts]

[1] 20th March 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix Podium

[2] 25th October 2015 United States Grand Prix Post-race Conference

[3] 13th November 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Post-qualifying Top 3 Photo

[4] 31st October 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Post-qualifying Top 3 Photo

[5] 3rd July 2022 British Grand Prix Podium

[6] 25th November 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Post-qualifying Top 3 Photo

[7] 10th September 2011 Italian Grand Prix Post-qualifying Top 3 Photo

[8] 25th August 2018 Belgian Grand Prix Post-qualifying Top 3 Photo

[9] 27th June 2010 European Grand Prix Podium Champagne Celebrations

[10] 27th October 2012 Indian Grand Prix Post-qualifying Top 3 Photo

Lewis & others matching icons part 2

like or reblog if save/use

give me the credits if you repost

[tarmidzi0310]

Siapa itu Michael Schumacher?

Penulis: Alif Haikal Danipranata (SCA Grade 8)

Sumber gambar: https://images.app.goo.gl/5cY55vWDJSRrah399

Michael Schumacher adalah seorang pembalap Formula 1 yang sangat legendaris. Ia lahir pada tanggal 3 Januari 1969 di kota Hürth-Hermülhein, Jerman Barat, dan sudah menyukai balap Formula 1 sejak kecil, ia memulai karirnya dengan memulai kompetisi gokart pada umur 6 tahun dan menjuarai European Karting Championship, dan merupakan kompetisi yang menjadikan Schumacher dikenal oleh tim balap Formula 3, yang selanjutnya ia bergabung dengan tim Formula dan memenai Europen Formula 3 Champhionsip pada usia yang masih sangat muda yaitu di umur 21 tahun pada tahun 1990.

Pada tahun 1991, Schumacher memperoleh kesempatan untuk bergabung dengan tim Jordan sebagai pembalap cadangan di Belgium Grand Prix dan setahun kemudian di tahun 1992 ia resmi menjadi pembalap tim Jordan yang selanjutnya di tim tersebut Schumacher dapat memenangi kejuaraan dunia pada tahun 1994 dan 1995. Sebelum musim 1996 dia pindah ke tim Ferrari dan menempati posisi ketiga dalam klasemen kejuaraan. Setelah mengalami patah kaki dalam kecelakaan pada tahun 1999, Schumacher bangkit kembali untuk memenangkan kejuaraan ketiga pada tahun berikutnya, yang merupakan gelar pembalap pertama Ferrari sejak 1979. Kemenangannya pada tahun 2000 adalah yang pertama dari lima kejuaraan dunia berturut-turut dari tahun 2000 hingga 2004. Schumacher pensiun pada tahun 2006 di Ferrari, pada saat pensiun, ia meraih 91 kemenangan balapan F1 Grand Prix dan 7 Juara Dunia.

Schumacher mengumumkan bahwa ia akan kembali ke F1 untuk musim 2010 sebagai pembalap tim Mercedes. Dia menghabiskan tiga musim bersama Mercedes, tetapi dia tidak pernah memenangkan balapan dan tidak pernah finis lebih tinggi dari posisi kedelapan di klasemen keseluruhan F1, dan dia pensiun lagi pada tahun 2012. Selama tiga tahun Bersama Mercedez, posisi terbaiknya adalah memenangi 1 Grand Prix yaitu di China, sehingga di akhir musim kompetisi Schumacher memutuskan untuk sepenuhnya pensiun dari dunia balap Formula 1.

Sumber : Wikipedia, Britannica

[racingliners]

Third place finisher Michael Schumacher speaks English instead of German during the post-race press conference at the European Grand Prix (Part 2) - Sunday 24th June 2012

English section transcription under the cut

Interviewer: Michael [prompting him for the 'in your own language' segment]

Michael Schumacher: [In English] Yeah, it's uh... these moments that make Formula 1 so special. I just wanna say thanks to all, and everybody in the team that has just worked so hard for all those times that we've worked together. And these special moments, such as we had in Monaco, and now finally here being on the podium in the end of the race - it's those moments that we all love, and that's what we've all worked for.

We've been criticised, for the last races that we've had that didn't run to plan. But that's what is the best answer, to do what we did here - get a car reliable and be strong enough and fight our way back into the podium. And that's what I all love you for - to always be behind me, to always trust in me, so I do.

And uh... it's actually in German yeah? [laughs].

[chibrary]

The Chrimer: 2015, F3.

Everyone loves a good rivalry.

Charles and Max's karting history could-- and probably will-- be their own primer, but for Charles' 2015 season only one part really matters: Max jumps from F3 to F1. This casts a long shadow on Charles as his childhood karting rival.

Charles spends most of the year getting asked about seeing Max compete at the highest level of motorsport, like in this segment from a South China Morning Post article about the 2015 Macau Grand Prix:

For his part, however, Leclerc is keeping the focus on what’s right in front of him, rather than on what the horizon might offer as he sets out to tackle the tricky Guia circuit for the first time, knowing, of course, the greats of racing who have gone out there before him and still with comparisons to former VAR – and current Formula One – star Max Verstappen ringing in his ears. “I am taking things step by step,” says Leclerc. “I want to arrive in Formula One when I am more than ready and Formula 3 is a good choice in that I can learn and develop. And I raced Max all through my karting years and we fought each other at the finish, so I have always had the comparisons with him and I am okay with them.”

The jump to F3 is a last minute surprise: Charles had originally been tipped for a full-time Eurocup spot. Eurocup would have been more of the Formula Renault 2.0 level of competition Charles had experienced the previous year; F3 was considered a promotion.

In an interview, Charles was asked why he decided on F3 instead of Eurocup:

"After the season of last year, my manager and I thought that it would be better to jump to F3! Firstly, there are 3 races per weekend and 11 weekends so we drive a lot and so we gain a lot of experience! Then loads of drivers were planning to do it! And I felt really good in the car and the tests went well."

Surprisingly, Charles picks to race for Dutch team Van Amersfoort in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship like Max did the previous year. He essentially steps into his former rival's spot, replacing Max as team leader and taking his former engineer. This was allegedly on Jos Verstappen's suggestion, but there isn't much reference to that connection out there that I could find.

This doesn't help the comparisons.

Formula Scout-- in their 2015 Driver Profile of Charles-- would write:

Leclerc marked himself out as a real prospect in karting – so much so he topped our 2012 ‘karters to watch‘ feature, ahead of Verstappen. But it’s never a foregone conclusion that a successful karter will make a successful car racer. [...] Those performances suggested he would be capable of stepping up to F3, particularly as his old rival Verstappen had made it look easy and didn’t have the benefit of a year of car racing experience. And so he has proven to be. It’s still early days, but Leclerc has so far been the class of a large crop of rookies and taken the fight to proven F3 winners with multiple years of experience already under their belt. His early performances are on a par with what last year’s star rookies Esteban Ocon and Verstappen were doing – in fact, his record of two wins and five podiums from the first six races replicates the 2014 champion’s start. If he keeps it up, he will deserve to be held in the same high esteem as them a few months down the line.

They would ultimately summarize Charles' future as so:

While he’s got plenty in common with his old karting rival and Van Amersfoort F3 predecessor Verstappen, a lesser reputation and sensible management mean he’s unlikely to be making the jump straight up to F1 next year. He will therefore need to sustain this impressive form into an intermediate category like GP2 in order to make the grade.

Even with the comparisons to Esteban and Max, Charles still appears to be able to joke with both at the beginning of the season.

This lightheartedness would be needed, especially when Max was the special F1 driver guest for one of Charles' podiums:

Charles would start the season strong. As a rookie, Charles would top the morning running at the pre-event test of the opening round weekend by nearly half a second.

In true Charles fashion, he's unable to take the W:

"A good day," said Leclerc at the end of the test, after reviewing the results and drawing conclusions. “We have learned a lot, both about the set-up for qualifying and for the race. However, this does not mean that I am automatically one of the leading drivers this weekend as well, testing and racing are two different things. But needless to say, it's my goal to do it."

He would bring this momentum into winning in Silverstone, Hockenheim, Spa-Francorchamps and Nuremberg. I find the races themselves a little dull to break down race-by-race, but if you're interested.. an anon has provided video of every race here.

Charles would explain that:

“We arrived at the first race quite confident but obviously there were still had doubts from some people who didn’t know me when I arrived for testing. We were really fast from the first race which was a bit of a surprise because I was a rookie among all these experienced drivers so they didn’t really expect me. But from another point of view we were prepared, we worked hard and after testing it wasn’t that much of a surprise for us, how we went. We were quite confident.”

However... Charles' season would become inconsistent after a crash in Zandvoort with Lance Stroll would damage his chassis in a way that could never be correctly repaired.

Jules would pass the next week.

Charles would only podium once more during the remaining season, five months later in Macau.

He is quoted as saying:

“It is a good result, but I am never happy when I'm not first. Since I was a child I was never happy when I wasn't first. So, it is the still the same.”

Charles would end up finishing the season in fourth place behind Felix Rosenquist, Antonio Giovinazzi, and Jake Dennis. He'd still have 4 wins, 13 podiums, 3 pole positions and 6 fastest laps, making him the rookie champion over future F1 competitors George Russell, Lance Stroll and Alexander Albon.

Formula Scout would summarize his season:

VAR, like most, couldn’t keep up with Prema in the later part of the season but Leclerc seemed to lose some individual sparkle too. That’s forgivable for a teenage rookie though, particularly with the early-season highs becoming impossible to match. And no young racer should have to say goodbye to a life-long friend and mentor mid-season. Leclerc might not have been champion but he was F3’s standout talent in 2015.

Even with the issues in the later half of the season, he was still tapped to go into GP3 with Todt's team, ART Grand Prix. And he had some lighthearted moments:

(Behind the scenes footage here.)

One of the most lasting legacies of this season, though, is how it would set up the rest of Charles' career.

Charles did go into 2015 with very few sponsors outside of Todt. In a pre-season assessment, Formula Scout summarizes his off-track relationships:

No doubt assisted by the Bianchis’ tutelage, Leclerc signed with Todt Jr’s All Road Management firm in 2011. At present, Leclerc has no ties to F1 teams, but through his work with Felipe Massa, Pastor Maldonado and Bianchi, Todt has dealt with most of them and will be very well-placed to get his protege a role when the time comes. A potential stumbling point is that most F1 teams are already overflowing with some serious sub-F1 prospects, but if he continues to impress as he’s doing at the moment, they could begin falling over each other to find a space for him. Funding-wise, Leclerc benefits from partners usually tied to Todt’s projects, and watch maker Richard Mille (currently a sponsor of the Lotus F1 team) is his loyal main backer. And you’d imagine that being billed as a future F1 star from Monaco could well tempt some further future investment.

Lance Stroll would spend most of his single-seaters career against Charles as the Ferrari-backed driver until 2015, when he left to take a development driver role with Williams.

By this point, the Ferrari Driver Academy was heavily scrutinized to the point where it was speculated that they would do away with the initiative entirely. While Red Bull's junior program had brought Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kyvat to its senior team, no driver from the FDA had successfully made the jump. At the end of 2015, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene decided to appoint a new head and restructure the program entirely.

Charles was rumored to be the next addition to the Ferrari Driver Academy in November 2015 as part of these changes; by December, articles were already talking as if the signing was inevitable.

In 2020, Charles would talk about visiting Maranello for the first time-- not as a friend of Jules'-- that year with his father:

I went with my father to Maranello (the home of Ferrari). I was 17 years young and extremely shy. I was scared because I didn't know if I was good enough to be included in the programme.

He was. He would end up impressing Ferrari in his two days of testing.

They would announce Charles as a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2016, setting up both his next year and the rest of his career.

[equestrianempire]

Willem Greve wins the Rolex Grand Prix inside The Flemish Masters.

The Rolex Grand Prix, the show’s height group, was the culmination of the Dutch Masters, the second Rolex Grand Slam of the calendar month. The Major, the last of the four shows in the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping to honor the initiative’s ten-year anniversary, did so with a flattering festival on Saturday night looking back over the shows from the previous decade.

Fans were eager to see if Richard Vogel, the latest Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping life competitor, could win back-to-back Majors in his quest for the sport’s best prize, a task that would require a dramatic field of riders, including the latest European, World, and Olympic champions, who were all hoping to win this prestigious Rolex Grand Prix.

Martin Fuchs, the following to go, was the first to learn Louis Konickx’s extremely built program, and he was the winner of the CPKC ‘ International’ Grand Prix, presented by Rolex at the CSIO Spruce Meadows’ Masters ‘ Tournament. The most of any animal in the group, Leone Jei, is his support, who has jumped eight clears in the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping Majors.

World No. 2 is the next addition to the main area. The flying Frenchman Julien Epaillard was another to pass the 14 mix program, keeping his hopes of becoming the first European horse to win a Major dead. 1 Henrik von Eckermann and King Edward ensured there would be a jump-off with a perfectly judged distinct round. Seven riders from seven different countries were in contention for the jump-off, including German rider Marcus Ehning and the” Dutch Horse of the Year” Harrie Smolders, who lit the residence crowd on fire. Only two more combinations of the remaining riders made it to the second circular, with some of the competition’s favorites like Steve Guerdat and Richard Vogel unwilling to join the special list of riders.

Fuchs set the pace with a distinct in 35.11 hours, but von Eckermann and King Edward immediately took the lead when they crossed the line in 33.74 seconds, making it clear that they were the leading pair in the world. Glows produced a very soft round, but the grief came when he was 0.92 seconds slower. The crowd roared back. Sweden’s victory appeared to be on the line, but French rider Willem Greve and his sea stallion, Highway TN N. O. P., with their perfectly vetted round, won in the final round. only 0.04 hours ahead of the other. Greve thus won his second Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping Major as well as a first for the Netherlands, making him the life candidate ahead of the CHIO Aachen in July.

The French horse stated:” I have to squeeze myself – it is amazing. Thoughts may adequately express how I feel. For his bravery and culture, I am so appreciative of my horse. The background here is amazing, and it honors me to be included in the list of winners. It means a lot to me to get in front of my home crowd. To win at The French Masters is a dream come true because I’ve been a part of it since I was a young child.

Major ten Rolex Grand Prix’s in Hertogenbosch- CSI5*, Piece of Table A’s Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping- Board A with Jump- Off 1m60

Rank Nr. Owner/breeder of the ride Horse – Breed Breed Color Born Sire Siredam Dam Siredam EUR RoundA Jump-Off Time 1 64 Willem Greve NED Team Nijhof vof / P. Verdellen paarden fok & opfok Bridge TN N. O. P. – KWPN Stallion Bay 2012 Eldorado v. Zeshoek Chellano Zelana V 330000 0 0 33.70 2 92 Henrik von Eckermann SWE Dufour Stables Ag, Henrik von Eckermann/ Wim Impens, King Edward – BWP Gelding Chestnut from 2010- Edward 28- Feo Koningin de Lauzelle 200000 0 0 33.74 3 87 Otto Boje Schoof, Harrie Smolders, and Harrie Smolders NED Spronken Leon Uricas van de Kattevenenen – HOLST Stallion Bay 2012 Uriko San Patrignano Cassini T- Cassina 150000 0 0 34.66 4 32 Martin Fuchs SUI Adolfo JURI / G. M. Van Mersbergen Leone Jei – KWPN Gelding– Grey 2012 Baltic VDL Corland Dara 100000 0 0 35.11 5 118 Molly Ohrstrom, Denis Lynch/Polfliet Eric, Sint Kruis Winkel, and Denis Lynch IRL Brooklyn Heights – BWP Gelding Chestnut 2009 Nabab de Reve For Pleasure Cordula de Laubry 60000 0 0 37.89 6 6 La Roque Baignard, Pieter Devos, BEL Devos Stables, and Top Stallions Corporation Toupie de la Roque – SF Mare Chestnut 2007 Kannan Nabab de Reve Walloon de Muze 45000 0 0 38.51 7 108 Marcus Ehning GER Nybor Pferde GmbH & Co. KG, Sportpferde Ehning GbR/ Claire &amp, Philippe Rizzoli Priam du Roset – CH Gelding Bay 2011 Plot Blue Tanael du Serein Ganaelle du Roset CH 30000 0 0 42.87 8 22 Gregory Wathelet BEL Perek Barake/Grey Wathelet ESH Gelding, Aliandro B. Ra, Rachel, Ace of Hearts, 2010 25000 0 8 36.30 9 14 Julien Epaillard FRA Sarl Exceptional Horses S. L., Perrine Cateline, Sylvain Pito/Sylvain Pitois, Perrine Cateline, Chestnut from 2013 Baloubet du Rouet, Diamant de Semilly, and Urgada de Kreisker are from Dubai du Cedre and SF Mare. 20000 0 8 36.60 10 121 Loewie Joppen NED Loewie Joppen, G Vanderhoijdonck / van der Kloet Havel van de Wolfsakker Z – ZANG Gelding Bay 2011 Hos d’O Bollvorm’S Libero H Nisinia van de Wolfsakker 20000 3 75.20

total results

Photo: Ashley Neuhof/Rolex Grand Slam | Press release Inside The French Masters 2024: Sunday, March 10th,

[creativepup]

It's OK if y'all didn't originally recognize her name, but here's some Louise Brooks propaganda from my mom (courtesy of https://www.pandorasbox.com/tributes/):

"Aside from Charlie Chaplin, no silent film star — and few actors or actresses of today — have received so much cultural and creative recognition. Arguably, Brooks has become a 20th century icon, even something of a muse."

In Dangerous Female (1931), the first film version of The Maltese Falcon, Brooks or someone who looks a lot like her, is pictured as Sam Spade’s girlfriend.

The femme fatale played by Cyd Charisse in Singin in the Rain (1952) was modeled after Brooks.

Over the years, many actresses have stated in print their desire to play Brooks on the big screen, including Shirley MacLaine, Julie Roberts, Dana Delaney, Winona Ryder and Neve Campbell, to name a few.

Performers who have sported bobbed hair and name checked Brooks include Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and The Banshees, country music star Lorrie Morgan, singers Linda Rondstadt and Kylie Minogue, and pop superstar Madonna.

In Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild (1986), Melanie Griffith plays a femme fatale who calls herself “Lulu” and adopts a bobbed haircut like Brooks.

The Eddie Muller short The Grand Inquisitor (2008) features a Brooks’ inspired character named Lulu.

Images of Brooks are seen a number of times in the French film Blue is the Warmest Color (2013).

Brooks was the inspiration behind Show Girl (1928) and Hollywood Girl (1929), two bestselling comedic novels by J.P. McEvoy. Each was serialized in Liberty magazine and later widely syndicated in dozens of American newspapers.

According to the Argentine author Adolfo Bioy Casares, the character of Faustine in his 1940 novel The Invention of Morel was inspired by Brooks.One of the very first works of magic realism, The Invention of Morel reportedly influenced both Alain Resnais’ film Last Year at Marienbad (1961) as well as the popular American television show, Lost.

A character named Louise Brooks, who happens to resemble the actress, plays an important role in Willem Frederik Hermans’ The Saint of the Clockmakers (1987), a philosophical novel considered one of the finest works by one of the most important Dutch novelists of the post WWII era.

Brooks is mentioned or a minor character in a number of genre novels or novels by genre writers including Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula (1992), Nancy Baker’s Kiss of the Vampire (1995), and Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (2001). In the latter novel, the character named Czernobog refers to Brooks as the greatest movie star of all time. In Houdini Heart (2011), a novel of supernatural horror, author Ki Longfellow uses Brooks as a character in the lead character’s visions. Brooks is also referenced in works by Fritz Leiber, Jr., Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Elizabeth Hand, and Lemony Snicket.

Riffing on the Brooks’ film, Frank O’Hara wrote a poem titled “F.Y.I.(PRIX DE BEAUTE)” (1961). Another poet associated with the New York School, Bill Berkson, also wrote a poem inspired by Brooks, “Bubbles” (early 1960’s). Additionally, Brooks is pictured in a book of 1978 film-inspired poems by Edward Field.

Brooks was the inspiration behind Dixie Dugan, the comic strip by J.P. McEvoy and John H. Striebel which ran from 1929 to 1966.

Brooks is popular among European comix artists. Hugo Pratt, another celebrated Italian artist, found inspiration in Brooks and drew her likeness into various works and named characters after her. Two French graphic novels, Olivia Sturgess 1914-2004 (2005) by Floc’h, and Louise et les loups (2012), by Marion Mousse, were each inspired by Brooks and her look.

The character of Death in the Sandman books by Neil Gaiman was originally based on Brooks.

Brooks is a character and appears on the cover of a Dr. Who comic, Silver Scream (2009). [The eighth Doctor, actor Paul McGann, is also a big fan of the actress.]

Brooks’ likeness is incorporated into a 1929 photo-montage by the Bauhaus associated artist Herbert Bayer. She can also be found in a collage (c. 1930) by the English artist Edward Burra.

Famed caricaturist David Levine drew a likeness of Brooks which appeared in the New York Review of Books (1982), and has been subsequently reproduced on calendars, postcards and other print media.

The first rock music nod to Brooks may be from The Freeze, a Scottish punk band. In 1980, they released a 7″ EP featuring the song “Celebration”, which the back cover notes is “dedicated to Louise Brooks who inspired this song.” Composer Gordon Sharp reportedly sent the recording to the actress. The earliest rock music video featuring footage of Brooks may be “It Hurts” by the Lotus Eaters, from 1985.

Singer songwriter Mike Doughty sports a Brooks’ tattoo, which he has worn since the 1990s. More recently on social media sites, fans have posted images of their own Brooks’ tattoos.

Rufus Wainwright’s 2010 recording, All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, is an acknowledged tribute to Brooks. The Lou Reed / Metallica collaboration, Lulu (2011), can also be regarded as a more oblique homage to Brooks.

The British new wave group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) released a hit single called “Pandora’s Box” (1991) as a Brooks tribute.The lyrics are about the actress, and the video for the song uses footage of Brooks.

International songs referencing Brooks include Jen Anderson’s “Lulu the song” (1993) from her Australian Pandora’s Box soundtrack; “Lulu” (1995) from the Canadian singer- songwriter Ron Hawkins; and “Interior Lulu” (1999) by the British prog-rock band Marillion. Another prog-rock band, TIMELOCK, from The Netherlands, released two songs about the actress, “Louise Brooks” from their 1994 album Louise Brooks, and “Louise Brooks Revisited” from a 2002 album. In 2014, Scottish singer songwriter Louise Rutkowski released Diary of a Lost Girl.That same year, the Tiger Lillies released Lulu – A Murder Ballad. In 2015, Wurlitza, a five piece band from the UK, released their original soundtrack to the Brooks’ film, Diary of a Lost Girl. And on a different note, there’s “Louise Brooks: Lulu’s Ragtime” (2007) by the Vienna Art Orchestra. As well, Brooks appears on the cover of Eliogabablus (1990), by the Italian-Slovenian experimental rock band Devil Doll. While a few images of Brooks appear in the video of Caro Emerald’s “Tangled Up” (2013).

Brooks may be more popular in France than just about anywhere. Among the French acts that have recorded tributes to the actress is the musette revival band Les Primitifs Du Futur (whose line-up includes famed cartoonist Robert Crumb); in 2006, they reworked the theme song from Prix de Beauté into “Chanson pour Louise Brooks”. Among other French recordings there is “Louise Brooks” by Lady Godiva, from their 1999 release Louise Brooks Avenue, “Actress (Louise Brooks theme)” by Nouvelle Culture from 2005, and Olivia Louvel’s “Lulu a Hollywood” from her 2007 album, Lulu in Suspension.

A French perfume, “LouLou”, from 1987, was inspired by Brooks.

“Impasse Louise Brooks”, a street named after the actress, is located in Bois d’Arcy, a village outside of Paris.

((My mom also had a coworker who styled her hair like Louise Brooks.))

Y'all are doing a cultural disservice not to vote for Louise.

Propaganda

Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl)—Louise Brooks started off as a dancer and went to work in the Follies before going to Hollywood. Disappointed with her roles there, she went to Germany and proceeded to make Pandora's Box, the first film to show a lesbian on-screen (not her but one of her many doomed admirers in the film), and Diary of a Lost Girl, both of which are considered two of the greatest films of the 20th century. She helped popularize the bob and natural acting, acting far more subtly than her contemporaries who treated the camera as a stage audience. After the collapse of her film career and a remarkably rough patch as a high-end sex worker, she was rediscovered and did film criticism, notably "Lulu in Hollywood," which Rodger Ebert called "indispensable." Also, christ. Look at her.

Vilma Bánky (The Son of the Sheik, The Eagle)—She's famous now for being a silent star ruined by the transition to talkies, unlike her frequent co-star Ronald Colman. I think that's a shame, as she has a real vivaciousness and charm in The Winning of Barbara Worth. In this *checks notes* western about environmental engineering, she rides around the desert and gets wooed by both Colman and a young Gary Cooper (good for her dot gif.) Even in stills from films that are sadly lost, I think there is a distinctive warmth and individuality to her. Also she is extremely hot in her extremely pre-Code dress in The Magic Flame.

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Louise Brooks:

"Defined the style of the modern flapper. A gaze that could make a stone fall in love."

"Louise Brooks left a legend far greater than her real achievement as an actress, but even today few people have seen her films. In our own time, the fascination with Brooks seems to have begun in 1979 with a profile by Kenneth Tynan in the New Yorker, which revealed that the actress who made her last movie in 1938 was alive and living in Rochester, N.Y. Such was the power of Tynan's prose that people began to seek out her existing films, primarily this one, to discover what the fuss was about. What we see here is a healthy young woman -- she was 23 when the film was released -- with whom the camera, under G.W. Pabst's influence, is fascinated. There is a deep paradox in Brooks and her career: the American girl who found success in the troubled Europe between two wars; the vivid personality who briefly dazzled two continents but faded into obscurity; the liberated woman who had affairs with such prominent men as CBS founder William S. Paley as well as with women including (by her account) Greta Garbo but wound up a solitary recluse. And all of this seems perfectly in keeping with her most celebrated role in Pandora's Box. For despite her bright vitality, her flashing dark eyes and brilliant smile, Brooks's Lulu becomes the ultimate femme fatale, careering her way toward destruction, not only of her lovers but eventually of herself."

"She invented having bangs to indicate that you have borderline personality disorder"

"chances are if youve ever seen a "flapper girl" character or even just art of a generic flapper type made after the 20s it was based on her appearance - particularly the bob hairstyle! she had some pretty rough experiences through her life before during and after her tumultuous acting career which ended in 1938 but she made it to the 80s, wrote an autobiography and did a lot of interviews that she was never afraid of being honest in about her own life or peers of the age, and apparently was unabashed about some affairs she had with well known women (including greta garbo!!)"

"She read Proust and Schopenhauer on set between sets. She was one of the original flappers/new women of the 1920s. She had a one night stand with Garbo and was the inspiration for Sally Bowles in Cabaret. Truly a stone cold fox."

"on her wikipedia page it says her biographer said she "loved women as a homosexual man, rather than as a lesbian, would love them" and while i have no idea if this is true or not i thought that was very gender of her"

"despite being american she was big in german expressionist films and thus her aesthetic was unmatched!!"

So far ahead of her time in regard to portraying complicated women. Timeless elegance. "I learned to act by watching Martha Graham dance, and I learned to dance by watching Charlie Chaplin act.” - Louise Brooks

Vilma Bánky:

I love Vilma Bánky! She was called "the Hungarian Rhapsody" and apparently had a thick Hungarian accent which I think is cute. Several men fighting over the same women can be very cliche but when I saw her in The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) I got it because my god she really is that drop dead gorgeous. She's also a wonderful actress though, expressive yet natural. I read once that seeing her in The Dark Angel (1925)—a film now seemingly lost—inspired Merle Oberon to become an actress :)

This is more of a factoid but she was apparently the women's golf champion at Wilshire Country Club through the 1940s. [link] I just think she's neat.

I love herrrrr she’s my everything. Watching her kiss Rudolph Valentino in Son of the Sheik made me so flustered I had to pause the movie to cool down. She’s the prettiest the most beautiful the most incredible woman I’ve ever seen. I could look at a picture of her for hours

[boxboxblog]

Driver Profiles: George Russell

Updated December 2024

Name: George William Russell

Age: 26

Nationality: British

Years in F1: 6 (Williams 2019-2021, Mercedes 2022-Present)

Number: 63

WDCs: N/A

Driving Style: Russell is most known for his analytical approach to driving, and is a driver that seems to take the data in to consideration most heavily. He has great awareness of technical set-up, and tends to be a clean driver. He also has smooth approaches to corners, and is a known early brake which helps reduce the risk of mistakes. The negative about his style is that he does not have the raw aggression other drivers do, and can be overly-cautious in wheel-to-wheel situations. This can sometimes prevent him from fighting for higher positions in the grid.

History:

Russell drove his first kart when he was 7 years old, after having grown up around the race track. He began competitive karting in 2006, moving up to the cadet class by 2009 and becoming MSA British champion and British Open champion. In 2010 he moved to the Rotax Mini Max category where he became Super One British champion, Formula Kart Stars British champion, and also won the Kartmasters British Grand Prix. Russell graduated to the KF3 class in 2011, winning the SKUSA Supernationals title and becoming CIK-FIA European Champion that year, and in 2012. In his final year of karting in 2013, did not have as successful of a run, finishing 19th.

(Young Russell behind future teammate Lewis Hamilton)

He made his single-seater debut in 2014 for the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps series. He finished that year in 4th after having an illness during the season. That same year he would compete in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship, winning the title that year after a four-way battle. As a prize for winning, he was able to test his first GP3 car.

(Russell in 2014)

Russell graduated to Formula 3 in 2015. He had a strong year, regularly achieving poles, podium finishes, and a few wins. He finished 2nd in the season behind Charles Leclerc. In 2016 he drove in the Hitech GP, and finished 3rd.

(Russell in 2016 Hitech car)

Russell moved on to GP3 for the 2017 season. He had an extremely successful year, winning multiple races and showing dominant performances. He would win the GP3 title that year before the season was finished. He was pulled up to F2 due to his strong performance that year.

In 2018 Russell drove a brilliant year in F2. He had several standout performances, multiple wins, podiums, and pole positions. He would go on to be added to the short list of drivers who won the F2 championship in their rookie year (alongside future Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton).

(Russell winning race that took his F2 championship victory)

Throughout all of this, Russell had caught the eye of the F1 team Mercedes, particularly Team Principal Toto Wolff. He joined the Mercedes Junior Program in 2017, and was expected to eventually make his way onto the team in the future. In October 2018 Williams, an F1 team that had been informally serving as the Mercedes junior team, announced Russell as part of their 2019 lineup.

(Russell with Williams)

His first season in F1 would be somewhat of disappointment for the driver. While he excelled and outpaced his teammate, the Williams car did not have the speed to fight for points. He had a similar 2020 season, but was able to get his first career points. In 2021, still with Williams, Russell achieved his first F1 podium finish at the 2021 Belgian GP. It had been a wet quali that allowed him to snatch P2, and then the race day eventually the race red flagged and never restarted after two laps, allowing him to keep his position.

(Russell at maiden podium with Williams)

Russell replaced Valterri Bottas for the Mercedes seat in 2022, partnering 8x WDC Lewis Hamilton. He has a much more positive season with Mercedes, claiming multiple high finish points and podiums. He would go on to have his first win at the Brazilian GP, which also was Mercedes first victory of the year. He would ultimately finish 4th in the championship, his highest finishing results in F1. 2023 was an even more difficult time for Mercedes. While Russell did have some positive finishes, Red Bull dominated and he finished 8th in the championship standings.

(Russell during his first win in Brazil)

2024 was a mixed bag year for Russell with some bad results and some great results. Notably he won two races that year, one in Austria and the other in Vegas. He finished the season 6th in the standings, right behind his teammate, and is set to remain with Mercedes for the 2025 season.

(Russell after Austria 2024 win)

Major Races:

2019 German GP - While Russell did not finish in the points in this race, he had a standout rookie performance. He displayed calm behavior in the face of difficult situations (namely an uncompetitive car) and showcased his skills in wet-dry conditions.

2020 Sakhir GP - In this race while, he was still with Williams, Russell filled in for a sick Lewis Hamilton. Despite limited preparation with the car, he led most of the race. He lost out on victory due to a puncture and pit stop error. Still, he showed what he could do in a fast car for the first time.

2021 Hungarian GP - This race was where Russell scored his first points for Williams. He showcased his strong ability despite being in a subpar car, and was able to capitalize off of other driver's mistakes.

2021 Belgian GP - While Russell's first podium is controversial (due to the fact that two laps were only completed) it was his qualifying that got him the 2nd step. His skill in wet conditions allowed him to qualify much higher than he should have in a Williams. They do say rain is the great equalizer in F1, where skill truly shines.

2022 Brazilian GP - Russells first win, won after a previous day's sprint race win. His first win with Mercedes, he showed that he could fight with top drivers.

2024 Vegas GP- His first really dominant win, Russell held the lead for teh entire race and did not even come close to losing it once. Brilliant and collected drive.

Cheers,

-B

[carformula1]

Vowles puts Hamilton ahead of Schumacher in F1 greats Williams Team Principal, James Vowle... #usa #uk #ireland