flymula1

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I don't know what's the silliest thing about this post: the fact I had three days to edit the typo on the third word of said post, or the fact I thought to edit it... to program it three hours earlier than I originally programmed it.

The reasoning? "Oh, at 3PM, everyone will be watching the race, not your stupid 1982 scans"... Now guess who wiped out Fire Emblem Awakening to pass 1h20 of race start delay this afternoon?

anyway happy 45th anniversary of your Belgian GP victory Didier

Mods are watcing the Belgian GP, post early 1982 French man in blue race overalls in a Ferrari (somewhat).

An interview from Auto-Hebdo issue 301, published in January of 1982, right before the Kyalami drivers' strike. But then, what can "Mr President Revendicate"? Well, they do ask Didier about what it's like to be president of the GPDA. Oh and a bit of other stuff, like this relationship to his teammate, his reaction to Patrick Tambay fucking off from F1 and Ligier apparently missing his former driver. Fun, quick read!

...

also there's a quote about the French death penalty in there. yes, specifically the French death penalty.

I still don't... really get what Didier was trying to say by comparing Bernie Ecclestone's role in FOCA with François Mitterand, then French president, abolishing the death penalty in 1981. I think he says that's a good thing? The death penalty thing, I mean. I think he's trying to say a competent leader elected with trust takes the right decisions for everyone, and while French people were in majority for the death penalty, abolishing it was actually the right decision. WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THE FRENCH DEATH PENALTY IN MY DIDIER PIRONI TUMBLR POST

Whatever. That front photo fucks and that's all that matters probably.

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Is there a more tragic sports story than brocedes

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who's that pokemon?

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Mika replying to a question on whether he is scared of big accidents, 1994 🥺🥺

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Mods are watcing the Belgian GP, post early 1982 French man in blue race overalls in a Ferrari (somewhat).

An interview from Auto-Hebdo issue 301, published in January of 1982, right before the Kyalami drivers' strike. But then, what can "Mr President Revendicate"? Well, they do ask Didier about what it's like to be president of the GPDA. Oh and a bit of other stuff, like this relationship to his teammate, his reaction to Patrick Tambay fucking off from F1 and Ligier apparently missing his former driver. Fun, quick read!

...

also there's a quote about the French death penalty in there. yes, specifically the French death penalty.

I still don't... really get what Didier was trying to say by comparing Bernie Ecclestone's role in FOCA with François Mitterand, then French president, abolishing the death penalty in 1981. I think he says that's a good thing? The death penalty thing, I mean. I think he's trying to say a competent leader elected with trust takes the right decisions for everyone, and while French people were in majority for the death penalty, abolishing it was actually the right decision. WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THE FRENCH DEATH PENALTY IN MY DIDIER PIRONI TUMBLR POST

Whatever. That front photo fucks and that's all that matters probably.

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PATRICK TAMBAY with his daughter during the 1984 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP || photos by PATRICK JOUOUX

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Before I got obsessed with late 70s/early 80s and started collecting sources about a blonde man with blue eyes and a bodycount, the very first F1-related topic I got obsessed with was the 1999 French Grand Prix.

If you've heard about this one, it's probably for the crazy shenanigans that happened under the rain. Rubens Barrichello getting Stewart GP's sole pole position. Mika Häkkinen starting from 14th position after getting his qualy timing wrong. Jordan winning by making Heinz-Harald Frentzen do a one-stopper thanks to their slightly bigger fuel tank. The race has, after all, the reputation of being one of the few good French GPs in history, and not just in France.

These scans come from Auto-Hebdo issue 1194, published June 30th, 1999. They contain a summary of the weekend; a lap-by-lap summary of the race; an interview of the poleman; an interview with the winner; a blurb about Ralf and Michael Schumacher duking it out on-track; and finally, a handy summary of the whole thing. Oh, and that last scan I included? It's meant to be used as a VHS case cover for the magazine's readers' recordings at home. VHS culture was real y'all.

My scans are slightly weird because the magazine is larger than the standard A4 format - which is what my scanner is. It's not too bad for most of it... except it breaks the title of the article. Right now, you'd read it as "Frentzen revient de l'au-delà"; "Frentzen Comes Back from the Afterlife". However, it's actually written "Frentzen revient de l'eau-delà", which is a pun on "eau", the French word for water. Get it? Because it was pouring that day? Hilarious I know. Anyway, it's untranslatable into English!

Oh, I forgot to tell you why I was obsessed with the topic to the point I own two magazines and a half about it and bought two books for that purpose. Well, you see, more than a year ago, I was very bored at my desk job, and was scroilling through French website StatsF1. That's when I learned about it: the broken leg win of 1999.

I'm very chatty on that topic, so in case you don't know about it, here it is.

If you don't know about it: here's how it goes. We're in Montréal in June of 1999. Heinz-Harald Frentzen is second in the last laps of the race when his front-right brake disk goes poof! and sends him flying at 180km/h or so into the nearest wall. He gets out of it, but not wuthout assistance (and this is why the 99 Canadian GP is the very first GP to end under Safety Car, fyi). Originally, nothing is thought of it. So yes, he skips private practice preparing for the race, but he does attend it. According to some testimonies, HHF is out there limping, but he says he's fine. He's not, and he'll tell later he couldn't even sleep with a blanket on his right leg, but naaah he can race.

He wins.

It's only a couple weeks later that, finally, Heinz-Harald resolves himself to go see his usual doctor in Monaco. There, every health specialist in contact with him is astonished: his right knee has a plethora of hairline fractures, while the bone around it is split down the middle. It's an absolute unit of a fracture. And he drove the whole weekend with that. Clearly, we were not familiar with your game, Heinz-Harald.

A1ND NOW here comes the funny stuff. Nobody really knows what he was diagnosed with originally. I've seen thrown around the main concern was originally his bleeding left leg - which I think HHF confirmed himself? Or it was a bruise, or something like that. What we do know is that Prof. Sid Watkins had to give him the go-ahead, but according to the professor himself, it was more of a formality.

Anyway, Wikipedia says on their page on the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix that Frentzen was uninjured that day. Funniest shit I've ever read.

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Took the most important picture of my Belgian GP weekend

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I'm currently attending the Belgian Grand Prix, so I've queued scans!

This one is from Sport-Auto issue 240 from January 1982, and is a whole-ass section dedicated to Jacques Laffite, his life as a driver and also as a family man. Its title translates to "Laffite 82, A Brand New Man", and It features him being Jean-Pierre Jabouille's brother-in-law (aka his "beauf'" in French slang I like using too much), a dad to his two daughters Camille and Marguerite, and also not shirtless. Which is a disappointment since it's an article about Jacquot of all people, but oh well.

In case you ever were interested in this guy's opinions on his career up until late 1981, his opinions on whatever was going in F1 and brief glimpses of all his former Ligier teammates, and a lot about JP Jabouille's sudden departure from F1 due to his violent crash in the 1980 Canadian GP.

The truth is, I'm mostly posting this for a single piece of trivia. You know, this Marguerite I mentioned? The teeny tiny little baby girl who celebrates her birthday on one of these photos? Yeah, she usually goes by Margot these days. She's also a driver and reporter in her own right. In fact, we often see her during F1 broadcasts! And I love her work very much.

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Can you believe I've somehow never posted scans directly related to Niki Lauda on this blog? Me neither, so here's my most freshly scanned magazine article: "Niki Lauda: victoire sur l'avenir !" ("Niki Lauda: Victory on the Future!") from Sport-Auto issue 244, published in early May of 1982.

Written soon after his victory in Long Beach at the USA West GP, we're greeted with a bunch og things Niki: his comeback after his short-lived first retirement from F1, his airline company, discussions of money and fighting spirit, and of course, his different eras (yes, this exact term is used).

I love the airplane-related pictures. They're so funky.

I also still can't scan for the life of me, but somehow I scan it sideways in the just the right ways for it to look right when put side by side, okay lol

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I need to queue a bunch of posts before I leave for Belgium oof, hope I can scan enough of my newer arrivals for that

For now I've got a bunch of early 1982 docs, so I guess look forward to that?

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(we'll ignore that I originally posted that on my main blog)

Thanks to tags from @monaco1988 (see prev) I was able to track what I think was the exact program these images come from - the January 30th 1982 broadcast of French show "Les jeux du stade" ("Games of the Stadium"). This screenshot is from the consulatable index of the Inathèque, a service maintained by our national audiovisual archives. I've used it once, and it's an absolute gem, but it's only accessible in certain places in France and you need to be allowed to use it. I do have access to it because I requested one (they're honestly very lenient with it), but the nearest place near me to use it is Paris and I'm leaving forBelgium tomorrow, so tough luck there lol.

Oh, also: the Inathèque is consultation-only. You can't leave with the goods. They make you sign a use chart and stuff. So no luck there, but hey.

"But Fly, how do you knpw it's this one?" The "générique" section lists the people who participated in there. I've not seen a lot of a show that was long gone by the time I was born, but I can tell you for sure Jean-Marie Balestre and Didier Pironi weren't regulars. That show was mostly about football and rugby from what I could tell. Also, this specific broadcast is listed as having had a section on the 1982

If you've not had the (mis)fortune of watching Rouges sangs, a 2019 documentary supposedly about the Villeneuve-Pironi rivalry of 1982 (but is mostlly about Didier, okay lol), the part where Balestre is pointing his finger out at Pironi is him bitching about the strike. So that's how you know it's about Kyalami 82 and nothing else!

Anyway, about the broadcast itself. Someone might've posted that broadcast somewhere - I know some people love posting old stuff onto Dailymotion and you never know where they got it from. Shoutout to whoever had the Antenne 2 broadcast of the 1979 South African GP because hearing François Janin imitate a Québécois accent when talking about Gilles Villeneuve made my day and we almost lost access to that.

:)

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May I share this screenshot from a 2019 documentary showing extracts from that broadcast? I've used it too much not to share it I guess.

:)

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What I expected when ordering a magazine whose tagline was "Pironi explains himself": Imola 82. What I forgot: this was Sport-Auto issue 242 from March 1982. Imola literally hadn't happened yet.

No, instead, this article - whose title translates to "Didier Pironi: A Captain in the Storm" - is about Kyalami 82, the drivers' strike, and a bunch of other things about the GPDA/PRDA, safety concerns, stuff like this. Quite the enligthening read, I'm so glad I was wrong about my assumption (although that'd have been interesting to - I've yet to find the Auto-Hebdo issue where that may be a feature oof).

Oh also, two new pics of the strike! Free of charge, I guess.

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2 and 7 for the f1 questions? :)

2. favourite retired driver?

Ooooh, huh... I know ther's a question for classic F1 driver as well, and the answer there is quite obvious, but this one is catching me off-guard because, to be real with y'all, I'm not a very 2000s/early 2010s kinda F1 guy lol. But I guess it'd be Valtteri Bottas? This guy makes me laugh half the time I see him. God I love the mullet-moustache combo look, it's so zany. Also he deserves a better last F1 season than whatever the fuck his 2024 was.

If you include early 200s drivers, I guess Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Again, just because he amuses me immensely. Oh and his 1999 season, but that's a less funny reason now, isn't it!

7. how did you get into f1?

It's October 2023 and I come home way too early from an evening out with friends. My little sister and mom are sitting in the living room, watching TV. I ask what they're watching: the Mexican Grand Prix. I vaguely remember my sis ranting about how intolerbale the Qatar race was that year, but that's it.

I end up watching with them, because turning my laptop back on seems like a bit of a waste with how late it is. My sister explains to me who everyone is and what a formation lap is. I hear my very first "montez le volume, et rendez-vous au premier virage".

She barely finishes telling me why she doesn't like Sergio Pérez when we see him crash on lap 1 of his home race. I think I found Fernando Alonso's last overtake cool, but my memory is hazy.

Anyway, a year later, I was purposefully waking up early to watch races and now own a bunch of magazines based on if a guy I like the story of was interviewed or not. Wild.

Thank you very much for dropping an ask!

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15 & 47! - @christiangeistdorfer

15 - Favourite teammate pairing

I thought about it really hard to avoid saying that but. Man. it's got to be good ol' 81-82 Ferrari, Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi. I know how it ends, but man. MAN the stupid shit these two would get up to is so funny to me, it's made a couple evenings of mine. Also, I'm a writer and a sensitive guy, I was very touched to learn about all of their story first. Too many thoughts and not enough braincells to put them into words man.

I really tried to come up with something less... weird to answer this with, but came up empty handed. Oof.

47 - Random thing you associate with F1

This is going to sound quite dumb, but honestly? Lenovo computers. They sponsor the French F1 broadcast and now whenever I see a Lenovo product I always go "omg F1"

Thank you so much for the ask!!

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f1 themed ask game!!

1. favourite current driver?

2. favourite retired driver?

3. favourite classic f1 driver?

4. favourite team?

5. least favourite driver?

6. least favourite team?

7. how did you get into f1?

8. who do you think will win the wdc this year?

9. who do you think deserves to win the wdc this year?

10. favourite f1 academy driver?

11. favourite livery?

12. favourite race this year?

13. favourite team principle?

14. favourite race engineer?

15. favourite teammate pairing?

16. teammate pairing you need next year?

17. retired driver you wish would come back?

18. favourite ship?

19. favourite friendship?

20. team you would want to join as a driver?

21. driver you would want as your teammate?

22. what’s one thing about f1 you can’t stand?

23. favourite f1cs you’ve read recently?

24. do you watch any other sports?

25. how long would you last at alpine?

26. do you have any f1 ocs?

27. who do you think would win if f1 drivers raced on foot?

28. person from another sport you’d like to see in f1?

29. driver who would make the best race engineer?

30. your best ideas to improve f1?

31. which drivers/team would you want to see make a mclaren tooned style series?

32. if every f1 driver of all time raced in equal machinery who do you think would win?

33. f1 driver you think isn’t actually real?

34. what number would you choose if you were an f1 driver?

35. f1 lore you want everyone to know about?

36. f1 lore you wish you knew more about?

37. if you designed a circuit what would it look like?

38. favourite f1 driver pet?

39. which driver’s pet do you think could win a grand prix?

40. driver you think is animal coded?

41. driver you think would make the best music?

42. best f1 season you’ve watched?

43. best f1 race you’ve watched?

44. worst f1 season you’ve watched?

45. worst f1 race you’ve watched?

46. if there could be a grand prix anywhere in the world where would you want it?

47. random thing you associate with f1?

48. f1 merch you think needs to exist?

49. driver you think you’d crash with the most if you were in f1?

50. your most evil f1 take?