Red Bull Ferrari, Bottas, Jean Pierre Bell discussed on The Autosport Podcast
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
Hit wonder. That probably this probably is the definition of that, isn't it? And I'd also go as far as is it not one of the ugliest winners in the car I mean? Yes. Not getting pasta. Just to just get a lovely man. Yeah, yeah, but the car. I was horrible, I noses. Lots to remember about that race. And he finished 3.2 seconds up the road from Alonso. He did pull away in the closing stages. I think Fernando even then was like, I'm not going to do it. This is not my day check. But it's funny to think that Williams had one last good era after that. The martini years. And they never actually won a race. Victory. Yeah, I mean, when they were quick, they were still normally quite a long way back from Mercedes. They went Red Bull Ferrari was still getting their act together in the turbo hybrid era. They were second best, but they were still a margin behind Mercedes that would put them probably fourth or 5th now. But they were unlucky the one didn't drop. But I think that they also a little bit tentative with their strategy a couple of times when they probably had the chance to go after they had massive running ahead of Bottas when they should have swapped them and just a little bit off on their strategy against the team that was just used to winning every week. And that sort of conservative approach out of the time of we know we're not fighting Mercedes in the championship here, but fighting the rest of the round there is like, well, it's bank the points that's not gamble and throw it away, which that was their focus at the time. So you sort of can excuse us a little bit. There's a lot to be said for the experience of winning and understanding what it takes to win. And getting used to that habit of winning the teams who suddenly find themselves in that situation. They haven't been there before or for a long time. It's struggle. And I think that's a good example of that, isn't it? Yeah, definitely. That's what makes the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix even more incredible, really. Okay. Who is on top of the podium? Jean Pierre bell to ask 1972 Monaco Grand Prix. As a career, he perhaps not ahead of some of the ones later on this, a decent career and actually had been quick in the wet before. But I spoke to Tony Southgate about this, he was the BRM designer and who's just on his way out the door at this point. But he said, you know, Bill sauce is great to work. We've actually because I said to him after Pedro Rodriguez and Joseph, it did you feel a bit, you know, obviously that was a terrible time. But did you feel a little bit like you're lacking on the drive run? Well, not really because Jean Pierre was really good. He was genuinely good and actually the following year he outscored teammates Nikki louder and clay Rick zone. So pretty actually pretty probably a better drive than perhaps remembered but had a sort of weak arm which affected him perhaps in the dry bit. But in the wet, the reason this is here is none of that is because it's just one of the great wet weather performances. He's a fourth on the grid, which was now being feet in the P one 60 B, which was not a cutting edge F one car at that point. It wasn't even BRM's current car. The P one 80 hadn't been made to work yet. So they were using the older car. And he storms through from fourth, grabs the lead and then disappears down the road. Jackie takes a little while to get back into second, and I think if you read the contemporary reports, there's an expectation that once X is into second, the wet weather master will catch bell to ours. Now he finishes nearly 40 seconds by 38.2 seconds behind and he said places Emerson Fittipaldi on his way to in the world championship and he was lapped. Wow. It's just amazing where the drives that may or may not appear in a future episode of series three, top ten podcasts. So I think it's in the outstanding drive that stands comparison with the great drives of multiple champions and race winners, and that's why it's on the list. It's funny, isn't it? If he was watching the World Cup at the moment, you see goals or performances from Lionel Messi or and everyone raves bam. And someone fairly unknown does exactly the same thing. And you go, that was great. As I just kind of forgotten quickly, and this is kind of that thing with bell toises. If he was a Fittipaldi or Stuart, this would be amongst their greatest winds and one of the great drives of all time. But because of Jean Pierre beltoise, it's kind of overlooked, doesn't it? So yeah. Very good choice to put it number one. So I'm sure you'll be delighted for being there. Number one on this list then, they will take that. I mean, South Gate is saying the V12 was probably the nice smooth delivery. He was a good engine at that point and obviously you can throw in Jack Stuart's on the wrong tyres into that actually at that point suffering from a duodenal ulcer which would actually make him miserable. But I think that on that day it was just a great drive irrespective of who it was. I was going to ask that about what was it about the car, the engine, the familiarity with that machine, the driver on the day, familiarity with that circuit. What was it? Well, I think the V12 was smooth, which would have helped out. The cosmos DFV was known as a bit of it was a bit rough. So it was obviously the engine of the era. But 71, the V12 was still probably good enough to almost scoot the F in 72. It was kind of fading, but it was still very smooth engine, which as say Southgate suggested helped. I think bell to ours, if he did have any kind of physical limitation because of his arm, wasn't so obvious in the wet. And I think he was just he was just one of those drivers in the mood on a track that reward in a track and conditions where it rewarded someone being a virtue of virtuoso performance. There is some footage of it. He's quite lurid at times. You know, he's because he's taking chances in traffic and because an issue is always not in the spray, just pulling away. But he just carried on pulling away and diving. So he just inspired. So I think it was a combination of right car, right driver, right place, right conditions. And there's no luck involved. For others, you could say, whereas others we've mentioned quite a few times on this list, particularly the upper end. Yeah, they need certain things to go their way for others to hit misfortune or whatever. None of that you could apply to this. See where you've got this. And also just out of nowhere as well. I didn't score anything else in that year. Is that right? No, I don't think it's good any other any other points. Just ridiculous. Sort of makes it stand out even more. You would see the results of the page where has that come from. But this random little factor as well. This is the one time that they ran the Monaco girl and proved that slightly different pit entry around the back. So on the swimming pool where it was now the swimming pool and they did the chicane in a different place and had the pits on that side. Was it the last tubercles swimming pool? Could pull around that time. Yeah, not sure. It was doing that during that period. It's not quite sure it might have been a little bit later. I have to have to check. But yeah, I think just followed Hayden's point. I think the top two belshaw is a Maldonado. They went out and won those races and there was no question about it. The difference is that I think Maldonado, that's an outstanding race for pastor Maldonado. The bell Charles is just an outstanding race for this outstanding performance. I like that idea of him lapping drivers at the hairpin and then sort of doing a double take. And what the hell is that? Belt Schwartz's flew past sideways. What? Love that thought. Hey, a brilliant podcast today. We'd always love to hear from you. By the way, you can email us podcast at autosport dot com when I reckon it's Kevin was shakes his head. No, or a well reasoned argument. You love one of those from a fairly together. I do, to be fair,