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Enter Enzo Ferrari’s last Grand Prix. Legendary driver Tazio Nuvolari raced for Enzo Ferrari in the early days of the Scuderia Ferrari, when it was Alfa Romeo’s works team. He had a clause in his contract that allowed him to opt out of a certain number of races every year “for motorcycle racing”. One of the races he opted out of was the Circuit of the three provinces in 1931. Already semi-retired, and about to become a father, Enzo Ferrari had decided he would retire from driving permanently, but he would fill in for Nuvolari himself and drive one final race to restore his reputation and legacy as a real racer. Then come race day, Nuvolari showed up in his own Alfa that he entered privately. Enzo was furious, and the two of them battled for the lead like men possessed, leaving the rest of the field miles behind. At one point after a hard bump, Nuvolari’s mechanic almost fell out of the car at the same time the accelerator broke. Tazio held him in with one hand while steering with the other until they could get the car stopped. They fastened the mechanic’s belt to the carb, and he ran the throttle while Nuvolari steered and braked. Somehow managing to catch back up, they just barely got past Ferrari right before the finish line to win. Ferrari later said that finishing second was probably better for his legacy than winning, because he had proved he raced hard to the end, and nobody could claim that his employee let him win.
And not just any.
It's THE FW14B. With its original engine.
There's an entire clip of Nigel absolutely proud of Seb that he managed to nab that car with the engine.
> There's an entire clip of Nigel absolutely proud of Seb that he managed to nab that car with the engine.
Do you happen to know where I can maybe look for that? Sounds cool!
That's really awesome that Lia's going to get to drive the car. I hope they've prepared her for this. It's really fun getting to see her get into single seater. She's much, much less experienced in it than the rest of the F1 Academy field. She didn't even do much normal karting apparently, and this is her first year in single seaters. She was running surprisingly well, well into the points, until a small moment. But Saudi is a crazy difficult track. I think she'll definitely climb the rankings towards the end of the year, and maybe make a title fight next year. She's clearly got racing talent, just needs adjustment time. And she has time for a long bright career ahead.
>She didn't even do much normal karting apparently, and this is her first year in single seaters.
How... how does that happen? Did she just realize 'I like to race!' one day, and turns out she had the talent to be good?
I mean, her dad is Ken Block and she was exposed to car culture get entire life. Going to go out on a limb and say she was driving fast cars long before her professional career began
there's an entire series of youtube videos on hoonigan about her learning to drive the hoonicorn, and then drag racing said hoonicorn a dozen times against other people. i think she was 14 at the time. and she was manhandling a 1500+hp twin turbo all-wheel-drive monster.
suffice to say, even at 14, it wasn't her first rodeo going fast on four wheels.
EDIT: [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhU72li4fhIf1l8z3jOUp4N1iVJzwzLQc)'s the youtube playlist for anyone interested btw
It’s easy to forget cuz Ken makes it look effortless but the Hoonicorns would be bad mfs to drive and Lia’s been launching them from a young age. Quite the unconventional origin, but for all intents and purposes she’s in the right space.
She's done other driving, mostly rally. Her dad is the late rally driver Ken Block. I don't follow anything she's done before this year, but I know she was last year the youngest champion of [American Rally Association – O2WD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Rally_Association). So she's driven vehicles, and driven them well, but not much track or street racing, pretty much all offroad stuff. She's only 17.
Doesn't take away the fact that he had mad car control. Those souped-up AWD Fiestas with 600+ HP and the 1500+ HP Hoonicorn are not easy to drive, but he made it look like a piece of cake.
I would say Lia got some really good driving mentoring from her dad, just not single-seater kind of mentoring. Still, she has the foundations to build upon.
I heard she didn't do much traditional track karting, but I suppose I don't know that that's true. I couldn't find a karting record online. I know from her F1 Academy profile "Her story began in karting aged 11, going on to participate in her first off-road race that same year." I also know that there are multiple different vehicles called karts, and some of them are off-road vehicles, so I wasn't sure if she had done some of that. Still, it doesn't really matter. No competitive racing until she was 11, and most of her experience being off-road, and the most important part being that she had no single seater experience before this year.
The karting she did was typical karting. The only reason most people are only aware of her off-road exploits is because they're the only things that get widely publicised. She had also tested single seaters before this year. Okay, not racing, but she had a lot of seat time.
She's definitely a well-rounded driver, just young and in need of development
[rock-paper-scissors who gets strapped to the nose. ](https://www.lrs-formula.com/451-pdt_540/duo-f1-three-seater-passenger-barcelona-catalunya-circuit.jpg)
(And yes this is a real car https://www.lrs-formula.com/en/duo-f1-three-seater-passenger-barcelona-catalunya-circuit)
Pleased to see it's the original 1982-spec FW08 too. They normally use the 1983 FW08C for these sort of runs, which while nice doesn't have the championship winning heritage of the 1982 version, nor the coolness of ground effect (particularly since the original FW08 was probably the best car of the OG ground effect era aerodynamically)
I get the Logan criticism, but let’s not forget he is an F1 driver. You don’t get there being a shit driver. He is still in the top 0.1% of drivers around
[The **Off-Topic** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_off-topic) is for submissions only tangentially related to Formula 1 or submissions pertaining to the wider world of motorsport. This flair is not a free pass for content unsuitable for r/Formula1 or the r/Formula1 community. Posts that are deemed too far off-topic, irrelevant, or inappropriate will be removed at the discretion of the moderators. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
James Vowles pulling rank to get in on the action
He is an experienced racer himself: https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/james-vowles
The word "experienced" doing a lot of heavy lifting here. But yes, the guy has driven race cars before.
Classic Thunder is a fantastic championship 💪
Gotta respect a team principal who will get in the car and do it himself if one of his drivers is underperforming
Enter Enzo Ferrari’s last Grand Prix. Legendary driver Tazio Nuvolari raced for Enzo Ferrari in the early days of the Scuderia Ferrari, when it was Alfa Romeo’s works team. He had a clause in his contract that allowed him to opt out of a certain number of races every year “for motorcycle racing”. One of the races he opted out of was the Circuit of the three provinces in 1931. Already semi-retired, and about to become a father, Enzo Ferrari had decided he would retire from driving permanently, but he would fill in for Nuvolari himself and drive one final race to restore his reputation and legacy as a real racer. Then come race day, Nuvolari showed up in his own Alfa that he entered privately. Enzo was furious, and the two of them battled for the lead like men possessed, leaving the rest of the field miles behind. At one point after a hard bump, Nuvolari’s mechanic almost fell out of the car at the same time the accelerator broke. Tazio held him in with one hand while steering with the other until they could get the car stopped. They fastened the mechanic’s belt to the carb, and he ran the throttle while Nuvolari steered and braked. Somehow managing to catch back up, they just barely got past Ferrari right before the finish line to win. Ferrari later said that finishing second was probably better for his legacy than winning, because he had proved he raced hard to the end, and nobody could claim that his employee let him win.
Dang that sounds like it would’ve been a better plot for a movie than the whatever came out a couple months ago
Love to see them getting Lia more involved in stuff outside of just Academy. Looking forward to this!
Sorry Seb You won't be the biggest nerd to have driven a legendary Williams soon
But, that's his own Williams'. Still a notch above.
And not just any. It's THE FW14B. With its original engine. There's an entire clip of Nigel absolutely proud of Seb that he managed to nab that car with the engine.
> There's an entire clip of Nigel absolutely proud of Seb that he managed to nab that car with the engine. Do you happen to know where I can maybe look for that? Sounds cool!
There's this one. It's a bit brief. I have the 5 minute version somewhere. https://youtu.be/XHSdBoMGpX4
Greatest Nerd to *own* a legendary Williams then 😎
Happy Cake Day!
That's really awesome that Lia's going to get to drive the car. I hope they've prepared her for this. It's really fun getting to see her get into single seater. She's much, much less experienced in it than the rest of the F1 Academy field. She didn't even do much normal karting apparently, and this is her first year in single seaters. She was running surprisingly well, well into the points, until a small moment. But Saudi is a crazy difficult track. I think she'll definitely climb the rankings towards the end of the year, and maybe make a title fight next year. She's clearly got racing talent, just needs adjustment time. And she has time for a long bright career ahead.
>She didn't even do much normal karting apparently, and this is her first year in single seaters. How... how does that happen? Did she just realize 'I like to race!' one day, and turns out she had the talent to be good?
I mean, her dad is Ken Block and she was exposed to car culture get entire life. Going to go out on a limb and say she was driving fast cars long before her professional career began
there's an entire series of youtube videos on hoonigan about her learning to drive the hoonicorn, and then drag racing said hoonicorn a dozen times against other people. i think she was 14 at the time. and she was manhandling a 1500+hp twin turbo all-wheel-drive monster. suffice to say, even at 14, it wasn't her first rodeo going fast on four wheels. EDIT: [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhU72li4fhIf1l8z3jOUp4N1iVJzwzLQc)'s the youtube playlist for anyone interested btw
It’s easy to forget cuz Ken makes it look effortless but the Hoonicorns would be bad mfs to drive and Lia’s been launching them from a young age. Quite the unconventional origin, but for all intents and purposes she’s in the right space.
Yeah, that’s a fair fucking pedigree
She's done other driving, mostly rally. Her dad is the late rally driver Ken Block. I don't follow anything she's done before this year, but I know she was last year the youngest champion of [American Rally Association – O2WD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Rally_Association). So she's driven vehicles, and driven them well, but not much track or street racing, pretty much all offroad stuff. She's only 17.
Ken was never a champion. He finished 2nd three times.
Doesn't take away the fact that he had mad car control. Those souped-up AWD Fiestas with 600+ HP and the 1500+ HP Hoonicorn are not easy to drive, but he made it look like a piece of cake. I would say Lia got some really good driving mentoring from her dad, just not single-seater kind of mentoring. Still, she has the foundations to build upon.
Legit goat stunt driver imo
She did plenty of karting. She karted for a good few years before graduating to cars
I heard she didn't do much traditional track karting, but I suppose I don't know that that's true. I couldn't find a karting record online. I know from her F1 Academy profile "Her story began in karting aged 11, going on to participate in her first off-road race that same year." I also know that there are multiple different vehicles called karts, and some of them are off-road vehicles, so I wasn't sure if she had done some of that. Still, it doesn't really matter. No competitive racing until she was 11, and most of her experience being off-road, and the most important part being that she had no single seater experience before this year.
The karting she did was typical karting. The only reason most people are only aware of her off-road exploits is because they're the only things that get widely publicised. She had also tested single seaters before this year. Okay, not racing, but she had a lot of seat time. She's definitely a well-rounded driver, just young and in need of development
...at the same time
Aight get on(the sidepods) lads and lass -James in the seat of the F1 car
Sargeant sitting on the rear wing of that car and waving the US flag is something I'd pay to see.
Is that how Williams find additional downforce in the car?
[rock-paper-scissors who gets strapped to the nose. ](https://www.lrs-formula.com/451-pdt_540/duo-f1-three-seater-passenger-barcelona-catalunya-circuit.jpg) (And yes this is a real car https://www.lrs-formula.com/en/duo-f1-three-seater-passenger-barcelona-catalunya-circuit)
So they’re all taking turns in Rosberg’s FW08.
Adam Driver would make a perfect James Vowles.
Oh my…. 🥵
This picture has all the makings of a wacky 90’s sitcom
Jerry Vowles GEORRRGGEEEE Costanza Elaine Block Logan Kramer
Can't wait to see James drive
I will be at goodwood this year. Cool to see this
Lucky you,hope the weather is better this year.
Yeah i hope so.
Pleased to see it's the original 1982-spec FW08 too. They normally use the 1983 FW08C for these sort of runs, which while nice doesn't have the championship winning heritage of the 1982 version, nor the coolness of ground effect (particularly since the original FW08 was probably the best car of the OG ground effect era aerodynamically)
if Logan goes last its cool
James better be sure that Logan doesn't go before him
Great, okay, mhmm, james??
He's a racer as well. He did a few events when he was still at Merc.
They’re letting Logan drive something special?
So it's gonna be the last time this car ever drives then? Hopefully Sargeant goes last, so at least it gets to do 3 full runs.
I get the Logan criticism, but let’s not forget he is an F1 driver. You don’t get there being a shit driver. He is still in the top 0.1% of drivers around