If it takes Honda a long while to get a power plant right, you can tell it's difficult. There's not much anyone can teach them about the design of the internal combustion engine - and looking at Mugen's development of the electric race bike at the Isle of Man, they aren't that short on electric motor technology, either.
All credit to Ilmor (sorry, 'Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains') for getting it right first time.
MarÃa de Villota, also injured in a Marussia, also hit a truck on the course. She died a year after her accident from a cardiac arrest that was determined to have been the result of her injuries related to that accident.
The fact that she had been active most of that year kind of makes it seem somewhat unrelated, but severe injuries can cause all sorts of delayed issues.
So yeah, Jules was the first F1 racing driver since Senna, but not exactly the first F1 driver.
Such a tragedy for Jules though. I keep reading that he had a great deal of potential and that he was a genuinely nice person.
I remember reading something a month or so ago that said the Merc drivers were predicting some new excitement at race starts due to the mid-season banning of assistance from the pit wall. No more engineers checking telemetry during and after the formation lap and telling their drivers exactly how to set things up, which buttons to push, switches to flip, etc, to make their launches work.
But that doesn't start until the next race in Belgium, 23 Aug. If you didn't know that you might think the new rules went into effect two races ago. After all, Merc have been jumped at the start now two races in a row. One race is an anomaly, two in a row...not so much. Esp. for a dominant team that's had no such trouble until now.
No surprise, then, that Toto Wolff is a bit worried about how their race start will go at Spa.
But this change should have a negative effect on everyone, not just Merc, unless their drivers are more reliant on that assistance than everyone else.
I'm very curious to see how things go the second half of the season. Summer break now though so it will be a while before we find out.
The Germans (Mercedes) seem to have a hard time improvising. They are really good when things happen according to their plan but when it doesn't they don't respond very well.
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