Barcelona F1

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Thought I'd start this thread before Yellowperil got in there before me.

Forza Ferrari and a huge thank you to everyone in the team that has made me feel part of this incredible family from my first day to this race which will be my last

May the sun shine down hot on the track, may Hamilton get inside Rosbergs head again, may Hamilton suffer engine/gearbox failure and here is to Seb or Kimi taking the top step.

Would be great to leave with a last race win to go with my first race win from 7yrs ago.

[herr_oberst]

I hope you're leaving on your terms.

Please keep posting. I live my F1 dreams vicariously through people such as you!

[motion]

7 years! What a run! I'm sure you have some amazing experiences and stories to cherish. I can only imagine being part of such an incredible organization. I have to ask: any good MS stories? I'm fairly certain he is highly revered in Maranello?

Would be nice to see Kimi get up there again. Anyone but Hamilton!

Sigh.... I kinda wish Rossi would have signed back in the day. I love watching him race motorbikes, but would have been a great spectacle to see him in a scarlet car, as well.

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Thought I'd start this thread before Yellowperil got in there before me.

Forza Ferrari and a huge thank you to everyone in the team that has made me feel part of this incredible family from my first day to this race which will be my last

May the sun shine down hot on the track, may Hamilton get inside Rosbergs head again, may Hamilton suffer engine/gearbox failure and here is to Seb or Kimi taking the top step.

Would be great to leave with a last race win to go with my first race win from 7yrs ago.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Thanks gents, yes I'm one of the lucky ones to say I want to leave rather than be asked to leave.

Will keep posting on F1 threads as this is all I know and I really enjoy reading the conspiracy theories

I'm well pleased with 7yrs, only planned to do 3yrs but the whole Italian family adventure got under our skin a bit.

[Neilk]

So once you leave, can you tell us what exactly you worked on? Or can you tell us now?

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Can't say what I'm working on now as its a development for next years car.

Without going into too much detail I've worked on all sorts of things, mainly weight saving from using composites, my basic remit was to propose ways of adding performance to the car or given areas to improve and design it on my own or project managing other designers.

To many projects to list, was lucky enough to design my way around a lot of areas of the car, engine, KERS, electronics, aero, mechanical, gearbox, composite as well as working with the race team on pit stop design and wind tunnel model design.

If I had to choose my favourite project is was designing a lightweight steering wheel, future proof it for the next 3yrs, make it simpler, quicker and cheaper to manufacture. Also included was a quicker clutch lever system that Red Bull tried to ban with a rule clarification. Instead of removing our advantage I ended up designing an even quicker system that was good for making up at least 2 or 3 positions by the first corner. Got to work with both drivers and their race engineers which was quite enlightening. Here is its moment of glory with Alonso holding it up or maybe he was just pointing at a crap bit while celebrating Ferrari's 60th First Win Anniversary after winning the 2011 Silverstone GP.



Reminds me I must get a blown up picture to stcik on my garage wall

[yellowperil]

I DID NOT know we had a real Ferrari F1 Tech in our midst! Holy crap. I promise I'll keep my know nothing F1 opinions to myself from here on in. All I know is what I see on the tube, which isn't much and I'm in an earlier time zone so I get to look stupid sooner than everybody else.

[legion]

What yellowperil said...

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by legion

what yellowperil said...

+100

[Flieger]

So that's why Fernando always made such bonzai starts. Always thought he had brought the old Renault launch control.

[Won]

Congratulations Cap, 7 years is a lifetime in this industry

Are you moving back to the UK? Perhaps you may be headed Northants or Bucks way after a summer of gardening...? Please give me a heads-up if you're anywhere near Oxford, would love to buy you a drink (or a few)!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Reading Pelican OT Threads is part of my daily routine, so many interesting topics and shared experiences I enjoy reading about so please don't stop posting your opinions about F1 because of me,

Won, I've done F1 for 18yrs, this race will be my 312th, F1 is life consuming and leaves me little spare time. Before then I had 6yrs of spare time which I used some if it wisely doing F1 inshore powerboat wolrd championship events around Europe as a weekend warrior at the same time as my day job working on super cars, Le Mans 24hrs and GT1 sports cars.

Racing is all I know but I've been feeling a bit like I've been thrashed and parked up wet so will spend some time in my garden doing hard manual labour while clearing my head and plotting my next move.

Would be great to meet up over a few drinks, PM me your contact details.

[Neilk]

Doing some gardening work before moving over to the "B" team, sorry, I meant HAAS?

Would love to hear more stories.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Can't say no or yes as I've not explored what options are out there.

Would love to go from the oldest, biggest team to the newest, smallest team, would be a tough challenge and a huge learning experience.

HAAS has their race team base 12 miles from my garden but there won't be any design work there for me. Really interested to see how they develope and cope with competing in F1. Really hope they achieve some success as its a tough old game. Having worked with a few people involved in the design and aero side I think HAAS will make a bright start.

I'm not convinced though of their long term plan of designing a car in the USA and running the race team from Europe. For me there are too many in built delays, time zones and distance involed for it to work. Hope I am proved wrong as I'd love to work at their USA base one day and not just doing F1.

It is hard enough making a team work when designing upstairs, making the parts downstairs or outside on the factory door step, building the car down stairs, running a race team and continuously developing the design/engineering through the season from the same building.

Stories, the old days when it was racing and before it became a billion $ business is when all the fun happened and I'm too young to have been part of this era.

[GH85Carrera]

Captain, virtually every race fan would pay a large chunk of cash to hang out in the places you were paid to go. I fully understand that any job is in the end a JOB and the fun tends to diminish.
Enjoy your time off from F1. I suspect you will miss a lot of it and be happy to skip the travel.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Thanks Glen,

I love to travel but airport, pits, hotel, pits repeat and then airport never appealed to me so never wanted to do it. Always factory based but did get to go to a few races and tests with the teams I've worked for. Didn't get the chance with Ferrari but didn't push for it either as I was happy to let the young new guys enjoy that experience.

Favourite and worst race was Monaco, worst because I thought the suspension I had designed had killed Jenson Button when he crashed at 180mph out of the tunnel.

Button Crash in Monaco 2003 - Video Dailymotion

Best race because I hadn't killed him and he was ok, it was caused by driver error and I got away with only loosing a few years of my life through worry. I also got to do a grid walk amongst all the beautiful, rich people and watch most of the race from the pit wall on the start/finish straight.

Like you say, it is a job, even on a crap day which there are many I try not to forget how lucky I am to be doing something I enjoy. Even now I'm hardened to it I still get the occasional 'f**k me that's cool' moment which still makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop.

If I have choice I'm for sure not finished with F1 yet but would like to try something else before it drags me back in again. Someone told me long ago F1 is hard to get into but even hrader to get out of, its like Hotel California 'you can check out but you can never leave'

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Thanks Glen,

Someone told me long ago F1 is hard to get into but even harder to get out of,

They say the same thing about the Mafia!

[lowyder993s]

Originally Posted by yellowperil

I DID NOT know we had a real Ferrari F1 Tech in our midst! Holy crap.

Meh...that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee at starbucks!

A couple years ago my H.S. buddy and I went to Monza for F-1 and got the tour in Maranello. Met the good Captain there and I can say w/o reservation that night was the highlight of our trip! He supplanted Captain Morgan as my favorite Captain.
Along with his cohort Marcus (who is as handsome as the day is long), they regaled us with stories from their years in the business as the beer and wine was consumed with abandon! These guys are just like every other Pelican you meet...talk revolved around cars, chicks and guns. They didn't know we shot cans out here! (inside joke)
If we would have met up at the start of the trip, I have a feeling we woulda been camped out at 1 of their places for awhile. Congrats on making it to the end (or the fork). Remember...if work brings you to this side of the pond, give a shout...would love to continue the conversation! Best, Jim.

[Flieger]

Yeah, if you come out this way I'd really like to meet you.

[stealthn]

Very cool!

Yes never stop posting (or shutting up the know-it-alls)