Modern F-1 driver may have reflexes of a fighter pilot but they also have a fairly high survivability rate. Note all the recent major shunts where the driver walks away unhurt.

Put your current Looey Hamsterton in an old skool F-1 car and he may be able to wheel it as well as Fangio did, until he wrecks....... and dies.

Balls of steel have nothing to do with ability. Today's overpaid, pampered and babied F-1 driver couldn't come close to doing what those cats did back in the day, week in week out. Not even close.

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I'm sure you've seen Un homme et une femme (?) by now, but if you haven't it's an excellent film. I completely forgot why it was in my Netflix queue, but then I'm greeted by a great story with a guy who races with Ford Europe--in a GT40. Awesome.

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Balls of steel or pure insanity, you decide.

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The use of Elektron was not really that remarkable except that it was obviously dangerous and probably expensive. The first VW Beetle prototype used 20kg of the stuff in the drivetrain, and many 1920s race cars used it. Magnesium use today is tremendous.

"The car was wrapped in sheets of Elektron, an ultralight and very flammable alloy of magnesium."

So both the chassis and bodywork were Elektron? No wonder Levegh's SLR torched so badly.

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Of course it should be borne in mind that Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, supplier to McLaren, Force India and Brawn GP are in fact what used to be Ilmor, based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, England and acquired by Daimler-Benz in 2005.

That's a British engine that took the 1-2 (almost 1-2-3) on Sunday.

Nick

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They make so many damned cars and have so much damned these days, I wish they would send a team back to GP or Le Mans with something really radical.

Bring back the Silver Arrows I say!

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