F1 Fanatic

This thread is for all the little random F1 related questions we can think of that don’t deserve a new thread of their own.

Trivial questions can be shared and answered here, by all the knowledgable users on the F1 Fanatic Forum!

Note: This isn’t a rolling trivia game, this is for anyone to just ask little questions and hopefully get a quick answer. :)

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Team Lotus were sponsored by Essex, what industry was this sponsor in, or is it just the county giving money to Lotus?

Thank you!

1) Lotus cars sponsor Renault. Lotus cars are owned by the Proton group, a Malaysian car manufacturer, and this company has received various gift loans from the Malaysian government I beleive. The gift loans are high sums of money that get paid back with extremely low interest. Proton are trusting Bahar with the rebuilding of Lotus cars, and this $100m sponsorship deal is getting him all the publicity they need. Quite interesting that both Lotus on the grid are Malaysian financed.

2) Sorry, but I don’t know about 2!

I have a question. Why do Mark Webber’s shift lights only go to the red whereas the other drivers’ lights are blue? Also, is the design of the Red Bull steering wheel an Adrian Newey detail? That shape of steering wheel and fixed shift lights I’ve seen only elsewhere on Newey’s Mclarens.

Hmm I think I remember a feature either on the TV coverage, or a DVD, or something, where they talked about those lights on the Ferraris, I seem to recall they were saying it was driver preference how many lights they had so I’d assume colour was a personal preference as well. I could be, and probably am, wrong.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Webber preferred not to use the blue ’cause he found it more distracting than green and red. But I’m afraid I can’t remember the source…