Ireland's next Formula One star?

playbus

Lucca Allen, son of Rachel Allen, is heading towards Formula One by competing in the Formula 4 season in the UK for the second half of 2017. These races are shown live on ITV4 on the Sunday of each meeting. Lucca, who turns 15 in June, will aim to run in the series for at least 18 months with the aim of obtaining the required 40 super licence points to get started into Formula One.

I understand that he is still looking for sponsorship.

T-Maxx

Shilling Shill McShilly

Or do you prefer Lucca?

judeboy101

Did we ever have an F1 star?

Andrew76

judeboy101 wrote: »

Did we ever have an F1 star?

Eddie Irvine says hello.

judeboy101

Andrew76 wrote: »

Eddie Irvine says hello.

Born in the UK and I seem to remember a British national anthem incident?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Irvine

Zaph

While I wish him the best of luck and it would be great to see an Irish F1 driver, it's a fair stretch of the imagination to say that competing in Formula 4 is "heading towards" F1. Everyone has to start somewhere, but there's a long way to go from F4 to F1 and how many talented drivers never made it for one reason or another?

Andrew76

judeboy101 wrote: »

Born in the UK and I seem to remember a British national anthem incident?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Irvine

Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part then, I could have sworn I saw the Irish flag being hoisted the year Schumi broke his leg.

Anyway, best of luck to this Lucca chap.

ljy9fn7qwhgasx

judeboy101 wrote: »

Born in the UK and I seem to remember a British national anthem incident?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Irvine

If someone as radical as Ian Paisley described himself as Irish then perhaps Eddie Irvine, born in County Down with a shamrock on his helmet, a vocal anti-sectarian and resident in Dalkey for years, deserves to be respected as Irish.

Whether he fits in with a republican identity or not is neither here nor there. Away to the politics forum or After Hours for any further aggro.

torqtorq

T-Maxx wrote: »

Shilling Shill McShilly

Or do you prefer Lucca?

Isaac will do!

HanaleiJ5N

Andrew76 wrote: »

Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part then, I could have sworn I saw the Irish flag being hoisted the year Schumi broke his leg.

Anyway, best of luck to this Lucca chap.

You did- not when Irvine won his four races but when Frentzen won the two races for Jordan!

H3llR4iser

No Irish driver ever won the WDC, yet, a (Northern) Irish driver has raced with the number "1" in Formula One.

It happened when John Watson filled in for an injured Niki Lauda at the 1985 European Grand Prix in Brands Hatch; Lauda being reigning World Champion ran the number "1" on his car and, at the time, it was not possible to change the racing numbers assigned to a team once the season had started.

Watson is one of only two F1 drivers to race with the number "1" in an official Grand Prix without being WDC, the other being Ronnie Peterson in 1973, since it started being used to identify the reigning champion.

Zaph

Probably an appropriate thread for this - Crash and Burn, the documentary about the meteoric rise and fall of Tommy Byrne is on RTE1 at 10.15 tonight.

Wanderer78

Zaph wrote:

Probably an appropriate thread for this - Crash and Burn, the documentary about the meteoric rise and fall of Tommy Byrne is on RTE1 at 10.15 tonight.

This should be interesting, never heard of the chap, sounds like a nutcase

Bobby04

Completely off-topic comment removed

playbus

Ficus wrote: »

Maybe you should educate yourself before trying to shake down people for sponsorship money.

There are only 12 points on offer for the winner of an F4 series so unless the Fia are cutting him a deal whereby mammy brings along the sandwiches for the officials then hes gonna be there a while longer than 18 months.

Oh I know he would have to go through a couple of other series before F1, to get the 40 points he needs for an F1 licence, but hey this boy is good, very fast, very competitive, and it is going to be a real pleasure to watch him live on Sundays when he starts later this year!

hungry hypno toad

judeboy101 wrote: »

Born in the UK and I seem to remember a British national anthem incident?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Irvine

Raced with an Irish super licence though (because it was cheaper than the alternative).

Bobby04

Bobby04 wrote: »

Completely off-topic comment removed

Sorry, my bad, didn't think it was any more off topic than discussing Eddie Irvine!!

Pat Dunne

None of you young fella's ever hear of Derek Daly from Ballinteer in Dublin? Drove for a number of F1 teams in the late 70's & early 80's including Tyrrell and Williams. I recall him getting a 4th place at a British GP.

Bet you's (young fella's) none of you knew Gunniess sponsored an F1 team either! March team 1981.


Also not forgetting David Kennedy (Sligo), who drove for the Shadows team for a season.