After the winter tests and free practice sessions, now it is time to find out the truth and see which team and driver are the fastest. The time for conjectures or attempts to improve is over, the traffic light will turn green and there will be no respite until the grid is in order. We will know very soon who has done their homework correctly and who has rested on their laurels during the winter. We have seen details in this time of testing, but surely they were nothing more than mirages, and not because we are in Bahrain, in F1 everyone tends to save their cards until the right moment. But that moment has come, let’s see the real order and who is the brave one who manages to take over the first pole of the year, the first of a new era in the category.
Al-Marsad newspaper: The Ministry of Defense, represented by the Royal Saudi Air Force, announced the availability of 20 vacant technical, administrative and engineering positions on the direct contracting / self-employment program; To work in the following cities: “Riyadh, Dammam, Taif, Al-Kharj, Dhahran, and Khamis Mushait.”
The vacant positions include: “Fuel Systems Technician, Curriculum Specialist, Equipment Control and Distribution Technician, Ordnance Maintenance Supervisor, Information Technology Specialist, Equipment Test Technician, Inventory Technician, Supply Management Technician, Aviation Safety Specialist, General Aircraft Maintenance Technician, Munition Maintenance Technician Guided missile maintenance specialist.
Also available jobs include: “Aircraft Maintenance Technical Instructor, Maintenance Information Systems Technician, Training Specialist, Disguise, Communications and Aeronautics Maintenance Technician, Electronic Flight Instruments Maintenance Technician, Shooting Target Recording Technician, Flight Simulator Trainer and Operator, Munitions Specialist.”
The ministry indicated that the application is available through the employment portal on the Ministry of Defense website (Link), during the period from 08/17/1443 AH to 08/21/1443 AH.
World War I is behind us. Europe tries to recover normal life. The soldiers who return from the front have found many changes, especially in the women. His appearance is not the same, his clothing has changed, and his way of thinking too. Replacing men in factory jobs, or their work on the battlefields, makes these women of 1918 have little to do with those of 1914.
In Prague, Vizenzes Junek, a young banker with a passion for cars, makes his racing debut in 1921. He has talent and he shows it at the wheel of a powerful Mercedes. His fiancée’s name is Eliska Junek. Passionate regarding travel, however, cars do not
They are too attracted to her. But she decides that, if these are Vizenzes’ great passion, it’s worth dedicating a little “love” to them, especially to her Bugatti. And she is born like this, almost unintentionally, a true hobby.
In the following season, the couple, already married, acquires a Bugatti. At first they share him in several tests, but soon Eliska, now Junek, who learns very quickly, makes his name begin to sound on its own merits in the racing environment.
In 1924 he began to participate in international competitions and won the general classification of the Pilsen hill race. The following year he achieved ten wins, six of them in the general classification.
In 1925, a two-litre Bugatti enters the Juneks’ garage in Prague. The young couple compete in numerous events throughout Europe. Eliska racks up victories, beating all her male rivals in Prague and Brno. Second place in the women’s standings at the Swiss Mountain Grand Prix in Klaussenplass. she gives her great fame. She is barely 25 years old.
In 1927, Vinzenzes Junek bought another Bugatti, a 35B 2.3 liter with a compressor, and gave the old one to his wife. Both decide to participate in the Targa Florio where the Bugatti have already achieved victory in 1925 and 1926. Eliska goes to Molsheim, the birthplace of the brand. Constantini, the team leader and winner in 1926, is not very enthusiastic, but the great Ettore Bugatti does like the young driver’s project.
Eliska Junek leaves for Sicily and immediately starts training. The opinion is unanimous among pilots and fans: a woman cannot resist the physical demands of the Targa. But Eliska works hard on her psychological preparation as a weapon to face the hardness of this race: 108 kilometers per lap, and a thousand curves… and there are five laps!
His goal is to cover the lap in two and a half hours. In the first step, she leaves the clock at 1 hour and 54 minutes, and sends a telegram to her husband: «everything is going well, but I must have misread the clock». The next day she lowers the time even more: 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Three weeks before the race, her husband arrives. Everything seems to be ready, but in the course of the last training session, she goes out in a curve and hits a stone. You have to change the address. The day of the test arrives, Eliska has only run 12 kilometers when she is forced to stop: the harshness of the steering is such that the Bugatti is undrivable. She tries to solve the problem and resumes the race. But on the second lap, following a corner, the steering doesn’t respond and the car ends up in a ditch. Eliska is unscathed, but she has to retreat.
The rest of the season will go better for him: he wins in his category at the German Grand Prix, the Ladies’ Cup at the Parisian circuit of Linas Montlhery with the 2.3-litre Bugatti, and the “Grand Prix du Salon L’Automobile”.
A modern preparation
The winter of 1927 to 1928 was dedicated to preparing a new participation in the Targa Florio. Eliska works in a very modern way for the time: she establishes a scheme of the race kilometer by kilometer, curve by curve. And he also resorts to the help of aerial photos of the tour. Both memorize the gear ratio in which they must face each zone, each curve. Definitely an exhaustive job.
And three weeks before the race, Eliska arrives in Sicily to train on the spot. And the first problem arises: the route has been partially modified. The second problem is participation: the best drivers of the time are present: Materassi, Divo, Chirón, Campari, Fafioli, Alfieri Maserati or the young Tazio Nuvolari. And as if that were not enough, the German Countess Einsiedel tells journalists that she will beat Eliska Junek because “I am stronger.”
Change the way you drive
But the young pilot is not scared. In fact, she knows that her physical strength is not with her and, therefore, the best thing for her is to change her driving style to overcome the 540 kilometers of hard race with a good result. «She knew that she had to achieve a driving style that did not require great physical strength. Riding technique generally calls for hard braking and downshifting before corners, but I intended to tweak those principles a bit. Braking in the corners and changing speeds at low revs, I found that I wasted no time. Shooting with Louis Chiron helped me a lot because, as a driver who doesn’t like skidding, his driving technique suited me perfectly ». Her goal was to finish the test around a tenth position.
Cherish the triumph
the truth hour has arrived. The cars leave one by one every two minutes. Eliska starts behind her teammate Albert Divo. At the end of the first round, she is fourth behind Chiron, Campari and Divo. In the second lap she engages in a duel with Divo and his blue Bugatti. And on lap three, Elisabetta’s black and yellow Bugatti, as the Italians called her, is already leading the race, ahead of Conelli, Divo and Chiron.
The fifth and final lap arrives. It looks like a woman is going to win the Targa Florio. Suddenly, the Bugatti’s engine temperature gauge starts to rise. Eliska always uses a higher gear to bring the mechanics to a calmer regime. The heat fumes burn his face, and the engine gradually loses power. They have to stop and the mechanic who accompanies her, raises the hood: it is a simple leak in the connection of a hose with the cooling pump. They quickly repair the fault, replenish the water and return to the race. But they have wasted too much time. When she passes under the checkered flag, she is fifth behind Divo, Campari, Conelli and Chiron. And behind her many of the best drivers of the time (including winners of previous editions). Countess Einsiedel will arrive nearly an hour later.
Epilogue
After the Targa, Vinzenzes prepares his participation in the German Grand Prix, which takes place at the Nurburgring. In its category, the Bugatti 2.2 liters has made the best time and also occupies an excellent position on the starting grid. The race arrives. Suddenly an accident in Breidscheid is announced over the loudspeakers.
Eliska mourns the death of Vizenzes Junek. She doesn’t want to compete once more and sells the Bugatti. His racing career lasted only four years, from 1924 to 1928. And the victory that might have consecrated his life escaped him on the last lap of the 1928 Targa Florio. In 1994 Eliska Khasova met her beloved Vinzenzes. Thus ended a beautiful love story in racing and for the Bugatti.
One of the most anticipated cars of the season is here. After an upward 2021, the Ferrari team has unveiled the car with which it will try to return to the throne of the premier category of motorsport. This is the F1-75, whose name honors the 75th anniversary of the date on which Enzo Ferrari started the Scuderia’s first engine, back in 1947. The Italians have opted to broadcast the presentation live through their social networks, where they have finally let us see their new racing car, in which the main novelty is the color black, as anticipated by the clothing collection of the ” Prancing Horse” for this year. This color is present in the lower part of the car, as well as in the front and rear wings, although the main one is once once more red.
It must be said that the design of the F1-75 has not caught everyone by surprise, since yesterday an Italian website leaked some images. One of the most used words during the event was “innovation”, which is precisely what Ferrari was following with this car. Among the novelties, we find a double bottom with the interpretation of the aerodynamic concept externally in the upper part of the side, which has a pronounced hollow. For its part, The car will have the 066/7 power unit, while cooling will be one of its key points thanks to the fact that the radiator openings are tall and narrow. It is expected to achieve 7% more efficiency in the rear than with other options in the bottom.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari driver:
“This new car looks very aggressive, it’s also radical and beautiful. I hope, as Charles has said, that it will be very fast. We already tested the tires last year and we felt that it was a step in the right direction, as they should give us the opportunity to push harder in the races and be able to run closer. The only question is visibility; maybe these new tires might be a problem, especially on street circuits. The good thing is that this car has a radical design, I like it, because it is what you want to see when you release a new racing car. This color seeks to represent Ferrari’s past on the occasion of 75 years. I’m more than ready for this new season. 2021 was a very good year for me as I was able to adapt to a new environment and learn how Ferrari works. Now is the time to take the team to another level and step forward. As drivers we want more success in 2022, so we’re going for it.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari driver:
“I am working as hard as I can to improve year following year, although this season is going to be very important for the team, and for us drivers it is a good opportunity too. The expectations are high, very high, for everyone, but we will make sure that all the work we have done allows us to achieve good results during the season. The color is perfect. It fits perfectly. It’s a dark red that looks more aggressive, but I think it fits perfectly in a car like this. Love it. I’d like it a lot better if it’s fast on the track, but I love the look. It looks huge. It is strange not to see pylons, since we were used to having them. It is quite different. I think the chassis is my favorite part of the car. You can see how much work is in it. It’s impressive, extreme and I like it.”
Mattia Binotto, jefe de Ferrari:
“I have to admit that, personally, I am excited, since this car is the product of the effort, dedication and passion of each one of us. It is due to the work of a group of people who have invested everything in this car, working with courage, creativity and team spirit. We have a good group of people here who have gone from strength to strength, investing all their tools in this project. I am proud of them. We have taken on a challenge with this project with an innovative approach because, apart from the requirements of the new technical regulations, we believe that we have to do this with an open mind.”
“These two guys are still very young, but they are very experienced. Charles is a product of our academy, it is his fourth season at Ferrari. He has always been very fast. He is talented. I think he is getting better every season, he is getting faster, but he is also getting better as a person and as a driver. I hope he continues to improve here this new season. Carlos, I think that when we met and, somehow, we decided to walk together for more than a year, no one would have expected it to be fast so soon. This hasn’t been a surprise to us, but I think he fit in very well with the new environment from the start of the season. It improved during the year and finished in a very strong way. I hope he raises the bar in 2022.”