On this present day in 2006, one among motorsport’s most interesting films hit the large display. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby tells the story of a NASCAR driver combating to save lots of a profession threatened by a French Formula 1 driver named Jean Girard. I not too long ago launched this basic of American cinema to some pals abroad, however my re-watching of it left me with one urgent query: Within the confines of the Talladega Nights universe, would Jean Girard have entered the notorious 2005 United States Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
Allow me to ascertain some context, for anybody unfamiliar with what I’m investigating. A mere six vehicles took the beginning of the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix owing to the failure of Michelin’s tires; mainly, the highway course used slightly little bit of IMS’s oval banking, and the Michelin tires couldn’t deal with the pressure. At that cut-off date, mid-race tire adjustments have been banned, and there was no method a Michelin-shod workforce would have been capable of safely full a full race distance. So, the six vehicles that took the beginning of the race got here from three groups related to Bridgestone, whose tires really managed to face up to the calls for of the observe. Those groups have been Ferrari, Jordan, and Minardi.
Jean Girard’s introduction to the movie is iconic for numerous causes, however on my most up-to-date rewatch, I used to be focusing much less on him breaking Ricky Bobby’s arm than I used to be on the clips of Girard’s supposed F1 profession.
The footage is clearly some early 2000s F1 motion between a Minardi and a Renault, however to be completely optimistic I used to be working from probably the most knowledgeable place potential, I turned to my good buddy Sean Kelly, who you could know as @virtualstatman on social media, to extra exactly decipher the clip. He instructed me, “The footage in that clip is from the 2004 European GP at the Nurburgring. It appears to be Gianmaria Bruni’s Minardi leading Jarno Trulli’s Renault.”
It’s not totally clear which automobile Girard is meant to be driving, and Talladega Nights affords no further context, however neither driver was terribly spectacular in 2004. Trulli scored one win to complete sixth total within the 2004 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship. Bruni competed in each single occasion, failed to attain a single level, and was categorised as twenty fifth total — ranked behind 5 drivers who solely contested a partial season.
The matter of Girard’s workforce is essential — however maybe not as essential because the timeline. Is Talladega Nights set in 2005, implying that the movie can be launched the following yr, in 2006? Or is the film set in 2006? I wanted to seek the advice of the archives to search out out.
Filming for the film passed off in 2005, and the 2005 UAW Ford 500 served as an precise, real-life setting for a big quantity of footage that includes each NASCAR machines and crowds. That occasion was held on October 2, 2005 — or, a number of months after the disastrous June 19, 2005 working of the United States Grand Prix. If the movie’s large finale passed off in 2005, then that reductions Girard from having raced within the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix. However, it’s fully probably that Girard’s final alternative was there for the race, and that Girard would have been happy to not be concerned in such a farcical occasion.
I’ll be trustworthy: I used to be slightly bit dismayed at my very own discovery. The solely factor that would additional elevate Talladega Nights in my eyes can be the truth that one among its characters was concerned in F1’s most embarrassing screw-up.
Sadly, it isn’t to be. Jean Girard would have been competing in NASCAR in 2005 — not Formula 1.
I, nonetheless, am not content material with that information alone. Presuming that Girard had a handful of years in F1, he would have been current for a few of these different iconic moments:
- Ferrari’s disqualification from the 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix on account of violating technical laws, adopted by its reinstatement, which deeply influenced the title combat
- The debut of future World Champions Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen, and Fernando Alonso, alongside CART Champion Juan Pablo Montoya’s debut
- Michael Schumacher’s dominant 2002 season, which led to various synthetic leisure options the next yr
- The introduction of the HANS gadget as a type of necessary security gear
- Schumacher’s last World Championship
- The 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, the place Ferrari was accused of manipulating the end result of the race
If solely Jean Girard had caught it out in Formula 1 for one last yr.
Source: jalopnik.com