The ULTIMATE poll

[Mark F1]

As there are only 40 days till the first race of the season I thought it would be a good time to get a definitve answer from all of you.

I know this question has cropped up a couple of times before in people's posts, but this is the ULTIMATE 2002 WDC poll so vote now !!

[Ralf's Girl]

I want Ralf to win...but sadly, I think TGF will.

[paulzinho]

Michael, from Montoya....

[Speedworx]

My vote goes to my main man Kimi.

[Mr V]

jpm...if not then it will be yoong

[SILVERS95]

Montoya for me...but if he cant , as long as TGF dont win it , i will be a happy chappie

[Raven]

Kimi or JPM would be cool. Please not MS again.

[EERO]

Despite what all of you say, I think it will be DC.

[f1manoz]

Nick Heidfeld.


No, seriously, he will win it.


Must have faith in your favourite driver people!!


However, if not Heidfeld, the JPM to take the smile off TGFs face.

[TeddyG]

I'm bacckkkkkkk....for anyone that remembers me.......Jacques will of course be WDC in 2002!!! Honda have finally done it this year....I've got a feeling (just as I did last year)

[Damon]

Juan Pablo, if the cars reliable he'll pull it off.

[LucaBadoer]

Originally posted by f1manoz
Must have faith in your favourite driver people!!

Well, no race drive for Luca means that my tip for the WDC is Felipe Massa

[R]

Juan Pablo Montoya is firm favourite in my book... but I'll settle for anyone other than TGF again...

BTW, welcome back, Teddy! Sure do remember you!

[timbo2001]

I don't want to sound like a dumb sod or anything, but i can't seem to work out what TGF stands for. I know you are refering to Michael Schumacher, but whats it stand for??? by the way, I think he is gonna be champ again, but i want to see Montoya win.

[R]

TGF stands for That German Fellow, so it's not of offensive nature, like some have thought. I believe it was Liz who first introduced the "nick", and it was well in use long before I came here. Unless I'm very much mistaken, it was introduced in 99, after TGF (there it is again! ) had broken his leg, and it was used in the sense "but what will happen when That German Fellow returns". With the abbreviation still being around, it's safe to say it's stood the test of time!

[timbo2001]

Thanks R your a legend mate!

[Speedworx]

I'm trying to introduce that to mIRC, but its not really catching on

[Red]

Indeed it stands for that German fellow. As for not being offensive or otherwise dismissive… the opinions are split. Actually my granny thought me when I was four, that pointing at someone and calling him “that” is extremely offensive, especially when you do happen to know his name.

As for the “saving time by typing TGF instead of Michael Schumacher… forget about it. Let’s take R’s post for example; he typed an entire post, 5 lines of text 477 characters (including smilies) explaining what TGF would mean. That’s 26 times the length of “Michael Schumacher (18 chars) And such a thing happens every month I believe.

Another legend is that abbreviation MS can be mistaken for Mika Salo. Of course, “the German Fellow” is more accurate; last time I checked there were only 4 (four) German fellows: Ralf, Michael, Nick and Heinz.

Of course this is my opinion.

[Champ69]

I agree red, but knowing Liz's love for shumi it must mean "The German Fellow" and not something offinsive.

And shumi will walk the title.

[Speedworx]

Lets hope not!

The sooner TGF retires, the better!

[R]

Originally posted by Red
As for the "saving time by typing TGF instead of Michael Schumacher… forget about it. Let's take R's post for example; he typed an entire post, 5 lines of text 477 characters (including smilies) explaining what TGF would mean. That's 26 times the length of "Michael Schumacher (18 chars)

Uh...? Well... you counted the characters in my post, that must have taken much longer than the amount of time I spent typing it! I agree with you to some extent though. I could have just written the explanation for TGF. That German Fellow has exactly as many characters in it as Michael Schumacher, 18 each, and I wouldn't have spent those 477 characters on it. Just thought I'd explain the background for it as well while I was at it, though the honour for that must go to Eero, because I believe it was him who originally explained the background of the abbreviation to me.

As for whether it is offensive or not... well, there have been some members down the line who have assumed that the "F" in "TGF" stands for something else entirely than "Fellow"... so in that respect, it's proper meaning is not offensive at all. Whether you think it's offensive to call someone "that", well - I can only say that in my language it isn't. That German Fellow is a neutral description, a matter-of-fact statement of what he is; a German fellow.

There... another post devoted to the abbreviation "TGF". Count the characters in this post too, I'm sure it is much longer than my previous one!

[Red]

Originally posted by R
Count the characters in this post too, I'm sure it is much longer than my previous one!

I'm right on it! 1246! (Actually that's not that difficult, I hit "quote", removed the "quote" tags that 1010 would add and clicked "check message length" )

I said it is offensive in my opinion R (and I didn't want to bring the other interpretations in discusison ). And yes, you should type those all 477 characters, otherwise noone would understand how this "TGF" thing appeared.

[Nicholas]

Originally posted by Red
And such a thing happens every month I believe.

Perhaps it's because we like explaining what TGF means...

As for abbreviations,

I hope JV is going to stay at Arrows
and I hope JV will win another championship before he retires.

[Red]

Right! I had no problems to understand that. Now here's one a lil bit thougher: I'd like JV to partner MS at Ferrari

[R]

Jacques Villeneuve and Mika Salo at Ferrari would be great!

Originally posted by Red
I hit "quote", removed the "quote" tags that 1010 would add and clicked "check message length"

Learn something new every day.

Originally posted by Red
I said it is offensive in my opinion R

I heard you! I respect that, and when I re-read my post, I see that I didn't manage to say quite what I had intended to say. What I meant to say is that differences in our native languages may affect the outcome of our translation of "That German Fellow". For instance, in my native language, the word "that" can mean two things. It can mean "it", which is certainly offensive, but not what comes to mind in this context, because of the rest of the nick, namely "German Fellow" - and the word "that" can also mean something which doesn't have another translation in English, the word closest to it is probably "the", though it's not quite correct. Using this meaning, which is definitely the most logical in my native language, "The German Fellow" is then just a matter-of-fact statement in my language, so that was what I intended to say.