Q50: Motoring along in the fast lane!

As seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has just announced he will retire from Formula One at the end of the season, here is a motor-racing question: can you say which Australian three-times winner of the F1 Grand Prix gets a name-drop in one of the books? Name him and the book.

Would it be Jack Brabham, as mentioned by Haddock in The Calculus Affair, p34 ("They must have a Jack Brabham at the wheel!").

Half an hour ago I thought I was in! By the time I get home, Richard has beaten me to it... LOL

My guess was also Jack Brabham.

What do you say Jock?

Quite right - Haddock is of course talking about the famed Australian driver Sir Jack.

That’s a point to Richard, and over to him for the next question!

Bad luck this time Ranko!

Jack Brabham would have been very contemporary as he'd won consecutive F1 championships in 1959 and '60, the year the English edition first appeared. I wonder if he's aware that he's been honoured in a Tintin book? :-)

Well done Richard!

Purely for interest, the French version references Argentine driver Juan Manuel Fangio: "c'est au moins Fangio qui est au volant!"

Brabham was an excellent and topical choice as you say, Harrock. But had I translated the book, I'd have been tempted to have Haddock say: "Thundering typhoons! Who does he think he is, Stirling Moss?" ;-)

Ed

Blank, it's just blank in the Bengali edition-nobody is mentioned. Haddock just exclaims at the obvious fact that the car had gone past them.

It makes sense because here we don't have much history in racing, and nobody would have recognised who Haddock was trying to refer to.