May 24, 2013

F1 Practice: Monaco 2013

Nothing too big to report on "today".  Beautiful day, and other than Lettuce Grosjean scraping the left side of his car clean of any projections in Sainte Devote, nothing impressive occurred.  Team Mercedes is being tabbed to take pole on Saturday, and people are saying that, since Monaco is so impossible to pass at, they've got a good chance to win.  The famous "Get Pole, Be Slow" technique, I guess.

Maybe.  I don't see it, but maybe.  There's just way too many ways for that strategy to go wrong around Monaco.  But then, that's why they drive and I commentate.

Well, that and I'm not rich and I weigh more than 140 pounds.

Quals in the morning.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:36 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Are the drivers really small like that? I had never really thought about it before.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 25, 2013 02:11 PM (+rSRq)

2 I exaggerate, but not by much.  In 2010, Felipe Massa was the lightest driver, at 130lbs.  Rubens Barrichello was the heaviest at 170lbs.  As one would expect, the older drivers were heavier than the younger.

Gandalf Kobayashi was 138lbs and 5'-6" tall.  Massa is about 5'-5".  Vettel is about 5'-9" and 137lbs.

The FIA mandates that the minimum weight for the car (including fluids and onboard cameras) + driver is 1415lbs.  Most cars weigh a lot less than that, so they use ballast placed at strategic points around the chassis to make minimums.  That can make a huge difference to the center of gravity, grip, etc etc etc.  Having a lighter driver means you can use more ballast.

Example: Robert Kubica was 159lbs to start with in 2008.  He was also just a smidge over 6'-0" tall.  BMW-Sauber asked him to lose weight... to about 140lbs.

Actually, I'm surprised there haven't been more women drivers looked at in the sport simply because of this.  Danica Patrick is 110lbs, for example...

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 25, 2013 04:29 PM (lpH3d)

3 They would be jockeys in another era.

Posted by: Mauser at May 25, 2013 10:34 PM (cZPoz)

4 Jockeys are a lot smaller than that.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 26, 2013 10:29 PM (+rSRq)

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