November 07, 2010
F1 Update!: Brazil 2010
Sunny skies over the penultimate race of the F1 calendar, but will it be the final one in the Driver's Championship? Would surprise polesitting rookie upstart Nico Hulkenberg's delusions of grandeur transfer over once the lights went out? Would we have a tense, tightly fought contest? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2010 Grand Prix of Brazil!
*NOPE: As anybody could have predicted, once the lights went out, Red Bull's Seb Vettel immediately took the lead from Hulkenberg. By the end of the fourth turn, Mark Webber had gotten by the pilot of the Williams... and then the two blue cars streaked off into the distance. It took Ferrari's HWMNBN seven laps to get past Hulkenberg, by which time the Bulls had opened up an eight second lead... which would continue to grow by nearly a half-second a lap. Suddenly the only questions remaining was if Red Bull would let Webber pass Vettel, and if so, how'd they arrange it. Not even the late Safety Car made the race any closer, and that's how it ended: Vettel, Webber, with HWMNBN a distant third and Lewis Hamilton even farther back in fourth.
First place gives you 25 points, second 18, third gets 15 and 12 points are earned for finishing fourth. Fifth earns 10 points. If Webber had won today he would have 245 points, and Vettel 224. Vettel would be in third, and realistically would need a miracle to win. But now, he's in third, needs to win, and beat HWMNBN by 15 points... then it would come down to tiebreakers, and lord knows how that'd work out. In other words, he still needs a miracle, just one that's not quite so big. Instead of a race in Abu Dhabi that would have come down to a straight fight between Webber and HWMNBN, higher finisher wins the Driver's Championship, now Webber needs to win and hope that the Ferrari finishes in third. That's hardly impossible of course, but now the Australian needs help from someone else. And yes, we here at F1U! are quite aware that we're being hypocritical here, advocating for team orders when we decried Ferrari's use of them at the German Grand Prix. If you remember though, we weren't screaming about the team orders themselves, as we're realists and know that they're used in F1, but in the flagrant way Ferrari broke the rules.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We aren't particularly chuffed about any of the drives put in today, so we should probably give it to Seb Vettel for winning when he needed to. But we're not excited about it.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull.
But then, all they did was finish 1-2 in the race and clinch the Constructor's Championship. Pretty good day when all is said and done. Shame they practically handed HWMNBN the Driver's Championship in the process, but you can't have everything.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 12 McLaren's Jenson Button was the first driver to pit for new tires. He came in from 10th and rejoined in 18th. The next lap, hometown hero Felipe Massa pitted from 9th and came back out on track in 17th, just ahead of the McLaren and with a decent amount of space between them. He should have been perfectly safe, but Button had other ideas. Running down to Turn 4, the reigning World Driver's Champion basically depantsed the Brazilian by using his slight speed advantage and taking advantage of the Ferrari driver's complacency, popping by so quickly that the red car didn't maneuver to block. For this surprise pass, we're happy to give the MotR to Button!
*MOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: There can be only one. Late in the race Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi, reportedly driving for his career in F1, was all alone on track, nobody pressuring him from behind, and nobody distracting him to the front. So what does he do? Crashes in one of the more unlikely places on the track, Turn 2.
In the wet Turn 2 is horrible, near the bottom of a hill and often swept by torrential rivers of water. But in the dry, it's about as benign as it's possible for a F1 turn to be. So for wrecking your car, for bringing out the safety car, and for throwing what little chance you had to be in F1 next year away, Vitantonio Liuzzi, you've won the Mooooooooo-oove! Good luck in your next career, and watch out for those deep-fryers, they tend to throw grease.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*NOPE: As anybody could have predicted, once the lights went out, Red Bull's Seb Vettel immediately took the lead from Hulkenberg. By the end of the fourth turn, Mark Webber had gotten by the pilot of the Williams... and then the two blue cars streaked off into the distance. It took Ferrari's HWMNBN seven laps to get past Hulkenberg, by which time the Bulls had opened up an eight second lead... which would continue to grow by nearly a half-second a lap. Suddenly the only questions remaining was if Red Bull would let Webber pass Vettel, and if so, how'd they arrange it. Not even the late Safety Car made the race any closer, and that's how it ended: Vettel, Webber, with HWMNBN a distant third and Lewis Hamilton even farther back in fourth.
*HOPE? OR DOPES?: Perversely, Vettel's win may very well have prevented him from winning the Driver's Championship, and made it much harder for his teammate as well. Consider the championship standings after today's race:
| 01 |
HWMNBN | 246 |
| 02 | Mark Webber | 238 |
| 03 | Sebastian Vettel | 231 |
| 04 | Lewis Hamilton | 222 |
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We aren't particularly chuffed about any of the drives put in today, so we should probably give it to Seb Vettel for winning when he needed to. But we're not excited about it.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull.
But then, all they did was finish 1-2 in the race and clinch the Constructor's Championship. Pretty good day when all is said and done. Shame they practically handed HWMNBN the Driver's Championship in the process, but you can't have everything.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 12 McLaren's Jenson Button was the first driver to pit for new tires. He came in from 10th and rejoined in 18th. The next lap, hometown hero Felipe Massa pitted from 9th and came back out on track in 17th, just ahead of the McLaren and with a decent amount of space between them. He should have been perfectly safe, but Button had other ideas. Running down to Turn 4, the reigning World Driver's Champion basically depantsed the Brazilian by using his slight speed advantage and taking advantage of the Ferrari driver's complacency, popping by so quickly that the red car didn't maneuver to block. For this surprise pass, we're happy to give the MotR to Button!
*MOOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE: There can be only one. Late in the race Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi, reportedly driving for his career in F1, was all alone on track, nobody pressuring him from behind, and nobody distracting him to the front. So what does he do? Crashes in one of the more unlikely places on the track, Turn 2.
In the wet Turn 2 is horrible, near the bottom of a hill and often swept by torrential rivers of water. But in the dry, it's about as benign as it's possible for a F1 turn to be. So for wrecking your car, for bringing out the safety car, and for throwing what little chance you had to be in F1 next year away, Vitantonio Liuzzi, you've won the Mooooooooo-oove! Good luck in your next career, and watch out for those deep-fryers, they tend to throw grease.
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
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November 06, 2010
F1 Quals: Brazil 2010
Pundits always say that rain is the great equalizer in Formula 1. Guess what the weather was doing at the Autodromo Juan Carlos Pace during Qualifying today? Let's take a look at the provisional grid for Sunday's Grand Prix of Brazil:
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, that really is Nico "The Incredible" Hulkenberg on pole. That's Williams' first pole position in 100 races, the 2005 European Grand Prix. It's Cosworth's first pole since 1999.
The rain was pelting down in Q1, stopped just after the beginning of Q2, and a dry line emerged with only a few minutes left in Q3. The first hotlaps in Q3 were done on the Intermediate tires, with the final run for pole being the land of the super-softs and the incredibly brave.
If you take the lap of Hulkenberg's life off the board, his second-fastest lap still would have had him on pole. He and the team just got it absolutely right... which doesn't mean that he's going to have a fast race tomorrow. See, the weather was crappy today but the forecast for tomorrow is for clear skies and dry tracks. The teams had to decide if they were going to go for a wet setup to help them qualify but which would hurt them in the race, or sacrifice qualifying pace and go for the race. Because of the changing conditions today though, it's hard to judge how everybody is set-up. My guess is that the Red Bulls and Lewis Hamilton split the difference, HWMNBN has a mostly dry setup... and as great a story as Hulkenberg is, he's essentially irrelevant to tomorrow. The Williams just doesn't have the grunt to be a contender for a podium slot in the race.
But darn, it's cool to see someone in a car that isn't red, silver or dark blue up at the top of the time-sheet! Rain changes everything.
See you tomorrow for the Brazilian Grand Prix F1U!
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, that really is Nico "The Incredible" Hulkenberg on pole. That's Williams' first pole position in 100 races, the 2005 European Grand Prix. It's Cosworth's first pole since 1999.
The rain was pelting down in Q1, stopped just after the beginning of Q2, and a dry line emerged with only a few minutes left in Q3. The first hotlaps in Q3 were done on the Intermediate tires, with the final run for pole being the land of the super-softs and the incredibly brave.
If you take the lap of Hulkenberg's life off the board, his second-fastest lap still would have had him on pole. He and the team just got it absolutely right... which doesn't mean that he's going to have a fast race tomorrow. See, the weather was crappy today but the forecast for tomorrow is for clear skies and dry tracks. The teams had to decide if they were going to go for a wet setup to help them qualify but which would hurt them in the race, or sacrifice qualifying pace and go for the race. Because of the changing conditions today though, it's hard to judge how everybody is set-up. My guess is that the Red Bulls and Lewis Hamilton split the difference, HWMNBN has a mostly dry setup... and as great a story as Hulkenberg is, he's essentially irrelevant to tomorrow. The Williams just doesn't have the grunt to be a contender for a podium slot in the race.
But darn, it's cool to see someone in a car that isn't red, silver or dark blue up at the top of the time-sheet! Rain changes everything.
See you tomorrow for the Brazilian Grand Prix F1U!
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November 05, 2010
F1 Practice: Brazil 2010
Friday's second practice was pretty much what you'd expect: Red Bulls up front and everybody else wondering if they could mount James Bond-like gadgets to their cars, and trying to figure out how much pace they'd lose with a couple of Sidewinder launch rails attached to their sidepods.
HWMNBN and Felipe Massa both showed good speeds, though both had their troubles. The points leader had his engine die in P1, and the Brazilian had a clutch failure in P2. Neither should suffer a penalty for their breakdowns however since they came on Friday. Indeed, the team claimed that they weren't at all surprised by HWMNBN's breakdown as it was a well-worn race engine that they expected to have go boom. That actually makes good sense... why put any more miles on the engine they intend to use on Sunday than they have to?
On the other hand, McLaren may as well not bother to show up at Abu Dhabi next week; both Hamilton and Button were a second or more off the pace. If they wind up with that sort of pace at Quals, they'll probably be DOA on Sunday, and both drivers need to win to have any chance for a comeback in the championship.
All is not wine and roses in the Red Bull camp, though. As predicted some races ago, the tension between Mark Webber and Seb Vettel is showing through at a particularly ugly time. Mark Webber said on Thursday that he believed that the team thought his drive for a championship was "an inconvenience. I wasn't supposed to be in the chase at all." His body language was reportedly that of someone under a ton of stress, full of slumping and sighs. He did get a dig in though: "For different reasons here and there, Seb's never led the Championship and I have." Vettel in a later interview with a German TV channel said "if Mark needs help then he should take the medical car."
Not good news for the Austrian team. It's clear that neither driver is willing to help the other if and when it comes down to that. Indeed, Webber was asked what he'd do if things broke poorly for him this race and suddenly Vettel had a better chance to win the Championship. His response, after a long pause, was telling: "I'd need to think a lot further about that."
Meanwhile over in the Ferrari camp, Felipe Massa has stated that he'll do whatever he can do to help HWMNBN win the championship. HWMNBN, on the other hand, has said that he'd be perfectly happy to have his teammate win at his home race. "It'll take 25 points off the guys following me," which is just as good as a win for the Spaniard. Of course, the specter of Massa pulling over to let his teammate by looms over the team, to the point where a Brazilian official has said that Massa lets HWMNBN by, he'll have Massa arrested for violating sportsmanship laws. Must be election time in Saõ Paolo.
Quals late Saturday morning, with the report coming sometime after that.
HWMNBN and Felipe Massa both showed good speeds, though both had their troubles. The points leader had his engine die in P1, and the Brazilian had a clutch failure in P2. Neither should suffer a penalty for their breakdowns however since they came on Friday. Indeed, the team claimed that they weren't at all surprised by HWMNBN's breakdown as it was a well-worn race engine that they expected to have go boom. That actually makes good sense... why put any more miles on the engine they intend to use on Sunday than they have to?
On the other hand, McLaren may as well not bother to show up at Abu Dhabi next week; both Hamilton and Button were a second or more off the pace. If they wind up with that sort of pace at Quals, they'll probably be DOA on Sunday, and both drivers need to win to have any chance for a comeback in the championship.
All is not wine and roses in the Red Bull camp, though. As predicted some races ago, the tension between Mark Webber and Seb Vettel is showing through at a particularly ugly time. Mark Webber said on Thursday that he believed that the team thought his drive for a championship was "an inconvenience. I wasn't supposed to be in the chase at all." His body language was reportedly that of someone under a ton of stress, full of slumping and sighs. He did get a dig in though: "For different reasons here and there, Seb's never led the Championship and I have." Vettel in a later interview with a German TV channel said "if Mark needs help then he should take the medical car."
Not good news for the Austrian team. It's clear that neither driver is willing to help the other if and when it comes down to that. Indeed, Webber was asked what he'd do if things broke poorly for him this race and suddenly Vettel had a better chance to win the Championship. His response, after a long pause, was telling: "I'd need to think a lot further about that."
Meanwhile over in the Ferrari camp, Felipe Massa has stated that he'll do whatever he can do to help HWMNBN win the championship. HWMNBN, on the other hand, has said that he'd be perfectly happy to have his teammate win at his home race. "It'll take 25 points off the guys following me," which is just as good as a win for the Spaniard. Of course, the specter of Massa pulling over to let his teammate by looms over the team, to the point where a Brazilian official has said that Massa lets HWMNBN by, he'll have Massa arrested for violating sportsmanship laws. Must be election time in Saõ Paolo.
Quals late Saturday morning, with the report coming sometime after that.
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November 04, 2010
Yuno's Duckie: An Appreciation
Some three years ago, the series Hidamari Sketch debuted on Japanese satellite station BS-i. The show followed the lives of four students, Yuno, Miyako, Sae and Hiro, all of whom are attending Yamabuki Art High School. As a prototypical "slice-of-life" show, there's not much in the way of plot other than that of going through life with your friends. In the third series, Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu, two new characters, Nazuna and Nori, joined the cast and quickly became part of the family.
Ever since the first episode there has been another member of the group. Yuno's rubber duckie has appeared in all but two or three episodes in the series' 44-episode run. HidaDuck has no lines, and doesn't quack even once, but a careful watcher of the show will realize just how important it is to the main character, Yuno. When she moves into the Hidamari Apartments, the first thing that she unpacks is HidaDuck. At one point, she's locked out of her apartment for five days. When she finally gets back in, she immediately apologizes to HidaDuck for leaving it alone in the dark for so long. I've said in the past that Yuno is "one of us," a collector who truly understands the joy of ducks.
But why is HidaDuck so special? To be sure, it's a cute rubber duckie, but no cuter than quite a few of the members of my Flock. It's particularly well-detailed, with distinct feathers on the wingtips and tail, but that's actually becoming more and more the norm amongst full-sized duckies these days. That it floats, and floats well, is a nice feature but again, not one that's particularly different (though sadly, quite a few rubber duckies these days float poorly or not at all).
There are some aspects of HidaDuck that are uncommon, however. The eyes are quite large, bigger than those of most of the ducks in my collection. The opened bill isn't as common as one might think, particularly when you realize that the two halves are long and unsupported (almost all of my duckies with an open bill have much shorter halves at a shallower angle, and a "tongue" in-between). That's a good look for a duckie.
But all of that is nothing more than an attempt to quantify something unquantifiable, namely the appeal of Yuno's Duckie. Perhaps it's the fact that SHAFT has put so much care into making it consistent from episode to episode (though there was one time that they failed miserably). It seems pretty clear to me that they must be drawing from a real, physical, rubber duckie as a model. Maybe it's that Yuno obviously gets a lot of enjoyment from HidaDuck; she certainly talks to it as if it's listening, after all. Maybe it's because it's far and away the most visible rubber duckie in anime, and perhaps on all of television, Ernie's not withstanding.
Or perhaps it's just that HidaDuck is a cute duckie. Really, what more reason does one need? A cute duckie is enough on it's own.
I'll admit that I tried to e-mail SHAFT to inquire about the availability of a HidaDuck, but I can't find an address on their webpage to do so. I refuse to give up, though.
Some three years ago, the series Hidamari Sketch debuted on Japanese satellite station BS-i. The show followed the lives of four students, Yuno, Miyako, Sae and Hiro, all of whom are attending Yamabuki Art High School. As a prototypical "slice-of-life" show, there's not much in the way of plot other than that of going through life with your friends. In the third series, Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu, two new characters, Nazuna and Nori, joined the cast and quickly became part of the family.
Ever since the first episode there has been another member of the group. Yuno's rubber duckie has appeared in all but two or three episodes in the series' 44-episode run. HidaDuck has no lines, and doesn't quack even once, but a careful watcher of the show will realize just how important it is to the main character, Yuno. When she moves into the Hidamari Apartments, the first thing that she unpacks is HidaDuck. At one point, she's locked out of her apartment for five days. When she finally gets back in, she immediately apologizes to HidaDuck for leaving it alone in the dark for so long. I've said in the past that Yuno is "one of us," a collector who truly understands the joy of ducks.
But why is HidaDuck so special? To be sure, it's a cute rubber duckie, but no cuter than quite a few of the members of my Flock. It's particularly well-detailed, with distinct feathers on the wingtips and tail, but that's actually becoming more and more the norm amongst full-sized duckies these days. That it floats, and floats well, is a nice feature but again, not one that's particularly different (though sadly, quite a few rubber duckies these days float poorly or not at all).
There are some aspects of HidaDuck that are uncommon, however. The eyes are quite large, bigger than those of most of the ducks in my collection. The opened bill isn't as common as one might think, particularly when you realize that the two halves are long and unsupported (almost all of my duckies with an open bill have much shorter halves at a shallower angle, and a "tongue" in-between). That's a good look for a duckie.
But all of that is nothing more than an attempt to quantify something unquantifiable, namely the appeal of Yuno's Duckie. Perhaps it's the fact that SHAFT has put so much care into making it consistent from episode to episode (though there was one time that they failed miserably). It seems pretty clear to me that they must be drawing from a real, physical, rubber duckie as a model. Maybe it's that Yuno obviously gets a lot of enjoyment from HidaDuck; she certainly talks to it as if it's listening, after all. Maybe it's because it's far and away the most visible rubber duckie in anime, and perhaps on all of television, Ernie's not withstanding.
Or perhaps it's just that HidaDuck is a cute duckie. Really, what more reason does one need? A cute duckie is enough on it's own.
I'll admit that I tried to e-mail SHAFT to inquire about the availability of a HidaDuck, but I can't find an address on their webpage to do so. I refuse to give up, though.
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November 03, 2010
Because I Can
Not including the weekend's coverage of the Grand Prix of Brazil, I've got two separate posts in the pipeline. The first is in response to the question posed by Vaucaunson's Duck, namely why do I like the HidaDuck so much? The other is a good look at my five all-time favorite anime series, inspired by the neophyte fan that
I mentioned a few weeks back.
But I find that I can't be arsed right now.
About much of anything, truth be told. Working on it.
But I find that I can't be arsed right now.
About much of anything, truth be told. Working on it.
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November 01, 2010
F1 on SPEED!: Brazil 2010
From the new track at Korea, we find ourselves hurled over 11000 miles to Saõ Paulo, Brazil, home of the Brazilian Grand Prix... and let's get it out of the way now: that's a lot of Grand Prix.
Let's get something else out of the way: I do not like this track. Let's look at the map...
I admit that my dislike of the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace rather sets me apart from many fans and most of the drivers, but I have never been fond of the site of the Grand Prix of Brazil. Indeed, now that the French Grand Prix has gone by the wayside (and good riddance to bad rubbish), only the nightmare of boredom that is Hungary is higher on my antipathy list.
Which is strange, because the Brazilian Grand Prix has coughed up some stunning races in recent years. Consider 2007, when Lewis Hamilton lost the Driver's Championship to Kimi Raikkonen by throwing his car off-track trying to make a pass he didn't need. Or perhaps 2008, when Hamilton redeemed himself on the last turn of the last lap, passing Timo Glockenspiel's Toyota to win the Driver's Championship by one point over hometown favorite Felipe Massa, who had won the race. Or even 2009, which had the longest quals session in F1 history due to torrential rains (and coincidentally saw the arrival of Racey the Owl) and the dual championships for rookie team BrawnGP and Jenson Button, with Massa, recovering from his horrible accident, waving the checkered flag.
Despite all this, I despise this circuit. More commonly known by the name Interlagos, meaning "Between The Lakes" in Portugese, the course is built, well, between two man-made lakes that provide water to the sprawling metropolis that is Saõ Paulo. These lakes have caused the circuit to wrinkle over the years, to the point where even after a resurfacing in 2007, it was easily the bumpiest track in F1. I don't like that. The pit-in is positioned so that the racing line through Turn 15 goes through it, and it always looks like cars are going to smash head-on into the pit wall at 160mph. I don't like that. I don't like the pit lane itself, the longest in F1. But most of all, I don't like the whole atmosphere of Interlagos. Even on the sunniest days it feels dull and gray. Watching the race often feels like a chore because of this. The whole layout seems uninspired to my eyes as well.
As mentioned before though, most of the drivers love Interlagos. The elevation change (down, from Turn 2 to the exit of Turn 3, then up, from around Turn 13 to the slightly banked Turn 15) gives them a sense of going somewhere, the fast parts are fast without being dangerously so, and the twisty bits are challenging without being ridiculous. So they say. I just hate it all. It's a visceral, emotional hate, with no logic behind it. I admit it, and can't help it.
That all being said, it's looking like Brazil is going to serve up another whopper of a race this Sunday. HWMNBN could in theory wrap up the Driver's Championship. Red Bull could lock down the Constructor's Championship. Or everything could go the way of Korea and we'll have a scenario where we'll have four or five drivers all within range of the Championship going into Abu Dhabi. No matter how you look at it, or how much you like (or dislike) the track, the GP of Brazil will almost certainly be the most important race of the year.
And SPEED will be there! Live coverage of Friday's Second Practice goes from 11am to 1240pm. Quals, on the other hand, are Saturday from 11am to 1230pm.
The Grand Prix of Brazil will come to us LIVE on Sunday, with coverage beginning at 830am, and the checkered flag dropping somewhere around 11am. As usual, all times are Pond Central, and don't forget that you need to set your clocks back an hour when (if?) you go to bed on Saturday night as the US reverts to Standard Time.
Also as usual, the F1U! crew will be all over the race like an odd-toed ungulate on a blade of grass. See you then!
Let's get something else out of the way: I do not like this track. Let's look at the map...
I admit that my dislike of the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace rather sets me apart from many fans and most of the drivers, but I have never been fond of the site of the Grand Prix of Brazil. Indeed, now that the French Grand Prix has gone by the wayside (and good riddance to bad rubbish), only the nightmare of boredom that is Hungary is higher on my antipathy list.
Which is strange, because the Brazilian Grand Prix has coughed up some stunning races in recent years. Consider 2007, when Lewis Hamilton lost the Driver's Championship to Kimi Raikkonen by throwing his car off-track trying to make a pass he didn't need. Or perhaps 2008, when Hamilton redeemed himself on the last turn of the last lap, passing Timo Glockenspiel's Toyota to win the Driver's Championship by one point over hometown favorite Felipe Massa, who had won the race. Or even 2009, which had the longest quals session in F1 history due to torrential rains (and coincidentally saw the arrival of Racey the Owl) and the dual championships for rookie team BrawnGP and Jenson Button, with Massa, recovering from his horrible accident, waving the checkered flag.
Despite all this, I despise this circuit. More commonly known by the name Interlagos, meaning "Between The Lakes" in Portugese, the course is built, well, between two man-made lakes that provide water to the sprawling metropolis that is Saõ Paulo. These lakes have caused the circuit to wrinkle over the years, to the point where even after a resurfacing in 2007, it was easily the bumpiest track in F1. I don't like that. The pit-in is positioned so that the racing line through Turn 15 goes through it, and it always looks like cars are going to smash head-on into the pit wall at 160mph. I don't like that. I don't like the pit lane itself, the longest in F1. But most of all, I don't like the whole atmosphere of Interlagos. Even on the sunniest days it feels dull and gray. Watching the race often feels like a chore because of this. The whole layout seems uninspired to my eyes as well.
As mentioned before though, most of the drivers love Interlagos. The elevation change (down, from Turn 2 to the exit of Turn 3, then up, from around Turn 13 to the slightly banked Turn 15) gives them a sense of going somewhere, the fast parts are fast without being dangerously so, and the twisty bits are challenging without being ridiculous. So they say. I just hate it all. It's a visceral, emotional hate, with no logic behind it. I admit it, and can't help it.
That all being said, it's looking like Brazil is going to serve up another whopper of a race this Sunday. HWMNBN could in theory wrap up the Driver's Championship. Red Bull could lock down the Constructor's Championship. Or everything could go the way of Korea and we'll have a scenario where we'll have four or five drivers all within range of the Championship going into Abu Dhabi. No matter how you look at it, or how much you like (or dislike) the track, the GP of Brazil will almost certainly be the most important race of the year.
And SPEED will be there! Live coverage of Friday's Second Practice goes from 11am to 1240pm. Quals, on the other hand, are Saturday from 11am to 1230pm.
The Grand Prix of Brazil will come to us LIVE on Sunday, with coverage beginning at 830am, and the checkered flag dropping somewhere around 11am. As usual, all times are Pond Central, and don't forget that you need to set your clocks back an hour when (if?) you go to bed on Saturday night as the US reverts to Standard Time.
Also as usual, the F1U! crew will be all over the race like an odd-toed ungulate on a blade of grass. See you then!
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October 31, 2010
Happy Halloween 2010!
Happy Halloween from all the spooky lil' duckies at The Pond!
Thanks to the Duck U. Human Resources office for the use of their decorations!
The dead have risen... and they're ADORABLE!
Happy Halloween from all the spooky lil' duckies at The Pond!
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October 29, 2010
Harumph
I had intended to blog about the question that Vaucaunson's Duck posed, about why the Hidamari Sketch duckie had so caught my fancy, but I find that my heart just isn't into it tonight. Long days at work, I suppose, and a general feeling of meh-ness (as opposed to menace) have conspired to take the creativity right out of me.
So instead, I bring you something very rare in anime: a cute girl appropriately dressed for chilly weather.
-Amagami SS, ep13
Think about it... most of the cast of Kanon '06 should have died of pneumonia because they never wore coats in the middle of winter. Ironically, the only girl in the show that wore warm clothing was already hospitalized.
It's almost like the producers of anime don't want to cover the girls up or something...
So instead, I bring you something very rare in anime: a cute girl appropriately dressed for chilly weather.
-Amagami SS, ep13
Think about it... most of the cast of Kanon '06 should have died of pneumonia because they never wore coats in the middle of winter. Ironically, the only girl in the show that wore warm clothing was already hospitalized.
It's almost like the producers of anime don't want to cover the girls up or something...
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October 28, 2010
Which Witch Is Which?
Over at the greatest duck-themed webcomic on the net, Quacked Panes, the Halloween duckies are out and about... including a witch duckie.
Meanwhile, over at Duck Show, the greatest duck-based website anywhere, a particular witch duckie is sited...
...and here at Wonderduck's Pond, I'm always happy to jump on a bandwagon.
Yep, it's Pockywitch! Hopefully I'll be able to coax her away from her horde later... if I'm turned into a newt, you know what happened.
Meanwhile, over at Duck Show, the greatest duck-based website anywhere, a particular witch duckie is sited...
...and here at Wonderduck's Pond, I'm always happy to jump on a bandwagon.
Yep, it's Pockywitch! Hopefully I'll be able to coax her away from her horde later... if I'm turned into a newt, you know what happened.
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October 26, 2010
Ask Wonderduck (almost) Anything! The 2010 Edition
It's been a year and since I had a blast with it during the last go-round, I think it's time for the second installment of Ask Wonderduck (almost) Anything!
Here's how this thing works... you ask a question, and I'll answer it! It's just that simple! But wait, great news! The best question (in my opinion) will get a full-length post devoted to the answer!
As with the last time we did this, there are a few questions I won't answer: anything related to current politics or religion. I started The Pond lo these many years ago in an attempt to get away from political or religious squabbles, and to this day I've pretty much managed to stay clear of those things. There are plenty of people out there who write about those topics and do so in ways I couldn't even hope to approach, so go read them for answers to those questions. If you DO ask me a question related to such topics, please expect to be mocked horribly.
But wait, there's even more!
If you ask a technical question, I'll do my best to answer it correctly, but use it at your own risk. So if you ask, say, "how do I install a left-handed widget in my 2008 Dacia Sandero," the results are on your head, not mine.
With all that out of the way, Ask Wonderduck (almost) Anything!
UPDATE: Some music for you while you formulate your query.
facemelter!
Here's how this thing works... you ask a question, and I'll answer it! It's just that simple! But wait, great news! The best question (in my opinion) will get a full-length post devoted to the answer!
As with the last time we did this, there are a few questions I won't answer: anything related to current politics or religion. I started The Pond lo these many years ago in an attempt to get away from political or religious squabbles, and to this day I've pretty much managed to stay clear of those things. There are plenty of people out there who write about those topics and do so in ways I couldn't even hope to approach, so go read them for answers to those questions. If you DO ask me a question related to such topics, please expect to be mocked horribly.
But wait, there's even more!
If you ask a technical question, I'll do my best to answer it correctly, but use it at your own risk. So if you ask, say, "how do I install a left-handed widget in my 2008 Dacia Sandero," the results are on your head, not mine.
With all that out of the way, Ask Wonderduck (almost) Anything!
UPDATE: Some music for you while you formulate your query.
facemelter!
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October 25, 2010
My Fifth Birthday
It amazes me to think that it was five years ago that I suffered The Cardiac Incident. For those who are new to The Pond, yours truly had an attack of Superventricular Tachycardia at work, ended up with a pulserate somewhere in the vicinity of 250bpm with a blood pressure near 300/200.
I'm one of those lucky individuals who have heard an EMT say "I can't get a pulse" when they were referring to them! My heart was going so fast that he just couldn't count individual beats; it just felt like one continuous throb. It never hurt, but it was stressful... particularly when they had to actually stop my heart to give it a chance to reboot.
It's an odd feeling. We're in the back of the ambulance, sirens wailing, and the EMT is calmly telling me that he's about to give me a drug that'll make my heart cease activity for a moment. "It might feel like there's a brick on your chest, but it won't hurt!" And lo, he was right. Too bad the first dose didn't do the trick. The second shot felt like there were two bricks on my chest, lot of pressure, and then...
...things were fine again. Oh, my pulse was still high, around 120bpm, but that's heaven in comparison to four beats a second. I was kept at the hospital overnight and released with a prescription for a drug to control the possibility of it happening again.
SVT by itself isn't usually fatal, but if it keeps going for an extended period of time, the possibility of bad things occurring begins to grow... like a stroke from the high blood pressure, or an arterial failure, or dozens of other very-not-good outcomes. The ER nurses told me that calling 911 was the smartest thing I could have done.
So I'm here to tell you, my readers, that if you ever feel something weird happening to your heart, or any other of your internals for that matter, call 911 (or whatever your local emergency number is). Don't tough it out, don't think that it's not a big deal because it isn't a heart attack, don't be a bloody idiot. Call 911 and stay alive.
Because the alternative? Bad. Very bad.
I'm one of those lucky individuals who have heard an EMT say "I can't get a pulse" when they were referring to them! My heart was going so fast that he just couldn't count individual beats; it just felt like one continuous throb. It never hurt, but it was stressful... particularly when they had to actually stop my heart to give it a chance to reboot.
It's an odd feeling. We're in the back of the ambulance, sirens wailing, and the EMT is calmly telling me that he's about to give me a drug that'll make my heart cease activity for a moment. "It might feel like there's a brick on your chest, but it won't hurt!" And lo, he was right. Too bad the first dose didn't do the trick. The second shot felt like there were two bricks on my chest, lot of pressure, and then...
...things were fine again. Oh, my pulse was still high, around 120bpm, but that's heaven in comparison to four beats a second. I was kept at the hospital overnight and released with a prescription for a drug to control the possibility of it happening again.
SVT by itself isn't usually fatal, but if it keeps going for an extended period of time, the possibility of bad things occurring begins to grow... like a stroke from the high blood pressure, or an arterial failure, or dozens of other very-not-good outcomes. The ER nurses told me that calling 911 was the smartest thing I could have done.
So I'm here to tell you, my readers, that if you ever feel something weird happening to your heart, or any other of your internals for that matter, call 911 (or whatever your local emergency number is). Don't tough it out, don't think that it's not a big deal because it isn't a heart attack, don't be a bloody idiot. Call 911 and stay alive.
Because the alternative? Bad. Very bad.
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Ducks In Anime: A Good Day
Despite having a four-day weekend, here at Pond Central it's been something of a meh. I'm dealing with a bad coldflucoughthing that just won't go completely away, and have been tired all the bloody time. Other things are going on as well, leading to just one big "meh" of a weekend.
Until today. Today began with an epic Formula 1 race, segued into an exciting (if exasperating) Bears game, and then...
-Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu Special #1
Any day with a new HidaSketch is a good day, particularly when it's a story that isn't in the four manga volumes that have been released here! Or, at least the main story hasn't.
The secondary story is the Natsune flashback from the end of Volume 4, the one that Ume Aoki couldn't do in 4koma style.
And of course, there's the duckie. It wouldn't be an episode of HidaSketch without the duckie. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I WANT THIS DUCKIE.
*ahem*
It's been a good day.
Until today. Today began with an epic Formula 1 race, segued into an exciting (if exasperating) Bears game, and then...
-Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu Special #1
Any day with a new HidaSketch is a good day, particularly when it's a story that isn't in the four manga volumes that have been released here! Or, at least the main story hasn't.
The secondary story is the Natsune flashback from the end of Volume 4, the one that Ume Aoki couldn't do in 4koma style.
And of course, there's the duckie. It wouldn't be an episode of HidaSketch without the duckie. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I WANT THIS DUCKIE.
*ahem*
It's been a good day.
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October 24, 2010
F1 Update!: Korea 2010
Many people suspected that the new track at Korea would be a true wild card in the race for the Driver's Championship. A new circuit always puts a cat amongst the pigeons; nobody has an idea what to expect, so you've got as many guesses as there are teams and drivers. The one thing we'd not seen during the three practice sessions and the qualifying periods was rain, which on a brand new track puts an ostrich amongst the kittens. But would weather matter, or would we get a straight-out race for the Championship? THIS is your F1 Update! for the inaugural Grand Prix of Korea!
*SPLISH: During the recon laps before the race, cars were skidding off-track like they were driving on ice. The rain, which had been falling all day, washed away all the rubber laid down on the track surface. Throw in the new-style asphalt with a high oil content, thus preventing the water from permeating the surface and draining away, and we had a situation to rival the worst of the Swimming Pool at Spa-Francorchamps. The closer it got to the scheduled race start time, the heavier the rain came down. The start was delayed ten minutes by Race Director Charlie Whiting, then the decision was made to begin behind the Safety Car. Two laps like that was enough for everybody; the radio freqs were buzzing with calls from the drivers saying they couldn't see the car in front of them. Renault's Robert Kubica, buried near the middle of the trundling herd and thus deluged by the rooster tails of nearly half the field, reported that he couldn't even see his own front tires. And so the race was Red Flagged, hoping for the weather to clear up.
*SPLASH: After nearly an hour with the cars sitting on the grid, Charlie Whiting made the call for everybody to raise anchor and get under way, again behind the Safety Car... and for 17 more laps, Bernd Maylander led the cars around. For the last five or six of those, the track was more than safe enough to race on, making everybody wonder if Whiting had fallen asleep. Eventually, the safety car came in and green flag racing had finally come to the Korea International Circuit.
*CRASH: Almost immediately, Red Bull's Seb Vettel jumped away from his teammate, championship points leader Mark Webber. As the only driver with a clear view of the track, unobscured by spray, he had a much easier time of it. Indeed, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who had been agitating to get the race started, was passed very quickly by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes for fourth place... a pass that, strangely, may have kept Hamilton in the hunt for the Driver's Championship. For on Lap 20, as he went through the technical section, Mark Webber got a tire over a curb, spun and slid down the track. Ferrari's HWMNBN got past cleanly, but Rosberg was speared by the crippled Red Bull, wrecking both cars. The leader of the Driver's Championship was out of the race, but he didn't collect Hamilton.
*BLAST: What followed was a rash of Safety Car periods, called out as one car or another ended up slipping off-track, occasionally taking someone else with them. In the end, nine cars would retire from the race, seven from accidents. Surprisingly the most violent of them all, when Vitaly Petrov's Renault wound up leaving the track at high speed and spearing into the wall protecting the pit lane entry, did not bring out Bernd Maylander. Race leader Seb Vettel probably wished for the Safety Car, as he had started to call to the pit lane that it was becoming difficult to see braking points due to the gathering darkness... or perhaps he had an ulterior motive. You see, a few laps later HWMNBN drove past a rapidly slowing Vettel in Turn 1, who then had a total and comprehensive engine failure. Smoke, sparks, engine parts and, eventually, a small amount of fire, issued from the rear of the Red Bull, making it very clear that Vettel's day was done.
*NIGHT: Then it became a race to see if the entire race length would be run, or if Charlie Whiting would call it early because of nightfall. Oddly enough, around the time of Petrov's accident the radio calls that the FIA had been liberally playing throughout the race strangely went silent. The last one we heard was Vettel's call of darkness. One suspects that the radios were burning up from the drivers' calls saying it was too dark to drive, but still Whiting left them out there. By the time HWMNBN swept across the finish line 14.9 seconds ahead of Hamilton, they were running in the dark, but running they were. The most eventful race of the 2010 season had come to an end, and the entire landscape of the Driver's Championship had changed.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We think Bernd Maylander deserves this for his flawless drive in the 571-horsepower Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Safety Car. It has less effective wet-weather tires than the F1 cars, less downforce, and yet he had to power around in conditions that were ugly at best at speeds that would keep the F1 cars healthy... somewhere between 80 and 120mph. It obviously wasn't easy, as the F1 cars were sliding off even at those low speeds, yet Maylander kept the Safety Car planted like a rock. We would love to give it to him, but we can't, even though he led the most laps today. No, we have to give the award to one of the actual racers, and today the honors go to HWMNBN. While he was given 1st place by the failure of both Red Bulls, he was very much the fastest car on the track for much of the race, despite appalling conditions. Indeed, he was closing in on Vettel even before that driver's engine problems, and probably would have caught up with him with five laps or so left... and you know he would have tried the pass. As it was he left Lewis Hamilton, not a shabby rain driver himself, in his metaphorical dust, finishing nearly 15 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver. An excellent drive from HWMNBN indeed.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. A win, a third-place, and a sudden resurgence in the Constructor's Championship? Oh yeah, they got it right this week.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 27 Slappy Schumacher was in 6th with the reigning Driver's Champion Jenson Button just ahead as they went through Turn 2... and Schumi had the fastest car through the speed-traps all weekend. The rain, though, took that advantage away as the two silver cars went down the longest straight on the circuit. Back in the old days Schumacher had been known as "The Rainmaster," and he showed, at least for this moment, that he hadn't lost that touch. As the two reached The Elephant, Schumacher stayed off the brakes almost suicidally too long, then put just the right amount of force into the pedal. Button, taken a little aback by the sudden appearance of the petwer Mercedes next to him, didn't slam the door, and the two went through the turn in lockstep. Schumi put in just the right amount of throttle for his rear tires to grip and powered away from Button, who spun his tires just a bit. A really sweet piece of driving in horrid conditions, and one well-worth the Move of the Race!
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 47, Force India's Adrian Sutil had lined up the Sauber of Gandalf Kobayashi as they ran down to Turn 4, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to do anything about it. His brakes were giving him fits, and the track was still sopping wet. Still, no guts no glory, right? He went to the inside of the white car, stomped on the brakes, turned the wheel... and quickly peeled the front-right wheel off his car as he slammed into Gandalf. Surprisingly the Sauber kept on going on while the Force India ended up sliding off into the wilderness. Congratulations, Adrian Sutil, you won the stupidest move award in a race filled with worthy contenders. You also get a honorable mention for admitting to the race stewards that you knew you had brake problems, yet went ahead and tried the pass anyway! You've earned yourself a five-spot penalty for Brazil AND a $10K fine too. Good Job, a winner is you!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*SPLISH: During the recon laps before the race, cars were skidding off-track like they were driving on ice. The rain, which had been falling all day, washed away all the rubber laid down on the track surface. Throw in the new-style asphalt with a high oil content, thus preventing the water from permeating the surface and draining away, and we had a situation to rival the worst of the Swimming Pool at Spa-Francorchamps. The closer it got to the scheduled race start time, the heavier the rain came down. The start was delayed ten minutes by Race Director Charlie Whiting, then the decision was made to begin behind the Safety Car. Two laps like that was enough for everybody; the radio freqs were buzzing with calls from the drivers saying they couldn't see the car in front of them. Renault's Robert Kubica, buried near the middle of the trundling herd and thus deluged by the rooster tails of nearly half the field, reported that he couldn't even see his own front tires. And so the race was Red Flagged, hoping for the weather to clear up.
*SPLASH: After nearly an hour with the cars sitting on the grid, Charlie Whiting made the call for everybody to raise anchor and get under way, again behind the Safety Car... and for 17 more laps, Bernd Maylander led the cars around. For the last five or six of those, the track was more than safe enough to race on, making everybody wonder if Whiting had fallen asleep. Eventually, the safety car came in and green flag racing had finally come to the Korea International Circuit.
*CRASH: Almost immediately, Red Bull's Seb Vettel jumped away from his teammate, championship points leader Mark Webber. As the only driver with a clear view of the track, unobscured by spray, he had a much easier time of it. Indeed, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who had been agitating to get the race started, was passed very quickly by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes for fourth place... a pass that, strangely, may have kept Hamilton in the hunt for the Driver's Championship. For on Lap 20, as he went through the technical section, Mark Webber got a tire over a curb, spun and slid down the track. Ferrari's HWMNBN got past cleanly, but Rosberg was speared by the crippled Red Bull, wrecking both cars. The leader of the Driver's Championship was out of the race, but he didn't collect Hamilton.
*BLAST: What followed was a rash of Safety Car periods, called out as one car or another ended up slipping off-track, occasionally taking someone else with them. In the end, nine cars would retire from the race, seven from accidents. Surprisingly the most violent of them all, when Vitaly Petrov's Renault wound up leaving the track at high speed and spearing into the wall protecting the pit lane entry, did not bring out Bernd Maylander. Race leader Seb Vettel probably wished for the Safety Car, as he had started to call to the pit lane that it was becoming difficult to see braking points due to the gathering darkness... or perhaps he had an ulterior motive. You see, a few laps later HWMNBN drove past a rapidly slowing Vettel in Turn 1, who then had a total and comprehensive engine failure. Smoke, sparks, engine parts and, eventually, a small amount of fire, issued from the rear of the Red Bull, making it very clear that Vettel's day was done.
*NIGHT: Then it became a race to see if the entire race length would be run, or if Charlie Whiting would call it early because of nightfall. Oddly enough, around the time of Petrov's accident the radio calls that the FIA had been liberally playing throughout the race strangely went silent. The last one we heard was Vettel's call of darkness. One suspects that the radios were burning up from the drivers' calls saying it was too dark to drive, but still Whiting left them out there. By the time HWMNBN swept across the finish line 14.9 seconds ahead of Hamilton, they were running in the dark, but running they were. The most eventful race of the 2010 season had come to an end, and the entire landscape of the Driver's Championship had changed.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We think Bernd Maylander deserves this for his flawless drive in the 571-horsepower Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Safety Car. It has less effective wet-weather tires than the F1 cars, less downforce, and yet he had to power around in conditions that were ugly at best at speeds that would keep the F1 cars healthy... somewhere between 80 and 120mph. It obviously wasn't easy, as the F1 cars were sliding off even at those low speeds, yet Maylander kept the Safety Car planted like a rock. We would love to give it to him, but we can't, even though he led the most laps today. No, we have to give the award to one of the actual racers, and today the honors go to HWMNBN. While he was given 1st place by the failure of both Red Bulls, he was very much the fastest car on the track for much of the race, despite appalling conditions. Indeed, he was closing in on Vettel even before that driver's engine problems, and probably would have caught up with him with five laps or so left... and you know he would have tried the pass. As it was he left Lewis Hamilton, not a shabby rain driver himself, in his metaphorical dust, finishing nearly 15 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver. An excellent drive from HWMNBN indeed.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. A win, a third-place, and a sudden resurgence in the Constructor's Championship? Oh yeah, they got it right this week.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 27 Slappy Schumacher was in 6th with the reigning Driver's Champion Jenson Button just ahead as they went through Turn 2... and Schumi had the fastest car through the speed-traps all weekend. The rain, though, took that advantage away as the two silver cars went down the longest straight on the circuit. Back in the old days Schumacher had been known as "The Rainmaster," and he showed, at least for this moment, that he hadn't lost that touch. As the two reached The Elephant, Schumacher stayed off the brakes almost suicidally too long, then put just the right amount of force into the pedal. Button, taken a little aback by the sudden appearance of the petwer Mercedes next to him, didn't slam the door, and the two went through the turn in lockstep. Schumi put in just the right amount of throttle for his rear tires to grip and powered away from Button, who spun his tires just a bit. A really sweet piece of driving in horrid conditions, and one well-worth the Move of the Race!
*MOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 47, Force India's Adrian Sutil had lined up the Sauber of Gandalf Kobayashi as they ran down to Turn 4, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to do anything about it. His brakes were giving him fits, and the track was still sopping wet. Still, no guts no glory, right? He went to the inside of the white car, stomped on the brakes, turned the wheel... and quickly peeled the front-right wheel off his car as he slammed into Gandalf. Surprisingly the Sauber kept on going on while the Force India ended up sliding off into the wilderness. Congratulations, Adrian Sutil, you won the stupidest move award in a race filled with worthy contenders. You also get a honorable mention for admitting to the race stewards that you knew you had brake problems, yet went ahead and tried the pass anyway! You've earned yourself a five-spot penalty for Brazil AND a $10K fine too. Good Job, a winner is you!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
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October 23, 2010
It's Raining In Korea! (UPDATE #10)
It's raining at the Korea International Circuit, 24 minutes before the lights go out. Cars are spinning during the recon lap... we just saw a shot of Felipe Massa moving at maybe 40mph, on full wets, and still skidding sideways off-track.
Of course, the dust/dirt off-track is now mud. Oy.
This might prove to be a nightmare race. Fun, yes, but a nightmare.
Oh, and HWMNBN's engineers found a leaking waterpump in his Ferrari. They're working replacing it right now. They'll get it done, but will it hold together? Yeesh.
UPDATE: There's a 10-minute delay to the start, and it'll begin behind the Safety Car. Rain is supposed to stop in about an hour or so. Hoo-hah.
UPDATE 2: Lap 3, and the race is Red Flagged. The cars have stopped on the grid, and we're halted until the the powers that be decide that the rain has stopped enough. To be honest, even running behind the safety car must have been terrible. HWMNBN called back to the pit wall, claiming that this was "the worst conditions (he's) ever driven under." This race might just be called.
UPDATE 3: The race will be resumed at 205am Pond Time! They'll do one more lap under Safety Car conditions, and they must be on full wet tires (not that anybody would be silly enough to do anything else *coughferraricough*, of course), but then they'll be really running for the first time. Now we're up against the setting sun, will they get it in before it gets too dark to race.
UPDATE 4: Here we go, and Berndt Maylander leads them all into Turn 1... but we're racing again.
UPDATE 5: Still behind the Safety Car. The asphalt is to blame here; it's got a higher percentage of oily bitumen than normal, so the water is just floating on top of that. Slappy just spun off.
UPDATE 6: Lewis Hamilton just radioed in: "The track is good, improving all the time!" The sun is to begin setting in about 40 minutes, or about 3am Pond Central time. This is getting ridiculous.
UPDATE 7: 12 laps in, some parts of the track look okay, but the two long straights may as well be swimming pools. Still, the Legendary Announce Team make a good point: "we've raced in worse." Lucas di Grassi just set fast lap, with a blistering 2m36sec. Still behind the Safety Car.
UPDATE 8: Hamilton: "Start the race." McLaren Pit Wall: "We don't think other drivers have the same enthusiasm, Lewis." How much fuel does Berndt Maylander have?
UPDATE 9: Greengreengreen! Real racing now on Lap 18.
UPDATE 10: Race over after three hours, with the last laps run in the dark. No F1U! until after I get some sleep, but it was an... interesting... experience.
Of course, the dust/dirt off-track is now mud. Oy.
This might prove to be a nightmare race. Fun, yes, but a nightmare.
Oh, and HWMNBN's engineers found a leaking waterpump in his Ferrari. They're working replacing it right now. They'll get it done, but will it hold together? Yeesh.
UPDATE: There's a 10-minute delay to the start, and it'll begin behind the Safety Car. Rain is supposed to stop in about an hour or so. Hoo-hah.
UPDATE 2: Lap 3, and the race is Red Flagged. The cars have stopped on the grid, and we're halted until the the powers that be decide that the rain has stopped enough. To be honest, even running behind the safety car must have been terrible. HWMNBN called back to the pit wall, claiming that this was "the worst conditions (he's) ever driven under." This race might just be called.
UPDATE 3: The race will be resumed at 205am Pond Time! They'll do one more lap under Safety Car conditions, and they must be on full wet tires (not that anybody would be silly enough to do anything else *coughferraricough*, of course), but then they'll be really running for the first time. Now we're up against the setting sun, will they get it in before it gets too dark to race.
UPDATE 4: Here we go, and Berndt Maylander leads them all into Turn 1... but we're racing again.
UPDATE 5: Still behind the Safety Car. The asphalt is to blame here; it's got a higher percentage of oily bitumen than normal, so the water is just floating on top of that. Slappy just spun off.
UPDATE 6: Lewis Hamilton just radioed in: "The track is good, improving all the time!" The sun is to begin setting in about 40 minutes, or about 3am Pond Central time. This is getting ridiculous.
UPDATE 7: 12 laps in, some parts of the track look okay, but the two long straights may as well be swimming pools. Still, the Legendary Announce Team make a good point: "we've raced in worse." Lucas di Grassi just set fast lap, with a blistering 2m36sec. Still behind the Safety Car.
UPDATE 8: Hamilton: "Start the race." McLaren Pit Wall: "We don't think other drivers have the same enthusiasm, Lewis." How much fuel does Berndt Maylander have?
UPDATE 9: Greengreengreen! Real racing now on Lap 18.
UPDATE 10: Race over after three hours, with the last laps run in the dark. No F1U! until after I get some sleep, but it was an... interesting... experience.
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F1 Quals: Korea 2010
With overcast skies casting a dull flat light over the Korea International Circuit, the track looks quite different, but will it drive any differently? That's what we're here to find out! The provisional grid for the first ever Grand Prix of Korea:
In some ways, one almost has to feel badly for HWMNBN. The Ferrari is far and away the best balanced of the cars around this circuit. The Red Bulls are fastest around the twisty bits, but are nearly six mph slower than the McLaren on the straights. The McLaren is supreme in Section 1 (the three straights), but aren't quite as nimble as the Red Bulls through the rest of the layout.
The Ferrari isn't as fast as the McLaren through the speed trap, and not as spry through the fiddlybits, but it's just behind the leaders in both categories. Normally, that'd be more than good enough to take a pole position, but today the Red Bulls ripped off ridiculously fast laps after the Q3 timer had expired (but they still counted as the laps started with time remaining). The crushing bit for HWMNBN had to be that Vettel and Webber set their laps just after he claimed pole with the fastest time of the weekend... at least, to that point.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was seen shaking his head in the garage... he's almost a half-second slower than Vettel and has got to be thinking his chances for the World Championship are almost completely gone now. Button's situation is even worse now, and he pretty much needs a miracle to occur for him to repeat as Champ. Maybe a huge pileup going into Turn 1 that claims the first three rows.
It appears that the driver's pleas did not fall on deaf ears. Turn 16 has been modified a smidge so it isn't launching cars into the stratosphere anymore, which is a very good thing. They did something to Turn 18 as well, so it no longer kicks a mushroom cloud of dust onto the circuit every time a car runs over the curbs. These are good things, but the Legendary Announce Team reported that the concrete curbs at some other places around the track are beginning to collapse. Sounds like a busy day is in store for the track crew. At least the asphalt isn't ripping up as was predicted... supposedly they used a special quick-curing asphalt. It only takes a few days to solidify, but is more slippery than normal. Fair tradeoff, I think.
So we're looking at a three-horse race tomorrow, I think. Can the Ferrari build up enough time on the straights to defeat the Red Bull advantage on the curves? For that's what it comes down to... and that's Team McLaren's only hope as well.
We'll see you here sometime after the race with the F1U!
In some ways, one almost has to feel badly for HWMNBN. The Ferrari is far and away the best balanced of the cars around this circuit. The Red Bulls are fastest around the twisty bits, but are nearly six mph slower than the McLaren on the straights. The McLaren is supreme in Section 1 (the three straights), but aren't quite as nimble as the Red Bulls through the rest of the layout.
The Ferrari isn't as fast as the McLaren through the speed trap, and not as spry through the fiddlybits, but it's just behind the leaders in both categories. Normally, that'd be more than good enough to take a pole position, but today the Red Bulls ripped off ridiculously fast laps after the Q3 timer had expired (but they still counted as the laps started with time remaining). The crushing bit for HWMNBN had to be that Vettel and Webber set their laps just after he claimed pole with the fastest time of the weekend... at least, to that point.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was seen shaking his head in the garage... he's almost a half-second slower than Vettel and has got to be thinking his chances for the World Championship are almost completely gone now. Button's situation is even worse now, and he pretty much needs a miracle to occur for him to repeat as Champ. Maybe a huge pileup going into Turn 1 that claims the first three rows.
It appears that the driver's pleas did not fall on deaf ears. Turn 16 has been modified a smidge so it isn't launching cars into the stratosphere anymore, which is a very good thing. They did something to Turn 18 as well, so it no longer kicks a mushroom cloud of dust onto the circuit every time a car runs over the curbs. These are good things, but the Legendary Announce Team reported that the concrete curbs at some other places around the track are beginning to collapse. Sounds like a busy day is in store for the track crew. At least the asphalt isn't ripping up as was predicted... supposedly they used a special quick-curing asphalt. It only takes a few days to solidify, but is more slippery than normal. Fair tradeoff, I think.
So we're looking at a three-horse race tomorrow, I think. Can the Ferrari build up enough time on the straights to defeat the Red Bull advantage on the curves? For that's what it comes down to... and that's Team McLaren's only hope as well.
We'll see you here sometime after the race with the F1U!
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October 22, 2010
F1 Thoughts: Korea 2010
P2 was much like P1, just with more rubber on the track. Lap times fell until about 10 minutes left in the session, when all the teams shifted from car setups to doing tire runs. Remember how I said the simulators were forecasting 1:44 lap times? Mark Webber topped the second practice session timesheets with a 1:37.942. Real life is more realistic than simulators.
Anyway, tire wear is going to be huge on Sunday. Nobody expected this, but the option tires are practically falling apart after a few laps, suffering heavy heavy graining after just a couple of laps. It's not just limited to one or two teams, with everybody from Red Bull to HRT having the problem. Perversely, the tire wear is occurring because the circuit is so slippery. Think of it like this. Let's say (and I'm making numbers up here) that a F1 car travels four feet every time the tires make one full revolution. That's on a normal circuit, like Silverstone or Monza, in the dry of course. At Korea though, the track is so slippery that tires need to revolve 1-1/2 times to go four feet... obviously the tires will wear faster. That's an exaggeration, but it gives you an idea of the problem. It also doesn't help that the tires need to work harder to get through the turns, sliding more than at other places.
Speaking of turns, if there's going to be any wrecks on Sunday, look for them to occur at Turn 16. It's a relatively simple left-hander, normally no problem, but the inside curb at Turn 16 is actually below track level. This is completely the opposite of any curbing on any non-banked turn on any track anywhere. If it was designed that way, then Hermann Tilke had to have been drunk at the time. More likely however is that the track surface has settled.
Much like Swamp Castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up."), Korea International Circuit was built on marshland, just barely over the level of the water table. The marsh was drained, but it can't be the most stable terrain to build on. As a result, this track is bumpy, much like the way Interlagos in Brazil is bumpy. Not just at The Elephant, but all over the Korean layout there are rough patches (and a weird hill on the left side of one short straight. Not all the way across, just on one side). It appears likely that Turn 16 has sunk into the swamp, so to speak... and it's the cars that'll fall over.
Also, the drivers universally decry the pit entry at Turn 18. It's a relatively fast turn, leading onto the front straight, but cars entering the pits have to slow waaaay down on the circuit before they get into the pit lane run-in, which is narrow and twisty. I can easily see an accordion effect causing wrecks as someone slows up to go to the pits, the next car behind slowing to avoid him, and someone else plowing into that car. Or someone needs to dodge a pit-bound car, and failing.
All that being said, I find that I actually rather like this racetrack. It has personality, unlike most Tilke layouts. There's a lot of little elevation changes in the twisty part of the circuit, and of course there's The Elephant. It looks like it'd be a lot of fun to drive on. Is it going to be a good track to actually race on? That, we won't know until Sunday... I can see it easily being a horrible F1 track. But if you could just take a car, maybe a Lotus Evora, and go for a fun track day? Korea International Circuit would be GREAT!
Quals at midnight, writeup'll be sometime Saturday.
Anyway, tire wear is going to be huge on Sunday. Nobody expected this, but the option tires are practically falling apart after a few laps, suffering heavy heavy graining after just a couple of laps. It's not just limited to one or two teams, with everybody from Red Bull to HRT having the problem. Perversely, the tire wear is occurring because the circuit is so slippery. Think of it like this. Let's say (and I'm making numbers up here) that a F1 car travels four feet every time the tires make one full revolution. That's on a normal circuit, like Silverstone or Monza, in the dry of course. At Korea though, the track is so slippery that tires need to revolve 1-1/2 times to go four feet... obviously the tires will wear faster. That's an exaggeration, but it gives you an idea of the problem. It also doesn't help that the tires need to work harder to get through the turns, sliding more than at other places.
Speaking of turns, if there's going to be any wrecks on Sunday, look for them to occur at Turn 16. It's a relatively simple left-hander, normally no problem, but the inside curb at Turn 16 is actually below track level. This is completely the opposite of any curbing on any non-banked turn on any track anywhere. If it was designed that way, then Hermann Tilke had to have been drunk at the time. More likely however is that the track surface has settled.
Much like Swamp Castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up."), Korea International Circuit was built on marshland, just barely over the level of the water table. The marsh was drained, but it can't be the most stable terrain to build on. As a result, this track is bumpy, much like the way Interlagos in Brazil is bumpy. Not just at The Elephant, but all over the Korean layout there are rough patches (and a weird hill on the left side of one short straight. Not all the way across, just on one side). It appears likely that Turn 16 has sunk into the swamp, so to speak... and it's the cars that'll fall over.
Also, the drivers universally decry the pit entry at Turn 18. It's a relatively fast turn, leading onto the front straight, but cars entering the pits have to slow waaaay down on the circuit before they get into the pit lane run-in, which is narrow and twisty. I can easily see an accordion effect causing wrecks as someone slows up to go to the pits, the next car behind slowing to avoid him, and someone else plowing into that car. Or someone needs to dodge a pit-bound car, and failing.
All that being said, I find that I actually rather like this racetrack. It has personality, unlike most Tilke layouts. There's a lot of little elevation changes in the twisty part of the circuit, and of course there's The Elephant. It looks like it'd be a lot of fun to drive on. Is it going to be a good track to actually race on? That, we won't know until Sunday... I can see it easily being a horrible F1 track. But if you could just take a car, maybe a Lotus Evora, and go for a fun track day? Korea International Circuit would be GREAT!
Quals at midnight, writeup'll be sometime Saturday.
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October 21, 2010
F1 Practice 1: Korea
1:28:00 - Hello, and welcome to the first ever F1Update Liveblog! We're looking at the first practice session for the new Korean Grand Prix. We're two minutes in, and so far nobody has crashed!
1:25:45 - First radio transmission from the runners. Toro Rosso's NKOTT called in and said "It's a very dirty track, very very slippery." As expected, of course. The place looks like the grand prix circuit in Australia, just without any of the scenery and a lot of construction work around.
1:20:00 - After an initial flurry of activity, suddenly it looks like nobody is on track. NKOTT just went into the pits, and his tires were just covered with dust. Hideously so, like he went for a run in the desert or something. Here, take a look:
1:16:00 - Kubica is on track, and every so often he's hitting dust puddles... including one right at the start/finish line. Pitlane seems narrow-ish.
1:12:30 - Button out on track for the first time, looks like he's driving very gingerly. Then again, everybody is. And it's an installation lap, just to make sure everything's working. I expect a lot of that for the first every now and again.
1:09:43 - HRT takes to the field! DJ DNF looks... well, slow.
1:06:47 - ...and DJ DNF becomes the first to go off-track.
1:02:30 - Looks like playtime is over, and the teams are starting to get down to the business of figuring this place out. Gawd, but there's a lot of bare dirt visible...
0:58:05 - ...and Jarno Trulli becomes the second off of the day. Getting quite a bit of traffic out there now, starting to see just how the track races. Initial impression: poor, particularly through the "city" section.
0:52:52 - Felipe Massa becomes the third victim of the slippery track. See, it's not just the crappy cars! The Ferrari is actually one of the more stable runners out there, but Massa looked like he was ice skates.
49:50 - Who told HRT that "pigment-spill brown" was a good color?
46:08 - There's a strange little hillock at the end of the second straightaway, like they paved over an elephant or something. Terrible place for it, right in the braking zone for the hairpin (I think. It's hard to tell without a trackmap handy), and it's bumpy as all hell. I could see an accident occurring there, even on a grippy track.
42:01 - Nope, it's the end of the looooooong straight. Still a weird spot for it though. Nico Rosberg went over it and almost looked like he was going to fly out of the cockpit.
41:07 - Gandalf Kobyashi just had an off... in the pit entry. Oy. Nah, this asphalt isn't slippery at all.
34:03 - The Elephant isn't the only elevation change on this track. Actually, there's a surprising amount of little rolls and dips around the place... kinda nice, actually, and quite unexpected. The Demon Tilke seems to prefer to scour the landscape down to a pool-table-like smoothness.
29:21 - The simulators were predicting a laptime of around 1m44s or thereabouts. Jenson Button just did a 1:43.096... then put it in the dust.
27:14 - I must say, the feed has bee BUFFERING 22% n pretty good so far.
24:45 - If you can avoid looking anywhere but the track itself, the Korea International Circuit looks pretty good. But then you see a camera shot of two piles of dirt and a crane...
23:33 - Yellow flag!
22:00 - Looks like Bruno Senna either had his rear suspension break on him, or it broke when this happened:
Pretty impressive high-speed spin... good thing there's a lot of run-off area there. Bad news is that it's taking FOREVER for the marshalls to get it craned away.
17:31 - Yellow flag is gone after six minutes or so... at Monaco, the thing would have been back in the pitlane after that long.
14:33 - Nico Hulkenberg did a 1:42.678 for fast lap honors so far... then Rubens Barrichello, his teammate, did a 1:42.800 (I think it was, it flashed up so quick) for 2nd fastest. Could Williams have FINALLY gotten it right, with three races left? Or are they just looking good because nobody has a clue yet?
10:55 - Allskate, everybody allskate. Place looks like I-90 near O'Hare on Friday afternoon.
4:16 - Button does a 1:41.940. The sims are looking a little shabby...
0:44 - Hamilton pulls a 1:40.887. Great googly moogly.
0:00 - I suspect I know what the drivers will say. They'll be positive and upbeat, but I suspect in private they'll have some serious reservations about the circuit. As for me, it looks like a great track to drive on, but to race? Not so much. Hamilton, Kubica, Rosberg, Vettel, Button, Slappy, Webber, Heidfeld, Hulkenberg and Barrichello are your top 10 for the first practice session fast laps. I think that might be legit, in fact. After all, you probably won't be sandbagging on this track; nobody knows the place!
I wonder about the attendance... look at this:
Yes, it's first practice, but the stands are empty. Still, the four or five people who showed up got a decent show.
So, P2 in just about 2.5 hours, and I won't be liveblogging that... not even sure if I'm to watch it until tomorrow morning. Hope you enjoyed this, the Pond's first ever LiveBlog, and stay tuned for more coverage later!
1:25:45 - First radio transmission from the runners. Toro Rosso's NKOTT called in and said "It's a very dirty track, very very slippery." As expected, of course. The place looks like the grand prix circuit in Australia, just without any of the scenery and a lot of construction work around.
1:20:00 - After an initial flurry of activity, suddenly it looks like nobody is on track. NKOTT just went into the pits, and his tires were just covered with dust. Hideously so, like he went for a run in the desert or something. Here, take a look:
1:16:00 - Kubica is on track, and every so often he's hitting dust puddles... including one right at the start/finish line. Pitlane seems narrow-ish.
1:12:30 - Button out on track for the first time, looks like he's driving very gingerly. Then again, everybody is. And it's an installation lap, just to make sure everything's working. I expect a lot of that for the first every now and again.
1:09:43 - HRT takes to the field! DJ DNF looks... well, slow.
1:06:47 - ...and DJ DNF becomes the first to go off-track.
1:02:30 - Looks like playtime is over, and the teams are starting to get down to the business of figuring this place out. Gawd, but there's a lot of bare dirt visible...
0:58:05 - ...and Jarno Trulli becomes the second off of the day. Getting quite a bit of traffic out there now, starting to see just how the track races. Initial impression: poor, particularly through the "city" section.
0:52:52 - Felipe Massa becomes the third victim of the slippery track. See, it's not just the crappy cars! The Ferrari is actually one of the more stable runners out there, but Massa looked like he was ice skates.
49:50 - Who told HRT that "pigment-spill brown" was a good color?
46:08 - There's a strange little hillock at the end of the second straightaway, like they paved over an elephant or something. Terrible place for it, right in the braking zone for the hairpin (I think. It's hard to tell without a trackmap handy), and it's bumpy as all hell. I could see an accident occurring there, even on a grippy track.
42:01 - Nope, it's the end of the looooooong straight. Still a weird spot for it though. Nico Rosberg went over it and almost looked like he was going to fly out of the cockpit.
41:07 - Gandalf Kobyashi just had an off... in the pit entry. Oy. Nah, this asphalt isn't slippery at all.
34:03 - The Elephant isn't the only elevation change on this track. Actually, there's a surprising amount of little rolls and dips around the place... kinda nice, actually, and quite unexpected. The Demon Tilke seems to prefer to scour the landscape down to a pool-table-like smoothness.
29:21 - The simulators were predicting a laptime of around 1m44s or thereabouts. Jenson Button just did a 1:43.096... then put it in the dust.
27:14 - I must say, the feed has bee BUFFERING 22% n pretty good so far.
24:45 - If you can avoid looking anywhere but the track itself, the Korea International Circuit looks pretty good. But then you see a camera shot of two piles of dirt and a crane...
23:33 - Yellow flag!
22:00 - Looks like Bruno Senna either had his rear suspension break on him, or it broke when this happened:
Pretty impressive high-speed spin... good thing there's a lot of run-off area there. Bad news is that it's taking FOREVER for the marshalls to get it craned away.
17:31 - Yellow flag is gone after six minutes or so... at Monaco, the thing would have been back in the pitlane after that long.
14:33 - Nico Hulkenberg did a 1:42.678 for fast lap honors so far... then Rubens Barrichello, his teammate, did a 1:42.800 (I think it was, it flashed up so quick) for 2nd fastest. Could Williams have FINALLY gotten it right, with three races left? Or are they just looking good because nobody has a clue yet?
10:55 - Allskate, everybody allskate. Place looks like I-90 near O'Hare on Friday afternoon.
4:16 - Button does a 1:41.940. The sims are looking a little shabby...
0:44 - Hamilton pulls a 1:40.887. Great googly moogly.
0:00 - I suspect I know what the drivers will say. They'll be positive and upbeat, but I suspect in private they'll have some serious reservations about the circuit. As for me, it looks like a great track to drive on, but to race? Not so much. Hamilton, Kubica, Rosberg, Vettel, Button, Slappy, Webber, Heidfeld, Hulkenberg and Barrichello are your top 10 for the first practice session fast laps. I think that might be legit, in fact. After all, you probably won't be sandbagging on this track; nobody knows the place!
I wonder about the attendance... look at this:
Yes, it's first practice, but the stands are empty. Still, the four or five people who showed up got a decent show.
So, P2 in just about 2.5 hours, and I won't be liveblogging that... not even sure if I'm to watch it until tomorrow morning. Hope you enjoyed this, the Pond's first ever LiveBlog, and stay tuned for more coverage later!
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Time For Some F1 Fun
While we're waiting for the First Practice session from Korea, which I intend to liveblog, here's a little something funny for ya.
What are these five drivers thinking, I wonder?
Hamilton: *snert*
HWMNBN: I don't like being touched by men.
Mark Webber: I really need to find a loo...
Jenson Button: Look cool and professional... that's it... now!
Seb Vettel: What's so funny?
Liveblogging will commence right around 8pm Central Pond Time.
What are these five drivers thinking, I wonder?
Hamilton: *snert*
HWMNBN: I don't like being touched by men.
Mark Webber: I really need to find a loo...
Jenson Button: Look cool and professional... that's it... now!
Seb Vettel: What's so funny?
Liveblogging will commence right around 8pm Central Pond Time.
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October 20, 2010
Well Of COURSE! How Could We Be So Blind?
We have it on good authority that everything will be a-okay for the Grand Prix of Korea on Sunday. Who says? Why, a personage who has absolutely nothing riding on the way the track handles, has no vested interest in the success of the race:
Hermann Tilke. Yes, the designer of the Korea International Circuit hisownbadself has come out saying that the race will be exciting. Hully-gee, how could we have been so blind as to have ever thought that there'd be some problems with the race?
Tilke: "I think on Friday the track surface will be very, very slippery because it is brand new. That means you will probably see some spinning." Gosh, ya think? Thanks for the update, Mr Track Designer! It's not like spinning and crashing in practice might be a problem or anything, though it would be exciting, in a NASCAR sort of way.
Tilke: "And, it will not be easy to find the set-up for Saturday and Sunday because the track will change a lot. That means some drivers will make the wrong set-up choice, because you are going to have to second guess what is the right way to go." So expect an HRT to be on pole, because their car is so bad a screwed-up setup won't make a difference. Still, that'd be exciting, I guess.
Tilke: "After some practice the track will improve a lot, because they lay down their rubber, and that will produce some grip. But off the ideal line it will be very slippery - a big challenge for drivers." In other words, expect a processional, because nobody will dare get off the driving line for fear of ending up somewhere around Jeju-teukbyeoljachido. Exciting indeed... everybody loves a parade!
Tilke: "The main systems will work fine, but maybe here and there, there might be some small things that are not working." Like asphalt coming up in foot-long chunks. Or curbs turning into red-and-white painted gravel the first time a car bounces over them. Or missing drain covers. All of those things spell raw, unadulterated excitment with a capital 'E'!
Tilke: "And because the track is not tested, as it got ready very late, there will probably be a few surprises as well. But all the main things will be okay." Everybody loves surprises, particularly someone driving a F1 car at 190mph! I guess it's a good thing that there practically no grandstands, since otherwise they'd sell you the whole seat, but you'll only be using the edge. I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it... I'm about to lose control, and I think I like it!
So there you have it! Hermann Tilke assures us that Korea will be the bestest race on the calendar evar!!!1!11!!@!eleventy!!!
And if you can't trust Hermann Tilke, who can you trust? I mean, really?
Hermann Tilke. Yes, the designer of the Korea International Circuit hisownbadself has come out saying that the race will be exciting. Hully-gee, how could we have been so blind as to have ever thought that there'd be some problems with the race?
Tilke: "I think on Friday the track surface will be very, very slippery because it is brand new. That means you will probably see some spinning." Gosh, ya think? Thanks for the update, Mr Track Designer! It's not like spinning and crashing in practice might be a problem or anything, though it would be exciting, in a NASCAR sort of way.
Tilke: "And, it will not be easy to find the set-up for Saturday and Sunday because the track will change a lot. That means some drivers will make the wrong set-up choice, because you are going to have to second guess what is the right way to go." So expect an HRT to be on pole, because their car is so bad a screwed-up setup won't make a difference. Still, that'd be exciting, I guess.
Tilke: "After some practice the track will improve a lot, because they lay down their rubber, and that will produce some grip. But off the ideal line it will be very slippery - a big challenge for drivers." In other words, expect a processional, because nobody will dare get off the driving line for fear of ending up somewhere around Jeju-teukbyeoljachido. Exciting indeed... everybody loves a parade!
Tilke: "The main systems will work fine, but maybe here and there, there might be some small things that are not working." Like asphalt coming up in foot-long chunks. Or curbs turning into red-and-white painted gravel the first time a car bounces over them. Or missing drain covers. All of those things spell raw, unadulterated excitment with a capital 'E'!
Tilke: "And because the track is not tested, as it got ready very late, there will probably be a few surprises as well. But all the main things will be okay." Everybody loves surprises, particularly someone driving a F1 car at 190mph! I guess it's a good thing that there practically no grandstands, since otherwise they'd sell you the whole seat, but you'll only be using the edge. I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it... I'm about to lose control, and I think I like it!
So there you have it! Hermann Tilke assures us that Korea will be the bestest race on the calendar evar!!!1!11!!@!eleventy!!!
And if you can't trust Hermann Tilke, who can you trust? I mean, really?
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October 19, 2010
F1 on SPEED!: Korea 2010
The F1 Circus pulls into a brand new venue this week, the Korean International Circuit at Yeongam. There's been a terrible amount of hand wringing regarding the condition of the layout over the past month or so, but how will it really run? We're about to find out! Let's take a look at the track map:
A brand new course is always an exciting time for F1, as nobody has any idea what to expect. While eyewitness reports from Yeongam are somewhat troubling, they're mostly referring to ancillary subjects though two things from reader David's forum are worry-making. Missing drain covers, for example, remind me of the Chinese Grand Prix of 2005, when Juan Pablo Montoya lost out on a podium finish when a loose cover broke his car. Failing curbs might do the same thing.
Then there's the track surface itself. Fresh asphalt is going to be slippery, which'll play hob with downforce levels. Predictions have the teams setting their cars up like it was Suzuka, sacrificing top speed for grip. Yeah, that long straight looks drool-worthy, but there's a lot of curves in the back half of the track and being fast there will pay off more in the long run. Lord knows how the tires will respond... I'm assuming that Bridgestone will be conservative with compound choice here, perhaps bringing the hard and soft rubbers. The teams have high-tech simulators, and have been "driving" around the layout for the past month, but there's only so much a sim can tell you. Yes, you'll know the best line through the track and how long you'll be at full throttle, but until the cars take the track for the First Practice session, they won't know.
Fortunately, we've got SPEED and the Legendary Announce Team to guide us through the whole weekend. The best news of all is that we'll be able to see that first practice session, Thursday night from 8pm to 930pm, on speedtv.com. I'll be watching, for sure! After that, coverage shifts to the network, with Second Practice coming from 1159pm to 140am Thursday night to Friday morning. Thankfully, I've got Friday off from the Duck U Bookstore due to "Fall Break"!
Qualifying is Friday night, beginning at 1159pm and rolling until 130am Saturday morning. Finally, the broadcast of the first-ever Grand Prix of Korea will begin at 1230am Sunday morning, going until 3am. There will be a replay from 330pm to 6pm Sunday afternoon as well.
We'll probably be watching a F1 race taking place in a construction site, but it's a F1 race nevertheless! Of course, F1Update!'ll be all over it all weekend, and we'll see you here then!
A brand new course is always an exciting time for F1, as nobody has any idea what to expect. While eyewitness reports from Yeongam are somewhat troubling, they're mostly referring to ancillary subjects though two things from reader David's forum are worry-making. Missing drain covers, for example, remind me of the Chinese Grand Prix of 2005, when Juan Pablo Montoya lost out on a podium finish when a loose cover broke his car. Failing curbs might do the same thing.
Then there's the track surface itself. Fresh asphalt is going to be slippery, which'll play hob with downforce levels. Predictions have the teams setting their cars up like it was Suzuka, sacrificing top speed for grip. Yeah, that long straight looks drool-worthy, but there's a lot of curves in the back half of the track and being fast there will pay off more in the long run. Lord knows how the tires will respond... I'm assuming that Bridgestone will be conservative with compound choice here, perhaps bringing the hard and soft rubbers. The teams have high-tech simulators, and have been "driving" around the layout for the past month, but there's only so much a sim can tell you. Yes, you'll know the best line through the track and how long you'll be at full throttle, but until the cars take the track for the First Practice session, they won't know.
Fortunately, we've got SPEED and the Legendary Announce Team to guide us through the whole weekend. The best news of all is that we'll be able to see that first practice session, Thursday night from 8pm to 930pm, on speedtv.com. I'll be watching, for sure! After that, coverage shifts to the network, with Second Practice coming from 1159pm to 140am Thursday night to Friday morning. Thankfully, I've got Friday off from the Duck U Bookstore due to "Fall Break"!
Qualifying is Friday night, beginning at 1159pm and rolling until 130am Saturday morning. Finally, the broadcast of the first-ever Grand Prix of Korea will begin at 1230am Sunday morning, going until 3am. There will be a replay from 330pm to 6pm Sunday afternoon as well.
We'll probably be watching a F1 race taking place in a construction site, but it's a F1 race nevertheless! Of course, F1Update!'ll be all over it all weekend, and we'll see you here then!
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