F1 Update!: FRANCE 2008
Ugh. This is your F1 UPDATE!
*MERDE: Wow, this was dull. How dull was this race? Here's a picture of a piece of french bread:
That picture is more interesting than the 2008 French Grand Prix. Even the rain that began to fall with 15 laps to go was uninteresting, being just a light sprinkle.
*FERRARI IS ALL: Halfway through the race, Kimi Raikkonen had a problem develop with his exhaust system: it started to fall off his car. The right-hand exhaust pipe somehow broke and, held on only by the heat sensor, began to bounce and flail against the Ferrari's bodywork. It was obvious that the piece of pipe was going to break free sooner or later, and thus constituted a hazard to everybody behind him... imagine the damage that could result if it came off and speared into a car following! Therefore, the track marshals should have forced him to pit so it could be removed. Of course, the Ferrari would have lost track position, but that's a minor thing considering the safety problems. That Kimi was leading at the time shouldn't have any bearing on the situation. Also of course, the FIA did nothing. Even more surprising, neither did Ferrari when Kimi DID pit! They left the pipe as-is. It was only luck that there wasn't anybody nearby when it finally broke free, rocketing off the rear wing and headed for low-earth orbit. The overheating Ferrari eventually finished second.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: We never thought we'd say this, but Jarno Trulli. Bringing Toyota their first podium finish since the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix, Trulli was under fire the entire race. Somehow, he managed to beat back challenges from Heikki Kovaleinninninnie, Robert Kubica and Mark Webber. Even Jarno's great nemesis, the rain, couldn't keep him from third place. The lone bright spot in a very boring race.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. Podium sweep, fast lap, a friendly FIA, and a McLaren team that seems to be spinning its wheels all point to Ferrari running away and hiding the rest of the season.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: On Lap 19, Lewis Hamilton, who had been bothering HWMNBN for 12th place for a while, ran low while the Renault swung wide into the turn named Estoril. HWMNBN apparently had no idea what was going on, for he began to swing himself onto the inside line even as Hamilton occupied it. Surprised, he twitched and Hamilton zipped by. A nice, if ultimately pointless (Hamilton at the end of the lap), Move of the Race.
*MOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: Even the Moooo-ooove for this race is dull! Jenson Button bumped into SeaBass going into turn 1 at the start of the race, which broke his front wing and eventually led to his retirement (the only one of the race). Congratulations, Jenson, you're the most boring MoootR winner EVER!
1
Yes, indeed, the race was a borefest. And if that wasn't bad enough, viewers on Fox got an abbreviated podium ceremony, which is the only reason I was still watching. Grrrr!
Posted by: Mallory at June 23, 2008 10:37 AM (WJ2qy)
This year, I fell asleep trying to watch race. It is interesting that they didn't black flag Kimi. At least that would have provoked some interesting driving.
Posted by: Lokki at June 23, 2008 11:43 AM (wSBsc)
3
I want some of what Lokki's having... seems like fun stuff! :-)
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 23, 2008 07:01 PM (AW3EJ)
From what I'm hearing from ESPN2, which was televising the qualifying rounds of Sunday's event, the NHRA SuperNationals in New Jersey, the car overran the runoff area (the "kittylitter") at the end of the dragstrip, but I haven't seen it, so I don't know for sure.
UPDATE: Okay, I've seen the video (no, I'm not linking it), and it's not pretty. Kalitta was just about at the end of his run, and he was timed at 300mph, when, I assume, his engine blows, enveloping the car completely in fire. It was so bad that when his 'chutes deployed, they were already aflame. The car goes off the end of the track, through the kittylitter, and into a wall. For what it's worth, the dust kicked up when the car goes through the gravel prevents the camera from seeing the final crash, but the fireball that results is quite visible.
Before you wonder, I gather that beyond that wall is a highway or four-lane street. The runoff area looks very, very small, way too small considering the speeds funnycars and dragsters can hit. And whomever thought that having a dragstrip that ends just short of a street might have something to do with this accident.
Not being familiar with other dragstrips, though, I can't really say if the track at Englishtown has a smaller-than-normal runoff area. I'll bet it is, though.
I just took a look with Google Earth. That track is .7 miles long, from the far rear to the barrier. By comparison, the track at Las Vegas is .85 miles long before you hit a barrier. The Gainesville Raceway is .93 miles long, and if you overrun the end it looks to me like you end up in a lake, which is not the worst thing that could happen to you if your ride is burning.
On the other hand, the track at Pomona is only .75 miles long.
I doubt it mattered. I don't think it was the crash that killed him. From the photo and the description, he probably died from the fire and would have even if he hadn't hit the wall. There's only so much a firesuit can do for you, and you have to breath something.
That's the reason Funny Cars are the most dangerous ride, even compared to Top Fuel. In Top Fuel now the engine is behind the driver and there's armor plate between them. If the engine burns, the wind carries the flames away from the driver, and if it explodes the armor protects him.
But with Funny Cars there's no such armor plate as far as I know, and with the engine in front of the driver, if it burns the flames go right back onto the driver.
Also the short wheelbase of a Funny Car makes it easier to lose control, but that wasn't a factor in this tragedy.
SuperStock also has the engine in front, but they're not operating at the kind of power levels that Funny Cars use, and they're not burning nitromethane. I don't think I've ever heard of a SuperStock engine exploding like that.
3
I'll admit I don't know the difference between SuperStock and Funny Cars... they both look the same to my level of casual knowledge. I DO know I've never seen a car catch fire like that and stay burning.
I can't believe I'm going to argue this point, but my guess is that the crash did, technically, kill him. No question the fire didn't help matters, and who knows what would have been the result if the car had stopped before the wall, but from the time the car catches fire to the time the car hits the wall is only eight seconds. Firesuits are designed to last longer than that, and that's one helluva head-on crash.
Over at the FARK thread on the crash, a commenter who says he's raced at that very track says "But yes, E-town is a deathtrap. There's no space to scrub speed after
the line. Even worse (and more dangerous) is the exit lane is a 90
degree turn to the left about 60ft past the god damned finish. The
track itself is usually well maintained.. but the layout is just stupid."
Take that for what it's worth.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 22, 2008 12:41 AM (AW3EJ)
SuperStock is the original drag racing. What you got is a classic hotrod, and with a bit of work they could be made street legal. They run on gasoline. The car bodies and frames are similar to normal cars. The driver gets in using a standard on-the-side door.
Funny Cars look a bit like a real car, but it's all illusion. The body is one big fiberglass piece which is shaped and painted to look like a standard car body. But inside the structure and drive train are entirely different. The driver gets in either through a hatch on the top, or by having the entire body propped.
Funny Cars run on nitromethane, and the engines are so powerful and have so much torque that one big danger with them at the start is that the car could do a wheelie and go over backwards. As a result, the rules require them to have an assembly that sticks out the back to prevent wheelies. SuperStock car engines don't have that kind of power, and no such gizmo is needed to protect them.
The record quarter for Top Fuel was 4.428 seconds. The record quarter for Funny Cars was 4.659 seconds. SuperStock was about 8.5 seconds.
Speed record for Top Fuel is 336 MPH. For Funny Cars it's 333 MPH. For SuperStock it's 136 MPH.
It depends on what's burning, and how much of it. To get the kind of flames we see in that damned picture, the fuel tank must have gone up. And a nitromethane fire is going to be a worse than a gasoline fire because it's largely self-oxydizing. Bad as gasoline is, a gas fire is partially throttled by requiring air flow in order to burn.
F1 Quals: France 2008!Then there's that whole "I love Formula 1 racing" thing too, I suppose. With those words echoing in my head, I managed to pee the recording of today's Quals for the French Grand Prix straight down the leg of my firesuit. No, I didn't set the time on my VCR wrong, I didn't set it at all! I realized that miserable fact at 805am, in the middle of my morning shower.
I caught the last two minutes of Q3, which was enough to get some impressions from the Legendary Announce Team. To be specific, there seemed to be no energy whatsoever at Mangy-Curs, as if the matter was never in doubt. Which seems right, considering the results. Here's the provisional grid:
Pos
Driver
Team
Q1
Q2
Q3
1
Kimi Räikkönen
Ferrari
1:15.133
1:15.16
1:16.449
2
Felipe Massa
Ferrari
1:15.024
1:15.041
1:16.490
3
Lewis Hamilton
McLaren-Mercedes
1:15.634
1:15.293
1:16.693
4
HWMNBN
Renault
1:15.754
1:15.483
1:16.840
5
Jarno Trulli
Toyota
1:15.521
1:15.362
1:16.920
6
Heikki Kovalainen
McLaren-Mercedes
1:15.965
1:15.639
1:16.944
7
Robert Kubica
BMW Sauber
1:15.687
1:15.723
1:17.037
8
Mark Webber
Red Bull-Renault
1:16.020
1:15.488
1:17.233
9
David Coulthard's Chin
Red Bull-Renault
1:15.802
1:15.654
1:17.426
10
Timo Glock
Toyota
1:15.727
1:15.558
1:17.596
11
Nelsinho Piquet
Renault
1:15.848
1:15.770
12
Grizzly Nick Heidfeld
BMW Sauber
1:16.006
1:15.786
13
Sebastian Vettel
STR-Ferrari
1:15.918
1:15.816
14
SeaBass
STR-Ferrari
1:16.072
1:16.045
15
Nico Rosberg
Williams-Toyota
1:16.085
1:16.235
16
Kazuki Nakajima
Williams-Toyota
1:16.243
17
Jenson Button
Honda
1:16.306
18
Rubens Barrichello
Honda
1:16.330
19
Giancarlo Fisichella
Force India-Ferrari
1:16.971
20
Adrian Sutil
Force India-Ferrari
1:17.053
I have no idea what happened to the BMWs. Seventh for Kubica is bad enough, but 12th for Heidfeld? That's awful. Both Williams are behind the Toro Rossos? That's embarrassing. Note that Lewis Hamilton has a 10-spot grid penalty coming for his "ramming speed" manuever in Canada, and Rosberg has a (ridiculous) 5-spot penalty for his bumping of the already dead McLaren in the same incident.
So, there you go. Quals are in, Ferrari is dominating, this looks like a blowout-in-the-making... unless it rains.
F1 Practice: France 2008!
Over time, I've come to the realization that practices for F1 teams are actually... dull. The main reasons I watch them is to refamiliarize myself with the circuit (after all, for the most part we only see these tracks once a year), and to make sure that if something horrible or fantastic happens, I know about it (fortunately the bad stuff doesn't occur that often).
Then there's that whole "I love Formula 1 racing" thing too, I suppose.
The main thing I gleaned from today's P2 session was that the race on Sunday has a chance of being interesting. The removal of traction control from the cars has made this very flat, very smooth track very, very ungrippy. There were a lot of visits to the kittylitter and runoff areas today as the drivers struggled with the asphalt-like-glass.
I also learned that there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms at Mangy-Curs on Sunday. That would go a long way towards making the race interesting, all on it's own.
Finally, I discovered that the curbing at Mangy-Curs might have replaced Montreal as "the deadliest curbs in F1." They're nowhere near as high as they were at the Circuit Gilles Villenueve, but there's an interesting thing going on here. Since the track in France is so flat and smooth, the teams are running their cars very, very low to the ground. After all, there's no bumps to worry about, so get the bottom of the car as close as possible to the asphalt and improve the aerodynamics under the car.
But to get a fast lap around Mangy-Curs, you MUST use the curbs. Do it right, and it's a beautiful display of what the blend of man and machine can do in the quest for speed. Do it wrong, and... well, you're Adrian Sutil:
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for flying Kingfisher Air. I'm Adrian Sutil, and I'll be your pilot today.
And just like Montreal in 2007, somehow he didn't break the darn thing on landing. They build 'em tough down there in the Force India garages!
Not so much in the McLaren pits, though, where both Heikki and Lewis broke bits off their chargers (Hamilton a strake off his diffuser, Heikki the dip on his front wing) by going over curbs and into the kittylitter.
So until Saturday's Quals, just remember: when all your wheels are on the ground, this is GOOD. Wheels in air? BAD. Can't steer well then.
1
What you call "the kittylitter", it's gravel, right? Something like pumice, maybe? The point of it being to resist a rolling car going through it, so as to slow it down before it hits something tall and unyielding?
2
Right. The composition of "kittylitter" varies from track to track, depending on what they have to work with. In Bahrain, for example, it's mostly sand. In France, it's gravel. In Germany, it's ground-up French rifles (*rimshot*).
For a long time, gravel-traps were the best way to slow down a car before it hit something "tall and unyielding", usually a tire barrier or armco. "Best" being a relative term, of course... it grabs tires a lot better than grass, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Somewhere in my collection, I've got a clip of a car sliding off the track, hitting the sandtrap moving laterally, and cartwheeling side-over-side before ending up upside down... with the roll hoop/air box above the cockpit buried fairly deep into the sand. How the driver escaped that one is beyond me.
For the most part, kittylitter is fading away. F1 brakes being what they are, it's just not as safe as a big asphalt runoff area. Some tracks with a lot of space have both on some of their high-speed turns: Turkey's turn 8, for example, has a huge expanse of asphalt with a substantial gravel-trap (dyed blue for some unknown reason) beyond it. Nobody has reached the gravel yet, though Mark Webber gave it a good shot in 2007... backwards.
And sometimes, kittylitter just doesn't do the job at all. Consider Heikki Kovaleinninninnie's crash in Spain this year, when his left-front wheel broke. He speared right through the gravel like it wasn't even there, then buried his car up to the cockpit in the tire barrier. If there'd been asphalt there, he would have still hit the wall, sure, but his brakes would have had more of a chance to slow him down.
F1 on TV: France 2008!
From the rip-snortin' good times of Montreal, we find ourselves back in Europe for the French Grand Prix.
*crickets*
Yeah, it hurts for me to read that, too. Unless it rains, the French GP is usually a really dull, slow-paced parade. In France. In rural France. To give you an idea of where Magny-Cours is in France, it'd be like having a Grand Prix somewhere in eastern Iowa (without the flooding)... with a very very small town hosting.
The good news is that the 2009 French GP is going to be held somewhere else, perhaps in Paris. No, it won't be at the track used for the 24 Hours of LeMans (which is a real shame; a seven mile course with a straightaway nearly as long as the entire track length of Monaco? With a F1 car? Sign me up!), alas.
But, for this year, Magny-Cours is what we've got, so lets look at the track map, shall we? The predominant feature of Mangy-Curs is slow turns mixed with obscene hairpins. Just when it seems like there's an opportunity for a passing manuever there's another stinkin' bend in the road. Turn 1 is the alleged best passing location.
A few years back, the track was reprofiled to add a chicane (turns 16/17) to help increase passing. While that didn't work at all, it did shorten the pitlane to the point that running a three-stop strategy is actually quite workable at Mangy-Curs, and Slappy Schumacher won in 2004 (I think it was) using an unheard-of four-stop plan.
So expect lots of red-hot pitlane action. Whee. And our friends, the Legendary Announce Team, will be there for all of it.
Friday, from 7am to 830am, we'll have LIVE coverage of Practice 2 on SPEED.
Saturday, from 7am to 830am, there'll be plausibly LIVE coverage of Quals, also on SPEED. Will Robert Kubica take a second pole? Will Ferrari and McLaren scrape their jaws up off the floor after BMW's win at Canada? Will home team Renault actually get on the podium? It all starts on Saturday!
Sunday, the actual Grand Prix of France will be shown on FOX, from 12n to 2pm. That's tape-delayed, by the way, but at least it's the SPEED announce team. For those of you who can't stand the 'Big Four' networks, the race'll be replayed on Wednesday from 11a to 130p on SPEED.
1
I just took a look with Google Earth. That town can't have a population of more than a couple of thousand. It really is out in the sticks. France doesn't get a lot more rural than that. I wonder why they built a race course there? (Probably because land was cheap.)
2
1500, one hotel. It's so far away from anything that the teams despise going there. The track was originally built for a race-driver school back in the '60s, I gather. The French gov'ment decided to pump a lot of cash into it as a way to boost the economy of the very rural region.
It didn't particularly work, I guess, since there's still only one hotel. I gather going there on race weekend would be like going to the Super Bowl at a modern domed stadium... but there's only a two-lane dirt road leading to it.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 17, 2008 08:55 PM (AW3EJ)
I was wondering about that. It did seem as if the roads there were rather narrow for the kind of traffic I'd expect for race weekend.
There is another bitty town on the other side, but it's even bittier, and probably doesn't have a hotel at all.
This reminds me a bit of the Pendleton Roundup, one of the great rodeos of North America. Ordinarily Pendleton OR is a rather sleepy town, albeit a hell of a lot bigger than this one. Ordinarily it has a population of about 17,000. For the Roundup, the population approximately doubles for a couple of weeks. A lot of the visitors bring trailer houses or motor homes with them, and of course rodeo cowboys don't generally expect the kind of opulence that I would suspect is considered pretty routine for F1 drivers and teams.
Also, it's better served by the road system. I-84 goes right through the middle of it.
About 30 years ago I went to the Roundup one year. My roommate and I drove out there and waited at the booth for people to show up with unneeded tickets to sell, and we each picked one up. It didn't turn out to be possible for us to sit together, but that wasn't a big deal. A lot of fun, even if I did get sunburned.
...probably more fun than watching this race, from the way you describe it...
5
I'd love to watch a F1 race at the track; the atmosphere must be amazing... even at a track like the one at Mangy-Curs. It's the whole watching a dull race on TV thing that blows.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 17, 2008 09:25 PM (AW3EJ)
6
And yet we in the US don't rate a race. Not to mention that there's currently no French Drivers! (uh, no Americans either, shhh...) I'm sure they could find a nice spot of land here in my neck of NJ to host build a track, wedged nicely between New York and Philadelphia, with D.C. only a few hours away... To that end they could go back to Watkins Glen.
The Vegas rumors were nice, I don't see why that couldn't be as big as Monoco celebrity wise...
Posted by: Buttons at June 18, 2008 03:00 PM (VjS5e)
Is there anything that no one will add to Wikipedia? It's got an article on the 2009 F1 season.
The number of races listed as confirmed or suspected is absurdly long. Another race at Indy is listed, but I bet not.
What I thought was more interesting is that they're going to impose a spending cap on the teams. It wouldn't include driver salaries and engines.
I wonder if transportation and lodging would be included in the budget? It can't be cheap to move the team and all its equipment all over the world, presumably by air.
I just remembered something else I wanted to ask about. If you've got a track where passing is particularly difficult, then there would seem to be little benefit to having a light car, and you'd be best off going with as few pitstops, and as heavy a fuel load, as you could manage.
Certainly if you're running a 3-pit or 4-pit race, each pit stop will be shorter because you're taking on less fuel. But overall, 4 pitstops will take more time than 2, so you'd be better off with 2.
Okay, I just took a look at that wiki for the 2009 season. Amusing, and about as speculative as it's possible to be. The only thing that can really be taken as gospel from it is confirmed races. Yes, even the teams list is up in the air (don't ask, I don't want to get into it until some more news comes out).
I'm only going to assume that transport costs will not be included in the budget. You're right about it not being cheap, that's for sure. In the European part of the calendar, they use trucks to move about from race to race. The teams also have what they call mobile homes that are about as high-tech as their cars. For the overseas races, they fly the cars and staff, but most everything else is shipped (literally) ahead of time.
Regarding the pitstop conundrum, Steven, I'm going to have to write a full post on that one.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 18, 2008 07:17 PM (DcSb+)
10Not to mention that there's currently no French Drivers!
Sebastien Bourdais (SeaBass) might take issue with this assertion.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 20, 2008 09:01 PM (AW3EJ)
Ikkitousen: Great Guardians ep01 So the third installment of the Ikkitousen story has begun! The first told the story of Hakufu, Nanyou High School's ditzy fighter and her rise to become the "Junior Lord of Lords", the person destined to command all the "kingdoms" (or, in this case, high schools) of the land. The second dealt with Seito's fighters, and how they join forces with Nanyou's group to fight against the most powerful school.
Ikkitousen is best known for it's fanservice, but at least with the second series, Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny, there began to be signs of actual story behind the pantsu. But what of the third series? What does it bring us?
Click on to continue, but be warned: this review is picture-intensive and distinctly NSFW!
I don't like the way they're drawing Hakufu's hair. That pair of locks in the center look too much like Ryuubi's hair. Also, seems to me they've changed Hakufu's hair color. I thought she was supposed to be a strawberry blonde. It looks to me like it's too light and too yellow.
In that sequence in the restaurant, Hakufu starts wearing her hostess dress, but ends up in her school uniform just in time for Kan-u to shred it. How'd that happen?
By the way, as ki-attacks go, that "shred a girls' shirt without otherwise harming her" attack has got to rate up there with the Kamehameha as among the most versatile and useful.
For me, the big question is this: what will they do for an omake this time to top the ITDD omake? It'll be several weeks before we find out, though.
2
Steven, they changed her hair color in Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny to the blonde it is now. Ditto the style. I have a feeling the similarities in hairstyle to Ryuubi's is intentional... but I might be giving the producers too much credit.
Between the hostess dress and school uniform, Hakufu (and Koukin, who also works there) came off-shift and changed. I skipped over about four minutes of show there in the pictures.
I'm fine with the "shirt shred" attack (more than fine, actually), but could they at LEAST have the attack that does the shredding come CLOSE to the piece of apparel in question? They did in the first series, after all. I know, I know, expecting consistency from Ikkitousen might be a bit too much, but still...
As far as the omake goes, I can't imagine what they'll do to top it... go right to hentai, I guess.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 15, 2008 09:46 PM (AW3EJ)
3
Hakufu molesting Ryomou in the other omake was pretty damned close to hentai, actually.
4
Let me say quite loudly for the benefit of any EEOC officers, Liberal Arts professors, and insecure female graduate assistants that I am deeply and profoundly offended by the very existence of this pathologically pointless and prurient show.
Posted by: Ken Talton at June 16, 2008 06:56 PM (V5zw/)
5
I've never been terribly familiar with this series, but I may have to actually do some thoughtful research in this direction.
Posted by: Brickmuppet at June 16, 2008 07:02 PM (V5zw/)
I:GG is in Process
It's taking much longer than expected to do the writeup for Ikkitousen: Great Guardians, ep01. It'll be up on Sunday.
To tide you, the readers, over, here's a picture that shows exactly how they're "toning down the fanservice" for broadcast: They aren't. At all. This is tame in comparison to some shots shown in the first episode.
1
Take your time. We all understand what it's like to have medical problems in important family members, and none of us is going to die if you don't post soon.
An Excuse.
So I had planned to do the writeup of the first episode of Ikktousen: Great Guardians tonight... but then life happened: Ph.Duck's aunt is in the hospital, perhaps having suffered a TIA. Unfortunately, the information got to me via my grandmother, who started the conversation by saying "(Momzerduck) is at the hospital, (Ph.Duck) took her there."
After my heart started beating again (and I wondered where five years of my life had gone), I managed to understand that she had garbled the story.
Then it was just down to waiting to hear from Momzerduck or Ph.Duck to hear exactly what was going on. Of course, I was more than a little worried and NOT interested in watching anime (or doing much of anything else... I might have read the same page of my current novel about five times).
2
Ph.Duck is, indeed, my stepfather. The aunt in question was, for all intents and purposes, his mother for a good chunk of his life (for reasons too complex to get into), so she's not the usual "parent's sister" to him, either.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 13, 2008 07:00 AM (AW3EJ)
T-Bird Sunday
So as has been previously related, the weather around The Pond on Sunday was pretty miserable. Until around 1230pm, there were thunderstorms and high winds which caused no end of havoc, which prevented the Duckford AirFest from doing anything at all.
But the storms blew away, and with a four hour window before the next ones were supposed to happen, AirFest threw the schedule out the window and went for broke: how many teams can we get in the air in a limited amount of time?
The answer was "most of them." The Pond was alive with the roars of jet engines and the growls of prop planes for a good while, but the prevailing winds were such that none of the actual planes came anywhere near Pond Central.
330pm. The Thunderbirds could be clearly heard taking off in the distance. I couldn't take my usual position off in the field behind Pond Central, since there were small rivers running through it, rivers that only form when it rains really hard, so I had to hope that I'd be able to get a pic or two from Pond Balcony.
Yup.
I had to adjust the contrast on this, but otherwise, it's as it came out of the camera.
Not bad, but I like this one better:
Different pass from them, same nice tight formation. Less zoom, too.
The Thunderbirds didn't come into view for the rest of the performance. Drat. Never saw the two solos, either. Double-drat. The diamond is amazing to see, holding that ridiculously tight formation as they blitz by at high speed, low altitude.
Oh, and the Snowbirds? They were at the Canadian Grand Prix. Good reason not to be here!
F1 UPDATE!: Montreal 2008!
A historic race, a lucky break in the weather here at The Pond, and this is F1 UPDATE!
*A RACE FOR FIRSTS: Robert Kubica, one year removed from a horrendous crash at this same track, won today's Canadian Grand Prix and in the process took over the lead in the Driver's Championship. This is not only his first win, but the first win for BMW as a Constructor to boot. And for the first time in F1 history, the Polish national anthem was played in the podium ceremony.
*A TRACK FOR ALL SEASONS (EXCEPT RACE SEASON): There's no denying that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has brought us some marvelous races in the past, but the condition of the track left a lot to be desired. The breakup of the surface, particularly in the hairpin, contributed to a number of unforced errors today. The worst part is, this has happened every race for the past three seasons. As much as we hate to say it, the FIA needs to wield some of its power to get this dealt with, and soon. We at F1 UPDATE! like the circuit a lot, but it's getting ridiculous.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Is there any doubt? Robert Kubica has shown that he's a serious contender for the Driver's Championship and earned a pole, but hasn't quite won a race. Well, today he has, and is now leading Kimi Raikkonen in the points.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Is there any doubt? BMW-Sauber not only got their first ever win (not counting the handful of Sauber victories before BMW came in), but Grizzly Nick Heidfeld was second on the podium as well. To make things even better, the team has now jumped into second in the Constructor's Championship. The team got their 1-2 by doing everything right today, from calling their cars into the pits at the right time, following the rules and paying attention to the red light in the pits, to running their drivers under two different fuel strategies to make SURE they'd get the win, and some great work by the pit crew to get Kubica re-tired, refueled, and out before his teammate came around. A flat-out dominant performance by the now-confirmed newest member of the Grade-A teams.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: Ferrari had a particularly poor race today, with Kimi being knocked out early (see the Moooo-ooove of the Race, below), and Massa's race being compromised by some miserable work in the pits, the MotR is small consolation. However, with the race beginning to wind down, Massa found himself behind both Rubens Barrichello and Heikki Kovaleinninninnie, faster than both, but unable to get past either. Heading down into the hairpin, both the McLaren and Honda drivers stayed high to avoid the crumbling inner line through the turn. Massa took a gamble and went low, into the gravel that used to be aspahlt, then even lower, actually getting a tire onto the grass.
Nice to see the track's in good shape...
By the end of the turn, he had passed Barrichello and pulled even with Heikki. Heikki, seeing the Ferrari very close indeed to his right tires, twitched to the left just a hair, and Massa powered past. Two positions in one pass? Oh yeah, that's the Move of the Race right there.
*MOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: Even the best racers in the world can't be on all the time, and that's what the Mooooo-ooove celebrates (or denigrates, if you've won it). Adrian Sutil's race came to a premature end on lap 17, breaking his suspension after smacking the wall. After coming to a halt, his brakes caught fire. As his car came to a halt in a location that a crane couldn't get to, marshals had to go out and push his Force India behind the wall, which brought out the Safety Car. Once the pitlane opened, all the leaders dove in for fuel and tires. Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari and Robert Kubica's BMW won the pit crew duel and began to exit. However, the red light signifying that the cars could not exit was still on, forcing both to stop at the end of the lane. Lewis Hamilton, distracted by something bright and shiny in his McLaren, didn't notice that they had stopped and continued to accelerate down the lane. When he next looked up, he swerved to avoid the two... and failed, ramming hard into the Ferrari. Kimi lost his rear wing, Lewis lost his front suspension.
Red means stop. Red light, red car... what more do you need?
He was then rear-ended by Williams' Nico Rosberg, but that was just icing on the cake. Hamilton had already won the Moooooo-ooove of the Race... and has been hit with a 10-grid spot penalty for the next race.
I saw a news article that said that Kimi shook Hamilton's hand afterward. If so, he really shows himself to be a gentleman.
The news article also said that at one point Kubica's lead was 25 seconds over Heidfeld, who was way out in front of everyone else. BMW Sauber has to be overjoyed with their result today.
It's astounding that the highest finish for both McLaren and Ferrari was 5th place. I'm overjoyed, too; it's no longer a two-team sport.
2
Steven, immediately after the incident (and I mean, immediately. As in, the broken cars were pretty much still sitting where the wreck happened), Kimi was patting Hamilton on the back.
Hamilton has said that it wasn't his fault, which is a load of hooey.
Kubica won by something like 15 seconds. Once he got out of the pits ahead of Heidfeld, he just ran away and hid.
It was NOT raining, as a matter of fact. If it had been, I can't imagine how confused the race would have been... it was bad enough as is.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 08, 2008 04:22 PM (AW3EJ)
3
Why is there a red light at the end of the pit lane, anyway?
I hope this is the first of many wins for Kubica. It was refreshing to see new faces and/or different faces on the podium and to hear the Polish national anthem for the historic first time.
The only misfortune not present for this race was a marmot.
Posted by: Mallory at June 08, 2008 05:08 PM (WJ2qy)
5
Steven, during the race, it's there for safety. During a safety car period, when the pack is bunched up behind the safety car, having cars race out of the pit lane when the pack is in the vicinity of the pit out could be a disaster. So, when the bunch is near, the pit exit is closed until it passes by.
Otherwise, it's there to signal that the track is safe and open. During the various practices and qual sessions, the light is used to signal to the drivers and teams that the clock is running. When there's a red flag on the course, meaning that the session has been stopped for one reason or another (usually a serious accident), the red light comes on to prevent cars from jumping onto the track. All series (NASCAR, IndyCar, etc) have something similar.
Mal, I was actually quite surprised we didn't have a marmot sighting either during quals or the race itself. The furry speedbumps are usually omnipresent.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 08, 2008 09:21 PM (AW3EJ)
6
Looks like the marmot relocation on the Ile Notre Dame was a bit more successful this year: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080604.wmarmot04/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostemail
Posted by: Vaucanson's Duck at June 09, 2008 12:11 PM (XVJDy)
F1 Update: Montreal will NOT be delayed!!!
My picture firmed up around lap 20 of the 70 lap race! Unless is goes to hell again, there WILL be a F1 Update today!
F1 Update: Montreal will be delayed.
Okay, here's the story. There's bad weather around The Pond, and my local Fox affiliate is taking it on the chin. I've got a weak signal via my satellite-based system (provided by the apartment complex), so about half the time, I'm looking at the race thru a bunch of static and double-images. The other half of the time, I've got no picture at all. Unless it strengthens up quickly, I'll be having to watch the race via download or on Wednesday night, after SPEED runs the replay.
2
Where would you have downloaded it from? I'd like to know where I can keep watching the races after FOX stops.
Posted by: pxcasey at June 08, 2008 03:34 PM (fuJmb)
3
PX, I'm a member of MotorWorld.net, they have torrents for the races. It's the ITV (British, in other words) broadcast, but I enjoy the contrast to Speed Channel's Legendary Announce Team.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 08, 2008 04:18 PM (AW3EJ)
Today was a weird weather day for the Duckford AirFest. Sudden downpours, hot, muggy, and very windy played hob with the schedule. Out of the shot, about ten or 15 miles in the direction of travel, was a VERY ugly looking storm front, which was headed towards The Pond at a good clip.
In fact, it was such an ugly looking storm, that the Thunderbirds ended their (roughly hour-long) program after about 20 minutes. Good thing, too: about five minutes after they landed, just as I made it back to Pond Central, it became as night and the rain began to bucket down.
Even before that, though, I pretty much knew that I wasn't going to get any pictures as interesting as last year's. The Thunderbirds' F-16 is smaller than the F/A-18 flown by the Blue Angels, seemed to be flying higher than last year's show, and the mostly white colorscheme did nothing to make them stand out against the low-ish clouds. Hopefully Sunday will be a nicer day (the weather forecast doesn't look promising, though) and let me take some better pics.
1
Was that the same storm front which laid down ten inches of rain in some parts of Indiana? (Probably not the same front, but maybe the same storm system, blown up from the Gulf.)
Small world, I was at the Biggin Hill airshow yesterday, whihc was also overcast and threatening rain (though thankfully it stayed dry)
Am still disapointed the Vulcan didn't make it, also the Red Arrows weren't there this year either- and lets face it they are the best display team in the world, even if they only have tiddly little training jets
Andy
Posted by: Andy Janes at June 08, 2008 05:42 AM (xVeNB)
5
As I type this, it's 11am on Sunday. The AirFest program for today was supposed to start at 1030am. I've not heard sound one from the airport yet, probably because it's raining quite steadily out there. I have a feeling I might not get a chance to improve on the above picture today.
Andy, I know I'd love to see a Vulcan! There's a B-52 over at the "static display" part of the AirFest, and I would have enjoyed seeing that beastie land. The Duckford Airport isn't able to handle jumbos without removing the lights and other things along the sides of the runway they're using.
And I'd really like to see the Red Arrows in person.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 08, 2008 10:07 AM (AW3EJ)
I heard someone at the Vulcan to the Sky tent saying they were supposed to be doing a test flight on Monday, and hopefully doing some airshows later in the summer. This was the second event I've been to where theyt were supposed to be flying it, and cancelled at the last minute.
I went to the Mildenhall (US Base in East Anglia) Air show years ago and they had a B-1B: that was a sight to remember! Would like to see a B-52 too, or a B-2 (though think thats unlikely)
Andy
Posted by: Andy Janes at June 08, 2008 01:55 PM (+aSSY)
F1 Quals: Montreal 2008!
Nailbiter time! The rain never came, though the skies were gray and there was a distinct crosswind that was causing quite the problems for some drivers. On top of all that, the track, which had been patched and resurfaced in some places during the offseason, was being ripped up by the cars and their incredible levels of grip. This, combined with the slightly higher-than-expected tire wear, made it seem like it HAD been raining in a few of the turns, simply because of all the rubber "marbles" and loose tiny chunks of asphalt lying around. The track marshals actually had to sweep the track clean between the Qual sessions.
Of course, they won't be able to do that during the race. If it DOES rain on top of all that, we'll be lucky to have ANY car take the checkers.
Before we can go racing, though, we have to have qualifying. Lewis Hamilton's McLaren is sitting on pole, after an astounding lap at the final possible time. He had been at the top of the charts all throughout Q3, until the BMW of Robert Kubica, late taking to the track for one reason or another, set out and knocked him off pole with a time of 1:18.498. When Raikkonen and Massa couldn't answer, and Kovalaninninnie couldn't get his McLaren to cooperate, it looked like we'd have another case of "Pole on pole action". Then Hamilton, who looked like he had done everything he could with his McLaren, set sail on his last run. And what a run it was! It was almost like he had traction control running or something, because there were no bobbles, not a tire put wrong, great acceleration out of the hairpin (something Massa's Ferrari had problems with all day, with wheel-spin and a twitchy-looking car under braking), and hitting every corner perfectly. He wound up his lap over six-tenths of a second better than Kubica, a lifetime in F1 terms.
Raikkonen's Ferrari could do no better than third, right alongside the surprising performance of HWMNBN's Renault. Nico Rosberg's Williams looked quite quick in getting 5th, ahead of the struggling Massa. The second McLaren of Heikki Kovaleininninnie was a disappointing seventh. Whether it was the car or the driver has yet to be determined. Grizzly Nick Heidfeld is probably wondering just what he's doing wrong, putting his BMW eighth on the grid. A HUGE disappointment, considering where his teammate is. The biggest surprise of the day, however, has to be Rubens Barrichello in the Honda. Ninth may not sound like much, but for Honda F1 this year, it's almost as good as a win, and it's the first time Rubens has made it to Q3 all season. Mark Webber is 10th, with no time set in Q3; like his teammate, David Coulthard's Chin, in Monaco, Webber spun and damaged his car at the end of Q2 and was unable to take to the track.
The rest of the provisional grid:
Pos
Driver
Team
Q1
Q2
Q3
1
Lewis Hamilton
McLaren-Mercedes
1:16.909
1:17.034
1:17.886
2
Robert Kubica
BMW Sauber
1:17.471
1:17.679
1:18.498
3
Kimi Räikkönen
Ferrari
1:17.301
1:17.364
1:18.735
4
HWMNBN
Renault
1:17.415
1:17.488
1:18.746
5
Nico Rosberg
Williams-Toyota
1:17.991
1:17.891
1:18.844
6
Felipe Massa
Ferrari
1:17.231
1:17.353
1:19.048
7
Heikki Kovalainen
McLaren-Mercedes
1:17.287
1:17.684
1:19.089
8
Grizzly Nick Heidfeld
BMW Sauber
1:18.082
1:17.781
1:19.633
9
Rubens Barrichello
Honda
1:18.256
1:18.020
1:20.848
10
Mark Webber
Red Bull-Renault
1:17.582
1:17.523
no time
11
Timo Glock
Toyota
1:18.321
1:18.031
12
Kazuki Nakajima
Williams-Toyota
1:17.638
1:18.062
13
David Coulthard's Chin
Red Bull-Renault
1:18.168
1:18.238
14
Jarno Trulli
Toyota
1:18.039
1:18.327
15
Nelsinho Piquet
Renault
1:18.505
1:18.393
16
SeaBass
STR-Ferrari
1:18.916
17
Adrian Sutil
Force India-Ferrari
1:19.108
18
Giancarlo Fisichella
Force India-Ferrari
1:19.165
19
Jenson Button
Honda
1:23.565
20
Sebastian Vettel
STR-Ferrari
no time
Sebastian Vettel comprehensively destroyed his Toro Rosso in the Saturday practice with a wreck that had tires flying everywhere. He did so much damage, as a matter of fact, that the team couldn't even salvage the monocoque, and are currently building a new car around the spare cockpit they are allowed to bring to the track. This is not a huge thing, they shouldn't have any problem with that, but it does take time. As a result, he could not take to the track for Quals and will be forced to start from the pit lane. Jenson Button, 19th on the grid, suffered a gearbox problem and withdrew to the pits with five minutes left in Q1.
Rain is still in the forecast, the track is breaking up, the top of the grid looks like someone was drawing names out of a hat... I'd say there's a good chance of a heckuva race tomorrow. If it's anything like the Grand Prix of Canada was last year, it'll be a doozy!
It's really nice to see other teams really putting up a challenge to McLaren and Ferrari. Having those four cars always at top of the qual every race last year was really dull.
Man, track conditions really must have deteriorated considering how everyone's times got slower later in the day. Usually you'd expect them to get faster, as the drivers got more familiar with the course.
I wonder what Hamilton's secret was, given the way he managed to do half a second better than everyone else on all three rounds. I'm still rooting for Kubica, though. I wanna see him win one.
3
Steven, the biggest reason that the times got slower from Q2 to Q3 is the fuel load. Q2 usually has the fastest times as everybody is doing everything they can to get to Q3... that includes carrying just enough fuel to do an out lap, a hot lap, and their cool-down lap. Call it fuel for ten miles.
During Q3, though, the cars have to have their race fuel on-board, PLUS whatever they need to use in Q3. Call it enough fuel for 30 laps (race fuel + qual fuel), or maybe 90 miles more or less.
That extra weight is a decent percentage of the car's overall weight... and therefore, they're slower. The track condition did have something to do with it as well, no question about it.
As to how Hamilton ripped off that pole lap? It's quite possible that he's running less gas than Kubica, perhaps hoping for an early safety car.
Ferrari might be gambling on wet weather for the race. They were six or eight km/hour slower than the McLarens thru the speed traps, and I think they've got more wing on, thinking it'll rain. If that happens, they'll run away with it. If not... well, you see the results from Massa.
If anybody is running low fuel, it's HWMNBN and Rosberg.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 07, 2008 03:55 PM (AW3EJ)
F1 Practice: Montreal 2008!
Men with nerves of steel and lightning reflexes. Multi-million dollar machines packed full of the highest of high-tech equipment. Incredibly powerful engines screaming at deafening volume.
But enough about the Duckford AirFest, which began this afternoon (look for USAF Thunderbird pictures tomorrow and Sunday!). We're here to discuss today's 2nd Practice session at Montreal.
*pause*
Well, that about covers it. I wish I could say there was excitement a-plenty, but there really kinda wasn't. Sure, I'll mention that Felipe Massa's Ferrari rolled to a stop with a steering wheel flashing enough error messages to look like the legendary blinkenlights, and that Robert Kubica had fast lap until the last minute or so of the session (odd for a BMW to be fast in practice), and that Lewis Hamilton had to dodge a marmot in the Casino Hairpin, but other than that? Nothing. Lots of high speed, lots of frantic braking (and loads of brake dust billowing out of the wheels), but... meh.
Quals tomorrow.
Oh, nearly forgot: rain is expected all weekend. *evil grin*
My recent post on Max Mosley's survival in the FIA "extraordinary meeting" had a little bit of a nasty javascript thingy in one of the pictures. Instead of messing with it, I just decided to get rid of the whole thing. Thanks to Steven for the head's-up and the e-mail explanation of what was wrong.
No, it shouldn't wasn't an ickyvirus, but better safe than sorry. Sorry about the that, folks. Here's something to make it up to you:
F1 On TV: Montreal 2008!
This week, the F1 Traveling Circus makes its lone stop in North America for the Grand Prix of Canada. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has gotten an off-season facelift in the wake of last season's nightmare crash of Robert Kubica, with a modification of the walls that contributed to the accident. The towering launch-ramps they called 'curbs' have gone as well, replaced by something more humane.
Houston, we have liftoff...
This is a good thing.
The track is known as the roughest on the calendar on brakes. A long, relatively narrow circuit, it has some very long runs at high speed, followed by heavy braking, rinse, repeat.
Track-map brought to you by Allianz: "We do things with other people's money."
For the record, Kubica's accident took place roughly around the location of the red arrown between turns 9 and 10, more or less.
Turn 13, the second half of the chicane leading to the start-finish line, is also the location of The Wall of Champions, so-called because of all of the drivers that have gotten the turn wrong and smacked the barrier just beyond it. Of course, with the curbs reduced, maybe that won't happen as much now.
Either way, we'll get to see it all, thanks to our friends at SPEED and FOX. Yes, that's right, we're now in the part of the season where coverage will be broadcast on the big network. Prior to last year, this was when fans across America would be driven to applying ice-picks to their eardrums by the miserable announcers (anybody remember Derek Daly's "crashing" fiasco?); thankfully, Fox is the parent network of SPEED, and therefore The Legendary Announce Team will be doing the call of the race. The only difference will be that Peter "Smarmy" Windsor won't be doing his usual grid-walk. What a shame.
SPEED, however, starts us off with LIVE coverage of Friday's second practice session from 1p - 230p. Let's see if we have another near-thing with marmots throwing themselves at the tires of Toyotas!
Saturday brings us plausably live coverage of the Qualifying Session from 12n - 130p on SPEED. The track seems custom-made for a Ferrari pole (of course, these days all tracks seem custom-made for a Ferrari pole), but McLaren does seem to be showing signs of life again, so who knows?
Sunday, though, coverage moves to FOX with the Grand Prix of Canada itself, from 12n - 2pm. SPEED will bring us a replay, complete with pre-race coverage (and Smarmy's gridwalk) on Wednesday, June 11th, from 1130a - 2pm.
So we go from the narrow confines of Monaco to the high-speed racing of Montreal... might be fun!
Those sloping curbs were not well-conceived. What were they expecting, anyway?
What is that big blue area in the middle of the right part of the track? If someone made turn 12 and missed turn 13 they'd go right into it. A hill? a lake? a sand trap? Why's there a wall there?
2
If you enter "Circuit Gilles Villeneuve" to Google Earth, turns out there's a user-entered shortcut to it. I just took a look, and that blue area is indeed water. So they put a wall there because crashing is better than drowning? That's all I can think.
3
Temporary seating is put up between the Wall and the Lac de Regates on race weekend, if I remember correctly (someone correct me if I'm wrong!). But if someone completely blew the chicane and the wall wasn't there, they probably COULD make the lake.
As to why the lake is there in the first place? The Ile de Notre Dame is a man-made island, created for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. You can probably guess from the name of the lake what event was held there.... The track came along two years after the Olympics (in fact, this is the 30-year anniversary of the circuit). You work with the terrain you have.
And the curbs were/are like that to PREVENT people from ignoring them. Of course, if you screw up you get launched anyway (or, like American Scott Speed in 2005, you wind up high-centered on one of them), even if you're not ignoring them. Nobody said F1 is easy.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 03, 2008 06:54 AM (AW3EJ)
There's no way there could be seating there, because there are trees just behind that wall.
Actually, for my money, there are entirely too many trees around the course. Turn 3 is another one like that. There's a wall with a forest behind it. Turn 7 is kind of scary, too; you miss that one you either hit trees or you end up in the river.
Ducks In Anime: A Good Start...
Very mildly
-Kanokon, ep08
In an analysis of this scene, there are 11 ducks visible (though not in this picture, since some are blocked by Wolfie). Multiply that by 21, and you're close to the number of rubber duckies in my collection.