September 25, 2010
F1 Quals: Singapore 2010
Those must have been some darn interesting emotional swings in the Ferrari pits today. Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2010 Grand Prix of Singapore:
One has to wonder when the last time Ferrari qualified on pole and dead last in the same race, without penalties. You'll note that Massa set no time... either a frozen gearbox or an electronic engine management problem, one of the two (I've seen conflicting reports), brought the Brazilian to a stop out on track, ending whatever hope he had of a good race. I've also seen reports that he's going to have to change both his gearbox and the engine. If so, he'll be starting the race from the vicinity of Palembang. Anyway, Ferrari then had the exciting experience of having HWMNBN call in early in Q2 reporting problems with his engine. The team brought him in, rebooted the electronics, then sent him back out, all fingers crossed. Of course the problem disappeared, much like when you restart your computer after it can't find your keyboard. After that, it became a matter of HWMNBN ripping off ridiculously fast laps in a car that people were saying would stink after Monza, and nobody being able to match him. His pole lap wasn't even done in the final shootout, but on his first flying lap in Q3. HWMNBN now has two consecutive poles, and has suddenly catapulted himself into legit discussion for the Driver's Championship.
The rest of the heavy hitters were pretty much as you'd expect. The big surprises today had to be the two replacement drivers, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld and Taoist Klien. Remember what happened with Luca Badoer and Ferrari in 2009? He stepped into the car and was far and away the slowest man on the grid. Well, Grizzly Nick qualified midpack, a respectable performance indeed. Over at HRT meanwhile, Jainist Klien simply demolished his teammate Bruno Senna. He was over a second faster than Senna, which makes me wonder what the HRT might actually be capable of in the hands of someone a) talented and 2) experienced in the car. Lord knows that DJ DNF, Senna and Cowboy Karun Chandhok haven't exactly covered themselves in glory this season.
So there you have it. The five drivers in contention for the Driver's Championship are in the top five grid slots, which makes me think that the run to Turn 1 might be somewhat exciting tomorrow. Of course, F1Update! will be along with the usual coverage... see you then!
One has to wonder when the last time Ferrari qualified on pole and dead last in the same race, without penalties. You'll note that Massa set no time... either a frozen gearbox or an electronic engine management problem, one of the two (I've seen conflicting reports), brought the Brazilian to a stop out on track, ending whatever hope he had of a good race. I've also seen reports that he's going to have to change both his gearbox and the engine. If so, he'll be starting the race from the vicinity of Palembang. Anyway, Ferrari then had the exciting experience of having HWMNBN call in early in Q2 reporting problems with his engine. The team brought him in, rebooted the electronics, then sent him back out, all fingers crossed. Of course the problem disappeared, much like when you restart your computer after it can't find your keyboard. After that, it became a matter of HWMNBN ripping off ridiculously fast laps in a car that people were saying would stink after Monza, and nobody being able to match him. His pole lap wasn't even done in the final shootout, but on his first flying lap in Q3. HWMNBN now has two consecutive poles, and has suddenly catapulted himself into legit discussion for the Driver's Championship.
The rest of the heavy hitters were pretty much as you'd expect. The big surprises today had to be the two replacement drivers, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld and Taoist Klien. Remember what happened with Luca Badoer and Ferrari in 2009? He stepped into the car and was far and away the slowest man on the grid. Well, Grizzly Nick qualified midpack, a respectable performance indeed. Over at HRT meanwhile, Jainist Klien simply demolished his teammate Bruno Senna. He was over a second faster than Senna, which makes me wonder what the HRT might actually be capable of in the hands of someone a) talented and 2) experienced in the car. Lord knows that DJ DNF, Senna and Cowboy Karun Chandhok haven't exactly covered themselves in glory this season.
So there you have it. The five drivers in contention for the Driver's Championship are in the top five grid slots, which makes me think that the run to Turn 1 might be somewhat exciting tomorrow. Of course, F1Update! will be along with the usual coverage... see you then!
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September 24, 2010
F1 Practice: Singapore 2010
I suppose it's wrong to be disappointed with a dry practice session (and a mostly dry track), particularly on a circuit like Singapore that's only been raced on twice before. But I'll be darned if I wasn't hoping for drizzle or more, and I didn't get it. Worse news still, the Legendary Announce Team minus The Varsha, who's on assignment at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Las Vegas this weekend, told us that while its been raining during the days, the rain stops as night falls. That'd mean a dry race, for which I say boo-hiss! However, a lack of rain does mean we get shots like this:
...so I guess it's a fair trade-off.
Action on-track was about what you'd expect from a practice session. Lots of cars going round and round, trying desperately to get lots of laps in on an unfamiliar circuit. This is particularly important considering that Friday's 1st Practice was truncated by rain. Further, the heavy hitters stayed in the garage for most of the earlier session, letting the bottomfeeders go out, clean the dust off the circuit and lay down some rubber around the curves. In P2 though, the big guys pretty much dominated the session, with the top five drivers in the Championship holding down the top five slots on the timesheet.
It wasn't all fun and games in Singapore though, as the track never really dried out; lots of rain mixed with high humidity, no wind, and no sunlight meant that the moisture never went away. We saw a lot of fishtailing, some doinks of the rear wheels off the walls, and quite a few people touching the brakes and sliding off into the darkness. And then you had Adrian Sutil getting a little too much curb in the Singapore Sling chicane, with results that can't be considered pretty:
Which brings us to the biggest surprise of the day. Night. Whatever. Anyway, the surprise... DJ DNF, Sakon Yamamoto hisownbadself, is not driving for HRT this race, allegedly because he's ill. Taking his place for Singapore is none other than Christian Klien, last seen in F1 driving for Red Bull in 2006. Somewhere the dark spectre of The Zsolt is gnashing his teeth... and plotting to reclaim Klien.
Quals in the morning but about two hours later than normal... the session starts at 10pm race local time, two hours later than the actual race time. See you then!
...so I guess it's a fair trade-off.
Action on-track was about what you'd expect from a practice session. Lots of cars going round and round, trying desperately to get lots of laps in on an unfamiliar circuit. This is particularly important considering that Friday's 1st Practice was truncated by rain. Further, the heavy hitters stayed in the garage for most of the earlier session, letting the bottomfeeders go out, clean the dust off the circuit and lay down some rubber around the curves. In P2 though, the big guys pretty much dominated the session, with the top five drivers in the Championship holding down the top five slots on the timesheet.
It wasn't all fun and games in Singapore though, as the track never really dried out; lots of rain mixed with high humidity, no wind, and no sunlight meant that the moisture never went away. We saw a lot of fishtailing, some doinks of the rear wheels off the walls, and quite a few people touching the brakes and sliding off into the darkness. And then you had Adrian Sutil getting a little too much curb in the Singapore Sling chicane, with results that can't be considered pretty:
Whee! I'm a pilot!
The landing was even less pretty, with the Force India's front suspension splintering like a twig. Shouldn't be a problem for Saturday's qualifying sessions, but the mechanics will be wondering just what else got knocked around by Adrian's attempt at imitating the Surya Kiran (or, for PhDuck, सूरà¥à¤¯ किरण).Which brings us to the biggest surprise of the day. Night. Whatever. Anyway, the surprise... DJ DNF, Sakon Yamamoto hisownbadself, is not driving for HRT this race, allegedly because he's ill. Taking his place for Singapore is none other than Christian Klien, last seen in F1 driving for Red Bull in 2006. Somewhere the dark spectre of The Zsolt is gnashing his teeth... and plotting to reclaim Klien.
Quals in the morning but about two hours later than normal... the session starts at 10pm race local time, two hours later than the actual race time. See you then!
No, no reason for this picture to be here...
...except Slappy looks goofy.
...except Slappy looks goofy.
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September 23, 2010
"Explosions and Cool Vehicles!"
So I'm sitting around, doing this and that, when I get a message from a friend of mine. Here's the pertinent portion of it:
Now as you know, my tastes don't exactly run towards "explosions and cool vehicles." I'm much more of a slice-of-life kinda guy, and there sure ain't any 'splody bits in Kanon '06. So I turn to you, my loyal readers. Give me your favoriteist splody anime... and it's gotta be available on DVD, so no fansubs. We've got a chance to create a couple of new otaku here, so let's get them started on the right foot!
Here's a picture of a cute girl as a thank you:
Oh, and no Evangelion.
Did I ever tell you that my friends and I watched the first episode of
Popotan the other day on Netflix? Um, extremely bizarre and a little
disturbing. That was months ago. Lately we find ourselves still
talking about it. It was only one episode. We may have to watch more.
Is this how the addiction starts? If that's the case we'd prefer anime
with more explosions and cool vehicles. Got any suggestions for a
bunch of anime noobs?
Now as you know, my tastes don't exactly run towards "explosions and cool vehicles." I'm much more of a slice-of-life kinda guy, and there sure ain't any 'splody bits in Kanon '06. So I turn to you, my loyal readers. Give me your favoriteist splody anime... and it's gotta be available on DVD, so no fansubs. We've got a chance to create a couple of new otaku here, so let's get them started on the right foot!
Here's a picture of a cute girl as a thank you:
Oh, and no Evangelion.
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NOT Peking Duck
And here's another picture:
It's good to be the Duck.
Orange Chicken, actually.
Ph.Duck and I got together for dinner tonight at the Chinese place we tend to go to every month or so. In lieu of me actually having anything to actually, y'know, write about, there's a picture of my main course.And here's another picture:
It's good to be the Duck.
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September 22, 2010
Let's Talk Books
A couple of years ago, I was at the Duck U Bookstore when one of our history professors came in. At the time, we had a small area set aside on the counter for "Staff Picks", books that those of us who worked at the Bookstore had read and recommended. My two picks that month were World War Z, which I had just finished reading, and Shattered Sword, the 2005 book that turned a lot of what was known about the Battle of Midway on its collective head.
Knowing that the professor in question taught a class on WWII, I suggested Shattered Sword to him, and thus began a close to 45 minute dialogue on Midway and the Pacific War in general (it was summertime, during a stretch where we might go the entire day and see maybe three customers). When we were finished and the prof had purchased both of my "Staff Picks", one of my co-workers looked at me with something akin to stunned disbelief. "He's a history professor, how were you able to to talk to him like that about his specialty?", for indeed, his specialty was the Pacific War and Korea (where he himself served).
I thought for a second and replied "I read a lot." Her reaction, again, was stunned disbelief. "History books? You read history books for fun?"
Well, yeah. I do.
I'd like to write a little bit about some of the books on Midway that I've in my collection, if I may indulge myself a bit... and, seeing how it's my blog, I think I can.
more...
Knowing that the professor in question taught a class on WWII, I suggested Shattered Sword to him, and thus began a close to 45 minute dialogue on Midway and the Pacific War in general (it was summertime, during a stretch where we might go the entire day and see maybe three customers). When we were finished and the prof had purchased both of my "Staff Picks", one of my co-workers looked at me with something akin to stunned disbelief. "He's a history professor, how were you able to to talk to him like that about his specialty?", for indeed, his specialty was the Pacific War and Korea (where he himself served).
I thought for a second and replied "I read a lot." Her reaction, again, was stunned disbelief. "History books? You read history books for fun?"
Well, yeah. I do.
I'd like to write a little bit about some of the books on Midway that I've in my collection, if I may indulge myself a bit... and, seeing how it's my blog, I think I can.
more...
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September 21, 2010
Question for the Pond Readers
Anybody seen Tokyo Tosho recently?
Picture unrelated; I just wanted to post a Kanon '06 shot.
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F1 on SPEED!: Singapore 2010
With the European leg of the season completed, the F1 Circus packs up and hauls their tents halfway around the world to the island nation of Singapore this week. Home to the world's busiest port, Singapore is also the home of a F1 race with a difference:
It takes place entirely at night. This'll be the third time Singapore has hosted a race on the Marina Bay Street Circuit... let's take a look at the track map:
As a spectacle, Singapore is wonderful. The cars shimmer and gleam under the fifty-gazillion overhead lights, in a way they don't anywhere else. A highway flies over the front straight, there are two bridges involved with the circuit, and the cars actually run underneath some of the seating grandstands, just to make everything all that much cooler. As a street circuit, there are many buildings lining the circuit, many of which are beautifully lighted themselves. From the air, the track itself glows, looking like a ribbon of light against the dark background.
As a racetrack however, Singapore leaves a lot to be desired. The heat and humidity makes it a chore to race on, like a cross between Monaco (for the narrowness) and Sepang (for the heat). Last year, officials resurfaced many of the turns in an attempt to smooth out the hideously bumpy breaking zones. Despite this, the drivers still asked for them to be improved. Reportedly they've been ground down again. The curbs have been lowered as well, as the teams thought that they might actually break a suspension going over them. There's few passing zones, and a mistake at any time will put you into the Armco and out of the race.
But it looks cool.
It's pretty clear that to have a good race at Singapore, we're going to need rain. In 2008, HWMNBN got the win after his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr intentionally crashed to give him an advantage. 2009 brought us a flat-out boring race that saw a runaway Lewis Hamilton victory. The weather forecast calls for showers and thunderstorms all weekend, so we might just get F1's first night-rain race. Let's hope so, just for entertainment's sake.
Of course, the good folks at SPEED will bring us every minute of Friday's second practice LIVE, from 830am to 1010am. Saturday will see the drivers go for pole during Qualifying, from 9am to 1030am. Finally, Sunday brings us the 2010 Grand Prix LIVE from 630am to 9am, with a replay from 12noon to 230pm. All times are Pond Central.
Finally, the FIA released the official engine usage list, and clarified if Grizzly Nick Heidfeld would have to deal with Pete Rose's engine penalties. Here's the updated list:
Mark Webber 6
Rubens Barrichello 6
Robert Kubica 6
Vitaly Petrov 6
HWMNBN 8
Felipe Massa 8
Grizzly Nick Heidfeld 9
Everybody else has used 7 engines.
Unfortunately for Grizzly Nick, he will take a 10-spot penalty every time he uses a new engine from now on. Of course you can always use an old engine if you wish. Looking at this, it's clear that Mark Webber, current championship points leader, has an advantage over his rivals in that he's got two unboxed engines in hand, where everybody else only have, at best, one. What difference will this make, with five races left to go? We will see, won't we?
It takes place entirely at night. This'll be the third time Singapore has hosted a race on the Marina Bay Street Circuit... let's take a look at the track map:
As a spectacle, Singapore is wonderful. The cars shimmer and gleam under the fifty-gazillion overhead lights, in a way they don't anywhere else. A highway flies over the front straight, there are two bridges involved with the circuit, and the cars actually run underneath some of the seating grandstands, just to make everything all that much cooler. As a street circuit, there are many buildings lining the circuit, many of which are beautifully lighted themselves. From the air, the track itself glows, looking like a ribbon of light against the dark background.
As a racetrack however, Singapore leaves a lot to be desired. The heat and humidity makes it a chore to race on, like a cross between Monaco (for the narrowness) and Sepang (for the heat). Last year, officials resurfaced many of the turns in an attempt to smooth out the hideously bumpy breaking zones. Despite this, the drivers still asked for them to be improved. Reportedly they've been ground down again. The curbs have been lowered as well, as the teams thought that they might actually break a suspension going over them. There's few passing zones, and a mistake at any time will put you into the Armco and out of the race.
But it looks cool.
It's pretty clear that to have a good race at Singapore, we're going to need rain. In 2008, HWMNBN got the win after his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr intentionally crashed to give him an advantage. 2009 brought us a flat-out boring race that saw a runaway Lewis Hamilton victory. The weather forecast calls for showers and thunderstorms all weekend, so we might just get F1's first night-rain race. Let's hope so, just for entertainment's sake.
Of course, the good folks at SPEED will bring us every minute of Friday's second practice LIVE, from 830am to 1010am. Saturday will see the drivers go for pole during Qualifying, from 9am to 1030am. Finally, Sunday brings us the 2010 Grand Prix LIVE from 630am to 9am, with a replay from 12noon to 230pm. All times are Pond Central.
Finally, the FIA released the official engine usage list, and clarified if Grizzly Nick Heidfeld would have to deal with Pete Rose's engine penalties. Here's the updated list:
Mark Webber 6
Rubens Barrichello 6
Robert Kubica 6
Vitaly Petrov 6
HWMNBN 8
Felipe Massa 8
Grizzly Nick Heidfeld 9
Everybody else has used 7 engines.
Unfortunately for Grizzly Nick, he will take a 10-spot penalty every time he uses a new engine from now on. Of course you can always use an old engine if you wish. Looking at this, it's clear that Mark Webber, current championship points leader, has an advantage over his rivals in that he's got two unboxed engines in hand, where everybody else only have, at best, one. What difference will this make, with five races left to go? We will see, won't we?
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September 20, 2010
One Year Later
One year ago today, the woman readers of The Pond knew as Momzerduck, and I knew as Mom, passed away. I'd love to say something deep and meaningful right now, but find that I'm just... numb. It's taken me close to a hour just to type this short statement.
I guess I'm coping with her loss. I can't remember the last time I broke down, and I no longer run away whenever I smell hand sanitizer. I no longer expect my cellphone to ring at 7pm.
I miss her so very much.
One year ago today, the woman readers of The Pond knew as Momzerduck, and I knew as Mom, passed away. I'd love to say something deep and meaningful right now, but find that I'm just... numb. It's taken me close to a hour just to type this short statement.
I guess I'm coping with her loss. I can't remember the last time I broke down, and I no longer run away whenever I smell hand sanitizer. I no longer expect my cellphone to ring at 7pm.
I miss her so very much.
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September 19, 2010
International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2010
Ahoy, maties! T' Yan-Yan Pirates, sworn enemies o' those scurvy dogs, t' Pocky Ninjas, welcome ye t' International Talk Like A Pirate Day! When they be comin' for your Yan-Yan, 'tis best you just run up t' white flag, fer a scruffier band of bilge rats don't exist anywhere on t' high seas! They'll do bad things t' ye! YARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
Okay, they're not scruffy... they're rubber ducks, perhaps the least scruffy thing in the world. And they won't do bad things to you; again, they're rubber ducks. Rubber ducks just don't do "bad things." At worst, they'll just sort of walk away with your Meiji sweets. YARRRRR!
But the rivalry between the Pocky Ninjas and the Yan-Yan Pirates is legendary; you don't want to get betwixt the two sides. Then bad things really WILL happen to you... very bad things.
Ahoy, maties! T' Yan-Yan Pirates, sworn enemies o' those scurvy dogs, t' Pocky Ninjas, welcome ye t' International Talk Like A Pirate Day! When they be comin' for your Yan-Yan, 'tis best you just run up t' white flag, fer a scruffier band of bilge rats don't exist anywhere on t' high seas! They'll do bad things t' ye! YARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
Okay, they're not scruffy... they're rubber ducks, perhaps the least scruffy thing in the world. And they won't do bad things to you; again, they're rubber ducks. Rubber ducks just don't do "bad things." At worst, they'll just sort of walk away with your Meiji sweets. YARRRRR!
But the rivalry between the Pocky Ninjas and the Yan-Yan Pirates is legendary; you don't want to get betwixt the two sides. Then bad things really WILL happen to you... very bad things.
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The Ships of Strike Witches ep11
In this episode, the Powers That Be have decided that it's time to go on full attack with (mostly) conventional forces against the Neuroi Hive that's sitting over Romagna. The 501st will be reduced to escorting the naval vessels involved. Well, we all know that won't last for long, but let's take a look at the ship list the show provides us with, because it's a doozy!
The first thing that leaped out at me was that it appears that I got my aircraft carriers wrong. Allegedly. The Chitose and Chiyoda would have been lousy choices to escort the Yamato halfway around the world. They were poor carriers, unsurprising since they were actually converted seaplane tenders. They weren't particularly fast, nor were they long-legged. Meh, so I'm wrong, because that's what's up there on the screen.
Of course, there's also the Amagi. A member of the Unryu class, which was based off the Hiryu, in real life the Amagi's career was pretty much limited to the Inland Sea before it was sunk in harbor at Kure Naval Base by USN planes. It capsized to port, with its starboard-side island nearly parallel to the water. So how exactly did the producers of Strike Witches miss this:
Yeah, the island is on the port side. Whoopsie. I'd write it off to alternate-universe, yadda yadda, but they've been so good about how the ships looked up until now.
Ignore the flying battleship, the Amagi's island is on the bloody wrong side! Whoopsie.
There's another big mistake in the order-of-battle in the first picture. The Amagi's plane guard destroyer is the Hatsuzuki, which in real life was sunk at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. That's fine and all, but please note that the Hatsuzuki is also shown as being off the Yamato's starboard bow. Whoopsie again. The Imperial Japanese Navy built some fantastic destroyers in WWII, but none of them were good enough to be two places at once.
The USS Nicholas (DD-449) was commissioned on June 4th, 1942, and had a busy war. She was decommissioned in 1970. The USS La Vallette (DD-448) was put in service August 12th, 1942. She took an aerial torpedo off Guadalcanal, then suffered crippling damage from a mine in February 1945. She was retired shortly after the end of the war. She stayed in the reserve fleet until 1974, when she was sold to Peru as spare parts. I'm guessing the "USS HEY" to starboard of the Chiyoda, is the Heywood L Edwards (DD-663), named after the captain of the USS Reuben James, the first US ship sunk in WWII. The Edwards was commissioned January 1944 and was transferred to the Japanese Naval Self-Defense Force in 1959 as the Ariake.
The doesn't appear to be a destroyer named the Federico Nani in the Regia Marina during WWII, though there was a submarine called the Nani. I can find no information regarding who Mr Nani was, other than a brief note that he commanded a fleet in defense of Venice against the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. It'd make sense that a ship would be named for him, but I'll be darned if I can find one.
I'll ignore most of the battleships. They're easy to identify for the most part, and easy to find information on. I will mention one, though. In the lower-right, there's a "HMS HO" listed, and I thought that the producers had made another mistake. After all, the HMS Hood was a battlecruiser, not a battleship. Turns out that the last of the King George V-class was the HMS Howe, which was also the last British battleship built that served in WWII (the Vanguard was completed after the war ended). In fact, four of the five KGV's are in the order-of-battle, and are in line in the order they were completed (only the namesake isn't listed).
I still don't think that those were the Chitose and Chiyoda, though.
The first thing that leaped out at me was that it appears that I got my aircraft carriers wrong. Allegedly. The Chitose and Chiyoda would have been lousy choices to escort the Yamato halfway around the world. They were poor carriers, unsurprising since they were actually converted seaplane tenders. They weren't particularly fast, nor were they long-legged. Meh, so I'm wrong, because that's what's up there on the screen.
Of course, there's also the Amagi. A member of the Unryu class, which was based off the Hiryu, in real life the Amagi's career was pretty much limited to the Inland Sea before it was sunk in harbor at Kure Naval Base by USN planes. It capsized to port, with its starboard-side island nearly parallel to the water. So how exactly did the producers of Strike Witches miss this:
Yeah, the island is on the port side. Whoopsie. I'd write it off to alternate-universe, yadda yadda, but they've been so good about how the ships looked up until now.
Ignore the flying battleship, the Amagi's island is on the bloody wrong side! Whoopsie.
There's another big mistake in the order-of-battle in the first picture. The Amagi's plane guard destroyer is the Hatsuzuki, which in real life was sunk at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. That's fine and all, but please note that the Hatsuzuki is also shown as being off the Yamato's starboard bow. Whoopsie again. The Imperial Japanese Navy built some fantastic destroyers in WWII, but none of them were good enough to be two places at once.
The USS Nicholas (DD-449) was commissioned on June 4th, 1942, and had a busy war. She was decommissioned in 1970. The USS La Vallette (DD-448) was put in service August 12th, 1942. She took an aerial torpedo off Guadalcanal, then suffered crippling damage from a mine in February 1945. She was retired shortly after the end of the war. She stayed in the reserve fleet until 1974, when she was sold to Peru as spare parts. I'm guessing the "USS HEY" to starboard of the Chiyoda, is the Heywood L Edwards (DD-663), named after the captain of the USS Reuben James, the first US ship sunk in WWII. The Edwards was commissioned January 1944 and was transferred to the Japanese Naval Self-Defense Force in 1959 as the Ariake.
The doesn't appear to be a destroyer named the Federico Nani in the Regia Marina during WWII, though there was a submarine called the Nani. I can find no information regarding who Mr Nani was, other than a brief note that he commanded a fleet in defense of Venice against the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. It'd make sense that a ship would be named for him, but I'll be darned if I can find one.
I'll ignore most of the battleships. They're easy to identify for the most part, and easy to find information on. I will mention one, though. In the lower-right, there's a "HMS HO" listed, and I thought that the producers had made another mistake. After all, the HMS Hood was a battlecruiser, not a battleship. Turns out that the last of the King George V-class was the HMS Howe, which was also the last British battleship built that served in WWII (the Vanguard was completed after the war ended). In fact, four of the five KGV's are in the order-of-battle, and are in line in the order they were completed (only the namesake isn't listed).
I still don't think that those were the Chitose and Chiyoda, though.
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September 18, 2010
F1 Pr0n First Look: Korean International Circuit
Usually, F1 Pr0n deals strictly with the rollout of the cars for the new F1 season. However today we've got something special on tap: a whole new circuit. The Korean International Circuit at Yeongam is due to play host to the first GP of Korea on October 24th, but there's been talk of the place not being finished in time. Well, I'm here to tell you that it sure as heck looks like the talk is true. But first, here's the track map:
Okay, let's play "Guess The Track Designer," shall we? Nah, what's the point, it's pretty obvious that Hermann Tilke's scat is all over the layout. There is one series of turns that I'm fascinated with on here, Turns 4, 5 and 6. I'm fascinated because I can't imagine anybody thinking that a hairpin followed by a tight 90-degree turn followed by another 90-degree turn in the opposite direction could possibly make for good racing.
I can see Tilke's design process at work here: "First let's draw some straight lines. Then I'll let the cat push a piece of charcoal around the paper. Okay, that's the layout!" Remember once upon a time I mentioned how all the good circuits in F1 had a flow to them, how one part of the track should lead to another in a natural, organic way? Well, the KIC doesn't do that anywhere. It honestly feels like Tilke set out to avoid that at all costs.
To make matters worse, there's much doubt in my mind as to whether or not the whole place will be finished in the five weeks remaining until race weekend. "But Wonderduck," I hear you asking, "how do you know that???" Well, allow me to show you an interesting picture:
This is the view of the main straight from right around where the start/finish line is marked on the trackmap. That's the main grandstands on the left, the paddock area is to the right. Does that look even remotely like someplace you'd want to go to to watch a race? Does that grandstand look like it's completed? Other structures around the track are much the same, looking like concrete shells with nothing inside, just the exterior walls. The actual race track asphalt is laid, but the curbs, the runoff areas, everything that allows cars to race safely? Missing or incomplete. But don't take my word for it, just take a look at this video.
The race organizers and Red Bull had a demonstration run a couple of weeks ago using the 2008 Red Bull chassis and the FIA's super-hard demo tires. Surprisingly, Cowboy Karun Chandhok was the driver (the usual RB drivers weren't allowed to run, as it'd be an unfair advantage, I guess). The FIA and Hispania Racing, Chandhok's normal team, let him do it, which is a pretty clear indicator that we won't be seeing him again this year. I can only imagine what he must have felt, actually getting into a real F1 car and being allowed to turn some laps.
Anyway, watching that video just confirmed all my opinions from the track map: it looks like disaster-in-the-making, as far as racing goes. Now driving the circuit looks like it'd be a blast, but that's not the same as racing around it.
We'll see in about five weeks. Stay tuned.
Okay, let's play "Guess The Track Designer," shall we? Nah, what's the point, it's pretty obvious that Hermann Tilke's scat is all over the layout. There is one series of turns that I'm fascinated with on here, Turns 4, 5 and 6. I'm fascinated because I can't imagine anybody thinking that a hairpin followed by a tight 90-degree turn followed by another 90-degree turn in the opposite direction could possibly make for good racing.
I can see Tilke's design process at work here: "First let's draw some straight lines. Then I'll let the cat push a piece of charcoal around the paper. Okay, that's the layout!" Remember once upon a time I mentioned how all the good circuits in F1 had a flow to them, how one part of the track should lead to another in a natural, organic way? Well, the KIC doesn't do that anywhere. It honestly feels like Tilke set out to avoid that at all costs.
To make matters worse, there's much doubt in my mind as to whether or not the whole place will be finished in the five weeks remaining until race weekend. "But Wonderduck," I hear you asking, "how do you know that???" Well, allow me to show you an interesting picture:
This is the view of the main straight from right around where the start/finish line is marked on the trackmap. That's the main grandstands on the left, the paddock area is to the right. Does that look even remotely like someplace you'd want to go to to watch a race? Does that grandstand look like it's completed? Other structures around the track are much the same, looking like concrete shells with nothing inside, just the exterior walls. The actual race track asphalt is laid, but the curbs, the runoff areas, everything that allows cars to race safely? Missing or incomplete. But don't take my word for it, just take a look at this video.
Anyway, watching that video just confirmed all my opinions from the track map: it looks like disaster-in-the-making, as far as racing goes. Now driving the circuit looks like it'd be a blast, but that's not the same as racing around it.
We'll see in about five weeks. Stay tuned.
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More Like This, Please
You know, if there were songs like this on top 40 radio, I'd listen a helluva lot more.
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September 15, 2010
Random Anime Picture #56: D'AAAAWWWWWWWWWWW!
-High School of the Dead, ep11
Who's a cute widdle warrior? Alice is, Alice is a cute widdle warrior! Yes she is! Yes she is!
-High School of the Dead, ep11
Who's a cute widdle warrior? Alice is, Alice is a cute widdle warrior! Yes she is! Yes she is!
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September 14, 2010
The Zsolt Comes For Another
Pedro de la Rosa stood outside the Sauber factory, surrounded by boxes filled with the contents of his desk. He flinched slightly as two burly security guards slammed the gates closed with a massive clang, his mind recoiling from the finality of the sound.
Turning in place, the Spaniard raised a fist in the general direction of Peter Sauber's office, which was actually located somewhere towards the back of the building and thus out of sight from the little show of defiance. "I still intend to be in F1 for the 2011 season, you trumped-up Swiss chocolatier! I'll show you that you just made a terrible mistake, dropping me, Pedro de la Rosa, for that unshaven German Nick Heidfeld!"
From behind him, a quiet voice hissed, "At it again, are you?" A frisson of cold terror ran up his spine. His small lizard hindbrain started to wail in fear, but F1 pilots laugh at fear and danger. It still took a supreme act of will from the recently released driver to turn from the gates. What he saw turned his legs to pudding.
"Hello, Pedro. Long time no see." A small man, dressed in a black firesuit with the word Minardi embroidered across the chest and holding a black race helmet, stood before the recently fired man. "You got away from me once. What did I say to you then, do you remember?"
"That you'd be coming for me again."
"That's right, Pedro. That I'd be coming for you again. And now, there you are. And here I am."
"I'll race in F1 again."
The figure in black laughed, a sound not unlike the gates of Hell opening. "You're 39 years old, de la Rosa, and you haven't had a full year of racing under your belt since 2002. You only got in the points once this year, while your teammate has scored five times. And then there's your role in the whole StepneyGate saga. What team is going to want you as a driver after all that? I hear USF1 is hiring. No, Pete, you're mine now, and you won't get away from me again." The figure in black lifted his helmet to his head, then paused for a second. "If you're lucky though, you might get to run one of those radio-controlled cars you were so good at once." Then the helmet was on, covering the dark face.
Coming from inside the helmet, the voice of the figure in black sounded sepulchral as he moved towards de la Rosa. "Some of us only got one go at F1, and we had to buy our way in. You got a second chance, Pete. You got a second chance after testing for McLaren all those years, and you screwed it up. You screwed up your second chance, and how? By being slow, Petey-boy, by being slow. And you really expect to get a third shot?" The Zsolt pulled on his racing gloves, and from somewhere the theme music from The Exorcist began to quietly play. "Never again, de la Rosa. Never again."
He slammed the visor down with the sound of a thousand garbage trucks falling off a cliff. "I'm am definitely going to enjoy this."
Then the screaming began.
By the time the security guards got to the gate, there was nothing to be seen.
Turning in place, the Spaniard raised a fist in the general direction of Peter Sauber's office, which was actually located somewhere towards the back of the building and thus out of sight from the little show of defiance. "I still intend to be in F1 for the 2011 season, you trumped-up Swiss chocolatier! I'll show you that you just made a terrible mistake, dropping me, Pedro de la Rosa, for that unshaven German Nick Heidfeld!"
From behind him, a quiet voice hissed, "At it again, are you?" A frisson of cold terror ran up his spine. His small lizard hindbrain started to wail in fear, but F1 pilots laugh at fear and danger. It still took a supreme act of will from the recently released driver to turn from the gates. What he saw turned his legs to pudding.
"Hello, Pedro. Long time no see." A small man, dressed in a black firesuit with the word Minardi embroidered across the chest and holding a black race helmet, stood before the recently fired man. "You got away from me once. What did I say to you then, do you remember?"
"That you'd be coming for me again."
"That's right, Pedro. That I'd be coming for you again. And now, there you are. And here I am."
"I'll race in F1 again."
The figure in black laughed, a sound not unlike the gates of Hell opening. "You're 39 years old, de la Rosa, and you haven't had a full year of racing under your belt since 2002. You only got in the points once this year, while your teammate has scored five times. And then there's your role in the whole StepneyGate saga. What team is going to want you as a driver after all that? I hear USF1 is hiring. No, Pete, you're mine now, and you won't get away from me again." The figure in black lifted his helmet to his head, then paused for a second. "If you're lucky though, you might get to run one of those radio-controlled cars you were so good at once." Then the helmet was on, covering the dark face.
Coming from inside the helmet, the voice of the figure in black sounded sepulchral as he moved towards de la Rosa. "Some of us only got one go at F1, and we had to buy our way in. You got a second chance, Pete. You got a second chance after testing for McLaren all those years, and you screwed it up. You screwed up your second chance, and how? By being slow, Petey-boy, by being slow. And you really expect to get a third shot?" The Zsolt pulled on his racing gloves, and from somewhere the theme music from The Exorcist began to quietly play. "Never again, de la Rosa. Never again."
He slammed the visor down with the sound of a thousand garbage trucks falling off a cliff. "I'm am definitely going to enjoy this."
Then the screaming began.
By the time the security guards got to the gate, there was nothing to be seen.
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September 13, 2010
Current Engine Usage
Okay, as of the end of the Italian Grand Prix, here are the number of engines used:
Felipe Massa and HWMNBN: 7
Pete Rose: 9
Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov: 5
If a driver isn't one of the above, they've used six of their eight engines so far. Of course, Pete Rose will suffer a 10-spot grid penalty for every race now, for there's no reason for him not to use a new engine every time out.
It is perfectly legal for a driver to use an engine that ran in a prior race. For example, Mark Webber used his Spa engine at Monza. So if the Ferrari boys want save their last fresh engine for Abu Dhabi and put their Monaco powerplant in for Singapore, it's quite legal.
Guess the Renault wins the reliability award for the season.
Felipe Massa and HWMNBN: 7
Pete Rose: 9
Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov: 5
If a driver isn't one of the above, they've used six of their eight engines so far. Of course, Pete Rose will suffer a 10-spot grid penalty for every race now, for there's no reason for him not to use a new engine every time out.
It is perfectly legal for a driver to use an engine that ran in a prior race. For example, Mark Webber used his Spa engine at Monza. So if the Ferrari boys want save their last fresh engine for Abu Dhabi and put their Monaco powerplant in for Singapore, it's quite legal.
Guess the Renault wins the reliability award for the season.
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September 12, 2010
F1 Update!: Italy 2010
For the tifosi of the team of the Prancing Horse, this was the dream setup. Ferrari on the pole, at their ancestral home of La Pista Magica, with their lead driver in combat for the driver's championship. But would the church bells be ringing in Maranello, or would the dream end up a nightmare of epic proportions? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2010 Grand Prix of Italy!
*BAD DREAM: When the lights went out to begin the race, the McLaren of Jenson Button lept off the starting line, just slightly faster than the Ferrari of HWMNBN. As the two drivers sprinted down to the ridiculously tight first chicane, the Spaniard tried to intimidate the Brit by sliding down on him. When the defending Driver's Champion didn't budge, it became a simple drag race. The problem arose when it became clear that by dodging across the track, HWMNBN had lost a small amount of forward momentum. It might have been just a handful of feet, but it was enough. As they entered the chicane, the silver McLaren had the advantage, the racing line, and by the end of the chicane, the lead. A small bump from the nose of the Ferrari took off a small piece of the McLaren's rear end, but neither car seemed particularly affected. Just as in Quals, Button's car was substantially faster in the turn-heavy (well, as turn-heavy as any part of Monza can be) second sector of the circuit, while losing time to the Ferrari on the long straights. The upshot of it all was that Button opened up a 6/10th of a second lead over the red car... and there it stayed. It would fluctuate a tenth here or there, but for all intents and purposes neither man could get away from the other.
*NIGHTMARE: Away from the leaders, Hispania's DJ DNF was having communications problems. His radio malfunctioning, on Lap 24 he came into the pits for his tire change and a radio technician practically jumped into the cockpit with him to work on the electronics. The pit stop went cleanly with the new rubber being slapped on smartly, and the lollypop man quickly cleared DJ DNF to pull back into the race. Except there was one problem: the radio tech was still leaning over the cockpit.
*DREAM ON: With the pitlane closed, everybody was forced to keep circulating. Up front, the two leaders may as well have been connected to each other with a bungee cord; the lead would increase, then contract, then boing back up again, but never more than 6/10th of a second. It became obvious that barring incident, the pit crews would decide this race. On Lap 37 Button came in. It took the McLaren mechanics 4.2 seconds to slap on the new tires and get their man back out on track, rejoining the race in third. The next lap, it was the turn of HWMNBN. He was stopped for only 3.6 seconds, the fastest pit stop of the race, and came out of the pits just barely ahead of the silver car. Button tried to get past in the first chicane but couldn't quite pull it off. When Massa came in on Lap 39, HWMNBN took over first place, a position he would never relinquish, eventually winning by a scant 2.9 seconds over Button, with Massa crossing the line just over a second later. One begins to wonder if the small amount of damage that Button suffered in the first chicane back on Lap 1 made any difference to the aerodynamics of the car. It didn't have to be much, just about a tenth of a second total over the first hour or so, for that might have been the difference between the two when HWMNBN came out of the pits.
*MEANWHILE: One Red Bull driver was having a bad day. Mark Webber had another patented Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢, dropping from 4th on the grid to 9th in a heartbeat. He eventually climbed back up to 6th, but had to be frustrated. Seb Vettel, on the other hand, slogged around and around, driving as hard as he could without doing anything stupid or stunning. Car after car ahead of him pitted while he kept going and going. Eventually, he found himself in 4th place with a nearly 20 second lead over Nico Rosberg's Mercedes... but it was Lap 52 of 54, he hadn't made his mandatory pitstop yet, and the pit "bogey time", or the total time it takes to drive into the pitlane, stop, make the tire change, then get back out onto the track was right about 20 seconds. On Lap 53, he dove in fast, smoking his tires as he slammed on the brakes to make the pit lane speed limit, made his stop and re-entered the track... just ahead of Rosberg. He ended up a surprising 4th in a car that really wasn't that good on this track.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: For perhaps the first time, this award is going to go to two drivers. Both HWMNBN and Jenson Button drove their hearts out today, getting absolutely the best out of their vehicles. That the two cars were set up to specialize in different parts of the course, yet ended up less than a second apart for the first 40 laps, just highlights the skill both showed. Without a doubt, both deserve the award, and for providing an incredibly tense race both get it.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. First and third on the podium, and the race won by the mechanics? That's a team victory, and there's no way any other team deserves this award more than the boys from Maranello.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: There were surprisingly few passes on track today, so without a doubt this has to go to the Ferrari pitcrew. When McLaren got their man in and out in 4.2 seconds, they knew that they had a chance to decide this one. Everything went like clockwork, and they gained their car about 150 feet of track distance over their competitors. It couldn't have gone better, and made all the difference in the world.
*MOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: While we here at F1U! are not fond of giving the Mooooooo-oove to something that occurs during the chaotic events of any Grand Prix's first lap, we're making an exception today. Lewis Hamilton qualified 5th and jumped to 4th by default when Mark Webber had another in a long line of Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢s. Heading into the first chicane, the two Ferraris were side-by-side into the narrow first turn, yet Hamilton thought he could get himself some of that action. He got his front wing alongside Felipe Massa's cockpit, and his front-right tire just in front of Massa's left-rear, but only just. When Massa either accelerated slightly, or Hamilton slowed a touch, there was contact; the impact pushed the McLaren's suspension forward. Now, carbon fiber is a ridiculously strong material, but it has an odd property... it's only strong in the direction that it's woven to be strong in, unlike a steel rod which would have the same amount of strength no matter which way forces are applied to it. The result was predictable.
His front suspension broken, the man leading the Driver's Championship was out of the race before he reached the second turn. Now he's behind Mark Webber. A questionable decision to knock yourself out of the championship lead? Good job, Lewis, here's your Moooooooo-oove!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
*BAD DREAM: When the lights went out to begin the race, the McLaren of Jenson Button lept off the starting line, just slightly faster than the Ferrari of HWMNBN. As the two drivers sprinted down to the ridiculously tight first chicane, the Spaniard tried to intimidate the Brit by sliding down on him. When the defending Driver's Champion didn't budge, it became a simple drag race. The problem arose when it became clear that by dodging across the track, HWMNBN had lost a small amount of forward momentum. It might have been just a handful of feet, but it was enough. As they entered the chicane, the silver McLaren had the advantage, the racing line, and by the end of the chicane, the lead. A small bump from the nose of the Ferrari took off a small piece of the McLaren's rear end, but neither car seemed particularly affected. Just as in Quals, Button's car was substantially faster in the turn-heavy (well, as turn-heavy as any part of Monza can be) second sector of the circuit, while losing time to the Ferrari on the long straights. The upshot of it all was that Button opened up a 6/10th of a second lead over the red car... and there it stayed. It would fluctuate a tenth here or there, but for all intents and purposes neither man could get away from the other.
*NIGHTMARE: Away from the leaders, Hispania's DJ DNF was having communications problems. His radio malfunctioning, on Lap 24 he came into the pits for his tire change and a radio technician practically jumped into the cockpit with him to work on the electronics. The pit stop went cleanly with the new rubber being slapped on smartly, and the lollypop man quickly cleared DJ DNF to pull back into the race. Except there was one problem: the radio tech was still leaning over the cockpit.
(The FIA removed the video after one day)
Very quickly, an ambulance was summoned into the pits, closing access to the pit lane while the race continued on. He was taken to the infield hospital with minor injuries... a case where looks really do deceive because if you base your opinion on the video, the guy is dead. (UPDATE: I included the video here simply because the F1 cameras never showed the incident. If the Legendary Announce Team hadn't have mentioned it, we never would have known.)*DREAM ON: With the pitlane closed, everybody was forced to keep circulating. Up front, the two leaders may as well have been connected to each other with a bungee cord; the lead would increase, then contract, then boing back up again, but never more than 6/10th of a second. It became obvious that barring incident, the pit crews would decide this race. On Lap 37 Button came in. It took the McLaren mechanics 4.2 seconds to slap on the new tires and get their man back out on track, rejoining the race in third. The next lap, it was the turn of HWMNBN. He was stopped for only 3.6 seconds, the fastest pit stop of the race, and came out of the pits just barely ahead of the silver car. Button tried to get past in the first chicane but couldn't quite pull it off. When Massa came in on Lap 39, HWMNBN took over first place, a position he would never relinquish, eventually winning by a scant 2.9 seconds over Button, with Massa crossing the line just over a second later. One begins to wonder if the small amount of damage that Button suffered in the first chicane back on Lap 1 made any difference to the aerodynamics of the car. It didn't have to be much, just about a tenth of a second total over the first hour or so, for that might have been the difference between the two when HWMNBN came out of the pits.
*MEANWHILE: One Red Bull driver was having a bad day. Mark Webber had another patented Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢, dropping from 4th on the grid to 9th in a heartbeat. He eventually climbed back up to 6th, but had to be frustrated. Seb Vettel, on the other hand, slogged around and around, driving as hard as he could without doing anything stupid or stunning. Car after car ahead of him pitted while he kept going and going. Eventually, he found himself in 4th place with a nearly 20 second lead over Nico Rosberg's Mercedes... but it was Lap 52 of 54, he hadn't made his mandatory pitstop yet, and the pit "bogey time", or the total time it takes to drive into the pitlane, stop, make the tire change, then get back out onto the track was right about 20 seconds. On Lap 53, he dove in fast, smoking his tires as he slammed on the brakes to make the pit lane speed limit, made his stop and re-entered the track... just ahead of Rosberg. He ended up a surprising 4th in a car that really wasn't that good on this track.
*DRIVER OF THE RACE: For perhaps the first time, this award is going to go to two drivers. Both HWMNBN and Jenson Button drove their hearts out today, getting absolutely the best out of their vehicles. That the two cars were set up to specialize in different parts of the course, yet ended up less than a second apart for the first 40 laps, just highlights the skill both showed. Without a doubt, both deserve the award, and for providing an incredibly tense race both get it.
*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari. First and third on the podium, and the race won by the mechanics? That's a team victory, and there's no way any other team deserves this award more than the boys from Maranello.
*MOVE OF THE RACE: There were surprisingly few passes on track today, so without a doubt this has to go to the Ferrari pitcrew. When McLaren got their man in and out in 4.2 seconds, they knew that they had a chance to decide this one. Everything went like clockwork, and they gained their car about 150 feet of track distance over their competitors. It couldn't have gone better, and made all the difference in the world.
*MOOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE: While we here at F1U! are not fond of giving the Mooooooo-oove to something that occurs during the chaotic events of any Grand Prix's first lap, we're making an exception today. Lewis Hamilton qualified 5th and jumped to 4th by default when Mark Webber had another in a long line of Red Bull Lousy Startâ„¢s. Heading into the first chicane, the two Ferraris were side-by-side into the narrow first turn, yet Hamilton thought he could get himself some of that action. He got his front wing alongside Felipe Massa's cockpit, and his front-right tire just in front of Massa's left-rear, but only just. When Massa either accelerated slightly, or Hamilton slowed a touch, there was contact; the impact pushed the McLaren's suspension forward. Now, carbon fiber is a ridiculously strong material, but it has an odd property... it's only strong in the direction that it's woven to be strong in, unlike a steel rod which would have the same amount of strength no matter which way forces are applied to it. The result was predictable.
His front suspension broken, the man leading the Driver's Championship was out of the race before he reached the second turn. Now he's behind Mark Webber. A questionable decision to knock yourself out of the championship lead? Good job, Lewis, here's your Moooooooo-oove!
*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...
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September 11, 2010
Lest We Forget...
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F1 Quals: Italy 2010
I have to admit that I didn't believe it when they said it, but the statistic was true. Let's look at the provisional grid for the Grand Prix of Italy:
Just what statistic is it that had me so flabbergasted? This is Ferrari's first pole in thirty races. Love them or, as I do, hate them, one can't take away from the Scuderia the fact that they really are one of the top teams in motorsports history, if not the top team. One just assumes that, even in a down season, they'd've had a pole somewhere along the way. But no, the last time a Ferrari driver was the fastest at the end of a Q3 was Brazil, 2008. That's almost unbelievable.
Unfortunately, it had to come from HWMNBN. Ugh.
Team McLaren couldn't figure out whether to run the F-Duct system or not, so they split the difference. Lewis Hamilton decided to go the low downforce route and has the little tiny wing... and ended up fifth. Over half-a-second faster is his teammate, Jenson Button, who's got the blown rear wing, more downforce in the turns, and ended up second on the grid. Just as way of comparison, Button was nearly a second faster than HWMNBN through sector 2 which is where all the turns are, yet lost all that time and a smidge more through the fast parts of Monza. Button said in the post-quals presser that while the extra downforce is very handy, it also means that he has to run every lap in the race like it's qualifying, pushing both the car and himself the entire way around the track. If it were nearly anybody else, I'd think they'd be out of the race by the halfway point, either buried in a tire barrier or with a flaming lump where the engine had been, but Button is one of the smoothest drivers in F1.
That doesn't mean he's the best; his teammate is a better driver, Vettel is quicker, Massa is showing signs of his pre-injury form, Webber is darn good, and HWMNBN might be the best pilot in F1. Button, however, is practically gentle with his car, seeming to know exactly the best place to put his chariot to have it do what he wants it to do with the least amount of stress on the machine. That's a very useful talent to have, and one that should allow him to make the "push every lap" work. If it doesn't, he's almost certainly dead in the Driver's Championship.
Seb Vettel, the wunderkind of F1, on the other hand, hasn't a clue why he's starting sixth and admitted as much in the press conference. Despite having the same equipment and the same setup as his teammate Mark Webber, he's nearly 3 mph slower. The biggest problem, then, is that he has to attack, and attack hard right when the lights go out... which might lead to glory at the first turn, or lots of carbon fiber scattered across the chicane. This isn't a track that's suited to the Red Bull's strengths, so if he's not out in front, and quickly, he doesn't stand a chance without incidents occurring ahead of him.
Anybody seen Slappy Schumacher recently? He hasn't made it out of Q2 for six races running.... Speaking of streaks, I didn't realize that Toro Rosso's Seb Buemi is the only driver on the grid right now who has made it to Q2 in every race this season. He's never made it out of Q2 of course, but that's still a pretty impressive stat: no mechanical failures, no penalties, nothing like that.
On the topic of penalties, Vitaly Petrov will be starting 20th after qualifying 15th. He was given a five grid-spot demotion for blocking Virgin Racing's Timo Glockenspiel early in Q1... and how embarrassing is that? You're penalized for holding up one of the slowest cars on the grid... meanwhile, your teammate has outqualified you for what seems like the 733rd time in a row. Eeeeesh. We do hear that the McDonald's in Irkutsk is hiring, so he's got that going for him, which is nice.
Just what statistic is it that had me so flabbergasted? This is Ferrari's first pole in thirty races. Love them or, as I do, hate them, one can't take away from the Scuderia the fact that they really are one of the top teams in motorsports history, if not the top team. One just assumes that, even in a down season, they'd've had a pole somewhere along the way. But no, the last time a Ferrari driver was the fastest at the end of a Q3 was Brazil, 2008. That's almost unbelievable.
Unfortunately, it had to come from HWMNBN. Ugh.
Team McLaren couldn't figure out whether to run the F-Duct system or not, so they split the difference. Lewis Hamilton decided to go the low downforce route and has the little tiny wing... and ended up fifth. Over half-a-second faster is his teammate, Jenson Button, who's got the blown rear wing, more downforce in the turns, and ended up second on the grid. Just as way of comparison, Button was nearly a second faster than HWMNBN through sector 2 which is where all the turns are, yet lost all that time and a smidge more through the fast parts of Monza. Button said in the post-quals presser that while the extra downforce is very handy, it also means that he has to run every lap in the race like it's qualifying, pushing both the car and himself the entire way around the track. If it were nearly anybody else, I'd think they'd be out of the race by the halfway point, either buried in a tire barrier or with a flaming lump where the engine had been, but Button is one of the smoothest drivers in F1.
That doesn't mean he's the best; his teammate is a better driver, Vettel is quicker, Massa is showing signs of his pre-injury form, Webber is darn good, and HWMNBN might be the best pilot in F1. Button, however, is practically gentle with his car, seeming to know exactly the best place to put his chariot to have it do what he wants it to do with the least amount of stress on the machine. That's a very useful talent to have, and one that should allow him to make the "push every lap" work. If it doesn't, he's almost certainly dead in the Driver's Championship.
Seb Vettel, the wunderkind of F1, on the other hand, hasn't a clue why he's starting sixth and admitted as much in the press conference. Despite having the same equipment and the same setup as his teammate Mark Webber, he's nearly 3 mph slower. The biggest problem, then, is that he has to attack, and attack hard right when the lights go out... which might lead to glory at the first turn, or lots of carbon fiber scattered across the chicane. This isn't a track that's suited to the Red Bull's strengths, so if he's not out in front, and quickly, he doesn't stand a chance without incidents occurring ahead of him.
Anybody seen Slappy Schumacher recently? He hasn't made it out of Q2 for six races running.... Speaking of streaks, I didn't realize that Toro Rosso's Seb Buemi is the only driver on the grid right now who has made it to Q2 in every race this season. He's never made it out of Q2 of course, but that's still a pretty impressive stat: no mechanical failures, no penalties, nothing like that.
On the topic of penalties, Vitaly Petrov will be starting 20th after qualifying 15th. He was given a five grid-spot demotion for blocking Virgin Racing's Timo Glockenspiel early in Q1... and how embarrassing is that? You're penalized for holding up one of the slowest cars on the grid... meanwhile, your teammate has outqualified you for what seems like the 733rd time in a row. Eeeeesh. We do hear that the McDonald's in Irkutsk is hiring, so he's got that going for him, which is nice.
Timo Glockenspiel expresses his displeasure, disbelief, at being blocked by Petrov
Race is tomorrow morning, with the F1U! sometime thereafter! See you then, if Petrov doesn't get in our way.
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You Gotta Be A Football Hero...
Today was the first home game of the season for the Duck U Ducks, and we had a great turnout!
Unfortunately, the good guys lost to the bad guys, 31-21, but from all reports it was a lot closer than the score indicates.
But I was there way before anybody showed up, so as to get Duck U Bookstore signs up, so people knew we were going to be open. It's amazing just how different a football field feels when there's nobody around and the weather is... marginal.
Unfortunately, the good guys lost to the bad guys, 31-21, but from all reports it was a lot closer than the score indicates.
But I was there way before anybody showed up, so as to get Duck U Bookstore signs up, so people knew we were going to be open. It's amazing just how different a football field feels when there's nobody around and the weather is... marginal.
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September 10, 2010
F1 Practice: Italy 2010
A bright sunny day at Monza brought with it the usual dull practice sessions. No big surprise there, of course. The real surprise occurred when I got a good look at the cars. What do I mean?
Well, consider this. A few days ago I mentioned that if the teams could get away with having no wings at all at Monza, they'd at least give it a try. That's because La Pista Magica is such a high-speed circuit that any drag at all is a bad thing. Rear wings about as thin and flat as a sheet of paper are the norm, like this one on a Toro Rosso today:
Compare that to the rear wing used at Monaco, about as polar an opposite as can be found in F1:
Pretty substantial difference there. One's flat as board, the other is a friggin' barn door. It makes a difference, as Seb Buemi's Toro Rosso was fastest through the speed traps at a codswalloping 214mph. That'd be considered slow in the Indy Racing League, but they run on big, big ovals. On a road course, even one as "simple" as Monza, 214 is staggeringly fast.
But then some of the teams threw a monkey wrench into the situation. Take, for example, the McLaren of Jenson Button in First Practice:
Wait... what? That's a normal wing! At Monza? The hell? It must've been the slowest thing on the track with all that vertical stuff in the way, right? Nope, Button was the fastest in P1, and 5th in P2. It's that darn F-Duct system again, messing with our minds.
Earlier I said that there'd be little point to running the F-Duct at Monza, simply because there's so little wing involved, but it appears that the aerodynamic specialists in F1 are smarter than me. They realized, where I did not, that stalling the rear wing using the F-Duct serves the same purpose as having a small wing on the straights, while still allowing quite a bit of downforce in the turns. It's not quite as good as having no wing at all (like the Toro Rosso), at least on the fast bits, but when the car has to change direction it's a huge advantage.
Which explains why Button was 1st and Buemi 11th, even though the Toro Rosso was substantially faster through the speed trap. McLaren, Renault, Ferrari, Red Bull and even Sauber had the blown rear wing going, while the rest did not... and for the most part, it showed on the time sheets.
Formula 1: surprising ducks since 2004.
Quals tomorrow, but my coverage will be in the early evening, as the Duck U. football team takes to the gridiron for the first home game of the season and I've got to be at the store. See you then!
Well, consider this. A few days ago I mentioned that if the teams could get away with having no wings at all at Monza, they'd at least give it a try. That's because La Pista Magica is such a high-speed circuit that any drag at all is a bad thing. Rear wings about as thin and flat as a sheet of paper are the norm, like this one on a Toro Rosso today:
Compare that to the rear wing used at Monaco, about as polar an opposite as can be found in F1:
Pretty substantial difference there. One's flat as board, the other is a friggin' barn door. It makes a difference, as Seb Buemi's Toro Rosso was fastest through the speed traps at a codswalloping 214mph. That'd be considered slow in the Indy Racing League, but they run on big, big ovals. On a road course, even one as "simple" as Monza, 214 is staggeringly fast.
But then some of the teams threw a monkey wrench into the situation. Take, for example, the McLaren of Jenson Button in First Practice:
Wait... what? That's a normal wing! At Monza? The hell? It must've been the slowest thing on the track with all that vertical stuff in the way, right? Nope, Button was the fastest in P1, and 5th in P2. It's that darn F-Duct system again, messing with our minds.
Earlier I said that there'd be little point to running the F-Duct at Monza, simply because there's so little wing involved, but it appears that the aerodynamic specialists in F1 are smarter than me. They realized, where I did not, that stalling the rear wing using the F-Duct serves the same purpose as having a small wing on the straights, while still allowing quite a bit of downforce in the turns. It's not quite as good as having no wing at all (like the Toro Rosso), at least on the fast bits, but when the car has to change direction it's a huge advantage.
Which explains why Button was 1st and Buemi 11th, even though the Toro Rosso was substantially faster through the speed trap. McLaren, Renault, Ferrari, Red Bull and even Sauber had the blown rear wing going, while the rest did not... and for the most part, it showed on the time sheets.
Formula 1: surprising ducks since 2004.
Quals tomorrow, but my coverage will be in the early evening, as the Duck U. football team takes to the gridiron for the first home game of the season and I've got to be at the store. See you then!
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