October 18, 2013
Sleep Good... Not For Blogging, But Good.
As terrifying as it is to think about, Duck U's midterms ended this past Tuesday. The rest of the week was this odd beastie called "Fall Break." Similar to Spring Break in that the Duck U fledgelings got a few days off from school, but completely dissimilar in that the weather is cold and ishy. Anyway, on the Friday of Fall Break, the Duck U offices are closed... and when that happens, the Duck U Bookstore is closed as well!
Which meant that I only worked for a few hours today, after a meeting with the Duckford Visitor Bureau of course. I was home by 4pm, and after some breakfast (no, I didn't mis-type; what else do you call the first meal of the day?) decided to take a nap. Just a couple of wonderful, wonderful hours of blissful slumber, unconscious to the cares of the world, refreshing both the mind and the body. Afterwards, I'd sit down and finally close out the first Evangelion movie writeup. It's a good plan, let's go with it! On three... one, two, three, sleep!
Four hours later, the plan had been crumpled up and thrown into a trashcan. I can only assume I needed the sleep, but geehorseyfat, that sort of thing does play hob with the whole blogging thing. Maybe tomorrow night... after working the football game, then dinner with Ph.Duck.
Hey, it could happen.
Which meant that I only worked for a few hours today, after a meeting with the Duckford Visitor Bureau of course. I was home by 4pm, and after some breakfast (no, I didn't mis-type; what else do you call the first meal of the day?) decided to take a nap. Just a couple of wonderful, wonderful hours of blissful slumber, unconscious to the cares of the world, refreshing both the mind and the body. Afterwards, I'd sit down and finally close out the first Evangelion movie writeup. It's a good plan, let's go with it! On three... one, two, three, sleep!
Four hours later, the plan had been crumpled up and thrown into a trashcan. I can only assume I needed the sleep, but geehorseyfat, that sort of thing does play hob with the whole blogging thing. Maybe tomorrow night... after working the football game, then dinner with Ph.Duck.
Hey, it could happen.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
10:43 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 240 words, total size 2 kb.
October 17, 2013
My Brain At The Moment
Yep, that covers it.
Yep, that covers it.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:57 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 9 words, total size 1 kb.
October 15, 2013
Pacific Rim
After having missed the movie Pacific Rim in the theatres this summer, I vowed that I would purchase a copy of it as soon as it became available. This, I did not do. In actuality, I pre-ordered the film in a Blu-Ray / DVD package close to three weeks ago. When it was delivered this morning, I was very much like a duck in a rye bread store. Sure, I couldn't actually DO anything with it until I got home, but it was here and that was all that mattered.
I came home, made some dinner, fired up the DVD player, and sat down to watch. Now, understand something. When it comes to watching movies at home alone, I tend to pause the film a few times... run to the bathroom, get something to drink, y'know, that sort of thing. Not tonight. Tonight, I didn't even notice the time passing. From moment one to the post-credit scene, I was locked into the film.
Pacific Rim gave me everything I hoped for from this particular movie: giant robots punching giant monsters in the face. Repeatedly. In clever ways. There are going to be two types of people who see flick: those who hate it, and those that realize that it's the best movie ever.
Let me stay that again, in a stylized way that makes it look like I'm shouting each word, then pausing dramatically afterwards or something:
BEST.
MOVIE.
EVER.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way... for an anime fan, Pacific Rim is probably the closest we'll ever get to a live-action Evangelion (giant robots punching giant angels monsters in the face), but without the whiny hero and with more Rinko Kikuchi.
Look, the film is full of cliches. I got that, but here's the thing: you don't care. It resonates with the kid in you and makes it jump up and down like it's full of chocolate and mountain dew.
Watch it. Love it. Thank me later. If I didn't have to go to work in the morning, I'd watch it again.
I came home, made some dinner, fired up the DVD player, and sat down to watch. Now, understand something. When it comes to watching movies at home alone, I tend to pause the film a few times... run to the bathroom, get something to drink, y'know, that sort of thing. Not tonight. Tonight, I didn't even notice the time passing. From moment one to the post-credit scene, I was locked into the film.
Pacific Rim gave me everything I hoped for from this particular movie: giant robots punching giant monsters in the face. Repeatedly. In clever ways. There are going to be two types of people who see flick: those who hate it, and those that realize that it's the best movie ever.
Let me stay that again, in a stylized way that makes it look like I'm shouting each word, then pausing dramatically afterwards or something:
BEST.
MOVIE.
EVER.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way... for an anime fan, Pacific Rim is probably the closest we'll ever get to a live-action Evangelion (giant robots punching giant angels monsters in the face), but without the whiny hero and with more Rinko Kikuchi.
Look, the film is full of cliches. I got that, but here's the thing: you don't care. It resonates with the kid in you and makes it jump up and down like it's full of chocolate and mountain dew.
Watch it. Love it. Thank me later. If I didn't have to go to work in the morning, I'd watch it again.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
10:22 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
Post contains 348 words, total size 3 kb.
)
October 13, 2013
(not-so-mini) F1 Update!: Japan 2013
It was a bright sunny day in Japan as the Thundering Herd took to the grid at Suzuka, led by Red Bull's Mark Webber. How long would that last? And would the Aussie, retiring at the end of the season, be able to stay up front? Or would his teammate Hannibal Vettel, sitting next to him on the grid, manage to run away and hide as he's done so many times in the past? This is your F1U! for the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix.
*THE RACE: The past two races have seen a grand total of one leader, total: Hannibal Vettel. He's led every single lap run since the start of the Singapore Grand Prix. But it became amazingly clear very quickly that this wasn't to be the same sort of race as we've seen of late: Vettel getting a good start, then running away and disappearing over the horizon. No, instead both Red Bull drivers had less-than-stellar starts, the Lotus of Lettuce Grosjean jumped into the lead from fourth, and Mercedes' Shiv Hamilton managed to skewer himself on the front wing of Vettel. It didn't do much damage to the Red Bull, despite Hannibal's squeals, but Hamilton had a ruined rear tire. He was almost a lap down by the time he made it to the pits, and the team retired the car a few laps later. Meanwhile, Lettuce slowly managed to inch away from the trailing Red Bulls, opening up a lead of a couple of seconds on Webber by Lap 10. The Aussie was the first of the three drivers to pit, on Lap 11, followed a lap later by Grosjean in what was clearly a covering move by Lotus. Vettel as usual made his tires last longer than his immediate competition and didn't stop until Lap 14. After the pit stops, all three were on the hard tire, and the order was Grosjean, Webber and Vettel. Until Red Bull decided to maximize their chances of a win, that is. On Lap 22, after a remarkably short stint for hard tires, Webber was brought to the pits. The team had switched him from a two-stop strategy to a three-stopper. Amazingly, the Aussie came out in third place, as the top three cars had opened up a huge gap to the rest of the field. In effect, there were two separate races going on today: the Podium Race, and Everybody Else. This strategy shift turned the race from one taking place on the track to one taking place in the pits and the plotting tables... a type of race that Red Bull has proven to be very good at. As it turned out, staying on the two-stop strategy was the correct one, as Vettel wound up taking the lead after his second stop. On tires eight laps newer than Grosjean's, Vettel passed the Lotus on Lap 40, functionally for the lead as Webber pitted on Lap 43 from first. There was some possibility that Webber could have caught his teammate, but instead it took him some six laps to get past Grosjean; he could get close, but wasn't quite able to complete a move. As it was, Vettel led Webber by seven seconds at the end, and Grosjean was two behind Webber. The Ferrari of HWMNBN was nearly 37 seconds behind the Lotus.
*WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: Vettel has now won five races in a row, something that's only happened a few times in the history of F1. We didn't realize that Slappy Schumacher actually did it twice in 2004: a five-win streak followed by a seven-win streak. That was the year we here at F1U! began watching Formula 1... we're amazed that we stuck with it.
*OH BY THE WAY...: The STBFTWC will probably have to wait one more race. Vettel will go into the Grand Prix of India with a 90 point lead over HWMNBN. If he finishes fifth or higher, he wins the driver's championship, no matter what HWMNBN does. In effect, the Ferrari driver has to win out while STBFTWC has a historic string of breakdowns.
India in two weeks... break out the chapati, tikka masala and Kingfisher, everybody! See you then.
*THE RACE: The past two races have seen a grand total of one leader, total: Hannibal Vettel. He's led every single lap run since the start of the Singapore Grand Prix. But it became amazingly clear very quickly that this wasn't to be the same sort of race as we've seen of late: Vettel getting a good start, then running away and disappearing over the horizon. No, instead both Red Bull drivers had less-than-stellar starts, the Lotus of Lettuce Grosjean jumped into the lead from fourth, and Mercedes' Shiv Hamilton managed to skewer himself on the front wing of Vettel. It didn't do much damage to the Red Bull, despite Hannibal's squeals, but Hamilton had a ruined rear tire. He was almost a lap down by the time he made it to the pits, and the team retired the car a few laps later. Meanwhile, Lettuce slowly managed to inch away from the trailing Red Bulls, opening up a lead of a couple of seconds on Webber by Lap 10. The Aussie was the first of the three drivers to pit, on Lap 11, followed a lap later by Grosjean in what was clearly a covering move by Lotus. Vettel as usual made his tires last longer than his immediate competition and didn't stop until Lap 14. After the pit stops, all three were on the hard tire, and the order was Grosjean, Webber and Vettel. Until Red Bull decided to maximize their chances of a win, that is. On Lap 22, after a remarkably short stint for hard tires, Webber was brought to the pits. The team had switched him from a two-stop strategy to a three-stopper. Amazingly, the Aussie came out in third place, as the top three cars had opened up a huge gap to the rest of the field. In effect, there were two separate races going on today: the Podium Race, and Everybody Else. This strategy shift turned the race from one taking place on the track to one taking place in the pits and the plotting tables... a type of race that Red Bull has proven to be very good at. As it turned out, staying on the two-stop strategy was the correct one, as Vettel wound up taking the lead after his second stop. On tires eight laps newer than Grosjean's, Vettel passed the Lotus on Lap 40, functionally for the lead as Webber pitted on Lap 43 from first. There was some possibility that Webber could have caught his teammate, but instead it took him some six laps to get past Grosjean; he could get close, but wasn't quite able to complete a move. As it was, Vettel led Webber by seven seconds at the end, and Grosjean was two behind Webber. The Ferrari of HWMNBN was nearly 37 seconds behind the Lotus.
*WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: Vettel has now won five races in a row, something that's only happened a few times in the history of F1. We didn't realize that Slappy Schumacher actually did it twice in 2004: a five-win streak followed by a seven-win streak. That was the year we here at F1U! began watching Formula 1... we're amazed that we stuck with it.
*OH BY THE WAY...: The STBFTWC will probably have to wait one more race. Vettel will go into the Grand Prix of India with a 90 point lead over HWMNBN. If he finishes fifth or higher, he wins the driver's championship, no matter what HWMNBN does. In effect, the Ferrari driver has to win out while STBFTWC has a historic string of breakdowns.
India in two weeks... break out the chapati, tikka masala and Kingfisher, everybody! See you then.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
09:19 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
Post contains 704 words, total size 4 kb.
October 12, 2013
F1 Quals: Japan 2013
It's just after 9pm Pond Central, and I've only just now made it home from a busy day at work. Yes, on a Saturday. This is Homecoming Weekend, y'see, and more importantly, it's the first Homecoming after Duck U's name change which I don't think I've mentioned on here before. Anyway, originally Duck U wasn't a U at all, but a "C", as in "College." However, this past July 1st, we officially became Duck U, to massive acclaim from everybody but the alumni, who resoundingly said "meh" to the change... but they still showed up in droves today. Throw in dinner with Ph.Duck, and voila, 9pm-ish.
All of which is my long-winded way of saying that I haven't watched Quals, and probably won't, not with the race only three hours away. But here's the grid anyway:
My heavens, it's someone OTHER than Vettel, Rosberg or Hamilton on pole... stop the presses! Of course, the soon-to-be-four-time-world-champion, or STBFTWC, which I suspect means something really rude in Klingon, had a KERS failure in Q3, so there is that. On the other hand, you know that Mark Webber isn't going to be particularly helpful to his so-called "teammate". If he can avoid a Mark Webber Lousy Start® , we should be in for an interesting race indeed.
As an aside... if the STBFTWC wins and HWMNBN finishes eighth or lower, the STBFTWC will actually be the FTWC. Go Webber!
Right, I'm going to go rest my weary bones. F1U! tomorrow... see ya then.
All of which is my long-winded way of saying that I haven't watched Quals, and probably won't, not with the race only three hours away. But here's the grid anyway:
My heavens, it's someone OTHER than Vettel, Rosberg or Hamilton on pole... stop the presses! Of course, the soon-to-be-four-time-world-champion, or STBFTWC, which I suspect means something really rude in Klingon, had a KERS failure in Q3, so there is that. On the other hand, you know that Mark Webber isn't going to be particularly helpful to his so-called "teammate". If he can avoid a Mark Webber Lousy Start® , we should be in for an interesting race indeed.
As an aside... if the STBFTWC wins and HWMNBN finishes eighth or lower, the STBFTWC will actually be the FTWC. Go Webber!
Right, I'm going to go rest my weary bones. F1U! tomorrow... see ya then.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:31 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 407 words, total size 15 kb.
October 11, 2013
Merely Terrible Upgrades To Tragedy
Perhaps you remember the story of Maria De Villota, the Marussia test driver who last year was in a hideous accident? The team was doing straight-line testing, going up and down a runway, with her behind the wheel. When she brought the car in for servicing, it jerked forward and ran into the back of the team's transporter... which had its liftgate lowered. The results were sub-optimal.
De Villota's skull wasn't so much broken as it was shattered like an egg dropped from the top of a tall building. Thanks to the amazing skill of her surgeons, she not only survived the experience, but came off pretty well, all things considered. To be sure, she was not unscathed: she lost her right eye, her sense of taste and smell, and suffered from severe headaches. That's pretty good, if you ask me, when the alternative is... well, just look at that picture. Over the past year, De Villota had more or less completely recovered from the accident. She was married this past July, had been involved with the FIA in both auto safety and a women in motorsports council, and was even thinking about racing again.
Maria De Villota was found dead in her hotel room in Seville, Spain, this morning. Authorities are saying that foul play was not expected, and her death was from "natural causes." Or, at least, natural for someone who had undergone the sort of accident she'd been in. Her death came one year to the day that she held her first press conference after the accident.
She was in Seville to speak about her new book, Life Is A Gift, on Monday.
The thoughts and prayers of the entire F1Update! crew go out to her family and friends. She was 33 years old.
De Villota's skull wasn't so much broken as it was shattered like an egg dropped from the top of a tall building. Thanks to the amazing skill of her surgeons, she not only survived the experience, but came off pretty well, all things considered. To be sure, she was not unscathed: she lost her right eye, her sense of taste and smell, and suffered from severe headaches. That's pretty good, if you ask me, when the alternative is... well, just look at that picture. Over the past year, De Villota had more or less completely recovered from the accident. She was married this past July, had been involved with the FIA in both auto safety and a women in motorsports council, and was even thinking about racing again.
Maria De Villota was found dead in her hotel room in Seville, Spain, this morning. Authorities are saying that foul play was not expected, and her death was from "natural causes." Or, at least, natural for someone who had undergone the sort of accident she'd been in. Her death came one year to the day that she held her first press conference after the accident.
She was in Seville to speak about her new book, Life Is A Gift, on Monday.
The thoughts and prayers of the entire F1Update! crew go out to her family and friends. She was 33 years old.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:54 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 302 words, total size 2 kb.
October 10, 2013
Nori Is Improved
So the only problem I had with my new computer, Nori, was that the keyboard that came with her was absolutely terrible. Oh, don't get me wrong, it worked fine, and the wirelessness of it was a pleasant experience... but it was a chicklet. That is, the keyboard is of chicklet-style, little square keys, like a laptop's keyboard except slightly less pleasurable to use. You're expecting something comfortable to type upon when you have a desktop computer, after all. However, all my keyboards still had PS/2 connectors, and Nori only had USB... so I had to use the terribad keyboard for a while.
Until today.
Not only is it a full size, full key keyboard with keys that actually CLICK! when you press down on them, but the Logitech G105 has LED backlighting as well! It's lovely, particularly when you look at it through the viewfinder of my camera and it looks like the LEDs look like they're pulsing right-to-left due to what I assume is a weird frequency thingy between the LEDs and my camera.
I happily packed away the wireless keyboard and laughed when it gave a quiet *beep* when it was taken out of range of the computer. I'm a cruel duck.
Until today.
Not only is it a full size, full key keyboard with keys that actually CLICK! when you press down on them, but the Logitech G105 has LED backlighting as well! It's lovely, particularly when you look at it through the viewfinder of my camera and it looks like the LEDs look like they're pulsing right-to-left due to what I assume is a weird frequency thingy between the LEDs and my camera.
I happily packed away the wireless keyboard and laughed when it gave a quiet *beep* when it was taken out of range of the computer. I'm a cruel duck.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:18 PM
| Comments (7)
| Add Comment
Post contains 208 words, total size 1 kb.
October 09, 2013
F1 on NBCSN: Japan 2013
We're running late this week, and my apologies for that. It's at least theoretically possible that one or two of you rely upon this feature to set your DVR, and you're not getting your info on time. I'd like to send you all a balloon animal to make it up to you, but FedEx just raised their fuel surcharge and I don't have an account with UPS anymore, so you'll just have to settle for something spiffy at the end of this post. Until then, however, it's early-mid October (or late-early October, whichever) which means it must be time for one of the truly classic tracks on the F1 calendar. Libbets and bunnymen, allow me to introduce to you the trackmap for the 2013 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka.
Really, I'm not entirely sure why this isn't my favorite F1 track. Maybe because they turned 130R into a mere ghost of itself when they slowed it down a touch? Could be, I suppose. I've never really seen 130R the way it used to be, so I can't say. Really, Suzuka has everything you could possibly want from a racetrack. It's fast, it's slow, but each section flows into each other like it was meant to... unlike some circuits I could name, and I'm looking at you here Korea. Plus, you've got the clever 'S'-Curves that are a true rhythm section like Buddy Rich could only dream about. Then, of course, you've got the crossover that makes this a figure-8 layout, just like our Tyco slotcar track when we were kids. There's elevation change galore, the Japanese are probably more passionate about F1 than even the Italians, so what's not to love?
Well, and I don't believe I'm going to say this, but "rain." When it rains in Japan, it doesn't just drizzle, but it bloody well typhoons, and that's just too much. The Great Suzuka Boat Races are a real thing, when the teams float homemade boats down the pitlane whilst watching track time go away under the deluge of dampness. At least at Spa, usually you still manage to get out on track.
Still, if that's the only quibble I have with Suzuka (and it is), then I guess I'll manage to get over it. It's a helluva circuit, and I'm still not sure why it isn't any higher than #3 on my favorites list. Oh well, maybe the Legendary Announce Team will be able to help us, for they'll be doing their thing as always this week. Here's the broadcast schedule:
FRIDAY
12mid - 130a: Practice 2 live
SATURDAY
12mid - 130a: Quals live
SUNDAY
1230a - 3a: 2013 Grand Prix of Japan live
So we've not a lot of time before P2 starts already! Go set your DVR now. What are you waiting for, a balloon animal?
Will that do? See you sooner or later.
Really, I'm not entirely sure why this isn't my favorite F1 track. Maybe because they turned 130R into a mere ghost of itself when they slowed it down a touch? Could be, I suppose. I've never really seen 130R the way it used to be, so I can't say. Really, Suzuka has everything you could possibly want from a racetrack. It's fast, it's slow, but each section flows into each other like it was meant to... unlike some circuits I could name, and I'm looking at you here Korea. Plus, you've got the clever 'S'-Curves that are a true rhythm section like Buddy Rich could only dream about. Then, of course, you've got the crossover that makes this a figure-8 layout, just like our Tyco slotcar track when we were kids. There's elevation change galore, the Japanese are probably more passionate about F1 than even the Italians, so what's not to love?
Well, and I don't believe I'm going to say this, but "rain." When it rains in Japan, it doesn't just drizzle, but it bloody well typhoons, and that's just too much. The Great Suzuka Boat Races are a real thing, when the teams float homemade boats down the pitlane whilst watching track time go away under the deluge of dampness. At least at Spa, usually you still manage to get out on track.
Still, if that's the only quibble I have with Suzuka (and it is), then I guess I'll manage to get over it. It's a helluva circuit, and I'm still not sure why it isn't any higher than #3 on my favorites list. Oh well, maybe the Legendary Announce Team will be able to help us, for they'll be doing their thing as always this week. Here's the broadcast schedule:
FRIDAY
12mid - 130a: Practice 2 live
SATURDAY
12mid - 130a: Quals live
SUNDAY
1230a - 3a: 2013 Grand Prix of Japan live
So we've not a lot of time before P2 starts already! Go set your DVR now. What are you waiting for, a balloon animal?
Will that do? See you sooner or later.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:13 PM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 484 words, total size 3 kb.
October 07, 2013
(Mini-ish) F1 Update!: Korea 2013
It didn't rain, and the result was preordained. Yet there was some awfully weird stuff happening in Yeongam, South Korea the other day, and we're here to cover it. THIS is your F1Update! for the 2013 Grand Prix of Korea.
*THE RACE: To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the lights went out and Hannibal Vettel, our polesitter, jumped away to the lead. However, and this is a huge difference, he did not go streaking off over the horizon, looking like he was trying to lap the entire field and standing a good chance at managing the feat. Instead, he only managed to open up a 2.5 second lead over Shiv Hamilton, a lead that didn't much look like it was going to get much larger. As radio calls began to fly back and forth between drivers and pit walls, the reason for the smallish lead became clear: tires. The two tire compounds Pirelli had brought to the track, the super-soft and the mediums, were not lasting anywhere near as long as expected. In particular, the front-right tire was taking a serious beating around the back half of the track, what with all of its left-hand turns. Still, none of this was making it look like Vettel was going to be kicked out of first place any time soon.
*THE WEIRDNESS: And then the weirdness began. On Lap 28, Nico Rosberg was all over the back of his Mercedes teammate, Shiv Hamilton. Hamilton was suffering from tire problems; all the tires on the day had graining problems, but once the graining wore away, the tires would be almost as new. Not so with the set on Hamilton's car at this moment. We quote from his radio call to his pit wall: "They went through the graining period already; now they're sh*t." All of this made passing Hamilton a slice of pie for Rosberg. He got into the Brit's slipstream, opened his DRS, and pulled out from behind... and this happened:
The two top mounting points for the nose of Rosberg's Mercedes failed, dropping the front wing to the pavement. We here at F1U! have watched Formula 1 for years, and we've never seen a car's nose detach without having suffered other damage, like from an accident. While spectacular, and in the long run it certainly cost Rosberg a podium shot, the car was essentially undamaged. Once the nose was replaced, the Mercedes continued on as if nothing had occurred. What happened three laps later, however, was somewhat more critical. On Lap 31, McLaren's Sergio Perez had a huge lockup going into Turn 1, putting a visible flat-spot on the front-right tire. A few hundred yards later, with Mark Webber close by, this happened:
Perez's tire completely let go, the rubber carcass separating completely from the kevlar backing, and taking big chunks of McLaren bodywork with it as well. Webber, fresh out of the pits and shod with a brand new set of medium tires, had no choice but to drive through the debris field. Almost immediately, the Red Bull pit wall told him he had punctures and he had to pit for a new set of tires. Problem is, he had 24 laps to go and the last set of medium tires that he had... were the ones that had just been ruined. Say goodbye to his chances for a podium. Fortunately for all concerned, the Safety Car was called out to allow for clean-up of the tire and associated detritus. It stayed out for six laps, then came in and racing began again. The restart lasted all of three turns, for it was there that Adrian F'n Sutil spun and slid directly into the side of Webber's Red Bull. Sutil continued on, but this is what happened to Webber:
The contact apparently shattered the oil cooler, which promptly caught fire, as intense a blaze as any we've seen in F1 for a while. However, that isn't the weird part. No, the weird part is that, before the Safety Car was called out, this was spotted on-circuit:
The track Fire Vehicle was sent out before the field had been neutralized... and that's Hannibal Vettel directly behind it. Almost immediately after this, the Safety Car was called for, white flags (indicating a slow-moving vehicle is on track, and drivers should be alert) were being waved and it looked like the field began to form up behind the truck, instead of the Safety Car! NEVER seen that before. Fortunately for everybody, that was the last of the weirdness and the race continued as normal afterwards.
*THE END: In the grand scheme of things, though, none of this was anything but a mild diversion for Vettel, who wound up romping home ahead of the Lotii of Kimi Raikkonen and Lettuce Grosjean. He now has a 77 point lead over his nearest competitor, and can clinch the driver's championship in Japan.
*WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: Vettel earned his second consecutive Grand Slam (winning from pole, leading every lap, setting fast lap of the race), the first driver to do that in F1 history. There's no reason to think he couldn't do it in Japan, either. Yeesh.
*FINALLY: Japan is Sunday morning. We'll see you then!
*THE RACE: To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the lights went out and Hannibal Vettel, our polesitter, jumped away to the lead. However, and this is a huge difference, he did not go streaking off over the horizon, looking like he was trying to lap the entire field and standing a good chance at managing the feat. Instead, he only managed to open up a 2.5 second lead over Shiv Hamilton, a lead that didn't much look like it was going to get much larger. As radio calls began to fly back and forth between drivers and pit walls, the reason for the smallish lead became clear: tires. The two tire compounds Pirelli had brought to the track, the super-soft and the mediums, were not lasting anywhere near as long as expected. In particular, the front-right tire was taking a serious beating around the back half of the track, what with all of its left-hand turns. Still, none of this was making it look like Vettel was going to be kicked out of first place any time soon.
*THE WEIRDNESS: And then the weirdness began. On Lap 28, Nico Rosberg was all over the back of his Mercedes teammate, Shiv Hamilton. Hamilton was suffering from tire problems; all the tires on the day had graining problems, but once the graining wore away, the tires would be almost as new. Not so with the set on Hamilton's car at this moment. We quote from his radio call to his pit wall: "They went through the graining period already; now they're sh*t." All of this made passing Hamilton a slice of pie for Rosberg. He got into the Brit's slipstream, opened his DRS, and pulled out from behind... and this happened:
The two top mounting points for the nose of Rosberg's Mercedes failed, dropping the front wing to the pavement. We here at F1U! have watched Formula 1 for years, and we've never seen a car's nose detach without having suffered other damage, like from an accident. While spectacular, and in the long run it certainly cost Rosberg a podium shot, the car was essentially undamaged. Once the nose was replaced, the Mercedes continued on as if nothing had occurred. What happened three laps later, however, was somewhat more critical. On Lap 31, McLaren's Sergio Perez had a huge lockup going into Turn 1, putting a visible flat-spot on the front-right tire. A few hundred yards later, with Mark Webber close by, this happened:
Perez's tire completely let go, the rubber carcass separating completely from the kevlar backing, and taking big chunks of McLaren bodywork with it as well. Webber, fresh out of the pits and shod with a brand new set of medium tires, had no choice but to drive through the debris field. Almost immediately, the Red Bull pit wall told him he had punctures and he had to pit for a new set of tires. Problem is, he had 24 laps to go and the last set of medium tires that he had... were the ones that had just been ruined. Say goodbye to his chances for a podium. Fortunately for all concerned, the Safety Car was called out to allow for clean-up of the tire and associated detritus. It stayed out for six laps, then came in and racing began again. The restart lasted all of three turns, for it was there that Adrian F'n Sutil spun and slid directly into the side of Webber's Red Bull. Sutil continued on, but this is what happened to Webber:
The contact apparently shattered the oil cooler, which promptly caught fire, as intense a blaze as any we've seen in F1 for a while. However, that isn't the weird part. No, the weird part is that, before the Safety Car was called out, this was spotted on-circuit:
The track Fire Vehicle was sent out before the field had been neutralized... and that's Hannibal Vettel directly behind it. Almost immediately after this, the Safety Car was called for, white flags (indicating a slow-moving vehicle is on track, and drivers should be alert) were being waved and it looked like the field began to form up behind the truck, instead of the Safety Car! NEVER seen that before. Fortunately for everybody, that was the last of the weirdness and the race continued as normal afterwards.
*THE END: In the grand scheme of things, though, none of this was anything but a mild diversion for Vettel, who wound up romping home ahead of the Lotii of Kimi Raikkonen and Lettuce Grosjean. He now has a 77 point lead over his nearest competitor, and can clinch the driver's championship in Japan.
*WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: Vettel earned his second consecutive Grand Slam (winning from pole, leading every lap, setting fast lap of the race), the first driver to do that in F1 history. There's no reason to think he couldn't do it in Japan, either. Yeesh.
*FINALLY: Japan is Sunday morning. We'll see you then!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
09:23 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 876 words, total size 6 kb.
October 06, 2013
F1 Update!: Korea 2013 DELAYED
Readers...
I'm having problems being creative tonight. This events of this race, particularly the second half, actually deserve a decent writeup, and I don't feel like I have it in me at the moment. It'll happen on Monday.
Probably.
Yours,
-Wonderduck
PS: While you're waiting, here's McLaren's Tooned Ep05
I'm curious to see how they're going to handle the next driver...
I'm having problems being creative tonight. This events of this race, particularly the second half, actually deserve a decent writeup, and I don't feel like I have it in me at the moment. It'll happen on Monday.
Probably.
Yours,
-Wonderduck
PS: While you're waiting, here's McLaren's Tooned Ep05
I'm curious to see how they're going to handle the next driver...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
06:49 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 66 words, total size 1 kb.
October 05, 2013
F1 Quals: Korea 2013
If you have any doubt about the results of today's Qualifying session for the 2013 Grand Prix of Korea, you've clearly not been following Formula 1 lately. Here's the provisional grid:
Oh look, Hannibal Vettel is on pole. I never saw that coming. Not only was the Red Bull the fastest through the twistybits, but it was also fastest through the speed trap, too. Just what we need, huh? Don't look for rain to save us, either. Now the forecasters are saying that the rain, at best, will soak the track in the morning, then stop well before the race begins. Yeesh.
We'll see you Sunday for the F1U!... hopefully it'll be worth writing about!
Oh look, Hannibal Vettel is on pole. I never saw that coming. Not only was the Red Bull the fastest through the twistybits, but it was also fastest through the speed trap, too. Just what we need, huh? Don't look for rain to save us, either. Now the forecasters are saying that the rain, at best, will soak the track in the morning, then stop well before the race begins. Yeesh.
We'll see you Sunday for the F1U!... hopefully it'll be worth writing about!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
02:55 PM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 272 words, total size 14 kb.
October 04, 2013
Just A Note
On the whole, this has been a really bad week. I might even be able to tell y'all about it sometime. As a trade, here's Rio Tachibana in her sugar glider outfit.
Why do I like such a stupid, stupid show?
Why do I like such a stupid, stupid show?
Posted by: Wonderduck at
10:59 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 44 words, total size 1 kb.
October 02, 2013
RIP Tom Clancy
News came out today that Tom Clancy had passed away at the age of 66. He was probably best known for "inventing" the Techno-Thriller genre of writing in books such as The Hunt For Red October, Red Storm Rising, The Sum of All Fears, and many, many more. He was also a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. The books in the so-called "Ryanverse", based on the adventures of Jack Ryan, all hit #1 on the bestseller lists, and here at The Pond, he has a couple of shelves all to himself in the library. It's safe to say that once his books began to be ghostwritten, their quality dropped, but until that point he was clearly one of the giants of the literary world. I remember when the book Rainbow Six came out... I was running a Waldenbooks here in Duckford, and I bought the first copy out of the box. I then took it home and put it in a difficult-to-reach location for three weeks, just so I wouldn't read it. See, I was about to take a week's vacation, and I wanted it to be my vacation read...
I just looked back at the release history of his books...arguably, he hasn't released a good book since 2002's Red Rabbit or 2003's Teeth of the Tiger. I don't think it matters, though. Even if you stop right there and include his non-fiction titles (mostly co-authored with "researcher" John Gresham), he has an enviable back catalog to say the least. Not too shabby for an insurance salesman who sold his first title to a history press for $5000...
I'll have to put him up there with Heinlein on the short list of my favorite authors. Now, where is my copy of Red Storm Rising anyway...?
I just looked back at the release history of his books...arguably, he hasn't released a good book since 2002's Red Rabbit or 2003's Teeth of the Tiger. I don't think it matters, though. Even if you stop right there and include his non-fiction titles (mostly co-authored with "researcher" John Gresham), he has an enviable back catalog to say the least. Not too shabby for an insurance salesman who sold his first title to a history press for $5000...
I'll have to put him up there with Heinlein on the short list of my favorite authors. Now, where is my copy of Red Storm Rising anyway...?
Posted by: Wonderduck at
08:36 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 300 words, total size 2 kb.
September 30, 2013
F1 on NBCSN: Korea 2013
It's hard to believe that this will be the fourth race at Korea. It feels like just... um... four years ago... since that first deluge-filled race. Arguably, that first race, which ended with Hannibal Vettel blowing his engine as night fell around the circuit, was the only one worth watching. Now they're talking about ending the Korean experiment. Let's take a look at the track map for this maybe soon-to-be-gone racetrack:
The sad thing is that there's no reason for this track to be a lousy runner. The designer just got a little carried away with all the fiddlybits on the back half. Instead, what we've got is half a circuit where you can't pass because you're too busy making turns, and another half where you can't pass because you're all right around the same speed anyway. This is not conductive to good racing.
Unless it rains, of course, in which case everybody is open to anything that happens. Oh by the way, there are storms predicted for race day... just sayin'. Oh, and that yellow dot up there? That's not only the location of the speedtrap, but it's also the approximate location of The Elephant.
NBCSN will be providing coverage, as usual... and it's all over the darn map as to when things are being shown. Here's the schedule as I know it:
FRIDAY:
12mid - 130a: P2 live?
6p - 730p: Quals, surely not live
SUNDAY:
1230a - 3a: 2013 Grand Prix of Korea, live.
Doesn't look like I'll be liveblogging P1, like I've done before... I can't get NBCSN's streaming thingy to work. Oh well, ces't la vie. I'll be around for the rest of it... if it rains, I might write more than 400 words for the F1U!, even. We'll see!
The sad thing is that there's no reason for this track to be a lousy runner. The designer just got a little carried away with all the fiddlybits on the back half. Instead, what we've got is half a circuit where you can't pass because you're too busy making turns, and another half where you can't pass because you're all right around the same speed anyway. This is not conductive to good racing.
Unless it rains, of course, in which case everybody is open to anything that happens. Oh by the way, there are storms predicted for race day... just sayin'. Oh, and that yellow dot up there? That's not only the location of the speedtrap, but it's also the approximate location of The Elephant.
NBCSN will be providing coverage, as usual... and it's all over the darn map as to when things are being shown. Here's the schedule as I know it:
FRIDAY:
12mid - 130a: P2 live?
6p - 730p: Quals, surely not live
SUNDAY:
1230a - 3a: 2013 Grand Prix of Korea, live.
Doesn't look like I'll be liveblogging P1, like I've done before... I can't get NBCSN's streaming thingy to work. Oh well, ces't la vie. I'll be around for the rest of it... if it rains, I might write more than 400 words for the F1U!, even. We'll see!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
07:44 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 300 words, total size 2 kb.
September 28, 2013
I Had SUCH Plans... But Instead, Here's Cheesecake.
Not only was I intending to do another music post today, but I was also going to work on the final entry for Evangelion 1.11, too. I had also planned to go grocery shopping early, have a nice lunch, and generally act the way real people do on Saturdays, instead of working like I have every weekend since mid-August. All of that was my plan. Instead, I didn't do a music post, I haven't worked on Eva 1.11, grocery shopping wasn't done until nearly 4pm, and I didn't have "lunch" until after that. About the only thing I DID manage to accomplish is to take a nap... go me! In lieu of anything approximating content, here's the closest thing to cheesecake in the show Hanasaku Iroha: a waterlogged Naku!
She just saved a self-loathing pr0n author from drowning; he's busy throwing up sea water just off screen, with all the attendant sounds you would expect from such activity. That's why she's got that "duhhhhh" look on her face. Quite an enjoyable show, by the way, I quite recommend it.
So. Yeah. Posting soon. Cheesecake now.
She just saved a self-loathing pr0n author from drowning; he's busy throwing up sea water just off screen, with all the attendant sounds you would expect from such activity. That's why she's got that "duhhhhh" look on her face. Quite an enjoyable show, by the way, I quite recommend it.
So. Yeah. Posting soon. Cheesecake now.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
10:31 PM
| Comments (9)
| Add Comment
Post contains 193 words, total size 1 kb.
September 26, 2013
The OTHER Six-Wheeled F1 Cars
Mauser mentioned that Instypundito was linkin' to a six-wheeled F1 car, and asks what the deal was. Well, I'm not gonna go look to see which one he's talking about because what's the fun in that? Instead, I'm going to talk about the THREE different six-wheelers that were built for F1 purposes that aren't the famous Tyrrell P34 (aka "Wonderduck's favorite F1 car").
THREE??? Yuppers, three. Teams saw the possibilities of the P34 and, as is normal in Formula 1, decided to steal the idea and... "improve"... it. Needless to say, none of the teams in question ever actually raced their cars, just tested them. Probably the best of them was the March 2-4-0.
The idea behind the 2-4-0 is the exact opposite of the P34. The P34 had two small tires on either side up front to improve aerodynamics by lessening drag, which the March designer thought was kinda dumb, because the normal-sized rear tires were still huge sources of drag. Instead, March went with normal tires (which, it might be pointed out, weren't going to cause Goodyear headaches in developing...), but had four driven wheels in the back. The drag would be counteracted by the immense improvement in grip. It worked like a charm, except for two problems. First, it chewed up gearboxes like nobody's business. Second, the car was horribly overweight. If the team could have gotten the gearbox problem solved and put the chassis on a diet, both of which could have been accomplished eventually, there's nothing inherently wrong with the idea and no reason that it wouldn't have been successful. It was a good enough idea that Williams copied the concept a few years later for their FW08B.
Like the 2-4-0, the FW08B never actually raced, and will go down in history as the car that drove the FIA to define a F1 car as having four wheels, with only the two rear ones being powered. Williams' designer Patrick Head said that the main reason that the FW08B was never raced was that it would have caused nightmares during pitstops. I suppose that's true, but it's more likely that the FIA just hated the idea.
Finally, we come to the really weird chassis, the Ferrari 312T6.
Yup, four rear wheels on one axle. I'm not sure what Ferrari thought they'd get out of this layout, particularly since it was too wide to fit the Technical Regulations. In testing, it was found to be something of a pig, handling-wise, and had a tendency to have rear-end problems. In other words, it broke easily and caught fire once. Considering that they had a double-championship season in 1977 with the normal 312T, Ferrari didn't really need to be playing around, and it was condemned to the ash pit.
And that's the story of the other Six-Wheelers.
THREE??? Yuppers, three. Teams saw the possibilities of the P34 and, as is normal in Formula 1, decided to steal the idea and... "improve"... it. Needless to say, none of the teams in question ever actually raced their cars, just tested them. Probably the best of them was the March 2-4-0.
The idea behind the 2-4-0 is the exact opposite of the P34. The P34 had two small tires on either side up front to improve aerodynamics by lessening drag, which the March designer thought was kinda dumb, because the normal-sized rear tires were still huge sources of drag. Instead, March went with normal tires (which, it might be pointed out, weren't going to cause Goodyear headaches in developing...), but had four driven wheels in the back. The drag would be counteracted by the immense improvement in grip. It worked like a charm, except for two problems. First, it chewed up gearboxes like nobody's business. Second, the car was horribly overweight. If the team could have gotten the gearbox problem solved and put the chassis on a diet, both of which could have been accomplished eventually, there's nothing inherently wrong with the idea and no reason that it wouldn't have been successful. It was a good enough idea that Williams copied the concept a few years later for their FW08B.
Like the 2-4-0, the FW08B never actually raced, and will go down in history as the car that drove the FIA to define a F1 car as having four wheels, with only the two rear ones being powered. Williams' designer Patrick Head said that the main reason that the FW08B was never raced was that it would have caused nightmares during pitstops. I suppose that's true, but it's more likely that the FIA just hated the idea.
Finally, we come to the really weird chassis, the Ferrari 312T6.
Yup, four rear wheels on one axle. I'm not sure what Ferrari thought they'd get out of this layout, particularly since it was too wide to fit the Technical Regulations. In testing, it was found to be something of a pig, handling-wise, and had a tendency to have rear-end problems. In other words, it broke easily and caught fire once. Considering that they had a double-championship season in 1977 with the normal 312T, Ferrari didn't really need to be playing around, and it was condemned to the ash pit.
And that's the story of the other Six-Wheelers.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
07:41 PM
| Comments (6)
| Add Comment
Post contains 473 words, total size 3 kb.
September 25, 2013
America's Cup Winner!
I remember, back in the day, the America's Cup sailing race was A Big Thing, when Dennis Conner brought the Cup back home in 1987. Heck, Ted Turner (yes, that Ted Turner) captained an America's Cup boat in 1977. But today, one of the greatest comebacks in the history of sports in general occurred, when Team Oracle USA won the Cup 9 - 8, after being down 8 - 1 to Team New Zealand. Yep, they had to win eight races in a row to hoist the trophy, and they did. Simply incredible.
Even more incredible are the boats the teams are using now. Back In The Day, they used boats that looked like yachts. Now? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Team Oracle USA's boat!
It's a damned F1 car is what it is! Carbon fiber multi-hull design, hydrofoil-capable, and a 13-story tall hard wing! They don't even bother calling it a sail, it's a bleedin' wing! But, oh, can these things fly. The Kiwis hit 44kts in a 16kt wind, for example.
I know nothing about sailing, and little of the America's Cup, and care about the same amount, truth be told... but I just needed to express both my amazement and disgust with the new boats. Oh, and to congratulate Team USA, too. Woo yay!
But next time? Use real boats, 'k?
Even more incredible are the boats the teams are using now. Back In The Day, they used boats that looked like yachts. Now? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Team Oracle USA's boat!
It's a damned F1 car is what it is! Carbon fiber multi-hull design, hydrofoil-capable, and a 13-story tall hard wing! They don't even bother calling it a sail, it's a bleedin' wing! But, oh, can these things fly. The Kiwis hit 44kts in a 16kt wind, for example.
I know nothing about sailing, and little of the America's Cup, and care about the same amount, truth be told... but I just needed to express both my amazement and disgust with the new boats. Oh, and to congratulate Team USA, too. Woo yay!
But next time? Use real boats, 'k?
Posted by: Wonderduck at
10:04 PM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 228 words, total size 2 kb.
September 24, 2013
Where's My Rio?
Today was supposed to be the day that Media Blasters officially released Rio Rainbow Gate! on an unsuspecting populace. I've had it on pre-order at Robert's Place for a week or so, and via e-mail, he was fairly confident that it was going to show up on time... not that MB is well-known for that sort of thing. Anyway, I sat contented, knowing that RRG! is such a seminal work of anime greatness that they'd HAVE to release on time. Any minute now, I'd see a confirmation from Bob that it had shipped. Any... minute... now...
I finally shot Bob an e-mail asking what had happened to my Rio? I figured it had to be one of three things:
1) The folks over at RACS just hadn't shipped it to me yet. This was the least likely of the three options... they're just too good to let that sort of thing happen.
2) Media Blasters had peed the release down their leg. This was the most likely reason.
3) I was the only person in America to pre-order RRG!, and Media Blasters had shut down out of embarrassment. If you think about it, both of these are possible.
As it turns out, the answer is #2, though Bob was much nicer about it than "peed it down their leg." That's me, all the way. He explained that it could show up any day, and he'd let me know the moment he has any more information. And THAT'S why I only buy anime from Robert's Anime Corner Store... the freakin' owner of the company has promised to contact me once he hears something. I don't spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year over there; indeed, I never did. Doesn't matter to him.
Of course, I'm still waiting for Rio...
C'mon, Media Blasters... don't keep this duck a-waitin'!
I finally shot Bob an e-mail asking what had happened to my Rio? I figured it had to be one of three things:
1) The folks over at RACS just hadn't shipped it to me yet. This was the least likely of the three options... they're just too good to let that sort of thing happen.
2) Media Blasters had peed the release down their leg. This was the most likely reason.
3) I was the only person in America to pre-order RRG!, and Media Blasters had shut down out of embarrassment. If you think about it, both of these are possible.
As it turns out, the answer is #2, though Bob was much nicer about it than "peed it down their leg." That's me, all the way. He explained that it could show up any day, and he'd let me know the moment he has any more information. And THAT'S why I only buy anime from Robert's Anime Corner Store... the freakin' owner of the company has promised to contact me once he hears something. I don't spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year over there; indeed, I never did. Doesn't matter to him.
Of course, I'm still waiting for Rio...
C'mon, Media Blasters... don't keep this duck a-waitin'!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
07:26 PM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
Post contains 310 words, total size 2 kb.
September 22, 2013
(Mini) F1 Update!: Singapore 2013
Oh my god.
This is your F1Update! for the 2013 Grand Prix of Singapore.
*THE RACE: At the extinguishing of the lights, Hannibal Vettel had a less-than-perfect getaway from pole, while second-sitting Nico Rosberg had a good start. This gave us the glorious image of Rosberg leading the race into Turn 1.
An instant later, he overcooked it, missed the turn, ran wide, and relinquished the lead to the three-time World Driver's Champion.
And that was the last time anybody was ahead of Vettel all night. By the end of the first lap, he had a 1.9 second lead over Rosberg. By the end of the second, the lead was over four seconds and climbing. He made his super-soft tires last longer than everybody elses, pitted after his challengers and came back out with a ten-second lead. The only thing that could perhaps halt the bleeding was a Safety Car, which was duly called out when Daniel Ricciardo drove his Toro Rosso into a wall on Lap 24. This cut the lead back down, of course, but the rolling restart played right back into the hands of Vettel. It only took four laps for his ten second lead to come back, and in 12 laps he had a 30 second lead... plenty long enough to pit for tires and come back out in the lead. And so it came to pass that Vettel won the race by 32 seconds over the Ferrari of HWMNBN, who was himself nearly 10 seconds ahead of the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.
*WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: Nothing good, for both us the fans and for Vettel's competition. Red Bull has already shown that they can't be headed on slower tracks, and they've mastered fast circuits, too. There is no obvious reason to assume that Vettel won't dominate the rest of the season. Our only hope is for mechanical failures to rear their ugly head. This is not as far-fetched as it may seem, as the team seems to be suffering gearbox problems. Indeed, Mark Webber's gearbox burst into flame on the last lap, causing him to pull over short of the line... which caused a whole bunch of additional problems. Y'see, after the race was finished and the surviving racers were on the cooldown lap, Webber jogged out onto track to catch a lift with HWMNBN.
This caused two or three other cars to have to make frantic avoiding manuevers so as to not run into the back of the stopped Ferrari. Here's CCTV footage of the incident, which earned both drivers reprimands. As it was Webber's third of the season, he's earned a 10-spot penalty for the next race.
*ON THE OTHER HAND: Historically, Vettel is doing things we've seen but rarely in history... dominating his sport in a way only a few people have ever done. Michael Jordan, Slappy Schumacher, Wayne Gretzky, B*rr* B*nds... and Vettel. We should be aware of that fact, and admire it. It's an amazing streak, but it's killing the enjoyment we here at F1U! have for the races.
*FINALLY: Even McLaren's Tooned! was a recap episode this race. Well, if the other teams have given up, why not the animation team, too?
Two weeks until Korea... we'll see you then!
This is your F1Update! for the 2013 Grand Prix of Singapore.
*THE RACE: At the extinguishing of the lights, Hannibal Vettel had a less-than-perfect getaway from pole, while second-sitting Nico Rosberg had a good start. This gave us the glorious image of Rosberg leading the race into Turn 1.
An instant later, he overcooked it, missed the turn, ran wide, and relinquished the lead to the three-time World Driver's Champion.
And that was the last time anybody was ahead of Vettel all night. By the end of the first lap, he had a 1.9 second lead over Rosberg. By the end of the second, the lead was over four seconds and climbing. He made his super-soft tires last longer than everybody elses, pitted after his challengers and came back out with a ten-second lead. The only thing that could perhaps halt the bleeding was a Safety Car, which was duly called out when Daniel Ricciardo drove his Toro Rosso into a wall on Lap 24. This cut the lead back down, of course, but the rolling restart played right back into the hands of Vettel. It only took four laps for his ten second lead to come back, and in 12 laps he had a 30 second lead... plenty long enough to pit for tires and come back out in the lead. And so it came to pass that Vettel won the race by 32 seconds over the Ferrari of HWMNBN, who was himself nearly 10 seconds ahead of the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.
*WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: Nothing good, for both us the fans and for Vettel's competition. Red Bull has already shown that they can't be headed on slower tracks, and they've mastered fast circuits, too. There is no obvious reason to assume that Vettel won't dominate the rest of the season. Our only hope is for mechanical failures to rear their ugly head. This is not as far-fetched as it may seem, as the team seems to be suffering gearbox problems. Indeed, Mark Webber's gearbox burst into flame on the last lap, causing him to pull over short of the line... which caused a whole bunch of additional problems. Y'see, after the race was finished and the surviving racers were on the cooldown lap, Webber jogged out onto track to catch a lift with HWMNBN.
This caused two or three other cars to have to make frantic avoiding manuevers so as to not run into the back of the stopped Ferrari. Here's CCTV footage of the incident, which earned both drivers reprimands. As it was Webber's third of the season, he's earned a 10-spot penalty for the next race.
*ON THE OTHER HAND: Historically, Vettel is doing things we've seen but rarely in history... dominating his sport in a way only a few people have ever done. Michael Jordan, Slappy Schumacher, Wayne Gretzky, B*rr* B*nds... and Vettel. We should be aware of that fact, and admire it. It's an amazing streak, but it's killing the enjoyment we here at F1U! have for the races.
*FINALLY: Even McLaren's Tooned! was a recap episode this race. Well, if the other teams have given up, why not the animation team, too?
Two weeks until Korea... we'll see you then!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
07:02 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 548 words, total size 4 kb.
September 21, 2013
Saturday Night Tunage XVIII
It's time! Get your greasy little face up next to the speakers, kids, because DJ Wonderduck is back with another installment of Saturday Night Tunage!
More fun than a barrel of monkeys, more educational than a box of lincoln logs, less metal than an erector set, that's SNT! I've got a batch of new songs for ya, so let's get right to the tunage!
more...
More fun than a barrel of monkeys, more educational than a box of lincoln logs, less metal than an erector set, that's SNT! I've got a batch of new songs for ya, so let's get right to the tunage!
more...
Posted by: Wonderduck at
09:43 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 662 words, total size 5 kb.
137kb generated in CPU 0.324, elapsed 0.5073 seconds.
62 queries taking 0.4714 seconds, 374 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
62 queries taking 0.4714 seconds, 374 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
