Back in 2008 at Brazil, David Coulthard's Chin mounted a camera to his helmet, somewhere in the vicinity of his mouth, to give viewers at home the first ever taste of what it's like to be in a F1 car at speed in a race.  He was promptly wrecked in Turn 2 of the first lap.  So much for that.

Until now.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:45 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 291 words, total size 2 kb.

-Fate/Zero ep02

That is all.

Nah, that's not all.  We're three episodes into the prequel of Fate/Stay Night, and it's a huge graphical upgrade.  You'd expect that, of course, seeing how FSN is five years old now, but one could even argue that it looks better in some ways than the Unlimited Blade Works film from last year.  Though UBW's effects blow everything out of the water.

-Unlimited Blade Works movie

I'd love to tell you something about what's going on in F/Z, but as of Ep03 nothing really IS happening.  The Masters have all been introduced, their Servants have taken to the field, and then... Ep03 ended.  What I'm saying is, it's moving a tad slowly.

It's slow, but it's sort of like a David Weber-style infodump.  Without the past three episodes, we'd have no idea what's going on later. 

I hope.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 146 words, total size 1 kb.

A low, heavy sky and thin sunlight greeted the Thundering Herd as it formed up on the grid.  Reports were that rain was in the near future.  Would it affect the race for the Constructor's Championship?  Would the McLaren Resurgence continue?  Would we ever hear from Ferrari again?  And now that he had wrapped up the Driver's Championship, whither Vettel?  THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Korea!

*LIGHTS OUT: It's a very short dash from the front of the grid to the Turn 1 / Turn 2 pairing at Korea, something on the order of 150m.  This favors the driver that can make a clean getaway off the line, as that counts just as much as raw acceleration on a short run.  Despite a fairly aggressive move from Seb Vettel, sitting second on the grid, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton held pride of place into the first turn and down the endless straight to Turn 3.  It wasn't until Turn 4, at the end of the next straightaway, that Vettel managed to take the lead from his rival.  From there, it became just another Seb Vettel sort of race: get clear of the field by at least a second before DRS usage was activated on Lap 3, then run away and hide.  And that's exactly what he did, though the lead in the first part of the race wasn't more than five seconds or so. 

*CUE THE RAIN:  The men on the pit walls had a few anxious moments as the windows for the first pit stops began to open, as the sky began to spit rain here and there around the circuit.  Do you gamble on intermediate rubber, or stay on slicks and hope that the rain goes away?  Everybody rolled the dice to stay on slicks, and the rain, never more than a sprinkling around Turn 4, disappeared as quickly as it came.  Didn't stop the F1U! crew from cackling evilly though, as we hoped a good frogswallower would develop.

*SAFETY DANCE CAR:  When Renault's Red Menace decided that braking was for wimps on Lap 16, turning the rear of Slappy Schumacher's Mercedes into so much oatmeal in the process (see "Mooooo-oooove of the Race", below), a Safety Car was called out to allow the track workers to remove the debris.  After the restart on Lap 21, it looked like we were going to have a race again.  Vettel stayed ahead of Hamilton, but the lead was just a touch over a second... and the McLaren began to (agonizingly) slowly reel the Red Bull in.  However, Vettel's teammate Mark Webber also began to reel in the two of them.

*HELLO, GOODBYE:  On Lap 33, Webber went all furious koala on Hamilton, hanging onto back of the McLaren driver all the way around the circuit.  The two put on a tremendous exhibition of wheel-to-wheel racing from Turn 3, ending only when they came to the technical section around Turn 7.  However, this tete-a-tete let Vettel drive off into the distance, adding three seconds to his lead in one lap.  After the second round of pitstops, the Driver's Champion's lead had ballooned to 10 seconds and the race was, for all intents and purposes, over.  Hamilton and Webber pitted together, came out together, and their battle continued on Lap 34 (see "Move of the Race", below).  Vettel was unchallenged for the remaining 20 laps and took his 10th win of the season, followed by Hamilton, Webber, Button and HWMNBN.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Seb Vettel has already won the 2011 Driver's Championship, but it's clear that he isn't content to rest on his laurels.  All he did was take the lead in Turn 4 and then keep a fast Lewis Hamilton behind him until the safety car came out.  After the safety car period ended, he ran away and hid to blow the rest of the field off the track.  Pretty much the perfect race for the two-time champ.

*TEAM OF THE RACE: Red Bull.  Both drivers on the podium with a 1-3 finish, and clinching their second Constructor's Championship?  Yeah, not bad.  The only thing that kept this from being a perfect day for the team was a dumb strategy call to bring Mark Webber in at the same time as Lewis Hamilton that may have cost them a 1-2.  Still and all, if that's the worst thing that happened to Red Bull today, they'll probably live with it.

*MOVE OF THE RACE: McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Mark Webber had themselves an epic duel today, one that lasted from the Safety Car period to the end of the race.  On Lap 33 the two pitted nose-to-tail and came out the same way to begin Lap 34.  Surprisingly, the Red Bull couldn't get close enough to pass at the end of the DRS zone, and it looked like that was that for this lap... until Hamilton locked up his brakes heading into Turn 5, and the furious koala pounced.He took the inside line away from the McLaren into Turn 6, and again, it all looked over.  Surely the furious koala would pull away and set sail after his teammate.But no!  The McLaren dangled a piece of bamboo in front of the koala and squeezed him over into the next turn, retaking second place. A simply exquisite piece of racing from both men, an exchange that earns them a rare shared MotR!

*MOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE:  Slappy Schumacher was cruising towards a solid points-paying finish.  To be sure, he had a hard-charging HWMNBN behind him, and Renault's Red Menace was looking awfully racy, but as the race neared the half-way point Slappy had to be feeling pretty good about the way his day was going.  Heading down to Turn 4, The Red Menace and HWMNBN were dueling hard, with the Ferrari driver apparently not planning on braking until he reached Pyongyang.  The Red Menace held off on braking as long as he could, then stomped hard on the slow-down pedal.  The brakes did their job well enough to lock up the front tires and the Renault was suddenly uncontrollable... with Slappy right in his way.

Both cars were taken out of the race, and The Red Menace nearly collected HWMNBN in the process.  Nicely done, Red!  Here's another Mooooooo-oooove for your collection!

*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 1546 words, total size 11 kb.

IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon was killed in a massive accident at today's Las Vegas 300.  15 cars were involved, which included two airborne at the same time.  Wheldon's car was catapulted into the catch fencing, shearing off the rear wing, airbox and roll bar.  Wheldon suffered injuries that was "unsurvivable", and passed away shortly afterward at a Las Vegas hospital.

After the announcement, the drivers that made it through the accident took to the track to run a five-lap tribute to the popular British driver as  pit crews and track workers lined the circuit.

Wheldon was 33 and leaves behind a wife and two young children. 

We here at F1 Update! extend our condolences to fans, friends and family, and our coverage of the 2011 Grand Prix of Korea will be delayed until Monday in tribute.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 139 words, total size 1 kb.

-Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi ep12

To be honest, after having watched ep12 of ITnKU (or "A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives"), I have no idea what the show's title means.  What I do know is that a) almost everybody in the show can use magic, 2) almost everybody in the show has the hots for the protagonist, and III) the female lead has hair that's longer than she is tall.  And of course, the final episode of the season takes place as a bath house.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:45 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 226 words, total size 2 kb.

The usual three drivers were sitting on the interview stand, but all was not well.  One of them was in his normal good humor, but moods of the other two were substantially different.  But what caused this reaction?  Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2011 Grand Prix of Korea:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:54 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 600 words, total size 16 kb.

The last we saw of the Korean Grand Prix was that it was raining.  Seems appropriate that our next vision of the Yeongam Circuit is... that it was still raining.

I'm going to have to assume that it did stop raining sometime in the past year.  I think I would have heard something about 365 days of constant rain, no matter where it was.  Be that as it may, what we got in first practice was lots and lots of rain, though not as much as the deluge that plagued the first ever Korean GP.  Though it might have been because there wasn't as much water on the ground, the track seemed to handle it better too.

The same can't be said for the drivers.

While Cowboy's impressive ground loop was the most dramatic incident, seeing cars take to the run-off areas was a common sight, usually preceded by a moment of surprise squirrellyness and piscine twitching.  The usual suspects looked good as they turned laps in the 2-minute range on the full wet tires, though even Driver's Champion Vettel had his share of moments.

However, for around 20 minutes it was raining so hard that nobody even thought about turning a wheel in anger on the soaked circuit... so the F1 cameras gave us "Rain Delay Theater," wandering around the grandstands and finding interesting vignettes.

Monsieur Jean-Eric Vergne is the Toro Rosso team's third driver for this race, and needs to learn Lesson #1 for all F1 Drivers: never ever look goofy while in the car.

There were dozens of other shots, mostly of Koreans staying dry or pointedly not staying dry, taking photos of other Koreans taking photos of other Koreans not staying dry, or even occasionally a F1 car in a garage.  And then, from out of nowhere, came this:

...I'm not sure what to think of this.

I probably won't have a P2 report, though if something important happens I'll let you know.  Unfortunately, The Pond is not a self-sustaining financial entity, so I have to be at work in the morning.  There WILL be a Quals report as normal.  See you then!

UPDATE: The good news in P2 was that it wasn't as wet.  The bad news was that it wasn't dry enough to run slicks.  This means that the teams will be heading into "Saturday"'s Quals session with very little data on how the new Pirelli rubber behaves around Yeongam.  A dry P3 is gonna be awfully important... fortunately for the teams, the rest of the weekend is supposed to be bright and sunny.  The changing conditions caused one accident, between the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Toro Rosso's DJ Squire, and it pointed out the horribleness of Korea's pit lane.  DJ Squire was coming out of the pits, which expels cars onto the track on the outside of Turn 1.  Rosberg had just finished a hot lap and the wet tarmac robbed him of the traction needed to get whoa'd up in time.  The result?

Rosberg's front wing wound up stuck under his front right tire, which must have made for an exciting lap, while DJ Squire's Toro Rosso got away with a couple of scuffmarks.  As you remember, the pit-in is horribly placed as well, sited as it is on the inside of the final corner, a high-speed blind turn.  SOMEthing bad is gonna happen here in the not-so-distant future, mark my words.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:23 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 578 words, total size 4 kb.

Nearly four years ago, I wrote a little piece about the anime Zipang!.  I liked it at the time.  Now I've gone back and watched the last few episodes and... well... it's probably just me, but I've noticed a lot of glaring discrepancies.

If you remember, the JMSDF cruiser Mirai is sent back in time to 1942.  A lot of things happen, and in the climax to the series, the Mirai becomes involved in a duel with the USS Wasp.  In the picture above, the Wasp is just beginning to launch her first attack on the Japanese cruiser.  The SBD is flawlessly rendered, except that it's specifically said to be carrying a 1000lb bomb.  To be sure, a Dauntless can carry a weapon of that size, and quite often did... except that when it did, it couldn't carry bombs on the wing positions.  Looking at the Wasp, you'll note that it has a deck-edge elevator opposite the island.  Indeed, she was the first ever carrier with such a thing.  Only problem is that it didn't look like that; it was a simple framework arrangement instead.

It certainly doesn't help that I wrote a post about the Wasp last year.  There are other problems as well.  In the climactic battle, the carrier's first attack is 40 planes, divided between SBDs and Avengers.  Her second attack is to be the same size.  That's 80 planes right there, and the Wasp couldn't carry that many.  We only see one Hellcat in the entire sequence.  Sure, there's no need for them in the attack against a lone surface ship, but if she only has one squadron of F6Fs, that still puts her Air Group around 96... many many more aircraft than she could ever carry.  And then there's this picture:

Episode 02 takes us to the Battle of Midway, right as the SBDs come raining down on Kido Butai.  Above, we see the Soryu.  As is traditional, her flight deck is packed with aircraft... though they all appear to be Zeroes.  Of course, we now know that the Japanese carriers didn't have their flight deck filled with aircraft at any time after the Midway striking force landed.  The producers did get the location of her island correct, though.  However, I'm not entirely sure what those SBDs are doing.  Oh, yes, they're pulling up from their bombing run, except they're pulling straight up (the next couple of seconds show them flying right into the camera).  1) the pilots would be unconscious from the g-loads, and b) the wings would have come off.  Still, it's an exciting shot.

I'm nitpicking, but I've got to, it's my job.  Let's not even talk about the way the characters go off-model constantly...  Zipang! is an interesting watch, but I'm no longer convinced it's good.  The CG ships and planes are pure WWII pr0n, though.

Even if the Kaga looks a little squat and cartoony.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 486 words, total size 4 kb.

After Seb Vettel clinched the Driver's Championship at Japan, one might be inclined to think there's nothing else to race for.  In NASCAR or the IRL, you'd be right.  However, this is Formula 1, which has always been a Constructor's marque.  Certainly it's nice to have the World Champion driving for you, but the Constructor's Championship is where the money is.  The financial difference between finishing first and finishing second is in the tens of millions of dollars.  So you betcha there's still something to drive for, and this weekend the F1 Circus heads to Yeongam, South Korea for the second Korean Grand Prix.  Let's take a look at the track map:

As you may remember, last year's inaugural race was mostly an aquatic affair, and when it finally stopped raining the track never dried and the sun went away.  It's hard to judge just exactly how this circuit runs, since we never saw any dry-weather racing the whole weekend.  In practice and Quals, the track surface proved to be both slippery and abrasive at the same time... and that was on the more durable Bridgestone tires.  With Pirelli bringing the soft and super-soft tires to the circuit, lord only knows how long the rubber will last. 

Of course, "lord only knows" also describes how the track'll ride this year.  In a move born out of desperation, the race organizers surfaced the track in a fast-curing asphalt that had a high oil percentage.  This guaranteed that the course would be ready for race weekend, but also guaranteed that the surface would be permanently greasy.  However, that was last year.  The track has had a year to weather in, and while I doubt it'll be great, it'll probably be better. 

One of the problems last year was that the heavy rain that fell had no way to drain.  The long straightaway is lined with concrete walls, and those walls contained the water like a swimming pool.  Everywhere else the problem was that the track is built on reclaimed swampland that's just a few feet above sea-level.  It was like pouring water on a sponge; it can absorb to some level, but after that it just can't take any more.  Fortunately, it looks like we're to have a dry race this year... maybe.  Who knows?

That reclaimed land also began settling almost as soon as the asphalt was put down, leading to a rather bumpy surface in some very uncomfortable places... mostly braking zones and the apices of turns, it seemed.  I doubt they could fix that, short of resurfacing the track... and they surely didn't do that.

So what this race preview comes down to is that we have no freakin' idea what the track will be like for this weekend's contest.  Let's not even think about what sort of effect DRS will have!  In any case, we'll find out thanks to the good folks at SPEED!  As usual, they'll be bringing us coverage of every session of the weekend!  Here's the lineup:

Thursday: Practice 1: 8p - 930p (streaming)
Friday: Practice 2: 12midnight - 140a (live), Practice 3: 9p - 10p (straming)
Saturday: Quals: 12midnight - 130a (live)
Sunday: 2011 Grand Prix of Korea: 1230a - 3a (live), 1030a - 1p (replay)

Along with the Legendary Announce Team, the F1 Update! crew will be all over the weekend as well!  Hope you'll join us, exclusively at The Pond*!



^{*no other place wants us.}

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:50 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 578 words, total size 4 kb.

A sunny afternoon greeted the F1 Circus as the cars made their way to the grid.  Would Jenson Button be able to extend the fight for the Driver's Championship for another race?  Or would polesitter Seb Vettel score the single point he needed to lock it up today?  THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Japan!

*THE RACE:  Over the years, Suzuka International Race Course has given us some great races, including quite a few that have decided championships.  While we here at F1U! wouldn't classify the 2011 entry as a "great race," it certainly had its share of moments.  When the lights went out, Red Bull's Vettel made a clean getaway from the first spot on the grid... but McLaren's Jenson Button had a better one, pulling nearly even with the reigning Driver's Champion before the cars had gone more than twenty meters.  It then became a drag race down to the first turn, a drag race that Vettel seemed to think he was going to lose, as he began to squeeze the Glare with Wheels closer and closer to the grass on the inside of the straight.  Eventually the Brit was shoved so far over that he raised a big cloud of dirt when his right-side wheels left the tarmac, a maneuver that let his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, sneak past for second place as the Thundering Herd entered the first turn.  Unlike the rest of the season to date however, Vettel did not go flying off into the distance, leaving the competition fighting for second place.  Instead the two McLaren drivers hung grimly onto his rear wing, Hamilton just out of DRS activation range of the leader and Button a couple of seconds behind Hamilton. 

*ABRASIVENESS:  As had become clear during the first two days of the race weekend, the tires Pirelli had brought to the track (medium and soft compounds) were proving to be terribly vulnerable to the abrasive surface of the Suzuka Circuit.  The prime tire was lasting around 20 laps, the options about half that, depending on the driver.  Lewis Hamilton, who's never been thought to have a smooth flowing driving style, drove the rubber right off his options in eight laps, earning a slow leak on his right-rear tire in the process.  With his car becoming less and less controllable, he backed off the throttle and let his teammate into second, five seconds behind the leader.  He'd pit and come back out in sixth place, never to be involved in the outcome again.  This began a general run into the pits by the field.  While Vettel continued to hold the lead after the first pit cycle, it may have been significant that Button, the generally acknowledged master of tire conservation, stayed out for a lap longer than the Red Bull driver.  When Button came back out, the lead had dropped to 2.5 seconds.

*AND THEN...:  Seb Vettel stayed out in front for another 10 laps until his second set of soft tires quietly sighed and gave up the ghost.  He brought his RB7 in for his second stop on Lap 20, secure in the knowledge that his mechanics were the most consistent in F1, always getting him in-and-out in about 3.4 seconds.  Except not this time.  It's not like the Red Bull driver's stop was a bad one, right around four seconds.  Most other teams would be perfectly content with taking four seconds to change four tires.  Jenson Button swept into the pitlane on the next lap.  When his McLaren came back onto the circuit, he was a couple of car-lengths ahead of Vettel, leapfrogging the Red Bull driver on the pit rotation.

A half-second doesn't seem like much, but in F1, it's all the time in the world.

*CHECKERED FLAG:  From then on, the question became "would Vettel even try to pass for the lead?"  Quickly enough, the question became moot as Button slowly pulled away from the Red Bull driver, opening up a two-second lead.  When Vettel pitted on Lap 34 for his run to the end on the medium rubber, he lost another place on the pit rotation, this time to Ferrari's HWMNBN.  Coming up quickly behind Vettel was his Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber, but there was no way the team was going to let them do anything stupid.  A quick radio call from the pit wall to both Red Bull drivers on Lap 47, in effect telling them both not to take any risks, made it clear that they wanted Vettel on the podium.  But could HWMNBN catch Button?  At one point he got the lead down to 1.1 seconds, but Button had simply been conserving fuel.  The moment there was any sign of a threat, on Lap 51, he ripped off the fast lap of the race and then took the checkered flag.  HWMNBN finished 1.1 seconds behind, with Vettel a second behind him.  Jenson Button had won the race, but by virtue of  his third place finish, Vettel had won the 2011 Driver's Championship.


*DRIVER OF THE RACE:  Jenson Button may not have had a car that was faster than the Red Bull, but it was just as quick.  In effect, this turned the race into a straight battle between drivers, one that Button won.  He took better care of his tires while keeping his speed high, drove a flawless race, and took a well-deserved win.  That it wasn't enough to keep the championship alive wasn't his fault.

*TEAM OF THE RACE:  Red Bull.  One championship down, one to go.  Neither driver made any particular errors.  Heck, we didn't even  get to see a Mark Webber Lousy Start^©. The pit stop that may have cost Vettel the victory was good enough for just about any other situation... just not this one at this time. 

*MOVE OF THE RACE:  The least likely place to pass at Suzuka is the infamous 130R.  To try a move on the fastest point of the circuit while you're entering a flat-out sweeper requires either massive attachments or massive brain damage.  Mark Webber pulled it off early in the race, but his victim (HWMNBN) was on old tires while the Aussie was on brand new rubber... hardly a fair fight.  On Lap 46 though, Adrian F'n Sutil was fighting Gandalf Kobayashi for 9th place.  Both were on similarly worn tires, both cars were solid midpackers, and both drivers have more-or-less equal skills.  When Sutil made his attempt on Gandalf by going to the inside (and getting squeezed in the process), our first thought was "brain damage."

Full throttle onto the dirty side of the track at 185mph into a fast left-handed sweeper next to an insane Japanese driver on his home soil.  This is not the recipe for a long and happy life.

Nevertheless, Sutil took his Force India into the turn and kept it firmly planted in place despite not being on the optimal racing line through 130R.  He took the position and we here at F1U! immediately awarded him the MotR award.  We still think it's an example of "brain damage," though.

*MOOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE:  For the most part, this was a cleanly driven race.  Yes there was contact between Webber and Slappy Schumacher... and (wow, what a shock) Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa (again), but neither of those incidents were particularly egregious.  So instead, we're giving it to the front-right tire changer for Toro Rosso.

I suppose it's not a great feeling when your tire just rolls off the hub in the middle of the race... but it did earn the airgunner a Mooooo!  That's a fair trade, right?

*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:15 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 1672 words, total size 11 kb.

A gorgeous day at Suzuka, Japan for the Quals session for the 2011 Grand Prix of Japan.  Will the Red Bullies continue their stranglehold on the pole position for the season?  Or will McLaren, who were the fastest in every practice session so far this weekend, finally kick them out of the top slot?  Let's take a look at the provisional grid:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:50 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 653 words, total size 17 kb.

At 7am on June 4th, 1942, the signal was flashed to the American aircraft carrier USS Hornet: "Begin launching aircraft."  The plan to ambush the Japanese Kido Butai had worked perfectly so far.  The Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu were some 155 miles away, long range for the 59 planes of the Hornet's Air Group launched that day, but quite doable. 

By noon, only 31 planes had landed at Midway or on the Hornet.  All were SBD Dauntless dive bombers.  None of the TBD Devastators of Torpedo 8 or the F4F Wildcats of Fighting 8 had landed aboard, and never would.  None of the SBDs of Scouting 8 or Bombing 8 had even seen the Japanese carriers.  One third of the striking power that the US Navy had so carefully positioned had been completely wasted.

What had happened during those five hours became one of the US Navy's deepest (but open) secrets, suspected but unproven for over 45 years.  It cost the lives of 31 airmen.  It should have torpedoed the careers of two men destined to become admirals.  It was The Flight To Nowhere.

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:00 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
Post contains 3052 words, total size 23 kb.

Working on what I'm calling "The Epic Post."  If it continues on the way it is, we're looking at The Pond's first 4000 worder here... heck, if it keeps on going, 5000 words isn't entirely out of the question.  Not giving out hints on what it is, either.  It'll be a doozy, though.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 61 words, total size 1 kb.

Though the Driver's Championship is all but wrapped up, the Constructor's is still up for grabs, and that means there's still something to race for.  Which is good, because this week the F1 Circus will raise their tents at what is almost certainly the best of the non-European circuits: Japan's Suzuka.  Let's take a look at the track map, shall we?

The first thing you notice about Suzuka is that it's a figure-of-eight layout, the only one in F1.  Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately if you're a redneck, the track doesn't really cross itself; the outbound part goes through a tunnel beneath the inbound.  The next feature you notice are the "S Curves", a Gene Krupa-level rhythm section that determines your success on any particular lap of the circuit.  Do it right, you've got a chance for a good time.  Do it wrong, even a little bit, and you've ruined the lap completely and you'll have to fight to salvage what you can the rest of the lap.  There's nothing quite like it anywhere else on the calendar.

It's a fast circuit that paradoxically is also a high-downforce track.  Tires can take a beating around here from the high lateral loads suffered at places like the full-throttle 130R or the aforementioned S Curves.  The track surface is variable; in 2009 some portions of the circuit were resurfaced, leading to changing traction levels depending on where you are in the lap.  Pirelli is bringing the Medium and Soft compound tires this year, which should prove successful here.

As Suzuka is located on the eastern coast of Japan it tends to be somewhat damp around the circuit during race weekend.  Indeed, the Great Suzuka Boat Races are something of a tradition in F1, and while they don't occur every year, they certainly did in 2010 as Quals were actually postponed until just before the race on Sunday.  It appears that this year, the weather forecast is for sunny skies.

Of course, the good folks at SPEED will be bringing us the whole weekend, as they usually do.  Let's take a look at the schedule:

THURSDAY: 8pm to 930pm - Practice 1 (streaming)
FRIDAY: 1201am - 140am - Practice 2 (live),  9pm - 10pm - Practice 3 (streaming)
SATURDAY: 1201am - 130am - Quals (live)
SUNDAY: 1am - 330am - Grand Prix of Japan (live), 230pm - 5pm (replay)

As is usual, I'll be here with reports on the usual things, culminating with the F1 Update! after the race.  Hope to see you here!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:04 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 425 words, total size 3 kb.

DJ Wonderduck here, and I'm pulling on the racing coveralls tonight.  That's right, this evening we'll be looking at a collection of music relating to Formula 1 and other motorsports!  And boy, this one was NOT easy to put together... mostly because there isn't as much "racing" music out there as you'd like to think.  And a lot of that stuff that's out there isn't very good... but there is some that's worthwhile!  Lights out, let's roll!

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:02 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 446 words, total size 4 kb.

A short while ago, I was speaking to Ph.Duck about the Grand Prix of Singapore.  As is usually the case when I get to talking about Formula 1, my brain (shriveled and vestigial as it may seem at times) actually made an interesting observation, one that I'd never thought of before.

Formula 1 has the weirdest way of calculating distances ever.  No, not the distance on track, that's all in miles or kilometers or hogsheads or bushels or rods or something like that.  No, I mean the distances between races.

Unlike the rest of humanity, F1 seems to measure such things in weeks.  As one would expect, this results in a somewhat skewed view of the world.  For example, from Yas Marina Abu Dhabi to Sao Paolo Brazil is roughly 7200 miles.  The distance between Spa Belgium and Monza Italy is roughly 500 miles.  Yet to F1, they're the exact same distance apart: two weeks.

In fact, most of the racing world is two weeks distant from any other point in F1-land.  There are exceptions to this, of course.  It takes a full four weeks to get from Budapest to Spa, for example.  Oddly, the time it takes to go from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to Shanghai China (one week) is the same as Barcelona to Monte Carlo.

I'm not entirely sure where I was going to go with this incredible realization, but imagine if it took the same amount of time for the rest of humanity to go anywhere.  Going to work?  Better pack a lunch, it'll take you a week to get there.  Heading to the loo?  Two weeks, minimum.  God help you if you go on vacation, it'll be time for you to come home by the time you get there.

Looks like I wasn't going anywhere.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:54 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 301 words, total size 2 kb.

Okay folks, here's the deal.  I want to write about something related to the Pacific War, but I'm currently tapped out of ideas.  The books I've been reading recently (Kaigun, Blossoming Silk Against The Rising Sun, A Glorious Way To Die) have been fascinating, but haven't led to any huge sparks of inspiration.  So I come to you, virtual hat in virtual wing, to find out what YOU want to read about.  Got a hankerin' to find out something about the Anti-Aircraft cruiser in WWII (though I don't know why you would)?  Lemme know!  If I think it'd be a fun topic to write about, I'll do it, even if it isn't about the Pacific War!  Here's your chance to influence the direction of The Pond!  Can I use any more exclamation points!!!!11!!!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:07 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 141 words, total size 1 kb.

Ladies and gentlemen, our long national nightmare is over.  Chiyo-chan once again has a graphics card installed.

Okay, it's from a company with the odd moniker of SPARKLE, and yes, the cooling fan is a lovely shade of purple, but make no mistake, the GT240 is no wimp.  For all intents and purposes, it puts up the same sort of numbers as Nvidia's legendary 9800GT, but it does it while drawing 106w less power... and only requiring a single slot in my case to boot.  Doesn't even need an auxiliary power connection!

Now it's not a new card.  Heck, SPARKLE doesn't even list the GT240 on their products website anymore.  However, for my needs, it's perfect.  Just for a lark, I installed Fallout 3 and fired it up... and OMG, what a difference a few generations make!  If you'll remember, my previous card was a 7600GT, a high-midrange card released in 2006.  The GT240 first came out in 2009, though the version I have was released in 2010.  This thing is quite the upgrade.

If you've played F3, think back to the first view you get of the Capitol Wasteland after you leave Vault 101... y'know, from the scenic overlook point?  THIS view:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:53 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 615 words, total size 4 kb.

1 Congratulations!
I'm running it on a Win 7 partition and can get it to medium which is a vast improvement over my old laptop. The baddies teleporting in was....special. Suddenly a deathclaw appears....out of nowhere.

You will now find that the sniper rifle is an awesome piece of kit.

Posted by: brickmuppet at September 26, 2011 09:24 PM (EJaOX)

2 Yay!

I had a 9800GT for about a month a couple of years back.  Then the cooling fan had a run-in with a stray cable...

Oh, and check the announcements on Billy - you have three Kaiju drops waiting for you.  One for you too Brickmupet.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 27, 2011 01:15 AM (PiXy!)

3 Welcome to the modern era of graphics!

It's kind of nice to be able to fire up a game and say "yes, super ultimate maximum graphics please"...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 27, 2011 04:14 AM (GJQTS)

4

Congrats on the new graphics card, wonderduck!  That's good news, indeed!

Posted by: JT at September 27, 2011 08:23 AM (HO6Is)

5 Well, hot damn!

Not bad, sir. Not bad at all. As "old" "budget" cards go, that one's certainly no slouch; it'd play City of Heroes with some of the Ultra Mode goodies enabled without keeling over, for instance.

Posted by: GreyDuck at September 27, 2011 09:03 PM (7lMXI)

6 GreyDuck do you play City of heroes?  If so, which server?  I don't recall seeing any super-powered ducks in either the air or the ponds, but then I haven't been on patrol much lately...

Posted by: Siergen at September 27, 2011 09:40 PM (NE2Lf)

7 Just wondering, but where did you buy the card, and how much did it cost you?

Posted by: Phil Fraering at October 02, 2011 11:12 PM (qITqt)

8 Phil, I bought it from TigerDirect (find it here), where it runs $99.  A similar GT240 from eVGA runs $98, but has GDDR3.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 03, 2011 09:44 AM (o45Mg)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

It was 92° and humid as the cars formed up on the grid for race start.  Would the heat cool off the red-hot Seb Vettel, who could clinch the World Driver's Championship this race?  Or would the cold-silver McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, lined up next to the polesitter, ruin the party?  Or perhaps the fire-red Ferrari of HWMNBN could start nibbling at Vettel's nigh-on insurmountable lead.  THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2011 Grand Prix of Singapore!

*LIGHTS OUT!:  As the race began, all the usual tropes about the start of F1 races applied.  The Red Bull of Seb Vettel made a good start and immediately began to pull away from the field.  His teammate had another installment of the Mark Webber Lousy Start^© series, giving Lewis Hamilton a chance to get past.  When the Australian defended his position by drifting to his left, he left the door open on the right-hand side for both McLaren's Jenson Button and HWMNBN to streak by into second and third respectively.  While it was a blisteringly exciting beginning to the race, from then on it was all Vettel, all the time. 

*DOMINATION: By the end of the second lap, the lead was already 3.5 seconds over Button.  By the end of Lap 6, it was 8.2 seconds.  By Lap 15, Vettel's lead was nearly 12 seconds over the Briton, and nearly 30 seconds over the Force India of Paul di Resta, who was in third place by virtue of not yet having stopped for tires.  When both Vettel and Button pitted for tires on the same lap and Red Bull's crew got their man out in 3.2 seconds, it was clear that the race was over; the only remaining question was "would Vettel clinch the championship today?"

*AS IT TURNS OUT:  Earlier in the week, we here at F1U! said that is Vettel won and HWMNBN finished off the podium, Vettel would eliminate the Spaniard from contention and thereby clinch the championship.  While the first part of the equation was undoubtedly true, it didn't take into account Jenson Button.  While Vettel opened up a 20-second lead on the McLaren driver at one point, as long as Button finished second, the driver's championship could not be clinched.  Appearing to realize that, Mark Webber began to close up the gap to the McLaren, but at no point managed to get closer than five seconds to the Glare on Wheels.

*ENDING: While the race was surely over by the first turn, that doesn't mean there wasn't some glimmers of hope for those who aren't rooting for Sebastian Newmacher Vettel.  With some ten laps to go, the Red Bully's lead over Jenson Button was roughly ten seconds.  With six laps to go, it was 8.6 seconds and dropping rapidly.  At first we here at F1U! thought that Vettel had just "dialed it back" to conserve fuel or to limit wear on the engine... but then we realized that Button had just ripped off the fast lap of the race.  Then he did it again.  Vettel may have slowed, but the British pilot had the bit in his teeth and was pushing hard.  When he was balked by backmarkers with five laps to go, it looked like the game was up; he lost nearly two seconds in the first sector of the track alone.  Once past the slowboys however, Button again gave it the beans and the gap to the leader continued to drop.  While it seemed awfully unlikely that the McLaren would catch the Red Bull, it sure looked like it was going to occur.  Three laps to go, 3.7 seconds... two laps, two seconds... when Seb Vettel swept across the line, Jenson Button was only 1.7 seconds behind.  That's pretty amazing, considering that Vettel had nearly thirty seconds in-hand at one point in the race.  Mark Webber, who apparently ran the tires off his car in his attempt to catch up to the rocket-powered Button, finished a distant third, nearly thirty seconds adrift of the McLaren.  Ferrari's HWMNBN was fourth, some 25 seconds behind the Australian.  Fifth went to Lewis Hamilton over a minute back of the winner.  Sixth went to Force India's Paul di Resta, who, while 111.067 seconds behind Vettel, was the last man unlapped.

*STANDINGS (AND FALLINGS):  Seb Vettel has eliminated everybody from contention from the Driver's Championship... save for Jenson Button, holding on by the proverbial skin of his teeth.  With five races remaining in the 2011 season, there are a maximum 125 standing points available.  Seb Vettel's lead... is 124 points.  If Button wins every race from here on out, and Vettel finished lower than 10th in every race, Button will win the championship.  If anything else occurs, if the Red Bull driver manages to come in 10th in one of the next five races, the season is over.  So while we can't quite hose down Seb Vettel with champagne yet, the bottles are standing by.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE:  Seb Vettel led from lights to flag today, yet he's not getting the DotR award.  Jenson Button was in second place by the first turn and stayed there the rest of the race, in the process showing his teammate just who's in charge at McLaren... and he's not getting the DotR either.  No, today's Driver of the Race is going to Force India's Paul di Resta, who drove the hell out of his steed and finished a brilliant sixth after losing fifth place to a pissed-off Lewis Hamilton on Lap 55 (of 61).  Good tire strategy, mixed with a shedload of pace and a Button-like ability to protect his tires from excess abuse, kept him on the first screen of the SPEED leaderboard all day long.  The rookie has been impressive all season, but today he did it towards the front of the field and got to show his skills to the world.  DotR material for sure.

*TEAM OF THE RACE:  We here at F1U! so want to give this to Force India.  This was the first time all season both of their cars were in the points (6th and 8th), and as just mentioned, di Resta's drive was helped along by the team's excellent tire strategy.  But we just can't do it.  Red Bull gets it with their 1st-3rd result, a pit crew that's second to none, the perfect chassis, you name it, they got it.  FIndia gets an honorable mention though.

*MOVE OF THE RACE:  On Lap 10, Mark Webber blew the doors off of HWMNBN for third place in a pass that we here at F1U! were sure would be the MotR.  We were wrong, because 24 laps later he again passed the Ferrari driver for third place.  Except this time, it was even more amazing because of how and where he did it.  The field was jumbled by the Safety Car that had just gone in as Lap 34 began.  HWMNBN was just ahead of Webber as they came through Turn 9, but a mess of slower cars were in front of the two as they approached the tricky Turn 10, the "Singapore Sling" left-right-left corner best known for being Gandalf Kobayashi's launching pad both in practice and in Quals.  As they approached the braking zone for the turn, Webber slipped to the inside of the Ferrari and decided that he didn't need to actually brake.

The Spaniard, apparently caught by surprise by Webber's decision to forgo the clampers, made no immediate attempt to make life hard for the Aussie.

As they got to the point of no return, Webber threw out the anchor, dragged his feet, did everything but put the RB7 into reverse, to slow down... and did it all without a puff of tire smoke.  HWMNBN, his jaw bouncing off his lap, could only watch in amazement.

But it would all go to naught if the Red Bull overextended himself into the turn and got too much curb at Gandalf's Launching Pad.  Didn't happen.  Webber looked like he was on rails as he went through the most dangerous point on the track, completing the pass with style and finesse... and earning the MotR in the process.

*MOOOOOO-OOOOVE OF THE RACE:  At the end of the race, we were going to give the Moo to Slappy Schumacher for his use of Sauber driver Sergio Perez' car as a take-off ramp.

No.  Instead, we're giving this to the driver who is rapidly becoming one of the most clumsy in the field: 2008 World Driver's Champion Lewis Hamilton.  In today's incident, he was harrying Felipe Massa for position on Lap 13.  Either because he misjudged where his front wing was, or out of sheer cussedness, Hamilton wound up applying a liberal dose of carbon fiber to the Ferrari's rear tire in a maneuver that was completely unneeded.  He was faster than Massa and could have passed him at nearly any point on the circuit the next lap.

The result?  A punctured right rear for Massa, which disintegrated on his way back to the pits.  This dropped him down to 16th, never to be seen again.

On the other hand, Hamilton lost the entire left-side element of his front wing.  Despite this, he stayed out for another lap in a car with a distinct lean to the right.

He also earned himself a drive-through penalty and some after-race sarcasm from Massa.  He wound up finishing fifth.  Just think what might have happened if he had controlled himself a little better... a podium?  Second?  For ruining both Massa's race and your own, Lewis, here's your Mooooooooo. 

*SELECTED DRIVER'S QUOTES OF THE RACE:
more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:12 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 2026 words, total size 14 kb.

Yes, DJ Wonderduck is back, and I'm cleaning the dust off my turntables to bring you another theme entry!  I was sitting around last evening, pointedly not doing anything of value on a Friday night, when I decided to do a video search for "Live Aid", that amazing series of concerts in 1985.  While I was watching Queen burn down Wembley Stadium, the idea for this post hit me.

Longtime readers know that I used to work in the radio biz.  As near as I can figger, at least two of my readers (Brickmuppet, Greyduck) did so as well.  Well tonight, I pay tribute to the technological marvel that used to be the best way to hear music before you bought it.  Ladies and Gentlemen and Ducks, here's to Radio!  For my younger readers, there was once a time when music flew through the air instead of through cables and wires.  It was a wonderous time, a time of booming voices and catchy jingles, a time of fun and joy.  Now, it's all digital this and iPod that and auto-frickin'-tune and on and on... bah.  Get off my damn lawn.

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 764 words, total size 9 kb.