December 29, 2011
F1 2012 Silly Season (ALMOST) Over!
It's been a while since I paid much attention to goings-on in the Formula 1 world, I know. While I was having lunch with Ph.Duck today, he asked me to give him an update on the news of the Grand Circus... and I couldn't do it! I've really kinda stopped reading up on F1 over the past month. But no more! Let's get caught up on the hithering and yonning of that form of motorsport that we love so much!
The biggest news is that the Silly Season is almost over! 22 of the 24 seats for the 2012 F1 season have been filled. Only two teams still have open seats. Shall we take a look at the driver lineup as we know it?
Unsurprisingly, some teams are running with the same drivers as in 2011. Red Bull (Vettel and Webber), McLaren (Button and Hamilton), Ferrari (HWMNBN and Massa), Mercedes (Slappy and Rosberg), Sauber (Gandalf and Perez) and Caterham-who-was-Lotus (Kovaleinninninnie and Trulli) have made no changes. These choices all make sense. Sauber's pair show promise (and Sergio Perez has enough sponsorship money via Carlos Slim to buy a team to boot), and Caterham-nee-Lotus' drivers are a great combination of intelligence and speed, perfect for a newer team.
Renault, which is now Lotus, not to be confused with Caterham who was Lotus, has brought former F1 World Driver's Champion Mumbles Raikkonen back into the sport. He'll be teamed with young Lettuce Grosjean, who we saw for a half-season in 2009... where he failed to impress. However, the past two years have been kind to the Swiss-born Frenchman. He was Pirelli's prime tire-tester in 2010, and he won the GP2 series championship in 2011.
Force India is bringing back one of their 2011 drivers for the new season. The surprise is that it ISN'T Adrian Sutil. Instead, we'll be seeing another year of the Paul di Resta Experience. He'll be joined by Nico (The Incredible) Hulkenberg, who we last saw sitting on pole at Interlagos in 2010 for Williams. In 2011, he was FIndia's reserve driver, so he'll just step right in.
During the 2011 season, both Toro Rosso drivers (DJ Squire and Seb Buemi) were rumored to be losing their seat at one time or another. It was assumed that only one would be axed to make way for up-and-comer Jean-Eric Vergne. While it's true that Vergne has taken one of the seats, both 2011 drivers got it in the neck. Teaming with Vergne will be Daniel Ricciardo, who we saw with HRT for the back half of 2011, taking over from Narain Kittylitter. To me, this is the biggest surprise so far. Both DJ Squire and Seb Buemi are good enough to drive in F1, and like Hulkenberg last season, both are deserving of a drive. To date, neither have one.
Virgin is changing their name for 2012, becoming Marussia F1... and in case you're wondering, Marussia is Russia's first sports-car manufacturer. Tim O'Glockenspiel will be returning for the 2012 season. He'll be joined by French rookie Charles Pic. Pic finished fourth in GP2 last season, and reportedly looked good in the New Driver's Test at Abu Dhabi... good enough that he was given two full days behind the wheel, instead of the day-and-a-half originally scheduled.
Williams is the first of the teams that still has an opening. Pastor Maldonado, who drove with the team in 2011, has one drive locked up. The seat held by Rubens Barrichello last year is the one that remains open. His contract has expired, and Williams hasn't shown any interest in resigning him. With Adrian Sutil, DJ Squire and Seb Buemi still on the market, they're guaranteed a talented, experienced driver if that's the way they want to go. They could also go for a sponsorship-heavy newbie driver, which might be for the best. There were reports of funding shortages last season for Williams, a sad state of affairs for such a legendary F1 marque.
Finally, HRT has the other free seat. In the offseason, they signed Pedro de la Rosa (aka "Pete Rose"), who will be 41 as the season starts, to be their lead driver. To be blunt, this is probably the greatest off-season move of any team... including the return of Mumbles Raikkonen. Pete Rose, who we last saw in a one-off appearance for Sauber at Canada in 2011 (filling in for the severely concussed Sergio Perez), has a reputation for being the World's Greatest Test Driver, having filled that position for McLaren for most of the past decade. He's also had a few half-seasons as a full-time driver, most recently in 2010 with Sauber. He'll be a great fit with HRT, who needs an experienced, skillful wheelman if they're going to catch up to Caterham and become a "real team." Their second seat will almost certainly go to the driver with the biggest wallet.
Two seats, many many drivers: it's like a multi-million dollar game of Musical Chairs!
The biggest news is that the Silly Season is almost over! 22 of the 24 seats for the 2012 F1 season have been filled. Only two teams still have open seats. Shall we take a look at the driver lineup as we know it?
Unsurprisingly, some teams are running with the same drivers as in 2011. Red Bull (Vettel and Webber), McLaren (Button and Hamilton), Ferrari (HWMNBN and Massa), Mercedes (Slappy and Rosberg), Sauber (Gandalf and Perez) and Caterham-who-was-Lotus (Kovaleinninninnie and Trulli) have made no changes. These choices all make sense. Sauber's pair show promise (and Sergio Perez has enough sponsorship money via Carlos Slim to buy a team to boot), and Caterham-nee-Lotus' drivers are a great combination of intelligence and speed, perfect for a newer team.
Renault, which is now Lotus, not to be confused with Caterham who was Lotus, has brought former F1 World Driver's Champion Mumbles Raikkonen back into the sport. He'll be teamed with young Lettuce Grosjean, who we saw for a half-season in 2009... where he failed to impress. However, the past two years have been kind to the Swiss-born Frenchman. He was Pirelli's prime tire-tester in 2010, and he won the GP2 series championship in 2011.
Force India is bringing back one of their 2011 drivers for the new season. The surprise is that it ISN'T Adrian Sutil. Instead, we'll be seeing another year of the Paul di Resta Experience. He'll be joined by Nico (The Incredible) Hulkenberg, who we last saw sitting on pole at Interlagos in 2010 for Williams. In 2011, he was FIndia's reserve driver, so he'll just step right in.
During the 2011 season, both Toro Rosso drivers (DJ Squire and Seb Buemi) were rumored to be losing their seat at one time or another. It was assumed that only one would be axed to make way for up-and-comer Jean-Eric Vergne. While it's true that Vergne has taken one of the seats, both 2011 drivers got it in the neck. Teaming with Vergne will be Daniel Ricciardo, who we saw with HRT for the back half of 2011, taking over from Narain Kittylitter. To me, this is the biggest surprise so far. Both DJ Squire and Seb Buemi are good enough to drive in F1, and like Hulkenberg last season, both are deserving of a drive. To date, neither have one.
Virgin is changing their name for 2012, becoming Marussia F1... and in case you're wondering, Marussia is Russia's first sports-car manufacturer. Tim O'Glockenspiel will be returning for the 2012 season. He'll be joined by French rookie Charles Pic. Pic finished fourth in GP2 last season, and reportedly looked good in the New Driver's Test at Abu Dhabi... good enough that he was given two full days behind the wheel, instead of the day-and-a-half originally scheduled.
Williams is the first of the teams that still has an opening. Pastor Maldonado, who drove with the team in 2011, has one drive locked up. The seat held by Rubens Barrichello last year is the one that remains open. His contract has expired, and Williams hasn't shown any interest in resigning him. With Adrian Sutil, DJ Squire and Seb Buemi still on the market, they're guaranteed a talented, experienced driver if that's the way they want to go. They could also go for a sponsorship-heavy newbie driver, which might be for the best. There were reports of funding shortages last season for Williams, a sad state of affairs for such a legendary F1 marque.
Finally, HRT has the other free seat. In the offseason, they signed Pedro de la Rosa (aka "Pete Rose"), who will be 41 as the season starts, to be their lead driver. To be blunt, this is probably the greatest off-season move of any team... including the return of Mumbles Raikkonen. Pete Rose, who we last saw in a one-off appearance for Sauber at Canada in 2011 (filling in for the severely concussed Sergio Perez), has a reputation for being the World's Greatest Test Driver, having filled that position for McLaren for most of the past decade. He's also had a few half-seasons as a full-time driver, most recently in 2010 with Sauber. He'll be a great fit with HRT, who needs an experienced, skillful wheelman if they're going to catch up to Caterham and become a "real team." Their second seat will almost certainly go to the driver with the biggest wallet.
Two seats, many many drivers: it's like a multi-million dollar game of Musical Chairs!
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November 29, 2011
F1 News Flash: ...And Mumbles Makes Six!
Big news from Renault today as it was announced that they had signed former World Drivers Champion Kimi ("Mumbles") Raikkonen for the 2012 season. His return from self-imposed semi-exile means we'll have a record SIX different Drivers Champions on the grid next year as he joins Seb Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Slappy Schumacher and HWMNBN.
We last saw Mumbles driving for Ferrari in 2009, after which he left the sport to become another in a long line of Finnish rally drivers. He then drove a limited schedule in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (driving the #15 Perky Jerky Toyota Tundra) and one race in the Nationwide Series, the Triple-A league of NASCAR.
Raikkonen is probably best known for being the sole Ferrari driver I could actually stand, even when he won his Championship in 2007. Unfortunately, his signing comes hard on the heels of the announcement that Robert Kubica, injured in a rallycar accident before the 2011 F1 season began, will not be ready to drive for the beginning of 2012. That probably means that he's out of F1 permanently, I'm afraid, as Renault really wanted him back.
It seems likely that both of Renault's 2011 drivers, Bruno Senna and The Red Menace, will be kicked to the curb, with Lettuce Grosjean taking the second seat. The Red Menace does come with a metric farkton of sponsorship money, however, so that's not for sure yet.
In his introductory press conference today, Raikkonen said "Rmbmbmbmbmbbmmbm mrnmrbmmrmmbbmbr mrrrbrmmrbml."
We last saw Mumbles driving for Ferrari in 2009, after which he left the sport to become another in a long line of Finnish rally drivers. He then drove a limited schedule in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (driving the #15 Perky Jerky Toyota Tundra) and one race in the Nationwide Series, the Triple-A league of NASCAR.
Raikkonen is probably best known for being the sole Ferrari driver I could actually stand, even when he won his Championship in 2007. Unfortunately, his signing comes hard on the heels of the announcement that Robert Kubica, injured in a rallycar accident before the 2011 F1 season began, will not be ready to drive for the beginning of 2012. That probably means that he's out of F1 permanently, I'm afraid, as Renault really wanted him back.
It seems likely that both of Renault's 2011 drivers, Bruno Senna and The Red Menace, will be kicked to the curb, with Lettuce Grosjean taking the second seat. The Red Menace does come with a metric farkton of sponsorship money, however, so that's not for sure yet.
In his introductory press conference today, Raikkonen said "Rmbmbmbmbmbbmmbm mrnmrbmmrmmbbmbr mrrrbrmmrbml."
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November 26, 2011
F1 Quals: Brazil 2011
The year was 1991. Operation Desert Storm liberated Kuwait from the Iraqi military. The New York Giants beat the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia. Red Grange passed away. Mount Pinatubo erupted, killing 800. The first Sonic the Hedgehog game was released by Sega. The Warsaw Pact came to an end. Danny Thomas passed away. Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested. The Super Nintendo was released. Linus Torvalds first reveals the Linux kernel on Usenet. Rajiv Ghandi was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers. The Minnesota Twins defeat the Atlanta Braves to win the World Series. The Halloween Blizzard catches a Grad School student named Wonderduck by surprise. The Soviet Union officially dissolved. Freddy Mercury, Dr Seuss and Gene Roddenberry all pass away. And a 21 year old Brazilian named Rubens Barrichello starts his first Formula 1 race. In 1992, the very next season, Nigel Mansell set a record earning 14 pole positions in that season. Today, Rubens Barrichello may be qualifying for his final Formula 1 race, and Seb Vettel has a chance to break Mansell's record. But did he? Let's look at the provisional grid for the 2011 Grand Prix of Brazil:
It wasn't even close. Not only was Seb Vettel the only driver to break 1:12.000, his 1:11.918 time was only a half-second off the Interlagos course record. That time was set in 2004, when the cars had unrestricted V10 engines and could have all manner of bargeboards and winglets to increase downforce. Further, a tirewar was in progress between Michelin and Bridgestone, thus providing wildly grippy (though grooved) tires. So yes, Seb Vettel blew the field away with a lap that looked like he was on rails. Everybody else, even his teammate Mark Webber, seemed to be having problems with grip, sawing at the steering wheel to correct and recorrect their paths through turns. On the other hand, Vettel's pole lap looked like he was just on a casual drive through the country. Amazing, simply amazing. We've seen something here today we may never see again, unless Vettel happens to the 2012 season as well.
As far as the race tomorrow goes, there's a high expectation of rain during the race. If that happens, it's a crapshoot as to who'll win. No way I'd bet against Vettel though, no matter the weather conditions.
I hope he appreciates what's going on. The race is Sunday, see ya then!
It wasn't even close. Not only was Seb Vettel the only driver to break 1:12.000, his 1:11.918 time was only a half-second off the Interlagos course record. That time was set in 2004, when the cars had unrestricted V10 engines and could have all manner of bargeboards and winglets to increase downforce. Further, a tirewar was in progress between Michelin and Bridgestone, thus providing wildly grippy (though grooved) tires. So yes, Seb Vettel blew the field away with a lap that looked like he was on rails. Everybody else, even his teammate Mark Webber, seemed to be having problems with grip, sawing at the steering wheel to correct and recorrect their paths through turns. On the other hand, Vettel's pole lap looked like he was just on a casual drive through the country. Amazing, simply amazing. We've seen something here today we may never see again, unless Vettel happens to the 2012 season as well.
As far as the race tomorrow goes, there's a high expectation of rain during the race. If that happens, it's a crapshoot as to who'll win. No way I'd bet against Vettel though, no matter the weather conditions.
I hope he appreciates what's going on. The race is Sunday, see ya then!
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November 21, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: Brazil 2011
After 18 races across 17 countries, the F1 Circus pitches their tents for one last time for the final race of the season. This time, we find ourselves in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, racing on the track formally known as Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, but more commonly known as Interlagos. Let's take a look at the track map:
It's no secret that I dislike the circuit at Hungary, nearly to the exclusion of all others. The one track I despise more than the Hungaroring is paradoxically one of the more popular races amongst the F1 drivers... this one. To be honest, my dislike of this circuit has nothing to do with the track itself. Indeed, this is the sort of layout I would quite like normally. A lot of elevation change (the run from Turn 1 to the end of Turn 3 is all downhill, and from Turn 12 aka Juncao to Turn 15 is all uphill), fast sweeping turns, a "technical" section that is relatively inoffensive... it's a challenging track, and one that's really quite appealing.
Except I hate it. It's completely irrational for me to dislike Interlagos, but there's an emotional aspect involved. As I've mentioned in the past, it always feels gray on race day (even when it isn't). The racing line for Turn 15 goes right through the pit-in, and with the positioning of F1's cameras at Turn 1, looking all the way down the front straight, it always looks like cars are going to crash into the pit lane barriers at 170mph. The pit out is the longest in F1, too. Furthermore, the track is positioned between two man-made reservoirs that provide water to São Paulo, leading to the name "interlagos," literally "between lakes." The pressure of the water has caused the surface of the track to wrinkle, leading to a very bumpy surface. A resurfacing in 2007 did not entirely solve the problem. All of these things make this a track I really don't like.
The fact that it's the final race of the season might have something to do with it, too.
Still, this is what we've got this week and it's not a Tilkedrome, that's gotta count for something. Pirelli is bringing a new soft tire compound to the race, one that they say is less conservative than the previous rubber. The medium compound will be the "hard" tire this time around. Interlagos isn't a particularly hard track on the tires, so expect the softs to last for a while... unless Pirelli has put the razor blades back into the compound like they did back at the beginning of the season.
Whatever way it works out, the good people at SPEED! will be bringing us the Legendary Announce Team all weekend long! Let's take a look at the broadcast schedule, shall we?
Friday:
6a - 730a: Practice 1, streaming
10a - 1140a: Practice 2, LIVE
Saturday:
7a - 8a: Practice 3, streaming
10a - 1130a: Quals, plausibly live
Sunday:
930a - 12noon: 2011 Grand Prix of Brazil, LIVE. There's also a replay from 11a-130p on Monday.
And then that's it until January, when we'll start to see F1 Pr0n with the rollouts of the 2012 cars. Of course, F1U! will be all over this weekend, with a desperation born of the end of the year. It helps that the whole weekend is at times where I can actually watch it live! We'll see you then!
It's no secret that I dislike the circuit at Hungary, nearly to the exclusion of all others. The one track I despise more than the Hungaroring is paradoxically one of the more popular races amongst the F1 drivers... this one. To be honest, my dislike of this circuit has nothing to do with the track itself. Indeed, this is the sort of layout I would quite like normally. A lot of elevation change (the run from Turn 1 to the end of Turn 3 is all downhill, and from Turn 12 aka Juncao to Turn 15 is all uphill), fast sweeping turns, a "technical" section that is relatively inoffensive... it's a challenging track, and one that's really quite appealing.
Except I hate it. It's completely irrational for me to dislike Interlagos, but there's an emotional aspect involved. As I've mentioned in the past, it always feels gray on race day (even when it isn't). The racing line for Turn 15 goes right through the pit-in, and with the positioning of F1's cameras at Turn 1, looking all the way down the front straight, it always looks like cars are going to crash into the pit lane barriers at 170mph. The pit out is the longest in F1, too. Furthermore, the track is positioned between two man-made reservoirs that provide water to São Paulo, leading to the name "interlagos," literally "between lakes." The pressure of the water has caused the surface of the track to wrinkle, leading to a very bumpy surface. A resurfacing in 2007 did not entirely solve the problem. All of these things make this a track I really don't like.
The fact that it's the final race of the season might have something to do with it, too.
Still, this is what we've got this week and it's not a Tilkedrome, that's gotta count for something. Pirelli is bringing a new soft tire compound to the race, one that they say is less conservative than the previous rubber. The medium compound will be the "hard" tire this time around. Interlagos isn't a particularly hard track on the tires, so expect the softs to last for a while... unless Pirelli has put the razor blades back into the compound like they did back at the beginning of the season.
Whatever way it works out, the good people at SPEED! will be bringing us the Legendary Announce Team all weekend long! Let's take a look at the broadcast schedule, shall we?
Friday:
6a - 730a: Practice 1, streaming
10a - 1140a: Practice 2, LIVE
Saturday:
7a - 8a: Practice 3, streaming
10a - 1130a: Quals, plausibly live
Sunday:
930a - 12noon: 2011 Grand Prix of Brazil, LIVE. There's also a replay from 11a-130p on Monday.
And then that's it until January, when we'll start to see F1 Pr0n with the rollouts of the 2012 cars. Of course, F1U! will be all over this weekend, with a desperation born of the end of the year. It helps that the whole weekend is at times where I can actually watch it live! We'll see you then!
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November 12, 2011
F1 Quals: Abu Dhabi 2011
Now THAT'S how you do a qualifying session. Let's get right to it; here's the provisional grid for the 2011 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi:
Pole #14 on the season for Seb Vettel, tying the record held by Nigel Mansell. That's impressive enough, but how he did it today was the real story. To be blunt, this should have been Lewis Hamilton's pole. He had been fastest in two of the three practice sessions and in the first two quals periods. When Jenson Button crossed the line on his final hot lap in Q3, Hamilton was just a few seconds behind him on the track. It came as no surprise when Button's pole time fell to Lewis, though the .009 second time differential did cause some raised eyebrows and amazed chuckles here at Pond Central. And then the cameras cut to Seb Vettel.
Red Bull had gotten him out last for the final run to pole, and he had clear track in front of him. While he'd been quick in Q1 and Q2, it wasn't the normal Red Bull Dominating Performance®... you never got the feeling that he had something in reserve. It seemed like Vettel had been getting the most out of his car could give today, and for whatever reason it just wasn't as good as the McLarens.
But then Vettel began his final hot lap. The first two sectors were good, but nothing that would put him on pole. Third, maybe. In the previous two races at the Yas Marina Circuit the Red Bull chassis always stood head and shoulders above everybody else in the final sector, but not this year. The McLarens had been trading purple numbers between themselves for Sector 3 all weekend. Everything pointed to Vettel having no chance to be on pole. And then Vettel was perfect. That's the only way to describe that final sector... the perfect line, catching just the right amount of curb, putting just the right amount of pressure on the brakes and gas pedals, the absolute minimum of steering input used, gears changed at exactly the right moment. When he entered Sector 3, he was nearly .2 of a second behind Hamilton's pace. When he exited, he had pole by .141 seconds. Truly astonishing, and after seeing it I wondered how he didn't have 18 poles this season. However, and this is an important note, his pole lap was still slower than Hamilton's fastest lap in Q2. The McLaren and the Red Bull cars are, for all intents and purposes, equal. It should come down to the best driver between Hamilton, Vettel and Button for the race... and I'm not sure that doesn't mean Jenson Button won't win. We'll find out on Sunday!
You'll note that Rubens Barrichello did not turn a timed lap in Q1. He had an oil leak in his Cosworth engine, his seventh of the season's allotment of eight. The team wants him to have a fresh engine for Brazil, so to protect the seventh engine they decided not to put any extra avoidable stress on it. This decision brings up an interesting statistical note. Barrichello has made 330 starts in his F1 career, far and away the most in F1 history... and tomorrow will be the worst starting position he has ever had, either 23rd or 24th, depending on if he is placed ahead of, or behind, his teammate Vicar Maldonado who has a 10-spot grid penalty. Rubens has driven for some truly, epically bad teams: Honda, Jordan, Stewart. In some of those years, there were 28 cars on the grid. He's never been this low at the start ever.
In any case, we might just have ourselves something of a race tomorrow. F1U! will be all over it, see you then!
Pole #14 on the season for Seb Vettel, tying the record held by Nigel Mansell. That's impressive enough, but how he did it today was the real story. To be blunt, this should have been Lewis Hamilton's pole. He had been fastest in two of the three practice sessions and in the first two quals periods. When Jenson Button crossed the line on his final hot lap in Q3, Hamilton was just a few seconds behind him on the track. It came as no surprise when Button's pole time fell to Lewis, though the .009 second time differential did cause some raised eyebrows and amazed chuckles here at Pond Central. And then the cameras cut to Seb Vettel.
Red Bull had gotten him out last for the final run to pole, and he had clear track in front of him. While he'd been quick in Q1 and Q2, it wasn't the normal Red Bull Dominating Performance®... you never got the feeling that he had something in reserve. It seemed like Vettel had been getting the most out of his car could give today, and for whatever reason it just wasn't as good as the McLarens.
But then Vettel began his final hot lap. The first two sectors were good, but nothing that would put him on pole. Third, maybe. In the previous two races at the Yas Marina Circuit the Red Bull chassis always stood head and shoulders above everybody else in the final sector, but not this year. The McLarens had been trading purple numbers between themselves for Sector 3 all weekend. Everything pointed to Vettel having no chance to be on pole. And then Vettel was perfect. That's the only way to describe that final sector... the perfect line, catching just the right amount of curb, putting just the right amount of pressure on the brakes and gas pedals, the absolute minimum of steering input used, gears changed at exactly the right moment. When he entered Sector 3, he was nearly .2 of a second behind Hamilton's pace. When he exited, he had pole by .141 seconds. Truly astonishing, and after seeing it I wondered how he didn't have 18 poles this season. However, and this is an important note, his pole lap was still slower than Hamilton's fastest lap in Q2. The McLaren and the Red Bull cars are, for all intents and purposes, equal. It should come down to the best driver between Hamilton, Vettel and Button for the race... and I'm not sure that doesn't mean Jenson Button won't win. We'll find out on Sunday!
You'll note that Rubens Barrichello did not turn a timed lap in Q1. He had an oil leak in his Cosworth engine, his seventh of the season's allotment of eight. The team wants him to have a fresh engine for Brazil, so to protect the seventh engine they decided not to put any extra avoidable stress on it. This decision brings up an interesting statistical note. Barrichello has made 330 starts in his F1 career, far and away the most in F1 history... and tomorrow will be the worst starting position he has ever had, either 23rd or 24th, depending on if he is placed ahead of, or behind, his teammate Vicar Maldonado who has a 10-spot grid penalty. Rubens has driven for some truly, epically bad teams: Honda, Jordan, Stewart. In some of those years, there were 28 cars on the grid. He's never been this low at the start ever.
In any case, we might just have ourselves something of a race tomorrow. F1U! will be all over it, see you then!
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November 11, 2011
F1 Practice: Abu Dhabi 2011
A sunny early evening at Abu Dhabi greeted the F1 Circus as they took to the circuit for Friday's second practice, and it appears that something unexpected has occurred. The combination of Pirelli tires and a race run in both day and night may not be the most awesome thing ever. Everything was fine and dandy while the sun was up and the track was warm... but when night fell and the asphalt began to cool, the Pirellis just sort of surrendered any vestige of grip they may have had.
First, Mark Webber looped his Red Bull underneath the hotel. Then his teammate, the reigning Driver's Champion Seb Vettel, lost it heading into Turn 1, sliding all the way across the vast expanse of runoff area until he gorked his car into the SAFER-like barriers. He was unhurt, but the right side of the Red Bull was toast. About ten minutes after this, HWMNBN came racing down towards Turn 1 and not only did he lose it just like Vettel, he wound up planting his Ferrari into virtually the same place as the Red Bull. In the Spaniard's case, he wound up going into the barriers backwards, causing untold amounts of damage to the hazard flasher. Throw in Felipe Massa nearly reaching the barrier in P1 and Lewis Hamilton nearly having an exciting moment in P2, and you start to notice a trend here.
Other than that little bit of data, the other interesting thing that crawled out of the Abu Dhabian desert is that neither Red Bull was particularly fast around the track today. Jenson Button lead the way in P1, Hamilton in P2... with the two Red Bullies ending up 5th and 6th. I've always said you can't trust practice times, and I'll stand by that statement, but you don't usually see a Red Bull a full half-second behind the leader in any session for any reason. I'll keep an eye on this, but for some reason I'm still expecting to see Sebby on pole after Q3 comes to an end on Saturday.
Meanwhile, we learned that Sauber's Pastor Maldonado is going to take a 10-spot grid penalty for Sunday's race. He's had to use a ninth engine on the season when you only get eight. Vaya con dios, Sauber and kiss that seventh place in the Constructor's Championship goodbye as Toro Rosso is looking awfully decent so far.
I mentioned earlier that the difference between 5th and 8th place in the Constructor's Championship is measured in the tens of millions of dollars. Oddly enough, the Legendary Announce Team was talking about that very topic today. While the actual numbers are shrouded in mystery and skullduggery, whispers suggest that last year, Red Bull was awarded some $85 million for winning the Constructor's Championship... and Williams' sixth place earned them a $60 million check from Darth Bernie's bank account. Some $660 million was paid out to all the teams in 2010. Understand this: $60 million would be enough to fund some TEN high-ranking NASCAR teams for an entire year. Yeah, there's some money floating around F1.
Quals in the morning, see ya then!
First, Mark Webber looped his Red Bull underneath the hotel. Then his teammate, the reigning Driver's Champion Seb Vettel, lost it heading into Turn 1, sliding all the way across the vast expanse of runoff area until he gorked his car into the SAFER-like barriers. He was unhurt, but the right side of the Red Bull was toast. About ten minutes after this, HWMNBN came racing down towards Turn 1 and not only did he lose it just like Vettel, he wound up planting his Ferrari into virtually the same place as the Red Bull. In the Spaniard's case, he wound up going into the barriers backwards, causing untold amounts of damage to the hazard flasher. Throw in Felipe Massa nearly reaching the barrier in P1 and Lewis Hamilton nearly having an exciting moment in P2, and you start to notice a trend here.
Other than that little bit of data, the other interesting thing that crawled out of the Abu Dhabian desert is that neither Red Bull was particularly fast around the track today. Jenson Button lead the way in P1, Hamilton in P2... with the two Red Bullies ending up 5th and 6th. I've always said you can't trust practice times, and I'll stand by that statement, but you don't usually see a Red Bull a full half-second behind the leader in any session for any reason. I'll keep an eye on this, but for some reason I'm still expecting to see Sebby on pole after Q3 comes to an end on Saturday.
Meanwhile, we learned that Sauber's Pastor Maldonado is going to take a 10-spot grid penalty for Sunday's race. He's had to use a ninth engine on the season when you only get eight. Vaya con dios, Sauber and kiss that seventh place in the Constructor's Championship goodbye as Toro Rosso is looking awfully decent so far.
I mentioned earlier that the difference between 5th and 8th place in the Constructor's Championship is measured in the tens of millions of dollars. Oddly enough, the Legendary Announce Team was talking about that very topic today. While the actual numbers are shrouded in mystery and skullduggery, whispers suggest that last year, Red Bull was awarded some $85 million for winning the Constructor's Championship... and Williams' sixth place earned them a $60 million check from Darth Bernie's bank account. Some $660 million was paid out to all the teams in 2010. Understand this: $60 million would be enough to fund some TEN high-ranking NASCAR teams for an entire year. Yeah, there's some money floating around F1.
Quals in the morning, see ya then!
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November 08, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: Abu Dhabi 2011
The Driver's Championship is sewn up. First, second and third in the Constructor's Championship are locked in, and fourth may as well be. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the exciting backdrop for this year's Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi! Let's take a look at the track map:
We've had two previous Grands Prix here, and to be honest neither of them were all that great. Oh sure, watching HWMNBN get stuck behind The Red Menace for the entire race when he needed to get past to have a chance at winning the Driver's Championship was... satisfying... but not exciting. But that was the past; with today's KERS/DRS combination, there will undoubtedly be some passing. It's just hard to get excited about this race, all things considered.
It IS desperately important Sauber, Toro Rosso, Force India and Renault, however. These teams are all racing to finish fifth in the Constructor's Championship, and all four have a decent chance for the "best of the rest" prize. Renault has the lead with 72 points, followed by Force India's 51. Sauber and Toro Rosso are tied on points with 41, but Sauber leads the Red Bull junior team by dint of better finishes. The difference between finishing fifth and eighth is measured in the tens of millions of dollars when Darth Bernie writes the checks at the end of the year, and you'd best believe all four teams would kill for that cash. Indeed, it could literally be the difference between life and death for a team like Sauber, the last of the privateers. We'll keep an eye on that during the race, for sure!
As will the good folks at SPEED, who are bringing us their usual great coverage for the race weekend! Here's when it all goes down:
Friday: 3a - 430a P1 (streaming), 7a - 840a P2 (live)
Saturday: 4a - 5a P3 (streaming), 7a - 830a Quals (live)
Sunday: 630a - 9a Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi (live), 2p - 430p race replay
F1U! will be all over it, too! It's the penultimate race of the season; as dull as the backstories may be, it's still F1, and the season is nearly over... gotta enjoy it while it lasts!
See you then!
We've had two previous Grands Prix here, and to be honest neither of them were all that great. Oh sure, watching HWMNBN get stuck behind The Red Menace for the entire race when he needed to get past to have a chance at winning the Driver's Championship was... satisfying... but not exciting. But that was the past; with today's KERS/DRS combination, there will undoubtedly be some passing. It's just hard to get excited about this race, all things considered.
It IS desperately important Sauber, Toro Rosso, Force India and Renault, however. These teams are all racing to finish fifth in the Constructor's Championship, and all four have a decent chance for the "best of the rest" prize. Renault has the lead with 72 points, followed by Force India's 51. Sauber and Toro Rosso are tied on points with 41, but Sauber leads the Red Bull junior team by dint of better finishes. The difference between finishing fifth and eighth is measured in the tens of millions of dollars when Darth Bernie writes the checks at the end of the year, and you'd best believe all four teams would kill for that cash. Indeed, it could literally be the difference between life and death for a team like Sauber, the last of the privateers. We'll keep an eye on that during the race, for sure!
As will the good folks at SPEED, who are bringing us their usual great coverage for the race weekend! Here's when it all goes down:
Friday: 3a - 430a P1 (streaming), 7a - 840a P2 (live)
Saturday: 4a - 5a P3 (streaming), 7a - 830a Quals (live)
Sunday: 630a - 9a Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi (live), 2p - 430p race replay
F1U! will be all over it, too! It's the penultimate race of the season; as dull as the backstories may be, it's still F1, and the season is nearly over... gotta enjoy it while it lasts!
See you then!
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October 29, 2011
F1 Quals: India 2011
It's always a point of pride to be the first ever to score a pole at a new track, but it's not like that's the only thing up for grabs here. Red Bull could set a single-season record with a pole, and Seb Vettel could continue his chase to tie a record. And, of course, everybody else would like to prevent that from happening. So how did it shake out? Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2011 Grand Prix of India:
Well, it was hardly unexpected. As he has all season, Seb Vettel blew away the field to earn his 13th pole position. In doing so, Red Bull won their 16th of the year, a new single-season record. Surprisingly, there was no drama to Q3 at all. Vettel went out, set a lap that was good enough for pole and let everybody else take their shots. When McLaren's Lewis Hamilton came close to bumping him on the first run, Vettel returned to the track. In the middle of his second run, Felipe Massa brought out the yellow flags when his suspension broke going over a curb.
This rather abrupt loss of grip sent him nose-first into a wall in a style reminiscent of his 2009 Hungary wreck. Fortunately there were no springs flying around this time, and the Brazilian got out of the car unscathed. Behind him, however, were all the drivers who had any possibility of beating Vettel's time: Jenson Button, HWMNBN and Mark Webber. While Button was having difficulties some difficulties with his tires, he had a decent looking lap going. All three were badly hurt by the yellow flags, which required them to slow down in the vicinity of Massa's wreck. Lewis Hamilton, who was ahead of Massa on the track, aborted his second run for pole when it became clear that he wasn't even going to match his first flying lap. So instead of a tense shootout, it became a fait accompli. Nico Rosberg's Mercedes never really had a chance, and the two Toro Rossos never even left the garage. The Force India of Adrian Sutil turned an installation lap to the delight of the Indian fans, but returned to the garage to preserve his tires for the race.
At the back of the grid, we have an official changing of the guard. For the first time ever, both HRTs qualified ahead of both Virgins. It's been coming for a while now, but it's now obvious that the Virgin F1 team is now the slowest on the grid. Tim O'Glockenspiel barely turned a timed lap before his gearbox decided to grenade itself. He will be allowed to start dead last.
Finally, there are FIVE separate drivers dealing with grid spot penalties. Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez both lose three spots for their ignoring yellow flags at the end of P1, sending Hamilton to fifth and Perez to 20th on the grid. The Red Menace got a five-spot penalty for causing an accident (with Slappy Schumacher) in Korea, dropping him to 16th. Finally, both HRT drivers received penalties as well: Kittylitter for impeding another driver, which drops him to 23rd; and Daniel Ricciardo gets a five-spotter for having to change a gearbox before Quals. He'll start 22nd.
So, that's the news from the first Indian quals! The race is in the morning, and F1U! will duly follow. See you then!
Well, it was hardly unexpected. As he has all season, Seb Vettel blew away the field to earn his 13th pole position. In doing so, Red Bull won their 16th of the year, a new single-season record. Surprisingly, there was no drama to Q3 at all. Vettel went out, set a lap that was good enough for pole and let everybody else take their shots. When McLaren's Lewis Hamilton came close to bumping him on the first run, Vettel returned to the track. In the middle of his second run, Felipe Massa brought out the yellow flags when his suspension broke going over a curb.
This rather abrupt loss of grip sent him nose-first into a wall in a style reminiscent of his 2009 Hungary wreck. Fortunately there were no springs flying around this time, and the Brazilian got out of the car unscathed. Behind him, however, were all the drivers who had any possibility of beating Vettel's time: Jenson Button, HWMNBN and Mark Webber. While Button was having difficulties some difficulties with his tires, he had a decent looking lap going. All three were badly hurt by the yellow flags, which required them to slow down in the vicinity of Massa's wreck. Lewis Hamilton, who was ahead of Massa on the track, aborted his second run for pole when it became clear that he wasn't even going to match his first flying lap. So instead of a tense shootout, it became a fait accompli. Nico Rosberg's Mercedes never really had a chance, and the two Toro Rossos never even left the garage. The Force India of Adrian Sutil turned an installation lap to the delight of the Indian fans, but returned to the garage to preserve his tires for the race.
At the back of the grid, we have an official changing of the guard. For the first time ever, both HRTs qualified ahead of both Virgins. It's been coming for a while now, but it's now obvious that the Virgin F1 team is now the slowest on the grid. Tim O'Glockenspiel barely turned a timed lap before his gearbox decided to grenade itself. He will be allowed to start dead last.
Finally, there are FIVE separate drivers dealing with grid spot penalties. Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez both lose three spots for their ignoring yellow flags at the end of P1, sending Hamilton to fifth and Perez to 20th on the grid. The Red Menace got a five-spot penalty for causing an accident (with Slappy Schumacher) in Korea, dropping him to 16th. Finally, both HRT drivers received penalties as well: Kittylitter for impeding another driver, which drops him to 23rd; and Daniel Ricciardo gets a five-spotter for having to change a gearbox before Quals. He'll start 22nd.
So, that's the news from the first Indian quals! The race is in the morning, and F1U! will duly follow. See you then!
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F1 Quals: India report delayed
Don't have time to post the report right now. I'll do it sometime this afternoon. Sorry about the delay!
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October 28, 2011
F1 Practice: India P2
Another 90 minutes of running on the new Buddh International Circuit is in the books, and the character of the track is starting to show up, at least to this observer. If I had to describe the place, it's Abu Dhabi with hills. This is not a good thing.
To be sure, the two layouts couldn't be more different. Yes, they both have a very long straightaway, but other than that, the two tracks have little in common. Yet they feel the same to me. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong. But that's how I'm seeing it right now.
The drivers, on the other hand, love the place. "Awesome," "fantastic," "good fun," "really nice," "challenging," and "interesting" are just some of the words drivers have used to describe the place. Well, good, I'm glad they like it. Hopefully it makes for awesome, fantastic, interesting and really nice racing come Sunday!
Of course, the drivers are still deciding on how best to drive the course. Turn 10 has gone from having to two racing lines to one, though it's a wide line. Nobody seems to have a handle on the correct way to handle the Turn 6/7 pair; the grass on the inside of 7 is getting seriously rough treatment, and a lot of it is ending up on the racing surface, having been dragged there by cars returning to the track. And both ends of the pit lane are a little squirrely, though nowhere near as bad as Korea.
On the plus side, I'm loving Turn 1/2/3. It's like Hermann Tilke finally figured out how to make a series of turns flow together naturally. Of course, they feed right into that 4000' long rollercoaster of a straightaway, which is now the longest in F1, if not the world.
In off-track news, both Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez have been handed matching three grid-spot penalties for the race. At the end of P1, Pastor Maldonado turned his engine into so much scrap metal, bringing out a full-course yellow and a recovery vehicle to carry his car away. Of course, track workers doing their job "over the wall" calls for double-yellow flags to be waved in that section of track. Drivers are to slow way down in that situation for the protection of the workers, and the stewards believe neither Hamilton or Perez did that sufficiently. For Hamilton, this is actually good because he could have been given a reprimand, his third for the season. Three reprimands in a season carries a FIVE grid-spot penalty. If both Perez and Hamilton were given reprimands, Perez would have escaped clean and Hamilton penalized. I think at that point Lewis would have climbed the nearest clock tower and start gunning down anybody wearing the FIA logo.
F1 Update!'s decision to use the designation "soft" and "hard" tires during our race writeups may go against the more traditional "prime" and "option" terms, but at least for this race it's going to prove to be less confusing! Generally, the designated option tire is the softer of the two compounds, but at the Indian Grand Prix, the option tire has been declared to be the harder tire. The prime tire is the soft. So, hurray for us, I suppose.
Finally, everybody please join F1U! in wishing Darth Bernie Ecclestone a happy 81st birthday, born October 28th 1930.
Quals Saturday morning, see you then!
To be sure, the two layouts couldn't be more different. Yes, they both have a very long straightaway, but other than that, the two tracks have little in common. Yet they feel the same to me. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong. But that's how I'm seeing it right now.
The drivers, on the other hand, love the place. "Awesome," "fantastic," "good fun," "really nice," "challenging," and "interesting" are just some of the words drivers have used to describe the place. Well, good, I'm glad they like it. Hopefully it makes for awesome, fantastic, interesting and really nice racing come Sunday!
Of course, the drivers are still deciding on how best to drive the course. Turn 10 has gone from having to two racing lines to one, though it's a wide line. Nobody seems to have a handle on the correct way to handle the Turn 6/7 pair; the grass on the inside of 7 is getting seriously rough treatment, and a lot of it is ending up on the racing surface, having been dragged there by cars returning to the track. And both ends of the pit lane are a little squirrely, though nowhere near as bad as Korea.
On the plus side, I'm loving Turn 1/2/3. It's like Hermann Tilke finally figured out how to make a series of turns flow together naturally. Of course, they feed right into that 4000' long rollercoaster of a straightaway, which is now the longest in F1, if not the world.
In off-track news, both Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez have been handed matching three grid-spot penalties for the race. At the end of P1, Pastor Maldonado turned his engine into so much scrap metal, bringing out a full-course yellow and a recovery vehicle to carry his car away. Of course, track workers doing their job "over the wall" calls for double-yellow flags to be waved in that section of track. Drivers are to slow way down in that situation for the protection of the workers, and the stewards believe neither Hamilton or Perez did that sufficiently. For Hamilton, this is actually good because he could have been given a reprimand, his third for the season. Three reprimands in a season carries a FIVE grid-spot penalty. If both Perez and Hamilton were given reprimands, Perez would have escaped clean and Hamilton penalized. I think at that point Lewis would have climbed the nearest clock tower and start gunning down anybody wearing the FIA logo.
F1 Update!'s decision to use the designation "soft" and "hard" tires during our race writeups may go against the more traditional "prime" and "option" terms, but at least for this race it's going to prove to be less confusing! Generally, the designated option tire is the softer of the two compounds, but at the Indian Grand Prix, the option tire has been declared to be the harder tire. The prime tire is the soft. So, hurray for us, I suppose.
Finally, everybody please join F1U! in wishing Darth Bernie Ecclestone a happy 81st birthday, born October 28th 1930.
Quals Saturday morning, see you then!
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October 27, 2011
F1 Practice: India P1 Liveblog
(PRE-SESSION) Hello, namaste and welcome to the second ever F1-related liveblog here at The Pond. Tonight is our first real glimpse of the new Buddh International Circuit in India. As with last year's liveblog of the debut of Korea's track, I'll be using time remaining in the session as a reference... if you see 1:15:07, that means there's one hour, fifteen minutes and seven seconds left in P1, not that it's 1:15am.
My broadband connection seems to be running quick tonight, but if last year's liveblog of Korea is any judge, I have the speed to stream video or update the blog... but not both at any given time. I'll probably be doing two or three entries at a time, just to keep myself from going insane. Any pictures will be screencaps from the SPEED streaming feed, which you can find right here.
Reports are that the track is very dusty. Well, yeah, that figures... it's still a construction site. Some people on-site are saying that not every bathroom has running water, electricity is being provided by generators when it's provided at all, and on and on. That's as may be, but the asphalt is down, the curbing is installed, and we're going to see a new track! I fully expect to see the two Indian drivers, Cowboy Karun Chandhok, who's only driving for Lotus in P1, and Narain Kittylitter, who's taking Vitantonio Liuzzi's seat at HRT for this race, out first... both to play streetsweeper and to say "hey, the first official cars on track were piloted by Indians!" We'll find out soon enough.
1:30:00 - And... the stream isn't working? What the heck?
?:??:?? - Well, crap. I'm going to reboot my computer. I gather the session has been red-flagged anyway, due to stray dogs being on the track. Force India was the first to get on track, surprise surprise, and Chandhok got the first official timed lap.
?:??:?? - I'm not the only one; over at F1 Fanatic's Live coverage, there's a bunch of people having the same problem.
?:??:?? - Peter "Smarmy" Windsor (there's a name we haven't heard in a while!) is apparently working for SPEED again in some capacity. He just tweeted that the live feed isn't working quite yet. Yay us.
?:??:?? - Still nothing, after a half-hour. I'm shutting this down for the night. I'll have full coverage of P2 on Friday. See you then!
40:24 - It's up, and this is the first thing to appear:
Cool shot, that.
37:27 - The track is either very dusty, or there's a metric farkton of smog in the air. It's hideous!
35:45 - HWMNBN comes to a halt at the side of the road, dead engine.
33:30 - Yo dawg, I hear you like F1, so I put some F1 in your F1 so you can watch F1 while you F1!
29:15 - Track is very dusty and slippery. Lots of people going off all over the place.
26:54 - My heavens, that big Turn 10 just goes on and on and on, doesn't it? That's gonna kill more front-left tires than anything, right there.
24:50 - Facilities look complete. Place seems a lot more done than Korea did last year... or even this year, come to think of it.
23:18 - Just to give you an idea of the amount of smog/dust/fog/whatever in the air, take a look at this:
One winces at the thought of that getting pulled into an 18000rpm engine... and it was worse earlier.
17:00 - I like the circuit, but it doesn't seem to have much of an identity yet. Maybe because I'm grumpy about the live stream not starting until half the session was already done? Perhaps. Or maybe it's because this is the first time we've ever seen cars on it. Still, other than that big big turn, the place seems flavorless.
12:00 - A Lotus just spun out... in the pit lane. Practicing a getaway, just looped it. Whoopsie!
10:40 - I'll say this: lots of elevation change. I'm surprised we haven't seen a driver ralphing into his cockpit yet. Up and down, up and down, here's a turn, up and down, rinse, repeat.
8:50 - DJ Squire stuffs his Toro Rosso into a wall.
Dust? What dust?
6:00 - And Pastor Maldonado blows his lump. NTTAWWT.
3:00 - Definitely two racing lines through Turn 10. When was the last time we saw that at a F1 track? Indy? Maybe not even there.
0:00 - Session over. Lewis Hamilton has the fastest time (1:26.836), followed by Vettel, Webber and Button. I'm withholding judgment on the circuit until I actually see people race on it, and maybe after the F1 TV Director stops popping the greenies. Good lord, he was changing camera angles every other second, like he was paid by the cut or something. I'm inclined to like the track, though. Seems promising, but so did Valencia and we know how that one has panned out. Very wide racecourse, I noticed. Some places, you could probably go four abreast and still have plenty of room.
Full coverage of P2 will be later Friday! Thanks for sticking around for this abbreviated liveblog!
My broadband connection seems to be running quick tonight, but if last year's liveblog of Korea is any judge, I have the speed to stream video or update the blog... but not both at any given time. I'll probably be doing two or three entries at a time, just to keep myself from going insane. Any pictures will be screencaps from the SPEED streaming feed, which you can find right here.
Reports are that the track is very dusty. Well, yeah, that figures... it's still a construction site. Some people on-site are saying that not every bathroom has running water, electricity is being provided by generators when it's provided at all, and on and on. That's as may be, but the asphalt is down, the curbing is installed, and we're going to see a new track! I fully expect to see the two Indian drivers, Cowboy Karun Chandhok, who's only driving for Lotus in P1, and Narain Kittylitter, who's taking Vitantonio Liuzzi's seat at HRT for this race, out first... both to play streetsweeper and to say "hey, the first official cars on track were piloted by Indians!" We'll find out soon enough.
1:30:00 - And... the stream isn't working? What the heck?
?:??:?? - Well, crap. I'm going to reboot my computer. I gather the session has been red-flagged anyway, due to stray dogs being on the track. Force India was the first to get on track, surprise surprise, and Chandhok got the first official timed lap.
?:??:?? - I'm not the only one; over at F1 Fanatic's Live coverage, there's a bunch of people having the same problem.
?:??:?? - Peter "Smarmy" Windsor (there's a name we haven't heard in a while!) is apparently working for SPEED again in some capacity. He just tweeted that the live feed isn't working quite yet. Yay us.
?:??:?? - Still nothing, after a half-hour. I'm shutting this down for the night. I'll have full coverage of P2 on Friday. See you then!
40:24 - It's up, and this is the first thing to appear:
Cool shot, that.
37:27 - The track is either very dusty, or there's a metric farkton of smog in the air. It's hideous!
35:45 - HWMNBN comes to a halt at the side of the road, dead engine.
33:30 - Yo dawg, I hear you like F1, so I put some F1 in your F1 so you can watch F1 while you F1!
29:15 - Track is very dusty and slippery. Lots of people going off all over the place.
26:54 - My heavens, that big Turn 10 just goes on and on and on, doesn't it? That's gonna kill more front-left tires than anything, right there.
24:50 - Facilities look complete. Place seems a lot more done than Korea did last year... or even this year, come to think of it.
23:18 - Just to give you an idea of the amount of smog/dust/fog/whatever in the air, take a look at this:
One winces at the thought of that getting pulled into an 18000rpm engine... and it was worse earlier.
17:00 - I like the circuit, but it doesn't seem to have much of an identity yet. Maybe because I'm grumpy about the live stream not starting until half the session was already done? Perhaps. Or maybe it's because this is the first time we've ever seen cars on it. Still, other than that big big turn, the place seems flavorless.
12:00 - A Lotus just spun out... in the pit lane. Practicing a getaway, just looped it. Whoopsie!
10:40 - I'll say this: lots of elevation change. I'm surprised we haven't seen a driver ralphing into his cockpit yet. Up and down, up and down, here's a turn, up and down, rinse, repeat.
8:50 - DJ Squire stuffs his Toro Rosso into a wall.
Dust? What dust?
6:00 - And Pastor Maldonado blows his lump. NTTAWWT.
3:00 - Definitely two racing lines through Turn 10. When was the last time we saw that at a F1 track? Indy? Maybe not even there.
0:00 - Session over. Lewis Hamilton has the fastest time (1:26.836), followed by Vettel, Webber and Button. I'm withholding judgment on the circuit until I actually see people race on it, and maybe after the F1 TV Director stops popping the greenies. Good lord, he was changing camera angles every other second, like he was paid by the cut or something. I'm inclined to like the track, though. Seems promising, but so did Valencia and we know how that one has panned out. Very wide racecourse, I noticed. Some places, you could probably go four abreast and still have plenty of room.
Full coverage of P2 will be later Friday! Thanks for sticking around for this abbreviated liveblog!
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October 25, 2011
From Zero To Two In Two Years!
It was a struggle. For five years, us F1 fans here in America had no races that we could call our own. Oh, we could wander up to Canada, but it wasn't a US Grand Prix. It was just a race that was nearby. Last year, that changed with the announcement of the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas, which begins next year.
It's to be a clockwise track, with a nearly 300' vertical elevation change to add to the excitement. Even better, it's a street circuit running along the New Jersey Palisades. The following elevation map is a screencap from today's announcement, so my apologies for the quality. The checkered flag is the probable start/finish line.
According to the track map, it's to be around 3.20 miles long. The cities and various powers-that-be that are involved have signed a ten-year agreement with Birdie Ecclestone. Let me say repeat that one more time: A TEN YEAR AGREEMENT! Holy crap, we've got at least one US Grand Prix for the next decade at the very least! This could only be better if it was in Chicago!
One thing... you might have noticed the yellow circle at the upper-right corner of the top-view track map. That circle marks the rough location of the West New York Sewerage Treatment Plant. I hereby declare that hairpin turn shall be, from this moment forward, solely known as "Pooh Corner."
So say we all.
Wonderduck's personal reaction: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Austin, TX track plan
Well, today... today we suddenly have have a wealth of choices as American F1 fans, because this afternoon in Weehawken, NJ, it was announced that a second American GP would begin running in 2013! Called "The Grand Prix of America," it will run through Weehawken and West New York on four-lane highway... with the New York skyline in the background, just across the Hudson river from Manhattan. It's to be a clockwise track, with a nearly 300' vertical elevation change to add to the excitement. Even better, it's a street circuit running along the New Jersey Palisades. The following elevation map is a screencap from today's announcement, so my apologies for the quality. The checkered flag is the probable start/finish line.
According to the track map, it's to be around 3.20 miles long. The cities and various powers-that-be that are involved have signed a ten-year agreement with Birdie Ecclestone. Let me say repeat that one more time: A TEN YEAR AGREEMENT! Holy crap, we've got at least one US Grand Prix for the next decade at the very least! This could only be better if it was in Chicago!
One thing... you might have noticed the yellow circle at the upper-right corner of the top-view track map. That circle marks the rough location of the West New York Sewerage Treatment Plant. I hereby declare that hairpin turn shall be, from this moment forward, solely known as "Pooh Corner."
So say we all.
Wonderduck's personal reaction: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
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October 24, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: India 2011
Do you remember that feeling you got as a young child when Christmas was just a few days away? When the tree was beautifully trimmed, all aglow with lights and shiny ornaments and perhaps some tinsel? And underneath you can see a big box with your name on it. Remember what that felt like? The anticipation, the excitement, the almost intolerable feeling of anticipation? And then when Christmas came along sometimes you got exactly what you wanted (Red Ryder B-B gun!), sometimes you didn't (dress socks?), but either way the leadup was nearly as good as the day itself. Remember all that?
For fans of Formula 1, there is a similar time. It's when the great Circus heads to a brand new circuit, one that the teams have never turned a tire upon ever. It's a time of great hope and speculation: will this new track become legendary? Will it fade into the mists of time, unloved and unmourned? This is where we find ourselves today, as the Formula 1 teams, big and small alike, will be racing for the first time on the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India! Let's take a look at the track map for this first Grand Prix of India:
At first glance, it's clearly the work of the fevered claws of The Evil One himself, Hermann Tilke. Straightaway, tight turn, hairpin, straightaway, tight turn, twisty bits, back to the start to do it all over again. We've seen it a dozen times before from the Tilkemonster, and pretty much only one of his circuits (Turkey) has proven to be any good, with Korea's coin still flipping in the air.
But a closer look at Buddh International Circuit shows us that it has something that Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and the other generic Tilkeisms lack: elevation change. It goes uphill from Turn 1 to Turn 3, then it goes back downhill to the halfway point of the long straightaway. At that point, it goes back uphill to Turn 4... and then it's a fairly steep plummet down to Turn 5. Turns 3 and 4 are about 50 feet above the level of the main straight, more or less, which on a Tilke track is like the difference between the top and bottom of the Grand Canyon. But he's not done there, oh no. The Turn 10/11 complex, a greater-than-180°, ever-changing-radius loop, not only climbs but is also banked. No idea how substantial the banking is, though I think I'm safe in saying it's no more than 10 degrees, and probably quite a bit less. Still, any banking is unfamiliar territory for F1; not since the Circus raced at Indianapolis have they seen any turn that wasn't billiard-table flat. But even then, the roller coaster isn't finished. There's yet another climb from Turn 13 to Turn 15, then another steep dive to the final turn.
The track's promotional team is already saying that it'll be the "second-fastest circuit in the world," with an expected average speed of nearly 140mph. I can only assume they're referring to "road" circuits, since pretty much every oval in the US is faster than that. If it really is nearly as fast as Monza, that'll be quite a feat. Another feature that the powers-that-be are trumpeting is that the trackplan was run by the F1 teams for their input on what would make for better racing. As a result, it was made wider in some places (Turn 10, for example) to allow multiple racing lines and easier passing.
Pirelli says that they expect tire wear to be nothing out of the ordinary, but they're being quite conservative in compound choice for the race. They're bringing the Hard and Soft compounds, the first time we've seen the hard rubber since the British Grand Prix, and at that rainy race only one driver (Paul di Resta) ever actually put them on. There's expected to be a two-second delta between the two tire types, so don't expect there to be much running on the hards. Still, Pirelli made a good call here; while everybody expects the soft tires to last a reasonable amount of laps, they won't know that until they start running in earnest.
That earnest running will begin late Thursday night, all of which will be brought to us by the good folks at SPEED! Here's the scoop:
Thursday: Practice 1 goes from 1130pm to 1am, streaming live. Be aware that I'll be doing the second-ever liveblog of this session right here at The Pond, so stop in and be entertained!
Friday: 330am to 510am is Practice 2, live on SPEED. In contrast, this is too late/early, even for me.
Saturday: 1230am to 130am is Practice 3, streaming live. I'm undecided if I'm going to liveblog this; a lot will depend on how things go in the other two sessions. Quals is from 330am to 5am, live on SPEED. Again, waaaay too early for me.
Finally, Sunday brings us the first ever Grand Prix of India from 4am to 630am, live on SPEED. No real chance that I'll be able to get up that early I'm afraid. There's a replay from 2pm to 430pm as well.
Sharp-eyed readers might notice that there's something odd going on with the start times of each event: they're all beginning on the half-hour, as opposed to the top of the hour like normal. That's because of a peculiarity of India. India Standard Time is GMT +5:30, for a reason that I can only assume is because of the immense size of the country. Perhaps Ph.Duck would be kind enough to explain the actual reason to us!
So that's it! The Grand Prix of Christmas India schedule, liveblogging, I'm even taking Friday and Monday off so I can concentrate on this brand new track (and sleep, don't forget about sleep)! How's that for your F1 fanservice, huh? We'll see you then!
For fans of Formula 1, there is a similar time. It's when the great Circus heads to a brand new circuit, one that the teams have never turned a tire upon ever. It's a time of great hope and speculation: will this new track become legendary? Will it fade into the mists of time, unloved and unmourned? This is where we find ourselves today, as the Formula 1 teams, big and small alike, will be racing for the first time on the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India! Let's take a look at the track map for this first Grand Prix of India:
At first glance, it's clearly the work of the fevered claws of The Evil One himself, Hermann Tilke. Straightaway, tight turn, hairpin, straightaway, tight turn, twisty bits, back to the start to do it all over again. We've seen it a dozen times before from the Tilkemonster, and pretty much only one of his circuits (Turkey) has proven to be any good, with Korea's coin still flipping in the air.
But a closer look at Buddh International Circuit shows us that it has something that Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and the other generic Tilkeisms lack: elevation change. It goes uphill from Turn 1 to Turn 3, then it goes back downhill to the halfway point of the long straightaway. At that point, it goes back uphill to Turn 4... and then it's a fairly steep plummet down to Turn 5. Turns 3 and 4 are about 50 feet above the level of the main straight, more or less, which on a Tilke track is like the difference between the top and bottom of the Grand Canyon. But he's not done there, oh no. The Turn 10/11 complex, a greater-than-180°, ever-changing-radius loop, not only climbs but is also banked. No idea how substantial the banking is, though I think I'm safe in saying it's no more than 10 degrees, and probably quite a bit less. Still, any banking is unfamiliar territory for F1; not since the Circus raced at Indianapolis have they seen any turn that wasn't billiard-table flat. But even then, the roller coaster isn't finished. There's yet another climb from Turn 13 to Turn 15, then another steep dive to the final turn.
The track's promotional team is already saying that it'll be the "second-fastest circuit in the world," with an expected average speed of nearly 140mph. I can only assume they're referring to "road" circuits, since pretty much every oval in the US is faster than that. If it really is nearly as fast as Monza, that'll be quite a feat. Another feature that the powers-that-be are trumpeting is that the trackplan was run by the F1 teams for their input on what would make for better racing. As a result, it was made wider in some places (Turn 10, for example) to allow multiple racing lines and easier passing.
Pirelli says that they expect tire wear to be nothing out of the ordinary, but they're being quite conservative in compound choice for the race. They're bringing the Hard and Soft compounds, the first time we've seen the hard rubber since the British Grand Prix, and at that rainy race only one driver (Paul di Resta) ever actually put them on. There's expected to be a two-second delta between the two tire types, so don't expect there to be much running on the hards. Still, Pirelli made a good call here; while everybody expects the soft tires to last a reasonable amount of laps, they won't know that until they start running in earnest.
That earnest running will begin late Thursday night, all of which will be brought to us by the good folks at SPEED! Here's the scoop:
Thursday: Practice 1 goes from 1130pm to 1am, streaming live. Be aware that I'll be doing the second-ever liveblog of this session right here at The Pond, so stop in and be entertained!
Friday: 330am to 510am is Practice 2, live on SPEED. In contrast, this is too late/early, even for me.
Saturday: 1230am to 130am is Practice 3, streaming live. I'm undecided if I'm going to liveblog this; a lot will depend on how things go in the other two sessions. Quals is from 330am to 5am, live on SPEED. Again, waaaay too early for me.
Finally, Sunday brings us the first ever Grand Prix of India from 4am to 630am, live on SPEED. No real chance that I'll be able to get up that early I'm afraid. There's a replay from 2pm to 430pm as well.
Sharp-eyed readers might notice that there's something odd going on with the start times of each event: they're all beginning on the half-hour, as opposed to the top of the hour like normal. That's because of a peculiarity of India. India Standard Time is GMT +5:30, for a reason that I can only assume is because of the immense size of the country. Perhaps Ph.Duck would be kind enough to explain the actual reason to us!
So that's it! The Grand Prix of Christmas India schedule, liveblogging, I'm even taking Friday and Monday off so I can concentrate on this brand new track (and sleep, don't forget about sleep)! How's that for your F1 fanservice, huh? We'll see you then!
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October 20, 2011
F1 From The Driver's Perspective
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.
Until now.
This is Lucas di Grassi doing an installation lap in the old Toyota TF109 at Barcalounger, Spain. He lost his seat with Virgin at the end of last year, but he's now the official test driver for Pirelli... and he probably turns more laps than any two or three drivers combined nowadays. He's the guy who tests all of Pirelli's rubber compounds, after all. Modify the softs to make them a little more durable? Let Lucas find out if it worked! Introducing a new super-super-soft? Let Lucas find out if it'll last more than a quarter-lap! Figured out a new tread pattern for the Intermediates? Give Lucas a raincoat and let him drive! Except for the whole "threat of instant flaming death" thing, it's nearly the perfect job he's got.
Recently, he strapped on two cameras; one to the top of his helmet, the other right at eye level. The top of helmet-cam is nothing we've not seen before... heck, if you've ever played a racing videogame, you know what it looks like. But the eye-level cam is new. And, if you talk to di Grassi, it's not one that'll catch on, since it actually blocked his vision out of one eye. That's right, he drove the lap using just one eye.
No wonder he lost out at Virgin. But a cool viddy nonetheless!
Recently, he strapped on two cameras; one to the top of his helmet, the other right at eye level. The top of helmet-cam is nothing we've not seen before... heck, if you've ever played a racing videogame, you know what it looks like. But the eye-level cam is new. And, if you talk to di Grassi, it's not one that'll catch on, since it actually blocked his vision out of one eye. That's right, he drove the lap using just one eye.
No wonder he lost out at Virgin. But a cool viddy nonetheless!
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October 16, 2011
Dan Wheldon Killed
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.
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.
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October 15, 2011
F1 Quals: Korea 2011
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:
The streak is over! For the first time this season, someone other than a Red Bull driver will be on pole on Sunday. Of course Seb Vettel was more subdued than his normal smiling self; one would expect that under the circumstances. Jenson Button had his normal smile in place, looking full pleased with the grid slot he held. You'd expect Lewis Hamilton to be nigh on vibrating in place from joy and excitement, but to be honest, he looked more like Felipe Massa had just run over his dog... twice. It was so obvious that the english-language interviewer asked him about it. Hamilton's reply was a flat, nearly monotone "No, I'm happy. I'm really happy." One gets the feeling that Lewis can't wait for the season to be over.
The two Force India drivers elected to conserve their tires in Q3. While it was probably the correct move strategically (it's not like they really stood to gain more than one position, after all), it's still kind of sad. Farther down the grid, HRT's Daniel Ricciardo had a suspected water pump problem and never took to the track in Q1. He'll race only at the grace of the stewards, and it's anybodies guess whether they'll allow it.
I find that I'm less happy about the Red Bull pole run coming to an end than I expected. I've been wanting someone to do it all season, but now that it's over, I'm a little disappointed. It would have been cool to see Red Bull get all the poles in a season, something that's never happened before (the closest: McLaren took 15 of 16 in 1988 and 1989, and Williams did the same in 1992 and 1993).
For all the drama about the streak coming to an end, all in all this wasn't the most exciting Quals session ever. But that's okay too, because as both Hamilton and Vettel said, "It's what happens during the race that counts." I have this feeling that neither of them will win, and that Button will take his second race in a row. Some drivers are saying that the race will require five pit stops per car, which seems impossible. I guess we'll find out on Sunday! Stay tuned, this one might be a doozy.
The streak is over! For the first time this season, someone other than a Red Bull driver will be on pole on Sunday. Of course Seb Vettel was more subdued than his normal smiling self; one would expect that under the circumstances. Jenson Button had his normal smile in place, looking full pleased with the grid slot he held. You'd expect Lewis Hamilton to be nigh on vibrating in place from joy and excitement, but to be honest, he looked more like Felipe Massa had just run over his dog... twice. It was so obvious that the english-language interviewer asked him about it. Hamilton's reply was a flat, nearly monotone "No, I'm happy. I'm really happy." One gets the feeling that Lewis can't wait for the season to be over.
The two Force India drivers elected to conserve their tires in Q3. While it was probably the correct move strategically (it's not like they really stood to gain more than one position, after all), it's still kind of sad. Farther down the grid, HRT's Daniel Ricciardo had a suspected water pump problem and never took to the track in Q1. He'll race only at the grace of the stewards, and it's anybodies guess whether they'll allow it.
I find that I'm less happy about the Red Bull pole run coming to an end than I expected. I've been wanting someone to do it all season, but now that it's over, I'm a little disappointed. It would have been cool to see Red Bull get all the poles in a season, something that's never happened before (the closest: McLaren took 15 of 16 in 1988 and 1989, and Williams did the same in 1992 and 1993).
For all the drama about the streak coming to an end, all in all this wasn't the most exciting Quals session ever. But that's okay too, because as both Hamilton and Vettel said, "It's what happens during the race that counts." I have this feeling that neither of them will win, and that Button will take his second race in a row. Some drivers are saying that the race will require five pit stops per car, which seems impossible. I guess we'll find out on Sunday! Stay tuned, this one might be a doozy.
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October 13, 2011
Sights From A Korean Practice (2011) (UPDATED)
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.
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.
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October 10, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: Korea 2011
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.
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.
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October 08, 2011
F1 Quals: Japan 2011
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:
.009 of a second. That's the total difference between a potential clean sweep of the season's poles for Red Bull... and a pole for someone else for the first time this year. Seb Vettel just barely pipped McLaren's Jenson Button for first place, but could have lost it at the last moment. Fortunately for him, Lewis Hamilton either messed up the sector (most likely) or was balked by both Slappy Schumacher and Mark Webber (Hamilton's story in the post-quals interview), meaning that he didn't get across the start/finish line in time to take a last shot at pole. As this is being written (130am Saturday morning, just moments after the Quals session went off the air) there is nothing being said regarding penalties as of yet.
A nice moment in Japan was Gandalf Kobayashi pulling down the fastest time in Q1 to the delighted roars of his home crowd. He then managed to get through to Q3 for only the second time this season. When the lights went green for Q3, Kobayashi's Sauber went out on track... alone. For at least half a lap, his was the only car on track. The Legendary Announce Team called it a "parade lap" for the Japanese fans, and I'm sure that's right since he turned into the pits and parked it without setting a time. He had burned his soft tires already, so it's not like he could have done much else, but a nice gesture by the rest of the field to let him out alone... even if it was just the other teams waiting for the perfect time to get their guys out. Particularly when Sauber rolled out their newest modifications for this race:
They may be under-funded, but they're still revolutionary as heck at the team from Switzerland.
In other news from Quals, Nico Rosberg's string of making it into Q3 at every race this year has come to an end, thanks to a hydraulic problem. He set no time in Q1, meaning that at least in theory he could be excluded from the race. That won't happen, but it could. Vitantonio Liuzzi's HRT had mechanical issues as well that didn't allow him to set a time. It's a little more likely that he'll be excluded, but still pretty much a long shot.
More if events warrant! The race is at 1am Sunday morning, Pond Central time, so your guess is as good as mine as to when the F1U! will be up. Sunday for sure. See you then!
.009 of a second. That's the total difference between a potential clean sweep of the season's poles for Red Bull... and a pole for someone else for the first time this year. Seb Vettel just barely pipped McLaren's Jenson Button for first place, but could have lost it at the last moment. Fortunately for him, Lewis Hamilton either messed up the sector (most likely) or was balked by both Slappy Schumacher and Mark Webber (Hamilton's story in the post-quals interview), meaning that he didn't get across the start/finish line in time to take a last shot at pole. As this is being written (130am Saturday morning, just moments after the Quals session went off the air) there is nothing being said regarding penalties as of yet.
A nice moment in Japan was Gandalf Kobayashi pulling down the fastest time in Q1 to the delighted roars of his home crowd. He then managed to get through to Q3 for only the second time this season. When the lights went green for Q3, Kobayashi's Sauber went out on track... alone. For at least half a lap, his was the only car on track. The Legendary Announce Team called it a "parade lap" for the Japanese fans, and I'm sure that's right since he turned into the pits and parked it without setting a time. He had burned his soft tires already, so it's not like he could have done much else, but a nice gesture by the rest of the field to let him out alone... even if it was just the other teams waiting for the perfect time to get their guys out. Particularly when Sauber rolled out their newest modifications for this race:
They may be under-funded, but they're still revolutionary as heck at the team from Switzerland.
In other news from Quals, Nico Rosberg's string of making it into Q3 at every race this year has come to an end, thanks to a hydraulic problem. He set no time in Q1, meaning that at least in theory he could be excluded from the race. That won't happen, but it could. Vitantonio Liuzzi's HRT had mechanical issues as well that didn't allow him to set a time. It's a little more likely that he'll be excluded, but still pretty much a long shot.
More if events warrant! The race is at 1am Sunday morning, Pond Central time, so your guess is as good as mine as to when the F1U! will be up. Sunday for sure. See you then!
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October 03, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: Japan 2011
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!
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!
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