March 16, 2013
F1 Quals: Australia 2013... RAINED OUT!
When the time came to start Q1 for the Australian Grand Prix... they postponed it for a half-hour due to wind, rain and general miserableness. From what the New Legendary Announce Team said, just after the V8S support race ended, the skies opened up with a fury not often seen in these here parts. Rain came down in buckets, the wind tore branches from trees and umbrellas from hands, and very quickly the track became undrivable. It took frantic action from the track marshals, the broom brigade, some random birds, and a brief cessation of rain for the session to start at all.
Once the 20 minute Q1 did begin, some began to wonder if it should have, as it took only a single lap for cars to begin leaving chunks of themselves scattered around the circuit. Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, both Caterhams, Mark Webber, Sergio Perez, Esteban Gutierrez, Paul di Resta, and Papabile Maldonado all had exciting rides. Webber, Perez, di Resta and Maldonado DIDN'T damage visibly their cars, though only through luck. Eventually the session came to an end, with the following being knocked out: Charles ToothPic, Geido van der Garde, Max Chilton, Jules Bianchi, Esteban Gutierrez, Papabile Maldonado. ToothPic is 22nd, Maldonado 17th.
Unfortunately, in the stretch between Q1 and Q2, the heavens opened up again. Scheduled to begin at 6pm local time, Q2 wound up being delayed by 10 minute intervals to 650pm. At that point, with heavy rain still falling, the radar screen a lurid shade of green for 500 miles, the sun setting at 738pm local and two Qual sessions left to run that would equal 25 minutes on their own, the decision was made to postpone until 11am Sunday morning local (Saturday night, 7pm Pond Central Time). At that point, the action will resume with Q2. Alas, we won't be getting coverage of it here on NBCSN, but I'll report the results when they become available.
On a historical note, this is only the third time Quals has been postponed in 10 years... and the other two occurred in Japan due to various typhoons. No Great Australian Boat Races, though. Pity, that.
When the time came to start Q1 for the Australian Grand Prix... they postponed it for a half-hour due to wind, rain and general miserableness. From what the New Legendary Announce Team said, just after the V8S support race ended, the skies opened up with a fury not often seen in these here parts. Rain came down in buckets, the wind tore branches from trees and umbrellas from hands, and very quickly the track became undrivable. It took frantic action from the track marshals, the broom brigade, some random birds, and a brief cessation of rain for the session to start at all.
Once the 20 minute Q1 did begin, some began to wonder if it should have, as it took only a single lap for cars to begin leaving chunks of themselves scattered around the circuit. Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, both Caterhams, Mark Webber, Sergio Perez, Esteban Gutierrez, Paul di Resta, and Papabile Maldonado all had exciting rides. Webber, Perez, di Resta and Maldonado DIDN'T damage visibly their cars, though only through luck. Eventually the session came to an end, with the following being knocked out: Charles ToothPic, Geido van der Garde, Max Chilton, Jules Bianchi, Esteban Gutierrez, Papabile Maldonado. ToothPic is 22nd, Maldonado 17th.
Unfortunately, in the stretch between Q1 and Q2, the heavens opened up again. Scheduled to begin at 6pm local time, Q2 wound up being delayed by 10 minute intervals to 650pm. At that point, with heavy rain still falling, the radar screen a lurid shade of green for 500 miles, the sun setting at 738pm local and two Qual sessions left to run that would equal 25 minutes on their own, the decision was made to postpone until 11am Sunday morning local (Saturday night, 7pm Pond Central Time). At that point, the action will resume with Q2. Alas, we won't be getting coverage of it here on NBCSN, but I'll report the results when they become available.
On a historical note, this is only the third time Quals has been postponed in 10 years... and the other two occurred in Japan due to various typhoons. No Great Australian Boat Races, though. Pity, that.
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March 15, 2013
F1 Practice: Australia 2013
A vaguely gray day greeted the sparse crowd at Melbourne's Albert Park circuit, but nobody cared. Nobody cared because the red light of the offseason had been replaced by a green light, a light that signified that the 2013 Formula 1 season had finally begun.
Then every car in the pitlane came out, ran for the entire length of P1 and P2, and left us as fans exhausted and wanting more. That was the theory. In practice, Practice 1 was roughly half over before we saw our first flying lap. The first 45 minutes saw the teams bring their cars out for an installation lap, making sure that every bolt was tight, every hose connected, every fluid topped off and so forth, then bringing them back in to check everything all over again. Then, and only then, did anybody even think about going back out for head-to-head white knuckled racing action. Or another install lap, take your pick. Seriously. I mean, I expected it; they DID just ship their cars halfway around the world AND this is the first race of the season, of course they're gonna work to make everything exactly right. But still, the people in the stands weren't even getting red-hot pitstop action. What they got was a lot of nothing. AND YOU'LL LIKE IT!
Once the session really began, and all the way through Practice 2, it became perfectly clear that while some things had changed, like McLaren seeming dreadfully slow, some things hadn't: Red Bull and Seb Vettel remained on top of the timesheets. In dominating fashion, it might be pointed out, nearly a half-second ahead of their nearest rival in P2, Nico Rosberg.
Even that little bit of news had a dark lining, as Mercedes' newest driver, Lewis Hamilton, speared into the barriers with five minutes to go in P2, reporting that "something's wrong with the car." Right after that, the Mercedes pit wall told Rosberg that he had a gearbox problem and he needed to pull over and shut it down. That's somewhat ominous, what when both Mercs fail to finish the session like that...
Even more ominous could be the performance of the two McLarens. Jenson Button could only manage 11th on the day, and Sergio Perez a humbling 13th. Handling seemed to be an issue for the glares with wheels, as they tended to porpoise and tremble into corners. Steve Matchett was suggesting that the suspension was too stiff, and he may very well be right... or maybe it's something not so easily fixed?
The boys at Maranello must be ecstatic with Ferrari's 6th and 8th finishes, particularly considering last year's debacle in Australia when they were closer to the back of the grid than the front. If so, Team Lotus are probably calling their doctors after four hours, for they finished P2 4th and 5th.
But of course, this is only practice. You can never judge the true worth of a car from practice, just because every team is operating differently. For all we know, McLaren could have been running under a heavy fuel load all day, and once the weight burns off they'll handle better. Red Bull could have been running minimum fuel (note: they weren't). Maybe Mercedes accidentally used French Onion instead of Ranch in their gearbox. We just don't know.
Except... we kinda do, don't we? We'll find out for sure Saturday at Quals! See ya then!
Then every car in the pitlane came out, ran for the entire length of P1 and P2, and left us as fans exhausted and wanting more. That was the theory. In practice, Practice 1 was roughly half over before we saw our first flying lap. The first 45 minutes saw the teams bring their cars out for an installation lap, making sure that every bolt was tight, every hose connected, every fluid topped off and so forth, then bringing them back in to check everything all over again. Then, and only then, did anybody even think about going back out for head-to-head white knuckled racing action. Or another install lap, take your pick. Seriously. I mean, I expected it; they DID just ship their cars halfway around the world AND this is the first race of the season, of course they're gonna work to make everything exactly right. But still, the people in the stands weren't even getting red-hot pitstop action. What they got was a lot of nothing. AND YOU'LL LIKE IT!
Once the session really began, and all the way through Practice 2, it became perfectly clear that while some things had changed, like McLaren seeming dreadfully slow, some things hadn't: Red Bull and Seb Vettel remained on top of the timesheets. In dominating fashion, it might be pointed out, nearly a half-second ahead of their nearest rival in P2, Nico Rosberg.
Even that little bit of news had a dark lining, as Mercedes' newest driver, Lewis Hamilton, speared into the barriers with five minutes to go in P2, reporting that "something's wrong with the car." Right after that, the Mercedes pit wall told Rosberg that he had a gearbox problem and he needed to pull over and shut it down. That's somewhat ominous, what when both Mercs fail to finish the session like that...
Even more ominous could be the performance of the two McLarens. Jenson Button could only manage 11th on the day, and Sergio Perez a humbling 13th. Handling seemed to be an issue for the glares with wheels, as they tended to porpoise and tremble into corners. Steve Matchett was suggesting that the suspension was too stiff, and he may very well be right... or maybe it's something not so easily fixed?
The boys at Maranello must be ecstatic with Ferrari's 6th and 8th finishes, particularly considering last year's debacle in Australia when they were closer to the back of the grid than the front. If so, Team Lotus are probably calling their doctors after four hours, for they finished P2 4th and 5th.
But of course, this is only practice. You can never judge the true worth of a car from practice, just because every team is operating differently. For all we know, McLaren could have been running under a heavy fuel load all day, and once the weight burns off they'll handle better. Red Bull could have been running minimum fuel (note: they weren't). Maybe Mercedes accidentally used French Onion instead of Ranch in their gearbox. We just don't know.
Except... we kinda do, don't we? We'll find out for sure Saturday at Quals! See ya then!
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March 12, 2013
F1 On NBCSN!: Australia 2013
F1 is back.
Everything is right with the world.
As is tradition, the new season is opening in the Land Down Under. Beautiful Albert Park, Melbourne, will host the Australian Grand Prix for the 18th consecutive year, and to say that this should be a revealing race would be something of an understatement. But first, let's take a look at the track map:
It's the same old circuit that it's been for as long as I've been watching F1, and that's a really good thing. What we have here is probably the most balanced of tracks on the calendar, in that there's no "technical" section. See, I just cringe when I see "technical" or "stadium" used as a descriptor for a part of a race circuit. It's just a nice way of saying "slow and pointless". For example, please look at the track map for Interlagos in Brazil. Can YOU guess what the "technical" section is? If you said "from Turn 7 to Turn 11," you're right! It's just there to slow the track down as the cars go up and down and up and down. Awful.
And Australia doesn't have any of that. Oh, to be sure, you slow down, but it's never for more than a corner, maybe two tops, before you're back to racing. It's organic. It flows. It's a challenging layout, but not so challenging to be a bad way to start a season... imagine if Monaco was the first race of the year! HRT would have won every season simply because they couldn't go fast enough to hurt themselves if they bumped into the walls... but I digress. On the whole, drivers uniformly love the track. The single most unique part of the track is that it's very much a street circuit at heart. Almost the entire map can be driven by the public year-round; Albert Park is a working public park, after all. There's even one bit that cuts through a parking lot! As the tarmac is really road, that means there's all sorts of oil, transmission fluid, radiator drippings and crud that falls out of working engines over daily use embedded in the asphalt. Throw in the lines painted to signal lanes and the like and you've got what can be a very slippery surface, particularly if it rains... and guess what's in the forecast for Quals and Race Day? Well, at least a chance of the wet stuff. Personally, I don't want it to rain... I want to see these cars out on a dry track so we can get an idea of what's what! Don't get me wrong, rain is fun! Let's have it in Malaysia, next weekend.
But before we talk about the second race of the year, we need to see the first. This year, for the first time in my adult life as a F1 fan, the races will not be covered by SPEED. In fact, in a few months, SPEED itself will go away, turned into FOXSports1. Y'know the saying "Meth: Not Even Once"? Fox's version of the aphorism appears to be "SPEED: Not Anymore." I've gone astray again. NBCSN, new channel, new coverage... mostly the same old Legendary Announce Team! Steve Matchett and David Hobbs, the mechanic and the driver, make the move over. Leigh Diffey takes over for The Varsha, a role he's used to as he did the same at SPEED whenever Bob was doing car auction coverage. And, if you trust the tweets, The Varsha may be rejoining the Legendary Announce Team later in the season. Will Buxton's Exuberance remains the pit lane guy. But when do we get to experience this new group? Let's take a look:
THURSDAY:
11pm - 1230am Practice 1 (delay) on NBCSN
FRIDAY:
1230am - 2am Practice 2 (live) on NBCSN
SATURDAY:
1am - 230am Quals (live) on NBCSN
SUNDAY:
1230am - 3am Grand Prix of Australia (live) on NBCSN
3am - 330am F1 Extra, whatever that is, on NBCSN.
That's right, we get Practice 1 on television now! P3 is probably streaming, but I can't confirm that.
Before we go, I think it'll behoove us to take a look at the driver lineup for 2013... the last time we talked about it, not every seat had been filled, after all. Here we go:
Red Bull: Seb Vettel, Mark Webber. Really, why mess with a good thing?
Ferrari: HWMNBN, Felipe Massa. If he beats Vettel for the championship, even I'll put in a good word for The Evil One. If Massa beats Vettel for the championship, I can only assume the world is about to come to an end.
McLaren: Jenson Button, Sergio Perez. So weird to see this team without Shiv Hamilton.
Lotus: Kimi Raikkonen, Lettuce Grosjean. Kimi knows what he's doing. The same may not be able to be claimed for Lettuce.
Mercedes: Nico Rosberg, Shiv Hamilton. We've seen the last of Hamilton on the top step for a while.
Sauber: Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Gutierrez. With Gutierrez and Perez, we have two Mexican drivers in F1. No Americans, though.
Force India: Paul di Resta, Adrian F'n Sutil. Sutil's back!
Williams: Papabile Maldonado, Vallteri Bottas. Bottas has no lips.
Toro Rosso: Jules Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo. One is French, the other bland.
Caterham: Charles ToothPic, Geido van der Garde. I'm gonna have to come up with a nickname for Geido in a hurry.
Marussia: Jules Bianchi, Max Chilton. Sponsorship!
Here we go, folks. We're just a few days away now...
Everything is right with the world.
As is tradition, the new season is opening in the Land Down Under. Beautiful Albert Park, Melbourne, will host the Australian Grand Prix for the 18th consecutive year, and to say that this should be a revealing race would be something of an understatement. But first, let's take a look at the track map:
It's the same old circuit that it's been for as long as I've been watching F1, and that's a really good thing. What we have here is probably the most balanced of tracks on the calendar, in that there's no "technical" section. See, I just cringe when I see "technical" or "stadium" used as a descriptor for a part of a race circuit. It's just a nice way of saying "slow and pointless". For example, please look at the track map for Interlagos in Brazil. Can YOU guess what the "technical" section is? If you said "from Turn 7 to Turn 11," you're right! It's just there to slow the track down as the cars go up and down and up and down. Awful.
And Australia doesn't have any of that. Oh, to be sure, you slow down, but it's never for more than a corner, maybe two tops, before you're back to racing. It's organic. It flows. It's a challenging layout, but not so challenging to be a bad way to start a season... imagine if Monaco was the first race of the year! HRT would have won every season simply because they couldn't go fast enough to hurt themselves if they bumped into the walls... but I digress. On the whole, drivers uniformly love the track. The single most unique part of the track is that it's very much a street circuit at heart. Almost the entire map can be driven by the public year-round; Albert Park is a working public park, after all. There's even one bit that cuts through a parking lot! As the tarmac is really road, that means there's all sorts of oil, transmission fluid, radiator drippings and crud that falls out of working engines over daily use embedded in the asphalt. Throw in the lines painted to signal lanes and the like and you've got what can be a very slippery surface, particularly if it rains... and guess what's in the forecast for Quals and Race Day? Well, at least a chance of the wet stuff. Personally, I don't want it to rain... I want to see these cars out on a dry track so we can get an idea of what's what! Don't get me wrong, rain is fun! Let's have it in Malaysia, next weekend.
But before we talk about the second race of the year, we need to see the first. This year, for the first time in my adult life as a F1 fan, the races will not be covered by SPEED. In fact, in a few months, SPEED itself will go away, turned into FOXSports1. Y'know the saying "Meth: Not Even Once"? Fox's version of the aphorism appears to be "SPEED: Not Anymore." I've gone astray again. NBCSN, new channel, new coverage... mostly the same old Legendary Announce Team! Steve Matchett and David Hobbs, the mechanic and the driver, make the move over. Leigh Diffey takes over for The Varsha, a role he's used to as he did the same at SPEED whenever Bob was doing car auction coverage. And, if you trust the tweets, The Varsha may be rejoining the Legendary Announce Team later in the season. Will Buxton's Exuberance remains the pit lane guy. But when do we get to experience this new group? Let's take a look:
THURSDAY:
11pm - 1230am Practice 1 (delay) on NBCSN
FRIDAY:
1230am - 2am Practice 2 (live) on NBCSN
SATURDAY:
1am - 230am Quals (live) on NBCSN
SUNDAY:
1230am - 3am Grand Prix of Australia (live) on NBCSN
3am - 330am F1 Extra, whatever that is, on NBCSN.
That's right, we get Practice 1 on television now! P3 is probably streaming, but I can't confirm that.
Before we go, I think it'll behoove us to take a look at the driver lineup for 2013... the last time we talked about it, not every seat had been filled, after all. Here we go:
Red Bull: Seb Vettel, Mark Webber. Really, why mess with a good thing?
Ferrari: HWMNBN, Felipe Massa. If he beats Vettel for the championship, even I'll put in a good word for The Evil One. If Massa beats Vettel for the championship, I can only assume the world is about to come to an end.
McLaren: Jenson Button, Sergio Perez. So weird to see this team without Shiv Hamilton.
Lotus: Kimi Raikkonen, Lettuce Grosjean. Kimi knows what he's doing. The same may not be able to be claimed for Lettuce.
Mercedes: Nico Rosberg, Shiv Hamilton. We've seen the last of Hamilton on the top step for a while.
Sauber: Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Gutierrez. With Gutierrez and Perez, we have two Mexican drivers in F1. No Americans, though.
Force India: Paul di Resta, Adrian F'n Sutil. Sutil's back!
Williams: Papabile Maldonado, Vallteri Bottas. Bottas has no lips.
Toro Rosso: Jules Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo. One is French, the other bland.
Caterham: Charles ToothPic, Geido van der Garde. I'm gonna have to come up with a nickname for Geido in a hurry.
Marussia: Jules Bianchi, Max Chilton. Sponsorship!
Here we go, folks. We're just a few days away now...
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March 04, 2013
Vodka... Definitely Vodka
For anybody interested, NBC Sports Network will be showing their F1 preview show this coming Thursday at 8pm Central. Oh, and one week from today? F1 on SPEED NBCSN for Australia. It's back, my friends.
It.
Is.
BACK.
For anybody interested, NBC Sports Network will be showing their F1 preview show this coming Thursday at 8pm Central. Oh, and one week from today? F1 on SPEED NBCSN for Australia. It's back, my friends.
It.
Is.
BACK.
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February 23, 2013
Disaster At Daytona
On the final lap of today's NASCAR Nationwide series race at the Daytona Superspeedway, there was a terrible wreck. Kyle Larson, in the middle of the pack coming out of Turn 4 and heading for the tri-oval/start-finish line, got tipped sideways and as often happens at any superspeedway race, The Big One happened. There were cars going every which way, but Larson went nose-first into the wall, snapped over, and got airborne. HIGH.
The entire front of his car, back to the firewall, was torn off as he pinwheeled over the SAFER barrier and into the catch fence. The catch fence did its job: it kept the #32 out of the stands. Mostly.
You may notice the man with the orange hat. Directly above him in that picture is the engine of the #32; the fire you might notice is from fluids draining from it. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing that got through the fence, and what got through was worse than an engine.
At least one 120lb tire/wheel/brake rotor combinaton made it into the stands, working its way through the spectators until it came to a halt some 15-20 rows up. Around thirty people are known to have been injured. 15 were taken to the track's medical facility for minor cuts and bruises and were released. Conflicting reports say 14 to 16 were taken to two hospitals near the track. At least one was reported to have a serious head injury and was in emergency surgery. Having said that, NASCAR officials just had a press conference, and they said that everybody at the hospitals were in "stable" condition, so take that emergency surgery report with a grain of salt.
Racers know that what they do is dangerous. They understand that every time they climb into their car, be it NASCAR, F1, IndyCar, dragsters, LeMans or motorcycles, they could be injured or killed. But no fan expects to see a tire flying at their face, and it's troubling every time a fan is hurt.
With luck, everybody injured will be okay. Ironically, the drivers involved are all just fine. As of right now, Sunday's Daytona 500 will go on as planned, with Danica Patrick on pole.
Let's hope.
The entire front of his car, back to the firewall, was torn off as he pinwheeled over the SAFER barrier and into the catch fence. The catch fence did its job: it kept the #32 out of the stands. Mostly.
You may notice the man with the orange hat. Directly above him in that picture is the engine of the #32; the fire you might notice is from fluids draining from it. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing that got through the fence, and what got through was worse than an engine.
At least one 120lb tire/wheel/brake rotor combinaton made it into the stands, working its way through the spectators until it came to a halt some 15-20 rows up. Around thirty people are known to have been injured. 15 were taken to the track's medical facility for minor cuts and bruises and were released. Conflicting reports say 14 to 16 were taken to two hospitals near the track. At least one was reported to have a serious head injury and was in emergency surgery. Having said that, NASCAR officials just had a press conference, and they said that everybody at the hospitals were in "stable" condition, so take that emergency surgery report with a grain of salt.
Racers know that what they do is dangerous. They understand that every time they climb into their car, be it NASCAR, F1, IndyCar, dragsters, LeMans or motorcycles, they could be injured or killed. But no fan expects to see a tire flying at their face, and it's troubling every time a fan is hurt.
With luck, everybody injured will be okay. Ironically, the drivers involved are all just fine. As of right now, Sunday's Daytona 500 will go on as planned, with Danica Patrick on pole.
Let's hope.
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February 16, 2013
A Thousand Words?
If you think about Formula 1 history, 1994 is pretty much considered the grimmest year ever. That's because of that horrible weekend at Imola which saw the death of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, and the near-fatal wreck of then-rookie Rubens Barrichello. What often goes uncommented upon in that year was the incredibly fortunate escape of the Benneton team at the Grand Prix of Germany.
1994 saw the reintroduction of refueling, banned since 1983 from the sport. Even before the season began, teams were concerned about the pressurized fuel rigs to be used. The rigs could fill an empty tank in just a matter of seconds, but everybody was concerned about the consequences of a spill or malfunction. Through the first eight races, there had been no incidents, and perhaps the teams were feeling a little more comfortable now. On lap 15 of the German Grand Prix, Benneton's Jos Verstappen brought his B194 in for a regular pit stop: tires and fuel. Unbeknownst to the FIA, the team had tinkered with their refueling rig, removing a fuel filter and in the process upping the flow by an additional 10%. Everything seemed to be going fine, until the man on the hose moved it around slightly. The nozzle seemed to pop out of the fuel tank, spraying an estimated four liters of gasoline around the car in an instant. It took no time at all for the inevitable to occur.
Just as quickly as it happened, it was over. While a few of the mechanics went to the hospital, nobody was seriously injured; Verstappen, caught in the middle of the whole thing, suffered a burn to his nose when some fire got into his slightly-opened visor. Steve Matchett, one of the voices of SPEED's Legendary Announce Team, was the rear jack man for Benneton at the time. His burning firesuit was extinguished by members of the McLaren team, and he suffered no injuries. The fire did give us one of the truly outstanding photographs, not just of F1 or motorsports, but perhaps of all photography.
1994 was a terrible year for Formula 1, but it could have been so much worse.
1994 saw the reintroduction of refueling, banned since 1983 from the sport. Even before the season began, teams were concerned about the pressurized fuel rigs to be used. The rigs could fill an empty tank in just a matter of seconds, but everybody was concerned about the consequences of a spill or malfunction. Through the first eight races, there had been no incidents, and perhaps the teams were feeling a little more comfortable now. On lap 15 of the German Grand Prix, Benneton's Jos Verstappen brought his B194 in for a regular pit stop: tires and fuel. Unbeknownst to the FIA, the team had tinkered with their refueling rig, removing a fuel filter and in the process upping the flow by an additional 10%. Everything seemed to be going fine, until the man on the hose moved it around slightly. The nozzle seemed to pop out of the fuel tank, spraying an estimated four liters of gasoline around the car in an instant. It took no time at all for the inevitable to occur.
Just as quickly as it happened, it was over. While a few of the mechanics went to the hospital, nobody was seriously injured; Verstappen, caught in the middle of the whole thing, suffered a burn to his nose when some fire got into his slightly-opened visor. Steve Matchett, one of the voices of SPEED's Legendary Announce Team, was the rear jack man for Benneton at the time. His burning firesuit was extinguished by members of the McLaren team, and he suffered no injuries. The fire did give us one of the truly outstanding photographs, not just of F1 or motorsports, but perhaps of all photography.
1994 was a terrible year for Formula 1, but it could have been so much worse.
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February 15, 2013
The Moment Taki Inoue Became Famous
Taki Inoue was, to put it bluntly, not a good F1 driver. In 1995, he drove for the hysterically bad Footwork team (note: they had a podium that year... in the Australian Grand Prix; only eight cars finished that race, all but the winner at least two laps down. That's a podium that only just barely counts), but only because he had very very deep pockets behind him. While that was enough to earn him a seat, it didn't mean that he could do anything with it. He drove a F1 car like you or I would: badly. Very badly. In 17 races that year, he retired from 12 of them; his best finish was 8th at Monza, when only 10 cars finished.
In short, he was kinda embarrassing to the sport, but because he wasn't out-and-out dangerous to himself or others on the track, the FIA couldn't kick him out. That should have been all, a blip in the ether, Inoue in, Inoue out, g'bye. But two weird things happened to him. First, during the first Qualifying session at Monaco, he was sitting in his dead car being towed back to the pits, when the safety car ran into him. The Footwork was pushed into the barriers and flipped over. Inoue had a concussion and a chunk taken out of his helmet, but he still raced the next day: a gearbox failure ended his Monaco GP.
While that's curious, the moment that Taki Inoue became famous came at the Hungarian Grand Prix. On Lap 14, his engine when kablammo and the Japanese driver brought his car to the side of the track, where it sat, steaming and unhappy. The track marshals were less than enthusiastic in their efforts to help him; after gesturing furiously, he ran to the armco and grabbed a fire extinguisher himself. He turned around, took a couple of strides towards his car, and...
...he was run over by the medical car. And thus, a legend was born. Here's the video.
Today, Inoue is considered something of the Clown Prince of F1, via his twitter account. He knows what he was, and has fully embraced it. Good show, Mr Inoue!
In short, he was kinda embarrassing to the sport, but because he wasn't out-and-out dangerous to himself or others on the track, the FIA couldn't kick him out. That should have been all, a blip in the ether, Inoue in, Inoue out, g'bye. But two weird things happened to him. First, during the first Qualifying session at Monaco, he was sitting in his dead car being towed back to the pits, when the safety car ran into him. The Footwork was pushed into the barriers and flipped over. Inoue had a concussion and a chunk taken out of his helmet, but he still raced the next day: a gearbox failure ended his Monaco GP.
While that's curious, the moment that Taki Inoue became famous came at the Hungarian Grand Prix. On Lap 14, his engine when kablammo and the Japanese driver brought his car to the side of the track, where it sat, steaming and unhappy. The track marshals were less than enthusiastic in their efforts to help him; after gesturing furiously, he ran to the armco and grabbed a fire extinguisher himself. He turned around, took a couple of strides towards his car, and...
...he was run over by the medical car. And thus, a legend was born. Here's the video.
Today, Inoue is considered something of the Clown Prince of F1, via his twitter account. He knows what he was, and has fully embraced it. Good show, Mr Inoue!
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February 11, 2013
This Is Simple!
So you wanna be a F1 driver, bunky? You think you got the skills to take one of the 22 most technical cars in the world out onto the racetrack and go head-to-head with the likes of Seb Vettel, Mark Webber, HWMNBN, Shiv Hamilton and all the others? Okay! Here's your steering wheel.
Oh, and it cost somewhere around $50000 or so. Enjoy!
...and here Hamilton thought he had gotten away from Button(s).
Hey, where you going? I thought you wanted to be a F1 driver! You've only got to be able to negotiate tracks like Spa, Austin, Montreal and Monaco at nearly 200mph, with other cars mere inches away, while being able to operate your steering wheel, often without looking. Here's the kicker: this is Shiv Hamilton's wheel, after he asked Mercedes to simplify it for him.Oh, and it cost somewhere around $50000 or so. Enjoy!
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January 27, 2013
F1 Is Almost Back
The first rollout is Monday, when the Lotus E21 debuts at their Enstone factory. F1 is nearly back, folks...
The first rollout is Monday, when the Lotus E21 debuts at their Enstone factory. F1 is nearly back, folks...
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December 20, 2012
Christmas In F1-Land
I don't want you to think that I've gone completely 12 Ducks of Christmas around these parts! Nope, these days the F1 world is, like many of the rest of us, getting ready for December 25th. For example, here's Luca DiMontezemelo, Ferrari racing supremo, flanked by...
HWMNBN looks like a wino playing Santa, while Felipe Massa looks like he's reached his life's ambition. Well good on him, I say.
Meanwhile, here's the card of that right jolly old elf Bernie Ecclestone. Wow, what a funny funny guy, huh?
I've looked high and low and other than Sauber "borrowing" Santa and putting him through some wind-tunnel testing, none of the other teams seem to be doing anything official... if I stumble across something, though, I'll let y'all know! Red Bull is usually good for a giggle around this time of year...
HWMNBN looks like a wino playing Santa, while Felipe Massa looks like he's reached his life's ambition. Well good on him, I say.
Meanwhile, here's the card of that right jolly old elf Bernie Ecclestone. Wow, what a funny funny guy, huh?
I've looked high and low and other than Sauber "borrowing" Santa and putting him through some wind-tunnel testing, none of the other teams seem to be doing anything official... if I stumble across something, though, I'll let y'all know! Red Bull is usually good for a giggle around this time of year...
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December 07, 2012
Merry Christmas From Kimi Raikkonen!
Lotus F1 posted this today.
If you didn't know why I transcribe all his interviews as "mrmrnnbdbfmrlkmlbb mmlrlrbrlrmrrl mrlrmrmrbrlr," you do now. That first ringtone... that was my main alarm on my last cellphone; freaked me right the heck out.
Merry Christmas, Kimi.
If you didn't know why I transcribe all his interviews as "mrmrnnbdbfmrlkmlbb mmlrlrbrlrmrrl mrlrmrmrbrlr," you do now. That first ringtone... that was my main alarm on my last cellphone; freaked me right the heck out.
Merry Christmas, Kimi.
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November 24, 2012
F1 Quals: Brazil 2012
So, just like the weather forecasters predicted, it didn't start to rain until after the session ended... they just got the session wrong! Rain began to fall after P3, and didn't stop until a few minutes into Q1. So what sort of mischief did that cause to Quals? Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2012 Grand Prix of Brazil:
Well, in the long run, not much at all. The two McLarens had been fast all weekend, with Button leading the way in P3 earlier; there is some question as to just how much wing they're running, however. This could be massively important, as the forecast for Sunday remains a race aquatic. If they're running a dry setup, it only figures they'd be faster than a car prepared for a wet race... and they'll drown come Sunday. If, however, the McLarens are this fast without compromising a wet setup... well.
It's no surprise to see the two Red Bulls up towards the top of the sheet, obviously. It IS a little surprising to see HWMNBN so far down, but we don't know how heavy the team went with the weather setup. He might be in the best shape of the bunch if they've really cranked on the wing. We just won't know until the race begins... assuming it rains. And every red-blooded F1 fan has gotta be hoping for rain. You know that Ferrari has mechanics behind their pit stalls making carbon-fiber rain turtles.
One still has to give Vettel the advantage at the moment, though. We will see tomorrow, won't we? The race is in the morning, F1U! thereafter. See ya then!
Well, in the long run, not much at all. The two McLarens had been fast all weekend, with Button leading the way in P3 earlier; there is some question as to just how much wing they're running, however. This could be massively important, as the forecast for Sunday remains a race aquatic. If they're running a dry setup, it only figures they'd be faster than a car prepared for a wet race... and they'll drown come Sunday. If, however, the McLarens are this fast without compromising a wet setup... well.
It's no surprise to see the two Red Bulls up towards the top of the sheet, obviously. It IS a little surprising to see HWMNBN so far down, but we don't know how heavy the team went with the weather setup. He might be in the best shape of the bunch if they've really cranked on the wing. We just won't know until the race begins... assuming it rains. And every red-blooded F1 fan has gotta be hoping for rain. You know that Ferrari has mechanics behind their pit stalls making carbon-fiber rain turtles.
One still has to give Vettel the advantage at the moment, though. We will see tomorrow, won't we? The race is in the morning, F1U! thereafter. See ya then!
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November 23, 2012
F1 Practice: Brazil 2012
The last Friday of the 2012 F1 season brought us what might well be the last sunny day of the weekend; the forecast for Saturday is for rain which might hold off long enough to get Quals in the books. Sunday, on the other hand, calls for a grumpy old man (Bernie?) with a long beard (not Bernie) building an ark in the infield section of Interlagos. Probably because Ferrari is sending the team jets over São Paolo every half-hour, dumping oil drums of silver iodide into the clouds. Hey, anything to help HWMNBN, right?
It turns out that there's a lot of lasts happening this Sunday. It's the last time the Legendary Announce Team will be together on SPEED. I've already gone over my views of that tragedy, so I won't rehash them here, but I will point out that they were reminiscing something fierce during the P2 broadcast and were incredibly funny in the process. If you've watched a few races in the past, Quals might be worth watching for that alone.
It's also the last race Shiv Hamilton will be driving for McLaren. Fresh off his victory last weekend here in the good ole U-S-of-A, he's apparently trying to go out in style; he was the fastest in both P1 and P2. He's already admitted that he doesn't expect to be competing for victories next year with Mercedes, so this might be the last chance he has for a win in a while. There's also the shot to play spoiler in the great HWMNBN vs Sebby V battle, can't forget that.
Sunday is also probably going to be the last time we see HRT ever. They've been running on the proverbial shoestring for the past three seasons, and reports are that everybody who isn't on the team's flyaway crew has been pink-slipped. The race team will get their termination notices upon return to the factory in Spain after Sunday. At this point, I'm seriously rooting for them to earn a point on Sunday... the influx of cash from the TV revenue they'd earn might be enough to keep 'em alive. Otherwise, we'll probably have another SuperAguri situation, where bits and pieces go up for auction. That'd be a flat-out shame... they gave it a good shot and deserved some small success, instead of being a constant laughing-stock.
Then finally, this is also the final weekend for one of the greats of the sport. It just won't be the same without Gandalf Kobayashi, who seems to have lost his seat at Sauber in 2013 Michael "Slappy" Schumacher. Consider this: if either Vettel or HWMNBN win the championship, it'll be the third of their career. Schumacher has SEVEN, including five in a row (2000-2004). He has more wins than many of the drivers in the field has starts. He has over 300 starts, 68 poles, 77 fast laps, and on and on. The past three years have not been kind to his legacy, but he should still go down in history as arguably the greatest F1 driver of all time (and if not, one of the top three for sure). I'm not going to say that I like him, because that'd be a flat-out lie, but one can't be a F1 fan without acknowledging his level of excellence. His helmet this week bears a legend: "Life is about passions. Thank you for sharing mine." That about sums it up.
Quals in the morning.
It turns out that there's a lot of lasts happening this Sunday. It's the last time the Legendary Announce Team will be together on SPEED. I've already gone over my views of that tragedy, so I won't rehash them here, but I will point out that they were reminiscing something fierce during the P2 broadcast and were incredibly funny in the process. If you've watched a few races in the past, Quals might be worth watching for that alone.
It's also the last race Shiv Hamilton will be driving for McLaren. Fresh off his victory last weekend here in the good ole U-S-of-A, he's apparently trying to go out in style; he was the fastest in both P1 and P2. He's already admitted that he doesn't expect to be competing for victories next year with Mercedes, so this might be the last chance he has for a win in a while. There's also the shot to play spoiler in the great HWMNBN vs Sebby V battle, can't forget that.
Sunday is also probably going to be the last time we see HRT ever. They've been running on the proverbial shoestring for the past three seasons, and reports are that everybody who isn't on the team's flyaway crew has been pink-slipped. The race team will get their termination notices upon return to the factory in Spain after Sunday. At this point, I'm seriously rooting for them to earn a point on Sunday... the influx of cash from the TV revenue they'd earn might be enough to keep 'em alive. Otherwise, we'll probably have another SuperAguri situation, where bits and pieces go up for auction. That'd be a flat-out shame... they gave it a good shot and deserved some small success, instead of being a constant laughing-stock.
Then finally, this is also the final weekend for one of the greats of the sport. It just won't be the same without Gandalf Kobayashi, who seems to have lost his seat at Sauber in 2013 Michael "Slappy" Schumacher. Consider this: if either Vettel or HWMNBN win the championship, it'll be the third of their career. Schumacher has SEVEN, including five in a row (2000-2004). He has more wins than many of the drivers in the field has starts. He has over 300 starts, 68 poles, 77 fast laps, and on and on. The past three years have not been kind to his legacy, but he should still go down in history as arguably the greatest F1 driver of all time (and if not, one of the top three for sure). I'm not going to say that I like him, because that'd be a flat-out lie, but one can't be a F1 fan without acknowledging his level of excellence. His helmet this week bears a legend: "Life is about passions. Thank you for sharing mine." That about sums it up.
Quals in the morning.
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November 20, 2012
COTA Swag
I dragged myself into the Duck U Bookstore today, the way anybody who's in the middle of a really short work week does. All in all, just a 'meh' sort of day, y'know? Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Where was I? Oh, right, right, dragged myself into work, expecting I'd just be doing another day of entering textbook adoptions, getting ready for end-of-semester buyback, that sort of thing, when Our Man Dan walks in. Dan, you may remember, was brought in by the Foodservice company that serves the Circuit of the Americas to help with the 2012 United States Grand Prix. He was also supposed to bring back some souvenirs of the circuit for me... and in this, he succeeded beyond my realistic dreams!
Here's the whole thing; click on the picture for a larger version. What we've got is the CotA ballcap with the 2012 USGP logo on one side, and the trackmap on the other, the official CotA schedule/map, a couple of pins, a CotA Event Staff lanyard, a regular CotA lanyard with a staff parking pass, and of course the pennant in back. Baby! I was just blown away by it all this morning. It turns out he wasn't stationed at Turn 19, as they had originally planned, which is why he didn't bring me in any carbonfiber shards. No, instead he was all over the circuit, and apparently has already been told that he'll be back next year. And so will I... I've already made the decision, I'm gonna be there in 2013.
Here's a closeup of the pins. Dan was amazed at how loud the cars were, even though I warned him. I think we may have a budding fan in the making, actually...
Here's the whole thing; click on the picture for a larger version. What we've got is the CotA ballcap with the 2012 USGP logo on one side, and the trackmap on the other, the official CotA schedule/map, a couple of pins, a CotA Event Staff lanyard, a regular CotA lanyard with a staff parking pass, and of course the pennant in back. Baby! I was just blown away by it all this morning. It turns out he wasn't stationed at Turn 19, as they had originally planned, which is why he didn't bring me in any carbonfiber shards. No, instead he was all over the circuit, and apparently has already been told that he'll be back next year. And so will I... I've already made the decision, I'm gonna be there in 2013.
Here's a closeup of the pins. Dan was amazed at how loud the cars were, even though I warned him. I think we may have a budding fan in the making, actually...
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November 19, 2012
F1 on SPEED!: Brazil 2012
And so it comes to this. One race for all the marbles. Ferrari vs Red Bull. HWMNBN vs Seb Vettel. On my least favorite circuit in F1. Here's the track map for the 2012 Grand Prix of Brazil:
Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, colloquially known as Interlagos, has been the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix (that's a lot of grands prix!) since 1973, and has been my least favorite circuit ever since I became a huge F1 fan in 2004. It's strange that I hate the track so much, since it's got a lot of the features I regularly like. First and foremost, it's not flat. The start/finish straight is the high-altitude mark of the layout, but it rapidly dives away at Turn 1 to Turn 3. It stays flat all the way to Turn 11, then begins to regain all the height lost from Turns 12 to 15.
It's this uphill climb where we've seen the most exciting finish to a Formula 1 season ever, in 2008. Ferrari's Felipe Massa had won the race, and what appeared to be his first Driver's Championship as well. His only rival, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, was in 6th place, but needed to finish 5th to win the Championship... and he'd just been passed by a young driver named Seb Vettel, driving for Toro Rosso. It looked like Massa had his elusive Championship... until Tim O'Glockenspiel, driving for Toyota, nearly spun his car in wet conditions in Turn 14 on the last lap. Hamilton got past him for 5th and his first Championship.
This year, rain is in the picture again, with thunderstorms on tap for Saturday, and rain on Sunday. It's 2008 all over again, and god help me I'm rooting for HWMNBN. Well, that's not really true... I'm more rooting against Seb Vettel. I don't want him to win three championships in a row, so sue me. Rain is another thing we often see at Interlagos, and that often leads to fun races.
It's also a fast track, with only the twiddlybits from Turn 6 thru 11 being slow-ish. The rest is nearly all flat-out. I'd always rather see race cars going quickly than going slowly, so again, I should like Interlagos.
But I don't. It's always seems grey there, and it's dangerous to boot (three racers died there in 2011). And it's the end of the F1 season until March. How can anybody like that? THIS year, it's also the end of the Legendary Announce Team, as F1 leaves SPEED after Sunday. We've still got them for one more race, so let's enjoy it while we can. Here's the schedule of events.
FRIDAY
P1: 6a - 730a streaming
P2: 10a - 1130a live
SATURDAY
P3: 7a - 8a streaming
Quals: 10a - 1130a live-ish
SUNDAY
930a - 12noon: 2012 Grand Prix of Brazil live
Of course, F1 Update! will be all over the weekend, though we may take a miss on the streaming things. We'll see you then!
Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, colloquially known as Interlagos, has been the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix (that's a lot of grands prix!) since 1973, and has been my least favorite circuit ever since I became a huge F1 fan in 2004. It's strange that I hate the track so much, since it's got a lot of the features I regularly like. First and foremost, it's not flat. The start/finish straight is the high-altitude mark of the layout, but it rapidly dives away at Turn 1 to Turn 3. It stays flat all the way to Turn 11, then begins to regain all the height lost from Turns 12 to 15.
It's this uphill climb where we've seen the most exciting finish to a Formula 1 season ever, in 2008. Ferrari's Felipe Massa had won the race, and what appeared to be his first Driver's Championship as well. His only rival, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, was in 6th place, but needed to finish 5th to win the Championship... and he'd just been passed by a young driver named Seb Vettel, driving for Toro Rosso. It looked like Massa had his elusive Championship... until Tim O'Glockenspiel, driving for Toyota, nearly spun his car in wet conditions in Turn 14 on the last lap. Hamilton got past him for 5th and his first Championship.
This year, rain is in the picture again, with thunderstorms on tap for Saturday, and rain on Sunday. It's 2008 all over again, and god help me I'm rooting for HWMNBN. Well, that's not really true... I'm more rooting against Seb Vettel. I don't want him to win three championships in a row, so sue me. Rain is another thing we often see at Interlagos, and that often leads to fun races.
It's also a fast track, with only the twiddlybits from Turn 6 thru 11 being slow-ish. The rest is nearly all flat-out. I'd always rather see race cars going quickly than going slowly, so again, I should like Interlagos.
But I don't. It's always seems grey there, and it's dangerous to boot (three racers died there in 2011). And it's the end of the F1 season until March. How can anybody like that? THIS year, it's also the end of the Legendary Announce Team, as F1 leaves SPEED after Sunday. We've still got them for one more race, so let's enjoy it while we can. Here's the schedule of events.
FRIDAY
P1: 6a - 730a streaming
P2: 10a - 1130a live
SATURDAY
P3: 7a - 8a streaming
Quals: 10a - 1130a live-ish
SUNDAY
930a - 12noon: 2012 Grand Prix of Brazil live
Of course, F1 Update! will be all over the weekend, though we may take a miss on the streaming things. We'll see you then!
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November 18, 2012
USGP 2012 Race Notes
Right, it's race day in Austin! It's 71 degrees and sunny at the Circuit of the Americas, and Ferrari are playing tricks! Let's get to the pre-race stuff.
In an attempt to help HWMNBN's chance at the Championship, Ferrari has come up with something legal, but sneaky. Felipe Massa, who qualified ahead of the Spaniard, had to "change a gearbox" about two hours ago, and will take a five-spot grid penalty. As a result, HWMNBN will now start on the clean side of the track in 7th, not in 8th on the dirty. The team has actually come out and admitted that they've done this "for strategy considerations." Clever, very clever. Shame for Massa, who honestly couldn't have expected to be allowed to stay ahead of his teammate at any time. The drivers are saying that starting on the dirty side of the track is like starting on a wet track with slick tires. Look for HWMNBN to make quite the jump at the start. He has to if he wants to win a championship.
If he finishes worse than 5th and Vettel wins, the championship is over. There is no way that HWMNBN can win the championship today, unless Vettel gets injured and can't start in Brazil... and nobody wants that.
Now THAT'S a flyby: one F-16, one P-38, and two P-51s!
I'm gonna enjoy the race instead of writing anything about it. See ya with the F1U!
UPDATE: Now THAT'S how you do a race! If every USGP is gonna be like that one, F1 is gonna catch on here big-time!
In an attempt to help HWMNBN's chance at the Championship, Ferrari has come up with something legal, but sneaky. Felipe Massa, who qualified ahead of the Spaniard, had to "change a gearbox" about two hours ago, and will take a five-spot grid penalty. As a result, HWMNBN will now start on the clean side of the track in 7th, not in 8th on the dirty. The team has actually come out and admitted that they've done this "for strategy considerations." Clever, very clever. Shame for Massa, who honestly couldn't have expected to be allowed to stay ahead of his teammate at any time. The drivers are saying that starting on the dirty side of the track is like starting on a wet track with slick tires. Look for HWMNBN to make quite the jump at the start. He has to if he wants to win a championship.
If he finishes worse than 5th and Vettel wins, the championship is over. There is no way that HWMNBN can win the championship today, unless Vettel gets injured and can't start in Brazil... and nobody wants that.
Now THAT'S a flyby: one F-16, one P-38, and two P-51s!
I'm gonna enjoy the race instead of writing anything about it. See ya with the F1U!
UPDATE: Now THAT'S how you do a race! If every USGP is gonna be like that one, F1 is gonna catch on here big-time!
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November 17, 2012
F1 Quals: 2012 United States Grand Prix!
(PRE-SESSION) Here we are, with the first session that actually means something this weekend! Having said that, we don't know how much it means since the Circuit of the Americas is a brand new track. It could be that it's an awful racing circuit that encourages nothing but parades meaning that qualifying position is incredibly important... or it could be that it works so well that the winner can come from anywhere on the grid! We just don't know right now... but we will soon.
Here's what we DO know already: Lettuce Grosjean did indeed have to change his gearbox, meaning he's got a five gridspot penalty ahead of him.
Q1
Nobody pitted. The tires were so difficult to get heat into that everybody stayed out and just kept running and running and running... until Narain Kittylitter came to a stop just off track at Turn 2, probably out of fuel. This brought out a yellow flag, meaning that it was going to be very difficult for drivers to improve their positions. For most this was okay, but it meant that Nico Rosberg needed a heckuva lap to get himself into Q2... he got it, but only just: he finished 17th.
Those eliminated, from 18th down: Daniel Ricciardo, Tim O'Glockenspiel, Charles ToothPic, The Red Menace, Heikki Kovaleinninninnie, Pete Rose and Narain Kittylitter.
Both HRTs came in under the 107% rule, so they get to race on Sunday without begging the stewards for permission.
Q2
Nobody pitted again... except for Jenson Button. He "lost the power, lost the power" with three minutes and a full track to go, and somehow managed to limp back to the pits. When he made it to the pits, he was 8th on the board. By the time the session was over, he was bumped to 12th and out of Quals altogether. SPEED managed to catch the team working on something at the front of the car (throttle pedals?) just before Quals began, and McLaren's engineers dove right for the same spot on the car when it came to a stop.
Those eliminated from 11th down to 17th: Bruno Senna, Jenson Button, Paul diResta, Jules Vergne, Sergio Perez, Gandalf Kobayashi, and Nico Rosberg.
Q3
AGAIN nobody pits. Heck, for all we know, some drivers were still on the same tires they used in Q2. Nobody broke down, nobody ran out of fuel, and Vettel just embarrassed the field. The Top 10 (before penalties) are:
1) Seb Vettel 2) Shiv Hamilton 3) Mark Webber 4) Lettuce Grosjean 5) Mumbles Raikkonen 6) Slappy Schumacher 7) Felipe Massa 8) Nico Hulkenberg 9) HWMNBN 10) Pastor Maldonado
Amazingly, this is Vettel's 100th Grand Prix, and his 36th pole. Good lord. This is a terrible result if you're rooting for HWMNBN; ninth is horrible. Two places behind your teammate is even worse... and this is a guy driving for the Championship! Then again, Vettel has completely dominated this race weekend, so it's not exactly a surprise that he's gotta be the favorite tomorrow.
Right, the 2012 United States Grand Prix will be on Sunday, with the F1Update! coming sometime thereafter... we might have some in-race comments, too. We will see you tomorrow!
Here's what we DO know already: Lettuce Grosjean did indeed have to change his gearbox, meaning he's got a five gridspot penalty ahead of him.
Q1
Nobody pitted. The tires were so difficult to get heat into that everybody stayed out and just kept running and running and running... until Narain Kittylitter came to a stop just off track at Turn 2, probably out of fuel. This brought out a yellow flag, meaning that it was going to be very difficult for drivers to improve their positions. For most this was okay, but it meant that Nico Rosberg needed a heckuva lap to get himself into Q2... he got it, but only just: he finished 17th.
Those eliminated, from 18th down: Daniel Ricciardo, Tim O'Glockenspiel, Charles ToothPic, The Red Menace, Heikki Kovaleinninninnie, Pete Rose and Narain Kittylitter.
Both HRTs came in under the 107% rule, so they get to race on Sunday without begging the stewards for permission.
Q2
Nobody pitted again... except for Jenson Button. He "lost the power, lost the power" with three minutes and a full track to go, and somehow managed to limp back to the pits. When he made it to the pits, he was 8th on the board. By the time the session was over, he was bumped to 12th and out of Quals altogether. SPEED managed to catch the team working on something at the front of the car (throttle pedals?) just before Quals began, and McLaren's engineers dove right for the same spot on the car when it came to a stop.
Those eliminated from 11th down to 17th: Bruno Senna, Jenson Button, Paul diResta, Jules Vergne, Sergio Perez, Gandalf Kobayashi, and Nico Rosberg.
Q3
AGAIN nobody pits. Heck, for all we know, some drivers were still on the same tires they used in Q2. Nobody broke down, nobody ran out of fuel, and Vettel just embarrassed the field. The Top 10 (before penalties) are:
1) Seb Vettel 2) Shiv Hamilton 3) Mark Webber 4) Lettuce Grosjean 5) Mumbles Raikkonen 6) Slappy Schumacher 7) Felipe Massa 8) Nico Hulkenberg 9) HWMNBN 10) Pastor Maldonado
Amazingly, this is Vettel's 100th Grand Prix, and his 36th pole. Good lord. This is a terrible result if you're rooting for HWMNBN; ninth is horrible. Two places behind your teammate is even worse... and this is a guy driving for the Championship! Then again, Vettel has completely dominated this race weekend, so it's not exactly a surprise that he's gotta be the favorite tomorrow.
Right, the 2012 United States Grand Prix will be on Sunday, with the F1Update! coming sometime thereafter... we might have some in-race comments, too. We will see you tomorrow!
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F1 United States Practice 3: Liveblogging!
(PRE-SESSION) So here we are again! It's 45 degrees and sunny at the Circuit of the Americas, looking for a high of 68. That's a little cooler than F1 tires like, but it's certainly good enough. In any case, Practice 3 is only 60 minutes in length, as opposed to the usual 90. I'll be using the time remaining as the time notation: if you
see (45:30), that means 14.5 minutes have gone by in the session.
Read from (60:00). Please keep all extremities inside the blog at all times. Wonderduck's Pond is not responsible for any injuries incurred in the reading of Wonderduck's Pond. Post no bills. Accept no substitutes!
(60:00) Look, we've gone green on Saturday! First out is Gandalf Kobayashi on SPEED's streaming site.
(57:52) Wow, 60000 people at COTA yesterday, 80000 expected today? There are a dozen actual races that don't get that many spectators on the calendar!
(55:37) Sebby Vettel very nearly pranged his car in the pit lane. Whoopsy!
(53:55) Narain Kittylitter is third on the time sheets as SPEED goes to commercial... that might be the first time I've ever seen his picture on the screen during a session. At least, on the "first page," not at the end.
(50:11) Just a picture, nothing really happening.
Kimi at the far end of the esses.
The rest will be below the fold.
more...
(60:00) Look, we've gone green on Saturday! First out is Gandalf Kobayashi on SPEED's streaming site.
(57:52) Wow, 60000 people at COTA yesterday, 80000 expected today? There are a dozen actual races that don't get that many spectators on the calendar!
(55:37) Sebby Vettel very nearly pranged his car in the pit lane. Whoopsy!
(53:55) Narain Kittylitter is third on the time sheets as SPEED goes to commercial... that might be the first time I've ever seen his picture on the screen during a session. At least, on the "first page," not at the end.
(50:11) Just a picture, nothing really happening.
Kimi at the far end of the esses.
The rest will be below the fold.
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November 16, 2012
F1 Practice 2: United States!
There are moments in time where I wish I didn't know as much backstory to things F1-related. One of those moments occurred during Practice 2, with about 34 minutes left. The Legendary Announce Team was bickering amongst themselves, mostly Matchett and Hobbs giving The Varsha grief about his focus on someone reaching the 200mph point for the first time. Finally, The Varsha plaintively said "C'mon guys, work with me... there's not much time left." I get the feeling that he wasn't just talking about the practice session.
In that practice session, we saw a lot of running by everybody but Seb Vettel and the two HRTs. The Spanish team is having financial difficulties, and stopped short of saying that they weren't running because of that. If you've got $40million lying around, you can buy the team! And if you do, let me know... I'd very much like to talk to you about a Wonderduck's Pond sponsorship sticker somewhere. I'd also like to know just how the heck you can afford $40million and you haven't mentioned it before this... but back to F1. Seb Vettel missed a good chunk of the session with his car up on jacks, leaking coolant fluid from its KERS unit. As the Legendary Announce Team pointed out, if you were going to have a problem, this was a good one to have because Mark Webber had the exact same problem at Abu Dhabi. The team already knew how to deal with it! It still took most of the session, but Vettel still had enough time on track to break the 1:37 barrier, ending the day with a 1:37.718, almost three-quarters of a second faster than Webber and HWMNBN, and over a second ahead of the two McLarens. Yeeeeeesh.
I'm going to gush a bit more about the Circuit of the Americas now. We may not get a good race on Sunday, seeing how Vettel is looking like he's got a JATO unit stuck up his backside, but it won't be because of the track. I'm already convinced that it's the best new-style circuit on the calendar, and it matches places like Montreal and Suzuka. It may even move into the Silverstone/Spa level of racetrack if we get a good race on Sunday. I'm probably overrating it because it's an American track, but I'll be darned if it isn't just perfect.
Baby. P3 tomorrow at 9am, I'll be livebloggin' that. Quals at noon, and I have no idea what I'm doing for it! How do you liveblog quals??? See you tomorrow!
In that practice session, we saw a lot of running by everybody but Seb Vettel and the two HRTs. The Spanish team is having financial difficulties, and stopped short of saying that they weren't running because of that. If you've got $40million lying around, you can buy the team! And if you do, let me know... I'd very much like to talk to you about a Wonderduck's Pond sponsorship sticker somewhere. I'd also like to know just how the heck you can afford $40million and you haven't mentioned it before this... but back to F1. Seb Vettel missed a good chunk of the session with his car up on jacks, leaking coolant fluid from its KERS unit. As the Legendary Announce Team pointed out, if you were going to have a problem, this was a good one to have because Mark Webber had the exact same problem at Abu Dhabi. The team already knew how to deal with it! It still took most of the session, but Vettel still had enough time on track to break the 1:37 barrier, ending the day with a 1:37.718, almost three-quarters of a second faster than Webber and HWMNBN, and over a second ahead of the two McLarens. Yeeeeeesh.
I'm going to gush a bit more about the Circuit of the Americas now. We may not get a good race on Sunday, seeing how Vettel is looking like he's got a JATO unit stuck up his backside, but it won't be because of the track. I'm already convinced that it's the best new-style circuit on the calendar, and it matches places like Montreal and Suzuka. It may even move into the Silverstone/Spa level of racetrack if we get a good race on Sunday. I'm probably overrating it because it's an American track, but I'll be darned if it isn't just perfect.
Baby. P3 tomorrow at 9am, I'll be livebloggin' that. Quals at noon, and I have no idea what I'm doing for it! How do you liveblog quals??? See you tomorrow!
Posted by: Wonderduck at
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F1 United States Practice 1: Liveblogging!
(PRE-SESSION) The day has finally come. In just a short while, we will see actual F1 cars running on Austin's Circuit of the Americas. Of course, it's all just a run-up to the actual United States Grand Prix on Sunday, but we'll be happy with this right now.
As in the past liveblogging sessions, this session is 90 minutes in length. I'll be using the time remaining as the time notation: if you see (1:02:30), that means 27.5 minutes have gone by in the session. Read from (1:30:00). Do not taunt kimiraikkonen. If kimiraikkonen begins to smoke, seek shelter and cover head. Kimiraikkonen may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds. Accept no substitutes!
(1:30:00) The track is open! The first man officially to enter the circuit is... Tim O'Glockenspiel? Rock on!
(1:26:55) Felipe Massa: "I'ts very slippery track, very slippery." Well, yeah.
(1:25:53) Oh no... The Legendary Announce Team is going to call Turn 1 "Phil Hill." Shoot me now.
(1:23:30) Nico Hulkenberg: "It's worse than rain... it's like the tires aren't even turning, it's so slippery."
(1:22:44) What's Phil Hill look like from the cockpit?
Yeah, kinda like that... haven't quite reached the apex. Track? What track? It just sorta disappears.
The rest will be below the fold.
more...
As in the past liveblogging sessions, this session is 90 minutes in length. I'll be using the time remaining as the time notation: if you see (1:02:30), that means 27.5 minutes have gone by in the session. Read from (1:30:00). Do not taunt kimiraikkonen. If kimiraikkonen begins to smoke, seek shelter and cover head. Kimiraikkonen may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds. Accept no substitutes!
(1:30:00) The track is open! The first man officially to enter the circuit is... Tim O'Glockenspiel? Rock on!
(1:26:55) Felipe Massa: "I'ts very slippery track, very slippery." Well, yeah.
(1:25:53) Oh no... The Legendary Announce Team is going to call Turn 1 "Phil Hill." Shoot me now.
(1:23:30) Nico Hulkenberg: "It's worse than rain... it's like the tires aren't even turning, it's so slippery."
(1:22:44) What's Phil Hill look like from the cockpit?
Yeah, kinda like that... haven't quite reached the apex. Track? What track? It just sorta disappears.
The rest will be below the fold.
more...
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08:06 AM
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