April 07, 2011
F1 Practice 1: Malaysia 2011 (LIVE)
Well, this is turning out to be more exciting that I thought! I brought up speedtv.com's live streaming feed of Practice 1 from Malaysia, wanting to get reacquainted with the circuit and hoping to catch a glimpse of the HRTs maybe making their first laps of the 2011 season. And indeed, HRT brought out Narain Kittylitter 19 minutes into the session.
That went well.
Okay, oops, blown engine, right? It's worse than that: the engine was smoking like it had just elected a Pope as he pulled out of his pit stall. Now, it's not uncommon for a F1 engine to squirt a little oil onto the exhaust or some other hot thing in the back of the car, particularly at the start of a session (Mark Webber's Red Bull did just that at... the Aussie GP? in 2010, for example... race began, he began to move, and poof! Big cloud of smoke.). But this time, the HRT kept on smoking as it rolled down the pit lane, into Turn 1, through Turn 2, around Turn 3... you get the picture. Eventually, Kittylitter called back to the pit wall: "There's a lot of smoke." Pit wall, sounding depressed: "Switch it off, Narain." A few minutes later, Vitantonio Liuzzi came out, put in an installation lap (to make sure everything worked), then went right back in. So we might be seeing a HRT in Quals, and the chances are good that there won't be a single insect anywhere near the track afterward!
Then Felipe Massa brought out his Ferrari. It all sounded fine until he hit fourth gear (maybe 5th)... then he started bouncing off the rev limiter and couldn't shift up. Into the pits he went, and out came HWMNBN... who had the same thing happen, in the exact same place on the track. As of this writing, with 33 minutes left in the session, neither has re-emerged from the pits.
Then Grizzly Nick Heidfeld brought his Renault out onto the circuit.
"Okay," I hear you saying, "he locked up a tire going into a turn, so what?" One little problem: that's not a braking zone he's in. There's no commentary from the Legendary Announce Team (or anybody else, for that matter), so I can only speculate, but it sure looked like one of his brakes just decided to clamp on unbidden... and stay on. For almost an entire lap.
Yup, now that's a flat spot. That screencap is from towards the end of the lap, after a good portion of the tire has been ground away. Note the position of the "R" and "NH" on the sidewall in the two pictures... that tire hasn't moved a whit. By the time The Grizzly One made it into the pits, he was leaving a trail of sparks and debris behind him as the FIA legality plank was quickly rendered into its component atoms and carbon fiber began to be shed. Eesh.
Vitantonio Liuzzi just posted a timed lap in his HRT! Okay, yes, it was seven seconds slower than the fastest of the session, but he put in a timed lap! Actually, seven seconds off the pace isn't so terribly bad, all things considered...
More tomorrow evening.
UPDATE: No sooner had I typed that last sentence than Renault's Vitaly Petrov set off on a hot lap... and had a little tire problem of his own.
He did say on the radio that "the suspension, it was break (sic)," so take that for what it's worth.
More if someone else has something go bad.
ANOTHER UPDATE: No sooner had I typed that sentence than Virgin's Custard d'Ambrosio had a suspension failure of his own.
One begins to notice a trend occurring, doesn't one? I'm beginning to wonder if there's something wrong with this batch of Pirellis... I suppose an imbalanced tire could cause suspension damage, but you'd think the teams would have noticed that. Guess we'll have to wait on that one.
The session is over now, so I won't have the chance to cause any more incidents by saying "I'll have more tomorrow." Yeesh...
That went well.
Okay, oops, blown engine, right? It's worse than that: the engine was smoking like it had just elected a Pope as he pulled out of his pit stall. Now, it's not uncommon for a F1 engine to squirt a little oil onto the exhaust or some other hot thing in the back of the car, particularly at the start of a session (Mark Webber's Red Bull did just that at... the Aussie GP? in 2010, for example... race began, he began to move, and poof! Big cloud of smoke.). But this time, the HRT kept on smoking as it rolled down the pit lane, into Turn 1, through Turn 2, around Turn 3... you get the picture. Eventually, Kittylitter called back to the pit wall: "There's a lot of smoke." Pit wall, sounding depressed: "Switch it off, Narain." A few minutes later, Vitantonio Liuzzi came out, put in an installation lap (to make sure everything worked), then went right back in. So we might be seeing a HRT in Quals, and the chances are good that there won't be a single insect anywhere near the track afterward!
Then Felipe Massa brought out his Ferrari. It all sounded fine until he hit fourth gear (maybe 5th)... then he started bouncing off the rev limiter and couldn't shift up. Into the pits he went, and out came HWMNBN... who had the same thing happen, in the exact same place on the track. As of this writing, with 33 minutes left in the session, neither has re-emerged from the pits.
Then Grizzly Nick Heidfeld brought his Renault out onto the circuit.
"Okay," I hear you saying, "he locked up a tire going into a turn, so what?" One little problem: that's not a braking zone he's in. There's no commentary from the Legendary Announce Team (or anybody else, for that matter), so I can only speculate, but it sure looked like one of his brakes just decided to clamp on unbidden... and stay on. For almost an entire lap.
Yup, now that's a flat spot. That screencap is from towards the end of the lap, after a good portion of the tire has been ground away. Note the position of the "R" and "NH" on the sidewall in the two pictures... that tire hasn't moved a whit. By the time The Grizzly One made it into the pits, he was leaving a trail of sparks and debris behind him as the FIA legality plank was quickly rendered into its component atoms and carbon fiber began to be shed. Eesh.
Vitantonio Liuzzi just posted a timed lap in his HRT! Okay, yes, it was seven seconds slower than the fastest of the session, but he put in a timed lap! Actually, seven seconds off the pace isn't so terribly bad, all things considered...
More tomorrow evening.
UPDATE: No sooner had I typed that last sentence than Renault's Vitaly Petrov set off on a hot lap... and had a little tire problem of his own.
He did say on the radio that "the suspension, it was break (sic)," so take that for what it's worth.
More if someone else has something go bad.
ANOTHER UPDATE: No sooner had I typed that sentence than Virgin's Custard d'Ambrosio had a suspension failure of his own.
One begins to notice a trend occurring, doesn't one? I'm beginning to wonder if there's something wrong with this batch of Pirellis... I suppose an imbalanced tire could cause suspension damage, but you'd think the teams would have noticed that. Guess we'll have to wait on that one.
The session is over now, so I won't have the chance to cause any more incidents by saying "I'll have more tomorrow." Yeesh...
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April 04, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: Malaysia 2011
Leaving the season opener in Australia in the rear-view mirror, we head northwest a couple thousand miles to Malaysia this weekend. Let us take a look at the track map before we get to the good stuff:
As one can see, the Sepang International Circuit is dominated by two massive straightaways that should allow the Drag Reduction System to really show what it can do, unlike Australia's too-short straight. There is one factor that is even more important to any race here than the track layout itself, and that's the weather.
For Australia, the weather was surprisingly cool, sunny but only around 65°F. The forecast for the race weekend in Malaysia is temperatures around 90°F, very humid, and a lot of rain every day. The heat and track surface will cause the Pirelli tires to wear faster. Indeed, the tire manufacturer is predicting four stops, instead of three for Australia. Of course, they didn't exactly get that right in some cases, so who knows? And then there's the weather. If indeed it's raining during the race, just how will the Inters and Wets hold up? Earlier this year, "the rain in Spain falls mainly on test days" was the mantra, but the number of laps turned were rather low... nobody really knows what the wear will be. They might be longer-lived than the dry tires for all we know.
Another thing we don't know is what will happen if we get rain during Quals. Throw everybody into a cocked hat, pick a name at random, and there's your polesitter. Well, except for Virgin and HRT, of course. One thing we did learn during practice at Australia is that, if anybody is on-track with wet weather tires, the DRS is turned off and nobody can use it. Probably won't mean anything, but you never know if that'll make a difference.
Fortunately, we've got our usual sterling coverage coming from the good folks at SPEED. To start with, we get Friday's first practice session, streaming live at speedtv.com, from 9pm to 1030pm on Thursday night. Practice 2 will also be live, though that'll be on SPEED itself, from 1am to 240am Friday morning. P3 will be streamed live on Friday night, from 11pm to 12midnight. Will HRT make an appearance this time around, or will they merely be spectators again? They say they'll be on-track, but they said that two weeks ago, too.
The all-important Quals session will be plausibly live from 3am to 430am on Saturday morning... no way the F1U! crew will be awake for that, uh-uh. Finally, it all comes down to the Grand Prix of Malaysia, live from 230am to 5am on Sunday morning. There will be two replays, from 130pm to 4pm on Sunday afternoon, and from 11am to 130pm on Tuesday, April 12th.
Of course, F1 Update! will be all over it as much as we are physically able! See you then!
As one can see, the Sepang International Circuit is dominated by two massive straightaways that should allow the Drag Reduction System to really show what it can do, unlike Australia's too-short straight. There is one factor that is even more important to any race here than the track layout itself, and that's the weather.
For Australia, the weather was surprisingly cool, sunny but only around 65°F. The forecast for the race weekend in Malaysia is temperatures around 90°F, very humid, and a lot of rain every day. The heat and track surface will cause the Pirelli tires to wear faster. Indeed, the tire manufacturer is predicting four stops, instead of three for Australia. Of course, they didn't exactly get that right in some cases, so who knows? And then there's the weather. If indeed it's raining during the race, just how will the Inters and Wets hold up? Earlier this year, "the rain in Spain falls mainly on test days" was the mantra, but the number of laps turned were rather low... nobody really knows what the wear will be. They might be longer-lived than the dry tires for all we know.
Another thing we don't know is what will happen if we get rain during Quals. Throw everybody into a cocked hat, pick a name at random, and there's your polesitter. Well, except for Virgin and HRT, of course. One thing we did learn during practice at Australia is that, if anybody is on-track with wet weather tires, the DRS is turned off and nobody can use it. Probably won't mean anything, but you never know if that'll make a difference.
Fortunately, we've got our usual sterling coverage coming from the good folks at SPEED. To start with, we get Friday's first practice session, streaming live at speedtv.com, from 9pm to 1030pm on Thursday night. Practice 2 will also be live, though that'll be on SPEED itself, from 1am to 240am Friday morning. P3 will be streamed live on Friday night, from 11pm to 12midnight. Will HRT make an appearance this time around, or will they merely be spectators again? They say they'll be on-track, but they said that two weeks ago, too.
The all-important Quals session will be plausibly live from 3am to 430am on Saturday morning... no way the F1U! crew will be awake for that, uh-uh. Finally, it all comes down to the Grand Prix of Malaysia, live from 230am to 5am on Sunday morning. There will be two replays, from 130pm to 4pm on Sunday afternoon, and from 11am to 130pm on Tuesday, April 12th.
Of course, F1 Update! will be all over it as much as we are physically able! See you then!
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March 26, 2011
F1 Quals: Australia 2011
The gloves are off. The field is now level. We'll finally get to see the true pace of the cars on similar setups: low fuel and soft tires, no-holds barred. Throw in the stresses of the knockout format and the "new" 107% rule, and we're about to discover who's fast and who's not. It's 2011's first Quals, and it's for the Grand Prix of Australia. Let's take a look at the provisional results:
Red Bull's Seb Vettel simply blew away the field in quals, never putting a foot wrong and taking a half-second off his pole time from last year. This is even more amazing when you consider that the teams had been saying that the new Pirelli tires were trending around two seconds a lap slower than the 2010 Bridgestones. It becomes flat-out astonishing when you realize that he had a KERS failure and couldn't use the power boost on his fastest lap! He's nearly a full second faster than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who will be second on the grid. He's nearly 1.3 seconds ahead of Hamilton's teammate Jenson Button, who'll be starting fourth. Australian Mark Webber, also of Red Bull, slotted into third.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa has never been fond of the track at Melbourne, and his discomfort showed quite clearly in Q3, managing only 8th while his teammate, HWMNBN, managed a stout 5th. Indeed, as he rolled out for his first hot laps with two minutes or so left in the session, he immediately spun coming out of the pits, doing a lovely job of flatspotting all four tires in the process. While others also had problems with grip, the diminutive Brazilian (try saying that three times fast) looked as if his racing line had been coated with teflon all day.
You'll note that Rubens Barrichello has a "No Time" next to his name in Q2. Before he could get a timed lap in the books, he got a tire onto the grass, spun out and beached himself in a gravel trap. Towards the end of the session, Adrian F'n Sutil had the Exciting Moment Of The Dayâ„¢ when he hooked a tire off the pavement on the exit of the final turn. His Force India immediately snapped hard right, sending him diving for the inside wall of the front straight. Just as quickly, Sutil gathered the car up in a cloud of tire smoke and got it rotating the other way. He wound up rotating a couple of times as the car progressed down the straight, but he kept it out of the walls. As the L.A.T. mentioned, NASCAR announcer Darryl Waltrip calls that "crashing without hitting anything." Indeed.
You'll also note that the times for the two HRTs of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Kittylitter are in a dark green, as opposed to red. That means that they've run afoul of the 107% rule and are therefore to be excluded from the race. The race stewards do have the option of giving one or both cars a dispensation, thereby allowing them to run in the race, but that would probably only happen if the other teams agreed... not likely. It'd be a shame if they couldn't run, particularly considering their financial troubles and the immense effort the team put in to getting the cars ready to race, but the rules are on the books.
We'll find out soon enough. The race is early Sunday morning, Pond time. The F1Update! will be up... sometime on Sunday. Ph.Duck is returning from two weeks in India sometime around 8am or so, and I'll be picking him up, maybe taking him to breakfast if he has the energy, that sort of thing. So I'm not sure when I'll write the F1U! but it'll happen Sunday for sure. See ya then!
Red Bull's Seb Vettel simply blew away the field in quals, never putting a foot wrong and taking a half-second off his pole time from last year. This is even more amazing when you consider that the teams had been saying that the new Pirelli tires were trending around two seconds a lap slower than the 2010 Bridgestones. It becomes flat-out astonishing when you realize that he had a KERS failure and couldn't use the power boost on his fastest lap! He's nearly a full second faster than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who will be second on the grid. He's nearly 1.3 seconds ahead of Hamilton's teammate Jenson Button, who'll be starting fourth. Australian Mark Webber, also of Red Bull, slotted into third.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa has never been fond of the track at Melbourne, and his discomfort showed quite clearly in Q3, managing only 8th while his teammate, HWMNBN, managed a stout 5th. Indeed, as he rolled out for his first hot laps with two minutes or so left in the session, he immediately spun coming out of the pits, doing a lovely job of flatspotting all four tires in the process. While others also had problems with grip, the diminutive Brazilian (try saying that three times fast) looked as if his racing line had been coated with teflon all day.
You'll note that Rubens Barrichello has a "No Time" next to his name in Q2. Before he could get a timed lap in the books, he got a tire onto the grass, spun out and beached himself in a gravel trap. Towards the end of the session, Adrian F'n Sutil had the Exciting Moment Of The Dayâ„¢ when he hooked a tire off the pavement on the exit of the final turn. His Force India immediately snapped hard right, sending him diving for the inside wall of the front straight. Just as quickly, Sutil gathered the car up in a cloud of tire smoke and got it rotating the other way. He wound up rotating a couple of times as the car progressed down the straight, but he kept it out of the walls. As the L.A.T. mentioned, NASCAR announcer Darryl Waltrip calls that "crashing without hitting anything." Indeed.
You'll also note that the times for the two HRTs of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Kittylitter are in a dark green, as opposed to red. That means that they've run afoul of the 107% rule and are therefore to be excluded from the race. The race stewards do have the option of giving one or both cars a dispensation, thereby allowing them to run in the race, but that would probably only happen if the other teams agreed... not likely. It'd be a shame if they couldn't run, particularly considering their financial troubles and the immense effort the team put in to getting the cars ready to race, but the rules are on the books.
We'll find out soon enough. The race is early Sunday morning, Pond time. The F1Update! will be up... sometime on Sunday. Ph.Duck is returning from two weeks in India sometime around 8am or so, and I'll be picking him up, maybe taking him to breakfast if he has the energy, that sort of thing. So I'm not sure when I'll write the F1U! but it'll happen Sunday for sure. See ya then!
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March 25, 2011
F1 Practice: Australia 2011
It's been a long wait, but F1 cars have finally returned to the track to begin the 2011 season! I think we can officially say "Yay!" now.
As is usual with Practice sessions you can't take any of the times set as gospel, but the usual teams were up at the top and the usual teams were down at the bottom. The more things change...
It's looking like the biggest factor in Sunday's race may not be the cars, nor the drivers, but the tires. Both the Powers That Be in F1 and the teams asked new tire manufacturer Pirelli to create a larger difference in tire wear between compounds of rubber. This shortens the life of the tire, making for more pit stops. Well, be careful what you ask for, because Pirelli has come through in spades. Using the soft tires as an example, reports are that it wears in a predictable fashion... until it completely drops off the table at a completely unpredictable point. Once it does that, the tire is totally worthless. You might get 10 or 12 laps of performance out of the rubber, but that's it. Last year, you'd go for 12 laps, then if you took care of your tires, get another 20 laps of decent performance out of them. Not now... now when the tires go off, a car can expect to lose five or six seconds per lap or even more. If you're lucky, the tire hits that point when you're near the pit-in. If you're not.... Even better, and I say that completely unsarcastically, the boffins on the pit wall won't be able to tell the drivers when that fail point is coming. The driver will have to feel it themselves, and make the call on the fly. THAT's good for the sport.
What isn't so good is that the new Pirellis appear to be somewhat fragile. I don't mean in the way it wears, but in the base construction of the tire altogether. Take a look at this:
This tire was the front-left of Seb Vettel's Red Bull. All he did was run over a curb and it ripped a big chunk off the surface, revealing the canvas backing underneath. Before you say something like "this must be an isolated case," one of the Virgin drivers had the same problem... on the back-right, and he didn't run over anything. They're saying that these things shed rubber like a longhaired cat sheds fur in the summertime. Something to watch for, that.
Speaking of Virgin, they and HRT seem to be in serious jeopardy of not qualifying for the race due to the return of the 107% rule. Virgin was setting times fourteen seconds off the pace of the leaders. HRT didn't get a car on track until there was around 1m45s left in the 90 minute second practice session. They were too busy putting the car together in the garage and getting it into running shape to even hope to get a timed lap in. They weren't even thinking about getting the second car into Practice 2, and everybody in the garage, from team principal Colin Kolles to the guy who sweeps up, looked exhausted. According to SPEED's pit-lane reporter, the mechanics had been working on the car around the clock since Tuesday, and by the looks on the faces of the team members, he wasn't exaggerating. I suspect that we'll be looking at a 20-car race on Sunday, maybe 22. We almost certainly won't be seeing HRT.
Qualifying early Saturday morning.
As is usual with Practice sessions you can't take any of the times set as gospel, but the usual teams were up at the top and the usual teams were down at the bottom. The more things change...
It's looking like the biggest factor in Sunday's race may not be the cars, nor the drivers, but the tires. Both the Powers That Be in F1 and the teams asked new tire manufacturer Pirelli to create a larger difference in tire wear between compounds of rubber. This shortens the life of the tire, making for more pit stops. Well, be careful what you ask for, because Pirelli has come through in spades. Using the soft tires as an example, reports are that it wears in a predictable fashion... until it completely drops off the table at a completely unpredictable point. Once it does that, the tire is totally worthless. You might get 10 or 12 laps of performance out of the rubber, but that's it. Last year, you'd go for 12 laps, then if you took care of your tires, get another 20 laps of decent performance out of them. Not now... now when the tires go off, a car can expect to lose five or six seconds per lap or even more. If you're lucky, the tire hits that point when you're near the pit-in. If you're not.... Even better, and I say that completely unsarcastically, the boffins on the pit wall won't be able to tell the drivers when that fail point is coming. The driver will have to feel it themselves, and make the call on the fly. THAT's good for the sport.
What isn't so good is that the new Pirellis appear to be somewhat fragile. I don't mean in the way it wears, but in the base construction of the tire altogether. Take a look at this:
This tire was the front-left of Seb Vettel's Red Bull. All he did was run over a curb and it ripped a big chunk off the surface, revealing the canvas backing underneath. Before you say something like "this must be an isolated case," one of the Virgin drivers had the same problem... on the back-right, and he didn't run over anything. They're saying that these things shed rubber like a longhaired cat sheds fur in the summertime. Something to watch for, that.
Speaking of Virgin, they and HRT seem to be in serious jeopardy of not qualifying for the race due to the return of the 107% rule. Virgin was setting times fourteen seconds off the pace of the leaders. HRT didn't get a car on track until there was around 1m45s left in the 90 minute second practice session. They were too busy putting the car together in the garage and getting it into running shape to even hope to get a timed lap in. They weren't even thinking about getting the second car into Practice 2, and everybody in the garage, from team principal Colin Kolles to the guy who sweeps up, looked exhausted. According to SPEED's pit-lane reporter, the mechanics had been working on the car around the clock since Tuesday, and by the looks on the faces of the team members, he wasn't exaggerating. I suspect that we'll be looking at a 20-car race on Sunday, maybe 22. We almost certainly won't be seeing HRT.
Qualifying early Saturday morning.
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March 23, 2011
The Greatest F1 Picture... EVER. And This Time I Mean It.
Earlier today, I was trying to figure out what I was going to post upon tonight. Really, I had no idea...I was all set to just say "eh" and leave it at that. Then the Official First Friend of The Pond, Vaucaunson's Duck, saw a comment from reader Dkallen99 and e-mailed me.
The contents of the letter were, essentially, "I dunno, I see the duck."
MUCH better.
The contents of the letter were, essentially, "I dunno, I see the duck."
MUCH better.
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March 22, 2011
The Greatest F1 Picture... EVER.
Earlier today, I was trying to figure out what I was going to post upon tonight. Really, I had no idea... nothing is going on as everybody gets ready for the first F1 race of the year, or more correctly, nothing interesting is going on. Rio Rainbow Gate! episode 12 hasn't appeared on the intertubes yet. I don't have a burning passion to post on a WWII vessel or plane at the moment. I was all set to just say "eh" and leave it at that.
Then I found The Greatest F1 Picture... EVER.
Short of everything being on fire, there is no possible way to improve upon the perfection of this shot. Really.
In case anybody is wondering, that's Jenson Button driving the 2008 McLaren around the Mount Panorama circuit at Bathurst, Australia. And a helicopter. I'm assuming that corner is Skyline.
Bathurst is a circuit that's pretty much unknown to US audiences. That's a shame, because it's truly amazing. Take a look:
Almost 200 meters of elevation change. Crikey. You go up the mountain, run around the top, then come down again. The two V8 Supercars races here are a 1000km event... and a 12 hour endurance race. I've seen a couple of the 1000s, and it's like nothing here. Hopefully SPEED will pick up the 2011 race... I don't see why they wouldn't, they're showing the V8S series anyway.
Ah, but if F1 cars were to race there... we can but dream.
Then I found The Greatest F1 Picture... EVER.
Short of everything being on fire, there is no possible way to improve upon the perfection of this shot. Really.
In case anybody is wondering, that's Jenson Button driving the 2008 McLaren around the Mount Panorama circuit at Bathurst, Australia. And a helicopter. I'm assuming that corner is Skyline.
Bathurst is a circuit that's pretty much unknown to US audiences. That's a shame, because it's truly amazing. Take a look:
Ah, but if F1 cars were to race there... we can but dream.
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March 21, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: Australia 2011
The cars have been delivered.
The crew are busy setting up the track.
That can mean only one thing... Formula 1 is back! And if F1 is back, that too can only mean one thing... F1Update! is back! Welcome to the first installment of F1 on SPEED! for the 2011 season. I'm your host and resident fanatic, Wonderduck, and it'll be my pleasure to guide you through this 18-possibly-19-race year with the usual amount of humor, aplomb and maybe even a pinch of knowledge along the way.
As you know if you've been reading the off-season reports here at The Pond, the first race of the year was supposed to have been held at Bahrain two weekends ago. The Bahrainian people had something to say about that (and a few other things too), and the race was postponed and probably canceled. That means that Australia, long the traditional first race of the year and only recently displaced by oil money, really will be the first race of the season, and there's no better place for it in my opinion.
Let's take a look at the trackmap for the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne:
Running around a man-made lake in the center of Albert Park, the course is made up primarily by public roads. Technically this makes it a street circuit, but it doesn't much have the feel of one. It's best to think of Melbourne as a purpose-built course that just happens to have street cars drive on it every day.
It's generally considered a fast track, but the shortage of traditional straightaways does make it something of a challenge to pass on. The drivers generally like the course, often saying that it's neither challenging or boring to drive. Except when it rains; then it becomes something of a nightmare. The painted lines on the asphalt that designate lanes during the rest of the year (and earned the circuit the nickname "God's Slotcar Track") become quite slippery in the wet, a hazard not experienced anywhere else save Monte Carlo.
As with everything else at this place, the asphalt is neither particularly abrasive or easy on tires. Pirelli is probably very happy with this being the first race of the year; it'll give them a great baseline to work from for the rest of the season.
All in all, it's great to have F1 back. As usual, the good folks at SPEED will be bringing us their usual sterling coverage... with some bonuses!
Coverage begins online at SPEEDtv.com on Thursday evening from 830pm to 10pm, with a streaming feed of 1st Practice. Practice 2 will be broadcast live on SPEED early Friday morning, from 1230am to 210am. That'll be the first time the Legendary Announce Team will be providing commentary, by the way... all streaming events are strictly ambient sound. 3rd Practice will be streaming from 10pm to 11pm on Friday.
The all-important Qualifying session is plausibly live early Saturday morning, from 1am to 230am. It'll be interesting to see if HRT, the only team not to have turned any off-season testing laps, will be caught by the "new" 107% rule, and the only place to see it will be on SPEED.
Finally, the first race of the 2011 season, the Grand Prix of Australia, will be televised LIVE early Sunday morning, from 1230am to 3am. For those of you whose circadian rhythms don't work that way, there will be a replay on Monday, from 12noon to 230pm as well.
Of course, the first F1Update! of the year will go up sometime Sunday! We'll see you then, we'll see you here!
UPDATE: Of course, all times are Pond Central. If you're in Oregon, subtract two hours. Denver, subtract an hour. If you're in New York, move. If you're in London, watch the BBC.
The crew are busy setting up the track.
That can mean only one thing... Formula 1 is back! And if F1 is back, that too can only mean one thing... F1Update! is back! Welcome to the first installment of F1 on SPEED! for the 2011 season. I'm your host and resident fanatic, Wonderduck, and it'll be my pleasure to guide you through this 18-possibly-19-race year with the usual amount of humor, aplomb and maybe even a pinch of knowledge along the way.
As you know if you've been reading the off-season reports here at The Pond, the first race of the year was supposed to have been held at Bahrain two weekends ago. The Bahrainian people had something to say about that (and a few other things too), and the race was postponed and probably canceled. That means that Australia, long the traditional first race of the year and only recently displaced by oil money, really will be the first race of the season, and there's no better place for it in my opinion.
Let's take a look at the trackmap for the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne:
Running around a man-made lake in the center of Albert Park, the course is made up primarily by public roads. Technically this makes it a street circuit, but it doesn't much have the feel of one. It's best to think of Melbourne as a purpose-built course that just happens to have street cars drive on it every day.
It's generally considered a fast track, but the shortage of traditional straightaways does make it something of a challenge to pass on. The drivers generally like the course, often saying that it's neither challenging or boring to drive. Except when it rains; then it becomes something of a nightmare. The painted lines on the asphalt that designate lanes during the rest of the year (and earned the circuit the nickname "God's Slotcar Track") become quite slippery in the wet, a hazard not experienced anywhere else save Monte Carlo.
You can barely see the joins between track pieces.
Combined with the rather close armco barriers, it becomes quite easy to break your car with a moment's lapse in concentration. Last season the circuit was pretty much smooth, though some ripples were beginning to form in some braking zones. No surprise really, as the last resurfacing was nearly 15 years ago. As with everything else at this place, the asphalt is neither particularly abrasive or easy on tires. Pirelli is probably very happy with this being the first race of the year; it'll give them a great baseline to work from for the rest of the season.
All in all, it's great to have F1 back. As usual, the good folks at SPEED will be bringing us their usual sterling coverage... with some bonuses!
Coverage begins online at SPEEDtv.com on Thursday evening from 830pm to 10pm, with a streaming feed of 1st Practice. Practice 2 will be broadcast live on SPEED early Friday morning, from 1230am to 210am. That'll be the first time the Legendary Announce Team will be providing commentary, by the way... all streaming events are strictly ambient sound. 3rd Practice will be streaming from 10pm to 11pm on Friday.
The all-important Qualifying session is plausibly live early Saturday morning, from 1am to 230am. It'll be interesting to see if HRT, the only team not to have turned any off-season testing laps, will be caught by the "new" 107% rule, and the only place to see it will be on SPEED.
Finally, the first race of the 2011 season, the Grand Prix of Australia, will be televised LIVE early Sunday morning, from 1230am to 3am. For those of you whose circadian rhythms don't work that way, there will be a replay on Monday, from 12noon to 230pm as well.
Of course, the first F1Update! of the year will go up sometime Sunday! We'll see you then, we'll see you here!
UPDATE: Of course, all times are Pond Central. If you're in Oregon, subtract two hours. Denver, subtract an hour. If you're in New York, move. If you're in London, watch the BBC.
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March 18, 2011
Last F1 News 'n' Notes For The 2011 Preseason
As we head into the last weekend before the F1 Circus gets going in earnest, let us take a final look at the preseason goings-on, shall we?
First up, good news coming from the doctors of Robert Kubica! They're saying that he'll be up and around on crutches within a few weeks. While the worst damage the Pole suffered was to his right hand and arm, his right leg and foot were also badly injured in his rally car crash some weeks ago. Eric Bouiller, team principal for Renault, told reporters today that "(Kubica) is ahead of schedule on all the forecasts, whether to do with rehabilitation or recovery. He is proving to be an example to the hospital. He is extremely motivated, he has the morale, even if it's not rosy every day overall he is maintaining exceptional spirits." Still no word on if he'll ever be able to drive a F1 car again, but that's of little consequence in the grand scheme of things; picking up a fork looked like it may very well have been beyond him after the crash. Obviously we here at F1Update! wish him the best of luck.
Next, anybody who's watched a Formula 1 race will be able to testify to the difficulty of figuring out just exactly what tires any particular car was running at any given time during a race. The softer tire had a green stripe on the sidewall, the harder tire had nothing, and the only way to tell the difference between the intermediate and wet weather tires was the tread pattern... difficult to spot when a car is moving at 140mph. Pirelli, the new tire manufacturer for F1, has figured out a way to get rid of that problem, and unveiled it today.
Color-coding! Brilliant! The color/tire combinations are as follows:
Finally, Sauber's Gandalf Kobayashi spoke to the press today about the terrible earthquake and tsunami that his his homeland of Japan a week ago. "Of course I was very worried about my country and so went to Japan after the Barcelona test. I must say the situation is really, really bad," said Gandalf, whose family lives in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture. "I am worried the whole country could disappear – it is just too awful. Since the earthquake and the tsunami news is getting worse every day, there is nothing positive to look forward to at the moment." Continuing on, Kobayashi said "I feel I have to do something, I want to help – but in fact there is nothing I can do by myself. I think at least for the time being what I can do is to be focused and fully concentrate on the season’s opening race in Melbourne. Originally I was looking forward to this with great joy. Now what I really want to do is my very best to achieve a good result, which perhaps can at least give the people in Japan a little bit of hope and positive news."
HRT will race in Australia with the flag of Japan on their cars in tribute. Meanwhile, Swiss team Sauber will have the following banner on their cars:
The translation reads "May our prayers reach the people in Japan." A nice gesture.
First up, good news coming from the doctors of Robert Kubica! They're saying that he'll be up and around on crutches within a few weeks. While the worst damage the Pole suffered was to his right hand and arm, his right leg and foot were also badly injured in his rally car crash some weeks ago. Eric Bouiller, team principal for Renault, told reporters today that "(Kubica) is ahead of schedule on all the forecasts, whether to do with rehabilitation or recovery. He is proving to be an example to the hospital. He is extremely motivated, he has the morale, even if it's not rosy every day overall he is maintaining exceptional spirits." Still no word on if he'll ever be able to drive a F1 car again, but that's of little consequence in the grand scheme of things; picking up a fork looked like it may very well have been beyond him after the crash. Obviously we here at F1Update! wish him the best of luck.
Next, anybody who's watched a Formula 1 race will be able to testify to the difficulty of figuring out just exactly what tires any particular car was running at any given time during a race. The softer tire had a green stripe on the sidewall, the harder tire had nothing, and the only way to tell the difference between the intermediate and wet weather tires was the tread pattern... difficult to spot when a car is moving at 140mph. Pirelli, the new tire manufacturer for F1, has figured out a way to get rid of that problem, and unveiled it today.
Color-coding! Brilliant! The color/tire combinations are as follows:
Orange: Full Wet Blue: Intermediates Red: Super-softs
Yellow: Softs White: Medium Silver: Hard
The tires are proving to be somewhere between one and two seconds slower than last year's Bridgestones. They're also much less sturdy. We won't be seeing someone going almost the entire race on a single set of tires, like Seb Vettel did at Monza last year. In fact, Pirelli is thinking three stops for tires per race. This isn't a bug, it's a feature, a feature the FIA asked for. Forget about KERS or the movable rear wing, tires are going to be the biggest technical change this year.Yellow: Softs White: Medium Silver: Hard
Finally, Sauber's Gandalf Kobayashi spoke to the press today about the terrible earthquake and tsunami that his his homeland of Japan a week ago. "Of course I was very worried about my country and so went to Japan after the Barcelona test. I must say the situation is really, really bad," said Gandalf, whose family lives in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture. "I am worried the whole country could disappear – it is just too awful. Since the earthquake and the tsunami news is getting worse every day, there is nothing positive to look forward to at the moment." Continuing on, Kobayashi said "I feel I have to do something, I want to help – but in fact there is nothing I can do by myself. I think at least for the time being what I can do is to be focused and fully concentrate on the season’s opening race in Melbourne. Originally I was looking forward to this with great joy. Now what I really want to do is my very best to achieve a good result, which perhaps can at least give the people in Japan a little bit of hope and positive news."
HRT will race in Australia with the flag of Japan on their cars in tribute. Meanwhile, Swiss team Sauber will have the following banner on their cars:
The translation reads "May our prayers reach the people in Japan." A nice gesture.
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March 10, 2011
McLaren MP4-26: Srs Bidnez
Sleek. Graceful. Streamlined. Sculpted, molded, polished. All of these words and more can be used to describe that most high-tech of all racing vehicles, the Formula 1 car. Able to slice through the air at 200mph or more, stop on a dime, or pull 5-G turns, all while its eight-cylinder engine is turning at at a mind-numbing 18000rpm. Tolerances are so tight that fluids have to be pre-heated to a viscosity very similar to that of water before a F1 engine can be run. The car as a whole is made of nigh-futuristic carbon fiber, aluminum, dozens of composites, beryllium, titanium, and many other, more esoteric, materials. Something as small as a front wingtip being slightly out of position (due to an accident, for example) can slow a F1 car dramatically, ruin its aerodynamics, compromise the grip levels in a turn, and cause brake failure and engine overheating. As much sculpture as machine, every inch of a F1 car is painstakingly designed to be just so.
And then McLaren rolled their 2011 challenger, the MP4-26, onto the track during the pre-season testing session at Barcelona yesterday.
D'awwwwwwwwww, isn't that cute? The car is obviously going through puberty... it got its first pimple!
Aerodynamics? Who needs 'em!
While it looks like the bracing wires on a Sopwith Camel, in actuality it's a testing rig designed to measure the stresses on the front wing. At least, that's what they claim. We here at F1Update! think that McLaren's Chief Aerodynamicist Doug McKiernan is taking his styling cues from something in nature:
And then McLaren rolled their 2011 challenger, the MP4-26, onto the track during the pre-season testing session at Barcelona yesterday.
D'awwwwwwwwww, isn't that cute? The car is obviously going through puberty... it got its first pimple!
Aerodynamics? Who needs 'em!
While it looks like the bracing wires on a Sopwith Camel, in actuality it's a testing rig designed to measure the stresses on the front wing. At least, that's what they claim. We here at F1Update! think that McLaren's Chief Aerodynamicist Doug McKiernan is taking his styling cues from something in nature:
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March 09, 2011
Yet Even Still More F1 News 'n' Notes
We're now two days into the final preseason test at Barcalounger, Spain, and we've got some information coming out.
First off, HRT has finally named the driver for the second seat. Ladies and Gentlemen, Vitantonio Liuzzi completes the field for the 2011 season, teaming up with Narain Kittylitter. Of course last season he drove for Force India so this is certainly a step down for Liuzzi, but then again, he's still driving in F1. That's gotta count for something, right?
Next, we're going to stick with HRT as they've announced that they'll be debuting their new chassis on Friday. Prior to this, they've been running last year's car to get tire data on the new Pirellis. You may remember that they were the last team to bring out their car for the 2010 season as well. Last year's hold-up was financial, and it's likely that money is the problem this time around as well. I'm beginning to wonder if they'll even finish the season at this rate... but then, I said the same thing last year.
Good news from Japan, as Suzuka was confirmed for the 2012 season, ending speculation as to whether it would be dropped from the calendar after the track's current deal expired this year. While the Great Suzuka Boat Races would be missed, I think the track would be missed even more if it was gone. It's probably my third-favorite course on the calendar, behind Spa-Francopants and Silverstone, and Japan has a rich history in F1. I'm glad it's sticking around, is what I'm saying.
Of course, one can't really judge anything from pre-season testing, but evidence is building that Red Bull is still the fastest car out there, followed by Ferrari. After that, things get muddled, but one thing that's becoming clear is that both Mercedes and McLaren are in serious trouble, at least as the first race of the year goes. Mercedes has been trending almost a second per lap slower than the leaders, while McLaren has had problems with both pace and reliability. After today's test session ended, Lewis Hamilton was interviewed by reporters. "Do I believe I have a car to win the world championship at the moment? I don't. No," said Hamilton. "But that doesn't mean it won't become a world championship-winning car." Where everybody else were turning in 100-lap runs, McLaren had two major malfunctions that limited Hamilton to just over 50 laps today. Teammate Jenson Button was equally pessimistic. "I will be surprised if we can match the Red Bull or Ferrari when we get to Melbourne, that’s a big ask considering the mileage we’ve had compared to them and the pace from the last test. It’s going to be tricky but never say never."
Finally, in an e-mail to Ph.Duck regarding the upcoming Grand Prix of India, I mentioned that I'd seen a line drawing of the circuit's layout. It looked pretty decent, but I had no idea if there were to be any elevation change involved. Ph.Duck, who is going to India for two weeks on Friday, then went searching the interwebs for more information on the new JayPee circuit. What he found was much, much better than a simple map.
Sure it's a promotional piece, and therefore open to speculation as to just how much of it is truth and how much fiction, but it at least seems promising. Gotta love the elephants.
First off, HRT has finally named the driver for the second seat. Ladies and Gentlemen, Vitantonio Liuzzi completes the field for the 2011 season, teaming up with Narain Kittylitter. Of course last season he drove for Force India so this is certainly a step down for Liuzzi, but then again, he's still driving in F1. That's gotta count for something, right?
Next, we're going to stick with HRT as they've announced that they'll be debuting their new chassis on Friday. Prior to this, they've been running last year's car to get tire data on the new Pirellis. You may remember that they were the last team to bring out their car for the 2010 season as well. Last year's hold-up was financial, and it's likely that money is the problem this time around as well. I'm beginning to wonder if they'll even finish the season at this rate... but then, I said the same thing last year.
Good news from Japan, as Suzuka was confirmed for the 2012 season, ending speculation as to whether it would be dropped from the calendar after the track's current deal expired this year. While the Great Suzuka Boat Races would be missed, I think the track would be missed even more if it was gone. It's probably my third-favorite course on the calendar, behind Spa-Francopants and Silverstone, and Japan has a rich history in F1. I'm glad it's sticking around, is what I'm saying.
Of course, one can't really judge anything from pre-season testing, but evidence is building that Red Bull is still the fastest car out there, followed by Ferrari. After that, things get muddled, but one thing that's becoming clear is that both Mercedes and McLaren are in serious trouble, at least as the first race of the year goes. Mercedes has been trending almost a second per lap slower than the leaders, while McLaren has had problems with both pace and reliability. After today's test session ended, Lewis Hamilton was interviewed by reporters. "Do I believe I have a car to win the world championship at the moment? I don't. No," said Hamilton. "But that doesn't mean it won't become a world championship-winning car." Where everybody else were turning in 100-lap runs, McLaren had two major malfunctions that limited Hamilton to just over 50 laps today. Teammate Jenson Button was equally pessimistic. "I will be surprised if we can match the Red Bull or Ferrari when we get to Melbourne, that’s a big ask considering the mileage we’ve had compared to them and the pace from the last test. It’s going to be tricky but never say never."
Finally, in an e-mail to Ph.Duck regarding the upcoming Grand Prix of India, I mentioned that I'd seen a line drawing of the circuit's layout. It looked pretty decent, but I had no idea if there were to be any elevation change involved. Ph.Duck, who is going to India for two weeks on Friday, then went searching the interwebs for more information on the new JayPee circuit. What he found was much, much better than a simple map.
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March 01, 2011
Even Still More F1 News 'n' Notes
We're heading into the fourth and final pre-season test session this weekend... and then the tension starts as we bite our nails (ducks have nails?) waiting for the first race of the year. Until then though, there's a little bit of news floating around the 'net.
First up, Timo Glockenspiel probably won't be participating in this test session as he's currently in hospital. The Virgin driver suffered a sudden attack of appendicitis and had that vestigial organ removed in a Swiss hospital yesterday. He should be released on Wednesday, but to speed his recovery along, he'll likely be sitting out the four-day session. Jerome D'Ambrosio will be doing all the laps for the team in Timo's absence. Get well soon, Timo!
Next, it's sounding more and more like the Grand Prix of Bahrain just won't die this year. Birdy Ecclestone has found a date for the race, and it won't conflict with any of the existing races... sounds great, right? Well, not so much: it's during the F1 Circus' summer break, in August. In Bahrain. A hot country, in the hot season, on a hot surface. IN THE FRICKIN' DESERT! Never mind the cars overheating, I'm frightened that the drivers will die in the cockpit. It's not like there's air conditioning in these cars...
On the news of that bombshell, work has begun in Austin, TX on the new USGP track there. Earth has been moved for the past couple of weeks, according to the Austin Statesman newspaper/website, and is going on roughly 12 hours a day, six days a week. More importantly, the promoters have been told to expect a June 2012 race date. Pretty much what I expected; it only makes sense to have the US race either just before or just after the Canadian GP. Yes, the teams want to be in the USA, but not enough to make two trips to North America in a season...
Finally, Jackie Stewart has never been one to keep his mouth shut when he thinks there's a problem, and a couple of days ago he said what a lot of us F1 fans have been yowling about for years. "My belief is that the major reason for the lack of overtaking in modern grand prix racing is down to the modern tracks, nearly all of which have been designed by the same man, the German architect Hermann Tilke," said Stewart. "Racetracks have changed since my day and thank God for that. Back then a driver who raced for five years had a two in three chance of being killed. But we have now gone too far the other way. Circuits should not permit liberties to be abused without a penalty that can be instantly recognised by spectators or TV viewers. Safety is one thing; abuse of privilege is another. Unless circuits are modified, spectators and television viewers might have to live with a lack of overtaking for some time." Perhaps surprisingly, the chief pilot of Red Bull Airways, Mark Webber, agreed with Stewart. He then went on to damn with faint praise by saying that Tilke's best track was the Sepang International Raceway in Malaysia... which is kind of like being the smallest miniature giant space hamster.
First up, Timo Glockenspiel probably won't be participating in this test session as he's currently in hospital. The Virgin driver suffered a sudden attack of appendicitis and had that vestigial organ removed in a Swiss hospital yesterday. He should be released on Wednesday, but to speed his recovery along, he'll likely be sitting out the four-day session. Jerome D'Ambrosio will be doing all the laps for the team in Timo's absence. Get well soon, Timo!
Next, it's sounding more and more like the Grand Prix of Bahrain just won't die this year. Birdy Ecclestone has found a date for the race, and it won't conflict with any of the existing races... sounds great, right? Well, not so much: it's during the F1 Circus' summer break, in August. In Bahrain. A hot country, in the hot season, on a hot surface. IN THE FRICKIN' DESERT! Never mind the cars overheating, I'm frightened that the drivers will die in the cockpit. It's not like there's air conditioning in these cars...
On the news of that bombshell, work has begun in Austin, TX on the new USGP track there. Earth has been moved for the past couple of weeks, according to the Austin Statesman newspaper/website, and is going on roughly 12 hours a day, six days a week. More importantly, the promoters have been told to expect a June 2012 race date. Pretty much what I expected; it only makes sense to have the US race either just before or just after the Canadian GP. Yes, the teams want to be in the USA, but not enough to make two trips to North America in a season...
Finally, Jackie Stewart has never been one to keep his mouth shut when he thinks there's a problem, and a couple of days ago he said what a lot of us F1 fans have been yowling about for years. "My belief is that the major reason for the lack of overtaking in modern grand prix racing is down to the modern tracks, nearly all of which have been designed by the same man, the German architect Hermann Tilke," said Stewart. "Racetracks have changed since my day and thank God for that. Back then a driver who raced for five years had a two in three chance of being killed. But we have now gone too far the other way. Circuits should not permit liberties to be abused without a penalty that can be instantly recognised by spectators or TV viewers. Safety is one thing; abuse of privilege is another. Unless circuits are modified, spectators and television viewers might have to live with a lack of overtaking for some time." Perhaps surprisingly, the chief pilot of Red Bull Airways, Mark Webber, agreed with Stewart. He then went on to damn with faint praise by saying that Tilke's best track was the Sepang International Raceway in Malaysia... which is kind of like being the smallest miniature giant space hamster.
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February 21, 2011
Bahrain A No-Go
Bahrain, the scheduled first race of the 2011 F1 season, was postponed today. In a statement, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, said:
"Although Bernie Ecclestone had graciously made clear that a decision on the race was entirely Bahrain's to make and was not yet required, we felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting of Bahrain's Formula 1 race to a later date. We felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest. Bahrain’s priority is on overcoming tragedy, healing divisions and rediscovering the fabric that draws this country together to remind the world of the very best that Bahrain is capable of as a nation once again united."
Darth Bernie, who earlier this past weekend said that things looked good for the race before flip-flopping on that statement, said "It is sad that Bahrain has had to withdraw from the race, we wish the whole nation well as they begin to heal their country.“The hospitality and warmth of the people of Bahrain is a hallmark of the race there, as anyone who has been at a Bahrain Grand Prix will testify. We look forward to being back in Bahrain soon."
The test session scheduled to take place this weekend in Bahrain has been moved to Barcelona, as expected. Surprisingly, the race has NOT been canceled, with various reports stating that November 6th may be a likely date for a makeup. If that date turns out to be solid, there would be some interesting scheduling problems; the Grand Prix of India is October 30th and Abu Dhabi November 11th. Three races in three weekends, all of them rather distant to boot, could cause no end of stress.
For what it's worth, it's F1U!'s opinion that the race should not be run this season. F1 can be as much about politics as it is about racing, and as the most watched seasonal sport in the world it has a responsibility to be sensitive to the Bahrani people. When you read such things as "(the race) has been the prince's dream since he was a child. He wants to negotiate so he can fulfill this dream, and it makes me sad that his dream is more dear to him than the needs of his people. "There is a big connection between (the uprising) and Formula 1," coming from the mouths of some of the protesters, it's clear what should and should not be done. Just do the right thing, Bernie.
The first race of the season will now be Australia, the way it should have been in the first place, on March 27th.
Bahrain, the scheduled first race of the 2011 F1 season, was postponed today. In a statement, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, said:
"Although Bernie Ecclestone had graciously made clear that a decision on the race was entirely Bahrain's to make and was not yet required, we felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting of Bahrain's Formula 1 race to a later date. We felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest. Bahrain’s priority is on overcoming tragedy, healing divisions and rediscovering the fabric that draws this country together to remind the world of the very best that Bahrain is capable of as a nation once again united."
Darth Bernie, who earlier this past weekend said that things looked good for the race before flip-flopping on that statement, said "It is sad that Bahrain has had to withdraw from the race, we wish the whole nation well as they begin to heal their country.“The hospitality and warmth of the people of Bahrain is a hallmark of the race there, as anyone who has been at a Bahrain Grand Prix will testify. We look forward to being back in Bahrain soon."
The test session scheduled to take place this weekend in Bahrain has been moved to Barcelona, as expected. Surprisingly, the race has NOT been canceled, with various reports stating that November 6th may be a likely date for a makeup. If that date turns out to be solid, there would be some interesting scheduling problems; the Grand Prix of India is October 30th and Abu Dhabi November 11th. Three races in three weekends, all of them rather distant to boot, could cause no end of stress.
For what it's worth, it's F1U!'s opinion that the race should not be run this season. F1 can be as much about politics as it is about racing, and as the most watched seasonal sport in the world it has a responsibility to be sensitive to the Bahrani people. When you read such things as "(the race) has been the prince's dream since he was a child. He wants to negotiate so he can fulfill this dream, and it makes me sad that his dream is more dear to him than the needs of his people. "There is a big connection between (the uprising) and Formula 1," coming from the mouths of some of the protesters, it's clear what should and should not be done. Just do the right thing, Bernie.
The first race of the season will now be Australia, the way it should have been in the first place, on March 27th.
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February 19, 2011
Some More F1 News 'n' Tidbits
As test session #3 continues in Barcelona, a few more bits of news for us here on a Saturday.
First off, HRT has made an appearance! Not, alas, in their new car, but they were on track at Barcalounger. And behind the wheel? None other than The Fashion Victim himself, Vitantonio Liuzzi. Now we all know that HRT is the only team with an open seat for the 2011 season, and time is running seriously short. As much as I'm not fond of the guy, he'd be a fantastic pickup for the no-longer-rookie team. One of their biggest problems in 2010 was that they had two rookies driving for them, drivers who couldn't draw from past experience to say "this is wrong" or "don't touch that." Fielding a lineup of Liuzzi and Narain Kittylitter would be a huge step up from Cowboy Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna...
Over in Bahrain, things are getting even messier. More dead in the streets, reports of anti-aircraft guns being fired "over the heads" of protesters, and perhaps most incredibly, helicopter gunships shooting clearly marked ambulances. In the wake of all this, the UK Foreign Office has issued a travel advisory for Bahrain, warning against all non-essential travel to the country and telling British nationals in the country to keep their heads down and not to go outside. Of course, many F1 teams are based in the UK, and there's a whole slew of Brits up and down the paddock. Unless there's a miracle of some sort, I think it's pretty much a given that the first Grand Prix of the season is going to be canceled.
On a lighter note, I went grocery shopping this afternoon and as I often do, I stopped in the toy section to see if they had any rubber duckies... they didn't, but they did had a huge display of Hot Wheels cars. Unfortunately, they were in a bin so you couldn't see what was on the bottom. Just for the helluvit, I reached in at random and pulled a car out... sometimes the designs are amusing, after all. Much to my amusement, this is what was in my hand:
Yup! It's the Hot Wheels version of the Tyrrell P34, my favorite F1 car of all time.
It's not a horrible rendition of the car, actually. The driver's hideously out-of-scale as are the front tires, but for all that, not too bad. For a dollar, you don't particularly expect slavish devotion to detail. The paint scheme is completely unrelated to anything the P34 was ever attired in, but not a horrible fantasy; there was a white upper/ dark blue lower paint scheme for the car. Apparently Hot Wheels did release a dark blue version of their car as well... I'll have to see if I can find one.
First off, HRT has made an appearance! Not, alas, in their new car, but they were on track at Barcalounger. And behind the wheel? None other than The Fashion Victim himself, Vitantonio Liuzzi. Now we all know that HRT is the only team with an open seat for the 2011 season, and time is running seriously short. As much as I'm not fond of the guy, he'd be a fantastic pickup for the no-longer-rookie team. One of their biggest problems in 2010 was that they had two rookies driving for them, drivers who couldn't draw from past experience to say "this is wrong" or "don't touch that." Fielding a lineup of Liuzzi and Narain Kittylitter would be a huge step up from Cowboy Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna...
Over in Bahrain, things are getting even messier. More dead in the streets, reports of anti-aircraft guns being fired "over the heads" of protesters, and perhaps most incredibly, helicopter gunships shooting clearly marked ambulances. In the wake of all this, the UK Foreign Office has issued a travel advisory for Bahrain, warning against all non-essential travel to the country and telling British nationals in the country to keep their heads down and not to go outside. Of course, many F1 teams are based in the UK, and there's a whole slew of Brits up and down the paddock. Unless there's a miracle of some sort, I think it's pretty much a given that the first Grand Prix of the season is going to be canceled.
On a lighter note, I went grocery shopping this afternoon and as I often do, I stopped in the toy section to see if they had any rubber duckies... they didn't, but they did had a huge display of Hot Wheels cars. Unfortunately, they were in a bin so you couldn't see what was on the bottom. Just for the helluvit, I reached in at random and pulled a car out... sometimes the designs are amusing, after all. Much to my amusement, this is what was in my hand:
Yup! It's the Hot Wheels version of the Tyrrell P34, my favorite F1 car of all time.
It's not a horrible rendition of the car, actually. The driver's hideously out-of-scale as are the front tires, but for all that, not too bad. For a dollar, you don't particularly expect slavish devotion to detail. The paint scheme is completely unrelated to anything the P34 was ever attired in, but not a horrible fantasy; there was a white upper/ dark blue lower paint scheme for the car. Apparently Hot Wheels did release a dark blue version of their car as well... I'll have to see if I can find one.
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February 17, 2011
Some F1 News 'n' Tidbits
Just a quick look around the world of F1 today:
Things are looking a little grim for the F1 season opening race in Bahrain as that country's citizens emulate the Egyptian revolution. The Circus is scheduled to be testing there March 3rd through the 6th, just ahead of the race weekend of the 11th through the 13th. There have been five killed in overnight rioting in the nation's capital, and earlier today the GP2 Asia series race, scheduled for this weekend, was canceled. The Bahrain International Circuit's permanent medical staff has moved to the local hospitals to help with the influx of injured. There are reports of foreign journalists being denied entry to Bahrain, which would be a major problem for a F1 weekend, obviously. It also appears that much of the rioting is taking place right outside the location of the hotels most of the F1 teams use. Indeed, many of the GP2 teams were told to stay at the racetrack instead of returning to their hotels last night, for their own safety. Darth Bernie is reportedly in talks with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, and Jean Todt, FIA Lord of the Sweaters, said before the GP2 race was canceled that the running of the F1 race might very well "depend on the GP2 race being run." We'll keep you updated as news breaks.
Robert Kubica had his (hopefully) final surgery yesterday, an eight-hour marathon session to repair his shattered right elbow. He's reportedly resting comfortably, though in an Intensive Care Unit, following the procedure, which by all reports was completed successfully. According to HWMNBN, who's known the Polish driver since their karting days 15 years ago and is often seen playing poker and hanging out with him, the injuries may have been worse than were let on. "It was not so clear he was going to survive," said the Ferrari driver. "I tried to drive to the hospital to find out exactly what his injuries were." Rare signs of the Spaniard actually having a nice side to him.
Kubica's team, Renault, named his replacement for the 2011 season while the Pole was in surgery yesterday. As predicted, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld will be taking the seat for the first race of the year, whenever that will be. Good choice, solid all-round driver and an adequate replacement for Koobs. Now, a lineup of Koobs and Grizzly Nick would have been even better...
Finally, it appears that there's going to be a lot more pitstops this year. The new Pirelli tires were intentionally designed to wear faster, to the point that the super-softs were reportedly useless after one lap! While I can't find the exact quote at the moment, Rubens Barrichello said something to the effect of "the tires lasted for the out lap and about 2/3rds of the hot lap. After that they were terrible." Some teams are predicting four pit stops for tires per race. Pirelli pooh-poohs this, saying in effect "we have no idea where the teams are getting that idea, they should be able to do a race in three stops." Oh, yes, big difference there. The tire manufacturer will be bringing the Hard and Soft compound tires to the first four scheduled races.
Things are looking a little grim for the F1 season opening race in Bahrain as that country's citizens emulate the Egyptian revolution. The Circus is scheduled to be testing there March 3rd through the 6th, just ahead of the race weekend of the 11th through the 13th. There have been five killed in overnight rioting in the nation's capital, and earlier today the GP2 Asia series race, scheduled for this weekend, was canceled. The Bahrain International Circuit's permanent medical staff has moved to the local hospitals to help with the influx of injured. There are reports of foreign journalists being denied entry to Bahrain, which would be a major problem for a F1 weekend, obviously. It also appears that much of the rioting is taking place right outside the location of the hotels most of the F1 teams use. Indeed, many of the GP2 teams were told to stay at the racetrack instead of returning to their hotels last night, for their own safety. Darth Bernie is reportedly in talks with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, and Jean Todt, FIA Lord of the Sweaters, said before the GP2 race was canceled that the running of the F1 race might very well "depend on the GP2 race being run." We'll keep you updated as news breaks.
Robert Kubica had his (hopefully) final surgery yesterday, an eight-hour marathon session to repair his shattered right elbow. He's reportedly resting comfortably, though in an Intensive Care Unit, following the procedure, which by all reports was completed successfully. According to HWMNBN, who's known the Polish driver since their karting days 15 years ago and is often seen playing poker and hanging out with him, the injuries may have been worse than were let on. "It was not so clear he was going to survive," said the Ferrari driver. "I tried to drive to the hospital to find out exactly what his injuries were." Rare signs of the Spaniard actually having a nice side to him.
Kubica's team, Renault, named his replacement for the 2011 season while the Pole was in surgery yesterday. As predicted, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld will be taking the seat for the first race of the year, whenever that will be. Good choice, solid all-round driver and an adequate replacement for Koobs. Now, a lineup of Koobs and Grizzly Nick would have been even better...
Finally, it appears that there's going to be a lot more pitstops this year. The new Pirelli tires were intentionally designed to wear faster, to the point that the super-softs were reportedly useless after one lap! While I can't find the exact quote at the moment, Rubens Barrichello said something to the effect of "the tires lasted for the out lap and about 2/3rds of the hot lap. After that they were terrible." Some teams are predicting four pit stops for tires per race. Pirelli pooh-poohs this, saying in effect "we have no idea where the teams are getting that idea, they should be able to do a race in three stops." Oh, yes, big difference there. The tire manufacturer will be bringing the Hard and Soft compound tires to the first four scheduled races.
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February 10, 2011
Kubica Update (And Other News, Too)
As the second round of testing began at Jerez today, something rather cool took place. First there was Renault:
...then Sauber...
...McLaren...
...and all the rest of the teams, too. In case you don't understand Polish, the stickers all read "Get well soon, Robert!" While it often seems like the F1 teams despise each other and care only about winning no matter the costs, in truth everybody in the sport considers it something of a small fraternity. When one of their own is injured like Kubica was, or Felipe Massa two years ago, you see the teams tighten their ranks in support. Sure, on the track they'd slit each others throats to finish one spot closer to the top of the podium, but that's different; that's racing.
In more substantial news, Koobs left intensive care and was moved to a trauma ward at Santa Corona di Pietra Ligure hospital. He reportedly can move the fingers of his partially severed hand, and is doing well enough that the doctors have him scheduled for two surgeries on Friday. One is to fix the broken bones in his leg and ankle, then another on his right shoulder. Monday will see the docs go in to repair his shattered right elbow. Doctors are confident that he'll keep the hand, though they caution that such things are always in doubt. Good news indeed.
Renault has scheduled a mano y mano duel between Nick Heidfeld and Bruno Senna during this weekend's testing sessions to see who'll replace Koobs for the year. Senna, of course, drove for HRT last year... and drove down to the car's capabilities. Heidfeld drove for Sauber at the end of the 2010 season, but has 172 total starts under his belt. My money is on Grizzly Nick.
Finally, it appears that the old Ford/Ferrari enmity has burst back to the surface. It seems that the American auto maker didn't take too kindly to the Italian team's use of the "F150" name for their 2011 challenger. The name was chosen to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, says Ferrari. Ford said "we don't care" and filed a lawsuit to protect their copyrighted "F-150" truck's branding, seeking for Ferrari to stop using the name and unspecified damages. The Prancing Horse immediately changed the name of the car to "F150th Italia."
Uh-huh. Yeah, that'll work. Nobody'll notice that.
...then Sauber...
...McLaren...
...and all the rest of the teams, too. In case you don't understand Polish, the stickers all read "Get well soon, Robert!" While it often seems like the F1 teams despise each other and care only about winning no matter the costs, in truth everybody in the sport considers it something of a small fraternity. When one of their own is injured like Kubica was, or Felipe Massa two years ago, you see the teams tighten their ranks in support. Sure, on the track they'd slit each others throats to finish one spot closer to the top of the podium, but that's different; that's racing.
In more substantial news, Koobs left intensive care and was moved to a trauma ward at Santa Corona di Pietra Ligure hospital. He reportedly can move the fingers of his partially severed hand, and is doing well enough that the doctors have him scheduled for two surgeries on Friday. One is to fix the broken bones in his leg and ankle, then another on his right shoulder. Monday will see the docs go in to repair his shattered right elbow. Doctors are confident that he'll keep the hand, though they caution that such things are always in doubt. Good news indeed.
Renault has scheduled a mano y mano duel between Nick Heidfeld and Bruno Senna during this weekend's testing sessions to see who'll replace Koobs for the year. Senna, of course, drove for HRT last year... and drove down to the car's capabilities. Heidfeld drove for Sauber at the end of the 2010 season, but has 172 total starts under his belt. My money is on Grizzly Nick.
Finally, it appears that the old Ford/Ferrari enmity has burst back to the surface. It seems that the American auto maker didn't take too kindly to the Italian team's use of the "F150" name for their 2011 challenger. The name was chosen to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, says Ferrari. Ford said "we don't care" and filed a lawsuit to protect their copyrighted "F-150" truck's branding, seeking for Ferrari to stop using the name and unspecified damages. The Prancing Horse immediately changed the name of the car to "F150th Italia."
Uh-huh. Yeah, that'll work. Nobody'll notice that.
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February 07, 2011
Robert Kubica Wrecks In Rally Race, Maybe Out For Year
Horrible news from the F1 world today, as Renault driver Robert Kubica is probably out for the entirety of the 2011 season following a massive crash during a rally race in Italy today. Driving a Skoda Fabia Super 2000, the Pole hit a wet patch of road and speared off into the side of a church. It rebounded from the wall and hit a roadside barrier, which is believed to have pierced the Skoda's footwell.
Co-driver Jakub Gerber escaped without serious injury. Kubica was lifted via helicopter to a nearby hospital with multiple fractures to his right arm and leg. The worst injuries were to his right hand, which was partially severed in the accident. He underwent seven hours of surgeries to reconstruct the hand, and was placed in a medically-induced coma to aid with the immediate recovery. All reports are that the surgery went well and that blood flow to the hand has been reestablished.
Doctors suggest that recovery will take about a year. However, depending on the damage he may still lose some use of the hand, which would almost assuredly end his F1 career. He may still lose the hand, as reattachment surgery is never a sure thing.
Obviously Renault is going to have to find a replacement driver for at least the start of the 2011 season. Bruno Senna and Lettuce Grosjean are the team's reserve drivers, though both are very inexperienced, and neither seem to be particularly good. Nick Heidfeld is still a free agent, as is Vitantonio Liuzzi. Nico Hulkenberg could probably be lured away from his reserve role with Force India, as well.
We here at F1 Update! hope for a smooth and quick recovery, and wish Kubica the very best!
Co-driver Jakub Gerber escaped without serious injury. Kubica was lifted via helicopter to a nearby hospital with multiple fractures to his right arm and leg. The worst injuries were to his right hand, which was partially severed in the accident. He underwent seven hours of surgeries to reconstruct the hand, and was placed in a medically-induced coma to aid with the immediate recovery. All reports are that the surgery went well and that blood flow to the hand has been reestablished.
Doctors suggest that recovery will take about a year. However, depending on the damage he may still lose some use of the hand, which would almost assuredly end his F1 career. He may still lose the hand, as reattachment surgery is never a sure thing.
Obviously Renault is going to have to find a replacement driver for at least the start of the 2011 season. Bruno Senna and Lettuce Grosjean are the team's reserve drivers, though both are very inexperienced, and neither seem to be particularly good. Nick Heidfeld is still a free agent, as is Vitantonio Liuzzi. Nico Hulkenberg could probably be lured away from his reserve role with Force India, as well.
We here at F1 Update! hope for a smooth and quick recovery, and wish Kubica the very best!
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January 25, 2011
Ladies And Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!
It's been a long offseason to say the least. Once F1 went dark on the 2010 season, there's been little of note to come out of the world of autosports. However, this weekend is the unofficial start of the 2011 racing season, and none too soon.
Consider: Friday will see the first rollout of a F1 car, Ferrari's F50. Saturday brings the start of my second-favorite car race, the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona (the 24 Hours of LeMans is my favorite), followed by the ending of the race on Sunday.
Then we get four separate rollouts on Tuesday, February 1st: Williams, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Mercedes, as pre-season testing gets underway for the F1 circus. Finally, on Friday the 7th McLaren brings the MP4-26 to light in Berlin, topping off a busy, busy week!
As you can imagine, there'll be a whole slew of F1 Pr0n entries. And speaking of F1 Pr0n, watch this:
If that doesn't get your engine racing, nothing will.
Consider: Friday will see the first rollout of a F1 car, Ferrari's F50. Saturday brings the start of my second-favorite car race, the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona (the 24 Hours of LeMans is my favorite), followed by the ending of the race on Sunday.
Then we get four separate rollouts on Tuesday, February 1st: Williams, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Mercedes, as pre-season testing gets underway for the F1 circus. Finally, on Friday the 7th McLaren brings the MP4-26 to light in Berlin, topping off a busy, busy week!
As you can imagine, there'll be a whole slew of F1 Pr0n entries. And speaking of F1 Pr0n, watch this:
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January 09, 2011
F1 Silly Season Almost Over Already!
While we weren't watching, it seems that the F1 teams have pretty much locked down their driver lineups for the 2011 season. Let's take a look, shall we?
RED BULL: Seb Vettel, Mark Webber. No surprises here, though the drama continues behind the scenes in the Red Bull camp. A few days ago, Webber in an interview pretty much came out and said he knows he's not going to get any help. "You think there's a camaraderie, but in the end you know you're on your own," said the Aussie. He also said that he drove the last four races of the season with a broken shoulder, suffered in a mountain bike accident... and he didn't tell the team.
MCLAREN: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button. Again, no surprises. What, you expected the team to fire one of their champions? I don't think I'd take any team's lineup over these two.
FERRARI: HWMNBN, Felipe Massa. Massa's job is on the line. First Ferrari President Luca di Montezemelo said that Felipe drove "like his brother" in 2010. Then di Montezemelo confirmed that, while the rules on Team Orders have been removed in 2011, both drivers will start on equal footing. "I don't want to have a person that is frustrated from the first race because he knows he has less power. I want two drivers in a condition to win." He's not talking about HWMNBN, by the way.
MERCEDES GP: Nico Rosberg, Slappy Schumacher. Once again, no surprises. Rosberg is a coming young talent, Slappy's an old talent who improved as the season went on. If this team doesn't win a few races in 2011, I'll be very surprised.
LOTUS RENAULT GP: Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov. Big surprise here, in that Petrov was just bad last year. He did have a heckuva drive in Abu Dhabi which might have shown his true ability level, but all in all I'd've let some other team find it. His Russian financial backers must have coughed up a lot of cash, and to be fair he'll be quite the draw when the Russian Grand Prix goes off in 2014. Maybe by then he'll be good.
WILLIAMS: Rubens Barrichello, Pastor Maldonado. Maldonado, the reigning GP2 champion, replaces Nico Hulkenberg. The team swears up and down that the Venezuelan isn't a pay driver; the financial backing he brings is just a bonus, I guess. To be fair, he is supposed to be quite skilled. Barrichello, of course, is the most experienced driver in F1 history, but the only race he won last year was against The Stig.
FORCE INDIA: TBA, TBA. Vitantonio Liuzzi has a contract through the 2011 season. Rumors have Scotsman Paul di Resta, the team's 2010 test driver, taking his seat however, with Nico Hulkenberg in the test driver's seat. With Adrian Sutil almost certain to be returning to the team, that leaves Liuzzi out in the cold. Without an announcement from the team though, we have no idea what's going on.
SAUBER: Gandalf Kobayasahi, Sergio Perez. Perez comes to F1 via GP2, where he finished second to Pastor Maldonado in 2010. A native of Mexico, he comes bearing financial backing from Telmex and Carlos Slim (aka 'The Richest Man In The World'). If it came down to pure skill, I suspect that Nico Hulkenberg would deserve this seat more, but money always plays a part.
TORO ROSSO: Seb Buemi, NKOTT. No changes here, and no reason to. Both drivers fall into the category of 'useful', and the Red Bull junior team is hardly hurting for cash.
TEAM LOTUS: Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovaleinninninninninninnie. At the end of the 2010 season, reports surfaced that Lotus wanted to jettison Trulli. The Italian's contract supposedly contained a clause that read (in effect) that the team had to let him know by... I think it was Singapore... that they weren't going to bring him back, and they forgot about that. So we've got a team with a driver that they don't want. That can't be good for team chemistry, and it's not like the Malaysian team is swimming in money to buy him out.
HRT: Narain Kittylitter, TBA. I'm quite enthused about the return of Kittylitter, F1's first Indian driver. He drove for Team Jordan (which became MF1/Midland, Spyker F1, then Force India) in 2005, in which season he finished as high as 4th place (though it was in the US Grand Prix, contested by six cars). Since then, he's driven in A1GP, the European LeMans series, SuperLeague Formula, and in 2010, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Amazingly, he won the "most popular driver" award, as voted by the fans, in the Truck Series. He did pretty darn well there, though he didn't win a race. Not bad for a guy used to open-wheel cars that literally weigh less than half of what a NASCAR truck does. He comes with the backing of the TATA Group, the Indian auto manufacturer... perfect, since we'll have the first Indian Grand Prix this season.
VIRGIN RACING: Timo Glock, Jerome d'Ambrosio. Glock is exactly what a newbie team needs, and I think he's one of the most underrated drivers on the grid. Belgian d'Ambrosio was Renault's third driver for the 2010 season so he has some skill, but his racing career is hardly distinguished. He finished 2nd in the GP2 Asia 2008-2009 season, but that's about it. We'll see.
So three slots technically remain open for the 2011 season... will Nico Hulkenberg, who really deserves a seat, be offered one of them? And, considering that the two Force India seats probably aren't really open, would he even accept a drive with HRT? Or will he become a third driver? Only time will tell, and as soon as we know, I'll let you know!
RED BULL: Seb Vettel, Mark Webber. No surprises here, though the drama continues behind the scenes in the Red Bull camp. A few days ago, Webber in an interview pretty much came out and said he knows he's not going to get any help. "You think there's a camaraderie, but in the end you know you're on your own," said the Aussie. He also said that he drove the last four races of the season with a broken shoulder, suffered in a mountain bike accident... and he didn't tell the team.
MCLAREN: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button. Again, no surprises. What, you expected the team to fire one of their champions? I don't think I'd take any team's lineup over these two.
FERRARI: HWMNBN, Felipe Massa. Massa's job is on the line. First Ferrari President Luca di Montezemelo said that Felipe drove "like his brother" in 2010. Then di Montezemelo confirmed that, while the rules on Team Orders have been removed in 2011, both drivers will start on equal footing. "I don't want to have a person that is frustrated from the first race because he knows he has less power. I want two drivers in a condition to win." He's not talking about HWMNBN, by the way.
MERCEDES GP: Nico Rosberg, Slappy Schumacher. Once again, no surprises. Rosberg is a coming young talent, Slappy's an old talent who improved as the season went on. If this team doesn't win a few races in 2011, I'll be very surprised.
LOTUS RENAULT GP: Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov. Big surprise here, in that Petrov was just bad last year. He did have a heckuva drive in Abu Dhabi which might have shown his true ability level, but all in all I'd've let some other team find it. His Russian financial backers must have coughed up a lot of cash, and to be fair he'll be quite the draw when the Russian Grand Prix goes off in 2014. Maybe by then he'll be good.
WILLIAMS: Rubens Barrichello, Pastor Maldonado. Maldonado, the reigning GP2 champion, replaces Nico Hulkenberg. The team swears up and down that the Venezuelan isn't a pay driver; the financial backing he brings is just a bonus, I guess. To be fair, he is supposed to be quite skilled. Barrichello, of course, is the most experienced driver in F1 history, but the only race he won last year was against The Stig.
FORCE INDIA: TBA, TBA. Vitantonio Liuzzi has a contract through the 2011 season. Rumors have Scotsman Paul di Resta, the team's 2010 test driver, taking his seat however, with Nico Hulkenberg in the test driver's seat. With Adrian Sutil almost certain to be returning to the team, that leaves Liuzzi out in the cold. Without an announcement from the team though, we have no idea what's going on.
SAUBER: Gandalf Kobayasahi, Sergio Perez. Perez comes to F1 via GP2, where he finished second to Pastor Maldonado in 2010. A native of Mexico, he comes bearing financial backing from Telmex and Carlos Slim (aka 'The Richest Man In The World'). If it came down to pure skill, I suspect that Nico Hulkenberg would deserve this seat more, but money always plays a part.
TORO ROSSO: Seb Buemi, NKOTT. No changes here, and no reason to. Both drivers fall into the category of 'useful', and the Red Bull junior team is hardly hurting for cash.
TEAM LOTUS: Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovaleinninninninninninnie. At the end of the 2010 season, reports surfaced that Lotus wanted to jettison Trulli. The Italian's contract supposedly contained a clause that read (in effect) that the team had to let him know by... I think it was Singapore... that they weren't going to bring him back, and they forgot about that. So we've got a team with a driver that they don't want. That can't be good for team chemistry, and it's not like the Malaysian team is swimming in money to buy him out.
HRT: Narain Kittylitter, TBA. I'm quite enthused about the return of Kittylitter, F1's first Indian driver. He drove for Team Jordan (which became MF1/Midland, Spyker F1, then Force India) in 2005, in which season he finished as high as 4th place (though it was in the US Grand Prix, contested by six cars). Since then, he's driven in A1GP, the European LeMans series, SuperLeague Formula, and in 2010, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Amazingly, he won the "most popular driver" award, as voted by the fans, in the Truck Series. He did pretty darn well there, though he didn't win a race. Not bad for a guy used to open-wheel cars that literally weigh less than half of what a NASCAR truck does. He comes with the backing of the TATA Group, the Indian auto manufacturer... perfect, since we'll have the first Indian Grand Prix this season.
VIRGIN RACING: Timo Glock, Jerome d'Ambrosio. Glock is exactly what a newbie team needs, and I think he's one of the most underrated drivers on the grid. Belgian d'Ambrosio was Renault's third driver for the 2010 season so he has some skill, but his racing career is hardly distinguished. He finished 2nd in the GP2 Asia 2008-2009 season, but that's about it. We'll see.
So three slots technically remain open for the 2011 season... will Nico Hulkenberg, who really deserves a seat, be offered one of them? And, considering that the two Force India seats probably aren't really open, would he even accept a drive with HRT? Or will he become a third driver? Only time will tell, and as soon as we know, I'll let you know!
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December 26, 2010
Red Bull Have A Wicked Sense Of Humor
The Red Bull F1 team sent out their annual Christmas card, and... well, Ferrari must be spitting nails right about now.
Nice, very very nice....
Nice, very very nice....
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November 29, 2010
The Greatest Turn In Motorsport
That's quite the label, isn't it? "The Greatest Turn In Motorsport." If you want to start an argument amongst gearheads and racing fans, that's a good way to do it (another is "{insert name here} is the best driver of all time.").
There's a lot of famous bends out there. The Dunlop Curve at the Circuit de la Sarthe, home of the 24 Hours of LeMans. The Lowes Hairpin at Monaco. The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. The tri-oval at Daytona. 130R at Suzuka. Parabolica at Monza. The Kink at Road America. The Karussell at the Nurburgring. The list goes on and on. But only one can be the greatest and in this duck's mind, there can be no other than Spa-Francorchamps' Eau Rouge.
Why? That's simple... here's what it looks like from the bottom in 1997:
...and here's what it looks like from near the top today:
About 105 feet of elevation change. Now imagine taking it at 160 mph, knowing that there's another (blind) curve waiting for you just over the hill. While it's become a little bit easier for F1 cars to take Eau Rouge flat-out these days, thanks to high downforce and grippy tires, one still needs nerves of steel and attachments of brass to stick with it. Most F1 drivers will praise it to the heavens, and that's good enough for me.
But visually Eau Rouge is a spectacle one doesn't get to see much anymore: part hillclimb, part turn. Only the Corkscrew on the above list has any elevation change, and while it is steep, it's also short... there's no sense of the grandiose about it. Eau Rouge? If it could walk, it would swagger.
So that's my call for the greatest turn in motorsports. What's yours?
There's a lot of famous bends out there. The Dunlop Curve at the Circuit de la Sarthe, home of the 24 Hours of LeMans. The Lowes Hairpin at Monaco. The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. The tri-oval at Daytona. 130R at Suzuka. Parabolica at Monza. The Kink at Road America. The Karussell at the Nurburgring. The list goes on and on. But only one can be the greatest and in this duck's mind, there can be no other than Spa-Francorchamps' Eau Rouge.
Why? That's simple... here's what it looks like from the bottom in 1997:
...and here's what it looks like from near the top today:
About 105 feet of elevation change. Now imagine taking it at 160 mph, knowing that there's another (blind) curve waiting for you just over the hill. While it's become a little bit easier for F1 cars to take Eau Rouge flat-out these days, thanks to high downforce and grippy tires, one still needs nerves of steel and attachments of brass to stick with it. Most F1 drivers will praise it to the heavens, and that's good enough for me.
But visually Eau Rouge is a spectacle one doesn't get to see much anymore: part hillclimb, part turn. Only the Corkscrew on the above list has any elevation change, and while it is steep, it's also short... there's no sense of the grandiose about it. Eau Rouge? If it could walk, it would swagger.
So that's my call for the greatest turn in motorsports. What's yours?
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