Let's get to it, shall we?
Breakfast: Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco
I'll be honest: my interest in Formula 1 is waning. It's just not entertaining to watch a two hour parade. Monaco is perhaps the worst example of this: if you don't qualify on the front row, you have an absolutely terrible chance of winning. It should come as no surprise, then, that the winner of the Monaco Grand Prix qualified on the front row.
I know, I know, it was a Ferrari front row lockout and it's been forever since they've done that, and it was a Ferrari one-two finish and it's been forever since they've done that, and whatnot. I don't care. The only way you can pass at Monaco is via pit strategy, or during the chaos of a race start/restart. Any other time and you're likely to crash, as Jenson Button found out when he tried to pass Pascal Wehrlein. The resulting crash put Wehrlein on his side up against the wall and took both of them out of the race.
In other words, the F1 race was rather uneventful.
In typical F1 bureaucracy, Jenson Button was given a three grid spot penalty for the failed overtaking maneuver. For anyone unfamiliar with it, the F1 race stewards are a bunch of old chaps in suits sitting around a room looking at monitors and saying "you could've done that differently" on occasion, which I equate to your average YouTube commenter who engages in a healthy dose of backseat gaming. This penalty is to be served on his next qualifying result in this season. Since this was just a one-off thing, he'll never be able to serve that penalty, and thus penalizing him was pointless.
Lunch: Indianapolis 500
Did I mention Jenson Button up there? Didn't he retire from Formula 1? Why yes. Yes he did. Why was he back in the car for the Monaco race, then?
Because Fernando Alonso was at Indianapolis.
This move turned a lot of heads and gathered a lot of interest, as well as a lot of bunched panties from butthurt Europeans who consider American auto racing to be a wholly plebeian activity. I for one don't understand why all the commentators were so surprised that Alonso adapted so quickly. They spent plenty of time giving him praise for having won two F1 world championships and having raced against the best of the best there (i.e. Michael Schumacher), and then see him having no trouble picking up a slightly different race discipline and fail to add one and one.
I can't say for certain because I've never driven a race car professionally, but for a professional race car driver such as Fernando Alonso, switching disciplines must be fairly similar to a computer programmer learning a new programming language. The form may be slightly different, but all the core concepts are the same. It came as no surprise to me that he qualified well and was a factor for the entire race, up until his Honda done blow'd up. What I took from his interview after his engine let go was that he had way more fun not finishing the Indianapolis 500 than he's had in the past few years in Formula 1.
Other than Alonso, there were a few noteworthy events, namely the crash that took out Scott Dixon in epic fashion as he sailed through the air (and Helio Castroneves drove under him). Later on, a five-car pileup took out a couple Penske drivers, including Will Power.
At the end, though, it came down to two drivers: Takuma Sato and Helio Castroneves. Sato was going for his first win after coming so close in years past, and Castroneves was going for his fourth. Sato is aligned with one faction of the light side of the force, Andretti Autosport; and Castroneves is aligned with the dark side of the force, Penske. Thankfully Sato held off Castroneves and claimed his first Indy 500 victory.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway may only have four corners, but it produces a far more entertaining race than Monaco.
Dinner: Coca-Cola 600
Because my local Buffalo Wild Wings committed suicide by closing their old location while they're waiting for their new location to be built in an as-of-yet unspecified location, A friend and I had to look for another place to watch this race. To be honest, I don't really have much of a vested interest in NASCAR, especially this season with the idiotic "stages" thing they're doing, but nevertheless, this day is an important day in auto racing and I'm gonna watch it all.
Partway through there was a red flag for rain. Fox decided to run a classic NASCAR race to fill the time, and chose the 1987 Winston 500 from Talladega, which happened to have a crash that destroyed the catch fence and brought out a red flag. So just to reiterate, we were watching a race that had been red-flagged, and the race that had been put on to fill the time was also red-flagged.
They did eventually get going again and the rain stayed away. It was tough to watch this race, not because of anything that was happening, but because the TV was muted and the captions were off, but I did my best. With a few laps to go, we were worried that it was going to be JOHNSONWINSLOL, but then I noticed that the gap back to second was gradually going down and people were un-lapping themselves like crazy. I guess he was trying to save fuel or something, but it didn't work because he ran out with about three laps to go and Austin Dillon inherited both the race lead and the victory, which happened to be his first NASCAR race victory.
Showing posts with label auto racing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auto racing. Show all posts
Monday, May 29, 2017
Friday, June 3, 2016
Day of Racing 2016 (late post lol)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I hate watching races with my dad and his friend. They ramble on the entire time about one thing or another, and most of the time it's unrelated to what's happening on screen. Then they miss things because they're so involved in their conversation, and meanwhile I'm just trying to watch the damn race.
My dad in particular seems to have fallen so in love with DVRs that I don't think I'll ever get to see an event live again. That's why I don't tweet about races much anymore, because by the time we're actually watching them, the race is already over.
So, anyway. Memorial Day weekend is always host to three auto races, spaced out so nicely for us in the US that you could call them the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of auto racing. I always refer to it as The Day of Racing, just because.
Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco
In the morning, there's the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco, an iconic track for a variety of reasons, and also one of the most difficult to pass on. This year's F1 season has been kinda boring, to fix it, just remove Mercedes. Then we'll have real races with actual competition and whatnot. It rained between qualifying and race day, which made things interesting just because there's always that point you reach where it's time to switch from full wets to inters or from inters to dry weather tires, or in Hamilton's case, just say "fuck it" and stay out on full wets until it's time to change to dry weather tires. A dubiously legal blocking maneuver by Hamilton and a pit stop gaffe on the part of Daniel Ricciardo's team sealed the victory for Hamilton. Ricciardo wasn't terribly pleased, but Sergio Perez scored a podium for Force India and was pretty happy overall. Hamilton managed to work his signature "blessed" thing into the post-race interview, just after he shared the victory champagne with Justin Bieber.
Indianapolis 500
The Indy 500 has way too damn much pre-race. I know it's an event with a lot of history, and being held on Memorial Day weekend means it ends up with a bunch of pre-race events honoring war veterans and whatnot. Then there's the national anthem with the flyover, the singing of Back Home Again in Indiana, the releasing of the multi-colored balloons, then the most famous words in motorsport, and then about twenty minutes of parade laps later we finally get racing.
Things stayed pretty civil this year, no completely bonehead maneuvers to speak of, except for pit stops during yellow flags. For whatever reason people were ignoring the fact that there's two lanes to the right of the pit boxes and just darting straight towards the rightmost one on exit, without any regard as to whether anyone's already there. Thankfully, they were vigilant about handing out the penalties for it. The first one to get hit with a penalty was Will Power, which basically put him on a sub-optimal alternate strategy that ended up seeing him go a lap down at one point. Cue sad trombone and picture of the room of those who care.
My eternal pick to win, Tony Kanaan, was in the mix as always and led a few laps, but ultimately had to stop for fuel with nine laps to go. As could be expected, fuel basically dictated the race win, and Alexander Rossi pulled off some amazing fuel savings by coasting on parts of the last lap to win, only to run out of fuel during the victory lap and have to be towed back to the pits. He did a few races of last year's F1 season with a backmarker team, so perhaps having an Indy 500 win under his belt will increase those prospects a little bit. After all, Jacques Villeneuve winning the very first Indy 505 kinda kick-started his F1 career.
Coca-Cola 600
I'm always on my own for the Coke 600 because my dad is an old man and just wants to have a martini (made with gin, as one correctly makes a martini), and go to sleep. I went to B-Dubs like in previous years, except that this year some Florida baseball game had priority and they were playing music instead of TV audio, so it was a silent NASCAR race. NASCAR apparently re-branded their "phantom debris caution" as a "Competition Caution", which came out early in the race. Partway through the race, by coincidence, a friend of mine showed up just to get something to eat, so at least I had someone to talk to.
I missed good portions of the race due to the lack of TV audio, but it was mostly a missable race. No huge wrecks or anything (that I noticed, at least) and Truex led 392 of the 400 laps, making this NASCAR race more of a parade than the Monaco GP was. I was making jokes the entire time about how if the Jimmy John's car wins, the first sentence of the post-race interview should be "Man, this Jimmy John's car was Freaky Fast™ tonight." and how it should be Jimmie Johnson driving the Jimmy John's car. But Johnson didn't win lol, and neither did the Jimmy John's car, so it's all a moot point, I guess.
The food I had was pretty good. I got a chicken wrap with the Parmesan Garlic sauce, with a side of chips and salsa, eight boneless Thai Curry wings, and a tall Yuengling. Later I had some Dr. Pepper, which I wasn't even charged for.
My dad in particular seems to have fallen so in love with DVRs that I don't think I'll ever get to see an event live again. That's why I don't tweet about races much anymore, because by the time we're actually watching them, the race is already over.
So, anyway. Memorial Day weekend is always host to three auto races, spaced out so nicely for us in the US that you could call them the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of auto racing. I always refer to it as The Day of Racing, just because.
Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco
In the morning, there's the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco, an iconic track for a variety of reasons, and also one of the most difficult to pass on. This year's F1 season has been kinda boring, to fix it, just remove Mercedes. Then we'll have real races with actual competition and whatnot. It rained between qualifying and race day, which made things interesting just because there's always that point you reach where it's time to switch from full wets to inters or from inters to dry weather tires, or in Hamilton's case, just say "fuck it" and stay out on full wets until it's time to change to dry weather tires. A dubiously legal blocking maneuver by Hamilton and a pit stop gaffe on the part of Daniel Ricciardo's team sealed the victory for Hamilton. Ricciardo wasn't terribly pleased, but Sergio Perez scored a podium for Force India and was pretty happy overall. Hamilton managed to work his signature "blessed" thing into the post-race interview, just after he shared the victory champagne with Justin Bieber.
Indianapolis 500
The Indy 500 has way too damn much pre-race. I know it's an event with a lot of history, and being held on Memorial Day weekend means it ends up with a bunch of pre-race events honoring war veterans and whatnot. Then there's the national anthem with the flyover, the singing of Back Home Again in Indiana, the releasing of the multi-colored balloons, then the most famous words in motorsport, and then about twenty minutes of parade laps later we finally get racing.
Things stayed pretty civil this year, no completely bonehead maneuvers to speak of, except for pit stops during yellow flags. For whatever reason people were ignoring the fact that there's two lanes to the right of the pit boxes and just darting straight towards the rightmost one on exit, without any regard as to whether anyone's already there. Thankfully, they were vigilant about handing out the penalties for it. The first one to get hit with a penalty was Will Power, which basically put him on a sub-optimal alternate strategy that ended up seeing him go a lap down at one point. Cue sad trombone and picture of the room of those who care.
My eternal pick to win, Tony Kanaan, was in the mix as always and led a few laps, but ultimately had to stop for fuel with nine laps to go. As could be expected, fuel basically dictated the race win, and Alexander Rossi pulled off some amazing fuel savings by coasting on parts of the last lap to win, only to run out of fuel during the victory lap and have to be towed back to the pits. He did a few races of last year's F1 season with a backmarker team, so perhaps having an Indy 500 win under his belt will increase those prospects a little bit. After all, Jacques Villeneuve winning the very first Indy 505 kinda kick-started his F1 career.
Coca-Cola 600
I'm always on my own for the Coke 600 because my dad is an old man and just wants to have a martini (made with gin, as one correctly makes a martini), and go to sleep. I went to B-Dubs like in previous years, except that this year some Florida baseball game had priority and they were playing music instead of TV audio, so it was a silent NASCAR race. NASCAR apparently re-branded their "phantom debris caution" as a "Competition Caution", which came out early in the race. Partway through the race, by coincidence, a friend of mine showed up just to get something to eat, so at least I had someone to talk to.
I missed good portions of the race due to the lack of TV audio, but it was mostly a missable race. No huge wrecks or anything (that I noticed, at least) and Truex led 392 of the 400 laps, making this NASCAR race more of a parade than the Monaco GP was. I was making jokes the entire time about how if the Jimmy John's car wins, the first sentence of the post-race interview should be "Man, this Jimmy John's car was Freaky Fast™ tonight." and how it should be Jimmie Johnson driving the Jimmy John's car. But Johnson didn't win lol, and neither did the Jimmy John's car, so it's all a moot point, I guess.
The food I had was pretty good. I got a chicken wrap with the Parmesan Garlic sauce, with a side of chips and salsa, eight boneless Thai Curry wings, and a tall Yuengling. Later I had some Dr. Pepper, which I wasn't even charged for.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Auto Racing Bucket List
I know, if you read this blog, it's inevitable you'll run across one of my posts about it, most likely The Day of Racing, as I've termed it. However, I have actually spectated races from the venue in person, as opposed to just watching on TV, and I do have a list of races I'd like to watch in person sometime. I even looked all of them up on Google to be sure I had the right names and locations. So if there's any inaccuracies, blame Google.
But first, places I've been to watch races in the past:
But first, places I've been to watch races in the past:
- Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, VA - I forget if it was an IndyCar race or a NASCAR race, to be honest. At oval courses, you always prefer to get seats higher up in the grandstands, so you can see the entire oval from one spot. The only thing that sucks about having seats that high up? The longer walk to concessions/the bathroom.
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, IN - I've been to a few of the Formula 1 races they held there. This is where I got my Ferrari hat from. Our seats were in Indy turn 4, which was the perfect place to sit because you could see the entire front straight and first several corners leading onto the back straight. Thankfully, I was at home watching on TV during the six-car farce thanks to Michelin not bringing durable enough tires that year.
- Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, VA - The shortest track on the NASCAR calendar, and always a great source of entertainment.
- Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium - One of the best tracks on the F1 calendar. I'd love to have a seat at the first hairpin where I can see all the way down the hill to Eau Rouge. This track is where this legendary pass for the lead happened. In fact, here, have the onboard from Hakkinen. Listen closely as he lifts the first time through Eau Rouge, but then not the second time. Balls of fuckin' steel, man. Fun fact: Hakkinen was the only person who was ever able to defeat Schumacher in his prime.
- Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Another great F1 track. I'd either want to sit at the hairpin just before the final straight, on the outside of the corner; or along the front straight, closer to the first and second turns, but where I can still easily see the cars coming through the final chicane.
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, IN - I still feel incomplete as an auto racing fan, having been to multiple races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, none of them having been the Indianapolis 500. So hopefully I can see an Indy 500 live and in person sometime.
- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, OH - All jokes about being stuck in Ohio aside, this is one of the many great road courses in the US, and I'd love to see a race there.
- Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI - Yet another great road course in the US. Dat elevation change on the front straight.
- Sears Point Raceway, Sonoma, CA - Because screw calling it "Infineon Raceway" or "Sonoma Raceway". Another of the great road courses in the US, which gets used for a variety of forms of racing, including NHRA drag racing. I'll take either IndyCar or NASCAR, though.
- Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Salinas, CA - While we're in California, how about yet another amazing US road course? This course is where "the pass" happened, which of course was Alex Zanardi passing Bryan Herta in the corkscrew and going off the track in the process, which apparently wasn't against the rules at the time.
- Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY - The other NASCAR road course, but I'll throw a curve ball here and say I'd rather see a series that races the full International circuit, such as the IMSA Tudor United Sports Car Championship or the Rolex Sports Car Championship, or the Continental Tire Sports Car Championship, or whatever the name of that series is. It's the Le Mans-style one. It has about 50 different names. Pick one. Even if they're actually different series, they're all pretty much the same: endurance racing with driver changes.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Day of Racing 2015
I'd just like to begin by saying how much I don't enjoy watching races with my dad and his friend, even though we've been watching them together for decades. They blab on the entire time and I can't hear what's being said on the TV. They'll DVR the thing so they can fast forward through the pre-race. They'll start watching a race late because DVR lol. I'd like to watch a damn race live and without idiots talking over the TV the entire time. This mostly applies to Formula 1 races.
It begins, as always, with the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco. Formula 1 is always criticized for being "a bit of a parade", and the Monaco track is the easiest example of that. It's the narrowest track on the F1 calendar, really only having two passing zones, but you have to force the issue in both places. Typically, the winner comes from the front row and your chances drop off dramatically the further back you start. Today was no exception. It was a typical ho-hum all-Mercedes front row, and Lewis Hamilton controlled the entire race up until Max Verstappen crashed trying to overtake Romain Grosjean in turn one and brought out a safety car. Mercedes has made questionable decisions regarding pit strategy all season, and for whatever reason they decided to bring Hamilton in. He rejoined in third, and Rosberg went on to win his third Monaco Grand Prix in a row, joining a very elite club in the process. Because NBC cares more about soccer than having a proper F1 production, the podium ceremony and interviews weren't aired live. I dunno, but last I checked, soccer was one of the least popular sports in the US, right down there with baseball, hockey, bicycle racing, and golf.
From there, it was a quick jump to Subway to get our sandwiches (and cookies!) for lunch, and then my uncle and the beer arrived just in time for the Indy 500. The Indy 500 has way too much pre-race shenanigans, but it finally got underway. After some stupid lap 1, turn 1 stuff involving Takuma Sato unwisely trying to make it three wide, people settled down and got into a rhythm. Unfortunately, my eternal pick to win, Tony Kanaan, crashed out in the later stages of the race. For a while it looked like Will Power couldn't be caught. But fortunately for everyone involved, good ol' Juan Pablo Montoya overhauled him with three laps to go and held the position to win.
It quickly became clear that my dad had no intention of watching the Coca-Cola 600 live. When looking up details to remind myself of the start time, I realized that Fox Sports Go is available to anyone with a cable subscription, and I do happen to have an account on my parents' subscription. I went through the annoyances of trying to figure out what I needed to do to actually log into the damn thing, then finally gave up and just used SRWare Iron, which I keep purposefully un-tweaked so it'll Just Work™. Well, I had to disable blocking third-party cookies, but I got it working. It worked up until just before the end of the pre-race show, when it promptly died. Trying to log in again gave me a message that said I wasn't authorized.
Confused, I drove to my local Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the race there. I missed about the first 50 laps in the process, but the race is long enough that it doesn't really matter. I'm not incredibly invested in one team or another in NASCAR, but it was an enjoyable race.
It begins, as always, with the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco. Formula 1 is always criticized for being "a bit of a parade", and the Monaco track is the easiest example of that. It's the narrowest track on the F1 calendar, really only having two passing zones, but you have to force the issue in both places. Typically, the winner comes from the front row and your chances drop off dramatically the further back you start. Today was no exception. It was a typical ho-hum all-Mercedes front row, and Lewis Hamilton controlled the entire race up until Max Verstappen crashed trying to overtake Romain Grosjean in turn one and brought out a safety car. Mercedes has made questionable decisions regarding pit strategy all season, and for whatever reason they decided to bring Hamilton in. He rejoined in third, and Rosberg went on to win his third Monaco Grand Prix in a row, joining a very elite club in the process. Because NBC cares more about soccer than having a proper F1 production, the podium ceremony and interviews weren't aired live. I dunno, but last I checked, soccer was one of the least popular sports in the US, right down there with baseball, hockey, bicycle racing, and golf.
From there, it was a quick jump to Subway to get our sandwiches (and cookies!) for lunch, and then my uncle and the beer arrived just in time for the Indy 500. The Indy 500 has way too much pre-race shenanigans, but it finally got underway. After some stupid lap 1, turn 1 stuff involving Takuma Sato unwisely trying to make it three wide, people settled down and got into a rhythm. Unfortunately, my eternal pick to win, Tony Kanaan, crashed out in the later stages of the race. For a while it looked like Will Power couldn't be caught. But fortunately for everyone involved, good ol' Juan Pablo Montoya overhauled him with three laps to go and held the position to win.
It quickly became clear that my dad had no intention of watching the Coca-Cola 600 live. When looking up details to remind myself of the start time, I realized that Fox Sports Go is available to anyone with a cable subscription, and I do happen to have an account on my parents' subscription. I went through the annoyances of trying to figure out what I needed to do to actually log into the damn thing, then finally gave up and just used SRWare Iron, which I keep purposefully un-tweaked so it'll Just Work™. Well, I had to disable blocking third-party cookies, but I got it working. It worked up until just before the end of the pre-race show, when it promptly died. Trying to log in again gave me a message that said I wasn't authorized.
Confused, I drove to my local Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the race there. I missed about the first 50 laps in the process, but the race is long enough that it doesn't really matter. I'm not incredibly invested in one team or another in NASCAR, but it was an enjoyable race.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Day of Racing 2014
So the F1 race was fun towards the end. Monaco is always a bit of a procession due to how narrow the streets are, but towards the end Daniel Ricciardo started really pressuring Lewis Hamilton for 2nd. True to expectations there were not one, but two safety car periods. Nico Rosberg won it for the second year in a row.
The Indy 500 was uncharacteristically green for nearly two thirds of the race. Then stuff started to go wrong and people started to spin and crash, and the Mayor of Hinchtown himself tried to make it three wide into the first corner on a restart and ended up crashing out. My eternal pick to win, Tony Kanaan, sadly had issues and finished about 20 laps down. Fortunately, Will Power didn't win. Also, NASCAR's Kurt Busch participated and finished all 500 miles. He's "doing the double", or as I like to call it, "attempting the 1100", wherein he's going to also race the Coca-Cola 600 this evening.
NASCAR GO FAST TURN LEFT AVOID JET DRYERS. No 1100 for Kurt Busch, JOHNSONWINSLOL.
The Indy 500 was uncharacteristically green for nearly two thirds of the race. Then stuff started to go wrong and people started to spin and crash, and the Mayor of Hinchtown himself tried to make it three wide into the first corner on a restart and ended up crashing out. My eternal pick to win, Tony Kanaan, sadly had issues and finished about 20 laps down. Fortunately, Will Power didn't win. Also, NASCAR's Kurt Busch participated and finished all 500 miles. He's "doing the double", or as I like to call it, "attempting the 1100", wherein he's going to also race the Coca-Cola 600 this evening.
NASCAR GO FAST TURN LEFT AVOID JET DRYERS. No 1100 for Kurt Busch, JOHNSONWINSLOL.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Day of Racing: DVR Edition
I watched precisely zero of these races live, though the closest I got was starting the Indy 500 38 minutes late.
The F1 race was pretty exciting. I personally was hoping for Adrian Sutil to somehow work his way up to 3rd so we could have an all-German podium. Perez was pretty crazy at times throughout the race and ultimately paid the price for it.
At the Indy 500, things were initially crazy, with three cautions right off the bat, then everyone collectively calmed down and got on with it until just before the end when there were two more cautions, one of which happened because Graham Rahal hadn't yet crashed out. I have a list of drivers that I'd like to see win, and while the actual winner was indeed among them, most of the rest had a decent race. Fortunately for everyone involved it wasn't Will Power who won. Stupid smug Australian. Anyway.
I have less interest in the NASCAR race than the others, but I watch it anyway. Unfortunately, despite rumors I'd heard and things I thought I'd heard people say, nobody actually attempted the 1100 this year. Everything seemed normal for a while until the drive cable for one of FOX's cameras broke and got caught in Kyle Busch's car, then proceeded to wreck shit with everyone it hit. Good guy NASCAR red flagged the race and gave people 15 minutes to repair the damage, then set the field in the order before it happened and set everyone racing again.
At 10PM, the local FOX HD channel promptly shit itself.
After a bit of WTFing I found the Shit-Definition version and tuned into that. Skipping about a half hour because I was watching from a recording and was forced into the live broadcast. After a yellow, things went to shit and there was a big crash and for some reason NASCAR threw another red flag. I guess that's their policy as the race winds down or something.
Anyway, all the races were good. Even though I missed a half hour or so of the NASCAR race.
The F1 race was pretty exciting. I personally was hoping for Adrian Sutil to somehow work his way up to 3rd so we could have an all-German podium. Perez was pretty crazy at times throughout the race and ultimately paid the price for it.
At the Indy 500, things were initially crazy, with three cautions right off the bat, then everyone collectively calmed down and got on with it until just before the end when there were two more cautions, one of which happened because Graham Rahal hadn't yet crashed out. I have a list of drivers that I'd like to see win, and while the actual winner was indeed among them, most of the rest had a decent race. Fortunately for everyone involved it wasn't Will Power who won. Stupid smug Australian. Anyway.
I have less interest in the NASCAR race than the others, but I watch it anyway. Unfortunately, despite rumors I'd heard and things I thought I'd heard people say, nobody actually attempted the 1100 this year. Everything seemed normal for a while until the drive cable for one of FOX's cameras broke and got caught in Kyle Busch's car, then proceeded to wreck shit with everyone it hit. Good guy NASCAR red flagged the race and gave people 15 minutes to repair the damage, then set the field in the order before it happened and set everyone racing again.
At 10PM, the local FOX HD channel promptly shit itself.
After a bit of WTFing I found the Shit-Definition version and tuned into that. Skipping about a half hour because I was watching from a recording and was forced into the live broadcast. After a yellow, things went to shit and there was a big crash and for some reason NASCAR threw another red flag. I guess that's their policy as the race winds down or something.
Anyway, all the races were good. Even though I missed a half hour or so of the NASCAR race.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Day of Racing 2012
Memorial Day weekend is always a great weekend for fans of auto racing. For each meal, there's a race. Breakfast is the Formula One Grand Prix of Monaco, lunch is the Indianapolis 500, and dinner is the Coca-Cola 600.
Formula One Grand Prix of Monaco
The F1 race is kind of a mixed bag, to be honest. This season has been really interesting with a lot of teams showing that they can compete, instead of just the usual one or two teams that are good and then everyone else. In the previous five races we've had five different winners and five different winning constructors. Monaco is one of the oldest F1 tracks on the schedule, and also therefore one of the narrowest, which means passing is incredibly difficult. The lack of passing is a very easy thing to make fun of, people do like to say that F1 is more of a parade than a race.
The more modern tracks are wider, and with everyone having both KERS and DRS there has been a fair amount of passing on the newer tracks. KERS uses energy generated from braking to charge a battery on the car, and then each lap the driver has a button they can press for a limited amount of extra horsepower. DRS uses a movable element on the rear wing to decrease drag and downforce and increase speed. In combination with a detection area and one or two areas on the track where it can be used, if a driver is within a second of the driver ahead, they can open it up and get around a 10 MPH boost, which can be used in combination with the KERS for even more speed to aid passing.
Anyway.
After Michael Schumacher's 5 grid-spot penalty for his collision with Bruno Senna in the last race dropped him down from pole to 6th place, Mark Webber inherited the pole and drove on to win the race. There was talk of rain and indeed it did get fairly dark towards the end of the race, but it stayed dry enough that no rain tires were required. So, we have our sixth different winner in as many races, and the first repeat winning constructor in Red Bull.
I make it sound uneventful, to be honest. There were some lap 1 turn 1 shenanigans that saw the immediate retirement of Romain Grosjean. Others would retire due to damage from that incident later on. Heikki Kovalainen got to his usual going slowly holding everyone behind him up thing which led to him spinning out (and forcing the retirement of) Jenson Button. He also basically edged Sergio Perez off the track later. So there were some altercations during the race, but yes, mostly uneventful. Still, Monaco is F1's "race everyone really wants to win", similar to the Indianapolis 500 for IndyCar.
Indianapolis 500
A few ex-F1 drivers are in the field for the Indy 500. Reubens Barrichello, formerly F1's most experienced driver, moved over to IndyCar for this season. Out of the blue, an old name pops up and Jean Alesi enters the race. Also present are Takuma Sato and Sebastian Bourdais. IndyCar is an entirely different animal though. The cars are slower and don't have the extra bits like DRS, and for this season they have massive fenders around the rear wheels to try and minimize wheel-to-wheel contact, which can easily launch a car into the air.
The Indianapolis 500 has a lot of traditions, there's the singing of "Back Home Again in Indiana", the "releasing of the multi-colored balloons", and a lot more stuff that happens both on race day and in the entire month of May before the race. Fortunately, since I'm not there, I don't have to watch most of it. My dad and I always go to Subway and grab lunch for everyone before the race anyway.
Overall, it was a pretty decent race. Lots of passing, in fact, a new record for the number of lead changes. Nobody got more than about 4.5 seconds into the lead before either being reeled in from behind or someone crashed. In the end it came down to an incident on the first corner of the last lap. Takuma Sato tried to go down the inside of Dario Franchitti, went too far down and got below the white line, and spun out. Yellow flag, race over, Dario Franchitti wins his third Indy 500. I kinda wanted Tony Kanaan to win to be honest, but he got overhauled on the last restart fairly handily by both Franchitti and Scott Dixon.
The new IndyCar GoDaddy commercials with James Hinchcliffe are pretty funny though. They have this whole thing going on with him trying to take Danica Patrick's spot on the front page.
Coca-Cola 600
The Coca-Cola 600, run at Charlotte Motor Speedway, is NASCAR's longest race of the season. Also, it starts in the afternoon and ends at night, meaning the drivers have to contend with the setting sun during the race, as well as the change in track conditions that results. It's entirely possible to have a car that's good during the day but horrible at night, and vice versa. The exact setup you want is a matter of team strategy, though, and to some degree can be tweaked during the race.
Greg Biffle dominated while the sun was up, but after night fell, Kasey Kahne was completely untouchable and drove to an easy victory.
All 1262 miles of racing that happened today = watched. Can't wait for next year.
Formula One Grand Prix of Monaco
The F1 race is kind of a mixed bag, to be honest. This season has been really interesting with a lot of teams showing that they can compete, instead of just the usual one or two teams that are good and then everyone else. In the previous five races we've had five different winners and five different winning constructors. Monaco is one of the oldest F1 tracks on the schedule, and also therefore one of the narrowest, which means passing is incredibly difficult. The lack of passing is a very easy thing to make fun of, people do like to say that F1 is more of a parade than a race.
The more modern tracks are wider, and with everyone having both KERS and DRS there has been a fair amount of passing on the newer tracks. KERS uses energy generated from braking to charge a battery on the car, and then each lap the driver has a button they can press for a limited amount of extra horsepower. DRS uses a movable element on the rear wing to decrease drag and downforce and increase speed. In combination with a detection area and one or two areas on the track where it can be used, if a driver is within a second of the driver ahead, they can open it up and get around a 10 MPH boost, which can be used in combination with the KERS for even more speed to aid passing.
Anyway.
After Michael Schumacher's 5 grid-spot penalty for his collision with Bruno Senna in the last race dropped him down from pole to 6th place, Mark Webber inherited the pole and drove on to win the race. There was talk of rain and indeed it did get fairly dark towards the end of the race, but it stayed dry enough that no rain tires were required. So, we have our sixth different winner in as many races, and the first repeat winning constructor in Red Bull.
I make it sound uneventful, to be honest. There were some lap 1 turn 1 shenanigans that saw the immediate retirement of Romain Grosjean. Others would retire due to damage from that incident later on. Heikki Kovalainen got to his usual going slowly holding everyone behind him up thing which led to him spinning out (and forcing the retirement of) Jenson Button. He also basically edged Sergio Perez off the track later. So there were some altercations during the race, but yes, mostly uneventful. Still, Monaco is F1's "race everyone really wants to win", similar to the Indianapolis 500 for IndyCar.
Indianapolis 500
A few ex-F1 drivers are in the field for the Indy 500. Reubens Barrichello, formerly F1's most experienced driver, moved over to IndyCar for this season. Out of the blue, an old name pops up and Jean Alesi enters the race. Also present are Takuma Sato and Sebastian Bourdais. IndyCar is an entirely different animal though. The cars are slower and don't have the extra bits like DRS, and for this season they have massive fenders around the rear wheels to try and minimize wheel-to-wheel contact, which can easily launch a car into the air.
The Indianapolis 500 has a lot of traditions, there's the singing of "Back Home Again in Indiana", the "releasing of the multi-colored balloons", and a lot more stuff that happens both on race day and in the entire month of May before the race. Fortunately, since I'm not there, I don't have to watch most of it. My dad and I always go to Subway and grab lunch for everyone before the race anyway.
Overall, it was a pretty decent race. Lots of passing, in fact, a new record for the number of lead changes. Nobody got more than about 4.5 seconds into the lead before either being reeled in from behind or someone crashed. In the end it came down to an incident on the first corner of the last lap. Takuma Sato tried to go down the inside of Dario Franchitti, went too far down and got below the white line, and spun out. Yellow flag, race over, Dario Franchitti wins his third Indy 500. I kinda wanted Tony Kanaan to win to be honest, but he got overhauled on the last restart fairly handily by both Franchitti and Scott Dixon.
The new IndyCar GoDaddy commercials with James Hinchcliffe are pretty funny though. They have this whole thing going on with him trying to take Danica Patrick's spot on the front page.
Coca-Cola 600
The Coca-Cola 600, run at Charlotte Motor Speedway, is NASCAR's longest race of the season. Also, it starts in the afternoon and ends at night, meaning the drivers have to contend with the setting sun during the race, as well as the change in track conditions that results. It's entirely possible to have a car that's good during the day but horrible at night, and vice versa. The exact setup you want is a matter of team strategy, though, and to some degree can be tweaked during the race.
Greg Biffle dominated while the sun was up, but after night fell, Kasey Kahne was completely untouchable and drove to an easy victory.
All 1262 miles of racing that happened today = watched. Can't wait for next year.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Day of Racing Part 3: Coca-Cola 600
WOOOOOOOOOOOO! All miles of the Day of Racing are DONE!
NASCAR always has its cautions to group everyone back up and make things more interesting, and tonight definitely didn't fail. Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray were going back and forth for the lead, completely revolving around the yellow flag periods. Kurt Busch's car was better on the restarts, but Jamie McMurray's was better a few laps in. It was just a matter of whether or not Busch could hold off McMurray, and he did.
Whereas Ganassi beat Penske in the Indy 500, Penske beat Ganassi here. No Memorial Day sweep for Ganassi.
I really don't have much to say about NASCAR because I follow it even less than Indy Racing League, but overall, a lot of good racing was done today. Some drivers did some stupid things, but that's normal for any given day of racing. Mike Conway has a broken leg, which is actually a really good outcome given what his crash looked like. I just know some people will look at all the crashes and try to spin racing as some "unsafe" thing, but in reality these cars are getting safer and safer with every year. It's important to note what actually happens to the driver(s) involved. More often than not, you'll see some really bad crash and they'll just walk away. If that's not safety, I don't know what is. Also, if we had any fewer safety advancements Felipe Massa probably wouldn't be alive today.
As I've said before, I'm not much of a car buff, but I do like my racing. If it's got wheels and goes fast, I'll watch it. The month of May is an especially great month for auto racing fans, or at least fans of Formula 1, Indy Racing League, and/or NASCAR. I enjoyed the hell out of it and can't wait for next year.
NASCAR always has its cautions to group everyone back up and make things more interesting, and tonight definitely didn't fail. Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray were going back and forth for the lead, completely revolving around the yellow flag periods. Kurt Busch's car was better on the restarts, but Jamie McMurray's was better a few laps in. It was just a matter of whether or not Busch could hold off McMurray, and he did.
Whereas Ganassi beat Penske in the Indy 500, Penske beat Ganassi here. No Memorial Day sweep for Ganassi.
I really don't have much to say about NASCAR because I follow it even less than Indy Racing League, but overall, a lot of good racing was done today. Some drivers did some stupid things, but that's normal for any given day of racing. Mike Conway has a broken leg, which is actually a really good outcome given what his crash looked like. I just know some people will look at all the crashes and try to spin racing as some "unsafe" thing, but in reality these cars are getting safer and safer with every year. It's important to note what actually happens to the driver(s) involved. More often than not, you'll see some really bad crash and they'll just walk away. If that's not safety, I don't know what is. Also, if we had any fewer safety advancements Felipe Massa probably wouldn't be alive today.
As I've said before, I'm not much of a car buff, but I do like my racing. If it's got wheels and goes fast, I'll watch it. The month of May is an especially great month for auto racing fans, or at least fans of Formula 1, Indy Racing League, and/or NASCAR. I enjoyed the hell out of it and can't wait for next year.
Day of Racing Part 2: Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a relatively simple looking 2.5-mile oval with not a heck of a lot of banking in the corners. So why is it that the race is continually exciting, year after year? Well, that's obvious. There's 33 people driving around it at over 200MPH. When you put that many people on the track, there's going to be plenty of battles for position, and when you're going 500 miles, plenty of pit stops to mix things up. Also crashes. But mostly the fast driving.
Dario Franchitti absolutely dominated the race, leading the vast majority of the laps and taking the well-deserved victory. However, my personal award for driver of the day goes to Tony Kanaan. He had an absolutely horrible qualifying result, 32nd, and changed his chassis before the race, which carried a penalty that put him dead last. Before the race was over, he had worked his way up to 2nd place. If he had only had a slightly better fuel strategy, he could have won and become the first person to win from the back row, as well as the first person to win from last place. Unfortunately he had to pit for fuel in the closing laps and finished 11th.
The race finished under caution because on the last lap, Mike Conway completely ran over the left side of Ryan Hunter-Reay's car, sending them both to the outside wall and Conway flying through the air. His car was torn to shreds, but thankfully he survived with only a minor leg injury. So yeah, even though they're going fast, the cars are very safe. All that debris that flies everywhere? Those are the parts of the car that are designed to absorb the force of impact so that the driver doesn't have to. Essentially everything, including the engine and gearbox, is a shock absorber in that situation. That stuff definitely did its job today as Conway's car didn't have really anything left attached to it when he finally came to a stop.
We couldn't watch a good race without having some good food. Every year my dad gets people's sandwich orders and we go to Subway to get sandwiches before the race. My car turned its 100,000th mile on one such trip to Subway a few years back. In addition we had some good beer from Blue Mountain Brewery, and I brought some soda to have after my beer since I was driving (an Orange Fanta Zero and a Cherry Coke Zero). The beer was good, the soda was good, the sandwiches were good, and the race was good. I can't ask for much more.
There were some bullshit blocking penalties (and a couple warranted ones) called early on but once race control got the stick out of its ass, there wasn't anything else getting in the way of the race.
With this win, Chip Ganassi becomes the first car owner to win the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 in the same year. As long as we're talking history, the Indy 500 itself had its 200th different leader in this race (Justin Wilson).
I guess we'll have dinner in half an hour or so and then it'll be on to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600. Thanks to television, I can go to Istanbul, Indianapolis, and Charlotte all in one day. I don't really watch anything on TV other than auto racing, because non-live American entertainment is kind of balls.
Stay tuned for part 3.
Dario Franchitti absolutely dominated the race, leading the vast majority of the laps and taking the well-deserved victory. However, my personal award for driver of the day goes to Tony Kanaan. He had an absolutely horrible qualifying result, 32nd, and changed his chassis before the race, which carried a penalty that put him dead last. Before the race was over, he had worked his way up to 2nd place. If he had only had a slightly better fuel strategy, he could have won and become the first person to win from the back row, as well as the first person to win from last place. Unfortunately he had to pit for fuel in the closing laps and finished 11th.
The race finished under caution because on the last lap, Mike Conway completely ran over the left side of Ryan Hunter-Reay's car, sending them both to the outside wall and Conway flying through the air. His car was torn to shreds, but thankfully he survived with only a minor leg injury. So yeah, even though they're going fast, the cars are very safe. All that debris that flies everywhere? Those are the parts of the car that are designed to absorb the force of impact so that the driver doesn't have to. Essentially everything, including the engine and gearbox, is a shock absorber in that situation. That stuff definitely did its job today as Conway's car didn't have really anything left attached to it when he finally came to a stop.
We couldn't watch a good race without having some good food. Every year my dad gets people's sandwich orders and we go to Subway to get sandwiches before the race. My car turned its 100,000th mile on one such trip to Subway a few years back. In addition we had some good beer from Blue Mountain Brewery, and I brought some soda to have after my beer since I was driving (an Orange Fanta Zero and a Cherry Coke Zero). The beer was good, the soda was good, the sandwiches were good, and the race was good. I can't ask for much more.
There were some bullshit blocking penalties (and a couple warranted ones) called early on but once race control got the stick out of its ass, there wasn't anything else getting in the way of the race.
With this win, Chip Ganassi becomes the first car owner to win the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 in the same year. As long as we're talking history, the Indy 500 itself had its 200th different leader in this race (Justin Wilson).
I guess we'll have dinner in half an hour or so and then it'll be on to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600. Thanks to television, I can go to Istanbul, Indianapolis, and Charlotte all in one day. I don't really watch anything on TV other than auto racing, because non-live American entertainment is kind of balls.
Stay tuned for part 3.
Day of Racing Part 1: F1 GP of Turkey
Normally on Memorial Day weekend it's the Grand Prix of Monaco, but Monaco is scheduled based on when Easter is, and Easter was a week early this year. So instead, Formula 1 went to the permanent road course in Istanbul, Turkey, with its massive four apex turn 8.
Qualification saw little difference from the norm, Webber up front, Vettel third instead of second due to a broken sway bar during qualifying, and who else but the McLarens of Hamilton and Button in second and fourth, respectively. Man, if there's one team that's really good at improving their cars during the season, it's McLaren.
The race itself was pretty ho-hum until close to the end. There were prospects of rain, radar showed a small storm headed towards the track. There was moisture on the in-car camera lenses, but it never came down heavily enough to force a tire change. The first four cars were right together on the track, Webber leading Vettel, with Hamilton and Button a short distance behind.
Vettel got a run down the inside of one of the final corners and tried to pass Webber. Webber is notoriously difficult to pass, but he left just barely enough room for Vettel. Vettel clearly had the overtaking speed, but was drawn to the right and into his teammate. Webber managed to continue on with a drop to third place and a front wing change, but Vettel's race was done.
I say "drawn to the right" because we watched the replays very closely (even replaying them again on the DVR using its slow motion playback) and while his car did indeed move to the right, his in-car camera showed no steering input at the time. Webber actually slowed down somewhat once he realized Vettel was reasonably past him, but that didn't avert the collision.
I personally think Webber needs to realize that if it's his teammate passing him, and that Vettel has the upper hand in terms of speed and will very likely complete the pass, he needs to give more room than he'd give to another driver from another team. It's not worth the risk of one or both cars being taken out of the race to fight with your teammate like that. The championship standings show this clear as day, McLaren is now precisely one point ahead of Red Bull. Had Webber and Vettel not had their collision, Red Bull would have been much further in the lead.
It's important to note that a few laps later, Hamilton and Button had a pretty good battle for the lead in the same part of the track, ultimately ending in Turn 1. They both managed to race each other hard, yet fair. Room was left, no collisions, neither driver dropped out of the race, it was just a good clean fight.
My one complaint about this race is not actually anything that happened on-track, but SPEED's commercials. They always, without fail, go to commercial right when something interesting is happening on track and then they have to replay it afterwards. I know they value their advertising revenue or whatever, but delay the commercial for ten seconds and let us see what's happening. To the viewers, what's happening on the track is vastly more important than your mostly unrelated commercials. It would also spare us your flashy graphics that fill half the screen showing us the running order, and advertisements for other things on SPEED that we're not even interested in that also take up half the screen.
They could take it a step further and take a page from the BBC's book: go commercial-free for three hours. That's right, three hours. Not two and a half. The races are time-limited to two hours and usually finish in an hour and a half or so, but if the race runs long, two and a half is simply not enough for combined pre- and post-race shows. Three hours works perfectly. Of course then they'd need to actually have all of their commentators go to each venue instead of just one guy, but it'd be a higher quality broadcast overall with them all there.
Rants aside, I'll be watching all 1100 remaining miles of racing left in the day, so stay tuned for parts 2 and 3.
Qualification saw little difference from the norm, Webber up front, Vettel third instead of second due to a broken sway bar during qualifying, and who else but the McLarens of Hamilton and Button in second and fourth, respectively. Man, if there's one team that's really good at improving their cars during the season, it's McLaren.
The race itself was pretty ho-hum until close to the end. There were prospects of rain, radar showed a small storm headed towards the track. There was moisture on the in-car camera lenses, but it never came down heavily enough to force a tire change. The first four cars were right together on the track, Webber leading Vettel, with Hamilton and Button a short distance behind.
Vettel got a run down the inside of one of the final corners and tried to pass Webber. Webber is notoriously difficult to pass, but he left just barely enough room for Vettel. Vettel clearly had the overtaking speed, but was drawn to the right and into his teammate. Webber managed to continue on with a drop to third place and a front wing change, but Vettel's race was done.
I say "drawn to the right" because we watched the replays very closely (even replaying them again on the DVR using its slow motion playback) and while his car did indeed move to the right, his in-car camera showed no steering input at the time. Webber actually slowed down somewhat once he realized Vettel was reasonably past him, but that didn't avert the collision.
I personally think Webber needs to realize that if it's his teammate passing him, and that Vettel has the upper hand in terms of speed and will very likely complete the pass, he needs to give more room than he'd give to another driver from another team. It's not worth the risk of one or both cars being taken out of the race to fight with your teammate like that. The championship standings show this clear as day, McLaren is now precisely one point ahead of Red Bull. Had Webber and Vettel not had their collision, Red Bull would have been much further in the lead.
It's important to note that a few laps later, Hamilton and Button had a pretty good battle for the lead in the same part of the track, ultimately ending in Turn 1. They both managed to race each other hard, yet fair. Room was left, no collisions, neither driver dropped out of the race, it was just a good clean fight.
My one complaint about this race is not actually anything that happened on-track, but SPEED's commercials. They always, without fail, go to commercial right when something interesting is happening on track and then they have to replay it afterwards. I know they value their advertising revenue or whatever, but delay the commercial for ten seconds and let us see what's happening. To the viewers, what's happening on the track is vastly more important than your mostly unrelated commercials. It would also spare us your flashy graphics that fill half the screen showing us the running order, and advertisements for other things on SPEED that we're not even interested in that also take up half the screen.
They could take it a step further and take a page from the BBC's book: go commercial-free for three hours. That's right, three hours. Not two and a half. The races are time-limited to two hours and usually finish in an hour and a half or so, but if the race runs long, two and a half is simply not enough for combined pre- and post-race shows. Three hours works perfectly. Of course then they'd need to actually have all of their commentators go to each venue instead of just one guy, but it'd be a higher quality broadcast overall with them all there.
Rants aside, I'll be watching all 1100 remaining miles of racing left in the day, so stay tuned for parts 2 and 3.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
This season in Formula 1
I don't mention auto racing nearly enough given how much of a fan I am of it. Basically, if it's got wheels and goes fast, I'll watch it. That's also pretty much the extent of my interest in cars, I'm not a huge car buff or anything.
Anyway, this season of Formula 1 is interesting thus far for a number of reasons. First off, points are now given to the top ten finishing positions of each race. I'm not exactly sure of the point curve, but the winner gets 25 points. The overall higher rewards should prove to make the championship a closer fight with more drivers in contention as we get to the end of the season.
No refueling is allowed. This is, I believe, primarily a safety measure. The last few seasons have seen multiple fires and drivers leaving with the fuel hose still attached. Also, this lets the team qualify their cars on an insanely light fuel load since everyone can now fill back up to the brim just before the race. On the other side, very few motor sports don't allow refueling, so F1 seems a little weird now.
The effect that no refueling has had on the races: Instead of it being advantageous to pit later than your competition, it's now much more advantageous to pit before them to get fresh tires. Tires mean a lot more this season, it's already been shown that if a driver is easier on their tires that they will have an advantage. Pit stops are blindingly fast, some of the teams are changing tires in less than four seconds.
There are three new teams that haven't quite figured things out yet: Lotus, HRT, and Virgin Racing. Since there's two cars per team, that's six guaranteed backmarkers in every race. And yeah, I've been making jokes about the Virgins. "He can't afford to follow that Virgin around forever!" etc.
If you've been watching the past few seasons, you've no doubt noticed that Red Bull has been getting better and better. They've taken this season by storm. They're leading the constructor's championship and their drivers, Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel, are leading the driver's championship. They look like the team to beat this season. Webber's come alive and is taking poles and winning races, including back-to-back pole to victory wins. Vettel had some car troubles early on that caused him to retire from two races while in the lead, but that's been ironed out and he's been right there pressuring Webber.
The stewards, who hand out penalties for in-race mishaps, have been under fire for being overzealous in the past few seasons. To try and bring that under control, the steward panel for each race now has a former driver on it, to provide that perspective. Personally, I still see people getting penalized for things that I deem to be "racing incidents", i.e. things that just happen every now and then in racing and don't really deserve penalization. I still think the stewards issue won't be solved until the panel is a dedicated panel consisting of the same people every race.
Felipe Massa is back after that head injury he suffered. He's currently getting punk'd by Fernando Alonso, but it's nice to see him back in the car.
The big news is that seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has returned and is driving for Mercedes. He's working with his old pal, Ross Brawn. He's already returned to being himself in a race car, riding the edge of the rulebook all the way. He's just not winning, that's all.
Fans of Kimi Raikkonen may be disappointed to know that he's moved from Formula 1 to WRC. I don't know if anyone broadcasts WRC live, all I can ever find on TV is after-the-fact summary programs on HD Theater. I don't even know if it's possible to broadcast it live given where they're racing, but it'd be nice if it were.
Renault have improved a fair amount. Their cars are yellow and black this season instead of white and yellow, I think it's a faster paint job. Not as fast as their old iconic blue and yellow, but whatever. They pretty much had to change it given that their old color scheme used colors from the logo of their old primary sponsor, ING, which pulled its sponsorship after the race fixing incident happened.
Overall, my prediction so far is that Red Bull will probably walk away with the constructor's championship. Which of their drivers gets the title is currently completely up in the air. Both are capable and deserving.
Anyway, this season of Formula 1 is interesting thus far for a number of reasons. First off, points are now given to the top ten finishing positions of each race. I'm not exactly sure of the point curve, but the winner gets 25 points. The overall higher rewards should prove to make the championship a closer fight with more drivers in contention as we get to the end of the season.
No refueling is allowed. This is, I believe, primarily a safety measure. The last few seasons have seen multiple fires and drivers leaving with the fuel hose still attached. Also, this lets the team qualify their cars on an insanely light fuel load since everyone can now fill back up to the brim just before the race. On the other side, very few motor sports don't allow refueling, so F1 seems a little weird now.
The effect that no refueling has had on the races: Instead of it being advantageous to pit later than your competition, it's now much more advantageous to pit before them to get fresh tires. Tires mean a lot more this season, it's already been shown that if a driver is easier on their tires that they will have an advantage. Pit stops are blindingly fast, some of the teams are changing tires in less than four seconds.
There are three new teams that haven't quite figured things out yet: Lotus, HRT, and Virgin Racing. Since there's two cars per team, that's six guaranteed backmarkers in every race. And yeah, I've been making jokes about the Virgins. "He can't afford to follow that Virgin around forever!" etc.
If you've been watching the past few seasons, you've no doubt noticed that Red Bull has been getting better and better. They've taken this season by storm. They're leading the constructor's championship and their drivers, Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel, are leading the driver's championship. They look like the team to beat this season. Webber's come alive and is taking poles and winning races, including back-to-back pole to victory wins. Vettel had some car troubles early on that caused him to retire from two races while in the lead, but that's been ironed out and he's been right there pressuring Webber.
The stewards, who hand out penalties for in-race mishaps, have been under fire for being overzealous in the past few seasons. To try and bring that under control, the steward panel for each race now has a former driver on it, to provide that perspective. Personally, I still see people getting penalized for things that I deem to be "racing incidents", i.e. things that just happen every now and then in racing and don't really deserve penalization. I still think the stewards issue won't be solved until the panel is a dedicated panel consisting of the same people every race.
Felipe Massa is back after that head injury he suffered. He's currently getting punk'd by Fernando Alonso, but it's nice to see him back in the car.
The big news is that seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has returned and is driving for Mercedes. He's working with his old pal, Ross Brawn. He's already returned to being himself in a race car, riding the edge of the rulebook all the way. He's just not winning, that's all.
Fans of Kimi Raikkonen may be disappointed to know that he's moved from Formula 1 to WRC. I don't know if anyone broadcasts WRC live, all I can ever find on TV is after-the-fact summary programs on HD Theater. I don't even know if it's possible to broadcast it live given where they're racing, but it'd be nice if it were.
Renault have improved a fair amount. Their cars are yellow and black this season instead of white and yellow, I think it's a faster paint job. Not as fast as their old iconic blue and yellow, but whatever. They pretty much had to change it given that their old color scheme used colors from the logo of their old primary sponsor, ING, which pulled its sponsorship after the race fixing incident happened.
Overall, my prediction so far is that Red Bull will probably walk away with the constructor's championship. Which of their drivers gets the title is currently completely up in the air. Both are capable and deserving.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
what the hell Renault
Flavio Briatore is BANNED. Pat Symonds suspended for 5 years. All because of the events that took place during last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
Why the action now? After Renault got rid of Nelson Piquet Jr., whose crash in the Singapore GP brought out the safety car, ultimately handing the race victory to Fernando Alonso; Piquet blew the whistle. Apparently he'd been told to crash in order to bring out the safety car, so that Alonso, who was in the pits at the time, could come out in the race lead. Piquet was actually in on it but was granted immunity by the FIA since he provided the evidence. Alonso apparently didn't know anything about it.
This shit has to stop. Can we please have one Formula 1 season where there's no controversy and just get back to the damn racing? If Formula 1 is supposed to be the "pinnacle of motorsports" then why are there always issues with teams cheating, spying, or otherwise breaking the rules to gain an unfair advantage? The "no holds barred, sabotage the other guys to win" type stuff is more befitting of a video game or a plot device in a movie than a sport that's supposed to be honest.
F1 needs a number of changes, but perhaps first and foremost is the issue of the stewards who hand out penalties for infractions during the race. Whether it's speeding in the pit lane, crossing the white line on exit, passing under a yellow, or whatever. The main issue here is that there's no consistency. If you've been following the sport then you may well have recognized the two sets of rules in place: Those as they apply to Ferrari, and those as they apply to everyone else. It's not always that way, but the reason for this type of inconsistency is clear: There's no standard stewards panel, it's different for each race.
When you have different people looking at replays and shit you're going to have inconsistent decisions. What this results in is people being penalized heavily for what was essentially just a racing incident. Two people crash? The one who initiated it gets penalized. The usual first corner pileup? People occasionally get penalized. The ending of 2008's Belgian GP with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen battling it out and going all over the place? Lewis rightfully won that race. Driver released unsafely into the path of another car in the pit lane? Mark Webber got a drive-through in Germany (and spectacularly went on to win the race anyway), but Felipe Massa just got a monetary fine to be paid after the 2008 Valencia race. Shut off the fucking litigation and just let the guys race, dammit.
Other things I'd like to see:
Why the action now? After Renault got rid of Nelson Piquet Jr., whose crash in the Singapore GP brought out the safety car, ultimately handing the race victory to Fernando Alonso; Piquet blew the whistle. Apparently he'd been told to crash in order to bring out the safety car, so that Alonso, who was in the pits at the time, could come out in the race lead. Piquet was actually in on it but was granted immunity by the FIA since he provided the evidence. Alonso apparently didn't know anything about it.
This shit has to stop. Can we please have one Formula 1 season where there's no controversy and just get back to the damn racing? If Formula 1 is supposed to be the "pinnacle of motorsports" then why are there always issues with teams cheating, spying, or otherwise breaking the rules to gain an unfair advantage? The "no holds barred, sabotage the other guys to win" type stuff is more befitting of a video game or a plot device in a movie than a sport that's supposed to be honest.
F1 needs a number of changes, but perhaps first and foremost is the issue of the stewards who hand out penalties for infractions during the race. Whether it's speeding in the pit lane, crossing the white line on exit, passing under a yellow, or whatever. The main issue here is that there's no consistency. If you've been following the sport then you may well have recognized the two sets of rules in place: Those as they apply to Ferrari, and those as they apply to everyone else. It's not always that way, but the reason for this type of inconsistency is clear: There's no standard stewards panel, it's different for each race.
When you have different people looking at replays and shit you're going to have inconsistent decisions. What this results in is people being penalized heavily for what was essentially just a racing incident. Two people crash? The one who initiated it gets penalized. The usual first corner pileup? People occasionally get penalized. The ending of 2008's Belgian GP with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen battling it out and going all over the place? Lewis rightfully won that race. Driver released unsafely into the path of another car in the pit lane? Mark Webber got a drive-through in Germany (and spectacularly went on to win the race anyway), but Felipe Massa just got a monetary fine to be paid after the 2008 Valencia race. Shut off the fucking litigation and just let the guys race, dammit.
Other things I'd like to see:
- Remove the "you must use both tire compounds during the race unless it rains" rule. At every race one of the tires is clearly better for the conditions than the other and people spend the majority of the race on the better tire. What's the point of requiring both?
- More god damned passing. I'm tired of seeing people improving their position solely through pit strategy. The 2010 regulations will change this somewhat, since no refueling means pit stops will only be for tires and will be much quicker, but it'd be nice to finally fix the issue once and for all. Make aerodynamic regulations changes so that the cars can run closer together.
- No refueling eliminates my next gripe entirely, which was the current qualifying system. Now people can run really light in qualifying and we can see who's actually fastest, and then they fuel up for the race. Hopefully this will spur a bit of competition and we won't be seeing the same two or three people winning for the entire season. While watching someone who's awesome totally dominate is great, it gets boring quickly (aka Michael Schumacher).
- Relax the engine restrictions a bit. Right now each driver is limited to eight engines for the entire season and they take a grid position penalty on their qualification for using a ninth. While reliability has improved, Red Bull suffered a bad batch of valves that gave Sebastian Vettel two engine failures in Valencia. He's on his eighth engine, there's three races left, and he's a championship contender. Come the fuck on.
- Make teams make their cars look visibly different from each other. It's annoying looking at a car and saying "Is that Button? No wait it's Barrichello." The only differences are hard to spot: the tip of the nose, the camera mount over the driver's head, and possibly the only easily discernable difference, the helmet. Often it's just the helmet. If you look really closely you might be able to see the car number somewhere. Teams typically make the car number as small as possible since they don't get paid to put it on there. I'm not saying it should be as large as NASCAR, but it should be visible from a distance and contrast properly with the car's paint job.
- My final gripe has been dealt with by the 2010 regulations already: KERS. Get rid of it. An extra 80 horsepower that only four drivers have? That's bullshit. You shouldn't be able to gain a position, keep a position when you're clearly holding everyone behind you up *cough*Kovalainen*cough*, or win a race just because you have a magic button and the other guys don't.
- Electronic sensors in the tracks that can sense when a car drives over them, and a computerized powerups system. Since facebook removes strikethrough, keep in mind that this is struck through in the actual blog post.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
The day of racing
Memorial Day weekend is a great weekend for fans of auto racing. Specifically Sunday. Why?
First, things get kicking in the morning with the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.
Then, at mid-day, we have the Indianapolis 500 in, well, Indianapolis, Indiana. The track and its surrounding area are actually a suburb aptly named Speedway.
Later, in the evening, you have the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
1100 miles of racing on American soil alone. Add in the 260.520 km that the Monaco Grand Prix gives us, and we have approximately 1262 miles of racing to enjoy in one day. They're all perfectly timed so you don't have to miss a lap. It's great.
If you need me today, I'll be in front of a tv. At a friend's place in the morning, at my uncle's place mid-day, and finally back home in the evening. In between F1 and Indy, there'll be a stop-off at Subway to pick up sandwiches. In between Indy and Charlotte, well, there's dinner. Food and racing, what more could I ask for?
First, things get kicking in the morning with the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.
Then, at mid-day, we have the Indianapolis 500 in, well, Indianapolis, Indiana. The track and its surrounding area are actually a suburb aptly named Speedway.
Later, in the evening, you have the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
1100 miles of racing on American soil alone. Add in the 260.520 km that the Monaco Grand Prix gives us, and we have approximately 1262 miles of racing to enjoy in one day. They're all perfectly timed so you don't have to miss a lap. It's great.
If you need me today, I'll be in front of a tv. At a friend's place in the morning, at my uncle's place mid-day, and finally back home in the evening. In between F1 and Indy, there'll be a stop-off at Subway to pick up sandwiches. In between Indy and Charlotte, well, there's dinner. Food and racing, what more could I ask for?
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