Too Much Racing

This Blog Has Moved

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:51:00 +0000

After 18 fantastic months here on Blogger, Too Much Racing has a new home over at Wordpress. I've really enjoyed using Blogger to learn about blogging, developing my style and making contacts all over the blogosphere. It is a great place if you want an uncomplicated space for writing, but I feel it is now time for me to move somewhere with more functions and customisation options.

Thank you to everybody for your help and incredible support over the last 18 months. It has been a great journey and I'm really looking forward to what 2010 brings! You can read more on this at the new site.

Please update your bookmarks and links: http://toomuchracing.wordpress.com/

You can update your RSS feeds with: http://toomuchracing.wordpress.com/feed/

And that is it - see you at the new site!

Thursday Thoughts: Young Drivers

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:08:00 +0000

This week's Thursday Thoughts question comes from RG of The Northern Waffler, who asks:

Which young driver, who is currently not in Formula 1, would you like to see in the series in the next few seasons?

This is a great question. When I'm asked about drivers who should be in F1, the default position is to look straight at GP2 - and if this had been asked three months ago it would have been a case of "well, pick one of these" from Lucas di Grassi, Nico Hülkenberg and Kamui Kobayashi (and he only on the strength of those stand-in drives at Toyota, his GP2 career was not great). Now each of those has been signed, to Virgin, Williams and Sauber respectively! So who's left?

Frankly the remainder of the GP2 pack hasn't yet impressed me enough, though I grant you I hadn't kept up with GP2 very well in 2009. Paster Maldonado is fast and furious yet has apparently calmed down a bit, could he now be ready? What of Jerome D'Ambrosio and Giedo Van Der Garde? I like both of them and I would really like to see them in F1. Romain Grosjean was fantastic in GP2 but hopeless at Renault, does he deserve another shot in a different environment?

This question can't pass without a nod to the oft-discussed Anthony Davidson and Paul di Resta, the Brits seemingly having lost their deserved F1 opportunities to an era when test drivers were ample and race drives were few. With the situation reversed they seem to have been passed over for drivers behind them on the escalator. The same could be said of Adam Carroll. I'd love to see Adam in a Formula 1 car. I think these are probably too old to be considered 'young' drivers now, but they should be there.

I was going to go for Ryan Hunter-Reay. The man is fast on the IndyCar road courses and is the perfect fit for F1 in terms of speed and image, and he should be in a McLaren or a MercedesGP (but not a USF1.. yet). Unfortunately at age 29, for the purposes of this question he is too old (as are some of the other names above).

Then there are the Red Bull proteges Daniel Ricciardo and Jules Bianchi, both are hotly tipped and I'd be very surprised if they didn't make it to F1 eventually, Brendon Hartley could be another. I think they are a while away yet though and to be fair I don't know enough about them.

So who do I pick?

After a lot of deliberating I'm going to go for Vitaly Petrov. I've been watching him for a while and I think it would be very interesting to see him in a Formula 1 race. He finished 2nd in the GP2 points last year and has scored some wins over the last couple of years, and while he may not be the out-and-out fastest driver around he is a fighter, and I do like to see a fighting racing driver - that's something that seems to have been missing lately in F1 aside from Hamilton (no I'm not saying he's as good as Lewis), look at Vettel who is a great lap-time driver yet seems to have an aversion to overtaking anybody. I think Vitaly is your classic underdog and I always love to root for that kind of driver, even if it rarely pays off.

Of course I could be proven wrong when I eventually get around to watching last year's GP2..

2010 Race Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:30:00 +0000

During the 2009 season I thought it would be a great idea to create a race schedule in Google Calendar featuring different racing series. I was busy with accounts studies at the time and I never got around to taking it further. Early last month I decided it was worth exploring so I set up a trial with F1 and IndyCar dates. I'd add more later if I decided it looked okay. Again I let it drop when other things got in the way.

Christine from Sidepodcast recently created a calendar highlighting F1 events and the SPC / F1 Minute podcast schedules and she did a great job, enough to inspire me to get on and finish my idea.

Here it is!

My schedule includes F1, F2, GP2, IndyCar, Le Mans 24hr, ALMS, LMS, MotoGP, WRC, IRC and WTCC. I've also put in Dakar, Goodwood and a couple of other things. I'll add NASCAR Sprint Cup and DTM soon - there are categories already so if you add them the events will hopefully appear in your calendar automatically.

Christine's calendar is F1-specific and it includes Free Practice, pre-season testing and car launches. My calendar includes none of these things, only qualifying and race. I highly recommend adding Christine's F1 calendar if you would like this extra information.

Click the "+GoogleCalendar" button to add to your own Google Calendar account. I have split events by race series so you can just pick the ones you want. I think there is a way to get them into iCal and other systems, though I don't know how.

The calendar is set to UK time because that's where I am and that's most useful to me. I'm not sure but I believe when you import it, it will adjust it to your own default timezone. Have a play with it and see.

Race start times are estimates apart from F1 and Le Mans. This information is surprisingly hard to find. E.g. IndyCar.com only lists TV start times, not race starts. Many sites only give the dates and I've had to improvise. Then there's the issue of timezones which I may have got wrong. I plan to make each forthcoming weekend as accurate as I can, beyond that just use this as a guide.

I've included qualifying for F1, Le Mans 24Hrs and IndyCar (times estimated). I don't intend to include any more qualifying.

I hope you find this useful and please let me know if there is anything you would like to add. If the demand is there and I think it warrants adding, I'll do so. I'm already considering Indy Lights.

As you can see I've also added a list version to the sidebar. When I create the new site I will have a version similar to the one above on its own page.

Inspiration Required

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:57:00 +0000

I hope you'll permit me a moment of non-racing talk, this is quite a self-serving post and I apologise for that!

After 18 months of blogging here on the Blogger platform I have decided to move over to Wordpress. This won't be a for a couple of weeks as I have yet to open an account with them, it'll definitely be by the end of this month.

Why?

I've had a good time using Blogger. It is a great introduction into the world of blogging and if you are a newbie as I was, I recommend it. There aren't a hundred controls and settings to get lost in, you just set up the layout and the colours and start writing. I wasn't even sure I wanted to have a blog and it was great to try it out, gradually adding and tweaking bits here and there. Now I feel the content I want to put on the blog means I need to have those extra controls you find on other services, hence the need to move.

This is where you come in.

I've long felt the name 'Too Much Racing' has been too negative. It was always intended to convey my inability to cover as much of the sport as I wanted to and I think it does that, unfortunately it also comes over as quite negative and as if I'm complaining about all the racing. I'm not, I love it!

I need a new name for the new blog. I am struggling to find one. In fact I've been struggling with this for a while and have asked for opinions in various places, when I came to the obvious conclusion - comments make a blog what it is, so why not ask the commenters here?

Do you have any ideas for a name suitable for the new blog? Like this blog it will cover or at least intend to cover F1, IndyCar, GP2, Le Mans, other sportcars, and hopefully more. The main focus is F1 and I like to dip into the other stuff when time allows.

Guidelines:
- Preferably indicates it is a multi-series blog.
- Positive or neutral-sounding.
- Nothing overly cheesy (I can come up with those myself!).
- It can be any length as long as it can be shortened for domain name and Twitter purposes.

Naturally I make no guarantees that it'll get used, and I get to use the name for free..

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

F1 Minute Video

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:05:00 +0000

F1 Minute is now available as a video podcast!

I like to plug the work other people are doing if I enjoy it, and our favourite purveyor of minute-long daily audio news updates is now providing them in video form.

Here is the first video, which is for the update of January 4th:

Kubica Set to Stay at Renault - F1 Minute (4 January 2010)
Uploaded by f1minute.

Keep in touch with new releases at F1Minute.com's video section (or via DailyMotion or YouTube), there is a slight lag at the moment while they find their feet but they'll soon be released in sync with the audio version. For the moment I'll keep the audio player embedded here on this blog, if you prefer to use that.

Tangentially, F1Minute.com is also the home of F1 Big Picture which is always worth a look, and a good place to source the text from original press releases from teams and the FIA. I think it is an under-appreciated site so let's give it some love.

Race Review: GP2 Asia Sepang '09

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:22:00 +0000

GP2 Asia Series 2008/09
Sepang, Malaysia
Held: 4&5 April 09
Commentary: Martin Haven & Gareth Rees

Continuing my Race Review catch up series, this was the primary support event to the Malaysian GP and is the penultimate round of the series.

Points coming in:

Kobayashi 39
Valsecchi 29
Hülkenberg 27
Perez 25
D'Ambrosio 23

Feature Race - 33 laps
(the Sprint Race is noted below)

Qualifying:
1. D'Ambrosio (DAMS)
2. Nunes (Piquet GP)
3. Jakes (Super Nova)
4. Kobayashi (DAMS)
5. Villa (Super Nova)
6. Petrov (Campos)

The top 22 are covered by under 1 second, which the guys say is a surprise, and as Gareth says "this isn't Mallory Park this is a proper Grand Prix circuit".

Drama as the coverage begins as D'Ambrosio has NOT taken his pole position! His car broke down on the warm-up lap and he had to pit, he won't take the start, could rejoin later but will be many laps down.

The other omission is Nico Hülkenberg who is not racing this weekend, Pastor Maldonado has reclaimed the seat.

START

Several slow starts and the cars fan out wide, Villa stalls it from 5th on the grid. Lots of bumping and contact through that twiddly bit at the start of the lap.

Lots of side-by-side action throughout the first lap, but Mortara is out on lap one.
Nunes leads Petrov, Kobayashi and Maldonado.

32 to go - Parente passes..someone. Hard to tell. These liveries aren't easy to ID.

30 - Perez started 18th but is already up to 10th.

27 - Nunes leads, in 2nd and 3rd Petrov and Kobayashi are all over each other!

26 - Early pit stop for Kobayashi. He was sort of caught behind Petrov.
Ooh, Petrov runs VERY wide and allows Jakes into 2nd place.

25 - Maldonado pushing hard runs wide, scoots across the grasscrete or whatever it is, rejoins with dirty tyres and some positions down. Gareth: "Typical Pastor". The guys say he's a charming chap but he's a rough diamond.

Nice move by Yelmer Buurman on Vitaly Petrov, who is really struggling to get his car stopped yet still made Buurman work for it.

23 - Petrov loses another place as someone drafts him down the back straight, so he dives into the pits for new rear tyres.
Slow car on track: Razia crawling in 1st or maybe even coasting.

22 - Maldonado pits.. he's got damage on the nose. He's out in 15th with more yet to stop.

Shots of F1 personnel on the pit stand watching the race, including Nelson Piquet Jr and Felipe Massa. Remember this race happened shortly after F1 qualifying. Parente takes Gonzalez, who then pits..

20 - Nunes pits from the lead, as does Valsecchi who has a very slow stop with a sticking right rear.

19 - Perez has stopped in the pit entry, nearly blocking it. Dark clouds are approaching!
Perez has been pushed to his pit - replay and it looks like his radiator has been holed.

17 - Jakes is pushing Kobayashi for what will end up as 2nd after the pitstops.

15 - Al-Fardan finally makes his stop, the last to do so.

8 - Jakes is still close behind Kobayashi but can't seem to do anything about it.

7 - Maldonado smokes his tyres in an attempt to pass Petrov, can't make it by at the hairpin, tries it again at turn one and still can't do it! Couple of flat-spots on those tyres now, Valsecchi watching on.

4 - Discussion on the merits of KERS and how GP2 could have it if F1 develops it to be cheap enough. Hmm, hindsight.. :-)

3 - Maldonado makes an error and allows Parente to draw alongside, both have patience and Parente takes the position. Comment from Gareth that the Maldonado of old would've taken Parente out there and then.

2 - Maldonado and Valsecchi are close together as they lap a backmarker, both are just a little behind Petrov.

Diego Nunes wins!

Result:
1 Nunes (PiquetGP) 33 laps
2 Kobayashi (DAMS) +8.36s
3 Jakes (Super Nova) +9.15s
4 Rodriguez (PiquetGP) +13.87s
5 Buurman (Ocean) +16.81s
6 Petrov (Campos) +41.46s

Summary:
Pretty flat end to the race. Lots of drivers in little close groups but not seemingly able to do anything to make a pass. Good job from Nunes and Jakes, complete change of fortunes over previous form, well done. Amazingly, Al-Fardan came 9th after looking utterly hopeless back in Qatar.

Sprint Race - 22 laps

It is wet for Sunday's race, which was held a couple of hours before the F1 race. As ever the grid is the result of the Feature with the top 8 reversed.

1 Valsecchi
2 Maldonado
3 Petrov
4 Buurman
5 Rodriguez
6 Jakes

As it turns out this race has been delayed by 30 minutes by the wet conditions and we will have a Safety Car start (and no formation lap).

START

Yamamoto has stalled at the start and so has one of the FMS cars, could be Chen. Both cars are pushed into the pitlane. Yamamoto gets fired but stops at the end of pitlane, while they are taking the engine cover off Chen's car. I'm not sure why Yamamoto stopped, he has a green light which now turns red as the field comes by behind the SC to complete lap 1.

18 to go - Safety Car is in, green flag!
Contact on the last corner between Maldonado and Valsecchi.

A couple of spinners at turn two including James Jakes - that's a shame after his race 1 run.

No rain but the track is very wet, the cars are kicking up spray so it is hard to see who is close behind someone.

17 - Maldonado tries several times and makes it by Valsecchi, Petrov's coming with him. Meanwhile Buurman runs wide and loses a couple of places. I was doing the same at that corner on the Wii last night..

16 - Kobayashi brakes far too late and runs into the wide runoff at turn one, loses a position.

15 - Maldonado leads, followed by Petrov, Valsecchi, Nunes, Al Fardan, Buurman, Parente and Gonzalez. Kobayashi is 11th, D'Ambrosio 17th.

12 - The DPR cars are off course and out of the race.

Nice dive from Petrov at the final corner to pass Maldonado for the lead! Interesting to see Petrov is quite a bit faster today, relative the rest of the field.

11 - Petrov, Maldonado, Valsecchi, Nunes, Al Fardan, Gonzalez, Kobayashi, Buurman. Points only go to the top 6 in the Sprint though.

Petrov just set the fastest lap of the race. Apparently Jakes got the point for FL yesterday (Villa was faster, Jakes was fastest of the top ten finishers, a rule to prevent pitting for tyres and going for a time).

Replay of D'Ambrosio running off track into an area where several marshalls and a tractor were working on two cars already - dangerous stuff, he should've backed off under yellow and he didn't. Commentary guys are saying he should get a penalty, I agree.

9 - Rodriguez off course, too much speed and into the gravel. I think he recovers eventually.
Pics of Razia walking back to the pits.

The track is drying now and there's not much spray. Due to the Safety Car start and the wet conditions this is now a timed race and there are 11 minutes to go.

D'Ambrosio does indeed get a black flag, hooray for the stewards! Replay again, the car in front checks up and Jerome just drives by and off course. He pits and shuts down the engine - looks like a straight black flag and not a time penalty!

8mins - Replay of Al Fardan running wide at turn one, same way Rodriguez did.

Perez vs Gonzalez - Perez makes the pass through turns 1 and 2 but loses out at the switchback, he makes it stick a few corners later.

5mins - Nunes sets Fastest Lap. The guys are talking about setups, some of those who have gone for dry or intermediate setups should be getting faster than the guys with wet setups now.

2m30s - Parente is now fastest. Kobayashi is pressuring Al Fardan for 4th, he's closed up but doesn't seem to be able to make the move.

The clock hits zero, last lap.

Vitaly Petrov wins!

Kobayashi and Perez cross the line side-by-side!! Who got it? How did Perez get up to Kobayashi?
Replays: Perez gets the position by half a nose! Fantastic, and it was the final points place as well..

Result:
1 Petrov (Campos) 22 laps
2 Maldonado (ART) +2.91s
3 Valsecchi (Durango) +4.34s
4 Nunes (Piquet GP) +6.36s
5 Al Fardan (iSport) +21.54s
6 Perez (Campos) +24.49s

Summary:
A drying race track saw some desparate moves, some worked and some didn't and it was fun to watch both those and the struggles to control the cars on the slippery surface.

POINTS:
1 Kobayashi 47
2 Valsecchi 34
3 Petrov 28
4 Hulkenberg 27
5 Rodriguez 27
6 Perez 26

Next up is final round of this GP2 Asia season supporting the Bahrain GP, and with 22 points available for two wins and two fastest laps it isn't over yet.

Race Review: NASCAR Auto Club 500

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:30:00 +0000

2009 Auto Club 500
~~California~~ Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California, USA
22 Feb 2009
Round 2 of 36

I watched the 1 hr highlights edition and will note edits with "[jump]". There are a lot of edits.

I've decided to post this just for the hell of it - since I'm watching these short shows anyway in order to learn NASCAR for the 2010 season I may as well blog about them!

Green Flag

This is a fast 2 mile superspeedway, Jamie McMurray started on pole but fellow front-row man Jimmie Johnson takes the lead from the start. The guest starter is getting very animated on the stand!

After only two laps we jump to Lap 72.

[jump]
L72 - Johnson leads with Jeff Gordon in 2nd after Jeff passes Kurt Busch who was running a very high line.

L73 - Pit report saying Tony Stewart's car is a little 'loose' but the commentary guys say it should get better as the track will come towards them later. He's 6th.

Another pit report mentions the word 'carburettor'. I chuckle.

L76 - Ex-F1 driver Scott Speed is in this race and he has been lapped, yet we've just been told 38 cars are on the lead lap. Oh dear.

L78 - Jeff Gordon takes the lead from his teammate, on-track pass.

[jump]
L119 - 21 of the 43 starters are on the lead lap, 41 cars are running. Replay of someone sliding the back end to avoid the wall!

Talk of the Chevrolets and Fords getting the best fuel mileage, and the Dodges and Toyotas not being as good. Interesting. This is what I like about multi-manufacturer competition, even if they are tightly controlled. I wonder which develops more power?

[jump]
L177 - Restart after a mystery yellow (we are not shown or told why). 73 laps to go, Matt Kenseth leads. Mark Martin's car slides and his tyre smokes, he has to pit.

Johnson and Gordon are still in contention changing position between themselves.

Apparently they are using the brakes here more with the new car than they did with the old regulations. I'm surprised at this, I wouldn't expect them to even touch the brakes here.

Even though these are heavily-edited highlights I can tell this race was pretty boring.

60 to go - Nice to see Montoya working his way up to 9th.

[jump]
L215 - Kenseth takes another restart. Again we do not see the reason for it. 35 to go. Now we talk to Dale Earnhardt Jr who is talking about something breaking with the engine, he's very disappointed...

Kenseth builds a lead on the restart, then Gordon reels him in again when his tyres are up and working properly.

26 to go. Some good advice from the commentary for the rookies, stop trying to imitate the established stars and just drive the car the way you want to.

[jump]
15 to go - Nothing has changed except the gaps are growing. This is like an F1 race! We are told Gordon is cooling his tyres ready for another push at the end.

8 to go - Hamlin takes 4th from Kurt Busch.

We are told about a 'Monster Moment' and hear swooshy noises for graphics, no graphics appear on screen. This happens often on these highlights packages.

7 to go - The rookie Eric Almirola slows down with an apparent engine problem.
5 to go - Gordon is now pushing hard and catching Kenseth.
4 to go - ..and they are among lapped traffic.
2 to go - Kenseth has used the traffic to build a bigger gap, nicely played!

Final Lap

Matt Kenseth wins!! 2nd race win in a row after winning the Daytona 500, only the 4th driver to achieve feat of winning both Daytona and the race that followed it, the last time was in 1997.

Result (top 10):

1. Kenseth (Roush Fenway)
2. J.Gordon (Hendrick)
3. Ky.Busch (Gibbs)
4. Biffle (Roush Fenway)
5. Ku.Busch (Penske)
6. Hamlin (Gibbs)
7. Edwards (Roush Fenway)
8. Stewart (Stewart-Haas)
9. Johnson (Hendrick)
10. Vickers (Red Bull)

I've decided to include the teams rather than the manufacturers as NASCAR does it as I think it is more telling, and in any case that's what I'm used to in other series.

Points (top 12):

1. Kenseth 385
2. J.Gordon -81
3. Ku.Busch -91
4. Stewart -91
5. Biffle -117
6. Bowyer -119
7. Waltrip -121
8. Ragan -123
9. Edwards -125
10. Montoya -129
11. Sadler -137
12. Reutimann -137

Still early days at this stage of course.

The next races were at Las Vegas and Atlanta but I don't have those, so the next race I'll see is the first visit of the year to Bristol.

A New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:38:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

I am looking forward to the 2010 racing season, it'll be a good one.

F1 has the return of Schumacher, the uniting of the last two World Champions at McLaren and Alonso moving to Ferrari, with the added interest of Sauber's return to independent status, Toro Rosso building their own car, the addition of the new teams and drivers, and watching to see if Williams and Force India can capitalise on all of these things.

IndyCar has a new title sponsor which should really help the series grow domestically, which in turn should help it internationally. Ganassi and Penske will be the teams to beat again and it'll be interesting to follow the Andretti team's progress after their restructuring, can they challenge as they once did?

Sportscars features the new Intercontinental Cup and I hope we'll see several teams attempt all of those rounds despite the economic downturn. It could be the prelude to something big and that should excite us all greatly!

It looks like rallying is on the road to recovery now that the FIA is starting to realise it was killing WRC, and along with the IRC we should see some good competition this year.

Touring cars... is shot to pieces, sorry. Manufacturers pulling out and fields of independent teams, not really a great selling point. I'm sure it'll be bumper-to-bumper as always, but will anybody care?

I don't know what's going on in MotoGP, WSBK, NASCAR or DTM, I've fallen behind on news. Then there's the new GT1 World Championship, which might be good or it might not be. We'll see.

* *
Moving on to this blog, I'd like to thank everybody who reads and comments here, it really does mean a lot and I hope you stick around into 2010. I plan to blog even more during this season!

I am planning to spend January reviewing the 2009 IndyCar and GP2 seasons race by race as part of the 'Race Review' feature. These entries are heavily delayed, initially by studying preventing me from watching them and then by other work or racing news getting in the way, however I should now have time to complete these posts albeit probably in a shortened form. I may well throw some other races in from time to time although we are quickly running out of off-season!

I am persisting with these despite the delay because I would like to refine them into a workable format ready for the coming season, and the best way to do that is to just keep knocking them out. Eventually they will be at the sort of length to get across the information without being overly long which they have been in the past, this in turn will mean I can cover more races.

Towards the end of the month and into February I will move into 'Preview' mode and cover the F1 car launches and tests, as well as any other interesting car launches and team news from elsewhere in racing.

I hope you join me on the journey of the 2010 season!

Happy Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Have you ever known an off-season as busy as this? I haven't! A plea to all the racing people: if you could just hold any more news until Jan 4th, that really would be appreciated.. It isn't that I don't love it, I do, I just think we all just need a rest! Since the season ended the news has been relentless.

I am going to be busy enjoying much turkey, presents and alcohol I'm sure. While I may be a godless heathen and as cynical as the next person I do enjoy Christmas for the family aspect and all that it brings, and it is a national and family tradition, after all. While that may make me a slight hypocrite at least I don't go around calling it 'Winterval' as one city council attempted to do a few years ago!

Have a good Christmas everyone, should you celebrate it, and I'll see you in a couple of days.

An Aside With Joe #16

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Today the latest 'An Aside With Joe' podcast was released and amazingly they are up to no.16 already. It doesn't seem long since the first one.

These chats with journalist and author Joe Saward are always very revealing and in this edition you can find out about:

making Grands Prix green;
a Grand Prix for electric cars;
Silverstone's deal;
an update on the Motorsport Business Forum, not the Monaco one like much of the F1 media but the Orlando event (and the reasons why he went there);
hydroplanes - yes, really;

I've said it before and it is ever true - after listening to Joe speak for just under an hour you come away feeling a lot wiser about motorsport and you look at it through different eyes - plus you can impress your friends with the knowledge. Of course, your friends don't care about motorsport and they still think Button is called Jason, hah, what do they know, nothing.

Thanks to Sidepodcast and especially to Joe for making the time to produce these, and particularly this episode which was an unexpected addition.

I know it is Christmas but you should make time for this one, LISTEN HERE.

Schumacher's Return Isn't So Bad

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:10:00 +0000

It became official this morning: Michael Schumacher has departed his advisory role with Ferrari to take a race seat at Mercedes GP, where he will be reunited with Ross Brawn.

I'm surprised at this news, in the beginning I thought it was a ploy by Mercedes to extract a better deal first from Jenson Button, and then Kimi Raikkonen. It looks like they were serious all along!

I am not a fan of Michael Schumacher. He has a known history of "bending the rules" (I'm being charitable, it is Christmas) at both Benetton and Ferrari and the FIA consistently let him off with weak penalties or none at all. He is the man who took Senna's swerving and weaving to a new level, to the extent that all the young drivers in lower formulae starting doing it, thinking it was normal. Yet I find myself excited at his return. Why?

You have to say this wouldn't have happened had Ross Brawn not been involved with the team. The two have enjoyed a lot of success together and I for one am not looking forward to the kind of dominance they so frequently displayed. Schumacher and Brawn's unique combined skill was to do things with fuel strategy that no other driver/strategist combination could. Schumacher has the ability to drive the car to a target laptime, relentlessly. It was this ability that allowed Brawn's to put into play fuel strategies that just wouldn't have otherwise worked. The combination of the two was dominating.

The rules have changed now. There is no more in-race refuelling, so this advantage no longer applies. The most they can do is be creative with tyre strategies while managing the weight of the car. It will be very interesting to see how this pairing copes under the new rules, probably more so than anyone else.

We have a level playing field again and one in which the driver has more say - and we know Schumacher prefers an open track to wheel-to-wheel racing. Over a lap he is better than nobody but he doesn't like the wheel-to-wheel, where he panics. This is where Alonso beat him before, and I believe will again - even better, he'll be driving Michael's red car! Then there's Hamilton and we know he's not scared of a fight either, with Button, Vettel and hopefully Massa making life interesting too.

2010 will feature one of the strongest grids in years among the 'regular' runners, then add in the new teams who will almost certainly be getting in the way for much of the year as an added distraction (and possible Safety Car enabler) and we have the recipe for an amazing season. It was shaping up to be so anyway, and now everybody will have just one man in their sights.

I am looking forward to Schumacher attempting to best this new generation of racers, many of whom have never raced him in F1 - and the 'new Button', the champion Button, could surprise him too.

I feel relieved for Rubens Barrichello who could easily have played the role of Schumi's Lapdog once again, Williams may be a step down but he is team-leader at last and it'll suit him well, and he can now play a role similar to that of his good friend Tony Kanaan.

I feel bad for Nico Rosberg who may have expected to be sitting alongside Nick Heidfeld next year and now faces the inevitibility of being No.2 in a team revolving around Schumacher, for it is clear even before it has been mentioned that MS will be the de facto Number One.

I even feel bad for Heidfeld who is probably going to be stuck with Sauber again, the Merc seat was probably his last shot at a race-winning drive.

In summary then, I fully expect Schumacher to play his old tricks again but the other aspects of his return outweigh that for the short term at least, and the sudden jump in media coverage and internet discussion is testament to ability to draw fans back to F1 - perhaps his return will see a rise in TV ratings and race attendances once more, after 2009's dip.

The thing I'm really not looking forward to is dealing with the pro/anti MS arguments again, the bane of internet discussion for the bulk of this decade. Twitter is going to be a nightmare.

* *
I promised to update my entry list after every driver annoucement, here is the first update:

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-25
1. Jenson Button	2. Lewis Hamilton	T: tbc
Mercedes GP Petronas
Mercedes	Mercedes	tbc
3. Michael Schumacher	4. Nico Rosberg	T: tbc
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull	Renault	RB6
5. Sebastian Vettel	6. Mark Webber	T: tbc
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Ferrari	Ferrari	tbc
7. Felipe Massa	8. Fernando Alonso	T: G.Fisichella
AT&T Williams
Williams	Cosworth	FW32
9. Rubens Barrichello	10. Nico Hülkenberg	T: tbc
Renault F1 Team
Renault	Renault	R30
11. Robert Kubica	12. tbc	T: tbc
Force India F1 Team
Force India	Mercedes	VJM03
14. Adrian Sutil	15. Vitantonio Liuzzi	T: tbc
Scuderia Toro Rosso
STR	Ferrari	STR5
16. Sebastien Buemi	17. tbc	T: tbc
Lotus F1 Racing
Lotus	Cosworth	tbc
18. Jarno Trulli	19. Heikki Kovalainen	T: F.Fauzy
Campos Meta 1
Campos Dallara	Cosworth	tbc
20. tbc	21. Bruno Senna	T: tbc
US F1 Team
US F1	Cosworth	tbc
22. tbc	23. tbc	T: tbc
Virgin Racing
Virgin	Cosworth	VR-01
24. Timo Glock	25. Lucas di Grassi	T: A.Parente T: L.Razia
Sauber
Sauber	Ferrari	C29
26. Kamui Kobayashi	27. tbc	T: tbc

There is also the Stefan GP team waiting in the wings to get an entry either in 2010 or 2011, they say they have signed drivers already, the buzz says one of those drivers is likely to be Vitaly Petrov.

2010 F1 Entry List Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:23:00 +0000

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of announcements of driver movements and other changes within teams for the 2010 Formula 1 season, including the first real presentations from some of the new teams.

I thought it would be a good idea to keep a note of what has been announced up to the Christmas break. For the moment I am assuming the Mercedes / Petronas deal (and wow where did that come from?) is the last announcement for 2009. The best format for this seems to be a table rather than a really long write-up, so I'll list the entrant name, then the constructor, engine and chassis, followed by the race and test drivers.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-25
1. Jenson Button	2. Lewis Hamilton	T: tbc
Mercedes GP
Mercedes	Mercedes	tbc
3. Nico Rosberg	4. tbc	T: tbc
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull	Renault	RB6
5. Sebastian Vettel	6. Mark Webber	T: tbc
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Ferrari	Ferrari	tbc
7. Felipe Massa	8. Fernando Alonso	T: G.Fisichella
AT&T Williams
Williams	Cosworth	FW32
9. Rubens Barrichello	10. Nico Hülkenberg	T: tbc
Renault F1 Team
Renault	Renault	R30
11. Robert Kubica	12. tbc	T: tbc
Force India F1 Team
Force India	Mercedes	VJM03
14. Adrian Sutil	15. Vitantonio Liuzzi	T: tbc
Scuderia Toro Rosso
STR	Ferrari	STR5
16. Sebastien Buemi	17. tbc	T: tbc
Lotus F1 Racing
Lotus	Cosworth	tbc
18. Jarno Trulli	19. Heikki Kovalainen	T: F.Fauzy
Campos Meta 1
Campos Dallara	Cosworth	tbc
20. tbc	21. Bruno Senna	T: tbc
US F1 Team
US F1	Cosworth	tbc
22. tbc	23. tbc	T: tbc
Virgin Racing
Virgin	Cosworth	VR-01
24. Timo Glock	25. Lucas di Grassi	T: A.Parente, L.Razia
Sauber
Sauber	Ferrari	C29
26. Kamui Kobayashi	27. tbc	T: tbc

Notes:
- This only covers what has been announced not what has been rumoured, nor deals with conditions (such as Lopez at USF1 which depends on raising a budget).
- Jaime Alguersuari is likely to retain the STR seat.
- Lotus F1 Racing is operated by 1Malaysia F1 Team.
- The Renault team is now 75%-owned by Genii Capital.
- Car number allocations remain fluid until March. #13 is not used.
- For the first time in years we have the return of the famous 26 and 27!

I'm really pleased to see Sauber back in their original guise, complete with 'C' designation for the chassis. I'm also pleased to see Cosworth on the grid again! Let's hope they can regroup, and the new teams can do a respectable job over the coming years.

Here is the 2010 Calendar:

14-Mar	Sakhir, Bahrain
28-Mar	Melbourne, Australia
04-Apr	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
18-Apr	Shanghai, China
09-May	Barcelona, Spain
16-May	Monaco
30-May	Istanbul, Turkey
13-Jun	Montreal, Canada
27-Jun	Valencia, Spain (European GP)
11-Jul	Silverstone, Britain
25-Jul	Hockenheim, Germany
01-Aug	Budapest, Hungary
29-Aug	Spa, Belgium
12-Sep	Monza, Italy
26-Sep	Singapore
10-Oct	Suzuka, Japan
24-Oct	Korea*
07-Nov	Sao Paulo, Brazil
14-Nov	Abu Dhabi

* pending circuit homologation

I will post updated lists throughout January and February as more is released. I am tempted to do the same for IndyCar and GP2, would that be interesting to people? I am much less sure what has been completely confirmed in either of those but I am willing to try and find out.

Belated Thursday Thoughts: An F1 Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:54:00 +0000

I have been offline for a few days after my computer's power supply decided to fail, I am glad to say I'm back now and here is my belated response to the most recent Thursday Thoughts question, this time posed by Gavin from Making Up The Numbers.

What do you want to get F1 for Christmas and why?

The first thing I would get is clip 'round the ear for Michael Schumacher for considering a return to racing. I can see that it'll be really interesting to see how he'll get on after some time away and with a new team, albeit still working with Ross Brawn. I just don't want him back, we've moved on from that era. Still, I suppose it prevents him from being Todt's F1 Commissioner so that's one positive.

I would buy a new online timing/telemetry system for Formula1.com and it would include video options. And it would work.

I'd buy Peter Sauber a huge thank you present for saving the team he created so long ago. Anything he wants. I had a soft-spot for that team during the late 90s, despite their Ferrari-leanings and my bias against Ferrari in that era. Peter is one of the good guys and I'm so glad he's still in F1.

I'd get the four new teams some good-luck charms. Horse's shoes, four-leaf clovers, that sort of thing because frankly they need it. I wish them well and will give them the benefit of the doubt - for a little while anyway. They've got a difficult year ahead.

Finally, if I had the money I would give every motorsport blogger and podcaster (and regular commenters) free tickets to an event - the same event, so that we could have one mega-big meetup. It could be Goodwood, or an F1 GP, or Le Mans.
I've really enjoyed this new world of blogging get even bigger in 2009 than it was in 2008, reading and hearing what everyone has to say, and even more than that I've enjoyed the meetups held during the year and this would be my way of saying thanks to you all.

Thursday Thoughts: The Future of F1 Content

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:28:00 +0000

Thursday Thoughts visits different blogs and is hosted here this week, so it is my turn to ask the question. Here is my response.

- What innovations would you like to see in F1 content delivery?

I think most of us by now are aware how far F1 lags behind other motorsports, even other sports entirely when it comes to delivering their product to the end user, the customer, the fan. It is quite frustrating to be told repeatedly how F1 teams use the most advanced technology to create these fantastically fast cars and yet the rights-holders are in some cases years behind the game in introducing the technology needed to provide real insight to the fan.

The rights-holders to Formula 1 are the collection of companies owned by CVC and controlled on their behalf by Bernie Ecclestone, I am not sure which company controls which element but I think FOA runs the races or at least the bits the FIA don't run, and FOM handles the TV and online offering. For the sake of argument I'll use FOM.

FOM seems insistent on relying on traditional avenues to get their message across, whether it be TV, magazines or newspapers. They seemingly reluctantly got themselves involved with the web business with www.formula1.com but they only did so in 2002 or thereabouts. Given the web recently celebrated 25 years of existence and most forward-thinking companies have been on it in some for or another since the mid-90s it was a curious oversight.

Why is it that F1 keeps talking about "embracing the internet" as if it's 1994 and it's a clever idea? Perhaps get on with it?

Ed Straw, F1 Editor of Autosport, via Twitter yesterday

Two major gaffes have appeared on Formula1.com. There may have been more.

One was the SMS text service. This was a great idea in principle: sign up to the service and you would receive a text message after every session informing you of the fastest drivers, and the points positions after races. The problem was they introduced it with the pricing structure of a decade earlier and the world had moved on, at least in the more developed mobile phone markets.
While I forget the specifics, the prices would have looked reasonable in 1997 when the mobile market was enjoying rapid growth and a plethora of new applications but in 2007 they looked utterly ridiculous and far too high. I would like to see this adjusted so that the more casual fan who isn't able to watch all the sessions or even all the races can receive updates at reasonable rates. My Dad gets a text message whenever his football team scores a goal. It can't be that hard.

The other was the web shop, again a good idea in principle - yet the original version was stocked with the wrong goods. Like so much in F1 it was pitched towards the premium customer, the more affluent fan who wants something special. Only in F1 could you buy an official carbon-fibre mouse mat, replete with F1 logo, for £200. Which is fine - I actually like the fact these items are there because I appreciate it helps position the brand of F1 - they just forgot to include things mere mortals could afford, a position they have gone some way to correcting in 2009.

Another aspect website is the live timing. When it works it is very informative, unfortunately it has a lot of glitches. It has been used ever since the site went live and is probably due a rethink. It could be bigger and contain more information. F1 is full of data, let's make use of it. Again, this year they've gone some way to making the info they offer open to more fans by creating the iPhone app which I've heard is tremendously useful, if pricey (there seems to be a theme here).

While I'm on the subject of timing, the TV coverage desperately needs to cut back on the "1-stop" graphic and tell us how far apart the cars are! Of course if they borrowed from DTM they could just mark a little '1' on the vertical position graphic that appears to the left of screen from time to time. If I don't have an iPhone or can't get near a computer to access live timing, I shouldn't be deprived of the basic car-to-car gaps, these should be available to all on the main feed and if I want the extra info like sector times then that's when I should look it up elsewhere. With any luck this data will be rolled out to further mobile platforms in future.

I must admit, other than the iPhone timing app I don't know what else is offered officially for mobile devices because I don't own a modern smartphone - but soon I and most others will do, I suspect I am already in the minority among mobile-owners.

I see no reason why FOM cannot offer an app offering short video clips to mobile devices, for a small fee. I see no reason why they cannot offer those same videos on their website, although I think most of us expect web video to be free unless it is of some length. On the website I would therefore offer short, free videos to anyone who visits. I would also offer a premium subscription ('premium' in name only, priced at a level we can afford!) where you can watch entire races, let's say until Jan 1st. They could expand that to show classic races and send FOM TV to each test session to provide us with reports from winter testing.

FOM claim they don't offer these because the commentary and ownership is specific to particular broadcasters, yet the broadcasters claim they can't provide online coverage because the video is owned by FOM. The only notable exception seems to be the BBC's iPlayer (an excellent service) and the FP sessions trialled last year by ITV. At the end of every session aired on the BBC there is a particularly large copyright notice stating that the production is copyright of FOM. If FOM owns the video,can they not put it online, even a version with no commentary? Even better, work with each broadcaster to offer the same footage with different reactions. It would fascinating in the week after a race incident to go to Formula1.com and compare the reactions of crews from BBC, SPEED, Globo, RAI, RTL, etc, etc. They could make a montage and sell it for money.

They also need to bring in High-Def coverage to those who will take it and offer that as a quality option for the downloads. There are HD channels in more and more countries and even the little devices support it now. They've been using HD cameras for a year or so now but they still won't release a true HD feed for broadcast or sale, which is crazy, why invest in the technology if you aren't going to use it?
This is the most technologically advanced sport in the world and it is still in fuzzy-vision. NASCAR has 36 races per year and most, if not all of them, are available in HD in the US (and sometimes in the UK). It doesn't matter if you don't have an HD TV or monitor, you still notice a difference. I think Abu Dhabi was in HD and it looked fantastic on my SD TV on the SD digital broadcast.

Conclusion: FOM are applying 20th Century solutions to 21st Century fans. They need to change. Fast.

There are signs that they are changing slowly. The iPhone app. The F1 2009 Wii and PSP games, and the 2010 PC, Xbox and PS3 games. These should be released annually in the way that the FIFA, Madden and other licensed games are, there is a demand for it.

Perhaps they are starting to wake up?

**
You can read the Thursday Thoughts of my fellow bloggers by following the links in the Question post!

Thursday Thoughts: Question

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:14:00 +0000

For the last few weeks I have taken part in the 'Thursday Thoughts' initiative, which calls for bloggers to respond to a question set by a colleague. This week it is my turn to ask the question.

- What innovations would you like to see in F1 content delivery?

This came up on Wednesday at the Motorsport Business Forum in Monaco in relation to Formula 1's reluctance to embrace new technologies and content delivery systems, and you can read some of the reports from Autosport here and here as well as some excellent entries from Stuart Codling's new blog here and here. The main point coming from it was people want more than just the TV experience, they want more online and mobile content.

All of which was fascinating from those in the industry but what I want to know is what my fellow fan thinks, after all we are the end users. What sort of online and mobile content do you want to see? How do you want to consume F1 in the near future, say by this time next year or going into the following season?

This question is aimed at F1 but if you want to expand it out or talk about other racing that's fine. This is a multi-series blog whose remit is to get people talking about different racing (including how F1 relates to various other racing), which is why I included WRC's fascinating announcement in the links above.

* *
I will update this post as blog entries come in, please feel free to link to your blog in the comments or if you don't have a blog perhaps you may like to post your thoughts here. I look forward to your opinions!

- Ollie at BlogF1 already wrote about this yesterday;

- A month ago Allen from The Furious Wedge wrote about the online services provided by IRL and A1GP;

- StartledBunny of Another Planet and RubberGoat from Making Up The Numbers both mention joining in with the race while it is in progress, which is an interesting idea;

- Over at Sidepodcast they are already a few years ahead of many of us when it comes to consuming video away from the TV, and Christine considers the only way forward may be to change the man at the top. (Mr C also wrote something on online content recently).

- Dylan from the new Triple League Racing blog offers an interesting perspective on how IndyCar and NASCAR approach things.

* *

On The Limit: DTM highlights - with a difference

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:11:00 +0000

It is about time I resurrected the old 'On The Limit' feature, where I either link to or post here a motorsport video on anything that takes my fancy. I've been negligent in updating what was supposed to be a regular feature.

The reason I bring this up now is the appearance of a clutch of season highlights videos, both official and unofficial, appearing all over the web at this time of year. One of the best of these was found by Scott from the Zero Downforce blog and is an artistic and really rather good look at the 2009 DTM season. I don't care if you don't like DTM or that it is mostly in German, it is a high-quality piece of work and well worth a look for any fan of racing in general.

Scott found it so I asked him to post it to his blog rather than steal all the credit here, so I urge you to watch this video by clicking here RIGHT NOW!

If you find a great video, if they are highlights or just a fantastic bit of car control, post it to your blog and I can include it in this series. Let's get a bit of inter-blog linkery goin' on.

Race Review: A1GP Kyalami

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:12:00 +0000

A1GP World Cup
A1GP Gauteng
Kyalami, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Held: 22 Feb 09
Watched: 6 Dec 09
Coverage: Sky Sports 2
Commentary: Ben Edwards and John Watson
Pits: Diana Binks and James Hinchcliffe (@Hinchtown)

This is the first visit of A1GP to Kyalami, replacing the crashfest that was the Durban street race of previous years - it was a great location on the coast but a poor layout.

Sky have Georgie Thompson, Tony Jardine (racing pundit and insider) and Olly Jarvis (former driver for A1 GBR, now in DTM) in the studio in London.

Points coming into this event:
Ireland 65, Switzerland 52, Portugal 49, France 41, Netherlands 38, NZ 35, Malaysia 31, Australia 30, South Africa 17, Britain 16

Germany have been absent for the season to date and they finally join in this weekend. Sky show a recap of their last involvement the previous year where Ammermueller picked up a reputation for crashing into people - oh dear!

*Sprint Race

Grid (top ten):

Bleekemolen (Netherlands)	Albuquerque (Portugal)
Jani (Switzerland)	Piccione (Monaco)
Karthikeyan (India)	Carroll (Ireland)
Prost (France)	Zaugg (South Africa)
Fauzy (Malaysia)	Piscopo (Italy)

Bleekemolen took pole for the Dutch team. Interesting to see India are up there, Karthikeyan can be a good driver on his day.

Diana is with Alan Jones, seatholder for A1Team Australia. Alan tells us about the black armband he is wearing for the people who lost their lives in the Australian bushfires, and the car is also bearing the logo of a ribbon.

Hinch has Bleekemolen on the grid:
"Our last pole was at Zandvoort and we didn't win it, so we have to win it now." He's talking about low grip so the cars are getting sideways.

14 lap race, standing start.. didn't they used to have rolling starts for this one?

START
Jani takes 2nd immediately, Bleekemolen has a big lead straight away. Karthikeyan is up to 4th at the expense of Piccione.

13 to go - Piccione repasses Karthikeyan, great pass!
Carroll also passes the India car using PowerBoost.
12 - Netherlands are running 2sec per lap faster than the field. Ho-Pin Tung makes a move on Bamber, he dives inside but runs too wide and the NZ car repasses him.
10 - China now makes a mistake, Germany gets alongside but has to back off. Lebanon are in the garage with a problem of some kind. Ben says the pit window is now open.
9 - Bleekemolen and Jani pit from 1st and 2nd, many cars further down follow them in. Jani is held up by the Malaysian car which is blocking his exit, parked at an angle. Commentary talking about a narrow pitlane but it is wide, the problem is there isn't enough length between pit stalls and these cars have a very wide turning circle.
8 - Portugal in, Ireland in, Monaco stays out. Netherlands retakes the lead among those who have stopped.
7 - Piccione pits the Monaco car. Germany made up places through the stops.
6 - Order after stops: Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Monaco, Ireland, India, South Africa, New Zealand
5 - GB in the gravel at turn one, after fighting with Brazil. Replay: Contact! The two collide and Watts runs off course. Yellows at turn one.
3 - Bleekemolen has a 4.3sec lead now although Portugal just set Fastest Lap. There's not much actual racing anywhere in the field.
1 - All sorts of different onboard and offboard TV shots are being used to fill the time while nothing is happening on track..

Jeroen Bleekemolen wins the sprint race for Netherlands. Somehow Ireland took 4th ahead of Monaco? Not shown on TV.

RESULT (top ten)

Here is the result of this race, keep reading for the Feature race.

	Driver	Team	Gap	Pts
1	Bleekemolen	Netherlands	14 laps	10
2	Albuquerque	Portugal	4.407s	8
3	Jani	Switzerland	10.600s	6
4	Carroll	Ireland	12.925s	5
5	Piccione	Monaco	14.363s	4
6	Karthikeyan	India	18.474s	3
7	Zaugg	South Africa	21.178s	2
8	Bamber	New Zealand	26.539s	1
9	Fauzy	Malaysia	26.925s
10	Prost	France	28.101s
FL	Albuquerque	Portugal	01:29.072	1

I'll recap the points after the main race.

*Feature Race

Nicolas Prost (son of Alain) starts 11th and is with Diana: "The atmosphere is fantastic, beautiful event. 11th is disappointing but a lot of people are in my situation after the red flag. It will be a long, hot race, very physical. Anything can happen."

John Martin of Australia start 4th and is with Hinch: "Sprint race quali didn't go our way but Q3 went okay, and we have a fast car so let's hope it goes our way."

Grid (top ten):

Piccione (Monaco)	Fauzy (Malaysia)
Bamber (New Zealand)	Martin (Australia)
Jani (Switzerland)	Carroll (Ireland)
Albuquerque (Portugal)	Guimaraes (Brazil)
Bleekemolen (Netherlands)	Watts (GBR)

Monaco on pole! Qualifying was red-flagged so a fairly jumbled order.

South African national anthem

A1GP command from the premier of the Gauteng region: 'Gentlemen, for the pride of your nations, start your engines'

40 lap race, standing start..

START

Monaco away well, terrible for Portugal who drop back to last.
Andretti going outside of Prost! It sticks, good move.
Adam Carroll spins! He tried to pass Malaysia and he's thrown it into the gravel - he's out of the race.
Netherlands and USA are making rapid progress up the order. NZ and Malaysia battling. Brazil v Australia.

39 to go - Australia passes Brazil over the line for 5th.
38 - Malaysia really pushing NZ hard over the last couple of laps. Fauzy and Bamber. Australia has now caught both.
Start replay: Australia was pushed partially on to the grass and lost several positions.

37 - Malaysia punts New Zealand off the track! Fauzy braked too late and now Bamber is out of the race. Someone else has gone off.. could be France. Fauzy continues having lost a couple of places.
Just in the replay you could briefly see Mexico push France and Duran went off track, Prost pitted.

35 - Malaysia pits with probably damage. The official pit window isn't open yet. China is off course and Malaysia rejoins, but will still have to take 2 stops later. Replay of India running off course too.

Proper replay of France/Mexico: Prost was tipped into a spin and stopped on track to rejoin, Mexico kept running but only into the gravel.

Diana with Adam Carroll: "Got a good start, Malaysia were slow on the back straight so I used push-to-pass and I knew I was ahead, I even gave him some room and he hit me in the back corner. I'm pretty angry to tell you the truth."

33 - Great battle between GB, Netherlands, USA and Germany, as Fauzy spins off to cheers from the crowd! Caught his rear wheel on the dust and 360s.

32 - The first pit window is open.
Order: Monaco, Swiss, Australia, Brazil, GB, Ned, USA, Ger, SA, Por, Leb, Indonesia, China, etc.

31 - Monaco pits. Very slow stop, 15.9 seconds! Australia stalls leaving the pits, Germany is in their way, now Australia has an exhaust fire! They are trying to push-start it.. it isn't going anywhere.

30 - Jani is in. Watson tips Portugal as one to watch as he's running fastest of all. Swiss pitstop was about 10 seconds. Portugal's stop is about 11 seconds.

Andretti now running faster than before, Ben suggests he may have been caught behind the GB/Ned fight.

29 - South Africa pits, USA stay out. Quick 9sec stop for RSA and he is out alongside Portugal, but they have momentum and take the place.
Jani is right up behind Andretti, despite Jani having pitted. Marco stays out for another lap.

28 - Jani uses powerboost to pass Andretti on the front straight. Lebanon is running close to Andretti, haven't pitted either.

27 - Lebanon pits but USA does not. A couple of laps of the pit window remain. Diana is in the Malaysia pit where the car is in the garage, 'Fauzy reported a puncture - there was no puncture and he went back out and came in again, something is broken on the back of the car'.
Heheh, you could hear an echo as Diana's voice was also on the circuit tannoy for the spectators, and as she said there was no puncture Fairuz looked rather sheepish...

26 - Andretti pits, 11 second stop, he's out ahead of a train of cars but Zaugg gets him and so does Ammermueller as he gets up to speed.

Morad (Lebanon) passes Andretti, now Indonesia takes him. What's Marco doing out there? Bad tyres perhaps, or struggling to get heat and grip into them.

25 - Order after the first stops:
Switzerland, Monaco, Brazil, Netherlands, Britain, Portugal, South Africa, Germany, Lebanon, Indonesia, USA, China, Italy, India, Australia

Where did Brazil come from?? Zaugg slows and pulls to the side of the track, problem..
Radio: he says he has a problem downshifting.
He's made it to the pits.

23 - Lebanon passes Germany! Morad is on form today, I'm very impressed with him.

22 - Brazil is in 3rd and running 1sec/lap faster than Monaco in 2nd. Andretti has lost a position to China. His grandfather won at this track in its original configuration when it was an F1 circuit. Watson says "this is not what I'd expect of an Andretti". Perhaps he hasn't been watching IndyCar..

19 - Brazil has now caught Monaco. Replay of Ammermueller running wide into the gravel, and his tyres are caked in dust and dirt.

18 - China now running very slowly just as South Africa's was.

17 - The second pit window is now open. Monaco runs wide at turn four and Brazil passes him! Slip-up from Piccione, he was low on grip and the pit window opened a little too late for him. Thumbs-up from Emerson Fittipaldi on the pit wall.

16 - Brazil, GB and Netherlands pit. Very slow stop for Britain.

15 - Switzerland pits from the lead. Good stop, he's out in clear air. China seems to have fixed their issue as they leave the pits and get up to speed. Many others stopping.

14 - Monaco pits from what should be a temporary lead. Second stop better than the first stop. Danny Watts sets fastest lap of 1m30 or so. Now Marco Andretti goes quicker, he's finally found some pace, I'm not sure if he's pitted again. Spin for China at the chicane.

13 - Ho-Pin Tung has brought his car into the garage to retire. Lebanon are pitting late and he's running at a good pace.

12 - Lebanon pits now. Malaysia rejoins after a long time in the pits, many laps down.

Hinch is with Earl Bamber of NZ: "We came down into turn 12 and he just hit us up the arse and that was it, we were in the gravel trap."

11 - Order after the second stops:
Switzerland, Brazil, Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, Britain, Lebanon, USA, Indonesia, Italy, India, Germany, Australia, China (7 laps), South Africa (14 laps), Malaysia (19 laps)
Malaysia are back out and could be trying to get the point for fastest lap.

7 - Italy and India having a fight.. Karthikeyan slides the car, runs wide and now has Ammermueller on his tail.

6 - John says Malaysia just set the fastest first sector of the last lap. Australia currently holds the fastest lap. Fauzy now takes it, 1:28.306.

4 - India has caught Italy again and he does the same, slides, runs wide!

2 - Replay: Lebanon passes Britain on the front straight.

Last lap

Neel Jani wins for Switzerland!

Ammermueller passed Karthikeyan on the last lap for 11th. That was a really entertaining race, I enjoyed that.

Emmerson Fittipaldi on Felipe Guimaraes: "Very proud, for the last ten laps we had a fuel pressure problem and were losing 1 second per lap, very proud. He's a talent, he's going a long way."
Ben says Guimaraes is only 17! I have to admit I've never heard of him before.

RESULT (top ten)

	Driver	Team	Gap	Pts
1	Jani	Switzerland	40 laps	15
2	Guimaraes	Brazil	13.176s	12
3	Piccione	Monaco	14.193s	10
4	Bleekemolen	Netherlands	17.024s	8
5	Albuquerque	Portugal	17.995s	6
6	Morad	Lebanon	31.210s	5
7	Watts	Britain	34.328s	4
8	Andretti	United States	59.000s	3
9	Ali	Indonesia	63.995s	2
10	Piscopo	Italy	64.856s	1
FL	Fauzy	Malaysia	01:28.306	1

Another win for Jani, well done to the Swiss team. Impressive performances from Guimaraes and Morad, and Piccione scored the first podium for Monaco!

POINTS (top ten)

	A1.Team	Prior	Sprint	Feature	Closing
1	Switzerland	52	6	15	73
2	Ireland	65	5		70
3	Portugal	49	8	6	64
4	Netherlands	38	10	8	56
5	France	41			41
6	New Zealand	35	1		36
7	Malaysia	31		1	32
8	Australia	30			30
9	Monaco	9	4	10	23
10	Britain	16		4	20

Good points hauls for Switzerland, Netherlands, Portugal and Monaco.
Terrible weekend for France, NZ, Malaysia and Australia who all lose ground.
Monaco's scoring was good enough to bring them into the top ten.

Summary

I really enjoyed the feature race, lots of action all the way through and cars could pass even on this difficult circuit. The battle for the lead wasn't much, with the action in the rest of the field it didn't need to be. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the sprint race, which has long been a problem of A1GP racing.

Olly Jarvis seems to be becoming a clone of Tony Jardine with his sayings and mannerisms, the same way of finishing the sentences with a slightly higher intonation.. should we be worried?

It is quite bittersweet to be watching these races after the fact with the knowledge we have now of all A1GP's financial problems. It was bad in the '08/'09 series, it is much worse this time - the cars haven't even turned a wheel. Such a shame.

The next event was a mammoth seven weeks after this one, at the new Portimao circuit on the Algarve in Portugal. I plan to do reviews of that race and the Brands Hatch finale although I appreciate this is probably for my own benefit rather than anyone else's.

Thursday Thoughts: F1 Engine Parity

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Pitlane Fanatic is the host of this week's Thursday Thoughts question, which is this:

Is engine parity necessary for 2010?

Absolutely not. With engine parity we have seen the F1 grid close up like never before but it has come at the expense of passing. I would argue that it is this factor which is offsetting the improvements made by the aero changes - there is less wake behind the cars yet nobody has enough grunt to take advantage, unless they have KERS in which case their KERS-less victim is a sitting duck (see Kimi and Giancarlo at Spa), yet if both have KERS we are back to square one.
With differences between engines we would find some drivers have a power advantage, but perhaps not enough that a well-driven disadvantaged car couldn't still beat them from time to time.

Without differences between engines what is the point of having different engine manufacturers? Perhaps this is a ploy to get us used to similar engines should the 'world engine' concept come about. Let's hope not. Some engines are more powerful than others. Some are more fuel efficient, and their time would (or should) have come in 2010 with the ban on refuelling. While none of us (except the Tifosi) like to see domination, I don't think many of us want to see top line racing reduced to a group of spec series - and occasional domination is part and parcel of the sport anyway.

The differences between equipment make up a fundamental part of the sport, and let's not forget this is a sport, not entertainment. If I wanted to watch entertainment I'd watch a comedy show. Sport is about tackling a problem with different techniques to see which comes out best. In some sports that's using similar equipment in different ways or simply being better than the others. In motorsport you are and should be allowed to find a better way.

The cost issue is a concern. Manufacturers were spending ridiculous amounts of money on engines in the V10 era and the beginning of this V8 era and that had to end. Yet consider all the money currently being spent on aerodynamic work which bears absolutely no relation to anything else done not just in the car industry but anywhere. It has no other purpose. Yet the area the car industry needs to explore most urgently right now is engine efficiency or even alternative engines, and this is the area being cut back in the arena which develops tech faster than no other? I find that absurd.

Let's reduce the aero spend - OK I accept they already are - and allow the teams and manufacturers to explore different engine technologies with their money, should they wish to. There is nothing wrong with a new concept being five seconds per laps slower at the beginning of its life. If you believe it works, persevere and make it faster. They did it with turbos. They did it with V6s, V8s, V10s, V12s in the 1990s when engines were more open. That's how it should be. That's F1.

Is parity necessary in 2010? No. I'd get rid of it completely.

Race Review: NASCAR Daytona 500

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:02:00 +0000

NASCAR Sprint Cup
Daytona 500
Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, Florida, USA
(1/36)
Held: 15 Feb 09
Watched: 1 Nov 09
Coverage: FOX 1hr edit*, aired on Five

* I watched the 1-hour highlights edition which is obviously heavily edited from the original race coverage. I'm not sure who does the editing, if it is from NASCAR, FOX or Five.

200 laps scheduled

Green flag. These cars may not be impressive but their speeds and car control required are, look how much they move around! Takes some doing to keep them off the wall, I should think.

Kyle Busch leads the early running, Harvick is also quick but some way back.

Spin on lap 8. Almirola. Replay: He had to lift in traffic and the car behind tagged him gently. Yellow flag.
L11 - Restart.

[jump]
L40 - Kyle Busch and Dale Jr side by side for the lead. Busch pulls ahead. Two lines of traffic all the way back, typical restrictor plate stuff, exciting for a while if you are new to it like I am... but then very boring when nothing changes.

[jump]
L60 - Restart, my highlights don't show why it was yellow in the first place. Man in the pits shows us a tyre, VERY worn right down to the cords. Dangerous stuff.

L65 - All the cars are bunched up still. Commentary saying 33 cars covered by 3 seconds... while that is quite impressive, it really is just an accident looking for somewhere to happen. You're watching through your fingers because a big crash is inevitible, that's not what this should be about.

[jump]
L86 - Something of a bad edit and we're on another restart, not told why, not our business. This is a need-to-know operation and we don't need to know.

Chat with Joey Logano, apparently he was in an accident.

L90 - The weather has changed, teams are racing to halfway in case of rain. If rain arrives any time after half distance (lap 100) the race will be declared as finished with full points awarded. Rain is due soon so no more waiting until lap 180 to then race to the end, got to go now..

L93 - Earnhardt Jr missed his pit stall last time, had to go around and came out last but he's working his way up the order again, he's into the top 15.

[jump]
L111 (89 to go) - Single file most of the way back, four car break up front: Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Edwards, McMurray. Finally someone breaks away!

86 to go - Jeff Gordon pits after a long green flag run, commentary says people will now follow him in. Jeff goes a lap down with a green flag stop.
Indeed they do start pitting.. most of the leaders stay out.
During the pit sequence a tyre blows on the track, yellow for debris.

[jump]
L124 (77 to go) - Restart but no, here's the big one straight away.
Earnhardt Jr turns someone into the field who try to avoid the car, but many fail.. Kyle Busch, dominant all day, is taken out of the race along with about ten other cars.

Dale was pushed to the inside below the line, coming back in he caught the back end of Vickers' car when he ought to have lifted slightly to get more space. Okay so he shouldn't have been blocked, but once he was he shouldn't have moved up until he was clear.

[jump]
L163 RED FLAG
The rain has arrived. Replay of Kenseth taking the lead from Sadler.

Official - the race is over due to rain.

Result (top 10):
1. Kenseth (Ford)
2. Harvick (Chevy)
3. Allmendinger (Dodge)
4. Bowyer (C)
5. E.Sadler (D)
6. Ragan (F)
7. Waltrip (Toyota)
8. Stewart (C)
9. Sorenson (D)
10. Ku.Busch (D)

Not necessarily representative of the pace of the race. Harvick did pull himself to the front but Kyle Busch ought to have been up there. That's just how this style of racing goes.

Points (top 12):
1. Kenseth 190
2. Harvick -20
3. Allmendinger -25
4. Bowyer -30
5. E.Sadler -30
6. Ragan -40
7. Stewart -43
8. Waltrip -44
9. Sorenson -52
10. Truex Jr -55
11. Ku.Busch -56
12. J.Gordon -61

I do not understand this points system, I assume points were accrued through bonuses.

Summary:
Interesting stuff from my perspective, the style of racing is completely different to anything I'm used to. I couldn't watch it for three hours or more although I did try to do so live at the time, but this highlights form really works for me. The editing could be better - we need to know why things like restarts are happening, not just that they are.

I'll continue this series of race reviews over the off-season, although I'll only promise to cover IRL, GP2 and MotoGP races, there will be a lot more but the coverage will be patchy.

Race Review: GP2 Asia Qatar '09

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:00:00 +0000

GP2 Asia Series (08/09)
Losail, Doha, Qatar
7&8 of 12
Held: 14-15 February 2009
Watched: 3 October 2009
Coverage: Eurosport / Martin Haven & Gareth Rees

This is the first ever GP2 night race but Qatar has hosted night events for MotoGP and World Superbikes before so this should be no problem for them.

Feature Race (34 laps)

Grid:

1. Hülkenberg (ART)	2. Perez (Campos)
3. Petrov (Campos)	4. Kobayashi (DAMS)
5. Rodriguez (Piquet)	6. Yamamoto (ART)
7. Villa (Super Nova)	8. Valsecchi (Durango)
9. Mortara (Arden)	10. D'Ambrosio (DAMS)
11. Jakes (Super Nova)	12. Bonanomi (Meritus)
13. Parente (Meritus)	14. Nunes (Piquet)
15. Crestani (Ocean)	16. van der Garde (iSport)
17. Herck (DPR)	18. Ricci (DPR)
19. Razia (Arden)	20. Rigon (Trident)
21. Al Fardan (iSport)	22. Gonzalez (FMS)
23. Buurman (Ocean)	24. Porvenzano (Trident)
25. M.Dalle Stelle (Durango)	26. Nai Chia Chen (FMS)

[all Dallara-Renault-Bridgestone]

Kevin Chen was SEVEN seconds per lap slower than Hulkenberg in qualifying. Stunningly bad.

Formation Lap

Medium compound tyre this weekend. Like F1 there is a range of tyres, unlike F1 they use the same one for the whole weekend at the choice of Bridgestone.

Parente is new in at Ocean so he'll take this race to acclimatise, he hasn't raced since October.

Grid.. GO!

BIG CRASH on the start. Commentary says Yamamoto had stalled and he was hit. Huge impact as the back of the grid gets up to speed.

Safety Car

Yamamoto is ok. 3 or 4 others involved and those guys seem okay too. Buurman is one of them. Gonzalez another.

Safety Car is stopped at the beginning of the main straight to wait for the leaders, who reach it... and it doesn't move. Front straight blocked with debris.

Replay: Buurman jinked right to avoid a slower car and rams Yamamoto, there's no way he could have seen that car, he was unsighted due to the wing of the other car he was avoiding.

The field is now being led through the pit lane.

Very slow clear up. They don't have a road sweeper, and they only have one man with a brush! They also only seem to have one Caterpillar lifter to move the cars..

32 to go - Perez leads. Al Fardan has stalled on pit entry. Eventually he gets in to the pits and is refired.
31 - Chen does the same. Gareth says it'll be no loss if he's not restarted.. Ah, they've found some more brooms.
29 - Main straight is now clear and the SC lights are off. Order: Perez, Hulkenberg, Petrov, Kobayashi, Valsecchi, Villa.
28 - RESTART
27 - D'Ambrosio pits from 8th or so. Rigon is in from a long way down. Tyre temps will be very low after this 20 minute yellow period, in which the SC was driving very slowly even for a Safety Car.

25 - Parente passes Mortara at turn one.
Kobayashi in trouble, Valsecchi and Villa pass him.
Petrov pits. Villa takes Valsecchi with the momentum from the other move. Good stuff.
24 - Rodriquez spins it at turn one, stuck in the gravel, he's out.
21 - Villa passes Hülkenberg for 2nd, though they do need to pit. Petrov is fastest man on track.
20 - Perez pits from the lead. Kobayashi is dropping back again.
19 - Villa leads for one lap and then pits.

Petrov leads Perez after their stops, potential lead change between team-mates when it shakes out after Petrov put in solid laps - but Perez is now all over him.

16 - Perez passes Petrov, who's shot his tyres with those fast laps. Hülkenberg has still to pit, he was pulling a gap on these two.

13 - Ahh, Villa has been given a drive-thru for pitlane speeding. He was driving well for a podium, too. Shame.
Della Stella is crawling around with a loose rear wheel. Hm.

Good racing between Valsecchi and the chasing d'Ambrosio, who makes a nice move on the main straight, the last of several clean attempts. No blocking or swerving here.

Bit of a stalemate for a while (that's code for BORING).

6 - Provenzano spins at turn one, recovers through the gravel. I have never heard of him.
5 - Hülkenberg makes his pit stop from a huuuge lead. Slightly held up by a DPR car also pitting, from almost a lap down.
Nico H. rejoins the track still with a big lead! The entire length of the pit straight (and Losail has a long straight).
3 - Provenzano is off again, looks like a wheel hub breaking..
2 - Hülkenberg has a 16sec lead and Kobayashi's tyres have come alive! He's chasing Petrov for 3rd now, I didn't notice that earlier. Tyres are an oddity here it seems.
1 - Last lap.

FLAG - Hülkenberg wins!

	Top Ten	Margin	Pts
1	Hülkenberg	34 laps	10+1
2	Perez	13.295 sec	8
3	Petrov	14.343 sec	6
4	Kobayashi	14.746 sec	5
5	D'Ambrosio	23.419 sec	4
6	Valsecchi	33.919 sec	3
7	Mortara	35.214 sec	2
8	Razia	35.341 sec	1
9	Jakes	41.162 sec
10	Crestani	43.774 sec

Hülkenberg picks up the point for Fastest Lap. True FL-setter Parente was outside the top ten, this rule prevents backmarkers pitting for new tyres every few laps and doing qualifying runs to get the point. Keep scrolling down for Sunday's race.

* * *
Sprint Race (23 laps)

Yelmer Buurman does not take the start after yesterday's crash, it seems because they haven't been able to repair the car in time rather than for medical reasons but I'm not completely sure.

Grid is the finishing positions from the Feature with the top 8 reversed.

1. Razia	2. Mortara
3. Valsecchi	4. D'Ambrosio
5. Kobayashi	6. Petrov
7. Perez	8. Hülkenberg
9. Jakes	10. Crestani

Pastor Maldonado's seat has been taken by Nico Hulkenberg for a few races and this will be Nico's last event of the GP2 Asia season.

Grid..GO!

Front row slow away, Campos guys [Petrov and Perez] away fast from row 3 and jump into 1st and 2nd by the first turn!
Kobayashi and d'Ambrosio dropped from 4th/5th to 7th/8th on the start.

22 to go - Perez leads Petrov, only just.
21 - Hülkenberg and Razia run wide into the dust!
19 - Jakes re-passes Crestani at turn one (didn't realise he'd gone back..).
18 - Now he takes someone else.. can't identify.

Parente is off-track, through the gravel, rejoins bringing lots of dust and crap on to the circuit. A few drivers have done this now, it doesn't help the grip which is pretty bad as it is.

Perez, Petrov, Mortara, Hülkenberg, Valsecchi, Razia, D'Ambrosio, van der Garde.

16 - Top 3 well clear of the rest of the field which is still running in close proximity to each other. Bonanomi in the Qi Meritus Mahara car passes Rigon for 14th.

Meritus race in the GP2 Asia Series in place of Racing Engineering who only race in the European series, all the other teams race in both.

14 - Bonamomi racing closely with Nunes and takes the place, some close hard and fair racing!

12 - Perez and Petrov have cleared off in to the distance but Mortara has dropped into the clutches of Hülkenberg. Nico has been looking after his tyres much more effectively than his rivals who have all slowed down somewhat compared to earlier.

11 - Hülkenberg now racing Mortara, can't quite make it work. Rear-facing onboard! We can see Valsecchi and Razia coming up behind them.

Kobayashi is dropping down the field, he's 14th.

8 - Hulkenberg passes Mortara for 3rd just as we go to a commercial break! Now, can Valsecchi and the three guys behind him capitalise? Only a quick break, wow, Nico hit the warp drive, he's suddenly 3sec up the road one lap after the pass!

6 - Parente gets really crossed-up in the dust and loses a bundle of positions. The Hulk is 1sec/lap faster than the two leaders, but may not have enough laps to catch up.

4 - Provencano spins into the gravel, elsewhere so does Chen. Replay: Crestani runs wide and Provencano loses control into the gravel trap! Avoidence or coincidence, hard to say.. Frankie Provencano has graduated from Formula Master.

2 - Mortara in 4th is bottling up a lot of cars behind him, big train has caught him up all the way down to 11th! And now they are all catching Chen, who did a 2 minute lap last time compared to 1m41 for the leaders...

Perez suddenly jumps forward in lap time, a clear 2sec faster than before.

Sergio Perez wins!

	Top Ten	Margin	Pts
1	Perez	23 laps	6+1
2	Petrov	2.355 sec	5
3	Hülkenberg	11.929 sec	4
4	Mortara	19.454 sec	3
5	Valsecchi	21.735 sec	2
6	Razia	22.618 sec	1
7	D'Ambrosio	24.029 sec
8	van der Garde	24.346 sec
9	Jakes	25.253 sec
10	Villa	26.074 sec

Perez gets the point for Fastest Lap. A great result for the Barwa Campos Team, 2nd and 3rd in the Feature race and a 1-2 in the Sprint!

Points:

Kobayashi	39
Valsecchi	29
Hülkenberg	27
Perez	25
Rodriguez	22
D'Ambrosio	21
Petrov	19
Villa	12
Mortara	11
Bamber	8

The next race was at Sepang seven weeks later supporting the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Now that we're in the off-season I will catch up with those rounds soon - I hope!

Must Comment Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:38:00 +0000

Eagle-eyed readers visiting the site will have noticed a red logo appeared in the sidebar a couple of weeks ago: Must Comment Monday. You may have seen it elsewhere too.

The idea is this:

- Visit several blogs on a Monday and if there are any new entries that day, you must leave a comment.
- If there are several entries on a blog you only need comment on one.
- If the blog requires a password it is exempt, although if you already have a login you may as well use it!
- Do try and say something interesting or constructive rather than something just to say you commented. The 'first comment!' phenomenon is to be discouraged.

Of course, us bloggers have to keep up our side of the deal too and keep posting blog entries as well as commenting elsewhere. Let's not have our blogs sleep through the off-season! This is a great way to keep comments flowing and every blogger knows comments are everything, the lifeblood of a blog.

This is another initiative from those fine folk of Sidepodcast, who seem to be good at prompting people to blog. You can read more on MCM in this post.

Thursday Thoughts: F1 Launches

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:55:00 +0000

This week's Thursday Thoughts question from Sidepodcast:

Should F1 teams launch 2010 cars in a single launch event?

When I first read the question I thought I would be in favour, but after considering the pros and cons I've turned out to be against the idea. Let's run through them.

In favour of a group launch:

- It cuts costs for everyone. Perhaps they would each pay a flat rate to FOTA who would hire a venue, perhaps they could even get a neutral company (say a series sponsor like LG) to sponsor the event and make it break even.

- All of the world's F1 media would be in the same place at once. Not only would this cut their costs but it would mean not having to choose between competing events held the same day.

- It would create a huge pre-season buzz with all the new cars appearing before the world at once, or in reality probably in stages through the day. The publicity would be huge! You could even set up a dummy grid, though I'm sure you'd have to draw lots for the order.

In favour of individual launches:

- 'Launches' these days aren't the frivolous affairs of the late 90s with the Spice Girls and the dry ice. The cost of plonking a tarpaulin-covered car in the pitlane in Jerez really isn't that high when it is there for testing anyway.

- If there are launches held on the same day in different countries, the bigger players tend to have enough staff or freelancers to be able to send one or two to each.

- We already have a huge pre-season buzz, it just isn't concentrated into a focal point, it is spread over many weeks or even months. This for me as a fan is the clincher. The anticipation builds from late January as car after car is steadily launched right up until we can visualise the full grid in early March, just days before the real thing. No other form of motorsport can or does do this.

- If they launched at the same time only the specialist motorsport press will cover every team. At the moment the general media might have a larger story for McLaren and a smaller one for Force India, but they'd pretty much all get something, at least in newspapers. If they launched all at once the editors would have the same space to cram in 13 or 14 teams and it just isn't going to happen, they'd pick Brawn, McLaren, Ferrari and maybe one other. This should be the clincher for the teams but they seem to have missed it.

The group shot idea I had above - it would look cool to have the cars lined up together but the team sponsors would probably prefer the focus to be on their car on that day. With an individual launch you get the focus on your team and your sponsors. For this reason alone I am amazed a team like McLaren, with their focus on "corporate partners" (never "sponsors" for McLaren) is prepared to even entertain the idea let alone consider it seriously.

In other responses I have seen it said the new teams would prefer individual launches to get the focus but actually I disagree with that. I think they are pushing for a group launch. Why? Because it legitimises them to be seen alongside Ferrari and McLaren and so forth. At this stage that is worth a considerable amount more to them than a single-focus launch - but that isn't enough of a reason to go for it.

Then you have other issues such as the invited guests. Would you have one conference room, wheeling in each set of sponsor's bigwigs before wheeling in the car? Then getting them all to leave in a timely manner before the next group, bearing in mind you have essentially 8am to 8pm to launch 13 teams?

I think the cons outweigh the pros on this one, not just in number but in gravity. It was a good idea and let's not fault them for coming up with radical ideas for they are needed, but the execution of it is a logistical nightmare and the media benefits - which after all is the point of holding a launch - are diminished in my view.

Weekend Preview: 21-22 November 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:17:00 +0000

This is the final Weekend Preview of the season, thanks for reading and I hope these posts have been useful!

Windsor Arch 56th Macau Grand Prix

- Guia Circuit, Macau, PRC
- www.macau.grandprix.gov.mo/app/home/gp56/en
- Live Timing from MST (note this link is for all non-WTCC races at the circuit this week)
- with WTCC (see below), FBMW Pacific and a host of regional championships

The classic Formula 3 event attracts competitors from the Euroseries and the Japanese and British series, I am not sure if the Australians also attend? I am always surprised at how fast the F3 cars look at this course, the long straight sections mean the cars are in high gearing, low downforce trim which while fast on the open road, the drivers have to struggle with through the narrow twisty part of the track.

The Macau Grand Prix format for F3 is for a 10-lap Qualification Race on Saturday at 1.45pm Macau time, followed by the 15-lap Grand Prix on Sunday at 3.30pm their time. That's about 4.30am here... I think.

I can't find any live UK TV coverage!
I can't find any recorded coverage either.

FIA World Touring Car Championship

- Marriott Race of Macau
- Guia Circuit, Macau, PRC
- www.macau.grandprix.gov.mo/app/home/gp56/en
- and www.fiawtcc.com
- Live Timing from MST (WTCC only, for F3 use the link in the Macau GP section above)
- Final round

The usual format of two equal-length races on Sunday of just 9 laps each around this long circuit, that's good for the normal race time of about 25 minutes. It might be short but there's action all the way at Macau!

This is Tom Coronel in the 2007 race.

UK TV: There is continuous coverage encompassing both races from 4am UK time, with only a short break between races (which is utterly crazy with the damage this place can cause). It is repeated at 11.35am on Eurosport 2.

NASCAR Sprint Cup

- Ford 400
- Homestead Miami Speedway, Homestead, Florida, USA
- www.nascar.com
- UK TV: SKY SPORTS XTRA at 8pm Sunday
- US TV: LIVE on ABC at 2.30pm ET Sunday

Jimmie Johnson holds a large points lead going into the final round of the long, long NASCAR year. He's pretty much guaranteed unless there's one of those famous crashes all the "fans" apparently want to see, although since they pay points just for turning up perhaps they should give him the Cup now...

NASCAR Nationwide Series

- Ford 300
- Homestead Miami Speedway, Homestead, Florida, USA
- www.nascar.com
- US TV: LIVE on ESPN2 at 4pm ET Saturday (not covered in UK)

Speaking of just turning up, Kyle Busch only needs to start this race to secure the 2nd tier title.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

- Ford 200
- Homestead Miami Speedway, Homestead, Florida, USA
- www.nascar.com
- US TV: LIVE on SPEED at 7.30pm ET Friday (not covered in UK)

I know nothing of this series and I'm not sure I know anyone who does..

Intercontinental Rally Challenge

- Rally of Scotland
- Perth to Stirling, Scotland
- www.ircseries.com

This is the IRC's maiden visit to the UK. There will be updates throughout the weekend on Eurosport including live stages! Tune at 8.45am and 4pm Friday, 9am and 1.45pm Saturday, and 6am and 7.15pm Sunday.

Australian V8 Supercars

- Barbagallo, Australia
- www.v8supercar.com.au
- Penultimate round

Weekend Preview 5-6 December 2009

Just for completeness, the final round of V8s is in two weeks' time:

Australian V8 Supercars

- Oran Park, Australia
- www.v8supercar.com.au

That's it! After these races the 2009 season is over. The first event of 2010 is the Dakar which is in South America again in early January, then the IRC opens the 'regular' season with the Monte Carlo Rally on the weekend of the 23rd. The first circuit race of note is the Daytona 24 Hours at the end of January, a mere two months away.

Thanks to the following sources this season:
FORIX;
Autosport magazine;
RadioTimes.com;
LiveSportOnTV.com;

Mercedes Grand Prix

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:49:00 +0000

Yet more big changes among the F1 teams for 2010! Not only do we get get a raft of new teams, the departure of BMW (who may yet come back in a new form) and Toyota, now we also have Mercedes completely restructuring their involvement after a long unbroken run with McLaren.

McLaren
Mercedes presently own 40% of the McLaren F1 team (not the group as a whole though). The problem Mercedes faced is that while they are the largest single shareholder, the others hold an agreement by which they vote as a single block, thus having the power to veto Mercedes. There is also the new supercar which is the first McLaren-built road car in years not to feature a Mercedes engine.

Plan: The 40% shareholding will be reduced gradually over the next 18 months or so and for the 2010 season (and beyond??) the team will still be called Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. The engine supply agreement remains and, for now, so does the colour scheme.

BrawnGP
After Honda departed F1 the team has had to cut back somewhat in personnel, and it still seemed to suffer the same problem as it always had under every incarnation, that of not being able to attract long-term sponsors. With benefactors like BAT and Honda it was never necessary only desired, indeed Honda effectively bankrolled the 2009 season. It was anyone's guess what would happen in 2010 and beyond. Yet amazingly the came from nowhere to dominate the first half of the season, and while it went south after that they managed to battle on to secure both championships.

Plan: Mercedes have bought 75.1% of the team in an agreement with a Middle Eastern investment company. The team will henceforth be known as Mercedes GP and the cars branded as 'Silver Arrows', harking back to the famous cars of the 1930s and 1950s. Ross Brawn remains in charge but will liaise with Norbert Haug.

Drivers:
Rubens Barrichello left Brawn last month and had already signed for Williams to replace Nico Rosberg, who was looking to leave that team. Nico had therefore been linked with the vacant Brawn seat in a straight swap and now Mercedes have a greater involvement the deal appears as good as done.

The big question is over the future of Jenson Button. There are strong reports placing him at McLaren with a pay rise, doing nothing to quell his reputation as a money-chaser. At least this time he's earned it. I am not sure what placing himself in what is Lewis Hamilton's personal team is going to acheive for Button other than damaging his career, he must be confident in his ablility to beat him. It will be interesting to see him try!
At this stage it could still be an elaborate bluff and Kimi Raikkonen could still get that seat, though you have to say that possibility is shrinking daily. In fact just this evening Kimi's manager has stated any chance with McLaren has now disappeared.

That leaves a space at MercGP. Will Kimi end up there? Are the Heidfeld rumours a ploy by the Kimi or Jenson to get more money (either take us for mega $$ or end up with Nick), and is that how he gets himself hired? What is the fate of Heikki Kovalainen?

Lots of questions still need answering. One thing's for sure, this is a much bigger deal for the ex-Brawn team than the Virgin deal suggested a while back and perhaps that's why Virgin are now hooking up with Manor.

One final point I saw mentioned:
Among entrants this makes BrawnGP the most successful team in history, in terms of strike rate.
Years entered: 1
Drivers titles: 1
Constructors titles: 1
Maximum score.

Standards

noreply@blogger.com (Pat W) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:54:00 +0000

There is a lot of rumour and speculation in the motorsport world. There isn't anything wrong with a good bit of rumour on fan sites, blogs and discussion groups. It helps keep us all interested and we all like a good "what if" scenario over a pint.

Problems occur when these rumours are presented as hard news and people start believing them to be true. Us hardcore fans can often see through it but I'm sure we've all been in the situation where a casual fan, or just someone who knows we are fans, strikes up a conversation based on a falsehood and you have to patiently explain to them why they are wrong.

The respected F1 journalist Joe Saward has written on his blog about this problem and a fascinating discussion broke out in the comments. It is very long but it is worth reading every comment. This is about the future of web journalism.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/thieving-from-the-thieves/

For a while now a certain agency has presented rumour as news. I will never write an article based on the output of this agency. People like that give the web a bad name among traditional media and among the people being written about.