RUMBLING V8

Bahrain GP

2010-03-16T09:27:00.001-07:00

What bugs me most more than the lack of drama in the Bahrain GP at Sakhir is I missed 1 hour of the race due to the clocks losing an hour due to daylight savings. Couldn’t it have happened on some other Sunday! I didn’t really expect racing with full tanks would make a race so processional. It is good that Schumacher scored points on his return and beat all but 5 drivers. I’m hoping he’ll be back to his form in a few races’ time. Red Bull were a big surprise to me considering they were largely silent in winter testing. While the first fly-away races are definitely a better indicator of the pecking order than testing, judgments have to be reserved until we get to Europe. I’m expecting to see some shake-up in the order of the first four teams. Jenson Button and Mark Webber performed as expected (somehow you don’t expect them to match or beat their energetic teammates, at least not every time).

You have to go all the way back to 2004 to find a season which Ferrari started in such a great fashion, which means it’s the first time Ferrari’s new management have tasted a 1-2 in the season opener. Alonso was cementing his position at the top with a series of blinding laps at the end but Massa could well have done the same had he not been required to run his engine rich.

Force India did very well to open a season with points and they last did this 9 years ago when they were Jordan. But it was actually a

disappointment as Sutil could well have scored substantial points but for the first corner melee. Their progress is significant as it is clear that they getting ever closer to the top teams all the time, and they beat teams like Renault, Williams and Sauber on merit.

Technorati Tags: F1 Bahrain GP 2010

New teams

2010-03-09T11:41:00.001-08:00

One of the questions you can ask about F1 this season is, “Has it been diluted due to the addition of new teams?” I know it’s loutish to be asking this question when someone is putting in colossal efforts to make it to the top echelon. But when one of them, USF1, isn’t going to make it to the grid, and the other, Campos, had to go through so many difficult changes, you can’t help yourself. Isn’t F1 supposed to be a brilliantly orchestrated world where things fall into place, in the eyes of the public, smoothly?

A hasty addition to expand the grid is what it looks like from the outside. The new teams will have had nowhere near the input that the old teams have into their cars. Don’t get me wrong, I have huge respects for the folks at Lotus and Virgin Racing for having an F1 car ready for testing in a such a compressed timeline but all of them should have gone racing for the next season. They will have had much more preparation by then, would not have been 5 seconds behind the other teams and would have made racing more exciting for us fans by mixing it with the lower midfield, which I doubt they will do this year.

What testing tells

2010-03-01T11:05:00.001-08:00

The just-concluded winter testing tells us that it is very close between four teams this season—Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes. For a while it looked like Ferrari were going to wipe the floor with the rest of them and then suggestions came out that McLaren were actually looking a little faster. While Ferrari and McLaren seemed to be slugging it out, Adrian Newey’s team did not seem bothered to grab the headlines. Then Mark Webber slams in just that—a headline lap time. So the Milton Keynes team is there in the mix too? You bet. Michael Schumacher went from being slightly lukewarm about Mercedes’ chances for the start of 2010—not totally surprising, as he has not been known to play up his or his team’s chances in the past—to concluding it is looking positive after all. The Saubers and the Williamses look to be behind the leading bunch and it looks like Force India are going to go after them. The Silverstone squad are talking about taking their aero package, which was very good last year in terms of low-ish drag, and adding a healthy helping of downforce to get the car working in corners. The downforce/drag ratio is a difficult thing to nail and it should be quite exciting to see how much Force India have improved in this area. More championship points this season? It could be easier this time given the changes to the points system. I think a good measure of Force India’s improvement this year will be lap times rather than points. It is also worth noting how their in-season development changes after James Key’s departure to Sauber.

Australian Grand Prix

2009-03-30T09:40:00.001-07:00

That was an unbelievable showing from the whole Brawn GP team. The cars were reliable and had spectacular pace. And both the drivers put those to good use to take a well-deserved and much celebrated 1-2. It shows not only Ross Brawn’s midas touch but also the potential of the ex-Honda squad he leads. I have to admit that I shared the popular skepticism with regards to the reliability of the cars—after all they didn’t have so much as a proper winter testing—but happily they got to the end. I also think the driving style of the drivers helped—I was always under the impression that Button had a bit more in reserve.

David Coulthard was talking later on on whether Ross Brawn purposely builds a physically strong car and I suspect he does. That is the only way Rubens could have got away with his nose relatively intact after his clashes. Normally, as Eddie Jordan said, the nose cone would be flying in that kind of impact.

Vettel in the Red Bull stayed vaguely in touch with Button’s Brawn although promptly lost a podium finish with a clash with Robert Kubica whose BMW came alive in the last part of the race on prime tyres.

It’s difficult to know what Ferrari could have done if many of the things that went wrong for them had went right: strategy, cold tyre problems in the restart, Raikkonen’s mistake and a steering issue for Massa. I think it’s fair to say that the Ferrari of these days don’t seem to radiate the solidity of the Jean Todt/Ross Brawn/Michael Schumacher days. Getting back lost operating philosophies is more difficult than clawing back lost performance. I hope the team have not yet fully forgotten their methodical perfection of the recent years.

And it was incredible to watch how quickly fortunes change; Hamilton’s arrival had the F1 media nearly forget that there was at least one other talented British driver on the grid (read Button) who can get the job done. And now Button is leading the championship with an inch-perfect driving and an incredible start to the season! Keeping my fingers crossed for their reliability in the Malaysian GP!

More Information: Race Pictures

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Briatore’s mantra

2009-03-28T13:38:00.001-07:00

I previously sussed that Flavio Briatore bases his recent comments on the diffuser issue on what people call the ‘spirit’ of the regulations. His latest thoughts on the issue clearly highlight this:

The interpretation of the regulations was very clear in the past - the cars need less downforce for safety reasons. Correct? Every time we build a new car it was to be two to three seconds slower than the previous car. Correct? That was always the intention of the Federation.

What happened here is that the three teams (Brawn GP, Williams, Toyota) are going pretty clearly in the direction of downforce. And as we all knew that we will run on slick tyres from '09 on, it was the intention of FIA president Max Mosley and the Federation to impose new rules to reduce downforce.

But somebody was going in the downforce direction that was forbidden by the FIA, and that is not following the principles of the rules.

It’s certainly the intention of the new rules to reduce downforce. Having said that, you can’t expect a Brawn aero boffin to tell his colleagues, “All right guys, the FIA wants us to go slower this year and so make sure you build a slow car.” That will be ridiculous. What the three teams have done is simple: they read the regulations and interpreted in such a way that they could put into the car their fastest possible diffuser concept all the while staying on the correct side of the rules. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect this of any team. F1Fanatic says Williams made a point with their protest against the Ferrari and Red Bull teams. This was a masterstroke from Williams.

As I’ve been saying, any team’s job is to make sure their car complies with the regulations. If they also factor into their car design the supposed outcome of the regulations (which Briatore seems to claim his team did), well, they are doing something which they don’t need to.

This diffuser row, if anything, is putting into spotlight the inadvertent (or may be intentional) practice of the FIA to leave their technical wordings open to widely differing interpretations.

More Information: Briatore’s Say

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Surtees’ indelicate comment on Button

2009-03-27T16:17:00.001-07:00

The only MotoGP and Formula 1 champion, John Surtees, reportedly had the following to say of Jenson Button:

Sebastian Vettel is an example of a real driver, look at Button - frankly, I wouldn't have confirmed him with the team. If you don't give 100 per cent, even when the car is not good, you have to be sacked - you can't just be good when you have a good car.

I consider this comment to be seriously flawed. Firstly, comparing Button with another driver from another team is not the right way to go about criticizing (or commending, for that matter) his performance. The two operate in completely different scenarios in just about every area and it is simply not right that their results are matched just like that. If Vettel winning the wet Monza has made him the ‘real driver’ in Surtees’ eyes, what does he make of the Button who won the rain-soaked Hungarian GP in 2006? Secondly, I don’t understand how Surtees is so certain that Button is not giving his 100%. From his on-track results? Results are skewed by a number of factors—car performance being the primary one. Only the driver and his engineers know what he’s doing in the car. Nobody else does.

More Information: Surtees On Button

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Flavio Briatore’s latest

2009-03-21T12:42:00.001-07:00

The Renault boss man is on it again. His latest gripe is about some teams cleverly exploiting the diffuser rules and its associated performance gain. He famously got wound up when his team fell back on horsepower and now it is the diffuser issue. Reportedly, he stops short of saying that Williams and Toyota employ illegal diffusers in their cars.

Without doubt the Renault aerodynamicists are as clever as the others in the paddock. I wonder why then Briatore chooses to go public instead of pushing his engineers to go into the same ‘loophole-exploiting’ mode as the Williams and Toyota men do? Being illegal is operating deliberately outside the regulations which is clearly different from being right on the edge in sticking to the rules.

There’s always going to be two answers to this problem—the diffuser is legal if you go by the wording of the rules (the Williams and Toyota way) and it is illegal if you bring the ‘spirit’ of the regulations into the picture (which seems to be Flavio’s premise). The ‘spirit’ of the regulations is not what the teams have to be concerned with, in my point view. It’s the FIAs job to do that. The FIA Technical Working Group will have (must have) framed the diffuser dimensions to make it work to their target and their target might have been to reduce the downforce. The teams are obliged to design their cars to the rules and not to the effect which the rule change promised to bring.

If, as is reported, the Toyota, Williams and Brawn cars’ diffusers are designed per the wording of the regulations, they are legal. This is how I see this issue.

More Information: Technical Analysis | Diffuser Is Legal

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The new “winning” system

2009-03-19T11:35:00.001-07:00

"The world champion is the one who wins the most Grands Prix." That’s fantastic! The previous points system used to reward consistency and I think it’s right it has been changed now. I watch F1 to see who wins and not to see who potters around to finish in points scoring positions when a win is within their reach. Raikkonen won only 1 GP in 2003 to Michael’s 6. But he nearly won the championship with his consistency. I personally wouldn’t have liked if that had happened.

Plus, the teams who are not competing for the titles are not affected because the existing points system remains the same for them.

And the talk of the previous championship results being different is all a bit academic. As some one said, what positions the drivers aim for depends on what the points system is. Doing a quick math and juggling around the positions from previous years may not be exactly useful moving forward.

More Information: The Hot Exchange! | F1 Fanatic’s Poll | From The FIA

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Most exciting start to a season for me

2009-03-13T11:56:00.001-07:00

It looks like we’ll be off to a bloody exciting season when the Oz Grand Prix kicks off the 2009 F1 season this 27th. Lots of questions are in my mind currently…can Ferrari fend off the amazing Brawn cars to win the first grand prix…is the 2009 season for McLaren going to be like their 2006 season or the 2004 season (which was even worse)…where does BMW stack up in relation to its rivals?

Felipe Massa has openly voiced out that his car stands not a chance of beating Brawn on pure pace. I can’t see why he would want to play it up more than what it is. I’m just astounded as to what Brawn GP is up to. My big cheers and respects for the whole team. It’d be really exciting to see the scarlet and white cars fight it out on track.

A lot of stories on McLaren’s pre-season form were doing rounds in the recent weeks. Seemingly to bring all that to an end, Martin Whitmarsh, earlier today, came out and said that they are not where they want to be. That didn’t actually quite drive into me the seriousness of their situation. But what did was this—the team principal, just a few hours ago, has sort of told the media that McLaren are in really big trouble. Are the team looking at the nightmare 2004 season repeating itself again? But we should also remember that they did a stunning job that season to bounce back in the second half to win the Belgian GP.

Lastly, where the hell is BMW in the pecking order. They drive me crazy—they look like they don’t want to give a clue of what they are up to.

More Information: Whitmarsh, Haug Interview | Allen On McLaren

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FOTA proposals

2009-03-12T09:48:00.001-07:00

The FOTA has come up with a set of changes to make F1 better and to also reduce the expenditure involved for the competing teams. The proposals include a reduced, fixed price for buying engines, gearboxes and the KERS system. What I’m wondering here is if manufacturers can sell engines, gearboxes and the KERS system for a set price, why can’t they manufacture, and race them at a set price? Reportedly, some teams are against the idea of budget caps. My point is budget caps have a great potential to maintain technological innovation, that has been a preserve of F1 thus far, but still allow for controlled expenditure. Engineers love to challenge themselves and innovate and if you give them free reigns to develop their car within a certain amount of money, they would still love it. In a short while, we could well see them take the efficiency of innovation to unprecedented levels. I believe they would rather buy into this idea than seeing their hands tied with regard to what they can develop in their car.

More Information: FOTA Fan Survey | FOTA Proposals

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Force India in 2009

2009-03-05T20:12:00.001-08:00

New McLaren (Applied Technologies) partnership, new technical people at the helm, a shuffled management structure…Force India is showing itself to be a serious aspirant indeed. Although I’m not really sure if all the changes made are going to give the expected effects, I’m happy that Vijay Mallya is very serious about his team’s performance. The testing times seem to be a bit promising but, as always, it’s not the best idea to read into it too much as testing is just that, testing. What intrigues me much, however, is Mallya’s claim that the team’s ex-technical director, Mike Gascoyne, didn’t fit into the team well. Here is the man who played a big role in transforming Renault into sharp-end runners and worked his talents to good effect in getting Toyota to its heights in 2005. Could the management have done anything different to better use the talents of Gascoyne to its own good? I don’t know, but that’s one question that keeps popping in my mind.

Anyway, to me the new livery looks better than the previous one—the old one was far from being ugly but saffron looks better to my eyes; a change for the better! I know it’s a new team and all that but still I wish Force India put some more efforts into polishing the details. For example, Mallya’s suit—as worn by him in the recent FOTA meeting—has a not-so-painstakingly-designed Force India logo embroidered. It just doesn’t sit well with me at all. Their Web site design could also be a lot better. It just doesn’t give the polished feel that I get from McLaren’s or BMW’s Web sites. If you ask me then, they have to put even more efforts into the intangibles as well. All said, I don’t expect them to be doing everything better from the word go. I’d be satisfied if they show improvements moving forward.

But nothing can take away the fact that I cheer big time for the team. They have all my wishes with them for a better new season. Forza Force India!

More Information: VJM02 Photos | VJM01 Photos | Mallya Interview

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Red Bull RB5

2009-02-28T14:16:00.001-08:00

The new Red Bull racer was widely touted to be the best-looking car on the grid and so I was very eager to see its pictures. Well, the rear end of the car looks astonishingly narrow. It’s just unbelievable to think how the engineers could pen it but that’s F1, right? But the Ferrari F60 has the RB5 beaten in the height of the sidepods. The F60’s just as equally astonishingly make a rapid swoop moving backwards from the radiator inlet. But I don’t think the front of the Newey car is any better a looker than its rivals—it has a high nose (which I hate), makes an abrupt transition somewhere in the region where the nose cone merges with the monocoque and it has thin endplates that doesn’t quite appeal to me.

Although it must be said that the McLaren’s tail is neither as narrow as the RB5 nor is its sidepod as low slung as the F60. We can only guess which of the three turns out to be the performance torch-bearer on track. Or is it going to be some other team? Too difficult to answer.

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Well, 2009 season, what else

2009-02-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy that the 2009 season will be starting soon. As much as there is the debate about who has got the fastest car, there is a debate running on who has the prettiest one! To me, the McLaren looks the best of the lot. The nose is more rounded than their recent versions (& other rivals) and that does it for me. I'm eagerly waiting to see if Felipe Massa is going to show the way around for Kimi Raikkonen yet again this season. But no such expectations at Renault. Fernando Alonso will be the team's priority and Nelson Piquet Jr. will attempt to get close to his teammate if he decides he has had enough with F1. Ah, there is our Red Bull! Is Sebastian Vettel going to run rings around Mark Webber? I suspect not; at least in qualifying. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for our own Force India. I'm still not convinced firing Mike Gascoyne is the best of the things thay they could have done.

I hope, first and foremost for the employees' sake and the sport's sake, that Honda go racing this year too. The team looks too promising to be put in the sidelines.

The Renault engine issue

2008-12-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

I couldn't just understand when Briatore sort of complained that his team were left behind in the engine development during the 2008 season. The FIA has told you what not to change and it has also told you what you can change. You don't change things and you pay the price. He claims Renault took the rules 'as such' hinting at being too naive or some thing. I can't do anything but laugh at these stuff. Okay, granted you take the rules as such. Then why do you want to tune your engine now? Is tuning the engine gradually as the season progresses less naive and less 'aggressive interpretation of the rules' than throwing in a bunch of upgrades at one go in the winter?

...but where's Honda?

2008-12-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

It's a shame Honda pulled out of F1 just when things seemed to go right with the arrival of Ross Brawn (and the massive input of the whole team). Honda has always been proud of its racing involvement giving it an edge in making some of the best engines in the automotive market but it looks like the economic downturn has had another big casuality.

ALONSO OFF TO HONDA

2008-08-05T08:24:00.001-07:00

Really? I strongly believe so. The reason is Alonso himself. It's not unusual for Fernando Alonso to take a swipe at anyone but this time he has gone a bit far saying Renault can't get out of their troubles. Ever. Now, it's one thing for a driver to comment - negatively - about his team's current season form-- but the following season? If Alonso is not confident that Renault will fight for the championship next season, surely, it might be an early warning to Renault: guys, I've had enough of watching the rear wings of Raikkonen, Hamilton et al. and so good bye to you all.

Thoughts on Hockenheim

2008-07-23T08:56:00.001-07:00

Two different scenarios in two factories: jubilation in Woking and dismay in Maranello; this is the upshot of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. It's easy enough to understand the atmosphere prevailing at Ferrari. The F2008 has largely been usefully faster than its chief rival, the McLaren MP4-23, for most of the season. Since the British GP, however, the McLaren seems to have turned the tables on the F2008. There can be a few reasons:

Setup problems:

No matter how much pace a car has, setup is crucial to realising it. A badly setup winning car can still struggle to get anywhere close to its true potential; case in the point being Massa's Ferrari and Raikkonen's Ferrari in Monte Carlo. While Raikkonen was struggling with his rear slipping and sliding all over the place, Massa was on the pace right from the start.

Ferrari have won five of the ten Grands Prix and that's ample proof to the winning pace of the car. However, Raikkonen has not always been able to find the sweet spot with his car and that, he claims, is the reason for his less than competitive pace in Grand Prix weekends this season. Is the Ferrari a difficult car to set up or is Raikkonen not all too inclined to get his car working?

Drivers:

I've already discussed about the driver situation at Ferrari and if Ferrari are really now lagging behind McLaren in performance, how much can we attribute to Raikkonen finding solutions to his problems rather than developing the car? Finding solutions to existing problems with a car is going to eat into the development time that can potentially make the car go faster. Imagine this situation: Hamilton, in a McLaren that's a bit slower than the Ferrari, but in a position of having understood his car fully versus Raikkonen, a bit faster than Lewis in the McLaren, but having a few problems nailing the setup every weekend. Potential problem for Kimi and Ferrari. Again, we can only surmise all these. The Ferrari might still be the faster car: the British GP's inclement weather might have prevented them from fully extracting potential and the German GP might well be a one-off.

It must also be noted that Hamilton has the team all to himself, something neither Raikkonen nor Massa can claim to have. The Ferrari drivers taking points off themselves cannot help their Championship standings.

Technorati Tags: German GP,Hockenheim

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SHOULD F1 GO BACK TO THE 60s

2008-07-02T07:20:00.001-07:00

As a mechanical engineer my answer is 'yes'. In F1, going back means reducing the reliance on aerodynamics of the car. Formula 1, as is well known, started off as a no-aero-all-power concept--you can't see wings or T-flaps in the 50s and the 60s. Those were eras in which, apart from the driver skill, engine power was the dominating factor in how fast a car+driver package went. In this era, however, it's all topsy-turvy: frozen engines mean little advantage can be gained from them meaning windtunnel is the choice over engine test rigs. And the ever increasing reliance on the aero doesn't seem to encourage on-track racing either.

Shaving off those wings and shifting the emphasis to tyre+suspension+engine+driver should be great for the drivers and the spectators alike. For the mechanical engineer in me too!

But how do you get back the speed after you've lost all the aero grip?

Getting the pace back

Employ the following:

- Active suspension -

- Multi-compound tyres -

- Turbo engines -

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MASSA VS RAIKKONEN - PART 3 OF 3

2008-05-30T07:05:00.001-07:00

The Showdown

The final instalment of this article on Massa and Raikkonen does a head-to-head comparison of the two Ferrari team-mates in an attempt to get to grips with who is having the upper hand.

Points

(click to enlarge)

Massa debuted in the year 2002 for Sauber-Petronas who were strictly a mid-field team. He was then signed up as the test driver of Ferrari for the following season before taking the race seat at Sauber-Petronas again for the 2004 season. He remained with the same team for one more season before parting goodbye to join Ferrari.

Raikkonen too debuted for Sauber-Petronas in the year 2001. However, he was quickly snapped up by a top-team, McLaren, for the 2002 season. He remained with them for five more years before departing to Ferrari.

Massa - Sauber Era

Sauber-Petronas were not in a position to score points consistently and that probably explains the points disparity between him and Raikkonen until the 2005 season. In his racing years at Sauber-Petronas, partnered by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jacques Villeneuve, Massa was beaten by only Fischella. It is to be noted that Villenueuve was the 1997 World Champion while Frentzen was a very close competitor to Michael Schumacher in the late 90s.

He was often regarded as quick but wild. Rubens Barrichello reportedly threatened Felipe Massa with his laundry bills...!

Massa - Ferrari Era

Massa came to Ferrari and 'learnt' (in his own words) a lot from the 7 times Champ Michael Schumacher. As a consequence, his driving got ever better, culminating in two wins that included his popular home win at Interlagos. Ross Brawn once claimed after the 2006 season that Schumacher had a comfortable performance advantage over Massa throughout the season, even in the later stages where Massa showed himself to be more mature in terms of driving.

When Kimi Raikkonen came to Ferrari, many expected Massa to be blown away. But that didn't happen; at least in the initial stages. The belief stemmed from the fact that Raikkonen was often perceived to be on par with Schumacher, in terms of raw pace, who in turn had the measure of Massa. Massa did however lose out to Raikkonen in the title race. He claims it was down to lady luck. We can only speculate...

The 2008 season sees Massa at his closest ever to his World Champion team-mate. He dominates his team-mate in qualifying and matches him in the number of Grand Prix wins. Why and how exactly, is the question. Is it down to below-par driving by Raikkonen or due to the ever-improving race-craft of Massa? I suspect both the factors play their part in some proportion.

Raikkonen - Sauber/McLaren Era

Raikkonen finished behind Heidfeld (in Sauber) and Coulthard (in McLaren) twice. That's all. Until now he is yet to be beaten by his team-mates, which include the likes of Montoya. He came ever-so-close to the 2003 title, with an year-old car. The consistency was breathtaking for a young driver--he took just one win early in the season but managed to stay in the title hunt by virtue of a zillion podium appearances. The infamous McLaren reliablility cost him the 2005 title. Otherwise, he took 9 wins in his 5 years at McLaren and, if I must add, two missed titles.

Raikkonen - Ferrari Era

Struggling with the switch to Bridgestones early in the season, Raikkonen got his act together in the later stages of the season to take the title. He, however, was beaten time and again by his team-mate and for sure didn't enjoy as much performance advantage over Massa as did Schumacher.

The same trend continues this season too. Massa has had a run of podium finishes, including two wins, that sees him just one point behind Raikkonen in the title race. On Massa's day, Raikkonen looks patchy and the same is true vice-versa. This is one of the reasons why it's getting increasingly difficult to believe Raikkonen will trump Massa fair and square. Even Ross Brawn has expressed his surprise about Massa's up-turn in performance. Again, it's difficult to know if Raikkonen is not at 100% or it's simply that Massa is too good these years. I'm afraid we'll have to wait on that. Lastly, as my pal JS likes to put it down, Massa's favourite tracks are all over. So, now might be the time to gauge his 'true' performance.

Here are some more graphs to ponder over:

Wins

(click to enlarge)

Poles

(click to enlarge)

My verdict: Massa is not the same Massa of 2006. Raikkonen is probably the same Raikkonen as his previous years. So, a new, constantly evolving Massa stacked against the old, always-the-same Raikkonen is beginning to show its effects.

Technorati Tags: Raikkonen,Massa,Ferrari,Raikkonen vs Massa

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MASSA VS RAIKKONEN - PART 2 OF 3

2008-05-29T20:20:00.001-07:00

We'll attempt to know better how Kimi Raikkonen has gained his reputation...

Team-Mate Comparison

Year	Team	Points	Position	Team-Mate Position
2001	Sauber	9	10	8
2002	McLaren	24	6	5
2003	McLaren	91	2	7
2004	McLaren	45	7	10
2005	McLaren	112	2	4
2006	McLaren	65	5	8
2007	Ferrari	110	1	4
2008*	Ferrari	35*	2*	3*

(click to enlarge)

Kimi Raikkonen finished behind his team-mates on his debut seasons for his two teams--2001 for Sauber and 2002 for McLaren; on all the other occasions he has been comfortably ahead. His team-mates: Nick Heidfeld, David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya, Pedro de la Rosa, Alexander Wurz and Felipe Massa.

Career Highlights

Year	Wins	Poles	Fastest Laps
2001	0	0	0
2002	0	0	1
2003	1	2	2
2004	1	1	3
2005	7	5	10
2006	0	3	3
2007	6	3	6
2008*	2*	1*	3*

(click to enlarge)

Raikkonen has a large number of fastest laps to his credit (he heads the list amongst today's F1 drivers) and his number of Grand Prix wins is the second highest on the grid.

Extra

Win Percentage: 13.2

Pole Percentage: 11.72

Fastest Lap Percentage: 21.88

Technorati Tags: Massa vs Raikkonen,Kimi Raikkonen

Head-on comparison between Massa and Raikkonen comes this evening...

Click here to read Part 1 of this article.

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MASSA VS RAIKKONEN - PART 1 OF 3

2008-05-29T07:02:00.001-07:00

There has long been a notion doing rounds amongst the F1 media and fans that Kimi Raikkonen is the fastest, most consistent driver of today. It was not tough to believe it--many statistics, which we'll see in due course, have been in favour of him. The past two years, however, have not been all too easy for the Finn. Massa has had the measure of him in quite a number of races and has proved undoubtedly superior to Raikkonen in qualifying. What's then the realistic situation? Is Massa better or is it Raikkonen? Continue reading.

This is a 3 part article: the first part (this one) looks at Massa's statistics since his debut year 2002. Raikkonen will be the subject of the second part, while the final part will make direct comparisons between the two, hard-slugging teammates.

Team-Mate Comparison

Year	Team	Points	Position	Teammate Position
2002	Sauber	4	13	18
2003	Test Driver
2004	Sauber	12	12	11
2005	Sauber	13	11	14
2006	Ferrari	80	3	2
2007	Ferrari	94	4	1
2008*	Ferrari	34*	3*	2*

Or, if you'd rather do with a graphical representation...

(click to enlarge)

Massa has been ahead of his respective team-mate twice up until 2007. He trails Raikkonen this season by one point. His team-mates: Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jacques Villeneuve ('97 World Champion), Michael Schumacher ('94, '95, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04 World Champion) and of course, Kimi Raikkonen ('07 World Champion).

Career Highlights

Year	Wins	Poles	Fastest Laps
2002	0	0	0
2003	-	-	-
2004	0	0	0
2005	0	0	0
2006	2	3	2
2007	3	6	6
2008*	2*	3*	0*

Below is the graphical representation of the above information:

(click to enlarge)

His career highlight so far has been the 2007 season in which he has scored a not-so-inconsequential 6 pole positions and 3 Grand Prix victories.

Extra

Win Percentage: 7.4

Pole Percentage: 12.7

Fastest Lap Percentage: 8.5

Technorati Tags: Felipe Massa vs Kimi Raikkonen

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Force India Lodge Complaint

2008-05-25T09:04:00.001-07:00

The Force India Formula 1 team and Adrian Sutil have officially taken up the incident involving Raikkonen with the stewards. Here's what Mike Gascoyne had to say about the incident:

The frustration is that if that had been a Force India driver hitting a world champion we would expect to get a one or two race ban, but when it is the other way around it is disappointing that the stewards... well you know I hope they look at it and act accordingly.

That sort of driving, taking someone else out needlessly, as I said if that had been someone at the back, a young guy doing it, they would get a penalty. But it doesn't seem to happen the other way around.

He's dead right. It was a needless incident from Raikkonen that spoiled things for Adrian Sutil. I'm afraid the stewards will pass on this incident as just another racing incident, as Gascoyne says. My personal view is that Raikkonen should be sent to the back of the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix with a fine imposed on him. That'll give him the opportunity to bump into some more drivers.

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The Wrecker

2008-05-25T08:16:00.001-07:00

What could've been an historic Grand Prix for the fledgling Force India team was destroyed by a foolish mistake by Kimi Raikkonen. His drive wasn't worthy of a defending Champion and his mistake was frankly rookie material. I hope he gets suitably reprimanded for his reckless driving that not only ruined a competitor's race but also put an unwary life into risk at 180 mph. Fisichella made a far better overtaking manoeuvre in the same place in the past. He didn't crash into the driver in front of him and he actually made the move stick. Look what damage Raikkonen has inflicted upon Force India: if not for the incident, Sutil would've finished at least 5th. Those 4 points would have put the team level pegging on points with STR and Honda. Level on points with a car designed by a far higher funded team and a factory team. It was not only the points, it was the adulation that the team would've got back home, the sponsorship money, the increased coverage, which was reduced to shards of carbon fibre by Raikkonen. Of course, Raikkonen didn't do it on purpose. However, reckless drivers have no place in F1, which is what Raikkonen seems to be becoming. Massa comprehensively outpaced his team mate in this race and it has to be mentioned at this point that he was ridiculed by many to be a no-Raikkonen-material and a struggler in wet conditions and he put all of those into shame. I must confess that I too didn't think Massa would be this competitive in wet. Massa ran rings round Raikkonen in the wet and tricky conditions. Raikkonen for some reason doesn't seem to be the same Raikkonen of 2005 or 2006. If he had been, he would not have let his team mate dominate him and wouldn't have made silly mistakes. At the end of the day, I pity Adrian and Force India. Adrian Sutil was really superb to watch. His onboard views showed the controlled aggression-that was crucial to keeping the car on the narrow dry line that started to appear-befitting a thinking driver. He extracted everything out of his tricky-to-drive car but still kept it on the track. That's no ordinary fear when almost all other drivers, in better cars, made all sorts of mistakes.

And, what of the race winner, Lewis Hamilton. He put in a class drive to take the lead of the Championship. I now hope the title goes to either Massa or Hamilton. Formula 1 titles are prestigious and it should go to a deserving and thinking driver. Unlike Raikkonen of this race. This race is the second time as far as I can remember that Raikkonen showed himself undeserving of his status.

Technorati Tags: Raikkonen,Hamilton,Force India,Adrian Sutil,Monaco GP 2008

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1979

2008-05-24T07:05:00.001-07:00

That's the year in which Ferrari last locked-out the front row for the Monaco Grand Prix. And, they've done it again for 2008! Fantastic performance by both Massa and Raikkonen, who might have got those few hundredths which would've sealed the pole if not for the 'moment' in his hot lap. I reckon Ferrari will be in good shape indeed for the race tomorrow as their pace relative to McLaren all through the weekend doesn't encourage the idea that they've gone for an overly-light first stint. And, Massa was fastest in Q2, too. If the McLarens need to finish ahead of the Ferraris, their best chance is at the start. If Massa and Raikkonen manage to stay ahead at the start, they could stay ahead of the McLarens even after the pit-stops, not allowing for the Safety Car periods, mechanical troubles or pit-stop bungles, as they're, at least, as fast as the silver cars. Of course, there's still the rain factor, which can really mix up the pecking order of pace of the teams.

Whatever, Ferrari have proved they were not sitting twiddling their thumbs in the build up to this historic Grand Prix.

Technorati Tags: Monaco GP 2008,1979 Monaco GP

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Rossi Vindicated?

2008-05-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

The French GP at Le Mans was the venue of the latest "hurrah!" for Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi. That was one frantic race with a mix of dry and damp conditions. Rossi is now on top of the points table and is that a sign that his switch to the Bridgestones was the right move? It looks to me like that. He dominated the race 2007-Stoner style, opening up a 10 second lead to Lorenzo in the other factory Yamaha but on the Michelin tyres. Stoner's GP8 was hit by engine troubles but even before that he was not matching the pace of the Michelin front-runners. Is it that the Ducati chassis is not able to extract the best out of the winning tyre? Or is that Melandri's troubles are distracting Ducati from developing it? In any case, Rossi and Yamaha are back well and truly into the game.

The Mosley Scandal

2008-05-18T01:40:00.001-07:00

Professional decisions should be based on one's professional activities. This rule holds good in the FIA President's case too. People are very quick to point out his wrong-doings in his personal side of life. But who's going to weigh it all against the many number of things that he has done for Formula 1's good? Apparently, not many. It's a shame really to bring someone's private life into spotlight. More so, it being used against him for political reasons.

Are his private things going to affect how effectively he operates his business in F1?

Technorati Tags: Max Mosley,FIA President,FIA

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Differential Settings in Formula 1 Cars

2008-04-12T09:39:00.003-07:00

It is not totally uncommon to see drivers fiddling with small buttons on their steering wheel during the course of a race or qualifying session. More often, they do adjustments before some corners. One of the things that they try to do is adjust the differential settings to suit the corner that's coming up. These settings go a long way in determining the handling of the car. Drivers use the diff, as it is popularly called, to compensate for excess understeer or oversteer that keep varying as the tyre wears out and the track characteristics change.

Basically, it is the amount of 'lock' that is changed electronically from the steering wheel. You might know that a differential allows the inside and outside rear wheels to spin at different speeds. This is crucial to the turning of the car into corners. The 'lock' determines the speed differential between the inside and outside wheels.

To put it all in a simple way, for more 'oversteery' situations, less lock is dialled in. This allows for an increase in the speed differential between the wheels, which in turn allows the outside rear wheel to rotate at a speed which is significantly higher than that of the inside wheel. So, the car will tend to spin out which is what we refer to as oversteer. More amount of lock dialled in, on the other hand, will make the car prone to understeer due to the fact that the car will 'struggle' to turn into corners if both of the rear wheels spin at around the same speed.

So, drivers constantly try to arrive at the degree of lock that best suites the condition of the car, track and their driving style.

Technorati Tags: Differential,Oversteer,Understeer,Differential Lock

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Lewis In Malaysia

2008-04-12T09:39:00.001-07:00

It was really nice to see Lewis driving as he did in Sepang. His charge from the middle of the pack showed to me that he is not intimidated by his hugely complex and powerful machinery. The way he hustled his McLaren on to the kerbs, opposite locking it, out braking and then recovering to get the car going was all a treat to watch. It's really something special to see such an young man having total control of his car at those speeds.

I could very often see Lewis giving a tinge of opposite lock to the steering wheel when he was hard on the power with his outside rear wheel on the kerb. It was purely on the limit correction and driving and was really fascinating to watch. It was so much on the edge that even a split second of missed corrective action would have spun him around leaving him beached.

I think having traction control around would've been an injustice to the likes of Lewis or Kimi who have stunning levels of car control. Car control is not just about bringing your car home safely without making any mistakes. Many other drivers on the grid can do that. It's about taking your car beyond its limits and then stepping back to exactly on the limit when it bites back. And doing this for the whole race distance. That's what differentiates a champion driver from a good driver. In the process, you will have extracted a lap time that the car simply doesn't deserve and at the same time would've provide a spectacle to the spectators.

A little bit more technical brief on why Lewis did so many opposite locks in Malaysia on the kerbs:

The kerbs have lesser grip levels than the tarmac. Also, the outside rear wheel, which is accelerating on the kerb, will have extra burden in the form of the car's weight in addition to the accelerating force. Naturally, the tyre will tend to slide away as a reaction to these two loads. One effective corrective action that can be given by the driver is to take some of the car's weight away from that tyre. This is done by turning the steering wheel in a direction opposite to that of what is required to negotiate the corner and this is what we call as the opposite lock. When this is done, the weight starts transferring to the inside wheels and the car starts to get stabilised. This prevents the car from spinning.

Technorati Tags: Lewis Hamilton,Malaysian GP 2008,McLaren

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Why Renault Doesn't Win

2008-04-12T09:37:00.001-07:00

Flavio Briatore and the Renault team do not fail to blow their trumpets on them being the team that uses one of the lowest budgets yet managing to win races and championships. But we must ask them, "for how long". With their so called low budgets, they won two titles and then? Promptly became also-rans. For the 2007 season and again this season, they're, at best, lower mid-fielders. What about the highest spenders, Ferrari and McLaren? They're the two title contenders. This despite the two teams having had a dog-fight for the championship until the last race of the last season. In contrast, Renault stopped the development of last year's car well and truly before the final few races and instead concentrated all their resources on their new car. The result? Two fortunate-points finishes this season. I'm not belittling in anyway the expertise of the Renault engineers. They're the ones who won two titles on the trot. But I would like to emphasise the point that budgets DO matter in F1.

I believe, only because Ferrari spend what they spend every year, are they able to be at the highest level of competitiveness year on year (they've always been in the fight for the titles continuously since 1997!). When their form suddenly slumped in 2005, they just got back to their usual self the following year. That was no fluke. They had one of the best resources--lot of team personnel and budgets and they put all of them to effective use. The result was a massive performance gain. Renault's strategy of trying to 'sip' resources will work only for a short stint and will have its phases. That is, it'll take a few years' culmination of work to get them back to the top, where they'll remain for only a relatively short period, until the other teams start flexing their muscles.

If anyone wants to dominate F1 (like Ferrari), they'll need to be both efficient in using whatever resources they have and also have huge resources. They must be prepared to spend like top teams and not just like mid-fielders.

An analogy: when you super-charge a 1.5 litre engine, you get 300 bhp. When you supercharge a 6 litre engine, you get 700 bhp. Supercharging is like efficient use of resources. 1.5 or 6 litre is the amount of resources you spend. The 1.5 litre engine will wow you with its power only until the 6 litre doesn't come around. When it arrives, the 1.5 litre is no more. That's the case with Renault.

Be efficient. Be huge. Follow neither, you're not gonna be on top.

Technorati Tags: Renault,Ferrari,F1 Budget,2007 F1 Season,2008 F1 Season

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Technical Debrief :: Massa Spin

2008-04-12T09:36:00.003-07:00

What could've been an easy 1-2 for Ferrari, was thrown away by Massa. He reportedly lost his rear-end due to hitting a kerb on the entry into a corner. But on seeing the video myself, I cannot convince myself of that reason. I couldn't see him hitting anything in the corner where he spun.

And the engine note was such that it clearly showed a sudden loss of traction, which can't be attributed to anything other than too much throttle.

He went in with a definite amount of constant throttle. In the midst of the corner, the rear suddenly snapped away and he lost control of his car. Who else can take the blame for this?

Technorati Tags: Massa,Ferrari,Traction Control

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2008 Predictions - Part 3

2008-04-12T09:36:00.001-07:00

my team predictions for the brand-new season done and dusted, here's the first part of my driver predictions. And, please remember that this time I haven't ranked them; just a few lines on what I think is awaiting them.

is a race-winner in a championship winning car. There is little sign that Honda’s RA108 will be a huge step forward in comparison to its predecessor, at least in the first half of the new season. So, I’m not expecting any impressive performances from him, until the Honda car gets to a certain level.

actually rate Button as an equal to Lewis Hamilton in terms of pace and race craft. I also reckon Hamilton has an edge in terms of facilities at his disposal to improve himself. This might explain why the ‘perceived’ talent is higher for Hamilton. Jenson Button is currently limited by his car and not by his talent. I believe he is doing as good a job as any other top driver in extracting 100% out of his car. Button can be whatever his car is. Be it a champion or back-marker.

very-good-driver-in-a-bad-car. Fisi’s biggest problem might probably be handling pressure. The pressure I’m talking about here is a bit different. In a race-winning car, a driver will be expected to win races. In a car that struggles to finish in the points, a driver will not expected to do anything other than finish the race with it. Fisi always does the opposite of it, which means he does the unexpected. Which again means that his talent is not at question but his efficiency in extracting everything out of himself is. Expect to see those unexpected performances from him this season.

a bit of an unknown quantity for me. Gascoyne doesn’t fail to talk about this youngster’s ability in his press meets and we can’t dispute him.

ChampCar champ is now in F1 and will definitely be looking forward to making a name for himself here. So far in testing, he has been pretty close to him team-mate Vettel, who is very highly regarded, and thus this is not exactly an inconsequential thing. His race craft should also be champion material and thus his success this season will rely on how quickly he learns the technical aspects of F1.

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Why Budget Capping Is the Way To Go

2008-04-12T09:35:00.003-07:00

F1 currently needs is a compromise between two very contrasting demands. The most important demand of all is the need to maintain its status as the top motor sport category. But then, it also needs to ensure that teams will actually be there to race a few years down the line and we are informed that at the current levels it is not possible to do that. So there you have it, the budget cap. Imagine this for one moment: You're given 25 lakh rupees to get yourself a nice house. You're also given two options: you can either build your own according to your taste or you can buy one that is not necessarily built to your taste. Wouldn't you much rather stick to your own design?

logic here is very simple. In either case, it's your money that you're spending. Wouldn't you want your artistic skills to shine through, using whatever money you're given? Agreed that building your own house is, in a way, a chore. But, that's the point, isn't it. Life is a zero-sum game. If you want to achieve something, you lose something else that you don't attach too much importance to.

satisfaction that you get when you've done something on your own is immeasurable. It isn't any different in building a Formula 1 car chassis. Ask any engineer and he'll tell you that of the two, budget capping is the best idea. And it doesn't detract from the important issue too, which is to allow teams to survive in F1 and keep racing in the future.

capping satisfies everyone involved directly or indirectly in F1: team bosses, engineers, technical fans and sporting fans. What more can you ask for?

Technorati Tags: Budget cap,F1

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2008 Predictions - Part 2

2008-04-12T09:35:00.001-07:00

Here's the next prediction list consisting of the next 5 teams in the order of ascending pace.

In my view, this is a team that lacks nothing. Well, almost. The resources are plenty, no lacking in the technical department too. The drivers? Enough for the moment but probably may need a replacement once they start sticking to the tails of the top-runners more often. So? A regular Renault challenger this season? You bet.

The biggest news bearer this season with the return of the much-hyped Alonso. And all the Alonso-brings-5 tenths-to-Renault is, frankly, laughing stuff. I do think that they can fight season-long with Williams, however. Challenging Ferrari and McLaren? Pah.

They seem to be getting back to where they belong. This is one team that I respect a lot. No manufacturer support, relatively limited budgets but still they take pains to design their own chassis and this is most admirable. This is one of the reasons why their way back to the sharp end of the grid is impressive.

Like Toyota, BMW Sauber are cash-rich. However, they put it to very good use, unlike Toyota, if I must add. Having gained a reputation for adopting the most aggressive developmental approach, BMW Sauber might make small slip-ups when they push hard targeting the bigger picture. Case in the point, their less then impressive initial pre-season testing form. But, overall, I would say they are the strongest contenders for the last podium spot. I don't expect them to trouble the red cars but, depending on how McLaren develop throughout the season, might have a sniff at the silver cars.

The team that almost pulled it all off last season, if not for one Alonso. Actually I'm quite surprised by how competitive McLaren is showing themselves to be this season. McLaren have, in recent years, had only zig-zaw seasons; one ultra-competitive year followed by one mega-ultra-disastrous year. Last year was great (in terms of performance) for the team. Wonder what this year holds.

The 2007 World Champion Team. They've so far set frightening pace in testing and start the season as one of the favourites for the title. I think Ferrari will not have a fight on their hands to defend their title. This sums it all.

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2008 Predictions - Part 1

2008-04-12T09:34:00.001-07:00

We've been spectators to a number of pre-season tests from which very little can be deduced as to the true pecking order of the teams. But still, predictions are meant to be just that. Predictions. The real thrill is in finding out if things go as predicted. So, here's my expectations ahead of the new F1 season.

They're definitely not the dark-horse of the 2008 season. The fledgling team, with its highly limited resources and development time, are not going to see another 2007 season. Their biggest undoing is going to be their chassis, which is last year's Honda RA107 and that car was not too popular for its pace. If, even Honda, with its mega-everything resources couldn't turn their car into anything more than an also-ran, what can Super Aguri do? And I do not have a soft-spot for Super Aguri as I did for Minardi. They're, in the end a customer team and I'm sorry to say that they may as well save time and money by watching races in their TV. Customer teams are not what F1 needs.

Ross Brawn is there but it'll take its time before his influence is felt. Which means, we can expect to see Honda ahead of Super Aguri. Only.

This prediction is about where teams will be, at the end of the season. For this, one year's development work will have to be taken into account and I don't see this team going too far. Unlike according to its winter testing promises, I do not expect STR to worry any other team other than the preceding two and the following.

What this team lacked in the past was resources. And they're getting it now. There's no questioning their technical department's prowess. I expect Gascoyne and his team to work their magic.

I believe that the lack of a 'small' technical team is what is holding Toyota firmly near the back of the pack, despite their endless pocket. I'm not sure that Toyota will move up the ladder any further this season. We've to see how it goes.

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Dear Indians

2008-04-12T09:33:00.001-07:00

Ahead of the launch of the definitive 2008 Force India car, I've got something to share with my fellow Indians. We might be expecting a lot out of 'our' new team--regular points etc. However, we'll have to keep reminding ourselves that this after all is a team that's still on the recovery. The resources have just started to flow in and it'll be a while before the effect will be more pronounced. I would put my money on a year and a half, may be, for assured points finishes. The team definitely shows a strong sense of promise--promise that they are, passionately and enthusiastically, after bigger things. Back to the Jordan '99 days? I wouldn't bet against it.

Vijay Mallya is hugely motivated, Mike Gascoyne is finally getting to get hold of resources with which he could start to work his magic and the drivers are promising. Go Force India, Go!

Technorati Tags: Force India,Vijay Mallya,VJM01,Mike Gascoyne

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Briatore|Alonso|Piquet Jr.

2008-04-12T09:32:00.003-07:00

I do not know if Ferrari will take the crown this year, yet again. I do not know if BMW can win a race this year. I also do not know if Force India can establish themselves as mid-field contenders. But, I'm damn sure of one thing. That Alonso will not be frightened by Nelson Piquet this season at Renault.

You don't need to go any further than Briatore's own words to understand what I mean. His Q&A's, thus far, have contained all or atleast one of these sentences: "Nelson is a clever guy who loves to be in F1", "Nelson is looking forward to learning from Fernando", "He (Nelson) knows his place", "There won't be any repeat of the problems Fernando faced in 2007"

When directly confronted with questions on No.1 and No.2 status of drivers, he laughs off at those but then comes up with this: "We don't need to forget that Fernando has the most experience, he is twice a world champion with us. And Piquet have a lot to learn, and is very smart, very intelligent. He is the future for us as well, he is 22 and very young – and in a fantastic position to learn from Fernando."

Briatore need not talk about team-orders anymore. After all, its team-orders at Renault that's going to keep Alonso going.

Technorati Tags: Flavio Briatore,Fernando Alonso,Nelson Piquet Jr.,Renault

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Renault|Tyre Switch

2008-04-12T09:32:00.001-07:00

"Renault exploited the Michelin tyres to its fullest--more than any Michelin team. That's why they struggled to make a successful switch to Bridgestones". This was a popular statement in the F1 media last season. I doubt even Renault would accept this. I cannot understand how using Michelin tyres to its best (do not misinterpret me. The stress here is in the way the tyres are used. I fully accept changing tyres will cause problems) would prevent Renault from a successful adaptation to the Bridgestone tyres. McLaren too used the Michelin tyres for the 2006 season yet, they had a successful campaign last season. Ok, Renault said the two tyres have very different mechanical and aerodynamic characteristics and that was one of the reasons why they struggled with the R27. This statement is acceptable. Note that they've not talked a bit about "exploitation of the tyres to the maximum".

It's the switch from one tyre to another tyre that's at question. The success of the switch depends on, efficient interpretation of the tyres' requirements and incorporating the data into the car's setup. It does not depend on how well or how bad a car used its previous tyre. Anyway they're going to leave all the Michelin data behind and take aboard the Bridgestone data. Where's the "degree of usage" in this?

Technorati Tags: Renault,R27,R26,Michelin,Bridgestone

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Renault|Budget|Domination

2008-04-12T09:31:00.001-07:00

A lot is being said about Renault. That they manage to win Grands Prix and championships with one of the lowest budgets amongst the teams. And Flavio Briatore himself doesn't miss a chance to pride his management style on that. It all looks awe-inspiring until the question "how much and for how long" are brought into the equation. Look at Ferrari. They are perceived to be one of the highest spenders in the sport and they've duly won, in the past decade, 13 world titles. Or put it this way. Since 2002 (the year in which Renault took over Benetton) Ferrari have won all the titles (both drivers' and constructors') except in the 2005 & 2006 seasons. Renault in contrast, in the same period, have only the four titles to their name. Immediately after they took the honours in the 2006 season, they struggled to a finish on the podium in the 2007 season. Ferrari? They took both the titles.

If you ask any Renault fan the reason for Renault's downfall, they'll say, fighting until up to the last race of the 2006 season was the reason why they couldn't produce a competitive car for the 2007 season. If you ask some of the F1 media, their answer would be, "Renault understood their Michelin tyres better than most. So, it's natural they got affected the most because of the switch to Bridgestone." None of these is the answer. None. (Why I say this? Coming in the next article)

The answer is, I believe, lack of resources. By resources I mean budget. Ferrari had the budget to simultaneously devote all the necessary efforts to their new car while at the same fighting hard for the championship with their old car. But, if what Flavio Briatore keeps priding himself on is true, Renault didn't have the capacity to develop two cars, simultaneously, at full swing. This is definitely not something to be proud about.

What all I'm saying is, Renault can consider priding themselves on low-budget-championships only after they've won another 10 world titles (drivers' + constructors'). Until then, Ferrari will be the benchmark. For consistency in winning. Simply because no other team have yet managed to match them let alone beat them for numbers.

Technorati Tags: Renault,2005 F1 Season,2006 F1 Season,2007 F1 Season,Briatore,Ferrari,Benetton,Michelin,Bridgestone,F1 World Championship

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Alonso|Renault|Ego

2008-04-12T09:30:00.001-07:00

I cannot comprehend why any team, using an OLD car (the stress is in "old"), would want to run pseudo-qualifying laps in a pre-season testing event. But that's exactly what Renault have done. Just to give a boost to Alonso's image, they allowed him to run "empty tanks" and set a time that was anything but a mockery. An eye-wash for the innocent. You could say, running quick laps is part of their day's program. Plausible if they are running with a NEW car. They're using the R27, which is last year's car, running for some 70 laps and at the end of the day, with just a few kilos of fuel, helping Alonso pretend he is still the man to beat.

This serves to cement the fact that Renault are definitely a team that has understood Alonso as well as no other can possibly could. See, they make him feel important even in testing. All to keep him happy and his, I'm extremely sorry to use this word, ego satisfied. Here's another interesting quote from Alonso after yesterday's testing:

{ I haven't really got to know Nelsinho yet, but he seems to me to be a normal, nice guy who wants to enjoy his time in Formula One: no different to Marques, Button, Trulli, Fisi, Montagny or McNish, all of whom were my team- mates, all of whom I got on well with and who are still friends. For 2008, I don't anticipate problems with anybody, and Flavio has always demonstrated that he can manage these situations very well. }

Alonso makes it clear that he WANTS Piquet Jr. (his team mate) to be NOT LIKE Hamilton. He also adds, should he (Piquet Jr.) prove to be another head-ache to him (as was Hamilton last year), Flavio Briatore is there to ensure Piquet Jr. DOES NOT beat him on track! Shame on Alonso.

Technorati Tags: Renault,Alonso,R27,Piquet Jr.,Flavio Briatore

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BMW|Renault

2008-04-12T09:29:00.001-07:00

It's going to be a very intriguing season indeed. BMW, from being the third best team in terms of pace last year, are aiming to ruffle the feathers of Ferrari and McLaren. Renault, from being an also-ran last year are expected to make significant improvements this season, pace-wise. Which means they too are expected to challenge Ferrari and McLaren. Which means they're aiming to occupy BMW's territory. Now, BMW will want to look forward to catching up with the top teams rather than worry about Renault catching them. On the other hand, Renault are ex-champions and are wounded. They'll want to bounce back with a vengeance on the top three teams. Who will come out on top? That's a big question. And certainly not an easy one to answer.

Let us assume here that pace-wise BMW and Renault are evenly matched throughout the season. That pace might be something like 3 or 4 tenths off the best of Ferrari or McLaren. Then the results (of BMW and Renault) will come down to operational efficiency--pit-stops, strategy, development rate, drivers. Of all these, it is in the driver department that BMW seem to lag a very small bit behind Renault. I'm talking about comparing Alonso with Heidfeld and Kubica. But then Heidfeld was the one who pulled quite a few superb passing manoeuvres on Alonso last year despite being in a slower car. Sigh.

BMW have proved last season that they're aggressive developers of their machine. The key difference between Renault and BMW is that Renault have problems with their old car that they need to sort out with their new machine. The problems include aerodynamic issues resulting in overall low grip levels and few other handling difficulties. BMW don't have those issues. Their F1.07 was a positive car--positive in the sense, a car that can only improve. At the very least, should they really misinterpret the data (which is highly unlikely), they'll be at the same level as last year. Which will still mean Renault needing to improve to catch up with them.

To conclude this article, we're set for a dramatic fight. A fight, at this point of time, we cannot say if it's going to be between Renault and BMW behind whoever is ahead of them or between BMW and whoever is ahead of them with Renault behind BMW or between Renault and whoever is ahead of them with BMW behind them or--although very less likely--a fight between BMW and Renault AHEAD of everybody else!

I won't have a calm sleep until the season starts.

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Button and World Championship

2008-04-12T09:28:00.001-07:00

Button sees himself challenging for the title in the 2009 season. Is it tall talk? It might look nothing other than just that. But not according to me. Outwardly, the gap between where Honda were last season and the world championship looks to be an enormous chasm. If we take a little bit of a deep look at he team, it will be crystal clear that they, undoubtedly, have the potential to reduce the chasm to a small crack. Yes, in my opinion, Honda can bridge the gap to the top teams in one season. As I've already discussed elsewhere in this blog, technical ability of the personnel, infrastructure and drivers are the basic things that need to be sorted out for a successful campaign. And now, Honda Racing have got it all. For the start, to lead the technical team, ex-Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn is there. Honda Motor Co.'s whole financial might is there. And, Jenson Button himself is there. Frankly, he is a lot better than his results show. He needs a car to demonstrate that and I hope Honda gives him that car in the coming season. I'm being selfish here because, I badly want to get treated to a fight between the top drivers of the F1 grid--Raikkonen, Button, Hamilton, Rosberg.

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Looker

2008-04-12T06:07:00.003-07:00

It was good to look at the pictures of the TF108, Toyota's 2008 car. Actually, of all the F1 cars over the past few years, this Toyota is the car which I liked most. Another car that I was attracted to was the McLaren MP4-20, McLaren's 2005 car. The reason is, when the nose of the cars is broad and low, it quite appeals to me. In the TF108's case, the bridge wing (inspiration taken from McLaren) adds to the appeal. And the Ferrari-esque wheel shields make the BBS wheels look neat. Wish they could do something about the colour scheme however. It's not the actual white and pink scheme that's at fault; the way the pink colour is splashed onto the car could do with some tweaking for the better. In particular, the sidepod colour looks very awful in my opinion.

How effective the pretty looking car is, on the track, is a different matter altogether.

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F1 TECHNOLOGY :: ENGINE (PART 2)

2008-04-12T06:07:00.001-07:00

Click here to read F1 TECHNOLOGY :: ENGINE (PART 1)

As previously mentioned in the first part, an F1 engine is capable of revving to an astonishing 19000 revolutions per minute. It is because of its ability to rev so high that the engine produces close to 750 horsepower from a relatively low displacement of 2400 cubic centimetres. This can be explained with the following formula: power = (torque x rpm) / 5252. The torque of an engine is largely fixed (by its physical dimensions). And you can also see from the formula that power and rpm are directly proportional to each other. So, if the engine can rev higher, it can produce more power.

To ensure its revvability, the F1 engines' bore is always bigger than the stroke. This configuration is called an "over-square" configuration. Also, "valve overlap" (the amount of time, in degrees of rotation of the crankshaft, for which both the intake and the exhaust valves remain open) is also quite high in F1 engines. This leads to reduced work by the piston on the charge or exhaust gas. As you can easily imagine, the stresses thus involved in an F1 engine are exorbitantly high. To take care of this, exotic materials are used for the cylinder head, piston, connecting rod and the other parts of the engine and many of them are top-secret metals.

And, you'll be surprised to know that it weighs a meager 95 kilos!

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F1|Cricket|Soccer

2008-04-12T06:06:00.001-07:00

Many F1 fans all over the world are crying for a better F1. What do they mean? They want to see more overtaking. They want to see driver skills take precedence over car capability. They keep making calls for reduced downforce, removal of electronic aids and so and so forth. It's however a pity they don't realise that when their calls are heeded to, they won't have any F1 to follow. Take any game, for example, soccer. Now, does the World Cup attract more audience or club matches? Does the World Cup in cricket attract more fans or the Ranji Trophies? Even though I'm not a fan of tennis, I would love to watch the match between Federer and Nadal. Why is this? Because, I, like other people want to see the best of any game. In the World Cup finals (be it cricket or soccer), two best teams compete against each other and that surely will be a fantastic sight; we are guaranteed a play at its best. This is where the similarities between F1 and other sports end. F1 is a sport that is at least as much about machines as it is about men. Those who watch F1 should not only look for the fight between two drivers but also look for the fight between two teams. The fighting they do back in their factories to develop their cars. We shouldn't draw direct comparisons between motor sports and the other games that are predominantly human (like cricket). In F1, people should also learn to appreciate the "technical" fight between, say, Ferrari and McLaren; what parts they add to the car, how much more horsepower the engine now makes in comparison to the previous round, by how many tenths has the Ferrari improved... Most fans are always looking for the on-track fight and when they don't get it (which is the case in F1 these years) they're disappointed. And this is exactly what I don't want the fans to do. Please take some time to understand and enjoy the technical battle between the teams. After all, this element is what differentiates motor sport (F1 in particular) from other sports. When this variable is thrown out of the equation, it's like doing injustice to F1. Repeated calls for reduced technology is the last thing you want to do in F1, according to me. Technology is what drives F1.

It is to satiate the most number of people who want more on-track action and the such, there are other categories like, A1, GP2, World Series etc. They're designed around fans; technology comes second.

I know it's not easy for all to understand about F1 technology and I also know most will not have the passion to take the pains to understand it. But there's no other way. If F1 needs to remain F1, the element of technology should always be there. And I'm afraid fans will have to take the pains to understand it.

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My Fav Circuit

2008-04-12T06:05:00.001-07:00

I've always asked this question myself. "Among the Grand Prix circuits all over the world, what's my favourite?" Initially, I thought the answer would be easy enough to find. Far from it. First, I looked at the (real) drivers' picks. Suzuka, Spa, Monza, Monte Carlo, Silverstone. I drove all these circuits (in the computer, of course) and I liked, er, all of them! I couldn't pick one as THAT circuit. So, I tried the other group, Barcelona, Montreal, Hockenheim, Interlagos. Again, there was no clear answer although I've to admit that Interlagos emerged as by far the circuit which I liked most of the lot. Undeterred, I looked at Sakhir and even the testing circuits, Jerez and Valencia. For the first few laps of Jerez I thought, "Whoa, this is it. The Best Circuit". After 50 laps, "Yuh, this is another nondescript circuit. Nothing more". Now, I'm trying out the Hermann Tilke designed, "spectacular" Sakhir circuit at Bahrain. Notice the word "spectacular". I don't know if I'll associate this word with Sakhir after another 50 more laps of F1-car-thrashing!

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New Category :: KC

2008-04-12T06:04:00.001-07:00

I'm going to open up a new category named KC which will track the progress of Karun Chandhok in the 2008 season's GP2 series. I've never been so much a fan of GP2. However, the reigning Champion team iSport has signed Karun to race for them in both the Asia and the main series. And, Karun's team mate is Bruno Senna, Ayrton Senna's nephew.

Karun's signing with a top team underscores the belief that a Championship winning team has in his talents. All these have created a new found interest in me to follow GP2 from now on and more importantly KC.

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Toyota|STR|SA and Force India

2008-04-12T06:02:00.001-07:00

I've discussed a little about Force India's driver lineup, management and technical depth in the previous articles. This one is going to give hard facts about the competition that Force India will face on track next season. Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Renault, McLaren, Williams, Red Bull, Honda, Toyota, Toro Rosso, Super Aguri. These are the teams that Force India is going to fight with and of these, we can rule out at least the first seven teams as not a direct competitor to Force India. The remaining three teams, Toyota, Toro Rosso and Super Aguri are more likely to be the teams that they are going to have to fight with for track space. And, I don't think, including Toyota in the list of Force India's direct rivals is overly ambitious. The latter might not have the financial power of Toyota, but fighting with them is a realistic prospect.

Super Aguri will be, mostly, inheriting this year's Honda RA107 and with probably the scenario of next to no development throughout the season, it won't be surprising if they turn out to be the back-markers of the 2008 season. I'm basing my opinion on the fact that Super Aguri achieved little with the excellent RA106, which was Honda Racing's Grand Prix winning 2006 car. Yes, they brought home some points and that's great for such a young team. But, you can't hide the fact that it's mostly thanks to the development work done by the Honda guys on their car during the 2006 season.

Toro Rosso have Red Bull backing them, and should they get this year's Red Bull Racing RB3, that'll be fantastic for them--the RB3 proved to be quite a quick car if only overly unreliable. A few developments to the mechanicals of the car and it will reward the team with a good, reliable car throughout the season.

Coming to Toyota, I cannot solidly say what can be expected of them. The budget is there, but other than that there's nothing worth while to write home about. I usually discourage myself from making bad comments but, I do think that a change in the technical department might be of some help to the currently under-achieving outfit.

That brings us to our team. Force India. Mike Gascoyne says we are gonna see a lot of new aerodynamic parts on the car for the next season. He is a guy who delivers on promises. Vijay Mallya says he has given what the technical team wanted in terms of financial resources and personnel. We've to see if that's true and that's easy enough to check. But only after some races are completed. We've to closely watch out for Gascoyne's words before and after each race and each test session. I believe, his words will paint a truer picture of the team's stand more than what the on-track results would. You don't have to worry about that. I will be doing it here--intercepting his words to find out whether Mallya's promises have been delivered. I very much hope I can be on the affirmative throughout the whole 2008 season and if that actually is the case, Force India CAN fight with Toyota (and come out on top) and get points scoring finishes. How many, I don't know at the moment.

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How An F1 Car Is Improved

2008-04-12T06:00:00.001-07:00

The two primary ingredients for a successful F1 team--a team that manges to show consistently improving performance-- are: a competent technical director and a technically sound and/or super quick driver(s). There is one more thing that the technical director needs to do his job, which is money. We'll start with the driver's responsibility. The driver is the one who is actually putting the car thro' its paces and so he is the person who can paint the true picture of the car black and white. He has to feel the car; feel the limit of the car. To be more specific, he has to report to his engineer the following: the behaviour of the car under braking (for example in a straight line/in the midst of a corner/on the entry into the corner/on bumps), its behaviour under acceleration (all of the above said situations apply here), its turning characterisitcs (for example, whether it oversteers/understeers, how much amount of steering angle provokes understeer), its overall balance (whether any on the front/rear ends is nervous), its braking characteristics (for example, how much pedal pressure at what point of time and at what rate/how and when it locks up), its behaviour on bumps (for example, how it affects his control over the acceleration/braking/turning he might have to do just after/at the point of hitting the bump(s)), the overall grip level provided by the geometry of suspension system, the weight distribution and the aerodynamics, his confidence in driving the car at maximum attack (and this is affected by, the tyre wear characteristics, brake fade characteristics, traction control maps, engine reliability and the behaviour of the car with respect to the decreasing fuel levels), the behaviour of the car in trailing throttle/lift-off conditions. The above list doesn't include all of the details but you can rest assured that all of the above things are definitely there.

The engineer will convert the driver's "feelings" into the more immediately possible "set-up" changes and also will report to the technical director regarding the possible changes that can be made to the aerodynamic/mechanical components of the car.

There ends the work at the track level and the work is then passed onto the factory where the technical director often occupies his desk. He will have all the feedback (both at the seat-of-the pants level and in the technical level from the engineer) on his desk. He will try to distinguish between the necessary points and the unnecessary points. He will start to try and decrease the unnecessary points while at the same time improving the more positive points even further. The team will then try out his ideas in the wind tunnel and if it seems to be an improvement, it will find its way into the car.

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The Obsessive Compulsive

2008-04-12T05:59:00.001-07:00

This is what Ron Dennis, Team Principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is being referred to as by many people. I guess this is the price one has to pay for trying to be as perfect as possible. And the F1 world has always been fond of branding the press releases given by the McLaren drivers and management as puppet talk. I've been pondering over this for quite some time and no matter which way I think, I simply fail to see why Dennis and his McLaren team should be, I should say, ridiculed by others in this way. This is not all; many people even go as far as suggesting that the McLaren Technology Center is something that isn't anything more than totally unnecessary. Again, this is something I strongly feel that the outsiders have no reason to give bad comments on. I admire Dennis' ability to have such high levels of attention to detail; after all this is something which most of us aren't fortunate enough to possess (if you do possess then that's fantastic!). To give you an example for this, the font style of the letters in the trash bins and the other texts in the McLaren Technology Center, match with the font style of the headings in the McLaren web site (www.mclaren.co.uk) and that of the official team name "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes". Now this is something which most of us can't even think of in the first place! Another example for Dennis' passion for attention to detail is in the names; the motor-homes, as we call it, is named the "Brand Centre" by McLaren. And yes, this is also an object of criticism by many people.

As I previously mentioned, the McLaren press releases are puppet talks to many F1 insiders. If something is to be done in a particular way, it has to be done in that way. If the press releases need to look decent and refined, then it has to be in the lines of what McLaren does. I can't imagine anyone claiming that they love to hear uncouth, inconsistent and bad language. Yet, those people, who so easily condemn McLaren's style, seem to be on the contrary.

By now, I know, you would be thinking as to what I'm going to gain from Dennis or McLaren for writing this article. I'm not going to gain anything. Neither Vodafone McLaren Mercedes nor Mr. Ron Dennis needs my praise; this is nothing to them. But, some things in life affect me a lot. This is one of those things. That's why I wanted to write this article--not to gain recognition from McLaren or Dennis but to pour out my emotions. After all, when you come to know that you'll be laughed at when you try to be perfect, the situation becomes very serious. But, that is what it is in today's world and I'm afraid we can do little about it.

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Force India Formula 1 Team

2008-04-12T05:56:00.001-07:00

Today turned out to be a very proud day for me--indeed, I reckon it should be a very good day for all Indians. I read Dr.Vijay Mallya's interview in Formula 1's Official Website. In that he talks in detail about the past and future of his team and from what I read, I'm very pleased. Please click here to read the interview for yourself--it's a must read for every Indian!.

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F1 Technology :: Traction Control

2008-04-11T02:52:00.001-07:00

Traction is tyres gripping the road. When there's more traction, we say there's more grip. With more grip, more amount of engine torque can be transferred to the road and the speed of the vehicle in corners (where lateral forces act on the tyres) can be relatively higher. Traction Control, as the name suggests, can be identified as a device that makes sure that the traction available at any instant of time is maximum--which is crucial to achieving the best possible lap time. Traction Control is an essential thing to have for cars that have prodigious power outputs. Formula 1 cars have incorporated this device since 2002 (until 2001 it was banned). For the 2007 season, the FIA have again banned the use of Traction Control to put more control back into the drivers' hands. This article analyses in brief how exactly Traction Control does what it does and the effect of its ban.

Traction Control regulates the amount of engine power going to the driven wheels to ensure that the tyres are not given more torque than what they can take effectively--lest the wheels will start spinning. Regulating engine power can be done by either cutting the spark or by cutting the fuel supply. In F1, the former is adopted as it is deemed to be "faster" although less fuel efficient.

Banning Traction Control will require the drivers to be more judicious with the throttle, particularly in corners where the apex speeds are in the region of 100-150 kph. They just can't nail the throttle as they used to do previously. But, in high speed corners the problem of losing traction and hence spinning gets less aggravated as the huge down force that the rear wing produces pushes the rear axle down. The teams will be required to go softer with respect to their suspension settings and also run higher down force levels in an attempt to get more traction. The rear tyres will wear relatively aggressively in the 2008 cars as more often than not they'll be punished to the limits by the drivers. So, we can see more clearly the difference between the best drivers and the good drivers.

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Force India Formula 1 Team

2008-04-11T02:51:00.003-07:00

Testing so many potential drivers in the past two test sessions is a very good sign for Force India. It goes to prove that the team is not in financial doldrums and is really on the look-out for a driver who can be useful to the team, technically and not financially. It looks to me that the team is now stable both in the technical (Mike Gascoyne) and financial terms (Dr.Vijay Mallya). What it needs now is a strong driver - a driver who is quick (Narain Karthikeyan) and technically competent (in the mould of Fisichella or Ralf Schumacher). We'll see how it goes.

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The Best Contradictor Ever - Fernando Alonso

2008-04-11T02:51:00.001-07:00

It's fascinating to note how times (and along with it, words) change. As soon as I read in the press that Alonso has re-signed with his former team, Renault, I thought I should do a very interesting work; that of "compiling his contradictions". Below you'll find lots of instances where Alonso asserts something "white", when in fact, only months before he had deemed it "black"!!

The Statement (on Renault)

“I am very excited about working with this great team once more, and confident that together we can move back to the front of the field. Renault had a difficult year in 2007, but I know that the team has real strength in depth. I am confident they can produce a fast and competitive car and be back at the top in 2008."

The Contradiction

“About Renault I have to say that after a couple of years winning, there was going to be a moment when they would start declining and that was one of the reasons why I announced I was moving to McLaren."

Me: Alonso, apparently you've found out that the talent, which the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team lacked has come out of the blue to the ING Renault F1 Team ("strength in depth"!). Genius stuff!

The Statement (on McLaren)

"In term of professionalism and technology, the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team gives me support for the future. I believe it is the right team for me to switch to, to have a competitive car in the future, I don't see a better option than Vodafone McLaren Mercedes I am really looking forward to the season and am really happy and motivated to be a part of this new team."

The Contradiction

"From the first moment I wasn't comfortable with everything. It's an English team, with an English team-mate. You know that all of the help goes his way. I’ve understood that from the first moment and, well, I'm not moaning about it."

Me: Alonso, it would be great if you tell us if you think the "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes" team to be "professional" or the "English team" to be not.

The Statement (on Renault)

“I am delighted to be returning to Renault. This is the team where I grew up as a driver In Formula One. Now it is time for us to begin a new chapter together I am very excited about working with this great team once more and confident that together we can..."

The Contradiction

"I needed the challenge, and I needed motivation, both in my career,and in my life. I was growing tired. I'd seen it and done it all at Renault, twice. I knew how the car worked, I knew my job, I knew the people. It was just doing the same old thing over and over again. It was like eating the same plate of paella every night. It was making me feel old at 25. I wanted to feel young again. I think this period of my career finishes here and I need to win with more teams and find new motivation."

Me: So, I guess you're going to "enjoy" eating the "same plate of paella" from now on!

The Statement

"And if you ask me which is more important: winning three titles with Renault or winning three titles with two different teams, then the answer is easy. Even my grandmother will understand how much better it is to be world champion in two different cars with two different teams."

The Contradiction

“I am delighted to be returning to Renault...."

Me: I think that you've now found out that your grandmother misunderstood the concept!

Doing this compilation was one hilarious exercise for me! What with so many of them above! Leaving aside the funny part of it, Alonso has once again proved that he's not a champion material. He has jumped ship to Renault because of his inability to face a driver who is faster than him. Renault know very well that Kovalainen would be an infinite times better choice for the 2008 season than Piquet Jr. is. But the arrival of their "star driver" has apparently forced them to throw Kovalainen out - they know precisely well that Alonso cannot stand another attack by a driver who has the potential to beat him as Lewis did. Now, Renault has the "dream team"; the whole ING Renault F1 Team will be hell-bent on Alonso, protecting him from inside attacks (read as: protecting Alonso from Piquet Jr. beating him) in the process making Piquet Jr. a sacrifice.

I have an opinion that Nelson Piquet Jr. has made a blunder in agreeing to work alongside Alonso. If he has any desire to win World Championships, he has to move out to another team. He will not be given the chance at Renault as long as Alonso is there.

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What Makes an F1 Engineer

2008-04-11T02:50:00.001-07:00

Do the top engineers in Formula 1 - who are paid in millions of dollars - have anything in common with normal human beings? Yes. They are exactly human. What makes them truly stand out of the crowd, however, is just one thing. Attention to detail. It means that F1 engineers are constantly on the look-out for improvements, however minuscule they (the improvements) may be - improvements in all forms of their professional life. They have such a passion for their job that they just enjoy improving their car and in the process, themselves. Engineering an F1 car is a ridiculously tough job. The stakes are very high - your company will have poured millions of bucks into the development program, millions of people will be watching your progress (or, the lack thereof) and your own personal ability is there to be proven. In such an environment it is truly a gargantuan task to keep applying engineering solutions to problems - problems in the sense, factors that hinder a car going even faster. That's because, the engineers will, most often, not have any reference to which they can fall back to; they'll be inventing solutions. And when you invent, it's human nature to wonder for a moment whether or not you've done (invented) the right thing. And in F1, the engineers can't, even for a day, have a second thought about their solutions - you need to act fast.

The engineers manage this problem with just one weapon in their arsenal. Self-confidence. They just absolutely believe in themselves and their solutions. They train themselves to not think about the outside world or for that matter, outside the (engineering) problem in front of them. When they isolate themselves like this, they do wonders. But, this is the most difficult part; isolating yourself. But, that's why they take home millions of dollars every year. That's why they belong to a different planet. That's why they're called master minds.

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Are Customer Teams the Way To Go in F1?

2008-04-11T02:49:00.001-07:00

It's very clear, isn't it? Formula 1 is the top motor-sport category for four wheelers and this status is very much down to the sheer sophistication of technology that goes into these cars. So, when some one says that they are just going to go buy a Formula 1 car from another team and race it, it's just bullocks. Hey, go make your own car and race it. I'll support you even if you don't finish the race with your car. You've to take the challenge of engineering an F1 car. That's when you should be in F1. Look at last season's Spyker team. I applaud them for their efforts to race their own car; even if they were arguably the slowest cars for most of the season. In contrast, Super Aguri and Scuderia Toro Rosso were racing cars they bought off the shelves. With the 2006 race winning Honda, Super Aguri just about managed to get into the points and that too in a handful of races. What does it mean? The pace of development was far from enough. Is this what we want in F1? For the sake of having a full grid, we shouldn't compromise on the image of F1. If close racing is what is wanted, go watch A1 or GP2. They are series that are designed for just that. Not F1. No. F1 is for technology. Let the teams engineer close racing into F1 - using technology.

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I'm Sorry Michael

2008-04-11T02:48:00.003-07:00

I accept it. I regret it. I underestimated this man's talent. Even before this test, I knew well enough that Michael Schumacher's talent is, ... Well, I would need a dictionary by my side to finish the previous sentence. But, even after knowing that, I didn't dare think on earth that he would pulverize the opposition. On his first day after more than a year off the cockpit. I thought that Schumi would need some time - at least one full day (a few hundred kilometers) - to learn the new-for- 2007 tyres, to learn the F2007 which is so different - mechanically - to the the 248 F1 he is used to, to learn to unlearn driving F1 cars with TC. Yes, he indeed took some time. Except that he took 2 laps, just 2 laps, just 10 kilometers to nail the fastest times home. I'm just bewildered as to what this man is made of. It's unbelievable. Astonishing. This season, I had a feeling that I didn't miss Michael. But now after this test, I'm longing. Come back, Schumi, for heaven's sake, come back.

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"Oh dear!" for Ferrari; "Hooray!" for Honda

2008-04-11T02:48:00.001-07:00

Ross Brawn, the ex-technical director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has taken up the position of Team Principal at Honda Racing F1 Team. Expect then the Honda cars to tear-up the race tracks from now on. That's because, if anyone knows how to put together a race winning package, it is Ross Brawn. He is excellent in produc ing a race winning car; excellent in managing people in a team and is awesome, absolutely awesome in devising strategies. He might well give headaches to the Ferrari men on the prat-perch come race day. No big worries at Ferrari, however. Their technical team is as good as it gets; they've got Kimi Raikkonen on their side and they even have got someone who gave advice to Ross Brawn himself on Michael's magnificent Magny Cours 2004 strategy - Luca Baldiserri. Remember that stunning 4 pit-stop strategy? Let the games begin.

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Is the "Spy Saga" Damaging?

2008-04-11T02:46:00.001-07:00

There have been plenty suggestions that the spying scandals are detrimental to the image of Formula 1. That’s just hit high notes with Renault, the second team now, after McLaren, having been called for a hearing next month. On an espionage case on McLaren themselves. I think otherwise. The more F1 hits the headlines in the media, the more it becomes popular; in the sense, more people become curious to know what’s happening. When they dig deep enough in the process of knowing more about the issue, most will understand that there is, after all, things bigger and better about F1 than the spying scandals and the other could-do-without things that do the rounds. So, what do we end up with? With more people that take notice of F1. But, don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to voice that these things are good for F1. I’m just saying that, they might not have as much a negative impact, as people proclaim.

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Who Can the Drivers Be?

2008-04-11T02:45:00.003-07:00

One important question that looms in on us is, who's going to partner Adrian Sutil at Force India. This is a tricky one. On the one one hand, the fledgling Indian outfit would want to have an experienced driver who can pave the development path effectively. At the same time, the presence of a mere experienced driver isn't going to do much good. Experience can handle adversity better and be less demanding on the team. But then, this is not the only thing you want in a young team. What's also most importantly needed is that raw speed of a driver that pushes the car beyond its limit. Only when the car is taken to its limit can the engineers look at better ways of eeking out the last drop performance from the package. That's why Schumacher, Raikkonen, Button, Alonso and the likes are considered very good development drivers - they can keep the car consistently on its limit. The drivers in this (the experienced) mould currently in the market are, Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella and Pedro de la Rosa. Either of these three might make a good driver at Force India. But, not the best. That's because, none of the three have a reputation for being blindingly fast. And this fact is one that cannot be discounted. If you look at the teams that the above drivers served - Toyota, Renault and McLaren in that order - I'm not sure that the development rate of these teams is largely thanks to them. In Ralf's case, the situation gets even worser; Toyota even with its huge multi-billion dollar, deep corporate pocket couldn't make the remotest of progress (with regards to track position) and that's telling something on Ralf's potential. Of Fisichella and de la Rosa, the former will make a better option. Not the least because, de la Rosa lacks racing miles under his belt. No number of testing miles can substitute racing experience. So, there we have it. Fisichella is a good candidate for Force India - experienced, quick and a good team player.

Is there any other alternative option to Fisichella? It looks like there is. Narain Karthikeyan. Whatever the results of the 2005 season say about Narain, I still consider him to be a very very quick driver. Very bold and extremely aggressive. Ok. I know that the record books show that his then team mate, Tiago Monteiro, got better results during their time together at the (Jordan) team. Results mean nothing here. Heikki Kovalainen who's widely considered to be a super driver literally struggled to get to grips with his Renault at the start of the season. In his own words, he over drove the car. When he started calming down a bit, he became quicker and quicker ultimately to the point of beating his considerably more experienced team mate, Fisichella. What Kovalainen suffered from, earlier on this season, Narain suffered in his debut season. He was over-driving his car that cannot, in a million years, be called a good, predictable car. It's not so much about the pace as it is about the handling. It was appalling. Narain used to be absolutely on the limit trying to go ever faster. But, the Jordan was simply not up to it. It couldn't handle the extraneous inputs of Narain. That's why the results (wrongly) show that he was slower. Had he been driving a better-than-Jordan car that season, he would have looked stunning. The logic is simple. Narain had the ability and the inputs to give to a car to make it go faster. But, the car - that should've had the capability to take it all - didn't have it. People unfortunately don't have the patience to look deep into things. They look at the results - that need not necessarily paint the true picture - and come to conclusions.

Mike Gascoyne, an aero whiz, can, with a decent budget make good cars - he did wonders at Renault and Toyota. With Dr.Vijay Mallya at the helm (hopefully) pouring better cash, Gascoyne refining the aero and two quick drivers (Sutil and Karthikeyan) pushing the car to its limits, progress is definitely there to be made at Force India. Fancy some points for the upcoming season? My money is on it.

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New Category :: Force India Formula 1 Team

2008-04-11T02:45:00.001-07:00

I consider this to be the most important activity of all in this blog - creating an exclusive category for the Indian Formula 1 team. It's high time that motor sport really caught up in our country and the presence of an Indian owned team in the pinnacle of motor sport is only going to help, massively, this cause. In this category, I'm going to discuss the in and outs of the Force India Formula 1 Team - about its drivers, its management, its technical abilities so and so forth. After every race weekend, every test session, I'll try to strip down the lap times that we see, into expectations that can be had of the team.

I'm personally very much looking forward to this.

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Schumi's Back!

2008-04-11T02:44:00.001-07:00

Rejoice Schumi fans. The Master is going to be back in the driver's seat for next week's multi-team test session at the Circuit de Catalunya. It's going to be a full-blown test for Michael - not just a few slow, demonstration laps. The reason for that is to utilize Schumi's invaluable experience in driving Traction Control-less cars.

But, it would do very well to keep expectations in check - expectations with regards to his lap times. Michael is not used to this season's considerably less sticky Bridgestone control tyres. He will have to take it easy for the first few laps, understand the tyres, understand the car and everything. That's when he can start pushing to 100 percent - and more - and drive like the (our) real Michael Schumacher.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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Kimi and his Motor

2008-04-11T02:43:00.001-07:00

There's a widely held conception that most of the reliability problems that Kimi faces is due to his driving style. They say, Kimi blows his engines as frequently as he does due to his pushing the revs to the max. And more. Beyond the rev-limiter! Today's F1 cars are so much sophisticated so that it would be a bit weird to suggest that the engine electronics would happily allow the driver to melt the pistons. By simply nailing the throttle. A driver can set the max revs that the engine will rev to, in any gear, from his steering wheel. In qualifying, the engine will be wound up to its max and in the races it will be turned down to conserve it. So, even if we take it for granted that Kimi always loves to keep his right foot planted on his throttle pedal (in the process forgetting that there is another big pedal out there which is the brake pedal), he would surely take care of the engine by turning the revs down to a safe level. Or at least, his team would remind him to do so on his radio to avoid incurring multi-million dollar repair bills.

So, I guess Kimi is not, after all, contributing to the blown-engine-bills of Ferrari.

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Why Slower is Faster

2008-04-11T02:42:00.001-07:00

To go faster, go slower. Seems a bit odd, doesn't it? Sure, it does. But, most of the time in Formula 1, when drivers try to keep raising their pace lap after lap, they make a lot of mistakes that ironically spoil their lap times. There's only so much that one can extract from a car. If you've to brake 80 metres before, for a corner, you've got to brake 80 metres before. If you've to nail the throttle only after kissing the apex, you've got to nail the throttle only after kissing the apex. Then how do you increase your pace? You might ask. You increase the pace not by braking at 70 metres before the apex (in contrast to 80). You increase the pace not by dabbing the throttle before the apex. You increase the pace by braking at the 80 metre mark, exactly, millimetre perfectly, lap after lap. You increase the pace by nailing the throttle at the apex.

May be, 80 metres can come down to 79 metres in those laps when you have found a great rhytm in your lap and the tyres have gelled in perfectly and you're dancing with the car.

Those laps will (mostly) be your fastest laps.

And those who do have the habit of nailing such laps, lap after lap, throughout a race are far and few between.

And one such far-and-few-between driver is Kimi Raikkonen.

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My Post is Top 50 amongst F1 Posts!!

2008-04-11T02:39:00.003-07:00

I'm pleased to tell you that my post, The Grand Grand Finale has been selected one among the top 50 F1 posts by www.f1fanatic.co.uk.

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Lewis Hamilton? (Instalment 2)

2008-04-11T02:39:00.001-07:00

Lewis Hamilton's style is to keep the car pointing straight for as long as possible in preparation for a corner. The advantage of this style is that Lewis has a more obedient car, when he eventually turns-in, that will respond to his steering inputs in a controlled manner without overloading the outer wheels. By having the car straight, he has the dynamic weight of the car more evenly spread out between the inner and outer tyres. One obvious advantage of this technique is that he has a larger contact patch from the four tyres that he can use for braking with maximum force without fear of locking up - that is so easy to do at the turn-in.

Another very unique thing that you notice about Lewis' style is his steering input. It's not so much about the point of his initial steering input as it is about the rate of input. He just ever-so-slightly squeezes his 'wheel into the corner, takes some amount of positive lock out of it, almost immediately again gives the positive lock back again. All these happen between Lewis preparing his car for the turn-in and the point when he hits and crosses the apex of the corner. Why is Lewis doing that? Again, he always thinks in straight lines. He wants to make sure he has a perfectly dynamically balanced car at all the points of a corner.

Follow this link to read Lewis Hamilton? (Instalment 1).

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Alonso no more a McLaren driver!

2008-04-11T02:38:00.001-07:00

What I personally believed would happen (starting mid-season), has now happened. McLaren has let go Alonso and I think they have done just the right thing. There's no point having a trouble-some driver onboard who always moans if things are not going his way. The theory that Alonso is not capable of facing a really good team mate/rival in a constructive way is what I've always believed in. That has come to be true now. If you need an example of how a driver can/should face a team mate - who is stronger than him - constructively, I would encourage you to look at Kimi in the first half of this season. Felipe Massa - his team mate - had the measure of him in the first half. Kimi was struggling to get to grips with his new car/tyre/team package. But, when quizzed about why he was being beaten by Massa, Kimi made no fuss of the situation. He simply accepted that he indeed was having some problems (problems not with his team but problems with respect to his pace in his car) to sort out and that they (Kimi and Ferrari) were hard at work to try and solve them. He, at no point, if I remember correctly, complained about Ferrari favouring Felipe and all those stuffs that Alonso was doing at McLaren. What Kimi showed was pure sportsman-ship; he believed in him, he believed he had the talent to sort out his problems and he went about doing it in the perfect manner - without whining. The result, Kimi is now World Champion.

Follow this link to read the Official Press Release by McLaren.

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Lewis Hamilton? (Instalment 1)

2008-04-11T02:37:00.003-07:00

The F1 circus has sat up and looked at the boy-wonder in the name of Lewis Hamilton with an awe in its face. What's that he's doing to make him the most happening person in Formula 1 right now? Well, the answer is quite simple. He's fast. Truly, madly, insanely fast. Yes. Faster than your twice World Champ Fernando Alonso. I'm not saying this just 'coz I'm no fan of Alonso. When you take the time to study both of their laps over the course of the entire season, you'll arrive at the same decision. Even Alonso accepts that he's slower than Hamilton. Albeit indirectly in the form of his whining about McLaren and Hamilton.

Racing drivers are basically of two varieties. Some drivers are the seat-of-the-pants kind while some others are analytical. The drivers who best manage to exhibit both these characteristics are the ones who rock the stage. And a certain driver by name Lewis Hamilton is that kind of a driver. We'll see what he does on the race track in the second instalment of this feature.

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The Grand Grand Finale

2008-04-11T02:37:00.001-07:00

N ow, that's when you call Formula One's at its best! When you've just witnessed motor racing greatness in the name of the Brazilian GP. In the name of Interlagos '07.The Brazilian Grand Prix invoked a lot of touching memories in me. Several reasons for that. What with Kimi taking the Drivers' Championship in crushing style, in the process making Alonso seem as if he is just, er, Alonso. Not the next Schumi they all hoped for all their worth, he would be. No, he most definitely isn't.

W hat with Felipe demonstrating superlative driving skill all throughout the weekend (and, most definitely in the race) and yet, making his team-mate's title challenge a bit easy come race day. Hats off to him.

W hat with this Brazilian GP marking the fifth anniversary of my "F1 watching". Yup. Interlagos '03 was the first ever F1 race that I watched. At the moment when I was sitting in front of my aunt's TV waiting for the start of the (very wet) race, all I knew about in F1 was that there was some bloke called Michael Schumacher who was the one that the world watched. He was sitting seventh on the grid, I found out in a bit.

L et's get back from '03 to '07. The "rank outsider", who, a couple of hours before the chequered flag, was seven points adrift of the Championship leader, a few less points down on the second placed man, blew them all in a storm of cold wind. And took the title! In the run-up to the weekend, I had my mind very clear. I've been following this sport for so long that I've always believed, "It ain't over until it is." So, when Kimi became from a rank-outsider to a World Champion, it wasn't all surprises for me. Sure, it seemed incredible to me, at the start of the race, that Lewis would not finish in the top five from where he started. It seemed incredible to me that Lewis for once would be troubled by a technical glitch in his McLaren. All in the all-important title decider. Yet, we've witnessed all this happening. That's Formula One.

K imi made one blinder of a start thanks to his coolness under pressure cooker environment and that clean stretch of tarmac under his rear Potenzas in comparison to the McLarens'. So, he swooped past Lewis and even Felipe almost. Then, Lewis made that uncharacteristic mistake in the next couple of turns that together with the faulty electronics made sure that he didn't have a boring afternoon.

W hen the Ferraris were busy doing their disappearing act, Alonso tried in vain to grab attention. But, with his McLaren having no business to be on the same track where the Ferraris were on that day, he was doing what he does best. Going round in circles without making mistakes. It's downright trifles to expect Alonso to rise above the level of his car. It's too much asking of him.

K imi, true to his style, banged home a repository of three consecutive beautifully stunning laps while Felipe was in the pits for the second time. Those laps allowed to get him out in front of Felipe eventually to take the lead. True, if Felipe had wanted to, he could've raced with Kimi for the lead in the pit-stop windows. It would be silly, however, to suggest that Felipe could've walked the race had he so desired.

N ot forgetting the wonderful man, Lewis who made an amazing comeback in the race to finish just two points shy of his dream. But, the day belonged to Kimi and Felipe. Kimi for becoming World Champion with a stunning drive (as always) and Felipe for giving a few good lessons on how you can actually be in favour of and support your team - to a certain driver.

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Hooray!

2008-04-11T02:36:00.001-07:00

The results are now in. Kimi takes the 2007 Formula One Drivers' Championship with an emphatic win at the season finale trouncing the McLaren of Alonso in the process!

More to come later.

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Driving at "Ten-Tenths"

2008-04-11T02:35:00.003-07:00

What does Steve Slater mean when he screams (which he often does), "Look at thaaaat. Kimi is ab...solutely on the limit!"? He means to say that

(1) Kimi is wringing the hell out of his Ferrari.

(2) He is pushing his Ferrari to its limit and (very frequently) beyond.

(3) He is driving (thrashing would be more apt) his Ferrari with a ridiculously low factor of safety that one small slip-up (read that as a braking point missed by a few metres), he along with his car will be promptly in the wall!

(4) In short, Kimi is driving at "Ten-Tenths"!

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F1 Fun :: Alonso Annoyed!

2008-04-11T02:35:00.001-07:00

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F1 DRIVERS :: How Alonso got flattered

2008-04-11T02:34:00.001-07:00

Alonso’s problem is that, he was made to believe that he was the best out there and the quickest of them all. After some point of time, due to circumstances, he eventually started believing the (false) hype surrounding him. When Alonso started his F1 career with the Minardi European team in 2001, his teammates were Tarso Marques and in the later part of the season, Alex Yoong. With all due respect to both the drivers, they were not the quickest of drivers out there. Hence, Alonso’s yardstick wasn’t as high as it could have been. This was a serious problem as in retrospect, had Alonso had teammates that were Champion material, he (and the F1 paddock) would’ve known where he genuinely stood. Thus, Alonso was flattered by his teammates in 2001. In 2002, he came back to Renault and sat out the racing season. He got a race drive for the 2003 season and Jarno Trulli was his teammate. He won a race that season in the R23 whose chassis was acknowledged one of the best handlers on the grid. In 2004, he was comprehensively out-paced and out-raced by Trulli before Renault fired him away. Trulli then went on to join Toyota for the remainder of the season. Despite having a better car than Trulli, Alonso finished only a handful of points higher up in the order. In 2005, Alonso drove in a genuinely measured way to clinch the Championship. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that he was not the fastest driver on the grid. Immediately after clinching the title, he shocked his team and the world by announcing his deal with McLaren to drive for the 2007 season. Year 2006 saw Alonso taking the title again. This year also saw Alonso’s whining at its best. He always demanded that the team gave all their support to him alone and not to his teammate. The ways in which he demanded things were very unbecoming of a Champion.

Thus was born the Alonso who, never used to having a teammate that consistently beat him, thought he was the best out there. He joined Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and was all smiles at the beginning. He once again assumed that he was the best out there and that all the other drivers (that includes his new teammate) were anything but useless. Then came the shocker to him in the form of Lewis Hamilton. The rookie taught quite a few driving lessons to Alonso and the rest, as they say, is history.

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F1 DRIVERS :: Why Alonso doesn't deserve the title

2008-04-11T02:33:00.001-07:00

World Championships are to be won by demonstrating driving excellence rather than by begging - either directly or indirectly. Indirect form of begging in motorsport refers to insistence on part of a driver to give him (1) a better car and or (2) a better strategy in comparison to his teammate. That’s more so when that particular driver happens to have his teammate as his closest rival. That’s what Fernando Alonso has been doing at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. He said, he came to McLaren - leaving Renault in the most undignified manner possible - to “face new challenges”. In my viewpoint, there are two things that probably made him leave Renault and join McLaren. Point number one, a better retainer by McLaren. Point number two, Alonso dreads the prospect of facing a teammate who is quicker than he is. Had he remained at Renault, he would have had to face just that, courtesy, Heikki Kovalainen. The second point is more important in the context of our discussion.

Nobody will expect a rookie to be a better driver overall than a World Champion. In the same way, Alonso least expected Lewis Hamilton to come closer to matching him let alone run rings round. Unfortunately for Alonso, Lewis Hamilton wasn’t just another rookie. I don’t need to tell you how he has proved to be better than Alonso in most aspects throughout this season and how he is now the Championship leader as a result.

When Alonso found Hamilton to be quicker and more consistent than what he is, he should have realized that it was up to him to improve his performance on track to beat Lewis. He should have swallowed the hard fact that he, whatever the record books say, is not in the same league of his teammate. Instead of that, he started harping about everything else that wouldn’t make him go faster. His attacks on McLaren about Hamilton being favoured over him (due to the fact, Alonso says, that Hamilton is an Englishman), indirectly wanting to win the title off the track thro’ politics (he wanted Hamilton to be punished over his driving in the Japanese GP), telling the world that McLaren will tamper with his car to give Hamilton an advantage (in his press conference in the Chinese GP) and not the least of all, threatening his team boss Ron Dennis over the spying scandal (he demanded that he be given the No.1 status lest, he threatened that he would be giving evidences related to the scandal to the FIA)!

Going into the last Grand Prix of this season, Alonso trails Hamilton by four points. Alonso winning the race and Hamilton finishing 5^th will clinch the title for the Spaniard. I do not know if it will happen or not. But, if it does happen, it will leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

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F1 CIRCUITS AND DRIVERS :: Why do drivers love certain tracks and loathe some others

2008-04-11T02:32:00.003-07:00

You probably have often heard / read Formula 1 drivers saying that they love this track or that. While they don’t normally confess they hate certain tracks, it’s true that they wouldn’t mind not going to certain circuits on the Formula 1 calendar. Some of the tracks that belong to the first group are: Suzuka (Japan), Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Monaco (Monte Carlo), Monza (Italy), Istanbul Park (Turkey) and the likes. Circuits like the Hungaroring (Hungary), Albert Park (Australia), well, the F1 drivers won’t miss them too much should they be lopped off the calendar. I was wondering about the factors that determine whether a certain circuit is going to go into a driver’s heart, or not. Here’s what I found out.

Drivers like to push their body to the limits. So naturally, their mind likes circuits that push their body to the limits. Circuits that push the body to the limits should have fast flowing corners like the Eau Rouge, Blanchimont & Pouhon in Spa – Francorchamps, the Becketts complex in Silverstone (UK), Curva Parabolica in Monza etc. If we see the telemetry data of the F1 cars in these corners, we can come to know that in these corners where the drivers are travelling at speeds of over 150 kph, they are subjected to huge g-forces. It’s a different matter altogether that if the same corners are taken in a road car for example, the effect wouldn’t be so drastic – such is the capability of the Formula 1 cars. Those huge forces are what the drivers crave for. They just enjoy the experience of it. Ask Lewis Hamilton and he’ll tell you that it’s to go through the legendary Eau-Rouge corner, it’s like going thro’ a vertical wall! In this particular corner, the drivers experience up to 5g - not in the longitudinal direction, not in the lateral direction but in a vertical direction! That’s right. A force equal to five times the gravitational pull (5 times 9.81 m/s/s) compresses them down into the seat of their F1 car!

The sort of corners that the drivers least like is the slow 1^st gear and 2^nd gear stuff. And the 1^st and 2^nd gear corners are what that make up most if not the whole Hungaroring circuit. Little wonder they tend to dismiss this circuit as Mickey mouse! They also dislike braking from huge speeds to about 70 – 100 kph for negotiating U-turns or chicanes. And this is what is there in Hockenheim, Germany. Hockenheim was once an absolutely awesome track with smooth, flowing and wonderfully fast corners. The track layout was changed for the worse in the year 2002 to improve overtaking. Yes, there’s another important point to be made. Designing a track is a compromise. On the one hand, the drivers want a challenging layout that has lots of high speed corners. On the other hand, the spectators - and the drivers too - want more overtaking on the track than in the pit lane. These two are contradicting requirements. Let me tell you why.

If you had read the article, F1 TECHNOLOGY :: AERODYNAMICS, Parts 1 &2, you would know very clearly that the aerodynamic components need as much air as possible flowing over them (or thro’ them) to do their intended work of producing down force. When a driver is following another car into a corner, say, the Pouhon which is taken at about 260 or so kph on the entry, he (the driver who’s following) loses the front down force because of the fact that the followed car’s rear wings create an up-wash. This up-wash starves the following car’s front wing of air that consequently robs it off down force. This down force is what’s necessary for the front end of the car to bite into the track and turn in quickly into the corner. Imagine that some speed breaker in the form of, say, a chicane is placed just before the Pouhon corner. Let us assume that just after negotiating the chicane the cars are doing about 50kph. If the entry into the Pouhon corner comes just 30 meters or so after the exit of the chicane, the cars will be doing about, say, 80 kph. At 80 kph, as you probably already know, mechanical grip is more important than the aerodynamic grip. This will mean that a car can closely follow another car without worrying about the up-wash and the consequent lack of down force. But, the drivers would absolutely hate this to be done (remember they don’t want Mickey mouse corners!). At the same time, more overtaking will be there making this a spectator and TV audience friendly track. That is why I said that designing tracks is a compromise.

Excuse me for wandering slightly away from the intended purpose of this article, which is to discuss the factors that make certain circuits special in the drivers’ view. So, this is where the article ends. BTW, what’s the circuit I like most? It’s Spa – Francorchamps and the Istanbul Park. I’ve done many virtual laps at Spa but I’ve not had the pleasure of lapping the Turkey track till now. Hope my brother reads this article (or this line atleast!) and promptly gets me a PS3 so that I can drive the first triple-apex corner in my life in F1 2007!

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F1 TECHNOLOGY :: THE CHALLENGE OF A NEW CIRCUIT (Part 1)

2008-04-11T02:32:00.001-07:00

This weekend, the Grand Prix teams are going to a new venue for the Japanese Grand Prix. Fuji Speedway. F1 last raced at this circuit back in the year 1976. The track has undergone major circuit layout revisions to increase the lap times from the 70's time of a 1m 20 odd seconds to a 1m 30s. So, this circuit is brand new for the F1 teams. What's the challenge for the teams here?

First up, we've to analyse what it takes to race an F1 car in a Grand Prix circuit. It's not that you take an F1 car to the race track and race it straightaway. The teams have to do a lot of home-work to get the various parameters of their car working at their optimum for that particular circuit. The parameters are: the downforce level of the car's aerodynamic package (low downforce for higher top speeds, high downforce for maximum grip around corners, medium downforce which is a compromise between a high and low downforce package), gear ratio of the transmission system (that determines the top speed that the car attains on the main straight, acceleration of the car out of the various slow, medium and high speed turns), mechanical setup of the car's suspension system (softer suspension setting for bumpy circuits, hard suspension setting for circuits that are smooth and/or that contain a lot of 150 kph or more high speed corners, ride height), strategy for the race (1 stop/2 stops/3 stops for fuel and tyres), ideal racing line for achieving the fastest lap time, engine mapping (how the torque produced by the engine is spread over it's rev range), engine's fuel burn characteristics (this plays a big role in the strategy choice).

All these parameters should be as close to perfection as possible even before a Grand Prix team starts it's first practice session of that weekend. For circuits that they visit regularly, the teams have a huge pool of data from their previous visits to the circuit that they can rely upon. But, for newer circuits like the upcoming Fuji Speedway, the teams have no such previous years' data to rely upon. So, they resort to computer simulations to get the above said parameters close to perfection. Click on the below link to see how BMW Sauber prepares to race at a new circuit:

http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2007/9/6819.html

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F1 TECH TERMS :: Tech Speak Explained (3)

2008-04-11T02:31:00.001-07:00

Blistering: Phenomenon of pieces of rubber from tread breaking loose from the tyre. Happens when the track temperature is too hot for the selected tyre compound.

Chunking: Similar to blistering in that pieces of rubber break loose from the tread but, happens due to some sort of a failure rather than abnormal track conditions. Can happen due to extreme lateral tyre loadings that may be caused by extreme cornering forces with a heavy fuel load.

g-force: The driver experiences longitudinal and lateral g-forces when accelerating, braking and cornering. When we say 5g under braking, it means that the driver is pulling 5 times the gravitational force in the longitudinal direction.

Ride height: It's otherwise known as Ground Clearance. It's the distance between the lowest part of the car and the track.

Bottoming out: It's nothing but the car's bottom touching the track due to (1) low ride height and/or (2) huge compressive forces that the car experiences in certain corners like Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps.

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Q & As :: THE BEST QUESTION EVER

2008-04-11T02:30:00.001-07:00

Question: A question now to you all: you've all done a fantastic job in your various teams to make the cars incredibly reliable, as we saw here a couple of years ago: 22 cars finished; as we saw two weeks ago when 21 cars finished. But it does mean that, as Pat is very fond of saying, you spend two days trying to put the fastest car on the front of the grid, it's very difficult for anyone to overtake and if you start 14th, you're not likely to get any World Championship points. Is there any engineering challenge, is there a balance somewhere where perhaps engineering is more challenged to make better racing, to make more interesting racing, to give everybody a chance of winning points? Is there an engineering challenge to perhaps shake up the order during the race itself?

Pat Symonds (Renault): Well, it's interesting that you say 'is it an engineering challenge?' because the link between the sporting and the engineering challenge is often a very interesting one. The engineering challenge can be simplified to producing the car that's going to win races. It's a very simple thing to say but actually if you look at it in a little bit more depth it's perhaps not quite as apparent as it may seem.

At the moment, if you consider, for example, the aerodynamics of the car, we all spend a great deal of time in our wind tunnels and with our computational fluid dynamics to make a car that has the best possible aerodynamic efficiency because we know that that will give us the best lap time and at the moment, winning races is all about having the best lap time from your car.

Now if you imagine a situation where you had sporting regulations such as they have in GP2 where, if in your first race you produced a car that was fast, you won the race and that meant then that you were placed further down on the grid (for the second race), then the sporting challenge, and the sporting regulations would lead you to develop your engineering in a slightly different way. In other words, you wouldn't spend all your time in the wind tunnel, just trying to get the best possible efficiency and making the car achieve a minimum lap time.

You would actually spend some time looking at overtaking because you would know that no matter how successful you were at making your car fast, you were at some point in the weekend going to have to do some overtaking, and therefore you had better study it, you had better find out how to make it happen. So I think part of the answer to your question is that the sporting regulations will perhaps determine how the engineers approach their problem, and maybe that's the way to think of these things.

Geoff Willis (Red Bull): Well, to answer your question directly: do I think that the very high levels of reliability - and I wish our team shared those high levels of reliability - but does higher reliability lead to bad racing? I think the simple answer is no, it doesn't. I think it's disappointing to people watching a race if half the cars don't finish the race.

For example, MotoGP is very successful with very high levels of reliability. I think the problem is - and I'm making an additional point to Pat's point - I think the problem is that the cars are too easy to drive in that the drivers are able to drive at pretty much 95-99 percent of their one lap potential and they do that for two or three stints throughout the race, so there are very few mistakes being made and that is one of the reasons why we are seeing such processional races.

If we could make the cars harder to race so that you often found yourself in a position of running wide, going off the track, having to come back, having to pass the person in front, then, as Pat said, we would be starting to think about designing our cars to do more than just race against the clock.

So there is something in the way that we… I think it's a regulation thing. If we can think of making the cars fundamentally harder to drive, mistakes happen more, drivers simply can't drive at 100 percent because it's too risky for them, then we can see more mixed up and probably better racing.

Mario Almondo (Ferrari): I have to say firstly that I share what my colleagues said because starting from the sporting rules, I have to say that the sporting rules gives you the boundaries of your technical problems. Then, once these rules are clear enough, you have to develop and do your engineering in order to achieve the fastest car.

So this is the first thing. I think the second step then is that you have to do your best job in terms of technical effort, investing your money in the direction that is defined in the sporting rules. Secondly, probably it's better to say that once you have your clear direction, everything is related not only to the reliability, because having reliable cars is just giving you in reality the possibility to see a race where all the cars are reliable and finishing the race.

The point is that also in this case probably the sporting rules have to be more difficult in order to give the possibility to everyone to be reliable. If you, for example, impose a rule that is all the weekend long with a car that can be, in a certain way, changed or parts changed, I'm sure that the reliability, as aside from the engineering point of view, is more difficult and then the reliability will have another level, so it's something that is always a two-way problem.

Willy Rampf (BMW Sauber): I think it's correct that this year most of the overtaking is done with the pit strategy, basically, when you're coming in for your pit stop, and the reliability of the cars is very high. But I don't think that it's correct just to make some rule changes to make a penalty for a quick car and he has to move back or some artificial penalty, just to mix up the grid.

When we look forward to next year, there will be no traction control, so for sure it's more difficult to drive the cars and the year after the car concepts will be quite different and I think then racing will be quite different as well because of a completely different car concept with much less downforce. Teams will take different approaches to the development of the car and I think there will automatically be more overtaking with the rule changes.

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F1 TECHNOLOGY :: AERODYNAMICS (Part 2)

2008-04-11T02:29:00.001-07:00

Before reading, click here to read the first part of F1 TECHNOLOGY :: AERODYNAMICS if you haven't already done so.

The list of aerodynamic components in an F1 car will easily run to pages when listed out. To start with, the front and rear wings. The front wings have 2 or 3 flaps that are connected at the ends by what is called as the wing endplates. Some teams like McLaren use additional curved profiles that either span the entire length of the wing or that are just two separate profiles that connect each endplate with the sides of the nose cone. The aim here is to increase the front downforce even more. The sides of the endplates have small flaps that serve to cleanup the air flowing into the radiators through the barge boards. The rear wings have just 2 flaps (as is required by the Formula 1 regulations) that produce dollops of downforce. They are kept in place by two carbon fibre supports that connect to the monocoque. Some teams use just one fat pillar instead of two.

Moving behind the front wing, we've the barge boards. They are placed on either side of the car just below the driver's thighs, if you would like. Barge boards on their own do not produce any downforce. However they sit just in front of the most important part, the radiator. The radiator needs a lot of cold air flowing into it to cool the engine down. The cold air will best serve the radiator if it's not turbulent. But, the tyres and the suspension components that sit in front of the radiator and the barge boards make sure that the radiator does not get its share of clean undisturbed air. The barge boards hence serve to clean up the turbulent air in the process splitting the on coming air in to two streams. One flows directly into the thirsty radiators while the other stream flows smoothly around the sides. Job done.

Above the barge boards sit the radiator covers. They are there to cover the radiator and other engine ancillaries from the outside. But, in F1 nothing is left free. So there you have the cooling chimneys & gills and the numerous T-flaps. While the chimneys and gills are not aerodynamic components strictly, the T-flaps most definitely are. They are scoops that just push the central part of the car a bit when air wooshes past it. In the process the air that passes over it goes directly to the rear wings aiding the flow over it. The rear wing endplates have slots to reduce turbulence.

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When all these components listed produce about 40 % of the total downforce, there's one other component that just effortlessly puts out the rest. It's not visible to the by-stander. In direct contrast to the other components, it resides beneath the car. When the other aerodynamic components develop downforce by pushing the car down, this component develops it by sucking the car down. It's called the diffuser. The diffuser is visible when the rear-end of the car is given a close look. It's basically a channel for the passage of air. What this channel does is, it accelerates the velocity of air flowing through it. When velocity increases, the pressure underneath the car decreases. This creates a pressure differential between the upper and the lower portion of the car. Consequently, the car gets sucked down. The downforce that a diffuser produces through the above explained process is just huge. Just huge. Well, imagine this. If your street is smooth enough for an F1 car to run and if it happens to contain a man-hole and you in case want to pry it open (!), then you've an useful tool. Just race the car over it. By the sudden loss of pressure created above the man-hole (under the car) due to the diffuser, the man-hole will simply pop out of its place!

F1 TECHNOLOGY :: BRAKES (Part 2)

2008-04-11T02:27:00.003-07:00

Click here to read the first part of F1 TECHNOLOGY :: BRAKES.

In the second instalment of this article, we'll see in some detail about brake bias. F1 brakes are hydraulic brakes. Which is to say they use oil to work. When the driver stamps his brake pedal with some 100 kilos of force, hydraulic pressure makes the carbon fibre brake pads in the calipers grip the carbon fibre brake disc. This makes the disc which will be rotating at about 3000 rpm in a car travelling at 300 kph to slow down. Since the wheel is connected with the brake disc, the wheels slow down consequently slowing the car down. Now, there is some way of adjusting how much hydraulic pressure goes to the front wheels and the rear wheels. This makes it clear that the front and the rear brakes are catered to separately by two hydraulic circuits. This ensures that in the event of failure of one of the circuits, atleast the other circuit will be able to bring the car home safely.

The main purpose of brake bias adjustment is to allow the driver to alter the braking load according to the factors that vary continuously throughout a race. For example, if the front tyres are getting worn, a driver might elect to give more rear-ward braking bias so that the worn front tyres wont have to bear too much braking load. Another situation can be explained. Since the front part of the car is directly exposed to the oncoming stream of air when the car moves, the front brakes will run cooler than the rears. In case if in a race a driver finds that his rear brakes are running a little too hot, he will switch the brake bias so that the front brakes take up more load (load in this context means disc heat) than the hotter rears.

Imagine a slow speed right turn that's negotiated in, say, 1st gear. The driver is required to brake from, say, 230 kph to 80 kph for this particular corner. At 230 kph just before the braking point, the driver will be in 6th gear, assume. In the space of 50 meters or so, he will have to pop down 5 gears in rapid succession, start braking and at the same time start to yank the steering wheel to the right. At 230 kph there'll be sufficient aerodynamic downforce to help the driver with his braking. But at 120 kph this will vanish. This leaves only the mechanical grip to help the driver with his braking. Mechanical grip that's generated by the tyres and the suspension. In this situation, there can be two scenarios for us to analyse the importance of brake bias. The first scenario: the front tyres have either worn too much or they are graining. In either case, the car might understeer beyond control (remember that there's no downforce at the front to help load the front tyres up). The situation will be further aggravated when the front tyres are giving the braking load too. When done so, the fronts will simply try to lock up and push the car wide. This is clearly not desirable. What the driver can do here is play with the brake bias. Send more braking force to the rears. This will let two things happen. Number one, the fronts will be relieved of some load. Number two, the inside rear tyre will try to lock up and in turn will try to push the back end wide. These two will help the driver to turn into the corner better. The second scenario can be something like this. Imagine the rears being more worn than the fronts. In this case, in all probability when the driver brakes for the corner, the rears will step out of the line sending the car to a half spin. Here the driver uses the brake bias to give more braking pressure to the front which will help relieve the tendency of the rears to lose traction.

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F1 BIG BOSSES :: Dr.VIJAY MALLYA

2008-04-11T02:27:00.001-07:00

Dr. Mallya deserves to get the hats-off from the whole Indian nation. He looks set to become a part owner of a Formula 1 team! No less! Just look at the incredible things it's going to do to Indian motorsport and Indian racers. How about Indian drivers driving for an Indian Formula 1 team which is operated by Indian engineers and technicians? Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Oh! Wow! I am just killed by the anticipation of things of the future. Similar to Ferrari proudly displaying Italy's tricolore on its gleaming cars, our Indian flag - bearing the respect of a billion people - can very proudly adorn Dr. Mallya's cars (the new name is yet to be decided). The prospect is mouth watering.

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F1 TEST - MONZA :: WEEKEND LOW-DOWN

2008-04-11T02:26:00.001-07:00

The results might force us into believing that McLaren dominated the Monza test this week 'coz they were top on all the 4 day sessions. But, tests can't always paint a true picture on the pecking order of the teams. They carry out different programs, handle various evaluation tests, some simulate long runs while some go in for quick lap runs on low fuel. If Ferrari has some concern with regard to the upcoming Italian GP, it's not the testing times rather it's the Ferrari's suspension system. Some say that the F2007 is not very comfortable hitting kerbs which characterise tracks like Imola and Monza. So in relation to Istanbul or Spa, for example, we might find the McLarens to be a bit more closer to the Ferraris.

But, whatever is the case, if Ferrari are to have a chance of bagging the title(s), they can not afford to finish anything other than a 1-2 in all the races. It's definitely a tall order but, Ferrari've to some how do it and they are capable of doing it. Watch out for the battle of the titans!

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F1 BIG BOSSES :: JEAN TODT

2008-04-11T02:25:00.001-07:00

RUMBLING V8 saw some time ago a one-to-one with Christian Horner which was most amusing. Read below the one-to-one with Ferrari's Team Principal, the ever pragmatic and ever polished, Jean Todt.

A lifelong motor racing enthusiast, Jean Todt has seen the sport from all angles - as driver, co-driver and team manager. He has been part of Ferrari and Formula One for well over a decade and has led the Italian team through the most successful period in their long and glorious history.

Despite this, the Frenchman remains one of the pit lane’s most enigmatic figures, so when he speaks, you can be sure it will be worth listening…

Q: The best part of being a team principal?
Jean Todt: Being part of the evolution of a sport that is a real passion for me. A further satisfaction comes from being able to protect and filter the problems that go with a team like Ferrari, to allow the staff to work in as calm an environment as possible.

Q: The most annoying?
JT: Having to manage all the false speculation that is part and parcel of the world of F1.

Q: Running an F1 team is like …
JT: Being at the helm of a sailing ship: it won’t move forward if everyone is not pushing in the same direction.

Q: What would you be if you weren’t a team principal?
JT: Honestly, I do not know what the future might have held for me.

Q: The first thing I do after a race is…
JT: Obviously, it depends on the result. Whatever the situation, I share with the team either the joy of victory or the sadness at a poor performance.

Q: Winning a race means…
JT: Breathing better!

Q: Favourite place to relax?
JT: The place is unimportant, it’s the company that matters.

Q: Funniest thing you've read about yourself in the press?
JT: It would be hard to choose just one…

Q: The most difficult decision you had to make as a team principal?
JT: There have been a lot of difficult decisions. For example, dealing with the situation after the incident between Michael (Schumacher) and Villeneuve in Jerez in 1997...

Q: Best time during a race weekend?
JT: The moment spent beneath the podium after a win.

Q: Formula One and politics is like…
JT: It is part of the game and, then again, it depends on who is involved, which is in fact the same situation in real political life.

Q: Your best moment as a team principal?
JT: Suzuka 2000, when Michael (Schumacher) won that drivers’ title that Ferrari had been chasing for 21 years. With Michael on the podium, we told ourselves our lives would never be the same again - and so it proved.

Q: Something you have always wanted to do but never had the time?
JT: There are so many things, including going back to the desert: I hope to do it one day with the people I love.

Q: How was your first race as a team principal?
JT: Stressful and surprising because the situation I found at Ferrari back then was not what I had expected.

Q: Who would you like to be for one day? And why?
JT: I’ve never considered it because there is no real basis to the question.

Q: Money changes everything?
JT: No, but it helps by granting one freedom and autonomy. However, there are things, such as good health and happiness, that money just cannot buy.

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TURKISH GRAND PRIX - ISTANBUL :: RACE ANALYSIS

2008-04-11T02:24:00.003-07:00

I was and wasn't happy to see Lewis' podium hopes getting blown up along with his Bridgestone tyre. I was, 'coz he ended up with 2 more points less than what he would've garnered but for the tyre failure. I wasn't, 'coz I love and respect and admire the man Lewis Hamilton. He is a true champion in my eyes. Cynics argued that Lewis' stunning performances early in the season were mainly thanks to the excellent McLaren. They kept on harping that his true talent would only emerge when he is put under real pressure. I guess Lewis has answered them all in this race. What more a pressure a driver can face than the task of defending his championship lead? That too when the rival closest to his points tally happens to be using the same car as he is? Lewis, coming into the race, faced just the same task. He had to defend his points lead over his much hyped team mate. He outpaced his team mate effortlessly over the weekend and had the legs on him in the race too, looking to fill the final place on the rostrum. But then what actually happened is history. Alonso through being more luckier than Hamilton just about managed to slot himself into third place after having seen himself shamelessly losing not one but two positions off the line to the two BMWs. Now, I hope the F1 world realises that Alonso is after all a normal racer - not a special guy that he used to see himself as, not a special guy that he is used to be seen. This, he amply has been demonstrating throught the 2007 season. You see, when he's given a car that doesn't have a rear-ward weight bias that favours a clean, great get-away (which the Renault he raced for the past two seasons, had), when he's given a car whose engine has no extra torque low down it's powerband (which again the Renault had) that gives it ballistic acceleration on the run-down to the first corner of a race track, he doesn't make those incredible starts - that everyone said he made - anymore! He starts as normally (or even worser) as others around him do. No more a special guy, you see!

Getting back on what we should discuss, the Ferraris were on a different plane. They had the race all to themselves. When the MP4-22 chassis was susceptible to chewing the softer of the two Bridgestone compounds on race day a little too quick than what the McLaren engineers would've preferred, the F2007 chassis made beautiful work of it. The Ferrari chassis made superb use of the fantastic traction provided by the option tyres while nursing it at the same time. The Ferrari duo said that they found both the prime and option tyres to be pretty much the same. Albeit for them. This shows that the Ferrari chassis is brilliant at being so kind to its tyres. In fact, the Ferrari is so kind to its tyres, the Ferrari engineers and drivers are finding it to be kinder that what they would've liked. We can say that because, the team's weak point so far this season when it comes to performance has been their one lap pace. They are finding the car to be faster in the race trim than it is in the qualifying trim. This is understandable as the Ferrari is putting less than optimal heat into its rear tyres in the first few laps that are so crucial in the pull-out-all-the-stops-in-this-lap sort of qualifying this year.

Great chassiss have always had this idiosyncracy. The F2002 had it. The MP4-20 had it. The F2007 has it.

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F1 TECH TERMS :: Tech Speak Explained (2)

2008-04-11T02:24:00.001-07:00

Tread: The visible outer part of the tyre that is in contact with the tarmac.

Track conditions: This word signifies a lot of track related data like surface temperature, asphalt roughness, grip levels provided by the asphalt etc.

Steering lock: The amount of steering input (rotation) in degrees given by the driver to negotiate a corner.

Sandbagging: This is a term now often used in the new-for-2007 Qualifying sessions. This generally means that a driver is driving well below his limit (which means he is going very slow) for tactical reasons.

Tyre blanket: This is an electrical cover sort of thing that is put on a tyre to bring it upto and maintain it at the correct operating temperature. This obviously makes it clear that F1 tyres wont work at room temperatures.

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CZECH GRAND PRIX - BRNO :: RACE ANALYSIS

2008-04-11T02:23:00.003-07:00

Well, this race, the results were yet again the same. Casey Stoner taking the chequered flag by a country mile and appearing, yet again, invincible. No doubt he is aided to a great extent by that excellent Ducati GP7 and those fantastic Bridgestone tyres that've gelled so well with the Italian machine. Suzuki seem to make improvements race by race in their pace and consistency while Yamaha are being limited by their Michelin tyres that are definintely not a match for their Japanese counterparts. Not yet atleast. Whatever the steps that Yamaha manage to bring to their engines or the cycle parts, seem to get negated by the tyres. This is frustrating period for both the team and their star rider, Rossi. But, they can't complain about the rules as Rossi often is doing. You know, the rules are set, and when you want to pretend to have a go at the championship, you somehow got to make the tyres and everything work for you. We all know that it's easier said than done. That's why a team as capable as Yamaha are struggling to get things done for them.

But, we've got to give credit to Stoner. Ultimately it's the rider that has got to make best use of the equipment that's given to him. And there's no question that he's doing it. His consistency will do for me. He has the mind-set of a champion. He realises that he can't win all races. He realises that he has to make sure that he maximises every opportunity given to him. He always goes for the maximum points available. Whether be it a 1st place or a points finish. He makes sure he gets points from each race. He thinks in the long-term. In short, he thinks the champion way. If he takes this year's crown, it'll be a well deserved one.

While Yamaha and Honda have got closer to Ducati interms of top speed compared to earlier in the season, Ducati still seem to have a great edge in terms of acceleration. That was amply demonstrated by Capirossi who just rocketed off in front of Rossi's Yam when they were accelerating out of a right hand turn. Of course, there are other factors like tyre conditions that've a say in this case.

John Hopkins in the Suzuki was the only man who could be vaguely in touch with Stoner. That too only in the early stages of the race. That could've been because of their tyre choices. While both of them race on Bridgestones, Hopkins had been using a soft-medium front and rear tyre set while Stoner went in for a medium-hard. Needless to say, the harder compound tyres lasted better, giving Stoner the edge right from the middle stages of the race to the end.

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F1 TECH TERMS :: Tech Speak Explained (1)

2008-04-11T02:23:00.001-07:00

Hi all. Under this category, I'll try to explain briefly, the various terms used by the engineers and drivers in the F1 paddock. Of course, you can find all of these and more in any dedicated F1 site, but still, I wanted to try and explain those in my own point of view. So, here's the first part of the list:

(Some of the terms whose meaning might not be clear at that point are italicized. They will be explained elsewhere in the list.)

Balance: It relates to the car's handling behaviour. Can either denote understeer or oversteer.

Understeer: When the front tyres push wide upon entry into a corner due to a relative lack of grip compared to the rear tyres, understeer is said to have set in. Tyres grain and the drivers are forced to give more steering lock to negotiate the corner. Slows lap times. Best avoided.

Oversteer: Exact opposite of understeer. It happens when the rears have relatively less grip than the front tyres. Car tries to spin around taking the front-end as the pivot. Most drivers prefer this to understeer.

Graining: Graining is normally associated with the front tyres. This is a phenomenon wherein rubber breaks loose from the tread in the form of small pebbles. This results in a decrease in grip levels. Happens due to the tyre compound being too hard for the track conditions.

Compound: Any tyre is made of three basic ingredients. They are oil, suphur and of course rubber. The amount of oil in the mix determines if the tyre is hard, medium or soft. Hard tyres have less grip but last long. Soft tyres don't last as long but provide significantly higher grip levels. This improves the lap time. Hence, soft tyres are used in the Qualifying session excepting some exceptional circumstances. What it is, we'll see a little later.

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F1 BIG BOSSES :: Christian Horner

2008-04-11T02:21:00.003-07:00

Guys, this one-to-one with Christian Horner (Team Principal Red Bull Racing) is the most amusing interview that has come across in a long time. Here's it for you:

After the pictures from Monaco 2006 - when he flung himself into a pool with only a Superman cape to protect his modesty - you could be forgiven for thinking you already know more than enough about Red Bull’s team principal.

However, just in case you still want to learn more, we caught up with Christian Horner to discover just what makes the grid’s youngest team boss tick…

Q: Best part of being a team principal?
Christian Horner: Team principal meetings with Bernie!

Q: The most annoying?
CH: Team principal meetings with Bernie!

Q: Running a Formula One team is like…
CH: …running a military operation.

Q: What would you be if you weren’t a team principal?
CH: Less stressed!

Q: The first thing I do after a race is…
CH: …have a cup of tea.

Q: Winning a race would mean…
CH: …achieving our initial target.

Q: What is your favourite place to relax?
CH: Home.

Q: Funniest thing you've read about yourself in the press?
CH: It doesn’t get more embarrassing than jumping into a swimming pool without your clothes on after losing a bet in Monaco 2006!

Q: The most difficult decision you had to make as a team principal?
CH: Withdrawing the cars from Indianapolis in 2005 in front of packed grandstands.

Q: Best time during a race weekend?
CH: 2pm on a Sunday.

Q: Formula One racing and politics is like …?
CH: Gary Barlow and Take That - the two cannot exist without the other!

Q: Your best moment as a team principal?
CH: First podium in Monaco.

Q: Something you always wanted to do but never had the time?
CH: Go to university.

Q: How was your first race as a team principal?
CH: We got a fantastic result, we finished fourth and seventh on Red Bull’s debut and narrowly missed out on a podium with David (Coulthard).

Q: Who would you like to be for one day? And why?
CH: Bernie Ecclestone, to know the result of the next Grand Prix.

Q: Money changes everything…
CH:…but it can’t buy you happiness.

Click here to read the original interview.

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F1 TECHNOLOGY :: DYNAMICS (Part 1)

2008-04-11T02:21:00.001-07:00

The dynamic behaviour of their cars is of great interest to both the drivers and the engineers in F1 alike. These are nothing but, how the car behaves when it corners, brakes, accelerates, hits bumps in the race track and so on. These things that the drivers keep harping about forever is what makes them go fastest or just fast.

When the driver starts to turn his car into a corner, the amount of tyre grip that's at his disposal plays a major role. The tyres will continue to oblige to the driver's input till they enter a zone called the skid zone. When the tyres enter this zone, they start to lose their adhesion with the track surface. This results in the tyres not being able to hold the weight of the car + cornering force resulting in the front tyres losing the grip which in turn results in them "pushing wide". This is understeer in drivers' speak. When a car understeers, it wanders away from the indented racing line that gives the fastest way through the corner. An understeering car takes a wider line than the racing line forcing the driver to stay off the throttle for a longer time and give more steering input. Also, when on the exit of the corner, the driver has to start applying the power to get his car going, understeer will force the driver to keep his throttle shut for a longer time. The front tyres also taking a beating due to their sliding. This is commonly referred to by the drivers and the engineers as graining. When a front tyre grains, small pebbles of rubber from the tread start to disintegrate from the tyre ans accumulate on the side of the track. A graining front tyre will cease to give the driver the level of feedback that he expects from the front-end of his car. The only way to cure graining is to not push too hard on the first few laps until the tyres reach their optimum operating temperature window (we'll see what the optimum operating temperature windows are for different F1 tyres in F1 TECHNOLOGY :: TYRE (Part 2)). Understeer thus slows lap times.

Oversteer happens when the rear tyres've much less grip than their counterparts at the front. Oversteer happens mostly just after the apex of a corner when the driver starts his throttle input. This is more pronounced in slow turns. When a driver has clipped the apex of a corner and starts to give the throttle, the rears will start to spin faster than the front. Since the front end at this point has more grip than the rears, the rear of the car, owing to the slip of the rear tyres, will start to spin around taking the front end as the pivot point. This phenomenon makes the car look as if it is glued to the track at the front tyres while the rears are let loose to rotate about the axis which is the front end. To counter oversteer, the most basic and instinctive counter measure adopted by the drivers is opposite lock. For example, when a car oversteers on the exit of a left turn, the driver flicks his steering wheel to the right to get the whole car to the new place where the rear tyres have gone as a result of the spin. While this works most of the time, if the oversteer is big enough, it can result in a half-spin or even a full 360!

The drivers always look for a neutral car meaning that they prefer a car that neither understeers nor oversteers. In the event neutral balance is hard to be tuned in into the car, most prefer oversteer to understeer. This is because, drivers reckon, oversteer gives them a better sense of feel.

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