The new “winning” system

"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

Share on Facebook

Most exciting start to a season for me

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

Share on Facebook

FOTA proposals

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

Share on Facebook

Force India in 2009

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

Share on Facebook

Red Bull RB5

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.

Share on Facebook

Well, 2009 season, what else

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

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?