Monday March 07, 2005

Suddenly It is a Sport Again!

As Robin Wilton pointed out in a comment to my last entry, Michael Schumacher did not finish the Melborne Grand Prix race Sunday. Michael *always* finishes a race, and *usually* wins. The man is a mutant behind the wheel of an F1 car. Combined with Ferrari's deep pockets, Jean Todt's team management and their top shelf engineering team, he has been dominant in F1 racing for quite some time.

Unfortunately, unless you have some fascination with watching Michael's Ferrari passing all of the lapped traffic with no one within 30 seconds of him in the final 20 laps or so of a race, his success did introduce a sense of predictability and boredom. There were several races last year where it seemed that the race got about 20 minutes of airtime, while Michael out for a Sunday drive got 60 minutes. Racing wheel to wheel, pit stop strategies and fuel load strategies designed to squeeze out one or two seconds to gain a position, aggressive (but within the bounds of reasonable safety) driving, those things make F1 racing exciting! Having more than three or four drivers on the grid with a snowball's chance in Morocco of actually winning a race without some catastrophic accident or freak event is a welcome change to the sport.

bill.

( Mar 07 2005, 05:00:05 PM EST ) Permalink Comments [1]

Changing the Rules

Formula One racing has been a standard "record all, keep forever" Season Pass on my TiVo since day one. A friend of mine introduced me to F1 racing about 8 years ago, and I have been hooked since watching my first race. I have even attended a race in person, with great front straight / turn one seats at the US Grand Prix at Indy. Being a race fan, and an avid photographer (with a darkroom at home) made this a double treat for me, especially with the incredible view of the infield portion of the track from the steps leading to the upper bleacher entrance.

I never really liked NASCAR, or any other racing where watching makes your neck get sore thanks to the "ping pong" effect of fast cars driving in boring ovals. Maybe I just don't know enough about NASCAR to get myself hooked, but the technology and incredible skills in Formula One are amazing to a geek like myself, who happens to have a habit of driving too fast on twisty roads.

This weekend was the first weekend of the 2005 F1 season. Every year, the governing body makes rule changes designed to drive innovation, and increase safety. The idea is that once you have engineered every ounce of downforce into the chassis, every pony of horsepower into the engine, and increased the stopping power of the brakes to the point that the drivers' eyeballs are bouncing off of their helmet visors, there is only the drivers' skills. Teams unable to afford a Michael Schumacher have no chance of consistently standing atop the podium (and getting the big sponsor Euros).

This season has brought with it *huge* rule changes. Teams may only use one set of tires for final qualifying and the entire race distance (150 km or so). Cars must use a single engine for two consecutive race weekends. The wing (front and rear) specifications have changed to reduce downforce and make the cars "lighter" in braking and turning.

So with all of these changes, the engines should be de-tuned to reduce wear (reducing power), the tires should be more slippery, and the car itself should be more "twitchy" on the 16 turns of the Melborne Australia course. The engineers have earned their paychecks. The laptimes around the 5.3 km track were only a couple seconds slower. Wow.

bill.

( Mar 07 2005, 10:32:48 AM EST ) Permalink Comments [1]