The Formula One circus hits the Eifel region of Germany this weekend for the German Grand Prix. The event is held at the Nürburgring, but doesn’t use the long-and-terrifying Nordschleife track. Instead, the venue is held at the Grand Prix track adjacent to the ‘Ring, which features wide runoff areas and gravel traps, as opposed to the Nordschliefe’s narrow shoulders and dense pine forests. Read More…
Jenson Button, winner of Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix. Image: Rego Korosi
If you like epic drama in racing, you would have loved Sunday’s Formula One Grand Prix of Canada. It had every possible weather condition except snow, it had crashes aplenty and more intra-squad rivalry than an NBA team. If you DVR’d the race like I did, you only caught the first half, since torrential rain red-flagged the race just before the halfway point. That’s not to say the opening session was without drama: on lap one, an overly aggressive Lewis Hamilton spun Red Bull Renault driver Mark Webber in turn one. Webber lost a few positions, but was able to resume racing with no serious damage to his car. A few laps later, heading into turn one, Hamilton attempted an ill-timed pass on teammate Jenson Button. Button never saw Hamilton alongside, and went wide setting up for the turn. That was enough to send Hamilton into the barrier, shattering his left rear suspension and retiring the McLaren Mercedes driver for the day. Read More…
Christian Horner at the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix. Image: Gregory Moine
Formula One racing used to be a game of follow the leader. Most tracks had few passing zones, and some (like Monaco) made passing nearly impossible. The best way to assure a podium finish just a few years back was to start with a pole position from qualifying. Start mid pack or worse, and you were virtually guaranteed to end the race in a similar position. The changes implemented for the 2012 season (tires, KERS and the DRS rear wing) have changed the face of F1, and who wins a particular race is most likely to be determined by who manages their tires the best. Even KERS has played a role this year, much to the dismay of Red Bull Renault’s Mark Webber. While his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, has successfully used KERS in every race, Webber’s own KERS failure has resulted in some epically bad starts this season. Read More…
Sebastian Vettel in 2010; 2011 likes like more of the same. Image: Andrew Griffith
Remember how rule changes for 2011, like the re-implementation of KERS and a driver adjustable rear wing, were supposed to make for closer racing this season? Someone forgot to copy Sebastian Vettel on that particular memo, since the Red Bull Renault driver walked away from the field in an uneventful F1 season opener. By the end of the first lap, Vettel had put up a 2.4 second lead on the second place McLaren Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, and Hamilton never got close enough to challenge for the lead. Ironically, the KERS system on both Red Bull cars was de-activated, following problems in testing last Friday. Once the system is de-bugged, will anyone be able to challenge Vettel and Webber in 2011, or will this be another repeat of the 2010 season? Read More…
Bruno Senna in 2010. Image: Morio
Bruno Senna will not take the Lotus Renault seat vacated by the injured Robert Kubica. It’s all but certain that will go to Nick Heidfeld, who set Saturday’s fastest lap time in pre-season testing at Jerez, Spain. Senna seems happy enough with the developments, which leave him next in line (on paper, anyway) as a reserve driver. Despite limited testing experience (Sunday’s run at Jerez was only his second time testing an F1 car), Senna proved to be fifth fastest for the day before rain cut the test session short. Read More…
Pastor Maldonado, Williams' new Venezuelan driver.
First it was Milka Dunno, the talentless Venezuelan driver sponsored by state owned oil company PDVSA, who acted as a rolling chicane in the IndyCar series. Dunno’s primary talent was the cash she brought to teams Dreyer & Reinbold (2008 and 2009) and Dale Coyne Racing (2010), proving that huge dollars from a socialist dictator with a personal hatred for the Untied States matter mare than the ability to drive a race car. It looks like Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez loves his motorsports, because he just had PDVSA write a check for $14 million to the Williams F1 team. In exchange, Williams driver Nico Hülkenberg was sent packing, despite having given Williams it’s only pole position of the 2010 F1 season. Read More…
Automobiles are safer now than in any other time in history. Built in roll cages, crash boxes and crumple zones as well as airbags and all manner of safety restraint systems are in place to keep occupants safe from harm. In the early days speed ruled the roost and driver safety was more of an afterthought than anything else. Racers would run flat-out at speeds upwards of 100 mph in some of the most archaic machines ever made, all in the quest for victory. There were no seat belts, fire retardant suits or helmets for drivers to wear and because of this being a race car driver was one of the most lethal sporting events one could partake in. The above video shows us just how the pioneers of motor sports won, lost and sometimes even died. Be warned, some of the images are graphic, but once you see them I think you’ll be amazed at how far we’ve come in terms of the technological advancements that have been made to the automobile over the last 100 years.
Source: Youtube.com
A few months ago there were rumors swirling around that Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, NY was going to be the new sight for the U.S. Grand Prix. After some further investigating however this proved to be false as the facility is simply not set-up to handle an event of that size. Soon after it was learned that the city of Austin, TX got the nod, but there was one small hiccup here – there was no track. Since the facility was supposed to be completed by 2012 the speculation was that it would never happen, however now it seems that those naysayers may be proven wrong. Above is a computerized layout of the new 3.4 mile track that includes 20 turns, a wicked back straight and what we hope is a world class facility. Race promoter Tavo Hellmund stated back in July that the new Austin Grand Prix track would be one of the “most challenging and spectacular in the world”. As far as the U.S. race effort is concerned, I sincerely hope he’s correct.
Source: Youtube.com
Can anyone stop Red Bull Renault at mid-season? My guess is no, as Mark Webber and his teammate Sebastian Vettel played another game of follow-the-leaders in Sunday’s F1 Monaco Grand Prix. Webber led from the pole, and there was never a challenge to his lead throughout the entire race. Sebastian Vettel, on the other hand, enjoyed mirrors full of Robert Kubica throughout the event. Passing ranges from difficult to suicidal on the tight Monaco street circuit, and Kubica, driving for Renault, never closed the gap enough for a serious attempt at second. The podium order was Webber, Vettel and Kubica.
This 1981 video is chock full of gear head goodness: a Cosworth engineer explains the problems of high speed valve operation, then shows what happens to a Cosworth DFV motor when an intake valve spring breaks, Good stuff, and a great example of why we change timing belts punctually on interference type motors.
I love his pitch for desmodromic valve actuation at the end of the video, accompanied by some all-internal Ducati motor porn.
Found on Bangshift
