Showing posts with label formula 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label formula 1. Show all posts
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Valencia Weather Forecast
As usual there is no rain predicted for this weekend's Grand Prix at Valencia, Spain. Temperatures are expected to lie around 25 to 30C. This means that track temperatures will be high as well, offering some good grip on the tyres but at the same time degrading them.
Monday, March 21, 2011
McLaren to race in Melbourne with Simpler Exhaust System
Martin Whitmarsh, current McLaren Team principal, had recently admitted that McLaren were a little overambitious with their design for this year's MP4-26. The car was nearly a second off-pace and bad weather in addition to lots of reliability issues along with a late launch resulted in very very few testing miles.
Martin Whitmarsh , through a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in conference ,confirmed that McLaren will not be running the complex exhaust system and instead will run a relatively simpler exhaust system consisting of a new floor. This is believed to be more reliable and is expected to boost performance by 1 second.
He quotes,
"We have a completely new floor and a new exhaust system. There are a lot of other bits and pieces, but they're the clear and obvious ones that people will see in Australia."
Martin Whitmarsh , through a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in conference ,confirmed that McLaren will not be running the complex exhaust system and instead will run a relatively simpler exhaust system consisting of a new floor. This is believed to be more reliable and is expected to boost performance by 1 second.
He quotes,
"We have a completely new floor and a new exhaust system. There are a lot of other bits and pieces, but they're the clear and obvious ones that people will see in Australia."
"I'd say it is a simpler design than we've had before, I think the exhaust systems have become quite extreme on quite a lot of the cars. I think we in particular had very extreme solutions."
"But I think that they were not delivering, in my opinion, sufficient benefits for their complexity.I believe that the car isn't fundamentally a bad car. I believe that we need to unlock the exhaust-blowing potential."
"We had some very creative ideas, some of which could have worked spectacularly well. But if they were to work spectacularly well then they had to be sufficiently durable to be raceable, and frankly some of our solutions weren't, and that's why I think we had to go back on it. But I think in doing so we found some interesting performance."
The 2011 Formula 1 season kicks off at the 27th of this month at Melbourne , Australia.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Welcome Back
For all of those who were keenly following this blog, you would have noticed a sudden decrease in blogging activity. The reason : mind-numbing ,brain-murdering exams which by the way,unfortunately, have just begun . So blogging activity will be an all time low for another 3 months .
But lets look on the brighter side of things. Its a new year !!! so my best wishes to all my readers and followers, and keep following my blog Formula 1.
And Yes ! A new year brings with it all kinds of resolutions and promises but more importantly brings a new season of Formula 1. Yippee.
Here's what you could expect in the upcoming season :
Be on the lookout for some breathtaking overtaking maneuvers as the Kinetic Energy Recovery System , better known as KERS along with the movable rear wing have been reintroduced and are bound to open up some overtaking opportunities.
Pirelli have replaced Bridgestone as Formula 1's sole tyre supplier. The front tyres manufactures by Pirelli are stronger than those made by Bridgestone and this one , seemingly minor, change might be all it takes for the seven time world championMicheal Schumacher and Ferrari's Felipe Massa to bounce back to their race pace.
Expect some more brilliant driving from the young veteran Sebastien Vettel who is bound to return as a more calm and experienced driver.
But that said Formula 1 is still extremely unpredictable and probably none of that mentioned above might happen. So all we can do is patiently wait for those 5 red lights to go out at the upcoming Sakhir Grand Prix .....
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The Indian Grand Prix
If you were to visit the city of Greater Noida , situated around 55 km from New Delhi , and you chanced to view a vast expanse of never ending flat land , dotted with a few puddles of water thanks to the monsoon and some heavy machinery, located just off the newly constructed Yamuna Expressway , then don't for any reason whatsoever exclaim - " What sort of lunatics would be crazy enough to build something on this barren piece of land in the middle of no-where". That's because , that temporarily barren-piece-of-land will , in a few months time , host what can only be described with words like "The pinnacle of Motorsport" or "The Petrol-head's Heaven ". Yes , it's official , Formula 1 is coming to India.
The Jaypee Group Circuit designed by Hermann Tilke features a 5.14 kilometer long track filled with challenging and exciting set of blind high speed corners ,with sudden elevation changes. For instance , crossing turn 3 there is a long crest first dipping 8 meters and then rising 12 meters ! Also Turn 8 at the Istanbul Park , famous for it's four apexes and it's ,fast and sweeping nature often resulting in many drivers spinning off the track , is also replicated at Turns 10 and 11 providing a very good overtaking opportunity. Another surprising aspect about the design of this track is that , the track is not solely designed by Mr.Tilke. Once the basic design was complete , the whole track was simulated and each driver was asked to try it out and give their feedback, and based upon their feedback and comments the track was further modified.
The constructions are all on schedule and the track is expected to be completed as soon as February 2011 for the track inspection. The actual race will be held on the 30th of October and since the race is towards the end of the season , a podium finish in this race might just fetch all the required championship points to win the 2011 championship title. Apparently there are plans that the Jaypee Group Circuit might also host Moto Gp and the Volkswagon Polo Cup.
All this is really good but there could be one problem . In a country where cricket has such a huge fan following that some fans even go to the extent of regarding cricketers as Gods and worshiping them , it may seem impossible to raise awareness about this fantastic sport and popularize it. But you never know. With a few Indians such as, Karun Chandokh , Narain Karthikeyan and of course the Force India Team owner, Vijay Mallya, who have made it into the Formula 1 arena and more importantly have a big fan following in the country , it just seems that the 150,000 seats at the Jaypee Group Circuit might be completely booked.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Alonso leads Ferrari to a 1 - 2 Victory in the German GP
At about the sixteenth lap, the drivers started pitting mainly to switch onto the harder compound tires as there was still another 51 laps to go.
The most controversial moment of the race came on Lap 50, where in Rob Smedly indirectly hinted at Massa to give way to Fernando Alonso , who was really closing on him. This act which violated the rule stating that team orders as these can never be given to a driver , resulted in a fine of $100,000, albeit strict denials from Stefano Dominicalli and Robert Smedly that it was Massa who decided to give way and they did not order him to do so.
Jenson button pitted on lap 24 and came out ahead of Mark Webber. Nico Rosberg also pitted a lap later and came out in front of his team mate Schumacher in 8th.
It finally ended with Ferrari winning with a 1 - 2 which is the only 1 -2 since s Bahrain at the beginning of the season. All the drivers apart from the top six were lapped.
German Grand Prix, Hockenheim, 67 Laps
1. Alonso Ferrari 1h28:38.866
1. Alonso Ferrari 1h28:38.866
2. Massa Ferrari + 4.196
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 5.121
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 26.896
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 29.482
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 43.606
7. Kubica Renault + 1 lap
8. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
9. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap
10. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
11. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
14. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 2 laps
17. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 2 laps
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
19. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
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