Discussion of Formula One racing

Well, that was interesting.

I was glued to the set, except for about ten minutes after "that
pitstop", when Ferrari showed once again that they’re the only people
capable of thinking beyond the confines of a standard race strategy
package.  And Michael Schumacher showed again that he simply delivers
whatever Ross Brawn asks of him. Flawed, sure, but genius without
doubt.

Kudos to the ITV team who provided excellent camera work and
direction, following the action not the leaders or local boys. Kudos
also to Alan McNish, who had to have stepped into his role at very
short notice, and performed seamlessly. Still rather see him in a car,
but boy is he a natural at the TV stuff!

Glad to see Trulli survived with health and sense of humour intact,
what looked like a massive accident. While kudos is being handied out,
some for the much maligned Max Mosely, who’s done much to make safe
survival of such incidents much more likely.

And sympathy to Louise Goodman and the rest of John Walton’s friends
and family. A sad and early loss of a familiar face, and an obviously
much loved and respected guy.

–
([:]) by Kimbo!   www.foca.co.uk

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? I am not a moderator.

note: hotmail address is a spam bin,
write to kim at foca_co_uk for a reply

Hi.  Anyone have this on tape?  Have some stuff to offer in trade.

Thanks
derrick
(best at)  sat…@shaw.ca

According to AtlasF1, an "esteemed British newspaper journalist" has
promised to "strip off and run naked around Silverstone" should McLaren
win a race this season.  Of course since the introduction of the
MP4/19B this, while still unlikely, perhaps no longer seems absolutely
impossible.  This raises two questions in my mind.

- Which journalist?

- Does this not suggest that *all* motorsports journalists ought to
  grow beards as a matter of simple prudence, to have available a less
  embarassing forfeit should rashness impel such a wager?

–
Mark Jackson – http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~mjackson
        The scientific mind does not so much provide the right
        answers as ask the right questions.
                                – Claude Levi-Strauss

AtlasF1 is reporting a bunch of new proposals from the FIA to help slow down
the cars from 2005 and 2006.  Aerodynamic and engine proposals are much as
expected (reduce downforce, engines to last for two weekends) but the
interesting one is about tyres:

+++
 2. Tyres (2005)

 A driver may choose from two types of tyre, as in 2004. He will then have
 two sets of his chosen tyre, one for Friday and Saturday practice, the
 other for qualifying and the race. A damaged tyre can be replaced during
 the race (taken from the first set), but the car cannot be refuelled at the
 same time as the damaged tyre is changed.

 Explanation: a tyre which must last 350 km rather than 80 km will have less
 grip, reducing cornering speeds, increasing braking distances and possibly
 producing less tyre debris or "marbles".
+++

Sounds almost exactly like the proposal Michelin swiftly came out with after
Max recently commented that the cars were far too fast.  If this proposal
is accepted, does this mean that we might see some non-Bridgestone winners
next season?

Personally I think it’s a good proposal.  We might get more overtaking with
fewer marbles on the track – there will be much less penalty for going
off-line.  And it has to be safer in the pits too, with far fewer mechanics
around the car than at present.

(Hmm.  I wrote that last sentence, then tried to list the people who would
be remaining: lollipop man, fuel hose holder, fuel filler, fuel splash
guard holder, fireman, visor wiper, radiator cleaner (x2), bloke waiting to
restart the car if it stalls …)

Oh, and Max is staying on.

– Neil

I think F1 has hit rock bottom today. A race deficient as competition
(Rubens lying down and doing his "token attempt to pass" schtick again),
deficient as spectacle (F1 cars look pitifully small and slow at Indy
and that infield circuit makes the road course at Rockingham look like
Spa), and deficient organisationally (the utter farce over the Montoya
black flag).

The only positive thing I can find to say about the whole sorry farrago
is that Ralf Schumacher isn’t badly injured.

An utterly tedious race of attrition, bereft of any positive aspects,
that resulted in undeserving cars grumbling around into the points now
"nobody goes home empty-handed".

Yawn.

pete
—
p…@fenelon.com "how many clever men have called the sun a fool?"

Much as I hate to interrupt the misanthropic curmudgeonry around here
– and even I will confess that the major entertainment value of
races this season is trying to guess a) how Williams will screw up
this time, b) what lap  Kimi will retire on, and c) who Klien will
plough into this time – I did think there was one event that I felt
worthy of comment.

I don’t know what anyone else felt, but I thought it was terrific that
as Ralf’s ambulance made its way down the pit straight, one saw the
(red-clad) crowd in the grandstands rise to their feet and give him a
standing ovation.

It goes to show (I hope) that for all the tabloid scandal-mongering
(and the bile that characterises the other place) that the average F1
fan in the street (or in the stands!) still has a decent sense of
sportsmanship – they know what we owe to ALL the drivers who risk life
and limb for our entertainment. If any of you were in the stands
yesterday, you did us proud – my God an Aussie saying something nice
about septic tanks, what’s the world coming to?

Sorry for the slightly purple prose, feel free to return to the ususal
service:

Cue four Yorkshireman "You call yon a grand prix?" "In my day, drivers
had to carry the car on their back for four hours and STILL managed to
pass 37 times a lap!"

Michael

Unfortunately it’s all based on simulations. I’ll be interested to see the complete paper.

http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/information_technology…

regards,
JohnB

Used to be, Indy sold some cute little beanie baby type bears for the
GP (actually, all three races, just race specific).  This year they
have a BFU monkey.  No thanks.

Sent a text to my sister telling her same.  Her response:

Just say no to BFU monkeys.  Only dopes buy BFU monkeys.  This is your
brain on BFU monkeys.

–
dillon

When I was a kid, I thought the angel’s name was Hark
and the horse’s name was Bob.

Does anyone remember the 1982 Detriot GP?

Reason I’m asking is because I’m updating GLIBS with the session times
and noticed that for the Sunday morning warm-up session, Winkelhock put
in the best time with 1:54,615 and the slowest time was Laffite with
3:22,978 and I was wondering if anyone can remember, (or knows), why
Laffite’s time was so slow.

MfG

Geoff.

–
Unofficial Formula One [tm](r)(c) Database at
http://glibs.ssmmdd.co.uk/index.php (updated: 23rd May, 2004)
USENET reply to Email address is a spam trap, send Emails to address in
the DB

…reads the headline on Jos Verstappen’s web page.  Apparently he
couldn’t find a comfortable seating position in the EJ14.  No truth to
the rumors that efforts to find a solution were abandoned abruptly
after Eddie Jordan suggested he knew what the problem was, and offered
to hold Jos’ wallet while he drove.

–
Mark Jackson – http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~mjackson
        If we had cloned Saddam, we could capture him over and over
        whenever we felt bad about the situation in Iraq.
                                        – Sylvia (Nicole Hollander)