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button, mclaren, brawn & mercedes

Posted on June 21, 2011 by truckertoggle

Reading on the Autosport website that MSC says expectations have not been met at Mercedes GP rather make Jensen Button’s decision to move to McLaren after his championship year seem positively inspired.

Since the move he has won three more GPs and been on the podium on a regular basis when the team he left behind have just settled as second division runners most of the while.

At the time it looked like a stupid move. Leaving the team that had won both titles to move in with his predecessor as World Champion in a team that had been built around that lad seemed an act of supreme folly they said. But JB is made of strong stuff and he has gone on the establish himself at McLaren. Yes, Lewis is quicker a lot of the time, but JB shows real guile come race day and on days like last Sunday in Canada he shows that he can really race and make good use of a car and conditions.

Going to McLaren was probably the best move he could have made at the time and to hear that he is in line for a contract extension is both good news and well deserved.

Filed under: Cars, Drivers, F1, Teams | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

weekend round up – 19th June 2011 #NASCAR, #DTM, #Indycar

Posted on June 20, 2011 by truckertoggle

#NASCAR – So Hamlin remembers how to win in the #11 car and takes Michigan. Another bad day for the#48 and a three spot drop in the standings. JGR in the wars though, as they await news of NASCAR’s reaction to the unapproved oil pans found on all of their cars at the start of the weekend.

#DTM – Martin Tomczyk again for Audi at Lausitz and he takes over the points lead. Good strategy helped him, as it did Timo Scheider for second spot, on a day when others just got it wrong. Ralphie quick in the mid race period and the fastest one out there, but unable to translate that into a good result. Poor Susie never made it off the grid.

#Indycar – Dario wins on the Milwaukee Mile and WP comes in 4th from well down the grip, so they share the points lead as they head out of town. Good to see the series back at the Wisconsin track.

Filed under: Circuits, Indycar, NASCAR, Teams, Tin Tops | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

who’s that behind me? mirrors on #F1 cars

Posted on June 18, 2011 by truckertoggle

Given all of the technology that goes with a modern F1 car why are we still using rear view mirrors that have not advanced much since the early days of city to city grand prix races? The mirrors on a modern F1 car are probably inferior to the one Ray Harroun had to fit to his 1911 Indy Marmon Wasp.

These days a number of family cars have a rear facing CCTV camera for reversing, as to many commercial vehicles so, if we can have high quality TV transmission views from rear facing cameras, why can’t the driver?To distracting? Nonsense, they could lose a few buttons off the steering wheel if that is genuinely the case. After all the pit wall term could switch them to “engine map green” or whatever just as easily as telling the driver to do that over the radio.

Sure there would be problems with the rain; many of us can remember a certain Brazilian driver catching Brundle in the rain i Australia a few years back. We saw him literally as he hit, and Button would have had a similar problem with the spray obscuring any view from a camera in Canada last week, but what about all the GPS tracking on the cars to run the timing systems? Surely they could adapt that to provide a proximity warning?

The technical solutions to these problems are already available and, to one way or another, in use so why don’t the FIA and the teams sort out a standard and make it happen?

Filed under: F1 | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

#NASCAR round up 30 May 2011

Posted on June 2, 2011 by truckertoggle

(Managed to muck up the scheduling on this one and it didn’t go out as planned, so here it is, albeit a few days late – sorry)

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen Kimi make his first couple of forays into NASCAR with a good 15th place in the trucks (Nelson jnr did even better, although he has had more practice) and followed that up with a Nationwide outing that didn’t go quite as well. Watching him in the trucks you could see all of the car control and feel was there though, and he just needs to get used to the lack of sophistication in the equipment and the very different subtleties of the racing. If he has fun he will stay and the results will come.

In the 600 more heartbreak for Little E as he ran out of gas on the run to the flag, but good results for RPM with the Dinger and the Digger bringing their Fords in 5th and 6th. Could we have a Petty car back in the winner’s circle this season? Hope so.

Good fun watching the Nationwide race at Iowa. One of the less famous venues maybe, but a good race and good to see one of the series’ regulars hold off the Sprint Cup boys for the win.

Filed under: Drivers, F1, NASCAR | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

monaco grand prix round up 29 May 2011 #F1

Posted on May 30, 2011 by truckertoggle

Mayhem at the #monacograndprix with the decision to allow cars to be serviced during the red flag screwing up any chance of the natural outcome.

Some say that you make your own luck, and Vettel certainly fluked this one. Not that he isn’t fast, but McLaren had this one won until that call to bring Button in for athird change of tyres at just the wrong moment. Just when it looked as though he might have a chance of picking up the win late on the red flag blew his chance for good. Why F1 doesn’t run NASCAR parc ferme style procedures at these times is maybe down to safety, but they might just as well have flagged it short under the circumstances. I’m sure that my friends dow the road at Grove would have been happier as hamitlton would not have been able to stuff Pastor’s chances into the barrier. At times Lewis is a bit daft, and his lunge at Massa earlier was not what you expect of a driver with his talents. His penalties were deserved and his ill considered comments post race did him no credit.

Whilst the new tyre rules provide overtaking chances, it was Sutil’s marathon stint that built up the convoy that triggered the red flag incident just as the leaders were coming through.

So, for me, the race got spoiled. Vettel and his Red Bull is the quickest combo around, but a bit of guile, as well atalent and racecraft almost saw him beaten today, but circumstances handed him the win on a plate. Maybe he should get into the casino and put his winnings on the table, or maybe he’s used up today’s quota of luck?

Filed under: Circuits, Drivers, F1 | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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