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weekend round up – 26th june 2011

Posted on June 27, 2011 by truckertoggle

#F1 – well the F1 boys seemed to have some sort of a parade down by the docks in Spain. Probably too hot for a proper race. Pretty much the usual finishing order through so I don’t suppose too many people noticed the difference.

#NASCAR – Way over at Sears Point the Ugly Brothers managed all the 1s with Big Ugky 1st and Little Ugly 11th. Jeff Gordon (somehow calling him The Kid these days doesn’t sound right) picked up a good second to further his good year and The Digger got 5th on a track that he usually goes well on.

#IndyCar – Marco picked up win number two almost 5 years after his first one. WP failed to finish so Dario goes back to the points lead.

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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 »

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?

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weekend roundup – 12 June 2011

Posted on June 13, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

#lemans – Good action at The Sarthe with Audi holding off Peugeot by not very much after what was almost a 24 hour grand prix. Nice to know that Mac and Rocky are OK after two massive shunts. Pleanty of hard luck stories as always, but a classic race with the result uncertain right up until the flag dropped.

In my opinion Anthony Davidson wasn’t blocking the lead Audi late in the race. He was leaving the door wide open at the chicanes and gave the Audi every chance to get by, he just didn’t back off and let him through. All pretty fair in my book.

#indycar – our favourite Will Power finally got an oval win in the second of the twin races in Texas, so that’s a monkey off his back. Even if he was favoured by the lottery for grid positions, it’s his name on the record book and he can maybe win a few more now that first one is behind him. WP is now 21 points clear at the top of the table having extended his lead by 5 after the Texas Twins. As to the method of drawing the grid for the second race by lots, it may be good for the spectacle, but it is no way to operate a professional race at this sort of level.

#f1 – The Canadian GP gave usa fantastic race with Jensen Button coming from last to first despite six trips to the pit lane. Another gritty drive from Webbo saw him salvage third after a hard day at the office and Schumi doing well coming in fourth right up Webbo’s exhaust pipes.

We also got another edition of Lewis in the Wars. He just seems to be in a place where he just can’t do right at the moment. but he can turn that round.

#nascar – meanwhile over in the Poconos on that unique flat tri-oval the return to shifting gears brought transmission problems to some. Jeff Gordon beat off the Ugly Brothers to tie third on the all time winner’s list with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip on 84 visits to Victory Lane. A good run for JPM saw him lead a fair bit before losing third gear and fading to seventh. Not a good day for championship front runner Edwards with a dud engine dropping him right down the order.

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

where is Bernie’s influence when I need it? #f1 #canadiangp

Posted on June 11, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

OK, so the diminutive one can fix it so that F1 makes a significant contribution to global warming by running the Far East races under the lights at night, wasting thousands of candlepower so that the race is delayed until midday in Europe. So instead of wasting everyone’s time trying to rescue the Bahrain GP that almost no-one wants, why isn’t he getting the Canadians out of bed and running qualifying at 0800 their time so that the rest of it can watch it at 1300 (UK time) as well?

Now I don’t want to see F1 at night. NASCAR yes, but F1 should be run in the day time, and if that means that I have to get up at 0500 to watch on TV then so what? There is a natural order to these things that should not be messed with, and that is why I will not watch a grand prix run at night.

So no, I don’t really want the Canadians running their race first thing in the morning, but I don’t want Bernie mucking about with the timings in the East either. If we must have a standard timetable, then let’s keep it standard.

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