Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Breaking News - Nigel Gets 20. Tifosi Remove Him From Christmas Card List.

Over at Autosport they've got an interesting bit about Nigel Stepney's sentence for the whole McLaren spying scandal.

*spoiler alert*

Twenty months. Seems like a long time to me. It's not as if this ruined Ferrari or even affected Massa's whining.

I'm thinking he got off lucky though. It is Ferrari after all. "He could be sleeping with the fishes" or whatever it is they sleep with when the Tifosi get done with you.

autosport.com - F1 News: Stepney sentenced over spy affair

Here is Austin

I know this has been out for about a month but it's still too cool to not post about.  Formula1.com has put up the official map of the Austin track.   The sweetness here can not be denied.  Almost three and a half miles with twenty turns, high speed straight sections, lots of overtaking possibilities and for the first time in F1, Rodeo Clowns and cattle guard crossings so they can keep the cows off the track.

OK, so there's no Rodeo Clowns or cows but still this thing looks like a really good time.

Check out this 3D render of the track complete with elevation changes.   Pay close attention to turns 16, 17, and 18.  This multi-apex corner is a tribute to the turn at Istanbul but has a spooky elevation change and for the love of all that is awesome just look at turn one.  Well, rather the ramp up to it.   Imagine 180 MPH into that corner.  The sweetness....

To Team Order or Not to Team Order?

I realize that all the hype surrounding the topic of Team Orders has sort of died away. The FIA has given their ruling on the events of the German Grand Prix, Ferrari has been fined and I'm sure they'll never do it again. Ever. Still, the topic is far from dead.

My opinion on the matter is that team orders have always been a part of the sport and in some circumstances they are justified. Think back to Shanghai 2008 when Raikkonen eased out of the way for Massa so Massa could finish 2nd and get those valuable points in his championship contest against Hamilton. In the interview after the race Kimi said there were no orders, he just new the best thing to do for the team and so he did it. Perhaps that's true, but I think everyone felt that someone told him to yield the position. *Note that Massa never complained about that series of events.

Then there's the other side of the coin; the ugly side of team orders if you will. Singapore of the same year. Nelson (I just want my dad to accept me) Pique slams his car into the wall, setting the stage for teammate Alonso's win. Clearly unacceptable. Of course Fernando knew nothing about it. You're probably saying "Why Tim, are you implying that Fernando knew what was happening, what was planned?" Yes I am. He knew about it and he was complicit.

Jump forward to Germany where now Massa has to yield a position. Alonso is the more likely candidate for the championship, so he gets the favor. To quote Fernando, "One can not deny the force of nature that is my eyebrows. It is their destiny to carry me to another championship, and none will stand in their way!" I may be paraphrasing a bit. I think he said something like "Did Filipe miss a gear?" Need I remind you that these are dual clutch sequential gear boxes. You can't MISS a gear!!! Of course you could go down a gear instead of up while you're accelerating out of a corner, but everyone knows you've done that when they are slipping through the oil slick your engine leaves behind when it explodes. "Tim are you saying..." YES! Alonso knew and he was complicit, again. *Note that in this circumstance, when it wasn't to his favor Massa cried like a baby.

So what should the FIA do? I say scrap the rule. The FIA will never rid the sport of team orders. I mean, if I were a team principle, I'd absolutely have a way around the rule. Gurney Hallek would be my inspiration. I would set up code words or phrases to tell the drivers exactly what to do. I'd make damned sure no one listening in would know what we were talking about. "Filipe, we're worried the car is too red" means "let your teammate by." Or, "Alonso, your teammate did not miss a gear" would mean "come up with a better excuse you daffy Spaniard. We have to throw the FIA off our trail." No one on the outside would have a clue of what the message really was. Feints within feints, that's all I'm saying.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Welcome!

So Tim and I got tired of reading and listening to other opinions (from what we are sure are very nice people) concerning  things they clearly are wrong about and decided to do something about it.

Welcome to F1-Geeks.  (Yes, there's a "dash" in it. Why? Because F1Geeks looks weird without a hyphen, some other reason, and somone setup F1Geeks already.)

We'll generally be talking about Formula One racing but don't get all worked up if we diverge into anything from home theater, NewEgg sales, Woot, cool technology, grammar, music, video games, or monkeys.

Yes, that's how we roll.....   We sincerely appreciate your visit and hope you enjoy our blather.