tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90570485168260253022024-03-05T07:30:02.338-07:00F1-GeeksYou don't have to have bad teeth to like Formula One.Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-45859180643674149682015-12-29T09:34:00.000-07:002015-12-29T10:40:47.775-07:00Joe<!--[if !mso]>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Every time I remember Joe I remember this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAWfXbTkTAlixy9NgukCjJ3jBjp9VVe-95z_LyI6PIkdFs455IExnPXqNyNa3Wet1nxIu4un__yyciubfQ3wwMTBw77xZclE_3HqRSbL9nGldaZjE29EWSA49978D75QBxAtKarKs4cgA/s1600/Joe.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAWfXbTkTAlixy9NgukCjJ3jBjp9VVe-95z_LyI6PIkdFs455IExnPXqNyNa3Wet1nxIu4un__yyciubfQ3wwMTBw77xZclE_3HqRSbL9nGldaZjE29EWSA49978D75QBxAtKarKs4cgA/s400/Joe.jpg" width="400" /></a> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I met Joe in the summer of 1991 during the golden age of the
BBS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw the flyer for Paradise Lost
on an actual bulletin board at some computer shop and went home and logged
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually, my cousin got into some BBS
chat altercation with a friend of Joe's and it was decided to meet at a diner
and ‘sort it out’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I attended as Second
for this event and so did Joe.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As my cousin and I approached the table we see two skinny
guys, as pale as the winter's sun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
with straight red hair of impressive length and the other dark haired with a
short no-distractions style military type cut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Both seated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Short-hair guy has
one foot lightly raised and one firmly planted, pretending to be looking at his
fries.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe's first words to me, while eating a fry: "Black
belt..." *chomp chomp* "Berzerker.." </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"What?"</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still totally calm and without emphasis, Joe shifts
slightly, looks directly at me, "I'm a Black belt and he's a
Berzerker"<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The implication immediately was that, should there be any
trouble, it was going to be costly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
was Joe's tactical genius.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
matter-of-fact delivery designed to throw potential opponents off guard,
invoking a reaction and giving Joe time to read and analyze the situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time ultimately intending to
prevent conflict from erupting in the first place by an intimidating show of
force, and failing that, give him time to identify and enumerate our weak
points. He never looked for trouble, always prepared for it and never ran when
it occasionally found him.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Glad to learn trouble wasn't a forgone conclusion, my
response was a cheery, "Cool, is the food any good here?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The brief flash of amusement on his face then
a wry smile that he couldn't help let slip out told me I liked this guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had worked out that I had worked out what
he had worked out and he knew that we both knew it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe had an affinity for knowing the reason
why one did what one did and if the circumstances called for it, <i>intentionally
</i>acting without thought. Then, just as quickly, expressionless as he shrugs at the
food with a somewhat disgusted/commiserating "sucks ballz".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe pronounced the "z" in that. I don’t recall the rest of the evening but Joe and I hit it
off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's hard not to like a guy who is
usually the smartest guy in the room, and doesn't want to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While discussing the merits of martial arts a couple of
weeks later we ended up deciding to spar each other in a park to see how it
would go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second time ever seeing this
guy, (a black belt in martial arts, clearly ready to throw down and an unpredictableness
about him you could see in his eyes) and I'm basically in a loosely controlled
fight with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sounds like a crazy
thing, unless you've met him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe
practically radiated integrity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew
without question it wouldn't get out of hand, and if something crazy did
happen, Joe and I would be back to back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
You could trust him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the
heaviest, most sensitive, important, shit on the planet, you could absolutely
trust him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe was fiercely loyal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had an agreement that should an unexpected
and, most importantly, unannounced, package arrive from one to the other, it
would not be opened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be
secreted away someplace nobody knew about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Only the sender was allowed to speak of it.<br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am confident he had this agreement with others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe wouldn’t limit his success by single
sourcing his “head in a box” disposal services.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You could trust Joe with your life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not hyperbole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s not just because of his sense of
honor and integrity but also because he was competent beyond measure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only did you not have to worry that Joe
wouldn't do what he said, but you never had to worry about what would happen if
something unexpected came up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He'd figure
it out.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By December 31<sup>st</sup>, 1999, Joe and I had assembled
what they call today “Bugout Bags”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe
called it an “Oh Shit” bag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Car loaded
with food, ammunition, and other necessities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The plan was, should any form of “all hell breaking loose” begin to
break loose, we’d gather at my parent’s farm which had a generator, a well with
a hand-pump, and as he put it, “a comforting field of view for popping
balloons”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was a protector, unwaveringly defending the innocent or
helpless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll leave the stories of EMP
bombs and spork revenge to others but believe when I say Joe would not brook
any sort of infringement on the security of his friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To attack those Joe named ‘friend’ was to
attack Joe<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>himself, and to attack Joe was just a bad idea..<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe was always prepared but he never took that for
granted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He liked learning things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He liked better things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He held no sentimental attachment to ways or
methods or processes that didn't work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He'd take the best parts of a thing, discard what doesn't work and keep
the rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He appreciated competence in others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He fostered it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he’d throw a Virtua Fighter party at his
place, he was the first to appreciate it when the Stun Palm Of Doom came off,
even as he was the recipient. On the nights we’d be testing BFRIS he was absolute-focused on
reproducing, then finding and fixing some particular bug in the code, but soon
we’d all be flying around shooting at each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe loved fun.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I started a Kung Fu school, Joe was one of my first
students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the school grew and he
became one of the senior members, his compassion and ability to help others was
easy to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would regularly spar
with the less experienced students, knowing this was the most dangerous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their new-found techniques, awkwardness, and
general lack of skill with those techniques led to many unintended hits to
their opponents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Joe saw this as a great way to exercise his defenses while offering
opportunities for his fellow students to learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">One night, while
sparring a 6' 4" junior student, Joe was demonstrating the setup for
flying kicks, what to look for and how to handle them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He launched an amazing double spinning
kick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had telegraphed it twice
earlier in the session, practically wrapped it with glittery paper and rainbows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no way his opponent would miss
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Except somehow they did.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Halfway through the kick, Joe realized he was
going take this guy's head off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he
pulled it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowing that his chances of
injury were significant as he would end up with both feet in the air and his
momentum that would carry his legs back down would be stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the martial art equivalent of teaching someone how to throw grenades and then seeing them pull the pin and drop
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not</b> going to have a student get injured sparring with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shifted the angle of his kick so that it
would hit the student's shoulder and subsequently went down right on his head.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe did not have time to waste on worry or regret.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn't waste energy wishing things were
different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would, as any intelligent
person, occasionally lament the state of humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spent many an evening talking about Objectivism,
the closest Ground Zero spot in Albuquerque, how to get Spike to
stop doing stuff, how to get Spike to start doing stuff, girl trouble, car trouble, gun cleaning methods, games, listening to and
playing music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a sucker for any
particularly tricky harmony part or guitar lick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loved besting those challenges but he also
loved the musicality of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t
matter who it was, if it was musically sound, it had merit. The Venn diagram of 'bands we listened to' started out like an infinity symbol and ended up with edges so blurred at the intersection it was more of a musical mitosis. I recall Joe and I, guitars in hand, sitting
in my apartment and playing through practically the entire Barenaked Ladies ‘Gordon’
album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We worked repeatedly on the break
in Brian Wilson and when we nailed those harmonies the satisfied grin that he
could barely sing through is how I often remember him.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe's intelligence, honor and integrity were matched by his impish
love of mischief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Challenging
conventions was a strategically disarming move, but crazy mischief of any sort
was a delight for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I once sat in with his band for a New Year’s Eve party and
Joe, knowing that I was being pursued by a very nice but TOTALLY not my type of
girl, kept announcing my singleness and ‘availability between songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Thanks people!! Let’s hear it for our
drummer, who’s looking to start the year off with some sweet SWEET
lovin’!!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Later when I found myself trapped, Joe ran interference to allow a clandestine escape.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His enthusiasm for life was child-like in it’s innocence and
purity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loved what he loved and he
goddamned LOVED it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was particularly
fond of fireworks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He introduced me to
the thrill of “Loud ‘explodey’ ones” via the Attack Chopper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Illegal in Albuquerque, we bought some at the
firework tent on the Indian Reservation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were basically an M80 with a propeller attached and a pre-explosion
stage that would spin the thing about 40 feet in the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Initially, not my cup of tea, it was
admittedly <i>awesome</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you might imagine
Joe was practically giddy with delight at process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Find a location where there was little chance
of injury to anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ignite fuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Revel in the shock of the explosion, car
alarms, and a full neighborhood of dog protests, name the next location and
then flee in different directions before the authorities arrived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know if it was the Attack Chopper or
Joe’s joy at it that made me a fan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do
know that since then, I think of him every July 4<sup>th</sup>.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2003 I asked him to be in my wedding in Las Vegas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was deep in the crunch-time for Counterstrike
and there was just no way it was going to work out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he calls me the day before and asks me
where the ceremony was at.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had worked
it out after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the essence
of Joe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there was any way he could
help out a friend, he would. He graciously ushered guests in and while some
shot him questioning glances, I couldn’t have been happier to see that purple
Mohawk getting to enjoy making people unsure if they were at the right
wedding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the perfect cover for
the smiles and genuine happiness he showed at seeing my own happiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was the last time I spoke with Joe in person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had been through triumph, tragedy, song
and siren.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E3, IGF (as finalists in the
first ever IGF), game meetings/parties, soundtracks, Jurassic Park<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(and the introduction of DTS), Independence
Day (really any big explodey blockbuster), conquest, heartbreak, and apocalypse
plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of Joe I’ve played
PyroBall, The Assassin Game, installed a Slackware distro, slid down hills in
Albuquerque parks on huge blocks of ice and know who Less Than Jake are.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe moved to Dallas and eventually Seattle which turned his
Mohawk green. We spoke less often but we didn’t need to. I knew if I needed him
he would be there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d like to think he
knew the same.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many people will say Joe was a brutally honest person with a
secret inner nice guy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a big warm
fuzzy secret heart, as the song goes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
I’m sure his contemporaries will attest, that big heart wasn’t so secret.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was glad to call him my friend.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe was a warrior. An enthusiast at life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mutual friend remarked that Joe lived his
life the way he was going to live it, consequences be dammed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was happy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I wish I wasn’t writing this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe would quip that I might as well wish a unicorn would show
up and give me a shoebox full of gold ingots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Except it would be an ammo box and it wouldn’t be unicorns, but either
way, the certainty of the futility of my wish would be absolutely clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His severity would be tempered with a manner
that implied not condescension or pity but a flat unassailable certainty mixed
with a flash of compassion so intense you knew he spoke from experience and his
heart.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I miss Joe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always
missed Joe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will always miss Joe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were long stretches of time that we
never spoke and never needed to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any
time I thought of him, it was quickly followed by the certainty that at some
point, we'd meet up in Albuquerque, eat something with green chili in it, shoot
a bunch of guns and have a damn fine time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Goodbye, my friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> somewhere, I’m sure
you’re doing something way cooler and more kick ass than any of us could
imagine.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7oYIV25fiVhZKOcVX3olt2iDFt44O9491iJ1uyCjIuRlu4jXhgunpGu-euiJ6_lrBk3yfxfAqEuhalFIHtCDUapK676iIx16tSB7IYjZpNP06L-f1Y66hS8adBw8FmvMFldbEF-V-hzI/s1600/Joe+n+Spike.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7oYIV25fiVhZKOcVX3olt2iDFt44O9491iJ1uyCjIuRlu4jXhgunpGu-euiJ6_lrBk3yfxfAqEuhalFIHtCDUapK676iIx16tSB7IYjZpNP06L-f1Y66hS8adBw8FmvMFldbEF-V-hzI/s400/Joe+n+Spike.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">… playing
my guitar and building castles in the sun…</span></i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-69529928762204407992013-04-03T23:07:00.002-07:002013-04-04T15:09:32.801-07:00How We Called It (Australia 2012)We thought we'd try something new this year at F1-Geeks. In order to provide some perspective and contrast in how things change from year to year, we'll be re-posting last year's events preceding our posts for this year's event.<br />
<br />
We think it will be really cool and it will let our new readers experience our witty witticisms first hand.<br />
<br />
We figure if you're reading this right now, chances are high that you are a new reader so good for you.<br />
<br />
Here's how we called the Australian Grand Prix last year.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9YJ_j1hUvdCueFCBd4v3gmfHevxTJJVBeS6Ym8_MpidOb2k5BGXb0EABL8OKy7lSKxOZhaRah9OZImNSPlR4PbMmT7JI03cWIM38yXwodWoMOOQS616oV4g2kBDcFIJ73PwIcQeQ-Alc/s1600/1000px-Albert_Lake_Park_Street_Circuit_in_Melbourne,_Australia_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9YJ_j1hUvdCueFCBd4v3gmfHevxTJJVBeS6Ym8_MpidOb2k5BGXb0EABL8OKy7lSKxOZhaRah9OZImNSPlR4PbMmT7JI03cWIM38yXwodWoMOOQS616oV4g2kBDcFIJ73PwIcQeQ-Alc/s400/1000px-Albert_Lake_Park_Street_Circuit_in_Melbourne,_Australia_svg.png" width="400" /></a></div>
And so it begins my friends. The 2012 Formula One season is officially underway. A beautiful location and picturesque setting, the Albert Lake Park is a great place to start the series. <br />
<br />
Although first raced in 1928, Australia wasn't part of the Formula One calendar until 1985. The track in Adelaide was actually pretty cool. Well maybe it's wasn't that great but I have a huge soft spot for actual street circuits and any place Ayrton Senna raced. Unfortunately the demand for a race in Melbourne became great enough that the event moved to Albert Lake Park.<br />
<br />
Were there any surprises? Did RedBull continue their domination from the last two years? Do the new Sporting Regulation classify Alonso's eyebrows as a movable aerodynamic device?<br />
<br />
If you've seen the race, read on. If not, you should, because we're going to talk about results. <br />
<br />
<!--more--><br />
<b>Fred's Take</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7115/6998041585_79516fcbd5_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7115/6998041585_79516fcbd5_z.jpg" width="320" /></a>Having missed qualifying due to a DVR mishap, I was pleasantly surprised at the starting grid. Specifically a Lotus in 3rd was very cool to see. I also enjoyed Hamilton getting pole then losing 1st. Yes, there is a bit of very specific delectatio morosa for me in this. Any time Hamilton almost gets the best possible result but doesn't, I experience a sensation that warms my soul. I don't like less cars on the track but I appreciate the minimum requirements. I don't buy into the "safety" reasoning. I just feel that you should be at a certain level of excellence and if you don't fall into it, you don't race. Once you're in, there should be minimal interference. I hate the <a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/2010/10/richard-branson-hates-blue-flags-and.html">blue flags</a> for example. They really illustrate what I call the Lewis Hamilton paradigm, where drivers are rewarded on track. These guys are all great drivers and are well rewarded, let them earn it on the track.</div>
<br />
While Australia is generally considered an attrition track, the cars seemed to hold up well. Even Kimi survived some wheel rubs on his car. I'd expect he won't be involved in too much more of that until he finds himself next to Hamilton which will make Massa jealous. Speaking of Massa, I was kinda bummed not to see Rubens in a car. I know he hasn't really performed lately but I always liked him in front of Massa.<br />
<br />
Kimi's racing was great and it shows that if he gets better starting spots we're going to see some podiums there.<br />
<br />
So how did I do? The final results went like this:<br />
<br />
1) Team Fred - 83<br />
2) Clean Air GP - 66<br />
3) Grid Dominators - 62<br />
4) Downforce Racing - 52<br />
5) DNF Racing - 29<br />
<br />
I don't expect to remain in the top but with passing machines like Kimi and Kamui, I might do OK.<br />
<br />
You'll also notice I don't have a fancy name for my team. I didn't know we could do that. I'm taking suggestions.<br />
<br />
Some final thought about Jenson, I often give him crap for his unkempt appearance but I have to admit, I like the guy. He's not even on my F1 Fantasy team and I was still cool with him winning. He seems like the guy who really appreciates his job every single day. Good on you Scruffy, good on you.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Tim's Take</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7266/6998045709_efd0b1a79c_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7266/6998045709_efd0b1a79c_b.jpg" width="320" /></a>At long last, the season has started! Let's review the first weekend, shall we? </div>
<br />
Practice was, by all accounts, dull. There's no way to tell what the true speed of any car is during practice as they are all testing things, hiding what they want to keep secret, and generally playing the "keep the other guys guessing" game. The only thing worth noting was that practice was the first time HRT actually drove their 2012 livery on any track, so they are a tad behind the others. It's not until everyone drives the cars "in anger" during qualifying that we really get to see what they're made of. <br />
<br />
Qualifying was our first glimpse at just how much things got shaken up during the off season. The Mercedes seem like they are a notch better, while Red Bull seems like they've dropped a notch. Ferrari seem to have really stumbled and dropped a couple notches and it looks like Force India Sahara have stepped up their game a bit. I fully expected Kimi's return to get a better start, but some bad calculations with the tires left him ready to run his fast lap after the checkers in Q1 had fallen. He qualified 18th, but after Perez got bumped down 5 spots for a gearbox change, Kimi ended up sitting in the 17th spot on the grid.<br />
<br />
Filipe Massa has been told by Ferrari that if he doesn't perform better this year he's out. So he answered that challenge by soundly securing the 16th spot on the grid. Mind you, Alonso didn't do much better at 12th, but he did spin out and go off the track, where as Massa was just slow. Meanwhile, the Force India drivers managed to pull off 15th and an entry to Q3 that put Nico Hulkenberg on the 9th grid spot. <br />
<br />
Once we got to Q3, it was most of the familiar faces, with a couple of surprises thrown in. The previously mentioned Hulkenberg drove brilliantly. Pastor Maldonado managed to land the 8th grid spot. But the most surprising was Roman Grosjean, who replaced Petrov this year driving for Lotus, managed to win the 3rd spot on the grid. I think it's clear that if the team hadn't fouled up Kimi's Q1, we would have seen him up near the front as well.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6219/6998041817_6576ace51a_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6219/6998041817_6576ace51a_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
We ended up with Lewis Hamilton winning pole, with his teammate Jenson Button right next to him. The RBR guys were clear back in the third row wondering what horrible fate had befallen them, while Michael Schumacher's and his Mercedes were on the 4th spot, with Nico Rosberg down at 7th. <br />
<br />
With the grid all set, the race started off on Sunday, in what I would call a spectacular fashion, in that Button beat his teammate down to the first corner and proceeded then to gap Lewis by almost 3 seconds in the first few laps. Nico Rosberg had an amazing start, easily jumping ahead of both RBRs and Grosjean, putting himself in 4th after the first corner. By lap 2, Nico Hulkenberg's Force India was sitting off track and there was a local yellow. A short time after that, Pastor Maldonado decides that he's had enough of this uppity Frenchman with the comical name and he cuts across Grosjean's front end, destroying part of his suspension. Grosjean's Lotus is out of the race. <br />
<br />
I'm going to go on record at this point and blame Maldonado for nearly every accident during the race. I dont' have a grudge against him or anything, but that accident with Grosjean was so much his fault and it took that poor lad out of the race so soon after he qualified so high, Pastor deserves it. We never found out what happened to Nico Hulkenberg's Force India car, but I maintain it was Maldonado's fault. I'm not sure Maldonado was even hear Nico, but it was his fault.<br />
<br />
There was one really cool thing Pastor did, and that was to pass Alonso on the first lap. I don't know if Fernando's car is really just that slow, or if he was thinking "Well there's no way that punk will try to get past me. Hey wait a second!!" <br />
<br />
Now, during last season, and the off season, and the beginning of this one, people have been saying we really don't know if Sebastian Vettel can drive amongst the other cars, if he can pass people and work his way up field. Apparently these people have forgotten that a few seasons back he wasn't always at the front of the grid and he did just that. And quite well I might add. Well, it didn't take long before he was doing it here too.<br />
<br />
As usual, there was some awesome racing at the back of the grid. Sergio Perez who started off on the 22nd grid spot worked his way all the way up and finished 8th. Very respectable. Kimi Raikkonen worked his way up from his 17th place start to finish 7th, and Kamui Kobayashi moved up from 13th to finish 6th. But lets face it, he's insane. People clear out of his way for fear he'll do something like pull a "Crazy Ivan" and take them out. <br />
<br />
Button lead the entire race (except just after pit stops), and Vettel managed to work his way up from his 6th spot start to finish 2nd. The final podium spot was held by Lewis Hamilton. On the surface, it doesn't look all that different from one of the races toward the end of last season, but it really was. We didn't see a clearly dominant Red Bull chassis with the McLaren team barely scraping out a win. We saw the RBR team fighting their way up to the 2nd and 4th finishes they had. We saw a lot of other cars with very real promise, and a couple of drivers that look like they are going to be very entertaining to watch. It should be a very good season.<br />
<br />
One more thing. Not content to ruin only the race of others, Pastor Maldonado crashed his car on the penultimate lap, all by himself.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">All event images copyright </span><a href="http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzcyiV6" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Infiniti Global</span></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/">www.f1-geeks.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-90915044148516743492013-01-02T00:30:00.000-07:002013-01-02T05:53:00.325-07:00Geeky Music - Jason MirazYes, It's nearly three years old. <br />
<br />
I somehow missed it. It's not that I hate the original but it always bothered me he was trying to be cool by leaving vowels out of his last name. <br />
<a name='more'></a>Turns out he's Czech and those guys are <em>very</em> efficient with their use of vowels.<br />
<br />
So, nothing against the original but this is better. No lyrics. Just the melody some clicks, and a backing phone. Bonus points for playing both parts at the same time.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HPmeS0PmAhk?rel=0" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
If I had a Nokia phone, I'd play this everyday on the subway until everyone would break out into a spontaneous flash-mob type of dance thing. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-42361023473098472362012-12-24T19:34:00.002-07:002012-12-25T02:32:49.798-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 18 - The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - The Yas Marina Circuit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<u><span style="font-size: large;">Abu Dhabi</span></u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8v1iEzMlW1bDcJzEofpFG6bG8BL2zzwGAZUG5gjTQv-4wm_poUwJL0eRshQOsHG0uyu6ndywZuj7u81jCKCEBkP8FOuCRZiBZ7lpqARCp-9WA09razFpTu_eXcoYCZUVBc28vYjxmuUU/s1600/Circuit_Yas-Island_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8v1iEzMlW1bDcJzEofpFG6bG8BL2zzwGAZUG5gjTQv-4wm_poUwJL0eRshQOsHG0uyu6ndywZuj7u81jCKCEBkP8FOuCRZiBZ7lpqARCp-9WA09razFpTu_eXcoYCZUVBc28vYjxmuUU/s320/Circuit_Yas-Island_svg.png" width="306" /></a></div>
The largest artificially lit sporting venue on the planet. If the Singapore and Monaco circuits had a baby, it would be Yas Marina. This circuit always reminds me of The Covenant's Carbine rifle and gives the drivers some interesting challenges. <br />
<br />
After the turmoil and uncertainty earlier this year, I'm glad the race stayed on the calendar. <br />
<br />
This year they've lengthened the DRS zones a bit and it looks like it's going to be a great race. <br />
<br />
Vettel is on cruise control with four race wins in a row. He's on track to be the youngest three-time world champion and the first person to ever win their first three in a row. <br />
<br />
Let's see how it goes shall we? <br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Stuff</u></span><br />
I always forget I like this track until I watch it. The sky blue track accents, the tunnel pit exit, and the sun. <br />
<br />
I love when the environment is a factor in a race. There is an intangible element of challenge that not only provides some unpredictability but provides some proof of skill. If you want to be world champion you better know how to drive in the world. <br />
<br />
The sun obscures part of the track at first and then to show it harbors no true malice, sinks quickly beneath the horizon and the lights come up. The cars look even better than they do in Singapore. The shallow sun angle really gives amazing specular highlights and the artificial lights mixed with natural sunlight looks great.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Track Feature</u><br />
The double DRS zones. This isn't the first track of the year with two DRS sections but I really like how they are right next to each other. Separated only by a chicane, this gives the passed car a chance to get the position back. This makes Yas Marina the only place where DRS is properly implemented<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
<a href="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6330/333nq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6330/333nq.jpg" width="320" /></a>Everyone has glitter on their helmets. It looks good in the setting sun.. I'm sure they call it "gold flake" or some other non-girly term but it's very My Little Pony.<br />
<br />
For those of you keeping track, this was the helmet Vettel wore for qualifying and the race. I like this one. Particularly the off-axis Vettel logo. This does have the same My Little Pony effect though.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Qualifying</u><br />
Controversy.<br />
Q1 Redbulls stay in until everyone else is out and then Vettel hits the wall on the exit of turn 19. Drama? Excitement? Nope. A normal Q1 and we get to watch the back-markers do their thing.<br />
<br />
Q2 Senna disappoints. I always want to see him in Q3 but this time, with Maldonado sitting on the edge, he could have kept him from moving on.<br />
<br />
Q3 Raikkonen out first again. Maldonado out last and then jumps up to 3rd like a pool-boy crashing the country club dinner party. Luckily Webber, and Vettel remind him of his social status.<br />
<br />
Hamilton on pole, Vettel 3rd, and then, Vettel's car stops on the track (as ordered by the team) and he has to catch a ride to the press conference. Surprise surprise, Vettel goes from 3rd spot to no spot. Being penalized for not having enough fuel to return to the pits he is excluded from qualifying altogether. In order to remind Vettel where he was supposed to be after qualifying, he is forced to start from the pits. Even worse, he doesn't get to roll until everyone is past turn 1.<br />
<br />
<u>The Race</u><br />
Everyone is ready to go and they roll off for the formation lap.<br />
Well, not quite. An HRT gets a tire blanket stuck in the spokes and the mechanics run back to work it free. On the plus side they manage to get the playing card and clothes-pin rig set up properly so they make a really cool noise when they start to get some speed.<br />
<br />
Lights out...<br />
Raikkonen gets a great start and moves to 2nd.<br />
A really nice set of moves from Alonso. Grosjean tries to play it safe and loses a tire.<br />
<br />
Raikkonen puts a ton of pressure on Hamilton and Vettel tries too hard, gets some wing damage, but keeps passing until things start to happen.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.grandprix.com/race/r876racenotes.html" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzVHHvEbq2ChIy-VC2qNwTEye6FKv6GB-9R6tJh5Cpr7a0NgyyS1VkZxy0-1sKymb1ZwlMCGuIOtmJ6z_DhqrjvXYciU471V7cjoUHo2oys_i5tGEztGvCICZ8eP2kigePkyK6mZlQus/s320/Raikkonen+Abu+Dhabi.jpg" width="320" /></a>Lap 20 Hamilton slows and he has to pull out of the race. Suddenly Raikkonen, (coincidentally the name of the longest running sitcom in Finland) is in first place and Maldonado starts to dedicate this podium to Hugo Chavez and gets the chicane all wrong. Alonso doesn't need any more than that and passes Maldonado.</div>
<br />
Vettel, who pitted at the second safety car, tries to make the soft tires last 40+ laps and as the rest of the field pits, he moves up to 2nd. Past everyone except Raikkonen.<br />
<br />
Some crazy coolness ensues. Vettel's tires don't last, they bring him in and this sets up the drama for the end. Raikkonen hangs on and takes first, Alonso second, and Vettel third. We really liked seeing Raikkonen win a race. Good times.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Quotes</u><br />
Alonso when asked about how it felt to be behind his championship rival and then miles ahead of him. "Well it was a strange Saturday for sure...<br />
<br />
Raikkonen upon being told how far ahead he is of Alonso, "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing."<br />
<br />
Honorable mention goes to both Raikkonen and Vettel for their profanity on the podium. It was perfect for it's placement but Raikkonen's was best as he mocked the press for hassling him for being expressionless.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
Vettel passing Button toward the end. Not for the position gained but more for how clean both of them drove. F1-Geeks admits we really like Jenson.<br />
<br />
Next up. Austin, TX. Yee Haa people. I'm telling you. Texas kicks ass.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsFbC_BmuSZm-ofLL6Fes-g9oa74sf0a_bW3g1WCwXWxBvfhlHh4VJkK1EFVbKdrEDSmzxuDsUh1FDnvoy-TYN9Sj-5805UU1VGLJgAYgaMJIk-BQqYJIg3M8tWrtHDFcHmwTMXUui-kA/s1600/Raikkonen+Wins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsFbC_BmuSZm-ofLL6Fes-g9oa74sf0a_bW3g1WCwXWxBvfhlHh4VJkK1EFVbKdrEDSmzxuDsUh1FDnvoy-TYN9Sj-5805UU1VGLJgAYgaMJIk-BQqYJIg3M8tWrtHDFcHmwTMXUui-kA/s400/Raikkonen+Wins.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raikkonen attempts a David Blaine trick to fool the "stupid poopy heads" in the press.<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image totally stolen without permission from the<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-2227659/Abu-Dhabi-Grand-Prix-Sebastian-Vettel-Kimi-Raikkonen-wins-report.html" target="_blank"> UK Daily Mail</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-35673715761955585422012-12-21T08:48:00.000-07:002012-12-21T08:48:26.917-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 17 - The Indian Grand Prix - Buddah International Circuit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXcmrQAez-642ju5BvnqNE3fvnxauDdrk_YHiGe61RuAOZGM_rplvX3VxtWi4JP6bnrs5pRGzhPr7wH5pbyd2TssD6pRiBAxnlDwJ50mBxL3I7l5gd9pSRK1hSiBTOj0xWrwhx8CMVbR0/s1600/circuit-overview+india.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXcmrQAez-642ju5BvnqNE3fvnxauDdrk_YHiGe61RuAOZGM_rplvX3VxtWi4JP6bnrs5pRGzhPr7wH5pbyd2TssD6pRiBAxnlDwJ50mBxL3I7l5gd9pSRK1hSiBTOj0xWrwhx8CMVbR0/s320/circuit-overview+india.jpg" width="320" /></a><u><span style="font-size: large;">India</span></u></div>
I may have an overly romantic sense of this place but when I think of India I think of how colorful and cool everything and everyone looks. <br />
<br />
This is the second year on this track and they say it's better. Better than what? Better than Valencia that's for sure.<br />
<br />
So Vettel now leads the championship with a ton of momentum. Will it carry him to another win?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Stuff</u></span><br />
I want to really like this track. I really do. It's not doing it for me yet. Maybe it's too new, but then again, I liked Shanghi from the beginning. I like the double DRS and I like that they are evolving the raceability. Maybe next year will be better. It's not that it's bad, it's just not great. There were moments where it started to get close this year. Ferarri's technical strategy around the ratio of their 7th gear was really cool. I can appreciate that a team can build a race around a strategy geared toward a feature of the track. It wasn't a bad race but the interest came from the non-racing parts.<br />
<br />
OK, so Lewis did something cool and made a special effort to have a brief conversation with Martin Brundle and he actually seemed like a decent human being. Good on you Lewis. The succubus must have been back in the UK.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Track Feature</u><br />
I almost went with the obvious turn 10. An 8-second right hand neck-stretcher that is grueling on tires and has got to be exhausting. My counter-culture punk-rock roots require I go for the less obvious Turn 3.<br />
<br />
Turn 3. blind top of hill corner. The drivers can only see a reference cone as they line up for it and then they drop downhill for the long straight. Get this wrong and you've messed up one of the best sections for passing or making up time.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgae3lfms9sbPdUKYu_usL81FNymZFP5t8xp4sNjdotjc-JHXSRMUc_m9eM89xdIOzbFTlWdGv5tXmjaqTJwxQDmL2Nt6PmWYcUz3Ipdxt-TbAyhrZGDx602UOBf3kyGJJ6-Fy3hxmhhxc/s1600/Korea+Helmet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgae3lfms9sbPdUKYu_usL81FNymZFP5t8xp4sNjdotjc-JHXSRMUc_m9eM89xdIOzbFTlWdGv5tXmjaqTJwxQDmL2Nt6PmWYcUz3Ipdxt-TbAyhrZGDx602UOBf3kyGJJ6-Fy3hxmhhxc/s320/Korea+Helmet.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
A bit of a cop out for me this time as it isn't new this race as it made a debut earlier in the year but it was the hash marks on Vettel's helmet. 50 of them, to be precise, to commemorate the number of helmet designs he's had since he started racing. The difference here is that this one is very shiny and the debut had a flat/satin type of appearance.<br />
<br />
<u>Qualifying</u><br />
Meh.<br />
Q1 not much going on here. I would have liked the Force India cars to be a little higher up on the grid but it wasn't to be.<br />
<br />
Q2 Senna starts to turn in decent laps with 3 min left but its just not enough. I thought Kimi wasn't going to make it past as he gets stuck down in 13th with a minute to go but pulls it together and makes to Q3. Unfortunately so does Maldonado.<br />
<br />
Q3 Was all Vettel. He does some good laps but everyone else does better. He's set for a hot lap and messes it up with less than a minute to go. He nails it and grabs his 35th Pole Position.<br />
<br />
<u>The Race</u><br />
Lights out.<br />
Clean getaway and some nice side by side racing. Three abreast at some points and the three way fight as Alonso pounces on the battling McLarens was cool<br />
. <br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20114235" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/63761000/jpg/_63761708_steeringwheel.jpg" width="200" /></a>Compared to Korea this wasn't terribly exciting from a racing perspective, but there are a lot of little things going on to keep the interest. McLaren pulls off a really remarkable steering wheel change. Given that Hamilton had to stop, put the car in neutral, remove the wheel, hand it off, help get the new one on and put the car back into gear to exit. All in the time it takes the to change tires. Impressive.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.f1-fansite.com/f1-result/race-results-2012-formula-1-grand-prix-of-india/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.f1-fansite.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/120077_ind-Medium.jpg" width="320" /></a>All kinds of front wings slicing into rear tires. KERS failure for Webber makes for some interesting Webber/Alonso moments. Vettel has something go wrong and throws off a ton of sparks from his floorboard on the straights. Everyone sees this and he seems vulnerable for a moment. <br />
<br />
He isn't and goes on to win. You'll notice that sneaky red uniform up there. He's not out of it yet.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Quote</u><br />
Alonso's race engineer telling him about Vettel's floorboard problem. Mostly in Italian and eventually converts to English "...with the plank on the ground... when he is in DRS on, he has the plank on the ground... sparkling like hell..."<br />
<br />
Runner up: Ted Kravitz on Alonso's statement that he had to push 120%. "He's a a man who doesn't know how percentages work." I'm a sucker for any sort of math digs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9NKcIFJ-J5_QXWMDiw2czvZOS8b1ZbWR7n1iAg07B6XBqTmmZjjBc-uL3sP7Kby0bDvW2SW7zXdkgfWXniEBePIXRmMR7E_sLG1eKMgK2au-GT45cTd_iLR_Qw2qy_OPPIwoKuq1INY/s1600/Nigel-mansell-gives-ayrton-senna-a-ride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9NKcIFJ-J5_QXWMDiw2czvZOS8b1ZbWR7n1iAg07B6XBqTmmZjjBc-uL3sP7Kby0bDvW2SW7zXdkgfWXniEBePIXRmMR7E_sLG1eKMgK2au-GT45cTd_iLR_Qw2qy_OPPIwoKuq1INY/s320/Nigel-mansell-gives-ayrton-senna-a-ride.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of F1-Geeks sacred moments</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The three way battle between Hamilton, Button, and Alonso. Drafting, passing, out-braking, and very clean driving. Well done gentlemen.<br />
<br />
Honerable Mention goes to Webber as he pushes Vettel's car through the pit lane as it seems he's run out of fuel. Seemed very redneck-ish and reminded me of all the times racers have had to hitch-hike back to the podium after a race.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Next up. Abu Dhabi. A dusk race. That alone makes it worth watching. See you there.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-72257333816645516272012-12-10T07:03:00.000-07:002012-12-11T06:04:58.025-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 16 - The Korean Grand Prix - Yeongam<u><span style="font-size: large;">Yeongam</span></u><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://sidepodcast.com/post/korea-2011-race-information" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="http://a.sidepodcast.com/content/2011/10/korea_circuit_map.png" width="320" /></a>Built in 2009 the circuit is way more fun to drive on (at least in a simulator) than it is to watch.</div>
<br />
From listening to the driver interviews, they feel the same way.<br />
<br />
There are so many races now, it's great for watching cars and drivers at their best but it means that some of the perfectly good tracks get lost in the shadow of the greats.<br />
<br />
Vettel is the only driver to win back to back races this year. Can he shatter the record by getting three?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Stuff</u></span><br />
What did we learn this race? That nobody seems to know what the pattern is for Vettel's helmet design. The BBC said that he retires it after each win, but then you get helmets like Singapore. So, who knows. I knew there was some races with new helmets and then some where there wasn't. Some people gripe about this as being too confusing. On one hand, I liked the characteristic helmet designs that were iconic, immediately recognizable and intimately associated with a driver. So yeah there is something to be said for the single design but if it were me, I'd do the same thing. I love it. The cost is not a problem for him and I'd have them all in a massive display case. Eventually donate them to a museum or something. Some of these designs are stunningly beautiful.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Track Feature</u><br />
Turn 4 does it for me here. After the fastest section they dive into the slowest section and it tends to catch the drivers off guard..<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Psy shows up to teach Vettel and Webber Gangham style and waves the checkered flag with about the same excitement you'd expect Adrian Newey would display meeting Psy himself.<br />
<br />
For those of you keeping track at home, this was Vettel's helmet design for the weekend.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXdspzk6qTdAPOiUxBw8g89yaJ3B6f3Ql05eQNHkA_NPmIUqXWDdtJptIBz5f5n9ODhqqpEaMhAqDGs9R9eRCJ72cwImbYwGVbHKVLG1HLTmeti5qfhgPIyHzhHaSlNgZFJYxmdxwoDis/s1600/f1-sebastian-vettel-helmet+Korea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXdspzk6qTdAPOiUxBw8g89yaJ3B6f3Ql05eQNHkA_NPmIUqXWDdtJptIBz5f5n9ODhqqpEaMhAqDGs9R9eRCJ72cwImbYwGVbHKVLG1HLTmeti5qfhgPIyHzhHaSlNgZFJYxmdxwoDis/s320/f1-sebastian-vettel-helmet+Korea.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I think.</div>
<br />
<u>Qualifying</u><br />
Surprises but no real excitement.<br />
Q1 On the edge of my seat waiting to see if Lewis won't make it out of Q1 but he gets very lucky and barely survives.<br />
<br />
Q2 Mostly a good session as Maldonado spends it at the bottom.<br />
<br />
Q3 RedBull rises to the top and stays there. Vettel's lap gets messed up by traffic and manages only second. Webber first but he usually mangles his starts so F1-Geeks considers this pole for Vettel.<br />
<br />
<u>The Race</u><br />
Lights out.... coolness.<br />
I take back what I said before about not having a good time watching this track. Multiple wheel to wheel racing among the top eight. The best opening three laps I've seen in a while. Vettel gets a decent start but not better than Webber. It turns out that in Korea, Pole Position kinda sucks. Vettel ends up exactly where he needs to be to have the advantage into turn one. Vettel/Webber, Hamilton/Alonso, Raikkonen/Massa, and then Kobayashi and a few others. -F<br />
<br />
Before the first lap is even complete, Kobayashi decides to play pinball with his Sauber and tries to bounce it off as many cars as he can. He only gets two, but it's enough to win him a new nose and tires. Sadly, he puts Button and Rosberg are out of the race because of it. Apparently the track workers are busy with Psy doing his crazy dance because it takes them 8 laps to realize Rosberg's car is sitting on track and they should probably move it. That means a yellow flag right in the middle of the straight away for 8 laps. Good times. -T<br />
<br />
Pit action is constant and entertaining. Why in the world is this race just so damn entertaining this year?<br />
Massa is racing well actually, so well that he's told to make sure not to get too close to Alonso. This is surely a sign of the end-times. Hamilton is having a hard time all day and then hooks a piece of astro-turf and starts driving around like a parade float. I almost feel bad for him but then come to my senses.<br />
<br />
Still all of this is not the exciting part, the excitement comes from Vettel's front tire. The team sends him message after message telling him the tire is going to blow and he must slow down. <br />
<br />
He doesn't.<br />
"You will not know when its too late." They tell him.<br />
<br />
Watching the last lap was riveting and while his tire didn't let go, the stress from the team was something I've never heard before. A good drive and damn fine race.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Quote</u><br />
Sky Sports commentator Ted Kravitz, "It's always special to get into the Ferrari garage during a race but today Fernando's girlfriend is in there.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
The first three laps. Hands down the best wheel to wheel racing I've seen in a year that has had a lot more wheel to wheel than before. <br />
<br />
Runner up, the Korean woman who brought Vettel his microphone continues to pester him for his hat even after Johnny Herbert starts interviewing him.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8I2F-9QENaIfWqHv61N4AG1gOXkWHqxkVNvp82NyTajAmKGXRADObTo0980bRfl2uPoHkldCNg3hsSUHNZ-DrvGzgvvG71DbFCFO7TcI18agRWW_gL7WTBpQtxvrAuufLrIm_phxfO9w/s1600/Vettel+Newey+Korea+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8I2F-9QENaIfWqHv61N4AG1gOXkWHqxkVNvp82NyTajAmKGXRADObTo0980bRfl2uPoHkldCNg3hsSUHNZ-DrvGzgvvG71DbFCFO7TcI18agRWW_gL7WTBpQtxvrAuufLrIm_phxfO9w/s320/Vettel+Newey+Korea+2012.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leave it to a genius to figure out that eye-protection is a good idea on the podium.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Korea gives us an awesome race and we move on to another newer track. Join us for India in a couple of days because we know we're behind but hell, at least we are trying.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-66753368407740588322012-11-29T08:11:00.000-07:002012-11-29T08:11:00.766-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 15 - The Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka<u><span style="font-size: large;">Suzuka</span></u><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5VjM02Oid5Ipv2YFRnyllnT8uipg4F2QPC8I2uAR1W49ohS1gYWJkLCm4DX1fvEW7bEdxybjwMV5E-bTUdM-WoQ4zuyabnEKnwwO8yqn_nJHccehenEfndCQ8s8aqmnxbOX-nZFfAwA/s1600/Suzuka_Circuit_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5VjM02Oid5Ipv2YFRnyllnT8uipg4F2QPC8I2uAR1W49ohS1gYWJkLCm4DX1fvEW7bEdxybjwMV5E-bTUdM-WoQ4zuyabnEKnwwO8yqn_nJHccehenEfndCQ8s8aqmnxbOX-nZFfAwA/s320/Suzuka_Circuit_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
11 World Championships have been decided at Suzuka over the years. It's a classic challenging track where you get a sense that mistakes will not be brooked . Suzuka is one of the tracks I really want to see in person. I remember Senna winning a world championship here and a dramatic win for Alonso when Schumacher retired about 3/4 of way through resulting in a massive championship point swing, <br />
<br />
I used to be ambivalent about this track but I've grown to really enjoy it. Narrow and technically challenging it has a classic feel to it. Particularly for the gravel traps. I used to hate them everywhere but now, in Suzuka, they are awesome. Drive a bit too crazy, what do you get? Stuck in the gravel is what you get, son.<br />
<br />
McLaren have 4 pole positions in a row. Can they make it five?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Stuff</u></span><br />
Whoa. That's really the thought for me here. I am honestly surprised with the driver changes that were announced at the beginning of the weekend here. Not a lot but enough.<br />
<br />
Schumacher:<br />
Announced his retirement at the end of the season. This one shouldn't have been a surprise to me but I was surprised at his lack of patience with the development of the team. Of course we don't know the real story but one could easily imagine Michael getting pushed out in favor of Hamilton. Which would make it similar to his last retirement when it seemed he got pushed out in favor of Alonso.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/XmMdX6BbPAs" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Hamilton:<br />
Moving to Mercedes from the team that walked him through his career since practically before his teens seems a bit of a jerky move. I'll admit I'm surprised that he didn't take the easy way out and stay with McLaren. Then when I think of how Hamilton will be the uncontested number 1 one the team, I can see that appealing to his delusional sense of self importance. I don't care, he whines too much for me. On the other hand, this is not the road well traveled and he gains a bit of credit for putting his contract where his mouth is. And yes, if he decided he wanted to do an interview with F1-Geeks, I'd buy him a first class ticket and fawn all over him because the truth is, he is very good at what he does. <br />
<br />
Does that make us hypocrites at F1-Geeks? No. Unless we pretended to like him to get page views.<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Lewis Hamilton is the best diver ever.</span><br />
<br />
Perez:<br />
Get's the big break moving to McLaren. This will make him amazing or will destroy him. We'll see. It is the opportunity of a lifetime.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Track Feature</u><br />
The "S-curves". A fast blend of entrances and exits at the beginning of the lap that are tied so closely that you have to get them all perfect or you ruin your entire lap.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The nod on the back of the rear wing, to the McLaren based animated cartoon on Sky Sports.<br />
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/8kOMK7xfRsg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<u>Qualifying</u><br />
A typical Suzuka session. Traffic and surprises.<br />
<br />
Q1 was all Schumacher providing the drama. He somehow managed to blow every lap he attempted until the last that started just before the timer for Q1 ended. So he had one and only one lap. Caught in traffic, he was not fast enough until the last sector but he managed a miracle reminiscent of his older days and made it through to the next session.<br />
<br />
Senna gets blocked and then throws a tantrum about it and wastes even more time than the block cost him. Ridiculous. When you start driving like your uncle then you can pull crap like that.<br />
<br />
Q2 Enjoyable, as Perez makes it through and Maldonado doesn't. No real surprise from the rest.<br />
<br />
Q3 RedBull shows up and shows up good. Front row lock out. There is a chance it could have played out differently but Raikkonen spun and everyone had to make sure not to kill him. Vettel gets his 4th consecutive pole here.<br />
<br />
I fully expect a RedBull 1-2 but Suzuka can be full of surprises. <br />
<br />
<u>The Race</u><br />
Whoa... again.<br />
Lights out<br />
Vettel in front and Kobyoshi makes a great start, and moves past webber. Button does the Button thing. Calm and cool moving up to 3rd. Commotion ensues in the 1st corner. Alonso has Raikkonen on his left and Button makes a sudden move toward Alonso. Alonso makes a small adjustment but it is enough to drive his left rear into Kimi's front wing and it goes flat and as does Alonso's race.<br />
<br />
High drama here as Alonso needs all the points he can get with this closest rival leading the race this DNF drastically changes the season from on where it is Alonso's to where it seems unlikely he'll be able to keep it.<br />
<br />
Rosberg is caught up in the chaos and he gets to chat with Alonso all the way back to the pits.<br />
<br />
Vettel manages the restart masterfully and Kobyashi keeps his 2nd place to the delight of his hometown fans but we all know that's not going to last. Chances are he'll be lucky to stay in the top 5.<br />
<br />
Perez is looking confident after his announcement and makes some daring moves. Then he tries on Raikkonen. Raikkonen's not going to take any business from Perez. You can almost hear him thinking, "I am not caring about you." Perez tries anyway and he pays for it by being run wide and loses some spots. They don't call him Iceman for nothing.<br />
<br />
Perez regains himself and eventually makes my favorite move of the race. Outbreaking Hamilton into the hairpin, he actually uses the hairpin to help keep him from sliding into Hamilton and makes a clean brilliant move.<br />
<br />
The race stewards assign grossjean a 10 second stop-and-go penalty for being scruffy and French but much like F1-Geeks, they had no issue with him slamming into Webber.<br />
<br />
Button starts to close in on Kobyashi and it looks like the Japanese driver is going to lose the podium but some freaky transmission problems hold him back. <br />
<br />
For the first time since 1990 a Japanese driver makes the podium and the crowd cheers so loud the Tifosi would be impressed. Good job Kamui on your first F1 podium. It could not have come on a better track, well done.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Quote</u><br />
A two-way tie.<br />
Raikkonen when a Sky Sports reporter, hoping for some interesting commentary asked him about his spin on the last lap of Q3, <br />
"Kimi, what happened?"<br />
"I spun"<br />
"And a bit of a disaster for you and some others..."<br />
"I don't care what happened to the others."<br />
<br />
I am glad he's back.<br />
<br />
Mark Webber commenting on being torpedoed in turn two.<br />
"First Lap Nutcase again, Grosjean. Maybe he needs another holiday."<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
The normally very reserved Japanese crowd chanting, "Ka-mu-i, Ka-mu-i, Ka-mu-i"<br />
Runner-up: Vettel congratulating Kamui on his podium<br />
<br />
Once again Japan is pivotal in the championship contest and Alonso's lead is cut to only 4 points. Next up Korea. Shaped like a leprous Pac-Man, it's a modern track and has some cool elements. See you there.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-16268154690006360672012-11-24T22:12:00.002-07:002012-11-24T22:12:41.909-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 14 - The Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgenTwjtCWkEEODwW3wWWWMdfZlqyzEeWX0qNTLMXGpEpM2way3mSrDDH7zkyLwtTjTwYcO7pL-UJbEghJ8e_kCg4yEoIfAlXgI04txB5T0USX2oUb7Ok7HzKad_q7xXh4O_e8htOryq4Y/s1600/marina+bay+.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgenTwjtCWkEEODwW3wWWWMdfZlqyzEeWX0qNTLMXGpEpM2way3mSrDDH7zkyLwtTjTwYcO7pL-UJbEghJ8e_kCg4yEoIfAlXgI04txB5T0USX2oUb7Ok7HzKad_q7xXh4O_e8htOryq4Y/s320/marina+bay+.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Singapore</u></span><br />
I always liked this track. I don't know yet if it really has any soul to speak of. Unfortunately I think there is some sort of spirit transference that needs to happen before a track "comes alive". I really don't want to see that happen but there aren't many new courses that have a personality. Shanghai might and I'm hoping Austin does but we'll see. <br />
<br />
The good about watching Singapore is the spectacle, more pit stops, and the inherent danger/excitement of a street circuit.<br />
<br />The bad is that this race is long. Very long. Often running past the 2 hour race time limit. That in itself isn't so bad but at times it can <em>feel</em> long.<br />
<br />
It's a street circuit, which means they take a regular city, go crazy and build a track in it.<br />
<br />
Racing at night. If you've never seen any racing at night you really should. All kinds of flames and sparks and glowing things as we see the Second Law of Thermodynamics come into play.<br />
<br />
There's been a safety car in every single running of the Singapore Grand Prix. Will there be another?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Stuff</u></span><br />
Still very late but we're trying to catch up. I'm digging that the Super Softs are being used here. I don't think we have enough of those. If it's a team sport, then make the teams bear even a larger piece of the real-time element of the victories. <br />
<br />
Singapore has never had a race without a safety car. It's not an easy race.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Track Feature</u><br />
Calling the "night" part of this event, my favorite track feature is admittedly a bit of a stretch but it makes the whole race just more entertaining. The cars look so glossy and smooth. They look like glass and it's awesome in HD. The Lotus looks great, the McLaren looks as cool as it could and even the Mercedes starts to look like they actually finished the livery for once.<br />
Runner up is the Singapore Flyer. It is cool to see that thing flying around in the background and it makes it easy for the F1 game to seem more realistic.<br />
<br />
If there is a downside here it is that the super-slow motion is fast enough to catch the lights cycling and it looks kinda strange if you don't know what it is. Well, it looks kinda strange either way.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3PnEjsc-IrvUfGmFHMCehlfXiINV1hPWTywO8rSOtP5xGBwzCXLIDypvIZTRz7gaYyWNBKkJamdYmP8P9nL_v6kUr0C_k1tF518sDOCK9KFfjf2-2CZt-gAssrK6iJGpL520hWxvYwUk/s1600/Sebastian-Vettel-Helm-Singapur-2012-19-fotoshowImageNew-7cbdd4d4-630549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3PnEjsc-IrvUfGmFHMCehlfXiINV1hPWTywO8rSOtP5xGBwzCXLIDypvIZTRz7gaYyWNBKkJamdYmP8P9nL_v6kUr0C_k1tF518sDOCK9KFfjf2-2CZt-gAssrK6iJGpL520hWxvYwUk/s320/Sebastian-Vettel-Helm-Singapur-2012-19-fotoshowImageNew-7cbdd4d4-630549.jpg" width="320" /></a>Vettel's sparkly LED helmet. I know a lot of you think its retarded. I'm telling you, if I was a two time champion and way behind in the championship, why not do cool stuff that you like? The whole point of doing what they do is that they love it. Do it all, brother, do it all.</div>
<br />
<u>Qualifying</u><br />
An odd session. Vettel goes out on SuperSofts and gets a great time. RedBull says, hey, stay out just in case. There's still time for people to get a good lap in. So he stays out gets still great times, and then all kinds of people put on the SuperSofts and start dropping 2+ seconds off their laps. Ferrari keeps Massa in and he almost pays for it by not making it to the next session. Crazy cats those Ferrari boys.<br />
<br />
Q1 was cool for the sudden performance boost from the SuperSofts. It was cool to see. People are going to have to save those for the race. <br />
<br />
Q2 A bummer for me as I continually miss Ayrton Senna so much that I am desperate for a glimpse of his greatness to show up in his nephew. To be fair to Bruno, he <em>is</em> an F1 driver with the license and everything. He hits the wall coming out of a corner and ruins his session. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5Xs83QhRao2tt67YSTUfBUJBvY4o_IQ4J2UK_rd7XHKiGIuMVwxh5xR0Bk4TA6zcX7Xw33mjOhpd2GWpWPKAe2N02xp7arFfWIgml0YyWNURZBK0PUD4GVLBFUqFZP5r24sANofn5Ik/s1600/161681-sebastian-vettel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5Xs83QhRao2tt67YSTUfBUJBvY4o_IQ4J2UK_rd7XHKiGIuMVwxh5xR0Bk4TA6zcX7Xw33mjOhpd2GWpWPKAe2N02xp7arFfWIgml0YyWNURZBK0PUD4GVLBFUqFZP5r24sANofn5Ik/s320/161681-sebastian-vettel.jpg" width="320" /></a>Q3 Everyone waits until 3 minutes are left. Well, everyone except Hamilton, Button, and Vettel. Rossberg doesn't bother to come out and Grosjean drives like a maniac but loses time. Hamilton and Maldonado on the front. Let's see what happens.<br />
<br />
This should be good.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u></u><br />
<u></u><br />
<u>The Race</u><br />
Seems like forever to get everyone in place and the cars up front are feeling the heat.<br />
<br />
Lights come on and then the lights go out. Hamilton keeps his place. Vettel and Button <em>both</em> pass Maldenado and regular readers may accurately ascertain, this is a good time for me. It turns out this is just the start of the party.<br />
<br />
Massa gets a tire puncture and has to come in. Poor Massa. <br />
<br />
Now while I feel jaded/sympathetic about Massa, I have no such diminished loathing for Hamilton and so joy was to be found when his transmission let go. These transmissions need to make nearly five-thousand gear changes during a race in less time than it takes to say "gear" so it's a surprise they don't blow up all the time.<br />
<br />
Life gets even better when socialist-hypocrite Maldonado finds himself a victim of the FIA trying to equalize the playing field. It is nearly ironic.<br />
<br />
It was nice to see Vettel win again and the stress on Adrian Newey was intense and obvious. The magic helmet lights worked. Alonso does what Alonso does and gets yet another podium.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Quote</u><br />
From my 2 year old when Felipe Massa has to come in after one lap to get new tires. In the most dismissive assessment of Massa's fate... "Oh Massa..."<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://sportschatplace.com/assets/Uploads/stockimages/general/misc/_resampled/SetWidth445-Vettel-Singapore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://sportschatplace.com/assets/Uploads/stockimages/general/misc/_resampled/SetWidth445-Vettel-Singapore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Normally this would be Massa not making it out of Q3. But you know what? I'm starting to feel kinda sorry for the guy. Don't get me wrong. I will never be a fan but since he's recently stopped whining and been focusing on racing, I've found him much less annoying. Perhaps it was that whining that he needed to focus properly. Maybe <span dir="auto">Luca Montezemolo has his family tied up in a basement somewhere. </span>I don't know. He's just not his normal sucky but claiming its not his fault self. I suppose I miss it. <br />
I'm going with Vettel, overcome with emotion at this victory that clearly meant a great deal to him.<br />
<br />
Next up Japan. Another wheel and some classic gravel traps. Driver rumors abound. See you there.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-35078758200999868512012-11-03T08:11:00.000-07:002012-11-03T19:28:43.280-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 13 - Italian Grand Prix - Monza<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5OpMPt-U_0NGICCBvyRWUZNAWv6TG2zJ84UqN5O3gXT-NRjJPUaL2S7hyphenhyphenupr3535j_SRr0yQTgC96rKQ8hzm55Oan4QLQI1xjP1pwed2K64loM26XH5ytgwwcqMFfPELwAmlxHIcJ9JA/s1600/1000px-Monza_track_map_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5OpMPt-U_0NGICCBvyRWUZNAWv6TG2zJ84UqN5O3gXT-NRjJPUaL2S7hyphenhyphenupr3535j_SRr0yQTgC96rKQ8hzm55Oan4QLQI1xjP1pwed2K64loM26XH5ytgwwcqMFfPELwAmlxHIcJ9JA/s320/1000px-Monza_track_map_svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Monza. The fastest track of the year. The cars get up to over 215 mph or so and it's all about straight line speed. Hardly any downforce is used here and you can see drivers trying to work with cars that brake and accelerate completely differently than they are used to.<br />
<br />
This place is hard on brakes but really hard on engines. Most (over 80%) of the time they are at full throttle. <br />
<br />
The first corner here is often the site of a crash. Will we get another pile up like we saw at Spa? Let's find out...<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u></u></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u></u></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><a name='more'></a></u></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Stuff</u></span><br />
I'm irritated at the continued sissification of F1. Grosjean gets banned for an entire race for an unintentional mistake? Ridiculous. Yes, there was a lot of carnage and yes, it was dangerous, but let's be honest with ourselves, Lewis didn't have to hold the line. He was no more entitled to it than anyone else and Grosjean <em>was</em> in front of him. Lewis not moving out of the way (and if you watch the replay, he could have moved a good tire width or two, thus avoiding the accident), is just as much a cause of the accident as anything else. Besides, it's racing people, shit happens in racing.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, the first corner of Monza was a model of driver professionalism as everyone was scared they were all going to get banned for Singapore. It <em>was</em> kinda cool to see.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Track Feature</u><br />
I'm going to have to go with Ascari. This left-right-left complex looks really cool when the driver totally commits and is a bit spooky as well. It's got to be crazy challenging to get right. <br />
Runner-up is the two DRS zones. I like that a lot. If you are going to introduce an advantage to the guy in the back, add another so when he's in front, he's got to pay attention.<br />
Honorable mention goes to Lesmos because there is a 12 year old boy in all of us.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Ma-Qing-Hua1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Ma-Qing-Hua1.jpg" width="320" /></a><u>Favorite Quote</u><br />
Martin Brundle during his grid walk, picks a random person on the grid thrusts the mic in his face, "Do you speak English?"<br />
"No."<br />
"Good. Works every time..."<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
The crowd reaction when Alonso grabs the HD broadcast cam after the podium ceremony and starts filming the Tifosi, they go absolutely wild. <br />
Of course, a close second is Maldonado not making out of Q2<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Ma Qing Hua. The first Chinese driver to turn a lap during an F1 session. Made his debut during the first Free Practice session. He handled the inane questions from Sky Sports with a great deal of cool. Good on you. </div>
<br />
<u>Qualifying</u><br />
An entertaining session. <br />
Q1 wasn't super exciting but was entertaining to root for D'Ambrosia. It didn't look like Schumacher would make it past, but he did.<br />
<br />
Q2 D'Ambrosia didn't make it out of Q2 and landed 16th overall. It didn't look like Schumacher would make it out of Q2, but he did. You know who didn't? Webber. Yes, that news settles in nice and easy.<br />
<br />
Q3 Starts out with some funky shenanigans by the Ferraris and Schumacher picks it up. Then all hell breaks loose, Alonso 10th? Massa 3rd? What the heck? Alonso ends up along side Kobayashi which might end up with some crazy first lap craziness.<br />
<br />
This should be good.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>The Race</u><br />
It is good. They line up and the lights come on. Nobody jumps the start and the first 4 laps are a good time. Lots of passing and wheel-to-wheel stuff. Alonso does a great job and moves four spots up to 6th as he goes into turn 1 a second time.<br />
<br />
A slight bonus here as Webber drops back three places to 14th.<br />
<br />
Lap 18 gets interesting as Ferrari electronics go dead and the flee from the pit wall effectively blind to what's happening to the car. <br />
<br />
Alonso keeps moving along and a few retirements end up making it seem he has a chance to win. Then it becomes the Sergio Pérez show and it is the most entertaining part of the race. After his pit stop he starts gaining on Lewis by seconds a lap and moves from a start of 12th to finish in 2nd. That was fun to watch.<br />
<br />
<br />
Next up Singapore. They race past a giant Ferris Wheel, at night, how cool is that?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-47763361271387215332012-10-23T12:00:00.000-07:002012-10-24T02:58:08.284-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 12 - Belgian Grand Prix<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4hQ_rtuxJk8mVtslK_vNdzlo48UXt4ZW7U59yLtannwsxZjJaxRM3dy-BhCuDTqAsT07MwWJjXG_fpmj_cFEumwRbZwJlCQTVCevABWH6SQCu8qEAU4hHBU382SpXU1vqUft0KCHDSQ/s1600/2000px-Spa-Francorchamps_of_Belgium_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4hQ_rtuxJk8mVtslK_vNdzlo48UXt4ZW7U59yLtannwsxZjJaxRM3dy-BhCuDTqAsT07MwWJjXG_fpmj_cFEumwRbZwJlCQTVCevABWH6SQCu8qEAU4hHBU382SpXU1vqUft0KCHDSQ/s320/2000px-Spa-Francorchamps_of_Belgium_svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Spa. I think I love this track more than Monaco. Its beautiful, challenging, looks lke a phaser, and is never boring. Even if nothing happened and it was just a parade, everyone has to go through Eau Rouge at least once every couple of minutes. I'll gladly watch that for a couple of hours.<br />
<br />
Eau Rough is awesome. It's a bit downhill with a bit of a left then right, and at the end of the left, you climb. Hard. So hard, in fact that when you finish the climb, you're going to experience a full negative G. This thing is just awesome. Were it not for the downforce F1 cars generate, they'd catch so much air at the exit you could honestly say they would be flying off the track. This section is so mean it's actually killed someone. Sadly, this isn't just the entertaining hyperbole you've grown used to here. Although this history of this circuit is even more grim we're currently still recovering from a more recent tragedy. Namely, Hamilton's win in Hungary.<br />
<br />
Will Spa cause F1-Geeks even more depression or will we see Lotus take their first race.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Stuff</u></span><br />
Yes, I know this is very late. Half of the F1-Geeks team got an assignment in Hong Kong and it's taken a while to get settled. More about that later.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Track Feature</u><br />
Clearly it's Eau Rouge. Drivers experience two and a half G at the lowest point and then lose 3.5 G as they exit. Look at this:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/jlEtzbNsPGU" width="640"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Maybe it's just that Eau Rouge is an F1 track character/personality element that was awesome and still is. A piece of history that hasn't been completely watered down.<br />
<br />
On a related note, this race is only 44 laps long. How cool it must be for the drivers to drive through such long laps.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Quote</u><br />
Lewis Hamilton on being asked to comment on Jensen's first pole position for McLaren - "For the team? Oh Really? Oh wow!"<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
Maldonado blocking Nico Hulkenburg. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not happy Nico was blocked, but he wasn't going to be contesting for the front, and anything that messes with Maldonado is one of the few of my favorite things.<br />
<br />
Runner-up was the Ferrari mechanic, walking the pitlane, gives an axle to a McLaren mechanic who takes it at first, then while looking it over says, "It's not ours. I don't know who's it is." Were it not for my hatred of Communist Maldonado, this would have been my favorite moment of the weekend. It illustrated in such a unique way the incredible carnage that occurred, the cool common courtesy amongst the teams, and the general bad-ass-ness of the mechanics who can see a part (that looks identical to everyone else's) and know instantly it isn't theirs.<br />
<br />
Second Runner up was Nichole Sherzinger's defeated agonized head shaking in such despondent depression with her man's fate at turn 1.<br />
<br />
<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
Kimi's new helmet design. Very Imperial Stormtrooper, very cool.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Qualifying</u><br />
An entertaining session. <br />
Q1 was all about Karthikeyan locking up his tires. It seemed he was unnerved by the Ferraris. <br />
Maldonado involved in yet another unsportsman-like incident but that's not really surprising. What is surprising was Rossberg not making it through.<br />
<br />
Q2 had Massa, Schumacher, and surprisingly, Vettel (last year's pole sitter) fail to make it through. So far this year Lews is the only driver to make it into every Q3 and continues his streak. I really struggle with Schumacher. For sentimentality's sake, I'd like him to do well. On the other hand, I find it fitting that he is suffering now in the era he created. I believe he single-handedly lowered the approach from a gentleman's honorable enterprise, to a whiny, anything is OK as long as you get away with it philosophy.<br />
<br />
Q3 is a Jenson Button clinic. At 6 minutes left he starts laying down laps a half second faster than anyone else. It helps that pretty much everyone waited until only a couple of minutes are left before they turned a single lap. <br />
<br />
Jenson hasn't had pole in 60 races and never had one for McLaren. Kobyashi has never been on the front row ever, neither has Sauber. Coolness all around. I'm trying to forget the irritation that is Maldonado getting 3rd. Although is 3-grid penalty makes this much easier to bear.<br />
<br />
<u>The Race</u><br />
Kobyashi's brakes start to smoke furiously before the lights go out and there's a good chance he'll catch fire. Maldonado jumps the start and it causes a massive pile up in turn 1. OK, not his fault but I'm blaming him anyway.<br />
<br />
It really was Grossjean moving into a position where Hamilton can't move over and he ends up hitting Hamilton's front left tire and loses control while taking out Hamilton, Alonso, Perez, Kobyashi, and himself. Kobyashi, manages to survive somewhat but ends up moving from his best ever qualifying spot of 2nd to 20th after having to stop to have the team check on the huge hole in the side of his car.<br />
<br />
The safety car pulls in on lap 4 and the race is off. Good passing moves and good racing but it's mostly Vettel that provides the excitement for the first half of the race. <br />
<br />
The second half has a good bit of passing moments, but one stays with me. Schumacher has some sort of issue and Raikkonen almost runs into the back of him and is forced to pass through Eau Rouge. When anyone passes, intentionally or not, through Eau Rouge, it's a good time for me.<br />
<br />
Johnny Tire Management does his usual bit with saving his tires, makes a one-stop strategy work and stays in front for the win. The contrast with Lewis hits home a bit for me because I have no contempt or disgust when I see Jessica Michibata celebrating.<br />
<br />
Next up Monza. High speed, not always high drama, but still cool....<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-87999713182431399472012-09-23T02:52:00.002-07:002012-09-23T02:52:36.999-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 11 Hungarian Grand Prix<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5vE7e4rHv8g6Fdf3nJkNGdK6oZ9z6ZODJGvIy9Bb0p7pH0oXUJCebIcAEWpd2zZHh7-7VTsDZDBpbDt9EudxGKP9aqG3a3F8CsIs-081hNt8jwfs7AW6BkemGXwkEpN4VEdBIkD8-Fys/s1600/2000px-Hungaroring_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5vE7e4rHv8g6Fdf3nJkNGdK6oZ9z6ZODJGvIy9Bb0p7pH0oXUJCebIcAEWpd2zZHh7-7VTsDZDBpbDt9EudxGKP9aqG3a3F8CsIs-081hNt8jwfs7AW6BkemGXwkEpN4VEdBIkD8-Fys/s320/2000px-Hungaroring_svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
In 1986 Oran "Juice" Jones had a hit with his song about betrayal, discovery, and fiscal revenge, and Formula One began the slow subversion of the Soviet empire by bringing the lavish luxury of capitalism to Hungary. Coincidentally this also happens to be when vampires began a resurgence.<br />
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Just shy of 2.75 miles long the dusty twisty Hungaroring is not known as a track you can pass on. While not as slow as Monaco, Hungary is still pretty technical and demanding with the second slowest corner of the season. A 50 MPH hairpin at turn one provides the best passing opportunities on the track. Lots of curves means lots of G and this should really push the drivers physically.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/_chrisuk/7731942490/in/photostream/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkevx2sAnAsFtiDW5CL3Tiyd-KwnOw7p6_jaGh3AX82KaTfLNomVpcNdAVSg4suCcqDtOv01rF2zr_4S2230aaTpgMDVXT22UCCGtIsDNreaCSA7WGnhIyEDxZrqLhNlGpnx3OiASZqBQ/s320/Happy+birthday+Alonso.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
With just over 1900 miles left to race this year Alonso looks to be the man to beat but I'll bet this season still has some surprises left. Speaking of Ol' Eyebrows, he celebrated his 31st birthday during the race. Let's see what Hungary brings.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Stuff</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><span style="font-size: small;">Favorite Track Feature</span></u><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I'm going to have to go with the 11, 12, 13 combo. It is great to see the cars stick to those curves and come rocketing out of 13 way faster than you'd expect. Runner up is the long start/finish straight which allows for some great outbreaking maneuvers especially as this is the DRS zone as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<u><span style="font-size: small;">Favorite Quote</span></u><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Martin Brundle describing Grosjean's predicament as he approaches the McLaren "The Lotus will start under steering like a cross-channel ferry." Not really as bad as that Martin, but we get the sentiment.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Runner Up: Hamilton crying like a little bitch because back-markers don't pull over, turn off their engine and trigger the cyanide capsule hidden in a hollow tooth. Buck up little Hammy. Sometimes you need to actually pass people.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<u><span style="font-size: small;">Favorite Moment</span></u><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The crazy start sequence disco light bit which hypnotized Schumacher and made him turn off his engine. Rumor has it McLaren had been working on that particularly tailored mind control sequence from back in the days of Coulthard but then Schumacher retired and they never got a chance to use it. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">To be fair to Michael, he was probably doing the right thing. Either he figured his engine was hot enough and since they were not going to have a regular start, he could have ended up sitting there until it blew or it probably is buried in the actual regulations in some obscure paragraph about Charlie Whiting Gestures. He was 17th anyway so a calculated engine kill was probably still the best choice for him.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<u><span style="font-size: small;">Favorite Easter Egg</span></u><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Smiley faces on Vettel's helmet</span><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;">Practice</span> sessions started off well enough then the rain came and it was all ice. Michael Schumacher, ever the perfectionist, demonstrated the ultimate in understeer.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zu25wOhN3gaQpZtLBO6tPcxIN5cov3s-zURbAJAdb9bo0odd13k6cWZ_KMOHMh6z_pCN-lujlTifIYZSJSTVZnwSitBvfzh1vPxMbdunhv9tpRk2i4hlnYW4Y8rQH8KYyvOhAFfT7-s/s1600/New+aero+detail+on+the+engine+cover+of+Kimi+Raikkonen+%2528FIN%2529+Lotus+F1+E20_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zu25wOhN3gaQpZtLBO6tPcxIN5cov3s-zURbAJAdb9bo0odd13k6cWZ_KMOHMh6z_pCN-lujlTifIYZSJSTVZnwSitBvfzh1vPxMbdunhv9tpRk2i4hlnYW4Y8rQH8KYyvOhAFfT7-s/s320/New+aero+detail+on+the+engine+cover+of+Kimi+Raikkonen+%2528FIN%2529+Lotus+F1+E20_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
One item that I found interesting was Lotus' new aero development that made an appearance in practice. Unfortunately the rain didn't allow them to really test with it as they would have liked but I'm hopeful we'll see it in a race soon.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Qualifying</span> was pretty entertaining, well, Q2 was for me.<br />
Q3 had Hamilton up front halfway though and that held. It wasn't very thrilling but considering this season is generally exciting, I can almost appreciate the change of pace.<br />
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<br />
The <span style="font-size: large;">Race</span> start was pretty basic fare, with Vettel trying to get past Grosjean and ending up getting passed by Button. Lotus tells Kimi to hit "OK" twice, reboot, and and then reinstall Kers 2.0 from the floppy disks they've left in the glovebox..<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7260/7734602994_93753191bd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7260/7734602994_93753191bd.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Now where do I plug in the usb?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Hungary was the site of Jenson's first F1 win and it looked like he had a pretty good shot at a win here. Jumping up to 3rd in the first lap was exactly what he needed to do.<br />
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Pretty cool battle between Alonso and Perez but it ended exactly as we would have expected.<br />
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Grossjean's first stop had a problem and it cost him the lead and Raikkonen's last reminded Scruffy le Pew that there is currently only one World Champion on Team Lotus. <br />
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All in all a pretty good event. Any race where Hamilton wins is not going to be an exacting one. Yes, he bores me and is a petulant little bitch, but its more about how he does well when everything goes his way but he's not known for winning from 15th. Not a ton of drama or excitement but the fans got a decent race and there was enough racing to not put me to sleep.<br />
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1st Hamilton<br />
2nd Raikkonen<br />
3rd Grosjean<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com<span id="goog_2081996300"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_2081996301"><span id="goog_2081996305"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_2081996306"></span></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-31459880735379329612012-08-04T20:57:00.003-07:002012-08-05T06:46:17.911-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - German Grand Prix<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvvEioJSemNdCeLWIIwHrcx22C7YjuVsmfGGSRvGQNI1AXFM5WnqMU3-vlFs-nxiRVrUxL4nrKcq5zNVyyRVEQjIMzD9DFdqsS3sVBYTz9jP7PQEQLBRbnnPO50bLSFZNs97exF1EjuA/s1600/800px-Hockenheim2012_svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvvEioJSemNdCeLWIIwHrcx22C7YjuVsmfGGSRvGQNI1AXFM5WnqMU3-vlFs-nxiRVrUxL4nrKcq5zNVyyRVEQjIMzD9DFdqsS3sVBYTz9jP7PQEQLBRbnnPO50bLSFZNs97exF1EjuA/s320/800px-Hockenheim2012_svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Hockenheim. I think. Maybe it's just me but I completely lose track of which German track is being raced on every year. The magic-TV-people say it's Hockenheim this year. Barren and stripped of its soul, the Hockenheimring always makes me meloncholy. I know F1 didn't like long laps and low total lap races, and I know that the cost of making the forest bits safe would be astronomical, I know it was put together by track designing legend <span dir="auto">Hermann Tilke,</span> but to take something with so much character and put some corners and a hairpin in is just sad.<br />
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It's not all bad though. It looks like a woolly mammoth skull and Parabolica is kinda cool. I guess it has some distinction for being almost completely flat and bland.<br />
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Let's get on with it then.<br />
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<u>Favorite Track Feature</u><br />
While I'm temped to indulge in hipster irony and try to claim my favorite feature doesn't exist; I'm getting damn tired of people who are too cool for themselves, so I'll say, I'm pretty happy with Parabolica because it may well be the only corner in F1 that I could actually get up to speed on.<br />
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<u>Favorite Quote</u><br />
Damon Hill discussing the differences between the time of Jim Clark, who lost his life in 1968 at Hockenheim. "We've gone from a time when making a mistake meant death to now the stewards trying to keep the drivers from intentionally leaving the track."<br />
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<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
McLaren's 2.31 second pit stop. Bonus that all the wheel guys were in such perfect unison, you couldn't tell there was more than one of them.<br />
Runner Up: Lewis gets a flat and tells his team to remove his feeding tube and inform his next of kin. McLaren tells him to put his big-boy underwear on and get back out.<br />
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<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
Vettel's special helmet with the crest of his home town on it. Even though he didn't win, it was still a nice gesture to his fans.<br />
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Fred's Take</span></u><br />
Qualifying started out rather dull with Q1 having no surprises. Before Q2 gets seriously underway, it starts to rain. Hard. Watching the Force Indias twitching around was pretty cool. <br />
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The pre-race starts out with a little drama, The RedBull team was accused of an illegal engine map basically giving them traction control and sneaky tire management and fuel savings, which is illegal, but the stewards rule that while they don't disagree that RedBull is doing something illegal, the engine map follows the rules as written.<br />
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Crazy.<br />
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The pre-race had a bit of intrigue as the Lotus team tells Kimi's crew not to expose their tires as if they were going to use the lavender-colored Secret Softs and they didn't want anyone to know..<br />
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First lap starts out clean with Schumacher all over Vettel but the interesting event was Massa's mystery crash that left his wing debris all over the track. <br />
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Very entertaining wheel to wheel racing in the first set of laps but the best was Raikkonen and di Resta. <br />
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Jenson has a great drive to second. Well, third, but the stewards decided to make an example of Vettel's pass on the last lap and take the position away from RedBull. You may infer, correctly, that I disagree. It looked to me that Vettel was ahead of Jenson when he went off track and if you watch it carefully you can see that Jenson gets two wheels off the track as well. Where exactly was Vettel supposed to go? Crashtor Maldonado has taken more drivers out and done way worse things but they just take away his copy of the Communist Manifesto and send him on his way.<br />
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<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">
<u>Tim's Take</u></h2>
Another good race. This season has really been terrific. We saw some good passing. We saw Massa run up somebodys butt at the start and lose his front wing. We saw Vettel decide that the white lines demarcating the track are really more a suggestion for where the course should be than a hard and fast rule. But one thing we didn't see was Pastor Maldonado randomly ram someone. Perhaps the stewards are getting through his thick Venezuelan skull. Seriously, the man can drive a car, but he's the most reckless and dangerous driver I've seen in the sport. I think Perez said it best when he said Maldonado doesn't belong on the grid. Moving on.<br />
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Hockenheim is, compared with Valencia, Shanghai or Malaysia, a narrow track. Nothing like Monaco or Singapore, but those are street courses. Hockenheim is a purpose built track, but it's a bit on the narrow side, which I think makes for a great race. Drivers are forced to make riskier moves to pass and there's a lot of close, wheel-to-wheel racing. It might be a bit more dangerous, but I'm more concerned with my entertainment and not whether Karthikayan finishes the race. And while not the most exciting race this season, it had some good points. <br />
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Fernando shot his Ferrari from pole position to take the lead at the first corner and never looked back. There were some entertaining bits along the way for him, but really, he was never threatened. I thought it was interesting that he categorized the fact that Hamilton was on his tail for part of the race as "pressure." At that point, thanks to a tire puncture, Hamilton had been lapped and was simply trying to un-lap himself, much to the annoyance of Sebastian Vettel who was pissed that Lewis had the audacity to be on the track trying to race. But Alonso wasn't in danger of losing the lead to Lewis. <br />
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Hamilton's pass on Vettel was hilarious. Vettel was caught off guard perhaps, but Hamilton passed him putting him between Alonso and Vettel, who were in first and second at the time. I've never seen so much waving and gesturing from another driver, just pissed that Hamilton passed him and made him slow and lose pace by 1/10 of a second or so. But in all fairness, he did pass you Sebastian, which meant he was faster. Arguably it did slow Vettel down a bit and allow Jenson Button, who was running third and is Lewis' team mate, a chance to close the gap on Vettel a bit. Sadly, Lewis' car had sustained damage from driving around with a flat tire and he had to retire a short time later.<br />
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One of the biggest stories of the race though was Jenson's performance. I mean he had a pretty good race. Not outstanding, but pretty good. The reason that's so surprising, or note worthy is that he hasn't had one of those since the season opener in Australia. He and the McLaren team have struggled to make the car drivable for him, and they seemed to have got it back. He wasn't slipping all over the place like he has been the past 8 races. But even more impressive was the 2.3 second pit stop that McLaren pulled off for him. It was simply astounding.<br />
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Both Force India cars were racing wheel to wheel with the Sauber cars at one point, but in both circumstances it was the Sauber car that got the advantage and gained a spot. Perhaps the best pass of the race saw DiResta as the victim, as Schumacher squeezed by, and quite unexpectedly, and before Paul could shut the door, Kimi Raikkonen followed Schumacher right on by. It was so gutsy I don't thing Paul expected it a bit. It was cool to see the old Kimi back on track.<br />
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The race finished with Fernando, Vettel and then Button crossing the line, and they stood on the podium in that order. But it wasn't until after the podium ceremony that the steward announced that they were handing a 20 second penalty down to Vettel for passing Button off track. That meant that Kimi moved up to third and Vettel dropped to fifth. <br />
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Based on this race's results, I think it's safe to say that it's official. Ferrari has managed to pull a chassis, that started the season as below par compared to the rest of the field, up to being one of the better cars on the grid. While I can't prove it, I think that has got to do with Fernando providing useful feed back and consequently skewing the design to suit his needs. It's clear that has worked remarkably well. But of course it's largely due to the fact that if you put Alonso in a soapbox derby car he'd manage to finish in the points. Damn, that man can drive. <br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-54358672606045369092012-07-24T15:13:00.000-07:002012-07-24T15:13:07.615-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - British Grand Prix<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Silverstone_Circuit_2010_version.png/1280px-Silverstone_Circuit_2010_version.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Silverstone_Circuit_2010_version.png/1280px-Silverstone_Circuit_2010_version.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Silverstone. In my F1 infancy I thought it was a cool track just because I heard it was a great track. It then fell out of favor with me and I thought I was such an F1 rebel. As of late it has started to win me back.<br />
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In 1950 the first ever F1 race was held here. (Yes, I know some of you Internet people want to claim that technically it was held before that as Formula I or whatever. If it wasn't a contest for a world championship, it wasn't F1. So suck it.)<br />
<br />At 109 Miles long it is one of the highest speed circuits on the planet. More on that after the break.<br />
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Alonso took Valencia in a dramatic race. Will the unpredictable clouds produce even greater drama?<br />
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Read on<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<u>Favorite Feature</u><br />
This is a tie for me. Copse and the Maggotts/Becketts complex.<br />
Copse, taken at over 170mph looks amazing even on television. Drivers are pulling over 5Gs through it and it's entry is blind. This rivals Eau Rouge for gutsy flat-out-ness.<br />
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Then there's the incredible serpentine Maggotts/Becketts complex. Five turns in a matter of seconds. I can't imagine how technically precise you need to be to get that many apexes right in such rapid succession. What I really love about it is how the cars look going through it. On the rare stationary camera shot you get a crazy sense of how well these things stick to the ground. Just incredible.<br />
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<u>Favorite Comment</u><br />
Sergio Perez calling Maldonado's racing stupid. If he would have called him a socialist bastard it would have been epic.<br />
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<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
Fernando Alonso dedicating his Pole Position to the recovering Marrusia driver Maria de Villota<br />
Runner up was seeing Jean Tott is still able to keep Michelle Yeoh hanging around.<br />
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<u>Favorite Easter Egg</u><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggy__3L7IlXrp-CXzXyxkpotHZDgAN49UyUgCXOBew1gyrExdJsga11V4LXjCVDicb_uFdpIBsPHKG9njql0iWjtn47HFKzAuAj9PFQxWMd6iXYjwoSVkbBdymRqPdrpYXV_G2w5_LPNI/s1600/redb-silv-ffc-1-2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggy__3L7IlXrp-CXzXyxkpotHZDgAN49UyUgCXOBew1gyrExdJsga11V4LXjCVDicb_uFdpIBsPHKG9njql0iWjtn47HFKzAuAj9PFQxWMd6iXYjwoSVkbBdymRqPdrpYXV_G2w5_LPNI/s320/redb-silv-ffc-1-2012.jpg" width="320" /></a>Over €1 Million raised for charity "Wings For Life" by RedBull by selling space on their cars for people to put their pictures on the cars.</div>
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<u>Fun Fact</u><br />
In 1999 4200 flights occurred at Silverstone and that still remains the world record for busiest one day airport.<br />
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<u>Qualifying </u><br />
Jenson's lap, spoiled by Timo Glock's spin, was still very dramatic and entertaining to watch. Q3 was good and nets Alonso his 21st career pole. <br />
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">Fred's Take</span></u><br />
Even with the rain delay this was a good qualifying day.<br />
<br />The start was practically beyond description. Like a subtle and complicated plot, I'm going to need to watch it another three or four times to get a really good sense of it. So much going on I could not keep track. I thought things would settle down after the first lap. Then the second lap was just as good. Surely things would settle by the 5th lap. 6th? 10th? No.<br />
<br />Race control, infuriated at Maldonado's recidivistic crash with Sergio Perez, slammed their fist down on the console and accidentally turned off DRS. At least that's what it seemed like.<br />
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Great racing throughout and while I didn't like Webber winning, I was OK with Alonso holding second.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-38952997521591738302012-07-23T17:59:00.000-07:002012-07-23T17:59:44.002-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Europe (aka Valencia)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Circuit_Valensia_street.svg/1000px-Circuit_Valensia_street.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Circuit_Valensia_street.svg/1000px-Circuit_Valensia_street.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
What was once an honorary title, the European Grand Prix has been its own race since 1983 and is currently held in Valencia Spain<br />
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A perfect record of seven races and seven winners this season just begs to be broken.<br />
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Was it?<br />
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First, let me just tell you, if you ever had any interest in watching formula one and haven't seen this race, watch this one. This was a perfect race to introduce a non-F1 fan to the sport.<br />
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<u>Favorite Track Feature:</u><br />
The nearly 500 foot-long swing bridge. They race on this thing. I'd love for it to be swung slightly off and have a little jump at the end so the cars have to clear the water.<br />
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<u>Favorite comment of the weekend:</u><br />
Schumacher's post race interview math. When explaining how he lost track of his place, he meant to illustrate how hard it was to derive his place. Knowing he was ahead of Webbber and seeing Webber's pit board listing Webber in 7th, he explained that 1-1=3. And it made perfect sense. I'm glad to see him on the podium.<br />
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<u>Favorite Moment</u><br />
Alonso, in tears, on the podium. Having never won in Valencia his emotions get the better of him. On the victory lap he has a problem and waits until he is near some grandstands and stops his car on track, gets out, and celebrates with some of the happiest track marshals you will ever see and good for him I say.<br />
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Runner up was Schumacher's surprise at being 3rd.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Fred's Take</u></span><br />
The whole weekend was so good I'm still enjoying it and I'm not even going to try to sum it up.<br />
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Qualifying was definitely surprising but a non-fan wouldn't understand why. Hell, this year, it's almost impossible for me to understand what's going on. Eddie Jordan said he felt redundant because he can't really add any valuable analysis this season as it's so unpredictable. Perhaps Eddie, but there is always entertainment value in your wardrobe.<br />
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The race itself was even better. Lots of drama without too much DRS "fake" passing. Some purists hate the DRS. I used to, but if DRS gave a driver an unfair advantage, then the driver just passed would have the same advantage and regain the position on the next lap. Yes, it does make drivers take less risks in other sections, but that's sort of a "men from the boys" thing. The good ones still attempt it.<br />
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One additional bit of coolness. I happened to come across the capture of the video for the on-board cameras-only feed. I synchronized the start of the video displayed on a laptop, with the start of the race on television and it was an awesome geek way to watch the race. <br />
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This was the most entertaining race so far in the season and they've all been pretty good. The streak is broken but the race was all the better for it. Alonso moves from 11th to 1st and Shumacher gets his first podium since coming back to F1. Damn fine job all the way around.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-91412654155480296842012-06-25T21:32:00.000-07:002012-06-25T21:32:21.948-07:00F1-Geeks Get Fancy-The Concours de Elegance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.whatthefoto.net/Autos/Car-Shows/2012-Concours-dElegance/i-gdgnVLL/0/X2/Concours-de-Elegance-5360-X2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.whatthefoto.net/Autos/Car-Shows/2012-Concours-dElegance/i-gdgnVLL/0/X2/Concours-de-Elegance-5360-X2.jpg" width="320" /></a>This weekend marked the 9th annual gathering of high performance, custom paint, luxury, speed, and some of the best polishing I've ever seen. Seriously, I've never seen black paint look so...... infinite. See this? This car is black. No, not the blue Willys Knight. The one you are using to see the reflection of the Willys. That's how shiny these things were.</div>
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<br />See the unreflected Willys after the break.</div>
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I'm talking about the <a href="http://www.classychassis.org/" target="_blank">Classy Chassis Councours d'Elegance</a> held in Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. Benefiting the <a href="http://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/" target="_blank">Shriners Hospitals for Children</a>, the show had two elements to it. A donate-to-ride area and the show floor.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A charitable donor gets a high-G turn for his generosity</td></tr>
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The Ride & Drive section was pretty cool and actually made owning a high-performance sports car a cool thing. You get to drive your supercar as fast and as hard as you can, and every lap you turn, someone donates $50 to charity. That sounds like a great deal to me. <br />
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When we walked up we saw a yellow Lamborghini launch, shift to second so quickly it had to be a semi-auto transmission. Having never heard that in person before, it was cool to hear. The Ford GT sounded primitive in comparison. Now, before all you Ford GT fans get all worked up, you need to understand something. Primitive is not derogatory here, it is merely an illustrative point used to convey how damn fast that Lambo shifted.<br />
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This year's special attractions were Bonneville race cars and Aston Martin cars. There were several Astons from a few different eras and it was hard to settle on a favorite. This 1983 Aston Martin Lagonda was really unexpected. So unexpected I forgot to take a picture of it. Luckily, I did take a stadium shot with all the vehicles. This is the only photo I have of the weird body style of this thing. It's the black one next to the car that actually looks like an Aston. With pushbutton controls and a styling that Knight Rider would envy, this thing was really a weird surprise.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1983 Aston Martin Interior</td></tr>
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There were other car types there of course, and while they were all cool, you all should know my love of the E-Type Jag. There was a damn fine red one at the show and of course I had to pay my respects.<br />
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How can you not like this 1932 "Metal of Honor" Ford roadster. With signatures across the trunk of servicemen who served as far back as the 1940's.<br />
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There were cars with rumble seats. My wife had never heard of one, and I had nearly forgotten what they were. It was cool to see them with the steps built into the fender.<br />
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While I'm not a Ferrari fan, I have to respect the amazing styling of these things and the timeless beauty they've produced throughout the years. The Daytona has always been on the wish list and my wife fell in love with it after an episode of Top Gear. This yellow one was a big hit.<br />
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This 1958 Plymouth Belevedere 2-door hard top was in the same family as the convertible used in the movie Christine. The Fury used to be a midline car but was promoted and the Belevedere became second tier. Either version has some classic lines. I particularly like the way the roof gently arcs back to the trunk. It's a great looking car and was in great shape.<br />
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A 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible. This thing just oozes "cruise". <br />
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The 1956 Packard 5699 Caribbean convertible. A cool cream color and an awesome hood badge. If knights still existed in the 50s, they'd drive one of these around for sure.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Packard emblem</td></tr>
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1956 Buick 96C Roadmaster convertible. I couldn't get enough of the styling elements on this car. From the gunsights on the fenders to the chopped-exhaust type chrome accents on the side, to the two tone coral/cream paint and the cold-war jet on the hood. This thing was awesome.<br />
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<a href="http://www.whatthefoto.net/Autos/Car-Shows/2012-Concours-dElegance/i-pkhvNm4/1/X2/Concours-de-Elegance-5230-X2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.whatthefoto.net/Autos/Car-Shows/2012-Concours-dElegance/i-pkhvNm4/1/X2/Concours-de-Elegance-5230-X2.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If this doesn't make you long for the cold war....<br />
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<a href="http://www.whatthefoto.net/Autos/Car-Shows/2012-Concours-dElegance/i-FTfTkvS/1/X2/Concours-de-Elegance-5346-X2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://www.whatthefoto.net/Autos/Car-Shows/2012-Concours-dElegance/i-FTfTkvS/1/X2/Concours-de-Elegance-5346-X2.jpg" width="400" /></a>Having never seen a Lola in person, it was very cool to see it in Transformers-like mode.<br />
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This was a great show for a good cause and we are looking forward to next year.<br />
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Check out more <a href="http://www.whatthefoto.net/Autos/Car-Shows/2012-Concours-dElegance/23496968_8BQWQf#!i=1911592765&k=vKpZJZm&lb=1&s=A" target="_blank">pics</a> at our sister site <a href="http://www.whatthefoto.net/">www.whatthefoto.net</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-35028447817746582312012-06-24T09:39:00.000-07:002012-06-24T09:39:07.967-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Canada<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/%C3%8Ele_Notre-Dame_%28Circuit_Gilles_Villeneuve%29.svg/1000px-%C3%8Ele_Notre-Dame_%28Circuit_Gilles_Villeneuve%29.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/%C3%8Ele_Notre-Dame_%28Circuit_Gilles_Villeneuve%29.svg/1000px-%C3%8Ele_Notre-Dame_%28Circuit_Gilles_Villeneuve%29.svg.png" width="320" /></a>With 14 corners and 70 laps, straight line speed is key here, but with four long straights ending in hard corners brakes are just as important.</div>
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The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named for the famous Gilles Villeneuve who on the last lap in 1978 :<br />
Won the first race ever run on this track<br />
With his first F1 win<br />
To became the first Canadian to win a formula one race<br />
And did it in Canada.<br />
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How incredible it would have been to see.<br />
<br />Originally named the Île Notre-Dame Circuit, it was renamed after Villeneuve four years later, just weeks after he died as a result of a crash in the final qualifying lap of the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix.<br />
<br />Six races, six winners. Will Canada produce the 7th?<br />
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Only five drivers have completed every lap of the season so far Rosberg, <span dir="auto">Räikkönen, </span>Hamilton, Alonso, Velttel. With Canada historically being a track of attrition and Safety Cars, I am surprised we didn't lose one of these guys to this course.<br />
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<u>Favorite Track Feature:</u><br />
The Wall of Champions - The last right/left chicane before the start/finish straight, bearing the arguably menacing "Welcome to Quebec" in French. Many drivers have got the chicane wrong and had the opportunity to read that message much closer than they would have wanted but in recent years it seems that every champion has to hit it. Even this year Vettel left some parts of his wheel on the wall. He's joined by Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, and Michael Schumacher. It's a cool section and completely unforgiving.<br />
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<u>Favorite comment of the weekend:</u><br />
When the camera zoomed out from an autograph on an attractive woman's ankle, the Sky Sports co-presenter asked Martin Brundle if that was his signature. He says, "That's not mine. Mine would be higher up." Awesome.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Fred's Take</u></span><br />
Qualifying was good but Schumacher's luck seems to continue in the category of "bad". I'm really starting to long for a Schumacher podium and win.<br />
Excellent start and a great battle in the first few laps between Massa and Rosberg with Massa taking the position then spinning out a lap later. Riakkonen moves past a seemingly struggling Button with a skilled move and Button pits for a set of Super Softs<br />
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Hamilton starts to catch Vettel but when we think there is going to be a good fight, Vettel dives into the pits. Then it's an Alonso/Hamilton fight and just as the Ferrari is about to close on him, Hamilton dives into the pits. Another battle missed and just when we thought it was going to be boring, Hamilton comes out in front of Vettel, and Alonso stays out and starts making great lap times.<br />
<br />Alonso pits, and it all hinges on that pit, with a nearly half second better pit stop, he comes out in front of Hamilton. Hamilton passes Alonso under DRS and suddenly this race become interesting.<br />
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Grossjean pits for new tires but given that he's barely traveled half of the total distance of the total possible for the season, it seemed somewhat optimistic.<br />
<br />Hamilton pits again and it looks ugly and it puts him in 3rd. As usual this season, the race was exciting and entertaining, and while I don't like it when Hamilton wins, I don't mind a 7th winner.<br />
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This turned out to be a decent weekend for my fantasy team. I got Lotus in 2nd, Perez in 3rd. Not a complete disaster.<br />
<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Tim's Take</u></span><br />
From the outset, it seemed that Lewis Hamilton was destined to win this race. Call it a hunch, or just a feeling that because he'd had so many run-ins with bad luck through the first part of the season, his time to win had come due. It seemed he felt that way too. He seemed to approach this race with a confidence that rivaled the early settlers hell bent on seeing to the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny. I'm not a huge fan of his (any more), he tends to whine a bit much for my taste. But you can't deny that regardless of his sometimes pouty attitude, the man can drive. <br />
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The race started off with Sebastian Vettel on pole and Lewis at second. They raced to the corner with Sebastian reaching it easily in front and then, as he often does, increasing the gap between him and the field so that who ever is in second can't use DRS. And it worked too, only something unexpected happened and Lewis started closing the gap. It wasn't long before Hamilton was breathing down Vettel's neck, but he never was close enough to pass. Finally when Vettel pitted at lap 16, Lewis and the third place runner, Fernando Alonso slipped by. This is when things get interesting.<br />
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McLaren tell Lewis to go like mad and take advantage of the clean air and try to gap Fernando's Ferrari as much as possible, but only leave him out for one lap to do so. They pull him in to pit and now Fernando has the lead and he does exactly what Lewis should have done which is to stay out for 3 or 4 laps to build up that gap. The result is that when Alonso pits he manages to come out in front of Lewis and Vettel. <br />
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Meanwhile, there was apparently some racing going on in mid-field, but it wasn't particularly interesting or noteworthy. Sadly, something gets jammed in Schumacher's rear wing, and the DRS is stuck open. The mechanics lean on it to try to get it to go down, but no luck. Michael's out of the race. Sigh. I really would like to see him do well at least once.<br />
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Eventually, we get to the most interesting thing in the race. The call that must have pissed off Ferrari fans around the world. Hamilton goes in for his second pit stop to get new tires, and falls behind Vettel and further behind race leader Fernando. He comes out about 5 seconds back from Vettel and 18 seconds down from Fernando. With 20 laps to go and apparently what Ferrari believes to be a comfortable lead, they decide to leave Fernando out for the remainder of the race on a set of tires that have already run 26 laps. That's right, Ferrari attempted a 1 stop race running soft and super soft tires. The tires that are good for about 15 and 25 laps respectively. <br />
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It isn't 2 laps after the pit that Lewis is setting fastest lap times and closing on Fernando at the rate of .7 per lap. But as the laps tick down, that turns to 1.2 seconds per lap and more. With 6 laps remaining, Red Bull can see the folly of leaving Vettel out on bad tires and bring him in. He pitted from third and came out in 6th, but the newer tires allowed him the grip to claw his way back up to and finish 4th. Fernando on the other hand stayed out on those terrible tires and it wasn't long before Lewis caught him and passed him.<br />
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A short time later Roman Grosjean passes him for second. Let me say right now that I categorically reject the notion of calling Roman Grosjean "RoGro". Yes Bob Varsha, I'm looking square at you. At any rate, Fernando continued to fall, with Perez taking him next. At that point, it was just a matter of waiting to see how many more would pass him before the race came mercifully to an end. Vettel got him for 4th and had the race been another 100 yards longer Nico Rosberg would have had him as well. <br />
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All in all, the race was not all that remarkable. Well ok, 20 cars finished the race and that was a record for this track. The 7th race of the year yielded the 7th winner of the year and that is an all time Formula One record. And Ferrari did make one of the biggest bone-headed decisions I've seen in F1. But aside for that, the race wasn't all that interesting.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-37521057301661927192012-06-13T21:00:00.001-07:002012-06-13T21:00:29.573-07:00For Sale: Senna's First F1 CarListed at Silverstone you can now buy Ayrton Senna de Silva's first F1 car. The car he drove to a spectacular 2nd place in Monaco, in the rain. The Toleman TG-184-2 was given to a driver in 1985 in lieu of salary. He kept it until 1994 when he sold it to the current owner.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lhXN5fcfN4moqOKR1eoEFqlKAiy7jbZ0PfnJB9SAlvwq5CnH6AP5DF-_HMt306RCxbKGdkHoaDi-TKXvCB3qK8kb1EdzETZ1mbIDno227sQzBivK0ahXFY9dKpQc6deXCgUGiLDwzB4/s1600/Senna+car+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lhXN5fcfN4moqOKR1eoEFqlKAiy7jbZ0PfnJB9SAlvwq5CnH6AP5DF-_HMt306RCxbKGdkHoaDi-TKXvCB3qK8kb1EdzETZ1mbIDno227sQzBivK0ahXFY9dKpQc6deXCgUGiLDwzB4/s400/Senna+car+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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More after the break<br />
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I am not really sure what I think of this thing. I honestly wouldn't want to own it. I'd like to see it, and I hope whoever buys it has it on display somewhere, but it seems too big for me to grasp. I can barely believe that I actually saw him race in person. Owning the first ever F1 car he owned would be surreal.<br />
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When you think about the changes in technology, one begins to wonder how much better he would be if he had the benefit of the telemetry and analysis that modern drivers have.<br />
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There is a train of thought that holds that his genius was one of intuition, "feel", and natural affinity for the physics behind the drive. Providing him the modern technology and methods would only have distracted him from what he tapped into to drive as he did.<br />
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I don't know the answer, but I always experience a bit of melancholy to know I'll never find out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJrs2oDgcHeEeQutnkU7n6Toy-_nJiu4Mhj3Gug0nvyD61-CQ6jdfU1rtM8oKW-NdPHQsZrzTL4MnIjS_Oby6igcLk239bIe6Hi34HFLeC0URP5cDDeBJOmxhhUjms_utKiP46hQkUXas/s1600/Senna+car+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJrs2oDgcHeEeQutnkU7n6Toy-_nJiu4Mhj3Gug0nvyD61-CQ6jdfU1rtM8oKW-NdPHQsZrzTL4MnIjS_Oby6igcLk239bIe6Hi34HFLeC0URP5cDDeBJOmxhhUjms_utKiP46hQkUXas/s320/Senna+car+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
If you are interested in owning this piece of racing history, head on over to the <a href="http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/ex-ayrton-senna-1984-toleman-tg-184-2" target="_blank">post</a> and place a bid. Even if you aren't interested in owning it. Head over to the auction so you can look at the steering wheel. Amazing in comparison.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-25249466772589247002012-06-10T13:04:00.001-07:002012-06-11T08:23:30.917-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Spain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Catalunya.svg/1000px-Catalunya.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="117" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Catalunya.svg/1000px-Catalunya.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
The Circuit de Catalunya. Is it me or does Bob Varsha love to pronounce the name of this track?<br />
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Memorable to me for the race where Michael Schumacher, in his early days, started driving very oddly around the course. Odd lines, weird apexes, I remember thinking he lost his contact lenses. It turned out his Benetton was stuck in 5th gear the second half of the race and he still managed to take 2nd. I thought this was pretty cool but had no idea what he would achieve the next decade.<br />
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So far this season we've had four races with four different winners, Button, Alonso, Rossberg, Vettel. Will Spain produce a 5th?<br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: large;"> Tim's take:</span><br />
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If this season has taught us anything so far, it's to expect the unexpected; a different winner for every race, Nico Rosberg's first win, Sergio Perez's terrific 2nd place finish in China, Fernando's remarkable deft at driving a sub-par Ferrari to numerous podium finishes. And the next surprise that Barcelona had in store for us, Louis Hamilton shooting himself in the foot and losing his pole position qualifying performance because they didn't put enough fuel in the car. Oh wait... that's the sort of thing we DO expect from Louis. Of course I'm referring to Pastor Maldonado's inaugural Grand Prix win.<br />
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From his 2nd place qualifying right through to the checkers, Pastor drove a fast, consistent race. There was one bone-headed move that had he watched any of the races from the 2010 season, he might have learned was likely not to work out for him. For nearly every pole Sebastian Vettel won in 2010, the start of that race featured him cutting across the track, trying to cut off the 2nd place starter so that he could be first to the corner. That worked exactly once and failed every other time. The only time it's likely to work is if you get a great start on your opponent and are able to get in front of them to hold them back. But assuming you both have a good start and you're car is only marginally faster, then it's best just to head to the corner in a straight line.<br />
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Instead, he cuts over, drives Alonso into the grass and as a result unleashes the collective telekinetic force of every Spaniard on the planet, which then forcibly moves Fernando and his magnificent eyebrows to reach turn one in the lead. Meanwhile the president of Venezuela could be heard ranting mindlessly about the oppression of his people by the capitalist pigs at Ferrari.<br />
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Meanwhile Louis Hamilton, who started from 24th, began his journey up through the field. Most of the drivers in the back of the pack let him go by out of force of habit, only realizing after they'd let him pass that no one was waving a blue flag at them. "Oh that's right, he started behind me!" He made it all the way up to 4th at one point, but then had to pit. Once again, the circus that is McLaren's pit crew put on a good performance. As Hamilton cuts left to pull out of the box, his left rear tire hits and climbs over the old tire that had just been taken off, catapulting the car up in the air and causing it to jump sideways about 3 feet. Hamilton comes to a stop as everyone stands around wondering what in the hell just happened. Finally, satisfied that his car was still intact, Luis heads for the track. Honestly, these guys just keep getting more and more entertaining.<br />
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Eventually Pastor manages to get around Alonso's Ferrari and Fernando is left trying to defend his second place position and simply finish on the podium, which he does to the crowd's never ending joy. <br />
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Though Vettel had a pretty good run through the race he ended up falling back and finishing 6th. Webber drove pretty well, and the good news is that this was the first race that he didn't finish 4th. The bad news is that he fell all the way back to 11th, clean out of the points. It's strange seeing the Red Bull cars among the ranks of the normal, top tier constructors and not sitting on top of them like some sort of nerdy, high tech school yard bully. <br />
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It would be hard to predict anything during a season that has thrown us so many curve balls. Since all we can expect is the unexpected, I believe we will see at least one race being won by the Spanish Inquisition; aided by fear, surprise and driven by their fanatical devotion to Bernie Ecclestone.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fred's Take</span><br />
Tim, as usual, has handily covered all of the good bits. I'll tackle the lame stuff. <br />
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I'd like to see Maldonado put his money where his mouth is, as they say, giving all of his winnings and all of his wealth and luxury to the people of Venezuela. <br />
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He won't, of course. He's either a hypocrite or smart enough to know how things run in Venezuela. I don't know if I can hold that against him, really. He has only two choices, regardless of what he really believes. If he sincerely is a socialist and wants to give his winnings away to his country, then he has to support his leader in the hopes that the people of his country will get some benefit. If he is as morally corrupt as Hugo Chavez, then he is merely protecting his wealth. Speaking out in favor of keeping it or trying to give it directly to the people would guarantee that all he achieves is giving his wealth to Hugo Chavez and the people get nothing anyway. Still, until he starts insisting that all the other teams' cars are his to use as he needs, he's a hypocrite.<br />
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Regarding McLaren's pit team, I think Tim's criticism, while valid, may have been a bit severe. These guys have had some crazy problems but it's a high-precision short-window gig with massive consequences if any one of a thousand variables don't go just right. It's amazing that any of them happen in less than 4 seconds at all. Of course, they aren't on my fantasy F1 team so, it's a lot easier to be patient with them. I actually encourage them to experiment... a lot.<br />
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Either way, I barely retain a lead in the league and we have yet a 5th winner in as many races. What a season.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-85710594762490585952012-05-30T11:52:00.001-07:002012-05-30T11:52:36.255-07:00Senna Toe-HeelThanks to my buddy Mark for sending this our way. <br />
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Senna, taking a look at the then-new NSX and doing some fancy heel-toe work as if it was nothing... because for him, it was nothing. They make an excellent observation in the <a href="http://kottke.org/12/05/ayrton-sennas-heel-and-toe-braking-technique" target="_blank">post</a>, <br />
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<em>"You'll note he's wearing a button-down shirt, dress pants, Italian loafers, and no helmet while burying the speedometer on his way around the track."</em><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8By2AEsGAhU?rel=0" width="480"></iframe>
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The man had skills, no question. The speedo is definitely buried.<br />
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From the wickedly smart and thoroughly entertaining <a href="http://kottke.org/">Kottke.org</a>. Give them a visit. You won't regret it. My current favorite - <a href="http://kottke.org/12/05/the-jenny-mccarthy-body-count" target="_blank">The Jenny McCarthy Body Count</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-46792739112685654302012-05-21T14:05:00.001-07:002012-05-21T14:22:24.381-07:00Awsome.... what else can you say?<br />
This is just great. Awesome that the delay caused these guys to grab their instruments and perform a very-mini-concert on the tarmac. Awesome that the flight crew didn't pepper spray them. Awesome that the passengers applauded. Awesome that these guys were able to play quiet enough not to destroy everyone's hearing. And... just awesome that these guys were in tune after lugging their stuff around the airport.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FYO8P8P-MVE" width="560"></iframe>
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<br />
There were 12 people who "disliked" this. Apparently not <em>everyone</em> is born with a soul.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-88663016470244340172012-05-12T19:26:00.000-07:002012-05-12T19:26:00.637-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Bahrain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Bahrain_International_Circuit--Grand_Prix_Layout.svg/1000px-Bahrain_International_Circuit--Grand_Prix_Layout.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Bahrain_International_Circuit--Grand_Prix_Layout.svg/1000px-Bahrain_International_Circuit--Grand_Prix_Layout.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
In the shape of the Kilngon reproductive system, Bahrain is an interesting track in challenge, spectacle, scenery and coverage.<br />
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Yes, our analysis has been held up but for good reason people. It looked fake and it might have actually have been staged.<br />
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Did you notice that the feed looked a bit strange at times? We have had some surprising tips coming into our inbox and while we first thought they were just a joke, once we went back and watched the coverage we began to suspect there is a massive cover up going on.<br />
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Is it possible the entire thing was staged?<br />
Would Schumacher really go out in Q1? Could the camera work really be so smooth?<br />
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Read on to find out what the hell we are talking about.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Let's first set the stage for what we are talking about. The race in Bahrain has been on and off and on and off quite a few times. This year, there has been an enormous amount of politics associated with this race with citizens protesting and link to royal families and oppression vs freedom. East vs West. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria to quote Dr. Venkman.<br />
An anonymous tipster claims the race was mostly CG and that the close-ups were staged. Of course Bernie was involved, threatening to ban ,in toto, any teams if any member of that team dare even dream about revealing the coverup. The good people at the factories were told the race occurred and they are innocent in this as are the drivers.<br />
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'How could that be?' you ask. Surely the drivers would know if they raced or not.<br />
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Bernie's plan was to impose a mandatory health test under the guise of checking for allergens that would make the drivers vulnerable to a secret biological weapon the revolutionaries were planning on testing at the race. During the application of the histamine, Operation Just Deserts, began. The drivers were drugged with a derivative of <span dir="auto">Sodium Thiopental which </span> instead of forcing the drivers to tell the truth, actually prevents them from telling the truth about a period of time. You'll notice there will be very few driver interviews after the weekend because they just become a matter of shoulder shrugging and "dunno".<br />
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The main pit crews were replaced with Bernie's special employees just for the reenactments and the team principals were to inform the regular crews that there were some special safety rules due to the protests and that they would have special combat trained military mechanics working the bulk of the work with only a few select members of each team allowed to actually attend the race.<br />
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These members were sworn to secrecy the likes of which haven't been seen since NASA faked the moon landing.<br />
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We're going to go ahead and comment on what was presented to us and you be the judge.<br />
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Shumacher out in Q1. This is hard to believe from the guy who would have come in second in China and nearly got pole. Our tipster claims the simulation had already been run and the footage was too expensive to regenerate. As a result, the Mercedes lollipop in China had a "malfunction" in order to set up the idea that Schumacher would have had concentration problems in Bahrain.<br />
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Raikkonen and Perez out in Q2 but that's not so much a conspiracy element as much as it is just the build of their cars.<br />
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Rossberg's massive testicle strategy was to put all of his eggs in a one lap basket. He gets 4th, Webber gets 1st then he's bumped by Vettel and then Webber gets bumped again by Hamilton. <br />
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You'll notice there was no fist pump from Vettel with the pole. Coincidence?<br />
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Frenchie le French sits comfortably in 3rd. Speaking of Grosjean, as Tim and I commented, this guy is so French, he walks around with sort of a, "I do not care about your preconceived notions of .. how you say... beard..." attitude. Seriously, I never thought anyone could have worse facial hair than Button. Leave it to the French.<br />
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Vettel had a decent start and Hamilton managed to hold on to second but Mangey le Pew managed a great start and got around Button and Rosberg. He then passed Webber for third and a cheer went up at the F1-Geeks headquarters. Well, less of a cheer and more of a "eh" but it did elicit a reaction.<br />
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What got more of a reaction was the way Rosberg was defending his positions. Not well, and not clean but fairly effective. He had more than his fair share of "incident under investigation" incidents.<br />
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Button's car sounded funny and Rosberg's exhaust broke. Freakish coincidence? Perhaps...<br />
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In the last few laps Raiken provided all of the excitement. His chase of Vettel was very entertaining and I would have loved for him pass. Alas, it was not to be as the computer decided Vettel should win one.<br />
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Not a bad run for my fantasy team as I got the top four spots.<br />
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Since the race itself was computer generated, we're not sure how to classify it. Watching it was fun but we couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Now we know.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-86347488572925355782012-05-12T14:48:00.000-07:002012-05-12T14:48:15.841-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - China<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Shanghai_International_Racing_Circuit_track_map.svg/1000px-Shanghai_International_Racing_Circuit_track_map.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Shanghai_International_Racing_Circuit_track_map.svg/1000px-Shanghai_International_Racing_Circuit_track_map.svg.png" width="320" /></a>Shanghi Internatinoal Racing Circuit. Really, one of my favorite tracks. This track is all about the corners and it starts with my 4th favorite turn of the season. Turn 1. A decreasing radius turn, it gets tighter and tighter as you go through it and eventually ends with an opposite side hairpin. Very hard to get right. <br />
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Then comes my 3rd favorite turn in the season. Turn 8. With Turkey off the calendar, this is the closest we are going to get to a "Curva Diobolica" and the setup from 7 makes this a fun one to get through. <br />
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Finally my 2nd favorite corner of the year. The 12-13 combo. You start out very tight and it loosens as you go. If you hit it right, you can just go flat out and slingshot yourself on to the back straight. Just awesome in simulation, it must be unbelievable in reality.<br />
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So how did the drivers fare on this bunny/snail hybrid? Read on to find out.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Qualifying was actually interesting. I suppose that's not really fair. Qualifying is almost always interesting but this time I really had no idea what was going on.<br />
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Vettel doesn't make it out of second and on his first run, Rosberg turns in a lap almost a full second faster than Vettel's best. So much faster than anyone else that he just gets out of his car has a whisky, paints some graffiti on Schumacher's fire suit and takes a nap in his hammock.<br />
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Sauber continues its rise and we get Kobyashi in 4th.<br />
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Schumacher locks in 3rd but because of Hamilton's penalty and we end up with an all Mercedes front row. The first pole for Mercedes as a manufacturer since 1955. We're talking Fangio days. One could say that it's not that big of a deal because Mercedes wasn't in F1 as a constructor/owner for 50 years. One could also say that it was pretty damn cool that it only took them two years to get a pole after being gone for so long. So suck it...one could say.<br />
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The Mercedes get away very respectably, are they they new RedBull? Everyone gets away clean but Senna gives his countryman a little love tap. Massa's built up a callus on his rear end from being bumped and passed so often, he didn't seem to notice. And really, once you've taken a spring to the head, it's easy to let the little things go.<br />
<br />I'm at the point where I want to see Schumacher win. Rosberg would have had to make a major mistake but still second place would have been great. A problem with the "lollipop" robot costs him a podium.<br />
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Pit stops were the factor in China. It was dramatic but I think it would have been more dramatic to have Button come out right behind Rossberg and have him chase him to the end. My desire for drama was sated by the incredible wheel to wheel racing. At one point nearly three across, the Perez, Grosjean, Maldonado and Alonso battle was classic. Clean, professional but very close racing in the last half of the race made this the best race I've seen in a long time.<br />
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Rossberg 1st<br />
Button 2nd <br />
Hamilton 3rd<br />
<br />How did I do in the league? Not very well. RedBull fell off, Kimi and Sauber didn't really impress and my closest rival has Rossberg, Hamilton, and Button. A near perfect race for him. I'm still in front but only by 9 points.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-31834933302690852952012-04-15T17:45:00.001-07:002012-04-15T17:46:51.344-07:00F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Malaysia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Sepang.svg/1000px-Sepang.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Sepang.svg/1000px-Sepang.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Malaysia. In its current incarnation, its been around since 1999. It seems much more recent than that. Juan Pablo Montoya holds the lap record here and Tim holds a position that luck is definitely a factor here.<br />
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Is he right? Is it all a roll of the dice? This season's results seem to support his stance.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Tim's Take</u></span></strong><br />
The Malaysian Grand Prix strikes me as similar to a game of Yahtzee. Sure there's some skill involved, don't choose 5's when you have only one 5 and four 6's. But largely, it's a game of chance, or luck. Not too dissimilar from Malaysia really. Sure you have to make sure you're not on slicks when there are running rivers of water on the course. But largely, the winner is determined by who didn't screw up, or get caught up in something unfortunate. It's raining one minute, dry the next, half the track is underwater, the other is dry. You get the idea<br />
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Such was the case with this race. Don't misunderstand me, I thought the race was hugely entertaining. And while the drivers that did well are all very skilled and drove an excellent race, the ones that percolated to the front of the grid were the ones that didn't fall victim to a bad roll of the dice. <br />
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That said, Alonso drove an absolutely brilliant race. To be able to push that Ferrari chassis, which here-to-fore has looked wildly unstable, all the way to the front of the pack, and keep it there in spite of the always changing and god-awful conditions, shows just how brilliant a driver Fernando is. Of course, it's unfortunate for Massa that he should fall victim to some of those random acts of craziness and finish the race in 15th. Let's not forget to mention the fact that he really has no idea how to handle this car. They talk about the magical match up of an awesome car that's characteristics seem perfectly suited to an equally awesome driver and the joy that comes with watching that driver push the car beyond what anyone could have conceived. Well, it looks like Massa and this Ferrari are not that. Pretty much the antithesis of that, really. I wonder how much longer he'll be casting his short shadow in Marinello.<br />
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Perez did an equally amazing job. Perez is a truly gifted driver. Last year he was in the Sauber chassis that looked like it was always going to be firmly in the middle of the pack. In the brief amount of time since the season opener, the Sauber team have looked like they've stepped it up a notch. Perez started off in 9th and pitted on the opening lap in 17th position, presumably because he had damage the car. He worked his way up as the craziness that is Malaysia unfolded and by the time the 15th lap rolled around, he was in 2nd spot and never gave it up. <br />
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Though McLaren qualified 1 and 2 for the second race in a row, they looked like they couldn't quite get their act together. A screw up with the rear jack on one of Lewis' early pits cost him several seconds that arguably could have been the difference between third and second. Then Button had his own slow pit stop after his run in with Karthikeyan. <br />
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There were some other noteworthy items in the race. The Force India boys raced pretty much wheel to wheel through the entire race, putting on an impressive show, all the while managing not to hit each other (take note Mr. Webber). Ultimately Di Resta worked his way ahead of Hulkenberg, but they did a great job. Roman Grosjean, who qualified well again, failed to finish the race again (this time with no help from Maldonado), spinning out on lap two. Raikkonen pushed up from 10th to finish 5th and Bruno Senna moved from his 13th qualifying spot to finish 6th. Most impressive. <br />
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But again, I don't think you can look at Malaysia as a data point that supports a trend. It's more of a statistical anomaly. I don't think we're going to see a Ferrari finish on the podium again anytime soon. I don't think we'll see Perez quite so high up in the field. I don't think were going to see so many middle of the pack teams finish in the points again. And I also don't think we're going to see Massa wearing scarlet red much longer. <br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Fred's Take</u></span></strong><br />
Drama at the start, well technically before the start, due to the rain's Hokey-Pokey and it seemed to stress Charlie Whiting out. A note here about coverage. The guys at Sky took this one as the BBC couldn't afford to carry all 20 races this year. I like Damon Hill's commentary quite a lot. The rest of the team and even the production seemed somewhat awkward but their "cut-scenes" and vignettes were top quality.<br />
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Am I bummed out about Kimi getting penalized for a gearbox change? Yes. Am I going to enjoy the points I get for his passing? Absolutely.<br />
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Everyone starts out on intermediates. Everyone except HRT who started on full wets. Big gamble.<br />
Schumacher spins on turn four and ends up way in the back. Watching I figured he must have been bumped. Frenchie Le French, who I'm starting to warm up to by the way, bumped him. Back in his Ferrari days, I would have celebrated Schumacher's misfortune, now, I 'd really like him to win some.<br />
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While I thought they made a mistake going with intermediates, it was because I thought the track would dry out. I was wrong and I paid for my ignorance as Frenchie le French spins out and gets stuck in the gravel. Maybe Tim knows, but I think there are some rules about pushing a car back into contention once it is "disabled". I'm torn on this because I'd like to see as many cars on the track as possible, but on the other hand, if you blow it, it's blown. Get out and move on.<br />
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Luck or misfortune aside. having this race at the beginning of the season means the teams are all trying out crazy stuff and adding the weather into the mix means anything can happen.<br />
I loved Button catching up to Hamilton and applying pressure. Hamilton doesn't get a chance to cave as lightning hits the press booth as the Sky guys pee themselves, the safety car comes out everyone starts to bunch up. Red flag 3 laps later. The gazebos come out and everyone gets to rest. This makes HRT look like geniuses.<br />
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The race restarts with barely controlled chaos. Button hits one of the HRTs and makes a rare mistake which blows the lead and suddenly Ol' Eyebrows is up front and Perez in second. Lots of amazing racing from the backmarkers and even Senna makes me nostalgic, but Perez cutting into Alonso's time and setting fast lap after fast lap amps up the excitement factor. Surprise of surprises, Alonso pits and Perez stays out. What craziness is this? Sauber in first?<br />
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Even though it didn't last, it was great to see and to have Sauber finish second was great.<br />
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You know what else was great? I got a lot of points on my Fantasy F1 team.<br />
Perez did me well as well as Kimi moving up to 5th.<br />
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The results?<br />
Team Fred <br />
Kimi Raikkonen 39 <br />
Sergio Perez 49 <br />
Bruno Senna 19<br />
Kamui Koybashi 19 <br />
Red Bull Racing 27 <br />
Force India 24 <br />
Team Fred Total 177 <br />
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Still in the lead but barely.<br />
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<a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.f1-geeks.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-66428885921901224142012-04-07T06:30:00.000-07:002012-04-07T09:37:41.921-07:00"New" 400 Year Old Mozart Song Found... RIAA Files Piracy Suit Against Space-Time ContinuumI'll admit a fondness for Mozart. That in itself is not unique. I sometimes wonder, though, if I am alone amongst my peers for how deeply his music can move me. I am no expert on Mozart. I barely know a handful of his music. When asked the inevitable "If you were stranded on a desert island..." question, I struggle to identify any number one spot if the list is restricted to music from this century. If I have the option to include Mozart, he wins.<br />
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I listened to this once and was hummning it later in the day. I don't know which was more impressive, how much I liked the music or how amazing the performer was. <br />
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Check out the video after the jump.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/LoTfvakQZXA?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
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Bonus points for the period-authentic harpsicord.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9057048516826025302.post-28694230252406956712012-04-06T11:56:00.000-07:002012-04-06T11:56:10.290-07:00Happy Wood Pulp Product Into Spring Celebration HappinessThis has nothing to do with F1 and has everything to do with technical precision. And technical precision, my friends, is something we are all about here at F1-Geeks. <br />
<br />Check out this How-To from Happy Folding. Way too complicated for fold-a-long session, you are going to have to pause the video several times but, hey, you've still got 24 hours to get it down.<br />
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Check out the video after the jump.<br />
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On a side note, check out the freaky paper that automatically subdivides your folds evenly. I'm sure you origami masters scoff at the novelty this brings me, but I had no idea your art had incorporated this technology.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/9u-TF_W_z5g?rel=0" width="480"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://www.f1-geeks.com">F1-Geeks</a></div>Fredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15927751676159294401noreply@blogger.com0