How 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.

We think it will be really cool and it will let our new readers experience our witty witticisms first hand.

We figure if you're reading this right now, chances are high that you are a new reader so good for you.

Here's how we called the Australian Grand Prix last year.

Geeky Music - Jason Miraz

Yes, It's nearly three years old. 

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. 

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 18 - The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - The Yas Marina Circuit

Abu Dhabi

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. 

After the turmoil and uncertainty earlier this year, I'm glad the race stayed on the calendar. 

This year they've lengthened the DRS zones a bit and it looks like it's going to be a great race. 

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. 

Let's see how it goes shall we?

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 17 - The Indian Grand Prix - Buddah International Circuit

India

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. 

This is the second year on this track and they say it's better.  Better than what?  Better than Valencia that's for sure.

So Vettel now leads the championship with a ton of momentum.  Will it carry him to another win?

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 16 - The Korean Grand Prix - Yeongam

Yeongam

Built in 2009 the circuit is way more fun to drive on (at least in a simulator) than it is to watch.

From listening to the driver interviews, they feel the same way.

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.

Vettel is the only driver to win back to back races this year.  Can he shatter the record by getting three?

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 15 - The Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka

Suzuka

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,

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.

McLaren have 4 pole positions in a row.  Can they make it five?

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 14 - The Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay

Singapore
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. 

The good about watching Singapore is the spectacle, more pit stops, and the inherent danger/excitement of a street circuit.

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 feel long.

It's a street circuit, which means they take a regular city, go crazy and build a track in it.

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.

There's been a safety car in every single running of the Singapore Grand Prix.   Will there be another?

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 13 - Italian Grand Prix - Monza

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.

This place is hard on brakes but really hard on engines.  Most (over 80%) of the time they are at full throttle. 

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...

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 12 - Belgian Grand Prix

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.

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.

Will Spa cause F1-Geeks even more depression or will we see Lotus take their first race.

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Round 11 Hungarian Grand Prix

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.

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.

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.

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - German Grand Prix

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 Hermann Tilke, but to take something with so much character and put some corners and a hairpin in is just sad.

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.

Let's get on with it then.

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - British Grand Prix

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.

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.)

At 109 Miles long it is one of the highest speed circuits on the planet. More on that after the break.

Alonso took Valencia in a dramatic race.   Will the unpredictable clouds produce even greater drama?

Read on

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Europe (aka Valencia)

What was once an honorary title, the European Grand Prix has been its own race since 1983 and is currently held in Valencia Spain

A perfect record of seven races and seven winners this season just begs to be broken.

Was it?

F1-Geeks Get Fancy-The Concours de Elegance

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.

See the unreflected Willys after the break.

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Canada

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.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named for the famous Gilles Villeneuve who on the last lap in 1978 :
Won the first race ever run on this track
With his first F1 win
To became the first Canadian to win a formula one race
And did it in Canada.

How incredible it would have been to see.

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.

Six races, six winners.   Will Canada produce the 7th?

For Sale: Senna's First F1 Car

Listed 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.

More after the break

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Spain

The Circuit de Catalunya.  Is it me or does Bob Varsha love to pronounce the name of this track?

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.

So far this season we've had four races with four different winners, Button, Alonso, Rossberg, Vettel.  Will Spain produce a 5th?

Senna Toe-Heel

Thanks to my buddy Mark for sending this our way. 

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 post,

"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."



The man had skills, no question.  The speedo is definitely buried.

From the wickedly smart and thoroughly entertaining Kottke.org.  Give them a visit.  You won't regret it.  My current favorite - The Jenny McCarthy Body Count


www.f1-geeks.com

Awsome.... what else can you say?

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.




There were 12 people who "disliked" this.  Apparently not everyone is born with a soul.


www.f1-geeks.com

F1-Geeks Armchair Team Principal - Bahrain

In the shape of the Kilngon reproductive system, Bahrain is an interesting track in challenge, spectacle, scenery and coverage.

Yes, our analysis has been held up but for good reason people. It looked fake and it might have actually have been staged.

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.

Is it possible the entire thing was staged?
Would Schumacher really go out in Q1?  Could the camera work really be so smooth?

Read on to find out what the hell we are talking about.