No ban on Tyre warmers- Revised rule changes for 2009 Formula 1 season

It was clarified today that there will not be ban on tyre warmers because of safety reasons. Good news for the teams. Bernie Eccleston has appealed to the teams to cut down expenses to half by 2011. So looks like there will not be any direct limitation on spending.

The Raceday show before British Gp was amazing today. Steve Slater presented did a track report just like the pitch report. Renault celebrated their 10th birthday of their development center. It was annoying. But an engineer performed ‘Happy Birthday’ tune with an engine using throttle. That was amazing.

Johnny Walker ‘Drive Safe’ campaign was also interesting. They have started a new design your own helmet simulation competition. Winner will get a helmet made from the designer of Lewis Hamilton’s helmet. Check out this site

And a weirder race

The race, as a whole was very very weird. But I must say that this was a race that was most influenced by ‘Luck Factor’ But I will come to that later. Hamilton and Mclaren did something that even Ferrari engineers could not understand. There was no way to explain a 66s gap between Lewis and 2nd place Nick Heidfeld. Hamilton lapped everyone but Nick in front of his home crowd, which was ecstatic with the victory of home hero. The results

A nightmare of a track for most of the teams. The weather was actually whimsical. Track conditions were very difficult to judge. Almost all the cars spun atleast once on an unevenly wet track. Massa set a new record of six 360 degree spins in a single race. No wonder he finished last. He proved once again that he is not dependable.

Ferrari made a huge mistake that cost Kimi his podium position. During his 1st regular stop, Ferrari decided to continue with the same intermediate weather tyres. Lewis, who entered pits along with Kimi, switched to new intermediates. On the next lap itself, Lewis cleared a gap of 3 sec. That meant an unscheduled pit stop on 30th lap for tyre change with lost track position, messed up strategies and heavier car for the rest of the race at the expense of 2 pitstops for Kimi. Very unprofessional show by Ferrari. Kimi even lost a couple of seconds in 2nd pit stop due to poor signaling. At the very back, Massa was racing against his own car to keep it on the track. Fortunately, Alonso, who completed his race on 1stop strategy with no tyre change, lacked pace in the end and was overtaken by the two Finns Kimi and Hekki.

Now about the Luck factor.

• Sure, it was a pathetic start for Webber. Lost his position to Lewis. But things could have been worse. On the opening lap, he spun 180 degrees right in the middle of track with cars zooming past him at 305kmph. Visibility was poor due to spray, and anyone could have hit him head on. But he survived and completed the race.
• Same thing happened to Massa. Only on his 5th spin, he almost blocked the entry to pits. Things would have been a lot messier.
• All the front runners spun, but no one was trapped in gravel.
• Barrichello shut the mouths of everyone by making it to the podium. No one, not even Honda race engineers expected this. But he kept his cool. Survived a couple of spins and pulled off a stunner.
• Sutil and Bourdais lost control on the track, and went sliding straight on the track with cars just missing them.

• During 2 spins, two rabbits just went past the cars. Thankfully, unhurt.

There was no sign of Rupert Grint in pits. But I did see the great Sachin Tendulkar on the grid behing Bernie Eccleston and Jackie Stewart. Sachin’s passion for speed is well known. I was just too happy to see him on an F1 circuit.

A weird qualifying session

Silverstone circuit saw an unexpected qual result as Kovalainen grabbed the pole from Webber on the very last run. He was a whopping 0.5s faster than Webber. Following Webber was Kimi. Heidfeld out-qualified teammate Kubica for the first time this season as Kubica did not participate in Q3. Massa will start 9th. He is probably still in shock from yesterday’s accident caused by oil spill from Fernando Alonso’s blown engine (could he BE more annoying). Both Ferraris seriously lacked pace and were outpaced by even Vettel’s Torro Rosso for most of the race.

Disappointing day for home crowd. Hamilton panicked in Q3, oversteered on penultimate run and finished 4th. Button could not even make it to Q2. Coulthard, on his last GP in front of home fans, was 11th fastest.

After the session, while reporting to FIA, everybody congratulated Hekki on his brilliant performance (Alonso pinched his butt…GOD!! Somebody stop him) Everybody, but Hamilton, who just sat there staring nowhere. He did not even acknowledge him. That was a bit rude of him.

The weather at Silverstone was amazing. Rain was seen on 1 side of the track while pits had nice sunshine. Rain is also expected tomorrow, so race is bound to be interesting. Apparently, British GP is going to be shifted to Donington Park from 2010. F1 will sure miss one of its fastest circuit.

Julian Bailey, former Lotus driver was commentator. His commentary was basically circling around denying each and every claim made by Steve Slater (who was accurate most of the times), except on 1 point…that Rupert Grint, who was standing in Red Bull pits was in fact, ‘some character from Harry Potter’. I don’t think I can stand him for an entire race. Chris Goodwin, where are you?

Italians Rule Magny Cours

With Ferrari 1-2 and surprise podium finisher Jarno Trulli, it was a wonderful day for Italian fans at French GP. See the results

Kimi Räikkönen managed to secure 200th pole for Ferrari on an uneventful Saturday. He was leading the race comfortably until his F2008 lost an exhaust manifold midrace. The hot exhaust from engine burned some part of the engine cover. The situation looked dangerous, but Ferrari crew looked unworried. ( I practiced some hardcore cursing when Star Sports took a commercial break just as Kimi entered pits with a blown exhaust ) But this was Kimi’s 1st race on this engine so he has to use the same one at Silverstone two weeks later. Ultimately Kimi had to give up his position to speeding Massa, as he was losing tremendous power.

The ‘Uselessness’ of some of the FIA rules was proven here also as Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for ‘Overtaking outside racing line’. Isn’t it FIA’s job to make sure that driver loses time if he drives off racing line? Starting 13th after a 10 stop penalty because of pit lane incident in Canada, Hamilton struggled very hard to finish 10th.

According to me, Trulli was the most impressive driver. He held back a clearly faster Hekki Kovalainen for more than 20 laps. It was a classic example of Experience vs Speed. He ‘truly’ deserved his place on the podium.

BMWs lacked pace and did not look like a team that finished 1-2 in Canada. Both the Force-India cars finished the race, for a change. Nelson Piquet Jr. overtook Alonso on a very last lap to finish 7th and opened his championship points account.

Massa leads Driver’s championship by 2 points from Kubica. The championship is wide open!

Kubica makes the breakthrough

Kubica recorded his maiden win in Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. BMW had a magical weekend, registering their first ever 1-2. With 2 stop strategy for Kubica, and 1 stop for Heidfeld, there was no stopping them after Kimi and Hamilton were forced out. Coulthard was seen on podium after quite a while. So we had an unusual finish to an exiting race. Long time since a race without Ferrari or Mclaren on Podium

Ferrari had a disappointing weekend. Massa managed 5th place. Championship contender Kimi could not finish the race. Kimi stopped his car in front of the red light coming out of pits during 2^nd safety car period, as any sane driver would. Hamilton apparently, did not see the red light and hit Kimi from behind, only to send both of them out. So did Roseberg. As both the commentators mentioned (Chris Goodwin was back just for this race), this red light during safety car period rule is a stupid one, but you HAVE to follow the rules.

Naturally, action was taken against both of them, so Hamilton and Roseberg will suffer a punishment of 10 places in next race at Magny-Cours. Many people would be tempted to apply the same logic to accident involving Sutil and Kimi at Monaco. But they are totally different. Kimi, though drove aggressively, did not break any rule. Losing control at 200 kmph on a wet track is one thing and hitting a stationary car at pitlane speed limit , jumping the red light, is another. So FIA did a good job here.

Both the Force India drivers disappointed Mallya yet again. Tough luck for them!

Futile statistics

Reportedly, Harvard students are going to take IPL as case study. Add one more member to that… ‘Sakal’..the newspaper has dissected the whole event to a such a low level..it cannot sink any lower.

Their parameters-

• Price of the player
• Number of runs scored
• Rs/run

Formula-

Rs/run = (Price of player)/(Number of runs scored)

By this calculation, Chennai SuperKings owners were screwed as Dhoni cost Rs 1.5 lacs/run and Shaun Marsh got a shoddy deal as he got only Rs 1100/ run.

So apparently the franchises bought the players because they are just run making machines. Fielding, bowling, captaincy is for free and T-20 is all about batting.

I think this was a project of some 1st yr Statistics students who wanted to see if they can divide two numbers.

Rule changes for Formula-1 season 2009

We are 6 races down. And it has been quite an eventful season already, thanks to revolutionary change by FIA to bar use of electronic driver aids. Next season is about to bring 4 major confirmed changes.

1) Limit on Team Budgets-

A dream come true for teams struggling for consistent championship points. There has been a hue and cry about top teams spending extravagantly on developments. This decision is expected to bring the game to a fair level. But capping amount is yet to be finalised. Also, what will come under this limit is unknown. If rumors are to be believed, driver contracts and marketing may not come under FIA scanner. Importantly, it is feared that Constructors can easily outsource the development to hide it from FIA. So, to keep complete tab will therefore be a challenging task for FIA.

This has gone to a new level with another proposals by F1 bosses. Read here

2) Introduction of slick tyres and ban on tyre warmers-

Use of Slick tyres was banned in F1 since 1998. Slick tyres are the ones which do not have any tread pattern on them. These treads are essential to remove water from under the tyres. According to Wiki and one Automobile Engineering book that I have, treads help in better traction under wet conditions. But under dry conditions, slick tyres provide more traction. They deform less under stress conditions and hence can be made of softer compound, allowing better grip.

Tyre warmers were to be banned. This would have only affected the initial laps. But it has been cancelled now. Tyre warmers are here to stay.

3) Introduction of KERS-

I just loved this 1. KERS stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System. This is already used for commercial purpose. The principle can be explained by considering the basic braking principle. Breaks apply force opposite to the direction of motion of the wheels and dissipate the energy into heat. KERS uses this energy and converts it into some other sort of useful energy, eg. Charging a capacitor bank or storing it in a flywheel, as in the case of Formula 1 cars. This energy can be used in peak energy demand periods for additional boost. Let Wiki enlighten you on this subject..here you go

4) Driver Adjustable Bodywork-

One more interesting change is on board front wing adjustment control to driver. This will be a ‘REAL’ change that will kill the ‘ALLEGED’ monotony of the game.

For latest round of budget cutting measures and new changes click here

Biased Pune Mirror heading nowhere

Today’s Pune Mirror features a front page brawl against MNS supremo Raj Thackeray. The article is aimed at discrediting Raj. Let me make it clear…this post is not written to support Raj in any form. But the only intention is to point out the fundamental flaws in assumptions of PM.

Mirror has interviewed a bunch of people. The selection seems to be totally off the mark. Let me take you through the interviewees-(I dont want to mention names, so I will just write which group of people they represent)

• Politicians- Yeah, right! You expect them to talk FOR Raj Thackeray?
• A scientist- Fair choice, but the guy seemed to be in accord with Raj, even if not to that extremity.
• Educationalists- Why would they not want North Indian students? ‘Donations’ …always welcome!
• A bunch of NI students- They are the victims.
• Student Leader- One of them
• Restaurateurs- They think their customers will be lost. But one gentleman thought that culture is changing and thats not good.

Politicians, Scientists are not the victims in any logical frame.

Students…basically, Raj just wants these people to behave. Are they not ready to do that? If they are they are not the victims.

Educationalists…how many times have read about IT raids and large number of unaccounted money they possess? So if their ‘unaccounted money’ is stopped they can’t be called victims.

Restaurateurs…yes 7-8 lakh of NI students do matter to them. But again they are not their only customers. No doubt some of them will be deeply affected.

Pune Mirror tries lamely to portray Builders as victims. Thats totally preposterous! Not a single builder was interviewed and we know that they really don’t care who buys the flat. They are sure…if students don’t buy them, somebody else will.

People they have chose do not even represent quarter of Pune’s population. For a fair opinion, they should have interviewed Housing Society chairmen, landlords, neighbors of NI students, ‘AAM JUNTA’ along with them.

So the whole drama created by Mirror to show ‘Pune cannot survive without North Indian students’ is utterly ridiculous. And the headline ‘Huge NO to Raj’ is completely baseless!

Disclaimer- I have nothing against NI students and I feel they have as much right to live in the city as anybody else. But I believe that Pune’s economy is not run by them. They are one of the factors.

A race every Indian would like to forget

It was so close and yet so far! Perhaps it was not meant to be.. Force India almost clinched those precious Championship point but Sutil’s dream run was shattered by none other than the reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen! Sutil was stunned and could not control his emotions. He was thrown out of the race for no fault of his own. But its part of the game. I am worried about Kimi though. Every amateur Indian Formula One fan will will portray Kimi as a villain…and we don’t want that.

Due to wet conditions, almost every car got a ‘NOSE-JOB’. Some were fortunate to get 2 or 3 of them (Alonso was one of them!)! Cars were just brushing the walls and each other…so pit crew had a long hard day changing the front and rear wings in numerous unscheduled pit stops.

I feel bad for a lot of people-

• First and the foremost- Adrian Sutil
• Kimi Raikkonen- Had a drive through penalty for pit crews’ fault…hit Sutil when he lost control over brakes and did not get a single C’ship point
• Nico Roseberg- He had an impressive qualifying but was thrown to the last spot due to 1st lap pit stop…drove fabulously but again crashed out
• Hekki Kovalainen- Stalled his car before warm up lap…started from pits…damaged his wing and still managed to get 1 point. Impressive but could have been beeter.
• Nick Heidfeld- It was not his day. Started 12th, came into point scoring, got hit by Alonso on turn 6 (who..unlike Kimi…had brakes in control and was driving at 40 kmph) ended up 14th.
• Sebastien Bourdais- Was a passanger of the sinking boat with Sutil. He ran into Coulthard’s stationary doomed red bull and was out of the race just like that.

There were only 4 real gainers in Monaco. Hamilton, well deserved winner. Kubica, kept his cool…took advantage of Massa’s stupid mistake and finished on podium…yet again. And Vettel and Barrichello…opened their respective accounts.

STR has already scored 6 points. With Super Aguri gone, FI remains the only team without C’ship points. They had a realistic chance in Monaco…but was in vain. Remaining race tracks are not going to favor them. Its a rough ride ahead for them!

Wit(h) Steve Slater-

Sutil following Massa in 4th position. Kimi joins him in 5th position after his regular pit stop

Slater- Its like a dream run…will he manage to get those championship points for his team?….Following Massa……followed by Kimi…..but no pressure..no pressure!

An evening with Jeffrey Archer

I was in Mumbai a couple of days ago and I happened to be in Landmark when I came to know that Jeffrey Archer was to come there in half an hour as a part of his promotional tour for his new book ‘A Prisoner of Birth’ I have not read a lot of his books but I admire some of his works. So I bought his book and joined a large bay of people waiting for him. Crowd erupted when his arrival was announced.

After the formalities, he started answering some FAQs, expecting them to come up that day also. While mentioning his initial struggle to get a publisher for ‘Not a penny more, not a penny less’ he compared himself with JK Rowling and said that he beats her on this one that he had to approach 18 publishers while Rowling had to visit only 16!

During Q&A, he lightened up a bit and endless topics were discussed. After a 2hr ride to Landmark from his hotel just 15km away, he was convinced that Indians have understood traffic rules in some whole other dimension which nobody else can understand. He said that he could have walked a lot faster, but would have been a lot sweatier so decided not to.

Being a purist, he is not happy with the whole T-20 and IPL hype. According to him, real cricket match is a test match….between India and England…….at Lord’s………when India is 37/7…….(after a lot of BOOs)ok 37/6. He narrated one incident when an Indian guy called him and wished to meet him over dinner. Archer tried to explain how famous he is and how his time is important. But the guy did not yield. So Archer asked his name and the guy said ‘My name is Rahul Dravid and my friend is Sachin Tendulkar’ He invited some more BOOs when he said that both of them can bat OK!

He mentioned that real success in India is when a book is sold on footpaths and traffic signals. Todays Pune Mirror runs a story about him. He was surprised when they presented him with a copy of his book from footpath. Apparently he was not aware that those are pirated copies.

When he announced that he would be signing the books, INDIAN within the INDIAN woke up and everybody started running towards the dais. After 15 mins and a lot of bickering, the crowd narrowed down to 7 queues and that was it! I got his autograph after an hour, but it was worth a wait.