FIA On The Defensive

Back in 1993 Nigel Mansell crossed the pond to race in the CART Series.

I seem to remember an incident at Long Beach between the British "rookie" and Al Unser Jr. The long and short of the incident; they were side by side going into the first set of corners with Mansell on the inside for the first and Unser on the outside, but the American was on the inside for the second. Little Al, the Indycar driver, stayed round the outside of the reigning F1 Champion waiting for the second corner. Mansell, the former F1 driver, drifted wide coming out of the first corner and put Unser into the one of the road corses unforgiving walls. Unser did not get to the second corner. 

Mansell, with the European mentality, took the racing line thinking it was his to take. Al Unser Jr, with the American oval racing mentality, thought he was entitled to his car width. CART and America agreed, Mansell learnt the lesson. Mansell won races on ovals and the Championship that year, Unser the next.

Now, all these years on, Formula 1 is catching up.

The FIA have clarified the rules on defensive driving in F1. The FIA wording is comically long winded but they amount to this...

Drivers can move to a defensive position, but if they want to move back before turning into the corner they must give the other driver room on the outside, and not just move over to the white line potentially forcing the following driver off the track, or causing the two to make contact.  

Let me try this again...

Give each other room!

The FIA have also stated that under a safety car all lapped cars can un-lap themselves... lucky dogs!

Following on from KERS and DRS, this is the latest step in Formula One's "racing" revolution, accepting "racing" and imposing "racing standards" into the Championship.

Back in the mid 90's with Schumacher weaving and blocking anybody who came close and getting away with it, I would never have thought this would happen.

I guess that's what they call progress.

Down To The Wire

A “Good” GP!

A Grand Prix with pit stop strategy and late race overtaking!

With the introduction of DRS, the movable flappy paddle wing things, and the reintroduction of KERS, the nod to the environment slash overboost push to pass button, Formula 1 accepted the need to do something to aid overtaking.

They may be a bit false. They may be gimmicky. They may work, they may not...

They did provide us with a GP worth watching!

Overview - Red Bull badly need KERS, McLaren need more qualifying pace, Ferrari are not good enough, Rosberg is doing well, Schumacher is a waste of space, DeRista is looking good!



4 x 2 x 0.002

The second ‘plate race of 2011 was another two car draft story.

If you like the latest style of restrictor plate racing then it was a good race.

If you don’t...it wasn’t.

I kinda do, so I enjoyed it.

2011 is turning into the year of great finishes and todays was no exception!

Two deep, four wide, and first to second was 0.002 seconds!

You can’t tell me that wasn’t good!?!

British Bumper Car Championship

Good things - The new turbo engines seem to be working. Anybody can now buy an engine, put it in a car and be competitive! Lots of different cars!

Bad things - The driving standards are appalling! Most of the cars are old... I hope the teams running the new spec cars can sort out their issues and be a factor later in the year as I don’t fancy watching old Vauxhalls and Focus’s up front all year.

Come on race control, get a grip, instill some kind of respect and stop the blocking and the bump n’ run.



Ginetta is Betta... erm Better...

I am loving the new G55‘s. They look good, sound good and race great! At last a National series I look forward to watching!

Todays Scores... Wall Won vs. Schumacher / Sadler Nill

F1 -

• Something's never change... Schumacher still thinks he can get away with anything, after all it was only one move to protect his position... Pity the Stewards did not have enough time to black flag him...
• Something's do change... Barrichello didn't back off!!
• Vettel gets penalised for messing up a restart and the team blames radio issues. Apparently the Red Bull cars and drivers are radio controlled now, and the drivers have no need to understand the regulations...
• Going into the mid season break, Red Bulls number 2 driver is leading the points ahead of Hamilton... with Ferrari on form... should make for a good points race, if Ferrari actually race...
• Schumacher is obviously finding it hard to drive the latest generation of Ross Brawn designed F1 car, or in Mercedes speak, the front tyres are "peculiar"... oh that's the reason...
• The FIA / Ferrari post "team order" controversy hearing is being held after the next race... F1 have the best part of a month off and the FIA cannot organise themselves to make up their collective minds in time for the next race. The world should know what is happening now, not in more than a months time!
• Interesting quote from the Autoblog web site (www.autoblog.com) that gives us an idea of the American attitude towards F1... "Instead of the usual parade of high-tech machinery proceeding in procession, sapping the excitement out of the sport – or worse yet, lamentable team orders sullying the day – this latest round in the Formula One World Championship was packed with fate-altering, nail-biting action – and rivalries both old and new – from start to finish. A fitting way, then, to sign off before the season takes a nearly month-long summer break." 

NASCAR -

• Say what you want about the current Cup car in terms of looks, costs or effects on the racing but no-one can debate the safety standards of this car design. Elliot Sadlers hit at Pocono was HARD, and once again the driver walked away, long may this continue!
• The racing at Pocono was good, again... I still think the combination of the spoiler, the side draft and a larger drafting effect and the fact that the drivers have to sit up and drive these cars, along with 2 wide restarts have transformed some tracks and races from dull processions to races that are good to watch.
• Sadlers wreck does show how safety standards have advanced. Sadler hit armco not a SAFER barrier and the engine got ripped out of the car, ouch...
• When was the last time a wreck happened in a Cup race that was not covered by at last 5 different TV angles??
• Finally a Ford, in the hands of Greg Biffle, wins. NASCAR always needs different drivers up front, and it's always good when you have Chevy vs Ford...
• So Kentucky is going to have a Cup race, another 1.5 mile track added to the schedule. I hope New Hampshire keeps its two races to maintain some element of variation in track design. Personally I would put Pocono down to one race, regardless of how good this years races have been, or swap one intermediate track for another. Less cookie cutters and more short tracks please...
• Watkins Glen next, the second and last road course race of the year... Marcos leave the engine running this time!! 

Other stuff -

• Good luck to Paul Bonhomme at this weekends 2010 Red Bull Air Race finale at Eurospeedway Lausitz Germany. It will be interesting to see what the race looks like with only the sky as a back drop.
• Sorry to hear the 2011 Red Bull Air Race season has been cancelled. In motorsport if a series takes a year off it is usually the first public indication of nails in the coffin, but I hope this is not the case for the Red Bull Air Race.

What is "Safety Car Line One"??

So Monaco was the usual combination of a grand event, but dull race. To be fair the narrow confines of Monte Carlo don't exactly lend themselves to great overtaking opportunities, but Moncao, even to someone who isn't the greatest F1 fan, is still a great "event".

Unusually for F1 the race finished, and I am choosing my words carefully here, under safety car conditions, OK maybe not so carefully...

Logic, and standard racing rules from Karting up and across to NASCAR, would suggest that on a restart the start / finish line is the point at which the race restarts. Firstly this is due to the line being a fixed point which everybody can see and relate to and secondly it is where the green flag or light is located to signal the restart. It is not hard to understand that one lap ends under "yellow" while another starts under "green". I could understand if a line on the track was designated a "restart line" as in NASCAR, where the drivers can accelerate from the line but must stay single file until they cross the start / finish line. To me this is all fairly easy, and again is a standard procedure from the lowest levels of racing upwards... unless you are the FIA and F1...

So its the last lap at Monaco and as per the regs the safety car comes into the pit lane to enable the cars to  cross the finish line on their own. Trouble is race control put "Safety Car in this lap" and "Track Clear" on the timing screens, while the marshals posted after "Safety Car Line One" had green lights and flags displayed.

Confused yet??

On this basis most of the teams told their drivers to race to the line and Schumacher gained a position. Had the drivers not been on the last lap Schumachers actions would have been legal, which on its own is beyond belief, but it was the last lap... 

F1 regs say, "If the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking" and Schumacher is given a 20 second penalty in-lieu of a drive through.

Questions...

• Why do the F1 powers that be make life so complicated for no apparent reason? - if it's not broken...
• Why introduce a different line from which the drivers can race and overtake from when the start / finish line is already there and is a pretty clear cut procedure to me? - if it's not broken don't...
• Why bring the safety car in on the last lap but still have the race finish under safety car conditions, with no safety car? - just keep the safety car out and everybody would understand exactly was going on... - if it's not broken don't fix... 
• I understand it was the first time this scenario had occurred but why didn't race control have a clear set of procedures in place and ensure that all teams are aware of the procedure? - it wasn't broken don't fix it...
• Is there a "Safety Car Line Two"??
• What is "Safety Car Line One"??