Motorsports archive at Grip and Hammer

Archive for the 'Motorsports' Category

Mar

F1 Australian GP: Preview

By BernieR 0 Comments

Categories: Motorsports

The teams are now arriving in Australia for the first round of the 2009 F1 Championship. To somewhat get you up to speed here are some of the pre-season highlights that I’ve been able to catch. With almost all the teams on an even playing field with all the rule changes many of the teams feel that they have a race winning car or even a championship winning car. Of course, only time will tell.

Ferrari: Nothing major here. There were some pre-season worries about the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) but Ferrari claims that those have been sorted out and that Kimi says that it’s an ejoyable ride. Massa and Raikkonen have swapped numbers because of the order of the 2008 championship (even though Kimi is the better driver).

2009 Ferrari F60

McLaren-Mercedes: They have been voicing concerns over the last couple rounds of testing. The last testing session they had they seemed to be headed back to a winning car form but the engineers and drivers are still voicing concern and room for improvement.

2009 McLaren-Mercedes MP24

BMW Sauber: Testing seemed to be well. They’ve been repeatedly at the top of the timesheets and nothing really exciting to report.

2009 BMW

Renault: Alonso seems to have brought this car up quickly though testing and has shown the Renault has some great potential.

2009 Renault

Toyota: These guys are starting to get really quick and have posed a threat to they typical leaders. First to develop the new defuser design that was cleared by the FIA, opposing teams are quick to point out that it’s illegal and there will be protests against them and other who run a similar defuser.

2009 Toyota TF109

STR-Ferrari: Very agressive new car. People seem to have high hopes for this team.

2009 STR

Red Bull-Renault: Vettel moved to this team at the end of last year. Seems to have done well in testing. I’m not sure what to expect from this team yet since last year it got beat out by its “junior” team.

2009 Red Bull

Williams-Toyota: Again this will be one of those teams that seem to be unpredictable. Testing toward the end of the sessions, Williams seem to get it together and top some of the time sheets. However, rumor has it that they will be running that contriversial defuser.

2009 Williams-Toyota

Force India – Mercedes: As much as these guys think that they should be in Formula 1, I still question how they can servive with sponsors with such a harsh racing report. I hope that these guys will do better this year, at least scoring a point or two. Luck will have to be on their side.

2009 Force India

Brawn (BGP): This is the potential “Cinderella Story”. These guys have taken the fallen team of Honda and rebuilt their own team as Brawn (BGP). This team has topped the timesheets and has made huge leaps and bounds over the rest of the field. Going from the bottom of the timesheets (from Honda) to the top has been nothing less than a miricle. However, Ross Brawn seems to know what he’s doing… he’s only been with the top team in Formula 1 (Ferrari).

2009 Brawn (BGP)

Bernie’s Top Picks for the Australian Grand Prix:

Ferrari
Brawn
Toyota*
McLaren-Mercedes
Renault
Williams*

* Baring any defuser protests

Mar

F1 Driver’s Championship Point Changing

By BernieR 0 Comments

Categories: Motorsports

Changing the point system is needed and long overdue but winner going to the most wins in not the answer.

The FIA have approved that the 2009 Formula One Driver’s Championship will go to the one with the most wins. As good as this may sound and yes, the one with the most wins should be the champion. However, there is a very high likelyhood that this is not good enough. A Champion should be based on his/her performance for the entire season. This brings to light the old cliche, “we lost the battle but not the war”. Here is an example: Let’s say a driver wins five races throughout the season and nobody does any better than that. This would make most sense for that driver to win. Now lets say that every race he did not win, he crashed out, had mechanical falure or finished outside the points… like in last-place. Should a champion go to someone who is only briefly at the top for short periods of time or should a champion be the best driver for entire season. I have a feeling we will see a champion on the podium but in reality of the point system he/she could be place second, third or worse. Then to top it off, the point system doesn’t apply to the champion but rather they are applied to second place and below.

The better solution (and this has been proven in other forms of motorsports), is to incorporate more points. So instead of 10 points being the maximum boost it to 20. However there’s been complaints that if someone gets too far ahead then drivers will lose interest in going for the overall championship. This is where I’ve stated in the past that there needs to be points handed out for qualifying as well.

It will be interesting to see how things progress throughout the 2009 F1 season. It could work out to the favor of the FIA or it could be a complete flop. I feel that the risk is too high for playing games with the drivers and their overall championship.

Kimi Raikkonen 2007 Formula One Drivers' Champion

Mar

Other Thoughts to the 2009 F1 Season

By DavidT 0 Comments

Categories: Motorsports

One little correction to the reason drivers are losing weight. It’s not to improve power to weight ratio, since the minimum weight of an F1 car includes the driver, but rather an issue of weight distribution and ballast. KERS is a fairly heavy system and there are limited options for placement on the car. The problem is that it adds weight to areas that may not be beneficial to weight distribution and decreases the amount of ballast that can be placed to tune the car. Every F1 car is built underweight so the team can use ballast to control weight distribution depending on the track and conditions. The lighter drivers will have more ballast available, so will also have a greater range of weight distribution.

At the tipping point of the issue, heavier drivers may not have enough ballast available to achieve the desired weight distribution and may choose not to use the KERS system. This situation would put lighter drivers at a huge advantage since they may be able to maintain the desired weight distribution and still use the KERS system.

My amateur conclusion: On tracks where increased front weight distribution is needed, bet against Kubica, Barrichello, Webber, Bourdais, and Sutil.

My amateur dilemma: Figuring out which tracks need increased front weight distribution.

Mar

F1: We’re Getting Close!

By BernieR 0 Comments

Categories: Motorsports

Soon all the pre-season testing will be done and the first round of the Formula 1 season will begin. With all the rule changes, there are way too many unpredictabilities. Brawn GP is testing well setting some very impressive times. Ferrari have been on the top of the time sheetswith some KERS problems and McLaren are scattered everywhere on the time sheets and have had all sorts of KERS problems, but all is well they are quick. The front wings are so huge now that turn one will be very interesting. I think that if you’re in the front of the starting grid you’re golden and if you’re at the very back you have a good chance to really steer of the turn one accident. If you’re in the middle of the pack… you’re screwed! Once underway KERS and adjusting on-the-fly down-force could make a fast car slow and a slow car fast. Drivers are also sacrificing weight to take advantage of the power to weight ratio, especially once the KERS system engages. It seems that drivers this year have incorporated more of a diet to increase that power to weight ratio. With the likes of slick tires, KERS, new aerodynamic restrictions, this season will be more of a “drivers” year than a “manufacturers” year. Now the manufacturers are on a more level playing field than ever before and what it will come down to is driver adaptability to those changes. Yes, reliability will play a huge role, but when it’s all said and done, the best “driver” will win. Not just the car… So on that note, I feel that Raikkonen, Alonso, Hamilton and even Webber have a good shot if their driving abilities are needed more than ever. In any case, this will be a fun season and I hope that whatever happens, Kimi wins… I mean Ferrari… I mean, I hope you enjoy it too.

Kimi Raikkonen Pre-Season Testing (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images Europe)

Mar

Fantasy Formula One – Oregon League

By BernieR 0 Comments

Categories: Motorsports

Hello All F1 Fans (or Soon-To-Be-Fans),

The Formula 1 season doesn’t start till March but it’s that time to start getting ready for the Fantasy F1 league itself. With this year’s new rule changes there really are no favorites and the season is predicted to be wide open.

Registration fees have continued to be cheap so it will be fun for first-timers and not so intrusive on the income with the current economic conditions. The fee of $10 is a one time payment and covers the entire 2009 season.

http://uk.f1.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1

First you will need to register your team on Yahoo’s Fantasy Formula 1 site. Then you will need to click “Join a Group”

Group ID Number: 403
Group Name: Oregon
Password: Senna

Points system: We will be using the Yahoo Fantasy Formula 1 point system (we’ve used this one for the past two seasons) and will go by their rules.

Registration Fee: $10 (entire season; approx. $0.50 per race!)
Cash or Payment via PayPal to: subarubernie@hotmail.com
Payout at the end of season and will be based on percentages after everyone has registered but hopefully before the first race starts:
    10 people or less = 1st place only.
    11 – 15 people = 1st and 2nd place.
    16 – 20 people = 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

Please forward this to anyone who you think might be interested in joining this unpredictable season. I don’t know a lot of people’s email addresses so if you could forward to any of them that would be great.

If you have any questions, please email me. Also if you have any thoughts on making it better… keep them to yourself! Just kidding.

Mar

USF1 Site Down?

By BernieR 0 Comments

Categories: Motorsports

Over the last couple of days, proceeding the announcement of the USF1 team, it appears that their site was down. This is bad timing on their part and potentially a harsh marketing mistake. If anything, they should have left up what they had until the new site was/is finished. After a couple of days of downtime, now all we get is a “Coming Soon” and a “Contact Us” link. If anything the wiser decision should have been to keep the site up and have an announcement that the site is currently under construction but here’s the nuts and bolts (pun not intended) of what we have for right now. I agree that the site needed some work and that the logo could use some spicing or sprucing up but regardless, the site should not go down. Now maybe there’s some back-end issues that we are not fully aware of such as the site was getting to many hits for the provider to handle or there was some other software/hardware issue. In any point I think that the USF1 team should have come up with some smarter alternatives and backup plans. It’s hard to show support for a team in the making if they can’t allow for a way to support them. If it were up to me, this is what the site would entail.

More eye candy and graphics on the site. Such as the cad drawings of an F1 car in the background.
USF1 Store – apparel, swag, flags and accessories
Founders and history of the employees and founders
Contact Us (obviously)
Sponsorship Page and Media Page
Logo: I like what they have now but Italicize it and make it more bold.

That’s just a start. In any case I hope that they are able to get the site up soon and get people excited about the USF1 team again. Now that the site is unavailable, I’ve started to lose interest and a little bit of hope.

Notice: Updated news gathered from F1-Live have stated that USF1 had to change the name ordered by the FIA and FOM because it bears the name “F1″ in the title. Therefore the new site will host the new name. More inforation to follow.

Feb

Thoughts from the USF1 Announcement

By BernieR 0 Comments

Categories: Motorsports

I am proud to say that I’m an F1 fan. Now more than ever though, with the announcement of the USF1 team and their plans to enter in 2010, this could not come at a better time both economically and for the American F1 fan. I say this because currently there is no North American Grand Prix (USA and Canada are not on the schedule for 2009) and with the economy in it’s current state, we are seeing cutbacks in spending in F1 that allow for new teams to come aboard. As I watch the presentation, I kept thinking how both Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor make the perfect team in building the USF1 Team. With their backgrounds in motorsport and with technology so close to them, this team is just begging for greatness.

I think that there were a couple of missed questions and focus from the interview as it became more about money and a little about technology. I think if I were to ask any questions it would be:

What are your goals for the first and second year? I understand that you want to do good but by your definition what does that mean?
What should we expect out of the USF1 team?
Staying within the rules of the FIA and FOM, do you think that the USF1 team can bring or implement new technologies over the competition? Here are my suggestions!
What kind of schooling will the USF1 Team provide for its technicians, management and more importantly, its drivers?

No matter what team USF1 decides to do they will have my support the whole way! As much as I’m a Ferrari fan and more importantly a Kimi Raikkonen fan, I think I still will have a team shirt or two to show my support. I not only think that USF1 has brought F1 back to North Americans but they’ve also brought hope to the sport.

On that note, you guys at USF1 need any PR people or I have a computer technical background? I’d pretty much do anything to be on the USF1 team! If you’d like to check them out and see what they have to offer go to: www.usf1.com

Feb

Equality Equals Unpredictability

By BernieR 0 Comments

Categories: Motorsports

There are some good things about the rule changes that are happening for the 2009 Formula One season. With the lack of winglets, restrictive aerodynamics, KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) and slick tires (if you’re European then it’s “tyres”), cars are becoming more dependant on drivers than the combination of both driver and manufacturer. With this shift, “luck” now plays a much bigger part. Agreed, that the engines and chassis are still made by their respective manufacturers but with almost all the cars sharing similar characteristics I think that the season will be unpredictable. The favorites are no longer with the manufacturer but with the drivers. This means that Kimi, Louis, Massa and Alonso are the main favorites but I also predict that we will see some lower teams standing on the podium more often throughout the season, causing havoc on the point system. No longer will it be prestigious to race for Ferrari or McLaren or even BMW. Instead the privateer teams or lower manufacturer teams will be just as prestigious and will be not as meaningful to move up in the ranks of the F1 grid. I’m excited for the season to start but I’m also nervous for the future of Formula One. There’s only one way to find out and we will see after the beginning of the season starts.

Feb

Rules to Washing Your Car?

By BernieR 0 Comments

Categories: Automobiles - General and Motorsports

You better believe it when I say that there are rules to washing your car. Chances are that you already know how to wash you car appropriately but you may know a guy or girl friend who is oblivious to these rules. Hopefully this will give you some insight on the Do’s and Don’t’s of washing your car.

When planning to wash your car be sure that you don’t wash in the direct sunlight. The reason for this is so that the soapy water doesn’t dry on the car causing potential damage to the paint. Also while rinsing the car avoid direct sunlight because there are usually minerals in the water itself and will cause water-spots.
Do NOT use a power washer. Although this is easier you could be “grinding” the grit and debris more into the clear-coat of the paint.
Sorry spouses but if you’re washing the car and have any jewelry on, remove them… including wedding rings! Jewelry will cause unexpected scratches in the paint.
If in the event you drop your towel, wash cloth, wash mitten, brush, etc. Do NOT use it again until you’ve thoroughly washed the dropped item. If it’s a washing mitten or brush, be sure it’s cleaned of all debris and dirt. If it’s a towel, then throw it in the dirty clothes bin and grab a new towel. If you use a dropped item you will put scratches in the paint from any debris. Microscopic particles will scratch the surface, even though the wash mitten or towel may appear to be clean.

If you’re using any kind of chemicals to wash your wheels and tires, this is the first step. Otherwise rinse out your wheel wells and the main debris from your rims and tires.
Be lucrative with your soap. I prefer to have more soap suds than not enough. This makes it easier to see where you’ve washed and where you missed. Think of washing the car in thirds and working from the top to the bottom.
As you wash your vehicle be sure not to “swirl” your cloth but instead move in the motion of the airstream. So you will be washing the car in straight lines moving from front to back. Do this as much as possible. The reason for this is if you’ve got grit or debris the scratches in the clear-coat will be in line with the airflow and will be harder to see. Have you ever looked at a car and thought that there were spiderwebs in the paint? That’s because the owner didn’t wash in straight lines. Also be sure not to wash up and down whenever possible. Always make the effort to go front to back.
Rinse between each third and rinse the complete car every time.
Last is to wash the wheels and tires. If you used chemicals to clean your wheels and tires, then for the most part rinsing may all you need to do. However, most car guys that I know will take the extra time to wash the wheels. People that do a lot of car shows will also make the effort to remove the wheels from the car and clean the wheels in the rim side too. For everyday use though, this isn’t necessary.
After you’ve finished washing the car immediately dry your car off with clean towels. This will help prevent water-spots and will also get places that you may have overlooked. Also during this drying time open up all the doors and dry out the door’s edges and the door jams. Then after the doors are done do the trunk lid and then the hood. This will keep the car looking new for much longer.
If you feel that you need to wash out the engine compartment be sure to not spray water directly on the electrical components of the engine and also be sure that the engine is running. This way there’s positive pressure in the engine and the chances of water leaking in and settling on components is less likely.
After you’ve toweled your car, do an inspection for any missed spots. Then your done… with the inside.

Hopefully this will help you enjoy washing your car and taking car of your car will not only make the car look good but will make you look good too (my cheesy tag line there… it’s dumb, I know).

Feb

USF1: The New 2010 Team On The F1 Grid

By BernieR 1 Comment

Categories: Motorsports

Growing rumors have come to surface about a new Formula 1 team making efforts to get to the starting grid. However, this team is being born from a region that hosts no Formula 1 Grand Prix. The potentially new United States Formula 1 team is rumored to debut for the 2010 season. Being from the US, this is something that’s had a long time waiting.

There are good and bad things about this though. Most of the teams are located in the European region and have access to the authorized testing facilities whereas the US team would have to make the leap across the pond. If Formula 1 (FOTA and FIA) are going to make drastic measures to reduce costs then maybe allowing the USF1 team to conduct tests here in the US then there’s a chance.

The good news is that there’s a plethora of knowledge and drive here in the US and the potential is really great… if it will work. Peter Winsor and Ken Anderson will be front men to the team, so the glue to mend the team together “could” be great or it could be embarrassing. With the potential of a US team though, I will support them in their venture and I can only hope that great things will become of them. Now my next question is, how do I get on the USF1 team roster?

Peter Windsor
Image from the USF1 Website