Cramped Conditions

Timo (top) and Jérôme, ready to go before the German GP. Not much room.

Note pipe for drinks and the green "umbilical" connecting the car to the overhead pod.

Leaving the pits

 

As we saw in Hungary, the marshalls seemed quiet happy to retrieve a car (Heidfeld's) backwards down the pitlane, despite the obvious danger. OK, cars aren't going quite as quickly when they leave the pits, but it can still cost a driver a lot of time.

In Germany, an HRT was being pushed backwards by the team's mechanics, rather close to where we would have been exiting the pits - the yellow markers are where we stop. Fortunately we weren't planing to stop then, but if we'd had to, we would have lost at least a couple of seconds. Which would, of course, only have been relevant to the other HRT...

Kerbs at Hungary

While walking the track on the Thursday before the Hungarian Grand Prix, a few things struck, and the design of the kerbs at turn 6/7 was one of them. It's a two-stage affair, with a standard stepped kerb, with a semi-circular sectioned inside piece, clearly designed to reduced tyre contact area and thus grip, as well as raising the ride height of the RHS of the car - presumably with the idea of deterring drivers from climbing up it.

Back from Hungary, Independent Once More

When I started this blog, I wasn't working in F1, so I could say pretty much what I liked. And then circumstances transpired so that I would most likely (hopefully) be working with Manor Grand Prix, aka Virgin Racing, aka Marussia Virgin Racing - and at that point I figured that I should not be posting my own views.

Now after starting MVR (for I can refer to them as that now) on the social media path and handing over the reins, it's time to perhaps get back to the idea of propogating views and photos to the few people in the world who might be interested. But seeing as I agree with those journalists in the paddock that say there are too many blogs re-processing the same stuff, I'll probably just restrict myself to trawling through my old iPhone photos that for one reason or another never made it to Twitpic. Or maybe they did and I think they're worth looking at again. Either way, this should at least be a more permanent and searchable resource.

As a symbolic photo,  this post has the final shot I took with MVR. Packdown from the pitlane.

Race Control, Monza

I was lucky enough to be invited into race control just before the start of the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Here's a few notes from my visit:

• Race Director Charlie Whiting and his deputy, Herbie Blash (Race Observer) are responsible for overseeing the race; including incidents, behaviour of cars etc and reporting matters to the stewards. Colin Haywood (Race Control Operator) would deputise for either Charlie or Herbie if necessary.
• The FIA takes their own control desk to each of the GPs, supplementing the permanent equipment of the circuit. Monza is one of the older style rooms, with around 25 small screens; Japan (he didn't say whether it was Fuji or Suzuka, I assume the former) has 36/37 large widescreen TVs.
• The FIA provides three feeds to each of the desks (Charlie, Herbie, Colin) namely the standard camera feed, sector timing and the "Page 3" screen which contains relevant messages. Messages include "Car 5 cut the chicane at Turn 4/5: 14:23:07", "Blue flag shown to Car 21 at 15:12:54" etc
• All radio channels between car and pit are monitored, and lights on the control desk show when each of the drivers is speaking to the team
• Similar lights show contact between pit wall and race control. The teams also have a channel to the FIA, for example to clarify a regulation, or so that teams can be asked a question, warned of investigation etc.
• The FIA are happy to provide clarification - but it is the team's responsibility to know and understand regulations (eg Liegate - McLaren asked for clarification whether Lewis should let Trulli past, but Charlie was busy sorting out the incident that caused the SC to be deployed in the first place)
• Email is used to communicate to the teams, and each of the race directors also has personal mail.
• The position of each car on the track is displayed on a map of the circuit. Certain sections can be enlarged (e.g. chicanes) and the accuracy is sufficient to easily determine whether a car is on the left or right side of the road, or off it. So this is useful for analysis of items such as cutting chicanes, weaving to prevent being overtaken ("more than one move") and overtaking under SC situations.
• The FIA also times all cars between the two safety car lines (at Monza they are located before the first chicane and after the Parabolica). This information is used, for example, during qualifying to ensure that cars are not moving too slowly on the circuit. A minimum time for this part of the track is published prior to Qualifying.
• Until now, records have been held for about two years, but it is safe to assume that all information from now on will be permanently kept.

Motor Racing is Dangerous

Motor Racing is Dangerous. That's what it says on the tickets. At least, it used to say that when as a boy I used to read the small print when my Father was driving us to the circuit.

I picked up some old memorabilia from England recently, and yesterday I was looking through the programme for the 1966 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch.

Two things struck me:

Firstly, the drivers in those days look so much older than the current crop.

And secondly, at a quick estimate, I reckoned that about 40% of the drivers that took part in that race died in a racing car.

I checked and in no particular order, the unfortunate drivers were: Jim Clark, Jo Siffert, Jochen Rindt, Bob Anderson, Mike Spence, Jo Bonnier, Bruce McLaren, John Taylor and Lorenzo Bandini (didn't race due to a metalworker's strike in Italy, but was listed in the programme).

That's 45% of the grid as it turns out. Not counting Denny Hulme (who died in a race car, but of natural causes) or Graham Hill (plane crash returning from a race). Or Peter Arundell, who was struggling to make a comeback after a big accident in 1964 and never lived up to his talent.

So that's over half of the drivers on the grid losing their lives due to race-related incidents.

Quite incomprehensible.

We must continue to ensure that progress is made in the area of safety, such as further improvements to visor technology, as suggested by Luciano Burti. - see: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77573

And it's also necessary to work more on securing wheels, which may mean making uprights or monocoques stronger, so that tragic accidents like Henry Surtees' can be avoided.

But immense progress has been made. Between 1950 and 1986, 76 F1 drivers lost their lives in accidents. Since 1986, three F1 drivers have suffered the same fate, Michele Alboreto being the most recent in 2001, when his Audi R8 suffered a tyre failure during testing.

That's still three deaths too many, but a clear sign of progress. Long may it continue.

F1 Trivia: that 1966 race was quite unusual, as all of the points scorers were Grand Prix winners. In fact, the first five finishers were all World Champions during their career.

Wednesday 5 August

It's Wednesday, and a few things have happened:

• Best news of the day: Felipe allowed to go home to convalesce. Keep improving rapidly!
• There'll be a GP in Canada in 2010. Good news, it's a great circuit and is in a continent that is totally neglected by F1.
• Jean Todt has launched his manifesto, and it's probably good enough to win. I liked Joe Saward's piece on his blog about it.
• People have gone on and on about whether Michael should be able to test the F60. For the record, my view is that no testing is a daft rule but there should be no exception. It won't make him any safer than if he tests a 2007 spec car - except at the start as he has no experience of using KERS. I guess Ferrari still have some straight line tests left, and if not it's their own fault - after all, they could put Gene in the car. There should be no performance benefits from doing the test, and that's precisely what they're after. Worth asking, but no point whingeing if someone says no.
• Donington is still doing stuff to make people think they have a chance of hosting the Grand Prix in 2010. Maybe they do. So where can I buy tickets? OK; I guess we need an F1 calendar first, but they said they'd have the funding in place by the end of July 2009, and there hasn't been an announcement about that. Maybe I'm just a cynic - along with everyone else?

But what I'm sad about is what I haven't heard. What's happening with BMW Sauber? The deadline to sign Concorde expires today, which to me sounds like big news.

I know people that work at the team and I hope they keep their jobs. Peter Sauber is a good man, and deserves a decent chance at resurrecting Sauber from the phoenix-like ashes of BMW.

But I guess that's just my view. Surely there's a journalist out their that'll tell me? Maybe I just can't find the news.

I hope there's a way for them to keep in the sport, even if this year's car is a long way from the best of the grid. There's so much potential there.