Kids these Days.

Okay, I'm a gamer, and I've been known, on occasion to talk about motorsport on this blog. So naturally, being both a gamer and a Motorsport fan, I was pretty happy to see news of F1 2011 appearing in the gaming media, more specifically, this Developer Diary:

I want the steering wheel Ant Davidson uses in that video SO much.

Now, I first came across that video on a gaming site. As you tend to with Video Game news. What I then did was make the mistake of looking at the comments. Most of it, to be fair, was the usual mix of vitriolic hatred and enthusiastic responses. The one that caught my eye, though was a comment related to the footage from about the 1:45 minute mark of the video, at the VIP developer event.

As you may notice if you look at that video, a lot of the people trying the game out are rather young, which prompted some enlightened soul in the comments to ask:

"That's stupid, what the F**k do kids know about car handling?"

I have, of course, corrected the spelling and grammar.

Now, at first glance, the commenter has a point. What does a young person know about the intricacies of car handling and physics? What could a young teenager know about Racing a car? What could a child know about competitive motorsport and how a car handles under pressure?

What could this 15 year old girl:

(Picture Courtesy: BBC)

know about car handling and physics? And what does this nine year old child:

(Picture courtesy: Youtube)

...Know about how a racing car handles? Look at the pair of them? What could they possibly know about racing car Handling that some gamer commenting on a website doesn't? Everyone knows kids don't know anything!

Tell me, gentle reader, how good are you at spotting incredibly loaded questions?

That first picture? The fifteen year old? Her name is Sarah Moore. In 2009, on Live British Television, she won the Ginetta Juniors championship, one of the best Junior GT racing categories in the country. She was the first female champion in it's then five-year history. She won five races and had ten podium finishes in the 20 race season. Now aged 17 and racing in the Intersteps series, Her ambition is to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours. She also has her sights set on being the first British Female F1 driver.

Just to illustrate that this series isn't just kids playing around, here's some footage from the 2008 season, as Ginetta Junior footage is disappointingly difficult to find:

Oh, and I bet you're wondering about the young nine year old boy in that photo. Well, that picture was taken in 1989. I cropped it from this footage:

Twenty years later, that nine year old boy did this:

Yeah. Thats Jenson Button. The 2009 F1 world Champion.

So whats the point of this blog entry? The point is that Racing drivers don't just drop into the seat at the age of 25 and start winning races. The point is that Motorsport, like everything else in life, is a craft that needs to be learned.

The point is that some Gamer posting a comment on a website doesn't know more than that 15 year old girl and eight year old boy. They have probably forgotten more about car handling and physics than you will ever know. Sarah Moore is a veteran champion racing driver at the age of 17. Jenson Button has been racing for over 20 years, and is only 31 years old.

So, "What the f**k do kids know about car handling and physics?"

The answer? In the case of some of them, A hell of a lot more than you.

Bendanarama's alternative Motorsport Preview

SO, The Formula One seasons was Nearly upon us. Then It wasn't. Now it is again, so Yay!

But whilst every other blog, website and Twitter feed is blazing towards the F1 seasons with Bated Breath, I've decided to do an alternative Motorsport preview, hopefully pointing out some races you're missing out on.

WTCC.

The World Touring Car Championship is facing a difficult season, if we're honest. With SEAT Pulling out in 2010 and BMW throwing their toys out of the pram in 2011 (They didn't fancy adapting to new engine rules - in ANY touring car Series) The championship has been left with just two Works Manufacturers, four factory Chevrolet Cruze's and a single Factory Volvo. With the Chevrolet team riding high as champions, you could be forgiven for thinking that the blue boys are going to storm it.

That said, what this does do is open the field up for independent runners to really make a story of this season. All of the former Works SEAT Leon 2.0 Tdi's are now being run independently, as well as a handful of BMW 320si's - although the BMW field is arguably poorer without Andy Priaulx. But with the first race starting from a rolling start and the second from a traditional standing start, the Series is haphazard enough and full of enough Touring Car action - on Grand Prix Tracks no less - that you get some very good races. Last years championship was decided by poor stewarding, but I have high hopes for this year, even with the lack of factory entrants.

Where to watch.

Eurosport shows the races live, and will show the AutoGP support series races once they come into play at Monza. The first race of the season is this weekend from the Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba in Brazil.

Here's some highlights of last season for you:



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Superleague Formula

Football And Motorsport. I want you to think about that for a second. Football, combined with roaring V12 Single Seater Formula cars on fat slick tyres racing at some truly awesome Tracks. The Cars all sound fantastic, and the Racing is usually very, very good. Last years championship went very much down to the wire, with Tottenham Hotspurs' Craig Dolby undoubtedly cursing the fact that the Beijing round was a non-championship race due to the street track lacking the necessary FIA license, and losing to Anderlecht's Davide Rigon by just two points. The Series also seems to be very stable, so none of the teams seem to be scrabbling round for budgets or settling for drivers of limited talent who are willing to pay for their seat. It isn't quite a stepping stone to F1 yet, but it very much could be in the future.

The Race uses a similar format to a football match, with two main races of 40-45 minutes with the second race as a reversed grid, and a "SuperFinal" five lap shootout, with the top six drivers from the weekend racing for a prize of €100,000. The races feature rolling starts that are delightfully haphazard, since the cars can overtake from the moment the poleman reaches the start/finish line.

Where to watch.

While you can watch the races on ESPN in the UK or, rather oddly, on Bloomberg possibly the best way is to take advantage of the live stream on the Championship's Website.

And to encourage your patronage, here's the opening moments of the first round of the 2010 championship at Silverstone:



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FIA GT1 and GT3 Championships

Do I really need to sell this one to you? DB9's, Murcielago's Ford-GTs, Nissan GT-Rs, Corvettes and Maseratis go Head to Head on a packed grid in some of the best sportscar racing in the world. To top that, it's supported at the European fixtures by the GT3 series which features BMW Z4's, Audi R8s, and in the near future the McLaren MP4-12c. The only downside to this series is that is has robbed the Le Mans grid a bit, since the legendary 24 hour race is having to go without it's GT1 runners this year due to a fixture clash.

Where to watch.

Again, ESPN or Bloomberg show the races, with the series kicking off on the 27th March - the evening after F1's opening race in Australia in the morning. Some highlights of last years race at Silverstone:



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BTCC

And Last but not in any way least, the British Touring Car Championship.

Somewhat ironically, this national series is currently looking far stronger than the WTCC, with with at two strong manufacturer entries - Chevrolet Cruzes and Honda Civics - and a massive field of Independents with greater variety than the WTCC. Currently, as well as the BMW's and SEAT's of the world championship, the BTCC also features Protons Gen-2's, Chevrolet Lacetti's, Older Ford Focus STs, Vauxhall Vectras, Honda Integras, VW Golfs, Audi A4s, Toyota Avensis' and the new 'Global' Ford Focus. The Series has three races per weekend, as well as a full racecard of supports ranging from Formula Renault to the Clio Cup. Now in it's 54th year, the series is currently going to a new strength with it's new "Next-Generation Touring Car" rules opening the field up substantially.

Given the tight twisty nature of most British tracks, and that fact that a lot of the races tend to take place on the shorter variants of circuits, the panel bashing fun and close pack racing are a near constant.

Where to watch.

ITV4 currently shows the Entirity of BTCC race day, including all the support races. Here's some highlights from 2010!



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Well, this is far from a complete list of whats available out there, but they're certainly an alternative to Formula One, and can often be a lot more fun and frolicky. All of these series are relatively easy to find, along with other like the various Le Mans series, Formula 2 and the various Formula 3 series around the world. Hell, even Indycar and NASCAR are becoming more available through streaming, so theres plenty of choice to tide you over both before and during the F1 season.

-Bendanarama

Indycar Just went Unique...

I like Indycar. As open-wheel race series go, its a remarkably un-pretentious league. a mix of street races and ovals, with its one big feature event, the Indy 500. I even like the design of Indycars, although, I've got to admit that they look like rejected designs for F1 cars.

That is, Until now.

You see, the IRL has been holding a competition between three design teams - Dallara, Swift, and DeltaWing Racing.

Up first in this Petrol-powered Triplethreat: Dallara

Now, Dallara have entered three designs, two of them look very Traditional Indycar:



However, their most intriguing one is this one - a much more futuristic design with what looks like a heavy wing at the back:



The front wing also looks very solid and chunky on this design, presumably to deal with paint-trading fun. The rear wheels also look to be mostly enclosed just in front of the rear wing, making the car less likely to go airborne in a wheel-to-wheel clash. a good design, and I've got a feeling this is one of the ones the IRL will look at the most.

Next up, we have Swift's design...


...Which is apparently funded by Wayne Enterprises. Its a good looker, but I'm not sure how much of it would translate to an actual car, especially that front wing. I just don't see how much aero-grip thats going to offer this car. In this design, the rear wheel is also more open, giving more risk of the cars going skywards, and as discussed in a previous entry, racecars are not meant to fly.

Finally, though, we have the most interesting, and certainly the most controversial design being pitched - and ironically, its also the one that is closest to being a working goddamn car: the DeltaWing.



That car looks epic. It's designed to be hugely low on drag, and has completely enclosed wheels to prevent any flying issues. Its also, apparently, the one most of the drivers on the grid like best.

Personally, I hink theres one, blinding obvious way to decided between the three - Race the fuckers! Three designs fighting it out for the right to be made the reigning indycar!

Do it, IRL. You know you want to.

An Electric F1 car? MADNESS.

I came up with today's rant after a talk with my Environmental-former-Greenpeace-Activist Wife. Blame her.

The Rules for Next season of Formula 1 have been announced for some time now, and key on the list is the fact that refueling has been banned for the 2010 season. Now, as seen in the previous couple of posts – and to Kimi Räikönnen's detriment – refueling can have some fairly dire results when it comes to accidents.

However, for me at least, the ban on refueling has a far more significant knock-on.

In these days of climate change, global warming and mass panic over the fact that the Earth's polar ice-caps may indeed vanish in the near future, the Ban on refueling can be taken to represent the fact that Formula 1 is finally moving towards a more environmentally friendly method of racing.

F1 has long been criticised for its environmental image. When Honda used the “EarthDreams” livery, they were criticised for 'Greenwashing' their image. Bridgestone were accused of similar crimes when they declared that the green stripes on their tires represented their support for the FIA's “Make Cars Green” campaign.

A nifty trick. In the first case, the Honda RA107 got five miles to the gallon and produced over 138 tonnes of carbon per race. In the second, Bridgestone pushed for the “two-compound” rule – forcing the cars to use multiple sets of tires per race, as opposed to 2005 when they used one set per race. The sheer amount of rubber destroyed in these tires is borderline obscene.

Although, admittedly, the RA107 livery was more of a marketing move than an attempt to make the cars more environmentally friendly, the new rules of F1 are a positive step in the right direction.

While the cars, for at least one season, may be using just as much fuel as before, the nifty trick regarding this is that, initially, the cars will have to compromise in order to carry that amount of petrol.

The knock-on effect being that the cars will have to become more fuel efficient. Through this, we could see the re-introduction of the KERS system. For those of you unfamiliar with F1, the KERS system harvested the thermal energy created by braking the car and put into a battery, this could then be used to give the car a temporary 60 BHP boost in power. Now, that system, for 2009, was abominably expensive, with all the teams dropping it for 2010. However, with fuel space at a premium – none of the teams can afford to compromise their aerodynamics for fuel – Surely it is only a matter of time until KERS makes a comeback to give those cars an edge around the track.

All of this leads to less fuel being used. Those cars have to become more fuel efficient, while staying competitive. The team that makes the most fuel-efficient car will use less fuel. That makes them able to run at lighter weights. That makes them faster.

So what we'll have is a new F1 arms war. In order to make the faster car, they have to make them better at using less fuel. So the next stage is to use less tires. The simple solution here is to go back to using only one set per race. Now the nifty thing about the slick tires the cars have gone back to using is that the pressure is more evenly distributed over their surface – meaning that they break down at a slightly slower rate than the grooved tires that were used in 2005. Of course, this all revolves around the “two-compounds” rule being revoked. Bridgestone make an awful lot of money out of that rule.

However, after 2010, Bridgestone will no longer be supplying the tires for Formula 1 Competition. So, whoever comes in has the opportunity to make a significant environmental impact.

So, what am I building up to here? Well, to illustrate, I want to introduce you to an electric car:

What...? No, not that one! That car blows!

I meant This One:

Now that Sexy beast of a car is the Lightning GT. And it is a fully electric car with a range of 188 miles. It uses KERS to keep its batteries charged up. The Lithium-Titanate batteries have a lifetime expectancy of twelve years.

Words fail to describe how much I want one. And at £120,000, its about 35 times cheaper than the average F1 car as well.

Now, This gives me hope that we will see a fully electric Formula 1 car within my lifetime. And not just an electric F1 car, a competitive electric F1 car. And the first time one of those near-silent electric F1 cars wins a race, the other teams with their Gas-Guzzling cars are going to look at it and go “wait a minute...”

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where F1 will finally make the step to not only being the worlds Premier Motorsport, but the worlds most environmentally friendly as well.

And that's just what the sport, the fans, and the world need to see.

-Bendana

I love the 2009 formula one cars...

I'm a pretty big fan of Formula One. I'm a fan of motorsport in general, but Formula one has a special place in my heart - its one of the first sports that my wife and I truly love to watch together. We even watch the Qualifying on the Saturday before the actual race - sometimes we even find it more exciting than the actual race!

From the moment Fleetwood Mac's Bassline from The Chain starts to play, I'm hooked. I've always been a fan of Jenson Button, and the fact that his season is going so well is awesome to me.

So recently, I started following a dedicated Formula One blog, F1 Fanatic. This place seems to cotton onto a lot of the big news first, and is a lot easier to digest than my other source of F1 news, the BBC sports site.

I glanced on today, and noticed that a new article was up. The site had recently held a poll, asking what F1 cars readers felt were the best looking. I voted for the 2009 Iterations of the cars. I love the look of the new F1 cars - Unlike the technology infested things of recent years, that looked more like stubby fighter aircraft than cars, the new generation look like Racers.

Yet the fanbase have voted, overwhelmingly that the 2009 cars are the ugliest cars they've ever seen.

Seriously? I call bullshit. While I agree with a lot of what the article says - the problem of getting the cars to actually, y'know, race still hasn't been solved - I think those new cars are absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, look at the BGP-001:



Now, that is one good looking car. It looks like it can race, rather than looking like a Picasso painting has vomited all over an IndyCar. in opposition to that, the cars that were voted the best looking were the cars from the 2000's. Most notably, the cars from 2007 were prminently featured as examples:



Seriously? I mean, Jesus, nostalgia is one thing, but that car is beyond fucking ugly. I know it was an excellent piece of engineering, but aesthetically, it's far from pleasing. Even as recently as 2008, the cars were so squat and ugly that they just looked like insects to me. The latest Generation of F1 cars look like cars.

But, at the end of the day, Aesthetics isn't really the point of F1, (I really wanted to give those 2009 cars some love though) and as I said, the problems of making the cars race against each other is still there. at the highers speeds, the only place F1 seems to become a passing race sport is at the back of the grid - where the cars are so bad they have to fight for every position.

It still makes me giggle that the world Champion is in one of those poor cars. I think it will be good for Hamilton, who seemed to have the world at his feet far too quickly. In the meantime, the German Grand Prix at the Legendary Nurburgring is a week on Sunday, and once again, I'm in work for qualifying.

God... Damn.



...Tell me that shit don't look good.