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F1 NOW 1.3% SLOWER
The Formula One season begins today in Bahrain, featuring cars some 200 horsepower down on last season’s outputs. Here’s something I wrote in 2004:
Every year, Formula One rule-makers introduce laws to slow cars down, and every year technicians devise ways to make them faster still. Within minutes of hitting the track on Friday, Michael Schumacher had posted the fastest lap seen at Albert Park; on Sunday, Schumacher’s first flying lap broke the race record. If rule-makers legislated that engines be made of cheese, and vehicles be formed from four-tonne blocks of uranium, perhaps a month would elapse before Ferrari or Williams or Renault came up with a cheddar-powered radioactive behemoth capable of lapping Albert Park in less than a minute.
You’d think a 200hp reduction would blow lap times out by, I don’t know, a light year* or so. Wily designers, however, have recovered speed with aerodynamic and structural advances. The result: Schumacher’s pole time is only one second slower than his fastest qualifying lap in 2005.
(Go visit Mahmood for local F1 views—and much else.)
* UPDATE. I stand corrected.
I believe the F1 rules are changing to allow “open” engines, and mandating instead the amount and quality of fuel to be used in a race.
This means that it is open-slather on engines, and whatever configuration you like (turbo, n/a), and
This is from 2010 or so, and no power restrictions will apply.
Whoever wins will do so by virtue of the design efficiency of their engines.
As a Greenie-hater, I say “Bring it on!” What a formula that would be!
War has always spurred rapid technological advances.
Can’t say I’m that much of a fan of the average F1 procession though - ‘Move over, lesser being, I’m the leader.”
For open wheel mayhem, I much prefer the argy bargy of US CART and IndyCar racing.
—Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 03 12 at 04:41 AM • permalinkYes Barrie,
Isn’t it wonderful?
—NoraPosted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 03 12 at 06:34 AM • permalinkI hate to be pedantic, but Blair doesn’t (see “plastic turkey”, etc.), so I figure he’ll have a sense of humor about this:
A light-year is a unit of distance, not time. It is the distance light travels in one year. A parsec is also a unit of distance rather than time, whether Han Solo likes it or not.
Light-year-as-unit-of-time is the plastic turkey meme of people whose knowledge of science is even more microscopic than my own. It drives me nuts.
Posted by P. Froward on 2006 03 12 at 10:07 AM • permalinkF1 racing is precisely that: making the best speed and handling you can under the new circumstances.
Today’s handicap is tomorrow’s challenge.
It’s called evolution.
Sounds more like intelligent design to me.
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 03 12 at 12:38 PM • permalinkBTW, Lucas has been pushing a bit of retro-continuity lately that argues Solo was actually talking about the navigational ability of the Millenium Falcon’s computers. They were so good that they were able to plot a course to Kessel that covered only 12 parsecs, instead of a much longer distance.
Posted by Ernst Blofeld on 2006 03 12 at 02:02 PM • permalinkNo sweeter sound in the world than a F1 engine at full song-bar none.
Nick. I don’t agree. Many of those open wheel racers are absolute idiots. I saw them go into a one car chicane at Long Beach three abreast. Crash! What nitwits.
Get those Ferrari pit people up to speed. Schumacher lost that race on the second stop.
rinardman - George Lucas isn’t the sharpest tack either. I’ve heard that retro-continuity thing and it’s weak. Pretty much what you’d expect, in fact, from the genius behind… uhh… whatever those last three movies were called.
A far better excuse would be to claim that Han Solo was deliberately talking nonsense to dazzle the rubes, figuring they wouldn’t know the difference. I can’t recall where I read that idea; probably Slashdot. But it fits Solo’s character.
Posted by P. Froward on 2006 03 12 at 06:20 PM • permalinkI hope the tree huggers realize that by making these cars drive slower, they’re going to have to drive longer...
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 03 12 at 08:25 PM • permalinkSpeaking of Indy car…Don’t ya just love Gene “I am INDY!” Simmons?
Check this excerpt from Cavuto:
CAVUTO: Gene Simmons, good to have you.
SIMMONS: Thank you very much. Nice of you to welcome me on the show. I actually watch you all the time.
C: Oh, that’s all the cooler.
S: Despite what some of your listeners say, you are actually a powerful and attractive man.
C: All right, no tough questions, because we actually did have a rock star in the green room. It was you. I have caught a couple of your comments — I do want to get in to this Indy thing. But I have caught your comments on politics, which I found intriguing, because you supported the president for reelection, even…
S: I voted for President Clinton and I voted for President Bush with my eyes and ears wide open. And I think most people are like myself, which is, you keep your options open, and you vote for the issues and the person, not the party, which is why the door is wide open and why different…
C: But you didn’t vote for him the first time, right?
S: No, I voted both.
C: Oh, I thought you didn’t vote for him on the first run.
S: President Bush?
C: Yes.
S: No. Both.
C: So, in the last time, why did you?
S: Let me put it to you this way, because the masses tend to shut off when you start talking particularly about politics and specifics.
When you go through a really bad neighborhood, you want a rottweiler with you. When you go through a nice neighborhood, you want a nice French poodle. Not a good idea to have a friendly, nice haircut, French poodle when you go through a bad neighborhood.
By the way, rottweilers sometimes bite your kids and stuff like that. But, in time of war, I want a rottweiler. And we have a president who is not interested in politics, not interested if he is popular or not, actually. And he stands by it.
I mean, whether your like him or not, you can’t say, ah, the guy is just chasing the public vote. He’s really not. He’s a guy, love him, hate him — it doesn’t matter — this guy stands for what he says. And that is what it is.
And, by the way, if the masses agree, next time, vote for somebody else. It’s such an easy idea.
C: What do you read into these poll numbers that have him plummeting?
S: I was a big fan of President Clinton, still am. I think he’s a terrific president. And his poll numbers, as I understand it, were just as low, in the low 30s. People don’t know that.
C: And he rebounded.
S: Of course. Every president has a downturn. And the real idea is, we better figure out how to get together and figure out what the big problem is, which are, there a lot of cockroaches in the kitchen. And if you think you are killing a few on the floor, it means nothing. You have got to tear down the walls and go right in there, because they are multiplying, whether you like it or not. And we better figure out how to speak as with one voice, because everybody is watching America, including the bad guys. But you’re right, I Am Indy — IndyCar.com.
This is the most fantastic thing that has happened to me in the last 10 years, certainly. I went down to Texas by an invitation. And I saw a race that blew me away. I saw cars driving at 220 miles an hour. By the way, when you take off with an airliner, you’re going at 150 miles an hour. You are airborne. These cars are going 70 miles an hour faster.
C: From what I have heard about your past, that’s what you do.
S: That’s right. And the important thing is, this is the place to be. This is cool. So, when we were brought on, S Abramson Marketing — it’s a new venture — and we are basically here to think out of the box and deliver all kinds of notions to big business. The largest single live event on planet Earth is the Indy 500, which is celebrating 90 years. We have the coolest people on the face of the planet. There are 15 races. The first race opens in Homestead, right outside of Miami.
C: And this is big stuff, right?
S: This is huge.
C: You like everybody. Who do you hate?
S: Who do I hate?
C: Yes.
S: The guys we are fighting overseas. Don’t like those guys, because their minds are warped. And they don’t care about logic. These are bad guys. But, getting back to Indy, this is America, baby. It celebrates freedom and…
C: You know what’s great about you, Gene? You just interview yourself. You’re doing a fine job.
S: I know you have got a commercial coming up. Look at that stuff, man.
C: There we go. They got the Indy thing.
S: There we go. Look at those fast cars.
C: That’s right.
S: And it’s a politically free platform. Everybody is involved. It’s a full landscape. You know, by the way, I always meant to say this on television.
C: Here we go.
S: I’m waiting for the close-up.
C: Here we go.
S: I am Indy, baby.
C: Yes. OK. You are also a great marketer. Great seeing you.
S: You are a good man.
C: All right. Thank you, sir..Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 03 12 at 08:50 PM • permalinkI read in Cosworth : The Search For Power, by Graham Robson, that the notion of a fuel regulation Formula was raised some time ago, but regulator tolerance was not tight enough. I’m guessing that now it is. BTW, you could theoretically gain advantage by putting an accumulator downstream from the regulator.
Best thing about such a Formula would be electronic, rather than mechanical, valve actuation.
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G’day Tim,
I am currently stuck in Vienna for a few weeks and I have an exam coming up in German so I am watching as much German TV as I can.
There have only been two mentions of Australia on the German news channels - the first noting the preparations for F1 Grand prix and then in a related item trying to explain the Commonwealth Games to the german-speakers “they are a special, private Olympic Games for the Queen.”