Tag Archives: Motorsport

A quick briefing on the new F1 technical regs…

…from the new Red Bull #2 and some guy named Vettel (h/t Michael):

So the cars are heavier but have less fuel and produce more torque with 2 KERS-type devices and also have an 8-speed gearbox. The engines are a throaty V6 Turbo rather than that old familiar high-pitched screech of the normally aspirated V8. Revs are also capped at 15k instead of 18k, the DRS slot is 20mm wider for better overtaking, the front wing is smaller so less downforce and the tire compounds from Pirelli have also been changed (and will hopefully be less prone to catastrophic delamination).

As with any major change in F1 — and these are fairly huge — there is a massive amount of grumbling up and down the paddock and from fans, with special vitriol reserved for the new safety-mandated lower noses (“Ugly!”) and the loss of the screaming engine note we’ve come to know and love (“It doesn’t sound like Formula 1!”). But with everyone starting from a clean sheet of paper it should shake up the field and perhaps limit Red Bull’s easy dominance of the last few years. In fact, it looks as if Mercedes has the jump on its competitors with many more testing hours than anyone else. Reliability will be a major issue, especially as regards overheating, and so will fuel management because there is still no refueling in F1 despite the reduced capacity. Therefore, tactics and excellence in engineering may outshine the individual brilliance of the drivers. But the cars themselves seem at this early stage to need to be “driven” more with throttle application coming off the corners particularly important as they are quite squirmy, so in the end the pilot will probably still have a great percentage of the responsibility for his team’s success.

While Red Bull and especially their fellow Renault-engined team Lotus seem to be particularly behind the 8-ball, it is never a good idea to make judgements this early in the season. If any team has the monetary, technical and driver resources to dramatically improve as the season progresses, it’s Adrian Newey, Sebastian Vettel and their very commited energy drink company. The truth will out after the summer break when the technical improvements really come into play. With these radical new regulations it will be fascinating to see if Red Bull and Vettel can again outpace the field as the season wears on or if it will finally be a different constructor and driver’s time to shine for the first time in 4 years.

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix has already happened overnight (more on that later) and the race will air at approximately 2AM EST Sunday on NBCSports here in the States.

One of the hairiest crashes you will ever see…

…occurred relatively early in last month’s Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, the inaugural race of the new Tudor United Sports Car Championship. And both drivers, Memo Gidley in the Gainsco Corvette Prototype and Matteo Malucelli in the Risi Competizione Ferrari, survived.

Truly, we are living in a golden age of race car safety. Yes, things can always be improved. But just 15 years ago one of these drivers probably would have perished. The fact that neither did is testament to the efforts of motorsports as a whole and to safety pioneers like Sid Watkins and Jackie Stewart. Every driver should say a word of thanks to those persistent crusaders for the ever-improving safety of their road going cars but especially if they are weekend racers, semi-pro or professional.

Getting ready for the 2014 Rolex 24-Hours at Daytona

Tomorrow — Saturday, January the 25th — is the unofficial official start of big time motorsports in the New Year with the 52nd running of the 24-Hours at Daytona. It will also inaugurate the new IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship after a merger between the two formerly competing US road racing leagues, the American LeMans Series and Grand-Am. Daytona’s unique hybrid banked oval/infield road course (aka “Roval) will be the first test of professional and gentlemen drivers across the newly reorganized 4 classifications (in descending order of technical and performance level): Prototype (P); Prototype Challenge (PC); GT Le Mans (GTLM); and GT Daytona (GTD). As you can tell by these names if you’re familiar with the class structures of the old series, there seems to be an uneasy merger between the exacting specifications of the French organization which controls Le Mans, the ACO, and the more free wheeling Grand-Am regulations. It should be interesting to see how the tension between these two visions for sports car racing play out as this first United SportsCar Championship season evolves and the different cultures are integrated.

Delta Wing Racing's New Coupe

Delta Wing Racing’s New Coupe

Nonetheless, familiar top competitors will still be players in the new league with teams such as Chip Ganassi, Wayne Taylor, Bob Stallings’ Gainsco, Michael Shank, Starworks and Action Express. And world-reknowned sports car pilots will still be driving for them, such as the great Scott Pruett, Alex Gurney, Ollie Gavin, Antonio Garcia and superstar-in-the-making Jordan Taylor to name but a few. And of course many of the world’s high-performance automotive leaders will be competing, like Corvette, Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, Mazda, as well as expanded programs by Astin Martin, Audi and SRT Viper.

 

But the most important factor to get the new series off to a good start and hopefully capture the interest of an even greater portion of the American public will be the racing down there in Daytona tomorrow afternoon. The grueling 24-hours kicks off at 2pm Eastern and can be viewed pretty much continuously, albeit only across multiple platforms that may or not be available on your cable or satellite provider.

Here is the broadcast and Internet schedule for tomorrow’s 24-Hours at Daytona (via Auto Week)– let’s hope for good weather and an exciting and safe race for all!

Saturday, Jan. 25

2-4 p.m. ET on Fox

4-9 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 2

Overnight (Jan. 25-26)

9 p.m.-7 a.m. ET on IMSA.com (includes live images, in-car cameras and announcers)

Sunday, Jan. 26

7 a.m.-3 p.m. on Fox Sports 1

Cars we want — Jaguar F-type

At long last, Jaguar’s fabled E-type gets a successor: The stunning and sleek new F-type roadster.

2013_jaguar_f_type-3

The F-type is available with 3 levels of power plant, all of them exhilarating: a “standard” Supercharged V6 with 340 horsepower, an “S” version of the same engine that bumps the power up to 380 HP and the big daddy 5-liter V8 “R” version, which maxes out at a powerful 495 HP and is “restricted” to a blazingly fast 186mph.

jaguar-f-type-2

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F1 legend Michael Schumacher in critical condition after skiing accident

Michael_Schumacher

From France this morning comes the shocking news that Formula One legend and 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher has sustained serious brain injuries in a skiing accident in the Alpine resort of Méribel. The 44-year old retired racer was skiing off-trail with his family and struck his head on a rock. Despite wearing a helmet, Schumacher was airlifted first to a local medical facility and then to a larger hospital in Grenoble, where his injuries were severe enough to require surgeons to place the German in an induced coma to protect his brain from further damage.

Along with his family, former Ferrari team manager and current FIA president Jean Todt and Ross Brawn, Schumacher’s technical director for his record-setting 5 consecutive championships with Ferrari, were said to be at the hospital holding vigil.

The full NY Times story is here.

We here at MFL would like to extend our hopes and prayers that Michael makes a full recovery from this ghastly incident. With his superior athletic conditioning, he has as good a chance as anyone to survive such an accident. It really does sound very severe but like racing fans around the world, we are hoping for the best for the great Schumacher and his friends and family.

*Update: You can follow Michael’s progress via the excellent Former F1 Doc blog where Gary Hartstein, an assistant of the late, great Sid Watkins and F1’s medical delegate from 2005-12, is discussing this sort of traumatic brain injury in detail. The Daily Mail in the UK also has excellent straight-up news coverage.