F1 update from Monaco

[Pistolero]

Pretty amazing last two days, really. Things are quite different than what has been the norm for the
last three seasons.

Quite unusual qualifying results. Raikonen took the pole for Ferrari, with Vettel beside him - making an all Ferrari
front row. Botas for Mercedes made third, with Verstappen of Red Bull fourth. This was unusual, but wait for
the really big news. Hamilton wound up 14th in the Mercedes - without any sort of a mechanical breakdown.

Lewis Hamilton couldn't figure it out in practice 1, practice 2 or practice 3. He did not make it out of Qualifying
session 2, and I am nearly certain that this is the first time this has happened to him other than a blown engine
or something like that in perhaps 6 or 8 years. He never got the car working properly, never got higher than
about 6th or 8th at any time. He wound up 14th, although Button's McLaren will need a turbo change, so will penalized and
pushed back, moving Hamilton to starting at 13th. Think about both McLarens qualifying ahead of Hamilton's
Mercedes - that hasn't happened in years, either.

Hamilton was down to the last one minute in Qualifying 2, and on a hot lap when Van Dorn brushed the wall
at the apex right in front of us, and snapped a suspension link, understeering across the track and into the barrier,
ending Hamilton's last ditch (desperation) run at qualifying.
This is as Van Doorne has just busted his McLaren's right front steering link, 25 yds back by whacking the Armco at the
previous apex, tire is flopping left and right, although happens to be straight this instant, he ran straight fwd another 10 yds into
the barrier. Note front wing sparking on pavement as he lands hard on the nose. He was lifted by a crane, deposited
behind the Armco in front of our stands and then lifted out later and trucked back to the pits. He will run tomorrow,
but was out of qualification.

Hamilton being that far back is a very big story. Never a Hamilton fan, it is fine with me.

Bill

 

[fiver]

you just saved me some sleep or gained me some as it were.

it looks like they are gonna tape delay the race tomorrow, but they have their scheduling all messed up.
they will have the pre-race show live, then some soccer or something, the post race show [live again], then show the race..

good job capturing the picture there.

 

[Pistolero]

Good camera, and a good bit of luck. I was shooting them at the apex of that corner and he came
crashing across just as I was snapping what I thought would be a normal exiting photo. But not
in this case. I saw a video from straight ahead of him, and he popped the steering rod as he clipped the
Armco, the wheel started flapping left and right full lock while he tried to steer with the left front only - which
is going to give some really MASSIVE understeer. He understeeered straight ahead into the barrier.

Further investigation indicates that in 2009 Monaco, Raikonnen got his last pole and that was
also the last time
that Hamilton qualified 14th (or 13th?). In any case, it has been a long time for both of them.

Sounds totally screwed up on TV. Hope my DVR can figure it out. Want to watch the
coverage when I get back, too.

Bill

 

[Pistolero]

Prediction:
After watching everything, frequently from right across from the pits since Wed, I think
Kimi will probably win this. He is on pole, has been really motivated and quick all week, top form
every session. When everyone was practicing standing starts, which are pretty tricky with these cars,
Kimi has been making consistently great starts, and Vettel has not done all that well with his,
they were clearly inferior to my eye. I am betting that Kimi nails the start and leads the race start to
finish unless he has a mechanical, just possibly a brain fart and clips a barrier.

For the non-F1 folks, they start on the grid and dump the clutch in a drag to the first corner. Getting just the right
balance of clutch slip and tires right on the edge of spinning (spinning them will be very slow) is a real challenge and there
are huge differences in skills for that particular part of this sport. The required techique also differs with the
different tires (UltraSoft, SuperSoft, Soft and Medium) available to the drivers.

Very hard to pass in Monaco, and only Vettel, Ricciardo, Verstappen and Botas have been really anywhere near
Kimi's times this week. I think something weird will have to happen for Kimi to lose this one, further
aided by the extreme difficulty of passing on this course - and the cars are about 6-8" wider this year
than last year, making it even harder.

I will go with Verstappen jumping Botas at the start, and if the teen can control his
exuberance a bit, I'd bet on Raikonnen, Vettel and Verstappen for the podium.

Bill

 

[Pistolero]

I have never seen this sort of a group of cars in a showroom!



The farthest one is a Lotus. The rest are Ferraris...... Wow. Not sure which models, but a
whole lot of HP and $$$$$$$$$$$$.

Bill

 

[Brad]

Which one are you shipping home?

 

[popper]

Reminds me of unlimited hydro races on L. wash. We'd left the pits and had a good seat on the front just after the turn. Dad was watching with telephoto on his relfex when Van Lines tucked a sponson and got hit by another. He looked at me and said he forgot to click the shutter. Had an uncle who drove Nuremberg - said it was a terrible course of really bad roads, but that was post war. Monaco has always beeen the worst - the guys also hated to drive or be behind the German cars as Hitler was experimenting with some nasty fuels. Uncle ran Pikes Peak on his way to enlist - said the guys would take their hot rods for the race, just make sure they had enough $ for bus or train to S.F. if it broke. They just left the cars there (S.F.) anyway. Always like the W196 until my Bro. got am SL - it drove like a tank with a really big steering wheel. Can't imagine how Fangio could run that for a few hours at speed. Racing is fun but not cheap.

 

[Pistolero]

Brad - I wish, but not likely. The Cayman keeps me pretty well covered, really one of the very best all around
performing street cars of this era. No doubt that the Ferraris are faster top speed and perhaps a touch quicker
0-60, but at the 5.1 second level, going to 4.5 or even 3.5 isn't going to be as big a deal as going from the typical
10-15 sec 0-60 down to 5 seconds. Few cars will match it in the corners, even the Ferraris, at over 1.0 G.

If I was truly rich, sure, but within my budget - not happening. Just walking past the dealer
in Monaco on the way to the train, couldn't resist the shot.

popper -
I would like to drive the 300SL, but I did get to drive a really beautiful old '57 or so Corvette. It was red and white
and convertible and just a looker! Total pig of a car. Slow, heavy, vague steering. Six cyl Chevy motor, straight
out of the pickup, with 2 speed slushbox Hydromatic piece of crap. Unboosted drum brakes....... Yikes. Sometimes
we shouldn't drive our dream cars, we should just look at them.

Pikes Peak is a really, really crazy race, even today.

A friend rented time in a Ferrari, and a Lamborghini at a track in Phoenix or maybe Las Vegas. Anyway, a few laps for
a reasonable, but not cheap price. She said the Ferrari was a really impressive car, but the Lambo was a pig.
I have never driven either... so don't know. I drove a 560 HP AMG Mercedes on the track, and it was fine, but
a bit undistinguished - and FAST, but not so thrilling as I expected. The Cayman IS thrilling.

Bill

 

[Ian]

The only thing I've driven on a track was Vipers. It wasn't much fun because it was work, and I was only verifying that I had corrected owner's suspension/steering complaints and trying not to kill myself. None of those were completely stock, either, all road racing cars. My impression of the Viper on the street wasn't favorable, they are rattletraps, very clunky and mushy. BUT, somewhere around 120-140 mph (depending a lot on the suspension package) the aerodynamics start to work and the machine becomes very "stuck", tight, and nimble.

 

[Pistolero]

Actually, Ian, that sounds like a lot of fun to me. I guess anything can be work if you have to
do it.
Gotta to to bed, after midnight, the race is tomorrow, although doesn't start until 2 pm.
Will get to the track about 9 ish. Trying to avoid the huge crowds at the trains and
getting thru the BS security to get to the stands.

Security slowed us for 30-40 minutes getting back to the train station....and anybody can
get on a train at any of the other stations from 5 to 20 minutes up the track, with ZERO
security and run right into the station and do whatever they want. But they need to sorta/kinda look
into your bags and wand you down before you can enter the station
from Monaco town..... I wonder if they hired the bozos from TSA to run this
security?

Bill

 

[Ian]

Sounds to me like they hired the brain-children of those that conceived the Maginot Line.

 

[popper]

Yea, the 300 was the first mechanical F.I. Used a 6 tube tilt plate pump connected to the cam shaft gear. Dang you get me back into my kid days, reading about the Offy/Meyer/Drake/Novi & then the A.U./Benz stuff. Then I found a article on the new F1 motors with pneumatic valve train. 800 bhp from a 2.5L? Then compare with the offy @ 255 from 250 c.i. Novi was 800 bhp in 1934! That lead to group that makes Dakar bike motors. 2/4 banger 2 turbo pneumatic valves @ 20k rpm. Viper is good for track & H.S., else a boat like the 300. 54 Vette was a real stinker too. End of old man rambling.

 

[fiver]

the F-1 cars use battery's and electric motors to boost their power out put up as high as it is.
it isn't all turbo charged gas engine moving them down the road.
they are really high performance hybrids.

 

[popper]

No direct elec. drive I know of yet, RB13 is 6x 1600cc 800 bhp 8 sp xmision. Do you really think FIA would allow a noiseless race? Not that elecs can't do it. The turbine 500 car didn't roar and wasn't a crown pleaser. Can you imagine the turnout at an electric drag strip - no roar & thunder? Just a tiny squeal of tires? Kinda like a 21 gun salute that goes psst,psst,psst. Or 4th with just sparklers? removes all the fun except for the drinking.

 

[Pistolero]

Yes, they do directly drive the wheels with their MGUs as they call them, motor generator units.
Apparently about 100 extra short term HP from the energy harvested when braking. One of the
big tricks is to get a smooth transition from pure generator braking to mixed gen/mechanical and
finally pure mechanical as the speed drops. They do not ONLY drive on electric, have never seen
that but MGU does drive the wheels. I understand that the Mercedes, and others perhaps, have
split the turbo into an exhaust turbine and a compressor some distance apart, keeping heat away
from the compressor.

IMO, the whole hybrid F1 car thing is dumb. They would be better off to have a 3 liter V-10/V-12
normally aspirated engines, limits on materials and require metal springs on the valves (natural
rev limiting). Put on a 20 lb wt penalty (ballast added) for the rest of the season after a tranny failure to
encourage reliable transmissions - if you will get a 20 lb ballast/penalty for the whole season if you break the
gearbox, might as well add in 5-10 lbs of reliability with stronger gears, shafts and case in original design. Perhaps
the same sort of thing (20 lb ballast penalty after 2 engine failures) would encourage sensible, reliable
engine designs - which means affordable.

Require steel suspension arms, which will cut the price by 25X and be more shock and impact resistant,
still quite light. A handful of well thought out restrictions would create robust, fast, challenging cars. Limit
front wings to two elements and rear two three, fixed position. The 25-50 element carbon fiber front wings
cost a literal fortune to develop in wind tunnels and another fortune to build, and replace when
they are destroyed by minor collisions. Limit the square footage of the flat bottom portion of the cars,
which is where the venturi suction works providing downforce. So, with a max square footage, and
a narrow keel, somewhat like the oversized (IMO) FIA 'plank' to keep the flat area far enough from the ground, you can
limit the venturi downforce, and keep it relatively consistent from team to team.

Currently, a team needs several hundred million dollars to field a pair of cars, and more
to be really competitive. Well thought out limitations could keep a very competitive and
interesting F1 World Championship, but cost a whole lot less money.

Not quite sure yet, but I think Team Ferrari may have screwed Kimi today. Kimi was leading handily at
the one pit stop, Vettel behind him. Vettel pitted a few laps later and somehow came out in the lead......
I smell a Ferrari team rat. Vettel is well ahead of Kimi in the World Championship points, and the
team does want to win that, and letting Kimi "steal" some of the points that could go to Vettel would
not necessarily be in the Team Ferrari best interests. Kimi was exceptionally quiet at the podium....I think
he knows he was screwed and has to shut up about it. He is paid many, many millions of $$ a year, and
the team decides how it goes. Their money, their rules.

So - Vettel/Ferrari 1st; Raikkonen/Ferrari 2nd; Ricciardo/Red Bull 3rd; Botas/Mercedes 4th, Verstappen/Red Bull
5th. Hamilton was at 7th, did nothing at all to get there, just folks dropped out in front of him, and made up
a bit in pit work. He started 13th.

 

[fiver]

I think Kimi's team strategist dropped the ball just a little bit.
[there might have been some back round orders given]
but pitting when they did was a better option at the time.
[he was caught up behind the slower traffic giving up track]
it just allowed his team mate who was 3 seconds behind, all that open track [to the same slower cars, and more, since some of them pitted also]
the better super soft compound tires were already bolted on, so he just run flat out and made up that distance, which put Kimi right behind him when he come out of the pits.

 

[popper]

Yes, they use EMF units for breaking and acceleration.

 

[KHornet]

Have been in well over 30 countries, but missed Monaco. Does sort
of look interesting.

 

[Pistolero]

Fiver,
Yes, I think you are exactly correct, but was Kimi unable to push a bit for the 3 or 4 laps prior
to pitting? Perhaps he had no extra left, and perhaps Vettel did, or perhaps it was an error,
or perhaps the team wanted it that way.
Hard to know, but I felt sorry for Kimi. At his age, victories come harder, and he had really
been faster all week.

KHornet - it is interesting, but only about 100 acres in all, easy to miss.

Bill

 

[Pistolero]

We drove a bit out of our way today to get to the Millau Viaduct, and amazing engineering accomplishment.
800 ft above the valley floor, it is a real marvel. That deck carries a full 4 lane, equivalent to an interstate
highway, 130 kph speedlimit across.



My wife was making arrangements on the web and found a chateau that you can spend the night in. A guy has renovated
a room in one of the turrets of a partially ruined chateau. Modern pluming, I am on the wifi now, in a genuine 16th century
chateau (castle) turret.

In and out pix - the moat is dry. Only the rooms that we are in and the rooms above it, which the owner is still
renovating are in good shape. Napoleon decided to steal a lot of the limestone for a different castle, so a lot was
torn down.



Inside is pretty grand, IMO. Very modern bathroom built into a side room, period furnishings, but very nice.



Under $100 Euros, breakfast included.

Amazing.
Nice little village, too. We walked through it this evening.


Beautiful place, nice room. Interesting history. Not what I was expecting tonight.

Bill