Utter disgrace

Compounding problems...

If anyone says lightning does not strike the same place twice, then ask Ralf Schumacher. Same race, same driver, different car, different year - but same result. Ralf Schumacher crashes into turn leading from the oval bank(turn 13) at high speed owing to a punctured tyre but fortunately escapes unhurt this time. Zonta, the other Toyota driver also punctures his tyre. And Michelin blew the whistle, giving out a statement asking their teams not to race because they could not "guarantee the safety of the drivers". Michelin also failed to produce alternate tyres on time, adding to the throes of the teams.

The FIA then came into the picture and offered to help the Michelin runners by monitoring their speeds at the main corner and penalizing any excess. However, the Michelin teams refused to agree to this and wanted the Bridgestone runners to be slowed down as well - by placing a chicane.

Formula One is a sporting event and it operates on clear rules. At no point must these rules be negotiable just because certain teams are incompetent.The reason for this debacle is absolutely clear. Every team is allowed to bring two sets of tyres to the race. One is an on-the-wire potential race winning tyre and the second is a not-so-good but still very reliable set of back-up tyres. And the Michelin runners did not have the second set of tyres. Later they said that the back-up tyres were on the way from France, but they too were not safe enough. And though the mistake was theirs, they wanted Bridgestone runners to be penalised as well.

By adding a chicane, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would have been turned from a high-speed track to a twisting and winding circuit. And the two are fundamentally different with everything ranging from aerodynamics to tyre configurations to gear box ratios changing for the two types of circuits. Now this would be totally unagreeable to teams like Ferrari who have prepared for the race in their own fashion with the circuit in mind. For no reason could a team that has prepared for a race agree to constrict itself for faults which are alien to themselves.

Live pictures streaming in from Indianapolis on race day showed groups of gentlemen huddle up into conversations,pat each other's backs in approval and wink like school boys in a playground who had something up their sleeve. Only in this case, these gentlemen are multi-millionaires, richer than we would dare dream and the plan they had up their sleeve was nothing less than what would lead to the demise of a great sport and a great heritage. And the venue they chose was the second oldest and perhaps the most celebrated track in the history of motor racing on this planet.

This is a group of elite gentlemen, citizens of Planet Paddock,a planet completely cut-off from the real world in terms of communication, a real world filled with disgruntled fans of Formula One. This is perhaps the nadir in the graph of Formula One. A weekend filled with disgrace which saw seven teams retire their races after the warm-up lap, much to the dismay of fans who had every right to relish a race after hours of sweaty in-vehicle waiting.

By taking the warm-up lap, they technically fulfilled their contractual obligations to the race promoter, but in doing so, screwed the sport and screwed its fans.

With the seven Michelin runners retiring their races, the red-lights went out to a hollow gird with Schumacher on "pole" position with Rubens Barrichello on second. Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan were third and fourth, with Albers and Friesacher completing the running six. The Ferrari's soon pulled off from the lower teams and were in a competition of their own, ducking the bottles thrown by fans , and managing to finish the race in a 1-2 win. An absolutely delighted Tiago Monteiro was third for Jordan, their first podium since Fissichella was awarded the Brazilian grand prix a few years back. Narain Karthikeyan came fourth, taking five points for his team and was delighted too, stating that points were points, no matter how they came. Friesacher and Albers finished the race too, with this being the first ever race since the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix where all cars that started finished the race. On the podium, Ferrari did not toast their win with champagne given the graveness of the situation and left the stage to Tiago Monteiro, the first ever Portugese driver to grace the podium.

Overall, a black day for Formula One, and that too in a country that is very important for the future of this sport. On the championship front, Renault still lead with 76, followed by Ferrari and McLaren tied for second at 63. On the drivers front, Alonso still leads with 59, Raikkonen is on second with 37 and Schumacher lurks behind them at 34.

Showdown at the Brickyard!

The Brickyard!

Its time for the second trans-atlantic race in as many weeks, even as the car's are being freighted overhead from the scenic Montreal to a bustling Indianapolis. Teams would have already reached the spacious garages of the legendary "Brickyard" and started laying out their wares and race day setup simulations would be underway.

Originally designed with four turns, each measuring nine degrees and twelve minutes and connected by a pair of longish straights and two short ones to provide for a two and a half mile shot of pure ecstacy a.k.a SPEED, Indy was perhaps the first ever "testing" venue, allowing the booming Indianapolis motor giants to display their new-fangled wares during the 1920's. With a surface of crushed rock and tar, Indy proved disastrous initially and its founders bustled around and laid more than three million bricks and refitted the track with mortar, thus giving the track its famous name, "The Brickyard". Replaced by asphalt in later years, now only the Start/Finish line exposes the legendary "yard of bricks" as a reverie of past glory.

If transporting the machines and assorted Formula One paraphernalia in time is a logisticians nightmare, then Indianapolis, throughout the evolution of this track has given more trouble to its teams in terms of aerodynamics. And with new aerodynamics regulations in place, Indy should prove to be a gamble for all teams. Untested aerodynamic packages for a track that boasts the longest flat-out straight and some of the slowest turns in the entire calendar year. And for a long straight, a smaller wing would let the driver gun his machine at full throttle, but for a shorter and tighter turn like turn one, the drivers would prefer a lot of wing - for they need not worry about the drag in the infield. Speaking in terms of lap times, simulations wouldnt show differences if one used either types of wings. But when a car with lesser engine power but a lot of wing happens to over take the ones with the faster ones, then the faster ones lose lap times significantly.

If aerodynamics in isolation gave such problems, then factoring in engine cooling and tyre selection with aero-packages can catapult the problems sky-ward. To add to all this, the Indy pits are right in the middle of a long straight. So at some point of time, two cars are bound to come off the pits within seconds of each other. This could create an air-void for the second car, allowing it to go faster, but with reduced downforce and drag problems which could lead to a crash if the driver were to try to overtake the person in front of him.

All said and done, complex laws of physics and theoritical aerodynamics would be the last things that drivers like Kimi or Alonso would think of, especially with the thunder of a Scuderia gunned by Schumacher all over their backs. As for you and me, we would sit back and enjoy the pure rush of speed over the weekend at the local pub screening F1 on a large screen :-)

Ressurgent Raikkonen rocks Montreal

Reversal of Fortunes

The last images that a die-hard McLaren fan would remember from Nurburgring would be the moist eyes of a dissapointed young colt, Raikkonen, who after a dramatic right-wing suspension breakage retired the Nurburgring race, thus handing the trophy to Alonso on a platter. But all that was to change and the Grand Prix du Canada at the 'Circuit Gilles Villeneuve' witnessed a reversal of fortunes for the McLaren driver.

The race started spectacularly with both Renaults shooting out of the second row of the grid in a pincer movement, rattling past the BAR of Jensen Button whose car would not take off from first gear and an unusually slow Ferrari. The smile on Briatore's face said it all. The Renault's were carrying fuel unlike the BAR and the Ferrari and a shoot out at the start only proved to him that his machines were faster. But fast that they were, they couldnt hold it for long, as Fissichella retired with a mechanical failure and Alonso made a rare mistake walling the R25 into turn four and damaging his rear suspension, leading to retirement. This makes Canada the only race where the Renault's have failed to finish, still managing to hang on to the Constructor's top slot, although McLaren are much closer than the Renault's would have anticipated them to be.

The belleagured Ferrari's would go home with their snouts held high, after seeing two of their racers in what would have been a familiar sight last season. The Ferrari's though had a lot of luck, with Schumacher able to close a thirty second gap between himself and the McLaren's; courtesy Jensen Button. The 47-th lap crash happened after Jensen Button got his tyres dirty, went into a wide swoop off the hairpin, locked his rears momentarily and understeed a tad too much at the final chicane and hit the wall off the kerb. The yellow flag was waved and the safety car came out, meaning that the precious thirty seconds that the McLaren's had gained over the others was reduced to zero. To make matters worse, race leader Montoya was just ahead of the pits, making it an advantage for Schumacher and Raikkonen who pitted like clock work. A defiant Montoya raced into the pits and out of it, not aware of the red-lights at the pits and was soon given the black flag.

Massa proved impressive, managing to come in fourth, getting much needed points for team boss Peter Sauber. The Brazilian managed to fend off Mark Webber and would have made it to the podium if the prancing horse of Barichello had not taken advantage of a wide running Webber and his own delayed Sauber.

Villeneuve, the famous son of a famous father, Gilles, after whom the scenic Montreal circuit is named made early noise with a good qualifying lap, but then found his start-line software erroneous and his race hopes died completely when he crashed into the rear of Takuma Sato damaging his own nose in the process. Peter Sauber wouldnt be happy and we could soon see Villeneuve out of a drive.

The Toyota's who have finished in the points in every race this season, found their tally a lot lower after Trulli crashed out of a potential podium position and Ralf Schumacher just managing to finish in points. The Williams combine and the Toyota's are now tied at 47 for third position, with a ressurgent Ferrari right behind them at 45.

A bad race for BAR Honda, who after a perfect pole winning lap from Button, found themselves poised for their first points this season. But unfortunately for them, neither could Button or Sato finish the race, leave alone landing in the points. Narain Karthikeyan would have to blush again in front of the Jordan bosses, not managing to finish the race, first spinning out to give his team mate a lead on lap 7 and later crashing into the wall at turn four in the same fashion that Alonso did. Albers, who seems to be having a good time in the past three races landed 11th though his team mate Friesacher could not finish the race.

Overall, a superb race for the McLarens and also the Ferrari's who finally seem to be moving in the right direction. If anything is to be noted from this race, its Raikkonen's little nugget of a comment, saying that the Montreal circuit had been a bogey for his team. Had Montoya finished the race, Indianapolis may well be witnessing a change of duty at the Contructor's castle. The Renault's must be raring to go, putting behind their backs the thought of a perfect Kimi Raikkonen who is just twenty-two points adrift of Alonso for the driver's title.

Waiting for the red lights to go off in a weeks' time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.