Winter Updates 4

Greetings Internet,

Here I am once more with another batch of details from that little corner of the universe where people drive around really quickly in expensive machines - none of that sort of thing happens here in blog HQ, life is at a much slower pace here. This edition comes a week after the team of theatrical folk who somehow manage to put up with me release that should thoroughly crush anything that the rivals can up with. If the bonus points tally was still in operation when that show aired then Jenson Button would have been usurped from the title because they did a bloody good job and it was an honour to share the stage with them all. Made even more impressive by the how the rehearsals were going on before hand - so from me here at blog HQ major congratulations are in order and immense praise for a job well done.

Now that's taken care of back to the more relevant business of what this part of the internet is actually aimed at, and since the last time out there have been some changes in the driver line ups for the approaching season leaving only one remaining seat yet to be claimed at the very back of the grid. This week also saw the release of the first new car of the season and while progress is being made, elsewhere misfortune is never too far away and made a little comeback this month (I know updates have been a little sparse but the show was the main priority - have to make sure the other teams in the area know who is best, nothing wrong with a little bit of megalomania competition).

F1 Total SP3 at Monza in rFactor.

One spot remaining 


Today I shall start proceedings looking at the fluctuation in the driver market - as another seat was claimed, when two spaces rapidly dissolved into one. The penultimate drive to be confirmed was the second seat at Williams, the one formerly occupied by Rubens Barrichello a veteran of 19 seasons will now be filled by a second Brazilian. This time in the form of escapee from the team formerly known as Renault Squadron Bruno Senna, a throwback almost to the early nineties when anther man by the name of Senna - lets hope this time things work out a lot better.

So there is only one space left now in the back row HRT machine to partner another of the field's older participants Pedro De La Rosa. The previous holder of the seat Vitantonio Liuzzi has stated there is a chance the place he used to call home may be taken by a pay driver - someone brought in because of the sponsorship money they bring to the team rather than any ability. That's how the world of formula one still has Maldonado when Buemi, Alquersuari, Sutil and Petrov have no race seat for the season. At a team like HRT sponsorship money is very well needed to cover the funding deficit a smaller team has.

In other driver signing news Ferrari's development driver Jules Bianchi has been given a reserve driver role within the Force India team which does possible start the ball rolling for another major team line-up decision at the end of the season where three strong drivers won't fit into two race positions. The same situation which saw Adrian Sutil left without a racing seat so far.

Dun Da Dada Da - (well writing a drumroll doesn't work)


The first of the 2012 contenders has been unveiled as the picture of what we expect to see on the starting line in Melbourne - for those who have Sky anyway but I'll not go down that route for fear of unleashing profanities. The opening challenger to be revealed is the team formerly known as Lotus but now known as Caterham Racing and their new machine - having already seem this image I can officially warn you before focussing on the green machine pictured below.

From F1 racing magazine

Here you can see the problem the nose of the car has gained a forehead... not entirely sure if that's a good look for a racing car to be honest. I know when we first saw the odd angled sidepods of the McLaren last year they took some getting used to but this just looks wrong. Of course this is just one image, the others that the team released on the internet are more dignified, looking from the side of the car. Those shots do make it look more of what we expect from an F1 entry in under the current technical regulations, with the tapering sidepods and the wide flat front wing. 

Only time will tell if the other teams will be as eccentric as this with their concepts, and features like the wings and the engine cover are subject to development during the season, even development before the season in terms of the official test days. But despite all those component changes I still think the Team Caterham forehead will be with us until Brazil in November. 

Broken laws and bones

Away from the development race rushing to get the new cars up and running, and away from the constant scramble to fill that final HRT position, life has become a lot slower for our absent driver Robert Kubica. The Pole, famous for being really quick in uncompetitive cars and for managing to rapidly convert a BMW Sauber into a million shards of shattered carbon fibre in Canada, has has a little setback. While being in recovery for another major accident in a rally in the pre-season, Robert has fallen over. One of the fastest drivers in the world felled by a patch of ice, probably the same one that wiped me out last Friday, when I only lost some skin one one hand, (which was then further damaged by an incident with a giant yellow duck named Quackers) Kubica on the other hand suffered a suspected fractured tibia in his right leg. This pushes his recover process further away now - and with both seats in Renault (now Lotus) filled there is nowhere for him to return to. Even though there are still rumours of him ending up in a Ferrari at the expense of Felipe Massa at some point.

A long time ago, back around the time of the Chinese GP, Adrian Sutil was involved in some form of violence in a nightclub - the specific details remain a mystery. Perhaps if I did some googling more answers may pop up but there is a chocolate cake staring at me right now and I'm hungry. But the case and it's enigmatic specifics is scheduled to go on trial at the beginning of next week, on the 30th and 31st of January. However this is when things get a little more complex, because Lewis Hamilton has been called as witness, either on account of being there at the time or as a character witness as Sutil's friend, and Hamilton is contracted to work with McLaren on those trial dates prior to their car release. So of course the trial will either continue, without Lewis as a witness or be postponed until all parties are available, where the prosecution is hoping for a year suspended sentence. How it will actually play out is anyone's guess, and how many of those details will end up in the public eye would be more difficult to predict.

From broken laws and broken rules we head on now to broken schedules, once more taking place down in the off pace world of HRT. A scenario we saw unfold in the last season where the car was only released and performed it's first laps in the practice sessions for the first race of the season, cursed with a lack of speed comparable to continental drift. This time around the team say they have encountered a critical delay in their preparations, to the point where the team will be taking part in the opening test sessions with the 2011 car rather than the new version. Despite the shadows of the last season sliding back into focus - HRT claim that a 2012 car will be completed in time to run the second test in early March. How those ideas actually turn out will only be revealed in due course. 

With a fortnight rife with new car releases from Mclaren, Ferrari, Force India, Lotus-Renault, Mercedes and Red Bull from the 1st to the 6th of February, there is plenty more of updates on the horizon before the flag drops in Australia. So until the next time, this is farewell for now. 

Winter Updates 3

Greetings Internet,

Here I am once more, after what has been a challenging week and before what promises to be an even more difficult one ahead, so it's a good time to release another update before the madness of the coming seven days turns me insane. At this rate the preseason posts will be provided from a padded cell in a lunatic facility, and typing in a straight jacket would be a major challenge, but persevere I shall. Which brings me nicely on to my purpose here typing out more things onto the internet, and clogging up cyberspace with my ramblings, and this time it is to bring you the third of the winter update packages from the empty void that is the off-season.

Last time out the blog was taking on the internet rather unsuccessfully in an online racing competition - for which the highlights video has amassed a grand total of one view on my youtube channel, which is a positive sign of how this little corner of the internet it progressing. Then again the youtube side of things along with the twitter expansion haven't exactly taken off quite yet, and I'm not entirely sure if embedded views count on the actual channel page so perhaps I'm being unduly sceptical. But once more I digress, as the blog (now back in blog HQ after the Christmas tree was moved back into storage) is taking on the internet, in a rather different perspective. This time in the social media shorty awards - on account of the twitter extension of the blog anyway, so far I have one vote (wooo) but for some reason not showing up in the listings for the category. Not that it really matters I guess, winning would be a little out of reach somehow, considering the leaders have more votes than this little corner has had audience members... over the course of it's entire existance but never mind.

F1 Total SP3 at Rockingham in rFactor

Now back to the real world, beyond the developments here at blog HQ, of lack of developments - more online races were planned but other circumstances have arisen - apparently I am required artistically, if they saw my actual school work then the promotion would seem even more laughable. But that does kind of some things up really, anyway since not too much has happened over the winter these updates have been a little few and far between, combined with the other developments.

Driver updates

Well despite two seats reamining on the grid, and a flotilla of drivers currently without a race seat heading into the new season there has been no further announcements on who is going to end up in the final places at HRT and Williams. However we can check a couple of names off the list in the recent weeks who we now know will not be in the cars when they line up in Albert Park in March,

Firstly Sebastien Buemi has maintained his allegience with the Red Bull brand despite being booted out of the Torro Rosso line up in favour of Daniel Ricciardo. Buemi will spend 2012 in a reserve driver role for the main Red Bull team, perhaps in some devious effort to replace Vettel and take over the world, well perhaps not - after all he is Swiss and those guys are kind of neutral when it comes to world domination. Then the plot thickened somewhat when the team that gave him the sack at the end of 2011,  announced he would also be their reserve driver too - so effectively Buemi is now the back up driver for all four of the Red Bull backed cars on the grid. So if either Jean Eric-Vergne or Ricciardo fail to deliver for Torro Rosso then Buemi is in the prime position to get back on the grid, and STR are not to bothered about dumping drivers after they got rid of Sebastien Bourdais. Agreed the frenchman did whine on a lot, and still does back in America - but there wasn't really any grounds for the dissmissal, neither was former Squadron Leader Heidfeld's ejection from Renault but F1 moves in mysterious way sometimes.

The second driver to knock of the checklist is also a refugee from the Torro Rosso reshuffling, Jaime El-Incognito - a strong contender in the second half of the 2011 bonus points championship. He has announced that he will not be driving for HRT in the coming season, claiming that it would be a step backwards in his career. Being a spanish driver the suddenly disowned from the Red Bull family, an automatic connection was inevitably made between him and the spanish team to parner Pedro De La Rosa. However Jaime has indicated he is hoping for an oppoirtunity with a bigger team a little further up the grid, although almost anything is further up the grid then the HRT cars. The problem then lies in where that spot might be, only Williams have an open race seat further forward, and with Red Bull selecting Buemi as their overall reserve driver the opportunies are limited for Alquersuari. It's all well and good having ambitions of roles within the division one teams but, as with life here in blog HQ you rarely get what you want and have to settle for less than preferable scenarios or end up with nothing we shall see how this develops.

Calendar Issues

While the 2012 calendar has been announced for some time now (there was going to be a post about it but once more other things occurred, mainly laziness followed by gaming) but now things are a looking a little less certain then they were when the details were released. Throughout the back end of the 2011 season there were many concerns regarding the progression of the newest addition to the season - the U.S.A. GP to be hosted in a new facility in Texas. With construction pace seeming a little slow for Bernies liking, the position on the calendar was under threat, a problem which was then exacerbated by a second racing event to be added on US soil. The Grand Prix of the Americas to be set in New Jersey overlooking New York was rumoured to detract funding and attention from the race in Texas and therefore compromise the rate of progress.

Now, I like the idea of a race in the US - there are plenty of good racing circuits already in place, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta and Sears Point being some examples and the Texan track is quite good (even though it isn't built yet a simulation version exists) but there is something somewhat gimicky surrounding the New Jersey event. I think there should be a race in the States but two, possibly not, pulling that many Americans away from NASCAR might be hard.

Then there is the issue of Bahrain, dropped from the calendar last year due to the unrest and violence in the country, it's position this year also seems to be under threat once more as stability in the gulf state is far from ideal. Personally I find the Sakhir track rather boring, and the 2010 layout was a crime against motor-racing, but it was the first middle-eastern venue to host an F1 GP and does possess some redeeming features, as a sporting event however it won't be missed if cancelled once more. In the event of Bahrain being unable to host the race this season rumour has it that the place will be filled with the Turkish GP which is waiting in the wings for it's cue to go on. If it was a contest the Instanbul circuit wins hands down as the race I'd rather see on the calendar.

All of that might sound fairly unstable and uncertain - primarily because it is - but it isn't the worst of it... the french are coming back. Claiming they will be back on the calendar in 2013. This may not sound like a bad thing, especially considering the venue won't be Magny-cours, as the thought of fighting an understeering blogmobile through the infuriating Estoril corner is enough to give you nightmares. The selected venue is the Paul-Ricard circuit which is a labryinth of different layouts for different formula so which route the GP will use is unknown, it has featured as the home of the French GP before doesn't have an 'Estoril corner'. Of course I can sit here and paint a nice pretty picture of the track and the south of France, making it all seem fine, but there is a problem, a rather big one, a problem so big it makes the current economic apocalupse seem like a minor niggle. The French, in order to gain a spot on a very compact schedule, want to run alternate seasons oposite the Belgian GP....

Yes, all those horrified gasps were justified, this means there will be seasons without a visit to the iconic Spa-francorchamps track. No wonder the French get a bad reputation, effectively neutering the season with their race, I'm not going to dismiss the French GP as a poor event - if it wasn't for one corner I'd like Magny-Cours but it is no competition for the Beligan GP, why can't it alternate with something else, like the Spanish or Hungarian GPs as long as we get to get the epic that is spa on the calendar. The last time it went missing from the season I was so mad, I dedicated one of my homework excercises in english to ranting at the FIA for dropping the race.

On a lighter note, trouble is also afoot for the Korean and Valencia races, both venues have requested a lower race hosting fee from Bernie as it costs a too much to host the events. I noted this in this bottom section of lighter notes because Valencia is a rather poor circuit, even more boring than Bahrain in terms of layout - yes there is a nice final sector  but the rest of it is dire - a bunch of lifeless straights and dull concrete barriers. The place has all the interest of Stanley front street, and is about as popular so it wouldn't be too much of a loss to the calendar. As for Korea - the track there isn't too bad but it is a far cry from the vast picturesque resort complex the designs have illustrated, and the turn 4-6 section is enough to condemn the track to the darkest bowels of hell for being as almost as evil as the estoril corner at magny-cours. But Bernie is likely not to reduce their fees because with the season already at max capacity already and Russia, New Jersey and now France wanting to get in on the act the weakest races will be weeded.

And so concludes this update of all the going on beyond my little corner of the internet as the season slows creeps forwards a little too slowly for my liking - but there are other more pressing matters are at hand at the moment and have been stealing the energy these things require. Future posts should be a little more energetic but these things happen, so until next time farewell for now.

When the blog fought the internet

Greetings Internet,

Now this post was supposed to be completed and released on new years day, following the actual event but then I had an idea, and idea that has been more of a pain than it's worth. I thought rather then spend the next few hundred words or so documenting what took place in the void of the internet, it might be more effective to throw together a highlights video of the race. Well as nice an idea as that sounds and as relatively simple as that was to put together it turns out that windows movie maker really struggles patching together 12GB of source video files and for some reason arbitrarily replaces scenes with a black screen... However persevere I did and a film was created all nine minutes of it (it was 30s longer but I've no idea where those seconds went).

The blog was scheduled to take on the might of the internet before Christmas in a Megane Cup race but that didn't work out as my game stopped connecting to the internet, and having conducted some sort of investigation. Well alright I stumbled on the answer accidentally, but that is how the greatest inventions have come into being. It turns out when I took out my addon on-screen graphics I use for blog laps, the map and the TV style speedometer it seems I also took out the connectivity plugin as well, because the screen graphics take time to load and that doesn't help in an online environment. With that resolved the blog was ready this time to make it's first appearance on the internet racing scene, although it was my 104th overall race it was the first in the blogmobile.

The Scene

The blogmobile for the event, racing one of the opponents 

During the gap between Christmas and New Year several events were posted on the internet and the blog decided to enter an event in which it's pilot had used the selected car before, and that was scheduled on a day when no other plans were in place. From those criteria the best option was the Honda Civic cup race at the Knutstorp ring in Sweden, which was scheduled to go green at 17:30 on New Years Eve. Normally this is a time when people of the real world engage in parties an the like, so an earlier start time was beneficial, but not in the end needed. Since the pizza shop wasn't too busy and I could retrieve the order for blog HQ after the race.

Anyway, as this was a new car to the blog fleet it needed the default treatment in the form of a new livery and as a pre-emptive effort one was painted up on the eve of the race. Admittedly the bonnet and roof sections are a little bland but maybe one day if I develop a logo for the blog if it ever advances then there is a space waiting on the car. With the Civic blogmobile all painted up and some testing done on the track which was a new one to me, I entered on the official signup sheet and prepared for the race. As the hour drew nearer it promised to be a rather entertaining event as 21 drivers had signed up and on a short lap things were going to get a little crowded and entertaining, rather fortunate that the car could survive a far bit of damage and still run.

Then the time finally rolled round pizza's all selected for the night ahead, priorities I know - but as a fat guy I get hungry, all was set in place. Logged into the race server, now that I could compared with the pre-Christmas error, and it turned out things were not to be as crowded as I first thought as only seven of the twenty one entries actually turned up for the race, sadly most of those who did arrive were the faster entries. But the blog had one goal in place, a determination not to be last, avoidance of the bottom spot was the primary objective. Times in free practice showed that barring any technical issues I would be safe from that problem as there were two cars (I know, only two) that I could out-pace and hopefully beat come the race. 

Qualifying went the same way, no where near the cars ahead but clear of those behind, in a sort of timing no mans land all on my own, pretty much the reflection of blog HQ and a night ahead of rapidly cooling pizza and disappointing DVDs. But despite the negatives it boded well for the race, it would be safe, and theoretically contact free in clean air between the two divisions. So with 5th place seemingly the default position for the entire event stability seemed assured, however single make touring car races never normally run to plan, throw in some feline interruptions life gets a little more interesting as the highlights video will explain. 

Now before I post the video a couple of things to explain first, because the editor hated making the video it is of a lower quality, to keep the size down. and also there may be typos as this file was the only one I could get the software to produce intact. So after that disclaimer here is what happened when this little blog took on the might of some members of the internet.

 So as you can see it was a lot more eventful then I envisaged, with multiple encounters with a grey civic, yes the one in the picture at the beginning of this post. Where if the cat hadn't have made visits to the keyboard I might have stayed on the lead lap, avoided all the contact and finished on the podium. Which would have rounded off the event rather nicely, but as with motor racing out there in the expensive real world unpredictability is the the only thing you can predict to occur - although there may not be cats causing drivers to crash while they remove the ball of fur from the dashboard. All the same not everything can be accounted for, and maybe in the future the blogmobile will once more take on the internet with hopefully better results in a more complete field.

Until the next time this is farewell from the blog.