2012 Updates:Touring Car madness, Penalty Points and Magic Wings

Greetings Internet,

I know things have been a little quiet here at Blog HQ but been a little busy of late with other things, going on mainly arguing with CAD and then giving up before catching up with a lot of different racing series. As I sit here in while a most unusual weather system has taken control outside, after an interesting bout of high temperatures it is now snowing sideways and has been for several hours now. Weather which is making a right mess of the satellite signal, well there is no signal at all. There also has been an amusing concentration of emergency vehicles pottering about in the Arctic blizzard waging out there. Life is anything but dull outside Blog HQ, perhaps not hospitable but not dull either.

Rubens in his Indycar over the weekend (F1Fanatic.co.uk)

Following on from a weekend which was a feast of motor-racing from the Australian V8s at Symmond's Plain to the Indycar Series from Birmingham Alabama - featuring what is hoped to be a future blogmobile, even though they don't look too much faster than the original. It may look more eccentric, which is in the spirit of the way of life here at Blog HQ, so for now there is the trusty PS05. There was a completely mad BTCC race event at Brands Hatch on the Sunday, where each race seemed to be in competition with the previous one to create the longest race stoppage. Starting with BTCC race two, where one of the BMW drivers - Nick Foster - managed to roll the car out of Druids bend. Not to be beaten the Clio Cup opted for quantity and initiated an eight car pile-up on the back straight, resulting in a queue forming outside the medical centre for precautionary checks.

The next contender was the following Ginetta GT Supercup when contact between the two leading cars on the front straight cause mayhem. As two cars further back made contact with each other while trying avoid the accident, firing one substantially into the outside wall - the single biggest impact of the day.

But the award for the longest stoppage and the only red flag of the event handed the victory back to the main series in BTCC race three. Ford driver Matt Jackson ran wide in Paddock Hill bend and ruptured an oil line or something rather important - coating the track in a Mario Kart oil slick in the breaking zone to Druids. A slick rapidly converted the gravel trap into an expensive car park, as car after car slid off the track. Seven remained trapped and the race had to be suspended to remove them all. You just don't get that flavour of lunacy in F1, if there was - my posts would go on for centuries and the bonus points would take forever to sort out.

But this is only a short update following on from the rain soaked Malaysian GP, and one incident in particular  which has brought a degree of conflict. Where Vettel made contact with the front wheel of Narain Karthekeyan, causing a rear puncture for the German Bloke. On the surface appearing like a racing incident, apportioning 50/50 blame to both parties - Narain slid off the corner, while Vettel left the HRT no room. However that's not how things were perceived in the driving seat of the Red Bull machine. Sebastien was most displeased indeed, referring to the Indian as an idiot, which frankly is a little harsh and over the top. Narain is driving a car which is majorly off the pace and I'd imagine has all the downforce of a bookcase. Combine that with the fact that the incident wasn't Narain's fault - and certainly can't be considered idiotic. In fact Vettel's initial response of chasing the HRT on three wheels effectively just to wave and gesticulate widely at Narain.

So it is on this basis, although outside normal convention of only assigning points during the course of a weekend, I am going to assign one penalty point to the German Bloke for his antics even though a truce has been effectively called between the two drivers since the outburst following the race.

Image from BBC F1

The second order of business on today's schedule regards the innovative device that Mercedes have installed in the rear wing of their car. A device which allows them to stall the air around the front wing whenever the DRS is opened, this gives them the advantage they have in qualifying and why they fall back during the race. The system was cleared by the FIA during the Australia/Malaysia GP weekends, therefore being declared legal within the current regulations which has been tough on driver controlled movable aerodynamic devices. But the teams are not entirely satisfied with that decision and have been applying more pressure on the FIA - seemingly very determined to get it banned into oblivion. Seems a little overkill really considering the Mercedes device only works in qualifying and the team have been slipping quite far back during the races anyway. Probably a first where the grid are campaigning to get a system that only puts the team a little out of position on a Saturday afternoon.

This pretty much sums up the contribution for today so until next time for probably a more traditional post.