October 31, 2017
F1 Update!: Mexico 2017
A perfect day for racing greeted the F1 Fiesta as they sat on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez's grid. A tense atmosphere still hung over the crowd though, as everybody knew they were about to see a showdown that would probably decide the World Driver's Championship. On pole was Ferrari's Seb Vettel, who needed to finish at least 2nd to have any chance of extending the fight to Brazil. Next to him on the front row was the latest wunderkind to take the Formula 1 world by storm, Red Bull's Embryo Verstappen. He had no dog in the hunt for the Championship, but very much wanted a win. And behind them was the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, points leader who only needed to finish fifth or above to clinch his fourth driver's championship... or have Vettel finish below 2nd. These three could honestly be expected to not hold back in the nearly kilometer long run to the first turn... the first car there would have an advantage for the rest of the race on the narrow Mexico City circuit. So what happened? THIS is your F1Update! for the 2017 Grand Prix of Mexico!
*LIGHTS OUT: The drag race was exactly as exciting as predicted. The big names were three wide as they piled into the braking zone for the first turn, but as Vettel had the inside line, he held primacy of place... for about twenty feet or so. Coming out of Turn 1, Verstappen pulled alongside the Ferrari, and to the left which put him on the inside for the approaching Turn 2. Vettel was slightly balked by the Red Bull, made very light contact with it, and had to back off the accelerator a touch to avoid anything worse. This loss of momentum opened the door for Hamilton to come charging through, taking second away from the German as they barreled into Turn 3. Then there was carbon fiber flying everywhere and Hamilton's Mercedes was limping. The Ferrari had lost half its front wing, the silver car had a flat right rear tire, and Verstappen could be heard going "ha ha" as he galloped away.
*QUESTIONS QUESTIONS: The aerodynamically impaired Ferrari made it back to the pits well before Hamilton... it could still go fast after all, it just didn't have much in the way of downforce for the turns. A new nose was slapped on, as was the hardest compound of tire on offer for the weekend... clearly Vettel was looking at going the rest of the race on one set of rubber. Mercedes decided to do the same for their car. Both drivers were at the back of the field, with Hamilton in dead last. The question now became very simple: could Vettel fight his way up to second place from the rear of the field? The corollary to that was "could Hamilton do the same thing"? Neither man had a chance to win, of course... or did they? Embryo wasn't known for his... um... stability behind the wheel, after all.
*WHOLE AND BROKEN: Soon enough, the early answers to the questions posed came in... "maybe" and "nope." The driver of the Prancing Horse began to pull himself up the field, slowly but surely, and seeming to have to fight tooth and hoof for every position. His encounter with Massa for 15th place nearly saw them come together in what must have been a terrifying moment for Vettel... to lose a shot at the championship because frickin' MASSA wouldn't get out of his way? Ridiculous! On the other end of the spectrum was Hamilton's Mercedes... stuck in 19th place for so long that Verstappen lapped him on Lap 20. As it turned out, the collision with Vettel caused more damage than was immediately apparent. The Merc's diffuser had been broken, either by the impact or by the flailing tire, in such a way that much of its effectiveness was gone.
*HOW DO YOU SAY 'KABLAMMO' IN FRENCH?: First came Smiley Ricciardo's Red Bull, which ate another turbocharger. Then Brendan Hair-tly's Toro Rosso came to a stop on the side of the track, flames issuing from the exhaust pipe. Nico Hulkenberg's Renault died via KERS failure, the team instructing him to exit via the nose of the car and to jump off so as to not ground himself. Carlos Sainz's French car retired from self-inflicted handling issues. This left only Pierre Ghastly's Toro Rosso and Verstappen's Red Bull as cars with Renault power still running... and both pit walls were terrified by what they could see was coming. Hair-tly's failure brought out a Virtual Safety Car on Lap 31. This allowed both Vettel and Hamilton to throw out their one-stopper plans and put on fast tires. Verstappen's lead over second-place Valterri Bottas was some 11 seconds at this point.
*AH THE CONFIDENCE OF YOUTH: Around Lap 40 or so, Red Bull's pit wall instructed Young Master Verstappen to perhaps slow down just a touch so as not to risk angering the engine gods. A lap later came the radio call "Okay Embryo, so that (lap time) was the same as the previous lap." A moment or two of silence, then the Dutch driver responded with "I'm really sorry." For some reason, the obvious laughter in his voice suggested he wasn't very sorry at all.
*BETTING ON RED: With Verstappen dominating the race, all eyes turned to the Ferrari of Seb Vettel. By Lap 35, the halfway point, he was in 8th place. In most circumstances, this would have been a fantastic finishing position considering the problems at the start... but he may as well have been on the Moon for all it was worth to him. He continued to pull his way up the field, the new fast tires making all the difference in the world. On Lap 57 of 71, he managed to make his way past the Force India of False Esteban! to take fourth position. Far behind him, both in track position and in time, Hamilton had dragged his broken Merc up to 10th.
*OH. OH DEAR.: Vettel was in fourth, but needed desperately to reach second. It was a subdued pit wall that radioed him, letting him know that his teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, was in third. Normally, this would be a GOOD thing for the German, because team orders would force the Finn to give the position up. But the pit wall continued, this time with the bad news: he was 24 seconds behind Raikkonen. Left unsaid was the gap from Raikkonen to Bottas: another 27 seconds. Vettel's reply really left nothing more to be said: "Oh mamma mia." Stereotypical Italian comment aside, the German could not relax. He needed to be closer to his teammate so he could realistically be allowed past if Bottas had problems, and of course four Renault-powered cars were already out of the race, three of the retirements power-unit related. For all his dominance on the day, Verstappen could be out in the blink of an eye, and Vettel would have his second place finish.
*WITHER HAMILTON: You know it's a bad day for Mercedes when their lead driver and three-time world champion is fighting Fernando Alonso's McLaren for 9th place, but there they were, throwing haymakers and uppercuts at each other. Alonso later said that he thought the McLaren was "the best chassis on the grid", and he may be right... certainly he was able to hold off a damaged Mercedes for some good clean racing. Probably the best of the day, truth be told. Alonso did eventually come out behind in their little tete a tete, but that meant that he had only managed to climb some nine positions on the day instead of 10. Not too bad for a car with a wind-up engine in it.
*THE END: Vettel managed to get within 15 seconds of his podium-bound teammate, but no closer. Raikkonen was a whopping 33 seconds behind Bottas' second-place Mercedes. But 20 seconds ahead of them all was Embryo Verstappen's Red Bull, taking his second race victory of the season. But nobody really noticed that, because all eyes were on Hamilton who was celebrating his fourth world driver's championship.
The next race is in two weeks in Brazil... see you then!
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October 29, 2017
Mexico Delay
My mood has gotten blacker and blacker as the day has gone on, to the point where I feel like I'm spitting nails at the moment.
I'm not going to do the Mexico GP writeup tonight. That'd just be a bad idea.
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October 28, 2017
F1 Quals: Mexico 2017
Before we go any farther, Pierre Ghastly had engine problems in Practice 3 and could not make the quals session. The two McLarens didn't turn laps in Q2 as a strategic move to save tires... and because they're going to be getting penalties for engine component changes. And Brendon Hairtley's engine released the magic smoke before he could set a time in Q2. If you get to see the in-car video, there's this really fast "zzzzip!" sound just as the engine stops being an engine. My first thought was the turbo let go, but who knows?
Ah, Mexico City. Where the Government is confused, the food spicy, the music raucous, the alcohol dangerous, the air gray, and the oxygen sparse. And the racing fast and furious... and the home of the 2017 Grand Prix of Mexico. Here's the provisional grid:
| Pos |
Driver | Car | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:17.665 | 1:16.870 | 1:16.488 |
| 2 | Embryo Verstappen | Red Bull Racing |
1:17.630 | 1:16.524 | 1:16.574 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:17.518 | 1:17.035 | 1:16.934 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:17.578 | 1:17.161 | 1:16.958 |
| 5 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:18.148 | 1:17.534 | 1:17.238 |
| 6 | False Esteban! | Force India Mercedes | 1:18.336 | 1:17.827 | 1:17.437 |
| 7 | Smiley Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing |
1:18.208 | 1:17.631 | 1:17.447 |
| 8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:18.322 | 1:17.792 | 1:17.466 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:18.405 | 1:17.753 | 1:17.794 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Force India Mercedes | 1:18.020 | 1:17.868 | 1:17.807 |
| 11 | FelipeNot Nasr | Williams Mercedes | 1:18.570 | 1:18.099 | |
| 12 | Pleasant Stroll | Williams Mercedes | 1:18.902 | 1:19.159 | |
| 13 | Brendon Hairtley | Toro Rosso | 1:18.683 | DNF | |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren Honda | 1:17.710 | No Time | |
| 15 | Stoffelwaffle | McLaren Honda | 1:18.578 | No Time | |
| 16 | Sony Ericsson | Sauber Ferrari | 1:19.176 | ||
| 17 | Herelein Wehrlein | Sauber Ferrari | 1:19.333 | ||
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 1:19.443 | ||
| 19 | Lettuce Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:19.473 |
Before we go any farther, Pierre Ghastly had engine problems in Practice 3 and could not make the quals session. The two McLarens didn't turn laps in Q2 as a strategic move to save tires... and because they're going to be getting penalties for engine component changes. And Brendon Hairtley's engine released the magic smoke before he could set a time in Q2. If you get to see the in-car video, there's this really fast "zzzzip!" sound just as the engine stops being an engine. My first thought was the turbo let go, but who knows?
Now then... Embryo Verstappen set his fast time in Q3 about five minutes too early. It didn't look like it'd matter much... it was a helluva lap, only bettered once this weekend... and that was in Q2, and set by him anyway. Hell, he also had the "ultimate sector time" for all three sectors, too. Then Lewis Hamilton took a shot at it... and couldn't come close. And looked like it, too... the Mercedes was not performing well today.
But Seb Vettel was the last man on track, the Ferrari was performing well, looking firmly planted to the asphalt, just in need of a brave driver to take advantage. And he did, in an astonishing pole lap that almost wasn't. According to Vettel afterwards, the car nearly got away from him in Turn 6, forcing him to drop down a gear. Somehow, it didn't cost him enough time to knock him off pole.
I didn't think he could do it, honestly. Verstappen's lap was so good, I thought only the Mercedes on a GOOD day would be able to beat it... and the Mercs were NOT having a good day, as mentioned earlier. They say a good driver can outdrive his car... and that may be so, but I've really only seen one driver do that consistently: Fernando Alonso. Vettel did that today, I think... and it's not like the Ferrari is a Minardi or something. Kids, ask your parents about Minardi.
So the race is in the afternoon, Lewis Hamilton only needs to finish 5th to clinch the Driver's Championship, so he's gotta be relatively happy right now. Vettel needs to win out to have any chance at all, over and above Hamilton having mechanical problems, so he's gotta be relatively happy right now... except the last time Vettel was on pole and Verstappen was second, they were in Singapore. We all remember how that turned out.
Right, race in the afternoon! See ya after!
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October 27, 2017
Random Anime Pictures #138: Took Me Long Enough...
Seriously, what took me so long? I'm not even gonna talk about the show. If you've ever watched a superhero movie, cartoon, or read a comic book, you've gotta watch this.
"It's Plus Ultra!"
-All Might.
Yes, yes it is.
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October 25, 2017
F1 on TV: Mexico 2017
The races haven't been great since Formula 1 returned to Mexico in 2015, but the spectacle has been real! Let's take a look at the track map for this new old track.
The teams tend to load up on downforce here despite the two ridiculously long straights... there's a lot of turns to be contended with... and yet, that downforce still doesn't slow the cars down a whit. Part of the reason for that is Mexico City itself: it's 2200m above sea level, more than 700m higher than the next circuit (Brazil), and some 2197m above Abu Dhabi. Because the circuit is so high, there's a corresponding thinning of the air. That means less aerodynamic drag, and while that also means less downforce, it's not like a F1 car doesn't have oodles to spare. The engines have to work harder here, too, because of the lack of air... the turbochargers spin up to 10% faster to make up for it... so don't be surprised if we see some grenading going on. There will also be a serious amount of fan insanity in the greatest stadium section in Formula 1.
It is literally a stadium! Baseball, to be specific... home plate would be just offscreen right of this picture. It seats 40,000 fans, and the podium ceremony is held here. Dear god, if Sergio Perez makes the podium the crowd will be able to be heard here in Duckford.
The Legendary Announce Team will be at it again... here's the broadcast schedule:
Friday
Practice 1: 10a - 1130a live on NBCSN
Practice 2: 2p - 330p live on NBCSN
Saturday
Quals: 1p - 3p live on NBCSN
Sunday
2017 Grand Prix of Mexico: 2p - 4p live on NBC proper.
All times Pond Central, of course. Seeing Practice 1 up there came as a pleasant surprise... NBCSN is going all-out for their last network weekend, I suppose. See ya after!
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October 24, 2017
This Time, A Year Ago...
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October 22, 2017
F1 Update!: United States 2017
A perfect day in Austin greeted the crowd as they filed into the Circuit of the Americas. There was a feeling of anticipation in the air, as it was possible we'd be seeing not one but two championships ended today. Polesitter Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes would be trying to make that happen, Seb Vettel and Ferrari would be trying to prevent it. It was, pretty much, just that simple. So, did it happen? Would the winner wear a stetson again? Would they do the toast with Lone Star beer, or would it be Shiner Bock? And was that Bill Clinton? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2017 United States Grand Prix!
*LETS GET READY...: The new owners of Formula 1, Liberty Media, is an American company, and this was the first time since the acquisition that the race weekend was in-country. They made sure to not let the chance to let loose get past them. First the drivers' parade, which usually sees the individual drivers in convertibles, instead had the drivers in the back of a Peterbilt. But that wasn't all, oh no, not at all. No less an announcer than Michael Buffer was brought in to do driver introductions, and what introductions they were! Driver nicknames abounded: K-Mag, The Torpedo, The Hulk, El Matador, The Canadian Heartbreaker, The Dutch Lion, "Always Smiling, The Iceman, Kimi Raikkonen", Ricky Rocket... The Honeybadger!... really, you have to watch them to appreciate the effort. Particularly the intro for Ricciardo. Buffer would come back to give the command to start engines in his usual inimitable style. Of course, reactions to the whole spectacle have been... mixed. It generally works out to: Americans don't see a problem, Europeans are disgusted. We here at F1U! see the attempt to relate to American race fans (NASCAR does this every major race, and the Indy 500 too) as fantastic and exactly what Liberty needs to do. Plus it's hilarious that they called Kid Kvyat "The Torpedo".
*LIGHTS OUT: Once the wackiness was over, it was time to settle in for the main attraction... the actual race. The highly anticipated start did not disappoint. Seb Vettel did what he had to do, which was get in front of Lewis Hamilton as soon as possible. He had a better break off the lights than the Mercedes driver, gave a little twitch to his right to push Hamilton a little farther out, and jumped into the lead before they got through Turn 1. More importantly, he held it. By the end of the first lap, Vettel had already gotten far enough ahead to prevent the use of DRS by Hamilton. Behind them, Max "The Dutch Lion" Verstappen began to hack his way up the field after being forced to start 16th due to engine penalties. By the end of Lap 2, he had already made it up to 11th and we suddenly realized that he might actually be racing for a podium spot. Sure, he'd have to pass his teammate and probably a Ferrari and a Mercedes to get there, but we've gotten to the point where we're no longer surprised by the result when one of the top cars starts at the back. Anything was possible.
*STILL HE RISES: Vettel's lead held firm for five laps, but Hamilton knew he had nothing to worry about. The Ferrari was pushing its tires hard, but couldn't leave the Merc behind. On Lap 6, with the advantage of DRS helping down the straight, the championship leader became the race leader with only the slightest of defense attempts from Vettel. Behind them, the expiration of The Honey Badger's power unit made The Dutch Lion's job easier down the road, removing one of the podium contenders from the field. Indeed, Ricciardo would probably have been the toughest car to pass, just because of team orders. No need to worry about that anymore.
*OH SO CLOSE: Unable to run down the polesitter and his tires beginning to blister, Vettel made his pitstop on Lap 17. Once he returned to the race, he began ripping off hot lap after hot lap while Mercedes kept Hamilton on for as long as they could. When Vettel had headed for the pits, Hamilton was 4.4 seconds ahead of the Ferrari. Hamilton stopped on Lap 21, and returned to the race only just barely ahead of the Red Car. The radio calls from the two drivers told the story: Vettel was apologetic, saying that he had blown it, while Hamilton chided his team, asking why it had been so nearly a disaster? While a fair question, that may not have been the best time to pose it. Just sayin'. Oh, and just a note: when the field began to make their stops, Verstappen suddenly found himself leading the race. It wouldn't last of course... he still needed to stop after all... but that still had to bode well for his podium hopes.
*PLAN B: Having held the lead through the pit rotation, Hamilton once again began to pull away from the Ferrari. By Lap 35 his lead was approaching seven seconds, and Vettel was asking his pit wall to consider Plan B. "Plan B" consisted of a second pit stop, with the Ferrari being put onto a gently used set of Super-Soft tires. This seemed a curious move, as he now not only had to pass Hamilton, but rejoining the race in fourth he also had to pass the other Mercedes of Valterri Bottas. If he managed that trick, he'd then need to pass the Always Smiling Finn. This wouldn't be a problem... Ferrari would just tell Raikkonen to let him past. A complicating factor appeared on the scene fairly quickly, in the form of Red Bull's Verstappen, now up to fifth and closing fast.
*TO THE BITTER END: On Lap 40, Vettel was approximately 15 seconds adrift of 3rd place, which was actually his teammate at that moment. Raikkonen would pass Bottas a couple of laps later. Ten laps cut the gap to under a second, but Bottas made it difficult for Vettel. The Ferrari could get close using DRS, but couldn't quite overcome the power advantage the Merc engine provided. So Vettel went for guts and driving skill instead. Running down the front straight behind Bottas, the Ferrari driver went around the outside of Turn 1. At this point, all Bottas would have needed to do is drift wide on the exit of the turn which would either push Vettel off-track or force him to back off. Except the lapped McLaren of Stoffelwaffle was there already, and Bottas stayed inside. This left a gap just a bit wider than a F1 car for Vettel to slip through, which he did. With the momentum advantage, he easily passed the Mercedes and began running away. The next lap saw Vettel go by his teammate, to nobody's surprise. What was surprising was that Verstappen got by Bottas with only a small amount of trouble for fourth.
*THE AFOREMENTIONED BITTER END: Vettel had no chance of catching Hamilton, being some 10 seconds back, but finishing in second minimized the damage to his championship chances. Still, it wasn't the end he was looking for. Behind him, drama was occurring. On the last lap, Verstappen had closed in on Raikkonen. Into the Turn 16-17-18 complex the Red Bull driver made his move to the inside. The Ferrari driver, who later said he had no idea the Dutchman was there, strayed a little off the racing line which forced Verstappen to take to the curbs to avoid an accident. He didn't lift though, and managed to power past the Red Car to take third, a podium finish, after starting 16th. A marvelous performance from the young phenom.
*OH DEAR: It was during the cooldown lap that the notification came down from on high... the race stewards were investigating Verstappen's pass on Raikkonen. The Dutch Lion had parked his car and made his way into the podium green room, where he was relaxing before the ceremony, when the stewards decision came down. They judged him to have left the track limits with all four tires and gained a competitive advantage from doing so. During the race, they'd require him to relinquish the position. With the race over, all they could do is give Verstappen a five second time penalty. This had the effect of dropping him from third to fourth, and giving third back to Raikkonen. In something of a bad deal, Ferrari was informed before anybody could let Verstappen know. Indeed, the first that the youngster knew of the stewards even looking at the pass was when Raikkonen walked into the green room. He was told a few moments later, and left with an... odd look on his face. Sort of a cross between "what's going on" and "I'm going to kill someone soon". On the podium, Hamilton was presented with the winner's trophy by Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States. One wonders why either of the Bush Presidents, Texas natives, weren't there instead, but that matters not. An impressive race all around, and one that clinched the Manufacturer's Championship for Mercedes for the 4th season in a row.
*WHAT THE...?: Late in the race, during a shot of Turn 1, we saw this:
Now THAT'S a damn big bird! Or a CG overlay, one of the two. It seems likely it was CG... it seems too unlikely that an eagle would fly across the race track just as a Haas car, the American team, approached the turn... particularly one THAT size. A very weird moment from FOM, that.
So there ya go, the US Grand Prix! Next race is the Grand Prix of Mexico next weekend! See ya then!
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October 21, 2017
F1 Quals: United States 2017
Instead of the lousy conditions they had in Austin on Friday, Saturday saw blue and sunny skies, warm temps, and dry pavement. That pretty much made it a given that the grid was going to be fairly conventional, but is that really what happened? Here's the provisional grid for the 2017 United States Grand Prix:
| Pos |
Driver | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:34.822 | 1:33.437 | 1:33.108 | |
| 2 | 1:35.420 | 1:34.103 | 1:33.347 | |
| 3 | 1:35.309 | 1:33.769 | 1:33.568 | |
| 4 | 1:35.991 | 1:34.495 | 1:33.577 | |
| 5 | 1:35.649 | 1:33.840 | 1:33.577 | |
| 6 | 1:34.899 | 1:34.716 | 1:33.658 | |
| 7 | 1:35.849 | 1:35.113 | 1:34.647 | |
| 8 | 1:35.517 | 1:34.899 | 1:34.852 | |
| 9 | 1:35.712 | 1:35.046 | 1:35.007 | |
| 10 | 1:36.358 | 1:34.789 | 1:35.148 | |
| 11 | Not Nasr | 1:35.603 | 1:35.155 | |
| 12 | 1:36.073 | 1:35.529 | ||
| 13 | 1:36.286 | 1:35.641 | ||
| 14 | 1:36.835 | 1:35.870 | ||
| 15 | 1:35.740 | No Time |
||
| 16 | 1:36.842 | |||
| 17 | 1:36.868 | |||
| 18 | 1:36.889 | |||
| 19 | 1:37.179 | |||
| 20 | 1:37.394 |
Yep, pretty conventional. Polesitter Lewis Hamilton has dominated the weekend so far, being fastest in all three practice sessions and now setting a new course record to boot. Oh, and he averaged 132mph around the circuit, three mph faster than the previous record. Hamilton's only real competition, both for pole and for the championship, Seb Vettel, absolutely needed this result to have much of a chance in the race tomorrow and to keep his faint championship hopes alive.
Dear heavens, the Mercedes looked absolutely glued to the track today. During his pole lap, as seen from the above-head camera position, it felt like Hamilton barely needed to turn the steering wheel let alone make sudden course corrections like from a slide or something. A superb driver and a superb car, on a track the driver loves and the car may as well have been made for? Fwoar.
Embryo Verstappen has a 15-spot grid penalty for various parts changes. Pleasant Stroll, who attempted to murder Lettuce Grosjean in Q1 today, got a three-spot penalty. So did Kevin Magnussen, who will now be starting from Pilot Knob.
Race is at 2pm Central Pond Time, with a pre-race on NBC at 1pm. I'm having brunch with the folks beforehand, but I expect I'll be back in time to catch the start. I don't intend to liveblog, but if anything important happens, I'll post something ASAP. See ya then!
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October 19, 2017
"Wait 'til Last Year"
The Cubs have gone to the NL Championship Series three years in a row, and won the World Series once in that time. There is no way anybody can convince me this season, which came to an end at the hands of the LA Dodgers a few minutes ago, was anything other than a success.
And in a few months... spring training!
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October 18, 2017
F1 on TV: United States 2017
Running a little behind this week, thanks to a combination of Cubs playing in the NLCS, stupid overtime, and a desperate need for extra sleep, but never fear, your guide to the television coverage of the United States Grand Prix is here! Let's look at that there track map, y'all!
They say everything is bigger in Texas, but in this case it just isn't true. The Circuit of the Americas down yonder in Austin is on the small side of larger tracks at just a skosh over 3.41miles... that's 5.5km in them there "keeelo-meeter" things. I mean, Suzuka is a longer track than COTA, but nobody really thinks of that wonderful place as "long".
The one exception to the "everything isn't bigger at COTA" is the already legendary Turn 1, the apex of which is also the apex of Phil Hill. This bit of elevation change is the biggest single climb in F1, 133' of pure drag racing named for legendary American racer Cody Phil. Probably my favorite part of the track, just for the sheer ridiculousness of it. It's wonderful.
Speaking of wonderful, the Legendary Announce Team will be doing their usual great coverage of the race! Here's the broadcast schedule:
Friday
Practice 1: 10a - 12n live on NBCSN
Practice 2: 10p - 1130p not live on NBCSN... also may not be Practice 2. I dunno
Saturday
Quals: 3p - 6p live on NBCSN (may also have P3 coverage on tape delay)
Sunday
2017 United States Grand Prix: 2p - 4p live on NBC... yes, NBC!
Make sure you watch, it'll be a blast... particularly since Hamilton can win the championship here. All he needs to do is win, and have Vettel finish 6th or lower. I'll be along afterwards with the F1U!, of course. I'm even taking Monday off to allow me to pay closer attention to the race!
See ya then!
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October 15, 2017
...Just For One Day, We Are All Grape.
If you're the type of person who reads The Pond regularly, then there's no doubt in my mind that you've heard the story of Grape-kun. If you are new here, or read The Pond only for the F1 ("I only read it for the articles!" Kids, get your parents to explain), let me give you a quick version of this tale of devotion and love.
Earlier this year, the Tobu Zoo in Miyashiro, Saitama Prefecture, held a promotion that saw standups of characters from the anime series Kemono Friends placed in various animal enclosures. This actually makes more sense than many such ideas in Japan, as Kemono Friends is about animals in a large zoo that, due to exposure to unobtanium, have become anthropomorphized. The show was a popular one, and attendance had increased in other zoos that had done the same promotion, so why not? In Ep08, we are introduced to an idol group called "PPP", which is made up of anthropomorphized penguins. At least one of the members of PPP had their promotional standup put in the penguin enclosure at Tobu Zoo. Where it was encountered by a Humboldt Penguin named "Grape-kun".
A little bit of backstory here. Grape-kun was over 20 years old, and ten years ago he had been dumped by his mate. He had been single ever since. However, park keepers quickly realized that Grape-kun was enamored of the standup of Hululu that had been put in the penguin enclosure. He would spend the entire day by the rock she was on, would go into a known courtship pose, and would have to be separated from Hululu so he would remember to eat. When the promotion ended, all of the standups were removed... except for Hululu's, as zookeepers were afraid of what would happen to Grape-kun if they did. The story hit the twitters in May and quickly went worldwide. Grape-kun had a waifu, and anime fans around the globe found they were relating to a Japanese penguin. Hululu's voice actress met Grape-kun, Tobu Zoo's attendance went through the roof, fans made pilgrimages to see the pair, and there were (and are) calls for Grape-kun to become a character in the next season of Kemono Friends.
On Friday, Grape-kun passed away at the age of 21. According to the zoo, he had suffered a short illness. He had been removed from the enclosure, but Hululu's standup had been with him until the end.
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October 14, 2017
That's A Thing
I've got nothing for ya. Braindead after a long, fruitless week, I'm having problems even thinking about being clever.
"So, pretty much like the last 12 years then, huh?"
That's not fair. I was clever once. Go back and reread the Ben-To! writeups, those were pretty good. I really liked Ep08's... that's the one with the Claude Rains joke. I should really try doing something like that again. Oh, did you know that the OST for Ben-To! is flippin' amazing?
I've got this on my playlist at work, and every time it comes on, I wonder if the folks on Sirius/XM's "smooth jazz" channel know about it.
GD, you should like this track in particular. This one came on the mp3 player Friday night, around 9pm at work, I'm the only person in the entire building, and most of the lights were off... I near to wet myself when the whispering started. Good times, good times.
"Why is there a puddle on the floor?" "I don't think I'm hungry now. Ew."
Ah, the clever Wonderduck witticisms. Pee humor, everybody loves that! Anyway, that's all I got, eat some oreos!
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October 12, 2017
#CRYBARFDIE
So the Cubs are playing the final game of the NLDS against the Washington Nationals as I write this. It's kind of a slugfest, and I'm kinda going insane. The Cubs lead 9 - 6, but that means nothing right now.
While I chew through my lower lip, here's some music:
Marnik - Hocus Pocus
Tip o' the chapeau to Brickmuppet for unintentionally pointing out this track. Is it the deepest of tunes? Oh hell no. But sometimes all you want is a good beat and a filthy drop.
Sakkijarven Polkka - Girls Und Panzer OST
Because sometimes all you need is a Japanese rendition of a Finnish example of a Polish style of music.
Cross fingers the Cubs win. I don't wanna know how I'm gonna feel if they lose.
UPDATE, around Midnight or thereabouts:
Longest post-season baseball game ever. Brother, can you spare a pitcher?
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October 10, 2017
Random Anime Pictures #137: Kettenkrad!
-Girls Last Tour, Ep01
I've always thought that halftracks were neat. It's a truck with treads! It's a tank with the front of a truck welded on! It's chocolate in peanut butter! They really were a great idea, but overly complicated to keep running and much more expensive to build. I mean, sure, they had better off-road skillz than a wheeled vehicle... until they threw a track. At least with a truck, you can keep moving with a flat tire. All you could really do when you were missing a track on one side is go in circles. While halftracks are actually still in use by militaries here and there, particularly Israel, for the most part they stopped being common by the '60s, when the surviving WWII-era vehicles finally wore out. The Kettenkrad, above, was the smallest halftrack in common use, the Wehrmacht using it as a tractor for light artillery pieces and as a tow vehicle for the Me-262 jet fighter. It looks like a tankette and a motorcycle had a child. What I didn't realize until recently was that it didn't entirely steer using the front wheel. Turn the handlebars past a certain angle and the inside tread locked, allowing the other tread to push the kettenkrad into the turn. That's kinda good thinkin'!
Oh, the show? It was the only series this season that I was really looking forward to, because I've seen the manga here and there and it looked interesting. Turns out to be the cutest, most relaxing post-apocalyptic journey story ever! I mean, except for the picture above, but even that's adorable... mostly. Other than the gun part. The situation isn't quite as serious as it looks. Mostly.
This is going to sound strange, but Girls Last Tour feels a lot like Flying Witch. Oh, they're really nothing alike, but they both have a sense of calmness to them. Which is quite surprising, considering the two are travelling through a country devastated by war. We don't know where they're travelling to, and it's not clear they do either. At the moment, they just are. There's probably a serious story lurking underneath it all, but I kinda hope not. Sometimes, two moeblobs travelling around in a kettenkrad is all you need.
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October 08, 2017
F1 Update!: Japan 2017
The nicest day of the weekend greeted the Herd as they made their way up to the grid. Unlike Friday Practice, which had buckets o' rain coming down when it wasn't falling in sheets, or Saturday Quals, which was gray and dreary, the sky was blue and the sun was bright as racetime approached. Lewis Hamilton sat on pole... again... with a new track record... again... and looked ready to win... again. Normally having your rival next to you on the grid isn't the most comfortable feeling. The Ferrari of Seb Vettel sat in the second spot, but his team had removed the engine cover on his car with just minutes to go and were working feverishly. They got him buttoned up in time, but the German couldn't have been happy. So how did all that work out? THIS is your F1Update! for the 2017 Grand Prix of Japan!
*LIGHTS OUT: Hamilton didn't have the best of starts once the race finally began, but that turned out not to be a big deal because none of the cars around him did either. Behind him, last week's race winner, Embryo Verstappen, got past Vettel's Ferrari in a slick little move at just about the same time that Carlos Sainz, in his last race with Toro Rosso before he moves to Renault, buried himself in the tire barriers sideways. The accident was stiff and the car was out of the race, but because of its location the marshals had to bring out heavy machinery to carry it off. We here at F1U! would be lying if we said that we didn't have flashbacks to the tragic 2015 Grand Prix of Japan at this moment. Fortunately for everybody's sanity, a Safety Car was immediately summoned as Lap 2 began.
*HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND: It became obvious that whatever it was that Ferrari had been working on in Vettel's engine before the race, they hadn't gotten it repaired. Once the race restarted, he was almost instantly swarmed over by three cars. The Ferrari was clearly down on power... we later found out he was over 20mph in the hole... and the team soon told him to return to the pits and retire the car. The culprit that crippled this high-tech marvel, this paragon of racing? A spark plug. We can only assume it had only been made with a core of Californium, instead of the usual metal smelted from asteroids. In the garage, Vettel clearly realized that any chance he had of winning the driver's championship was realistically gone.
*THE REST: Hamilton opened his lead over Verstappen's Red Bull to around five seconds or so, but couldn't quite get away from the Dutchman. Every time he would look to be pulling away, someone else would wreck and a Virtual Safety Car would be called out. The last one, called out when Pleasant Stroll had a wheel rim failure, let Verstappen be in position to narrow things down to less than a second after the restart.
*CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: For a couple of laps right at the end, it looked like we actually had a race on our hands. Verstappen actually appeared to be faster over the entire lap, but getting past another car on the fairly narrow Suzuka circuit is difficult at the best of times. When your target is Lewis Hamilton and his closest rival is in the pits? Unlikely, to say the least. Throw in hitting traffic at just the wrong time, and Verstappen never had a chance. He'd follow Hamilton home in second place, just over a second behind. It was an easy drive for the Mercedes driver, but he had to drive a clean race... one mistake and the Red Bull would have been past him. That mistake never occurred. The other Red Bull of Smiley Ricciardo finished third, almost 10 seconds back.
Not the best race of the season. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it dull, the final few laps notwithstanding. It is probably going to be the most important race of the year though, as Hamilton now has a 54 point lead over Vettel with four races to go. Indeed, if he wins the next race and Vettel finishes sixth or below, the championship ends right there.
And that next race? We return to Austin Texas for the US Grand Prix in two weeks! See ya then!
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October 07, 2017
F1 Quals: Japan 2017
Oh dear. This bodes ill for tomorrow's 2017 Grand Prix of Japan. Here's the provisional grid:
| Pos |
Driver | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:29.047 | 1:27.819 | 1:27.319 | |
| 2 | 1:29.332 | 1:28.543 | 1:27.651 | |
| 3 | 1:29.352 | 1:28.225 | 1:27.791 | |
| 4 | 1:29.475 | 1:28.935 | 1:28.306 | |
| 5 | 1:29.181 | 1:28.747 | 1:28.332 | |
| 6 | 1:29.163 | 1:29.079 | 1:28.498 | |
| 7 | 1:30.115 | 1:29.199 | 1:29.111 | |
| 8 | 1:29.696 | 1:29.343 | 1:29.260 | |
| 9 | Not Nasr | 1:30.352 | 1:29.687 | 1:29.480 |
| 10 | 1:30.525 | 1:29.749 | 1:30.687 | |
| 11 | waffle | 1:30.654 | 1:29.778 | |
| 12 | 1:30.252 | 1:29.879 | ||
| 13 | 1:30.774 | 1:29.972 | ||
| 14 | Unemployed | 1:30.516 | 1:30.022 | |
| 15 | 1:30.565 | 1:30.413 | ||
| 16 | 1:30.849 | |||
| 17 | 1:31.317 | |||
| 18 | 1:31.409 | |||
| 19 | 1:31.597 | |||
| 20 | 1:31.885 |
It's hardly unusual for Lewis Hamilton to be on pole. For him to be on pole in so dominant a manner is another thing altogether. This season, there's usually been some sort of realistic threat from some other driver to take pole, even if Hamilton still ended up with it. Not today. At no point during the quals session today did he look even mildly disconcerted. Just a massive curbstomp of a quals.
The one saving grace for Seb Vettel is that he'll actually be starting second, not third, as Bottas has a five-grid-spot penalty to deal with. On the whole, Ferrari has looked good over race distances this year, better than they do during Quals. That may not matter, though, because of just how massive the Merc looked today.
Sorry this is short and late, been working today. Race overnight, see ya afterwards sometime!
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October 04, 2017
Of Two Minds
It was announced earlier today that ESPN has won the rights to carry Formula 1 races here in the US, beginning in 2018. And by "won", I mean "they were probably the only bidders."
That's not snark. The powers that be at NBCSN came out and said "we chose not to enter into a new agreement in which the rights holders itself competes with us and our distribution partners." This is widely assumed to mean that Liberty Media / FOM will be launching a worldwide streaming service next year.
It looks like ESPN will be using the World Feed announcers, instead of bringing in the Legendary Announce Team to provide commentary. I am... displeased... by this development.
While I'm still not overly fond of Leigh Diffey (L), preferring instead the dulcet tones of The Varsha, losing David Hobbs (C) and Steve Matchett (R) will hurt. For me, they are the voice of Formula 1. They've been there for almost every race of my F1 fandom (save for a painful few races that were shown on CBS... "they're CRASHING over the curbs" will haunt me forever), and I will miss them if they're gone.
On the other hand, it just became a LOT easier for people to watch Formula 1 in the US. Most of the races will be on ESPN2, three will be on ESPN proper, and two will be first-run on ABC (Monaco will be shown live on ESPN, then tape-delayed on ABC as well). More visibility is better than less in my book.
Stay tuned, friends. A new world is coming to our fandom.
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October 03, 2017
F1 on NBCSN: Japan 2017
I'm afraid I don't have a whole bunch of time to do this, so let me be brief. Here's the track map for the 2017 Grand Prix of Japan:
It's my favorite circuit on the F1 calendar. To me, it's everything you could possibly want from a track. There is not one single bit of mickeymousing anywhere, even the chicane is pretty handy. 130R used to be the most fearsome turn on the calendar. Now the drivers are talking about taking it flat-out and pulling maybe six G's in the process. If that happens, I'll expect to see someone's head popping out of the cockpit like a champagne cork. The Circuit of the Americas stole their Esses from here, though Suzuka's are tighter.
And oh yeah, there's a FREAKIN' BRIDGE involved. It's a figure-8 track... next up, F1 comes to the Duckford Speedway for a night of quarter-mile high-banked oval racin'!
Here's the broadcast schedule for the race weekend, brought to you by the Legendary Announce Team and Pocky, the world's favorite chocolate-dipped biscuit stick!
Friday
Practice 2: 1201a - 130a live on NBCSN
Saturday
Quals: 1a - 230a live on NBCSN
...and...
2017 Grand Prix of Japan: 1130p - 2a Sunday, live on NBCSN
Again, note that both Quals and the race broadcasts begin on Saturday according to NBCSN. I'll be along eventually with the F1U!. See ya then then, shall I? Yes, let's.
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October 02, 2017
F1 Update!: Malaysia 2017
A gray, gloomy sky over Kuala Lumpur greeted the Thundering Herd as it made its way to the starting grid. Polesitter Lewis Hamilton had to be experiencing mixed feelings as his Mercedes sat in its prime spot. On one hand, he was on pole having put in a great lap during qualifying. On the other, his Mercedes was acting like a temperamental diva. The team couldn't dial it in for long stints and little technical gremlins were running around the insides of the power unit. On the whole, though, it was a good position to be in, particularly considering his main rival, Ferrari's Seb Vettel, was dead last after a technical failure in quals. Just behind Hamilton sat birthday boy Embryo Verstappen's Red Bull. The Dutchman had celebrated his 20th birthday the previous day and the Red Bulls were feeling particularly racy the whole weekend. So what happened next? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2017 Grand Prix of Malaysia!
*BEFORE: After a qualifying session that saw him take second spot on the grid, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was asked what his goal was for the race. "I'd like to get more than 100 meters," replied the Finn, a reference to the race in Singapore two weeks prior. He didn't. Some engine glitch kept him in the garage until the very last moment, then the team sent him to take his place in the starting lineup. Once there, the mechanics began working on the car again, taking the rear bodywork off so they could tinker with the power unit. Ultimately this proved fruitless, the team pushing the car back to the pits to work on it while the rest of the cars went on their way to take the start. In the end, Ferrari would retire the car. We can only assume Raikkonen got himself some ice cream.
*LIGHTS OUT: The run down to Turn 1 in Malaysia is one of the longest on the calendar, plenty of time for mischief to be perpetrated by those desperate or unaware. Throw in Embryo Verstappen, not known for his love of carbon fiber (unless it's in tiny pieces), being up at the front and Hamilton had to be wondering if HE'd make it through the first turn in one piece. The weather played a part in the start, despite there not being a drop of rain in the sky. Earlier in the day, it had rained and the grid was damp... or, to be correct, half the grid was damp. It seems that half of the track had been resurfaced some time in the past. The two surface materials used, left and right, were not the same. As a result, the even-numbered side of the grid was visibly wetter than the odd side. Once the race began, the cars starting on the right side of the grid all made better starts than the ones on the left. It didn't matter much in the long run, but there you are. For a wonder, the entire field made it through the first set of turns without too much damage... or indeed, any at all that we could see. By the end of Lap 1, Hamilton led Verstappen, who led Valterri Bottas in third. Remember that Seb Vettel guy, starting back in 20th? By the end of Lap 1, he was 13th, and quickly moved up to 12th.
*AND THEN...: At the beginning of Lap 4, DRS was enabled, and the Red Bull in second place was within the one-second zone of the leader, though only just. The rear wing slot popped open, and voila! 12mph bonus to Verstappen's speed down the straight. He made up the gap to Hamilton quickly enough, but looked to be too far back to make any sort of move. Wrong. The Dutchman decided that he didn't need to brake until it was almost too late, zipped past the Mercedes on the inside, and made the move stick out of the twisty complex at the end of the front straight. As it turned out, the Mercs were having problems with their KERS systems not recharging fast enough, and Hamilton had been caught with his battery boost not able to produce as much power as it should. If it had been, there may have been more of a defense made. Or perhaps not; Hamilton is leading the Driver's Championship, and with Vettel far, far behind on track, there was no need for the Brit to tempt fate by dueling with the birthday boy.
*MEANWHILE: Vettel's Ferrari was making steady progress on-track. The man he picked off for 12th, Nico Hulkenberg, was having some difficulty with his car so he pitted earlier than expected. Concerned that he would undercut them in the pits, four other drivers pitted for new tires, promoting Vettel into sixth place. He would take care of Sergio Perez for fifth place on Lap 19. Fifteen places in 19 laps... pretty good work, that.
*UP FRONT: Verstappen was doing to Lewis Hamilton what Hamilton had regularly done to any car that wasn't a Mercedes for much of the past four years: he was driving away. The lead would reach nine seconds and stay right around that amount for a very long time indeed. Meanwhile, behind those two worthies we find the other Red Bull, that of Smiley Ricciardo camped out in third, but nervously glancing in his mirrors all the time. That's because Vettel, after having a nice little scrap with Bottas, had moved into fourth position. Worst still for Ricciardo, Vettel was on fresher, faster tires and was turning laps a full second faster than anybody else on track. All of that had to be sitting in the back of the German's head... if only his car had worked on Saturday, this clearly would have been his race.
*CATCH AND RELEASE: The Ferrari steadily closed in on the Australian, filling the Red Bull's mirrors like a T-Rex chasing a Land Rover. Then, as Lap 48 turned into Lap 49, with the Ferrari pit wall telling him to "attack now", Vettel made his move... which Ricciardo smoothly blocked as they approached the braking zone for Turn 1. The Ferrari driver backed down, and shortly thereafter began to lose time to the Australian. He had raced his tires off, and he was unable to challenge again.
*THE END: For a wonder, Red Bull's Max Verstappen cruised home with a lead that was nigh on 13 seconds over Hamilton's Mercedes. Ten seconds behind him came Ricciardo, who's gap over Vettel for the final podium spot had opened up to 15 seconds... a marvelous display of damage containment by the Ferrari driver. It had looked like Hamilton would have buried his nearest challenger. Instead, he barely managed to buy the shovel he would need to start digging. Throw in the temperamental state of the W08 recently, and Hamilton had to have some concerns.
*...THE HELL?: As the drivers were on their cooldown lap, we were treated to camera shots of Verstappen being happy in cockpit, with lots of yelling over the radio. He had become the youngest driver in F1 history to win a race, breaking Seb Vettel's record by over a year... or he would have, if he didn't already hold the record, having won his first race in 2016 at the age of 18 and change. And then the cameras frantically cut away to show us this:
Vettel had been behind the Williams of Pleasant Stroll as they were on their cooldown laps, with the Ferrari moving somewhat faster. When they approached the next turn, the Ferrari driver went past Stroll. There was a coming together and the Ferrari ended up a shambles. The Williams, on the other hand wasn't even scuffed. Both drivers blamed the other. It is the opinion of F1U! that Vettel probably should never have put himself in that position in the first place... he's got a championship to fight for, and while this happened after the race, suspension damage often causes collateral damage to the engine or gearbox. Changing those would give a penalty for the next race. Reports are that the gearbox is undamaged, but those reports weren't coming from Ferrari. Very, very bizarre, and not the first time this season that Vettel has done something stupid.
So that's it for Malaysia. Next race is next week, at F1U!'s official favorite circuit, Suzuka in Japan. See ya then!
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October 01, 2017
Malaysia 2017 Delayed!
Sorry everybody, I got started on the F1U! much too late for me to get it done Sunday. It'll be up Monday night.
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