Growing up in Indianapolis, Ray spent the better part of each spring at the “brickyard,” losing a lot of his hearing, but gaining a life-long appreciated of all things fast. Race along with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
2012 F1 season off to a proper start
The 2012 Formula One season is off to a rousing start, and the lights haven’t even gone off at the start of the first race yet. If the first qualifying session of the season is any indicator of what we can expect for the entire season, F1 fans around the globe are going to have plenty to watch and talk about.
For the first time since the 2009 season, there isn’t a Red Bull in the first two rows. What that means for viewers is perhaps a dawning of a new era in F1, with new teams and a newfound competitiveness up front. Of course, it’s only the first race, and we haven’t even had the race at that, so it would be prudent to keep the enthusiasm a bit in-check – more bridled than unbridled.
The first row was swept by the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button, and deservedly so, if not for the drivability of the car than for the design of what has to be the best looking F1 car on the grid. Going in a different direction than every constructor save Marussa (nee Virgin), McLaren has shirked the platypus step nose of all the other builders to present the cleanest, most elegant car on the grid. That alone should be worth one point per race in the standings, just out of principle.
The biggest surprise, more so than the 5th and 6th placings of Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, was the 3rd place showing of Frenchman Roman Grosjean, returning to F1 and putting the Lotus (formerly Renault) in the rarified air of the front of the grid. He’s joined on the second row by Michael Shumacher, who has looked positively rejuvenated in the four on-track sessions thus far this season.
Biggest disappointment of the early season would have to be Ferrari, where Fernando Alonso spun early in Q2 and ended up 12 on the grid. Still, that effort was much better than Felipe Massa’s disappointing 16th, having barely escaped Q1 with a mad dash on soft compound tires. In a make-or-break season for Massa, the start of his campaign has exactly gone to script.
With seven constructors making out the top ten in qualifying, the first race of the season is stacking up to be one of the more competitive – and potentially surprising – early season races in years. Here’s hoping Sunday’s race keeps pace with Saturday’s qualifying.
Race along with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.
For the first time since the 2009 season, there isn’t a Red Bull in the first two rows. What that means for viewers is perhaps a dawning of a new era in F1, with new teams and a newfound competitiveness up front. Of course, it’s only the first race, and we haven’t even had the race at that, so it would be prudent to keep the enthusiasm a bit in-check – more bridled than unbridled.
The first row was swept by the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button, and deservedly so, if not for the drivability of the car than for the design of what has to be the best looking F1 car on the grid. Going in a different direction than every constructor save Marussa (nee Virgin), McLaren has shirked the platypus step nose of all the other builders to present the cleanest, most elegant car on the grid. That alone should be worth one point per race in the standings, just out of principle.
The biggest surprise, more so than the 5th and 6th placings of Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, was the 3rd place showing of Frenchman Roman Grosjean, returning to F1 and putting the Lotus (formerly Renault) in the rarified air of the front of the grid. He’s joined on the second row by Michael Shumacher, who has looked positively rejuvenated in the four on-track sessions thus far this season.
Biggest disappointment of the early season would have to be Ferrari, where Fernando Alonso spun early in Q2 and ended up 12 on the grid. Still, that effort was much better than Felipe Massa’s disappointing 16th, having barely escaped Q1 with a mad dash on soft compound tires. In a make-or-break season for Massa, the start of his campaign has exactly gone to script.
With seven constructors making out the top ten in qualifying, the first race of the season is stacking up to be one of the more competitive – and potentially surprising – early season races in years. Here’s hoping Sunday’s race keeps pace with Saturday’s qualifying.
Race along with Ray on Twitter @RayHartjen.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
A Race Fan’s Wish for NASCAR
As on-track activities continue for the biggest week in NASCAR racing, culminating with next Sunday’s 54th running of the Daytona 500, NASCAR officials will continue scrutinizing cars and the racing action all week, an almost endless loop of technical analysis designed to deliver side-by-side, competitive racing to track-side fans, and more importantly, couch-surfing television viewers. NASCAR’s appeal has always been in the everyman approach to technology and an entertaining product of competitive, unpredictable racing with driver heroes making the difference between checkered flag glory and pit lane disappointment.
NASCAR’s regulators have a variety of tools to employ to ensure they manufacture what they deem to be the best racing, and they aren’t afraid to changes rules, mid-season or mid-week. Taking the liberty to speak for dedicated and casual race fans alike, below is my wish-list for John Darby, NASCAR’s Director of Competition and the man dressed in Santa’s red suit this week.
What I don’t want to see:
Everyone seems to have had enough of last year’s two-step tango, and early signs indicate new regulations have cured that ill. Cars running in tandem are interesting for a lap or two. After that, what more do I need to see until the next round of pits stops tells me whether any of the pairs got mixed and matched? Oh, and pity the poor driver who might be the odd one out, running solo and doomed to watching the race disappear out the front of the windshield.
But, in a haste to eliminate the two-step, let’s not go the other way and end up with one amorphous gaggle of 43 cars - the pack is back! - droning in a thunderous bunched pack, each race lap rife with anxiety that a wiggle causes a chain reaction that eliminates half the field before the half-way point.
A 43-car bunch is a 4-hour roll of the dice, perhaps best taken in by exactly what NASCAR doesn’t want – viewing apathy. Soon, even die-hard fans take to the behaviors of the casual fan: watch the first 10 laps, take a nap, wash the car, watch a movie, and then watch the last ten laps. Later, a cursory rewind of the DVR will show the carnage of “the big one,” the cataclysmic wreck that changed the complexion of the entire race in one long, screeching, crumpling sequence. That’s exactly what I did during Saturday’s Bud Shootout.
What I do want to see:
Differentiation, with the best cars and drivers being able to pull away from the ones who aren’t the best, or at least not up to the best at that point in time. Instead of one pack of 43 cars or 21 pairs of two, I want to see a select pack of nine or 10 at the front, with a bit of separation of the next best, chasing pack of 10-15, with maybe one or two more running groups trailing.
The differentiation doesn’t have to be much – maybe as little as a half a tenth per lap. But, as the fuel and tire stints progress, us fans are able to see which car and driver combinations are hooked up best. With pit stops throughout the race, we can observe how some cars are improving, catching the pace of the leaders and keeping up with the changing track conditions. As well, we can see who begins to struggle with the pace, missing critical car adjustments and thereby dropping further off the pace.
Cars will move deliberately up the field as they improve, or fall, and often precipitously, down the running order when mistakes are made. Every car and driver would start with a chance, and the best team, car, and driver combinations will rise to the select few over 200 laps, bringing a worthy, thrilling conclusion to a day of back-and-forth, up-and-down, side-by-side racing.
That’s the result race fans want, a compelling, green flag to checkered flag race. NASCAR, it’s up to you to figure out how to do that – start with aerodynamic grip on the nose and mechanical grip on the rear. Get to it boys, for we’re ready. More than that, we’re hopeful.
NASCAR’s regulators have a variety of tools to employ to ensure they manufacture what they deem to be the best racing, and they aren’t afraid to changes rules, mid-season or mid-week. Taking the liberty to speak for dedicated and casual race fans alike, below is my wish-list for John Darby, NASCAR’s Director of Competition and the man dressed in Santa’s red suit this week.
What I don’t want to see:
Everyone seems to have had enough of last year’s two-step tango, and early signs indicate new regulations have cured that ill. Cars running in tandem are interesting for a lap or two. After that, what more do I need to see until the next round of pits stops tells me whether any of the pairs got mixed and matched? Oh, and pity the poor driver who might be the odd one out, running solo and doomed to watching the race disappear out the front of the windshield.
But, in a haste to eliminate the two-step, let’s not go the other way and end up with one amorphous gaggle of 43 cars - the pack is back! - droning in a thunderous bunched pack, each race lap rife with anxiety that a wiggle causes a chain reaction that eliminates half the field before the half-way point.
A 43-car bunch is a 4-hour roll of the dice, perhaps best taken in by exactly what NASCAR doesn’t want – viewing apathy. Soon, even die-hard fans take to the behaviors of the casual fan: watch the first 10 laps, take a nap, wash the car, watch a movie, and then watch the last ten laps. Later, a cursory rewind of the DVR will show the carnage of “the big one,” the cataclysmic wreck that changed the complexion of the entire race in one long, screeching, crumpling sequence. That’s exactly what I did during Saturday’s Bud Shootout.
What I do want to see:
Differentiation, with the best cars and drivers being able to pull away from the ones who aren’t the best, or at least not up to the best at that point in time. Instead of one pack of 43 cars or 21 pairs of two, I want to see a select pack of nine or 10 at the front, with a bit of separation of the next best, chasing pack of 10-15, with maybe one or two more running groups trailing.
The differentiation doesn’t have to be much – maybe as little as a half a tenth per lap. But, as the fuel and tire stints progress, us fans are able to see which car and driver combinations are hooked up best. With pit stops throughout the race, we can observe how some cars are improving, catching the pace of the leaders and keeping up with the changing track conditions. As well, we can see who begins to struggle with the pace, missing critical car adjustments and thereby dropping further off the pace.
Cars will move deliberately up the field as they improve, or fall, and often precipitously, down the running order when mistakes are made. Every car and driver would start with a chance, and the best team, car, and driver combinations will rise to the select few over 200 laps, bringing a worthy, thrilling conclusion to a day of back-and-forth, up-and-down, side-by-side racing.
That’s the result race fans want, a compelling, green flag to checkered flag race. NASCAR, it’s up to you to figure out how to do that – start with aerodynamic grip on the nose and mechanical grip on the rear. Get to it boys, for we’re ready. More than that, we’re hopeful.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
This for that for team orders
The F1 beauties grid up on the Nurburgring this week for the German Grand Prix and among other topics of discussion along the garage is the rekindling of the team orders debate. Of course last year’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim gave us indelible images and sounds of Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley telling Felipe Massa, “Fernando is faster than you,”an euphemistically veiled message that translated to effectively to “let Fernando Alonso pass you and win the race.”
Then, at the last race, the British Grand Prix just two weeks ago, team orders again came into the news as Red Bull management instructed Mark Webber, running third at the time, to “maintain the gap” to teammate Sebastian Vettel as he was clamoring all over him for a late-race overtake.
Now, when Massa was instructed to let his teammate Alonso pass last year, “team orders” were banned by F1’s sporting regulations, put into place after Ferrari made a shambles of team orders in Austria in 2002, having Rubens Barrichello, who had led every practice session, qualified on the pole, and led every race lap, give up his position to Michael Schumacher in the final stretches of the last lap to ensure Schumacher got maximum points in his quest for another World Driving Championship. That was a total mockery of sport, and even Schumacher acknowledged as much as he grabbed Rubens and drug him up to the top step of the podium. While last year’s orders weren’t quite such a slap in the face to fair play - in fact, Alonso just nearly did win the title due to the orders - Formula One nonetheless decided to ease the controversy by allowing team orders again, as its fairly obvious to race observers that it’s a regular occurrence.
Team orders have been around in motorsport since the advent of multi-car teams. You see it in every series and in every class, and there’s not really anything wrong with them when applied with a bit of common sense. For example, in NASCAR, you’ll see a driver give up the lead for a lap to ensure his teammate gets a bonus point for leading a lap; then, the next lap, take the lead over again and get the race a-going. Additionally, a team wants to make sure its often overly zealous and competitive drivers don’t take each other out of the race and give the boys back the garage two wrecked cars to re-build before the next race - see Vettel's run in with Webber in Turkey just last year.
In the big-money, big-pressure world of Formula One, teams and drivers battle for two championships – the constructor’s championship and the driver’s championship. For some teams, like Williams, it’s simple: Drivers drive for the team and the only championship that matters is the constructor’s championship. If you take care of that, you’ll likely take care of the driver’s championship as well. Of course, not all drivers see it so clearly.
The aggravating part for race fans come when team orders are unnecessary, like 2002 in Austria and two weeks ago in England. In 2002, there was little to no chance that Schumacher wasn’t going to win the title, the same with Vettel this year. That horse has left the barn, and the rest of the grid knows its racing for second place.
Likewise, the constructor’s title is not in doubt this year either – c’mon, we know Red Bull is the car both to be beat and ones that can’t be consistently beaten, at least not this year, and certainly not with its already huge points lead. Close racing and overtaking is something that is often very difficult to find in Formula One – please, fellas, please be very thoughtful and careful when taking away our long-awaited head-to-head duels.
So, let the team orders fly. Give one driver preference when new equipment is scarce and when race strategy calls for different calls. Even let one driver pass the other. Just do us three favors: 1) don’t insult our intelligence, 2) do it when only absolutely necessary, and 2) do it for the right reasons.
Remember when Aryton Senna let Gerhard Berger pass on the last lap of the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix to reward Berger with a race victory for being such a great teammate during the course of Senna’s championship season? Well, that’s one of the right reasons.
Give your team orders on Twitter @RayHartjen
Then, at the last race, the British Grand Prix just two weeks ago, team orders again came into the news as Red Bull management instructed Mark Webber, running third at the time, to “maintain the gap” to teammate Sebastian Vettel as he was clamoring all over him for a late-race overtake.
Now, when Massa was instructed to let his teammate Alonso pass last year, “team orders” were banned by F1’s sporting regulations, put into place after Ferrari made a shambles of team orders in Austria in 2002, having Rubens Barrichello, who had led every practice session, qualified on the pole, and led every race lap, give up his position to Michael Schumacher in the final stretches of the last lap to ensure Schumacher got maximum points in his quest for another World Driving Championship. That was a total mockery of sport, and even Schumacher acknowledged as much as he grabbed Rubens and drug him up to the top step of the podium. While last year’s orders weren’t quite such a slap in the face to fair play - in fact, Alonso just nearly did win the title due to the orders - Formula One nonetheless decided to ease the controversy by allowing team orders again, as its fairly obvious to race observers that it’s a regular occurrence.
Team orders have been around in motorsport since the advent of multi-car teams. You see it in every series and in every class, and there’s not really anything wrong with them when applied with a bit of common sense. For example, in NASCAR, you’ll see a driver give up the lead for a lap to ensure his teammate gets a bonus point for leading a lap; then, the next lap, take the lead over again and get the race a-going. Additionally, a team wants to make sure its often overly zealous and competitive drivers don’t take each other out of the race and give the boys back the garage two wrecked cars to re-build before the next race - see Vettel's run in with Webber in Turkey just last year.
In the big-money, big-pressure world of Formula One, teams and drivers battle for two championships – the constructor’s championship and the driver’s championship. For some teams, like Williams, it’s simple: Drivers drive for the team and the only championship that matters is the constructor’s championship. If you take care of that, you’ll likely take care of the driver’s championship as well. Of course, not all drivers see it so clearly.
The aggravating part for race fans come when team orders are unnecessary, like 2002 in Austria and two weeks ago in England. In 2002, there was little to no chance that Schumacher wasn’t going to win the title, the same with Vettel this year. That horse has left the barn, and the rest of the grid knows its racing for second place.
Likewise, the constructor’s title is not in doubt this year either – c’mon, we know Red Bull is the car both to be beat and ones that can’t be consistently beaten, at least not this year, and certainly not with its already huge points lead. Close racing and overtaking is something that is often very difficult to find in Formula One – please, fellas, please be very thoughtful and careful when taking away our long-awaited head-to-head duels.
So, let the team orders fly. Give one driver preference when new equipment is scarce and when race strategy calls for different calls. Even let one driver pass the other. Just do us three favors: 1) don’t insult our intelligence, 2) do it when only absolutely necessary, and 2) do it for the right reasons.
Remember when Aryton Senna let Gerhard Berger pass on the last lap of the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix to reward Berger with a race victory for being such a great teammate during the course of Senna’s championship season? Well, that’s one of the right reasons.
Give your team orders on Twitter @RayHartjen
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