Formula ONE 2013 Season – A curtain raiser

On 15^th Mar 2013 the Formula ONE season for 2013 would officially begin in Melbourne, Australia. The series of tests the teams carried out this year ended in Barcelona last week. Mercedes appear to be poised for a surprise with Nico and Lewis trading fastest times. Ferrari appear to be in better shape when compared to the year before with Fernando setting times that were closer to the fastest time for a particular day. They’ve also done long runs with heavy fuel loads with considerable success though many would still insist they’d have sandbagged through the runs to mask real performance.

Lotuses have done some good running, they’ve surprised everyone with their sturdy car and clever aero package last year, and they appear to be continuing a similar streak this year. McLaren, after showing some brilliant times on the timesheet in Jerez seem to have struggled with the car in Barcelona if we have to take what Jenson says at face value. I doubt if he’s really playing it safe and bucking expectation or a genuine worry that got Jenson to comment that the car still has a long way to go before it can be understood completely.

Red Bull, as they always do, haven’t given any clue as to where they stand, both drivers did their regular setup and test work without making it to the headlines all through practice. If there is one team on the grid that doesn’t need to worry about being in the headlines it has to be Red Bull. The three world championships would have  brought them considerable number of sponsors thereby providing enough financial liquidity that would be stuff of dreams for many others teams on the grid. A sizeable amount of money from Bernie’s coffer, which they’d have rightfully won as prize money, can be kept as reserve.

Despite how gung-ho some teams are, Domenicali being an example, or how tight lipped some others appear to be, the real measure of a car’s performance will be seen only during the race in Melbourne. Until then we can speculate as much as we’d want to, come up with a prediction of our own and substantiate it with data from the tests. That’d be an exercise in fallacy.

A few rules have changes from last year, here are two significant ones that’d be obvious during the race. DRS can be used only in the DRS zones during qualifying unlike last year. There is no “force majeure” in the rule book on qualifying and race day. This means teams like Red Bull, who allegedly stopped their car in the grid last year after winning because there wasn’t going to be enough fuel sample to give the FIA for tests, won’t be able to switch off their cars on the grid after finish citing technical reasons. All cars should be driven back to the FIA designated area and there should be the minimum amount of fuel available for testing at that point.

Lewis names Sebastian and Fernando as the people to beat, virtually writing Jenson off which is probably part of a larger mind game. In a few days the season resumes and this year appears to hold a lot of promise with the cars not very far from each other in terms of pace.

May the best team win!

The Sahara Force India Formula 1 team

Yesterday Force India announced the sale of 42.5% of the team to the Sahara group. Dr Vijay Mallya retains 42.5% while Michel Moi keeps 15 % of the remaining shares. This would mean Dr Vijay Mallya has given up 7.5% of his shares while Moi’s family has given up 35% of theirs. The whole deal is valued at $100 million which is offloading equity for more than double the price it was purchased. In Sep 2007 the old Spyker F1 team became Force India F1 (FIF1), the deal then was rumoured to be around $80 million.

Dr Vijay Mallya vehemently denied reports in the media about a possible sale 5 days ago, his statement was cleverly worded in which he said “As Team Principal, I will continue to run the team and I have no plans whatsoever to exit.” He continues to remain Team Principal while Subrata Roy becomes Chairman of the team. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Sahara to continue making new inroads with it’s branding effort. It already has high brand recall and visibility being associated with sports in India, cricket being the biggest and with Formula 1 it gets to create a new identity in luring the motor racing fan and in creating a new fan base for the sport in the country.

Its well known that the aviation business of the UB group is in a crisis with the airline defaulting on many payments and looking for cash infusion to keep them afloat. The partial sale of equity in the formula 1 team could be part of a long term plan for the group in finding a honourable exit from the extremely cash hungry sport. It’s also a clear indication of the Moi family’s intentions, from being 50:50 partner to retaining just 15% stake.

The media in India has been more than glowing in its coverage of the Force India F1 team, probably because of the UB groups big advertisement budget and Dr Vijay Mallya’s cloud. In the past I’ve pointed out how the Force India F1 team wasn’t “indian” at all. Atleast that part changes a wee bit with the Sahara group’s entry. The media hasn’t bothered to question Dr Vijay Mallya when he loudly claims he brought the race to India. They won’t ask him how his team is Indian at all except for all the Kingfisher models who show up in the paddock on race weekends. Let’s hope more engineers, technicians and eventually at least one Indian driver gets to drive a Sahara Force India Formula 1 car. Until then … let’s wait and watch.

Formula 1 Season 2010 – Qualifying – Bahrain

After qualifying today the one thing that strikes me hard is Force India’s pace. I’m a known FIF1 baiter and looks like I’m going to eat a lot of my own words this year, inflation be damned. The pace shown by Adrian and Vitantonio is stunning and I hope they have a nice race tomorrow.

The silence of the Ferraris was expected, their pace today is a result of a good design and excellent talent behind the wheels. I’m so glad Felipe Massa has out qualified Fernando Alonso. Despite not setting scorching pace in testing Sebastian Vettel has taken pole for RedBull and Mark is starting 6th, expect nothing less from an Adrian Newey design.

Jenson Button was seen caught with under steer more than once, the McLaren’s are losing some race pace in the medium speed sections of Sakhir. Lewis manages to start the race in row 2 while Jenson will start from P8. It’s going to be a classic shootout from the start line between Fernando and Lewis, I hope they don’t get wrought in emotions and lose the car on turn 1.

The pace Robert Kubica is showing with his Renault is surprising, let’s hope he has a good race tomorrow. The heat, no refuelling, tyre wear and the uncertainty of the new rules and regulations in play make tomorrow a day where anything can happen. Over to race day everyone, I’m missing the Iceman already.

Pos	Driver	Team
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault
2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd
6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault
7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd
8	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
9	Robert Kubica	Renault
10	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes
11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth
12	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth
14	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari
15	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari
16	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari
17	Vitaly Petrov	Renault
18	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari
19	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth
20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth
21	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth
22	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth
23	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth
24	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth

Formula ONE Season 2010 Preview

McLaren get to retain number 1 & 2 on their cars this year by  poaching Jenson Button. There’s no doubt that he’ll drive car number 1 while Lewis Hamilton will drive car number 2.  Martin Whitmarsh takes additional responsibility as the Chairman of FOTA, the association of Formula 1 teams. Mercedes has taken over Brawn GP, Norbert Haug will get to play a larger role in the new team and Ross Brawn retains the role of Team Principal.

Michael Schumacher makes a return to active racing with Mercedes GP. Would anyone ever have imagined Michael S to don an apparel which had the silver arrows on it after such a long, passionate and successful sting in Maranello? The Tifosi are going to be disappointed, but I hear German pride will kick in this time. I feel sad for Felipe Massa, he earned his stars under the tutelage of Michael Schumacher and was blooming into an exquisite driver in his own right when fate intervened.

Felipe returns back to racing only to find Fernando Alonso as his teammate, this is the one big bit of ill luck I’d attribute to his career through out which he’s been denied a little luck. Though they won’t accept this, Felipe will be expected to play no 2 to double world champion Fernando otherwise we all know how it might end up given Fernando’s days with McLaren with a certain rookie named Lewis Hamilton who was making his debut in F1 in 2007.

12 teams are listed on Formula 1’s official website, which means we’ll see 24 drivers on the grid. A 13th team might just make it on to the tarmac eventually, and that’d most likely be Sauber who lost BMW’s backing and have been left to fend for themselves. The 2010 season will see the return of Cosworth as an engine supplier. Teams that commit themselves to the £40 million budget will get slightly more freedom technically and commercially. Lotus makes it’s return to F1, Campos and Virgin are the other two teams that will race in 2010.

Such teams will be allowed to run movable front and rear wings and also have an engine with no rev limit (current max is 18,000 rpm). Commercially there are more incentives like an annual payout of US$10 million, free transportation of two chassis and freight of up to 10,000 kgs in weight along with 20 air tickets for each event held outside Europe. These are certainly welcome moves which are bound to excite the new teams but will Ferrari or McLaren be enthused? That’s something we can all debate on.

The new season will also see a ban on refueling, cars will start with fuels to last a full race, I hope to see cars running out of fuel every now and then. The front tyres are slated to be made narrower, minimum weight of the car has been increased to 620 kgs (currently 605 kgs) and the points system has been revamped. 25, 20, 15, 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1 point wait to be awarded to I, II, III, IV …… X positions on the grid departing from the current system of awarding points to the top 8 drivers.

Another interesting move to encourage overtaking is to ban wheel fairings, this year you won’t see those wheel cover like things on McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari etc which have a vent to direct the hot air from the brakes escape in a particular direction which aids in increasing downforce making the air dirty for the car behind. Ron Dennis is expected to be seen more on the track now that Max Mosley isn’t at the top of the FIA, Jean Todt has already started discussions to find out ways to make Formula 1 more environment friendly.

Force India and RedBull haven’t change their driving line up and 19 drivers have been confirmed by the teams as off today:

McLaren	Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari	Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa
Mercedes GP	Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg
Red Bull	Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber
Williams	Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg
Renault	Robert Kubica, ???
Force India	Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi
Torro Rosso	Sebastian Buemi, ???
Lotus	Jarno Trulli, Heiki Kovalainen
Campos	Bruno Senna, ???
Virgin	Timo Glock, Luca di Grassi
???	???, ???

There’s also been a fair share of drama and outrageous ideas been exchanged. The czar who owns F1 wanted medals to be awarded instead of points and recently he was in the news for saying that cars should be allowed to use run off areas, alternate routes a certain number of times in each race to make up track positions. KERS is officially in the reckoning for 2010 however I believe the teams have mutually agreed to not use this system although the increased minimum weight should give sufficient leeway to teams with heavier drivers in trying this technology.

At the end of this year we’ll also know which direction Force India will tilt given the media attention this team gets in India. Will it be a productive year or will FIF1 end up in the also ran list? Currently they have a technical agreement with McLaren where Mercedes provides engines and McLaren supplies gearbox, electronics and other hydraulic systems. What’ll happen to this arrangement now that McLaren and Mercedes are two distinctly separate entities?

There is also news doing the rounds that double diffusers will be banned completely. Given the fact that Red Bull’s competitiveness is almost entirely due to Adrian Newey’s aerodynamics and a good part of that performance comes from it’s diffuser we’ll have to wait and see what the teams are going to do to play around the rules and try to squeeze that wee bit of performance from their respective cars. From next week we’ll start seeing new cars being unveiled.

I hope we get to see tons of good racing and at the end of a year have a worthy champion, over to Bahrain everyone, cheers !!!

Timesheet - Coimbatore to Bangalore - A duet

Coimbatore to Bangalore - A duet

After posting the distance chart for the drive done on the 12th July I was compelled to repeat the same drive via Sathyamangalam and make another one. This time there was Kanja for company and we started after tea from Coimbatore. We chose to take the Sathyamangalam route to get to Mettur instead of the Avanashi to avoid getting stuck in the evening traffic. I finished 175 kms of my drive upto Mecheri in 2 hrs 56 mins, the average speed works out to a lacklustre 57 kmph. Kanja did 176 kms of his drive from Mecheri to Silk board in 2 hrs 15 kms, the average speed works out to a very admirable 73 kmph. Here are some quick facts:

Route: Coimbatore to Bangalore via Annur, Sathyamangalam, Anthiyur, Mettur, Thoppur, Krishnagiri, Hosur

Departure: 26th July 2009, 1713 IST (Sungam Bypass, Coimbatore)

Arrival: 26th july 2009, 2305 IST (Viveknagar, Bangalore)

Total distance: 357 kms

Time taken: 5 hours 52 minutes (includes a 10 minute stopover for tea at Mecheri)

Avg speed: 61 kmph

Avg speed after deducting break time: 63 kmph

Fastest sector: Thoppur to Krishnagiri (NH7) - 85 kmph

Slowest sector: Mettur dam to Mecheri - 37 kmph

Fuel consumed: 23 lts (Petrol)

Mileage: 15.5 kmpl

Silver arrows beginning to shimmer ...

It was terrific to see a McLaren driver back on the podium after China last year. Lewis Hamilton drove a near perfect race after gaining lead when Fernando went to the pits for fuel. Mind you, he didn't set the fastest lap nor did he speed away from the rest of the pack, he controlled the race from the front without giving any heartache to his crew in the paddock. It was evident from Germany last weekend that McLaren's upgrades were starting to deliver the performance they so badly needed. However it's yet to be seen if it's the nature of these slow corner ciruits that is masking the inefficiency of the aerodynamics on the McLaren's care which would be obvious in high speed corners where the Brawn and RBR cars simply fly through.

This year the FOTA teams are following a compulsory 2 week closure of their factories to allow their staff take a break in the middle of the season. In Valencia we should see some more performance enhancements done on the McLaren. When everyone was losing their patience with KERS McLaren and Ferrari didn't trash their KERS programme and the result was amply evident for everyone to see. McLaren get's the distinction for being the first ever KERS equipped F1 car to win a race, having trashed KERS it's high time BMW looked into the whole package and see how they could use it to better their vehicle's performance.

In 2007 McLaren was at the center of a storm in Hungary which was later termed as 'pitlane-gate' by some journalists. Fernando caused a problem impeding Lewis' pitstop by staying put after refuelling thus causing a delay in refuelling Lewis' car. This season it was Felipe's turn albeit a ghastly one at that. A damper spring which fell off Rubens' car floated in the air and hit Felipe, who was about 4 seconds behind Rubens, on the left eyebrow causing him to ram into a tyre wall. It was scary to see the driver motionless in the car till the medics carried him out of it into an ambulance. 

Fans of F1 are so used to see drivers get into worse accidents and walk out of the incident unscathed due to the extreme levels of stress on safety that this incident brought back the fact that in racing human's were involved. Timo Glock's crash in Aus 2008 was terrifying and when Timo walked out of the wreck without any injury it was a testimony to the high levels of safety that are enforced in F1. Felipe's accident could start off a debate about having a canopy to shield the driver, I hope better sense prevails when making a decision on this aspect. 

I hope Felipe gets well soon and is racing fit without any delay and turns out terrific performances in the GPs he gets to participate this year. I hope Martin Whitmarsh, having tasted his first ever race win as team prinicipal goes on to lead the team into more successes this year and put in a superior development effort into next year's car. I hope Formula1 remains this pinnacle of automobile engineering and continues to break new grounds through innovation and persistence. Am I hoping for too much?

Timesheet - Coimbatore to Bangalore - Driving alone

Coimbatore to Bangalore - Driving alone

After almost a year I was going to drive from Coimbatore to Bangalore without a person for company. This time the vehicle was Maruti 800, the old warhorse which has clocked 1.5 lac kms in the odometer. Left home after tea in the evening hoping to get to Mettur by night fall. Got to Trichy road from home and took it to reach L&T toll gate in Chintamanipudur. Drove past the toll to Avanashi via Nilambur and Karumathampatti. Early evening traffic on the two laned NH-47 made the drive tight and packed though I got to Avanashi with 6 minutes to spare for an hour.

A block in the usual Mettupalayam road junction got the traffic stacked up in Avanashi town. After reaching Chengapally the drive was faster in comparison and it took just 30 minutes to cover 44 kms to reach Bhavani. The drive towards Mettur via Ammapettai was marred with shoddy roads and diminishing day light. The clock showed 19:12 IST when exiting Mettur dam and taking the road to Thoppur. The distance of 84 kms from Komarapalayam to Thoppur 4 landed road junction took 90 minutes, the average speed worked out to 56 kmph which is not bad given the heavy traffic and twilight conditions.

Joining the NH7 at Thoppur was relieving, the next 9 kms to Thoppur L&T toll gate took 10 mins and I stopped for a much deserved rest at Adyar Ananda Bhavan (AAB), the first stop coming after 198 kms. After a 30 mins dinner break I rejoined the road. The second leg of the journey was quicker due to NH7 and the general dislike for the night by most on the road helped speed the journey up, 44 minutes and 66 kms later I got to the NHAI toll booth in Krishnagiri. The clock showed 21:14 ISt and I had 87 kms to cover before calling it a day.

Driving to Hosur from here took 40 minutes (47 kms) and a small traffic holdup on the road in front of the inter city bus stand took a good 10 minutes to clear. After another 51 minutes I managed to cover the remaining 40 minutes of the journey to reach home and doze off into the night. Here's a quick stats cheat sheet.

Route: Coimbatore to Bangalore via Avanashi, Bhavani, Mettur, Thoppur, Krishnagiri, Hosur

Departure: 12th July 2009, 1634 IST (Sungam Bypass, Coimbatore)

Arrival: 12th July 2009, 2246 IST (Viveknagar, Bangalore)

Total distance - 351 kms

Time taken - 6 hours 12 minutes (includes a 30 min stopover for dinner at AAB, Thoppur)

Average speed - 56.6 kmph 

Average speed after deducting break time - 61.6 kmph

Fastest sector - Thoppur to Krishnagiri (NH7) - 66 kms in 44 mins (Avg speed - 90 kmph)

Slowest sector - Hosur to Silk board - 34 kms in 37 mins (Avg speed - 55 kmph)

Max speed achieved - 140 kmph

Fuel consumed - 18 lts (Petrol)

Mileage - 19.5 kmpl

Driving on a highway - Part 1

Driving on highways are experiences in themselves. An automobile can either be a joy or a nightmare on a highway. One can either be thrilled, elated and happy with the experience or feel stressed, tired and bored even worse a freak incident can cause it to be a nightmare which'll haunt you all your life. Reading Jiya writing for the first time about driving on a highway brought out a certain sense of excitement and discovery. I started driving in 1995 and a Maruti OMNI was the car/van on which I learnt the art and honed it (if one could call it so). City driving demands lots of patience, deft use of the gear & clutch (if you are driving a diesel), lots of attention to the road and mirrors (all three - center, left, right), anticipate a rash bike to cut across or a pedestrian to jump across a median, and most importantly keep your cool given the increasingly stuffed city road, pollution & traffic hold ups. On the other hand to drive on highway one'll need all of the above coupled with an instinct to know when to speed (rip as some would call it) and when to exercise extreme caution. Having driven all over South India on all the highways and most of the state highways if there's one thing that's common to all roads in India then that is their unpredictability. One has to stay ahead of the automobile one is driving performing calculations in real time in one's mind working out the distances in overtaking & braking, knowing when to put your foot down on the accelerator and when to brake so on and so forth.

We all know the risks of highway driving, the speed for one can be deceiving and give one a false sense of safety. With the high speeds modern cars can achieve and the increasing improved nature of our roads the thrill of going overboard on the speedometer is not an easy prospect to fight over. Mind you, I'm not advocating snail's pace on a highway, it beats the whole point. I'm only advocating a more cautioned approach where the drive is majorly convinced of his/her actions. And ofcourse one person's view might just not match with another and hence each one interprets events in their own special way. There are no set rights and wrongs and no one can claim to be immune from an accident. An accident / mishap can happen to anyone, to the aggressive, to the extremely cautious, to all and sundry, one can only take some precautions hoping to remain on the safe side and enjoy the drive. I'd like to cite an example here of an extremely competent drive I know, my brother. This guy is a master of speed, he can do Coimbatore --> Bangalore(340 kms via Sathyamangalam, Mettur) in 5 hrs (minus a couple of minutes). He knows where to bark and where to calm down, sitting with him in the front seat will open your mind to innovative ways of calculating time it takes to overtake a vehicle with oncoming traffic. The way he slips in and out of traffic looks and feels so effortless and one could think it's because of the power in the car he drives but most often he sets the records straight by doing the same on a Maruti 800. Even this guy has had a bad day on the road and the reason was sleepishness. Despite the best of human efforts and thinking there can always be a day when things simply don't go your way, don't fear that day.

Before you hit a highway plan your trip here's some pointers for the layman which are apart from the fact that the vehicle should have been recently serviced and is not due for a service anytime within the next 1000 kms. Most of these are also regular maintenance tips but hold more importance when embarking on long trips.

* Start the engine and let it idle for 2 minutes, closely hear to the engine's hum and try to see if any unnatural ratting, clinging or vibration is observed.
* Switch off, check engine oil level by pulling out the dipstick in the engine. The right way to do this is to pull the dipstick out, clean the oil off it, dip it into the engine and pull it out. Check if oil is within the min/max markings and also see it's colour. Any shade of brown/black means it's time for an oil change (on petrol vehicles this is done every 10000 kms, on diesel's it usually every 7500 kms)
* Check coolant levels and top the wiper water container with fresh water preferably not hardwater/seawater if possible.
* Check all electricals for proper functioning - headlights, turn indicators, fog lamps, horn, electronic locking system.
* Check the aircon and let it run for 10 minutes, try to see if any abnormal smells comes into the cabin like smoking or burnt oil. Make sure the cooling happens normally and watch out for signs of a lag in cooling in which case the gas in the system needs recharging.
* Check brakes and get them adjusted if the pedal is too soft or if biting occurs when braking.
* Start the engine, engage the first gear and release the clutch. The vehicle should get into motion smoothly with no signs of strain or jumping. If the clutch is not in good shape you'll feel the vehicle behaving like a frog getting into motion. This problem needs immediate attention to avoid being stranded on a highway with a broken or faulty clutch.
* Check onboard and confirm that you have a copy of the registration certificate, insurance papers (up to date), emission certificate (irrespective of the state you are driving in), driving license and the first aid kit with basic medication (cotton wool, dettol, paracetamol, saridon/anacin). Do not carry cough syrup. It's okay if a driver coughs for 50 kms before reaching the destination than allowing him to drink cough syrup and sleep midway.
* Check and make sure you have the tools for refitting the tyre on board (spanners, jack and a hazard sign)
* Check tyre pressures, don't miss the spare wheel. Check the pressure early in the morning or late night and don't drive too long to check. The idea is to check cold tyre pressures which are what you find marked on the body. When you drive longer you heat up the air inside the tyres and can cause setting an incorrect value. An Indigo rated is 28 psi tyre pressure normally. After driving 25 kms at 80 kmph the pressure shoots up to 30psi which is perfectly is normal and within the working parameters of the rubber. But if I check pressure at this point then I'll bring the pressure down 2 psi down (to 28 psi because that is what is on the body) which is less than ideal. Make it a habit of checking tyre pressures the first thing in the morning all the time.

We're making an assumption that wheel balancing and alignment has been carried out on the automobile every 5000 kms and the tyres are in good shape. After writing this much I'm tempted to convert this post into a series because summing it all up will make this one HUGE article. So, over to the next part of this post next week. Drive safe folks.