I’m still at Goodwood for day two of the Festival of Speed. Much more from the event coming up later today.
Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Mark Webber’s pit stop in London (Red Bull)
Red Bull perform a race-speed tyre change in Parliament Square, London.
Comment of the day
Did Webber really brake 80 metres than Kovalainen in their crash at Valencia? Ilanin doesn’t think so:
Yes, Webber did say that Kovalainen braked 80m before he did at that corner, but it seems somewhat implausible.
Webber hit Kovalainen on approach to turn 12. That’s the biggest deceleration on the circuit, 315kph/195mph to 76kph/47mph. A normal F1 car brakes at somewhere between 4 to 5g, which is to say a deceleration of 40 metres per second squared or more (with apologies for mixed units). Decelerating at 4g from 315kph to 76kph, an F1 car should cover a distance of about 92m.
I do not believe the Lotus is so slow that it has to start braking for Turn 12 almost twice as far away as the Red Bull. Especially given that the Red Bull is fast primarily because of high apex speeds in fast corners – Turn 12 is not a fast corner.
Ilanin
Happy birthday!
No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1
The team which won the first world constructors’ championship, Vanwall, started their final Grand Prix on this day 50 years ago.
Vanwall won the inaugural teams’ title in 1958. But Tony Vandervell ended his involvement after the final race of that season when driver Stuart Lewis-Evans died following a crash.
The last race start for a Vanwall was in the hands of Tony Brooks in the 1960 French Grand Prix. One of their cars is being demonstrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend.
Scribe (@scribe)
3rd July 2010, 0:08
Good point Ilanin, wouldn’t like to suggest that Kovy was brake testing him, but it may have been a way to delay Webber applying throttle on the exit of the corner, in which case Kovy was going all out deffensive, which I do agree is slightly mad in the context of what his race actually comes down to.
However what we all forget is holding a car behind like that on a cicuit such as this does wonders for the reputation an wonders for the amount of screen time Lotus are likley to be getting. While it obviously didn’t help his race, whats one race a place or two down to Lotus?
J.Danzig
3rd July 2010, 5:32
well i reckon kovi may have braked a little early,but not by a lot, looking from webbers onboard he hits kovi before the 100m sign on the left hand side,mabe at about 110-115 its difficult to be precise,so i reckon webber will learn to be a little more carefull when trying to overtake.
Oliver
3rd July 2010, 8:54
Considering Webber took to the skies and still landed just before the corner, I’d assume he took off well before he braking point. Exactly how early Heikki applied his brakes is anyones guess.
Dan N
3rd July 2010, 0:12
Red Bull pit stop in London, how ramdom! Gutted I’m not at the show, thanks for the articles and pictures. Maybe see you there next year.
Hare (@hare)
3rd July 2010, 0:51
Good to see Mark practicing his overtaking, probably did more succesful passes this morning than all season.
DC might argue the closing speed between Webber and the Golf could be dangerous, but I say it’s about drivers skill at the end of the day, we want to see the drivers challenged. The Golf clearly had the line going in to the right hander, Mark was wise to hang back. Mrs Brignell, from Harpenden should be delighted that she managed her tyres so well for the duration of the session.
Relieving to see Mark taking horizontal roundabouts instead of his signature ‘invisible vertical roundabout in the sky’ manoeuvre. ( 3x veteran )
Hare (@hare)
3rd July 2010, 0:54
BBC have a video of it as well.. BBC video
W154
3rd July 2010, 13:10
He drove through a red light coming in and out of the “pits”…..thats got to be a 10 place grid penalty for Silverstone !
Jagged (@jagged)
3rd July 2010, 0:55
Just got a note from my cable company. The NASCAR race at Daytona broadcast Saturday night will be available in HD 3D. They will even stream live 3D online.
http://www.timewarnercable.com/northeast/learn/programming/sports/nascar3d.html
Scribe (@scribe)
3rd July 2010, 1:46
grrr, proportionally, an I don’t mean to look down my nose here, what do you think the comparitive numbers of HD Nascar users are to what F1 users would be.
Jagged (@jagged)
3rd July 2010, 2:13
Since June 13, 2009 all over the air broadcasts in the US are Digital only, so I would imagine all TVs bought since then and most bought in the year leading up to the change are HD. Everyone that I know has at least one HDTV. I have no idea about HDTV penetration in the rest of the world.
dsob
3rd July 2010, 7:11
Well, gawwwlee, Scribe, we’ns here in NASCAR Contry shurrrre do like all that there fancy TV stuff, yessir.
Frankly, my good man, I’d judge your opinion of NASCAR fans to be based on outdated prejudices. NASCAR fans are every bit as up-to-date—or even more so—than anyone anywhere in the world.
Some NASCAR drivers in the old days may have honed their dirt track skills running moonshine on back roads, but rest assured today’s NASCAR driver, and NASCAR fan, is of the highest calibre.
Americans are known for loving their toys, especially their electronics, so I’d wager that more NASCAR fans will view HD, proportionally, than F1 fans could hope to dream about.
Hare (@hare)
3rd July 2010, 7:39
Dunno, seems like you read in prejudice where there may not have been any. Seems to me like he’s just asking for the comparative numbers.
I think the NASCAR coverage has been for years, well advanced of that of F1. It’s kinda annoying the F1 politically machine takes SOOO long to roll.
I’m currently in New Zealand, and I want to watch F1 online, but can I? Not legally! GT1world.com streams races live!! I love it.. I never really believed that it was relevant, but it clearly is, and it’s excellent to watch.
Scribe
3rd July 2010, 9:46
dsob, sorry about that. I’m simply bitter. Still proportionally, I’m fairly sure that the number of F1 fans, that is fans of the most advanced technological sport in the world, a fair proportion probably have HD tvs.
Most of Europe is going fully digital at the moment as well so it’s not hard to suggest that HD is on the up and up here.
Ilanin
3rd July 2010, 17:23
NASCAR has a fan-base almost exclusively in one of the richest countries in the world, one especially notable for high consumption of consumer goods. Formula One is a global sport. I would be downright amazed if the percentage of F1 fans with HDTV was within 10% of the percentage of NASCAR fans with such.
Michael Griffin
3rd July 2010, 0:56
Re Comment of the day:
Webber said after the race that he and Vettel can brake later due to so much downforce, which we know Lotus don’t have much of, so if more downforce means later braking, then it’s entirely plausible that the braking distance between the two cars would be doubled.
newnhamlea1 (@newnhamlea1)
3rd July 2010, 1:54
no mention in the round up of the possible return to magny-cours next year?
http://formula-1.updatesport.com/news/article/1278060558/formula_one/F1headlines/Magny-Cours-working-on-F1-return/view.html
wasiF1
3rd July 2010, 2:32
I hope it happens. It’s a shame that we miss one of the classic race from the calender.
sato113 (@sato113)
3rd July 2010, 3:20
nah! lets go to Paul Ricard. it’s fast and flowing and has a massive straight for some juicy overtaking.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
3rd July 2010, 3:19
I don’t really miss Magny Cours. I think France needs a GP, but Magny Cours is a crappy track. I’d like to see a race at Paul Ricard in the short term until a permanent fixture is found
Scribe
3rd July 2010, 9:48
Yeah, who wants to go to Magny Cours? Worse track starting with an M, even the French don’t like it much.
Seriously, it’s a anti-pass, aero fast track, we’ve got one, an the races are always boring.
Patrickl
3rd July 2010, 14:42
What’s wrong with the races in Magny Cours? There is action in the Adelaide hairpin almost every lap.
Dan Thorn (@dan-thorn)
7th July 2010, 8:29
It’s great to see the cars blast through those two fast chicanes too. I always rather liked it.
LAK
3rd July 2010, 2:23
Today is Sebastian Vettel’s Birthday
wasiF1
3rd July 2010, 2:33
HAPPY BIRTHDAY VETTEL
J.Danzig
3rd July 2010, 5:40
happy B’day vettel. ididnt know this until today….vettel was spinning donuts at abu darbe.. i was a bit surprised
hawkfist
3rd July 2010, 8:18
Was he intentionally spinning doughnuts or just trying to overtake someone?
David-A (@david-a)
3rd July 2010, 14:24
Well, he won the race, so had no need to overtake ;)
David-A (@david-a)
3rd July 2010, 14:25
At first I though it was Vettel celebrating his win, but it was actually Webber, who finished 2nd.
nik (@nik)
3rd July 2010, 7:45
The COTD assumes that all cars are travelling at the same speeds around the circuit (ie. “315kph/195mph to 76kph/47mph”). The Red Bull speed around that corner would be a lot higher than the Lotus due to the car having more downforce, hence a lower speed delta, hence shorter breaking distance.
If the Lotus has to take that corner at 70, while the Red Bull can go through it at 100, that is a large braking difference.
Ilanin
3rd July 2010, 12:09
Yes, it does. But that’s a reasonable assumption to make because of what turn 12 is – a tight 90-degree right-hander through which the cars travel very slowly and aerodynamic advantages are limited (downforce is a function of speed).
Now, there’s no doubt the Red Bull decelerates faster than the Lotus. But so much faster as to have 80m less braking distance?
It’s not hard to calculate the time difference that would involve (it’s high school physics), and if you do that you come out with the number that the Lotus loses six-tenths of a second to the Red Bull in braking for Turn 12. Now, Kovalainen’s Lotus was 2.3s slower than Webber’s Red Bull in Q1, so it’s possible six-tenths of that is on the same corner, but given that there are 25 corners at Valencia, I doubt they lose a quarter of that time on half of one turn! (I’ve not taken accelerating out of it into account).
matt90
3rd July 2010, 20:51
I’m not sure I can bare to look at the estival of speed stuff. First time I haven’t been since 2003- absolutely gutted.