RobbieMeister

It has been a long held opinion of mine and many of my friends that aerodynamics are the problem with the lack of overtaking. If a lack of overtaking is the problem, and I’m not sure that it is. Perhaps the real problem is the lack of close racing. Close racing can be exciting even if there isn’t much overtaking. I remember Mansell chasing Senna at the end of a Monaco GP. Real edge of the seat stuff, did he get by? No.

But thinking about the effect of aerodynamics on it’s own is only a portion of the problem. In fact it’s the cars that are the problem and by that I mean they are a victim of their own success.

The cars and each aspect of the cars is so finely tuned to the ideal or perfect situation that either that ideal makes the cars perform so well it’s difficult to overtake or in some cases the overtaking move will take the car out of that ideal situation and be a massive detriment to its performance so much so that the overtake cannot happen.

Examples? Well, dirty air from aerodynamics is the one we all know. But there are others. Short stopping distances from carbon brakes. Marbles off line from sticky tyres. Short overtaking distances from powerful engines and optimised traction. All of these things will make overtaking more difficult. But they are the stock and trade of the F1 engineers.

Have I an answer? No. But if I were starting to find out I’d have a look at trading off some downforce for reduced drag.

Other than that it’s a trip to the Goodwood Revival.

This is a picture taken from the north side of the Thames looking towards the South Bank and Waterloo Bridge whilst walking back from the Completion Evening for this years Youth at Risk Student Leadership Project.

Seeing the arrival of the Virgin F1 team has given me quite a lift. Not because I’m a great supporter of the Virgin brand, indeed I don’t think I use any of their products or services and not because I like blowing my own trumpet (there are enough people in F1 who already do that).

Instead it’s because I spotted young Richard on the grid at Monza in 2008 (scroll down or click) and suggested on this blog that he was there to get into F1 before anyone else mentioned it. I say this because I follow nearly all of the F1 news and information and I hadn’t seen it suggested anywhere else.

That’s it really. Have a nice evening.

Adrian Sutil after the race:

“It’s a shame – you focus so much and think you can do it, but the car was just out of control at the end. I had the same feeling as Monaco – it’s hard to believe when you are in the car and then suddenly you lose it and it’s all over from such a great position.”

Ones feelings, of course, come from what one thinks about.

There is a story about an adventurer traveling across the desert searching for his fortune. But not the Paulo Coelho one.  It goes that one night the traveler was visited by a Genie in a dream. In the dream the Genie told the traveler that in the morning if he walked in the direction that the wind was coming from he would after a few hours stumble across an old wooden and brass chest. In the chest were all sorts of riches – jewels and gold and all the traveler had to do to gain access to the chest was not to think of the colour blue as he opened it. But he would only have one chance.

This reminds me of an experience of my own when doing a police motorcycle training course organized by the Chertsey traffic center in the mid ’70′s. We were told in this course to avoid manhole covers in the road because manhole covers are slippery when wet, and that reminds me of another story but perhaps not now. The problem for me was try as hard as I could not to, I went straight over the manhole covers. I told the instructor this and he asked me where I was looking, "Well at the manholes" I said. "You will always go in the direction you place your attention, look to one side" said the copper. It worked.

When the traveler woke in the morning he set out in the direction of the wind and sure enough he found the chest. As he sat cross legged in the sand with the chest in his lap. As he tried to open it he said to himself "Don’t think of the colour blue". Of course he didn’t get the chest open. You see, before you can’t think about what you don’t want to think about, you have to think about it.

I watched Adrian Sutil as Lewis Hamilton came up behind him last Sunday and hoped that he was not trying not to think of Kimi Raikkonen slamming into the back of him at Monaco last year and loosing a points finish for himself and his team. I was hoping he had a clear picture of the chequered flag in his mind. I wonder?