The 2011 Formula 1 season has been nothing short of spectacular, and this week’s race in China was one of the most exciting Formula 1 races I’ve seen in a very long time. Best of all, there was overtaking! And not that silly meaningless back-n-forth type of passing you see in some left-turn-only races, but well planned, well executed, well defended passes for position and even the lead! For the past few years, the Pinnacle of Motorsports has been trying to find ways to enhance the ability of drivers to…
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IndyCar – Welcome Back, Mr. Cotman
This past weekend, the Indy Racing League officially hired Tony Cotman to be the league’s technical director in charge of developing all of the rules and regulations pertaining to the construction and operation of the new chassis and engine packages for 2012. It’s certainly not a new role for him. He was Vice-President of Operations of the Champ Car World Series where he oversaw the development and production of the extremely competitive and cost-effective Panoz DP-01 chassis. Can he do the same thing here in the Indy Racing League? Probably,…
Read MoreIndyCar – Kansas Preview: Revised aero could make for revived racing
The Story Thus Far The First Oval This weekends race at the Kansas Speedway will be the first oval event of the season, and will serve as the lead-in event to the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race at the end of May. Not only is this the first oval race of the this season, its also the first oval race for a number of rookie drivers to the series. [aside: it seems very strange to call Takuma Sato a “rookie”.] Takuma Sato, Simona De Silvestro, and Bertrand Baguette will compete for…
Read MoreALMS – Corvette Denied Direct Injection
In a rather surprising and disappointing fashion, the new GT2 Corvettes will not be running the same engine they used at Mid-Ohio, Road America, and Mosport. The Porsche and Ferrari teams have successfully argued to the ACO that the Corvette’s direct-injection engine gave them an unfair advantage and it should be prohibited. In spite of having a written statement from the ACO proclaiming the 6.0L DI power-plant to be permissible, the new GT2 ‘Vettes will have to run the Petit LeMans sans DI. This won’t likely affect their power output…
Read MoreIndyCar – Thoughts on Push-to-Pass
Curt Cavin let the cat out of the bag in an article today on IndyStar.com: Push-To-Pass will make its IndyCar Series debut in Kentucky. (As an aside, if you don’t already read Mr. Cavin’s Q&A, you should! Its great stuff.) Personally, I’m skeptical of the move. The push-to-pass button so often becomes a push-not-to-be-passed button, take a look at how KERS is used in F1 for example. On a restart everyone will mash their Go-Fast buttons and there will be no difference. Some drivers will use the button for offense,…
Read MoreIndyCar – Aerodynamic Changes Debut at Kentucky
In an effort to improve the oval-racing product, the Indy Racing League, sanctioning body for the IndyCar Series, will loosen up some of the aerodynamic rules that it had previously tightened in the name of cost-savings and parity. The problem with tightening the engineering rules in oval racing is that the large teams still spend just as much as they would have before, but now they spend it on the minutiae rather than on more substantial engineering. For the Meijer Indy 300 at the Kentucky Speedway on August 1st, team…
Read MoreIndyCar – Rules and the Law of Unintended Consequences
Since the last weekend in April, the IndyCar series has been oval racing but the excitement of high-speed side-by-side racing has certainly been lacking. At the end of the Kansas Race, I wrote a short editorial, What Happened to Competitive Racing, where I went on a little rant about the new wheelbase rules further limiting the freedom of the engineers and reducing the drivability and competitiveness of the cars. It was pointed out at the time that the extreme weather might have been the primary factor for the lack-luster racing…
Read MoreLe Mans – The FIA Trend Continues
Formula 1 has now apparently been only the first of the FIA series to create issues. We have seen WTCC, F1, and issues in the WRC in terms of scheduling. With that being said, it should be no surprise to anyone that the greatest endurance race in the world has been brought into the controversy. Peugeot has filed an official complaint to the FIA over body work on the Audi R15. Above is a front end picture of the piece in question on the TDI, it is a front flap…
Read MoreIndyCar – What Happened to Competitive Racing?
In year’s past, the IRL Kansas race has been outstandingly exciting. Don’t believe me? Check out this video of the final laps in 2005. Fast forward to 2008. Although TCGR dominated the race up front, there was still a lot of exciting racing behind Dixon and Wheldon. The quality of the racing was still diminished as a result of the aero changes to the rear wing mandated by the league to produce more separation between the cars. This year, it was worse. The 2009 race, as you may have seen…
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