Well ... one could argue that second in the championship after two races isn't exactly a rough start, but if you're three-time (and defending) World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton, that's not enough.
Two races, two absolutely horrible starts, two Sundays having to crawl back to the podium.
To add insult to injury, apparently the Mercedes AMG team had to replace the gearbox in his car after damage sustained in Bahrain (more on that later), and now he has to start the Shanghai race with a 5-place grid penalty. So Lewis has to make a killer start—something he hasn't been able to do lately—as well as put together the perfect lap during qualifying. Oh yeah—and beat his seemingly unstoppable teammate Nico Rosberg. Not a simple task, even in the best of situations.
Okay, so, to back up a bit. New rules (shocking!) were put in place this year, making the drivers use only one clutch paddle on the wheel to control the clutch engagement on the start. Last year, the drivers could use two, releasing one paddle and using the other to find the optimum "bite point" of the clutch. It's an evolution of rules introduced late last season which restricted communication between the pit-side engineers and the driver about where the bite point of the clutch is. Some drivers have adapted to this new setup brilliantly—the start at the Australian GP from both Ferrari drivers was epic—while other drivers, like Hamilton, have struggled. To put it mildly.
After a second lackluster (again, putting it mildly) start from Hamilton in Bahrain, he collided with Williams' Valtteri Bottas in the first corner, putting him even farther back in the field. Which led to the Mercedes team having to pull the gearbox and inspect it before Shanghai, and they decided to just replace the unit entirely.
So ... the fact that Hamilton was able to fight back and get on the podium in both races is pretty incredible. However, keep in mind that he started from the pole in both races and screwed both starts up pretty badly. The best he can start in Shanghai is 6th, so it will be massively important for him to get a good start.
It'll certainly make the race exciting! We'll just have to see if I can stay up to watch it all .... it starts at 2 AM Eastern on NBC Sports.
05 April 2016
...about space exploration
Yesterday, NASA posted this image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity of a Martian dust devil:
(Image courtesy NASA/JPL. Original photo.)
While dust devils on Mars have been photographed before, this has to be one of the best I've seen.
However, the quality of the photo isn't the point. The point is the fact that it exists in the first place. We (meaning humans) have placed vehicles on Mars. That's an amazing accomplishment. Just think—100 years ago, Robert H. Goddard (wiki) set the wheels in motion for spaceflight as we know it today. On top of that, it hadn't been that long since the first powered airplane flights.
It's exciting. We put a probe on Titan, there's currently one on a comet (ESA's Rosetta mission), and we now have the most detailed photos of Pluto ever.
But here's the thing. If, like me, you've watched the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, you know the direction in which our space program was supposed to go. Or at least a very optimistic version of the future at the time. When the film was released in 1968, NASA's funding was at (if you'll forgive the pun) astronomical levels. So, if NASA funding had stayed at those levels, we'd probably have a colony on Mars by now. Well, maybe not, but you get my point.
I've always been interested in space/astronomy. I'm excited by the work that Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), Jeff Bezos (Amazon/Blue Origin), and Elon Musk (PayPal/Tesla/SpaceX) to make spaceflight less expensive and perhaps open space to tourism. I'm excited by NASA's next-generation launch system, the SLS/Orion platform, which will carry payloads and astronauts to deep space beyond the Moon. But that doesn't really start until at least 2020, with a mission to Mars happening somewhere in the 2030s.
There's a long way to go, but I'm astounded by how far we've already come.
(Image courtesy NASA/JPL. Original photo.)
While dust devils on Mars have been photographed before, this has to be one of the best I've seen.
However, the quality of the photo isn't the point. The point is the fact that it exists in the first place. We (meaning humans) have placed vehicles on Mars. That's an amazing accomplishment. Just think—100 years ago, Robert H. Goddard (wiki) set the wheels in motion for spaceflight as we know it today. On top of that, it hadn't been that long since the first powered airplane flights.
It's exciting. We put a probe on Titan, there's currently one on a comet (ESA's Rosetta mission), and we now have the most detailed photos of Pluto ever.
But here's the thing. If, like me, you've watched the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, you know the direction in which our space program was supposed to go. Or at least a very optimistic version of the future at the time. When the film was released in 1968, NASA's funding was at (if you'll forgive the pun) astronomical levels. So, if NASA funding had stayed at those levels, we'd probably have a colony on Mars by now. Well, maybe not, but you get my point.
I've always been interested in space/astronomy. I'm excited by the work that Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), Jeff Bezos (Amazon/Blue Origin), and Elon Musk (PayPal/Tesla/SpaceX) to make spaceflight less expensive and perhaps open space to tourism. I'm excited by NASA's next-generation launch system, the SLS/Orion platform, which will carry payloads and astronauts to deep space beyond the Moon. But that doesn't really start until at least 2020, with a mission to Mars happening somewhere in the 2030s.
There's a long way to go, but I'm astounded by how far we've already come.
04 April 2016
...about the return of the Verizon IndyCar Series to Phoenix
The Verizon IndyCar series returned to Phoenix International Raceway after an 11 year absence. It also marked the first time in several seasons that IndyCar has raced on an oval before the Indy 500.
While the IndyCar community (teams, drivers, and fans, including me) were excited to see Phoenix return to the calendar, the event had its share of problems.
Both Takuma Sato and James Hinchcliffe both destroyed their cars in the sole practice session leading up to qualifying. Neither would be able to qualify, and started at the back of the grid for Saturday night's race. Carlos Muñoz crashed hard in qualifying and would also start from the back. All three were cleared to race on Saturday night
Interestingly, all three wrecks were in Honda-powered cars, which lead me (and some others that I follow on Twitter) to speculate that maybe Honda was trying just a bit too hard to catch up with the dominant Chevy teams. Were they trimming out too much? All of the top 10 positions in qualifying were taken by Chevy teams.
However, Honda proved again that whatever they lack in qualifying, they make up for it in the race. Graham Rahal finished 5th after starting way back in 20th. Ryan Hunter-Reay made a monster start, going around the outside in turns 1 and 2, gaining several positions. He would eventually finish 10th.
Only two drivers, Ed Carpenter and Carlos Muñoz failed to finish. Both Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya had tire problems during the race, perhaps due to some overly-aggressive setups.
But I think the biggest problem with the return of IndyCar to Phoenix was a severe lack of people in the seats around the track. We (IndyCar fans) have been clamoring for this series to come back to Phoenix for years (well, 11 to be exact), and it's frankly shocking that so few people showed up at the track. Was it a lack of promotion?
There were also some issues with the on-track "product." The high downforce configuration that all of the teams were running meant that it was difficult for one car to follow closely behind another, making it difficult to pass. NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) remarked on Twitter, "I'm so thankful@nascar is taking the downforce off our cars. These @IndyCar guys haven't made a competitive pass yet."
This led to some, shall we say, heated debate on Twitter, but he's not wrong. Former driver Dario Franchitti (@dariofranchitti) agreed, saying "skill + bravery of@IndyCar drivers off the scale, series needs to look at downforce levels + how the car produces it though."
They both make excellent points. High levels of downforce created by multi-element wings creates a huge amount of turbulence, leaving the following car in "dirty" air, so they can't get close enough to pass. Formula One has had that problem for years, prompting the sanctioning body to create the Drag Reduction System (DRS), which opens up the rear wing of the car that's behind, adding several miles per hour and making it easier to set up a pass. However, if there were lower levels of downforce overall, and simpler wings (front and rear), a lot of these problems would simply not exist. (I'll talk about other issues I have with F1 in another post.)
Anyway, enough of me blabbing on for now. That's my two cents about the Phoenix IndyCar race over the weekend. What do you think? Let me know in the comments section below!
While the IndyCar community (teams, drivers, and fans, including me) were excited to see Phoenix return to the calendar, the event had its share of problems.
Both Takuma Sato and James Hinchcliffe both destroyed their cars in the sole practice session leading up to qualifying. Neither would be able to qualify, and started at the back of the grid for Saturday night's race. Carlos Muñoz crashed hard in qualifying and would also start from the back. All three were cleared to race on Saturday night
Interestingly, all three wrecks were in Honda-powered cars, which lead me (and some others that I follow on Twitter) to speculate that maybe Honda was trying just a bit too hard to catch up with the dominant Chevy teams. Were they trimming out too much? All of the top 10 positions in qualifying were taken by Chevy teams.
However, Honda proved again that whatever they lack in qualifying, they make up for it in the race. Graham Rahal finished 5th after starting way back in 20th. Ryan Hunter-Reay made a monster start, going around the outside in turns 1 and 2, gaining several positions. He would eventually finish 10th.
Only two drivers, Ed Carpenter and Carlos Muñoz failed to finish. Both Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya had tire problems during the race, perhaps due to some overly-aggressive setups.
But I think the biggest problem with the return of IndyCar to Phoenix was a severe lack of people in the seats around the track. We (IndyCar fans) have been clamoring for this series to come back to Phoenix for years (well, 11 to be exact), and it's frankly shocking that so few people showed up at the track. Was it a lack of promotion?
There were also some issues with the on-track "product." The high downforce configuration that all of the teams were running meant that it was difficult for one car to follow closely behind another, making it difficult to pass. NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) remarked on Twitter, "I'm so thankful
This led to some, shall we say, heated debate on Twitter, but he's not wrong. Former driver Dario Franchitti (@dariofranchitti) agreed, saying "skill + bravery of
They both make excellent points. High levels of downforce created by multi-element wings creates a huge amount of turbulence, leaving the following car in "dirty" air, so they can't get close enough to pass. Formula One has had that problem for years, prompting the sanctioning body to create the Drag Reduction System (DRS), which opens up the rear wing of the car that's behind, adding several miles per hour and making it easier to set up a pass. However, if there were lower levels of downforce overall, and simpler wings (front and rear), a lot of these problems would simply not exist. (I'll talk about other issues I have with F1 in another post.)
Anyway, enough of me blabbing on for now. That's my two cents about the Phoenix IndyCar race over the weekend. What do you think? Let me know in the comments section below!
...about introductions
Hi, I'm Jim. Have a seat!
Comfy? Good.
Welcome to my blog, where I will talk about all sorts of stuff. Racing (and other sports), technology, TV shows, movies, music, pop culture, anything that piques my interest. But not religion, politics, or sex. Okay, maybe sex, but it'll be tasteful.
Just a warning, this blog might contain some salty language. So if that's not your cup of tea, then these aren't the droids your looking for. Move along.
Stay tuned, I might just have something interesting to say....
Comfy? Good.
Welcome to my blog, where I will talk about all sorts of stuff. Racing (and other sports), technology, TV shows, movies, music, pop culture, anything that piques my interest. But not religion, politics, or sex. Okay, maybe sex, but it'll be tasteful.
Just a warning, this blog might contain some salty language. So if that's not your cup of tea, then these aren't the droids your looking for. Move along.
Stay tuned, I might just have something interesting to say....
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