Floating dials - nice, but maybe missing a point?

The pointer actually appears to be affixed to the outer edge of the instruments, so there’s no central point from which the needle sprouts. It’s quirky and works well enough, when you’re just pottering around town, but when you’re really driving hard (in an entry-level, 2.0-litre diesel C5 you ask? What can I say…) the shortcomings of deviating from the accepted norm can become a bit annoying.

It is an automatic as well, so it’s not like you really need to know what revs you’re at, but still. The problem comes down to the raw mechanics of the human biology you see. When you’re running flat out, your eyes are focussed as far off into the distance as possible basically. For the muscles controlling the various focussing functions of the iris, there has to of necessity be a minute amount of time allowed so that they can do their thing when you rapidly switch that focus.

So, when you flick your eyeballs down to the dials for an instant update on the position of the engine’s revs and the speed you’re travelling at, you don’t actually have the time at very high velocities to wait for the mecahnics of this refocussing to happen. So your gaze spears straight to the central point of the tacho, which in this case just isn’t there, so that you can at least get an indication, within a few hundred rpm, from just the base of the needle being even remotely in focus.

Now to scan the outer ring of that same dial for a well-lit but nevertheless small pointer, at the very least doubles the amount of time your eyes are off the road. It also then doubles the amount of time they have to refocus on that far-distant point where the road disappears over the horizon, although this is less of a bother really.

When I first noticed this oddity, I figured acclimatisation to the way in which these dials actually operate would dispel the problem…

But it won’t. The tiny, complex, and astonishingly smart little muscles in your eyes just will not work any faster than that, period.

This is  no criticism of the C5, or any vehicle which uses some lateral thinking in the development of their instrument pack. Just a bit of an insight into why enthusiasts often kick against these kinds of seemingly insignificant changes to everyday functions of the physical task of driving. Often the old ways, although perhaps not the prettiest, have been based on years of research into the operation of us, the operators, engineered to be the most compatible with these methods, and implemented as an engineering item rather than a design feature.

When it comes to the life and death act of driving a car, little almost natural advantages like that are quite important.

The biggest change for me is the move by Davide Tardozzi from Ducati to BMW. I know he says that he was just looking for a new challenge but several commentators believe that he was fired from Ducati for not using team orders to secure the championship for Haga. If that is the case, it does seem like a strange decision. I mean why would you give the most successful manager in the sport the boot rather than just having a quiet word with him. And of course Fabrizio is a talented enough rider to win the championship in his own right so why should he be held back? I wonder how he will cope this year under new management being told not to win races.

All of this is of course a huge benefit to BMW who do have the money and technical expertise. With Tardozzi at the helm and Corsa on the bike, I think it is going to be a strong team. They only fly in the ointment is Xaus who lets be honest hasn’t really been on the same pace as his teammate. I think I would have signed Shakey Burne who was looking for a ride at the time.

Leon Haslam will be on the Alstare Suzuki this year

Aprilia showed impressive form last year considering they had a completely new bike. Sure they have more motorcycle race experience than BMW but it was still an impressive performance. I am expecting big things from the Italian Team this year. Celebrating success in British Superbike, Leon Camier will accompany Max Biaggi as the second rider. I like Leon and he does have the talent. It’s just that Max Biaggi is without question the number one rider and hasn’t been known for working in harmony with teammates.

Yamaha too have a pretty strong line-up. Cal Cruthlow was particularly impressive last year on the Supersport bike although he does need to calm down and stay on the bike more often. Coming back to World Superbike with his tail between his legs is James Toseland. Despite his lack of success in Moto GP, James does have 2 superbike world championships to his name. He may not be as impressive as Ben Spies but he is nevertheless going to win races this year.

Ten Kate Honda with Johnny Rea and Max Neukirchner should be up there with the frontrunners. Johnny is a talent that I have tipped for the top in previous articles. Max on the other hand is a bit less of a sure fire bet. He has shown moments of brilliance but he has spent so much of last season injured that it’s difficult to know if he has the consistency.

Alstare Suzuki has finally given Leon Haslam the ride that he deserves. Strange to see him move away from Honda given the family connection with that manufacturer. He will have Sylvain Guintoli sharing garage space with him.

That covers the “Works” Teams, excluding Kawasaki who I think have a reasonable lineup but I’m not sure they have a competitive bike.  As we have seen before,

privateer teams do often get onto the podium. So it looks like we are in for some good racing. That’s why I haven’t stuck my neck out and predicted a champion. Let us know what you think.

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Could this be the 2010 Mercedes GP car

Yesterday the news of Mercedes buying Brawn GP and McLaren buying back Daimler’s 40% stake in McLaren hit the motorsport headlines and many people including Drive staffers were rather surprised. I wasn’t, in fact it’s been on the cards for some time now in my mind. During a time when manufacturers seem to be jumping ship at an alarming rate, Mercedes have dived in head first so I do see why some have been confused by the Mercedes decision but there are several factors in my opinion which explain the move.

Point number one is that Mercedes is the quintessential German marque with a rich history in motor racing, the silver arrows that dominated all before them in the time surrounding the war. Now however the old enemy England reaps all the rewards with German power from their engines, I’m talking of course about McLaren, a militantly British brand. The heritage of German motor racing symbolised by silver cars should not be represented on a British car, for that reason alone the Mercedes/McLaren relationship couldn’t last forever.

Remember that Mercedes has always had a 40% stake in McLaren, which is a significant interest whichever way you slice it. In addition to this Mercedes has consistenly supplied McLaren with arguably the best motor in F1, it certainly was this year. using Mercedes power McLaren have won hordes of races not to mention a world title for Hamilton in 2008. One would think then that McLaren would feel rather indebted to Mercedes and at the very least would try and keep them happy. To this end all Mercedes have asked for is a German driver, there are a whole host of top quality German F1 drivers to choose from so you would think McLaren would happily do this for Mercedes. No, McLaren chose rather to stick stubbornly to one of the most inconsistent and underperforming drivers in F1- Kovalainen.

The first time I started to think there might be divisions between McLaren and Mercedes wasn’t actually on the race track but rather the road, and it was in the form of the AMG SLS. When AMG wanted to replace the Mercedes powered McLaren SLR they chose not to collaborate with McLaren but rather to build their very first ground-up car. So was born the SLS. The cracks were beginning to show. Combine this with McLaren’s less than stellar performance during the 2009 season and Brawn’s superb performance using Mercedes engines and it becomes more understandable that Mercedes would want to reduce their ties with McLaren.

In the end however what no doubt sealed the deal was the same thing that always seals the deal-money. New resource restrictions set by the FIA have limited an F1 teams expenditure whilst simultaneously increasing the earning potential of an F1 team from cash generated by F1’s commercial rights. Mercedes want more of that money and they don’t want the Brits stealing their colour as well as taking all that cash.

That’s my rant for the morning done we can now get onto the first annual F1 AWARDS as the season is over.

Driver of the Year

I was going to give this to Barrichello for his gutsy year despite being the oldest man on the grid but in the end I can’t give him the award when he had that brilliant car and couldn’t even get second in the championship. The winner then goes to a driver who certainly made a lot of mistakes but when he got it right was just the best driver in the world. Sebastain Vettel is my driver of the year 2009.

F1's 'rainmaster' Sebastian Vettel

Car of the Year

This can only be between Brawn and Red Bull, and whilst through the course of the year the Red Bull’s were probably the fastest on average, the Brawn’s have got to take it. They caught everyone napping early on with their notorious double diffuser and were the class of the field for half the year. They did taper off after their storming start but I still think they deserve the accolade of producing the best car of 2009.

Brawn GP F1 Team

Team of the Year

This category is closely linked to the first two awards because it is a combination of drivers, cars and leadership. So Red Bull had the driver but Brawn had the car meaning it comes down to leadership. In the strategic and tactical arena Ross Brawn simply swept the floor with everyone else, not only did he turn around a faltering Honda but then built a team in his own image out of the ashes of Honda. He made the tough call early on and backed one horse for the title in the form of Button as opposed to the squabbling Red Bull’s under Christian Horner. Brawn thus takes the team of the year award for 2009.

Idiot of the Year

2009 produced so many nominees for this one I actually had a tough time narrowing it down. There is for instance the entire Red Bull team, particularly their think tank for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Their error riddled season was simply unacceptable. Then of course Max Mosley sticks up his hand for his systematic attempts at dismantling F1, the budget cap debacle was completely unavoidable as just one example of his ineptitude. All those guys however are mere pretenders to the throne, there could only be one really. Yes it’s Nelson Piquet jr who has run off with this one for his role in Crashgate. It is true that he wasn’t the only one in the wrong but my issue with him is the whiny way he handled it. Briatore, Symonds and Piquet were all in the wrong but at least they kept their traps shut. Piquet only jumped on the moral bandwagon after he had been fired for being a slow, crash happy driver. Before that he had no problem with what he had done, well done Nelson.

So by now we all know that Kubica has made the jump from the sinking BMW over to their French rivals Renault. Whilst this may not be hot news, I do think it is one of the most important pieces of news in a while, well that and Vettel declaring he won’t shave as long as he has a shot in the championship (I thought he looked a bit scruffy in Japan).

Back to Renault, as we have seen over the last little while in F1, manufactures are the most susceptible to the recession. The reason for this is very simple, big companies are run by accountants, not privateers as in the smaller teams. So when Honda HQ, or BMW HQ sat down in their boardroom’s and worked out plans to battle the annoying recession the accountants immediately started cutting various budgets. The first to go will always be marketing and motor sport, because these aren’t measurable in dollar terms by short sighted accountants. Never mind that guys like Ferrari are one of the most successful car companies in the world thanks in no small part to their marketing outlet that is motor sport.

My rather convoluted point is that manufacturer teams that don’t win, a category that Renault currently resides within, are living on borrowed time particularly during a recession. Which brings me back to Kubica, he is a top class driver and a worthy replacement for Alonso. That is why I think the Kubica move is important for F1, without Alonso I really don’t think Renault had any chance of winning and it would therefore only be a matter of time before Renault became the latest F1 recession casualty. Nobody wants to lose another team but also remember Renault are an engine supplier so the blow to F1 as a whole would be saddening indeed.

If you are not convinced about the precarious situation Renault are in at the moment, consider all the factors. In addition to losing Alonso, Renault have lost the valuable Briatore and Pat Symonds and weathered a significant storm in the form of Crashgate. That brick wall they hit cost them their biggest sponsor ING as well. There is also the other marketing outlet that Renault have in F1, Red Bull. Red Bull is making some serious noises about switching to the spectacular Mercedes engine for next year, and lets be honest it is the right move. If Red Bull do indeed make the switch then Renault will no longer have the luxury of seeing Vettel at the top of the podium with Renault written on his overall. Put all that together and it is actually a wonder that Renault is still there.

Renault need something special to help them survive in F1, and whilst I am no Renault fan I don’t want another team to fall by the wayside especially one with such a rich history in the sport. Remember that the root of the current team was Benetton and that team gave us a certain Mr Michael Schumacher. So hopefully Kubica can provide the spark needed to save them.

Ben Spies has only ridden one season of Superbike and while he has impressed, he hasn’t won a title and he might not this year. One of the problems is that he has been so fast this year that the world media has led him to believe that he is invincible. The wild card ride at Valencia should give us a clue to his ability on the bike. Yamaha have effectively done a straight swap and brought Toeseland back to Superbikes, as I predicted although it was a bit more roundabout than that, the net result is the same.

Ben certainly rode a brilliant first race at Magney Cours in the first heat and even when he made a mistake, he came straight back and kept Haga behind him. Haga was also impressive showing that he hasn’t lost the fight and still desperately wants the title. The second race was less kind to Spies with, what appeared to be the wrong tyre choice. Fortunes were mixed for Haga. It was fortunate for him that Spies chose the wrong tyre but unfortunate that he didn’t get the advantage he should have. Usually if you get so far ahead of your opponent in Superbikes, there are a lot more riders in between the two. How often is 4^th place 17 seconds behind the winner?

We here at Drive are big fans of our local boy Sheridan Morais so it was disappointing to see a lacklustre performance from him. I still believe he has got what it takes so I hope that doesn’t jeopardise his chances of a ride next year. Wouldn’t it be good to see him on the Factory Kawasaki next year along side Chris Vermeulen?

Sheridan Morais

I tipped Johnny Rea for big things at the beginning of the year but his performance has been inconsistent to say the least. Surprisingly, he seems to have been over riding the bike these last couple of weekends, which only started happening after he re-signed for next year and doesn’t need to impress to stay in the team.

Going back to Moto GP, it was great to see Casey Stoner back even though I’m not really a fan. What I do like to see though is racing and it would appear that there are only four riders capable of winning races, Casey being one of them. I’m not sure what happened to Rossi but I have no doubt that he will be back fighting next race. It does of course, keep the championship alive for a bit longer but I still have my money on the Italian.

What I did find very interesting however was the reaction of Ferrari’s presently employed driver’s, that being Raikkonen and Massa. I am not referring to Fisichella because the deal all along was that he was only warming Massa’s seat for him, not an outright replacement.

Lets dissect Raikkonen’s comments first, he seemed a little annoyed that Alonso has been given his seat and is still undecided on his future. The options at the moment for everyone’s favourite F1 drinker are McLaren or rallying. I have said all along that he will go off road, you can read my first blog if you want to know why, but suffice to say Raikkonen will simply enjoy it more.

What surprised me about Raikkonen’s grumpy response to the Alonso news is that Raikkonen has shown very little interest in F1 or Ferrari for a while now, and then he is surprised when he gets shown the door.

Whatever Raikkonen’s problem is, Massa’s take on the Alonso move is even more negative and he still has a job, that says something. In the eyes of Massa, and he does have a very roundabout point, Alonso and his involvement in the Renault crashgate scandal cost him the F1 Drivers title in 2008. His argument seems to be that he lost by one point and that Alonso could very well have cost him at least one point in Singapore. So there is certainly no love lost between Massa and Alonso, now they have to work together next year….. The way things look now it really wouldn’t be out of the question for there to be a repeat of the Alonso/Hamilton feud when they were team mates at McLaren, Alonso sure has a knack for being at the centre of so many F1 controversies.

As much as I don’t want to keep going on about crashgate, I have noticed something rather worrying in the two races since the story was confirmed and I don’t like it. I have started looking at all the random little events in a different light, and by different light I mean a more cynical one. Let me give a few example’s to illustrate my point.

During Q3 of the Singapore GP Barrichello crashed causing the session to be red flagged, nothing unusual about that at a street circuit right. At least that is what I would always have thought in the past but not anymore. You see that red flag meant Vettel, who was flying at the very moment of the crash couldn’t complete his lap and was robbed of a pole opportunity. Barrichello’s crash therefore benefitted him and Button’s title fight as Vettel may have gotten pole. Now I do not for one second think that it is within Barrichello’s character to do that on purpose, it was just an accident but the seed of doubt has nonetheless been planted in my mind that a crash led to a direct advantage to Barrichello and Button.

Vettel has been both advantaged and disadvantaged by recent crashes

The next incident was during Q3 of the Suzuka round, a Toro Rosso crashes once again causing a red flag. This is the same story as before, Button and Barrichello received penalties which wouldn’t have occurred had there been no crash. This time however Vettel was the beneficiary of a de facto team mates crash. I don’t think it was deliberate but the fact remains drivers and teams occasionally benefit from crashes and when the crash involves one of their own cars I am now automatically suspicious. I have never been suspicious before in these sort of situations unless it had anything to do with Schumacher, but in a crashgate F1 I don’t know anymore.

Briatore will be missed by Renault

So it turns out I was vaguely correct in my predictions with regards to the whole Renault saga in my last blog. I thought that the individuals in question were indeed guilty of race fixing but that Renault would be found innocent regardless, Renault is after all a big name team and that means there is a lot of money at stake for everyone concerned. I was actually more or less on the money because Briatore has been booted out of all FIA-backed motor sport indefinitely, whilst Pat Symonds was given a similar five year ban. Renault may have been found guilty, which I technically got wrong, but the sentence meted out is a redundant two-year suspended ban. To put it plainly that means Renault got off clean after selling the sure-to-be missed Briatore and Symonds down the river, which is near as makes no difference an innocent verdict in my book.

That of course was the big news in the F1 universe this week but I personally am far more interested in the possible return of the Canadian GP to the 2010 circuit roster. The Canadian GP contract has not yet been set in stone but it does look promising and I for one can’t wait for the return of the Montreal race. The Gilles Villeneuve track is a high speed, heavy breaking challenge, and the last time F1 visited Canada it offered some of the most spectacular overtaking moves in recent F1 history. I’m referring to the severe track degradation leaving the Pits hairpin near the end of the lap with as much grip as an ice rink. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining that the track wasn’t up to pristine F1 standards, I thought it was brilliant. That corner resembled a wet race, without any grip we were actually able to see some mad overtaking. If I remember correctly Nick Heidfeld actually overtook two cars simultaneously at the Pits hairpin, so lets hope the track is still in a shoddy condition.

As promised I also need to add my bit about BMW-Sauber’s future in F1, as we all know BMW is out but the new Swiss owners of the Sauber team have been granted a provisional 14th slot on the grid. Initially it seemed like the Sauber outfit would only be able to sneak onto the grid if another team dropped out, however the FIA has also hinted that the grid could be expanded to fourteen teams. I am actually quietly confident that this will be the case, not because the FIA cares about Sauber, no, that would actually mean they had the sports best interests at heart.

The FIA has of late been waging a relentless war against one of the hallmarks of F1, that is unique and individual cars. There is an ever increasing push towards standardisation, remember a while back when the FIA even suggested standard engines. Now ask yourself this, just where are all the new teams getting their engines? They’re not manufacturers, naturally Cosworth will supply several and the remaining factory teams will pick up the slack. Sauber will be yet another team that will need these standardised customer engines, and for some obscure reason that is something the FIA seems rather keen on.

What a disappointing Monza race, okay it was actually quite good but I’m just annoyed that Button’s championship lead is looking increasingly unassailable. Rubens may be proving to be the superior Brawn driver in the twilight of this season but we’re talking about a Ross Brawn team here. A combination of Ross Brawn and the Red Bull’s falling away seems to have all but sealed the championship in my eyes. If Barrichello does manage to get within striking distance by the last race I am convinced he won’t be allowed to race Button properly.

Let me explain the previous statement a little, if the Red Bull challenge does indeed wane then the drivers title will be guaranteed for one of the Brawn men. Now if that is the situation then Ross Brawn will probably let Button and Barrichello duke it out, because at the end of the day he really shouldn’t care which one of his drivers take the title. On the other hand there is still a possibility that either Vettel or Webber will be in the hunt right up until the last race. If either of those two have just a mathematical chance of snatching the title from under Brawn’s nose then he will be exceedingly wary of his drivers taking each other out whilst fighting for the title. I am therefore expecting to see a few curious fueling decisions for Barrichello during the last races. I’d love to be proven wrong on this one because Button just isn’t the best driver in F1 so I really do hope he doesn’t win the title.

The Monza weekend was yet another display of F1’s ability to put on a show despite a lot of off-the-track bombs exploding around the sport. I’m talking of course of the ridiculous Renault saga, or is it the Piquet saga? The FIA has rather ominously summoned Renault to a meeting on the 21st of September to explain their side of the 2008 Singapore GP story. I really don’t want to speculate too much until the investigation has been completed because both sides are already slinging plenty of mud in their own, there’s no need for me to enter the fray. That being said, during his time in F1 Piquet never really gave me the impression that he would be above spinning a fictional tale to suit his own ends. Whenever he went off during a race, which was often, he almost always had plenty of excuses and rarely accepted responsibility. I could quite easily believe that Piquet made these claims purely out of spite, especially considering the timing of the story. Then again using the same premise I don’t think he’d be very concerned with ‘buying’ his drive with an illegal stunt such as deliberately crashing.

The more I think about it however the same goes for Briatore, I can see him ‘selling‘ the seat to secure an Alonso victory. Ultimately all this is speculation and maybe you should just ignore me until the 21st, the truth will come out eventually. My guess is that Renault is innocent and will be allowed to continue in this year’s championship.

That’s enough baseless meandering from me for now, maybe next time I’ll actually have an educated opinion for you. Speaking of next time I’ll go into the Lotus news and just what that means for BMW Sauber and their new owners.

How wrong could I have been in my last post? Here I was predicting that Haydon wouldn’t be on the Ducati next year and then he goes and puts in the most spectacular qualifying performance and probably would have translated that into a race result had he not been knocked off the bike. Ben Spies in the meantime has signed for Yamaha so he won’t be going to the Ducati Moto GP team.

The wording of the press release from Yamaha regarding the future of Ben Spies was as vague as it possibly could be. They “foresee” Spies remaining in Superbike for 2010, which translated means “We’ll wait and see what happens with Edwards and Toseland before making a decision”.

And then, what about the news that Haga might retire at the end of the year? I was very sceptical about this one considering that he hasn’t done what he set out to do – win a world championship. He is not too old and he’s still on the pace so why retire? The only thing I can think of is that all of the injuries he has sustained over the years are starting to hurt. But then, he hasn’t denied the rumours so perhaps he’s waiting to see if he wins the championship before deciding.

Should Haga retire, who would take his place at Ducati to ride along side the fiery Roman? With the Sterilgada teams future in doubt, there is an outside chance that it could be Shakey Burne.

Ducati are adamant that Stoner will be back on his Moto GP bike before the end of the year so we’ll have to take their word for it. That means that the top two Moto GP teams have finalised their rider line-up for next year. In fact, outside of the Tech 3 Yamaha team, it seems that most of the teams have rider contracts in place.

The World Superbike line-up on the other hand is still very much undecided and several of the riders I criticised for non-performance have come good. Fabrizio on the other hand who I believed was going to challenge for the championship has gone slightly off the boil and had a particularly bad day in Germany.

Corsa seems to have got the measure of the BMW and appears to be enjoying himself so I’ll withdraw my prediction that he’ll retire at the end of the year. Carlos Checa has at best been inconsistent this year but then he managed to ride out of his leathers at the Nurburgring. Ten Kate Honda would be silly to loose Johnny Rea but I’m still not certain that Checa will be staying.

With all of my predictions seeming to be wrong, perhaps I’ll wait until further into the silly season before making any more.