F1 Turkish Grand Prix

To be honest, were I even able to watch the NASCAR race this weekend, I’d still have watched this instead. To sum up why in a word, Pocono. The good news is that, even though this race was on Fox, Digger did not appear during the pre-race. The bad news is that this race was probably about as exciting as Pocono. Regardless, I got what I came for: a Jenson Button win!

I didn’t buy my usual F1 season preview issue this year. Just as well. When I flipped through it on the newsstand, Brawn GP wasn’t even listed. The next issued featured all of one page interview with Button after his Australian win. The cover, however, was wondering which Ferrari driver would win the championship. Or something like that. It was so irrelevant I wasn’t paying attention.

This was the first time this year I’ve gotten a good look at the new cars. Let’s see, there were little bitty needle noses, little rear wings, and a big snowplow in the front. The Brawn and Red Bull cars had tremendous rear end boxes housing their magic diffusers. Then there was Renault’s fin, which was part of their top intake. If none of this sounds attractive, that’s about right. These vehicles were the high-tech equivalent of the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow: ugly as hell.

These changes, in addition to the reintroduction of slick tires (along with the option tire rule), were hopefully supposed to lead to changing the aerodynamics of the car enough to allow for more passing. I know that there was plenty of passing at the Australian GP. I guess it was a fluke. In modern F1, this pursuit is becoming futile, much like most overtaking attempts on track. The cars are so wind tunnel tested and aero-stroked, passing on track is matter of not just being faster, but a whole lot faster, or hoping for a mistake. I know that there was plenty of passing at the Australian GP. I guess it was a fluke with new cars with widely differing interpretations of the rules from the off season. Next year’s budget cap may make a difference, but I’m not holding my breath.

One piece of the technology I was excited by was the KERS energy return system. For right now, it just weighs down the car, but allows it to be fast enough in places to hold up a faster car trying to pass. Further development of this system in racing may be helpful in integrating it into road cars. Fuel savings on the road are being offset by the weight of the system. Race engineers will be looking for all sorts of ways to slim it down. I wonder if this will end up getting axed under the budget cap? A headline on a cover on an F1 magazine from a few years ago read, “Technology vs. the Sport.” We may finally get this issue answered next year.

Well, on to the race coverage. The opening montage featured a lot of Lewis Hamilton and no Jenson. I wonder when this was put together? Ah, what to make of Lewis the Backmarker? I’d say he gets attention during the race like Dale Jr. and Danica get in their respective series, but that isn’t really fair. He is the current world champion, while the other two are really mostly marketing icons. What I don’t get is the utter hatred that the British racing press and many fans have for him. One day, he’s the superkid, the future of racing. Next, he’s the F1 equivalent of Kyle Busch, the ultimate villain. If he’s just whiny and engages in gamesmanship, that would put him on par with every other driver, in every other series. I guess this is what I get for not being able to watch every race.

Whatever. I’m still totally getting off on Jenson whipping his ass.

You know Jenson is.

Fox sports doesn’t have any control over the race production, so I can’t criticize them. F1 produces the coverage and packages it for everyone else around the world, to add their own commentaries. This may somewhat explain why the volume was so subdued during the race. Every time they went to commercial, I was reminded of this as the sound blasted me awake. The bottom line ticker was a bit less intrusive than the top line ones used in NASCAR and the IRL. There were a couple of good panning shots across some of corners. I share the commentators’ lament that there wasn’t a good shot around Turns 7, 8, and 9, the big curve. (Why don’t they name the corners on these new tracks?)

The commentary team themselves did a pretty good job with what they had to work with. That is to say, no control over the pictures and a fairly boring race. I liked how they explained the rules and differing race strategies. Though they did explain the “Option Tire” rule, the group failed to explain how stupid it is and how little impact it has on the racing. Come to think of it, KERS is really just Push-To-Pass, another failed Champ Car racing “innovation.” (F1, please carefully regard what happened to Champ Car before following their example any further. Having everyone drive the same cars, getting rid of all the European drivers, and eliminating more European race dates, for example.)

There was some false drama over race strategy and about Button’s gearbox, but functionally the race for the win was over when Vettel bobbled the car on lap 1 and Button passed him. That was it. I could say that there was plenty of action in the back, but that was mostly Barrichello trying to make his way back to the front after a bad start. After he damaged the car, that was that.

I tuned in to see Jenson on the top step and getting post race interviewed, and I did get that. I have to quibble with the announcers again. This year isn’t the first time he’s won. They forgot his 2006 win in a rain-soaked race in Hungry. By the way, F1 car numbers are handed out based the team’s finish the previous season (skipping #13). The race results were quite the sight with all those double-digit car numbers listed at the top. And there was Jenson Button, car #22, on top. Given that there were only twenty cars in the race that should tell you how far this team has come since last year.

J.