Archive for the ‘The Y Series’ Category
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Fan is short for fanatic. Fanaticism is “marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea.” Nowadays there is a distinction between being a fan and a fanatic, but the line between the two can be all too easy to cross. Such was he case this week and test held and the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Native son Fernando Alonso tested this week for the first time there since rejoining Renault last month, and it didn’t take long for his “fans” to turn into fanatics. Reports surfaced Saturday on Autosport.com stating that fans were, among other things, constantly heckling McLaren, displaying angry banners, and even throwing things at the McLaren cars as they passed. But this not the reason why I decided to write about the Spanish fans. It got worse when the fans decided to make racist chants towards Lewis Hamilton. Autosport.com stated that,
Reports in the Spanish papers suggested that some of the insults against Hamilton even had a racial element - with Marca claiming that shouts of “puto negro” (fucking black) and “negro de mierda” (black shit) were clearly heard, and that large sections of the crowd were involved.
Now it does strike me as odd that this happened now, since there have been 2 tests each at Jerez and Valencia since Alonso returned to Renault. Obviously both are still in Spain and should have produced the same kind of Alonso fans as the ones in Barcelona. However, as some of you may know, the people of Catalunya, the region surrounding Barcelona, tend to march to their own drum, as evidenced by the fact that they have been trying to break away from Spain and create their own autonomous region for the past several decades. Now I know that may be a stretch, but consider this. Barcelona and Jerez are separated by about 800 miles, which is also about the same distance between Chicago and Atlanta. That’s the difference between the heart of the Midwest, and arguably the heart of the South. Those of us in the U.S. know just how different the cultures of Chicago and Atlanta can be.
What’s most odd, and most revolting, is that Hamilton, as far as we know, played no role in the spy scandal that was part of last season. It involved mostly Alonso and Pedro De La Rosa. Judging by the fans reactions as Barcelona, you’d think that Hamilton was the one taking information from Mike Coughlan and using to illegally gain an advantage. Most ironically, the two drivers involved were both Spanish. Beyond that, it was Alonso who made it plain that he was no Hamilton fan. Alonso was the one who basically blackmailed Ron Dennis at Hungary, saying that if he wasn’t given number 1 status, he’d blow the whistle on the spy scandal. Alonso was the one that ran Hamilton off the road at Spa. And Alonso was the one who acted like JV (a whining prick) most of the season. But that wont stop Alonso’s supporters. They won’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.
What’s most upsetting is that the fans at Barcelona were hounding Hamilton simply because he was of a different skin tone than both Alonso and themselves. This was not a joke gone wrong or an attempt to have some fun. This was pure unadulterated racism. It would be one thing if Hamilton had someone undermined Alonso at McLaren, but he didn’t he proved he had just as much of a right to fight for the driver’s title as Alonso did. If Alonso didn’t like that, he could leave and find a weakling to beat up on, and that’s exactly what he found in Renault and Nelson Piquet Jr. In fact, as I stated before, it was 2 Spainards, Alonso and De La Rosa who were the cause of the spy scandal, and it was Alonso who, over the course of the season, became more and more belligerent towards Alonso.
The FIA stated on Monday that sanctions could be imposed, which could include the removal of both races held in Spain on the 2008 calender, the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya, and the European Grand Prix on the newly constructed harbor streets of Valencia. Now I believe it is a bit to soon to go quite that far. This incident occurred over the weekend and hopefully is an isolated incident. However, there are two more 3-day tests planned before the Spanish Grand Prix. The first is from February 25-27, and the second from April 14-16. If another incident occurs despited this new warning from the FIA, I would be saddened, but supportive of the removal of both the Spanish and European Grand Prixs from the 2008 calender. Should that unfortunatly happen, the people of Spain will have no else to blame but the fanatics, not the fans.
Posted in Op-ed, The Y Series | 5 Comments »
Saturday, March 24th, 2007
In previous seasons, the pre-European rounds of the championship were quite foretelling of the season to come, especially in the past decade. Ferrari best exemplifies this. Typically, Michael Schumacher would have a 15-20 point lead by the time cars turned a single race lap on European soil. This lead would gradually expand and leave many fans with a boring end to the championship in the post-European rounds. The fact is that those that start well and gets points early typically don’t have to come from behind late in the season. That point will probably be underscored even more so this season.
Ferrari have proven over the years that they can produce an engine that is not only fast but reliable. As a result they have probably had to de-tune their engine the least of any team over the off-season. In previous seasons, teams could produce engine that were fast but a bit fragile, but could also count on the fact that later in the season they could come up with developments to boost the reliability. This season no such developments will come online due to the (draconian) 3-year engine freeze. To achieve a good amount of reliability, teams have had to back off more than they’d probably like to. As a result, Ferrari seem to have the advantage in the engine department. This will allow them to focus their effort on their relative weakness, aerodynamics.
Ferrari have always been relatively good in the aero department, but lately they had been second to Renault at least, and maybe McLaren. Ferrari have the means, and passion to make this an even great strong suit of the team. And it is that passion that can never be underestimated. Passion is what makes Ferrari. Just look at the road cars they produce. They are fabulous pieces of engineering, but looking at every aspect, you can tell there is more there than just metal, leather, and carbon fiber. This passion will help boost the aero.
The final axis of the triangle is the driver combo. For the first time since the arrival of Schumacher, there is a true equal driver lineup. Ferrari have a very capable driver in Felipe Massa and an WDC-caliber driver in Kimi Raikkonen who hasn’t won a title due to the sheer ineptitude of McLaren-Mercedes. Specifically to Raikkonen, we know he has speed and can win, and if he doesn’t, Massa will be right there to pick up the scraps.
To sum things up, Ferrari has shown that they have the best car, and the best drivers, and that is unlikely to change. Also having a control tire from Bridgestone also scores another point for Ferrari. Simply put, since everything on the cars is set from now ’til Interlagos, apart for aero, things are unlikely to change. This is only the beginning.
Posted in Op-ed, The Y Series | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 4th, 2007
Formula 1 is leaving Europe. You can bet the farm on that. Bernie is increasingly looking to the Far East and to North America. The biggest reason being the fact that these are the biggest untapped markets in F1. Europe has just about been exhausted when it comes to exposure. It really can’t grow any bigger in Europe than it already has. The big 800 pound fish in he room is the market of America. It is by far the biggest untapped market in F1. To be fair, it’s not surprising that F1 hasn’t captured the imagination of Americans. We already have the 4 major sports in MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL. Beyond that, we also have NASCAR and CCWS. IRL isn’t a sport. They’re crapwagons and that’s all I’ll say. Returning to the point, there’s enough to options out there already to sufficiently suck up most Americas time, energy, (and most importantly) money.
In light of that, I’d still advise Bernie to at least make a halfway decent effort to make sure not only that F1 stays at Indy, but also have an additional race on the West Coast. Europe covers an area of about 10.4M sq. km. and has 9 races. The U.S. covers an area of about 9.6M sq. km. (and that includes AK and HI) and has exactly 1 race. F1 has been to the West Coast before. Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s they used to run on the streets of downtown Long Beach, CA. They subsequently ran in Phoenix in the late 80’s and early 90’s and that turned out to be a total disaster. Now I know that Long Beach is currently occupied by the CCWS, but the idea of F1 cars running down Shoreline Dr. just makes me think how awesome it could be. I’d like it if they included Ocean Blvd. like they used to, but that is now a main artery into downtown Long Beach, and its subsequent shut down would not be easy to obtain. In today’s world, a race at Long Beach is a long shot, at best.
The second, albeit more reasonable option is head up to good old Laguna Seca. It is a great track and who be able to hold an F1 race, it does have a big downfall in that it isn’t really near any big cities. San Jose is the closest big city with an airport. In fact, its over 74 miles from the airport in San Jose to Laguna Seca. Overlooking that, Laguna Seca is a great place to hold the race. The Corkscrew alone is reason enough to hold the race. I’d love to see someone try to pull a Zanardi and make it stick. It is a short track by F1 standards, but so is Interlagos, Monaco, Indianapolis, and so was the A1-Ring. It’s also be nice if Bernie actually tried to market the race to the American public, not just a few commercials on Speed Channel every once in awhile. Second, put the Speed Channel crew on Fox AND broadcast it in HD. Advertising on Fox would bring in viewers and sponsors. If it’s run right, it can work. ABC nearly killed the race at Indy with Bob Jenkins. Sauber became Sawber and F1 became so dumbed down Mike Tyson was annoyed.
Now I know this is unlikely to see F1 at Laguna Seca. But the U.S. needs a second race and it needs to be on the West Coast. We already get shanked by the rest of the country in many things. It’d be nice to have the second race be more than 10 miles west of the Mississippi. More exposure in America is always a good thing, and I hope it leads to a greater fanbase in America. It’ll lead to fattening the lines of Bernie’s wallet, but at this rate, he’ll be dead by the time that happens. O well. Make it happen anyway Bernie. Do it for (your) kids.
Posted in Op-ed, The Y Series | 2 Comments »
Friday, December 29th, 2006
Back around the turn of the millenium, the idea of a night race in F1 was bounced around. the idea was that the Sepang circuit in Malaysia would install hundreds of flood lights and stage a night race, similar to that of NASCAR. The objective of this was to keep the European audience tuned into the race. A race at 7:00PM in Kuala Lumpur would be 12:00 noon for Europe, and 11:00AM for England. It would also be 3:00AM for the poor souls in the Pacific time zone, like myself. But, really, who cares about America? Anyway, the idea was for the night race to be either in the 2001 or 2002 season. Obviously, that idea never came to fruition. While I do like the image I have in my head of Sepang lit up at night, I like less the image of myself looking at the clock reading 3:00AM and the alarm blaring for me to get up to watch the actual race. I would actually think a night race in Europe would be a better idea. Not only would it bring in the European audience during primetime, but it would also all those in America to see it during lunch time. Even Hawaiian would only have to get up at 9:00AM or so.
Now, which European circuit would be best suited to hold this night race? Well, Silverstone, Magny-Cours, and the Nurburgring are too spread out to make it work. Barcelona and the Hungaroring are too boring. Monza would be good, but the locals would complain about the cars not allowing them to make their 6:00PM bed times. Monaco would be awesome, but it’s already cramped as it is. They had to reclaim some land from the harbor for goodness sake. That leaves Spa. O…. My…..
Think of it. Spa. At night. The light dancing between the trees. Hell, it’d probably be raining too. I’d kill to get tickets to sit near Eau Rouge and watch those cars go through it at full bore, at night, maybe through the rain. Awww. Now there is a teeny weentsy problem…
Money. In fact, that’s probably how much the Belgian GP has in the way of funds. Hopefully, Bernie will keep a couple bucks saved up somewhere to fund this project. With the Bernie fund in full affect, this project could go ahead and give us the dream that is a night race at Spa. I hope that Bernie will read this and be inspired to put the money into doing it. I really have no idea on what kind of money would be needed. It may cost $10M-$15M, but I say it’s money well spent. I hope Bernie gets the memo, “Turn the lights on for us, Bernie. Please?”
Posted in Op-ed, The Y Series | 4 Comments »
Saturday, November 18th, 2006
I have DirecTV. I have all the channels. Well, almost all of them anyway. There are numerous sports, news, entertainment, and movie channels. Some of them, such as the horse racing channel TVG, don’t really deserve to be on air. I mean, seriously, who can watching horses running around a track 24/7. It’s not like the horses can give post-race press conferences. They have no personalities. Don’t get me started on the jockeys. All 4′10″ and 76 lbs. of them. That’s the kind a person all men can relate too.
With that kind of low standard for having a TV channel, why isn’t there one for F1? Ok, i can understand it not being available here in the US. But, why isn’t there one at least in Europe. How much content is there on F1? There’s got to be more than enough to sustain a station. There’s probably full races on tape for probably every race since about 1970. How hard would it be to show some of the better ones? Or what about entire seasons? We all know news is slow between now and about a week before the first race. Why not replay great season. Do a race a day or something. That’ll take a couple weeks. Show seasons reviews. Do profiles on teams, drivers, tracks, etc. from past and present. Maybe even have a one hour weekly show in the offseason to keep us up to date on things. Maybe even show tests live. I know that’s a stretch, but it’s a thought.
During the season, there could be race replays, onboard race replays, and alternate angles not shown during the race. If Mr. Howard’s suggestion of recording onboards on every car for entire race was implemented, we could see onboard action of events missed during the regular broadcast. There could be a sort of reality TV show, like Speed Channel has with NBS 24/7. A TV crew could follow drivers and see inside the factories where they make the cars. They could even televise the FIA court proceeding, such as the ones we saw with Renault this year and BAR last year. There are limitless ideas.
With all of the history, personality, technology, and drama that is a part of F1, why has an F1 channel never come to fruition? The answer lies at the top: Bernie Ecclestone.
Bernie is 76. Even in this day in age, that’s getting on in years. He was born in 1930. The Depression was barely a year old when he came around. Hell, they didn’t even have TV’s. Don’t be fooled by that cell phone, his 8 year old grandson taught him how to use it. His dabblings in media include F1.com, F1 Digital for PPV, and some of the current races. F1.com is a crock. Before he took it over, live timing was freely available. Now, you much register to view it. Also, look at the store; $60 for a plain t-shirt with a F1 logo over the heart. You’re kidding right? F1 Digital failed after he couldn’t get enough people to justify the cost. Current races are getting better, but barely. Instead of working with technology, he uses it to try and make the greatest profit at the expense of the normal viewer. He won’t do an F1 channel because it involves something all old people hate, risk. What’s the risk of the store? Sure it’s outrageously priced, but some people will buy it and that’ll make up for people like me who won’t.
We probably won’t see an F1 channel as long as Bernie is around. The initial costs to get it off the ground would be to risky in Bernie’s eyes. In addition, even if it was successful, profits wouldn’t start rolling in for several years. Bernie, frankly, can’t afford to wait that long, literally and figuratively. I hope the day comes when I can watch classic grand prixs, seasons reviews, and a documentary of Ferrari during the 1981 season. If not, I may have to find something more interesting to watch, like that interview with Barbaro when he gets out a re-hab. Time to set the TiVo.
Posted in Op-ed, The Y Series | 6 Comments »
