Alternate F1 World Champions.....Round 2

[FickleCrossroad]

My my my, someone's been busy. Finally caught up here. How do you juggle four series in you TL? I can barely manage two.

Interesting that there's still more of a limit on women in endurance racing than F1 and IndyCar, is there a specific reason?

If Sebring has been overhauled to accommodate racing without impinging on the north-south runway, surely there can be more than two races a year. Did you mean top-series races? Who gets the second event? I'm wondering when is a plausible time for a renovation, couldn't it be done by the late 90's?

What inspired the points inflation in F1? OTL points seem alien enough given the history of that series, when were the changes and what forced them upwards after decades of 9-6-4-3-2-1?

Across all four series you cover, it looks rather optimistic for each of them, what sort of struggles do they encounter along the way to get that strong?

Regardless, very interesting. I like.

 

[TheMann]

My my my, someone's been busy. Finally caught up here. How do you juggle four series in you TL? I can barely manage two.

Updating when I can, that's about it. I'm focusing this on the racing world in general, coming up with races when they come to me. Formula One is a big focus, but Indycar and endurance racing are also big amounts, and I'm keeping track of NASCAR as well. Next update is gonna be the races of the Indycar world so far.

Interesting that there's still more of a limit on women in endurance racing than F1 and IndyCar, is there a specific reason?

This is more just because the women in IMSA and the WEC don't have the big rides just yet. There lots of them out there - Ashley Freiburg, Alice Powell, Sara Senske, Amy and Niki Ruman, Natacha Gachnang, Diana Starakova, Sanna Pinola, Tatiana Calderon, Robyn Kruger, Amber Anderson and Michela Cerruti are all racing in one of those series, and most of those were at Sebring. Powell was one of the pilots of the DeltaWing that blew up early in the race, and Freiburg's day ended when her Chrysler's motor died in spectacular fashion when Townsend Bell was at the wheel. If I was to run a full list of all the 126 cars at Sebring and the 410-or-so drivers racing in it, you'd probably find 30 or 40 women drivers. One won her class, another came second and a third female racer did finish third in her class in quite a surprise result. Nobody expected Vector's new GT1 car to do particularly well, but it did.

If Sebring has been overhauled to accommodate racing without impinging on the north-south runway, surely there can be more than two races a year. Did you mean top-series races? Who gets the second event? I'm wondering when is a plausible time for a renovation, couldn't it be done by the late 90's?

The new portion of the circuit races on the aircraft parks, one of the taxiways and around the terminal and main hangar, which in the latter case is a local landmark. The rest of the track remains, so it can be used as much as people want, but for the extensions are only allowed for the 12 Hours and possibly another event later on. Even at 4.46 miles long and plenty wide as it is, that huge field still tends to cause a god-awful lot of traffic. But that's Sebring for you, it is one of America's biggest sports car races, and when you have 250,000+ fans showing up to the event, all of the teams and fans want to be at least at the event, if not in it or winning it. Mr. Earnhardt is very happy that Tommy, Brad and Little Al managed to hold off the Audis for the win in this one.

(BTW, Al Unser Jr's career in this one is rather longer and more successful. He raced in Indycars for Rick Galles from 1984 to 1992, making several F1 guest appearances in the process, his first being the 1988 Italian GP, filling in for Nigel Mansell. He drove in F1 full-time in 1993 for Williams alongside Ukyo Katayama, winning three times in the dominant season, but he decided he liked America better. Raced for Penske in Indycars from 1994 to 1999, winning the title in 1994, but his personal problems led to very rough 1995 and 1996 seasons. An intervention led by Paul Tracy and his F1 teammate and friend Ukyo Katayama led to a big return to form for him, taking back the title in 1997. He rejoined Galles in a team that he co-owned for 2000, and doing that he won his second Indy 500 in 2001 in a Lotus and the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Cadillac in 2002. Little Al left Indycars at the end of 2012, but the Galles team had the benefit of Reynard chassis, powerful Chevrolet engines, Michelin tires and the best team in the business that year, and he left Indycars as its champion. He sat out 2013 to watch his son, but he didn't want to stay retired, so when Cadillac offered him a sports car drive, he took it. Him and Tommy Milner are a good pairing. He's long past the bottle, remarried and a good dad to his two kids, and soon to be a proud grandpa. )

What inspired the points inflation in F1? OTL points seem alien enough given the history of that series, when were the changes and what forced them upwards after decades of 9-6-4-3-2-1?

With 40+ cars, the teams pushed for the changes to the points so that they would have more to show at the end of the seasons, particularly since the cost of F1 is very high and not all cars qualify for all the events.

Across all four series you cover, it looks rather optimistic for each of them, what sort of struggles do they encounter along the way to get that strong?

Well, one big benefit is that this world is rather more prosperous. You see, the battles over deregulation and concentration of wealth in the hands of a few that was so obvious in the 1980s to the present never happens. America's economic policy remains one to push the wealth of the middle class upwards through maintaining modern industrial abilities and a wealthy, educated, forward-looking populace. It's a similar story across the English-speaking world, which also becomes the case in Europe starting in the 1960s. Latin America is also wealthier than OTL, southern Africa is a LOT wealthier (South Africa is roughly a second world country, most of its neighbors are also that way) and most of Asia is better off. Several countries whom fate was not kind to IOTL - Philippines, Iran, Argentina, South Africa, Turkey, Egypt, Vietnam, Mexico, Thailand - are much better off. The world's economy is about 20% bigger than OTL, though the majority of that growth is in newly-developed countries.

Regardless, very interesting. I like.

Not anything like done yet, race fans. Let me know if there is anything you specifically want to see.

 

[TheMann]

I should probably point out the state of Auto Industry in this world. It's rather different, you see.

This world's auto industry is almost entirely from the World of Streets of Detroit. The North American market has five big makers - General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, American Motors and Magna. Magna is the newest player in the game, joining in 2009 when GM's financial problems of the late 2000s forced them to sell a number of assets, and Magna dug deep, got help from Canadian banks and the Canadian government and went for it, buying Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Hummer, Vauxhall and Saab, in the last case effectively splitting GM Europe into half, with GM keeping Opel, Lotus (bought in 1987) and Alfa Romeo (which they own as part of a deal with Fiat in the early 2000s) while selling Vauxhall, Saab and most of the British, Dutch, French and Spanish GM operations to Magna. As Magna is working hard at developing new cars to replace the platforms they have a license to produce from GM, they don't have any real motorsports efforts yet, aside from the Pontiac GTO in NASCAR.

American Motors is joined at the hip with Renault, the French automaker having bought a 46% interest in AMC in 1980. The result of this was platform and operations sharing between them, and Renault's use of AMC dealers and making cars in North America saw them do far better than OTL, and the selling of the Espace minivan in North America starting in 1984 did them even better. AMC stockholders bought a sizable chunk of Renault as it was privatized in the mid-1990s, and the two companies between them bought into Nissan in 1999, and the whole alliance is known as Renault-Nissan-American Motors Inc., incorporated in the United States in 2002 and based in the American Motors Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the Sears Tower. AMC is number four in the North American market, but its a strong number four, and nearly all North American AMC dealers also deal in Renault products, and a growing number of them also deal in Nissan cars and trucks.

Chrysler saw what AMC did and wanted to rebuild its worldwide operations after its near-death experience in 1981, and in 1985 they did a deal with Peugeot-Citroen, which was doing well in Europe and much of the developing world but faltering in North America. The Chrysler alliance fixed that, and allowed Chrysler to ultimately switch its Japanese partnership from Mitsubishi to Subaru, which Chrysler bought a controlling interest in in 1997. The Chrysler-PSA deal is not the heavy merger of companies that AMC-Renault-Nissan was, but its still a lucrative deal, and both companies have plenty of transatlantic connections. There is a reason Air France flies direct from Chicago and Detroit to Paris, after all. It's also why Chrysler's awesome Patriot series of Le Mans racers race just at Le Mans and in the Western Hemisphere and why Peugeot isn't in Formula One, not steeping on each other's toes. Chrysler also owns electronics maker Nortel Networks and railroad equipment builder American Locomotive Company, and sizable chunks of defense contractor General Dynamics and steelmaker Bethlehem Steel.

GM re-organized in the late 2000s, shedding car brands and some subsidiaries, including half of its locomotive and heavy truck businesses to Caterpillar (The locomotive business half of this was sold on to Bombardier in 2011) and the Magna selloff, as well as its financial division was spun off as a separate company in 2010. Despite the reorganization, GM is still by some margin the world's largest automaker, and holds about 35% of the US auto market. Ford's share in North America is smaller (about 16%), but it has a massive international presence, particularly in Europe, Latin America and Africa, and as a result the gap between Ford and GM is smaller than it at first appears.

Beyond the big five, there are numerous specialty car makers. The largest of these are electric-car maker Tesla (based in Fremont, CA), hybrid luxury sedan builder Fisker (Wilmington, DE) and several sports car makers, with the larger ones being DeLorean (Lordstown, OH), Panoz (Braselton, GA), Saleen (Irvine, CA), Vector (Oakland, CA), Shelby American (Henderson, NV) and SSC (Kent, WA). Tesla's efforts have been the most successful, the company having sold over 50,000 cars since its 2006 first car, while Fisker has produced over 16,000 Karma and Atlantic sedans since 2008. Of the sports car makers, DeLorean, in business since 1981, produced over 130,000 examples of the DMC-12 between 1981 and 1989, the stainless steel-bodied machine made famous by Hollywood time travel movie Back To The Future in 1985, before introducing first the M15 and Infernus sports cars in 1990 and 1991, those lasting until the introduction of the Alpha and Turismo in 1996 and 1997. The Shelby Series 1 returned Shelby to the car business in 1999, with 8,700 Series 1s built between 1999 and 2008, when the Series II (an entirely new car) was introduced.

 

[HesitatedEye]

Found this by chance and I love it how did Lewis Hamilton's career develop in this timeline I mean without him driving for McLaren I assume Sir Jackie and Jeff Gordon saw the talent? Also what does Senna think of him?

 

[TheMann]

Found this by chance and I love it how did Lewis Hamilton's career develop in this timeline I mean without him driving for McLaren I assume Sir Jackie and Jeff Gordon saw the talent? Also what does Senna think of him?

Lewis Hamilton's story wasn't terribly different from OTL, but it was Jeff Gordon he ran into at a karting competition at the age of nine. Jeff was the reigning British F3 champ at the time, having been taken under Jackie Stewart's wing, and he wanted an autograph, saying "One day I want to be your teammate, Mister Gordon." Gordon wrote in his autograph book "See you on the track, Lewis." Twelve and a half years later, that actually happened, but not before Lewis blew through first British then European karting ranks, because the youngest-ever class winner at Le Mans in 2002 (at age 17) and tearing up the lower levels of single-seater racing, a stint in Indy Lights in America (funded by Gordon and Lewis winning four times, as well as meeting his future wife) and GP2. He and Gordon went to Indianapolis in 2006 with Stewart/Tyrrell's Indycar effort, and Lewis scored a spectacular win in the Indy 500, becoming the youngest-ever winner of the Indy 500 at age 21 and becoming the third rookie to win the 500 following Joie Ray in 1955 and Tim Richmond in 1980. That made sure he was known when he took a Formula One seat for 2007.

Stewart/Tyrrell for the 2007 to the end of 2012 was Jeff Gordon in one car and Lewis Hamilton in each other, and as with Gordon he took in lots of other kinds of racing, quite openly encouraged by Jackie Stewart. Lewis' CV includes racing with Gordon outside of Formula One, including nearly winning the 2010 Bathurst 1000 and multiple great runs in sports car racing all over the world. A hero on both sides of the Atlantic, he married Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger in May 2012, became Sir Lewis eight months later, and a father in April 2013. Any time Lewis and Nicole can make an appearance together, they do, and Nicole is gonna take the wheel of a racing car for the first time at the Honda Pro/Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

In modern times, if Lewis is not at a racetrack somewhere, one can most of the time find him either at his homes in London, Monaco or Los Angeles, at a football game somewhere, with Nicole or any combination of the above. Most who know him well say that being a married man has made him a better man outside of the race car, though he's just as dangerous as ever behind the wheel.

 

[mike robers]

Good to see you updating this thread my man! Keep on truckin'

 

[TheMann]

Good to see you updating this thread my man! Keep on truckin'

Been kinda slow at this because of everything else in life, but I haven't left it behind.

 

[TheMann]

Repsol Gran Premio de Argentina

Round Four of the Formula One World Championship for 2014
Lago Potrero de los Funes Circuit, San Luis, Argentina

When one envisions Grand Prix racing, a lot of images pop into one's mind, but the largest ones are the scenes of awesome grand prix cars, drivers of incredible skill, the teams of dedicated and talented mechanics and personnel, and the entourage of the series, meeting up to do battle in beautiful surroundings, watching by tens of thousands of enthusiastic fans at a beautiful facility, the fans loudly cheering their favorite racers.

And at Round Four of the World Championship, that's exactly what everyone got.

As with Barcelona, Montreal, New York, Melbourne and Singapore, The Lago Potrero de los Funes Circuit is a semi-street circuit, equipped with over six miles of SAFER barriers and extensive runoffs, but when not raced on used for civilian purposes. Surrounded by expensive homes in one of Argentina's most affluent areas in recent times, the circuit has been since its replacing of Buenos Aires on the calendar in 2011 a source of praise among the calendar, both for its surroundings and the track itself, known to be very fast and technical in equal measures, is well-liked by F1 drivers.

After poor showings in the first few races, Jordan came to the two South American rounds with a point to prove. The cars had been fast all year but horribly lacking reliability, with Jordan having legitimate contenders particularly in Lotus, Stewart/Tyrrell and Prodrive, and the rest of the front half of the field behind them also aiming to show that they were capable of results. Sebastien Vettel easily paced the first two sections with his teammate, but there was controversy in Friday's timed section, when the stewards alleged that the team ordered Vettel's teammate, Australian Will Power, to back off and let Vettel pace the session, though it appears that Power did not do that, as he wound up being second-quickest in the session. On the opposite end in qualifying was Autobacs Honda, whose drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Nelson Piquet Jr. between them blew two engines in practice, and to Honda's immense embarassment, Piquet blew another in qualifying and Kobayashi was unable to set a proper fast lap because of engine issues, forcing both out of the event before it even started.

Qualifying One on Saturday morning opened with madness and ended with a stunning person up top. The madness began when moments into the session Kobayashi's engine trouble caused a blocked lap for Status Grand Prix's Luis Felipe Nasr, who on his second attempt at a flying lap saw the car lose drive on his second flying lap at Turn Seven. After nursing it back to the pits, an enraged Nasr climbed out of his car, stormed into the pit of teammate Danica Patrick and smacked her in the head with his helmet before being confronted by team boss Dave Kennedy and Karl Schwering, the head of Danica's crew. Nasr spit in Kennedy's face and got into a fistfight with Schwering, which forced the team to break it up as Danica went out for her attempt at qualifying. Fight broken up, Nasr stormed out of the circuit, stopping to growl at an Argentinian TV crew in Spanish that the team didn't give a damn about him because Danica was sleeping with the team bosses and that "that dumb bitch Danica and that Spanish whore de Villiota shouldn't be in the sport" and that "they are nothing but eye candy and the objects of the fantasies of lesser men than those who race Grand Prix cars". The Argentinian TV crew broadcasted that live, forcing a response from Kennedy and co-team bosses Larry Holt and Mark Gallagher and a later response from de Villiota. Danica, however, made a point by beating her best practice lap by over seven tenths of a second.

The fastest lap in Q1 was for most of the session held by Vettel, only for Felipe Massa to top it with twenty minutes to go, Lewis Hamilton beating Massa's mark (by .0006 of a second, no less) with five minutes to go and then Valtteri Bottas beating it on the very last lap of the session. The DNQs of Piquet and Nasr, followed by Kobayashi's inability to set a real lap, resulted in just one car, the Marussia of Adrian Sutil, not qualifying for the event....but later in the evening, the organizers announced that Sutil, who missed qualifying by .072 of a second, would be allowed to start, much to the happiness of the Marussia crew who as a result would see both cars in the race for the first time in the season.

Q2 to determine the front twelve was insanity itself. The front twelve - Bottas, Hamilton, Massa, Vettel, Montoya, Power, Busch, Schekter, Button, Raikkonen, Alonso and Hinchcliffe - would end up separated after the thirty-minute session by just 1.176 seconds. Montoya put down the first marker in his Ferrari, while the hard-driving Schekter put down a marker good enough for third (which would be seventh) and then beached it in Turn 11. Vettel and Bottas traded first place three times, Hamilton got his first pole of the season by just .059 of a second over Vettel with a flyer with six minutes to go in the session. The Mclarens would start from row two and the Ferraris from row three, with Montoya just outqualifying Massa and Ferrari team boss Stefan Bellof confirming to a TV crew that Ferrari would not have team orders. The entire field found itself separated by just 4.338 seconds from polesitter Hamilton to thirty-seventh place starter Sutil, a remarkable result on the 3.85-mile Argentinian circuit.

Grid

Row 1
#7 Lewis Hamilton (Stewart-Tyrrell/Ford/Goodyear)
#1 Sebastien Vettel (Jordan/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
Row 2
#20 Valtteri Bottas (McLaren/Chrysler/Bridgestone)
#21 Kyle Busch (McLaren/Chrysler/Bridgestone)
Row 3
#12 Juan Pablo Montoya (Ferrari/Ferrari/Bridgestone)
#11 Felipe Massa (Ferrari/Ferrari/Bridgestone)
Row 4
#4 Tomas Schekter (Prodrive/Toyota/Michelin)
#5 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 5
#9 Fernando Alonso (Prost/Renault/Michelin)
#8 James Hinchcliffe (Stewart-Tyrrell/Ford/Goodyear)
Row 6
#2 Will Power (Jordan/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
#3 Jenson Button (Prodrive/Toyota/Michelin)
Row 7
#14 Mark Webber (Brabham/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
#6 Alexander Rossi (Lotus/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 8
#19 Ryan Hunter-Reay (Williams/BMW/Michelin)
#10 Sebastien Bourdais (Prost/Renault/Michelin)
Row 9
#24 Marco Andretti (Vector/Ilmor-Vector/Goodyear)
#15 Brendon Hartley (Brabham/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 10
#27 Nick Heidfeld (Arrows/Yamaha/Michelin)
#18 Vitaly Petrov (Williams/BMW/Michelin)
Row 11
#25 Katherine Legge (Vector/Ilmor-Vector/Goodyear)
#31 Simona de Silvestro (Reynard/Proton-Asiatech/Michelin)
Row 12
#23 Bruno Senna (Sauber/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
#29 Dane Cameron (Force India/Ford/Bridgestone)
Row 13
#26 Robert Kubica (Arrows/Yamaha/Michelin)
#33 Robert Doornbos (Minardi/Chrysler/Michelin)
Row 14
#22 Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
#36 Nicolas Prost (Rebellion/Toyota/Michelin)
Row 15
#30 Heikki Kovalainen (Reynard/Proton-Asiatech/Michelin)
#41 Danica Patrick (Status/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 16
#37 Kyle Marcelli (Rebellion/Toyota/Michelin)
#28 Karun Chandhok (Force India/Ford/Bridgestone)
Row 17
#39 Jamie Alguersari (Piquet/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
#34 Maria de Villiota (Marussia/Renault/Michelin)
Row 18
#32 Dan Wheldon (Minardi/Chrysler/Michelin)
#38 Tony Kanaan (Piquet/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
Row 19
#35 Adrian Sutil (Marussia/Renault/Michelin)

Race day opened warm and slightly cooler than normal, but the temperature rose during the day, a problem for the teams with naturally-aspirated engines - the track, with its near three thousand feet of altitude, was close enough during the cooler qualifying, but the heat would be a problem for the Ferrari, Toyota and Vector engines, causing them to lose power in the heat, though as Marco Andretti and Tomas Schekter had battled through it in the much-higher altitude and heat of Kyalami, the teams with naturally-aspirated engines were not panicking.

All 37 cars made it through the first four laps, though the first to fall off was Karun Chandhok, who simply got on it too hard on the exit of Turn 11, got crossed up on the exit and thumped the inside wall trying to catch the tankslapper. Despite his whoopsie, he got the car safely off the track on the runoff on the outside of Turn 13 and well out of harms way, and a six-minute Code 60 yellow flag was sufficient for crews to get debris off the track. By one-third distance, the heat was up substantially, and track temperatures were rising, helping cornering ability but hurting engine power, particularly for the Ferraris, who fell back as the heat and the high speeds caused them to have to conserve their engines and play a waiting game, also changing tactics to get better fuel efficiency.

There was no such tactics up front. Hamilton got away first, but Vettel got the lead on Lap 10 and then took off, leaving Lewis to deal with the McLarens, both of which got onto the bumper of the Stewart-Tyrrell and didn't let go. But as the heat effected the Ferraris, it began to be clear that the BMWs in the back of the Williams racers thrived in the heat, but that was doubly so for the biofuel-powered Reynards. Heikki Hovalainen's handling problems were keeping him from moving up the order, but Simona de Silvestro was having the drive of her life, moving up the order steadily but quickly. Despite his best efforts, Raikkonen couldn't keep up with the front four after the Ferraris fell back some, having to content himself with fifth, though James Hinchcliffe, having audaciously dispensed with Alonso on the outside of Turn 10 and then forcing his way past Schekter on the approach to Turn 16, was intent on looking for a way past the Lotus-driving Finn.

The first pit stops changed the order further, as Hamilton got his lead back when Vettel got caught up slightly as he pitted behind Brendon Hartley and was slower on the exit. Busch pitted earlier than Bottas to allow his Finnish teammate to get the advantage of a less congested pit stop, a favor Bottas returned when he helped Busch by forcing Nick Heidfeld slightly off line in Turn 17 to allow the American past, a move that the Arrows driver was not impressed by to say the least, particularly as he hadn't pitted yet and was planning to on that lap. Behind them, Simona was up to eighth after starting 22nd, chasing the pack of Raikkonen, Hinchcliffe and Alonso with the Williams of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Vitaly Petrov in pursuit, the three of them forcing first the Ferraris and then Schekter's Prodrive-Toyota further down the order. Hamilton and Vettel turned the wick up to 11, leaving the more-conservative McLarens, who by then had a lead on Raikkonen and the pack behind.

The first full-course caution flag came out when a blown rear tire in Turn 8 sent Alexander Rossi sideways into the fence, and he collected a luckless Bruno Senna as Senna and Dane Cameron dove around him, Senna going to the right and just getting clipped, while Cameron slowed and got around both. The yellow came just as the second pitstops were coming, with the distance being marginal for the teams to make the distance....but everyone in contention tried anyways, with Vettel this time winning the battle off of pit road and Bottas grabbing second by getting out faster than Hamilton. Hinchcliffe, who had spent fifteen laps trying to get past Raikkonen on the track managed to get him in the pits, while Schekter, Massa, Montoya and the Vector of Marco Andretti stayed out, getting the lead back and figuring that the thirsty turbos wouldn't make the distance without a splash and dash.

If the teams were close, it didn't show on the restart. Bottas' second placed lasted to Turn 9 before Hamilton took his place behind Vettel back, and while Schekter and Massa played it safe on fuel and were more careful, Montoya stood on it and found himself, much to his surprise, unable to shake Marco Andretti, having a determined drive in his Vector. Knowing fuel was an issue, the turbo pack led by Vettel did not attempt to seriously chase Montoya and Andretti, though they quickly caught and passed Schekter and Massa and kept the charging Colombian and the young American in sight.

The two leaders held out late, both diving for the pits with twelve to go and Andretti sixteen seconds clear of third-placed Vettel, both taking as little fuel as possible and returning to the race behind the second turbo pack. now led by Hinchcliffe with Raikkonen behind him and de Silvestro behind those two. Vettel returned to lead, but with Hamilton on top of him and the McLarens menacingly close. As the laps wound down, it looked like it would be touch and go for the leaders.

Hinchcliffe, Raikkonen and the pack behind them chickened out on fumes with four to go and pitted as a group, the two leading in de Silvestro, Petrov, Power, Alonso and Bourdais, causing a mild pandemonium in the pits as fast reactions by Petrov stopped him from getting into Bourdais as he dove for his pit. But in an act of daring, the front five - Vettel, Hamilton, Bottas, Busch and Hunter-Reay - stayed out, playing chicken with their fuel gauges as well as the other drivers, with Montoya and Andretti now with their crews praying for run outs that, unfortunately for them, never came.

The last lap began with Vettel mere car length ahead of Hamilton, who had a second and a half on Bottas, the Finn with his teammate tucked under his wing and the Williams racer eight seconds behind that, but with a rapidly-closing Montoya and Andretti close enough to smell blood. Not willing to toss away a race after his failures in previous rounds, Vettel carefully ran the last lap, Hamilton also paying more attention to his fuel gauge than anything else. But as the teams got around the lap, Busch first got the burp of fuel starvation, followed by Bottas a moment later as they rounded Turn 11. Both shifted up to get their cars home, but Hunter-Reay caught and passed both as they crawled through the slow Turn 13-14-15-16 complex. Hamilton also had the burp as that happened, but Vettel didn't. Sebastien got to the line first, and although he ran out on the cool down lap, he didn't care a lick about that.

Hunter-Reay managed to get past the McLarens for the podium, but Hamilton coasted past in second and despite his hard-charging best efforts, Montoya was not close enough to pass wither Bottas or Busch and settled for sixth, with Andretti seventh. After charging from 22nd and getting lucky on the last pit stops, Simona de Silvestro brought her Reynard home eighth, with Hinchcliffe and Raikkonen rounding out the top ten and Will Power and Sebastien Bourdais rounding out the points.

Result

1st: Sebastien Vettel (#1 Jordan-Mercedes) 53 Laps
2nd: Lewis Hamilton (#7 Stewart/Tyrrell-Ford) +5.122s
3rd: Ryan Hunter-Reay (#19 Williams-BMW) +6.545s

4th: Valtteri Bottas (#20 McLaren-Chrysler) +10.042s
5th: Kyle Busch (#21 McLaren-Chrysler) +10.867s
6th: Juan Pablo Montoya (#11 Ferrari) +11.258s
7th: Marco Andretti (#24 Vector-Ilmor/Vector) +16.310s
8th: Simona de Silvestro (#31 Reynard-Proton/Asiatech) +24.974s
9th: James Hinchcliffe (#8 Stewart/Tyrrell-Ford) +28.106s
10th: Kimi Raikkonen (#5 Lotus-Chevrolet) +28.633s
11th: Will Power (#2 Jordan-Mercedes) +31.741s
12th: Sebastien Bourdais (#10 Prost EuroFrance-Renault) +33.008s

Pole: Lewis Hamilton (#7 Stewart/Tyrrell-Ford)
Fastest Lap: Simona de Silvestro (#31 Reynard-Proton/Asiatech)

Driver Points

69 Lewis Hamilton GBR
65 Kyle Busch USA
53 Tomas Schekter RSA
50 Kimi Raikkonen FIN
45 Fernando Alonso ESP
44 Ryan Hunter-Reay USA
43 Alexander Rossi USA
43 James Hinchcliffe CDN
40 Sebastien Vettel GER
40 Mark Webber AUS
37 Juan Pablo Montoya COL
33 Valtteri Bottas FIN
24 Jenson Button GBR
19 Brendon Hartley NZL
17 Marco Andretti USA
15 Vitaly Petrov RUS
15 Sebastien Bourdais FRA
10 Simona de Silvestro SWI
6 Felipe Massa BRA
6 Kamui Kobayashi JPN
5 Will Power AUS

Constructor's Points

112 Stewart/Tyrrell Grand Prix Engineering
98 McLaren Race Engineering
93 Team Lotus
77 Prodrive Grand Prix Engineering
60 Team Prost EuroFrance
59 Williams Grand Prix Engineering
59 Brabham Motor Racing Developments
45 Jordan Mercedes Grand Prix Team
43 Scuderia Ferrari
17 Vector USF1 Automotive Technologies
10 Reynard Motorsport
6 Autobacs Honda Formula One

Reactions

"It feels great to finally get one after all the problems we had in South Africa and Iran. I will also say that Lewis and Valtteri and Kyle, they made me work hard to win this one, and that just makes me more proud of everybody here at Jordan. I hope they don't feel bad about the race, because luck worked for us, and they'll have their day, I'm sure."
-- Sebastien Vettel

"I thought I could have him, but I ran out of fuel. I knew that could happen, I'm just glad it happened on the final lap, so that I could short-shift it to the finish line. That's a little too close for my nerves, thank you, but I got the second place. It's also good to see Sebastien back on form after what happened in the last couple races. Between him and Kyle and Tomas and the others, now the championship is really gonna begin."
-- Lewis Hamilton

"You know what the worst part for me is? The crew looked at the car after the race and said there was a couple gallons left in it. I think Karen is gonna set a record in the number of times one can apologize to another person for the same thing at this rate."
-- Ryan Hunter-Reay

"One More Lap and I'd have had all of them, every one of them! Well, I guess now I know how to win races like this one. Get lucky. I'm still very happy for the race here, especially since the heat made us slow down, the last thing I or Felipe needed was a blown engine today, and we got a good result out of it."
-- Juan Pablo Montoya

"I must admit I'm a little shell-shocked by what happened in qualifying yesterday, but it still felt great to get out there and race in the Grand Prix for real. It felt wonderful, and the team was the best they could be. I'm not sorry for this being our first start, I'm just hoping it will not by any means be the last."
-- Danica Patrick

"Kyle's been a good teammate, and I like him. We're a good pair, the two of us, we both know how to race and race well. Yeah, he's a little nuts, but that's why we like him here. Things are always exciting. As for him being a tin-top driver before this, what of it? It's not like he's not beating just about everyone else out there. We're gonna take these cars to wins, I'm sure of it."
-- Valtteri Bottas

"I was kinda hoping Valtteri would get the podium there after I got mine in South Africa, but Ryan was too close today, I guess. But we're doing really well by always being at the front, and you know what one of the things I learned in stock cars was? If you're close to the front, you can win if somebody makes a mistake or you can beat them."
-- Kyle Busch

"Sooner or later people are gonna realize that Americans can be just as good as anyone in Grand Prix Racing. Jeff should have taught them that, but old habits die hard, I guess. Kyle is one of the best there is, and McLaren is really on form this year, and I look forward to seeing him win a race or two this year."
-- Damon Hill, CEO of Formula One Management

 

[mike robers]

Well, that's a good way for Nasr to get thrown out of the sport! Imagine if someone did that in real life! Loving the race recaps! Keep them coming!

 

[TheMann]

Well, that's a good way for Nasr to get thrown out of the sport! Imagine if someone did that in real life!

I don't think anyone has ever spit in anyone's face in real life, but there have been more than a few cases of guys giving up and walking away, some guys did it more than once. Nasr probably won't have another F1 drive any time soon, but there will undoubtedly be people who believe that Danica is given preferential treatment at Status GP and Nasr is too talented to not find a ride somewhere.

Loving the race recaps! Keep them coming!

I'll be going for F1 all season, sports cars for the big events and Indycars when I can. Enjoy.

 

[FickleCrossroad]

I don't think anyone has ever spit in anyone's face in real life, but there have been more than a few cases of guys giving up and walking away, some guys did it more than once. Nasr probably won't have another F1 drive any time soon, but there will undoubtedly be people who believe that Danica is given preferential treatment at Status GP and Nasr is too talented to not find a ride somewhere.



I'll be going for F1 all season, sports cars for the big events and Indycars when I can. Enjoy.

Well, there IS Paul Tracy, and Mansell v. Senna back in the 80's. Funny, I haven't been updating TMfSP because I realized you were doing something right with broader brushstrokes on the race-by-race, and have been recalibrating, and now you're doing the nitty gritty better than I have. I raise my glass to you, good sir, and ask, what do you have planned for my favorite current F1 driver? (Sergio Perez, the first North American since who, Scott Speed?)

 

[TheMann]

Well, there IS Paul Tracy, and Mansell v. Senna back in the 80's. Funny, I haven't been updating TMfSP because I realized you were doing something right with broader brushstrokes on the race-by-race, and have been recalibrating, and now you're doing the nitty gritty better than I have. I raise my glass to you, good sir, and ask, what do you have planned for my favorite current F1 driver? (Sergio Perez, the first North American since who, Scott Speed?)

I'm not quite sure what to do with Mr. Perez. He's too talented to not be a top racer somewhere, I'm just not sure where yet. Maybe takes over for somebody not performing as well as their team had hoped for mid-season, maybe?

 

[TheMann]

Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil

Round Five of the Formula One World Championship for 2014
Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, Cidade Dutra, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Coming just one week after the highly-competitive and fast-paced race in Argentina came round five of the 2014 F1 season, hosted by the Autodromo Juan Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Back hosting the Grand Prix after a $37 million upgrade to the facility - the fourth such update in a quarter century, which says much about the wish of the track to host the Brazilian Grand Prix - and happening after the wild weekend in Argentina, The Brazilians and indeed much of F1 management was expecting a race that was not as racked by emotion, luck and stirring driving as what happened at Potrero de los Funes.

It didn't turn out like that. At all.

Signs of problems to come came on Wednesday and thursday. The heaviest rain fall seen by the city in months came and went, drenching the teams participating and making conditions at the circuit tricky to say the least, and the heavy rain clearing the circuit of rubber didn't help matters. Michelin's excellent rain tires helped make sure their guys were the fastest in early practice sessions, a fact that Jenson Button and Tomas Schekter's Prodrives took full advantage of, combined with naturally-aspirated throttle response. The flipside of that coin was Renault, which after being down on power in Argentina brought new turbos and ECUs for their engines, having flown the prototype units down from France specifically to get them to get Prost and Marussia back on pace in terms of power. The test was a mixed bag - the variable geometry turbos used by Renault helped their racers' mid-range torque numbers, and the Michelin-shod Prost cars did well in practice, but Maria de Villiota blew her Renault engine up in practice.

Pre-qualifying to narrow the thirty-nine car field (Status only entered one car at Interlagos, and nobody in the F1 paddock gave them grief for it after Nasr's outburst in Argentina), began on Friday morning. De Villiota's crew got her car repaired quickly and the Spanish racer gave it a wonderful shot, but Interlagos' 30 grid spaces meant that nine cars would be going home, forcing the teams with no points - Sauber, Arrows, Force India, Minardi, Marussia, Rebellion, Piquet and Status - to go spot chasing. Sauber's Bruno Senna and Esteban Gutierrez easily made into the field, while local hero Tony Kanaan made it four Brazilians in the race by ripping off a fast enough lap to put his car fifth in pre-qualifying, one position up of where he needed to be to start the race. Danica Patrick's flying attempt at making the race ended on her second flyer when she lost it in the tricky Turn 6/7 complex and buried it in the tire wall, and moments later Kyle Marcelli looped it and stalled trying to get a fast run out of Juncao. In the end, the Saubers of Senna and Gutierrez, the Arrows of Heidfeld and Kubica, Kanaan's Piquet and Dane Cameron's Force India made the race with the twenty-four others in by virtue of their teams having scored points in the season so far.

Sun shined brightly on Q1 and the temperature was not, a fact that did not benefit naturally-aspirated power or the teams of Bridgestone rubber, as 32 C heat (and a track temperature of 53 C) caused some issues for the crews on Bridgestone tires. The front twelve after qualifying - separated by just over a second - was led by Lewis Hamilton, though Sebastien Vettel and Will Power clearly wanted to make sure the others knew that Jordan's great win in Argentina was no fluke. Kyle Busch also rose above the tire issues, but not before the heat caused his right-rear to blow out spectacularly in Q1, causing extensive rear suspension damage and forcing him to the back of Q2. Kimi Raikkonen ultimately ended up with the pole, though he had Power next to him and Hamilton and Vettel on the second row, surely not a comfortable spot for even the hard-charging Finn. Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Bourdais started fifth and eighth, respectively, with Hinchcliffe's Stewart-Tyrrell and Massa's Ferrari between the two, while the McLarens had to be content with starting tenth (Bottas) and twelfth (Busch).

Grid

Row 1
#5 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
#2 Will Power (Jordan/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
Row 2
#7 Lewis Hamilton (Stewart-Tyrrell/Ford/Goodyear)
#1 Sebastien Vettel (Jordan/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
Row 3
#9 Fernando Alonso (Prost/Renault/Michelin)
#8 James Hinchcliffe (Stewart-Tyrrell/Ford/Goodyear)
Row 4
#11 Felipe Massa (Ferrari/Ferrari/Bridgestone)
#10 Sebastien Bourdais (Prost/Renault/Michelin)
Row 5
#4 Tomas Schekter (Prodrive/Toyota/Michelin)
#20 Valtteri Bottas (McLaren/Chrysler/Bridgestone)
Row 6
#3 Jenson Button (Prodrive/Toyota/Michelin)
#21 Kyle Busch (McLaren/Chrysler/Bridgestone)
Row 7
#19 Ryan Hunter-Reay (Williams/BMW/Michelin)
#6 Alexander Rossi (Lotus/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 8
#15 Brendon Hartley (Brabham/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
#17 Nelson Piquet Jr. (Autobacs/Honda/Yokohama)
Row 9
#18 Vitaly Petrov (Williams/BMW/Michelin)
#24 Marco Andretti (Vector/Ilmor-Vector/Goodyear)
Row 10
#12 Juan Pablo Montoya (Ferrari/Ferrari/Bridgestone)
#14 Mark Webber (Brabham/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 11
#25 Katherine Legge (Vector/Ilmor-Vector/Goodyear)
#16 Kamui Kobayashi (Autobacs/Honda/Yokohama)
Row 12
#23 Bruno Senna (Sauber/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
#27 Nick Heidfeld (Arrows/Yamaha/Michelin)
Row 13
#26 Robert Kubica (Arrows/Yamaha/Michelin)
#22 Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
Row 14
#31 Simona de Silvestro (Reynard/Proton-Asiatech/Michelin)
#30 Heikki Kovalainen (Reynard/Proton-Asiatech/Michelin)
Row 15
#38 Tony Kanaan (Piquet/Mercedes/Bridgestone)
#29 Dane Cameron (Force India/Ford/Bridgestone)

The race day dawned much the same, hot and sticky from the precipitation earlier, with the humidity making cooling easier for the cars but making the track, already fairly lacking in rubber despite GP2 and Brazilian GT and stock car races the day before and the morning of the event. Several drivers said that the track felt greasy, and yet again the turbos had the edge with the weather conditions, though it was less pronounced than in Argentina. Dark clouds in the distance and forecastors talking of a chance of rain in the afternoon made sure everyone had rain tires on hand.

Robert Kubica's day started badly as his Arrows refused to get a gear trying to get out of pit lane. A piece of debris in a hydraulic line was found to be the cause and Kubica started the race from pit lane, not a real big loss considering he had qualified 25th. The McLarens and Hinchcliffe's Stewart-Tyrrell notably didn't do a huge amount of tire warming before the race start, but the reasoning became obvious at the start when all three cars left with copious wheelspin and turbo engines wailing away, the crowd rather liking the spectacle that resulted. Power got the jump on Raikkonen at the lights and led onto the Reta Oposta for the first time, but the dark green Lotus stayed attached to Power's rear wing, though the two were unable to put much ground between them and Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso - Michelin grip helping Alonso, Mercedes horsepower in Vettel's corner and a typically-excellent Stewart/Tyrrell chassis working for Lewis. The three of them quickly pulled away from the chasing pack of Bourdais, Schekter, Hinchcliffe, Massa, Montoya and Busch. Steadily-increasing humidity was a sign of two potential problems, one of the weather and the other of reliability, but in the latter case, all thirty starters made it to the first pitstops without any real incidents, but such was the pace that the racers had lapped up to sixteenth-placed Andretti by then.

Pit stops went as normal, with the only miscue involving Bottas and de Silverstro, Simona having to make a nice dodge after Bottas roared out of the pits in front of her, forcing the Reynard driver to miss the McLaren and leaving BBC/NBC Sports F1 TV commentator Allan McNish to comment "I hope Valtteri has an apology waiting for that one." (He did.) A slow out lap by Raikkonen put Alonso between him and Power, and Fernando was in no mood to give anything to his old Finnish nemesis. The first caution came on Lap 34, that the result of a fire erupting from under the back of Brendon Hartley's Brabham after the engine died in Turn 13. Alonso misjudged Raikkonen's aggressive restart after the yellow and the two went through the first three corners on Lap 37 wheel to wheel, with Vettel and Hamilton watching, surely hoping those two would take each other out. They didn't, of course, and as they scrapped Power took off into a big lead, looking like he would win the race easily.

He wasn't quite that lucky.

On lap 56, Power came upon the lap cars of Legge and Webber, themselves dicing for fifteenth position at that point, two laps down, and Katherine had the misfortune of moving left to get a run on Webber as they came to Turn 10, and Power was forced off onto the outside pavement to miss, where he spun his car. Will kept it running, but he needed to pit for new tires and fell back to sixth in the process, handing the lead to Alonso, who had it for two laps before Raikkonen outbraked him into Turn Four. Alonso and Raikkonen traded positions three times between lap 56 and Lap 67, with Alonso in the lead when the dark skies opened - and all hell broke loose.

The thunderstorm announced its arrival with a bolt of lightning hitting a tree outside the circuit that everyone in the stands saw, and a deluge of rain that soaked the circuit in a matter of moments. With everyone on slicks, the track became as slick as wet skating rink and worse, the deluge happened as the lead pack was between the start/finish line and Turn five. Both Alonso and Raikkonen slowed down a lot, but both badly misjudged the track condition at Turn six and both wound up in the fence, their days over. Vettel made it through only to do two complete 360s when he tried to get on the throttle at Turn 10, and Hamilton did a half-spin at Turn 12 for the same reason. Of the 25 cars on track at that point, all but two had an off or a spin, and everyone struggled to get back to the pits. Making matters more confusing still, Alain Prost and Dany Bahar quickly tried to get the race called before anybody made it to the pits to change tires, an urgency for the latter made worse when Rossi spun off in Turn 12 and stalled. Schekter, Bourdais, Massa and Hinchcliffe got to the pits first, but the situation got worse when Bottas locked up his rear brakes trying to slow for the pit entrance and knocked the right-rear corner of his McLaren off on the end of the pit wall, followed by Kanaan driving through the debris and cutting down both front tires. Kanaan avoiding causing a red flag by getting his crippled Piquet sorta into this pit box, where the crew pushed it out of harm's way. Unbelievably, despite chaos on the track, Montoya kept his Ferrari out for one more lap, a move imitated by Petrov, Busch, Senna and Kobayashi, all five figuring that the race may be red-flagged while they were still out there.

Their prayers were answered by Gutierrez, who after getting his wet tires dropped the hammer coming out of the pit lane, but promptly spun in the exit of pit lane and stalled, blocking the pit exit. With Bottas' debris in the pit entry and the Sauber stuck in pit lane, the red flag was thrown two-thirds of the way through lap 69, with Montoya in the lead with fifteen seconds on Vitaly Petrov, who in turn had six seconds over Bruno Senna and seventeen over Kyle Busch, with Kobayashi by then mere seconds ahead of an angry-and-charging Sebastien Bourdais. Tomas Schekter was classified seventh, James Hinchcliffe eighth, Felipe Massa ninth and Sebastien Vettel tenth, with the final points going to Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber.

Result

1st: Juan Pablo Montoya (#12 Ferrari) 69 laps
2nd: Vitaly Petrov (#18 Williams-BMW) + 15.322s
3rd: Bruno Senna (#22 Sauber-Mercedes) + 21.705s

4th: Kyle Busch (#21 McLaren-Chrysler) + 32.651s
5th: Kamui Kobayashi (#16 Autobacs-Honda) + 42.102s
6th: Sebastien Bourdais (#10 Prost EuroFrance-Renault) + 44.605s
7th: Tomas Schekter (#4 Prodrive-Toyota) + 48.883s
8th: James Hinchcliffe (#8 Stewart/Tyrrell-Ford) +50.654s
9th: Felipe Massa (#11 Ferrari) +53.742s
10th: Sebastien Vettel (#1 Jordan-Mercedes) +1:02.148
11th: Lewis Hamilton (#7 Stewart/Tyrrell-Ford) +1:06.322
12th: Mark Webber (#14 Brabham-Chevrolet) +1 Lap

Pole: Kimi Raikkonen (#5 Lotus-Chevrolet)
Fastest Lap: Will Power (#2 Jordan-Mercedes)

Driver Points

83 Kyle Busch USA
72 Juan Pablo Montoya COL
71 Lewis Hamilton GBR
63 Tomas Schekter RSA
53 Kimi Raikkonen FIN
51 James Hinchcliffe CDN
45 Vitaly Petrov RUS
45 Fernando Alonso ESP
44 Sebastien Vettel GER
44 Ryan Hunter-Reay USA
43 Alexander Rossi USA
41 Mark Webber AUS
33 Valtteri Bottas FIN
27 Sebastien Bourdais FRA
24 Bruno Senna BRA
24 Jenson Button GBR
21 Kamui Kobayashi JPN
19 Brendon Hartley NZL
17 Marco Andretti USA
12 Felipe Massa BRA
10 Simona de Silvestro SWI
6 Will Power AUS

Constructor's Points

122 Stewart/Tyrrell Grand Prix Engineering
116 McLaren Race Engineering
96 Team Lotus
89 Williams Grand Prix Engineering
87 Prodrive Grand Prix Engineering
84 Scuderia Ferrari
72 Team Prost EuroFrance
60 Brabham Motor Racing Developments
50 Jordan Mercedes Grand Prix Team
24 Sauber Grand Prix Racing
21 Autobacs Honda Formula One
17 Vector USF1 Automotive Technologies
10 Reynard Motorsport

Reactions

"I think God must be a fan of cliffhangers, because after this and Argentina he's giving them to us left, right and center. We had a good car out there today, and I just got lucky with the flag timing. Another couple laps and Seabass and Sheckter and Hinch and Felipe woulda been past me like I was a snail on tar paper. But things went our way today."
-- Kyle Busch

"I hope Eddie's not too ticked at me, because that spin of mine was foolish. Yeah Kat jumped out in front of me, but its still pavement where I went off and I coulda saved that. I'll take what I can get, and I'm sure one day its gonna be my day."
-- Will Power

"If somebody can do me a favor, make sure Will knows his first drink tonight is on me for what happened there."
-- Katherine Legge

"I don't like winning races that way, but a win is a win, and I'll certainly take the points. I still hope that everyone knows that I'd rather win a race by outracing my opponents, not having luck with the weather."
-- Juan Pablo Montoya

"They should have red-flagged the race the moment that deluge hit. There was no reason for it to go any further, the track was a bloody rink covered in oil, just no traction at all. We might not have had two wrecked racing cars that way. This is Formula One, we're supposed to have standards of officiating. That was ridiculous."
-- Dany Bahar

"Yes, rain is expected when racing Grands Prix, but one must consider just how much water was on the track. Every racer was spinning out, crashing or both. How did they think to keep the race going? Fernando is angry, he should be. I'm just as angry as he is."
-- Alain Prost

"Grand Prix race officials cannot make judgements too hasty. How long was it between when the rain started and when Kimi and Fernando hit the wall, fourty seconds? Dany and Alain are being unreasonable in demanding for race stoppages that quickly, and they should know it."
-- David Richards

"You want my reaction to Dany and Alain? Two words. Stop whining. I had two cars out there get wrecked too, but that kinda happens when you get the world's biggest bucket dumped on your head at once."
-- Jeremy Clarkson

"Suzuka. 1991. Payback is a bitch, Alain."
-- Stefan Bellof

"Of course they are upset at losing a race win. But that happens in racing, you accept it and move on. It's not like they can't win races at other places, they just don't like that this one got away from them. I can understand it, but I didn't get to even start the race in Argentina, and I'm not complaining about it."
-- Kamui Kobayashi

 

[Spam78]

"Of course they are upset at losing a race win. But that happens in racing, you accept it and move on. It's not like they can't win races at other places, they just don't like that this one got away from them. I can understand it, but I didn't get to even start the race in Argentina, and I'm not complaining about it."
-- Kamui Kobayashi

Pretty sure Kobayashi speaking in coherent English involves ASB.

 

[TheMann]

Pretty sure Kobayashi speaking in coherent English involves ASB.

Or a time racing in America before Formula One.

 

[FickleCrossroad]

Or a time racing in America before Formula One.

"Looks up and down the grid and standings to look for other potential changes…*

Crashtor Maldonator is in NASCAR, causing "The Big One" thrice a season?

 

[TheMann]

"Looks up and down the grid and standings to look for other potential changes…*

Crashtor Maldonator is in NASCAR, causing "The Big One" thrice a season?

I was more thinking touring cars for Crashtor. He can't hurt himself or somebody else as easily that way.

 

[FickleCrossroad]

I was more thinking touring cars for Crashtor. He can't hurt himself or somebody else as easily that way.

Aww, come on. He'd be the best way to get rid of restrictor plates.

"FLY! Get away from the amoral pay driver and drive like stink!"

NASCAR needs to get back to their bootlegger roots anyway. Tuned and modified stock cars on middle class budgets, (within the budget of low-level organized crime, as per roots anyway), racing on twisty road courses. Half V8 Supercars, half WRC.

Any TL which ruins the France family is halfway to utopia.

 

[TheMann]

Havoline Texas 500
Round Five of the 2014 Indycar World Series
Texas World Speedway, College Station, Texas

The first race of the "2500-mile Trophy" of the five flagship 500-mile races in Indycars had the misfortune of being on the same weekend as the Sebring 12 Hours, but thanks to intelligent planning by teams and the series, who scheduled qualifying for the event early in the morning and allowed those drivers who had to fly to Florida for the 12 Hours to qualify first. This had the downside (in a way) of teams whose drivers needed to go having the track early in the day when things were cooler, a benefit for engines but not for grip. As if that was not enough, track officials threw a curveball by saying that all 48 entries would be allowed to start if they all qualified within 110% of the polesitter, and true to form all of them did just that on Friday qualifying. Room was no issue, as Texas World Speedway is one of the biggest venues on the Indycar schedule and is equipped with a pit lane for 48 cars. It was clear on Friday that crowds would not be an issue, either - fans were turning up for the event early, taking advantage of the huge speedway's vast grounds, warm climate and the lack of weather problems on the weekend. The arrival of the tens of thousands of Texas A&M University students as classes ended on Friday added to the scene, as students usually do let their behavior get a little bit out of hand. Despite this, the weekend in Texas dawned sunny and upbeat and stayed that way.

The All-American Racers started the weekend flying high, their powerful Weslake Rover engines allowing them to set the early pace, though the reliability of the Rover engines had been a problem all year. The stock-block Ford-Cosworth Ecoboost engines had the same advantages and disadvantages, a point made known in the practice when the Fords were the only people able to take the fight right to the roaring Rovers, and the series was surprised further when the two female drivers with Ecoboost power, Roush Fenway's Johanna Long and Red Bull's Robyn Kruger, proved to be the fastest of the Ford's powered racers, with Long being second fastest on Friday, just a tick being the Eagle-Rover driven by Jon Fogarty. Teams got closer on Saturday as the teams began to chase a race setup, and those who weren't flying to Florida were able to focus on this race on the weekend, though it was clear that those people would be somewhat few and far between. Making up for the time was the usual vast March break concerts at TWS, as well as two NASCAR races and the Indy Lights event, which went on early in the evening on Saturday. Making up for both cars blowing up in Australia, both AAR Rovers started from the front row, split by Ovalo, Texas' Colin Braun, at the controls of the Havoline Lola-Ford. The two ladies started fourth and fifth, with the best Chevrolet of Kenny Irwin Jr. starting from the sixth position. Row three was made up of the Lola-Fords of Paul Tracy on the inside and David Brabham in the middle, with the Swift-Ford driven by Trevor Bayne on the outside.

Grid

Row 1
#36 Jon Fogarty (AAR Eagle/Rover/Goodyear)
#11 Colin Braun (Newman-Haas-Cruise Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Goodyear)
#98 Joao Barbosa (AAR Eagle/Rover/Goodyear)
Row 2
#43 Johanna Long (Roush Fenway Swift/Ford-Cosworth/Goodyear)
#84 Robyn Kruger (Red Bull NA Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Bridgestone)
#27 Kenny Irwin Jr. (Vision Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 3
#33 Paul Tracy (Forsythe Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Michelin)
#6 David Brabham (Newman-Haas-Cruise Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Goodyear)
#23 Trevor Bayne (Roush Fenway Swift/Ford-Cosworth/Goodyear)
Row 4
#20 Tony Stewart (Vision Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
#4 Memo Gidley (Ganassi Reynard/Chevrolet/Continental)
#83 Michael Ammermuller (Red Bull NA Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Bridgestone)
Row 5
#77 Jordan Taylor (Forsythe Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Michelin)
#55 Robert Wickens (Forsythe Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Michelin)
#38 Sage Karam (Ganassi Reynard/Chevrolet/Continental)
Row 6
#14 A.J. Foyt IV (Coyote-Lotus/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
#12 Dario Franchitti (Ganassi Reynard/Chevrolet/Continental)
#21 Robbie Stanley (Vision Riley and Scott/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 7
#10 Al Unser III (Galles Reynard/Toyota/Falken)
#15 Brad Keselowski (Lotus NA Lotus/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
#41 Ana Beatriz (Coyote-Lotus/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 8
#17 Casey Mears (Pacwest Reynard/Toyota/Michelin)
#1 Graham Rahal (Ferrari NA Ferrari/Ferrari/Bridgestone)
#99 Greg Moore (KVRT Riley and Scott/Renault/Michelin)
Row 9
#3 Helio Castroneves (Penske Penske/Toyota/Goodyear)
#31 Sam Hornish Jr. (Penske Penske/Toyota/Goodyear)
#5 Justin Wilson (Lotus NA Lotus/Chevrolet/Goodyear)
Row 10
#66 Alex Zanardi (Mo Nunn Lola/Renault/Michelin)
#18 Pippa Mann (Pacwest Reynard/Toyota/Michelin)
#28 A.J. Allmendinger (Ferrari NA Ferrari/Ferrari/Bridgestone)
Row 11
#80 Sebastian Saveedra (Menard Swift/Chrysler/Bridgestone)
#9 Townsend Bell (KVRT Riley and Scott/Renault/Michelin)
#8 Ryan Briscoe (Penske Penske/Toyota/Goodyear)
Row 12
#60 Tony Renna (Menard Swift/Chrysler/Bridgestone)
#19 Ariel Hill (Payton-Coyne Swift-Coyne/Honda/Goodyear)
#24 Buddy Rice (Andretti-Green Reynard/Honda/Bridgestone)
Row 13
#30 Kurt Busch (Galles Reynard/Toyota/Falken)
#2 Kyle Larson (Dreyer and Reinbold Swift/Renault/Michelin)
#45 Alex Tagliani (Panther Reynard/Toyota/Michelin)
Row 14
#44 Scott Speed (Panther Reynard/Toyota/Michelin)
#55 Kevin Magnussen (Mo Nunn Lola/Renault/Michelin)
#22 Conor Daly (Dreyer and Reinbold Swift/Renault/Michelin)
Row 15
#7 Ashley Taws (Andretti-Green Reynard/Honda/Bridgestone)
#26 Danaya Washington (Andretti-Green Reynard/Honda/Bridgestone)
#67 Sarah Fisher (Fisher Riley and Scott/Renault/Michelin)
Row 16
#34 Nelson Phillipe (Payton-Coyne Swift-Coyne/Honda/Goodyear)
#57 Sean Edwards (Fisher Riley and Scott/Renault/Michelin)
#25 Naoki Yamamoto (Andretti-Green Reynard/Honda/Bridgestone)

Race Day dawned just as warm as every other day, and yet again the scheduling of the 12 Hours of Sebring played a big role in timing, as the race was to be started later to allow those coming back from Sebring to be fully ready. The race day dawned just as clear as usual, though the TV commentators were surprised at the size of the crowd, with nearly 200,000 fans on hand, braving the very bright and sunny day (and the very real possibility of massive sunburns for those who did not wear sunblock) to watch what most figured would be a very exciting race. What helped that was the incredible speeds - Fogarty had qualified at 235.282 mph - and with the gap between the polesitter and the last place starter being less than 12 mph (Naoki Yamamoto qualified at 223.571 mph), it was expected that the race would be indeed a close one. They would not be disappointed....

The race began just after 2:00 PM with the usual three-across start, but the flagman didn't throw the green because he felt that the third and fourth rows were racing before the flag and that polesitter Fogarty had led the field up too slow. That led to its own difficulty after Graham Rahal checked up perhaps a little harder than he should have, forcing Sam Hornish Jr immediately behind him to lay on the brakes, and Pippa Mann behind him to do the same, but Mann locked up the rears and did a 360 in the middle of the field. Somehow she didn't hit anything or anyone and raced back to her starting position for the second attempt at a start. The second attempt was better, but the power of Dan Gurney's Rover engines allowed Fogarty and Barbosa to drive away from the field behind them, though behind them a massive battle ensued as Kenny Irwin Jr, Tony Stewart and Memo Gidley put their Chevrolet-powered steeds in the middle of the pack of Cosworth-engined cars in the front of the rest of the pack. Several of the racers who had done well in qualifying, including Red Bull's Michael Ammermuller, the Forsythe cars of Jordan Taylor and Robert Wickens and Robbie Stanley's Vision-entered Riley and Scott, proved to be not as good in race trim and fell back somewhat. Traffic was caught by the leaders inside of 20 laps into the race, with the first 20 laps being covered by Fogarty and Barbosa at a speed of over 223 mph and the two AAR cars having a five-second lead over third placed Paul Tracy after 20 laps.

A valvetrain issue made Tony Renna's #60 the race's first retirement on Lap 24, but three laps later yellow flew for the first time when Ryan Briscoe's Penske #8 swapped ends twice and backed into the Turn Four fence, thankfully not gathering up anyone else. The leaders elected to pit, with Fogarty giving up the lead as Newman-Haas-Cruise pit work put Colin Braun into the lead of the race and Braun's teammate David Brabham picked up four places in the pits. The only of the front ten cars who stayed out during caution was Robyn Kruger in the Red Bull Lola-Cosworth. She led on the restart from Karam, Foyt IV, Keselowski, Mears, Ammermuller, Moore and Castroneves. The South African woman would have an easy time leading after that, as Foyt tried to jump Karam on the restart but then had Keselowski try to jump both of them, forcing the three to run three-wide for over a complete lap, stacking up the field behind them while Kruger made the most of the opportunity to put as much distance between herself and the field as possible before she pitted, while her team hoped for a caution.

The second pack of cars were starting to pit by lap 41, with Kruger, Karam, Foyt IV, Ammermuller, Moore and Dario Franchitti all pitting on the same lap. Others followed in the next 2-3 laps, but then got horribly unlucky as Kyle Larson drifted to a halt just before entry to Turn Three on Lap 46, his car's ECU having failed. This left the second pack a lap down on the leaders and with Fogarty back in the lead. Race restarted on Lap 51 and Fogarty put his foot down again, but the Rover's thirst forced him and Barbosa to turn back the boost some, allowing Tracy, Braun, Irwin Jr, Stewart, Long, Gidley, Unser III and Rahal to keep up with them, while behind them the cars that were a lap down began ripping through the field, with Keselowski leading that pack with Kruger pretty much copying every move he made. The pace upped as the race stayed green, and the pack of cars began cycling into the pits starting on Lap 65, with the Eagles leading in Tracy, Irwin Jr, Long, Gidley and Rahal, allowing Colin Braun to briefly retake the lead, which lasted for two laps before he peeled off, leaving Tony Stewart to get the lead next. Stewart held the lead for a lap and then pitted, with the pit stop cycles allowing the pack of lap down cars to jump back onto the lead lap, with Keselowski, Kruger, Foyt IV, Moore and Castroneves now leading that pack, having left the others behind some. They cycled through the pits quickly starting on Lap 80, with Castroneves and teammate Sam Hornish Jr, along with A.J. Allmendinger's Ferrari and the PacWest cars of Casey Mears and Pippa Mann staying out the longest, clearly running their stints long in the hopes of being able to do one less pitstop.

The green flag flew all the way to Lap 102, when the first big engine failure of the day happened to David Brabham, his Cosworth Ecoboost V6 exploding in a massive burst of flame out of the back of the #6 car followed by a cloud of white smoke that came out for only a matter of seconds. As the engine detonation had seen most of the car's oil burned up, the yellow was short. Despite that, Castroneves, Hornish, Mears, Mann, Allmendinger and Zanardi pitted for fuel and tires, followed in surprisingly by Keselowski, Kruger and Foyt IV. The race returned to green to Tracy making an aggressive move to get past the Eagles, which only worked because both AAR drivers were paying attention to their fuel consumption and had no issues with Tracy leading now. True to form, Tracy led until he pitted on Lap 111, leading Braun, Long and Gidley, while the Eagles held out for another two laps and Irwin Jr, Stewart, Bayne, Wickens and Taylor held out for three more. This cycled Greg Moore to the lead, whose lead lasted two laps before Dario Franchitti slingshotted past him in the Tri-oval. Moore, however, returned the favor two laps later, showing that the Renault engines, which had been struggling for power early in the season, were good to go now on the first superspeedway of the year.

Another valvetrain problem sent Sebastian Saveedra to the garage on Lap 124, followed a lap later by Naoki Yamamoto, who had been having a miserable race, retiring with handling issues. Several cars in the middle of the field began backing off somewhat, clearly thinking of both fuel efficiency and reliability, the former important and the latter getting to be more so as the track temperature grew steadily through the day. Up at the front, Moore and Franchitti had pitted, handing the lead to Braun, who had beaten Tracy out of the pits. Braun found himself having to watch out for the very-aggressive Tracy, but both had to pay attention to the Vision cars not far behind that, both of them looking menacingly fast. As with the Eagles, Braun was not using all of the Cosworth Ecoboost's power for fuel efficiency reasons....but that went out the window on Lap 143 in any case, as chaos erupted behind them.

The mess started when a small pack, led by eighth-placed Karam and including Al Unser III, Jordan Taylor, Michael Ammermuller and Justin Wilson, came around to lap the two-laps-down car of Kurt Busch, who was racing for position with Buddy Rice in Turn three. Busch and Rice saw the pack coming and stayed on the bottom of the racetrack, but Busch misjudged his position and got into Rice just as Karam and Unser came around them on the exit of Turn Four. Busch's car briefly got airborne but landed back on all fours, but it went hard right, smashing Karam into the outside wall as Rice spun to the inside. Unser and Taylor had nowhere to go and plowed into Busch and Karam's cars, while Ammermuller and Wilson dove for the bottom to miss Rice - Wilson succeeded but spun in the grass as a result, Ammermuller didn't and clouted Busch's left front corner, spinning Buddy into two complete 360s and sending Ammermuller spinning into the grass. Debris all over the racetrack forced Danaya Washington, Townsend Bell, Sarah Fisher and Nelson Phillipe into evasive maneuvers, but somehow only Bell hit anything, him collecting a chunk of one of the cars and forcing him to pit to replace his nose cone.

The sure-to-be-long yellow threw strategy out the window, with Braun leading in a pack of cars. With the pack that had lost a lap early having pretty much all got them back, the field had 22 cars on the lead lap when the field came in, with Braun leading Tracy, Stewart, Fogarty, Moore, Barbosa, Franchitti, Rahal and Gidley in on Lap 149. Two laps later, the pack of Foyt IV, Long, Bayne, Beatriz came in, followed a lap later by Castroneves, Hornish, Keselowski, Allmendinger, Kruger, Mears, Zanardi and Mann. The race restarted with Stewart in the lead on Lap 158, with everyone on the lead lap now being able to make it with two more stops, and with plenty of fuel to spare. It was anyone's game.

Stewart's lead last a lap and a half before Tracy appeared next to him on the entry to Turn Three, with Foyt IV and Braun tucked in behind Tracy and the Eagles and Irwin Jr. tucked in behind Stewart. Behind that, Rahal and Allmendinger had hooked up, and the Ferraris had Robyn Kruger again perfecting her tailgating as they raced around the track. Tracy was by Stewart by the end of Lap 161, but moments later Fogarty and Barbosa shot past Stewart on the inside with Irwin Jr trying to stay with them and failing, tucking back in behind his teammate. Castroneves and Hornish soon made a third pack, this time falling in behind the Ferraris and Kruger. Out horsepowered by the Rovers and Cosworths, Stewart and Irwin Jr fell back somewhat as Tracy fought to fend off the Eagles. He succeeded for a while, but on Lap 174 Fogarty took the lead back on the inside of Turn One, his teammate following him through. Franchitti dropped out of the lead pack when his Chevrolet engine began to run very rough, forcing him to try to keep up on seven cylinders.

Fogarty's lead lasted until he dove for the pits on Lap 190, his teammate staying out to lead three laps before he too followed him in, much to the chargin of the Rahal-Allmendinger-Kruger-Castroneves-Hornish pack, which had now picked up Trevor Bayne up front in the Roush Swift-Cosworth, though his attempt to stay well ahead of this pack hadn't gotten far. By Lap 196, everyone had pitted once again and was back out on the track, with Foyt IV, Long and Beatriz being the last to pit. Yet again, fast pit work put Moore and Braun out ahead of the Eagles, but Rover power again allowed Fogarty and Barbosa to get their lead back.

Behind that, however, crew guys at Ferrari North America and Team Penske had done something smart. Both teams had radios that allowed their drivers to talk to each other, but their spotters were by then talking to each other, and they had cornered the spotters for Kruger and Bayne, and the teams had set up a way of the six drivers being able to talk to one another. This allowed Bayne, who had the powerful Cosworth engine, to punch a hole in the air to allow the five-car pack behind him to run through. They would be glad they did this on Lap 216, as deflating tire for Keselowski caused him to spin as they came off of Turn Four. Spotters called out to everyone behind, but Bayne yelled to his other partners "go high!", figuring that Brad would spin to the inside and there was two other cars in the middle. All six did just that and made through up against the wall, leading to the radios hearing after that Allmendinger saying "Good eyes, Trevor."

A short yellow ensued on that one, and yet again everyone pitted for a splash and dash, few bothering with tires. This time the Penske pitwork putting Hornish and Castroneves at the head of that pack. Disaster struck the All American Racers on the splash and dash as Barbosa's car died in the middle of the pitstop and the crew had a bugger of a time getting it restarted, Joao losing a lap in the process. Fogarty, though, got through the pit stops in the lead, though just barely over Moore. He restarted the race slowly, aiming to allow his teammate to get his lap back, but that while Joao got past several cars as a result, he did not get his lap back, and his teammate couldn't hold up too much with a pushy Greg Moore behind him and an even-more-aggressive Paul Tracy and Colin Braun making it worse. Behind that, the six-car pack led by the Penskes and Ferraris had Pippa Mann and Alex Zanardi latch onto them, and this time it was Kruger who led the pack around the track, again taking advantage of Cosworth power. They quickly dispensed with Stewart and Foyt IV and pulled into sixth through thirteenth, with the four cars in front and Johanna Long doing a valiant job of keeping her Roush Lola-Cosworth behind the pack in front of her. Fogarty used Rover power to keep the others behind, but on lap 244 he got an unpleasant surprise as Moore, Tracy, Braun and Long all teamed up to freight-train Fogarty back to fifth, a move that put Moore in the lead, but his lead lasted half a lap before Tracy was alongside him coming through the trioval, with Braun behind Tracy and Long behind Moore.

Big mistake.

Fogarty saw the pack try to stay to the bottom and went way to the outside, only half aware that Robyn Kruger, Sam Hornish Jr and Helio Castroneves were closing awful fast on the front pack. Fogarty used his horsepower to make it three wide briefly and roll past the fighting pack which had railroaded him, but his lead didn't last the end of the backstraight before Kruger, shoved by the Penske cars, rolled past them. Long moved up the track to run with her teammate, and such was the pack that none of the other three could get into the pack and the freight train of Kruger, Hornish, Castroneves, Long, Bayne, Rahal and Allmendinger soared past them by the end of lap 247. The final laps were breathtaking as the Penskes pulled out to run past Kruger, but Fogarty got back past them as they did that and tucked in behind Kruger. The Ferraris and the Roush Lolas backed up Kruger and Fogarty and railroaded the Penskes back to seventh and eighth, picking up a not-pleased Tracy, Moore and Braun and running in the middle of the track, forcing Kruger, Fogarty and their pack to run high. The Penskes' tactics pulled them ahead, but as the white flag came out it was clear that they didn't have enough at that rate to overhaul the front three cars. Robyn Kruger ran the whole lap with Fogarty underneath her wing, having enough power to pass but not wanting to get railroaded again. Rahal managed to split the Roush cars for sixth, getting Long but not Bayne. Kruger crossed the line first, Fogarty literally inches from her rear wing. Trevor Bayne was far enough ahead of the lower pack that he got third, but Hornish and Castroneves took fourth and fifth. Rahal drafted past Johanna Long for sixth, while Greg Moore kept Tracy behind him and Allmendinger behind and to his right to get eighth place, with Colin Braun finishing twelfth and Pippa Mann getting the twelfth and final points paying position.

Result

1st: Robyn Kruger (#84 Red Bull North America Lola-Cosworth) 250 Laps
2nd: Jon Fogarty (#36 All American Racers Eagle-Rover) +0.098s
3rd: Trevor Bayne (#23 Roush Fenway Lola-Cosworth) +0.417s

4th: Sam Hornish Jr (#31 Team Penske Penske-Toyota) +0.769s
5th: Helio Castroneves (#3 Team Penske Penske-Toyota) +0.855s
6th: Graham Rahal (#1 Ferrari North America Ferrari) +0.970s
7th: Johanna Long (#43 Roush Fenway Lola-Cosworth) +1.004s
8th: Greg Moore (#99 KVRT Riley and Scott-Renault) +1.246s
9th: A.J. Allmendinger (#28 Ferrari North America Ferrari) +1.298s
10th: Paul Tracy (#33 Forsythe Lola-Cosworth) +1.481s
11th: Colin Braun (#11 Newman-Haas-Cruise Lola-Cosworth) +1.570s
12th: Pippa Mann (#18 PacWest Reynard-Toyota) +2.236s

Pole Award (3 points): Jon Fogarty
Most Laps Led (1 point): Jon Fogarty (178 laps led)

Driver Points

47 Helio Castroneves BRA
45 Brad Keselowski USA
35 Graham Rahal USA
33 Tony Stewart USA
30 Justin Wilson GBR
29 Greg Moore CDN
29 David Brabham AUS
28 Colin Braun (R) USA
26 Sage Karam (R) USA
25 Memo Gidley USA
25 Dario Franchitti GBR
20 Robyn Kruger (R) RSA
20 A.J. Allmendinger USA
20 Jon Fogarty USA
15 Ryan Briscoe AUS
14 Trevor Bayne USA
14 Jordan Taylor (R) USA
12 Sam Hornish Jr USA
9 Danaya Washington USA
6 Buddy Rice USA
6 Johanna Long (R) USA
2 Michael Ammermuller (R) GER
2 A.J. Foyt IV USA
1 Kurt Busch USA
1 Pippa Mann GBR

 

[FickleCrossroad]

You have me thinking of a possible wrinkle in your "2,500-mile Trophy" that could be interesting. Let everyone up to twenty miles back of the leader finish each race in full, then use aggregate time as a tiebreaker for laps completed. Tied to the right prizes, that could start a reliability war...

48-Car grid?!? I really don't know how that would work outside of superspeedways and the longer road courses.

How far geographically did the IndyCar calendar expand by this point?

With larger grids, what are the spillover impacts to track design?