Reinventing Formula 1 RACING

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Formula 1 is the pinnacle of competitive motor-sport. With millions of dollars being spent on research and development to find every tenth of a second on track, it is extremely competitive and even the slightest advantage can translate into wins and ultimately championships. However, ever since Alain Prost retired, and Ayrton Senna passed away, F1 has lost that element of surprise and excitement to keep viewers hooked on to the television. The only excitement comes from charismatic drivers, and thanks to corporate sponsorship deals, even that charisma is being suppressed. Formula 1 is simply too boring.

Hungary 2007

But if you venture to the lower levels of motor racing, such as GP2, Formula Renault 3.5 World Series, or even GP3, there is a lot of excitement. In these low costs series, the cars are standardized, and thus driver talent and team strategy can be seen. 21 laps of GP2 on a drying Silverstone circuit was more exciting than 52 laps of the Formula 1 race that took place later that day. Because the drivers are fighting for the prize money and attention from the bigger Formula 1 teams, they really fight tooth and nail for every position.

In this 21 lap race you clearly sort out good drivers from the bad ones. Luiz Razia had a brilliant start, and snatched the lead with a few laps. He pulled out a good lead, and started preserving his tyres. Giedo van Garde had a horrible start, and then ruined his tyres within a few laps, and started dropping back. Davide Valsecchi had a bad start, but he refrained from attacking as he preserved his tyres. He only went fast enough to hold his position. But in the final 10 laps, he really put the hammer down, and nearly caught Razia. Simply superb driving from Razia and Valsecchi.

Here is the Formula Renault 3.5 World Series Nurburgring race.

This was a gripping race, proper edge of the seat stuff. With changing conditions and the compulsory pit stop, this was probably one the best races I've seen in a long time. Predicting the weather conditions, and making the necessary tyre choices was the key here, and this made it very exciting to watch.

The reason why these races are so exciting is because every driver has the same car. So the driver can't make any excuses. Formula 1 cannot have have standardized equipment because innovation in technology and design is a major aspect of the sport, apart from the wheel to wheel racing. However, with rising costs, and with bigger teams pulling away from the smaller teams on the track, there has to be some level of standardization. DTM, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters now has standardised rear wings. Not only does this level the playing field, but it also forces designers to work on the other parts of the car, hence forcing them to become more creative. You can't standardised any aero parts on a Formula 1 car, as the aerodynamic package is what differentiates a McLaren from a Sauber. So there has to be a good balance in creating more exciting racing, but still encourage technical innovation.



Part 2 : TECHNICAL

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Colin McRae Rally Mac (Full Review)

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Apply opposite lock and accelerate.

Colin McRae Rally Mac is the equivalent of Colin McRae Rally 2005 by Codemasters and has been ported over to the Mac by Feral Interactive. Even though this game is now quite old, Feral Interactive knowingly, or mistakenly ported one of the best rally games of all time.

Paying homage to the Colin McRae, the game menu is subtle and stylish, and you can choose any one of the different game modes. Career, single rally events, or just rally stages, the choice is yours. Once you choose your car and stage, the player can make car setup changes, and you do have to be smart, as the setup can win you the rally, or trash your car.

Once you start playing, you start to realise that you can't mess about. The cars are a handful, the tracks are punishing, and unless you give your 100%, you just can't play this game. But put in the effort, and keep pushing all the way through the stage, the rewards are huge. With your co-driver's instructions, you have to navigate your way through different terrains, beautifully detailed landscapes and lush surroundings. The physics are superb, and you really do have to drift your way around the course to maintain your average speed and keep the momentum going. The damage is punishing, and you cannot afford to play loose as the damage severely affects the cars performance. And the game expects you to keep pushing even if you lose a wheel or two. To help out amateurs, the game has two damage settings. But even the more forgiving setting is extremely punishing. With a wide variety or cars from different era's and classes, Codemasters has put in the effort to make every car sound and feel different. From the Group B Audi Quattro, to the classic Mini Cooper and the modern Subaru's and Mitsubishi's, every car is brilliantly detailed and you can feel every little twitch and bump the car endures. The weather makes a catastrophic difference. When it rains, the car is almost impossible to drive. But if you persevere, it is immensely satisfying.

Winning your first rally is fantastic achievement, and the game really does make you work for it. In the career mode, unless you're pushing every single second, you could lose by a few tenths and a small shunt could plummet you down the order. The damage you cause to your car carries over to the next stage, so you can't push it to the absolute limit as you have the same car throughout the rally.

Additionally you can also play multiplayer games via GameRanger, but you cannot race head to head as rallying is a timed event, which might dissuade some.

This game is an intense experience, and meant for racing enthusiasts. Although it certainly is enjoyable for casual gamers, they might not be able to progress far in this game. So certainly, arcade racing fans should keep away. But this game is worth every penny, and till date, very few games can match up with the experience Colin McRae Rally provides you with.

4.5/5


On a personal note, this is one the last games that you can actually enjoy a proper rally experience on your Mac. The successor to this game, Colin McRae: Dirt 2 shifts its focus toward the more modern forms of rally, such as rallycross and the X-Games. Colin McRae has been replaced by Travis Pastrana and Ken Block.

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Formula 1 Spa-Francorchamps 2012 Crash Re-Analysis

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Carbon fibre galore

Earlier this year, in the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix, there was a catastrophic first corner pile up, and Grosjean, Hamilton, Alonso, and Perez were caught out in the whirlwind of carbon fibre. The blame was promptly put on Grosjean for being too aggressive at the start, and to some extent that is true. But looking at the race footage, I don't think Grosjean was the sole perpetrator. I downloaded the race edit, and saw the video frame by frame, and I think some of the blame can be put on Hamilton's shoulders as well.





Hamilton qualified P8, and Grosjean P9. But  Grosjean had a very good start, and Grosjean was almost a full car length ahead of Hamilton before La Source.

Red Circle: Hamilton; Blue Circle: Grosjean

Grosjean gets a good start, and heads towards clear tarmac ahead of Hamilton, as the track ahead of him is blocked by the Saubers and the Williams of Maldonado.

Grosjean and Hamilton fighting for the same piece of tarmac

So Grosjean goes for the clear track ahead of Hamilton, and this where the massive pile up started.

The stewards blamed Grosjean for being too aggressive at the start and colliding into Hamilton. This is slightly true as Grosjean gives Hamilton almost no space and squeezes him into the barrier separating the track from the pits. And this is also the point where Hamilton should be blamed for the accident which takes place just seconds from this picture.

Here you can see Grosjeans racing line blocked by the slowing Saubers behind the Ferrari, and now approaching toward the clear track ahead of Hamilton.

At this point, Hamilton still has a chance to retain track position and try to pull ahead of Grosjean. But he should have know that he only had a small chance.

Just moments before the havoc starts.

Grosjean now has a 3/4 car length advantage over Hamilton, and has, according to me gained the track position and is perfectly justified to expect Hamilton, which he should have done. Hamilton can clearly see that he has no space left, and should've lifted off and conceded track position. But he put his foot hard down, which wasn't the smartest thing to do, but even stupider on his part was holding his racing line. A collision was bound to take place. 

But Hamilton wasn't really in an ideal state anyway, having posted telemetry of his lap on Twitter!

Detailed as well....

And now as you'll see, all hell breaks loose.

BAM! and it's all over.

I really don't see why Grosjean alone is blamed for the mess. Hamilton had quite a large role to play in this pile up.

Also, Jenson Button has the best victory dance which he performed in his car itself. The man got style.

Now that, is how it should be done.

That is a superb way to celebrate. 

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Kim Dotcom and Kimi on the Nurburgring.

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A video uploaded on Youtube is proof that fat men are fun. Kim Dotcom, with $175 million and a lot of good cars visited the Nurburgring in January before he got arrested by the FBI for copyright issues related to Megaupload.com, which is, quite frankly silly. Everyone downloads 'copyrighted' stuff off the internet. Up-to and even, I'm willing to wager, Barrack Obama. So why arrest the guy who makes it all possible?

So in January, he, and I quote, "The production involved 30 cameras, 100+ crew, 2 helicopters, 2 camera cars and one fixed wing aircraft." to shoot a dream video of him racing around the Nurburgring with his mate Finn Batato, and Kimi Raikkonen with three(!) modified Mercedes Benz AMG CLK DTM's. The CLK DTM's are rare and reportedly only 200 or so were made. The modification is what appears to be nitrous injection. So a 582bhp 'standard' CLK DTM with nitrous injection. And rear wheel drive. With tires that look suspiciously thin. Around the Nurburgring. Yeah, you definitely need F1 drivers to handle that. But then Kim is a "street racing legend".

Kim wanted "I used to play Forza and Need for Speed on Xbox Live. Those games inspired me to create a video that looks like the replay of a perfect lap on the Ring. I know it isn't perfect, but I tried." and he has somewhat achieved that videography. It's an epic video and is a perfect example of what rich men should do with their money and free time. This video was made for only for the fun in making it. "I DID NOT WIN against Kimi. I never could. We had to remove the air from his tires to keep up. And even then it was impossible :-)" He was just mucking about, having a good time, and in the end he even got a great video out of it! This is exactly what Bruce Wayne should be doing instead of pretending to be a superhero. The cars were named "GOOD"[Kimi Raikkonen], "AND"[Finn Batato], and "EVIL"[Kim Dotcom]! Ha! Kim even calls himself a 'street racing legend'. Whether its true or not, I have no idea, but he sure is a 'playboy legend'. The video wasn't even the final edit! The final edit is on the hands of the FBI. This video is a testament to the CLK DTM and the Nurburgring, but most important of all, it proves that Kim Dotcom sure as hell knows how to have fun!

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Overtaking in racing; hatke style.

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Racing in essence, is all about overtaking the guy ahead of you. And some pit-stop strategy. With a dash of technical wizardry. Like the F-duct on the Mercedes F1 2012 car. Well played.

However, after some lemonade and light thinking, I hit upon two new ways to overtake.





For the DTM drivers. Especially for those guys who have exhausts on the side of the car. DTM cars run V8's which heavily tuned and undergo a lot of stress. Often the engines de-stress by throwing out a bit of fire from the exhausts, on a trailing throttle or a sudden downshift. Actually it is quite a lot of fire. So why don't the cars with exhausts on the side, instead of having them at the back of the car, burn the flipping tyres of their opponents right off? I think it's quite possible if you're persistent. With good planning I think it's possible to set fire to those super-soft tyres in a few laps or so?

Fire!!!

Flamethrower.

Right. Now F1. Why can't the teams have alliances and stuff. Like, for example, "lets all screw Schumacher or some other poor sod everyone happens to hate at that moment" by overtaking him with planned teamwork. Like, a back marker such as Massa, and a front runner like Sergio Perez, or Kimi Raikkonen can overtake, let's say Webber by blocking him on the left and the right on the pit straight and then shutting the door on him before the first corner. Drivers should have the capability to radio each other mid race, plan their moves and overtake other drivers. There will be copiously epic amounts of overtaking, and not only because of the DRS activation nonsense which is extremely partial to the front runners. Seeing Narain Karthikeyan pulling a move on Vettel would be epic, and there'd just be so much unpredictability in the racing. There wouldn't be any Rosberg style pole-to-victory nonsense like in China anymore. Creativity and drifting will you earn you extra points. Of course, for proper racing fans there could be a ban on this stuff, say in circuits such as Spa and Monza. But nearly everywhere else, Kobayashi could very well get more points than the race winner even if he finishes outside the top 10 because of his drifting.

Something like this. Massa shutting the door on Webber while Alonso takes advantage. There could be inter-team overtaking as well.

What say Bernie? 

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