Dward Farquar's Blob
• Jan. 3, 2006 - My Formula 1 Race!!
Drivers are, to a certain extent, prima donnas. No matter what, they are convinced that they are the best. A lot of them are around 5'5"-5'7". The English driver, Nigel Mansell was an average sized guy. He stood head and shoulders above Prost and Senna. In the early 90's the last Gran Prix to run in the US (before the parade at INDY) was in Phoenix. TransAm was a support race. We had to pit at the far end of the course and tow our pit carts and cars on the track for about 3/4 mile to the paddock/pit area. The city of Phoenix had built a garage area for the F1 teams that was a city garage the rest of the year. We were right in front of the Formula 1 cars and could see their garage areas up close. There was a crowd of 10,000 for the race and most were from foreign countries. The course was on the streets with barriers at the curbs and 10'-12' fences between the curb and sidewalk. We walked all around the inside of the course and were less than 10 feet from the cars at times. Back to Mansell. He went out with mechanical trouble right in front of us and walked through an opening for those with a Photo Pass. He seemed a small man but was still gainly and awkward looking on the podium when he was there the likes of Prost, Senna, etal.
The Honda/McLaren team had a bank of mainframe computers about twenty feet long against the back wall of their garage. When the car came in, about 15 very young Japanese guys began pouring over print-outs as fast as they came out. It was rumored that old man Honda had given specific instructions when they started the McLaren deal that there was to be no one over 25 years of age involved in the project. Most of them looked like they were just past puberty.
The pit crew put setup plates on the cars instead of wheels and raised them up like go-cart racers do. They had a lot of special tools including laser alignment guages. They manually changed springs and shocks but everything else seemed to be done in those little black boxes.
I have heard that ordinary drivers have to be coached to drive ground effects cars. They have to be guided at first to go beyond what they think are the cars limits and become confident that if they go faster, the car will stick better. Indy cars generate their own weight in downforce at 85MPH. At 86MPH they could be driven upside down and stick to the ceiling. The designers of the bodies have to focus on strength to withstand 1400-3000 pounds pushing down on the car. Brakes are carbon fibre pads on carbon fibre rotors. Some are ceramic components. Aerodynamics are a factor in motor design.
To see all of this so close was very rare in this world. In almost every other country there are about 200,000 spectators, all loyal to their national teams and if they are Brazilians, their almost god-like drivers. There were only a few Americans at that race in Phoenix and they were hard-core racing fans. They like the leading edge technology, pageantry, excitement and sheer competitiveness of auto racing at it's highest level. Why wasn't there a larger American presence.
It's obvious. There are no American drivers, cars, or teams. In a word-NASCAR. A particularly American form of racing that has become a high dollar spec car series. Great pains are taken to make the cars equal. It's Rusty, Dale, and the good ol' boys.
Not since Ford entered endurance racing with the GT40 forty years ago, has there been an American manufacturer with the nerve to compete heads up against the rest of the world. It's been said that Ford's motivation was being laughed at by Enzo when they tried to buy Ferrari. It's been said that the Lotus Mario Andretti won the world championship in was so advanced that a monkey could have won races in it. His son Michael, a first class American road racer, couldn't hack it at McLaren. He would fly over and drive for a few days and fly back home. Finally they cut him loose. He was slower than their development driver. At the same time, Senna had a personal relationship with everyone on the team from the money men to the crew. He would still be at the track going over data print outs, sometimes until 11:00 PM. Six million people were at his funeral in Brazil.
No American manufacturer has the stomach to lose for 10 years while they do the development work nor the ability to let the type of people it would require have that much control and money. Their bureaucracy is too entrenched to do that sort of thing because it doesn't lend itself to management by committee. It's too bad because we have done it in soccer and the rest of the world is rapidly doing it in basketball. Too bad it takes more than a good pair of sneakers and a love of the game.
|
:: Send to a Friend!
|
|
|
|
|
