Sunday, June 10, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
NEW: F1 Live Coverage
As of today, Ben's Blog of Life hosts Formula 1 Live Timing at the bottom of the page. The feed is courtesy of UpdateF1.com and is only active over Grand Prix Weekends.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Saturday, March 31, 2007
James and Johnny
James wins the biggest freaking bottle of Johnny Walker i have ever seen. 142 standard drinks. 4.5 litres. Thanks to a loosing tab racing ticket at Moonee valley races.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
Day 2 - Formula 1 GP
Ron Dennis - CEO and 50% owner of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes______________________________________________
2 more days to go and plenty of action to be seen.
Lewis Hamilton (UK) - Vodafone McLaren MercedesThursday, March 15, 2007
Day 1 - Formula 1 GP
Today was the best Grand Prix day I have ever had in my life. Firstly I had paddock club tickets, secondly I got to do a Pit walk, thirdly I met heaps of Drivers, sweet, and finally the best thing, I was invited by a Williams Team member to have a personal tour of the Garage. This came about after I spent the whole day standing out the back of the paddock club waiting for drivers to walk past and get a photo. Phil (Marketing manager) from Williams F1 then came up to me, said he had seen me standing there all day in my Willams shirt and asked if I would like a tour of the garage. I wasn't allowed to take photos in there, but he took one of me standing in front a car. This was the most amazing thing ever. I was shown all the departments such as tyres, bodywork, telemetry, weather monitoring, engine and was rubbing shoulders with the drivers and boss. Again, Amazing.
Nothing can really top this day for me.
Me, in the Williams F1 Pit Garage
Mark Webber (AUS) - Red Bull Racing - My Hero!
David Coulthard (SCO) - Red Bull Racing
Nico Rosberg (GER) - Williams F1
Alexander Wurz (GER) - Williams F1
Peter Windsor (UK)He's a huge personality in F1 commentary and a contributor to F1 Racing magazine.
*I'm sunburnt by this stage of the day
Adrian Sutil (NED)- Spyker Racing
Scott Speed (USA) - Torro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel (FIN) - BMW Sauber (Test Driver)Wednesday, March 14, 2007
F1 Season - Almost here!
With just one day until the action starts as Albert Park, the 2007 Formula 1 Season is about to kick off in style. Stay tuned to the Ben's Blog of Life for updates over the weekend as I will be uploading photos from trackside Albert Park.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Great News!
Honda becomes a charitable institution - GRAND PRIX NEWS
Honda Racing F1 is not only going green but iss also inviting organisations and people to make a donation to an environmental charity and thus appear on the F1 car. The aim of the programme is to raise awareness of the problems of global warming and encourage people to do more about it. Under the concept of "our car is your car", each donor will buy a tiny individual pixel which will help build the image of planet earth on the car. Each name will be visible on the website when you make the pledge or under a microscope on the car. Donations can be made via the website www.myearthdream.com. The new programme is believed to be an idea that comes from Honda's involvement with Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment.
"We hope that in raising awareness and highlighting the issues we will encourage members of the public to come together and help take on the challenge of climate change," said the team's chief executive Nick Fry.
Thus far Universal Music and Gatorade have signed up and other companies that will be involved include IBM, Fila, Instron, Showa Denko, TUV and GF Agie Charmilles.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
THE RB3 IS HERE!
The design process has been led by Red Bull Technology’s Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey, who looks back over the months leading up to launch. “One example that illustrates how much more complicated F1 cars have become over the last decade is shown by the fact that I joined McLaren in 1997 on 1 August and we had a brand new car out in February 1998. In contrast, I joined Red Bull in January 2006 and we are only just getting the new car out on time in 2007. This reflects the greater level of research that now goes on in F1 compared to nine or ten years ago. With RB3, we didn’t get the model of the car into the wind tunnel until June 2006, which was a lot later than we would really have wanted. That made for a very busy time prior to hitting the key release dates for fundamentals like the monocoque and the gearbox. This had nothing to do with the uncertainty over what engine we were going to run this year. In terms of engine choice, most of the current V8s are broadly similar in terms of installation, so there isn’t a big difference in design philosophy depending on which engine you choose. The timing was influenced by the fact that what the team is trying to do for 2007 is a bit different to what’s been done in the past. That brought with it its own lead times, also influenced by the need to commission a new wind tunnel in Bedford. All the development of the new car has been done at the Bedford facility, but its commissioning was only completed as we began with the new car. We ran the old car in Bedford just to do a systems check on the tunnel immediately prior to putting the new car model in.”On the subject of the wind tunnel, Technical Director Mark Smith added: “The Bedford Wind Tunnel might not be the most up to date facility when viewed from the outside as you come up the driveway! But, as an engineering tool, it’s definitely a good piece of kit and something that our Head of Aerodynamics, Ben Agathangelou, has put a great deal of effort into over the last three years. The result is something we can be happy with in terms of its productivity, accuracy and the results it has produced.”
Meanwhile, focusing back on the RB3, Newey explained the concept. “The car will run to a set of regulations, which are now in their third year as, surprisingly, the change from V10 to V8 did not have a fundamental effect on the packaging of the cars. As far as the aerodynamic regulations are concerned, the last big change came ahead of the 2005 season. As such, the car is an evolution of ideas that have been seen before, but aggressively packaged in a car that we hope will have a lot of development potential. Another factor to bear in mind is that, in common with all the other teams that ran Michelin tyres in 2006, we have to design a car that will run on Bridgestone tyres that we are not yet familiar with. Of course we’ve done our research, but we’ve also designed a bit of flexibility in the car to deal with this. Undoubtedly some aspects of RB3 are ‘McLarenesque’ and are, to some extent, a development of the work I was doing when I was there. In other areas, there are derivatives of what has been done here at Red Bull and, of course, there are some completely fresh ideas. The design cycle has been very compressed which has brought its own pressures on both the engineers and the shop floor, but the response by everybody to that pressure has been truly extraordinary and one which we should be very proud of.”
Car designers are supposed to be notoriously dismissive of the unit that powers their creation, regarding the internal combustion engine as a handy spacer between chassis and gearbox, but Newey is enthusiastic about renewing his relationship with Renault. “There are a surprisingly large number of familiar faces from the last time we were together! It’s great to be back working with Renault. I was always very impressed with their methodology back in the Williams days. They are very good and very pragmatic and can get the best out of a package. Past experience has also shown me they are completely professional when supplying two teams. Their reason for supplying a second team is not for financial gain, but rather to have more units out in the field to learn from in both the performance and reliability areas, which gives a fundamentally different cornerstone to the relationship.”
“Maybe I’m an eternal optimist, but I expect to see us make a good step forward,” reckons Mark Smith. “As an absolute minimum I believe we will reach the target area we have set ourselves. Technically I am looking forward to seeing how the car runs, because there are several different design philosophies in Formula One and Adrian has a different philosophy to the one I witnessed in my previous four or five years at Renault, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. Although all the cars on the grid are quite similar, the way subtleties, such as aero performance, stiffness and mass, are traded off against one another at the design and concept stage can make a big difference when the car hits the track.”
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Renault 27 Launch
Renault unveiled a striking new look to coincide with the start of a new era for the team in Amsterdam on Wednesday - but insisted it did not see 2007 as a transitional year and was fully intent on securing a world title hat-trick.
The all-new livery on its 2007 challenger, the R27, was the standout difference from the motors that took Renault to back-to-back championships, with the orange and white colours of Dutch financial firm ING filling the void left by the light blue of long-time title sponsor Mild Seven.
The new look was completed by Renault’s new race driver Heikki Kovalainen who comes in to partner Giancarlo Fisichella, following Fernando Alonso’s departure to McLaren, with both handed an evolutionary R27 car to drive in the coming campaign.
But that is where the changes stop according to Renault team president Alain Dassas, who says that the team must continue to live up to its status as the benchmark operation in F1.
"Double championship success in 2005 and 2006 has earned Renault its status as a major force in Formula 1," he said.
"Our Formula 1 championship success is a benchmark of excellence that we aim to meet in every area of our operations.
"We must now live up to that reputation.
“The team will present a fresh face to the world with the arrival of ING as our new title partner, and we are proud to welcome this major, global financial institution to Formula 1.
“But on track, our challenge will remain the same: we will be asking our technical teams and drivers to make Renault a championship contender in 2007."
It was a point echoed by managing director Flavio Briatore who was keen to talk up the team’s 2007 driver pairing, insisting that both Fisichella and Kovalainen have the ability to keep Renault at the F1 summit in the coming campaign.
“Losing Fernando we lost something, an asset to the company, but I think Heikki is ready to be a top driver,” he said.
“And I’m sure it will be the year of Fisi.
“Now I am sure he is more relaxed within the team, he has been in the team three years.
“I have invested in Giancarlo and what he needs is a little bit more concentration, is [to make] no mistakes and is [to drive like] Michael [Schumacher] and Fernando.”
While Fisichella himself says he is ready to grasp the mantle of team leader in the post-Alonso era.
“The team has shown its confidence in me for the new season, and I determined to repay that in the best way possible, out on track,” he said.
“The team knows how to design winning cars capable of fighting for the championship.
“That means there is a fantastic opportunity for me this year, and I am determined to make the most of it."
Friday, January 19, 2007
New Layout
With a new year upon us, I decided to change the look of the site and add a few new items.
- RSS feeds from my two favorite F1 sites can new be found on the Right Panel.
- A countdown clock to the next Formula 1 Race has also been included.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Mclaren Unveiling - 2007
The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-22, raced by Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, features some advanced engineering concepts.
With some novel aerodynamic solutions, allied to unprecedented levels of efficiency in its crash structures, the car showcases the engineering strength in depth of McLaren Racing and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines.
Although Formula 1 teams are admired throughout industry for their leading edge technology and short development times, long-term planning has also been crucial in the construction of the MP4-22.
Its development period commenced before its predecessor the MP4-21 had even turned a wheel. Initial sketches of aerodynamic concepts and discussions over the design of the clutch and gearbox took place back in December 2005. During the design process, each of the car's 11,000 components were reviewed in meticulous detail in the quest for improved performance, reliability and efficiency.
The MP4-22 represents the latest research and development concepts. Initial ideas were developed with Computer Aided Design (CAD) in mid-March 2006, with the first Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations running later that month. The wind tunnel programme commenced in May.
The design also incorporates three demanding new pieces of crash protection legislation. A totally new rear crash structure is noticeably wider and blunter than its predecessor. An extra 6mm-thick laminated panel is now also required to be bonded to the side of the driver cell to guard against penetration from another car or object. Frontal protection for the driver has been improved too, with the velocity of impact in the crash test raised from 14 to 15 metres per second, with a softer deceleration both front and rear.
Other regulation changes that have impacted on the design process include the use of a homologated engine for 2007, and the switch to a single tyre supplier.
The construction and profile of the Bridgestone Potenza tyres have had an influence on the MP4-22's chassis dynamics and significantly the aerodynamics . The tyres affect the flow structures downstream of the front wheels, and the team's engineers have used CFD software – for the simulation of heat and fluid flow – to devise the optimum solution to harness the new rubber.
With such detailed simulation increasingly vital in Formula 1, the infrastructure, manufacturing capacity and technical tools available to the design team at the McLaren Technology Centre have played an important role. The MP4-22's development involved the generation of generation of 4,500 component and 3,500 tooling drawings, and the aerodynamics development is very demanding with a continuous program which requires an entirely new set of wetted surfaces for the launch car, with around a third being updated before the first race. This is followed up with new aero components being brought to the car every 3-4 weeks throughout the season.
Following the MP4-22's first test in January 2007, development will continue apace on the track and at the McLaren Technology Centre before it's race debut on Sunday 18 th March at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne , Australia .
Monday, January 15, 2007
R27 Shakes Down At Silverstone
Reigning World Champions - Renault - have visited Silverstone in Northamptonshire to shake down their new R27 car. The R27 will defend its title next season, piloted by Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen, and despite Renault’s usual late unveiling, they plan to be a little earlier this year. The challenger is due to be launched on January 24th, but photos have emerged on the internet of the secret test. 
The photos show the car has tightly sculptured sidepods and an interesting mirror set up, coming out from the side of the sidepods. The team ran the car in their usual yellow, but replaced the light blue with either a very dark blue or black, signifying the end of the relationship with previous tobacco sponsor Mild Seven.
Looking at the teams transporters in the background though, may give us a hint at what the new livery may look like.
Now Renault are sponsored by ING, they appear to have incorporated the yellow and orange of the respective companies with black and white.
Friday, January 12, 2007
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