F1 - the season so far

I wrote this post after the Monaco race, but forgot to post it. Well, better late than never...

 

We are now 6 races into the F1 season and we’ve had 6 crackers with lots of overtaking, I cannot remember a time when there was so much happening all at once. Why was overtaking so infrequent in F1? What changed to make such a drastic difference? Here’s my take on it. DISCLAIMER:I don’t profess to be a technical expert, just a passionate fan who has been following F1 for the last 25 years . 

 

Firstly coming to overtaking, I think there are three main reasons for why it was so uncommon in F1

Aerodynamics: The most common method of overtaking in a straight line is slipstreaming. Slipstreaming occurs when the car behind occupies the hole in the air created by the car in front before the space is filled up by the displaced air. Due to the reduced wind resistance, the car behind is able to go faster and overtake. You may well ask why slipstreaming has reduced? When a car moves, the air that it displaces has to go somewhere. The goal of the F1 car designers is to direct the air as they pass through in a way that it presses the car down and gives more grip, thus enabling the car to go through the corner faster. It’s the reverse of aeroplanes where they try to achieve lift. That is why the F1 cars have these big wings in the front and back. The downside of the aerodynamics was that the air that exited the back of the cars was so turbulent that the effectiveness of the aerodynamic design was greatly reduced for the car behind. So, the effectiveness of the wings was reduced and the car could not go as fast and fell behind enough to not be able to slipstream

 

Cornering speeds: In the olden days, the cars would be going 300 kmph on the straight but when they came upon a corner, they would need to reduce the speed to 80-90 kmph to have any chance of making it through the corner safely. Since the tyres and brakes of the day were not that advanced, cars had to brake 50-100 m before the corner and this gave the opportunity for the car behind to delay their braking by 10-15 metres and overtake the car going into the corner. However, with the advance in tyre technology (and aerodynamics), the speed that the car could carry through the corner increased and with the advent of carbon-fibre brakes, the braking distances reduced significantly. As a result, the opportunity to “out-brake” someone into a corner reduced significantly.

 

Strategy: One of the biggest changes in the sport was the advent of Michael Schumacher and the usage of pit-stops as an overtaking mechanism. He figured that since modern technology can make it so difficult to overtake cars on the track, why not pass them in the pits? The strategy involved staying out for a couple of laps after the car in front had pitted and driving to the maximum speed so that when you pitted for new tyres, you would come out ahead. He did this with astonishing success during his heyday. The downside to this was that it was very boring for the average spectator who could not understand the intricacies that went into the overtaking.

 

The FIA has been trying to remedy the situation and put up a good show for the spectators for a while now. In 2010, it banned refueling and made the usage of two tyre compounds mandatory. The hope was that teams would adopt different strategies and we would see cars with varying grip levels on track together, thus promoting overtaking. However, it did not work out as the tyres proved very durable and most teams stuck to one or maximum two pitstops, most of which were in sync with each other. The aerodynamic issues remained as before.

 

So, for 2011, they came up with 3 really bold steps, Drag Reduction system, high wearing tyres specification and KERS. Let’s look at each of them

DRS is the most controversial of the three rule changes. Basically the rear wings on the car are inclined at an angle when viewed from the side so that the air flowing over them presses the car down. This is most useful in the corner. However, in a straight line, the wings create more drag. That is why in circuits like Monza, which is a series of straights, we see the cars with wings that are almost parallel to the ground. DRS basically allows the teams to change the angle of the rear wing on the straight so that the car can go faster. Simple really. But, this is F1 and nothing is as simple. The catch is that DRS is only available if the car is less than a second behind the car in front and only on a specified area of the circuit. So, remember when you could not slipstream because you were falling behind on the corner? With DRS, you now have much lesser drag and can go significantly faster than the car in front and hence can get back into the slipstream and overtake.

 

The importance of aerodynamics had overshadowed the role that tyres played in providing the grip to the car. Historically, tyres have tried to strike a balance between softer rubber compounds that provide more grip but wear out faster and harder ones that last longer but aren’t as fast. The idea behind making the use of different compound tyres was the softer compound With the single tyre supplier rule in effect, Bridgestone had no real pressure to innovate. As a result, their tyres were so durable that 2010 saw many races reduced to a single stop race. In 2011, Pirelli won the contract to supply the teams with tyres and they were given the brief that the tyres had to wear out enough such that there was a marked difference in grip between the hard and soft compounds. In tracks like Spain, the hard compounds were two seconds a lap slower. But the soft compounds would wear out quickly, thus requiring more pit-stops. So, you had an option, lose 20+ seconds in a pit-stop but make up the time at 2 seconds a lap. An added twist was provided when top cars (Webber/China and Heidfeld/Spain) were knocked out in Q1. Since they had not used their soft tyres at all in qualifying, they were able to go much longer on these tyres, thus making it possible to gain enormous amounts of time on the cars in front of them during the closing stages of the race.

 

The least impactful change was the re-introduction of the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). While braking, the energy is dissipated as heat, KERS allows that to be transformed to electrical energy and stored in a battery. This gives an additional 10% “boost” over the engine power thus enabling the cars to go even faster. KERS can only be used for 6 seconds over a single lap, so the driver must choose the spot carefully.

 

So, what has been the impact of these changes? We’ve had lots of overtaking, some thrilling come from behind drives (Webber from 18^th to 3^rd in China, Heidfeld from 24^th to 8^th in Spain) and a huge number of pit-stops. There is so much action that it is impossible to get a complete view just watching it on TV. My usual practice is to have my laptop open with the Live Timing in one window and a twitter feed (where I follow some of the prominent F1 journalists) in another. The live timing gives you wonderful insight especially in the mid-field that rarely gets much coverage. It was fascinating to see the gap from Webber and Heidfeld to the driver in front come down by 2-3 seconds a lap. And just to prove a point that it’s not all about overtaking, we’ve seen Vettel soak up enormous pressure at Turkey and Monaco and still keep it together.

 

With all this excitement, I can barely wait for the next race to come on.

Customer Service...What's that?

I recently replaced my sneakers with a top of the line pair of running shoes from Reebok that cost me 8000 rupees. I started using it on my daily run and on the first day, noticed a pain in my left leg. I attributed it to running-in difficulty and thought it would go away after a couple of days. But it only got worse on the second day. When I inspected it closely, I found that the seam where the flap under the lace was joined to the shoe was not proper in the left shoe and was pressing onto my foot causing the pain. So, I took it to the shop where they acknowledged the problem and said that they would replace it in a day or two. So far so good.

I gave them an extra day and went three days later, expecting to pick up the replacement. They said that the approval for the claim had still not come and may take a few days more. I blew my top and told them that if it wasn’t done the next day, I will place a hold on the payment through my credit card company. That seemed to help matters, as I got a call the next day stating that the claim was approved. But, when I went there, I was told that they did not have another piece in stock. I gave them another extra day before I went back. They had got the shoe but they found a similar problem in it. I had enough and demanded my money back, but there was no refund. I had shortlisted a second pair initially, but even that was not available in my size. Finally, I settled for another model that cost me 6500 rupees. Wherein, I was told that they could not return the balance and I would need to purchase something. I finally ended up with a couple of t-shirts that I didn’t really need and paid an extra 400 rupees to those idiots.

I was trying to think of how the experience would have been in countries where the customer is truly king:

• I would have been able to return it anytime without any reason (defective or not)
• I would have been given a replacement on the spot or my money back
• They would have paid me the difference in cost and not forced me to buy something else

- To add insult to injury, I would have paid less than half the cost. Yes, the same shoe is available for 70-80$ in the US through amazon.com

Change of gears - running replaces cycling

I’ve made a lot of really bad decisions in 2009, but the one that hurts the most is the decision to sell my Trek 3700 bicycle and replace it with the Merida 40V. At the time, I had intended to buy a hybrid, but due to the lack of choice in the market, I ended up buying another MTB. For sure, the Merida is a superior cycle, with far better components. But, four months later, I have come to the sad realization that the Trek was a far better bike for me. Where the Trek fitted me like a glove, the Merida has continuously given me grief. The things that I dislike are

Seat: the stock seat is just too firm and far too narrow. I was never able to get into a comfortable position on the bike. I replaced it with a seat from the Cannondale quick 5 which is far more suited

- Geometry: This is far harder to fix. The Merida has a slightly stretched riding posture compared to the Trek. As a result, I either have to lower the seat or move it forward to get a comfortable position for my arms. But, this results in the extra load getting transferred to my legs. A solution that has been suggested is to get a shorter stem to reduce the reach.

As a result of this, long rides have become painful both during and after the ride. So much so, that it has been a long time since I have gone on a long ride and most of my rides have been restricted to short 20-30 km ones. Add to this, my Chennai visits in Sep-Oct and the fact that since Mukund was born, I’ve had to shift my exercise routine to a little later in the morning(by which time the traffic is too heavy to cycle), the net result is that my cycle mileage has gone down from 400 km to less than 100 km a month.

But, I am far too hooked on the exercise bug and the space vacated by cycling has been replaced with cycling. I’ve gradually increased my running distance from almost nil to around 50 km a month in Oct/Nov and should cross a 100 km in December. And I plan to keep it there till the cycling bug returns…

Fiesta is here

I finally took delivery of my new Ford Fiesta 1.6SXI last Saturday. It has been a long journey that started way back in 2004 when having come back from Australia, Vidya and I were decided on a car. In those days, we were staying in Mangalore and our options were a little limited due to the limited number of dealerships. Having owned the original Santro, I was set on buying a C segment car and had almost finalized on the Baleno which had just been relaunched. Somehow, I allowed myself to be talked out of it by one of my “friends” who convinced me that the cost of ownership and service would be too high. We finally ended up buying a Santro Xing. I have no complaints with the Santro, but whenever we go on a highway trip, I think wistfully about how much better it would have been in a Baleno.

Anyway, cut forward a few years. In that time, a lot has changed. With Mukund's arrival, we feel the need for a larger car, especially for outstation trips. I wasn’t too particular about it being a sedan or large hatch. So, I set about looking for various options in the 6-8l bracket. The cars I shortlisted were

1.Hyundai i20

2.Fiat Grande Punto

3.Honda City

4.Maruti SX4

The first one to be eliminated was the City. It was way outside my budget. I didn’t even want to take a test drive, because I know that none of the other cars would match up in terms of performance or refinement and I would always be thinking of what I was missing by not buying the City. Maybe at some other time, but right now the big H was out of reach.

I test drove the i20 twice. I loved its looks and the general interior quality. But the power and performance of the 1.2 l engine was disappointing. With 3 of us on board, it struggled with the acceleration. This was addressed to some extent with the diesel, but I wanted a petrol engine, as the premium for a diesel engine is not funny. They do have a 1.4l petrol version, but it only comes with the automatic transmission. So, the i20 was out as well.

Next up was the Grande Punto. I had a lot of expectations from this car. When I saw it in person, it was a disappointment. The interior space was limited and I felt that the quality of the interiors was not up to the mark. I test drove it right after launch, so the time in it was limited, but even in a brief drive, it made a very good impression. But, the quality and lack of space was a definite deal-killer. While at the Fiat-Tata showroom, I briefly looked at the Linea, but having read enough reports on how the 1.4 petrol was underpowered, I decided to hold on for the 1.6 launch.

The final car that I test drove was the SX4. I was extremely happy with the car, it looked good, handled well, had adequate power, good ground clearance etc. Then I learnt that a facelift was imminent and decided to wait it out.

I’d left out a few cars from my list for a number of reasons

Indica Vista: space inside was massive, but boot was too small, plus there was no version with airbags. I wasn't very happy with the interior quality as well

Swift Zxi: never liked the looks of the car

Aveo: one of my favourite cars lookswise, but again airbags were not available.

Fiesta: felt that it was a little too small, not much of an upgrade space wise from Santro.

So, there I was in September, without a car and in waiting mode. Waiting for the new SX4 to be launched. Then I met a friend of my wife, who’d come over with his family. I knew that he had bought a petrol Fiesta a couple of months back and was curious to find out the thinking behind his decision. I went down to have a dekko at his car. The cabin did look small, but seemed big enough for my needs. I then took the car for a small drive and was bowled over by its power (though I couldn’t really test it out as it was in the running in period) as well as its poise on the road (or what remains of it in HSR Layout). Then came the clincher, he said that as employees of a Ford supplier, he and my wife were eligible for special supplier pricing, which was almost 70K less than the regular price.

That piqued my interest and I decided to explore more. I started out naturally at my favourite timewaster automobile site team-bhp and found a world of really passionate enthusiasts who were totally in love with the Fiesta. Satisfied, I called Lathangi Motors for a test drive. I took a 15 km drive through the ORR and some of the service roads and came back totally impressed. This was followed by another round of test drive, this time with Vidya and Nisha. Ultimately, everyone was onboard that it was a good buy.

But there was still the decision on whether to go with this or wait for the SX4 to be launched and then decide. I thought about it a little bit and felt that it was just a case of putting off the decision. They were not comparable pricewise (SX4 is 8.6L OTR, I was getting Fiesta SXI for 7.5L OTR), plus SX4 would likely be even more expensive when it is relaunched. So, the Fiesta it was, a decision made not just with the heart but with the head as well.

What I liked about the car

- Looks (some may say that Fiesta looks dated, but it has a classic feel to it, especially side on, it looks very proportionate unlike other cars in its segment

- Engine power

- Ride, felt really composed over the bumpy HSR roads

- Handling

- Interiors on the SXI, those leather seats are awesome

- Loaded with airbags, ABS, chrome everything

Things that could be better

- ICE, having got used to USB/Bluetooth on my current setup, it is like going 2 years into the past. Still the sound quality is good

- Glove box space felt a little small, but I’ll know only after sustained use

- No dead pedal

Totally dissatisfied with

- Indicators, why they are on the left in a made-for-India car is beyond me

- Chrome side view mirrors (ugh)

I booked the car on Oct 12, expecting to get delivery in 2 weeks time. It was a tough choice on the colour, the white (taxi), silver (already had a silver Santro), platinum (the most common colour), morello (purplish tinge)today, red (too bright) and black (tough to maintain) were eliminated and I went for the sea grey having never seen a car in the colour. The delivery took a little longer than expected and when it finally arrived, I wasn't all that thrilled with the colour, somehow it seemed a little lighter than I expected. But I wasn't prepared to wait for another month and gave the go-ahead to register it.

We picked it up on Saturday evening, did a small pooja at the Anjaneyar kovil near our house and brought it back. Unfortunately, it was raining throughout and the car got a little messy, so I couldn't take the photos that I had planned on Sunday. That will have to wait for the cleanup this week.

Missing App Store on iphone

I recently encountered a problem on my ipod touch where the App Store was completely missing from the device. In addition, when I plugged in the touch to my computer, the Application tab was rendered read-only. This meant that I was not able to add any new applications or rearrange the icons through iTunes. A google search did not offer much advice except to restore the device to factory settings. But that would mean that all data would be lost and have to be retransferred, which could take a long time on my 32 Gig touch.

I set out to explore a little more and I found a suggestion on the Apple support forums that it could be related to Restrictions. So, I set out to explore that under Settings->General->Restrictions and voila, I found that the setting for Installing Applications was Off. A quick change to On and the App Store icon came right back on.

Back to Bangalore...at last

I made my first trip to Chennai for the Satyam transition project on 1-Sep. Between then and today, I have travelled back and forth 6 times spending almost 60% of the time there. In hindsight, a lot of our preparation was overkill as the cutover went through extremely well. But as I am discovering, that is how my new boss operates, he wants to sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed well in advance and goes over it twice to make sure!!!

I was expecting to work out of our Mount Road office, but it was not to be. To ensure proximity to the Satyam office, we had taken an office on Old Mahabalipuram Road (aka Rajiv Gandhi Salai : why do we insist on naming everything after that blasted family) near Thoraipakkam. Despite the development that has taken place over the last 5 years, there is a big difference between that and the rest of the city especially when it comes to decent hotels and restaurants. Since we were in office till 10pm almost every day, it wasn't so bad. But once the cutover was complete, we were done at 6pm and that's when I felt isolated on OMR road.

At home, Mukund has been growing a lot and progressing enormously in his development. He now smiles all the time, especially when he is around his Nisha-akka. He has outgrown the batchtub we had bought for him, so we had to go and buy a replacement one today. Nisha is doing well in school, she and the 1-5 standard kids are putting up a grand show next week. She has not revealed much as it is meant to be a "surprise" for the parents.

My new Ford Fiesta is coming tomorrow. I went for a grey colour one, as none of the other colours appealed much to me. I wasn't very impressed with the grey, but since I had booked it, and a change would have taken another month, I had to go ahead. I've still not decided what to do with the Santro. I could sell it or employ a driver and use it for Vidya to go to the office. I'll decide in a month or so.

The other thing that I am really looking forward to is cycling and jogging, which have suffered greatly over the past 2 months. A lack of exercise and unhealthy diet have sent my weight soaring over the big eighty, have to work hard to bring it down to 77-78 before the month end!!!

Thoughts on Diwali

Ah, Diwali, the time when the PC class gangs up to complain about child labour, pollution etc. I am getting tired to hearing the same bull repeated year after year. Consider the arguments against the festival

Child labour in Sivakasi: I am no expert and don't know the current situation. This has been highlighted a lot over the years and I have seen reports of action being taken against the culprits. Child labour, if it still exists, is a symptom, not the cause. The children work because their parents are too poor to continue to send them to school. The solution is to lift the families out of poverty AND educate them about the importance of keeping their kids in school. Accomplish that and watch the problem go away, if not the people will just send their children to work elsewhere.

Noise/atmospheric pollution: This argument has more merit as the increase in the SPM count and other gases cause problems to those having respiratory issues. The other constituent that suffers the most are the animals that are mortally scared of the loud noise. Some steps have been taken in this direction by banning really loud crackers. I've also seen a gradual shift towards the visual aspect of fireworks over the years.

There are quite a few positive aspects of Diwali

Awareness of tradition: Diwali is one of the fun ways to get children to understand about Indian culture and tradition

Boost to the economy: The spending that happens during Diwali may seem vulgar to the PC masses. But, it is this kind of spending that stimulates the economy and creates jobs for the poorer classes.

Let's put this bullcrap aside and celebrate Diwali in the traditional way. Happy Diwali everyone.