http://www.pitpass.com : My favorite independent (and free of cost!) F1
site.
Michael Lawrence: My favorite features writer there.
Nice photography, too!!
Gary H.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Butler" <om2s.usr@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Dan Butler" <Grumman814@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 12:59 AM
Subject: [OM] Re: Speeding fines, as far OT as possible
>> An announcer for an F1 race the other day said it cost about
>> $14 million to
>> build an F1 car versus about $150,000 for a NASCAR unit. I
>> know there is a
>> lot of difference in sophistication but that is a huge cost
>> difference. Are
>> the numbers close to being correct? /jmac
>
> Well...
> This opens a real can of worms...
>
> Over the years I have tried to stay out of off topic discussions relating
> to cars because it is a subject very near and dear to my heart.
>
> On the subject of Formula 1 budgets. Toyota and Ferrari are "rumored" to
> spend $400 million a year to field two cars. Top CART teams $10 to 15 Mil
> a year. Jack Roush likely spend $15 mil on his five car team to do 30 or
> more races a year.
>
> A Formula 1 car no longer has very much in the way of adjustments by the
> time it gets to the track. The Top Teams do extensive testing to get very
> close to the right setup for a given track and then bring a range of parts
> that will allow fine tuning for the conditions. For example the shock
> absorbers are not adjustable without being completely rebuilt. This is
> all done to make every part as light as possible. Formula 1 teams can no
> longer be competitive without at least one 50% scale wind tunnel running
> full time and massive CDF programs to minimise the iterations done in the
> tunnel. Even with the "so called" cost reduction measures introduced this
> year, engine budgets can be 1/4 of the total. It is hard to come up with
> a valid arguement that justifies the money in F1 and even harder to
> justify the non technical expenses, but the Aviation industry is now
> learning (poaching) from the highest levels of F1 racing. The technology
> in a five year old F1 car is mind boggling
> , Last year at the Monterey Historics, Ferrari brought a number of their
> older F1 cars including the previous years championship winning car. This
> car requires two engineers 2 1/2 hours and numerous subsystems to just get
> the car started. For exapmle, all of the fluids (Engine Oil, Cooling
> system, gear oil etc) needs to be brought up to operating temp before the
> engine can be turned over for starting. When the electronics "act up" the
> first thing they do is replace the steering wheel. Find a pic on the web
> some where and you will begin to see what I am talking about.
>
> So this long winded explanation brings me to the "Michlien" debacle at
> Indy. What is undisputed is that Michlein really blew it in the worst
> way. From my professional point of view, what they did borders on
> Cheating. They felt the need to push the performance envelope out past
> the boundary of safety. What happened after that is where the general
> discussion gets "emotional". So from here on out, what you get is my very
> biased opinion.
>
> I think that most of the people who think that a Chicane was the obvious
> way to solve Michleins problem don't understand the restrictive nature of
> car setup in F1. Secondly you cannot take out the single most significant
> feature of the track the morning of the race. It would be far more
> dangerous than the original tire problem. Since the original problem was
> not Bridgestones fault (they brought the proper tire for the conditions)
> it would not be fair to penalize them in any way. According to the rules
> the only possible solutions would be for Bridgestone to supply the other
> teams with tires but due to the limitation of the cars it would be as bad
> as the chicane option even if the contractual requirements would have
> allowed it. As many have stated before the Fans are the ones who got
> screwed in this fiasco but that is mostly due to the level of technology
> and the legal webs that bind the sport together at this point in time. On
> top of all of this there is a game of politi
> cs going on that rivals any on the planet. As I mentioned earlier, the
> money involved at this level of auto racing is well into the billions just
> at the Team level not including the commercial rights and marketing money
> that can make or break many countries. Arguements such as, He should have
> done this... Ferrari didn't want that... are all just emotional crap.
> Formula 1 is just not that simple. The absolute worst thing I saw waws
> the Fans at Indy throwing stuff on the track. I thought that would be
> beneath even the most brain damaged NASCAR fan. The guys that were on the
> track deserve better even if you don't agree with the circumstances that
> caused it all.
>
> For those of you that bothered to read this far I thank you. I will try
> to refrain from a similar outburst for another five years, but don't bet
> on it if the topic comes up again.
>
> Mike Butler
> Dublin, California
>
>
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