13en.co.uk

Hail!

2009-04-05T17:10:00.002+01:00

Is there anything better than doing work and listening to Manowar? Well, yes obviously there's listening to Manowar and not doing work. Unless work involves slaying hordes of your enemies of couse. Unfortunately my work involves writing, writing and more writing. Also researching. Currently at 2,600 out of 8000 words, and I really should get it finished this week. Fun. So obviously that's why I'm wasting time by writing about the writing I should be doing.

Right then...

2009-04-04T20:33:00.003+01:00

Felt I was locking myself into a theme slightly, what with ever single post being about F1 and an F1 header image... Time for a bit of a change, I think.

Loads of work to do at the moment, so I might as well waste some time blogging. Currently 2,200 words in towards the 8,000 limit for my project writeup. Yay for KTI12 and huntingtin! Actually the project was pretty interesting and I should be able to get enough words in and actually do well (enough) in it. Buggered if I know what I'm going to do when uni's finished though.

Heading back home for a few weeks on Monday, plans go along the lines of drink, drink, work. Work, work, drink. And so on. Then it's all about revision! When the exams are done I think I am going to drink until I actually can't move.

I look forward to it.

Hmm...

2009-03-27T10:19:00.001Z

I'm a bit torn by the friday practice times. On one hand McLaren are really slow, but on the other hand both Williams and BrawnGP are doing really well. Hopefully Jenson Button can do well and satisfy my need for a successful British driver in a British team. A Williams win would be fine though, I'd settle for foreigners in a British car.

Don't know if I'll watch qualifying live tho, I've got a big essay to hand in today and my final undergrad lecture. I think that heavy drinking is required. Maybe to the point of still being up at 5am? Who knows...

new post!

2009-03-26T22:29:00.003Z

Wow, haven't posted anything for quite some time...

But anyway, the recent rumours about Virgin sponsoring BrawnGP inspired me to break out photoshop and waste literally 30 seconds making this high quality hypothetical picture!

I hope they can keep the yellow and black look along with the Virgin branding, I reckon it would work pretty well. And anyway, red and white is a little bit overdone these days, but you don't see many fluorescent yellow cars...

Renault R29 and Williams FW31

2009-01-19T21:28:00.003Z

Two new cars out today, from Renault and Williams.

The R29 is the only car so far to retain the 'anvil wing' that became popular towards the end of last season, so it may be that it just doesn't give an advantage on the new spec cars. Renault are obviously hoping that it will, and Fernando Alonso seems to be confident in the new car - he believes that he has a real chance of taking a third world championship this year. The colour scheme is interesting, and so far opinions are divided; I quite like it, but plenty of others don't.

The Williams FW31 seems fairly standard, no radical departures from the other designs so far. Hopefully it'll be a bit more competitive than last years car, they didn't really get the results that a team with their history deserves.

Tomorrow sees the unveiling of the new BMW, and they'll be hoping to improve on last years third place overall.

MP4-24

2009-01-17T18:33:00.002Z

Whoops, forgot to write anything about this one... Mclaren launched the MP4-24 yesterday, as well as announcing Ron Dennis will be stepping down as team principal. Specs of the car can be found here on the Mclaren website.

Looks pretty nice from the side. Mainly because you can't see the silly narrow rear wing. I think it may be a little lower than previous cars, the engine intake certainly seems a bit smaller. It's probably got the best looking front wing so far, but the head on and top down view still looks weird thanks to the small rear wing. Of course, the numbers '1' and '2' on the noses kind of makes up for it :P

Lets hope for a constructors championship this season :D

KERS?

2009-01-15T11:45:00.003Z

I've just noticed that there's no mention of the car's KERS on the Toyota website. Are the keeping quiet about it's capabilities? Or have they decided to opt-out of this non mandatory bit of kit? We'll find out before Australia, I'm sure.

www.tf109-premiere.com, the official launch site, is online now. Pretty cool idea to launch the car online only, it's supposed to be a cost saving measure over a full press launch. And while the film probably cost a fair bit to make, I'm sure they would have made something like it anyway to show at a full launch.

TF109 Launched

2009-01-15T11:16:00.009Z

Toyota are the second team to launch their 2009 car, the TF109. Like the Ferrari F60, and probably all the other cars, it doesn't look particularly bad, but the massive front wing and tiny rear wing do look a little odd. The Toyota's front wing is a whopping 1.8 metres wide, although it just manages to stay within the width of the wheels, so maybe that will offer it some protection. But these new spec front wings so far all look like they'll fall off if looked at wrong, so I stick by my prediction that we'll be seeing plenty of pitstops for nosecone replacements this season. Just have a look at this picture from the TF109 launch:

The attachment doesn't look any stronger from the side, either. I know carbon fibre is crazily strong, but surely it won't take much more than a light side impact to knock that wing off. You know, the kind of impact that happens almost every race to some in the middle of the field in the very first corner...

There are more pictures and information about the TF109 at the Toyota F1 team website.

Launches still to come (according to ITV-F1.com):

January 16 McLaren
January 19 Renault
January 19 Williams
January 20 BMW Sauber
February 9 Red Bull Racing
TBA Toro Rosso, Force India

More from F60 launch

2009-01-13T23:11:00.002Z

Felipe Massa takes the F60 for a spin around Ferrari's Mugello track. Two words to sum up this video: Helmet. Camera. They need these on every driver as soon as possible, it'll look awesome on the TV coverage, looking where the driver looks, seeing what they see, much better than the static camera on top of the car.

2009 Ferrari revealed

2009-01-13T22:10:00.008Z

So Ferrari are the first to unveil their 09 spec car, the F60. The rear wing is a bit too narrow to look good, and if the other manufacturers come up with similar front wings I think we'll see more than a few of the in the middle of the track. The clean body's not bad, but I personally prefer the more complex aero kits from recent years although many people disagree with me.

More pics from the launch here.

Not that the look of the car really matters, as long as Mclaren win the constructors championship this year...