Rule changes for Formula-1 season 2009

We are 6 races down. And it has been quite an eventful season already, thanks to revolutionary change by FIA to bar use of electronic driver aids. Next season is about to bring 4 major confirmed changes.

1) Limit on Team Budgets-

A dream come true for teams struggling for consistent championship points. There has been a hue and cry about top teams spending extravagantly on developments. This decision is expected to bring the game to a fair level. But capping amount is yet to be finalised. Also, what will come under this limit is unknown. If rumors are to be believed, driver contracts and marketing may not come under FIA scanner. Importantly, it is feared that Constructors can easily outsource the development to hide it from FIA. So, to keep complete tab will therefore be a challenging task for FIA.

This has gone to a new level with another proposals by F1 bosses. Read here

2) Introduction of slick tyres and ban on tyre warmers-

Use of Slick tyres was banned in F1 since 1998. Slick tyres are the ones which do not have any tread pattern on them. These treads are essential to remove water from under the tyres. According to Wiki and one Automobile Engineering book that I have, treads help in better traction under wet conditions. But under dry conditions, slick tyres provide more traction. They deform less under stress conditions and hence can be made of softer compound, allowing better grip.

Tyre warmers were to be banned. This would have only affected the initial laps. But it has been cancelled now. Tyre warmers are here to stay.

3) Introduction of KERS-

I just loved this 1. KERS stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System. This is already used for commercial purpose. The principle can be explained by considering the basic braking principle. Breaks apply force opposite to the direction of motion of the wheels and dissipate the energy into heat. KERS uses this energy and converts it into some other sort of useful energy, eg. Charging a capacitor bank or storing it in a flywheel, as in the case of Formula 1 cars. This energy can be used in peak energy demand periods for additional boost. Let Wiki enlighten you on this subject..here you go

4) Driver Adjustable Bodywork-

One more interesting change is on board front wing adjustment control to driver. This will be a ‘REAL’ change that will kill the ‘ALLEGED’ monotony of the game.

For latest round of budget cutting measures and new changes click here

Biased Pune Mirror heading nowhere

Today’s Pune Mirror features a front page brawl against MNS supremo Raj Thackeray. The article is aimed at discrediting Raj. Let me make it clear…this post is not written to support Raj in any form. But the only intention is to point out the fundamental flaws in assumptions of PM.

Mirror has interviewed a bunch of people. The selection seems to be totally off the mark. Let me take you through the interviewees-(I dont want to mention names, so I will just write which group of people they represent)

• Politicians- Yeah, right! You expect them to talk FOR Raj Thackeray?
• A scientist- Fair choice, but the guy seemed to be in accord with Raj, even if not to that extremity.
• Educationalists- Why would they not want North Indian students? ‘Donations’ …always welcome!
• A bunch of NI students- They are the victims.
• Student Leader- One of them
• Restaurateurs- They think their customers will be lost. But one gentleman thought that culture is changing and thats not good.

Politicians, Scientists are not the victims in any logical frame.

Students…basically, Raj just wants these people to behave. Are they not ready to do that? If they are they are not the victims.

Educationalists…how many times have read about IT raids and large number of unaccounted money they possess? So if their ‘unaccounted money’ is stopped they can’t be called victims.

Restaurateurs…yes 7-8 lakh of NI students do matter to them. But again they are not their only customers. No doubt some of them will be deeply affected.

Pune Mirror tries lamely to portray Builders as victims. Thats totally preposterous! Not a single builder was interviewed and we know that they really don’t care who buys the flat. They are sure…if students don’t buy them, somebody else will.

People they have chose do not even represent quarter of Pune’s population. For a fair opinion, they should have interviewed Housing Society chairmen, landlords, neighbors of NI students, ‘AAM JUNTA’ along with them.

So the whole drama created by Mirror to show ‘Pune cannot survive without North Indian students’ is utterly ridiculous. And the headline ‘Huge NO to Raj’ is completely baseless!

Disclaimer- I have nothing against NI students and I feel they have as much right to live in the city as anybody else. But I believe that Pune’s economy is not run by them. They are one of the factors.

A race every Indian would like to forget

It was so close and yet so far! Perhaps it was not meant to be.. Force India almost clinched those precious Championship point but Sutil’s dream run was shattered by none other than the reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen! Sutil was stunned and could not control his emotions. He was thrown out of the race for no fault of his own. But its part of the game. I am worried about Kimi though. Every amateur Indian Formula One fan will will portray Kimi as a villain…and we don’t want that.

Due to wet conditions, almost every car got a ‘NOSE-JOB’. Some were fortunate to get 2 or 3 of them (Alonso was one of them!)! Cars were just brushing the walls and each other…so pit crew had a long hard day changing the front and rear wings in numerous unscheduled pit stops.

I feel bad for a lot of people-

• First and the foremost- Adrian Sutil
• Kimi Raikkonen- Had a drive through penalty for pit crews’ fault…hit Sutil when he lost control over brakes and did not get a single C’ship point
• Nico Roseberg- He had an impressive qualifying but was thrown to the last spot due to 1st lap pit stop…drove fabulously but again crashed out
• Hekki Kovalainen- Stalled his car before warm up lap…started from pits…damaged his wing and still managed to get 1 point. Impressive but could have been beeter.
• Nick Heidfeld- It was not his day. Started 12th, came into point scoring, got hit by Alonso on turn 6 (who..unlike Kimi…had brakes in control and was driving at 40 kmph) ended up 14th.
• Sebastien Bourdais- Was a passanger of the sinking boat with Sutil. He ran into Coulthard’s stationary doomed red bull and was out of the race just like that.

There were only 4 real gainers in Monaco. Hamilton, well deserved winner. Kubica, kept his cool…took advantage of Massa’s stupid mistake and finished on podium…yet again. And Vettel and Barrichello…opened their respective accounts.

STR has already scored 6 points. With Super Aguri gone, FI remains the only team without C’ship points. They had a realistic chance in Monaco…but was in vain. Remaining race tracks are not going to favor them. Its a rough ride ahead for them!

Wit(h) Steve Slater-

Sutil following Massa in 4th position. Kimi joins him in 5th position after his regular pit stop

Slater- Its like a dream run…will he manage to get those championship points for his team?….Following Massa……followed by Kimi…..but no pressure..no pressure!

An evening with Jeffrey Archer

I was in Mumbai a couple of days ago and I happened to be in Landmark when I came to know that Jeffrey Archer was to come there in half an hour as a part of his promotional tour for his new book ‘A Prisoner of Birth’ I have not read a lot of his books but I admire some of his works. So I bought his book and joined a large bay of people waiting for him. Crowd erupted when his arrival was announced.

After the formalities, he started answering some FAQs, expecting them to come up that day also. While mentioning his initial struggle to get a publisher for ‘Not a penny more, not a penny less’ he compared himself with JK Rowling and said that he beats her on this one that he had to approach 18 publishers while Rowling had to visit only 16!

During Q&A, he lightened up a bit and endless topics were discussed. After a 2hr ride to Landmark from his hotel just 15km away, he was convinced that Indians have understood traffic rules in some whole other dimension which nobody else can understand. He said that he could have walked a lot faster, but would have been a lot sweatier so decided not to.

Being a purist, he is not happy with the whole T-20 and IPL hype. According to him, real cricket match is a test match….between India and England…….at Lord’s………when India is 37/7…….(after a lot of BOOs)ok 37/6. He narrated one incident when an Indian guy called him and wished to meet him over dinner. Archer tried to explain how famous he is and how his time is important. But the guy did not yield. So Archer asked his name and the guy said ‘My name is Rahul Dravid and my friend is Sachin Tendulkar’ He invited some more BOOs when he said that both of them can bat OK!

He mentioned that real success in India is when a book is sold on footpaths and traffic signals. Todays Pune Mirror runs a story about him. He was surprised when they presented him with a copy of his book from footpath. Apparently he was not aware that those are pirated copies.

When he announced that he would be signing the books, INDIAN within the INDIAN woke up and everybody started running towards the dais. After 15 mins and a lot of bickering, the crowd narrowed down to 7 queues and that was it! I got his autograph after an hour, but it was worth a wait.

New Bollywood Legends

Looks like bollywood is running out of Legends. The ‘Nautanki’ of Life Time Achievement reached a new height in this years Zee Cine Awards. They had no better choice but ‘Feroz Khan’. Thank god he was sober when he accepted it (Fardeen Khan did the ‘Honour’). Few years ago he made a scene at Filmfare when he showed up with Smita Thakarey to present an award, totally drunk.

So where is this going?? There must be some standards while presenting such awards. Firoz Khan has been around for a long time, but he has not done anything to deserve this award. If you dont have people to give this award to..dont give it.

South Indian Food..Not Ready yet

I am not talking about same old ‘Idli’, ‘Dosa’ or ‘Uttappa’…I am talking about REAL south Indian food…Authentic! Yesterday, I went to ‘Vithal Kamat’s Soul Curry’ on Mumbai-Pune highway with my family.

My curiosity was tickled as soon as I entered the restaurant, as I could see all south Indian crowd inside ( crew and customers )  After attempting to read the menu for a few minutes…it was clear that I was at a wrong place. South Indian is not my type. This has nothing to do with the food itself…because everybody else thought, that it was awesome. I cannot consume such a large quantity of coconut in one go. Also I thought that the taste was a bit extreme….either too sweet or too spicy. Our 4 course dinner included

• Corn Wada (not a south Indian dish but was served with coconut chutney..so..)
• Uppam with Drumsticks and Banana Flower silk curry (too spicy)
• Curry leaves rice with Aviyal (was shockingly sour)
• Chikoo milkshake (for me and Payasam for the others)

Probably our selection was altogether wrong. I was more than disappointed (partly because I had to miss Jayasurya’s dazzling century). My mom hails from south India and I did not have a faintest idea about south Indian food. When you live in Sangli…outing essentially means going to a typical pure veg restaurant (like- Shiv Sagar) for Punjabi food. So I was not prepared, mentally, for such a changeover.

I should have taken things step by step. Suggestions and directions are welcome. I should work a bit more to develop my taste!

Hat-trick for Massa!!

Massa did it..3 in a row at Turkey! Mclaren created sensation for sometime by putting Lewis on a 3 stop strategy. But good old 2-stop thing worked for Ferrari. See the results

Force India, after a disastrous start for Fisi was back on track and Sutil finished the race. Good enough!

Looking forward to the big day 25th in Monaco.

Hat-trick for Massa??

Massa put his F2008 1st on the grid for the Turkish GP followed by the two Mclarens and then Kimi. See the complete results

This track is first of the 3 anti-clockwise tracks of the season. Next two are Singapore and Brazil. The direction change means more left turns than right turns. And with track like this, where G-forces upto 5g prevail for a long time, drivers will be tested to the limit.

WONDER BOY ‘Fernando Alonso’ is 7th on the grid. At one point ..he was 2nd in Q2..for 1.4 sec…but that was enough for Steve Slater to jump off his seat and praise him for the next couple of laps. I don’t know why he loves him so much. But now I have decided to try and not hate him that much (the ‘That much’ part is very imp)..because there is a strong chance that he may join Ferrari in next couple of years. So I am working on the preventive measures.

I am really feeling sorry for the Super Aguri guys…especially my dear Sato. He was real fun to watch. I will definitely miss him. Hope he comes back with some other team. Their absence meant only 20 cars racing. So qual was old 5-5-10 type.

With Super Aguri gone, Force India is all set to become the regular back marker..at least from todays performance! Fisichella apparently jumped a red light in friday practice so he will face a 3 place penalty. Won’t make much difference though as you can see from the standings.

This will be a race to remember for the veteran Rubens Barrichello. Tomorrow, he will equalize the record of Ricardo Patrese of most F1 entries..i.e. 257! Bless you Barrichello!

*Massa’s Race Engineer (on team radio after the qual): Very good Felipe.

Steve Slater: That will have to be the understatement of the year!

A two and half hour long Thums Up ad called….Tashan

When you watch ads like Thums Up or Mountain Dew…you know that this is not possible.. this is exaggeration. But you buy it for those 30 sec….because it ends in 30 sec. You take it casually. If you want to show that type of action in a full length film, you have to create that type of background. Only then viewer will buy it. Otherwise it will be called Tashan!

Only one line was running through my mind while watching the movie…’What the hell is that supposed to mean??’ Those who REALLY want to know about the non existent story can go here

Only 1 point about the action..why was it there?? I will tell you about only a couple of action scenes. I think they will convince you not to waste your money, energy, fuel, electricity and time in watching this movie.

Scene 1: Somewhere in Rajasthan

About 23-25 policemen confront Akshay, Kareena, Anil and Saif who are hiding behind some pillars. Upon entering the camera frame…the police start shooting these people like they are infected with T-Virus. Why?? Why do you want to kill them so badly, Mr Cop?? How about “Hands up!” or “Dont move!”…follow the standard procedures! Now something get into Akshay and he comes out running towards nothing in particular. Policemen must have been mislead by their commander… he must have told them that people die if you shoot 2 ft away from their feet. None of the 25 cops seem to aim correctly at Akshay who is running in front of them, then towards them and finally kick boxing with them! On top of that Anil and Kareena do the same! 3 people kill an entire police battalion. You have seen these kind of scenes before…but you simply cannot buy it in Tashan.

Scene 2: Climax

Same disgusting stuff from scene 1…but one shot tops it all. Anil is using a water jet from a hose to push Kareena off a bridge.. That seems to have created some sort of water canal. Then he remembers ‘Damn it..I have a gun!’ Just as he points the gun at Kareena, Saif finds a motor boat and comes to rescue her through that canal. Just when I started to think ‘Could this get any sillier??’, he does a somersault with it and pushes  Anil off the bridge.

Some irritating things (in the movie..other than the movie itself)-

1) Anil Kapoor trying to speak english. Horrible, pathetic, ridiculous! Not a single line that you can bear!

2) Songs and their great lyrics. ‘Dil Dance mare’?? What is that??? (Why god, why? Why are you doing this??)

I cant believe I am saying this..but Race was much better! If you dont like Kareena..there is nothing in this movie for you.

If you still want to waste your time…see the climax

Also see this post by Avnish on Tashan MTV Tickr

Niranjan’s new Ishtyle!

Niranjan introduced a new way of presentation at his only visuals quiz ‘Dekho Magar Pyaar Se’. It was a part of BCQC May open quiz. The presentation was superb. Take a look-