Michael makes a mistake

[nichosnz 0]

Once lapped it is only counted in laps, twice a driver has been 2 laps ahead of second; Damon Hill over Olivier Panis in Australia 1995 and Jackie Stewart over Bruce McLaren in Spain 1969.

[rodders47 2]

I liked Eddie Jordans remakars today say that with the timing at 1/1000th of a second, even Michael is not that good to arrange a dead heat !!!!! *smile*

[nichosnz 0]

Even if it was only 1/100th I don't think any driver ever was/is/will be that good. To arrange a dead heat.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

A thousandth of a second, it's impossible to arrange a dead heat with that little time to cross the line. The human eye can only see about 27 to 30FPS, so that is about 1/30th of the time you have to cross that line. It would be pure coincidence should it ever happen (as it was at Jerez 97).

[nichosnz 0]

I don't know, about a coincidence but certainly not arranged by a driver of a team. A team would even have major trouble organising that using software, with the dirty and clean lines etc.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

Certainly if someone really wanted to they could probably code some kind of software that controls the speeds of the cars and where they are on track, but it would have to be so precise as you say because the dirty and clean line could throw off the software, even by just that 1/1000th of a second.

[nichosnz 0]

Because a lot of factors govern how dirty the dirty side is including wind speed and direction, exactly how clean did the overnight rain wash the track.

Then the tyre wear has a lot of possibilities of its own, is Michelin harder or softer, than expected, is Bridgestone..., how many laps have drivers passed this point sheading rubber before retiring, how much is the heat affecting wear rates, how much rubber was lost in last corner accidents and incidents...

There are an endless number of variables that, alter the calculation on every single lap.

[rodders47 2]

hi Jens,

well you have summed it all up in one word... Technology !!!!

Just imagine this scenario !! R.B. is ahead of M.S but the team want M.S. to win !!!

is very simple just dial in a "MISS FIRE" into R.B.'s engine or reduce his power by reducing the amount of fuel used !!! and on and on ...

Geez the more I think about this scenario the more I wonder if I WANT to watch F1 at all !!!! like WHO is driving the car ? the guy behind the wheel is POINTING it but who has control ?????

Seems to me that guys like FANGIO / CLARK/ HILL/SURTEES/ etc etc were drivers and this current RASH of STEERERS are just that !!!!!! ROBOTS controlled by the pit apron engineers !!!!!!! I know it is a TEAM effort but the only one that gets the acolades is the winning driver whom it appears is CONTROLLED by the pit wall team !!!!

Is it any wonder that F 1 is struggling a bit with other sports for prime TV.. as Eddie Jordan said when the Indy F 1 race was on , there was also GOLF live on TV and for the life of me I cannot see how any outside interference can or would affect a golfers performance, HE is Human not a robot :-)

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

There was also the Superbike race which was, I must say, fantastic. Bayliss and Edwards were battling the whole race. Technology is taking the F1 cars out of the drivers hands more and more, but its still not an easy nut to crack when driving one. Though I must say the automatic gearboxes and traction control have made it a very point and go kind of driving.

[nichosnz 0]

It may still be quite hard to get to grips with, but with all the tech it must be a lot easier than ever before.

[rodders47 2]

Just goes to PROVE how good Senna & Post and all those before this current group of drivers Were.

[nichosnz 0]

Although Senna adapted to the driver aids and coulnd adapt back, he just didn't seem to drive as well when they were banned. Except over a single lap, (he was always good there).

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

There are a lot of things to get used to when things like that change. When traction control came back last year everyone said drivers like Hakkinen would suffer as they prefer to have full control over the rear end. What did Mika do? Almost won the race by 40 seconds, but then the whole Mercedes thing..

[nichosnz 0]

It is funny how expectations are sometimes blown to bits. There were no F1 fans that I have mentioned that race to that were happy with that result. All of them, even the MS fans wanted to see MH win that one.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

Especially after the poor start to the season, I think it was quite a unnanimous opinion between F1 fans.

[nichosnz 0]

You could tell, before that race that he wasn't himself, wasn't as happy as he had been, it would have been a good fillup for him if his car had just a few more corners left in it.