Steven has been obsessed by motor racing in general, and Formula One in particular, for as long as he can remember. He can always be called upon for informed opinion on any aspect of F1, be it the sport, technology, business and politics or its history.
F1's backwards approach to track boundaries needs a rethink
It has been in the rules of all motor racing for decades that the white line defines the edge of track. I can see no reason for it to change. This rule was always applied except for some reason at the exit to the Ascari chicane at Monza. Every year it annoyed me that the track limits were ignored. Now the rule is applied there but not in many other places.
F1 stalls for time on cockpit protection
Formula One is always keen to portray itself at the centre of technical excellence that can resolve any technical problem more quickly and to a better standard than any other group of organisations. So I was disgusted to see the complacency emanating from the people who normally make these claims when they were asked on Sky about the reasons for not introducing the halo or any other form of driver head protection for 2017.
Testing Bruce's patience, and watching on with a hard hat
Everyone who inhabits Sidepodcast knows that if a space rock is about to splatter the Earth you send Bruce Willis up to land on it then blow it to bits. Until this week landing on a space rock had never been done before so Bruce would have had no previous missions to learn from. The European Space Agency's Rosetta vehicle took a decade to arrive at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It launched on March 2nd 2004 but did not arrive at the comet until August 6th 2014. I am not sure Bruce would be happy to sit around a capsule that long.
A closer look at crash structures and marshal requirements
Each column that I have written in this series so far has been about a single subject. Unlike those this one covers multiple subjects. There have been two safety related issues that I felt I should comment on and a Safety Matters column is the obvious place to do it. Some of us live commented the Rolex 24 hours race at Daytona. During this race there was a huge impact when Memo Gidley ran into the almost stationary car of Matteo Maucelli.
A tribute to the incredible endurance racer on his retirement
Despite the fact that he is soon to celebrate his 44th birthday it came as a total shock that Allan McNish had announced his retirement. He had just won his first world championship and is still absolutely at the top of his game. Aside from that, a large part of the last issue of the magazine Motor Sport had been dedicated to him which was only fair as he was the guest editor. He was asked about retirement and said that he knew that he would not be racing in 5 years time. I was so looking forward to watching him particularly closely next season in what I thought may have been his last year. Now that is not going to happen.
Get your science and space fix with news, photos, videos and more
One of the best things NASA has done for a while is a series of Youtube videos called ISS Science Garage. These are presented by Mike Massimino who many of you will know from The Big Bang Theory when he gave Howard the nickname Froot Loops, and Don Pettit who did some of the best educational science videos while he was on the ISS. All of them are on Youtube if you search for them.
A logical approach to making the pit lane safer
We all watched in shock as Mark Webber's rear wheel parted company with his car and headed unaccompanied down the Nürburgring pit lane hitting a cameraman. We have seen loose wheels before and every time the potential damage they can do is obvious and terrifying.
24 Heures du Mans 2013
The Le Mans 24 Hours, like the Indianapolis 500, seems to go on for weeks but we are now getting to the important part of the event. Tonight we have 2 hours of qualifying. The pole position and the race win will be decided between the three Audis and two Toyotas in the LMP1 class. However there are a number of different classes from the less expensive prototypes in LMP2 to GT cars. There is guaranteed to be something to keep everyone interested.
Learning lessons from preventable accidents
We all know that motor racing is dangerous, if for no other reason than TV commentators constantly tell us that those words appear on every piece of paper from tickets, to programs, to notices around every circuit in the world. We know that death is, always has been and always will be part of racing. We know that marshals can die because we remember the deaths of Graham Beveridge in Melbourne and Paolo Ghislimberti at Monza both from loose wheels.
Could the increasing trend for thin noses cause a safety issue?
There is one design trend in F1 that I am not at all happy about because it increases the chance of someone being hurt in the event of an accident. The noses of the current F1 cars are far too small. The frontal area in event of an accident should be increased to a sensible minimum size so that the load of any accident is dispersed over a wider area.
Featuring Austrians jumping out of space and more
Many people thought when the shuttles stopped flying that activity in space was going to get very dull. Turns out those people could not have been more wrong. This week we have had the first paying commercial space flight, an attempt by an Austrian to take a balloon to 120,000 feet for no other reason than to jump out and the announcement of the first celebrity going to space.
The incredible work of a man at the forefront F1 safety
Anyone watching Twitter when news of the death of Sid Watkins started filtering through will be aware of how popular he was with those inside and outside of the F1 paddock. The fact that so many drivers took so quickly to Twitter to express their gratitude speaks volumes about the man. There were tweets from drivers like Rubens Barrichello and Martin Brundle, who he had treated, but the tweet that registered most with me came from Alex Brundle.
IZOD IndyCar Series 2012
The latest round of the Indycar championship takes place on a road course at Sonoma. It is a 12 corner circuit and has a new hairpin for this race. Championship leader Will Power is a bit of a Sonoma specialist and he has claimed pole for the third year in a row. The rest of the grid is to say the least a little mixed up with Briscoe, Bourdais, Castroneves, Dixon and Franchitti completing the top 6. Ryan Hunter-Reay who led the championship for much of the season and is now second is down in 7th on the grid. Some other well known names Justin Wilson P10, Rubens Barrichello P12, Tony Kanaan P18. I am sure it will be an interesting race and even if it is not you can guarantee we will have fun commenting on it.
Hewland gearboxes are relatively unknown, but incredibly popular
Mike Hewland died at the weekend aged 89. He and his company should be known to all motor racing fans but they remain virtually unknown. Everyone knows that from the end of the 1960s, all through the 70s and into the 80s that the majority of the cars on the F1 grid had Ford Cosworth DFV engines. What is not as well known is that each of these engines was mated to a Hewland gearbox.
The latest space news, including new moons for Pluto and a pet on the ISS
It's a while since I last wrote a Sidepodspace post. The shuttle program meant that there were regular reminders that it was about time I wrote one and despite the fact that there are loads of interesting things happening in relation to space there is not the regular or irregular shuttle launch to give me a nudge.
With leg protection covered, it's time for F1 to pay attention to the head
For as long as I can remember I have been arguing that drivers' heads should be protected a lot better than they are. Everyone is familiar with some recent accidents where something came in contact with the driver's head injuring or killing them. Many of us will remember watching Felipe Massa's Hungarian accident happening live on TV when he was hit on the forehead by a spring. Now we have had María de Villota's testing accident where in a very low speed crash her head came in contact with the tail lift of a truck. Since the changes made to protect the legs of drivers have been such an overwhelming success we need to consider what could be done to make the heads of drivers equally safe.
From rain delays to washing up liquid solutions, visibility cannot be forgotten
There are many aspects that have to be considered when looking at motor racing safety. There are obvious things like the use of best possible barriers at the track edge, the structure of the car being designed to stand certain loads and the clothing and helmets worn by the drivers meeting the appropriate standards. One factor often overlooked though is visibility. It should go without saying that if a driver can't see clearly it is not safe for him to race. It should but experience tells us that often drivers choose to race or are put in a situation where they have no choice but race when visibility is horrendous.
The Bahrain Grand Prix proves a lack of paddock backbone
Despite the fact that it is obvious to practically everyone that this race should not happen it still appears that it will take place. Even previous apologists like Damon Hill have woken up and smelled the coffee and gone public with the view that the only sensible thing to do is for F1 not to go to Bahrain this year.
The latest science and space news, from Waterworld to the moon
We have all at some point read or heard a sentence and thought it was one we would never read or hear. It was a comment like that by Christine on a post on Google Plus that lead to me writing this post. The subject was a Japanese plan to build a space elevator to carry passengers to a space station a tenth of the distance to the moon. Beyond the space station a nary orbit and has a high tech cable attaching it to the Earth at the equator. The car that travels up the cable will go at 125 mph which sounds fast but it will take 200 hours to get there which is more than 8 days. It is going to have to be a very special lift carriage to keep people entertained for more than a week.
Your science and space update includes big jumps and water on Mars
When the shuttle fleet was grounded it was supposed to lead to a lull in space travel and news. In fact the opposite has happened. Now that journalists and bloggers no longer have the low hanging fruit the shuttles provided they have searched out their ladders and stretched up to the more difficult branches.
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