Fifty Four More

I'm glad to see that the FIA is doing away with the horrendous closing of pit lane nonsense this coming season. That rule pissed me off so much. In theory, I understood the rationale, however, I did not like the penalization of cars that had to come in or else their race would be over due to lack of fuel, as calamity always seemed to strike during pit windows. I understand the threat of penalty was to dissuade cars from quickly leaping in to the pits to take advantage of whatever the current situation was. Even that never sat well with me. The closing of pit lane always seemed like a tampering of potential race results plain and simple. If a team were able to change strategy quickly due to unforeseen circumstances to benefit their cause, I say all the better. It never felt fair to restrict such things. I understand this whole rule was supposedly put in place to keep cars from "racing" back to the pits in haste under a safety car, thus keeping the track a safer place for all. Just why didn't the FIA think tank come up with the current 2009 rule sooner? It seems to make a mite more sense than just closing the pit lane for X amount of time. While I think I like the new configuration, I won't know until I see it put to use in actual race conditions, however Charlie Whiting seems to make sense when explaining how the new rule will work:

“The only difference is we intend to implement a minimum time back to the pits. When we deploy the safety car, the message will go to all the cars, which will then have a “safety car” mode on their ECUs. As soon as that message gets to the car, it’ll know where it is on the circuit, and it’ll calculate a minimum time for the driver to get back to the pits. The driver will have to respect this and the information will be displayed on his dashboard."

That seems to make a whole hell of a lot more sense than the old rule... whether this current rule sucks or not... just in theory the new rule sucks less than the old rule. However, instead of making the driver "respect" the information they are given, why not just make a limiter like the pit lane speed limiter button the drivers have. If the ECU can figure out where the car is on the track, and calculate the minimum time to get back to the pits why not just add one extra step and have the little fucker figure out the speed the car needs to go to get to the pits in the time the FIA would like the car to get there and voom. The driver doesn't have to worry about respecting anything other than the road ahead of him, there is no rushing to the pits... I mean why not just go all the way FIA?

Going back to the old rule one last time before it is forever put to bed: I always wondered why there wasn't a provision that if the teams could quickly provide proof to race control that there was no other option than to pit due to lack of fuel that a penalty would not have to be issued, especially to cars/teams that had nothing to do with the causing of the safety car to be deployed in the first place... as those F1 cars have so many damn sensors on them that I'm sure proof could have been provided quickly. Either way, that stupid old rule is gone so I need not muse on it any further.

Lastly... I have completed a new batch of doctored F1 photos for my famous "Formula One Paint" series of puerile humor:


More to follow in the coming days and weeks!