On the Road

Did you know that speed regulating strips are dangerous?

Yep, you know the kind, those more numerous, shorter versions of the ’sleeping policeman’ (more like a sleeping Gordon Sumner I say. Inside joke, prizes for guessing.) that make you talk funny:

“Hey Jim, what kind of fa-uh-uh-uh-uh-ah-ah…”

Evidence? Last Sunday’s MotoGP race at Donington Park, England, the race winner being not Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo or Valentino Rossi but the second Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso. It was raining lightly at, as it so often is in England, but not so heavy as to warrant rain tyres i.e. a rider’s worst nightmare.

Lorenzo and Toni Elias were challenging for the lead at one point in time but were taken down by white lines on the track kerbing.

Advanced riding clinics often tell riders to avoid these white lines because they’re far more slippery than concrete. And with two postcard-sized patches being all the contact a bike has with the road, losing traction even for a split second is disastrous.

It also highlights another factor about circuit racing (take note wannabe motorcycle street racers): it’s safer than riding on the street. Rossi himself has said he doesn’t dare hop on a scooter and pop down to the shops for stuff because on the road, a rider has far less control over other factors than he would on a circuit. And Rossi echoes the sentiments of other top-level bike racers. They might do 290km/h in a race, but not even 0km/h on the road!

Watch the line Vale!

And avoiding white lines isn’t just advice for bikers either. In wet conditions (or even dry ones) sometimes all that’s needed for a complete loss of traction is an initial upset – which white lines can provide.

But while white lines are a possible danger, speeding will put in a lot more trouble than you can get out of a lot quicker than they can, so above all, ride or drive with a cool head and stay safe.

Tags: Donington, MotoGP, Rossi, safety, traction, white lines

…because the stakes are so low.” I once heard that phrase used to describe the world of academia and office politics.

But what I’m referring to now is the current bickering that threatens to tear Formula One apart. This time next year, or even later on this year, who knows what we’ll be watching going around the racing circuits of the world?

Far as we are from the epicenter of the crisis, Europe, the most I can tell is this : quarrels are nothing new to F1, but for the past twenty or so years, Bernie Ecclestone has managed to keep a cap on things, and keep most of the money too.

Unfortunately FIA president Max Mosely seems to have decided that a budget cap of 40 million pounds is the only solution to saving F1, and paradoxically endangering it immediately by making most of the Formula One teams very unhappy.

He could take a page out of MotoGP’s book – the FIM (motorcycle equivalent of the FIA) once tried the same thing, upon which the constructors and teams overthrew them. Now rule-making decisions lie with the Grand Prix Commission, a committee of all involved parties and MotoGP is all the better for it.

Budget caps can work, but not dropping from 400 million pound budgets (like Ferrari’s rumoured annual cost of its F1 programme) to 40 million in one year.

First of all involving ‘forensic financial analysts and accountants’ into a ’sport’ is just ridiculous. There are a thousand and one ways to make money and a million ways to hide it. Just ask any illegal business.

Secondly, as double-world champ Fernando Alonso has said, modern F1 is now probably more of a business than a sport. Cut the money and you’ll anger even more people: sponsors, suppliers, personnel, etcetera.

In contrast the weekend of June 13-14 saw yet another edition of the superb 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, with Peugeot finally grabbing a win and the past dominating Audi only in third place. It was also great to watch 24 hours of non-stop racing without a shade of politics interfering.

Back in F1 though, the bickering continues with no end in sight. Honestly as a fan of motorsport myself, if F1 were to break into two separate series, as happened to CART and Indy racing in America, I don’t think I’d watch either. Let’s hope that the fans still have one championship to follow at the end of this year.

Tags: budget cap, controversy, Formula One, Le Mans, MotoGP