Narain Karthikeyan in F1

[Cinefan]

Schumi can kiss goodbye to the title.


http://sify.com/sports/drive/fullstory.php?id=13894099

[rami]

Here are some interesting facts about Formula 1 racing

01. An F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!

02. Formula 1 cars have over a kilometre of cable, linked to about 100 sensors and actuators which monitor and control many parts of the car.

03. An F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!

04. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a
decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....thats the
extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...

05. When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences
retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through
a BRICK wall at 300kmph !!!

06. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one
race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)

07. At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini Bus.

08. In an F1 car the engine typically revs upto 18000 rpm,(the piston
travelling up and down 300 times a second!!) wheres cars like the
palio, maruti 800,indica rev only upto 6000 rpm at max. Thats 3 times slower.

09. The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of
approx 1000 degees Centigrade and they attain that temp while braking before almost every turn...that is why they r not made of steel but of carbon fibre which is much more harder and resistant to wear and tear and most of all has a higher melting point.

10. If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system would
empty in just over a second.

11. Gear cogs or ratios are used only for one race, and are replaced
regularly to prevent failure, as they are subjected to very high
degrees of stress.

12. The fit in the cockpit is so tight that the steering wheel must be
removed for the driver to get in or out of the car. A small latch
behind the wheel releases it from the column. Levers or paddles for changing gear are located on the back of the wheel. So no gearstick! The clutch levers are also on the steering wheel, located below the gear paddles.

13. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and
added downforce can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.

14. Without aerodynamic downforce, high-performance racing cars have
sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160kph.
They usually race at over 300 kph.

15. The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by the front and rear wings and the car underbody is amazing. Once the car is travelling over 160 kph, an F1 car can generate enough downforce to equal it's own weight. That means it could actually hold itself to the CEILING of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!

16. In a street course race like the monaco grand prix, the downforce
provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of
the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent
this from happening!

17. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second.
This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average
50 litre family car.They use the same refueling rigs used on US
military helicopters today.

18. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. & 8 sec to read above point.

19. Race car tyres don't have air in them like normal car tyres. Most
racing tyres have nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has a more
consistent pressure compared to normal air. Air typically contains
varying amounts of water vapour in it, which affects its expansion and
contraction as a function of temperature, making the tyre pressure
unpredictable.

20. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5kg
in weight due to wear.

21. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to
last 90 - 120 km.

22. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best
grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.

[Cinefan]

Alonso wins again,his 6th in 12 races so far this season.

http://sify.com/sports/drive/fullstory.php?id=13902522

[Cinefan]

Kimi blasted his way to his fourth win of the season to reduce the gap between himself&championship leader Alonso(who started sixth,had to pit after mayhem in the first corner&finally finished 11th,outside of points).Starting 4th on the grid,he made it to second overtaking Trulli&team mate Montoya.Micheal who made it to his first pole of the season had a clean start.Both he&Kimi traded fastest lap timings&it looked like it will be a close battle.But the reliability problems of the Brigestone tyres of Ferrari which has haunted them all season&has been the main factor in their poor performance came back&half way into the race Micheal had to slow down.

But Kimi&Montoya had no such problems&were all set to make it 1-2 but one of the Mclerans broke down again(This time Montoya's&not poor Kimi's)allowing Micheal to finish second(warding a strong challenge from younger brother Ralf in a Toyota)a good 35 seconds behind Kimi.

A couple of more races like this( Kimi winning&Alonso not picking up a point),the title race will surely open up.
With six more races to go in the season,the challenge is hotting up.

Narain finished 12th with team mate Monteiro finishing 13th.

[Cinefan]

http://in.rediff.com/sports/2005/aug/16bar.htm

Ruebens leaves Ferrari for BAR,Fellipe Massa will be Micheal's new partner from next season.

[Cinefan]

http://in.rediff.com/sports/2005/aug/21turkey.htm

Kimi wins the inagural Turkish Grand prix,Alonso finishes second&Montoya third.

Micheal has a DNF while Narain ended up 14th.

[Anoushka]

Cinefan, did you watch the F1 yesterday... another dramatic one where the second and third position changed in the last two laps!!!

[Anesh]

Jaiganesh my man, Narain has been in the field for sometime, He has been doing quite well in the Formula 3 and Nippon races where he was seen has a bright driver. This impact paved some chances for this lad from Chennai to be a test driver for Jaguar Racing Team. Due to some circumstances he did not get a driving seat with them because of Christian Klime and Eddie Irvine.

The guy has determination but to bad the Jordan is a really tough car to drive. The poor development of the car makes it really difficult to compete with the likes of BAR and Sauber let alone the big fours of Formula 1.

Comparing with The Red Baron is just a cliche. But if one knew how Schumi became a champion he was not that good. His nasty ways of winning and the untimely death of Senna.

[Thiru]

Looks like Narain is going to be dumped by Jordan

http://sify.com/sports/drive/fullstory.php?id=13935546

[Cinefan]

http://in.rediff.com/sports/2005/sep/11kimi.htm

Kimi won yesterday.Narain finished a credible 11th while teammate Monteiro(with a faster car)took a point in 8th place.