Brought to you by TheJudge13 contributor Mattpt55 – the best in Scrutineering, Stewards’ Decisions, and other assorted FIA documents looked at slightly irreverently
There’s the race we see on telly, and then there’s the race behind the scenes. One rarely talked about by reporters but told in part by the official FIA documents. Here is a selection of this weekend’s documents for you to peruse at your leisure. Enjoy. Wonder where all this great stuff came from? Right Here
From the Dept of It Seemed like a Good Thing at the Time
Why oh Why did I buy that gravel concession? I should’ve gone for the debris fence instead.
From the Dept of the Panopticon
Security Personnel *and* CCTV? I can’t even imagine what has been happening down there. “Straight line between pit speed loops” will wind up being an example of how to not phrase it in technical writing courses around the world
From the Dept of We’re Taking it Seriously
Wow, a separate judge for the chicane. Maybe that means we’ll have a decision before next January :-D.
From the Dept of Shiny New Drivers
Congrats Alex. And no, they won’t let you use your road car even if it is faster.
From the Dept of Let’s Keep Track of All the Things
Who’d have thought that Seb and Kamui would be tied for anything this season.
From the Dept of Silly Questions
Better than right in the middle of the track I suppose.
From the Dept of Awkward Questions
Ouch!
From the Dept of I Guess We Learned Something New
Extra points if you can find Uruguay on a map.
From the Dept of Count All the Shiny New Things
And Seb and Kamui are still tied for the lead!
From the Dept of Still Counting
Don’t see any Mercedes on this list
From the Dept of And Still Counting
Hmmm… Noticing a trend here. Lots of new Ferrari Parts.
From the Dept of Yet Again Counting
3+1= Grid Spot penalty soon. That ought to cheer Dr. Marko up!
From the Dept of Mismatched Numbers
There’s no truth to the rumor that he ruined the previous one by using it to heat his sauna.
From the Dept of Threatened with the Naughty Step
Those stewards are suckers for them pearly whites.Or maybe they figured having to use the Renault engine all season was punishment enough.
From the Dept of Dental Hygiene
I suppose it’s cheaper than a new gear box.
From the Better Question Dept
This is getting right nasty. Too bad Bob Fernley wasn’t there. Shorter Paddy: We changed the rules to save you money even though it will cost you even more money to change the rules. Our Bad HaHa!
From the Also Better Question Dept
LOL kind of says it all.
From the Dept of Embarrassing Mishaps
Imagine what else might not have been in place if it wasn’t already attached
From the Dept of Definitions
I suppose it depends on what you mean by “satisfactory”
From the Dept of Let’s Get it Done
Decent of them to get around to it before the start.
From the Dept of When it Rains
Wow. Crash the car badly and get to start from the pitlane. What Luck.
From the Dept of Complicated Math
25th place? How’s that going to work
From the Dept of Still More New Shiny Things
Not the best category to try and keep up with your big brother Seb in.
From the Dept of Rare Events
Didn’t help in Quali though.
From the Dept of by the Book
More than one way to meet the requirements it turns out
From the Dept of Breakin’ the Law
Hope it was worth it. Some mighty nice parties in Montreal
From the Dept of Timely Upgrades
What do Caterham and Ferrari have in common?
From the Dept of Silly Words
Ha Ha “not really aware”. I believe the “or something” though.
From the Dept of Mended Fences
Maybe you should take them out to dinner and get to know them a bit better first.
From the Dept of OMG WTF Happened to Your Formatting?
Looks like Lauda got to Lewis
From the Dept of Seriously You Should Fix That It’s Disturbing
LOL Seb’s on Fire.
From the Dept of Seriously, That’s The Best You Can Do
The accent in my head when I try to read it is indescribable.
********************UPDATE**************************************
From the Dept of I Can’t believe they finally put them up before the race Parc Ferme Docs
So Lewis apologists can blame the rear brake drum for the last lap mistake and both Toro Rosso and Caterham look like they built entirely new cars for the race. Happy Watching all!!
Are the teams allowed to change the internal cells of the energy store batteries after each race?
Excellent Question to which I do not know the answer. So I went and looked in the technical regs and it would appear that the cells are included in the Seal perimeter so could not be changed out on an individual basis.
Of course I did this in 10 minutes so it’s possible I missed something, LOL.
The name one of the scribblers is Jordan Irvine? Seriously??
That’s highly coincidental, very fortuitous or his parents really didn’t allow him much of a choice of a career.
An odd combination of drivers names for a moniker though :/
Still golden!
One question. FIA’s legalese is above my level of education, so here’s a quick question: I’m wondering what 4 “Previously used CE” for Kobayashi and Vettel actually stand for. Does it mean that they’ve already used 4 parts, and are currently using the 5th? Or, instead they’ve used 3 in the past and currently on the 4th?
Currently using their 5th if I’m not mistaken
you are correct, sir! 4+1=5 🙂
Golden. Very cool insight. Thanks Matt.
Thanks, I really hope it makes watching the race more enjoyable.
I really really dislike the way gear ratios and dog rings are being changed in parc-ferme. Surely by changing the 8 sets of gear ratios it doesn’t leave a lot of the original gear box workings in place, this is a joke on the original idea of it ‘saving money’. So instead of carrying round loads of different ratios they don’t use, they just carry loads of identical ones and change them as often as the letter of the rules allows.
I would have thought the gearboxes should be sealed full stop with no ‘running repairs’, when it’s broke, take the penalty and move on, instead of misleading fans that these cars are now super reliable and only 4 gearboxes does a season. Maybe 4 gearboxe cases does a season but the bits inside seem to be a different matter!
Looks like Seb will break another record this year – most grid penalties in a season. By Brazil he’ll start two laps down considering he’s running out of CE’s
IS it possible to start in 35th place? Between Caterham and Seb we may very well find out. 😀
Now that Redbull have effectively sent AD to pursue his Americas Cup passion and with the ongoing legal case between themselves and Mclaren over Dan Fallows, are we potentially looking at Redbull going back to the days of when they had David and Mark in the team?