F1: Red Bull Ragequit or Real Revelation?
I don’t think anyone really needs reminding that the glittering world of F1 recently returned to the world stage. The Melbourne circuit set the scene for a whole new era of Formula One. A whole new look. A whole new sound. Avid readers of my blog will be very much aware that I have never always been the biggest fan of F1, but this year I hoped the radical changes might breath some life back into the sport. Having watched the first race, I was pretty shocked to see that Grosjean for example managed to get himself a drive through penalty before the season had officially begun. Of the entire weekend, I have been most fascinated by the outrage and debate following the disqualification of Ricciardo from his excellent 2nd place finish. Most specifically, the reaction of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has definitely been a baffling one. In the aftermath of the Australian GP, Mateschitz has warned that he pull Red Bull out of F1 altogether. Is red Bull just in a strop since losing their dominance, or are they onto something here?
Tis the dawning of a new era for F1, a whole new look to a legendary championship
Driver Education: Does it/should it work?
Think back to when you started to learn to drive. Where was it? How did you do it? Manual or automatic? Who taught you? For me, it was the mid late 1980’s, in my home town of Perth and was done (then) through a driving school and with the emphasis on a holistic approach. It wasn’t simply sit in, strap in, ignition on and go, I was taught about getting settled before I started. Seat position, rear vision mirror, side mirrors, handbrake on (if it was a manual), that kind of thing. I was taught about indication, using headlights, observing the road ahead of me and not just the car in front. I was also taught to drive a manual, therefore becoming involved in the driving experience, not merely a steerer. All this, in an age where the VL Commodore and XF Falcon were kings of the road, technology was having a CD radio cassette and speed cameras were a 
glint in the revenue raiser’s eye. Importantly, it wasn’t my parents that taught me, it was people that were trained to teach people how to utilise a car to the best of the driver’s ability and was intended to put safe drivers, not idiots, out on the roads.
Even then, there was no real encouragement to do follow up education, how to improve the weak spots of driving, take advantage of new information, learn about advances in car tech (Anti skid brake systems, airbags etc), it was pretty much a procession of: get learners, get lessons, get licence, go drive mum and dad’s car until you could buy your own (if mum and dad hadn’t already done so). Time moves on and slowly, slowly, people wake up to the fact that people being taught to drive aren’t being taught that well anymore, or what they were taught was a long time ago and bad habits have crept in. Along the way governments became somewhat disinterested in proper driving education and found out that bad drivers make a great source of easy money. Drivers became less interested in being a good driver and more interested in simply getting from A to B. The emphasis became more of learning to pilot an automatic transmissioned car, not getting involved in what the car does. Technology upped the ante with extra airbags, stability and traction control, better ABS, climate controlled aircon and more with a focus on auto, auto, auto; auto headlights, auto wipers, keyless entry, but, seemingly, no progress on how to drive a car fitted with all of these.
The Noise about the F1 Noise
Those who like to follow the news from the motorsport world will doubtless have heard about the furore about what they won’t be hearing. Yes, folks, there have been a bunch of new regulations introduced that have seen the engines making not quite the same noise as they used to, as there’s been a rev limit put on the 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrids: 15,000 instead of the 18,000 of last year.
To judge by what some commentators have been saying, you’d think that the new F1s were dead silent. Wrong. However, they do sound very different. If you remember back to your high school physics days, you might recall that the more frequently something vibrates, the higher the note it produces. The rate of revs sets up vibrations in the air, which creates sound waves. The old sort of engine produced more vibrations, so you got that higher pitched note. The new ones have a deeper tone.
BTCC: A Return To The World Stage?
The start of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship draws ever closer, and the recent outpouring of announcements have laid the foundations for what will be a year to go down in the history books. I have written previously about how this year will see 7 Former Champions competing for the crown, with a rumour of a possible eighth in Robb Gravett. And of course we have the factory Honda team entering a Civic Estate, the first time since the famous Volvo of 1994. The most recent news has been a confirmation of something everyone has been excited about since the close of the 2013 season…
There will be a 31 car grid for the 2014 season. That’s right, 31. Of those 31 drivers, 11 manufacturers are represented, including 14 different models. That is what you call variety. The BTCC has become one of the most vibrant grids of any world motorsport series.
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