F1 Rules & Regs for 2015 (or, How I Learned To Stop Caring And Embrace The Insanity)

Beginning next year, safety car periods in Formula 1 will be followed by a standing restart from the grid. This rule only applies to restarts after the first two laps of the race and before the final five laps of a race.

Why?

What is the point of this?

Truthfully, what happened is that the FIA released the updated rules and regulations for 2015, and this is just one of many rules changes. The noses of the cars will once more face redesign work, brake discs will now have to rotate at the same speed as the tire, and the wheel attachments will be redesigned for added security.

But the standing start rule is already catching the most flak. It seems like yet another mad-cap idea from Bernie Ecclestone to create drama instead of allowing for racing to occur.

So let's do it; let's make F1 even more of a spectacle. How, you ask? By following these simple rules changes:

1. Qualifying will now take place on Friday night in prime time as an American Idol or Britain's Got Talent type show in which the viewing audience can call in a vote on the starting order for each grand prix.

2. Each car will be fitted with a paintball gun that can be fired at all other cars. Every hit is tallied at the end of the race, with each hit resulting in a 1/4 second addition of time. Cars hit fewer times will be able to move up the grid. Cars hit more often will move down.

3. The winner of each race will have to carry a 100-pound ballast at the next race to increase parity.

4. Races will now feature a halftime period.

5. Each team must feature a male driver and a female driver.

6. F1 will now run the 24-hours of Le Mans, and it will feature as a octuple-points event.

7. The points at the last race of the season will be multiplied by 6.782, or whatever value ensures Sebastian Vettel another championship.

8. Monaco is all about spectacle. To make it even more spectacular, half the grid will run the race clockwise, the other half will run anti-clockwise.

9. Sprinklers will be installed at certain tracks, but only to throw water on the audience, not the track.

10. F1 will now be part of the Summer and Winter Olympics.

11. Sailboats.

12. Instead of a Driver's Championship trophy being handed out, Bernie Ecclestone will be bronzed and handed to the winning driver every year.

Formula 1 2014: A Partial Season Review

Silver Arrows. That's been the name of the game for the first few races of the season.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG Pertonas

Lewis Hamilton has the most wins on the young season, with 4 top step finishes. His teammate, Nico Rosberg, has two wins, but when he's not won he's finished second, so he leads the points at the moment, 140-118 over Hamilton. Rosberg was our pre-season championship pick, by the way. Only one other driver has claimed a victory this season, and he drivers for Red Bull Racing. No, it isn't Sebastian Vettel. It's new RBR driver Daniel Ricciardo, who claimed a solid victory in Canada after the Silver Arrows of Mercedes AMG Petronas both met with serious mechanical issues.

Currently the boys with the fast cars are in Austria, at the Red Bull Ring (formerly the A-1 Ring). The Mercedes domination looked likely to continue through qualifying, until Lewis's car stepped out on his fast lap, costing him a qualifying time and relegating him to a ninth place starting spot. Nico Rosberg set a blistering time, but it was only good enough for third, as the Williams Martini Racing duo of Felipe Massa and Valteri Bottas claimed the front row, the first time Williams has locked out a front row in eleven years. It's the first time that Felipe Massa has claimed pole since the famed Brazilian Grand Prix of 2008.

Felipe Massa, Williams Martini Racing
Austrian Grand Prix Pole Winner

The season has been a real joy for me, as I grew so sick of Red Bull dominating a season that, even though Mercedes seems to be the dominant force now, I'm okay with it. Sebastian Vettel is having such a rough season he didn't even make it out of Q2 at the track named after his own team.

First, let me say a few words about the Red Bull Ring. I love it. It's is one of the highest elevation tracks that I've seen. The track is relatively short, only 2.6 miles and only 9 turns. But it is a cracker. The run from turn 9 up the start straight to turns 1-2 rises some 240 feet. Everything after that is essentially downhill and a good bit off-camber. Everyone is running wide at turn 8, to the point that FIA Race Direct Charlie Whiting has told the teams any lap in which all four wheels go off at turn 8, onto the ample run-off space, will be discounted. Basically the FIA is telling the drivers to slow down even more.

And that's been a problem with the FIA lately. The group that oversees much of the global racing scene has taken it upon themselves to do everything humanly, and corporately, possible to strip away any excitement from Formula 1. They then try to inject new excitement into the series by using gimmicks. KERS and DRS are among the more recent gimmicks, but even in Austria the FIA has been playing their game. Nico Rosberg was noted to be running additional skid plates on his W05 Silver Arrow Mercedes, as part of an FIA initiative to generate more sparks and thereby make the racing "look" more exciting.

I wonder sometimes just how long it will be before we actually get Bernie "Fifth Beatle" Ecclestone's desired shortcuts and sprinklers.

Australia, as I'm accustomed to, kicked off the season. This was the trial of reliability, as each team had yet to learn just how the new regulations would hold up under true race conditions. Mercedes learned that their kit wasn't totally up to snuff just yet, as Nico Rosberg won but Lewis Hamilton suffered a mechanical issue and the team called him in, setting up his first DNF of the season. Daniel Ricciardo made headlines by dominating much of the race (as far as any non-Mercedes powered chassis can dominate), but his Red Bull failed scrutineering and he was disqualified.

Malaysia, Bahrain, Shanghai, and Catalunya all told the story of Lewis Hamilton dominating and Nico Rosberg chasing. Rosberg gave Hamilton a great fight at Catalunya, but otherwise Hamilton was superior over this stretch.

Rosberg reclaimed the top spot at Mercedes by winning at Monaco. Lewis fought hard, especially after getting a bit of dirt in his eye and basically driving the final ten laps with one eye closed. If there is a track anywhere that you really need both eyes to navigate, it's Monaco.

Formula 1 then came to North America, for the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villenueve, one of my favorite tracks. Rosberg and Hamilton once again began putting on a show, but technical issues struck and struck hard. Both cars suffered power failures. Hamilton's brakes failed in spectacular fashion, forcing his second DNF of the season and leaving Rosberg to carry the silver banner. Rosberg fought valiantly, but Daniel Ricciardo finally broke through, claiming the first non-Mercedes powered victory of the season and gaining some vindication for Australia.

Now the fast cars have reached Austria. There are three races remaining until the summer break, so the trailing cars will be doing everything in their power to close the gap to Mercedes. Otherwise, the Silver Arrows are going to just walk away with the title.

In other F1 news, Flavio Briatore, the former team boss of Renault Racing, has slammed the new Formula 1, saying it is no longer a sport of gladiators, but is now a sport of accountants. I hate to break it to Flavio, but I've been watching F1 since the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2008 and it has never once, in all that time, been a sport of gladiators. The accountants have always dominated the sport. Plus, to call F1 a sport of gladiators is a misnomer to begin with. F1 a sport of precision and power. Not contact. In fact, contact in F1 typically ends in abject disaster. Just ask Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez after their crash two weeks ago in Montreal.

A Little Bit of Everything

Politics

Let’s get the heavy stuff out of the way first.

President Obama with Bob & Jani Bergdahl

Very recently the United States negotiated the release of a captured US Soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, the only American POW in Afghanistan. Not all the information is yet available, so it’s not really a good idea to jump to any conclusions about this entire episode, but I feel compelled to at least share my reaction.

Bergdahl was a captive of the Taliban, though reports exist that he originally deserted his post and at one time sought to renounce his US citizenship. The latter is his right, I suppose, should he so desire. The former, however, is a very bad thing. Especially considering that several other soldiers lost their lives searching for Bergdahl. It’s all very tragic.

So the opportunity arose for a deal to free Bowe Bergdahl. A total of five inmates from the Guantanamo Bay facility were traded to the Taliban for Bergdahl’s freedom. Bergdahl’s father, Bob, and mother, Jani, were invited to a Rose Garden press conference. The elder Bergdahl, reports state, began studying radical Islamic philosophy in an effort to understand his son’s captors. He refused to shave or trim his beard in the years after Bowe’s capture. He is reported to have become more liberal in his politics, especially campaigning against the use of drones and the continued operation of Guantanamo Bay. Bob Bergdahl’s recent tweets include “Democracy is a cult in the West” and “I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen!” (this last tweet was deleted).

Once President Obama introduced the Bergdahls, Bob Bergdahl (a native Idahoan) stepped up to the microphone and claimed that he was having a difficult time speaking English. The next words out of his mouth were “bism allah alrahman alraheem.” As far as I can work out, from what little research I can find through the magical power of Google, this phrase is recited at the beginning of each chapter of the Quran (except the ninth chapter) and is often translated as “in the name of god, the most gracious, the most merciful.”

Some talking heads are saying this amounts to an Islamic claim on the White House. I wouldn’t go that far at all, as it seems a bit over-reactive. That said, it doesn’t really sit right with me. Call it a gut instinct if you want to… Imagine the general reaction if an Iranian prisoner was released and the parents of that prisoner went before the Iranian Parliament and saying “We thank God the Father and His son Jesus Christ…” or if they said “Praise be to God, Shalom and Amen.” The reaction would likely be far different.

Again, I’m just sharing my initial reaction. I would really like to think the best of my fellow man, but the last few years have somewhat soured me on the ideal.

Senate Democrats and that Pesky Bill of Rights

Over forty Senate Democrats have joined forces in announcing a plan to craft an amendment that would limit the amount of money any single person, institution, or corporation can give to a political campaign. The problem is the language they are using is so broadly defined that it could eventually topple the First Amendment itself. The proposal is so vague that it could allow the federal government to actually ban all campaign spending period.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) spoke out in favor of this proposal, saying that this is an opportunity for both sides to “work together to change the system, to get this shady money out of our democracy and restore the basic principles of one American, on vote.” That’s all well and good, until one remembers that we are not, nor have we ever been, a “democracy.” For a long time, the word “democracy” was frowned upon, because then it was seen for what it really is: mob rule. A true democracy, if you’ll pardon the cliché, is two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.

In true Harry Reid fashion, the Nevada Democrat pointed the finger of blame at the Koch Brothers. 

Personally, I’m taking this one with a grain of salt, as Reid also listed the Koch Brothers as a primary cause of climate change. I rarely agree with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), but he summed it up well in saying that Reid’s attack on the Koch Brothers was a diversion away from how truly awful this proposal is.

The wording of the proposal is deliberately vague, as all things political are in this day and age. The proposal would allow the federal government and the state governments to set limits on how much any one person or group could spend on a campaign. The press would not be restricted in any way by this bill. Of course, the press is largely liberal in their political leanings. It brings to question just who would qualify for exemption as a member of the press.

This proposal would give the government (read: federal) the power to tell an individual just how much they could spend on an issue they support. Now, I’m all for limiting campaign spending, as I hate the idea of a person spending millions of dollars for a job that will only pay them a few hundred thousand. But I don’t want the government telling me what I can and cannot spend. To me, that’s like telling someone they can support any issue they want, but they can only talk about it for five minutes. Once those five minutes are up, they can only support it at the ballot box. No more talking.

Chuck Schumer tells us how Thomas
Jefferson wrote the Bill of Rights.

And yes, I believe this would become a strictly federal power. The Constitution has this wonderful clause in it, called the Supremacy Clause, which allows federal law to outrank state law. I can see this topic being brought up on the grounds of the Supremacy Clause and the federal government being able to overrule a state mandate.

New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer weighed in, saying “I think if Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Bill of Rights, were looking down on what's being proposed here, he'd agree with it. He would agree that the First Amendment cannot be absolute.” Nice one, Chuck. Oh, one other thing…Jefferson didn’t write the Bill of Rights. James Madison did.

Formula 1 in Canada

Okay, so the heavy lifting is over. Let’s talk about something fun… This weekend Formula 1 rolls into Montreal for the Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. This in one of my absolute favorite tracks.

This is pretty much how the Canadian Grand Prix should end...

The Mercedes AMG Petronas factory team is simply dominant this year. No one can touch them. But Canada has a tendency to level the playing field. It’s one of the tightest circuits on the calendar, with little run-off area, meaning little room for error.

Red Bull Renault is in an interesting spot at this point in the season. Daniel Ricciardo, theoretically Driver #2 for the outfit, is basically out-performing his much more successful teammate, Sebastian Vettel, at every turn. But Red Bull is so far behind Mercedes that the RBR team is actually talking about billing Renault for damages. The 1.6-Liter turbocharged V6 engine that Renault manufactures for Red Bull has given the outfit problems, and because they are lagging so in their title defense, it could lead to “lost revenue.”

Anyway, here’s how I think Montreal plays out, in the form of a podium prediction:

First: Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes AMG Petronas
Second: Nico Rosberg – Mercedes AMG Petronas
Third: Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull Renault