The Seasonal Variables

Hmm do Bernie or FIA have a plan? If they do it definately seems to be to continually make Formula 1 not what we remember it to be! Or have they actually stumbled across racing gold with specs for this season! This soul searching has been brought about by Shanghai race weekend. It was Glorious! accidently or not F1 right now has these set of variables that might make the weekends way more fun than have been in awhile, The 1st two races seemed like Vettel playing the piper to the rest and inc, Shanghai seemed like a true race with my wish of seeing Vettel defend his position come true, although his inability to defend #1 was not due to lack of his talent sadly but due to the tyre strategy, Hami was just way  too fast and together with his fresher tryes from 3 stops than Seb on his quite beaten out softs from 2 stops, And its official RBR have *bleep* KERS problem and unless they get that sorted out starting from Pole wouldn't make much of a difference (except maybe for Constructors Championship).


Special mention for Webbo before I start talking about variables, Thank you Webber for being that amazing and awesome; I haven't cheered for anyone for awhile( not since kimi left =[ ) and though we know you have a troubled car, we ( read meh ) want you to kick @*& all season. Amen ( I am not quite sure if that counts as a prayer but whatever).


Alright the STUFF that make f1 yummy for us at this point in time are maybe uneccesary and overkill type techlongies(but who cares really! as long as it gives us more vroom and bang) aka KERS and DRS and of course all credit to Perilli for making these amazing tyres who no one is quite sure how to work properly, much love. I want to give a bit of a rant for KERS and DRS and rules applying to them so here it goes.


DRS (Drag Reduction System)
the ^drag reduction system^ is essentially movable rear wings, If you adjust front wings it effects the balance of the car, if you adjust rear wings it effects the drag. So the FIA decided the teams should not cheat by using the adjustable front wings and that wanting balance in your car was not desirable =/, so they were chucked off ( not the wings but the regulations), and only rear wing adjustment was allowed. Reducing the angle of the rear wings reduces the drag, therefore letting you go faster in straights and helping you overtake. Although this rule should apply to any straight section of the track the FIA restricts it to one straight section calling it the "Over taking zone", a Driver cannot use DRS at any other point on the track, and He can ONLY do so while in that overtaking zone and less than a second behind the driver he means to overtake. As with KERS there are problems with actually incorporating the unit with the car. Although I think there should be less restrictions on how teams engineer their aerodynamics yet if this is the only bone being thrown their way atleast it should not be restricted to predefined areas on the track. Although in theory this aught to work but have not seen any amazing overtaking done due to this system.


KERS (Kenetic Energy Recovery System)
The type of KERS being used by F1 cars at the moment ( or attempting to use ) are either electrical (battery) or mechanical(flywheel), hydraulic KERS are bigger and heavier than thier cousins so can not be used for F1 cars. The Principle is the energy generated under braking is stored in an accumulator for using later to provide a speed boost. The boost allowed is limited to 80bhp every 7 seconds per lap, you can eitehr use it spurts at different points on the lap or all at once. The boost provided is indeed significant. In theory it looks very pretty but but most teams are having problems with implementing it. An F1 car essentially made to be light aught to be able to accommodate a 35kg increase of a standard KERS unit but they dont apparently; and weight is not the only problem RBR tried using a smaller KERS unit so that it would give them energy boosts in smaller bursts however even with the lighter weight the system its self was faulty that is the energy either would not always get saved or not properly.


Of these two I think KERS is an important variable. DRS might be completely scrapped by FIA if doesnt start showing some game. Tyres by Perilli are turning out to be a source of joy, they were under fire due to the marbles issue; that is the tyres seemed to be degrading too quickly. Even more it was speculated  tyre debris aka marbles were a hazard. This hazard seemed to have been rather vague in nature but nonetheless it was used to highlight Perilli's quick tyre wear problem. However this nuance might have turned into a blessing, with teams having to be more tactical with their tyre choices and strategies. The difference of tyre strategy was standing yesterday on the podium, Hamilton and Webber being the clear winners of it. 


I'm not for restricting the game too much, but I guess as I am not the one controlling that factor I can only whine about it time and again, but in the meantime make the best of it; As long as F1 keeps Speed, Strategy and Awesome I wont complain much.