Malaysian Grand Prix - Sorry Mercedes

The church bells were ringing in Maranello again today with Ferrari's victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix.  The quiet sobbing sound you're hearing in the background is Fernando Alonso continuing to regret his career choices. Sebastian Vettel's win snaps one of Ferrari's longest Formula 1 winless streaks in recent memory, and places Vettel only three points behind Lewis Hamilton.  Granted, we're only in the second race of the season, but Ferrari has made some incredible gains over the off season, going from a team struggling for podiums, to a possible early title contender. 

This could also set us up for a very exciting Formula 1 season.  The great Formula 1 seasons have been defined as duels between two drivers, Hunt versus Lauda, Senna versus Prost, Schumacher versus Hakkinen, and so on and so forth.  These are the seasons everyone remembers because the races become one-on-one duels between larger then life drivers, and everyone else on the track better get out of the way if they know what's good for them.  Or at least that's how we remember it.  We had a little bit of that kind of dueling last year between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.  Still, Hamilton and Rosberg both drive for Mercedes, so even though Mercedes let the two go racing rather then issue team orders, you know they weren't going at each other full force because the number one mission was to bring home a win for Mercedes.  A duel between Hamilton and Vettel would have no such restrictions.  It would be the Formula 1 equivalent of a knife fight in a telephone booth, and it would make for an amazing season to watch.

WEC LMP1-H Preseason Rankings

The WEC LMP1-H teams have been doing private testing for some time now.  With the exception of Nissan, who has been surprisingly open about their car's development, I think it might be easier to break into NORAD then it is to to find hard testing data for LMP1 cars.  That being said, the teams have homologated their cars for the season, and we have a little bit of test data from Paul Ricard to look at, so just like we did for the Formula 1 teams a couple of weeks ago, let's do some uneducated guess work and see if we can rank the LMP1-H teams from best to worst. 

1).  Porsche
If you don't love the Porsche 917, please stop reading and leave right now.  As you can probably guess then, I was pretty excited to here that Porsche was returning to Le Mans with a factory LMP1 effort last year.  Porsche obviously had a good year with the 919 in 2014, winning the race Brazil and claiming a number of pole positions.  The car obviously had speed, but it's major flaw was that the car had midturn understear problems.  As a result, the 919 chewed through tires at a pretty good clip.  I'm just a guy with a blog, but I'm pretty sure that in endurance racing you want a car that's good on the long run.  While Porsche had speed, their tire wear problems hurt their finishing position.  The lap times at Paul Ricard again suggest that the 919 is going to be one of the fastest cars on the track, and earlier in the year Porsche claimed that they fixed the car's balance problems.  If Porsche really can manage their tires better in 2015, then they will have the car to beat.

2).  Toyota
Picking the strongest car for this list was fairly easy, as was picking the weakest car (five bucks says that the most common words we hear during this year's WEC championship will be "and Nissan continues having problems as they bring their car back into the garage").  The middle positions are bit of a toss up however.  Based on lap times at Paul Ricard, Audi had the faster car, but Toyota is the defending WEC champion.  Plus, even though Toyota was slower at Paul Ricard, they still have a 6MJ hybrid system, while Audi has a 4MJ hybrid system.  As I explained in excruciating detail yesterday, 2014 race results indicate that the key to speed with the LMP1-H cars is running in the higher hybrid sub-classes.  Granted, my analysis is completely neglecting aerodynamics, and essentially every other part of the car that isn't the powertrain, but the Toyota looks like it could be the better car on paper.

3).  Audi
While Toyota may have the stronger car on paper, races are won and lost on the track.  As the great Yogi Bera said, in theory, theory and practice are the same but in practice they are different.  Thank Yogi.  As I said earlier, Audi appears to be at a disadvantage using only a 4MJ hybrid system.  That being said, you don't win at Le Mans 13 times by accident.  All the great endurance teams have one thing in common, their race craft is second to none.  I'm not saying that Toyota doesn't know how to run a team, but Team Joest is probably the best in the business.  Even if they don't have the fastest car on the track, they stay competitive by capitalizing on any mistake the opposing teams makes.  This means that regardless of the car they are fielding, Audi can't be completely counted out from any race.  Oh, and they were also faster then Toyota at Paul Ricard, so that may help as well.  Although Audi is only ranked third on this list, I wouldn't be surprised one bit to see them race their way around Toyota once the season starts.

4).  Nissan
When Nissan first announced the specs on their GT-R LMP1 car, a lot of people were getting ready to hand over the first place trophy at Le Mans, the WEC constructors championship, the WEC drivers championship and their virgin daughters to Nissan before the cars even took to the grid.  If Nissan could have built a car to the originally advertised specifications, that might not have been a bad call (except for the virgin daughter part).  Then reality hit with the force of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. 

Okay, so the asteroid bit is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but Nissan is definitely the kid from high school who is failing to live up to his potential.  Nissan isn't going to debut the car until to Le Mans, and has limited testing miles on it.  By itself, that usually spells a recipe for disaster, but that's doubly true for Nissan given the cars unusual engineering.  While I salute Nissan for building the weirdest car in recent WEC history, they are going to have more bugs to work out of the car then a team building a conventional layout car would.  Also, the car is going to run in a strict FWD setup.  Nissan says that their traction control system and superior down force are going to make front wheel drive viable, but I still think they are going to have handling problems because of it.

All is not doom and gloom for Nissan however.  If their flow through aero concept lives up to it's promise, they should have really good down force numbers for relatively little drag.  The end result is higher top speed on the on the Mulsanne straight.  If Nissan can get their other problems sorted out, I think the GT-R LMP1 is going to be a real weapon on the track.  The question is will Nissan back the program long enough for the car to develop, or, if the first two years are completely unsuccessful, will Nissan just run away, bury the car in a salt mine and pretend this never existed.

***

Do you notice a little fun fact about this list.  The car ranking also matches the hybrid subclass ranking of each teams.  That wasn't just laziness on my part, for once.  This list was developed based on what we know about the cars plus a little speculation.  It just so happens that the cars in the higher hybrid subclasses appear to have a speed advantage.  If we see the higher hybrid subclass cars having a distinct speed advantage in 2015, then that will deliver a simple message to all the teams.  Get your car to 8MJ's, or race for second place.

Mickey Andretti?

I've been watching a lot of old IndyCar/Champ Car races on Youtube lately.  Then I remembered that the Indy Racing League's first ever race, the first race in the famous IRL/CART "split" took place at Disney World.  No, the IRL didn't have a street race through the Magic Kingdom (although that would have been pretty cool), but instead they raced on Disney's brand new (as of 1996) "Walt Disney World Speedway," dubbed the "The Mickyard." 

I had never watched the inaugural IRL event at The Mickyard, and it didn't take a lot of searching on Youtube to find the event.  So, in honor or this weekends inaugural 2015 IndyCar race at St. Petersburg, I present the first ever race of the series that would one day become the modern incarnation of IndyCar.

Walt Disney World Speedway will never be more then a foot note in professional racing history, but it is an interesting foot note.  After the Indy Cars left in 2000, the track spent most of it's life as a home for the Richard Petty Driving Experience.  It is also rather fitting to watch this race as IndyCar kicks off it's 2015 season, because in June of 2015, The Mickyard, home of the first ever Indy Racing League event, will be permanently closed.

So, grab some pop corn, put on your mouse ears, and enjoy this little oddity of American open wheel racing.

1.21 Gigawatts?

Buckle in guys, here's the long promised article on LMP1 hybrid subclasses.  Sort of.  All four LMP1-H manufacturers have declared which hybrid subclass they will be running in this year, and official preseason testing is underway at Paul Ricard, meaning for the first time (that I'm aware of), we have some hard data that we  can judge the 2015 LMP1-H cars by.  For 2015 we have the full range of hybrid subclasses covered.  Nissan's car will run in the 2 megajoule class (the lowest hybrid subclass), Audi's car increases from 2MJ in 2014 to 4MJ for 2015, Toyota remains a 6MJ car, and Porsche increases from 6MJ to 8MJ, making it the first 8MJ car entered in WEC competition.

At this point your asking what the heck is all this megajoule stuff and why do I care?  I won't go into a ton of technical detail (this isn't Mulsanne's Corner, and I couldn't explain what a supercapacitor is if my life depended on it), but I do feel that a very basic understanding of the hybrid systems on these cars is important to understanding the strengths and weakness of the various machines.  Like I've said before, I'm not an automotive engineer, and I don't have any insider information, so this article might contain a few (or many) technical errors, but I do the best I can.

Okay, so what is the deal with these hybrid subclasses.  The FIA rulebook for the LMP1-H cars has four hybrid subclasses based on how much electric energy the car is allowed to use per lap to supplement the power produced by the internal combustion engine.  (In case any engineers are reading this, I know I know a Joule is technically a unit of work, not energy, but frankly I can't be bothered to care about unit consistency at the moment, so just deal with it).  The FIA rulebook contains equivalency rules that attempt to balance out the performance of the various subclasses.  Specifically, if your car is in a lower class (like Nissan and Audi), you are allowed a higher fuel flow per lap, meaning you should get more horsepower from the internal combustion engine, while the higher hybrid subclasses (Toyota and Porsche) are allowed to use more electric power, giving them a stronger boost out of the corners from the car's electric motors, but they have a lower fuel flow per lap.  What this means that in theory, each car is given the same amount of potential energy per lap either in the form of gasoline (or diesel if your Audi and insist on using the same basic engine you find in a Caterpillar D7 dozer) or stored electric energy.

In the world of the WEC though, some hybrid subclasses or more equivalent then others.  Just looking at car performance in 2014 for a second, it is easy to see that the 6MJ Porsche and Toyota performed better then the 2MJ Audi.  No one has ever confused me for being a mechanical engineer, but if we look at some general performance numbers for internal combustion engines and electric motors, you can see some basics reasons why a higher hybrid subclass (done properly) is a better design.  According to my technical sources (okay, I went to Wikipedia), internal combustion engines have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 25% to 30%.  This means that of the energy released by the burning fuel, only 25% to 30% of that energy actually moves the car forward.  Electric motors on the other hand have a theoretical efficiency of 100%, with a practical efficiency of around 90%.  Let's put that perspective for a second.  The real world efficiency of an electric motor is three times greater then the theoretical efficiency of an internal combustion engine.  Now let's logically think about how this applies to racecars.  Each car is (basically) allowed to use the same amount of energy per lap, but if more of the energy is electric, a greater percentage of that energy will be used for actually moving the car, instead of making heat and noise.

Thoroughly confused yet?  Yes?  Good.  At this point, you're also probably asking, who let me on the internet?  Good question.  You're also probably asking if the larger megajoule subclass cars are faster, why don't all the manufacturers just run in the 8MJ subclass?  Two reasons.  First, storing energy for an internal combustion engine is as simple as adding fuel to the tank, but to the teams can't add extra electricity to the cars during pit stops.  If they could, Formula E would be a lot more interesting.  Instead, teams have to recover waste energy over the course of the lap and store it as electric energy (think Toyota Prius on steroids).  The higher your subclass the more energy your recovery system needs to able to scavenge per lap.  It's easy to claim that you have an 8MJ car, but that's only true if your energy recovery system can scavenge 8MJ's worth of power.  If you declare your car into a subclass were you can't recover enough energy, not only are you not taking full benefit of the hybrid system, your internal combustion engine will be down on power compared to a car in a lower subclass using the same amount of electric power due to lower fuel flow number for the higher hybrid subclasses.

Assuming your head hasn't completely exploded yet (or you left to watch cat videos on Youtube), there's even more things for teams to think about.  All this equipment to scavenge and store the electric energy, plus drive the wheels, weighs a lot.  So, not only do you need to make sure that your hybrid system is efficient enough to generate the amount of electric energy needed for your subclass, you need to make sure that car isn't too heavy.  Kind of hard to go fast through the Mulsanne chicane when your effectively giving a baby elephant a piggy back ride.

I'm guessing that none of you are still reading at this point, and those that have are yelling at their computer at all the technical mistakes I've made.  To summarize though, performance of the 2014 LMP1-H cars suggest that the higher hybrid subclasses have a speed advantage, but only if the energy recovery system can scavenge enough electric energy, and do so without turning a svelte racecar into a porker.  Team's who can't overcome these two technical challenges are better of entering their car in a lower hybrid subclass.

I'm leaving out some of the fine details of the hybrid systems on these cars, but this article is too long as is, and I think I've hit the high points.  Tune in tomorrow for a trade mark Racing Nerd uninformed analysis of the 2015 WEC LMP1-H competitors.

That New Prototype Car Smell

After this year's 12 Hours of Sebring, I've been thinking a lot about prototype sports car racing in America.  As I said in my article on the 12 Hours of Sebring (if you haven't read that, go do it now), I talked about how the current Daytona Prototypes, whatever their virtues (and there are virtues to DP's), they need to leave.  The question is what should replace them?

Let's get one thing strait right here, right now, if you love sports car racing in America, do not suggest that IMSA adopt the WEC's LMP1-Hybrid rules. The hybrid prototypes built by Audi, Porsche, Toyota and Nissan (to a lesser extent) are fire breathing beasts of racecars.  They would also single handedly kill the Tudor United Sports Car Series in a heart beat.  While I'm sure that teams like Action Express and Chip Ganassi could successfully run these cars, they just don't have the budget.  All of the LMP1-H teams running in the WEC are factory works teams while the prototype teams in TUSC (with the exception of Mazda's P2 cars and Chip Ganassi in a sort of, kind of, not really, kind of way) are privateers.  Point is that the LMP1-H cars require a level of technological sophistication that only a factory supported team has the budget for, and Audi and Toyota aren't going to be running North American teams any time soon.  So let's stop pretending that LMP1 hybrids are going to happen.

Now that we've left crazy town, the two options left are LMP1-Light, or P2.  IMSA has decided to back the P2 cars, which theoretically should end the conversation right here and now, but I have space to fill, so let's go ahead and pretend IMSA reads Racing Nerd and have a discussion on the merits between the two.

In one very important way, LMP1-L and P2 have one thing in common.  They are both raced at Le Mans.  As much as I love Daytona and Sebring (and the 24 Hours of Daytona may be my favorite race of them all) the most significant sports car race in the world is Le Mans, and if the TUSC teams don't have a chance to race at Circuit de la Sarthe, then TUSC will always limit itself to being a second class racing series. 

The real defining difference between these two cars then is speed.  Reviewing 2014 WEC qualifying times, the LMP1-L cars are approximately two to four seconds then the LMP1-H cars (depending on the track), while the P2 cars are about another two to four seconds back.  At first, I was in favor of TUSC adopting the LMP1-L specifications.  The cars are faster and technically the LMP1-L cars are designed to compete directly with the LMP1-H cars, meaning we could see the TUSC teams squaring off against the factory backed European teams, just like the good old days of the American Le Mans Series.  While that's a great theory, the reality is that the factory backed LMP1-H teams always stomp the LMP1-L teams into the ground, and that's not going to change just because Wayne Taylor Racing is the team being stomped.

Quick side note, I keep referring to LMP1-L like it's a thing that is seriously raced.  In reality, only one team, Rebellion Racing, is campaigning an LMP1-L car at the moment, so don't let this discussion make you think that the class is well supported.  Which is another good reason IMSA should run away from LMP1-L specifications like the plague

If the TUDOR privateers have about as much chance of winning Le Mans as Pastor Maldonado has of keeping his car on the track, P2 suddenly becomes a lot more attractive option.  Yes, the cars are slower, but the class appears to be much better supported with a number of different chassis manufacturers and growing class popularity from the teams.  I'm a big believer that as a class of cars becomes more popular with the racers, and as the class matures, the racing becomes much better, which is great for us fans.  Yes, P2 cars are slower then LMP1 cars, but the quality of racing (the thing we actually care about) doesn't necessarily require super sonic cars.  The fact that P2 is better supported by both the manufacturers and the teams makes the class a better choice for a racing series like IMSA to buy into.

IMSA, I salute you for making P2 the top prototype class in the TUSC championship.  Now all you Tudor teams go give the Europeans hell at Le Mans.

Formula E-ehh?

I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to write an article about Formula E for almost a month now.  The biggest problem I have with expressing my opinions on Formula E is that I have some conflicting thoughts on it.  Back before Formula E's first season, it was easy to write the series off as a novelty.  At it's best, Formula E is a support series (that ironically, doesn't support anything) that has some absolutely painful gimmicks ("cough" fan boost "cough").  Somewhere along the line though, I've ended up watching every Formula E race from Beijing to Miami...and...I actually kind of like it.

Formula E has one (and only one) very good thing going for it right now, the wheel-to-wheel racing is actually really exciting.  If you don't believe me, watch this last lap crash between Nick Heidfeld and Nico Prost at the last lap of the race in Beijing.  Yes, cars crash in all forms of racing (Pastor Maldonado has practically made an entire career out of it), but when's the last time you've seen a legitimate wheel-to-wheel battle for the lead on the last lap of a Formula 1 race.  The crash in Beijing happened back in September, and I still remember it quite clearly, and I can't remember anything from the last Formula 1 race I watched, so Formula E has to be doing something right.

Okay, so the racing in Formula E is actually pretty good, but there is still a lot wrong with the series.  For starters, there's fan boost.  For those of you who don't know, the Formula E cars are equipped with a push-to-pass feature.  So far so good.  Even the almighty CART Champ Cars had push to pass.  For Formula E "ePrixes" however, (these things really do need a better name), the driver who gets the most mentions on social media gets an extra use of his push to pass button.  Let's take a step back and put this in perspective.  The driver who is the most popular, effectively gets a more powerful car.  That seams totally legitimate and in the spirit of competition.  To be fair, from the racing I've seen, fan boost isn't exactly a push-to-win button, but it makes Formula E look about as legitimate as a South American military dictator.

Fortunately, fan boost is an amazingly simple problem to fix, you just get rid of it, but the Formula E cars have some technological problems that are going to be more difficult to fix.  Chief among these problems is the limited battery storage.  For a race that's only an hour long, each team needs two cars, because a Formula E pit stop doesn't mean four tires and fuel, it means getting in a new car.  This effectively puts every team on the same basic pit strategy, and diminishes the racing product as a result.  It also takes the fact that electric vehicle racing isn't truly ready for prime time yet, and places that fact front and center.  Also, these cars are fragile.  At Buenos Aires, a number of cars ended their races early with broken suspensions because the cars couldn't go over the curbing without self destructing.  Think about this last sentence for a second.  The race is only an hour long, and each team uses two cars in the race.  This means that (neglecting qualifying and practice time), these cars are only capable of racing for 30 minutes before disintegrating.  These things make the old Life W12 Formula 1 engine look positively bomb proof.  (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you owe it to yourself to read the story of Life Racing).

Assuming Formula E has ambitions of being a top tier racing series, and not just the dancing monkey to Formula 1's main attraction, they're going to need to run longer races, either in the form of two hour races (my preferred option), or double header weekends (think Pirelli World Challenge), and that means Formula E is going to need to figure out how to make traditional pit stops possible, and make sure the chassis is physically capable of running flat out for more then an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

And while we're talking about the technological limitations, let me throw some more cold water on Formula E.  (Which is actually a really bad idea because you shouldn't throw water on electrical equipment).  Formula E is not going to drive technological development for electric road cars.  For the 2015/2016 Formula E season, there are eight car "manufacturers."  Great, these guys will develop the technology to get a leg up in racing, and that technology will trickle down to road cars.  There is only one little miscalculation in this line of thinking.  Andretti Autosport isn't in the business of building road cars.  Of the ten current Formula E teams, only two (Audi Sport ABT and E.Dams-Renault) have any connection to real car manufacturers.  Yes, Andretti Autosport has racing relationships with Honda and Volkswagen, but do you really think Andretti engineers are calling Japan to give Honda electric vehicle tips?  Plus, as I said earlier, the number one technical problem facing Formula E right now is the need to run two cars per driver in every race.  Formula E is hoping to be at the point where they have one car per driver by season five.  I'm not sure Formula E is going to be in existence for season five.

There's no doubt that Formula E is a flawed series in it's current incarnation, and I have doubts about it's long term viability, but in the mean time, there is some fun to be had.

Dear Nissan, Different Doesn't Always Mean Better

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge Nissan fan, but I might be a GTR LMP1 fan.  I'm kind of a sucker for weird, slow, race cars.  While few people would disagree with me that no one is going to confuse the Nissan with any other car in the paddock, some people might be claiming that it is too early to say that the GTR LMP1 is going to get it's lunch money stolen by Audi, Porsche and Toyota.  Those people don't read racing news.

Thing's haven't been going well for Nissan lately.  The exceptional Mulsanne's Corner has been following and speculating on the development of the GTR LMP1 since the beginning of the project.  The latest news from the guys over at Mulsanne's is that Nissan will not be racing either at the WEC season opener at Silverstone, or the following race at Spa.  The reason for this is that Nissan failed their FIA crash test.  Specifically, they need to have the car homologated 30 days before they can race it.  This puts Silverstone completely out of the question, and Spa (if Nissan had chosen to run Spa), extremely difficult.  That means that the car will make it's debut at Le Mans.  In addition to the Nissan's shake down run being the most important race on the calendar, Nissan has limited testing miles under their belt.  According to the cover story in the March issue of Racecar Engineering, Nissan has only 2,000 kilometers of testing on the car, compared to 40,000 kilometers of testing that Toyota had when they debuted their car.  Unconventional car, limited testing, and late debut to the race season, I don't possibly see anything that could go wrong here.

Of course, if the Nissan could live up to the car's original billing, then they still might be a force to be reckoned with.  According to RACER's March cover story however, Nissan has slowly been adjusting everyone's expectations downward.  Originally, Nissan was shooting for 2,000 horse power with all wheel drive (internal combustion engine driving the front wheels and hybrid drive system driving the back wheels).  This has been adjusted downwards to 1,250 horsepower.  Also troubling is that originally the car was supposed to run in the 8MJ hybrid subclass, but Nissan is now anticipating running in the 4MJ or even 2MJ subclass.  The speed comparison of the 2MJ Audi to the 6MJ Toyota and Porsche last year showed that when it comes to hybrid LMP1 cars, you want all the megajoules you can get.  But wait, it gets worse.  Nissan designed the original concept of the car assuming an 8MJ hybrid system driving the rear wheels.  With the smaller hybrid system, Nissan has decided to lighten the car by getting rid of the heavy drivelines that send power to the back wheels and send all of the power to the front wheels.  You read that right.  The GTR LMP1, Nissan's flagship racing car, is front wheel drive.  Just like an Altima.  Nissan claims that they feel they can make this concept work with a combination of high downforce (which is Nissan is to be believed is the car's true strength), and advanced traction control.  Personally I'm still not buying it.  Nissan is asking the front tires to do all of the work, and no matter how advanced the engineering, there are certain laws of physics that Nissan can't change.  

Racecar Engineering reported that the GTR is running sub-two minute lap times at Circuit of the Americas.  Pole time at COTA last year was 1:49.  Depending on what is mean't by "sub 2 minutes" Nissan could either be a few seconds of the pace (still significant), to almost ten seconds off the pace. Either way, they have work to do.

To be fair, lots of cars have significant issues their first year, but with Nissan it seams like the hits just keep on coming. If Nissan can build a car that matches the GTR LMP1's original specifications, they will have a car that is the class of the field.  The real question is can they sort out the car's problems before Nissan decides to cut their losses. 

Remember when Cadillac Built LMP1 Cars?

Both RACER and Racecar Engineer have cover stories this month about Nissan's LMP1 car.  I'm working on an article giving a bit of a status update on the GTR LMP1, and some of the teething problems that Nissan is having with the car, and unlike my article on WEC hybrid subclasses that is still suffering in writers block hell, this one will actually see the light of day.

Anyway, as I was reading about Nissan, I remembered another odd manufacturer adventure into LMP1 racing, the Cadillac Northstar LMP1.


The Cadillac Northstar LMP01, which Cadillac campaigned for the 2001 racing season

Truth be told, the Cadillac wasn't weird in the way that the Nissan is weird.  The Cadillac was a fairly conventional prototype racer.  As the old saying goes, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then by the end of the Northstar LMP's development life, Audi must have been blushing, because the car looked a lot like an Audi R8 in Cadillac clothes.  What was so odd is that Cadillac, the company that for years was famous for building low performance land yachts that were slightly larger then a Nimitz class aircraft carrier, decided to go sportscar racing.  Also, the "Northstar" name wasn't just a subtle nod to Cadillac marketing, the car was powered by a highly modified, race prepped, twin turbo version of the Cadillac Northstar V8 engine.  You know, the same engine that was in your grandfather's Cadillac Deville.

Cadillac campaigned these cars for three years between 2000 and 2002 with one goal, win at Le Mans.  As most of you know (or at least can guess) they were less then successful at this.  Cadillac had two basic problems.  First, during the three years of the Northstar LMP program, Cadillac only ran a limited race schedule.  In 2001, Cadillac debuted the Northstar LMP01 (the 2001 redesign of the car, pictured above) at Le Mans.  The story wasn't much different in 2000 (where they ran at Daytona and Sebring prior to going to France) or 2002 (where they only ran at Sebring prior to going to Le Mans).  I'm convinced that had Cadillac actually raced the cars prior to the biggest race of the year, instead of trying to figure it out as they went, the cars would have been more successful.

A limited schedule was only half of Cadillac's problem however.  Although the Northstar prototype was only in existence for three years, there were three different versions of the car, the Northstar LMP (2000), the Northstar LMP01 (2001) and the Northstar LMP02 (2002, pictured below).  The 2001 car was essentially the 2000 machine with updated body work for improved aerodynamics.  The 2002 car was a completely different car however, with a new chassis, new aerodynamics and modified and improved engine and transmission.  The reason Cadillac kept trying to reinvent the wheel every year is that they entered sportscar racing at roughly the same time Audi was starting to grind the competition into dust and Cadillac was doing everything they could think of to build a car that could catch the Germans.  Again, if you ask me (and no one is, but that doesn't stop me from talking), the team had to deal with the issue of trying to come to grips with a new car every year and had limited race time prior to Le Means to work out the bugs.

The Cadillac LMP02, which was campaigned in 2002, and was the last of the Northstar prototypes.



Race car historians judge the Cadillac program as a failure, with the car never finishing better then third at any race, and never better then ninth at Le Mans.  By the end of the car's life however, there were moments were you could see potential in the car.  Had GM decided to continue developing the car, committed to running full seasons, and handed the program to a top notch race team like Pratt & Miller, we may have seen Cadillac been able to go toe-to-toe with Audi in the years after 2002.  Or maybe I should stop taking nips from the cooking Sherrie.

It's Not a Game...It's a "Sim"

I bet you didn't know that IndyCar had a race at Michigan International Speedway this weekend.  I also bet you didn't know that I came in second.

Okay, I'll stop insulting your intelligence and stop with the describe-a-video-game-like-it-actually-happened intro that is so common you'd think there is a legal requirement to make it the opening paragraph of any article about video games.  That being said, iRacing, the online sim racing service (and iRacing does refer to themselves as a service, not a "game") did have IndyCar races at MIS this week, and I did come in second in one of those races today, and the experience was intense.  After leading over half of the race, I was passed on the last lap by the eventual winner.  I was so upset my family had to ask if there was anything wrong.

When it comes to racing games, titles like Grand Turismo and Forza are probably the most familiar.  To be fair, these games do make an attempt to model real world physics (to all of you sim racing fans yelling at your computer right now, please hold on to your pitch forks until the end of the presentation).  In Forza, a Dodge Viper is going to be nose heavy, with a big old V10 up front, and a Lotus 2-Eleven is going to be light and turn on a dime, albeit with less power.  That being said, these are games were the primary form of input is going to be a gamepad which lacks the fine control of a steering wheel and pedals.  So, in their crazy conspiracy to turn a profit and stay in business, the developers dumb the physics down a little to make the game accessible to the widest possible player base.

The next step up from games like Forza in terms of realism are what I'll refer to as the "enthusiast" titles.  These are games that attempt to simulate real world racing as accurately as possible.  In addition to modeling real world vehicle dynamics as accurately as possible, players need to manage the same factors that real racing teams need to manage such as car setup, race craft, pit strategy and so on and so forth.  Plus these games also attempt to simulate the different levels of grip with old versus new tires as well as hot versus cold tires.  So, not only do players need to know how to turn in a fast lap, they need to do so without burning the tires off the car.    Relatively recently, games like iRacing and Assetto Corsa have been laser scanning tracks so you can actually feel the small bumps and imperfections in the track.  And when I say "feel," that isn't just nerd hyperbole, since almost all modern gaming steering wheels have force feedback that transfers this information to the player.  The newest sims are also starting to model dynamic track conditions that simulate the difference in grip levels as a track "rubbers in" over the course of a race.  Sim racing enthusiasts spend a lot of time arguing over which sim is the most realistic, and truth be told, no sim has gotten it totally right yet, but they have come a long way, and are the closest most of us will ever come to driving a DW12.

Given the relatively limited size of the target audience for racing sims, there is a surprising large number of titles to choose from.  Some of the current big name titles are rFactor and rFactor 2, Race Room Racing Experience (if you actually are a fan of DTM, and not just some kind of racing hipster, this is your sim), Assetto Corsa, Project Cars, Stock Car Extreme (the best Brazilian Stock Car sim ever made, by virtue of being the only Brazilian Stock Car sim ever made, but it really is a great game), and my personal favorite, iRacing.  iRacing is not a title without faults, and I may do a detailed review of these titles individually at a later date, but iRacing has a couple of features that elevate it above the others.  First, it probably has the best representation of the DW12 currently on the market, which as an IndyCar fan is a huge plus for me.  Second, iRacing places all its focus on player versus player online racing.  As a result, iRacing has sharpened multiplayer racing (which traditionally is something that has been very difficult for racing sims to do right for a number of reasons) and polished it to a mirror finish.  Racing against computer controlled cars can be a lot of fun, but there is no excitement or intensity like racing against real people.  Like I said earlier, iRacing considers itself a service, not a game (which part of how they justify their subscription business model), and it really does feel a bit like a virtual bowling league for racing nerds.

At this point, you're probably thinking, I have a girlfriend and don't live in my Mom's basement, why do I care?  Touché sir.  To that I'll respond, have you ever wanted to go racing, but couldn't afford to?  Even Crap Can racing like the 24 Hours of Lemons, or Chump Car can get awfully expensive awfully fast.  By comparison, sim racing is relatively cheap, and provides a lot (although I have to admit, not all) of the same intensity as real world, wheel-to-wheel racing. So, if you've ever wanted to give racing a try haven't been able to, I suggest giving sim racing a try.

The 12 Hours of Sebring: Fuel by Florida Fresh...Great Race, Horrible Name

As I start typing this article, the 12 Hours of Sebring has ended only a few minutes ago.  Unfortunately, I missed most of the middle of the race because I'm not one of the three people in America who gets Fox Sports 2 with their cable.  I was able to watch the last several hours however via IMSA streaming, and while I'm not sure I would call it a race for the ages, it was an exciting finish.  I'll let the "real"racing news outlets handle the play-by-play commentary, so if you're looking for that stuff, I recommend either RACER or Sportscar 365, but that doesn't mean there aren't some things I want to talk about.

IMSA has confirmed that 2016 will be the last season for the Daytona Prototype class, and the qualifying performance of the P2 cars at Sebring (as well as Daytona) has confirmed that the P2 cars have an amazing potential for speed.  That being said, the actual finishing order for the prototype class at both these races was dominated by DP cars.  The simple reason is that the DP cars were the ones running at the end of the race (at the end of the 12 hours, only the Krohn Racing car was the only P2 still on the track).  We may be seeing the dawn of the P2 cars, as they are able to go toe-to-toe with the DP cars at power tracks, but that doesn't mean 2015 is the twilight of the DP.  If I was Action Express, Wayne Taylor Racing, or Chip Ganassi (i.e., the teams running DP cars), I wouldn't be worried about my championship chances just yet.  The results at Daytona and Sebring suggest that the P2 teams are still stomping out technical gremlins, while the DP cars are pretty much bullet proof.  The next endurance race on the TUSC schedule is the Six Hours of the Glen, and I fully expect the P2 cars to score some wins between now and then, but I expect the better reliability of the DP cars to be an advantage at Watkins Glen and Petite Le Mans.

The Daytona Prototype: the ghost of TUSC prototype past and present

If you'll allow me to wander off like an Alzheimer's patient in the snow for a second, I actually really like the current DP cars.  They don't look half bad with the new Corvette C7 body work, and they make their speed with a big engine, which is just cool.  Yes, the DP's aren't the most technically sophisticated cars in the garage, but that fact that people hate DP's for that reason makes me love them all the more.  The job of a race car is not to be technically innovative, the job of a race car is to be faster then the other race cars, and simply throwing more power at the car (like the DP's do) is a totally valid solution.  That being said, the DP cars need to be replaced.  Wayne Taylor racing earned a Le Mans berth based on their performance at Daytona, but couldn't take the spot because they didn't have a car that was legal for Le Mans.  The top American prototype teams need to have equipment that they can compete in Europe with, and investing in stupid expensive LMP1 cars is not the solution.  So, while I will miss the NASCAR-racer-turned-sports-car that is a Daytona Prototype, I fully support P2 cars as the future of prototype sports car racing in America.

The P2 car: the ghost of TUSC prototype future

On the GT front, as a huge Corvette racing fan, I was extremely excited to see the #3 C7R win the GTLM class.  Considering Corvette took the lead at both Daytona and Sebring because the team they passed for first had a botched final pit stop, you'd think that Pratt and Miller is engaging in an active sabotage campaign.  It does continue to show that the car the wins an endurance race isn't always the fastest car (although the C7R is plenty fast), but the team that makes the least mistakes and keeps the car running.  Likewise, in GTD, the Alex Job Racing 911 that won the race only took the lead in the closing minutes of the race when the leading Riley Viper had an overheating engine.  Last minute swings of fortune like this is probably the reason why sports car racing is my favorite form of racing.  Where else can you have cars racing wheel to wheel for half a day, only to have the race winner decided at the very end.

This time last year, a lot of people where criticizing IMSA over how the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring were run, and rightfully so.  This year, both of these races were extremely exciting. While the normal state of things over at The Racing Nerd is doom and gloom, American sports car racing actually looks like its in a pretty good spot at the moment.

Australian Grand Prix, Best Reject Race in a Long Time

Because of an extended out of town work assignment, I wasn't able to watch the Australian Grand Prix.  From what I've read about the race however, it appears I didn't miss much.  Let me rephrase that, I didn't miss much on the track.  Not only was the starting grid a paltry 15 cars, but the Mercedes drivers flat out ran away and hid from the rest of the field.  Off the track, the action was a pretty hilarious comedy of errors.  Red Bull and McLaren were only able to get one car on the grid for the race, which is still leaps and bounds ahead of poor Manor, who didn't get their cars started all weekend.  Of course, the weekend's real winner for behind the scenes idiocy goes to Sauber.  The idea of a driver suing his (supposed) team for the right to drive the car is pretty much absurd in its own right.  A potential contempt of court charge for Sauber, which could have resulted in Sauber's equipment being impounded by Australian authorities, and potential jail time for team principal Monisha Kaltenborn, is simply incredible.  This reminds me of the shenanigans Andrea Moda pulled back in 1992.  (For those of you unfamiliar with greatness that was Andrea Moda, a team history can be found here.  Unfortunately it looks like the best written account of Andrea Moda was lost to history when F1 Rejects was forced to close their site).  Let's not forget either that after Mercedes blew the (metaphorical) doors off of all the other cars, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner threated to close the shop doors and go home.

I'll be honest, I feel Formula 1 could use a little bit more crazy in the paddock.  If the racing on the track isn't going to be very exciting, stupid antics back in the garage is the next best thing to keep the fans interested.  For this reason, I have long been a supporter of lowering the barriers to entry for small teams in Formula 1.  Small, poorly organized teams, make for great headlines and help drive interest in the sport as a whole.  Seriously.  I love reading about the history of Formula 1, but I find the stories of how Andrea Moda tried to kill Perry McCarthy (ie, The Black Stig on Top Gear) at Spa, far more interesting then the stories of successful teams.  In todays hyper competitive, highly professional world of Formula 1, we need a Hesketh Racing, a team that (at the surface) takes things a little bit less serious to shake things up a little bit.

While reading about the hijinks happening behind closed doors at the back of the paddock was definitely fun, it's a little bit troubling for the health of Formula 1.  Just yesterday I wrote that the German Grand Prix (one of the classic races on the F1 calendar) had been canceled for 2015.  Honda and Renault definitely appear to be struggling coming to grips with the hybrid-turbo-V6 power units Formula 1 has adopted.  Furthermore, at least two teams (Force India and Manor) struggled to simply get their cars ready in time for the 2015 season.  If Australia is any indication, 2015 is going to be an uphill struggle for a number of teams, and I'm fairly convinced that at least one of the teams that was in the garage area at Australia, won't be on the grid in 2016, possibly more then one.

Does all this doom and gloom mean that we're going to be the last generation to enjoy Formula 1?  Probably not, but the trajectory we're on does seem to lead to an era of small grids, boring tracks no one cares about, and poor quality racing.  As race fans, that should make all of us sad.

Bernie Strikes Again.

If you had not heard, there will be no German Grand Prix this year. Neither the Nurbergring, nor Hockenheim was able to reach a deal to host the German round of the Formula 1 championship this year.  If you follow the behind the scenes politics of Formula 1, this announcement should't come as a complete surprise.  The saga of the German race's troubles has been several months in the making.  Specifically, neither track is able to make the race financially viable given the high cost of hosting a Grand Prix, and the dropping fan attendance at the track.

And this illustrates what in my opinion is the biggest problem with Formula 1 at the moment.  Frankly, Formula 1, (and more then likely Bernie Eccelstone in particular) has let the idea of Formula 1 being the world's foremost racing series go to their collective heads.  The result of that thinking appears to be a giant middle finger to the fans, but not all the fans, just the one's who aren't rich.  For reasons I don't fully understand, Bernie Ecclestone has decided that every day men and women don't deserve to be fans of Formula 1 unless they are willing to throw significant amounts of money his way.  

To put things in perspective, just today, I bought tickets to the Lone Star Lemans at Circuit of the Americas.  A three day grandstand ticket plus parking pass cost less then $150.  A similar package for the Formula 1 race at COTA would cost just under $1,000.  I love car racing, and I love being at the track, but that kind of price for a two hour race is bat guano crazy.  If you were taking a family of four to the F1 race at COTA, you could easily spend over $2,000 just on race tickets.  The reason the fans aren't showing up to the race in Germany isn't because they don't want to, it's because they can't afford to.

The fact that Formula 1 is quickly becoming cost prohibitive to simply watch in person is going to hurt the sport in the long term.  The more Formula 1 becomes an exclusive playground for the rich, the more I see everyday people losing interest, and are there really enough rich folk who really love Formula 1, and not just looking for a cool party, to keep the sport alive?  Probably not if you ask me.  Instead, to keep interest in Formula 1 healthy, (and the value of the Formula 1 TV rights high) you need the interest of everyday racing fans, and a big part of that means keeping the races affordable to people of everyday means.

Completely criticizing Bernie Ecclestone isn't completely fair however.  Say what you want about Bernie, but he's no idiot, but he is making decisions that are in Bernie's best interest, not Formula 1's best interests.  As a result, racing fans suffer.

My Favorite Nurbergring Video

I wasn't able to watch last Sundays Australian Grand Prix, so I won't be providing any commentary on that race.  Instead, I present you with this.  Nurbergring-Nordschleife, in the snow, in an open wheel race car.  From what I understand this is more entertaining then the weekend's F1 race anyway.  You're welcome.

Formula 1 Preseason Rankings

Formula 1 preseason testing is over.  The next time we'll see all the teams in one place is when they take to the track in anger for the first race in Australia on March 15th.  Not only does that mean we're only two weeks away from the start of the 2015 season, it means I'm running out of time to make baseless allegations regarding car performance, with no race results available to prove me wrong.  With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to rank each time from strongest to weakest as we head to Melbourne.

1).  Mercedes
This list isn't intended to be a prediction of the constructors championship, but I'll make an exception for Mercedes.  After the first test session in Jerez, I predicted that Mercedes would have the fastest car of the field, even though they weren't topping the lap charts at the time (read about it here).  Lap times from the last test in Barcelona certainly suggest I was right.  Mercedes is able to meet or exceed the lap times of the other teams using harder tire compounds.  That, is what we in America, call a hot rod.  Based on last year's championship results, it shouldn't be a surprise that the W06 Hybrid is the class of the field.  The only real question regarding the Mercedes is whether Hamilton or Rosberg will be 2015 world champion.

2).  Williams
If the Mercedes W06 Hybrid didn't exist, the Williams FW37 would likely be the car to beat.  Williams was the only team besides Mercedes to claim a pole position in 2015, and they posted very impressive lap times on the last day of preseason testing in Barcelona.  Every thing points to the fact that Williams has the fastest car in the paddock that isn't a Mercedes.  Having a fast car doesn't guarantee race wins, but there hasn't been a driver in Formula 1 history who wished his car was slower.  The speed of the Williams' sets them up well for success as the season starts.

3).  Ferrari
If nothing else, Ferrari is a strong early contender for 2015's most-improved award.  Much ado was made about Ferrari not winning any races last year, which was the first time this happened since 1993.  Although I think that statistic says more about Mercedes' dominate performance then it does about Ferrari.  Still, Ferrari would probably like to forget about 2014 since it was definitely a rough year for them.  For Ferrari to then come out of the gate and dominate the lap charts at the first test at Jerez was a surprise for everyone.  What's interesting is that Sauber (with a Ferrari engine) was also quick in Jerez, suggesting that the Ferrari engine has come a long way over the winter, and is probably the second best engine in the field for 2015.  While Ferrari wasn't able to dominate the lap times at the following tests, Kimi Rikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were still able to keep the Ferrari competitive on time.  Expect to be seeing more of the cars with the prancing horses near the front of the grid in 2015.

4).  Red Bull
Red Bull is a hard team for me to wrap my head around at the moment.  On the one hand, they were the only team to deny Mercedes a perfect season last year, and the team obviously knows how to build a car, but other then their crazy camo livery, did any part of their preseason testing really stand out?  It's probably a pretty safe bet that Red Bull is going to be in the top four in the constructors championship at the end of the season, but I'm not sure exactly where.  Since Red Bull's preseason performance could be summed up with a shrug of the shoulders, they are relegated to a fourth place spot in the rankings.

5).  Sauber
2014 was a hard year for Sauber fans.  Sauber has always been at least a mid-field team, and has always scored points.  Except for 2014.  The January 2015 issue of Racecar Engineering has a full write-up on Sauber's 2014 struggles.  To summarize very briefly though, Sauber struggled to design a car around the then-new hybrid V6 engines.  They didn't understand the packaging or cooling requirements of the new power plants until very late in the design process.  As a result, they had a heavy, compromised, car.  This year, Sauber has a much better idea of what they are doing, and are using the (apparently) much improved Ferrari power plant.  Sauber was even able to top the lap charts a couple of times at Jerez.  While Suaber still has to deal with the financial challenges that all of the smaller F1 teams are currently dealing with, they should go back to their usual status as a regular points contender.

6).  Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso has said that their goal for this year is fifth place in the constructors championship.  That's a pretty ambitious goal, because that means they are going to need to out race McLaren, as well as all the other traditionally mid-pack teams.  A quick review of the preseason lap time charts though suggests that this is within Toro Rosso's reach.  While I have every faith in Toro Rosso's car, I'm not so sure about their driver line up.  Both of Toro Rosso's drivers are Formula 1 rookies.  McLaren's lineup by comparison contains not one, but two former champions.  Both Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen may one day mature into great Formula 1 racers, but that likely won't happen over night.  Very talented drivers, with far more experience then these two have struggled in their first year of Formula 1.  Rookie drivers make rookie mistakes, and I think that is going to make Toro Rosso's goal of a fifth in the constructor's championship an uphill climb.

7).  Force India
Normally, I would rank Force India ahead of Sauber.  Force India has a lot going for them.  They have a talented driver line up, a Mercedes Benz engine, and ran a successful program in 2014.  What Force India doesn't have is money.  Force India was barely able to get their 2015 car ready in time for the last test at Barcelona, and it's still up in the air as to whether or not they will have a second car prepared in time for Melbourne.  The VJM08 simply doesn't have nearly as much development time on it as it's competitors have.  Expect Force India to be playing catch up to the rest of the field in terms of developing the car.

8).  Lotus
Poor Lotus.  Remember when Kimi Rikkonen was racing for them?  Not only did they win a race, they finished fourth in the constructors championship, with Kimi finishing third in the drivers championship.  Those days are gone.  Lotus never quite came to grips with their 2014 car, and their driver lineup leaves something to be desired (looking at you Pastor Maldonado).  As far as I'm concerned, Lotus has exactly one thing going for them in 2015, the class-of-the-field Mercedes Benz engine powering the car.  Other then that, I'm not sure they have much to gloat about.  Other then the Mercedes power plant, their car is able to go out an turn laps (when Maldonado isn't stuffing it into the nearest wall), which keeps Lotus out of last place on this list.

9).  McLaren
McLaren is probably one of the most storied teams in Formula 1, and the reunion of McLaren and Honda should have been a new chapter in a legendary story.  Unfortunately for McLaren, this chapter is looking like it's a tragedy.  Looking at comparative lap times throughout the three test weekends, McLaren pretty consistently pulled up the back of the field.  I believe though that this isn't because the Honda engine is horribly underpowered (although it might be underpowered), but is instead a product of the power plants horrible reliability.  McLaren couldn't push their equipment like the other teams could, assuming they could actually get their car out of the pit lane.  I've said before, McLaren and Honda have the resources to fix what's wrong with this engine, and once they get that worked out they should have a pretty decent package (assuming the Honda engine makes enough power to be competitive).  The question is will the Honda engine get sorted out in time for McLaren to salvage their season.  Only time will tell.  One thing is for sure though, neither Fernando Alonso or Jenson Button is looking forward to Melbourne. 

Bonus).  Manor (the race team formerly known as Marussia)
Manor is in a good news, bad news situation.  The good news is that after a lot of tragedy and heartache last year, they have been officially added to the 2015 F1 entries list.  Technically.  They still need to prepare a car for 2015, which isn't guaranteed to happen.  If they do field a car, it won't be the least bit competitive, since it will be their old 2014 car, with a 2014 Ferrari engine, modified to meet the 2015 regulations.  Manor isn't racing for championships, wins, points or even finishes this year.  Manor's goal is to claim the 46 million dollars Bernie owes them for finishing 9th in the 2014 constructors championship.  Assuming they do make the grid (which would be a minor miracle if it happens), I wouldn't be surprised if Manor disappears as soon as they cash the check for the 2014 prize money.  That being said, if your a fan of the GP Rejects site (the successor to the now defunct F1 Rejects), you have your team for 2015.

So there we have it.  The Racing Nerd Formula 1 power ranking for 2015.