So much for all of that fancy talk about the return of Kers. The system, which is about as close as you can get to using a mushroom in Mario Kart in real life, lets Formula One drivers temporarily get an additional 80 horsepower out of their engine, made its return to Formula One this season. There was plenty of talk along the lines of, “This is great! It will help with overtaking and make for more exciting races.” Well well! The winning team at yesterday’s Australian Grand Prix (the first race of the season, owing to civil unrest in Bahrain) didn’t even bother using the thing. Funny. → Read More
Is Red Bull once again the team to beat in Formula One this year? It certainly looks that way, if the past few weeks of testing in Barcelona are anything to go by (and they are). We now segue into Playseat’s Red Bull-branded racing simulator. It’s quite… substantial. → Read More
The recently delayed Formula One season now begins at the end of the month, but the sport’s big boss-man, Bernie Ecclestone, the subject of a controversial new biography, has just the idea to take everything to the next level: artificial rain. Bernie Ecclestone: now officially a comic book super-villain. Good for him. → Read More
Red Bull Racing’s “number two driver,” Mark Webber, seen here with a cat, has just about had enough of technology ruining all the fun of Formula One racing. Several new systems have been put in place in many of the cars this year, but the systems go overboard with the technology, apparently. Not only that, but the reliance on all this technology may be distracting, as Webber says drivers ought to be 100 percent focused on the road, but now they’re practically being asked to jailbreak their car while trying not to veer off into the gravel. → Read More
The new Formula One season begins in March, andFerrari is the first team to show its hand. Its new car, the F150 (so named to commemorate 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy), was launched just a few hours ago at its headquarters in Maranello—Italy, of course. Given that Formula One is poised to introduce a new series of regulations in the coming years, partly to make the sport more “green,” it’s probably worth a few minutes to check out some of the changes Ferrari has made to its flagship piece of engineering. Is it enough to dethrone Adrian Newey and the rest of Red Bull Racing? Prediction: no. → Read More
Good news: Formula One will be in HD this year. You’d have thought that such a fancy racing circuit would be broadcast in HD already—how many years has Nascar been in HD?—but no; we’ve had to wait. Long overdue, yes. → Read More
Formula One’s governing body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), has committed the sport to “improving sustainability.” As such, starting with the 2013 season all F1 cars’ engines will have to meet new, dare I say greener criteria. Namely, engines will shrink in size from 2.4 liters to 1.6 liters and will go down from 18,000 rpm to 12,000 rpm. All this works out to a 35 percent reduction in fuel consumption. → Read More
Some auto racing news for your Wednesday morning. Formula One, the fancy circuit that, like soccer, is popular everywhere but the U.S., plans to cut emissions by some 15 percent within three years. That’s a remarkable goal seeing as though Formula One cars (and all supercars, for that matter) are about as green as a smokestack from 1900. → Read More
As Matt will tell you, I know absolutely nothing about cars. Four wheels, a steering wheel, a couple of pedals—that’s the extent of my knowledge. That said, for whatever reason, I find myself getting into Formula One; it’s just fun! So, with that in mind, watch as I watch Force India’s team manager explain all the high-tech wonderment of a Formula 1 steering wheel. → Read More
Microsoft is endorsing British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton to win this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix and, hence, the F1 championship this weekend. It’s one of those times where the last race of the season will actually determine who wins the title. (The contenders are Hamilton, Spain Fernando Alonso and Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen.) And why is this being posted here? Microsoft is using the legitimately exciting conclusion to this year’s F1 season—I’ve been following it for the first time in many, many years—to promote the recently released Project Gotham Racing 4, that little known racing game. I’m not sure, but is spying on other teams a feature of this edition of the game? Xbox Backing Lewis Hamilton for F1 Title [Next Gen] → Read More
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