Well, there is a wee difference between running in the wet on a road course, and a 240 mph oval. I don;t think there is a full wet tire in existence that would help an Indy car on an oval.

But I agree, they should be running in the wet on road courses.

 

Absolutely true, BUT they make left-only turns on a banked oval on a flat course in terms of elevation. In fact, the banking at some tracks is difficult to walk on! Our guys turn both left and right on flat turns. They may also have elevation changes, off-camber corners, multiple apexes, etc, which is difficult enough in the dry. And besides the traction issues of driving in the rain, there is the very real difficulty of visibility. A lot of the time they're essentially driving blind particularly when they are competing for position and close to the car they're hoping to pass.

 

The problem is the load on the tires. Think of the trouble Michelin had at Indy in '05. They didn't even have a dry weather tire built to handle the loading experienced at speed on the banked oval part of the track.

I wonder if the full wets Bridgestone took to Indy in '05 would have been up to the challenge.....

 

True. However at high speeds on an oval, I don't think a wet tire could physically push the water out fast enough to prevent hydroplaning. Even on a dry surface, those folks slide up the banked turn easily enough to smack the wall. So they'd have to reduce speed. Way down.

I enjoy the difficulty factor watch a road race in the rain. Fans go to the ovals for blindingly fast speeds. I can see fans not being real happy with a slow parade on an oval. Indy 500 is the only oval race of any kind that I watch. And I think it would be very boring in the wet.

 

Good point, a slow Indy -- especially an Indy contrived to be slow -- would be a boring Indy. Coincidentally, the thought conjures up another memory of that '05 "race" where one of the stupid ideas was to have the Michelin runners drive at a reduced pace.....I think the brainless thought behind it was that at least all the cars could participate so the spectators would be happy.

Anyway, regarding hydroplaning, I think it might depend on how heavy the rainfall. The banking on an oval ought to promote rapid draining and eliminate pooling and puddling.....right?

 

Ok, I know it's really late to post this and it's probably already been posted everywhere else, but it's new to me and I can't resist.....

 

 

Ohhh MAN ....thas good !

 

Yeah, I can totally laugh at that and not feel guilty.


Rain on the ovals: I've seen the rain pool at the bottom of the banking, but that was a very heavy downpour. Did the older Grands Prix drive on the banking at Monza when it rained?

 

Except that as the rain runs towards the bottom of the banking, more rain is taking it's place up top: rivers.

 

You're right, that's why I said it might depend on how heavy the rain is. Anyway, enough arm-chair quarterbacking. I'm certainly not aware of the ability of the Bridgestones of the world to build a tire that's up to the challenge.....but I'd love to see it done some day!

 

There's an excellent Coulthard interview article posted over at formula1.com.

 

US racing organizations are waaaay to (full course) caution happy. It's pathetic to watch sometimes bordering on obnoxious. Short of there being a medical problem resulting from an accident on a road course - there should never be a full course caution, period. And they seem to last forever over here. Why can't accidents be cleared as fast as they are in F1?

 

Great drive by Lewis ! Almost looks like he gambled and set his car more "wet" than Hekki did.

 

ALERT: Acura pre-race show on speed at 11:30am cst right before the German GP.

 

And followed by Fox covering the race again. So far this year, they're doing well. Not the crappy broadcasting we've seen before from them. Now if this was NASCAR, it would be world class with 100 different cameras everywhere.

 

My biggest gripe with the Fox coverage is that the race starts in about 1 minute after the program starts. Seems like they could back off for about 5 minutes or so.

 

That was quite awesome if I say so, myself. Fantastic driving from Hammi in the last dozen laps or so. And I see Ferrari must have forgotten how to cheat, lately.

 

McLaren sure took a huge risk on their pit strategy. So many ways this could have been disastrous--in fact, SHOULD have been disastrous. Who concocts these theories of "we'll bring him in at the very, very, verrrry last moment?" It's bitten them more than once in the past.

Kimi had better party less and drive more. The world champ, driving the same car, yet losing big time to his "lesser" team member? Amazing! That's like Rubens overtaking Michael...

 

But apparently it's too much fun to get sloppy drunk, grind on skanks in a club then proceed to fall off your boat.

 

I, like the announcing team, am curious about where Mercedes produced so much extra power from an engine supposedly "frozen" from further development.

 

It's rather incredible that between France and Germany we've seen something like a 3-second-per-lap swing between Ferrari and McLaren. Ferrari better get to work.

I'm not a big fan of Hockenheim since it's makeover, but it proved to be a very good track today with multiple passing and re-passing opportunities.

After today's race, there is a lot to be said for mid-race Safety Car periods! This was setting up to be the usual parade before things tightened up.

 

 

I think Lewis is starting to show that he is for real ! ( I already had faith) There was no question his passes today were championship material.....not to mention the Silverstone drive.

 

They couldn't find any broken rules to whine about.....the deed has been done...twice now.....fair and square (ok.....they all cheat but Lewis has been driving tops)

In the old days I hated Mclaren when Mika dominated....."oh crap not that Mclaren out in front again" but Lewis has brought new life, his youth and enthusiasm is fantastic, he deserves all that he gets ! He will be a legend in the history books, in 20 years he will be remembered just as Senna, Mansell, and Schu have been. If he plays his stuff right, maybe he will surpass the Schu and that is realistic, even if he misses out on the championship this year, he's still young and has a long career ahead !