Sunday, June 25, 2017

Hamilton / Vettel Brouhaha, Team Oracle, and Airbus #Sports

It seems Sebastian Vettel did his best today to turn the F1 race in Azerbaijan into a demolition derby at the county fair since he hit Lewis Hamilton twice.  Once Vettel rear-ended Hamilton for one of the dumbest driving mistakes possible and in another Vettel drove into the side of Hamilton's car.  Vettel got a relatively minor penalty for that and Hamilton was smoking.

“Imagine all the young kids that are watching Formula One today and see that kind of behaviour from a four-time world champion. I think that says it all.” - Lewis Hamilton



Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel clash during the Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix. 

Photograph: Channel 4


I did not see the race but the move in the photograph will be tough to justify.

The Guardian:  Hamilton challenges Vettel to sort it ‘face to face’ after Azerbaijan clashes


Things aren't looking so good for Team Oracle in the America's Cup but the team did register a win today.  They're one away from losing the Cup to Team Kiwi but this is not the first time this situation has existed and, in one case, America rose from that deficit to win the Cup anyway.



Emirates Team New Zealand have been the superior team in Bermuda.

Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty Images


I haven't followed yachting all that much since that's just not my side of town and seeing the evolution which has taken place is astounding.  They weren't using hydrofoils when I last watched them racing but they fly on them now with almost none of the boat in the water and they have become fast, fast, fast plus incredibly maneuverable.

The Guardian:  America's Cup: Team New Zealand one point from glory after win over Oracle


For our last sporting event, we have Airbus and that may seem unusual but an aircraft flying at thirty-five thousand feet which suddenly starts violently shaking like a washing machine due to an engine failure will probably be all the sport you will ever need in your life.  There is no purpose toward making light of any tragedy since no-one was injured but it scared the bejeebers out of everyone on the aircraft.

When the Captain suggests prayers, it's a solid clue, man, we're really fucked.

"He [the flight captain] said 'I hope you all say a prayer; I will be saying a prayer too and let's hope we all get back home safely,'" passenger Sophie Nicolas said, as cited by WA Today.

RT:  Engine failure shakes AirAsia flight like a ‘washing machine’ (VIDEOS)


Scary as living hell, no doubt, but there was major sporting excellence in this.  Unknown how long it took to deduce the problem, identify the failing engine, and cut it off from the cockpit but we're damn glad the AirAsia flight crew had the presence of mind to work the procedure by the numbers.  The Rockhouse chalks that up as coolness on the level with Captain Sully.

More obscure but not mentioned is the incredible success of the engine to contain what must have been an incredibly destructive moment.  Lotho is the one trained to maintain jet motors but we mortals have the general knowledge the turbine spins at incredibly high RPMs of 100K or higher.  If it did, in fact, lose a blade from the turbine, the imbalance seems it would inevitably shatter the turbine resulting in high-speed metal flying in all directions and yet nothing much seems to have happened outside the engine enclosure.

In the estimation of the Rockhouse, that was an Olympic level performance from Airbus.  Bravo!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jet turbine are RPM is only about 10 or 12K. The house around both the compressor blades and the turbine blades are designed to internalize that destruction.
My respect level for Vettel has dropped substantially. The same as how it disappeared for Prost after his Bush league driving against Senna

Unknown said...

I'm surprised as I've heard of astounding RPMs for the RC turbines but I guess that's to do with their size. Even at the lower RPM level, it's still hugely impressive to me that no-one was injured by the bits when it self-destructed.

I thought you might have seen something different which would give a reason for the things Vettel did but your assessment sounds like my estimation of him as well.

I don't recall all the sparring between Prost and Senna but I do recall Senna taking Prost out deliberately in (I believe) Tokyo and that wasn't so impressive.

Anonymous said...

TC turbines can spin up to 100k
My memory fades but I thought that was in retaliation from Australia Doc I am sure would know the details better
FIA used telemetry to state Hamilton did nothing wrong and used the same process as the earlier safety car .
Shame on Vettel I thought he was better than that but he did use team orders to take away Kimi win

Unknown said...

I saw also Vettel has more penalty points than any other F1 driver. Seems to me he's getting a lot of team orders of that nature or he's just a dirty driver. That kind of thing is why I always liked an open track better just to see how fast this damn thing will go. I can't say I really care that much about racing anyone but I love the speed.

I do think Airbus deserved at least a hat tip in the news coverage for the way the enclosure contained what must have been one huge bang.

I know for sure there was an America's Cup in which it was down to the final point for an American loss but they came back and won it. Whomever skippered that vessel probably has a statue in Newport.

Anonymous said...

Dennis Conner dies as he is the one who returned the Cup to America When I believe Australia took it and then raced in Perth.
I think the Kiwis showed just enough to win win the challenger series. Then laid it all out in the finals as Oracle wasn't even in the same race.
Both Senna and Prost wrecked each other to win titles. But Prost started the ugliness
The hat tip would be more for the engine mounts surviving the vibrations

Unknown said...

Dennis Conner is a name which comes back to me. That might have been the series for which Alex got cranked up since he was getting hugely American, even getting into baseball. I know it was his way to find something he liked about the place but ... dayum (larfs). There's another Question I Never Asked ... why not football?

Ah, I was not aware of Prost doing that so I saw the ugly from Senna and my opinion changed quite a bit since he was a god up to that point. I think the circumstance was Senna would win the WDC anyway so long as Prost did not finish so Senna took him out deliberately.

As to motor builders, I'm happy to direct a hat tip generically since they did a masterful job on that one. The marvel to me was no-one even noticed nothing else after from a motor self-destructed.

Anonymous said...

Look at the 89 Japan F1 I believe Prost did that on the first lap.
The following year Senna did it on the last lap
Doc surely knows better
I believe Senna is still in the God status to him. It would be hard to argue against that

Unknown said...

No need to argue since all of us have seen him drive. There hasn't been style like that since.

A god from the far distant past is Rudolph Carraciola (sp?) since he was a hot shot in the 30s / 40s and I've seen pics of him doing speed tests in an extremely cool Mercedes car which looked almost CanAm. The damn thing was silver and had a swastika in it. Sometimes you just shake your head in disbelief but the car was outrageously cool.

Anonymous said...

Strange that it took Mercedes to translate that car into something on the track. As the F1 cars of that era were fat cigars with wheels

Unknown said...

I went through Google trying to find a pic since the memory is crystal with Carraciola speed-testing a highly-aerodynamic racer on the then-new Autobahn in the late 30s. I read a book about him when I was a kid because he was F1 so he's got to be cool. That's where I saw the car with the swastika on it and that brought one roaring case of cognitive dissonance, I mean to tell you.

Those cars were so out-of-character for the racing cars of the time since they were sleek and gorgeous.