Stars
Friday, March 18, 2011 at 11:51AM
My April edition of Motor Sport arrived yesterday and Nigel Roebuck has a piece in his column about Kubica's accident and racers. He included a comment from Jimmie Johnson that "the car is never right, never good enough." That struck a cord, for the very best the car or motorcycle is never right, how can it be? They will drive or ride it until they find the limit. I recall after one practice session Wayne Rainey bitching about the bike. "Every time we fix something there is another thing wrong!" I told him of course there is, otherwise you would be doing 400 kph. There has to be at any one moment one component of the machine that is at the limit of its performance and therefore the machines. It may be power, tires, suspension, chassis or brakes, but as I told Wayne, if we find a better tire that will just move us up to the next limiting point which may be the front forks that cannot take the increased load.
Racing is about little improvements and racers who can work with their mechanics to find them and then exploit them. That is what the article said about Kubica, his "mechanics knew that if they find the minutest improvement in the car it will be instantly reflected in the lap times." That to me is the difference between good drivers and the great ones. We know all the guys who make the F1 or MotoGP grid have to be beyond good, but as I have seen, it is the three or four that have the guts, concentration, feel and determination to take it to the limit, and find it every corner of every lap that are the stars. I used to love looking in the eyes of someone like Rainey before a race. They said "If you want to beat me today you are going to have to drive faster and harder than you want to, and don't think you ever have me beat."
If a driver feels happy or comfortable with a car or motorcycle then he is not going fast enough. Phillip Island is a great example. I can recall driving around this fast flowing track and feeling great, only to find when I returned to the pits I was ten seconds off the pace. Then there was my one and only win in my class at the Australian Hill Climb Championship. Last run of the day, trailing, so gave it everything. Threw my Morgan up that hill and it felt terrible, more off the track than on and I thought I had blown it. Came back down to find I had taken a second off my time, in 40 + seconds and won!
So, it is the real racers who can find that edge, and are willing to keep it there without stepping over it too often, and are never satisfied. That's why Kubica went off an ran a rally, he has to be racing, and more power to him. The great news is he is likely to walk in three weeks.
In Qatar the MotoGP stars are out and Honda in the shape of Stoner continue to show the way, by over half a second, and he said he was only at 8/10ths. Rossi is doing better, but not as good as the private Ducati of Hector Barbera who was third fast, but apparently had a tow from Hayden. Shades of Criville and Doohan. Still early days, or is that nights? Despite Stoner's dominance there is only half a second between the next nine riders, so perhaps there is a good race is for second.
At Sebring the dark brought the Peugeot back to the top, and the diesels are again heading the timesheet. So much for equalization. Still, we will see in today's qualifying. As my wife commented, Sebring looks better at night.
Talking of equalization, it seems when it comes to driver's salary at Red Bull, some are more equal than others, as someone famous once said.
Racing is about little improvements and racers who can work with their mechanics to find them and then exploit them. That is what the article said about Kubica, his "mechanics knew that if they find the minutest improvement in the car it will be instantly reflected in the lap times." That to me is the difference between good drivers and the great ones. We know all the guys who make the F1 or MotoGP grid have to be beyond good, but as I have seen, it is the three or four that have the guts, concentration, feel and determination to take it to the limit, and find it every corner of every lap that are the stars. I used to love looking in the eyes of someone like Rainey before a race. They said "If you want to beat me today you are going to have to drive faster and harder than you want to, and don't think you ever have me beat."
If a driver feels happy or comfortable with a car or motorcycle then he is not going fast enough. Phillip Island is a great example. I can recall driving around this fast flowing track and feeling great, only to find when I returned to the pits I was ten seconds off the pace. Then there was my one and only win in my class at the Australian Hill Climb Championship. Last run of the day, trailing, so gave it everything. Threw my Morgan up that hill and it felt terrible, more off the track than on and I thought I had blown it. Came back down to find I had taken a second off my time, in 40 + seconds and won!
So, it is the real racers who can find that edge, and are willing to keep it there without stepping over it too often, and are never satisfied. That's why Kubica went off an ran a rally, he has to be racing, and more power to him. The great news is he is likely to walk in three weeks.
In Qatar the MotoGP stars are out and Honda in the shape of Stoner continue to show the way, by over half a second, and he said he was only at 8/10ths. Rossi is doing better, but not as good as the private Ducati of Hector Barbera who was third fast, but apparently had a tow from Hayden. Shades of Criville and Doohan. Still early days, or is that nights? Despite Stoner's dominance there is only half a second between the next nine riders, so perhaps there is a good race is for second.
At Sebring the dark brought the Peugeot back to the top, and the diesels are again heading the timesheet. So much for equalization. Still, we will see in today's qualifying. As my wife commented, Sebring looks better at night.
Talking of equalization, it seems when it comes to driver's salary at Red Bull, some are more equal than others, as someone famous once said.
Reader Comments