Russian Grand Prix Cancelled Following Invasion Of Ukraine
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
Formula One has done the right thing!
How will Putin get his own back on Formula One?
He could ban Formula One for ever from Russia, but then somewhere else like Ukraine, Poland or one of the Baltic States would happily stage a Grand Prix.
Fortescue Buys Williams Engineering In Major Push Into High Performance Batteries
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renew Economy.
This is the opening paragraph.
Fortescue Future Industries has made its first major push into battery storage and high performance batteries with the $A310 million purchase of Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), the offshoot of the Formula 1 specialists Williams Grand Prix Engineering.
Andrew Forrest certainly has a wide-ranging plan.
This article on Railway Gazette is entitled Formula 1 Technology Company To Support Development Of Battery Train, was published later and gives more details.
This is the first paragraph.
Fortescue Metals Group’s green technology division Fortescue Future Industries is developing what it says is a ‘world leading’ battery electric train concept.
It will be interesting to see what technologies are at the heart of the ‘world leading’ concept.
If you are controlling a complex chemical or nuclear plant, you will often have a model of the plant inside the control system, so that the operating strategy can be consistently optimised.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see techniques like this and other advanced techniques be used to reduce the carbon footprint of rail transportation of iron ore and other minerals.
Perhaps, the ideal power for one of these heavy haul trains would consist of a master battery-electric locomotive up front with the crew, assisted by up to three hydrogen-, diesel- or battery-powered slaves.
- All braking would be regenerative to battery.
- Power would be called for from the slave locomotives as required.
- Modelling would determine, if some sections needed electrification to charge the batteries.
I suspect there are opportunities to optimise round trips, as returning the empties will surely need less power.
Why Can’t I Get The British Grand Prix On Sky?
I can watch all other channels on Sky except for 406 for the British Grand Prix.
It says there is no satellite signal.
Perhaps related is that the locals are complaining of no wi-fi signal.
Is some clever dick rebroadcasting the action on wi-fi?
INEOS To Spearhead Formula 1 Hydrogen Fuel Technology Initiative With Mercedes
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
It’s an interesting concept to promote hydrogen-powered cars, trucks and specialist vehicles.
On the plus side, there would be all the environmental benefits.
But on the negative side there would be no noise and probably no smell.
If trials avowed it could be as exciting as Formula One today on a good day, I do feel it could be a way for the sport to progress.
Rugby Is A Team Game And So Is Formula One!
On Saturday morning, the Japanese rugby team, showed how teamwork is important, as they hardly seemed to make a mistake.
The Welsh and the Australians, both played their parts in an excellent match.
And then we had the Russian Grand Prix at lunchtime!
Mercedes got the teamwork like clockwork and they won.
As to Ferrari, the two drivers felt out with each other and Vettel didn’t obey team orders.
I have watched Formula One for many years, and every so often Ferrari seem to lose the plot!
Will Sky Ever Broadcast A Freeview Sports Channel?
Yesterday, Sky held the rights to both the Cricket World Cup Final and The British Grand Prix.
But in the end Sky shared the coverage of both events with Channel 4!
Now that both events have successfully concluded, Sky will have the details of the following.
- Number of viewers.
- Advertising revenue on both Sky and Channel 4.
- Reaction from politicians, some of whom are not very pleased with Sky.
This will enable the company to decide, whether it is in the company’s interest to do it again.
- I can also see a scenario, where if a Sky Freeview channel exists, that sports would want to do promotional deals to get their sport in front of viewers, by perhaps having the top level on satellite and lower levels on Freeview.
- Sky uses a lot of repeats on its Sports Channels at Off Peak times.
- Freeview technology will also be allowing more channels.
- Sky must be a bit worried about competition from other broadcasters woth bottomless pockets.
I don’t think we can rule anything out, as Sky are an innovative and ambitious broadcaster.
Could Hamilton’s 55-Place Penalty Be Good For The World?
If you want a good explanation of how Lewis Hamilton ended up with a 55-place penalty in a 22-car race, then this article on the BBC, which is entitled Belgian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton’s grid penalties explained.
It does what it says in the title.
This extract, which describes the new technology in Formula One, is significant.
Governing body the FIA realised that the turbo-hybrid engines were highly complex pieces of kit, as well as introducing revolutionary new technology.
How revolutionary? A road-car petrol engine has a thermal efficiency – its ability to convert fuel-energy into usable power – of about 29%, a figure they have been stuck at for decades. A road-going turbo-diesel can be as efficient as about 35-40%.
Modern F1 engines, the best of which produce more than 950bhp, are approaching 50% thermal efficiency – and exceed it when the hybrid system is on full energy deployment.
It is a truly amazing step forward in technology in such a short amount of time, and these advances will soon filter down to road cars, which was the whole point of introducing them into F1.
So that means that if your vehicle does say 29 mpg, then in perhaps a decade, its equivalent will be doing over 50 mpg, as increased thermal efficiency translates into less fuel usage.
There is a lot of innovative technology generally getting itself involved with the humble internal combustion engine and where they are used.
- Engines, whether petrol or diesel will get more efficient, in terms of energy efficiency.
- Engines will get lighter and smaller.
- Transmission and braking will increasingly be electric, with onboard energy storage.
- Energy storage for larger applications like buses, trucks and trains, will use alternatives to batteries.
- Engines will become more complex and will be controlled by sophisticated control systems.
It is definitely a case of |Formula One leading the way.
But I suppose Formula One is one of the few places where there is an incentive to be more efficient.
With passenger cars, more efficient vehicles have generally sold better. But an incentive is probably needed to get people to scrap worthless and inefficient vehicles.
Perhaps a properly thought out carbon tax, would accelerate more efficient buses, trucks and trains.
It is interesting to note, that hybrid buses are commonplace, but when did you see a hybrid truck?
Could it be, that local politicians have more control over the bus fleets in their area and many of the worst trucks are run by cowboys, who don’t care so long as they earn their money?
It is also easier to complain about your buses, than say trucks moving builders rubbish around, if they are noisy, smelly or emitting black smoke.
But I do think the key to more efficient buses, trucks and large off-road construction equipment, is probably a mixture of better engines and some better method of energy storage, that means say an eight-wheel thirty-tonne truck, could sit silently at traffic lights and then move quietly away, when the lights go green. A lot of buses can do that! Why not trucks?
I also think that the next generation of trains will use onboard energy storage.
- It enables regenerative braking everywhere, saving as much as a quarter of the electricity.
- Depots, sensitive heritage areas and downright difficult lines can be without electrification.
- It enables a get to the next station ability , if the power should fail.
As modern trains from many manufacturers, are increasingly becoming two end units with driving cabs, where you plug appropriate units in between to create a train with the correct mix for the route, energy storage and hybrid power cars will start to appear.
Intriguingly, Bombardier have said that all their new Aventra trains will be wired for onboard energy storage.
So a four-car electric multiple unit, might be changed into a five-car one with on-board energy storage to run a service on a short branch line or over a viaduct in an historic city centre.
If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It!
Formula One has just proven the title of this post, with their new qualifying system.
The qualifying yesterday was a joke, as it didn’t build up to the crescendo like it used to do.
Why do people have this desire to tinker with formats and rules?
If you change something in a system, you must make sure you don’t alienate your users or audience.
When I updated Artemis, I made sure that nothing was ever deleted, as I didn’t know how every one of our thousands of customers used the system.
So many versions of updated software is a retrograde step to many people.
For instance, I would be like to buy a new computer with Windows Vista and Office 2003.
That may be a bit unusual, but then if I find something that suits my lifestyle, I don’t change it!
- I was with my wife for forty years.
- I had my last car; a Lotus Elan for, twenty-five years.
- My briefcase is well over thirty-five years old.
- My smart jacket is nearly thirty and still smart.
- I first saw Ipswich play in 1961.
Why change?
Sadly, as in the case of my wife, you have to occasionally.
Bernie Gets Out Of Jail
There is a report on the BBC about how Bernie Ecclestone has paid a very large fine to end his bribery trial. This is the start of the report.
A German court has agreed to end the bribery trial of Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone in exchange for a $100m (£60m) payment from him.
Mr Ecclestone’s offer was based on an existing provision in German law.
I would suspect that there are only two other people in history, could have extracted themselves from the predicament in which Bernie found himself.
Machiavelli himself and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
And of course like Wolsey, Bernie was born in Suffolk.
Suffolk is a county of England unlike any other. Someone described it as curious, but I disagreed in this post calling it independent and forgotten.
Bernie is definitely independent, but he will never be forgotten.
The Trains Are Learning From Formula One
This is message on a BBC report today, but it’s a rather shallow one, as it ignores the way engineers have designed systems for years. They are saying for instance, that trains now report their fault and they’ve learned this from Formula One. But trains have effectively had extensive computerised reporting systems for years. A classic example is the 1995 Stock trains on the Northern Line of the Underground, which were designed with such a system. How good it is, I don’t know!
A lot of improvements in any system, are down to attention to detail and that is probably what Formula One does in spades. But that is just good design! I was on a heavily loaded commuter train yesterday, and the station stops, were very quick, partly because, the train accelerated and stopped quickly, the passenger handholds were all in the right place, the doors were wide and the self-loading cargo, knew how to get on and off quickly.
I suspect this has little to do with Formula One, but some of the parts of the train, may well have been manufactured using advanced techniques developed for motor-racing.
The Anonymous Widower 