The Explorers Club
No. CXLIX - The Imperial Airship Scheme, highlighted by the design competition between the R100, the "Capitalist Airship," and the R101, the "Socialist Airship."










Formula Fun!*
My Formula One fandom took a big step forward today: I was enraged by an on-track occurrence and the effect it had on the results of the grand prix and the standings for the World Championship. Hurray, I'm emotionally invested!

A little background will be necessary. After fifteen of seventeen rounds of the '09 season, only three drivers remain in contention for the World Drivers' Championship—Jenson Button & Rubens Barrichello of Brawn and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull—and only two teams in contention for the World Constructors' Championship—Brawn and Red Bull. Coming into this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, Button had a fifteen-point lead over his teammate Barrichello and a twenty-five-point edge over Vettel. A driver can score a maximum of ten points in any grand prix; so, with three rounds left in the season thirty points were up for grabs. Button owns the tiebreaker of most grand prix victories and was in position to wrap up the Drivers' Championship if he scored five points more than Barrichello and wasn't outscored by Vettel by five points (Place - points):

1st - 10 points
2nd - 8
3rd - 6
4th - 5
5th - 4
6th - 3
7th - 2
8th - 1

Vettel was indomitable all weekend, setting the fastest time in all three rounds of qualifying, sitting on the pole position for the start of the Japanese Grand Prix, and leading all fifty-three laps around the Suzuka Circuit. But, in standard sports parlance, his fate is not entirely in his own hands. Whether the World Championships would be decided rest upon Button's & Barrichello's finishes.


Sebastian Vettel pilots his RB5 for Red Bull Racing.

Qualifying was a more chaotic process than in any other grand prix I've yet seen, with no fewer than four separate shunts (crashes) and multiple red flags. Overnight, numerous penalties were accessed and the starting grid this morning was vastly different than that set yesterday in the truncated qualifying sessions. Vettel remained on pole, Barrichello started from sixth, and Button from eleventh; if no positions changed during the Japanese Grand Prix, Button would finish out of the points. In the early going, Button was stuck at tenth in the running order, stuck behind a fuel-laden Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) and Adrian Sutil (Force India). Sutil made a move to pass Kovalainen, diving to the inside around a right hand chicane; the two cars drew alongside, but as they dove into the immediately following left hand chicane Sutil tried to go too far inside, almost driving Kovalainen off the track; Kovalainen had no choice but to hold his ground and try to push back; their wheels struck and Sutil spun out right in front of Kovalainen. As Kovalainen braked to swerve around Sutil, whose car was now parked perpendicularly to the flow of the circuit, the trailing Button was able to steer around Sutil's car without braking, leapfrogging both Kovalainen and Sutil into eighth, the final points-paying position. And then came the moment that sparked my fan epiphany: my hands flew to side of my head and I ejaculated a tormented whisper, "No!" I do not have a team I claim as my own, but I do not want Brawn to win the Constructors' Championship; nor do I want a Brawn driver to win the Drivers' Championship.



From front to back: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Nick Heidfeld (B.M.W. Sauber), Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari), Rubens Barrichello (Brawn), Nico Rosberg (Williams).

It's not that Brawn use Mercedes engines. Sure, that precludes me from rooting for them, but it doesn't require me to root for anyone else just to spite Brawn. Yet that's where I am, I'm willing to cheer for any of the other nine teams—even Renault—to spite Brawn. There is no guarantee that Button wouldn't have worked his way past Kovalainen and Sutil, especially Sutil, who hit the pit lane before either of the other two, but it would have been a mean feat of driving to pass Kovalainen, whose K.E.R.S.-equipped McLaren has an added power boost that gives it phenomenal defense prowess, and whose fuel strategy allowed him to go deeper into the race than Button. So, without Sutil's miscalculation, Button may well have finished out of the points. As it was, he finished eight, gaining only one point and losing a net one point to the seventh-finishing Barrichello and a net nine points to 2009 Japanese Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel. Absent a significant act of contrition, I'll never forgive Sutil, even though all he was trying to do was hoist himself into the points; aiding Button was only an unintended side effect of Sutil's failure.

To be continued…

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Semisonic, "Gone to the Movies" from Feeling Strangely Fine (T.L.A.M.)

*I doubt anyone besides yours truly cares about such housekeeping details, but I'm experimenting with a new title. I came up with "This Week in Motorsport" off the top of my head, it wasn't the product of an intensive vetting process, and while it holds for me an undeniable charm, I'd be remiss if I didn't put in my due diligence in searching for a blockbuster title.