The Explorers' Club
№ CCCXXXVI - The Adventurers Club, Pleasure Island, Disney World (1989-2009).







Urbe et Orbi
I attended four Masses over the weekend, making a pulpit announcement about the Knights of Columbus near the end of each Mass. My original plan was not to count more than one Mass toward the yearly goal of fifty-two, but then it occurred to me that I was participating fully in each Mass—singing enthusiastically, if poorly; listening carefully to Scripture; praying earnestly—so why shouldn't they count? The point of the numerical goal is not the number itself, but the greater piety, greater charity, & greater rectitude that flow from Mass attendance. 'Twas a boon to spend so much of my Sunday in church.

I'm a competent, confident, & occasionally brilliant public speaker, so I suspect I'll be drafted into such duty again in the future. Ooo, that reminds me, I needs to call Father McInnis about becoming a reader.

This Week in Motorsport
Formula Fun!
Formula One World Championship
Round 3
Chinese Grand Prix
Sunday, 14 April 2013

This was a nightmare weekend for Mark Webber of Red Bull (Renault). In the three weeks since the Malaysian Grand Prix there had been a swirl of gossip about the "controversial" finish—Webber second to his Red Bull teammate, reigning triple World Champion Sebastian Vettel ('10, '11, & '12); a good result would have quieted the rumor-mongers & the journos. 'Twas not to be. Webber stopped on track during the second round of qualifying because his RB9 ran out of fuel. Because the required liter of fuel could not be produced for inspection by the F.I.A. scrutineers, Webber was excluded from qualifying & forced to start the race from the back of the grid. Red Bull elected to make a number of set-up changes to Webber's car, forcing him to start from the pit lane, but that's no worse than starting from dead last on the grid anyway, & 'twas hoped the tweaks would make a world of difference. (Vettel was similarly penalized at last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix & also elected to tweak his set-up & start from the pit lane, eventually finishing third.) Webber's strategy was going well & he was making progress through the field until he tried an overly ambitious pass beneath Jean-Éric Vergne of Toro Rosso (Ferrari). Vergne spun & Webber's front wing was knackered. A pit stop put everything right, but valuable time had been lost & there were fears the car's suspension might be damaged. A few laps later & Webber had slowed to a crawl, trying to nurse his wounded Red Bull back to the pits. Before he coudl make it back, the car's right rear wheel came off & rolled across the circuit. The car, now on only three tires, was stranded on the side of the track, ending the weekend of misery in miserable fashion.

Elsewhere, double World Champion Fernando Alonso ('05 & '06) of Ferrari was in a class all by himself & cruised to a dominant victory ahead of '07 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen of Lotus (Renault) in & '08 World Champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. Vettel, following the opposite tire strategy from the other leaders, opted to use the medium-compound, more durable "prime" tires in the early stages of the grand prix, when his car was heavy with fuel, & the soft-compound, less durable "option" tires later. After Vettel's final pit stop, with all the cars running on fumes but his shod with new options whereas Alonso, Räikkönen, & Hamilton had older primes, Vettel was making up three seconds a lap. Vettel was forced wide as he passed slower traffic, which cost him invaluable time on the last lap, & finished two-tenths of a second behind Hamilton. Had his pit stop been one second quicker, had he pitted one lap earlier, Vettel would have finished third, on the podium. For want of a nail…

The second biggest disappointment of the race was Nico Hülkenberg of Sauber (Ferrari). "The Incredible Hülk" started on the same contrary tire strategy as Vettel & '09 World Champion Jenson Button of McLaren (Mercedes), & Hülkenberg lead the grand prix for a number of laps, but he made the switch from primes to options too early in the race to have fresh rubber for a sprint to the finish (like Vettel & Button, who finished fifth). After only a handful of laps Hülkenberg had to pit again for fresh tires, another set of primes, by which time he'd lost all advantage of track position. He finished tenth, good enough for a single championship point, but he could have had so much more had his team not switched to the options far too early. Oh, Sauber.

Next: The Bahrain Grand Prix, held under a cloud of political protest in '12 & cancelled entirely in '11 due to the "Arab Spring," in just one week's time. I love F1, but I kind of hate back-to-back grand prix weekends, especially after the three week break 'twixt Malaysian & Chinese grands prix. Why not a fortnight 'twixt Malaysia &China & then another fortnight 'fore Bahrain?