- 28 Mar 11, 18:35#247576
If you been living under a rock, Keyser Söze was the mythical arch-criminal in the film The Usual Suspects, who police were duped into pursuing, diverting their attentions from the real criminals.
Last season, RBR's cars first had mysteriously self-adjusting ride height, then it was a flexy front wing, then it was a bendy tea tray. Then someone noticed they had a decal simulating engine exhaust exits behind the side pods while the proper exhausts were exiting under the chassis and blowing through the rear diffuser. Then someone noted the RBRs had an odd exhaust note, which was presumed to be some manner of fuel mapping or ignition timing trick meant to improve the blown diffuser's off-throttle performance. And on it went. And each of these "developments" sent the other front runners scurrying to match RBR's innovations.
The real beauty of this, to RBR, was all anyone outside the team really knew is their cars were bloody fast. No one else could have known if any of these devices worked or how they worked, much less how beneficial any one of them might have been. Nonetheless, all the other front running teams were compelled at the very least to spend time investigating their legality. I dare say all the teams whose cars routinely made their way to Q3 also invested considerable manpower in trying to make the same modifications work on their own cars.
I found this quite amusing and thought at the time that Chris Horner surely must have retained the services of Keyser Söze for RBR. He and Adrian Newey must have laughed like a drain at the other teams chasing Newey's wild geese about the paddock.
Fast forward to the 2011 season. RBR's front wing is still flexing. You could see this from the in-car video even during preseason testing. Next came the rumours that RBR are running some manner of über-compact CURSE, providing power only during the start. Except that the telly coverage showed neither RBR was using CURSE at the start of Melbourne. Despite this, Vettel managed to beat drag race star Lewis Hamilton to the first corner. The equally CURSE-less Mark Webber very nearly beat him as well. The mystery deepens.
Today, Chris Horner confesses to the world that RBR's CURSE was having reliability problems that prevented its use. He added they couldn't have admitted this before the race because that information would have exposed their weakness (a weakness that limited their victory to just 22 seconds
). If true, this announcement must mean their CURSE is well and truly mended, yes? Otherwise, this admission would be divulging their weakness at Sepang, yes?
Which begs the question, why is he admitting it today? Did they mend the CURSE on both RBR cars just last night? This same CURSE has been in development off and on since 2009. Furthermore, this season was two weeks late beginning in earnest. Yet after all this time, a "reliability problem" surfaces which RBR miraculously are able to mend in the span of one day with such certitude that Horner can proclaim it healed and fit to fight at Sepang?
Pull the other one, mate, it's got bells on it. I haven't the faintest idea what's going on with your CURSE but congratulations for retaining the services of Keyser Söze for yet another season.
Last season, RBR's cars first had mysteriously self-adjusting ride height, then it was a flexy front wing, then it was a bendy tea tray. Then someone noticed they had a decal simulating engine exhaust exits behind the side pods while the proper exhausts were exiting under the chassis and blowing through the rear diffuser. Then someone noted the RBRs had an odd exhaust note, which was presumed to be some manner of fuel mapping or ignition timing trick meant to improve the blown diffuser's off-throttle performance. And on it went. And each of these "developments" sent the other front runners scurrying to match RBR's innovations.
The real beauty of this, to RBR, was all anyone outside the team really knew is their cars were bloody fast. No one else could have known if any of these devices worked or how they worked, much less how beneficial any one of them might have been. Nonetheless, all the other front running teams were compelled at the very least to spend time investigating their legality. I dare say all the teams whose cars routinely made their way to Q3 also invested considerable manpower in trying to make the same modifications work on their own cars.
I found this quite amusing and thought at the time that Chris Horner surely must have retained the services of Keyser Söze for RBR. He and Adrian Newey must have laughed like a drain at the other teams chasing Newey's wild geese about the paddock.
Fast forward to the 2011 season. RBR's front wing is still flexing. You could see this from the in-car video even during preseason testing. Next came the rumours that RBR are running some manner of über-compact CURSE, providing power only during the start. Except that the telly coverage showed neither RBR was using CURSE at the start of Melbourne. Despite this, Vettel managed to beat drag race star Lewis Hamilton to the first corner. The equally CURSE-less Mark Webber very nearly beat him as well. The mystery deepens.
Today, Chris Horner confesses to the world that RBR's CURSE was having reliability problems that prevented its use. He added they couldn't have admitted this before the race because that information would have exposed their weakness (a weakness that limited their victory to just 22 seconds
). If true, this announcement must mean their CURSE is well and truly mended, yes? Otherwise, this admission would be divulging their weakness at Sepang, yes?Which begs the question, why is he admitting it today? Did they mend the CURSE on both RBR cars just last night? This same CURSE has been in development off and on since 2009. Furthermore, this season was two weeks late beginning in earnest. Yet after all this time, a "reliability problem" surfaces which RBR miraculously are able to mend in the span of one day with such certitude that Horner can proclaim it healed and fit to fight at Sepang?
Pull the other one, mate, it's got bells on it. I haven't the faintest idea what's going on with your CURSE but congratulations for retaining the services of Keyser Söze for yet another season.
"I'll bet ya a hundred and five thousand dollars you go to sleep before I do."
--Dobbsie
--Dobbsie
what about races last year where Mark was 5 tenths or so faster than Seb? Easy to forget i suppose.
