F1: Nothing's so bad that it can't get even worse

[ZoWie]

FIA just lost billions in sponsorship money because it has had to cancel both races in April. They were both in Middle Eastern locations that stood a non-trivial possibility of getting bombed, or of having aircraft carrying cars, pit crews, and drivers shot down. Trump's war has claimed another casualty.

Meanwhile Verstappen is throwing a hissy-fit and threatening to resign due to the new formula cars not fitting his driving style. Well, he can always follow Roman Grosjean's example and switch to Indy cars.

[ZoWie]

FIA is changing the rules again, but if you don't have a degree in electrical engineering, you won't understand them. This year all the news stories are about kilowatts instead of winners and losers. They've gotten way too bogged down in the tech and they've forgotten why people watch car races.

[ZoWie]

One month has passed. The races in the Middle East didn't happen, and that was probably a good thing given that drumpf's 5-week war will probably last indefinitely.

They did manage to get the race in Miami to go forward, sort of. Right before it, they changed the engine rules that everyone had been bitching about. Perhaps it struck fear into all the grand falloons' hearts when Verstappen threatened to quit.

I wish I could explain these new engines in plain English, but that is impossible. It gets into watts and voltage and current and impedance and electrons almost immediately.

Race cars used to have horsepower, but with the latest ones all the talk is about kilowatts. The engine is hybrid, and at times the power goes into recharging batteries. There are apparently not enough kilowatts, so the driver has to do various things to use the ones they have while storing more. Most of the time, it sounds like you're operating a broadcasting station instead of a race car. Drivers turn knobs and pull switches, at the same time they're trying to stay on the road and go faster than the other guys. Some are better at it than others.

Most F1 news reporting is now about battery management, or the lack of same. You don't just drive the car on the edge of total disaster and the fastest guy wins. It's all about recharging, energy harvesting, and those damn kilowatts.

Meanwhile, Apple continues to consolidate its victory. There's no good way to do Apple TV without getting downright geeky. There's an app, and everything.

Yuck.