Formula One Racing : Interesting Facts

An F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!

Formula 1 cars have over a kilometer of cable, linked to about 100 sensors and actuators which monitor and control many parts of the car.

An F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kmph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds.

When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph !!!

An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour.

The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of approx 1000 degrees Centigrade and they attain that temp while braking before almost every turn...that is why they r not made of steel but of carbon fibre which is much more harder and resistant to wear and tear and most of all has a higher melting point.

The re-fuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 litres family car. They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.

TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. & 8 sec to read above point.

During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5kg in weight due to wear.

The drivers can lose approximate 2 to 3 litres of water.

The F1 cockpits have drinking bottle installed for the drivers. The water in it also has mineral salts. The drivers can drink water from it via a pipe.

In the days preceding very hot races like Australia, Malaysia, and Brazil, the drivers can drink up to 8 litres of water.

Numbers are assigned in accordance with each team's position in the previous season's constructors' championship. The number 13 is not designated to any driver.

Formula One cars can drive through tunnels. Not impressed? They can do it on the ceiling of the tunnel -– upside down. The way this works is through downforce. As a car gets up to speed, it experiences lift, which is just what it sounds like –- the car lifts off the ground slightly. Lift compromises stability, so Formula One car designers combat it by designing cars that aerodynamically create lots of downforce. The downforce is made when air rushes around the car in such a way as to push it down on the ground. Modern Formula One cars can create 3.5 gs of downforce, so, theoretically, at high speeds, they could drive on a ceiling. Think about that the next time you’re stuck in tunnel traffic. 

Will Ricky Ponting's career end with two regrets?

Every cricketer has some regret or the other during the course of his career.

Steve Waugh failed to conquer the final frontier -- beating India in their backyard.

The legendary Sir Don Bradman probably regretted not being able to finish his career with an average of 100 (he ended with 99.94).

And there is still a chance that Sachin Tendulkar,despite all his personal achievements, might just end up never being able to win that coveted prize of them all -- the World Cup.

Ricky Ponting will perhaps end his career with not one but two regrets. 

The Australian captain is yet to win an Ashes series in England, and a Test (let alone a series) on Indian soil.

Ponting has lost successive Ashes series on English soil -- in 2005 and 2009, and considering the next one takes place in 2012, his chances of continuing as Australia's captain seem highly unlikely.

On Indian wickets, his record as a captain is abysmal, to say the least.

The 0-2 defeat in the just-concluded series meant Ponting lost five of the seven Tests he has captained on Indian soil -- the highest tally by any Australian captain. The remaining two were drawn, meaning he is yet to captain his team to a Test win in India.

He is also the first Australian captain to lose six Tests against India, the other loss coming in Perth in 2008.

Considering Australia's next tour to India will happen only after a few years, the one that finished seems, for all practical purposes, Ponting's last Test series in India, thereby implying he will have no more opportunity to improve his poor record.

He may try desperately to sound positive but deep within himself Ponting has perhaps realized the obvious -- his career will end sans series success in both England and India.

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Time magazine Acknowledging the longevity of arguably the greatest sportsman of our times : Sachin Tendulkar

Twenty one years is an age when you can go to a bar and legally drink beer in India. Twenty one years is an age at which a male here can, as a constitutional right, get married. For Sachin Tendulkar, 21 years, means the period he has been padding up in international cricket.

All this started in 1989, when 16-year-old Tendulkar confidently took strike against the deadly Pakistan duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam,

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of, Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters.

Much has changed in the world since young Tendulkar burst into the cricket scene. Time notes many such events, “The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Manmohan Singh was yet to “open” the Nehruvian economy.

It seems while time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar.

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