Wednesday ORT: Horner Gone, Ring Crash, Indy Mid-O, Mechanical Casio, RX-2

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ask the man who owned one

We will start with the, ahem, red bull in the room.

He’s lucky; everyone else still has to race this tractor until the end of the year

So that’s the end for Christian Horny, er, Horner. The competent but generally unmemorable Laurent Mekies will replace him for now. Why was he fired? Was it the Hornygate stuff? The departure of Adrian Newey? The culmination of the obscure but oft-discussed Red Bull internal power struggle? Does this mean Max is staying? Is Liam Lawson happy about this?

There’s a sort of rough justice about the departure; after all, Red Bull has repeatedly proven itself willing to promote and demote between Racing Bulls and the A-team. Maybe they offered him a chance to switch jobs with Mekies, although I doubt it. Horner’s alleged sins as a manager are legion, mostly related to how he treated any driver whose last name didn’t begin with “V”, but surely this is the first time in F1 history that someone has won four WDCs in a row then been unceremoniously canned in the midyear.

For the record, People Magazine identified them to their readers as “Husband of Geri Halliwell.”

“We have a Hulk.”

It was his own call that obtained Nico Hulkenberg his first podium. Per Motorsport:

The key decision came on lap 9. While the team had instructed him to stay out and wait for more clarity on the weather, so as not to waste a second set of intermediates, Hulkenberg took matters into his own hands. He overruled the call, and dove into the pitlane at the last moment to fit fresh tyres. "These tyres are fucked," he reported, adding: "Box. I'm coming to the box."

Fortunately, the Sauber mechanics had been warned this might happen and were ready to act quickly, helped also by the favourable position of their garage at the end of the pitlane, just before the exit.

It was a decisive choice, because in those few laps with fresh tyres, Hulkenberg’s lap times improved dramatically. He even set the fastest time in the final sector, gaining over two seconds on drivers who had stayed out on used intermediates.

To give a concrete comparison: in that last sector alone, the German driver gained nearly three seconds on Lewis Hamilton, and kept gaining in the following lap, just as all the other drivers dived into the pits due to the returning rain.

That was where the magic happened: if Hulkenberg hadn’t pitted when he did, he wouldn’t have built enough of a gap to rejoin ahead of Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, and Fernando Alonso. Instead, he would’ve been stuck in traffic.

Those extra laps on fresh tyres proved crucial to leapfrog a crowded pack and build a podium finish he had chased and wanted at all costs especially since, in the second half of the race, he caught up to Stroll and widened the gap to Hamilton. This forced Ferrari to take risks with their own strategy, perhaps pitting a lap too early to go back to slicks.

Hulkenberg continued to be assertive on the radio; when it came to his own slick stop to respond to Hamilton, he asked for the medium given the lower grip and run time left in the race. This gave him that little bit more response in still difficult conditions; although the track had formed a dry line, threading the needle on every lap was still a high-wire act.

And then all he had to do was… discourage Lewis Hamilton in a surprisingly decent Ferrari. Hulkenberg’s podium was an example of F1 at its most collegial; Kevin Magnussen as a Stake guest cheering his old rival on, Mercedes and Aston Martin providing champagne because Stake never bothers to bring any (with more luck, that would have been Stroll’s champagne!), and Max flying Hulkenberg home on his new Falcon jet.

As they say in the memes: Everyone liked that.

Other notes:

• Stroll really did have a decent race. He’s a solid low-traction driver.

• Yuki beat Lawson again, which is the only pro-Yuki way I could possibly spin this awful and embarrassing weekend.

• Give Oscar credit for asking McLaren to swap the positions — but that was never going to happen, especially not at the British Grand Prix.

• Sir Lewis appears to be pulling out an edge on Charles Leclerc lately. Will it continue? Hamilton has always struck me as the most emotionally fragile WDC since Villeneuve, but there’s an upside to it: when he feels confident, he can deliver some remarkable performances. The better Lewis has done, the better he will do.

• Seems unlikely that Max will pull off a fifth championship unless Red Bull gets the junior-team car along with the junior-team boss.

Meanwhile, in my backyard

tapping that ass

How is it that I made it to F1 Suzuka but missed Indycar at Mid-Ohio? The sad truth is that I normally work Sunday evenings at my day job and I had to choose between being late due to the Indy race or being late due to my own race this weekend. All of my crew and family went, however. They reported massive crowds and a relatively processional second half to the race. Notes below:

• It’s hard to beat Scott Dixon at Mid-Ohio, especially when you make mistakes in “Madness”.

• For a spec engine series, Indycar sure has a lot of engine trouble.

• There was a horrifying crash in the NXT race. I haven’t seen anyone hit the flagstand wall in that area since, uh, pretty much every NASA National Championship race held here.

• Santino Ferrucci was called a “clown” by Conor Daly after pushing Daly off the outside of Turn 6. I’ve pulled that same move on people about half a dozen times. Listen, Santino, you gotta sell it to the stewards by waggling the tail a bit over the hill. That way you can say you opened the steering to prevent a spin!

• It might be a second-tier series, and it might be spec racing, but man those IndyCars are fast. The laptime difference between Palou’s best lap and my SCCA GTX record is the same as the difference between my Radical SR8 and a Spec Miata. The NXT cars are impressive, too, running 1:09 against IMSA GTP at 1:11. One wonders if the current F1 cars could break the one-minute mark under ideal conditions.

It’s great to see so many people attending Mid-Ohio. Good news for the series, the track, and the township.

There’s enough idiocy to go around

Everybody is Monday-morning quarterbacking this horrific but non-deadly tourist-driver crash at the Ring. I generally agree with the video analysis above: the BMW was running the Porsche a little close, but the Porsche shouldn’t have tried the move and he shouldn’t have hit the curb.

In the Bimmer’s defense, there are plenty of places on that track, including the one in the video, where relaxing the steering to permit an inside pass can put you at risk of running off the outside. I can see why he felt that he’d allowed enough room. I mean — by SCCA rules, he absolutely gave enough room.

Let’s give thanks for modern automotive engineering; it’s the reason both of these mooks are alive today. But it’s also why you have talentless wheel-wagglers running at triple digits with no concern, so…

Rather have one than the Tissot, actually

Do not adjust your telescreen; you’re looking at a mechanical watch from Casio. This might be the “shoeshine boy giving investment advice” moment for the horology hobby. To recap: Casio made its mark with an electronic calculator in 1954, a digital watch in 1974, and a number of musical instruments, all of which are electronic. They’re best-known in the watch game for the F-91W “terrorist watch” and their many wonderful G-SHOCKs, but they also make some fancier stuff, like Danger Girl’s Oceanus “Edo-Kiriko Limited”. Regardless of material, features, or country of origin, however, all Casio watches are electronic.

That changes now, with the Edifice EFK-100. Think of it as a Chinese clone mechanical that isn’t, so to speak. It uses the Malaysia-built Seiko NH35A movement, which is basically the Chevrolet Chevette of mechanical-watch ebauches. Where is the rest of the watch made? Casio doesn’t say — but when one of their watches is made in Japan, they’re not shy about saying that, so let’s guess that it’s either Thailand or China.

Assuming you can get over the idea of a mechanical Casio watch — hey, it’s a smaller leap than “Porsche SUV” or “Pontiac Solstice” — the Edifice is a good value at an MSRP of $280 for base models and $300 for the version with a forged carbon dial. Speaking of forged carbon:

Europe gets a forged-carbon-cased version with a rubber strap for about $500. This is a strong competitor to the forged-carbon Tissot PRX, which is just now dropping below strict MSRP.

I won’t be buying a mechanical Edifice any time soon, but I respect Casio’s decision to contest the non-digital side of the market.

A reader talks RX-2

remember what they took from us

At my request, reader typopete shares a story of early rotary ownership:

The 1974 Red Mazda RX-2 story. I've always been suspicious of business press hype -- according to Fortune magazine the Wankel engine was the only engine that could meet the upcoming 1976 emissions standards. Ed Cole was going to put the Wankel in the Lordstown-built small Chevrolets that replaced the Vegas. Mazda bought the patent rights from NSU, a German company that merged with Audi. So Mazda got a lot of great PR.

When it came time to buy a car as a fully-employed 21 year old, in Columbus, I was going to buy an Opel Manta but decided on a 1973 Mazda RX-2. Put $25 down on it (the equivalent of $250 today). Told my dad I was going to buy a Mazda, he visited the nearby Mazda dealer (Lima) and found out I could buy a 1974 Mazda RX-2 (with the ugly bumpers) for about the same price. When I went to get the $25 deposit back, the young salesman said "F" you -- you're not getting the money back. I was patient. The dealer in question had built a fancy new Mazda dealership but also had a long-standing Chrysler-Plymouth dealership on Morse Road. When I went with my boss who was leasing a Plymouth sedan he asked the salesman where my deposit was, I got the deposit back. I appreciated that C-P salesman and sent people over to see him through the years but never bought a car from him.

So I couldn't get my car serviced at that dealership, but my brother lived at the time in NE Ohio so when it was time for service I went to the Cleveland area Mazda dealer for service on a Saturday. The RX-2 was fun to drive, was really quick, made cool sounds, unfortunately it was an Automatic and it only got 16-18 MPG around town, and on I-71 on trips to Cleveland and back to Columbus. One time I forgot to add the oil as I was supposed to and all of a sudden the RX-2 was getting better mileage: 20-25 MPG or so. Next tuneup back to 16-18 MPG.

Finally bit the bullet and traded it in on the first of my many Mitsubishis, disguised as Mopar vehicles. One father called me about the RX-2 (got my number from the Dodge dealer where it was for sale) and said his daughter had fallen in love with it, I told him it was not a good car for her (was I being sexist, or realistic?) but eventually somebody bought it and I got a call from the Columbus dealership who told me that, since I had maintained the RX-2 according to the maintenance schedule the new owner wouldn't have to pay for the repair. Probably the seals wore out. Two memorable service issues: the wipers sometimes stopped working, the original selling dealer couldn't figure that one out, learned to replace fuses and learned how to use a snow brush while driving. And I learned to change fan belts, as most mechanics at the time didn't have any metric sockets. I did one road trip to Chicago with this car, with my dad. I remember cruising along I-65 in Indiana at about 80 mph, until my dad told me I'd better slow down. This was probably the closest I ever came to having an enthusiasts car.

If the RX-2 isn’t an enthusiasts’ car. I don’t know what is! And just in case you were wondering if the above images are real:

Edit: And here’s the ACTUAL car, from typopete!