ready, set, go
A BUTCHER'S #15
A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
launch
As the 2025 Formula 1 season starts this weekend, Lewis Hamilton is wearing red for Ferrari and the racing is about to start. I’m fired up but how does the race start?
5 pairs of red lights go on one pair at a time at 1 second intervals. The moment the lights go out, the race starts. The pause between the final lights going on and then going off is decided by a random timing system - random timing ensures drivers need to rely on their reaction times and can’t predict the race start. You can test your own reaction time here - Have a go, I just did a 0.333
Using telemetry and sophisticated individual sensors on each car, lap times can be accurately measured in thousands of a second, or to .001 of a second. Insane
here is a race(s)
I’m up to issue #15 of A BUTCHER’S and there hasn’t been a single mention of cars - I know, I’m surprised myself! Not a ‘gear-head’ as such, I have just always been aware of cars in my world as this passion was definitely coming from my dad. Starting with Matchbox cars and trips to the nearby racetracks as a kid, I created my ‘book about funny cars’ when 5 years old. Another drawing from back then is ‘Here is a races’. (It’s amazing that my mum kept all this)
I’m looking at the exhaust of the cars going straight into the face of the driver behind. Judging by my other early ‘artwork’ I’m pretty sure the drivers are cats. Checkered flag, sound effects, it’s almost as if you were there yourself. v. good!
playtime
There was Monopoly, Cluedo (just ‘Clue’ in the US) but the board game I really enjoyed playing was Formula 1. So cool in its day with the players steering wheel dashboard ‘controls’ with speedometer (up to 160), lap counter and gauges measuring tyre and brake wear. Excellent.
and now
it’s evolved - get a load of this! From separate steering wheel and dashboard, everything now sits on, let’s say a ‘steering control unit’ - when I look at this thing, I’m wondering how a brain can compute this amount of information. Oh yes, you’re driving over 200mph, inches away from other cars while staying in complete control. A real life, very fast, video game on steroids.
If you’re really curious…. Carlos Sainz explains what everything does on his 2022 Ferrari F1-75 steering wheel in detail (5 minutes) It’s interesting, honest!
Carlos Sainz is now racing for Williams with Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari
postcard pit stop
another favorite from Italy (and keeping in theme): getting it fixed - bare feet and a smoke!
