Aries

March 21 – April 19

World-class drivers are incredibly boring people. Yet who can blame them? Their very presence on the grid is at the mercy of sponsors and a team that expect nothing but the utmost professional attitude. Every so often though, a driver arrives on the scene and flips the grid on its head. He’ll ignore custom, commit every faux-pas in the face of his team, and color the world’s press with his blunt expressions of frustration. Whether he finishes at the top of the pack or crashes wildly in the process, the public will notice him. Fans will love him and hate him, but they will always remember him. That is the nature of the Ariesian driver.

The Aries is just as interesting a driver as he is a character. Like most of the fire-based signs, the Aries displays a more aggressive approach when communicating with the car. From the outside, the car will seem frisky, or snappy on corner entry, and show hundreds of tiny direction changes as it finds its way to the exit. Aries drivers are, however, not “car breakers”… unless that’s what they feel like that day.

The defining characteristic of an Aries is their unwavering determination to do… well, what they feel like doing. As social creatures, those decisions are often influenced by their surrounding environment, but often one wonders if they would not have come to the same conclusion if they had been confined in isolation. This often results in unconventional on-track behavior that defies convention. If an Aries thinks that short straight in the Esses is long enough to pass, he’ll do it without hesitation. If he feels he needs more room turning into the first corner, he will brake with two wheels on the FIA curbing. This sort of headstrong behavior translates into their car setup as well. Their cars will have bizarre quirks like a long-travel brake pedal or massive amounts of bump-in dialed into their front suspension – things that will provide no benefit to a normal driver, but are ergonomic must-haves for the Aries.

The danger, of course, is that the direction of travel may opposite that of the destination. That risky pass could have been the cause of that massive crash on lap 1. That bump-in setup could have been why the car was so slow in traffic. As an Aries driver’s biggest challenge will be to allow himself to waver from his position. If he can do that, the headstrong Aries will barrel through to the top with ease.

Notable Aries in Motorsport:
- Ayrton Senna                3-time F1 World Champion
- Carlos Sainz                  2-time WRC World Champion
- Jacques Villeneuve         1997 F1 World Champion, Singer (no, really)

I like machines. They’re predictable. They’re logical. There’s always a reason as to why something happens. If something doesn’t work the way you want it to, you just have to spend enough time moving your hands and your mind until you find out why. Then you go back and change it. It’s the practical approach to making everything well again.

That’s why I like astrology. It’s mysterious. It’s fascinating. It’s completely illogical. There’s no reason as to why any of it should make any sense. There is no reason why you should make sense of it. There is no puzzle. No solution. Yet, I find it strangely practical in my daily doings.

Like in motorsport, for example. No two people drive the same way. But many people share strengths, and weaknesses alike. How do I organize their masses so I can approach them practically? Astrology? Er… No. But more often than is sensible I see correlations between a driver’s sign and his driving style. And I can’t help but wonder if I see a real link or two somewhere in that mess.

In the interest of making this worthwhile, I’m going to give each sign its own post. Here we go...

This is the closest I'll ever get to a New Year's Resolution.