It may be a good thing that Mark Webber was robbed of Malaysia victory by his team-mate #F1

Like many, I watched the podium ceremony after yesterday's Malaysian Grand Prix with more than a little bit of grumpiness. 

Mark Webber, who had led from early in the race after passing his pole-sitting team-mate, looked, by the final pit stops on lap 43, to be heading for a well-deserved victory. His team had told him to look after his tyres, which meant that he had to slow up a bit and not push the car to its limits. After all, a car that blows up or ruins its tyres on the last lap is no good to man or beast. This needed the co-operation of Sebastian Vettel, who was ordered to hold his position.

The triple world champion was not happy with that. He'd complained earlier in the race that Mark was holding him up. At that point, he'd have been free to pass him and didn't. When the team orders were given, he disobeyed them, pulling a pretty reckless passing move close to the pit wall that could have taken them both out. Team Principal Christian Horner was heard to say "This is silly, Seb."

But he got past and took the victory. Mark Webber was clearly unhappy, offering no congratulations and not  engaging with Vettel in the podium ceremony.

Eventually Vettel apologised, saying, slightly melodramatically, that he would have a hard job sleeping last night. A little late for that, I think. 

It's been clear to many that the Red Bull team revolves around Vettel. It's very unusual for a decision or an order that is in Mark's favour to be issued. It was annoying that when that did happen, the order was disregarded.

So, what happens now? Will Red Bull make him give the position back should he try anything like that in the future? I can't see that happening. However, there may be a more interesting consequence. When did we last see a great show of  form from Mark Webber? In 2010, when relations between the two Red Bull drivers were at their worst. If Webber hadn't broken his shoulder before the Korean Grand Prix, then there's a good chance he, not Vettel, could have been the world champion then. 

When Mark feels he has been unjustly treated, he is at his best. Let's hope that Vettel has set in train a course of events that gives Mark the title he deserves. He has been one of the most consistent and fair drivers on the grid in recent years, as well as being a pretty decent human being. It's time to see achieve the greatness we know he's capable of.

Elsewhere in the race, how funny was it to see Lewis Hamilton turn into his old McLaren pit spot? I can't by rights say that I'd never do anything so ditsy, so I have no right to laugh, really, but I did.

Hamilton and his team-mate Nico Rosberg were at the centre of another "team orders" story yesterday when Nico was ordered to stay behind Lewis. Team managers were worried that the cars were not sufficiently fuelled to get to the end of the race and needed to keep them both from running out. Nico was livid that he wasn't allowed to pass Lewis, although many speculate that Lewis has his position as number one driver written into his contract. Ross Brawn had to patiently explain to Nico over team radio why he had to reign in his natural instincts.

These sorts of team orders are understandable. The sort of thing I really object to is the ridiculous situation where Rubens Barrichello was made to let Schumacher pass purely for points in the championship at an early stage in the season. That's not the situation we had yesterday. 

Apart from Webber, the biggest loser of yesterday was Fernando Alonso. He was not pulled in at the end of lap 1 even though his front wing was hanging by a thread. It was understandable that Ferrari might want to wait until they could be sure it was wise to hange from intermediate tyres to slicks at the same time, but they should have realised that that wing was not going to stay on. If it had bucked a couple of seconds earlier, Mark Webber could have been seriously hurt. As it was, everyone was fine, but that, to me, was yet another Ferrari strategic blunder which could, come the end of the season, cost Alonso dear.

Brilliant Brazil thriller for Vettel's hat-trick #f1

The circuit at Interlagos never fails to disappoint. If you have a Formula One championship going down to the wire, what better place to end the season than in a place which seems, like Spa, to have its own micro-climate, where it can, and frequently does, tip it down at a moment' notice. Who can forget Kimi Raikonnen snatching the title from Lewis Hamilton in 2007 and then the next year Hamilton snatched it from Felipe Massa on the last corner.? In 2009, Brawn GP cemented their Constructors' Championship and the world title for Jenson Button after a bit of fairytale year.

So, last week the F1 circus hit town for climax to the season. If Ferrari's Fernando Alonso could win the race with Sebastian Vettel coming fourth or less, the title would be his. It was a long shot, but if anyone could pull it off, it would be him.

Neither championship contender qualified particularly well, but a first lap spin, encouraged by a good whack on the left side which left visible damage, let Vettel in last place while Alonso had a stonkingly good start, pushing his way up to 4th, then 3rd, which would have been enough.

That was all before the heavens opened. By the time the first lot of tyre changes, to intermediates had happened, Vettel had driven his way from last to 6th, which would have been enough to win the world title. The championship undulated between the two of them for the whole race.

One highlight was that Force India's Nico Hulkenberg led the race for a good stint in the middle before being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton. When he tried to re-take the lead, both spun off. The German managed to get going again, but Hamilton's race was over.

Alonso never stopped fighting. The only place handed to him on a plate was when Massa let him pass, but Vettel had a similar courtesy from his mentor Schumacher in his last race. By the last few laps, all Tifosi hopes rested on Jenson Button doing something silly in the rain. As we saw in Montreal in 2011, Jenson doesn't do silly stuff in the rain; he brings the car home.

It's impossible not to like Sebastian Vettel, or to grudge him his 3rd championship. He has the best car, though. Alonso managed to take a vastly inferior specimen within 3 points of the world title.That shows a fantastic talent. My feelings towards the Spaniard have mellowed over time. I wasn't much enamoured by his early rivalry with Schumacher, and then Alonso behaved like a total tube during his brief stay at McLaren. He and Kimi are probably the best drivers on the grid, though.

Here are my breathless tweets from yesterday. I could talk about this all day, but that train to London won't wait for me.

My hopes for next season - a scrap for the title between Alonso, Kimi, Webber and Jenson, and a place in next year's Strictly Come Dancing for Michael Schumacher. I'm missing this season already. Roll on Melbourne which, inconveniently, falls on the weekend of Scottish Liberal Democrat conference.

Pass the smelling salts - F1 rumour mill scaring me

I have had my fill of traumatic reshuffles this week. The last thing my tired and emotional self needed as I headed home after a wonderfully relaxing meal out with friends was to see on Twitter rumours that my least favourite driver on the Formula 1 grid was apparently headed to one of my favourite teams. Frankly, I'd rather welcome Nadine Dorries into the Liberal Democrats than see Lewis Hamilton go to Ross Brawn's Mercedes.

This might just be Eddie Jordan messing with our heads, but he's been right about this kind of stuff before.

It's probably time that Lewis Hamilton and McLaren had a break with each other after their lifelong association. The fragility of their current relationship could be seen when Hamilton blew telemetry secrets by posting a photo of the qualifying data on Twitter after he'd had a major tantrum about finishing behind Jenson, who had been on a new set up.

Lewis has been flirting with other teams for some time. Last season he ostentatiously met Christian Horner of Red Bull. This year he's been touting himself round Red Bull, Ferrari and now Mercedes. The first two seem to have told him to sling his hook. That is a huge relief. Nobody wants to see a repeat of the fractious 2007 series when both Alonso and Hamilton moved to McLaren and behaved appallingly as they tried to establish who was top dog.

So, Mercedes is the only option seemingly left open to the Great Whinger. Sadly, if he were to go there, it would mean Michael Schumacher retiring. It was bad enough the first time. I really don't want to go through it again anyway, but finding that my lifelong hero was to be replaced by Hamilton, the Great Whinger, requires gin or smelling salts or both. I don't really want Schumi to disappear when he's only just found the way to the podium again.

Hamilton can be a brilliant driver. Sadly, his performance is often affected by a fairly major attitude problem. He spends his time getting involved in feuds with other drivers - there were several incidents between Hamilton and Massa last year as well as between Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado. However, I have to admit that in the latter case, the dishonour was pretty much equally shared. Maldonado is becoming more and more of a liability as time goes on. He needs taking in hand before he kills someone.

I can't deny, though, that some time working with Ross Brawn might actually be good for Hamilton. Brawn's an excellent manager. When Rubens Barrichello had a fit of temper in 2009, Brawn didn't go shouting his mouth off in the press as Christian Horner might have done, but he made the driver write a grovelling apology to the entire team. If anyone can get him to grow up it'll be Brawn.

We'll know soon enough how it's all going to pan out. It will have a lot to do with what Mercedes next car is going to be like and whether McLaren can be bothered with his negotiating tactics. If Mercedes produce a decent car, the temptation for Schumi to stay around for another year would be compelling.

This has been one of the most exciting seasons in F1 I've ever known. With 8 races to go, we have no idea who is going to win. Alonso's talent should, I think, get its just reward. He may not be a personal favourite of mine, but he's managed to lead the championship by driving the wheels off a car that isn't particularly amazing. Webber, also, has been very consistent and has notched up two victories this season. And then the Ice Man has returned. Kimi has yet to win a race, but he's in a fabulous car which should come into its own in the last races of the season. The last time Kimi won a championship, he grabbed it at the last moment in the last race. We can only hope for such a thrilling end to the season.

Discovering GP3 - succession planning in action

This weekend is the first for as long as I can remember that we've not had something on, whether lib demmery,  election preparation, trips away to Cardiff to see Doctor Who or my sister's wedding. So, there is no guilt at all in immersing myself in motorsport.

F1 is in Spain this weekend, taking over the Circuit de Catalunya. One good thing about the Infernal Wickedness of Sky Plus is that it also shows the two F1 feeder series, GP2 and GP3.This is where the F1 drivers of the future are likely to come from.It's succession planning in front of our eyes. I am currently watching the second GP2 race, but haven't had the chance to see the rest of the event so I have no idea who anybody is.

GP3 has space for 30 cars, and 10 teams, but there are currently 9 teams, one of which, Trident, is only running 2 cars. What's interesting is that, unlike F1, each driver has exactly the same car. They have a half hour qualifying, done in the old fashioned way - whoever sets the fastest time is on pole. There are two 16 lap races, one on Saturday afternoon, the other on Sunday morning.

The grid for the second race is a reverse grid for the top 8 point scorers from race 1 - ie, if you finish first, you start 8th. Anyone finishing below these positions starts in the same position they finished race 1 in.

What's interesting for me is that there are 3 women competing, Vicky Piria for Trident, Carmen Jorda for Ocean and Britain's Alice Powell for Status. Alice didn't have a great day yesterday, finishing 25th, but she made up for it today, battling through the field to get into 11th place. She also showed some pretty impressive defensive driving to hold off Kevin Ceccon for a while

The Carlin team also has Alex Brundle, son of the Almighty Martin, making his GP3 debut. He's done well, qualifying 12th and finishing 10th yesterday and working his way up to 8th today. In this morning's race, he'd had a wee bit of a bump in the first lap and had to nurse a slightly damaged car home. Getting points in both races is an excellent start.

Each race saw two drivers with drive through penalties for jumping the start - unfortunately for them, three were in leading positions. Both races saw excellent wheel to wheel racing with some good passes and defensive driving. Will Buller of Carlin's tyres were in a terrible condition yet he managed to hold off Kevin Ceccon.

Yesterday's race was won by Mitch Evans, a New Zealander with MW Arden. I suddenly became very interested in this team when I discovered what MW stood for - this is a joint venture between Arden owner (and F1 Red Bull team principal) Christian Horner and none other than one of my favourite F1 drivers Mark Webber.  Poor Mitch had bad luck today, though, finishing 20th after having to visit the pits to change a puncture.

 Will Buxton provided lively and informative commentary on the World Feed - very useful for a new viewer.

GP3 races take place at all the European F1 races, so I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

#F1 should not be in Bahrain this weekend

There is no way that the Formula 1 circus should be going anywhere near Bahrain this weekend. The report published by Amnesty International contains grim evidence of unfair trial, arrest, police brutality and torture. The last cases they document took place in mid February, a time when the Bahraini Government was trying to portray a benign image of new found respectability.

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is a human rights activist serving a life sentence for taking part in last year's protests. A life sentence. And if he's not released soon, that life might not have much left to go given that he is currently around 60 days into a hunger strike. 

Amnesty has found that those members of the security forces who violated  these prisoners have not been punished for their actions.

F1 spent last weekend in China. The human rights record of the Chinese Government is pretty diabolical. I don't like the sport going there. However, the F1 crowd's brief visit didn't, I think, cause any extra repression or lives to be lost. The situation is different in Bahrain. The Police are armed with live ammunition and will most likely shoot first and ask questions later if they think something's going to embarrass the Government. Ex Met officer John Yates is out there advising them and what he told the Guardian makes chilling reading. That regime will do heaven knows what to keep the streets quiet. Unfortunately we know from the Amnesty Report that heaven knows what involves sexual assualt, beatings, sleep deprivation and electric shocks and blindfolds. Oh, and people's families being threatened too.

That's why I'd like someone to go and give the exceptionally lovable current world champion Mr Vettel a clip round the ear with the Amnesty Report and tell him and anyone else daft enough to say the same, that Bahrain is not like Brazil. The area around Interlagos is a bit dodgy and people have had trouble getting to the circuit - Jenson was robbed a couple of years back, but this is a whole world of brutality away from that.

Already, Force India staff have come closer than anyone would ever want to a fire bomb and the Police have been firing stun grenades at protesters. This violence is a direct result of the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone's decision to go there and they should all be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Let's just hope that nobody, civilian, team or circuit personnel is seriously hurt or worse as a result of that foolish decision.

Bright Button in a vanilla Sky #f1

So, that's the first race of the Formula 1 season over, then.

This season looks like it's going to be intriguing. The Red Bull domination appears to be over. While they're still very strong, they have an equal and worthy competitor in McLaren.If Kimi Raikonnen can sort out his qualifying strategy and Mercedes can sort out their reliability issues, we could be on the edge of our seats for the next 8 and a half months.

Jenson was so smooth today - he made the whole thing look easy. I certainly would not be complaining if he took his second World Championship this year. His team mate, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have grown up that much. He was clearly grumping on the podium as he finished third. Ok, so nobody likes losing, but there was no reason for him to look so sullen.

This, of course, was the debut for the new Sky F1 coverage which has split apart the perfect, cosy BBC1 family which has provided such fabulous coverage the last three years. On one hand, Martin Brundle, David Croft, Ant Davidson, Natalie Pinkham and Ted Kravitz had all gone to Sky while Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard, Eddie Jordan & Lee McKenzie have stayed with the BBC. Honestly, I did feel a bit like a child spending parts of the weekend with separated parents.

Sky is all very slick & professional but it needs more heart & passion. I was wondering whether there would be a commentary box big enough to fit in the egos of Crofty & Brundle but it worked quite well. A couple of incidents where one put the other right with an air of satisfaction, but it was very good. Brundle was unbridled and fabulous as ever. On the other hand, Ben Edwards and David Coulthard had the excitement & passion but sometimes lacked a bit in nailing what was going on. New BBC tech expert Gary Anderson got the significance of Sebastian Vettel's pit stop as the safety car came out, as did Crofty & Brundle on Sky but Edwards & Coulthard were flailing a bit. They were also not very good at deciphering team radio messages which the Sky pair got easily. And, boy, can Ben Edwards shout? I'm all for passion but his voice has a frequency that my ear drums don't like. He needs to tone it down a bit.

My big surprise was that Jake, EJ & DC were actually there and doing a grid walk even though the BBC is only doing highlights this weekend. The potential for mischief when Brundle is doing his Sky grid walk is clear & must be allowed to come to fruition. It's interesting that they got Mark Webber on the grid and Brundle didn't.

Where the BBC boys really kicked Sky's backside, though, was in the post race analysis. It was much better. Damon Hill, bless him, is boring as hell while EJ combines knowledge with awkwardness and mischief like only he can. They got more into 20 minutes than the Sky lot got into 45.

Sky's presenter, Simon Lazenby, wore a much paler pink shirt than Jake Humphrey's. And so fashion imitates life. He has none of Jake's warmth & connection with the viewer.

Don't get me wrong, Sky's coverage is good but mainly because it's copying the high standard set by the BBC. It's a bit more blokey, too. I had to laugh when Brundle interviewed a grid girl & talked about he always said hello to his grid girl as a sign of respect. Actually, respect might be not having them at all.

However, the Sky item where Brundle got to drive a Ferrari was heartwarming & schmaltzy enough to make any fans of the prancing horse faint with joy. And the insight into Caterham's operation was lovely. They are looking after Heikki Kovalainen who has had the horrors of Flavio Briatore as a boss & Lewis Hamilton as a team mate. Cruel and unusual punishment by anyone's standards. He seems appy at Cateram and for that alone, i love them. Actually, the Caterham's feature had something of the West Wing about it.

There was a weird movie once called Vanilla Sky with Penelope Cruz which was bizarre and nothing like the Sky coverage. If I were prone to food metaphors, though, I'd say that Sky were very plain & vanilla, while the BBC were a flavoursome, rich, spiced plum compote. There's nothing wrong with Sky, but lots more tantalising with the BBC.

My stand out moment of the whole weekend was that priceless radio transmission from Kimi Raikonnen asking why he was getting blue flags waved at him. There was just a slight note of amused exasperation in his engineer's voice as he told him that they weren't being waved at him. It still makes me giggle, even hours later. It is such a delight to have that unique character, who just refuses to conform, back in an F1 car.

End result is - I can't wait for next weekend in Malaysia.

Out for Sport - a research project on homophobia and transphobia in sport

Scotland's Equality Network, building on the success of its Equal Marriage campaign is now setting about tackling homophobia and transphobia in sport.

It pains me to think that there are some LGBT people who feel that they either can't participate in sport, or don't reveal their sexuality because they are worried that everyone, from their team-mates to fans or sponsors would give them grief for being who they are.

Stephen Glenn has written about homophobia in sport, including this post about comments made by an agent after the last World Cup. Football has done itself no favours by giving the 2018 World Cup to Qatar, not a place that's friendly to LGBT people. FIFA head Sepp Blatter then carried on digging by suggesting that gay people could "refrain from sexual activity" while they were there.

I have no idea how my favourite sport of Formula One would cope with an out gay driver. I'd like to think that no sponsors would throw hissy fits and that the teams would all be fine about it and I'll assume that would be the case until I have evidence to the contrary. And if that contrary happens, whoever is responsible will face my wrath. And that's not pretty.

There's no doubt that there are barriers for LGBT people who want to take part in competitive sport at all levels so it's good that the Equality Network is aiming to break these down. The first stage of their campaign is to gather information by way of a massive research project, by way of a survey which can be completed here at Out for Sport.  Now, they managed to channel over 20,000 responses to the Equal Marriage consultation. How good would it be for them to have as many responses to this.

It will literally take you 10 minutes to complete. They're calling it the "most expansive research project to date on homophobia and transphobia in Scottish sport." Go on - do it now before you forget.

Sky to have primary rights to #F1 races - a sad day for sport #bbcf1

I have written many times about how utterly fabulous I think the BBC's Formula One coverage has been over the past two and a half years. The passion of presenter Jake Humphrey, the precision of Ted Kravitz, the empathy of Lee McKenzie, the delighfully hilarious commentary of Martin Brundle, the top quality bitching between Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard. They maybe focus on McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari a tad too much, but I'm nitpicking. As soon as you hear "The Chain" come on, you know fine you're going to enjoy pretty much every minute. The way Jake has interacted with fans on Twitter has been so appreciated. Every race has been a delight.

Any attempt to move F1 away from this fabulous team would have had me outraged and distraught. So, you can imagine how I felt to discover on Friday morning that the primary rights to F1 had not only been given away by the BBC, but were going to the Infernal Wickedness of Sky. Next year only half the races, qualifying and practice sessions will be shown live on the BBC and there'll be a highlights programme for the races they don't show live. All the races will be shown on the Wickedness, without adverts. And for this, I would have to pay an extra £20 a month on top of  my basic Wickedness package. It's the only thing I would watch, so that seems like a hell of a lot to fork out.

Basically what happened was that the BBC simply decided that it had better things to spend its money on than F1 in the current financial climate. When the BBC was strapped for cash, saving £30 million a year by sharing the rights with Sky must have seemed an obvious saving. I've seen it suggested that the Coalition's freezing of the licence fee deal was all done to get the F1 rights into Murdoch's hands, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't quite that blatant. The Tories have never been keen on the BBC and would happily undermine it.

But if the BBC was looking to get rid of its rights,  what options did Bernie Ecclestone have? Let's not kid ourselves that the wishes of the fans would even touch the outer realms of his sub-conscious. For him it's all about maximising the dosh. I am as likely to be taken out for dinner by Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny as Bernie is to care about fans.

Now, ITV had already got rid of the rights to F1 to concentrate on polluting the schedules with ever more football, so they were unlikely to want them back. And we maybe have to be grateful about that because other than Murray Walker and Brundle, their coverage was  horrifically bad.

Channel 4 doesn't have the money or the desire for F1 and we should probably be grateful that Richard Desmond didn't snap it up for Channel 5. Heaven knows what he'd have done with it, but it surely wouldn't have been respectful to women.  Actually, I need to correct this after Neil Monnery told me on Twitter that C4 had valiantly done the decent thing and offered £45 million, but this wasn't enough for Bernie.

An exclusive deal with Sky would have left F1's sponsors grumbling as audience figures would plummet. What Bernie has managed to do is get for himself the best of both worlds - the lucrative income from a subscription channel combined with the audience from a limited deal with our public service broadcaster.

For fans, it's a nightmare - and how are new people going to become interested in the sport if the only way they can follow it properly is via a £40 a month subscription? Sure, they can go down the nearest pub, if they're over 18 - but if there's a clash with a football match, guess what's going to win out? Also pubs don't tend to be open at the crack of dawn when the races in Australia, Japan, China, Korea, India and Malaysia, more than a quarter of the year's races, take place.

The BBC team themselves have had mixed public reactions. Commentator Martin Brundle is not a happy bunny.

Jake Humphrey's glass was more than half full. 

I think it's fairly safe to say that fans on Facebook and Twitter are really annoyed about this. A Scottish Liberal, Andrew Page, summed it all up on my Facebook wall:

I'm not the world's bigest F1 fan but I like the BBC coverage...more importantly I like the fact that curently watching the world's best racing drivers in action is something avalable to everyone. Pretty soon the only sports we're going to have on the BBC or TV are showjumping and World Series snail racing.

So will I sell my soul to the Devil? I don't know. I love F1, but I loathe and detest subscription sports channels.  I could say definitely not on principle, but I may well weaken. I am only human after all. I certainly won't even think about if unless they have Brundle. He has become so integral to my enjoyment of this sport over 14 years that he's a deal breaker. Hiring DC and EJ would also help. I am fairly certain Jake will stay with the BBC, but we'll see him loads anyway. I always have the option of watching the races not shown on the BBC on their website. Whatever my ISP charges me for the extra hit on data is bound to be less than a Sky subscription. And I'm sure it'll be lovely on the iPad.

This whole thing really sucks, though.  There's a strong argument that sports with such a massive following should be shown on free to air channels.

We'll just have to relish every single moment of the BBC 's superlative coverage for the rest of the season. That last race under the current system in Brazil is going to be so sad. It'll be worse than David Tennant leaving Doctor Who, Take That splitting up the first time and Dobby's demise in Harry Potter. Better stock up on the tissues, then.

Calling all female #f1 fans today..........

If you're a female F1 fan, can you spare 5 minutes of your time to explain why you like the sport?

Rachel Clarke is doing some research for a blog post on Badger GP.

If you want to help, fill in the survey here. She's closing it down at the end of today (14th June).

#F1 Lewis Hamilton apologises on Twitter. So that's all right then.

Oh, wow. Isn't Twitter marvellous? See when you make a total arse of yourself, all you need to do is get on Twitter 24 hours later and say sorry and all will be well with the world.

I'm not sure that's quite how it works, Lewis Hamilton.

The McLaren F1 driver, who has over the years habitually blamed others and never himself when things go wrong, has lied to stewards to gain a place at the end of a race, who has driven recklessly on track and put others in danger ranted at the stewards after Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix. He was hauled before them at the end of the race for a move on Pastor Maldonado which put the Venezuelan out of the race. This is on top of the drive through penalty for a move on Massa at the hairpin.  He told the BBC's Lee Mackenzie that it was a "fricking joke" that the stewards took such an interest in him after every race and suggested, he says in jest, that it was because he was black.

Last night, he apologised on Twitter, over 4 tweets:

I hope he doesn't think that's it. That he's made amends. I would have had a lot more respect for him if he'd said that he'd picked up the phone to Massa and Maldonado and apologised to them in person. That's what a sincere apology, which acknowledged the effects of the behaviour, would have entailed. I don't know if either Maldonado or Massa follows him on Twitter, but I'd love to see an "Aye, right, Lewis" tweet going back from them.

There's also no mention in Lewis's tweets that he accepts that his comments about the stewards, which include driver Alan McNish, were totally out of order. He should have apologised to them in a manner that takes less than 20 seconds with an iPhone to do.

I never believe in writing anybody off permanently. I don't like Lewis Hamilton, as you might have guessed. We have to remember that not everybody with his talent gets the opportunities he has been given. He's been really lucky and as far as I'm concerned he doesn't show enough appreciation of the chances he's had. However, if he started treating other people with courtesy and respect, and was more ready to take responsibility for his behaviour, then I'd be prepared to reconsider my opinion of him. A few words on Twitter is simply not enough - and the fact that he thinks they are vindicates the low regard I have for him.

#F1 Lewis Hamilton needs to grow up!

I'll write about the thrilling Monaco race and its anti-climactic finish when I have more time, but I have to say that I was horrified by Lewis Hamilton's comments after the race, which you can watch here on the BBC website.

He said that the fact that he had been called to the stewards five times in six races was "an absolute fricking joke." When asked why he thought he was so magnetic to the stewards, he said "maybe it's because I'm black." He said he was joking, but he had literally just spat his dummy out so hard it probably hit some poor person sunbathing on a beach somewhere in Northern Italy, so it didn't sound much like an attempt at humour - and if it was, it was in extremely poor taste.

The thing about Lewis is that whenever he gets involved in bother of some description, he becomes the king of "it wisnae me". It's always someone else's fault.

We mustn't forget that the reason he was hauled before the stewards at the end of the race was because of an incident with Williams driver Pastor Maldonado which put the Brazilian out of the race. Hamilton tried to push past him at St Devote and sent him spinning into the barriers. You would have thought that he would have learned from an earlier incident when he'd tried to get past Felipe Massa at the hairpin for which he received a drive through penalty.  He subsequently pulled a move on Massa in the tunnel which crossed the line between audacious and dangerous.

So, after an afternoon when he'd been in my opinion reckless, all that's happened to him is that he's had 20 seconds added to his time, which won't affect the result.

I think that it's time that the stewards took tough action with persistent offenders. I feel that Hamilton's driving today was so out of order on several occasions that he should have been banned from the next race, or excluded from today's results at the very least.

Let's compare and contrast the attitude of Hamilton with that of Bathgate's Paul Di Resta. The Force India driver gives the impression of enjoying every aspect of his F1 experience, of feeling privileged to be there. He is unfailingly friendly and polite when interviewed, and when he makes a mistake, he holds his hands up, immediately, without any stroppiness. He pulled a bit of a move at the hairpin on Jaime Alguersuari,  similar to Hamilton's attempt to force his way past Massa, and similarly attracted a drive through penalty from the stewards.

In his interview, he totally admitted his mistake. I suspect he'll learn from the experience and allow it to make him a better driver.

F1 is a dangerous sport. The fact that two drivers have been hospitalised this weekend (although, thankfully, Vitaly Petrov will be back out later tonight and Sergio Perez will be out tomorrow) underlines that. There's no place for the sort of recklessness Hamilton showed today, particularly when it endangers other drivers' lives. It would be a lot better for the sport if Hamilton stopped doing the victim thing, quit the spoilt child act and behaved like an adult.

After today, it dawned on me that one training course you wouldn't want to go on would be "Media Relations with Lewis Hamilton and Helmut Marko."

#F1 Felipe is faster than you - the second Pitsraight podcast

I know this is a bit late, but I'd completely forgotten to tell you about this before. My second foray into the world of F1 podcasting is now available. Ok, it's two weeks old, but it's worth listening to because in light of yesterday's events in Malaysia, yours truly's views on Nick Heidfeld seem to have been vindicated.

Neal Brown is away this week, so Callum and I, hopefully with special guest, will be doing our review of yesterday's race in Malaysia. Topics I hope we will be discussing include the Nando/Lewis incident, will KERS be Red Bull's achilles heel, isn't Paul Di Resta lovely, episode 346, how come things break more seriously on Webber's car than Vettel's, Petrov's wee flight and Massa's future at Ferrari.

#F1 2011 season preview: Part 3 - Gadgets and Gizmos

Welcome to the third part of my season preview, where I shall tell you about some of the things which enhance my F1 viewing.

The first two parts are:

Rules and Tools

Teams and Drivers

Once upon a long ago, when F1 came on, you just sat down on the sofa and got on with it. Then the internet came along, and you could access whatever information teams chose to give you online. And you could chew the fat with other fans on various forums, or fora, I suppose if I'm being correct about it.

For me it was Twitter that was the biggest enhancement to how I enjoy F1. It gives me the chance to chat away, in real time, as the race is happening. A couple of years ago when there was all the turmoil about the future of F1 and talk of a breakaway series, much of the F1 Twitter community, most of whom I still hang around with now, came together to call for Max Mosley to resign. Vote Liberal Democrat European posters vied with Maxout avatars in my Twitter feed. Tweeting through a race is great fun - although if for some reason you miss a session, you have to remember not to go anywhere near Twitter, which is no good at keeping secrets. The downside is that you get too engrossed in Twitter that you miss bits of the race. It's still a net gain, though, especially as some of the drivers are on there. Have a look at my F1 list to see some of the lovely people I follow.

It's also really useful to have access to the live timing screens when you're watching - it particularly enhances qualifying when you can see who's on a flying lap as their times turn purple. It can be quite compulsive. I either use the official F1 website which is free, or, to my shame, I also have the iPhone application so I can surreptitiously sit in a boring meeting and "watch" events. That costs £20 (which reduces proportionately throughout the year) but it's so worth it. You can see the GPS positions of the drivers on track so you can see who's coming into traffic or trouble. You can flick between the live timing screens and the GPS at the touch of a button. The app also has all the team and driver info you will ever want to know and a news section too. There are variations of this app for Android, Blackberry and Ovi. It is a ridiculous extravagance, but I love it.

I also frequently check the BBC F1 website which has its own driver tracker and bags of information including Jake Humphrey's fabulous blogs.

When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is check the BBC News application on my phone. The second thing I do is to check the Autosport app. It costs £2.99 and has a regular supply of news from all sorts of motorsport so I can keep tabs on rallying and DTM too. If I'm at the laptop, the Autosport website is indispensable.

That, I think, is pretty much it. Is there anything you use that I haven't heard of? If so, let me know in the comments.

#F1 2011 season preview: Part 2: Teams and Drivers

Here's the second part of my 2011 season preview concentrating on teams and drivers. The others are:

Rules and Tools

Gadgets and Gizmos

I want to take a look at the teams' and drivers' challenges and opportunities for the season ahead, starting with the current champions.

Red Bull Racing

The current champions should have had the Constructors' Championship last year sown up a lot sooner than they did. Their season was punctuated with lost opportunities, fuelled at least in part by a failure to properly manage the tensions between their two drivers.

Sebastian Vettel seemed stuck to pole position for most of the season, but he often couldn't convert that into a race win, either because of reliability issues or by his own impetuousness, bashing into people, including his own team-mate, on occasion. He won the championship because of mistakes by others rather than outstanding talent on his part. That's not to denigrate him, because he is an extremely talented driver, but he needs to show that he can be consistent across a whole weekend, or a whole season.

On the other hand, Mark Webber is a courageous, consistent performer who, I think, outclassed Vettel many times last season. I think he did suffer because the team so obviously favoured Vettel and were quick to blame Mark for incidents between them, notably in Istanbul, which were clearly not his fault.

I don't rate Christian Horner's people management skills, certainly compared to Ross Brawn and Martin Whitmarsh. A lot of the bad feeling during last season could have been avoided. There are a number of ways that he could have dealt with the issue with the fact that there was only one front wing upgrade at Silverstone rather than just nicking it off Mark 5 minutes before qualifying. He could have sat Mark down and asked nicely if Sebastian could have it given that it didn't make any difference to Mark's performance, but it did to Sebastian. Or, as Neal suggested in the Pitstraight season preview, Christian could have told Sebastian that he wasn't taking a front wing off a careful driver who'd looked after it.

Again this season, Red Bull seem to have the best car. They have dominated testing. They need to do better at the whole team spirit and getting the best out of everybody. As things look right now, the title is theirs to lose. They don't want to throw it away through carelessness.

Mark Webber, is, by the way, one of the most balanced human beings on the grid. He showed over the cancellation of Bahrain that he has a good sense of proportion about what's important in the World. He is on Twitter as @aussiegrit. He needs to retain that fighting spirit he had last season and not allow what happened at the end to distract him. He has the talent to win the title and he has a good car. His prospects for the season will be largely determined in his own head.

Ferrari

The thing for Ferrari is can what happened in Abu Dhabi stay in Abu Dhabi? How much pressure will principal Stefano Domenicali be under after presiding over what may well have been a championship losing mistake? Having said that, there was something karmic about it because if Alonso had won, it would have been by less than the 7 points he gained by the Hockenheim Team Orders fiasco.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemelo is impatient for another championship win and nothing would make me happier than Felipe Massa getting out there and whipping Fernando Alonso's backside. Unfortunately, though, we haven't seen the sort of form which led Massa to almost win the championship in 2008 since his recover from his horrendous accident the following season.

I had mellowed a bit to Alonso in the years since Michael Schumacher retired, but after last year he's been making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end - most recently this morning in the Quali build up where he very smugly said that allowing team orders would help everybody.

Ferrari have looked promising in pre season testing and will be looking to capitalise on any Red Bull mistakes. Last year showed them, though, the importance of getting as many points in the bag early on as possible. Will they be able to make a strong start to the season?

McLaren

I think probably the biggest wonder about McLaren is that two such monumental egos as Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton can co-exist quite peacably.  I'm sure that has to be a tribute to the management style and people skills of principal Martin Whitmarsh. There was certainly no serious needle between them last year even though they seemed to be genuinely treated as equals.

This year, it seems very likely to me that Jenson will have the advantage as smooth drivers who look after their tyres will be rewarded by being able to stay out longer and stop less. How many times last season did we hear Lewis bleating about his tyres while Jenson just got on with it?

This year's car, though, is not looking that great and hasn't fared well in testing, both in miles covered and positioning. The fancy exhaust system has been removed and there have been a good few changes for Melbourne. However, it's performed much more strongly over the weekend so far than anybody expected. Will they be able to pull off a surprise race victory tomorrow?

Lewis and Jenson are on Twitter as @lewishamilton and @jensonbutton 

Mercedes

Last year Mercedes were always playing catch up. Battling for the title, on a limited budget, in 2009 had not given them the time and space to develop the 2010 car which did not allow the magic partnership between Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn to reach its full potential.

However, I was checking James Allen's excellent Twitter aggregator during testing and sighing as the team just wasn't setting the track alight. Until the final test in Barcelona, that is. Ross Brawn was candid that they needed to find another second, but the car started to look stronger with the upgrades. Unfortunately quali today has looked more like last season than I would have liked, especially with Nico Rosberg qualifying ahead of Schumi. Nico is looking for his first win and both drivers seem to think that race wins, but not the championship, is their realistic aim this year.

In terms of personnel, both drivers have new race engineers, with Andrew Shovlin being promoted to Chief Track Engineer. They also have appointed Bob Bell as Technical Director. Bell was the acting principal at Renault in the wake of the Singapore disaster and was credited with steadying the ship. Some might see his appointment as a bit of succession planning. But Ross Brawn isn't going to retire. Ever. I simply won't allow it. Having said that, I think that having a technical director will help share the load.

I think that they will start to win races this season. The marginal tyres and the complicated steering wheel will play into Michael Schumacher's hands so I expect him to ultimately outperform Rosberg.

Lotus Renault

You have to feel sorry for Lotus Renault. They develop a car that's their best in years and then a few days after the first test, Robert Kubica, who had all the ability to make some serious progress for the team, sustained extensive fractures to his arm, hand and leg. He's had a whole load of surgery since, and although the prospects for him are better than at first feared, if he reappears this season, it'll be a bonus.

This left the team having to find a quick replacement and they settled on Robert's old team-mate from BMW, Nick Heidfeld, who took the car by the scruff of the neck and got some good testing results in it. Unfortunately, his qualifying performance today, not getting beyond Q1 has seemingly vindicated those who think that although Nick is reliable and dependable, he doesn't have what it takes to get the best race results. Having said that, the team are putting his problems down to KERS issues and traffic, which are plausible. Let's not write him off yet. Especially as he spent some time working for Pirelli testing their tyres.

Vitaly Petrov had a solid debut year last year, showing at times that he's capable of some courageous on track moves. He is inspiring me to brush up on my Russian again, as he tweets in his native tongue @vitalypetrov10 and I want to increase the number of times I understand what he's saying.

Technically, the car has a bit of a magic exhaust system which might help them overtake Mercedes. It is also gorgeous with its black and gold livery.

Williams

It's been a while since we've seen a Williams car without an RBS logo as it is this year. To be honest, I am relieved. I was a bit sick of seeing a car go by and thinking that as a taxpayer I owned it. Not that I wasn't proud of Rubens Barrichello, just that there are more pressing demands for public money. That withdrawal of sponsorship, though, means that the team has had to seek funds from elsewhere, which is why last year's promising rookie Nico Hulkenburg has been replaced by Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado who has the weight of the state owned oil company behind him.  Not every pay driver has talent, but Pastor is the current GP2 champion, so he can drive.

He is the luckiest person in the world, though. Imagine being able to learn your F1 trade alongside the most experienced, and the most generous, guy in the field, Rubens Barrichello. He's fantastic at development work which is presumably why he's been given another year at Williams.

Each of the midfield teams has a certain something they hope will propel it into the big time - and Williams is especially keen to regain the limelight and get its first victory in 7 years. For the team it's their tiny wee gearbox which Autosport said contributed to the "most aggressively packaged rear end on the grid". They also have KERS.

Rubens is on Twitter @rubarrichello.

Force India


This "spawn of Jordan" team has had some good moments in the last couple of years, but staffing changes appear to have had an effect on the development of this year's car which has not been performing spectacularly well.

Adrian Sutil, who apparently made more overtaking moves than any other driver last year, with 45 attempts to pass, stays at the team and is joined by Bathgate boy Paul Di Resta.  Di Resta told Autosport magazine that he sees his experience as current DTM champion as better than GP2 for F1 because he's had to learn about strategy.

I can't see that Force India's prospects are particularly bright this year as it will take some time for the new staff to bed themselves in.

Paul Di Resta is on Twitter @pauldirestaf1.

Sauber

Sauber seem to have produced a reasonable car this year which has performed well in testing. What it doesn't have, though, is experienced drivers. Kamui Kobayashi, who drove for Toyota in the last two races of 2009 before joining the team, is plucky to say the least. He also shows absolutely no respect to his elders and betters on track and will overtake anyone given half a chance. He's joined this year by Mexican GP2 runner up Sergio Perez.

Sauber are also unique in F1 by having the sport's only female CEO in Monisha Kaltenborn.

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Red Bull's little brother is hoping its double floor will give it the edge this year along with the Ferrari KERS system. They have kept last year's team of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguesuari.  Slightly menacingly, breathing down their necks is their Australian test driver Daniel Ricciardo. This team has previous form for sacking drivers mid season as they did with Sebastien Bourdais a couple of years ago and they already have a talented replacement in the wings. Paul Di Resta, who came up from test driver at Force India, similarly has former Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg breathing down his neck. Teams these days don't give much time to their young drivers to learn their craft.

Team Lotus

On the face of it, this is the new team which has most prospects, and ambitions to get well above its station. They hope the Red Bull gearbox and Renault engine will establish them in the midfield and that their experienced driver team of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli will help them get there.

It's been a mystery to me why someone as personable and courageous (well, he did take his Hispania for a shakedown in the middle of a qualifying session last year) as Karun Chandhok hasn't a permanent drive and why one of India's biggest companies chose to sponsor Narain Karthikeyan than him. I was thrilled to see Lotus taking him on as their reserve driver, and watched through my fingers as he ended up in the wall in practice yesterday. Characteristically, he put his hands up to the mistake.

Lotus has pretty comprehensive Twitter coverage from Team Principal @tonyfernandes, Technical director @MikeGascoyne, @h_kovalainen and @karunchandhok being keen users.

Hispania Racing

They survived. They're back. Whether they survive to the end of the season is not in any way assured, particularly with the 107% rule.

I am not keen on the way they treated Karun Chandhok last year, so I have no affection for them, or desire to see them on the grid whatsover. They were lucky to have finished second last in 2010, but that was more to do with Virgin not being able to get to the end of a race until a third of the way through the season.

They do have a bit of money this year, from Tata Motors, an Indian company who is bringing Narain Karthikeyan out of obscurity.Tonio Liuzzi, previously of Force India, is their second driver.

Marussia Virgin

Hispania's rivals, fighting for the wooden spoon, will be Marussia Virgin. Their new title sponsor, and the  may give them the edge for their car designed by computer, without a wind tunnel, to save costs. They also have an experienced driver in Timo Glock and they've taken on rookie Jerome D'ambrosio to replace Lucas Di Grassi.

So that's a quick tour round the teams as they stand just now. I think that Red Bull are going to be hard to beat, but there may be significant changes in the pecking order in both the top flight and the midfield. I hope too that Lotus can detach itself from last year's new teams and establish itself in the midfield.

#F1 Vettel storms to Melbourne poll without his magic button

Well, that was an intriguing qualifying session, full of enough of the unexpected to whet your appetite for the season to come.

I dragged myself out of bed in the last few minutes of Q1 to find Massa and Heidfeld on the cusp of going out. I had thought that Nick Heidfeld, with his experience of testing for Pirelli, and with Renault having the best car they've had in years, would be scrapping for at least the third row of the grid. As Q1 ended, he couldn't rise above 18th place and fell at the first hurdle.  Massa, thankfully, managed to pull himself up into 11th, but that was not as comfortable as it should have been given their pre-season form.

The early surprise of the day was that the McLarens were looking a lot stronger than their testing form suggested. Also frustrating was the fact that the nice new Red Bull gear box and Renault engine didn't seem to have the desired effect from the Lotus. According to Ted Kravitz, the issue was getting heat into the tyres. Let's hope that improves when we get to warmer climes.

It was fun to watch the different styles of adjustable rear wings. McLaren's looks a lot more robust and rounded and smooth in a way than Mercedes, for example. Don't ask me about the engineering because it will only lead to my embarrassment and won't be in any way enlightening for you.

An unexpected early casualty of Q2 was Rubens Barrichello, who made a bit of an elementary error which he put his hands up to completely, as you'd expect from someone who is as honest and grown up. Other drivers might have blamed tyres, or a fag end on the track, or a slippery white line, but Rubens stepped up. That's just one of the reasons I love him.

Adrian Sutil had a huge spin, which, amazingly, he managed to correct, at the end of a lap in Q2. It left him down in 16th place. This to me also illustrated a huge increase in the quality of the BBC's commentary. I reckon Jonathan Legard would have actually understood what had happened. David Coulthard had it spot on, articulated well, almost before Sutil was out of the spin. More on that later.

 It was fabulous, though, to see Sutil's team mate, Bathgate's Paul Di Resta qualify confidently in 14th on his debut. He was remarkably cool and calm during a live interview 30 minutes before quali. I was very impressed. 

There was never any doubt that the Red Bulls were going to be dominant - the big surprise, though, was that the McLaren's were up there with them. Sebastian Vettel stormed to a pole position that was faster than last year's, even with the reduced downforce and lack of double diffusers. He was still 0.8 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who cheekily swiped second place from Mark Webber by 0.088 of a second.
McLaren, and probably Lewis, were ready to blame his failure on the fact that his KERS was playing up. Martin Whitmarsh was at great pains to point out how much of a disadvantage that would have put him at, because you don't just lose the speed boost, but the braking balance goes off and you have the additional weight for nothing. Clearly the aim was to say "Vettel, we'd have had you if we'd only had KERS." The look on Lewis Hamilton's face when it became clear during the press conference that Vettel hadn't even used his magic button was a bit of a classic. I'll remember that one for a long time.

I do wonder, though, if someone needs to tell Sebastian Vettel to get over himself. He has always been such a lovely chap, really engaging and happy, and humorous. Sometimes, though, and I know this from politics, there's a battle to keep people's feet on the ground once they achieve great things. It's easy with some people, to keep them real, but others can develop a sort of pretentious arsiness that is most unattractive. I know that English is not his first language, but even so, his comments on the team radio after his pole position lap were a bit, well, suited to the Luvvies column in Private Eye.

"Yes, yes, boys, we keep on working, we do our thing, we are who we are"

Time to grab hold of his ankles and help him gently back down to earth, I think.

A trio of final observations on the cars. You know how I said that Renault should have made the third row of the grid anyway. Well, Vitaly Petrov did. That proves the car is capable of good things and bodes well for the future.

I was gutted to see Michael Schumacher not make it into Q3 after such a promising final test, especially when Rosberg qualified 8th. Not a great position for the team to be in, but it is only the first race.

And the Hispania's are s-l-o-w. I bet a few of the go-karts at the track up the road at Deans could give them a run for their money. They were the only ones outside the 107%. I still think they should be allowed to race, as there is that discretion, it is the first race and I hate the rule. How are they ever going to get any better if they start losing sponsorship or potential sponsorship if they can't get through the weekend?

I mentioned earlier how DC, on his commentary debut, was spot on with his analysis of Sutil's spin. I really thought that his partnership with the now lead commentator Martin Brundle worked fabulously. I always thought it would, to be honest. DC was clearly nervous, and it seemed from what he said afterwards that he thought the commentary box was a bit claustrophobic, but he did well. He got distracted a couple of times - once when he was explaining the lap delta stuff on the steering wheel, but that commentary box had more passion for the sport and clarity of commentary in one qualifying session than in a whole season with Jonathan Legard. For a start, Brundle's voice has a variety of tone and pitch and speed that in itself keeps you awake. He's stepped up instinctively to the role of lead commentator and what I liked more than anything else was how clearly he explained things. He's found us a great analogy for the tyre colours:

silver - hard - knife

white - medium - toast

yellow - soft - butter

red - supersoft - jam

Genius - I'm not going to forget that now, even if I loved Doctorvee's take on it.

As for tomorrow, we'll have to see firstly if Red Bull in general and Vettel in particular can convert the advantage of pole position into a race win. Or will Hamilton sneak past at the start? Or will they both get impetuous and take each other off. Not, of course that I would take any pleasure in that happening. If Hamilton gets past, how long before he ruins his tyres and loses the advantage?  The way the grid is set up, with the Red Bulls alternating with McLarens and Alonso and Petrov ready to pounce, could bring all manner of surprises. I can't wait.

#F1 2011 season preview: Part 1 - Rules and Tools

How utterly wonderful it was to come down the stairs this morning, turn on the tv and hear the scream of F1 engines. Even the doof doof doof of the tools in the garages made me literally want to jump up and down with happiness. I know I can't be a proper fan if I didn't get up to watch practice live, but, honestly, I need my sleep too much so I only do all nighters for elections and party conferences. My body clock can't take any more disrespect of its rhythms.

After Bahrain was quite properly cancelled, hopefully not to reappear on this year's schedule at least, the last 2 weeks have seemed interminable.

But now we're here - this weekend sees the curtain raiser to 8 months of track action. This preview will come in 3 parts:

Part one: Rules and Tools - the technical changes for 2011

Part two: Teams and Drivers - an assessment of the runners and riders

Part three: Gadgets and Gizmos - a look at those internetty and techy things which enhance my race viewing

So let's have a wee look at the new rules for this year, which are summarised here on the official F1 website.


Farewell, Double Diffuser


For me this will always have the fondest of memories in F1 history, being the magic bullet that propelled Jenson Button and Brawn to victory in 2009.

Hello to Adjustable rear wings


At certain strictly regulated points in the race when a driver is within a second of the car in front, ( and never, ever when it's wet), drivers will be able to adjust their rear wing to reduce drag and give them a 10-12 kph speed boost which is supposed to be able to help them overtake. They are called all sorts of things. The "official" term is Drag Reduction System but Mercedes refer to it as the RFA - for Rear Flap Adjuster.

KERS


The Kinetic Energy Recovery System, first used in 2009, is back. Now, we have to remember that the championship was won by a car which didn't have it, so it's not a magic bullet. While that sort of technology is really important for the future it bothers me that the drivers who use it have to lose weight to compensate for what is quite a heavy system. There were a few who looked thinner and more gaunt than I would have liked to see in 2009. The weight limit has been lifted, but already on Twitter I've heard reports of drivers with KERS, notably Jenson,  looking very thin.

The 107% rule


This controversial rule is back. The fastest time in the first qualifying session is the benchmark - and cars whose time is not within 107% of it will not be allowed to start the race. There will be flexibility, though - if a car performs well in practice and then has a spin in qualifying, then they might be able to start if the stewards agree.

I have to be honest. I hate this rule. The sport is supposed to be opening up to smaller teams, who will suffer if they're on the margins. If they don't get to the race, that affects their sponsorship and so on so there's no chance for technical improvements. It's wrong and it benefits the big players.

There are a few races last year where we wouldn't have seen the three new teams if that rule had been in place and I worry that it will suffocate them if they can't beat the clock. It's a rule which preserves the exclusivity of the big boys and as such I really don't like it.

Restricted working hours


There will be no more of this working through the night in the garage, which is bound to be kinder on the mechanics, but could prove disastrous to anyone taking a spin in practice or qualifying if the mechanics can't get long enough to work on the car. This could affect big teams as well as small as they will be deprived of 6 hours of through the night working.

I'm in two minds about this one. On one hand, you have less tired mechanics, who are less likely to make mistakes. On the other, if someone told campaign teams they had to get a certain amount of sleep the night before an election, it would often be impossible to get everything done and it's unfair to penalise teams for an accident which they may not have been able to avoid. The teams have four individual exceptions to this during the season - but there could be a time when this floors a championship contender.

Gearboxes


Remember the race when poor Rubens Barrichello arrived back in at the end with his gearbox actually on fire?  Well, this time, gearboxes have to last 5 races, not 4. This is bound to lead to more grid penalties at the end of the season, just to mix things up a little bit.

Team orders


This is another change which has me foaming at the mouth.  If I hear Felipe Massa being told, quite openly this time, not in code, to move over to let Alonso pass on race one, I will be furious.

I'm not entirely unreasonable - at the end of a season, it is not only legitimate but courteous and responsible for a driver who's out of the championship running to help out their team mate, but I don't like its acceptance. It's not good for drivers - what's their incentive to do well if their ambitions are crushed by a more powerful team mate - and it's not good for fans.

Wheel Tethers


After too many scary moments when wheels went flying, there now has to be an extra wheel tether.

Tyres


Another element thrown into the mix are the new Pirelli tyres, designed to not be quite as hard wearing and just to make it even more difficult, drivers now have 3 less sets for the weekend.

They are colour coded so it'll be supposedly easier to tell the difference. Yalla F1 has a pretty picture but the colours to get stuck in your head are:

wet: orange

intermediate: light blue

super soft: red

soft: yellow

medium: white

hard: silver

So basically, the lightest shade is the softer of the two on offer on any given weekend as the combinations will be red and white or yellow and silver as there's always a difference of two levels.

The last four seasons have had thrilling endgames - Kimi winning at the last gasp in 07, Massa just losing out in 08, the thrill of Brawn's year and then it all going down to the wire in 2010. This sport does not have to be made more exciting. Having said that, the combination of the new wings and tyres may add an extra frisson of tension and unpredictability.  

In which I get on to iTunes

Remember how the other day I did Callum Leslie's show on www.freshair.org.uk?

Well, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but it's now available here on iTunes if you want to hear me, Iain McGill, Tory candidate for Edinburgh Central, Labour member Matthew Bevan and Callum chew the fat about all sorts of things from drugs to alcohol to Libya to the prospects for the parties in the Scottish elections, the best bit of which was my heartfelt plea for anyone who lives in Glasgow to vote Lib Dem on the list to ensure that a wise man who has a passion for civil liberties in his DNA, Robert Brown, is re-elected on 5th May. In fact, if any of your friends and family live in Glasgow, tell them to make sure they vote Lib Dem on the list there.

Callum mentioned at the top that we'd done a podcast a couple of days previously but then we both forgot to plug it later on in the show - but here it is if you want to listen to that as well.

Marrying the Mistress - I take part in a podcast, an #f1 season preview

I spent a good part of Saturday evening helping to record the first podcast on The Pitstraight site. I don't know quite why I persist in trying out these new methods of broadcasting when it's patently obvious I'm best at writing, but I thoroughly enjoyed spending an hour or so chatting about one of my favourite subjects with some nice people.

Clearly podcasting gets round my "face for radio" issues, but it isn't perfect. When I write and I mess something up, I can hide it so you'd never know. Unfortunately, my gob doesn't have a backspace key, so there were times when I just couldn't get the words out in the order I wanted them to and I was way too hesitant. I think I did manage to make some reasonable observations at some points and, in fact, the title of the episode, Marrying the Mistress, comes from something I said.

Thankfully, the others involved were brilliant. Neal Brown, who owns the Pitstraight site, has an encyclopaedic knowledge and is good at keeping the discussion moving forward. Callum Leslie is already such an assured and talented broadcaster - and he said he had done absolutely no research. I, on the other hand, had pages of notes, quietly gleaned while I was sobering up from what was probably too much white wine at lunchtime. Seriously, I actually drank 3 cups of coffee at home - and I never make coffee at home.

The podcast is imperfect - we went on for far too long about the smaller teams, meaning we had less time to chew the fat over the big hitters. Despite that, we do a lot of disagreeing with other and it gets lively at times, particularly between Callum and I on the subject of Mr Schumacher.  I'm sure, also that my lovely F1 friends on Twitter will be pleased with some of the things I had to say about Mr Hamilton.

Callum is letting me on his Edinburgh Uni radio show tomorrow morning, as well - albeit because he can't get anyone else because Parliament's dissolving.  This time we'll be talking about politics and there will probably be much more agreement between us.

Sinister speech by Saif Gadaffi threatens brutal endgame

I had fully intended to go to bed early last night. Listening to the brutal ramblings of a deluded despot's son. Yet at 11pm, which would have been 1am in Tripoli, I found myself transfixed by the 40 minute speech, containing some not very veiled threats, by Saif Gadaffi, son of the Libyan dictator.

I found it quite chilling. He dismissed the brutality of the Police and Army firing live ammunition at protesters as mistakes by untrained officers. Yeah, sure, it's an easy mistake to make. He said that the evil foreign media was exaggerating what was going on and that there had only been 84 casualties. I'm sure anyone looking out of their windows in Benghazi would know different.

Gadaffi Junior looked as if he knew fine he was lying as he kept rambling on about how Libya was not Tunisia or Egypt. His desperate arguments included:

• the protests were being run by a few drug addicts and drunkards
• that the country would be divided and you'd need a visa to get from Benghazi to Tripoli - it would be like North and South Korea
• that a conversation with our foreign secretary William Hague had led him to believe Libya was vulnerable to foreign occupation. You kind of wonder if Saif's dad's mate Tony Blair's illegal invasion of Iraq gives that statement some false credibility.

The sinister bit, though, was his threat that he and Daddy would fight till the last man, woman or child was standing. This vile bunch are not going to give up power easily and despite being brought in from the cold in recent years, they aren't so bothered about upsetting the international community.

I feel for those brave Libyans out on the streets in Tripoli, Benghazi and other cities. They must know that if they continue, they risk a brutal onslaught from Gadaffi, but if they stop, they'll be rounded up and made an example of.  So far they seem to have responded to Gadaffi Jr's rant on state tv by ransacking the HQ of said state tv. Forty years of pent up anger and resentment at a regime that's kept them repressed and in poverty. 

It's all incredibly worrying. I hope that the Libyan people can rid themselves of this vile regime without it turning into a bloodbath. The BBC are reporting that the cities in the east, pretty much under opposition control this morning, are pretty peaceful now, but the violence has now spread to Tripoli.

The Bahrain regime, which I wrote about yesterday, is bad enough, but Gadaffi's response promises to be more irrational and brutal. On Bahrain, I'm glad to see that one of my favourite F1 drivers, Mark Webber, has publicly said what most others are thinking, that the race planned for 13th March should not go ahead.

It certainly looks like much of the old order is being forced to recognise that at least things can't go on as they used to across the Arab world. It'll be a while before we know what the outcome will be. I read yestersday, though, that despite women being part of the protests in Egypt, they are excluded from the body that's discussing the new constitution. That does not bode well. It's not going to be good enough to replace the old guard with new regimes which do not give equality to women, or protect them from abuse.

Bernie Ecclestone must pull #F1 out of Bahrain now

I said on Twitter on Tuesday that if the Bahrain Government was going to fire on its own people, then the Formula One season opener due to take place on 13th March, as well as the testing the previous weekend, should be cancelled immediately.

I am horrified to see that Bernie Ecclestone, someone you may remember who gave a million quid to the Labour Party when they still had ethics, so you'd think he'd have a passing interest in human rights, has now left it to the Crown Prince of Bahrain to decide whether the race goes ahead.

Until now, the Crown Prince as portrayed to us has been that friendly, benign figure Martin Brundle talks to on the grid. I remember a couple of years ago that started with Brundle being uncharacteristically obsequious and ending with him patting HRH on the shoulder and taking his leave with a "take care".  Last year Eddie Jordan interviewed this man and did all but prostrate himself before him.

We've seen another side to Crown Prince Salman ibn Hamad Isa Al Khalifa, though, these past few days. He was in charge of the Army when they fired on their own people in Pearl Square Manama in a series of protests that has left 6 people dead and hundreds injured. His subsequent withdrawal of the Army and willingness to talk is, quite simply, too little, too late.

I'm assuming the reason Bernie wants the Bahrainis to make the decision is motivated by money and contractual issues. If FOM makes the decision to pull out, are they open to claims for costs incurred by the teams? However, if it's the Bahrain Government advising it isn't safe, would that minimise any liability?

The Telegraph reports that the teams are reluctant to go, but want the decision to be made for them, again, presumably, because they are worried about Bernie suing the backsides off them if they pull out unilaterally. Each of the dozen teams will have at least 30-40 people with them, from mechanics to catering staff to IT people. They will be concerned for their safety. The Bahrain Government might well say they can guarantee the safety at the Sakhir circuit itself, but it won't be a good look if people have to walk past tanks to get in, and you have to think about the safety of the teams as they make their way to and from the circuit. The F1 circus is actually scheduled to hit town at the beginning of March when the final test takes place, so they could potentially be there for almost a fortnight. I suspect that test will be moved to Jerez or Barcelona so that teams won't actually arrive in Bahrain until Tuesday 8th or Wednesday 9th March. That's still 6 days when the volatile situation could erupt.

Just say they do go ahead and things kick off during the race weekend. Would the Crown Prince order the Army to fire on the people? What level of brutality would be used to keep them off the streets? Surely Ecclestone can see that a massacre would not be a good thing for F1 to be associated with - especially when it could be avoided.

We have this crazy situation where the Foreign Office website advises against all but essential travel to Bahrain, yet Ecclestone leaves it up to someone with a vested interest to make the call, the same person who has already shown that he considers it acceptable to fire live ammunition on peaceful protesters whose demands were modest, to say the least.  Is it not time to find some moral fibre and realise that F1's presence in Bahrain at this time is not going to help?

I've never been a huge fan of the move to hold races in places like Bahrain and China where there is no concern for human rights. Amnesty's report on Bahrain wasn't that great before all this started with reports of torture that made me wince. Imagine being locked up just for criticising the Government or the Royal Family? It's something that we in this country can't really comprehend.  The situation has clearly deteriorated since then. For the safety of everyone, from the people of Bahrain to F1 and media personnel, that race should be cancelled immediately. To do otherwise would be to condone a repressive regime's attempts to cling on to power without legitimacy.