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.
Showing posts with label Martin Brundle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Martin Brundle. Show all posts
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Monday, May 30, 2011
#F1: Vettel's lucky win in Monaco
So Sebastian Vettel continues to run away with this year's world championship. With 143 points out of a possible 150, 5 race wins out of 6, he looks invincible. Having said that, Jenson Button was in the same position 2 years ago and his title win wasn't decided until the penultimate race of the season. Having said that, the Red Bull will develop more than the Brawn car did in 2009. We can but hope that others will start to win races soon. Nowt personal about the lad, you understand, but I'd just like the title race not to be decided by the Summer holidays if at all possible.
He'd never won in Monaco before and his victory yesterday was by no means assured, despite him storming away to a significant early lead. His pit stop on lap 18 was almost farcical in its inefficiency with confusion over which tyres to put on and one of them getting caught in a tyre blanket, losing him a good chunk of time. It would never have done for Mark Webber to have had a more efficient stop so by the time he landed in his box, they didn't even have his tyres ready for him and he was stationery for 15 seconds. From his third on the grid slot, after being passed by Alonso at the start, the pit stop debacle saw the Australian having to fight back from 14th.
Red Bull fluffing it in the pit lane meant that Jenson Button was in front. For a while it looked as if he might be able to pull off a victory. And he might have done, if his reckless team-mate Lewis Hamilton hadn't decided to pull an overtake on Massa in the tunnel which sent the Brazilian out of the race and necessitated a safety car. Every time I see that pass it looks more dangerous, with Massa being pushed onto the tyre marbles. He was very lucky that it wasn't a lot worse. Just before that, Jenson had been pulled in for a pit stop in anticipation of a safety car, which never materialised, when a Virgin retired and he wasn't able to get the benefit of the new tyres to set some cracking lap times and sacrificed his place at the front of the race needlessly.
By the time we'd got to lap 60, Vettel was leading Alonso and Button within a second or so of each other. The thing was, Vettel had had his tyres on since lap 18. Because he'd started on the super soft and then switched to soft, he didn't need to stop again. The unknown factor was how long would the Pirelli tyre last? He'd need to complete 60 laps with that set of tyres and it seemed likely that at some point he'd lose grip and potentially lose 2 seconds a lap which would give Alonso and Button the chance to pass him - and Button had the fresher tyres.
9 laps later, just as the leaders were clearing the midfield, near the swimming pool, Jaime Alguesuari and Vitaly Petrov ended up in the barriers after a series of collisions which also saw Lewis Hamilton's rear wing broken, seemingly hanging by a thread. The race was red flagged and there were some scary moments as it was clear that the problem was extricating Petrov from his Renault. He had been complaining of pain in his foot, so once he'd been gingerly extricated he was taken to hospital. Thankfully, all was well and he was out after a few hours.
The resulting red flag and race restart benefitted Petrov's fellow Renault powered driver, Sebastian Vettel, who was able to get rid of his knackered tyres and replace them with a lovely new set of supersofts on the grid. McLaren were even able to replace Hamilton's rear wing. After the restart behind the safety car, the ultimate result was never really in doubt.
Lewis Hamilton featured in most of the day's controversial moments. Having been passed by Michael Schumacher at the hairpin early on, he tried to pull a similar move on Felipe Massa and completely mucked it up. After the restart he tried a similar ill judged attempt to pass Pastor Maldonado at St Devote. Both Williams could have been in the points otherwise. His comments afterwards, that the stewards' interest in him was "a fricking joke" showed that any veneer of civility he's been cultivating this season so far is all for show.
I'm hard pushed to decide on driver of the day. Vettel won by chance, but still he managed to hold off Alonso and Button for many laps on older tyres, so he has to get credit for that. I get so frustrated with Jenson sometimes. He was caught napping a couple of times yesterday, but most particularly at the restart after the red flag. Vettel and Alonso were off into the distance before he realised what was going on. And it's not like he didn't know that the safety car was going to peel off and they'd be free to race. His smooth driving style suits him a lot of the time, but he can be a bit too laid back and slow to react and that definitely holds him back. I'm also tempted by Mark Webber who, as he always does, got his head down and got on with the job and salvaged a 4th place from being as low as 14th. He was clearly disappointed at the end, and, although I think he gets a rough deal at Red Bull, he was measured in his comments at the end of the race. He certainly had a lot more to complain about than Lewis Hamilton. Then there's Alonso, for his storming start and he did harry Vettel quite a lot when he was chasing him. He'd have got past without the safety car, I'm sure. Out of that lot, I'm going to pick Webber, I think purely because he banged in that fastest lap right at the end.
I've not had time to write much about F1 this year, although I hope that will change now that the elections are out of the way, so I haven't been able to wax lyrical about how fantastic I think DC and Brundle are together in the commentary box. Their passion is so infectious, but they remember that they need to keep it real for the fans and explain things. They have a really good chemistry - not seen since Brundle's days with Murray Walker. At times it's like they're finishing each other's sentences. Their commentary has a feel of a chat down the pub which draws you in. Brundle has stepped very ably into the role of lead commentator and comes out with some brilliantly random lines. During quali it was "I know there are 52 billion chickens in the world, but I'm not sure about that." In the race, while a hapless driver was trying to get his car in gear to leave the pits, he said "there are seven of them in there son, you'll find one". I'm not entirely sure about the veracity of the 52 billion chickens, though - Wikipedia says 24 billion and I read another source that suggested 45,000 per person, but that doesn't seem right.
DC, apart from a highly irritating inability to pronounce Heidfeld or Vettel correctly, is brilliant and the banter between the pair is easy and funny. During the red flag period yesterday, Brundle told DC that he was supposed to have the regulations at his fingertips and DC replied that the dog had eaten his notes. I could have listened to them all day. It's interesting that they didn't go back to Jake and EJ during that time - they would never have been able to fill that twenty or so minutes in the dull days of Jonathan Legard without recourse to something to waken us all up.
Monaco is the race pretty much any F1 fan would love to go to. And Laura Marieee did it this year. She has some cracking photos of the drivers and the iconic track and she's been keeping an online diary here at Formula 1 Blog. She was even able to walk through the pitlane. She's truly captured the spirit of the weekend and her excitement is as palpable as my insane jealousy that she made it there. Enjoy her account.
I can't wait for Canada in a couple of weeks' time. I was so glad to see this race back last year. It will, I think, favour the McLarens over the Red Bulls so maybe there will be a chance to rein Vettel in a bit.
He'd never won in Monaco before and his victory yesterday was by no means assured, despite him storming away to a significant early lead. His pit stop on lap 18 was almost farcical in its inefficiency with confusion over which tyres to put on and one of them getting caught in a tyre blanket, losing him a good chunk of time. It would never have done for Mark Webber to have had a more efficient stop so by the time he landed in his box, they didn't even have his tyres ready for him and he was stationery for 15 seconds. From his third on the grid slot, after being passed by Alonso at the start, the pit stop debacle saw the Australian having to fight back from 14th.
Red Bull fluffing it in the pit lane meant that Jenson Button was in front. For a while it looked as if he might be able to pull off a victory. And he might have done, if his reckless team-mate Lewis Hamilton hadn't decided to pull an overtake on Massa in the tunnel which sent the Brazilian out of the race and necessitated a safety car. Every time I see that pass it looks more dangerous, with Massa being pushed onto the tyre marbles. He was very lucky that it wasn't a lot worse. Just before that, Jenson had been pulled in for a pit stop in anticipation of a safety car, which never materialised, when a Virgin retired and he wasn't able to get the benefit of the new tyres to set some cracking lap times and sacrificed his place at the front of the race needlessly.
By the time we'd got to lap 60, Vettel was leading Alonso and Button within a second or so of each other. The thing was, Vettel had had his tyres on since lap 18. Because he'd started on the super soft and then switched to soft, he didn't need to stop again. The unknown factor was how long would the Pirelli tyre last? He'd need to complete 60 laps with that set of tyres and it seemed likely that at some point he'd lose grip and potentially lose 2 seconds a lap which would give Alonso and Button the chance to pass him - and Button had the fresher tyres.
9 laps later, just as the leaders were clearing the midfield, near the swimming pool, Jaime Alguesuari and Vitaly Petrov ended up in the barriers after a series of collisions which also saw Lewis Hamilton's rear wing broken, seemingly hanging by a thread. The race was red flagged and there were some scary moments as it was clear that the problem was extricating Petrov from his Renault. He had been complaining of pain in his foot, so once he'd been gingerly extricated he was taken to hospital. Thankfully, all was well and he was out after a few hours.
The resulting red flag and race restart benefitted Petrov's fellow Renault powered driver, Sebastian Vettel, who was able to get rid of his knackered tyres and replace them with a lovely new set of supersofts on the grid. McLaren were even able to replace Hamilton's rear wing. After the restart behind the safety car, the ultimate result was never really in doubt.
Lewis Hamilton featured in most of the day's controversial moments. Having been passed by Michael Schumacher at the hairpin early on, he tried to pull a similar move on Felipe Massa and completely mucked it up. After the restart he tried a similar ill judged attempt to pass Pastor Maldonado at St Devote. Both Williams could have been in the points otherwise. His comments afterwards, that the stewards' interest in him was "a fricking joke" showed that any veneer of civility he's been cultivating this season so far is all for show.
I'm hard pushed to decide on driver of the day. Vettel won by chance, but still he managed to hold off Alonso and Button for many laps on older tyres, so he has to get credit for that. I get so frustrated with Jenson sometimes. He was caught napping a couple of times yesterday, but most particularly at the restart after the red flag. Vettel and Alonso were off into the distance before he realised what was going on. And it's not like he didn't know that the safety car was going to peel off and they'd be free to race. His smooth driving style suits him a lot of the time, but he can be a bit too laid back and slow to react and that definitely holds him back. I'm also tempted by Mark Webber who, as he always does, got his head down and got on with the job and salvaged a 4th place from being as low as 14th. He was clearly disappointed at the end, and, although I think he gets a rough deal at Red Bull, he was measured in his comments at the end of the race. He certainly had a lot more to complain about than Lewis Hamilton. Then there's Alonso, for his storming start and he did harry Vettel quite a lot when he was chasing him. He'd have got past without the safety car, I'm sure. Out of that lot, I'm going to pick Webber, I think purely because he banged in that fastest lap right at the end.
I've not had time to write much about F1 this year, although I hope that will change now that the elections are out of the way, so I haven't been able to wax lyrical about how fantastic I think DC and Brundle are together in the commentary box. Their passion is so infectious, but they remember that they need to keep it real for the fans and explain things. They have a really good chemistry - not seen since Brundle's days with Murray Walker. At times it's like they're finishing each other's sentences. Their commentary has a feel of a chat down the pub which draws you in. Brundle has stepped very ably into the role of lead commentator and comes out with some brilliantly random lines. During quali it was "I know there are 52 billion chickens in the world, but I'm not sure about that." In the race, while a hapless driver was trying to get his car in gear to leave the pits, he said "there are seven of them in there son, you'll find one". I'm not entirely sure about the veracity of the 52 billion chickens, though - Wikipedia says 24 billion and I read another source that suggested 45,000 per person, but that doesn't seem right.
DC, apart from a highly irritating inability to pronounce Heidfeld or Vettel correctly, is brilliant and the banter between the pair is easy and funny. During the red flag period yesterday, Brundle told DC that he was supposed to have the regulations at his fingertips and DC replied that the dog had eaten his notes. I could have listened to them all day. It's interesting that they didn't go back to Jake and EJ during that time - they would never have been able to fill that twenty or so minutes in the dull days of Jonathan Legard without recourse to something to waken us all up.
Monaco is the race pretty much any F1 fan would love to go to. And Laura Marieee did it this year. She has some cracking photos of the drivers and the iconic track and she's been keeping an online diary here at Formula 1 Blog. She was even able to walk through the pitlane. She's truly captured the spirit of the weekend and her excitement is as palpable as my insane jealousy that she made it there. Enjoy her account.
I can't wait for Canada in a couple of weeks' time. I was so glad to see this race back last year. It will, I think, favour the McLarens over the Red Bulls so maybe there will be a chance to rein Vettel in a bit.
Monday, January 24, 2011
#F1 Martin Brundle tells us what he'd do if he were PM
My Monday morning malaise was lightened by reading an unlikely interview in Total Politics magazine. That publication, by the way, is Cosmo for political junkies. I have just managed to renew my sub for considerably less than last year, so this might be a good time to sign up if you haven't already.
Anyway, every month they ask some non politico what they would do if they were PM with often hilarious results. This issue it was the turn of F1 commentator supreme, Martin Brundle. Well it was just as funny as you'd expect. It's not up online yet, but I'll give you some snippets:
When asked who his Andy Coulson would be (before, obviously, the real Mr Coulson took his leave), he replied that he'd put Clarkson in the role to "abuse all and sundry" while Brundle looked "like a comparatively nice guy". I'm sure Jake Humphrey, the main BBC F1 presenter will be gutted to have been overlooked for a role for which he is supremely qualified, particularly as part of the remit is to talk cars when they get bored. However, I actually think that there is an even better choice. A Head of Comms is supposed to keep a reasonably tight leash on their subject, so I'd love to see Brundle being managed by Tania from that German TV station. If their encounters on the grid walk are anything to go by, the firestorm they would create would fill the political pages for months on end, although only one of them would ultimately survive.
I'm not entirely sure Michael Schumacher is suited to being demoted to mere chauffeur, driving PM Brundle around in a black Jag XJ. Schumi is used to having a say in strategy and having the team run around him, so there could be a clash of wills there. And Sabine Kehm, his formidable and long serving PR would be quite a match for Tania....... It would make Alistair Campbell and Charlie Whelan's rivalry look like a teddy bears' picnic.
When asked how he'd redecorate No 10, he said there was no way he'd live in a noisy cul de sac and he'd "move the whole gig to Chequers and use video conferencing, Facebook and Twitter to get things done transparently". That surprises me, because he's spent his entire life living within a very small radius of King's Lynn. Would he really take the plunge and move to the Home Counties. Can't see it somehow. Brundle only signed up to Twitter last week. At the time we thought it was due to his promotion to lead commentator, keeping in touch with his adoring public. Now it appears like it might be the first part of his plan to take over the world.
This would be very scary indeed, given his plans to deal with dissent: After a first attempt to engage hecklers, "if they booed again I'd either have them eliminated, or call my Mum".
The rest of the interview is in similar vein. Well worth reading, and it made me giggle but if you ever have a complaint about the Coalition, just think, it could be a whole load worse with Brundle, Clarkson and Simon Cowell as Chancellor in charge.
Anyway, every month they ask some non politico what they would do if they were PM with often hilarious results. This issue it was the turn of F1 commentator supreme, Martin Brundle. Well it was just as funny as you'd expect. It's not up online yet, but I'll give you some snippets:
When asked who his Andy Coulson would be (before, obviously, the real Mr Coulson took his leave), he replied that he'd put Clarkson in the role to "abuse all and sundry" while Brundle looked "like a comparatively nice guy". I'm sure Jake Humphrey, the main BBC F1 presenter will be gutted to have been overlooked for a role for which he is supremely qualified, particularly as part of the remit is to talk cars when they get bored. However, I actually think that there is an even better choice. A Head of Comms is supposed to keep a reasonably tight leash on their subject, so I'd love to see Brundle being managed by Tania from that German TV station. If their encounters on the grid walk are anything to go by, the firestorm they would create would fill the political pages for months on end, although only one of them would ultimately survive.
I'm not entirely sure Michael Schumacher is suited to being demoted to mere chauffeur, driving PM Brundle around in a black Jag XJ. Schumi is used to having a say in strategy and having the team run around him, so there could be a clash of wills there. And Sabine Kehm, his formidable and long serving PR would be quite a match for Tania....... It would make Alistair Campbell and Charlie Whelan's rivalry look like a teddy bears' picnic.
When asked how he'd redecorate No 10, he said there was no way he'd live in a noisy cul de sac and he'd "move the whole gig to Chequers and use video conferencing, Facebook and Twitter to get things done transparently". That surprises me, because he's spent his entire life living within a very small radius of King's Lynn. Would he really take the plunge and move to the Home Counties. Can't see it somehow. Brundle only signed up to Twitter last week. At the time we thought it was due to his promotion to lead commentator, keeping in touch with his adoring public. Now it appears like it might be the first part of his plan to take over the world.
This would be very scary indeed, given his plans to deal with dissent: After a first attempt to engage hecklers, "if they booed again I'd either have them eliminated, or call my Mum".
The rest of the interview is in similar vein. Well worth reading, and it made me giggle but if you ever have a complaint about the Coalition, just think, it could be a whole load worse with Brundle, Clarkson and Simon Cowell as Chancellor in charge.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
#F1 @MBrundleF1 hits the Twitterverse
I had a nice surprise when I fired up Tweetdeck this morning - Mark Cole had tweeted me to tell me that F1 commentator Martin Brundle has taken to the Twitterverse. I have since had a look at his blog, A Life Inside and Outside of Politics and apart from differing opinions on David Coulthard, we seem to be twins separated at birth (he wrote about Dancing on Ice, for goodness' sake) so he's now on my blogroll.
I hope Mark forgives me for being initially sceptical, as there have been imposters before. There was one who started tweeting during the build up to a race and then during the Red Button forum. However, he was caught out when a tweet which was supposed to be from Martin Brundle appeared as he was actually talking on the tv.
However, this new version has been genuinely interacting with Jake Humphrey and tweeting other verified celebrities, so he appears to be the real deal. This makes me very happy as I think it'll be great to have his feedback from the pre-season tests and on race weekends. At the time of writing, he's managed to gain 22,431 followers in just 3 days. I hope he's aware of the Twitter tradition that the nicest celebs run some sort of competition for their followers at specific milestones like 50,000 and 100,000 followers. I suspect that at least one of these milestones will be breached before the season starts.
Now, all he needs to do is persuade Mr Coulthard to set up @DCoulthardF1 and we're all set up for the year.
I hope Mark forgives me for being initially sceptical, as there have been imposters before. There was one who started tweeting during the build up to a race and then during the Red Button forum. However, he was caught out when a tweet which was supposed to be from Martin Brundle appeared as he was actually talking on the tv.
However, this new version has been genuinely interacting with Jake Humphrey and tweeting other verified celebrities, so he appears to be the real deal. This makes me very happy as I think it'll be great to have his feedback from the pre-season tests and on race weekends. At the time of writing, he's managed to gain 22,431 followers in just 3 days. I hope he's aware of the Twitter tradition that the nicest celebs run some sort of competition for their followers at specific milestones like 50,000 and 100,000 followers. I suspect that at least one of these milestones will be breached before the season starts.
Now, all he needs to do is persuade Mr Coulthard to set up @DCoulthardF1 and we're all set up for the year.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
#F1 Brundle promoted and joined by DC in BBC Commentary shake up
In exactly two months' time, we'll have seen the first couple of practice sessions of the 2011 season in the yawnmaking Sakhir international circuit in Bahrain. Last year's race belied the fact that the season was to be one of the most exciting ever, with the championship being decided by a(nother) Ferrari strategic slip up in the last race. Wouldn't have happened in Ross Brawn's day.....
One thing which was almost perfect all the way through last season, and the one before that, was the utterly fantastic BBC coverage. On both radio and television, the BBC excelled themselves with, to my mind at least, the best sports reporting team ever.
Today they've announced that they're changing things to make them even better. Jonathan Legard is leaving and his space in the commentary box is being taken by David Coulthard. I'm sure Mr Legard is a very nice man, but his commentary was dull and uninspiring and a lot of the time not even knowledgeable. And he had absolutely zero chemistry with his co-commentator Martin Brundle. It would be completely hypocritical of me to even suggest that I am sorry to see him go - although I hope that he finds a lucrative outlet for his talents. He comes across better in writing, I think.
I have worshipped at the Altar of the Blessed Brundle for 14 seasons now. He seems to have an instinctive sense of what we want as race viewers and is able to give it to us. He can be laddish at times, but has a fabulous balance of humour and cynicism to throw into the mix with his unrivalled inside knowledge.
There are some who aren't impressed with the new line up, but I think it'll work. Duncan doesn't think that Brundle will cut it as lead commentator, but I disagree. He's actually been a commentator for as long as he was a driver. His point of view has rounded in those 14 seasons.
We know that he has a good on-screen chemistry with Coulthard, and that the Scotsman is himself very articulate and good at expressing his opinion. The pair have been friends for years and I think this is a good move. My only worry about it is that we'll have to forego the sparky banter between DC and Eddie Jordan during the build-up. There's also the issue of DC's clear bias towards Red Bull - lucrative when you want access and insight, but not so helpful when it's just him and a microphone. Let's hope he can temper that a bit.
I wonder who they're going to give EJ to bounce off - or whether that post will go as part of the austerity strategy at the BBC.
Anyway, this is welcome news in the middle of the four month off season. It's only 3 weeks till the first pre season testing in Valencia - and only 6 weeks after that until the season kicks off.
One thing which was almost perfect all the way through last season, and the one before that, was the utterly fantastic BBC coverage. On both radio and television, the BBC excelled themselves with, to my mind at least, the best sports reporting team ever.
Today they've announced that they're changing things to make them even better. Jonathan Legard is leaving and his space in the commentary box is being taken by David Coulthard. I'm sure Mr Legard is a very nice man, but his commentary was dull and uninspiring and a lot of the time not even knowledgeable. And he had absolutely zero chemistry with his co-commentator Martin Brundle. It would be completely hypocritical of me to even suggest that I am sorry to see him go - although I hope that he finds a lucrative outlet for his talents. He comes across better in writing, I think.
I have worshipped at the Altar of the Blessed Brundle for 14 seasons now. He seems to have an instinctive sense of what we want as race viewers and is able to give it to us. He can be laddish at times, but has a fabulous balance of humour and cynicism to throw into the mix with his unrivalled inside knowledge.
There are some who aren't impressed with the new line up, but I think it'll work. Duncan doesn't think that Brundle will cut it as lead commentator, but I disagree. He's actually been a commentator for as long as he was a driver. His point of view has rounded in those 14 seasons.
We know that he has a good on-screen chemistry with Coulthard, and that the Scotsman is himself very articulate and good at expressing his opinion. The pair have been friends for years and I think this is a good move. My only worry about it is that we'll have to forego the sparky banter between DC and Eddie Jordan during the build-up. There's also the issue of DC's clear bias towards Red Bull - lucrative when you want access and insight, but not so helpful when it's just him and a microphone. Let's hope he can temper that a bit.
I wonder who they're going to give EJ to bounce off - or whether that post will go as part of the austerity strategy at the BBC.
Anyway, this is welcome news in the middle of the four month off season. It's only 3 weeks till the first pre season testing in Valencia - and only 6 weeks after that until the season kicks off.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Ferrari and FIA refusing to blink.........
Up until now, I'd thought that there was no way the FIA, under Max Mosley's or anybody else's leadership, would be so stupid as to allow the iconic Ferrari F1 team to walk away from the sport after almost 60 years.
Ferrari has given us so many thrills over those decades - although they are having their problems this year, with a car that just won't go fast enough along with some very bizarre decisions taken in the garages, it's only 2 years since they won the world championships and only 5 years since the magical partnership of Michael Schumacher's driving with Ross Brawn's design genius won the last of 5 consecutive world titles.
A dispute over new rules and specifically a £40 million budget cap which could allow a 2 tier Formula One structure for next year led to a threat last week by Ferrari not to enter the championship in 2010. Red Bull, Toyota and Renault have also muttered dark threats of pulling out.
As Lady Bracknell would say, losing one team could be considered unfortunate, but losing 40% of your current entrants would be taking carelessness to its extreme.
A meeting between the FIA and the Formula One Teams Association last Friday at least agreed that we wouldn't be subjected to the dogs' breakfast of a 2 tier Formula One, where some teams would accept the budget cap and get greater freedom while the high spenders would have greater technical restrictions. The very idea that competitors could start the same race under different rules makes Philip from the Apprentice's Pants Man seem like a brilliant idea.
Ferrari decided to take the FIA to Court in France, stating that they had not been allowed to use the veto they had been given the last time there was a thought that there might be a rival series set up. Today their legal moves were rejected partly because they hadn't used that veto when they had the chance. Just out of interest, does anyone know why not?
There's been a bit of unseemly bitching from Ferrari today. This very sniffily worded statement appeared on their website a while before the Court judgment was announced. The general gist, complete with implied gesture with the finger, is that they have seen Max's new best friends whom he wants to bring into the playground and, frankly, they are not fit to wipe Ferrari's boots and if he insists on letting them and their motorised skateboards into the paddock they'll go and find some higher quality pals to hang about with. It's quite an extraordinary outburst on a commercial website.
The war of words is not one sided, though - Bernie did call Ferrari idiots the other day in the Times. So far, so juvenile.
So what happens next? Well, conveniently, the entire Formula One world has arrived in Monaco for the best event of the year so hopefully somebody will bang some heads together and sort it before the deadline for applications for entry for next year a week on Friday.
Is there a possibility that Ross Brawn could help broker a solution that keeps everybody on board? He as a long and successful history with Ferrari although they did say that he was supremely arrogant in the court case over diffusers a few weeks ago. After his team's cracking start to the season, the FIA owes him for getting people interested again. He also seems pretty good at the people stuff and although he's more in favour of reducing technical regulation and encouraging creativity, surely he wouldn't want to see a much depleted F1 next year.
A clue about how this might be resolved come in the second statement of the day from Ferrari, and particularly in the words "while continuing the work of the past few months in moving forward methodically and gradually towards reducing costs." That says to me that a reducing budget cap over maybe 5 years might be the way forward.
Sure, that might keep some new teams out next year, but do we really need them at the moment given how exciting and gripping this season is turning out to be? The last few have been exciting too, with the championships being won at the last gasp.
To be honest, it's pretty clear that costs will have to come down anyway. In case nobody's noticed, there's a recession on and no company has a whole load of spare cash to go throwing at anything, least of all on seeing their logo whizzing round at 200 mph. The banks are all completely screwed too. I get annoyed every time I see a Williams with the RBS logo on it. I mean, am I as a taxpayer paying for that? There just isn't going to be the sponsorship there used to be so teams will have to cut their cloth accordingly.
We'll have to wait and see what comes out of the meeting of the Formula One Teams Association on Friday. It will be interesting to see how many of the teams Ferrari can carry with them - whether Red Bull, Renault and Toyota will stick with them. That will be one of the crucial determining factors.
I really don't think F1 would be the same without Ferrari - it would be like cream wtihout the strawberries. Ferrari fans are responsible for a significant part of the huge and lucrative global tv audience. There might well be two Italians racing in F1 (Trulli and Fisichella) but the heart of any self respecting Italian is first and foremost behind the team from Maranello. There is no way that any of the new bunch are going to attract the following that Ferrari has so Max and Bernie might well have lots of new friends that nobody wants to watch. It would be incredibly short sighted of them to let a team that has put billions into Formula One walk away. A few years ago they were willing to offer Ferrari the sun, moon and stars to stay - what's changed?
There does need to be a more representative way of governing the sport, though - no team should effectively have a veto - it just ain't fair and brings the whole thing into disrepute. It surely isn't beyond the wit of man to come up with a better system that doesn't depend on the dictatorial whims of Max and Bernie.
Let's hope that common sense prevails and that Mr Mosley and Co put the self destruct button away. I've been struck tonight by the number of people who've been saying that it'll all blow over who are now starting to worry that something cataclysmically bad is going to happen to the sport. Martin Brundle said in the Sunday Times two weeks ago that he'd never been so worried for his sport and I dared to doubt him, thought he was using a bit of poetic licence to build some drama. Now, I think I'll be watching every corner of Monaco this weekend just in case this is the last time we see it as we know it.
LibDig This!
Ferrari has given us so many thrills over those decades - although they are having their problems this year, with a car that just won't go fast enough along with some very bizarre decisions taken in the garages, it's only 2 years since they won the world championships and only 5 years since the magical partnership of Michael Schumacher's driving with Ross Brawn's design genius won the last of 5 consecutive world titles.
A dispute over new rules and specifically a £40 million budget cap which could allow a 2 tier Formula One structure for next year led to a threat last week by Ferrari not to enter the championship in 2010. Red Bull, Toyota and Renault have also muttered dark threats of pulling out.
As Lady Bracknell would say, losing one team could be considered unfortunate, but losing 40% of your current entrants would be taking carelessness to its extreme.
A meeting between the FIA and the Formula One Teams Association last Friday at least agreed that we wouldn't be subjected to the dogs' breakfast of a 2 tier Formula One, where some teams would accept the budget cap and get greater freedom while the high spenders would have greater technical restrictions. The very idea that competitors could start the same race under different rules makes Philip from the Apprentice's Pants Man seem like a brilliant idea.
Ferrari decided to take the FIA to Court in France, stating that they had not been allowed to use the veto they had been given the last time there was a thought that there might be a rival series set up. Today their legal moves were rejected partly because they hadn't used that veto when they had the chance. Just out of interest, does anyone know why not?
There's been a bit of unseemly bitching from Ferrari today. This very sniffily worded statement appeared on their website a while before the Court judgment was announced. The general gist, complete with implied gesture with the finger, is that they have seen Max's new best friends whom he wants to bring into the playground and, frankly, they are not fit to wipe Ferrari's boots and if he insists on letting them and their motorised skateboards into the paddock they'll go and find some higher quality pals to hang about with. It's quite an extraordinary outburst on a commercial website.
The war of words is not one sided, though - Bernie did call Ferrari idiots the other day in the Times. So far, so juvenile.
So what happens next? Well, conveniently, the entire Formula One world has arrived in Monaco for the best event of the year so hopefully somebody will bang some heads together and sort it before the deadline for applications for entry for next year a week on Friday.
Is there a possibility that Ross Brawn could help broker a solution that keeps everybody on board? He as a long and successful history with Ferrari although they did say that he was supremely arrogant in the court case over diffusers a few weeks ago. After his team's cracking start to the season, the FIA owes him for getting people interested again. He also seems pretty good at the people stuff and although he's more in favour of reducing technical regulation and encouraging creativity, surely he wouldn't want to see a much depleted F1 next year.
A clue about how this might be resolved come in the second statement of the day from Ferrari, and particularly in the words "while continuing the work of the past few months in moving forward methodically and gradually towards reducing costs." That says to me that a reducing budget cap over maybe 5 years might be the way forward.
Sure, that might keep some new teams out next year, but do we really need them at the moment given how exciting and gripping this season is turning out to be? The last few have been exciting too, with the championships being won at the last gasp.
To be honest, it's pretty clear that costs will have to come down anyway. In case nobody's noticed, there's a recession on and no company has a whole load of spare cash to go throwing at anything, least of all on seeing their logo whizzing round at 200 mph. The banks are all completely screwed too. I get annoyed every time I see a Williams with the RBS logo on it. I mean, am I as a taxpayer paying for that? There just isn't going to be the sponsorship there used to be so teams will have to cut their cloth accordingly.
We'll have to wait and see what comes out of the meeting of the Formula One Teams Association on Friday. It will be interesting to see how many of the teams Ferrari can carry with them - whether Red Bull, Renault and Toyota will stick with them. That will be one of the crucial determining factors.
I really don't think F1 would be the same without Ferrari - it would be like cream wtihout the strawberries. Ferrari fans are responsible for a significant part of the huge and lucrative global tv audience. There might well be two Italians racing in F1 (Trulli and Fisichella) but the heart of any self respecting Italian is first and foremost behind the team from Maranello. There is no way that any of the new bunch are going to attract the following that Ferrari has so Max and Bernie might well have lots of new friends that nobody wants to watch. It would be incredibly short sighted of them to let a team that has put billions into Formula One walk away. A few years ago they were willing to offer Ferrari the sun, moon and stars to stay - what's changed?
There does need to be a more representative way of governing the sport, though - no team should effectively have a veto - it just ain't fair and brings the whole thing into disrepute. It surely isn't beyond the wit of man to come up with a better system that doesn't depend on the dictatorial whims of Max and Bernie.
Let's hope that common sense prevails and that Mr Mosley and Co put the self destruct button away. I've been struck tonight by the number of people who've been saying that it'll all blow over who are now starting to worry that something cataclysmically bad is going to happen to the sport. Martin Brundle said in the Sunday Times two weeks ago that he'd never been so worried for his sport and I dared to doubt him, thought he was using a bit of poetic licence to build some drama. Now, I think I'll be watching every corner of Monaco this weekend just in case this is the last time we see it as we know it.
LibDig This!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Smooth Driving and Cool Strategy comes up trumps for Brawn
Today saw another fantastic win for Jenson Button, making it 3 out of 4 Grands Prix so far this season, in Bahrain.
The Brawn team had done their best to play down expectations, saying that they were well off the pace and they had severe cooling issues with their engine. This had me sitting on the edge of my seat, barely able to breathe, worrying right to the end that the engine was going to blow up. Thankfully it didn't.
We saw Ross Brawn work in this kind of blissful harmony with Michael Schumacher for so many years and we're starting to see a similar symbiotic relationship develop with Jenson Button. And who's the team-mate that has to cope with this? Rubens Barrichello again. Bless him. Mind you, he's used to it, and he was so good at playing second fiddle before. I would love him to have the chance to shine before he finishes in F1 for good, though.
The win today needed Jenson's driving and Brawn's strategic brain. It was imperative that Jenson re-take the place he ceded to Lewis Hamilton at the start and he did in a gorgeous passing manoeuvre very early on. This enabled Brawn to time the pit stops to perfection and leave Jenson far enough ahead by the time he had to put the medium, slower tyres on that it didn't matter. Toyota did screw up, though, leaving Trulli on the medium tyres for a very long stint in the middle.
Ferrari, thank heavens, avoided the ignominy of recording their worst start to a season ever with Kimi Raikonnen winning some points. Incidentally, David Coulthard has lost no opportunity to paint Kimi as, basically, a lazy team-mate who relies on talent alone. He had another pop this afternoon suggesting that Kimi would not have been too bothered about winning today as there was only rosewater and not champagne at the end.
The bad boy of today was without doubt, for me, Lewis Hamilton. In a pre-race interview, Jake Humphrey asked him straight out whether he was enjoying being an F1 driver which led him into a big whinge about how he didn't like the politics. The boy needs to grow up. If he wanted to avoid politics, might I suggest that telling the truth to stewards and not trying to stitch up your competitors might help.
He also whinged about not being able to go out and buy fish and chips without being papped. He lives in Switzerland, earning a fortune and gets to do what he's wanted to do all his life. He should show a bit more humility and respect. Honestly.
The EJ/DC banter did not disappoint again today. Both Jake Humphrey and DC turned up in pink shirts which did clash rather horribly with each other. EJ was quick to take the mickey out of them.
It was Martin Brundle who made me laugh most, though. The Crown Prince of Bahrain has featured strongly in the BBC's coverage with people generally falling over themselves to see who could be most obsequious. When Brundle caught up with him on the grid, he started off all "Your Highness" this and "Sir" that, but when he finished the interview, it was with a "See you later, cheers".
Brawn is clearly ahead, but Red Bull and Toyota are coming along very well. I'm looking forward to two of my favourite races, Barcelona and Monaco in the next month and we'll see how much Brawn's dominance can be challenged.
LibDig This!
The Brawn team had done their best to play down expectations, saying that they were well off the pace and they had severe cooling issues with their engine. This had me sitting on the edge of my seat, barely able to breathe, worrying right to the end that the engine was going to blow up. Thankfully it didn't.
We saw Ross Brawn work in this kind of blissful harmony with Michael Schumacher for so many years and we're starting to see a similar symbiotic relationship develop with Jenson Button. And who's the team-mate that has to cope with this? Rubens Barrichello again. Bless him. Mind you, he's used to it, and he was so good at playing second fiddle before. I would love him to have the chance to shine before he finishes in F1 for good, though.
The win today needed Jenson's driving and Brawn's strategic brain. It was imperative that Jenson re-take the place he ceded to Lewis Hamilton at the start and he did in a gorgeous passing manoeuvre very early on. This enabled Brawn to time the pit stops to perfection and leave Jenson far enough ahead by the time he had to put the medium, slower tyres on that it didn't matter. Toyota did screw up, though, leaving Trulli on the medium tyres for a very long stint in the middle.
Ferrari, thank heavens, avoided the ignominy of recording their worst start to a season ever with Kimi Raikonnen winning some points. Incidentally, David Coulthard has lost no opportunity to paint Kimi as, basically, a lazy team-mate who relies on talent alone. He had another pop this afternoon suggesting that Kimi would not have been too bothered about winning today as there was only rosewater and not champagne at the end.
The bad boy of today was without doubt, for me, Lewis Hamilton. In a pre-race interview, Jake Humphrey asked him straight out whether he was enjoying being an F1 driver which led him into a big whinge about how he didn't like the politics. The boy needs to grow up. If he wanted to avoid politics, might I suggest that telling the truth to stewards and not trying to stitch up your competitors might help.
He also whinged about not being able to go out and buy fish and chips without being papped. He lives in Switzerland, earning a fortune and gets to do what he's wanted to do all his life. He should show a bit more humility and respect. Honestly.
The EJ/DC banter did not disappoint again today. Both Jake Humphrey and DC turned up in pink shirts which did clash rather horribly with each other. EJ was quick to take the mickey out of them.
It was Martin Brundle who made me laugh most, though. The Crown Prince of Bahrain has featured strongly in the BBC's coverage with people generally falling over themselves to see who could be most obsequious. When Brundle caught up with him on the grid, he started off all "Your Highness" this and "Sir" that, but when he finished the interview, it was with a "See you later, cheers".
Brawn is clearly ahead, but Red Bull and Toyota are coming along very well. I'm looking forward to two of my favourite races, Barcelona and Monaco in the next month and we'll see how much Brawn's dominance can be challenged.
LibDig This!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Luck and Skill bring Red Bull China GP Victory
Well, I assume that Sebastian Vettel, the driver who has stepped into David Coulthard's shoes at Red Bull, saw a penny and picked it up on Saturday before he landed pole position from just one flying lap at the end of the third qualifying session. He'd stayed in the running with a similarly late flying lap in Q2. Apparently there was some problem with the car, which meant that Red Bull did not want to push their luck.
It's not easy to go out there and deliver under pressure like that, and it takes huge skill to drive in the rain at pushing 200 mph. I don't like driving in the wet myself and I have a roof, windscreen wipers and rarely go above 70 in the dry. I don't want to take away from Red Bull's brilliant first GP win and first 1-2 for Vettel and Webber, but luck did play its part.
Vettel, Webber and team boss Christian Horner presumably also had black cats walk in front of them on Sunday before the race. They knew that the Brawns breathing down their necks on the grid would be faster and were carrying significantly more fuel. Alonso's presence at 2 on the grid was more down to him running on the whiff of an oily rag and wasn't as much as a threat as it looked. However, they also knew that the Brawn car's wet weather testing had been limited to a couple of laps in Malaysia but rain would be ideal for both the Red Bull car and particularly Vettel.
We will never know whether they actually did a rain dance in the Red Bull trailer, but the heavens did open, leading to a start behind the safety car. Luck smiled on Red Bull again when a second safety car stint coincided with the the time that the Brawns might have been able to get away as they were lighter on fuel. Having said that, luck smiled even more beatifcally on Robert Kubica and Jarno Trulli who had a rather spectacular coming together which left both of them pretty much unharmed.
What gets me about these guys is that they could have decided not to drive aggressively and competitively due to the conditions which had visibility down to virtually zero and several parts of the track turned into Aquaplane Central. However, despite everything they entertained us with some thrilling passing manoevres. Hamilton passed Raikonnen at one point only to have to do it all again when he span off at one of the slippery corners. Similarly, Webber passed Button with great style - and Sebastian Buemi, the Torro Rosso rookie seemed to be out to impress with a skilful and mature display of driving.
My heart was in my mouth when Adrian Suthil hit a polystyrene bollard thing at 150mph, littering bits of his car over quite a large area of gravel trap. There were a few breath holding, anxious seconds until we saw him not only move, but get out of the car and run off. It just shows how good these cars are these days.
One of the highlights of yesterday was Martin Brundle in "when I were a lad" mode. He was grumbling about the safety car start, making out that in his day it would never have happened and they'd just have to get on with it. Later on, he had a go about the wide run off areas at the new circuits which weren't there when he was driving. All very funny.
The BBC coverage is still absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately the DC/Eddie Jordan bitching had a week's hiatus, but Mike Gascoigne, ex engineer for McLaren and Force India stepped in. He seemed uncomfortable on Saturday, but much more assured and willing to take part in the banter on Sunday. It was interesting to have his take on strategy, although his advice that teams should pull their drivers in early during the first safety car stint didn't work so well for Alonso who ended up at the back of the pack not able to see anything.
My moment of the weekend, though, belongs to Jake Humphrey. His advice to DC and Gascoigne that they should get out of the way as the pit lane opened for the grid formation on Sunday "because the cars could come out without warning." DC's wry retort was that they would probably hear noise of the engine. You couldn't script something that good.
Now I'm looking forward to Bahrain next weekend. Who would have thought that the season would be so dominated in the first 3 races by two much smaller teams while Ferrari, McLaren and Renault limped along huffily on the sidelines?
LibDig This!
It's not easy to go out there and deliver under pressure like that, and it takes huge skill to drive in the rain at pushing 200 mph. I don't like driving in the wet myself and I have a roof, windscreen wipers and rarely go above 70 in the dry. I don't want to take away from Red Bull's brilliant first GP win and first 1-2 for Vettel and Webber, but luck did play its part.
Vettel, Webber and team boss Christian Horner presumably also had black cats walk in front of them on Sunday before the race. They knew that the Brawns breathing down their necks on the grid would be faster and were carrying significantly more fuel. Alonso's presence at 2 on the grid was more down to him running on the whiff of an oily rag and wasn't as much as a threat as it looked. However, they also knew that the Brawn car's wet weather testing had been limited to a couple of laps in Malaysia but rain would be ideal for both the Red Bull car and particularly Vettel.
We will never know whether they actually did a rain dance in the Red Bull trailer, but the heavens did open, leading to a start behind the safety car. Luck smiled on Red Bull again when a second safety car stint coincided with the the time that the Brawns might have been able to get away as they were lighter on fuel. Having said that, luck smiled even more beatifcally on Robert Kubica and Jarno Trulli who had a rather spectacular coming together which left both of them pretty much unharmed.
What gets me about these guys is that they could have decided not to drive aggressively and competitively due to the conditions which had visibility down to virtually zero and several parts of the track turned into Aquaplane Central. However, despite everything they entertained us with some thrilling passing manoevres. Hamilton passed Raikonnen at one point only to have to do it all again when he span off at one of the slippery corners. Similarly, Webber passed Button with great style - and Sebastian Buemi, the Torro Rosso rookie seemed to be out to impress with a skilful and mature display of driving.
My heart was in my mouth when Adrian Suthil hit a polystyrene bollard thing at 150mph, littering bits of his car over quite a large area of gravel trap. There were a few breath holding, anxious seconds until we saw him not only move, but get out of the car and run off. It just shows how good these cars are these days.
One of the highlights of yesterday was Martin Brundle in "when I were a lad" mode. He was grumbling about the safety car start, making out that in his day it would never have happened and they'd just have to get on with it. Later on, he had a go about the wide run off areas at the new circuits which weren't there when he was driving. All very funny.
The BBC coverage is still absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately the DC/Eddie Jordan bitching had a week's hiatus, but Mike Gascoigne, ex engineer for McLaren and Force India stepped in. He seemed uncomfortable on Saturday, but much more assured and willing to take part in the banter on Sunday. It was interesting to have his take on strategy, although his advice that teams should pull their drivers in early during the first safety car stint didn't work so well for Alonso who ended up at the back of the pack not able to see anything.
My moment of the weekend, though, belongs to Jake Humphrey. His advice to DC and Gascoigne that they should get out of the way as the pit lane opened for the grid formation on Sunday "because the cars could come out without warning." DC's wry retort was that they would probably hear noise of the engine. You couldn't script something that good.
Now I'm looking forward to Bahrain next weekend. Who would have thought that the season would be so dominated in the first 3 races by two much smaller teams while Ferrari, McLaren and Renault limped along huffily on the sidelines?
LibDig This!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
So Much to Love about new F1 Season
Ok, it's not the best way of spending hundreds of millions of pounds polluting the environment, but I have always loved Formula 1, always been a Ferrari girl and have had a crush on Martin Brundle forever.
Don't expect to hear much about downforce and grip when I write about F1, by the way - I only talk about such mundane mechanical things when I have to. However, fellow fans Stephen, Malc and Yousuf might wish to get technical when they write about it - and Duncan has even devoted an entire blog to our favourite sport.
Good to see that there is support from across the political blogosphere for the sport - and Yousuf and I are even unashamedly on the same side for a change, both having a bit of a thing for Ferrari. I've backed them since the days of Berger and Alesi - the coolness of Berger and the passion of Alesi were compelling to watch. I cried the day Schuey announced his retirement. I cried again when Massa was pipped at the post at the end of last season.
There's only been a qualifying session so far and already I'm enthralled. It was exciting despite Stephen blabbing the result all over Facebook, which led to me getting told off by my long suffering husband (this was my fault how, exactly?) first thing this morning. Still it all comes down to a scrap in the last 2 minutes.
Anyway, my quick list of things which have me all excited from today:
Brawn GP - not only is this a thoroughly gorgeous looking car, but, boy, can it go. It looks like a cool Summer cocktail and it was proudly wearing its new Virgin logo. Brawn and Branson have performed a miracle - Go Brawn!
Brundle - at his brilliant best. I can't remember what he was talking about but he compared it to being as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. Love him!
Bitching - Let's hope this needle between DC and Eddie Jordan continues. They had three mini scraps - one over the Maclaren when DC said he couldn't see anything wrong with the way the car was handling and Eddie jumped in with how Norbert Haug had called it all sorts of names, once when DC said something nice about former team Red Bull and once at the end when DC got to say I told you so to Eddie. This has potential!
BBC - no adverts. Bliss.
Looking forward to the race tomorrow. Sky + is all set and I won't be coming anywhere near cyberspace till I've watched it.
LibDig This!
Don't expect to hear much about downforce and grip when I write about F1, by the way - I only talk about such mundane mechanical things when I have to. However, fellow fans Stephen, Malc and Yousuf might wish to get technical when they write about it - and Duncan has even devoted an entire blog to our favourite sport.
Good to see that there is support from across the political blogosphere for the sport - and Yousuf and I are even unashamedly on the same side for a change, both having a bit of a thing for Ferrari. I've backed them since the days of Berger and Alesi - the coolness of Berger and the passion of Alesi were compelling to watch. I cried the day Schuey announced his retirement. I cried again when Massa was pipped at the post at the end of last season.
There's only been a qualifying session so far and already I'm enthralled. It was exciting despite Stephen blabbing the result all over Facebook, which led to me getting told off by my long suffering husband (this was my fault how, exactly?) first thing this morning. Still it all comes down to a scrap in the last 2 minutes.
Anyway, my quick list of things which have me all excited from today:
Brawn GP - not only is this a thoroughly gorgeous looking car, but, boy, can it go. It looks like a cool Summer cocktail and it was proudly wearing its new Virgin logo. Brawn and Branson have performed a miracle - Go Brawn!
Brundle - at his brilliant best. I can't remember what he was talking about but he compared it to being as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. Love him!
Bitching - Let's hope this needle between DC and Eddie Jordan continues. They had three mini scraps - one over the Maclaren when DC said he couldn't see anything wrong with the way the car was handling and Eddie jumped in with how Norbert Haug had called it all sorts of names, once when DC said something nice about former team Red Bull and once at the end when DC got to say I told you so to Eddie. This has potential!
BBC - no adverts. Bliss.
Looking forward to the race tomorrow. Sky + is all set and I won't be coming anywhere near cyberspace till I've watched it.
LibDig This!
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