Motorsport Update

After a quite frankly crazy Brazilian Grand Prix, we now have a new British F1 World Champion for the first time in twelve years! Ok, I may not be the biggest fan of Lewis due to his habit of comparing himself to Senna and evoking God as his team manager, but if you lived in Geneva with bugger to do all day and drove cars at the weekend for the most anal team in F1, you’d be a bit odd too. However at the end of the day, he is a superb racing driver and he’s British, so no complaints from me.

The race itself seemed to be a processional affair until the rain threw the proverbial spanner in the works. Hamilton qualified fourth and only had to finish fifth to win the championship, whereas Massa had to win with Lewis finishing lower then fifth for him to take the title. And so everything went to plan. Massa lead the race, doing everything he could in order to win and Hamilton held on to his points position, in an unsually conservative manner.

Then it all started to go wrong. This seasons hotshoe, Sebastien Vettel got past Hamilton and with two laps to go, Massa looked to be champion. Why didn’t McLaren tell their driver to fight? Well, because they believed that Glock, in fourth, wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace with dry tyres on a wet track. This was a very narrow call, and any other team manager would have probably told Hamilton to hunt Vettel and Glock down. Fortunately for Mclaren, Glock started to lose traction on the final section of the last lap and fell back. Hamilton was then able to scrabble past him on the last corner.

As Massa crossed the line, the Ferrari team believed that they had it in the bag and got quite a shock when they saw the Mclaren come through in fifth. I must say, I felt sorry for Phillipe Massa who has turned himself into a class act and a real contender, lets hope he continues to do so next year.

On the other hand, the way the sport has and is continued to be ran is another matter entirely. Dodgy stewarding decisions, big money crushing F1’s traditions, naff Tilke tracks, extravagant expenditure and behind-the-scene string pulling could scupper F1 entirely if they continue along these paths. But let’s think positive, eh?

I’d just like to say sorry for not posting over the last two weeks. I’ve been rushed off my feet in all areas of life and haven’t had much time to update the blog. So what’s happened in the last few weeks? Well, I’ve been targetted by Russian spammers and people who want to extoll the virtues of herbal viagra to the world. I’m not too pleased by this flagrant abuse of my fine blog, so sod off, Vladimir. Find a healthcare blog to spam. My readers don’t need viagra, do you?

As for motorsport, F1 politics carry on and on, much to everyone’s annoyance. Thanks to Moseley’s intention to introduce standardised engines, Ferrari and Toyota are threatening to leave the championship (Toyota are rumoured to be preparing to return to sports car racing). I can’t blame them, having a standard engine takes away a large chunk of what Formula 1 is all about.

Looking forward to the Brazilian GP this weekend, I must say Hamilton only has the championship to lose. Fernando Alonso and the rest of the drivers must be getting ready to squeeze the Englishman hard, if he has to fight his way through the field…

MotoGP had their last race of the season in Valencia on Sunday. Casey Stoner walked it, Pedrosa took second, while Rossi pulled himself up to third from another poor grid position. Then they probably all got drunk. Also if you’re interested, there is an excellent article on the king of 60’s and 70’s motorcycling, Giacomo Agostini, here. There are also plenty of excellent films on youtube of the great man too (barry6769 is the channel to find).

Last weekend I sat and watched a damn exciting Australian motorcycle Grand Prix. Casey Stoner shot off with only Hayden to keep him honest, whilst we were treated to a scrap for position as Rossi made his way through the field from a poor grid position. He had a Battle Royale with James Toseland, the Englishman fought tooth and nail to hold on to his third position, first fighting off the factory Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo, then taking on Rossi.

Flying round the Phillip Island track, the two of them overtook each other several times in a hard fought battle. However as Toseland’s tyres began to wear off, Rossi was able to break free and chase down Hayden, who was falling behind Stoner. But Rossi was flying and managed to cut down the gap between himself and the American, taking him for second place on the penultimate lap.

So Stoner won his home Grand Prix and the Goat showed everyone why his nickname is well earned. After being treated to such an entertaining race, what do we have to look forward to at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend? Probably not much. Fuji is a track that is dominated by a long straight and a series of twisty, fiddly corners, meaning that any overtaking (if it happens) will be done into the first corner and any other position changes will be made by  pit stop strategy. So it might not be worth getting out of bed for…either that or they could organise an Land Rover race on the surrounding countryside. Far more entertaining!

I could moan on about the state of F1 ad infinitum, but you already know my views on this near-farce of a series. Any excitement or racing that has happened this year has been in spite of, not because of the rules and organisation of the sport. In fact, Belgium showed that the powers that be are actually not in favour of promoting real racing!

Plus, this week has seen the dropping of the Canadian Grand Prix, due to ‘financial problems’. This is probably due to Bernie pressurising the organisers to ‘upgrade their facilities’ (in the past this meant better garages for the teams to work in, now it means sumptious Paddock Club hospitality suites for those god-like sponsors), spending a fortune on doing the required work, then not being able to stump up all of Ecclstones huge fees to host the race. I’m sure this is all part of his ploy to squeeze more money out of the more ‘traditional’ Grand Prix hosts.

After all, rights owners CVC need to pay back their loans, so Bernie has to raise the money somehow, even if it means breaking the sport itself. However, cutting the last link to the lucrative North American market may be the worst thing they could do…

This post is dedicated to my close mate Ian, who surprisingly really enjoys my blog. I have been ill for a few days, so I haven’t been able to update this fine site, much to his annoyance. So here it is, my view on last weekends motorsport!

Formula One

Despite everything good and bad that has been said about the Singapore Grand prix, it was good to see an F1 on a proper street track again. That means road markings, concrete walls, bumps and no room for error. In this age of tracks that are built with a sumptuous pit complex and a naff track, it’s refreshing to see F1 going a bit old school.

Despite all this, F1 Pitlane has written a very thought-provoking article on the safety aspects of the Singapore track, due to the FIA handing out a safety certificate to a circuit that had never hosted a race of any kind before. It does certainly seem worrying that the powers that be will go on about certain excellent tracks being woefully below par, and suddenly hand out a Grand Prix to any government who’ll stump up enough cash to Bernie, despite not having set the track up properly or trained the marshals.

As for the actual result, it was good to see Alonso win again. Despite being a bit of a spoilt brat at times, he is a truly fantastic driver and has probably felt rather pissed off all season that his car hasn’t been more competitive. If he was in a Ferrari, you just know that Massa wouldn’t be in the position that he is now in the championship. What is going on in Raikkonen’s head at the moment is anyone’s guess, because by rights, Raikkonen should have ground Massa under his wheels. Alonso, far more focused on the task in hand than the Finn, would probably have battered his team mate into submission by now.

Speaking of Ferrari and my earlier references to F1 going old school, the Scuderia were simply crap this weekend, just like the old days. Their resolve to continue with their comedy pit-stop lights, brought them more problems with the truly so-bad-it’s-funny sight of Massa driving down the pit lane with the refuelling hose still attached. Surely we’ve seen enough to ban refuelling now? As for the reigning world champ, Raikkonen ended up in the wall and Luca Di Montezemolo must have felt like kicking both his drivers down a long flight of stairs.

MotoGP

Valentino Rossi. Surely the greatest sportsman competing in motorsport at the moment? Maybe the greatest Motorcycle rider of all time? We can discuss this until the cows come home (preferably in the pub), but there is no doubt that Rossi is an amazing talent. He took the MotoGP championship by winning the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, overtaking his current rival Casey Stoner on lap 14. After two years of part bad luck/part uncompetitive tyres, Rossi stormed back this year to wrestle the title from Stoner. I would talk more about this more, but my next post will be entirely devoted to a certain Italian, so I shall save it until then.

And finally…

Thinking more about the FIA’s sudden abandonment of safety practices, I think the following tracks should offer Bernie the big money to host a Grand Prix:

• Nurburgring Nordschliefe - German Grand Prix
• Clermont Ferrand - French Grand Prix
• Brno road circuit - Czech Grand Prix
• Brands Hatch - British Grand Prix
• Laguna Seca - US Grand Prix
• Interlagos (Full track) - Brazilian Grand Prix

That would make F1 more popular again…

It happens in motor racing quite often, teams show off their new car or bike at some hotel just off the M40, amid much forced razzmatazz. There will be girls draped across the car, wearing sexier versions of the team overalls, epileptic fit-inducing lights and that bloke off Radio Northampton presenting. In the case of Formula One, two clean-cut, personality-free drivers will be wheeled on; or of it’s a MotoGP presentation, one bloke on crutches and another one looking a bit ‘fly’ (stand up, Nicky Hayden).

The bike or car will be spun around a couple of times on the podium and everyone will clap. The team principal will then spout some old tosh about building on the foundations of success, maximising their potential and pushing the envelope of technology. Stirring stuff indeed, but unfortunately the only thing the journo’s are really interested in, is the quality of the buffet.

The new machine will be promising in pre-season testing, as Carlos Pay-driver slogs round and round Paul Ricard for a week or so until he’s dizzy. Autosport will publish a few photos and my Uncle will predict that the team will be top five in the coming season.

Fast forward to the first race: 20th on the grid. Why? Crap tyres. MotoGP are currently having the same problem that F1 had a few years ago. In the tyre wars, Bridgestone are providing consistently good tyres for each track on the calendar whereas Michelin keep making a catalogue of mistakes, coming to a head in Brno where they didn’t bring the correct tyres! This meant that Pedrosa, Edwards and Toseland found themselves at the unfamiliar end of the grid that afternoon. As a result, the powers that be are looking into making the category a one-tyre make series.

Personally, I don’t really think that the premier class of two wheeled motorsport should have control tyres, but with the problems that the Michelin teams have been experiencing, this move may be the best choice for the time being. I’m sure the MotoGP organisers don’t want to have repeat of the US F1 Grand Prix a couple of years ago where none of the Michelin teams took part due to tyre problems.

Why am I rambling on? I hear you ask. Well, it’s a bit quiet this weekend so I’m writing about a contentious issue instead. No, not the one that F1 is crap, as it’s earned a reprieve from me for the time being (however the FIA haven’t). If there still isn’t anything to write about in a couple of days, I may tackle ‘Mad’ Max Moseley’s new ideas on standardised engines. Woo.

Today’s post is a double header, encompassing both F1 and MotoGP, as we had two exciting wet races at the weekend on both sides of the Atlantic. Starting with the sheltered, ego-centric money-racket that is modern F1…

Vettel wins Italian Grand Prix

Germany’s Sebastien Vettel won for the first time at Monza on Sunday, making him the youngest ever winner at the tender age of 21. Vettel led from pole in a rain soaked race with Kovalainen, unable to make a mark on the leader with a superior car, taking second and Robert Kubica in third. Kubica, along with most of the other big hitters who qualified poorly, started in 11th but moved up through the order by virtue of a one-stop strategy.

Lewis Hamilton ploughed up through the field to seventh with some excellent overtakes moves and a couple of more aggressive ones that got a few complaints. However, he could not overhaul Massa, who finished sixth and closed the championship to one point.

The Honda’s finished nowhere, but are apparently focusing on next years new car. Good excuse, boys.

My congratulations go to Vettel, Gerhard Berger and Toro Rosso for taking advantage of the conditions to pull off the win. I bet Christian Horner is feeling the heat right now…

Rossi dominates in the wet

It seemed that the whole sporting world was soaked in rain this weekend and the Indianapolis raceway was no different. The inaugural Indianapolis Grand Prix for MotoGP saw the after effect of Hurricane Ike with the 125cc and 250cc races delayed, pushing the main event back as well. To begin with, local hero Nicky Hayden took the lead and desperately tried to break free from the pack by setting successive fastest laps.

Unfortunately for the Kentucky Kid, he was caught and passed by none other than Valentino Rossi, who went on to take his fourth win on the trot and his 69th overall. Most importantly, the Italian has amassed an almost unassailable 87 point lead.

Talking of Hayden, he’s just signed up to partner Casey Stoner at Ducati after being given the rough end of the stick at Repsol Honda for the past year or so. Let’s hope he finds better times with the Italian marque and does not repeat Maroc Melandri’s season this year.

Terrifying, daunting and very, very dangerous are just some of the words that have been used to describe Spa -Francorchamps, one of the most notorious racing circuits in the world. Situated in the forests of the Belgian Ardennes region, Spa has been feared and loved in equal measure by racing drivers throughout the years. Ask any Formula 1 or sportscar driver, any Grand Prix motorcyclist who competed there and they will probably give you stories of either heroic racing exploits or tales of sheer horror.

In it’s original layout of 8.7 miles worth of closed public roads, Spa was a fearsome prospect for any competitor, no matter how talented. Consisting mainly of flat-out straights and daringly fast corners, the circuit was incredibly quick with average speeds of 160mph becoming common in the 1970’s. Corners such as Eau Rouge, Blanchimont, Burnenville, Stavelot and the infamous Masta Kink are mainstays of motor-racing folk-lore. In fact, in it’s original layout, Spa only had two slow corners: the famous La Source hairpin and Les Combes, a result of the circuit organisers easing many turns to increase speeds (unbelievable to think of today).

Treacherous conditions

Spa was a tough track in the dry, but when it’s famous weather came into play, it took on a whole new dimension. Due to the length of the track, a driver could encounter dry conditions on one section and a cloudburst on the other (this still applies today). In 1966,  Jackie Stewart had a horrendous accident at the Masta kink, after going off in terrible conditions. He found himself in a ditch, trapped in his mangled BRM, injured and soaked in fuel. If it wasn’t for his team-mate Graham Hill coming to the rescue, he may not have been around to win those three world championships.

Spa also had earnt it’s notorious reputation for safety, i.e. there was none. The track had little in the way of armco barriers, few marshals and was littered with ditches, stone walls and houses along it’s length. During a driver change over for the 1972 Spa 24 hours, Hans Stuck shouted to his co-driver Jochen Mass, to watch out for body parts on the road. Mass thought he meant parts of a car, when in actual fact he was referring to the dismembered limbs of a marshal. In short, if you had an accident there, it was likely to be a big one. The F1 fraternity boycotted the track from 1970 onwards, but sportscar racing and Motorcycle Grand Prix’s continued until the track was shortened in 1979.

A new start

The new track cut out Burnenville, Masta and Stavelot and bypassed them with a winding link road that encompassed several new challenging corners, including the fearsome Pouhon. Despite the challenging nature of the the track, the new layout was considered far safer than it’s previous guise and has held the Belgian Grand Prix since 1983. Spa is probably the only one of the old style tracks that survived the neutering that so many others recieved over the last two decades. The circuit is still considered a little scary as it retains many fast corners and it’s legendary changeable weather, but it is probably one of the best examples where a circuit strikes the balance of safety and challenging the driver. Unfortunately, we don’t see that too often (remember the A1-Ring?).

Well, that’s a pretty simplistic view but probably not far off. Lewis Hamilton was given a 25 second post race penalty by the FIA stewards at the Belgian Grand Prix yesterday, due to his using of the run-off area at the bus-stop chicane when trying to overtake Kimi Raikkonen. The stewards felt that he had gained an unfair advantage doing so. After this incident, Hamilton went on to win the race but only to have it taken away from him afterwards.

Checking the reactions across the blogosphere today, it’s quite clear that we have a bit of an old fashioned outrage going on. In my view, this decision may have been designed to do one of two things:

1. Help Ferrari win the championship (a charge that has been levelled at the FIA many times over the years).
2. Discourage drivers from trying overtake the car in front, when they could wait for the pit stops and let the team do their thinking for them.

Whether this controversial decision was designed with one of the above in mind, or just a simple bad move on the stewards behalf, I don’t know. However, this shows Formula One in a very bad light once again. All kinds of conspiracy theories are probably surfacing right now across the internet (I’ve read a few already) and I wouldn’t be surprised if F1 has lost many fans because of what happened yesterday.

Consider the incident: When trying to overtake, Hamilton cut the chicane to avoid a collision, gave the lead back to Raikkonen allowing the Finn to go over the line in first place. The Englishman then got past Raikkonen at La Source. Apparently, according to the stewards, Hamilton did not give the Ferrari enough of a lead back. What was he supposed to do? Wait until he was five seconds ahead? It is not Hamilton’s fault that the Ferrari was not able to make good of the situation and that Raikkonen left the door open for the McLaren!

Personally, nothing would stun me less if it was made known that Bernie just decides who he thinks should win, and then informs the teams to make it so! But what we do know for sure is the smell of hypocrisy wafting around at the moment. The standard punishment for a nearly causing a collision in the pitlane is a drive-through penalty, Bruno Senna was given one for doing just that in the GP2 race this weekend, so how is it that Massa just got a fine at Valencia and was able to win the Grand Prix?

If the championship outcome is hinged purely on the result of this race, I’m certain people will turn their backs on this sorry excuse for a competition.

It never ceases to amaze me how little Formula One pays attention to the real world. It likes to boast how it is the premier class of motorsport, that it has the most advanced technology, the best drivers and visits the most challenging racetracks on the planet. However, it is becoming increasingly obvious that it has it’s collective head wedged up it’s own arse.

In their defence, they do have the most advanced technology and they have most of the best drivers in the world competing for the title. But as a competition for motor-racing, it has become crap. Formula One has simply become a money making exercise for Bernie Eccelstone and his associates (hasn’t he made enough money?), running package deals for countries (no matter how dubious) who want a Grand Prix to boost their business profile. The deal is simple, Bernie will charge them a huge figure to have the GP (unless it’s Monaco) and he will get his pet track designer, Hermann Tilke, to design a shit circuit for them. All the government has to do is stump up the cash and they will do the rest.

When the F1 circus hits town a couple of things become obvious: The pits and hospitality buildings are impressive but the track itself is shite. With the honourable exception of Istanbul, they are generally no better than the Hungaroring. Which brings me onto the next point, I don’t think F1 cares about the fans, the history or the quality of racing anymore. It’s all about the money (I almost sound like a rapper).

Two pieces of news that came to my attention this week really hit this home. Ron Dennis has been harping on about how the track at Valencia made him ashamed of being English, because the track was so much better than Silverstone. He was obviously at a different Grand Prix to the one I watched, because the race was deathly dull and the track was pretty naff compared to Silverstone! DoctorVee really hit the nail on the head here, because Ron was of course referring to the quality of the toilets! The race, the track and the spectators don’t matter anymore because as long as there is silk bog roll and a massive hospitality suite for you and your sponsors to chat up the pit girls in, that’s all that matters. Meanwhile in the real world, the Spanish spectators were finding that despite paying through the nose for tickets, some of the grandstands weren’t facing the track…

The second piece of news is probably the most awful of all: Bernie wants Spa slashed in length as it is not suitable for modern F1 cars. So just what track is suitable for modern F1 cars? I was under the impression that F1 went to the most challenging circuits that the world had to offer. Obviously not. If they do visit them, then it has to be turned into the equivalent of a Tesco car park to pass their requirements. It’s getting to the point where the circuits are small, two mile affairs, devoid of quick and/or challenging corners, with all the position changes decided in the pits. Remember, people watch Grand Prix to see drivers race each other, not watch men on the pit wall jot down calculations on a notepad! To make things worse, the rich, flatulent teams won’t change the configuration of their new cars, so that they can actually race each other properly and on real race tracks, as all they are interested in is money and power in their own little kingdom.

If this is the premier class of motorsport, you can stick it Bernie.

Phillipe Massa did a Ralf Schumacher on Sunday and won the European Grand Prix from Pole Position. I say this, because this was type of situation that both drivers excel in, leading from the front in perfect conditions. Although it has to be said, unlike Ralf, Massa is quite handy at overtaking to gain position.

In fact, the only thing that marred Massa’s weekend was the stewards enquiry into his actions in the pit lane during his stop. The Ferrari lollipop man let the Ferrari out too early, which meant that he almost ran into the back of Adrian Sutil’s Force India. However, as he drives for Ferrari, he was given an official reprimand and a 10,000 euro fine (makes you wonder what would have happened if it was a car from another team).

Other people did not have such a good weekend, with the Red Bull’s being outqualified by the Toro Rosso’s and local hero, Fernando Alonso, retiring early on in the race. Alonso, who is having a bit of a dismal season driving a dog of a car, was hit up the bum by Kasuki Nakajima’s Williams early on in the race. Unfortunately for the Spainard and the thousands of people who came to watch him, the damage to his car was too great for him to carry on. He must be hoping for a new car and a new engine, preferably in a new team!

As for the circuit, it was quite nice to see F1 on a street track, even if it wasn’t a proper one. I mean where were the road markings, manhole covers and changing surfaces? As David Coulthard commented, it’s just a track built in a city. I must admit the circuit wasn’t too bad, with a good mix of quick and slow corners.

Shame that the race was duller than a night out with John Major.