Phil: An Australian government minister called Lewis Hamilton a dickhead during a radio interview today, referring to his off-track shenanigans. Apparently there's a road safety campaign currently in Australia under the slogan, 'don't be a dickhead'. Only in Australia...
Jenson, meanwhile, agrees with us that it was a fun race. He told the press it was fun to watch it on the big screens as he was driving round (!). If he was Brazilian, they'd call him Jensinho.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Additonally....
Justin: Interesting how quickly Hamilton blamed his team for the pit stop cock up. Interesting how quickly Button got all the praise for making his call on his early stop. I can see Hamilton spitting the dummy soon, if he didnt today!
Push the Button!
Justin: Well, clearly my fellow blogger was a good boy and got up at 6am to watch the GP. I however got a little tipsy the night before and just about managed to get up for the F1 forum on the red button at around 9am. No worries though, I caught highlights and the race in full at 1pm.
So, we were talking up Webber's chances before the race......what the smeg happened Mark?! At least he admitted total fault for punting Lewis off and apologised...why apologise to Lewis again??
As DC, EJ and MB all agreed on the forum, they'd rather have a fast, unreliable car than a slow but reliable one. Does Vettel feel the same? It's easy to jump on the bandwagon and say yeah he should have 50 points by now....but in F1 to finish first, first you have to finish!
To answer my co-blogger about Alonso - agreed, he definately had the pace to stay with Vettel I think. It's a pity that later in the race he got stuck behind Felipe Mobile Road Block Massa. Again on the red button forum (my fellow blogger doesnt have digital does he?) it was interesting to see the debate about team orders. Obviously Ferarri cannot order one man to move aside, and Massa was totally within his right to race and keep his position. But, as Martin Brundle said, its a team sport and Alonso was by far and away the faster of the two (again) this weekend and had Massa let him go, Ferrari would have got a 2nd and 3rd at least. By letting them race, they denied themselves more points.
Interesting to see Alonso and Massa, followed closely by Button at the top of the championship standings. It's turning into one hell of a season already. Fuck the memory of Barhain!
As an annonymous texter just pointed out, Shumi was totally nowhere. How the mighty have fallen.
Button was a deserved winner with a super smooth drive. And, he is possibly the most laid back, nicest guy in F1.
Hamilton is clearly rattled by Button. Let's face it, Button trounced him this weekend - no contest.
My fellow blogger, or should that be logger after the reason behind the name of this blog?...my fellow blogger nominated his skiver of the day. I shall nominate suck up of the day. This goes to Eddie Jordan, and to be fair I doubt there will be many weekends when it doesnt, for climbing so far up Button's arse about his champions speech and what an amazing champion he is etc...yes we all know this EJ, please have some dignity!
Malaysia here we come!
So, we were talking up Webber's chances before the race......what the smeg happened Mark?! At least he admitted total fault for punting Lewis off and apologised...why apologise to Lewis again??
As DC, EJ and MB all agreed on the forum, they'd rather have a fast, unreliable car than a slow but reliable one. Does Vettel feel the same? It's easy to jump on the bandwagon and say yeah he should have 50 points by now....but in F1 to finish first, first you have to finish!
To answer my co-blogger about Alonso - agreed, he definately had the pace to stay with Vettel I think. It's a pity that later in the race he got stuck behind Felipe Mobile Road Block Massa. Again on the red button forum (my fellow blogger doesnt have digital does he?) it was interesting to see the debate about team orders. Obviously Ferarri cannot order one man to move aside, and Massa was totally within his right to race and keep his position. But, as Martin Brundle said, its a team sport and Alonso was by far and away the faster of the two (again) this weekend and had Massa let him go, Ferrari would have got a 2nd and 3rd at least. By letting them race, they denied themselves more points.
Interesting to see Alonso and Massa, followed closely by Button at the top of the championship standings. It's turning into one hell of a season already. Fuck the memory of Barhain!
As an annonymous texter just pointed out, Shumi was totally nowhere. How the mighty have fallen.
Button was a deserved winner with a super smooth drive. And, he is possibly the most laid back, nicest guy in F1.
Hamilton is clearly rattled by Button. Let's face it, Button trounced him this weekend - no contest.
My fellow blogger, or should that be logger after the reason behind the name of this blog?...my fellow blogger nominated his skiver of the day. I shall nominate suck up of the day. This goes to Eddie Jordan, and to be fair I doubt there will be many weekends when it doesnt, for climbing so far up Button's arse about his champions speech and what an amazing champion he is etc...yes we all know this EJ, please have some dignity!
Malaysia here we come!
Phew!
What a race! It was almost a struggle to keep up, there was so much going on. We had overtaking, rain, overtaking, the safety car, overtaking, a first corner incident, and even some overtaking, and that was just the first lap! More interesting things happened in the first lap at Melbourne than in the entire race at Bahrain. I doubt we'll hear anyone whining about how dull Formula 1 is these days for a while at least.
So, the race. A well-deserved win for Jenson, whose smooth, precise driving style suited this race to perfection, not to mention having the courage to make that call for slick tyres ahead of the field. Any of four men, I think, could have won this race, but only one of them did. As for the other three, Vettel (and the entire Red Bull team, who could only turn first and second on the grid into a single eighth place in the race) must be the unluckiest man in F1 at the moment: having started both races on pole, and led them both, his car has let him down on both occasions. Vettel seemed to have a fairly comfortable lead over Button, and but for the brake failure which put him in the gravel trap it's hard to see him losing the lead to Jenson.
I'm sure my co-blogger will come back to me on this one, but I think Alonso's first corner incident may have cost him the race. He had plenty of pace coming back through the pack in pursuit of Massa, Webber, Hamilton and the rest. And finally, there's Hamilton. He was sixth despite having probably overtaken most of the cars in front of him: Button early on, Massa twice I think, and that outrageous (in a good way) move around the outside of Rosberg. I'm tempted to agree with him that he had the drive of his life, but a bad call on tyres from the team let him down. Looking back on it now, it was certainly the wrong decision. Having said that, while Button was able to look after his tyres for 50 or more laps, I don't think Hamilton, with his much more aggressive driving style, could have done that: when he was caught in the dirty air behind Alonso, he complained on the radio that his tyres were going away from him (these were his third set, at least 20 laps newer than the ones Jenson won the race on). He seemed also to be getting wound up behind Alonso, and even called the second pit stop 'a terrible idea'. Lewis is good at motivating the team behind him, but is also someone who has performed best when he had a teammate who didn't challenge him in Heikki Kovalainen, and I wonder if having a teammate who does, and who beat him easily today, is beginning to rattle him.
It may be too early in the season for the world championship standings to be meaningful, but in the driver's standings, Alonso is leading with 37 points, followed by Massa on 33 and Button on 31. Bernie's new points system may have been intended to favour race wins rather than consistency, but Massa who hasn't won a race is ahead of Button who has. In the constructor's standings, Ferrari are on 70 points, McLaren on 54 and Mercedes on 29 while Red Bull tie with Renault on 18.
Finally, as Martin Brundle seems no longer to nominate a driver of the day, I propose each race we name a Skiver of the Day, for the driver or other F1 personality who shows outstanding lack of effort and/or achievement. Today I'm going to give the inaugural Skiver of the Day to Jarno Trulli: to finish first, first you must finish, but starting is probably a prerequisite too.
So, the race. A well-deserved win for Jenson, whose smooth, precise driving style suited this race to perfection, not to mention having the courage to make that call for slick tyres ahead of the field. Any of four men, I think, could have won this race, but only one of them did. As for the other three, Vettel (and the entire Red Bull team, who could only turn first and second on the grid into a single eighth place in the race) must be the unluckiest man in F1 at the moment: having started both races on pole, and led them both, his car has let him down on both occasions. Vettel seemed to have a fairly comfortable lead over Button, and but for the brake failure which put him in the gravel trap it's hard to see him losing the lead to Jenson.
I'm sure my co-blogger will come back to me on this one, but I think Alonso's first corner incident may have cost him the race. He had plenty of pace coming back through the pack in pursuit of Massa, Webber, Hamilton and the rest. And finally, there's Hamilton. He was sixth despite having probably overtaken most of the cars in front of him: Button early on, Massa twice I think, and that outrageous (in a good way) move around the outside of Rosberg. I'm tempted to agree with him that he had the drive of his life, but a bad call on tyres from the team let him down. Looking back on it now, it was certainly the wrong decision. Having said that, while Button was able to look after his tyres for 50 or more laps, I don't think Hamilton, with his much more aggressive driving style, could have done that: when he was caught in the dirty air behind Alonso, he complained on the radio that his tyres were going away from him (these were his third set, at least 20 laps newer than the ones Jenson won the race on). He seemed also to be getting wound up behind Alonso, and even called the second pit stop 'a terrible idea'. Lewis is good at motivating the team behind him, but is also someone who has performed best when he had a teammate who didn't challenge him in Heikki Kovalainen, and I wonder if having a teammate who does, and who beat him easily today, is beginning to rattle him.
It may be too early in the season for the world championship standings to be meaningful, but in the driver's standings, Alonso is leading with 37 points, followed by Massa on 33 and Button on 31. Bernie's new points system may have been intended to favour race wins rather than consistency, but Massa who hasn't won a race is ahead of Button who has. In the constructor's standings, Ferrari are on 70 points, McLaren on 54 and Mercedes on 29 while Red Bull tie with Renault on 18.
Finally, as Martin Brundle seems no longer to nominate a driver of the day, I propose each race we name a Skiver of the Day, for the driver or other F1 personality who shows outstanding lack of effort and/or achievement. Today I'm going to give the inaugural Skiver of the Day to Jarno Trulli: to finish first, first you must finish, but starting is probably a prerequisite too.
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Webber tells it like it is
Justin: So then, Webber is 2nd on the Melbourne grid. In the BBC interview after qualifying he stated the obvious when asked "So Mark, what can you do with 2nd on the grid?"........"Well, it's the second best place to start from..."......almost sounds like a Murryism to me!
The front three look like they are going to storm away at the start, given their respective qualifying times compared to the rest of the field. Alonso is hanging on to them whilst Massa is apparently struggling a bit. Good to see Button trounce Lewis! Only the second race in and he has beaten Lewis in qualifying....quite resoundingly I might add. Lewis might come across Shumi during the race, which if there is any overtaking possible could be fun to watch.
An interesting point I read somewhere, possibly the Guardian paper today. An interview with the Ferrari boss (is my spelling correct?) urging caution on people being too hasty in rubbishing the season as boring already. Ok it is the Ferrari boss talking, but he has a point when he says Button won the opening 6 races last year and we only found that pretty thrilling because it was unexpected. I think that's a fair point.
I failed to get up for quali by the way....a poor show on my part. Will make sure I do better for 6am tomorrow and pre-race coverage!
Go Webber.....or Go Alonso....I'm so conflicted!
The front three look like they are going to storm away at the start, given their respective qualifying times compared to the rest of the field. Alonso is hanging on to them whilst Massa is apparently struggling a bit. Good to see Button trounce Lewis! Only the second race in and he has beaten Lewis in qualifying....quite resoundingly I might add. Lewis might come across Shumi during the race, which if there is any overtaking possible could be fun to watch.
An interesting point I read somewhere, possibly the Guardian paper today. An interview with the Ferrari boss (is my spelling correct?) urging caution on people being too hasty in rubbishing the season as boring already. Ok it is the Ferrari boss talking, but he has a point when he says Button won the opening 6 races last year and we only found that pretty thrilling because it was unexpected. I think that's a fair point.
I failed to get up for quali by the way....a poor show on my part. Will make sure I do better for 6am tomorrow and pre-race coverage!
Go Webber.....or Go Alonso....I'm so conflicted!
Friday, 26 March 2010
We want a Webber win
Phil: It feels almost indecent to be hoping for a home win for Australia, but I think as you say we'd both like to see Mark Webber win on Sunday. At some point in the mid-nineties, Frank Williams was asked which of the then-current crop of drivers he'd like to see win his maiden victory. He paused, and said, 'Mika Hakkinen' (this was a couple of years before Hakkinen won the world title, in 1998 and 1999). It's the same way with Webber. Yes, of course he took his maiden win at the Nurburgring last year, but all the same his is a talent that has mainly gone unrewarded. Many people, and I'm one of them, would tip Vettel to be the next world champion (not necessarily world champion this year, but the next driver to become world champion), but Mark is a match for Vettel. And this year could be his best shot at the title.
As for Hamilton, what he apparently did was skid on the way out of the paddock (interestingly enough, it looks like Mercedes still supply McLaren with off-track cars). The subject of skidmarks brings me deftly to this clip (you knew it wouldn't be long in coming) which may explain the name of this blog:
'Obviously you'll have a nice light car on the grid, then...'
As for Hamilton, what he apparently did was skid on the way out of the paddock (interestingly enough, it looks like Mercedes still supply McLaren with off-track cars). The subject of skidmarks brings me deftly to this clip (you knew it wouldn't be long in coming) which may explain the name of this blog:
'Obviously you'll have a nice light car on the grid, then...'
We're at 150%, exploring the maximum limits of F1 analysis
Justin: McLaren seem to be nearer the front in Melbourne - trading times for first in session two I believe, which is good for F1 I think. Not good for people that dislike Hamilton, as I do...but hey we can't always have what we want. Naughty, naughty though....driving in an over exuberant manner hey! I expect Webber to go well this weekend. He needs to after 8th in the first race. Well, I'll keep this bit of analysis short and sweet for now and wait for my colleague to hit back with some gritty, real and of course totally 150% above the maximum limit of the analysis..erm...analysis.
Welcome to the blog
Phil: Welcome to our new blog. We're one race into one of the most eagerly anticipated Formula 1 seasons in years, with Alonso at Ferrari, the return of Michael Schumacher, three new teams and a ban on refuelling. The first race, at Bahrain two weeks ago, however, was criticised for being a bit boring. Well, you haven't seen boring yet. Wait until a few more blog entries, you'll be begging for Bahrain 2010 then.
This weekend's race in Melbourne is billed as a sunset spectacular. That's sunset in Australia, so still redeye in the UK. We'll post again over the weekend, if we can be bothered to get up early at watch it.
This weekend's race in Melbourne is billed as a sunset spectacular. That's sunset in Australia, so still redeye in the UK. We'll post again over the weekend, if we can be bothered to get up early at watch it.
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