I've had a couple of thoughts.
1. I need to blog more regularly as Spain and Monaco have now been and gone since my last blog.
2. Why do I need to record my name now my esteemed (former?) colleague now only guest blogs on the rare moment it takes his fancy?
For the record, of course he is always welcome.
Tyres...
Everyone has an opinion on whether tyre degredation has gone too far in creating a show for the fans. Former drivers, current drivers, team bosses, commentators...hell, even Bernie himself!
Bernie is on record as saying it's good bringing tyre strategy into it as it makes the drivers think about strategy for the first time in years. Fair enough.
In Monaco we had the Mercedes pair managing their pace early on, going around two seconds slower than cars further back. This was of course to help tyre management, pacing themselves for a one stop strategy. It created a snake of cars all bunched up, where of course it's tricky to pass at Monaco, and this caused plenty of racing mishaps.
Vettel was whinging big time yet again about tyres - witness him putting in the fastest lap of the race near the end, by a second and a half. His engineer told him he won't get any points for that. Vettel replied with a "no, but the satisfaction". Child. Toys. Pram.
I'm leaning towards the school of thought that says Pirelli are doing what was asked of them, to make tyres that do not last half a race distance. Tyre management has featured many times in F1 previously. Races where huge amounts of pitstops just for tyres have featured previously.
Kimi himself said that this is F1 as it stands now, so you either like it or simply stop driving.
I have stumbled across perhaps one of the most knowledgeable opinions in all of F1 whilst reading my new F1 Racing magazine this month.
Murray Walker speaks a lot of sense and reason - I highly recommend people seek it out and have a good read.
"Having tyres that 'unnecessarily' wear out is no dafter than having 'unnecessary' fuel stops, which used to happen because the rules specified fuel tank capacities insufficient for race distances."
Spain
Great win for Alonso. Also fantastic seeing him stop to greet his fans on the drivers parade. The crowd noise was insane and reminded me of Silverstone during the Nige days.
Monaco
Utterly commanding win for Nico. Lewis has started with the excuses now Rosberg has beaten him to pole three times on the spin and generally had better races in the last couple of outings too.
He looked rather befuddled when he stated "yeah, qualifying is usually where I am really strong". Oh dear.
Surely Grosjean is on thin ice after ramming the back of some poor bugger and punting them both out.
Speaking of which. Kimi thinks someone should punch Perez in the face. Form a queue..starting with the world champions currently on the grid me thinks!
To Canada we go on the 8th/9th June weekend. Live on the BBC! Yeah!
On a birthday note - the picture below is now hanging on my wall, blown up rather large and printed on canvas - a great birthday present from my folks. Hangs next to framed paintings of Jacques and Gilles.
Senna - win at Donnington 93. His best race? Certainly the best first lap in F1 history - just ask Murray.
