In a Rush...

Justin:

My esteemed colleague and I both watched the BBC documentary on James Hunt and Niki Lauda last night. I am yet to hear his views on it, but I'll give you mine now.

As with the Documentary Senna, some of the never seen/ behind the scenes footage is utterly incredible.

And today, the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes are constantly in a game of one-upmanship with each other and involved in political fights with the FIA. Some things in F1 just never change.

Witness Alastair Caldwell (team manager at Mclaren) and Daniele Audetto (team manager at Ferrari) getting quite, quite wound up, even now, when they are interviewed in the documentary about the political posturing and gamesmanship that went on in 1976 when they were both in charge. They clearly havent wasted money on Christmas cards for each other!

The images of Lauda's crash in Germany which nearly took his life are horrifying to view and it casts my mind forward to the safety issues of today's F1. Exploding tyres was something I touched upon last time out, but one of the big risks of open cockpit racing is debris or items hitting the driver in the head. Back then there were all manner of safety issues.

It's just got me thinking too about MotoGP riders. My colleague brought rallying into this blog once, so I can surely touch upon MotoGP. Jorge Lorenzo broke his collarbone on the friday before a race and went home to have a plate inserted, then raced on the Sunday and finished 5th. Insane.

The race just gone this weekend, he fell off his bike in practice and bent the damn plate! He now misses two races! Don't get me wrong, f1 drivers are incredibly brave, it's just with bikes theres only so much you can do safetywise. If you come off at 180mph, its all down to luck.

Just watch the documentary - it's a beautiful film about a beautiful rivalry in a beautiful moment in F1.

Hands up to those of you who cannot wait for Ron Howard's new film to come out??!!

Rush!

Not blogged for a while

Justin:

First off let me say that I think I can speak for all 5 readers (and one would think the world at large) when I say we all wish Murray Walker a speedy and full recovery. Like many people around my age who grew up on F1, Murray's voice, energy and Murryisms were a vital part of Sunday afternoon's on F1 race weekends. The guy is a living legend and we look forward to him recovering and continuing with his BBC website column and seeing him live on the Beeb's coverage of the British GP next year.

The German GP is starting in just under an hour. I won't see it until 6pm tonight - stupid BBC. Bah.

Anyway....

Canada was a while ago in the memory now, but I recall it was a great race. Now that is lazy F1 blogging right there!

Silverstone...was pretty much utter chaos, drama, excitement and any driver that left their balls at home probably had a bit of a bad day.

There were so many candidates for driver of the day. Webber, getting punted after a rubbish start, from 14th to 2nd. Massa - a lightening start from 11th to 5th, a tyre blowout, and he recovered from 17th to...7th was it? Alonso, started 9th, suffered a tyre failure, recovered to 3rd. Paul di Resta, drove from the back to get good points. Hamilton....a fighting drive. He was leading when his tyre blew up...he went to the back and fought back up to 4th. Rosberg too...ok, he benefited from problems for others, but as Webber remarked, to capitalise on others problems, you have to be in a position to capitalise.

Storming race. The last ten laps after the safety car were a pure shootout. Webber and Alonso were on newer tyres and destroyed most of the people around them.

I have to admit, it would have been great to see Webber win his last race at Silverstone, but as it was, his was a barnstorming drive to 2nd. Another lap and it would have been 1st.

Vettel....gearbox failure. That certainly helped liven up the title race!