Justin:
What have you been doing?
1. Steady on. Don't go making broad, sweeping remarks. Did you see the race in Singapore? And a few before that one?! Yes, we had excitement with the battle for 4th down and plenty of shenanigans through the field, but the race winner was never in doubt.
I'm struggling more and more to get excited about races where we all know who the winner will be before the start. I switched off for a few races in the Schumi years, where he dominated and pissed all over the rules (Vettel has really earned my utter hatred this year - Mr bigger than the team twat), engineering results of races on the finish line etc etc, parking so competitors could not complete pole laps etc etc. For me, I'd much rather see 5/6 guys fighting over first, all in the title race. I actually agree with Lewis for once. He and Fernando are much better than being relegated to fighting for 5th.
Dogfight. World Champions. At the front. All of them. Go. Next year.
Rule changes cannot come soon enough for me.
I'm almost at the stage where I won't do my yearly ritual of rising early for Japan. Whats the point?
This decade...the even years provide us with vintage years...perhaps the best ever in F1. 2010 and 2012 were awesome. I'd even say 2011 was better than this year. At least 2011 gave us the most epic race ever. Canada...slightly damp.
So, my only hope is that 2014 follows 10 and 12.
2. I concur. The Hulk is bloody awesome.
3. I concur. Though, if I was the Lotus boss, I wouldnt say "hold station and bring the points home". Lotus have let it be know they are hurt by Kimi leaving, so fuck him I say. As DC said, Kimi is leaving, this is them giving Romain the confidence to be team leader. Besides which, over the second half of the season the Frenchman has been utterly superior to Kimi.
4. Alonso has stated he'd love to see Mark go out with a win before the end of the year. He said Mark announces his retirement then has all this bad luck. Hows this? Webber wins in Brazil with Alonso joining him on the podium? That would be beautiful.
5. They'd need the bleep sound a lot more if I was commentating.
6. Indeed.
7. Bet he plays with it in private too. Nudge nudge wink wink.
PS....
8. Neither of us has done an official review of Rush yet. I will do this over the weekend.
9. Fact. Niki Lauda is without doubt the most double hard, courageous man with balls the size of melons ever to race in F1. Fact.
a) Because he came back after his near-death crash 6 weeks later and finished 4th.
b) Even more so because he pitted after a lap in Japan 76.
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Seven things we learned on Sunday
Phil: Yes. Don't ask what I've been doing. Anyway...
1. Formula 1 is less boring than we thought. In the first half of Sunday's race in Korea, we had Sebastian Vettel pulling out two seconds in the first lap, everyone pitting within a lap or two of each other, and, er that was pretty much it. In the second half, we had overtaking, not overtaking, overtaking back, sparks, tyre delaminations and rogue safety cars. No change at the front, but at least the rest of the pack kept us guessing.
2. Nico Hulkenberg is a world champion waiting for the right car. In these days of DRS when it's all about overtaking, keeping a faster car behind you has become something of a lost art. Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes should have dispatched Hulkenberg's Sauber in a lap or two after the second safety car incident, but despite a much faster car, DRS and a world championship under his belt all he could do was ask the pit for suggestions.
3. Romain Grosjean is Lotus' man for 2014. After Kimi had mugged Grosjean of his second place you'd have expected Lotus to tell both cars to keep station and protect their two podium places and valuable points for the constructors' championship. Not so, and Eric Boullier not only reminded Grosjean that he should feel free to race Kimi for second but chose to do so in English when both are native speakers of French. In other words, he wanted the whole world, including Kimi, to know who he's backing.
4. Mark Webber really is the unluckiest man in Formula 1. While one half of the Red Bull garage has enjoyed seemingly effortless victories in the last four races, the other half has struggled somewhat. Mark seemed to be making good progress in Singapore when his pit told him to back off a bit. Not enough, unfortunately, as his engine blew up with half a lap left. His mate Fernando Alonso stopped to give him a lift back to the pit lane - a sporting gesture some would way, but not the Singapore stewards who slapped him with a 10 place grid penalty for this week's outing in Korea. So it was that despite having qualified towards the front of the grid Mark was leaving the pit lane immediately behind Sergio Perez when a huge lockup by the Mexican caused a spectacular tyre delamination. Mark was right behind him and picked up a puncture of his own from the debris. While the pack formed up behind the safety car, Mark pitted, only to come out again a few places in front of Adrian Sutil. When Sutil lost it soon after the restart he struck Mark a glancing blow, which coincidentally severed a fuel pipe which set fire to the back end of his car, leaving one Red Bull in parc ferme under the podium and the other half burned out by the side of the track.
5. There is a bleep button in Formula 1. It just took a Lewis Hamilton toys out of the pram moment to find it. No longer can teams avoid giving away their pit stop strategies or their cars' mechanical ailments by giving their drivers messages like, 'Box this lap, fuckwit'.
6. Korean 4x4s are faster than we thought. Anyone reading this who has a Ssangyong or something like that sitting in their drive (which probably means they really wanted a Range Rover but couldn't afford one) can now tell their grandchildren of the day a car like theirs led a grand prix. Which by my reckoning actually puts them just ahead of Caterham in the constructors' championship.
7. Gavin plays with his organ in public. Fact.
1. Formula 1 is less boring than we thought. In the first half of Sunday's race in Korea, we had Sebastian Vettel pulling out two seconds in the first lap, everyone pitting within a lap or two of each other, and, er that was pretty much it. In the second half, we had overtaking, not overtaking, overtaking back, sparks, tyre delaminations and rogue safety cars. No change at the front, but at least the rest of the pack kept us guessing.
2. Nico Hulkenberg is a world champion waiting for the right car. In these days of DRS when it's all about overtaking, keeping a faster car behind you has become something of a lost art. Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes should have dispatched Hulkenberg's Sauber in a lap or two after the second safety car incident, but despite a much faster car, DRS and a world championship under his belt all he could do was ask the pit for suggestions.
3. Romain Grosjean is Lotus' man for 2014. After Kimi had mugged Grosjean of his second place you'd have expected Lotus to tell both cars to keep station and protect their two podium places and valuable points for the constructors' championship. Not so, and Eric Boullier not only reminded Grosjean that he should feel free to race Kimi for second but chose to do so in English when both are native speakers of French. In other words, he wanted the whole world, including Kimi, to know who he's backing.
4. Mark Webber really is the unluckiest man in Formula 1. While one half of the Red Bull garage has enjoyed seemingly effortless victories in the last four races, the other half has struggled somewhat. Mark seemed to be making good progress in Singapore when his pit told him to back off a bit. Not enough, unfortunately, as his engine blew up with half a lap left. His mate Fernando Alonso stopped to give him a lift back to the pit lane - a sporting gesture some would way, but not the Singapore stewards who slapped him with a 10 place grid penalty for this week's outing in Korea. So it was that despite having qualified towards the front of the grid Mark was leaving the pit lane immediately behind Sergio Perez when a huge lockup by the Mexican caused a spectacular tyre delamination. Mark was right behind him and picked up a puncture of his own from the debris. While the pack formed up behind the safety car, Mark pitted, only to come out again a few places in front of Adrian Sutil. When Sutil lost it soon after the restart he struck Mark a glancing blow, which coincidentally severed a fuel pipe which set fire to the back end of his car, leaving one Red Bull in parc ferme under the podium and the other half burned out by the side of the track.
5. There is a bleep button in Formula 1. It just took a Lewis Hamilton toys out of the pram moment to find it. No longer can teams avoid giving away their pit stop strategies or their cars' mechanical ailments by giving their drivers messages like, 'Box this lap, fuckwit'.
6. Korean 4x4s are faster than we thought. Anyone reading this who has a Ssangyong or something like that sitting in their drive (which probably means they really wanted a Range Rover but couldn't afford one) can now tell their grandchildren of the day a car like theirs led a grand prix. Which by my reckoning actually puts them just ahead of Caterham in the constructors' championship.
7. Gavin plays with his organ in public. Fact.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)