Grand prix legends

Phil: I feel I ought to alert to my co-blogger to a few feature the BBC are adding to this year's F1 coverage. They may not have all the races live, they may not have Martin Brundle, but they do have a rundown of the top 20 greatest F1 drivers ever, according to their team of pundits.

They'll be announcing one each race (assuming there are 20 races this year), in reverse order. No 20 is Jochen Rindt. They've revealed that, intriguingly, four of the current crop are on the list, which begs the question - which four? Schumacher, Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton would be my guess. Others may of course disagree.....

It's this weekend. Can you believe it?

Exit Martin Brundle, enter....Kimi Raikkonen

Phil: As Brundle defects from the BBC to Sky, and Raikkonen decides rallying is even more boring than F1, let's relish their finest hour once again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3JWFEK5q88.

Senna, Schumacher and Vettel

Phil: As usual an excellent summary of the last race from my co-blogger, although a detailed account would take more space than we can spare. So much was happening each lap at Istanbul that even a seasoned commentator like Martin Brundle could barely keep up, and commented at one point I believe how the leader pitting doesn't even merit air time, there's so much else happening on the track.

One thing is beyond doubt, though, as my co-blogger admirably explained: Vettel is in a class of his own. I half expected he might be: he certainly had the pace last season but lacked the maturity, as his collision with Webber at Istanbul a year ago showed. A year on, however, and the confidence that being reigning world champion gives, he is in a different class. I confidently expect him to be the first driver in five years to successfully defend his world title.

The funny thing is, last year we had an enthralling, season-long battle for the title that we couldn't really call until about half way through the last race, but of the races themselves, none of them really stick in the mind. This year, although the championship will probably have been wrapped up by Hungary, you can't look away from the races for a minute.

I've said before that I don't really know why Schumi came out of retirement, and still think he'll regret it in the long run. There are two reasons why he probably un-retired: firstly, because he thought he could be genuinely competitive again, and secondly, because he simply enjoys driving a F1 car. I don't think anyone seriously expects him to win a race again, let along a championship, and as he said after Turkey: the joy isn't there. It's hardly surprising. This is a driver who broke all the records, who barring a few years in the late 1990s when he was building Ferrari into the force it is today was accustomed to being virtually unchallenged and unchallengeable. Why would he now enjoy not winning, and being outraced by men half his age? Johnny Herbert, his team mate at Benetton in 1995, thinks he'll retire permanently at the end of this season, and I think he may be right.

Speaking of great F1 drivers of the past, there's a great interview with the man some call the Gavin Winston of F1 in the Guardian (which may even be linked to this blog, or maybe not). Newey, who designed the car in which Ayrton Senna was killed, talks about how his death affected him and how he won't be watching the new film about Senna.

Finally, I think my co-blogger will agree that the only date that needs to be in anyone's diary in the next few weeks is the I Was Having a Blog live event of the year at Monaco. Well, actually in High Wycombe, which is like Monaco. Well, they're both hilly...anyway I digress.

Ko-wasabi

Phil: Well, I have to say, that's a sterling (or should that be Stirling?) effort by my co-blogger to sacrifice a night's sleep for a 2am quali session. I got up too, of course, and made it down to the telly just in time for a replay of Vettel's pole lap, and in my half asleep state found myself wondering why they'd sped the film up going through the Esses, then realised they hadn't.

The race fortunately had enough action to keep me awake. It also had a surprisingly high attrition rate, with Massa, Liuzzi, Petrov and Hulkenberg all being eliminated in first-corner (I watched the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix the other day, which had a similar start-line pile-up started by none other than Martin Brundle), Kubica losing a wheel behind the safety car (this is where being sponsored by Lada gets you), Rosberg's crash and Sutil's engine blowout.

I read an article by Brundle today, in which he named Kamui Kobayashi driver of the day. During the race he'd called him Ko-wasabi, a reference to the ridiculously hot Japanese horseradish paste, and invited Kobayashi to call him Trundle (eh?). By my calculation, Kobayashi overtook Alguersuari, Sutil, Alguersuari again, Sutil again, Barrichello and Heidfeld, and if it hadn't been for a dodgy tyre strategy (staying out far too late on soft tyres) could have been mixing it with Schumi. At last, a Japanese racing driver who can actually race.

As my co-blogger pointed out, Vettel is a lover of statistics. I'd imagine he likes nothing better than to retire to a private place with a nice pie chart and indulge himself. Anyway, here's my contribution to statistical bliss. I looked at drivers who are overperforming (in the car, I mean), versus drivers who are underperforming, by the only relatively transparent method - comparing them to their teammate. The percentage is the margin by which the driver is outperforming (or being outperformed by) his teammate, expressed purely in terms of points scored. Got it? Here we go.

Kubica +83%
Sutil +72%
Kobayashi +63%
Buemi +63%
Barrichello +59%
Rosberg +56%
Alonso +38%
Webber +6%
Hamilton +2%
Button -2%
Vettel -6%
Massa -38%
Schumacher -56%
Hulkenberg -59%
Alguersuari -63%
Liuzzi -72%
Petrov -83%
Heidfeld -85% (only two races driven)

None of Lotus, Virgin, or Hispania drivers are listed as none of them have scored any points.

Three closing observations.
1. Yes, I'm an accountant.
2. Massa isn't doing as badly as my co-blogger thinks he is (!).
3. However, I've heard rumours linking Massa and everyone below him in the table except Alguersuari to being given their P45s by their respective teams (confirmed rumours, in Heidfeld's case).

Only three races to go. Or is it two?

It's pissing down in Singapore

Phil: My co-blogger texted me the other day to remind me I hadn't blogged for a while. There's actually very little to add to his analysis of Monza's action, and only the arse-licking to take away. All I can constructively add is that, as I predicted, Webber and Hamilton are definitely not running away with it: a win for Alonso, second for Button, and fourth for Vettel versus sixth for Webber and DNF for Hamilton means the gap has narrowed considerably.

I stumbled across an interesting calculation today (bear with me, this gets better) of how the championship would look if we were still using the old points system, which I much preferred:

Hamilton 75
Webber 74
Alonso 67
Button 67
Vettel 66

I post this as a reminder of how close this season really is: less than a win between first and fifth in the title race, with five races still to go.

A bit of an update on the mid-season reshuffle. Nick Heidfeld returns to F1, replacing Pedro de la Rosa at Sauber. Romain Grosjean takes over his testing role at Pirelli. Does this mean Schumacher is likely to continue in 2011? Heidfeld was presumably hanging on to the test seat at Mercedes on the assumption that he wouldn't last the season, so does this mean he will be back next year?

There are also rumours that the BBC are looking to replace Jonathan Ledgard in the commentary box. In case you were wondering, he is the bloke who talks when Martin Brundle isn't talking. The favourite to replace him is Moto GP commentator Charlie Cox, although from comments posted online a return for James Allen has been suggested, or Brundle by himself. My co-blogger and I are of course available, should anyone from the BBC be reading the blog. The truth is, though, that all this means is that Murray Walker is irreplacable.

It's pissing down in Singapore.

Official team photo

Phil: My co-blogger's post from last week gave me a startling realisation today: other people read this blog. Put it another way: we have been receiving fan mail. So, here's something for our burgeoning fan base: my co-blogger and myself at the recent I Was Having a Blog Live at Monaco shenanigans. He's on the left.

The answer is Carlos Reutemann, although I guessed Niki Lauda, as you may have noticed had you read an earlier version of this post (which I edited as it looked as if I thought Niki Lauda was in the photo).

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...'