Round 15: Singapore

Justin:

I've fallen in love with F1 all over again.

No matter what gripes one might have with the current rules and regulations and all that stuff, when you see F1 live you are instantly reminded as to how bloody awesome our sport is.

Though, people with earplugs in Singapore....that is sad. You don't need them! Try out the V8's from 2013 and before...those will make your ears bleed!

The Singapore #F1NightRace is truly unique. It is intense, in your face, jam packed and a truly beautiful thing.

I was in the Waterfront Esplanade grandstand, which gave me a pretty good view (and a welcome breeze from the water) of a slower corner and I witnessed up close the cars accelerating out of the corner (just as they slide towards the barrier, they power and squirm away - amazing!).

Even the engine noise, whilst quieter than 2013 and before, is still pretty meaty and deep (more so than those last year in Hungary). When the exhausts face you as the cars power out of the corner, it's all pretty impressive.

The absolute poetry of a car going through a corner right on the edge, riding the kerbs on the outside right next to the barrier, before powering away - It is something to savour. Wow.

The drivers are artists, the track is their canvas, the car is their paint brush.

Nico Rosberg continued his winning run that started in Belgium and carried on in Monza.

He dominated Lewis in qualifying and in the race. It was probably just as much Hamilton not finding a correct setup as it was Rosberg having the qualifying lap of his life as he said afterwards. 0.7 seconds ahead of your teammate is a lifetime in F1.

It was a pretty fun race, where for a while you had interest up front as the first four cars stayed within touching distance.

Elsewhere there was a lot of fun - Vettel storming through from last to 5th should get a special mention, as should Alonso storming the start and going up to 5th until around half way through, eventually finishing 7th.

I'll share a couple more pictures I took here. The one of Alonso above is definitely getting framed on my wall, as are the two below.

Onto Malaysia! Sadly I didn't have the time or money to stay in Singapore for a few more days and leap across to take in the Malaysian Grand Prix too.

PS - I saw none other than the legend that is Damon Hill on my flight out. I should have asked him to sign my copy of his autobiography. No matter, he liked a Tweet I sent about it, so it's all good.

One week 'til Suzuka...

Phil: My co-blogger's thorough and insightful analysis deserves a pat on the bottom, at the very least. I agree the Hamilton/Webber collision was nothing more than a racing incident, and that having scored maximum points at Monza and Singapore, Alonso is certainly the man to beat at Suzuka. I think we also agree on the downright odd teammate relationship that Lewis and Jenson have: Lewis when interviewed after the race seemed understandably downbeat (after all, two consecutive DNFs won't do great things for his championship chances) and said he still hoped either himself or Jenson would be world champion this year. Or Jenson? Then, one day this week, I read an interview with Jenson himself telling the world what a great driver Lewis was and how much he hoped he could get his title chase back on track. Is there some patting of bottoms going on behind the scenes?

Anyway, teammate rivalries, or otherwise, lead me on to this very good, very technical opinion piece on how Michael Schumacher has 'lost it' permanently. Not only is he being outdriven by his teammate Nico Rosberg, but the margin by which is being beaten is getting wider. Is Rosberg getting faster, or is Schumi getting slower? Here it is http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9037790.stm

Finally, I've been dipping into the BBC's archive of classic races, which are updated before every race, starting with the 1982 Detroit Grand Prix:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/09/your_classic_grand_prix_-_race_2.html#more

You'll think the cars are crude until you see the BBC's graphics. And why did someone at the BBC think that the best 'establishing shot', the image that says 'Formula 1' to the British viewing public, is a shot of Niki Lauda eating a slice of toast?

Plenty of overtaking though.

Red mist, part deux

Phil: I'm afraid I've always had very little sympathy for sportsmen who lose and then blame the referees, stewards or other officials for not interpreting the rules in their favour. I'd say the same applies to anyone who seriously thinks England might have beaten Germany but for 'that' goal.

Now, in this case, I'm going to let Alonso off for in-cockpit whingeing about Hamilton, because we all know drivers know the FIA listen in to their cockpit radio and use it as a 'back channel' for communicating directly with the stewards. I'm also going to ignore whatever he may have said post-race as I haven't seen any interviews with him.

However, the fact remains that if Hamilton had not overtaken the safety car, Alonso would still have been eighth. It wouldn't have made any difference to Alonso's race had Hamilton not overtaken the safety car, and it would only have promoted him one place had the FIA applied the strongest possible penalty and disqualified him (and I admit I was a little surprised that only a drive-through penalty had been applied). The fact that other drivers ahead of Alonso who did infringe the safety car regulations were penalised as a result, with the result that Alonso actually gained one place after the race, seems to have been completely overlooked.

As my co-blogger has admitted, for a driver who still considers Singapore 2008 to be a morally legitimate race win to make such a drama about something that in the final event wouldn't actually have affected his race position at all, is a little rich.

Ferrari have the third best car at the moment. Perhaps they need to do more about that rather than expecting the FIA (and you know what those initials mean) to ride to their rescue.