Courtesy of some brilliant driving and a peculiar grid we were treated to some excellent entertainment at the Japanese Grand Prix. This race evidenced a new era in racing with three drivers of Schumacher's standard on the circuit. It showed that it is about drivers; not just equipment. Surely Honda would have had a podium in the hands of an Alonso.
Kimi Raikonnen
Very strong indeed. Through the field from seventeenth position, dramatic last lap overtaking of Fisichella gave him first place . Must be his best career performance.
Giancarlo Fisichella
Shown that he did not have the speed of his team mate or of Raikonnen. Perhaps could have won if he had not felt the need to drive a defensive line into the final chicane on the second from last lap. I bet Flavio wasn't happy despite Renault regaining the constructors' championship lead.
Alonso
I think it would have been a close call for the win if his pit strategy had been better. The best overtaking moves seen in ages, including two on Michael Schumacher, confident, tough and well planned manoeuvres. His second on Schumacher initiated at the spoon to take him into turn one; quite awesome. I don't think that we have ever seen Schumacher this ballsy; as talented perhaps but not as courageous.
Webber
Must have been doing something right. His team must have enjoyed beating Button out of the pits at his last stop.
Button
Once again the Honda team had high expectations for the race; sharing them with we viewers at home. Once again they didn't do the job. I really think that Frank Williams has pulled off a masterstroke by letting Button buy himself out of his contract. There is much talk of Button and the world championship, how long before the Honda top brass start to get fed up; quite a while I reckon, unfortunately.
Montoya
Off again. Of course; not his fault.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Friday, October 07, 2005
Dedication's what you need.......
Am I correct in thinking that M Schumacher is only one pole away from the magic total of 64 career poles record set by the fabulous Mr Ayrton Senna? I seem to remember that at the beginning of the year I considered (with a heavy heart, it has to be said), that the German would nab that glory from the most entertaining driver of the last few decades. I am now thinking that, if he does retire at the end of next year, Mr Dress-sense, might possibly do so, missing one record. That would be nice.
MacLaren loses championship
Not to take anything away from some impressive drives from Alonso, particularly fending off Schumacher senior at Imola this year, but those Wokingham folk have thrown the drivers' championship away. Unfortunately the regulations , points available, and sponsors favour the steady; and Messrs Briatore and Co have had their eye on the ball all the way. At least it was more entertaining than another Ferrari snoozefest.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Turkey lurky
Turkish Grand Prix
Beautiful track makes you want to have a go. Everyone says it; turn 8 is a corker. Qualifying was great fun to watch. When Schumacher M. spun at turn 8 and the crowd cheered, James Allen (the ITV commentator) chastised the Turkish spectators for their inexperience. Bollocks, don’t take things so seriously Mr ITV.
In the olden days, the drivers were free to make more mistakes. I think we were deprived of a more interesting race because of one lap qualifying which adds to the overall corporateness of the sport and the pressure on the drivers not to make any errors.
The points system worked for forty odd years before, in an effort to assuage the dominant Schumacher, they started awarding 8 points for second place a couple of years ago. This is another thing that deprives us of a more interesting championship as it places less importance on the win as we head towards the end of the season. (Also Mr Raikkonen would be marginally closer to Snr Alonso in the standings at the moment otherwise).
Kimi Raikkonen
The Man. Nice move on opening lap to take the lead, capitalising on Fisichella’s mistake and fending off Alonso.
Alonso
Made the best of what was available, second was a great result for him; his car was not the second fastest there (or maybe even the third or fourth). Funny rules apparently allow an instruction from his pit telling him to overtake his team-mate because “you are faster than him” at which point his team-mate moves over.
Montoya
Consistently inconsistent. Blamed Monteiro for running into the back of him after passing him and cutting him up. Happened to him before in Brazil and if you are cynical you could say similar to the Monaco problem this year. Shame he didn’t keep Alonso behind him. Managed the fastest lap.
Fisichella
Flavio continues to engineer a safe distance between his number two driver and Alonso. This week it was a fuel rig problem. Some may argue that he deserved to be told to pull over having thrown the lead away on the opening lap.
Button
He looked like he had good fun and a good result to make fifth from 13th on the grid. Didn’t look that ballsy behind Trulli though. Would have been interesting to see what he would have made of a drive from the first or second row of the grid where he certainly could have been. We haven’t seen him playing hard ball with any of the main protagonists yet.
Schumacher M.
Seemed to take out his team’s dip in form on Mr Webber by characteristically driving into the side of him, before stopping for a cup of tea and rejoining the race to improve his qualifying slot at Monza. The ignominy.
Schumacher R.
Another quiet million in the bank.
Webber
I know they all love him, and I know his car hasn’t been great this year, but I remain to be convinced. In his favour, I like the way he drove nose first into his garage having experienced his third rear left tyre blow out of the weekend, would have been daft and dangerous to continue. I suspect that he was not acting on orders.
Beautiful track makes you want to have a go. Everyone says it; turn 8 is a corker. Qualifying was great fun to watch. When Schumacher M. spun at turn 8 and the crowd cheered, James Allen (the ITV commentator) chastised the Turkish spectators for their inexperience. Bollocks, don’t take things so seriously Mr ITV.
In the olden days, the drivers were free to make more mistakes. I think we were deprived of a more interesting race because of one lap qualifying which adds to the overall corporateness of the sport and the pressure on the drivers not to make any errors.
The points system worked for forty odd years before, in an effort to assuage the dominant Schumacher, they started awarding 8 points for second place a couple of years ago. This is another thing that deprives us of a more interesting championship as it places less importance on the win as we head towards the end of the season. (Also Mr Raikkonen would be marginally closer to Snr Alonso in the standings at the moment otherwise).
Kimi Raikkonen
The Man. Nice move on opening lap to take the lead, capitalising on Fisichella’s mistake and fending off Alonso.
Alonso
Made the best of what was available, second was a great result for him; his car was not the second fastest there (or maybe even the third or fourth). Funny rules apparently allow an instruction from his pit telling him to overtake his team-mate because “you are faster than him” at which point his team-mate moves over.
Montoya
Consistently inconsistent. Blamed Monteiro for running into the back of him after passing him and cutting him up. Happened to him before in Brazil and if you are cynical you could say similar to the Monaco problem this year. Shame he didn’t keep Alonso behind him. Managed the fastest lap.
Fisichella
Flavio continues to engineer a safe distance between his number two driver and Alonso. This week it was a fuel rig problem. Some may argue that he deserved to be told to pull over having thrown the lead away on the opening lap.
Button
He looked like he had good fun and a good result to make fifth from 13th on the grid. Didn’t look that ballsy behind Trulli though. Would have been interesting to see what he would have made of a drive from the first or second row of the grid where he certainly could have been. We haven’t seen him playing hard ball with any of the main protagonists yet.
Schumacher M.
Seemed to take out his team’s dip in form on Mr Webber by characteristically driving into the side of him, before stopping for a cup of tea and rejoining the race to improve his qualifying slot at Monza. The ignominy.
Schumacher R.
Another quiet million in the bank.
Webber
I know they all love him, and I know his car hasn’t been great this year, but I remain to be convinced. In his favour, I like the way he drove nose first into his garage having experienced his third rear left tyre blow out of the weekend, would have been daft and dangerous to continue. I suspect that he was not acting on orders.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Hungaroring, so what
Week commencing 31 July 05
The fact that Raikkonen won the Hangarian Grand Prix is nice but leaves him no nearer the championship than he was at the start of the month. Indeed he is further away as there are only 6 races to go in which to score 26 points more than Alonso, quite unlikely. The prospect that the Ferraris (at least the one driven by Schumacher) could slot in between Raikkonen and Alonso in future races could help as could Montoya if he became less like himself and more level headed for the final races.
The whole Button thing is a red herring. He has a contract with Williams for next year; he can race for them, buy himself out (or be bought out) of the contract, or break the contract and suffer the consequences. This sort of thing must go on all the time behind closed doors, as for being interviewed on TV saying that he doesn’t want to drive for a team; so what, half the drivers would rather be driving for someone else, I don’t believe going public will do anything for him. Perhaps if he had won a number of races and had a bit more track presence, it would be interesting. (I refer to the way he held the door open for Michael Schumacher at Imola this year; he might as well have offered to help him off with his overalls at the end of the race). To be fair, he doesn’t seem to have been well advised, he perhaps should have had a clause in his contract that obligated Williams to have an engine. Remember, he got what he wanted and Williams is not famous for molly coddling its drivers.
I would be intrigued to see what would happen if he ends up staying at Honda and is joined by Snr Barichello.
The fact that Raikkonen won the Hangarian Grand Prix is nice but leaves him no nearer the championship than he was at the start of the month. Indeed he is further away as there are only 6 races to go in which to score 26 points more than Alonso, quite unlikely. The prospect that the Ferraris (at least the one driven by Schumacher) could slot in between Raikkonen and Alonso in future races could help as could Montoya if he became less like himself and more level headed for the final races.
The whole Button thing is a red herring. He has a contract with Williams for next year; he can race for them, buy himself out (or be bought out) of the contract, or break the contract and suffer the consequences. This sort of thing must go on all the time behind closed doors, as for being interviewed on TV saying that he doesn’t want to drive for a team; so what, half the drivers would rather be driving for someone else, I don’t believe going public will do anything for him. Perhaps if he had won a number of races and had a bit more track presence, it would be interesting. (I refer to the way he held the door open for Michael Schumacher at Imola this year; he might as well have offered to help him off with his overalls at the end of the race). To be fair, he doesn’t seem to have been well advised, he perhaps should have had a clause in his contract that obligated Williams to have an engine. Remember, he got what he wanted and Williams is not famous for molly coddling its drivers.
I would be intrigued to see what would happen if he ends up staying at Honda and is joined by Snr Barichello.
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