sofaF1

There were three interesting penalties handed out in Japan. Let's look at the details: Hamilton is punished for out-braking himself in the first corner and driving Raikkonen (and others, I think) off the track. Raikkonen regains the circuit several places in front of Hamilton.

Then, Massa is punished for driving over a corner, both wheels off the circuit, and into Hamilton. Hamilton spins and rejoins at the back of the pack, Massa carries on where he is.

Lastly, Bourdais is punished for not getting out of Massa's way when exiting the pits. Massa spins and rejoins behind Bourdais, losing a few seconds (they are out of sequence anyway as Massa hasn't pitted yet).

Do all, or any of these instance deserve penalties, let alone the same ones? Are they comparable? Should we take into account the results or the intentions? When compared to what has happened throughout this season, we can only say that penalties this year have been inconsistent. Without doubt, we need a new system of analysing and distributing penalties. Perhaps, however, we should do away with them altogether - every driver for himself?

There hasn't been a really large shake up in the rules of Formula 1 for a number of years but at the end of this year we will experience a sea change in car designs, the addition of KERS and the return of slick tyres.

Now I'm all for these changes. I think they will massively improve the ability of cars to overtake each other when they are close. But there is one problem. Max Mosley seems to be suggesting this is the beginning of a large number of changes that will be introduced over a number of years.

The reason the cars are so close to each other at the moment is the period of rule stability. Yes it has highlighted the need to make overtaking easier and so we must react by changing the rules. But changing the rules will cause the cars to run further apart which might mean we see only slightly more overtaking.

While reducing the reliance on aerodynamic efficiency as planned will make it easier to overtake when you get close behind another car. Rule changes tend to mean that the different cars speeds vary more. At the moment the cars are close but can't overtake, perhaps we will be in a situation where the cars can overtake but aren't close to each other.

New rules tend to mean that certain teams (normally those you'd expect) take advantage of the rules better and faster. They make big gains in the early years, then the smaller teams catch up over time.

Pretty much the only overtakes we see these days are better cars out of position overtaking less powerful cars that are on the same lap (so no blue flags). With overtaking made easier even these will lose their spectacle.

So the most important statistic will be the distance between the fastest qualifier and say position 16 (some backmarkers will always be there). If this number is the same as this year we will see improved racing. If the gap is much larger (which is more usual after a rule change) then it's important that the rule changes don't get written off immediately. Holding steady on the rules will bring the back of the field closer. And as that happens will have great racing.

Max will have to resist the urge to tinker if he wants to have the overtaking he desires.

Has the media just about forgotten about the F1 Championship?

I must first say I did see some F1 news items on the internet, I rarely watch TV except for the racing itself and if there was any news on the radio I may well have missed it but this was my perception…

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday listening to the radio. Radio 4 in the morning, BBC 6 Music during the day and for the first time in ages Radio 1 on the way home in the evening. Maybe I missed it but in all the news bulletins I heard there wasn't any mention of Formula 1. Usually Radio 4 is pretty good at catching up on the outcome of the F1 on a Monday morning even roping in Jackie Stewart or Murray to analyse what happened, but not this week.

Where has all the interest gone?

We had a great race at the weekend, loads of on track action, incidents, penalties, Alonso winning again and loads of post race personal comments from the title contenders.

In less than a week now we could be seeing not only a new world champion, but the youngest world champion ever and a British champion at that, the first for 12 years (since the legendary Damon Hill)

But not a peep on the radio…don't the media think the public want to hear anymore?

Do the public want to hear anymore?

I may not be the biggest subscriber to Hamilton mania, but even that might be better than nothing surely?

Good old dependable Radio 4 did come to the rescue with some F1 related news in the evening though…but it was something about Tony Blair protecting tobacco advertising in F1 or something years ago.

Well the drama just seems to keep on going. Right from the green light at Fuji the track seemed to be full of action, just like the SofaF1 championship then…

Hamilton on pole seemed to be a good bet this week, everyone except Alex going down that road for an easy 2 points to start. Then things got a little trickier, no one was expecting an Alonso double win, so points seem a little bit sparse again this week, but Raikkonen in a solid third place gave Alex, GrifF1 and myself 2 points each and Fourstar 1.

Vettel benefited from Bourdais' penalty and so did Alex and Igor taking 2 and 1 points respectively. But it did hurt Nick, who was relegated to just the one point from Vettel, and Fourstar and myself missed out completely. Fourstar bagged one further point for Kubica.

So Round 16 …

1 Bearded Stew 4
1 Alex 4
1 Fourstar 4
1 GrifF1 4
5 Nick 3
5 Igor 3


Which leaves the championship looking … much the same actually

1 Fourstar 95
2 Nick 88
3 Alex 72
4 Igor 71
5 Bearded Stew 69
6 GrifF1 68


I don't think anyone really would have picked Alonso for back to back wins at all this season or even a just a few races ago, but it has happened. Singapore may have been a bit of a gift with the safety car and this week Hamilton's long game strategy certainly helped, but he did drive a superb race to take the win. Driving hard enough (with metronomic precision!) to stay ahead on the track and a great strategy to out do Kubica in the pits. Kubica himself did really well to defend his 2nd place from Raikkonen, who may well have been relieved just to finish in the points again.

Disappointment for DC, colliding with someone again and ending up in the wall on lap one, and Kovalainen with his engine failure, which well may have lost him another win.

Massa drove aggressively well too after his early lap incidents to recover a point, which turned into 2 after Bourdais was penalised, so the gap closes up to 5 points between the championship contenders. Does Massa want it more than Hamilton?

Only 2 races to go, could it be much better? Vote now!

So we're back at Fuji this year and amazingly it is dry. It's even slightly warm! The teams weren't really ready for this so perhaps it will be as upsetting to them as the wet usually is? I doubt that somehow.

We'd really like to know your predictions for the race and pole! And remember you may want to make those predictions tonight just in case you over sleep in the morning!

Qualifying Starts - 6 am (Program starts: 5:15am on ITV)
Race Starts - 5:30 am (Program starts: 4:30am on ITV)

What a great race! The whole new night racing concept seemed to work really well and the place looked awesome under the lights, and loads of action. Mainly crashing, safety car, pit lane type action but still an exciting race. But what about the points? Not so good really there, this won't take long.

Everyone went for Hamilton on the pole, so no points there then.

GrifF1 got 2 points for Hamilton and I managed to take one. Alex and Igor both took 2 each for Vettel. The End.

So Singapore

1 Alex 2
1 GrifF1 2
1 Igor 2
4 Bearded Stew 1
5 Nick 0
5 Fourstar 0


Which leaves the championship fairly unchanged!

1 Fourstar 91
2 Nick 85
3 Alex 68
3 Igor 68
5 Bearded Stew 65
6 GrifF1 64

Great result for Alonso, especially after his poor qualifying result, the strategy really worked out well for him. Rosberg too did well to overcome that penalty to finish up there on the podium and Hamilton is probably relieved to keep his points total ticking up as his main rivals failed to score.

I'm not sure Raikkonen needs to dump his car in the wall so much though, its not going to help his championship campaign very much! There was all sorts of pit lane drama again, there does seem to have been rather a lot of that this year, but it has kept it exciting.

Fuji next…

How many Abba jokes can we do with Alonso's name? A lot. What, however, is he going to do next year? Could it be that's he's waiting to see if Ron Dennis will retire? Will he consider returning to McLaren if he wasn't there? The bad blood between Lewis and Fernando could perhaps be overcome - I think it was mostly a press invention anyway - the real problem was with Dennis, I believe. It seems as if a Ferrari seat is a long way off. Alonso's only choice is to gamble: who will be able to challenge the top two teams next year? Honda, who've been preparing for the rule changes longer than anyone else? BMW, who were very quick earlier this year but are now focusing on next season? Or Renault, who are fast now, and although he won Singapore out of luck, might easily have finished on the podium if he'd qualified properly? I wouldn't like to be in his shoes (or helmet).

Not being a mixologist, I don't know if you can add a twist to a Singapore Sling, but yesterday a safety car did so to the Formula 1 championship. It is unfair that the fastest driver lost the race through no fault of his own. You might say it's compensation for Hamilton's penalty at Spa, or that this is the way F1 goes sometimes, but there has been a whole season for them to get or lose points. We focus so much on the mistakes at the end, when the beginning is, theoretically, just as important. It's almost like these last four races are a penalty shoot-out, and Massa, like John Terry in last season's Champions League final, just slipped while taking his shot.

However, I have a theory that McLaren have developed a remote control that can change the Ferrari traffic lights. Of course, this is dangerous and highly irresponsible, but they have (possibly) just won both championships because of it.

In other news, James Allen told us about 3 or 4 times during the weekend about Game theory. He wrote an article about it for the Financial Times a few weeks ago, and hasn't seemed to stop mentioning it since. I wonder if anyone knows whether he is using the term correctly?

Lastly, when someone wins the championship in a few weeks, they won't be allowed to hug their teammates or their family. Compare it with this:

Rossi recruits 'lawyer' for celebration.

There seems to be a race building up in Singapore, new track, in the city, at night, with a load of flood lights. Sounds Interesting.

But what is going to happen? Pole sitter and top eight predictions for the race as usual please...........

[Edit from Alex: Sorry about the delay from me work has been crazy!

Just wanted to add the timings so everyone knows:

12:00 Today - Free Practice 3 (not broadcast on ITV)

15:00 Today - Qualifying (14:10 program starts on ITV)

13:00 Tomorrow - Race (12:00 program starts on ITV)
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