SofaF1

Sorry for the delay, as Alex kindly informed you all, i’ve been having a few phone line problems!

But here we go…

Its always hard to know what to expect at the beginning of the season, and I would suggest even more so this year, BMW had a good car but then it didn’t really perform, Ferrari were fast and reliable, McLaren still had the pace, Red Bull had an Adrian Newey car, Honda still had a ropey car but they had Ross Brawn, Williams were making good progress, Renault were still playing down their chances. Then there were the rule changes, banning traction control is probably the most well known change, but how much difference would it really make? They’ve been trying to make the show better for years and not much has really worked.

There may well be a few words people would use to describe the 2008 Australian Grand Prix and I’m sure crazy would be one of them. 22 starters only seven finishers, with points going to drivers who didn’t even make it across the line!

By far the most spectacular race for a long time and I’m sure much will be written about it, but what has been happening in the SofaF1 Championship?

Well this year we have six contestants, welcome to GrifF1 and Igor who join Alex, Nick, Fourstar and myself for 2008.

The first round predictions seemed to place a fair bit of confidence in Raikkonen, but it was Hamilton who dominated the weekend. Fourstar and Igor scored 4 points apiece for the Hamilton win and Fourstar gathered up the only two pole position points scored for Hamiltons pole too.

GrifF1, Nick, Alex and myself all had to make do with picking up the odd points here and there where we could. Predicting Hamilton for second place gave us a point (just the one this year). Nick and myself both had a point for Kovalainen and Alonso, while GrifF1 took 2 for Kovalainen. Nick and myself both scored a further point for Kubica and Bourdais respectively. Frustratingly I would have scored more for Bourdais if Barrichello hadn’t been disqualified and Alex would have got one for Nakajima, but hey anything can happen in Formula 1…

So the first glance at the championship standings after Round 1.

Fourstar 6
Bearded Stew 4
Nick 4
Igor 4
GrifF1 3
Alex 1

Not such a good start for Alex, after his championship win last year, but there’s a long way to go.

So that was a good race wasn’t it:

Sorry about the lack of updates on the Pole Poll but Bearded Stew is in the process of changing internet suppliers and they seem to have decided that the best way forward was to cut him off!

Pedro de la Rosa has been named as the chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, replacing Ralf Schumacher.

Not that it’s a particularly powerful body or anything but it does lobby in response to certain situations. It’s interesting that the directors under him will be Alonso and Webber. All three are huge Alonso fans and none of them have much time for Lewis or Kimi neither of whom are even in the GPDA.

I wonder if this will cause trouble if there is a racing incident.

The beer is chillin’. The chain is playin’. And the Formula 1 season 2008 is about to be Go! Go! Go!

Ferrari and McLaren have been topping the time sheets. But Red Bull have surprisingly been right behind them.

There are a large number of inexperienced rookies on the grid this year. The traction control ban has made the cars harder to drive. The lack of launch control means that it’s much easier to have a slow start off of the line. And Australia’s first corner has often had problems in the past. There is a good chance that a large number of drivers don’t make it past lap one.

So give us your pole prediction and your top eight. And if you haven’t already make sure you get your season prediction in as well entrants for both end before qualifying tonight.

Thanks to ITV-F1 and F1.com!

One of the things that immediately seems lacking when you compare Formula 1 to MotoGP is the celebrations from the drivers at the end of the race. While F1 invented the champagne spraying (which still looks natural and real only once a year at Monaco) the rest of the celebrations have been stopped by Max for safety reasons and by the teams for engine protection.

Drivers aren’t allowed to do doughnuts or wave flags from their cars anymore. They aren’t allowed to pick up stranded drivers like they once did. And what Max would do if one of the drivers organized his mates to dress up like a 10 pin bowling alley I can’t imagine. Alonso has his weird standing on top of the car thing, Kimi actually did a doughnut last year, and Lewis got in trouble for hugging his father. They all want to do it, but there doesn’t seem to be much they can do.

So in the comments here I think we should suggest some of the things that they might be able to do that the drivers might be allowed to get away with. We’re not going to get the rules changed so we’ve got to help them be a little bit creative. So what have we got?

In theory there should really have been more teams in the run up to this but unfortunately a major project is being launched at work this week and so it’s all gone a bit wrong.

So what’s this all about?

Each Friday we ask you to predict your top eight drivers for the race and who you think will get pole.

You get 4 points if you get the race winner correct and two points if you get any other position or the pole correct. This year you get one point for a near miss in the race (eg. a driver in second you predicted to win gives you a point).*

Anyone can play. And the first part of the game is the hardest part of all – predicting the whole championship. So what we’d like from you is how the top eight drivers will finish the championship. And which driver will get the most poles. It’s important to get it right because these count for double.

Good luck and Scott Speed.**

* For those of you who played last year there are two changes. No near miss point for poll. And you don’t get two points if the person you predicted to win comes second – just one.

** I wish that joke still worked.

You may remember the debate that raged (well sort of) last year about Bruce McLaren’s nationality, well anyway for a concise answer from the people who should know I consulted McLaren’s own website for clarification. Somewhat surprisingly this opened another slightly rusty can of historic worms. So after consulting the collective wisdom of my fellow Sofa loungers, Al and Nick, I have now (finally) sent the following email to McLaren highlighting a less than clear section of their company history.

Dear McLaren,
Following an article last year on SofaF1.com. I referred to your website just to check my own understanding of some historical facts.

http://www.mclaren.com/historyofmclaren/timeline_intro.php

I greatly enjoyed reading the history of Bruce McLaren’s racing career, but was slightly confused by this paragraph:

“Bruce became engaged to Patty Broad that winter, and would marry her the following year. On his return to Europe, he was Brabham’s teammate again, and once again, the New Zealander won the World Championship. Bruce actually led the championship for a race and won in Argentina. He was second to Brabham in the championship.”

Reading this, and knowing that Jack Brabham won the world championship in a Cooper in 1959 and 1960, I was confused that he seemed to be referred to as a New Zealander. As far as I knew he was as Australian as they come.

If you were to read the sentence “On his return to Europe, he was Brabham’s teammate again, and once again, the New Zealander won the World Championship.” in isolation then it seems suggested that Bruce McLaren won the world championship (again) in 1960, which doesn’t tie up with the next couple of sentences which are themselves historically correct!

Regards
Stew
SofaF1.com

It would be great to have a response to this, if only to raise the profile of SofaF1. I’ll keep you posted if we hear back!

Pernickety Stew