SofaF1

I like certain racing drivers. Others I admire. And yet more I think are jerks or fools. And finally there are the drivers who I simply feel I don’t know.

I think a lot of this year got sucked into the cult of personality. I think this was largely a reaction to the exit of Schumacher. Michael was a driver who had a certain reputation for being boring and he also seemed to not be a fan of being interviewed. And when he left Lewis arrived and that shook everything up.

People find it difficult to understand F1 at first glance. In football it’s easy to spot a skilful play even if you don’t understand much of anything about the game. But it’s difficult to know all of the players in the premiership so people seem to mainly just learn the players from their team and remember the players who did something really exciting from the rival teams. In Formula 1 it’s the opposite for most the sport is their team, and in fact the entire field of drivers and test drivers is around the same as a large squad: 33.

So personality is easier to latch on to. And because of that, and the influx of new fans we’ve ended up slightly skewed towards it.

Right at the last gasp there was a surge of popularity for Kimi. I think this was reaction to the personality wars going on over at McLaren. Kimi’s lack of obvious personality (although I’m keenly aware of how the press are massively over playing this) seemed refreshing to many.

The point is that Schumacher’s era did seem to be more about “I’ll do my talking on the track” with only Jaques and DC really up for saying anything very interesting. But as the old adage goes, “be careful what you wish for”. Now the rarity seems to be the aloof drivers who don’t talk much. people like Kimi or Heidfeld spring to mind. Is their driving better because they are quiet or is it simply that it seems purer because it’s easier to forget who is behind the wheel.

Eventually you learn with formula one that there are only four kinds of driver,

1) Drivers who were great
2) Drivers who were comically bad
3) Drivers who were world champion but not that great

and

4) Drivers you can’t really remember.

But that’s for the future looking back. For now we face a time where it’s slightly more difficult to judge skill and achievement because everyone is watching the racing through the prism of personality.

Renault are being investigated for spying on McLaren in the 2006 season, when Alonso won his last title.

Will this put Alonso off returning to Renault?

F1 inspired Lawn Mower

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the Evening Standard to write something for them to do with the press and Formula 1. They didn’t end up printing it in the end. Maybe I was too cruel. Let me know what you think:

F1 isn’t normally about jingoistic pride. In fact teams only rarely have two drivers of the same nationality – none currently do. Formula 1 is in many ways closer to a global champions league than a World Cup. I am a fan of Formula 1, and I watch all of the races, but I don’t have a team that I favour, I don’t have a driver that I am always gunning for. I’m not unique in this, I want the best man to win on the given day. And sadly for Britain Lewis wasn’t the better man on Sunday.

The press coverage has been downright despicable in both Britain and Spain. McLaren couldn’t be more fair in their treatment of their drivers (they both even finished on the same number of points). And while Britain would like to point their hand at Spain, a large part of the tension was started by journalists here in Britain. When they created the impression that it was Lewis’ God given right to win in Monaco. When he didn’t make it a backlash was started against Ron Dennis, team principle at McLaren, which was simply intended to sell papers. The unintended result was the near wrenching in half of McLaren.

McLaren have always stood for equality, it makes it harder for them to win, but surely it is right. The constant demands for equality from the press here and in Spain forced Alonso’s hand. He stopped supporting McLaren and it may well have lost Lewis the championship. McLaren could have asked Alonso to fall back and help Lewis to win in Brazil, but the relationship had been so soured by the press that there was no hope. Teams in Formula 1 should allow equality up until it is obvious that one of the drivers can’t win. Massa helped Kimi, but Alonso didn’t help Lewis. It wasn’t just a difference in personality it was the bad blood. Who created that? Were the journalists reporting or creating the story?

Lewis made some rookie errors this weekend, but guess what? He’s a rookie. And at least he beat his team mate. Sometimes in Formula 1 that’s all you can do. And nobody expected it at the beginning of the season. They say the press in this country build people up simply so they can tear them down: Lewis is a prime example. Today Mathew Norman says that Lewis has, “quite a bit more to learn than any of us, most of all perhaps himself, had understood”. I think that Lewis knew all too well that the world of Formula 1 is unpredictable and difficult to tame, if anyone had more to learn about the world of Formula 1 it was the press.

Bird completes Williams test

I return from my holiday to Rome and check SofaF1 to see if anything exciting has happened in Formula 1 and it looks like nothing much has been happening. In fact the most exciting thing that has happened in the world of Formula One is that one of the writers of the popular F1 blog has written a book (is that enough of a plug? No? I WROTE A BOOK BUY IT NOW!!!) but clearly nothing much in the world of F1. But wait a moment, what is this?

Alonso has left McLaren! Finally Ron and Alonso have seen sense and all is right in the world. But where will he go?

The rumours say that he’ll go to Toyota if they can hire Ross Brawn. If that doesn’t happen he’ll go to Renault for a one year contract. But heikki has said he won’t race as a number two.

This leaves Flav with a bit of a problem. If he signs Alonso for a one year contract and then after that year he leaves then where will Renault be? Nelson Piquet Jr. wanted to jump in Trulli’s car by mid season so there’s a risk he’ll leave if Alonso makes him wait (surely Alonso wants Fisi back as his wing man).

There have been a growing number of rumours about Red Bull as a home. Perhaps it would fit, they’ve got the money and their car did seem to be quicker at the end of the season. I don’t think Alonso has ever raced in an unreliable car (although I’m guessing the Minardi wasn’t too hot) and so it would be interesting to see if the switch to Red Bull made the Red Bull more competitive or not.

Or perhaps he’ll go to Williams. I’m sure McLaren would be happy to take Nico Rosberg off their hands. And although people are saying that Alonso needs a lot of money maybe that’s not true. He just wants somebody to put faith in him. With Williams the faith would have to be reciprocal. If Alonso goes to Williams it will be the hand of Senna that will have guided him there.

But what do you think will happen? Comments please, and why not vote in the first pole of the 2008 season!

Sorry it’s a bit late, I was just waiting for the dust to settle!

“Anything can happen in Formula 1 and it usually does!”

It probably wasn’t the best time to have one of my worst predictions of the year. I only managed 3 points over the whole weekend, one for Hamilton on the front row, and one each for Raikkonen and Heidfeld in the race. Fourstar however, only managed two, Hamilton’s front row and Alonso in the race. The main battle of the weekend was on though between Nick and Alex, Both took 4 for Raikkonen’s win, Nick got one for Hamilton’s front row also and then 2 each for Alonso and Kubica in the race, Alex completed a clean sweep at the front adding Massa on pole to Raikkonen’s win, and another one each for Alonso and Heidfeld.

Round 17

1 Nick 9
2 Alex 8
3 Bearded Stew 3
4 Fourstar 2

Which would have left the championship looking like this…

Championship

1 Nick 112
2 Bearded Stew 100
3 Alex 99
4 Fourstar 80

…if we didn’t have our season ending predictions from the beginning of the year to factor in…and double points too (remember that?)

Final Championship Round

1 Alex 20
2 Fourstar 16
3 Bearded Stew 12
4 Nick 4

Alex and Fourstar getting Raikkonen correct is the main points driver here, but Alex really keeps the momentum going with Massa grabbing most poles too. All of Nick’s points were for Kovalainen down in 7th place.

So for the last time this year (unless there are any appeals…which will of course be considered if I have missed anything)

SofaF1 Championship 2007

1 Alex 119
2 Nick 116
3 Bearded Stew 112
4 Fourstar 96

So the final honour goes to Alex, but as you can see it was pretty tight all round, if Hamilton had one less point or Alonso one more it would have changed their order in the championship and given me a whole heap more points!

Nick was definitely in parallel with Hamilton, leading most of the season but falling at the last, Alonso seems to have mirrored my position, second for a good while towards the end pushing for the title only to have it fall apart and dropping to third at the end too, Alex is Raikkonen, steaming through at the end to clobber everyone else and take the championship, while Fourstar is Massa, showing flashes of brilliance throughout, a strong finish and keeping it tight at the top but not quite able to step into the lead.

So as 2007 starts to snooze on the Sofa and dream of 2008, Hamilton no longer a rookie, Fourstar no longer a newbie, Nick eager to get even, Alonso eager to get evener, Alex with a new plan, Stew with a new beard…How can the SofaF1 Championship be better? Comments please!

Some people have said that McLaren just give driver equality lip service, and that they’ve actually been favouring Lewis all of the way through the season, but after 17 races…

Lewis Hamilton – 109 Points
Fernando Alonso – 109 Points

Now that’s equality.

After a season dogged with claim and counter-claim in respect of the validity of the various constructors’ cars, engines, tyres and fuel, Max and Bernie reveal:

(Alex, when’s your birthday again?)

Perhaps it’s unfair (to both drivers) to say that Hamilton lost rather than Raikkonen won the title. After all, it’s generally agreed that it was McLaren’s mistake not to call Lewis in earlier for tyres in China, and it was the gearbox that dropped him to 18th yesterday, as well as it being Kimi who has won most races this season (and in a car that hasn’t been proven to have cheated).

Anyway, my main problem is with Hamilton’s level-headedness and positive outlook. Whilst this was impressive throughout the season as he kept his cool while Alonso seemingly lost his, now it’s making him seem a bit like a robot. He appears to be suppressing emotion which should naturally be let out. I’d love it if his quotes instead were: ‘I can’t f**king believe it. I’m really bl**dy p*ssed off. I should’ve won today! I feel sh*t. I think Fernando’s a tw*t. I’m going back to my hotel to get really drunk, trash my room and sleep with three Brazilian samba girls at the same time’. Instead, this is probably what Kimi did.