Well No Blue Flags and No Fuel stops (just tyres) are the only two things that have beaten out No Change in the poll.
The only things people definately don’t want is GP2 style two races per weekend (which Flav wants) and the already tried and failed no tyre changes just fuel stops.
So what’s next? Who do you think, at this stage of the championship, will take the crown? I’ve got the main 4 and then I’ve thrown a couple of funnies into the mix. I won’t leave this one up too long I don’t think!
So it’s a grand prix weekend coming up. What’s you experience like?
Fill in our handy set of questions or ignore them completely.
Do you watch qualifying? Do you watch the race?
Do you watch both of them live?
Even if they’re really early in the morning?
What do you do about food and drink?
Is food acceptable during the race?
What about the live timing screen do you have that up?
Do you allow talking about non race subjects?
Do you allow talking at all during the race?
We’d love to hear your race setup. Especially if you’re one of our lurkers here. It can be as long or as short as you like.
Sorry it’s a bit late and brief this week chaps, I’ve been a bit busy. I’ll try and round up properly next week.
In a bad scoring race again for us all Nick still seems to keep some momentum by grabbing a few points.
Round 6
1 Nick 4
2 Fourstar 2
3 Bearded Stew 0
4 Alex 0
And so the championship stretches at the top and tightens at the bottom.
Championship
1 Nick 38
2 Bearded Stew 20
3 Alex 19
4 Fourstar 17
And just to get in early for Indianapolis
Pole Hamilton, why not? it could happen again.
1. Hamilton
2. Raikonnen
3. Alonso
4.Heidfeld
5.Massa
6.Rosberg
7.Fisichella
8.Kovalainen
You can’t help but feel sorry for Jenson Button who less than a year ago got all the front pages with his first win. He didn’t even get off the line yesterday. The British media have abandoned him as quickly as they picked him up. They’ve even forgotten his name. In today’s Guardian, in a three page-spread on Hamilton’s victory, Paul Weaver dedicates two sentences to the Honda driver ‘Jason Button’.
Again. Despite this being one of the best races I’ve seen (along with Barrichello’s first win in 2000 and maybe Button’s last year), ITV and the British media are conspiring to sour it. Halfway through the hour long Lewis-worship before the race I said I really wish they’d talk about someone else. Alex, however, reprimanded me by saying that we should embrace the attention he gets. So, we probably should, but why didn’t they show the qualifying live on ITV 1? If they love the young guy so much why did they give us only two minutes after the race? Coronation Street was still clearly more important to them. I wonder if the same thing will happen next week? Certainly, contrary to the usual pattern of people viewing the second North American race less than the first, I’m guessing more than twice as many will be watching Lewis launch himself off the line at Indy. What grinds my gears, of course, is that the attention is nothing to do with Formula 1 itself, or good racing. In the end, Lewis won pretty unspectacularly, but what happened five hours earlier in Spain? Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner had one of the toughest fights anyone has ever seen in motorcycle racing for the win of their Grand Prix. Try and find that in your morning paper.
Following on from the discussion in the pub at Alex’s birthday re: F1 = field sports, the wonderful Stick Cricket has had a makeover for the, ahem, ‘merkin’ market and there is now … Stick Baseball:
One of them is the best; you decide (but it’s not the baseball one)
Pip pip, here’s to a good race in Canada…
“The past is the past, the future is the future, and now is now.”
So says Ron Dennis about Kimi. And let me tell you it’s insight like that which is why he’s a team boss and you aren’t.
So what does this weekend hold? It does look like the McLaren dominence at Monaco was a bit of a one off so it should be more closely matched between the Ferraris and the McLarens. But the big question remains which of the team members has the upper hand.
Alonso had a great Monaco and despite what the press said did soundly beat Lewis. This will have helped his confidence. It was interesting to note that Kimi (at least until his shunt) and Alonso were doing better than their team mates. Perhaps this means that they have both got over their tire problems. Or perhaps the tire problems were masked by the strangeness of Monaco.
Lewis has clearly been fired up by what happened at Monaco. This could prove to be very interesting in Canada. We know Lewis is quick off of the line and Canada is odd because you can overtake but only near the begining of the race (off line gets very dirty). The only problem is that Canada is another circuit with Safety Cars a go go (there were two last year). Do you think you’ll have Lewis asking scrupulously fair Ron if it’s not his turn to be on the dominent strategy? It’s a move that might backfire. Lewis was, in some ways, on the better strategy a Monaco – there just wasn’t a safety car so he didn’t win. If he chooses the non safety car option this time and there is a safety car whose fault will it be?
Massa is running well at the moment. His confidence is strong. And any time he gets worried he seems to just phone up Schumacher for tips. If you had access to Michael you’d probably call him too, and I think he’s taking full advantage of it. Not that this should take anything away from Massa as some people have suggested. To cast off Michaels advice for ego reasons is childish. Massa is embracing the edge it gives him.
Kimi has been having some trouble of late, and this may very well be make or break time for him for this season – and even possibly his career. He knows he needs to win. And the thing about Kimi is… Well he’s very fast. Don’t discount him this weekend. He should on paper win the next two races. Whether he will or not is all about his and the teams mind management.
As always, we want the top eight and the pole sitter. Answers on a postcard will be typed in by hand.
You can click on the picture to go to the google map
The reason SofaF1 might be particularly interested in this article from Autosport will be unclear for most of our readers. But for the contributors this is probably a pretty interesting read:
Two motor technology companies have struck a deal aimed at cutting the greenhouse gas emissions of Formula One racing cars by recycling energy used during braking to help boost acceleration when overtaking.
…
Saving money, energy and resources and reducing waste is now top of the agenda for a sport famed in the past for profligate spending and conspicuous consumption.
While the initial focus of the technology will be on racing cars, Torotrak Chief Executive Dick Elsy said that KERS could eventually be applied to mainstream cars “to provide performance, economy and greenhouse emission benefits.”
Arbuthnot analyst Xavier Gunner welcomed the deal, saying it gave “another sign of confidence in the new management and that they are delivering the right strategy.
“At this stage it is just a licence agreement for F1 but it’s interesting because it opens up a whole array of possibilities for them (Torotrak) and the fact that it’s a licence agreement tells us that it’s further down the track than we might have assumed,” he said.
The Canadian Grand Prix is the third most watched sporting event in the world allegedly. Behind the World Cup of Football final and the Superboll. (This is the list of single events rather than contests. As a contest the F1 series also comes third coincidentally, but then it’s behind the World Cup of Football and the Olympics. There isn’t a single point of focus in the olympics I guess.)
Anyway so what’s my point? The point is that the reason it’s so popular is that it’s on in Europe in the late afternoon instead of lunchtime. I know a lot of people who only watch the Canadian Grand Prix and the American. Why is this? It’s because at Sunday lunchtime you’ve got to be out with the kids doing stuff and going to picnics and so on. By Sunday evening what else are you going to do? And also it displaces a number of other regular shows so the wife won’t be wanting to watch X Factor on the other side X Factor will be on later. [Note: Not that I have a wife or that Katherine is remotely interested in X Factor or Formula 1 for that matter]. And why does Canada shade the US? More domestic Canadians watch only their grand prix than US residents do. So either the US guys are watching everything or nothing not just the US one. And also in Europe because the Canadian Grand Prix is first and F1 is boring to some people people don’t tend to tune in for the second week as much.
So what actually is my point? Well my point is this if we’re considering having night races in all the Southern Hemisphere races just to get better ratings why aren’t we holding all of the northern Hemisphere races in the afternoon as well? You could even have the Southern Hemisphere races properly in the middle of the night if you wanted to go crazy but I’m guessing that wouldn’t work so well for ticket sales.
If all races in Europe kicked off at 5 or 6 then more Europeans would watch the races. And most importantly the races would be on at lunchtime in the states and Canada. No wonder Bernie hasn’t been able to break America yet only two races a year are on in the afternoon.
F1 has made it to the dizzying heights of popbitch again…
>> Jensen’s red face <<
Formula One cover-up in Monaco
Jensen Button is paid millions by his Formula One team, Honda, to drive a fast car around a track every fortnight or so and make sure he’s not seen with anything belonging to one of their competitors. Jenson took delivery of his new speedboat last week in Monte Carlo harbour. Two huge engines were very visible on the back, complete with enormous Suzuki branding. Cue red races and flunkies rushing around with “Honda” stickers to cover them up.
Maybe it’s true, maybe not, but after the reports of Lewis and the glamour girls last time, the trash press have a renewed interest in F1 all of a sudden!
SofaF1 