SofaF1

To continue today’s trend of journalist-bashing (although I wouldn’t quite go so far as Alex to call them all a cancer on the sport), a point made by Richard Barnes annoyed me quite a lot. He said that it was Alonso’s style to win championships by getting an early lead and then driving conservatively to maintain it. His ‘entire approach to racing’ is built on this foundation, apparently. And, because of Ferrari’s dominant start to the season, he is being ‘forced out of his comfort zone’.

I would argue that this is precisely the way Alonso doesn’t like to win championships, and is exactly why he left Renault. They gave him a good car at the beginning of the season, but then failed to develop it as much as his rivals: in 2005 McLaren caught up, and in 2006 Ferrari did. It is the very opposite of Alonso’s style; it is just the way things happened. We could only see a style, or a preferred method, to winning titles over a much longer period. But, more significantly, I don’t think any driver prefers to win a championship in any particular way. What they want to do is win as many races as possible. That’s it. I suppose, however, that Richard Barnes would say this is Schumacher’s style. He has misfired quite badly.

There does seem to be a habit among formula one pundits to extrapolate in extremis. I personally think that the murray quote, “anything can happen in formula one, and it usually does” is completely correct. In other words, each race nothing can be expected except something unexpected. And while all of us sensible folk at SofaF1 are taking things as they come some pundits have decided based on this one race that they have seen the future, and that the future is boring. Basically the argument runs like this:

The Ferrari is over a second a lap faster and Kimi and Massa don’t talk to me about Massa, I know last week I told you he was going to be world champion by stupidly extrapolating off of the winter testing but everyone knows that winter testing doesn’t mean anything. What really counts is one race which when you stupidly extrapolate it makes you realise that Kimi is going to walk it. And despite the title of last weeks article being, “the most exciting season evah” I’m now ready to say that this will be the most boring formula one season since 1949 when there weren’t even any races. Oh and Lewis Hamilton’s the next Schumacher but if he puts a foot wrong between now and the end of his career then I told you he was rubbish.

Yes they seem to be writing that kind of thing. And I just don’t understand it. If Ferrari walk it then what does that mean for Alonso’s decision to jump ship. Could he have held it together at Renault? What will this do to Kimi? Was Michael right to have quit last year when this years car is so good? Do Ferrari actually need Ross Brawn back? And that’s only if Ferrari walk it which is far from certain. They won a race but one of their cars had reliability problems. McLaren are coming from a winless season and are accelerating towards the front. And… the list goes on and on.

These paid journalists who complain about how the sport is boring are a cancer on our sport. If they find Formula One boring, then watch something else, or at the very least stop writing about it.

[Edited to make it clear who is a cancer, not all journalists, just ones who complain about how Formula 1 is boring.]

Remember the flexible wing saga from last year? Well apparently this year it will be the flexible floor saga. Apparently Ron Dennis has lodged a complaint with the FIA about teams (read Ferrari) have developed a flexible floor. The main thing is that a flexible floor would drastically help aerodynamics and would be illigal if it were designed to do this. But the floor is allowed to move to help with suspention over bumps. Expect Ferrari to say it is for the latter and if it helps with aero then that’s just an accidental bonus.

There’s more in this article on SpeedTv.com.

Well Alex gets off to a flying start, predicting Raikkonen for the pole and win gave him 6 points to kick off with.

Fourstar’s default option of his final championship prediction stood him in good stead to pull in a healthy haul, Raikkonen again landing 6 points.

Nick was let down a bit by Massa, but was on the money with Fisichella and picked up a point with Rosberg.

and me…. less said the better!

So after the first round, the SofaF1 Championship looks like this:

1. Alex 9
2. Fourstar 8
3. Nick 7
4. Bearded Stew 6

Interestingly, as there were 20 points available, it just goes to show how hard it is to pick up anywhere near all the points available!

…Like the preverbial “Royal with Cheese” it is the little things that can make it difficult to adapt to a new team. And as Alonso proves here it may still have not happened for him:

The result of last weeks poles were very accurate, but I must say slightly skewed by the one person who voted after the race had actually occured! At least that’s one way to increase the accuracy!

So this weeks question: What does the future hold for Lewis Hamilton?

Subsequent to my race-time blitherings, in his review of the race James Allen gives a reason for the priority given to Alonso during the pit stops. Apparently, McLaren always let the fastest qualifying driver choose a strategy which the slower one isn’t allow to cover. If Hamilton had been on an opposing team, he would’ve fuelled longer and stopped later than Alonso for the second stop. As it was, McLaren fuelled him shorter, so he stopped earlier, allowing Alonso to put in two quick laps, and pass him. What effect did the backmarkers have, however? Would Alonso have beaten Hamilton even if he stopped later? We won’t know. But it will be interesting to see if they continue this policy. As James says, if Hamilton out-qualifies Alonso will he really be given priority? Alonso surely is the better bet for the championship. I can’t help feeling that such a good start to the season for Hamilton is probably the worst thing that could happen. Now the expectations for him are even higher. It could all end disastrously.

There were so many questions going into Australia and almost all of them have now been answered after what was a thrilling race. Although nobody looked like touching Kimi all day (and rather worryingly I think he had his engine revs turned down from the half way point) there was lots of excitement behind him.

One of the biggest disappointments came from the gearbox failure of Massa. Because of this we were denied the promising race between the Ferraris. I still feel that Kimi is the faster by quite a way, but I do think that Massa will trouble him from time to time. Also despite his difficult start to the season at least he got some points, and also I think Massa is mentally stronger than a Rubens or a Fisi who might have been so distraught that they wrote off the season. Massa will be back, but will he be faster?

The rookies had a pretty poor time in general. Heikki and Kubica both had a torrid time. Which for both started out all the way back on Friday with a lack of running time. Heikki because of mechanical problems. Kubica because of team policy. But neither really has any better excuse than a lack of experience. Both, but especially Heikki will have to up their game. Heikki will have Flav’s criticism ringing in his ears for the next three weeks.

Anthony Davidson did quite well and finished the race but may have made a non obvious rookie error. Right near the beginning of the race he was crashed into which jarred his back. He drove on in crippling back pain because he has always had this bugbear about how in his three outings he has never finished a race. Perhaps it would have been better to retire as the experience has landed him in hospital. The amount of track time lost by drivers like Ralf due to his bad back must be massive. And Anthony should bear that in mind. Finishing is important, but so is finishing in one piece.

Hamilton was obviously sublime. A fantastically measured performance through the whole weekend. He even managed to unsettle Alonso, causing Fernando to have to use more sets of tires in qualifying to keep in front of him. He did make a few tiny mistakes but they were minor and to be expected when you’re driving that close to the edge (literally of the track). Alonso, with the team, engineered the overtake in the pits. And we will probably never know the true situation there. With no team radio we don’t know if Alonso was being held up by Hamilton and wanted past or if it was simply that the team decided to give the position to their team leader. I doubt the later frankly, but we shall see as time goes on. Hamilton was awesome, and Alonso will have to watch his back. But remember that in about 5 races time Hamilton is going to start getting tired. Even with Mark suggesting that Hamilton is the fittest man in F1, I think it will all starts to wear you out unless you’re completely used to it.

A final word on Ferrari. Just before he went on the podium Kimi received a phone call. James, quite reasonably, guessed that the call was from Luca Mont but actually it was from Michael Schumacher. In typical Kimi form when he was asked what Michael had had to say he responded that because of a bad line he hadn’t been able to hear a word of it. If only they’d still had that Vodaphone contract etc.

Christijan Albers has switched numbers with his team mate. I’m very surprised that this was allowed because there are strict rules to how all of the numbers are assigned. But apparently he doesn’t like to drive with an even number! What an odd chap, etc…

Australia – It’s the excitement of staying up all night.

It’s the fun of having some friends round for a party that goes through ’til morning.

It’s waiting for the first time Jim says, “Hello”, all season – I hope Steve can do it.

It’s back to school.

It’s remembering that amazing time that Mark Webber got his Australian Minardi into a points paying position and seeing Paul Stoddart in tears.

It’s a lot of other things, but mainly it’s watching them all seeming to have that much fun.

So what’s going to be different between our predictions for the season and our predictions for the race? Might you feel that Ferrari have an early advantage but will go to seed later in the season as the full lack of Ross Brawn becomes clear. Might you think that Massa being the only person in Ferrari and McLaren to have be in the same spot gives him an advantage. Do you subscribe to Kimi’s point that with the tyre changes the rookies have the advantage because they aren’t trying to unlearn how tyres have worked in Formula 1 for the last few years. Or are you focusing on the carnage that the large number of rookies might bring to bear on the race this year. Anything can happen in Formula 1 and it usually does. And that goes double for Australia. We had 4 safety car sessions last year, and then it wasn’t even the first race of the season!

So top 8 ranked places, and a pole position prediction please. Good Luck!