SofaF1

It seems like someone has stolen our idea:

The Armchair Viewer is itv-f1.com’s latest attempt to recapture the brilliance of the Mole.

Two things I like about the photo-logo for this website:

1. You can never be sure whether the person (I’m assuming Alex) is cheering that Schumacher has crashed out, is clenching his fist in frustration that he has, or is just generally enjoying the spectacle.

2. The moment captured becomes increasingly more relevant to this year’s title. Who thought back then in Australia that Schumacher would be tied with Alonso by now? I doubt even he dreamed of it. I think I remember saying to Alex at some point early in the season, ‘well, this championship is over already’.

The forecast for Japan is more rain. And doesn’t the new Korean Grand Prix circuit sound amazing? A new Monaco. I just hope they have the sense to include a lot of gradient, and make even the straights have corners.

Which is your favourite newspaper? Mine used to be the Independent, but there has been a gradual drift towards the Guardian, certified today by the discovery that they were the only paper to feature Schumacher on the front page. Inside was then an (almost) double-page spread of news and details about the championship. Ok, so if you buy Gazzetta dello Sport, you’ll probably get 4 full-page, full-broadsheet size, spreads, but not many of us here speak Italian. I think the Guardian is the best.

In other news, the Germans are celebrating yesterdays win as one of Michael’s best (see autosport.com, which is not letting me login at the moment to view the review articles) – but his brilliance in China didn’t stop when he got out of the car. After celebrating with his mechanics perhaps with more joy than we’ve ever seen before (Sabine Kehm was even surprised) he then had the sense to have a quick look at Alonso’s front tyres on his way past the Renault. Genius.

Maybe we need to have a field trip to the Design Museum:

http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/formulaone

Thrilling, seductive and addictive, Formula One is among the world’s most popular sports. Formula One is also an intensely secretive industry that invests hundreds of millions of pounds every year on design and technology – with £500 million spent by the racing teams to optimise their engines alone.

For the first time the public can discover the design innovations at the heart of the sport in this Design Museum exhibition featuring iconic cars and compelling deconstructions of F1 technology. An F1 car consists of over 10,000 components requiring 4,000 drawings and accuracy to within a tenth of a millimetre. As well as exploring the history of F1 design, the exhibition will explore how billions of pounds has been invested in design and technology in order to make the cars ever faster and safer.

It was interesting to see that ITV had gone back to a studio format for China. This used to be the norm for all the fly away races other than australia and whichever race ended the season. But for last few years Jim made the case to ITV for them to be out there regardless of the distance. This made even more sense when they got rid of their studios at the events. I wonder if it was a lack of Jim’s determination that let ITV off of the hook?

ITV couldn’t have picked a worse moment to choose for this cost saving. Not only was it less exciting just at a time when the championship is more exciting than ever but because of the rain situation they were isolated from information on the most important story of the day. Having Steve and Mark under an umbrella at the start would tell the story so much more effectively.

I found myself trusting them less than I usually do because it seemed like the information they were giving was more third hand than it normally would seem. I mean I know they get given things to talk about by their team when they are out there too but it did seen pretty futile when Steve asked Mark his opinion on an issue.

The whole setup in China is apparently quite difficult for them because the teams and the press are kept even more seperate than in other races with the whole pontoon situation. And maybe that added with the early morning and distance made the decision for them. I hope it was that because I for one want to see them back in the pit next weekend.

Amazing.

Okay, a few more words: in the early part of the race we heard Coulthard’s mechanic say ‘we think Kubica behind you is two-stopping’, ie ‘let him past’. But it seems that Kubica was one-stopping (I think). In which case, he did amazingly well.

All right, the first lap incident was his fault. But he climbed back up the pack to get within ten seconds of his team-mate. And okay, changing to dry tyres was a bit rash, but again he climbed back up the pack as fast as he could to finish 13th.

Overall, this guy’s really great, but he’s still learning and making mistakes. One problem it seems he’s going to have, that he won’t have control over, is that he’s not very marketable.

… but was Alonso quickest? It’s hard to tell, since surely Michael backed off as soon as he was clear of Fisi. He had twenty seconds and about 15 laps in hand. There wasn’t really a chance Alonso could catch him. I think Renault are closer, but the Ferraris might still have the edge. Hopefully we’ll see in Japan.

Michael won not just the on-track race, but the psychological one too. Every little incident is being used to try to gain an edge: the Renault mechanic over the radio to Alonso after qualifying saying ‘poor Michael is down in sixth’ was quite striking for me. It also seemed like the attitude of Alonso and Fisi changed between the post-qualifying press-conference and the pig-pen afterwards – as if someone had briefed them on the correct stance to take in order to put more pressure on Ferrari: they suddenly became extremely positive about their pace in the dry and the wet, where before they had been quite vague. Michael, however, does have the upper-hand now, having beaten them in their own conditions, and at a track he wasn’t supposed to like, before going to two tracks he loves…

Ralf is currently one of the best paid drivers in Formula 1 and it’s always been difficult to fathom exactly what he’s being paid that much money for.

I mean he’s very fast sometimes, but he’s certainly not consistant about it. And although I’m guessing Alonso and Kimi will be paid a lot of money next year I think he’s been being paid more than either of them this year.

Perhaps, I’ve always thought, this means that’s he’s very good with the sponsors and that’s why he’s so liked. But two things probably count against this. One the continuing rumours of his homosexuality – not that there’s anything wrong with that but sponsors probably don’t like the fact that he’s married and also supposedly gay.

But also he’s clearly not that popular with the fans. In the most recent FIA / AMD survey:

Michael Schumacher 28%
Kimi Raikkonen 17%
Jenson Button 8%
Fernando Alonso 7%
David Coulthard 6%
Juan Pablo Montoya 5%
Jacques Villeneuve 4%
Mark Webber 3%
Takuma Sato 2%
Rubens Barrichello 1%
Giancarlo Fisichella 1%
Nick Heidfeld 1%
Tiago Monteiro 1%
Nico Rosberg 1%
Scott Speed 1%
Jarno Trulli 1%

And you’ll notice that he’s not there. Not even there! Gosh I’m not sure the sponsors will like that.

Actually while we’re on the subject of sponsors not being willing to spend vast amounts of cash on things that aren’t really working terribly well. Look who is last on that list: Jarno Trulli aka Ralf’s team mate. Toyota can’t be too happy about that, but then look at the teams list:

Ferrari 30%
McLaren Mercedes 21%
Renault F1 8%
WilliamsF1 8%
Honda Racing F1 6%
Red Bull Racing 4%
BMW Sauber F1 3%
Super Aguri F1 2%
Panasonic Toyota 1%

and we see that they’re not doing too much better!

I’ve never really been sure about Ralf, but in the last few years he’s sort of come into his own a bit certainly when talking to the press and so on. This is in a similar way to what’s happened to David Couthlard since he went to Red Bull. But me liking him wont help, if Ralf doesn’t get faster or more popular soon he might have to go.

So how will you be watching the Chinese grand prix?

Were you up at 5 this morning watching the live timing on the internet?

Will you be up at 6 to watch the race tomorrow?

Just how much of a fan are you?

By around this time (as I write this it’s 6:45 am) on Sunday we will be one single step closer in one of the most interesting title battles in years.

Is it really a bogey circuit for Michael?

Is the pressure getting to Alonso?

Is the pressure getting to Michael?

Will McLaren score a win before the end of the season?

Can anyone else?