Who do you think will win on Saturday?
A resurgent Michael has won those two and was second fastest today (only behind his team mate Massa).
While Renault have been on the back foot two races in a row, Alonso will want to do well in front of his home crowd.
And Kimi really needs to start winning some races before the season becomes a right off.
Or will Jenson… oh I can’t even be bothered to pretend about Jenson.
For ages (well since it was obvious Michael wasn’t going to win last year) I’ve been of the opinion that Michael had a master plan about last season. Once he knew he was going to loose he thought that the best thing would be to loose with grace, then come back with a vengance the next year and win, and promptly retire.
He would then be able to
a) Retire on a win (the only world champion to have ever done so – except the one who died posthumously, but that probably doesn’t count)
and
b) Hold his head up to those who might argue that he retired before he’d given the young guns enough of a chance – the sport needed to see him taken down.
Now there have been rumours that Michael is going to announce in the next few weeks his decision about next year but he’s in a bit of quandry about it. He really needs to decide on the Ferrari’s performance.
If the car is really really fast then he can announce his retirement knowing that it’s a good bet he’ll win.
If the car is really really not going to win then he can announce his retirement. In many ways if Ferrari don’t get it right this year (and can’t even come close to winning) then they won’t be able to even come close next year either.
But if it’s something in the middle then he would want to sign up for an extra year or two. To make sure he wins one more time before he retires.
The problem is that he’s not sure. It’s difficult to tell. Which is why, I think, he’s now suggesting he might not announce anything until the end of the season.
So Jaques has been given a 10 place engine penalty. Not for something on the track but for, apparently, somebody dropping his engine!
On the back of the fuel hose incident and some other issues it does seem that human error is creeping back into the sport. After a run last year of complete control from the mechanics.
With one of the most important factors of safety being fuel isn’t it really surprising that there could be an accident like the one at Imola with Button?
It seems to me that the better option would be to make it so that you can’t actually drive the car when the fuel hose is attached?
Or does that seem too logical?
To view my photos and live action video from the 26th April go here:
The brilliance of seeing the cars live is unparalleled. The TV reduces the sound, size and speed of them. It is if anything, I would say, like seeing a band live instead of hearing the record. Your ears buzz for days afterwards.
On approaching the track and hearing the noise my uninitiated friend turned and said ‘I’m really frightened’; later she was to tell me she thought the sound would ‘consume her head’ it was so loud. Once she had calmed down, and seen a few of them go past, she told me ‘I just didn’t realise they were that fast’.
Now I just have to find £100 for the Grand Prix…
As Alonso sat behind Schumacher to begin yet another lap of the 2006 San Marino Grand Prix, I believe his thoughts were probably echoing what Randy had said in last week’s episode of My Name is Earl: ‘Damn it! I can only think of things I can think of!’. Could Alonso have passed him? This was the closest he got, I believe, up the hill out of Tosa:
Their wheels almost touched. Alonso had to back off otherwise they would’ve crashed out – the track was narrowing all the time into the tight Piratella. I’m betting Alonso was sat there phenomenally frustrated, only able to recall what he had done to Schumacher the year before, only capable of thinking of things he could think of, and what he knew Schumacher had covered.
By the way, what was James Allen saying the moment this picture was taken, at one of Alonso’s best chances of making a move? Something like ‘in fourth place is Raikkonen, in fifth place Montoya, and in sixth place Massa…’
So predictions please?
Is this a classic of Alonso mind game tactics in saying that it will be hard to beat Ferrari here?
Is Ferrari talking a big game by saying that the improvements have been genuine?
Was Button’s retirement last race a sign that Honda really do think that they can win here?
Or do you think McClaren have been quietly getting the job done?
The title to this post comes from the latest edition of the Scary Movie franchise, and is in fact the only good line in an otherwise awful film. I think, however, that it neatly identifies the problem Rubens has at the moment: incompatibility. He is trying all the wrong things, in the wrong order, to get himself back up to speed. He is compromising himself too much, then aiming at the wrong targets, with the wrong weapons: trying to squash maggots by throwing wolves at them whilst riding atop a dragon. He needs to let his own legs carry him, and stamp on the maggots with his own big shiny boots…
Peter Windsor has summed all this up for us: “the sooner he goes back to right-foot-braking the better”.
Why are drivers, managers, teams etc. always described as ‘bullish’ before the next race/season? I thought this was just a joke in the F1 Manager game, but journalists really do use it, all the time (the latest: Schumacher feeling bullish). Note that the people involved never used the word, e.g. ‘I’m feeling vaguely bullish today’, it is always and interpolation added by the writer, i.e. ‘they’re feeling bullish’.
It’s an utterly horrid word, completely inappropriate to the sport (I also hate James Allen describing the cars as thoroughbred horses – they’re cars, not animals), and I vote for a veto on it.
In other news, the answer to ‘Guess the Race’: Hungary. I think it was Massa avoiding Klien.
Indy Racing League star Danica Patrick says she does not see herself crossing the Atlantic to race in Formula 1 any time soon.
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=35595&PO=35595
Danica may have been put off by the big farore that took place at the American Grand Prix last year. No not the one that caused nobody to race but the one that was overshaddowed by the fact that nobody raced. A couple of days before the American Grand Prix Bernie was quoted as saying the following to the press about Danica:
“She did a good job, didn’t she? Super. Didn’t think she’d be able to make it like that. You know, I’ve got one of these wonderful ideas that women should be all dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.”
Charming.
SofaF1 