Catching Up

So back to Formula One related bits! Been a bit quiet on reporting on that front. A mix of reading aplenty on a number of topics and been a little bit worse for wear!

The FIA did in fact release the full documents regarding the Spy-gate hearings. Been meaning to get around to reading them all. It's on the 'to-do' list! Hopefully I'll get the time and plenty of Headex tablets to go through it all with a fine tooth comb to see how it really went down.
I'm not going to touch on the decisions made and the penalties handed down. They have been done to death. Everyone has their view on it and at this stage, has probably let it be known!

McLaren got penalised. They accepted it. Too harsh? Too lenient? Just right? Well everyone has their view. Mosley hasn't been too shy in lashing out at those casting them, quite rightly, at those who haven't view the situation as a whole. That's why I've been careful to put my view down. His comments on Jackie Stewart, well, it will be interesting to see how they play out. Calling him a 'half wit' and taking a pop at his dress ethic. Interesting attack from Mosley. We haven't heard the last between these two!

From it we did learn more about the degradation of the Alonso-Dennis relationship. How bad things have gotten between the pair is truly shocking. Actually I'm surprised Dennis hasn't sacked him yet. He has a record of been a no bull sort of guy. Case in point, look at Montoya. Fernando must have one hefty severance payout if he was to be ditched. If you are not even on talking terms with your boss, well, you're as good as done.

McLaren promise that each driver will be treated equally throughout the title run-in. Though if Alonso's car just happens to fall to pieces in the final three I think you will hear shouts of a conspiracy.
Expect the bitter divorce over the next few months.

Where he goes is the key to the driver market. Most of the talk says Renault but this week has seen rumours of a move to Ferrari. The move logically makes sense. Alonso wants to win races and championships. Ferrari is the only team apart from McLaren that can offer that for sure in 2008. What I don't get is how he thinks he will get a better deal. Alonso's issue at McLaren stems from not getting the coveted 'number one' status at the team. Can he expect that at Ferrari? Somehow I don't think Kimi Raikkonen is going to let him have it. He would come in on equal footing which could lead to same issues again.

So all roads appear to lead to Renault. A homecoming for Alonso. While they have struggled in 2008 a return for Alonso would not be all that bad. The team has the foundations that won two world titles and by now will know how to work out most of the kinks that have lead to a struggle this year. But can they provide him with a title contender. That is a question that remains unanswered and will weigh on Alonso's mind.

Speaking of Renault, Fisichella's attempt to force the teams hand to announce their driver line-up failed. The Italian talked big for a number of weeks before Monza that he expected an announcement of his re-signing by then. Italy has come and gone. Now Renault has said that they won't announce anything until Alonso finds his home. Nothing less than what I expected. Fisichella knows he is on borrowed time. Over the past months he has been blown away, regardless of his excuses, by Kovalainen. Heikki is almost a dead cert at this stage for one of the seats. Fisichella's failing form will put him danger of losing his seat regardless of where Alonso ends up.

In an unrelated F1 news topic, congrats to Casey Stoner for winning the MotoGP title. The Aussie takes the title in only his second season and secured the first championship for Ducati and Bridgestone. Stoner has been fantastic, if sometimes mouthy during the season. Not quite as bad as Rossi who spent altogether too much time whinging that he couldn't get the 'custom-made for the conditions' tires from Michelin on the Saturday morning after Friday practice. Yes, that's not fair at all is it Michelin riders. It's a shame that, like past seasons in Formula One there is more talk about tires than there is about the performance of those involved.

All The Eights

Yesterday came the much anticipated announcement of what number and sponsors would grace Dale Earnhardt’s car for 2008. Anything to do with DJR’s move to Hendricks’s has followed a tidal wave of media attention and yesterday was no different.

He failed to agree a deal to bring his coveted number ‘8’ from DEI. The old adage of never work with family, or at least step-family rings through over that whole issue! That the moving on his long time sponsors Bud meant that it was all change on the outside and allot of getting used to for the Junior Nation. As many have pointed out, tattoo parlours will be busy in the close-season.

Numbers were thrown around with the only guarantee that an ‘8’ would be in it. We learned yesterday that he will adorn the ‘88’, which had been acquired from current owners Robert Yates Racing. The next best choice of number. Along with the new number it was announced that Mountain Dew and its energy brand Amp, along with the National Guard will sponsor the new 88. Both schemes were presented to the media yesterday.

This just gives you an idea of the impact that Junior has over there. To draw comparisons, think Beckham. The press conference was televised as well as shown on the NASCAR website. Within half an hour of the announcement the website already had as section set up to buy the new 88 merchandise. Before the night was out the first pictures of the gear were up. Talk about quick work. Reminds me so much of the Beckham move. Who would seriously think we would see LA Galaxy jerseys over here for sale, let alone people buying them. (Still haven’t figured that one out). Given the style of the font, I wonder whether HMS will have a new one for next season. The 88 font is very similiar to that found on the 18 Joe Gibbs cars. Usually amongst the big teams they tend to carry the same font through. This one is completely different to that carried by the current four HMS cars. However it could be a simple case of Junior having his own style.

Never has a move in motorsport generated this sort of hype and attention. Now that all the pieces are settling into place there is little left for Junior to do than wait for 2008 and let his skills in the stock car take centre stage.

Back To Business

After all the ruckus mid-week it was back to one of the world’s greatest track to race! Ahh Spa, such an awesome circuit. Even the on-board stuff looks amazing. Allegedly this was a ‘boring’ race according to ITV-Sport. Granted it wasn’t a classic, but ironic that a Hamilton win isn’t classed as boring eh?

The first half of the lap was worth the watch. Alonso showed no mercy to his team-mate. It was surprising to hear Hamilton whinge about it and claiming that Alonso tried to take him off track. This is all coming from the guy who has ruthlessly cut across people on a start line. He needs to learn that you have to give as good as you get. It was tough by Alonso, but what do you expect at this stage in the championship? To lie over and say ‘there you go have the position’. Alonso had the racing line, stayed on the racing line through the first corner. Side by side towards Eau Rouge. That was balls from both of them. If it’s anything to go by then the clashes between the pair of them when they are on the track are going to be well worth the watch from here on out. Neither is going to give each other any quarter.

Raikkonen just... jusssst stays in the hunt. It isn’t easy for him and realistically has to haul in five plus points on both McLaren’s over the final three. Given McLaren’s awesome reliability it’s not going to be easy in the slightest from him. But like I said before, the way the pair are looking it’s possible they could run each other off the road before the end of the season!

Honourably mention of the weekend goes to Adrian Sutil who showed the race craft that many knew he had with the revised Spyker, albeit on a different strategy, mixing it in the midfield. Things are looking up! Also to Clint Bowyer in NASCAR, with the Texan getting his first career victory at a great time as the Nextel Cup enters the 10 race Chase for the title. Good time to break the winless duck! Eyebrow of the weekend has to go to Alex ‘The Hoff’ Hoffmann in MotoGP, who decided midway through the race he didn’t have the motivation to fight for 15^th place. He’s out of a job today.

McRae Dies in Helicopter Crash

It's a sad day in the motorsport and rally world with the death of Colin McRae. The former WRC champion died when his helicopter crashed near his estate.

McRae is the most successful British rally driver having won the title with Subaru before later driving for Ford and Citroen. While he's been out of full-time WRC ride for a number of years he did return for a one-off drive replacing the injured Leob last season and competed in the Paris-Dakar rally. McRae is also well-known for his input into the successful series of computer rally games that bore his name.

He will be missed. Thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Spy-gate

The long drawn out Spy-gate issue came to a head yesterday, with McLaren been found guilty, stripped off all their constructor points for 2007 and fined a whopping $100 million. Dayum.

I’m going to look at this at a different angle and not going to go into the ‘Who’s right, who’s wrong’ talk. Why? Because every F1 forum in the world is doing that right now and unfortunately, most are just arguing for their team and not willing to listen to reason. How can we, the public seriously make a judgement on this when we don’t know the facts? As a journalist I was thought to gather all the facts before forming an opinion on something. We can’t do that because everything was decided behind closed doors and left us simply with a breach of a certain rule line that is as transparent as a double glazed window.

Of course it hasn’t stopped the public, the fans, and the media from taking sides. Everyone is getting involved in it, even the legends. But why people are forming opinions without all the facts is a bit ignorant eh? It’s such a shame that we will never know all the facts. It would help to vindicate any arguments in the public eye. Perhaps this will happen given the size of the public uproar.

This brings me to the punishment. Is it harsh? Well if they did do something wrong – the point’s deduction is merited. The fine? $100 million! When you add in driver wages, loss of prize money and the like that number will nearly double. I would expect this to be cut down under appeal if they do ala Turkey’s fine last year. 100 mill does seem extremely harsh though. It does bring into question why the drivers got away scant free however. If McLaren are guilty of using the documents, then surely its drivers benefited from it all? Maybe the extraordinary money fine was given in place of leaving the drivers alone.

I would question Hamilton’s decision to be there. Up until last week the drivers had more or less kept a low profile on the whole issue. Which was correct. They stayed away from the politics – up until Hamilton opened his mouth last weekend at Monza. Allot of people were making a ruckus yesterday at Alonso’s no show in Paris, preferring to stay and prepare for the race. What was the problem with this? His job is to race the car. Not play politics. Hamilton’s appearance yesterday was unnecessary in my view. Maybe his reasoning for his appearance was a set of mind games on his part, to show his undying allegiance to McLaren given further impression of Alonso’s distance from them. Judging by some of the articles and the media reaction, it worked well.

So into the season run-in. Whatever happens it’s a tainted season. No doubt people will be bitching left, right and centre from here on in. The lines have been drawn and amongst the fans, there is a deep level of hatred towards those they feel got the shaft.

What A Race!

Nope, ain’t talking about the Italian Grand Prix. Not really going to mention it much. It was an alright race with nothing too amazing, apart from the end of Massa’s title run, Kimi trying to put the cat amongst the pigeons with a one stop and good move by Hamilton (though in fairness, if Kimi had turned in then Hamilton would’ve been in the wrong from coming back from so far.)

No, what I’m going to talk about is the IRL season finale at Chicagoland. What a race. Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon have three points between goings into the race. It’s a close race with a pack of six cars up front until yellows come into play leaving the two title chasers on their own. The last thirty, forty laps were amazing with the cars dicing amongst those who were not on the same strategy.

It all comes down the last three laps with Franchitti trying to find a way by. Dixon looked to have it. Last lap halfway around Dixon runs out of fuel. Franchitti is champion. What a way to end it. It was a great race to watch. Any one of about six to ten cars at one stage had a chance of winning. Fantastic battling. F1 could learn, at the very least from the way the broadcasting is done. If there is action across the track the US coverage has split screens. Why don’t we have them in F1? It would make watching close dices without having to complain about not seeing the action. The same has to go with pit radios. Right now we get the diluted radio streams about a lap or two after they were said. In the final part of the race we had live radio streams from the spotters. All of it made this race all the more enjoyable.

For sure I’ll be giving the IRL coverage allot more notice come next season.

Goin' Truckin'

Little more than a year after he was ejected from Formula One, Jacque Villeneuve appears to have found his new home – NASCAR. There he will join a familiar face with Juan Montoya.

Those that have seen him test the Craftsman Truck claim that he has done impressive as he begins his steep learning curve with the hope of been on the Sprint Cup circuit next year for Bill Davis Racing. His capture for some will say that NASCAR is now able to attract big name drivers. The likes of Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Junior have also been linked with moves to stock cars from the Indy Racing League. But those with the sharper eye will see that NASCAR is only receiving these drivers who are, let’s be fair, and are in the twilight of their career. An article that really hit me on this was by David Caraviello, one of the man good journalists on NASCAR.com (ITV Sport should take note on how these writers are able to stay unbiast). ‘They’ll come to NASCAR, but only as a final option’ is a great read on the topic if you get the time.

JV’s move conjures memories of his time in F1. Many claim him to be a great success, a driver with real balls. Sure he had his moments but I don’t agree with the assessment that many treat with him. When he entered F1 in 1996 he arrived in the best car. There were no challengers outside of his team-mate Damon Hill and the pair duly fought it out for the title. In 1997 again Villeneuve had the car advantage and like any good driver, took it and secured his world title.

But what about after that? When he found himself in a sub-standard Williams he was banished from the top step of the podium. A foolhardy move to BAR saw him wallow in midfield for the rest of days, the spark many claimed he brought seemingly extinguished. His career achievements were all but complete after 1997. His final race win was at the Nurburgring in 1997, his final podium in 2001 before been first ousted in 2003 before a brief fling return from late-2004 till mid-2006.

For a driver much heralded his lasting mark on the sport is similar to NASCAR refugee Juan Montoya - in fits and spurts where his ability to make a few overtaking moves overshadowed a career wrought with failing to live up to his full potential. How he will fair in NASCAR will be interesting to watch, especially how the sport takes to him.

The Next US Import

Come next season we will see a new face on the grid in the guise of Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais. For those of you not familiar with Bourdais a small refresher course. A former F3000 (now GP2) champion, he failed to find a contract in Formula One despite testing for Renault. Like Montoya before him, he made the jump to Champ Car where he has been extremely successful. Three titles already with a fourth on its way he has been the class of the field in recent years over in the States.

Bourdais will be an interesting one to watch. He's a long time out of the hot seat in terms of European competition. That been said, he's doing alright at the tests he ran with for Toro Rosso.

People will point to history been against him. Zanardi flopped. Da Matta wasn't much better and Montoya, despite winning races never delivered to the full expectation. Villeneuve was the last successful US racing export in recent times.

An advantage for Bourdais is that these days, Champ Car is all about road courses. None of that oval stuff that the others had a mix of in their experience.

Of course a point in his favour people will point out 'Hey, he's been the most successful Champ Car driver of recent times so he should do well.' We must remember that compared to the past, it's a substandard competition, so he shows up more. In recent years there has been a migration of the top drivers and teams to IRL leaving nothing more than a carcass of a series that was once top-notch. US racers make up the minority in the league and drivers with pre-dominantly European pedigree fill the ranks.

Will he, won't he. I think he has more of a chance than those who have tried recently. If Toro Rosso give him a decent platform to work with then he could buck the trend.