Make Up Your Mind!

Over the past week, we seem to be getting a lot of confusion statements out of the McLaren camp.

First off, we got the ‘oh, my neck hurt and I nearly didn’t race’ excuse. Yes, that’s right. I used the word excuse! If you’re hurt and sick, then say it before the weekend, not after it when you have been comprehensively beaten. It just makes you look weak.

Then McLaren hammered on about being conservative, that they just had to wait for Ferrari to slip up. But, before the race, Hamilton was all ‘I’m never going to let myself get beaten again’ like he was at Hungary. This is the same guy who claims he races to win and nothing else will do. Why the sudden change in strategy?

Waiting for something else to happen is not only lazy, but dangerous. You have to make your own destiny. There is every chance that Ferrari overcome their problems and if is Lewis is in Sunday drive mode, he could lose his shot at the title.

After the whole we were taking it easy story, there was another, where Hamilton a basically said that he was pushing his ass off, and he still couldn’t catch Massa. This completely contradicts what he and McLaren said post-race. Nothing new from the boys in silver.

Ron Dennis, who he himself is stuck a will he, won’t he tug of war with himself about retirement, chimed in stating that Lewis is the best driver in F1 today. If I was trying to talk my driver as the best driver today, I would point out to his awesome drives, even those he didn’t win, to prove how great he is. Alas, Dennis went to the stats book. You don’t judge how great a driver is after two years. Let him grow, mature, see how he does over time and then say that. Oh, and Ron, the car matters. You may think it’s not, but when you have one of the best cars in Formula One, it does.

Which leads us to the final statement of the week – so far, although I don’t think the press offices do much business on a weekend. Lewis stating that he isn’t number two to anyone, including Schumacher. Sure, just when we think your ego can’t get any bigger – you go for the death star sized ego. Well done! This ties in with the point above. It takes a lot of audacity to compare yourself to a seven-time world champion, who smashed practically every record in the books.

Don’t get me wrong, Hamilton has an abundance of talent, something I have nothing but respect for. He may very well achieve the same sort of success as the German. But keep your tongue in your mouth and just drive. Maybe it’s the final run-in; he’s like an excited kid waiting for Christmas. He can’t hold in his excitement and suddenly all this ego enhancing dribble comes running out. It was the same last year, when he stuck his nose into the spy-gate affair when he really didn’t need to.

Let your driver do the talking.

Phil Hill 1927 - 2008

Phil Hill, the 1961 F1 champion, sadly passed away on Thursday.

I try to keep up with F1 history, to garner a better understanding of the sport and where it has come from. I won’t pretend to know about the intimate details of his career. I recall reading about him in an F1 encyclopaedia years ago.

Hill is the only American-born driver to win the drivers’ championship. (Andretti was Italian who later became a naturalized American.) Quite an accomplishment, given the low success rate that Americans have had when they travel over here to race in the top class.

He raced in F1 from 1958 until 1966 in the famous red of Ferrari, winning three races. His championship year was tinged in sadness, team-mate Wolfgang von Trips was killed in a crash at the Italian Grand Prix. The American went on to record three Le Mans 24 hours victories driving for Ferrari.

May he rest in peace.

Mass Fined, Reprimanded.

News has filtered through the European Grand Prix victor Massa has received a fine of 10,000 Euros and reprimanded for the pit lane incident.

Given that similar close calls have happened this year and haven’t been called up, it’s a fair assessment of the incident. It follows the going standard, a thing we have all strived for the FIA to do. Of course, I doubt this will be enough for some. Now we just wait for the backlash to begin from the fan boys.

Passion Of Racing

Emotion. A budding Rivalry. Side by Side Racing. Overtaking galore. And this isn’t Formula One. Bristol lived up it the hype and produced a fantastic five hundred miles of racing last night.
Carl Edwards notched up back-to-back victories and has closed within thirty Chase points of Kyle Busch. We were treated to a gruelling battle between two of Nascar’s best throughout the race. Between them they lead all but one lap.

It took a classic Bristol ‘bump and run’ move from Edwards to get past Busch, something the championship leader didn’t appreciate it. But this is all a part of the racing. After the race, Busch gave Edwards a few thumps. The race winner responded in kind, spinning the #18 to the delight of the crowd. There is a fantastic rivalry building between the two, exactly what we need going into the Chase.

You have the guy people love to hate in Busch - the brash, confident racer who takes no prisoners, drives for a foreign manufacture (yeh, American's care about that) and tipped Junior out of a race winning situation earlier in the season (a serious faus-paux.) In the other corner you have the poster boy Edwards. A charming, likeable guy with a smile on his face and rarely a bad word to say about anyone.

Post-race, Carl was classy as ever. He’s right, you give as good as you get and still maintains respect. What Busch did after the race was wrong, but after five hundred miles of racing, who wouldn’t get emotional. That’s what we like to see in the racers we follow – a desire to win, that second is not enough.

I know that from my sim-racing experience. Where after a full distance race at Sepang, my brother punted me around at the final corner on the penultimate lap. We shouted, argued and didn’t race for a month after that. Why? Because we care about racing, we are passionate. It’s fantastic to see that Nascar has that.

Massa Wins Under A Cloud

Felipe Massa got his championship challenge back on track with a dominant victory at Valencia. Of course, it wouldn’t be Formula One without controversy and we got that too with Massa’s final pit stop.

I can just imagine that the Ferrari hater/McLaren fan boys are already feverishly typing away at how Ferrari are getting preferential treatment, lead by James Allen’s ignorant commentary no doubt. At least Brundle took the objective view and is waiting for all the facts to become apparent.

Was it dangerous? Well it looked dodgy. But, as said in an interview with the Ferrari press officer, this isn’t the first time this year that such a close call has happened. Yet none of them were even shown up as been investigated. Of course, Allen tried to gloss that over – but then again, this is the same guy who tried to justify Hamilton failing to see a red light at Canada so, as you can see, there is only so much you can take from a commentator who is bankrupt of any credibility. (By the way, anyone watching the ITV preview show notice that they edited out Allen’s gasp of ‘NO’ that he shouted when Massa crossed the line to take pole. Funny stuff that.)

Will they take the win away? I think if he is penalised, it will be a grid penalty at Belgium. It’s been a while, at least in my recollection, since there has been a time penalty. But we will have to wait and see. If there was to be a time penalty, they had enough time in the race to enforce. Either way, nobody will be happy. Like I said, I can already hear the rants now.

Going back to the race, Massa was supreme. For the sake of the championship, we have two great drivers fighting for it. Kimi’s dwindling hopes took a hit with an engine blow, but to be fair the world champion was nowhere today. He looks ever more like a driver just waiting it out for his retirement. Unfortunately for Ferrari, which is still a year away. If he doesn’t buck up and start earning his wage, serious conversations need to happen with Ferrari.

His race pace was sluggish for the most part, except near the end of a stint. His race went from bad to worse when he dragged his fuel rig with him on the second stop, injuring his fuel man. More questions of the Ferrari computer system, according to our resident clown James Allen. Again, Martin had to play the save in saying that there was no green light on the system. What would we do without you Martin?!

Lewis Hamilton finished second, doing the best the car allowed him. Had to laugh hard at the petty excuses Allen made about McLaren going conservative even before half-way. The chap just looks for excuses – this been the same guy who only a few races ago buffed his chest and shouted aloud that McLaren had overtaken Ferrari. Hey, guess what? Yet another James Allen mess up to report! On the podium, when Hamilton took his trophy, whistles rang out amongst the crowd. Obviously Spanish fans don't forget last year. Of course, Allen tried to play it off as cheers. Seriously, anyone could tell they were negative cheers. Once more, Brundle brought some sense to the situation. I wonder if he gets paid extra for such saves?

Kubica drove a solid race to finish third, again proving his talent above the car. BMW have the focus switched and for him to outdrive Raikkonen and Kovalainen goes further to show the Pole’s raw talent. Trulli and Vettel backed up impressive qualifying performances with fifth and sixth. A one-stopping Glock picked up a couple of points with seventh and eight went to Rosberg. A good day for the second tier teams.

PC’s Driver of the Day: Felipe Massa. A close one between Massa and Vettel. I give it to Massa, given that for the second time this year, he has shown the mental capacity to come back from some pretty depressing results. The wind is in his sails and for his sake, hopefully the full support of Ferrari.

What About Carl?

So far in the 2008 Nascar season, all the talk has been about Kyle Busch. How ‘Rowdy’ has been having one of the best seasons in recent memories or how he is squashing the domination.
But what about Cousin Carl?! The Missouri native has stealthily moved his way up to the second seed for the Chase. The #99 notched up its fifth win of the year at Michigan. Four of them count towards his Chase seeding after the penalty received at Texas.

If Kyle Busch wasn’t having such an awesome season, everyone would be raving about Edwards’ season. This championship is anything but a two-horse race. Over the past number of races, Edwards has been notching up impressive result after result. Critics tip him, along with defending champion Jimmie Johnson to take the fight to Busch when the Chase begins in a few weeks.

The Race to the Chase is heating up with only a few rounds before the field is locked. Bad days for Hamlin, Gordon and Kahne saw them slip further towards the cut-off. From 8th down to 14th are covered by only 103 points. In Nascar terms, nothing. A bad day for any of the Chase contenders will see any hopes of solidifying their places dashed.

One man on the up is David Ragan. Lambasted last year to the point where many questioned Jack Roush’s wisdom in giving him a second year, the youngster has blossomed. He scored a career best 3rd place finish at Michigan. He goes into the next few events looking to gate crash the Chase party.

This coming week the Nascar circuit moves to Bristol – for one of the most highly anticipated events of the year. Under the lights in Tennessee, what more twists and turns we will see as drivers look to secure their Chase slots.

Playing Catch-Up

Apologises for the lack of updates here as of late. Even writers have vacations from time to time! So, to get back up to speed with all that has happened in the past few weeks.
• Heikki Kovalainen is confirmed at McLaren for 2009. I suppose it helps when you willingly let your team-mate by to go on to win a race is a big plus at the talks table! While Heikki has had some bad luck this year, chucking him out after a single season would be harsh; especially that he’s proved he is happy to be Hamilton’s underling.

• Heikki wins his first race! Luck played a part with Massa’s engine going up, but let’s not forget the Finn had to get himself into second in the first place. He’s had some terrible luck this year that eventually, it was going to balance out.

• Rosberg says he is staying with Williams. Not like there is much better options out there. In 2010, it will be crunch time to for Rosberg if he is to make good on his talent.

• Force India looking to retain drivers. For a team that is anything but consistent, it would be a good move. I don’t think either driver is stellar, but for a growing team, stability is good. Again, not like there is much better options out there.

• Calls for refuelling ban. I’m on the fence with this one. Differing fuel strategy is often the only way some teams can be somewhat competitive – or for a team with a poor car to play themselves back into contention. Banning them could lead to another avenue of strategy thrown out the window.

• Observers calling for Heidfeld change. Mainly Stuck, a former grand prix driver. Why the hate on Quick Nick. So he hasn’t been as stand-out as Robert Kubica. Only EIGHT points separate them in the championship. The German is taking allot of heat despite hauling himself back onto the rear wing of his young team-mate.

• Across the pond, Nascar had its first ever wet race in the Nationwide series. The race in Montreal started dry, but after a few laps the rain fell. The decision was made to put wet weather tires and wipers on for a historic moment. Despite a lack of experience, the drivers acquitted themselves well and produced a great race, until poor visibility called an end to it before full distance.

• Pundits claimed Kyle Busch was in a slump. I think any driver would love a slump that meant you only got a top-15. How did Wild Thing respond? Running away with Watkins Glen after a strategic mistake saw Junior taking out of contention. This is the second time this season that he has answered critics like this. Think some people would learn by now eh?

From here on out, updates should be back to some regularity! Stay tuned for Nascar from Michigan and F1 from Valencia next weekend!