Formula Boring!! – Round 2
Was it any better? But at least we can see that overtaking by those experts in the art like Hamilton and Schumacher is next to impossible.
Still, I’m glad that Jenson won!
Formula Boring!!
Just watched the first Grand Prix of the season. Or should I say watched it intermittently, whilst clearing up the kitchen.
The latter was more interesting!
I’m apparently not the only one.
In this piece on the BBC; Schumacher, Alonso, Button, Hamilton and others all express their doubts on the rule changes. I suppose though, that I don’t have to watch it.
There is also this paragraph in the Guardian.
Alonso produced the defining move of a dull Bahrain grand prix two-thirds of the way through, passing the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, who was struggling with exhaust trouble.
Note the word “dull”.
Alternatively, type “Bahrain Grand Prix boring” into Google and you get lots of comment.
Brazilian Farce
I watched the qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix last night. What a farce!
But then has it ever been thus in the rain?
I went to motor racing a few times before I was married, although I didn’t actually see a Grand Prix until I went to Spa last year. That incidentally was a complete waste of time and money and I’d never bother to go again, unless I was paid to do it! It’s so much better on the television.
One race from that era stands out.
We all went to Brands Hatch to see the Sports Car Race called the Guards Trophy. It used to be run in something like Appendix J, but that wasn’t the real title. Basically the cars were driven by seven litre stock-block engines and had all enclosing bodywork. The primary exponent of this formula was John Surtees, who drove a Lola. This race was notable in that it was seeing the debut of the new Felday 5 four-wheel drive car with the bigger engine. Jim Clark was driving the older Felday 4 car with the two-litre BRM engine.
It should be noted that in those days, race meetings like these attracted all of the top Formula One drivers like Clark, Hill and Surtees.
And then it rained.
Heavily, too!
Cars went everywhere and eventually the race was abandoned and restarted. Except for the immaculate Surtees, who just drove round in an impressive display of how to drive in the wet. Clark was second fastest, despite being very much down on power.
Stirling Moss
Stirling Moss has just been on Radio 5 talking about his new book, All My Races.
I was fourteen when I saw him bring off one of the most difficult wins of all time. It was in Monaco in 1961. He was on pole and managed to keep in front of the three Ferraris after taking the lead early on. They were much more powerful cars and as they harried Stirling’s Lotus for lap after lap, it would only be a matter of time before they overwhelmed him.
But that time never came. There’s a video with a few shots of the race.
I shall be buying the book.
Simple Is Efficient
I watched the qualifying for the Grand Prix at lunchtime and it put forward an interesting proposition.
Since the unfortunate accident to Felipe Massa, the second Ferrari driver has struggled. First Luca Badoer, the test driver was very disappointing. Today, Giancarlo Fisichella qualified almost last. Yet last week, he was on pole and came second for Force India at Spa.
Now the performance of Fisichella is strange, given that his replacement at Force India, Vitantonio Liuzzi qualified in seventh.
I just wonder if the Ferrari has all sorts of gizmos and gadgets that it is very difficult to learn. It’s got KERS for a start.
Whereas the team with the smaller budget can’t afford them and has taken a simpler and easier approach.
A simple and efficient design is always better in my opinion.
Formula One is Much Better on TV
Last year the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa fell on the day that would have been on our fortieth wedding anniversary. As I’d never been to a Grand Prix and usually watch as many races as possible on the TV, I decided to go.
David Croft on Radio 5 Live this morning was urging people to go and enjoy one of the best races of the year. Here’s my e-mail into the programme.
Sorry to disagree with the great David Croft, but I went to Spa last year and it was very expensive, boring and very badly organised. I hadn’t really a clue what was going on. Formula 1 is so much better on the television or the radio.
After watching the start of this year’s race, I have not changed my mind. Fancy going all that way to see Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button out before the end of the first lap.
At least at home, I can get on with other things if it gets too boring!
The Last Gunfighter
In my view and in no particular order, the greatest racing drivers are Manuel Fangio, Strirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Tazio Nuvolari, Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, Ayton Senna, Nikki Lauda, James Hunt and Michael Schumacher. Some may argue about including some in this list, but no-one can argue with the fact that on balance the really great drivers lived to tell the tale. It can also be argued that Clark and Senna suffered freak accidents. But so did Felipe Massa. Luckily he survived.
So the news that today, Michael Shumacher is to return is extraordinary. But it is to be welcomed.
It is the return of the last gunfighter.
But then I can’t complain. I’m nearly 62 and I’m still writing software after almost 44 years.
Lightning Sadly Strikes Twice
Hopefully Felipe Massa will be OK after his freak accident, whilst qualifying on Saturday, but tragically Henry Surtees was not so lucky. Both were hit with bits of other cars, that happened to be bouncing on the track.
Motor racing is dangerous, but so are other sports, like horse riding and rugby, although motor racing has just had a bad week. But what is interesting is that the authorities are probing the reasons for the accidents and that some of the ideas they incorporate eventually filter down to our daily life.
But as a statistician, I can’t help feeling that both accidents were against odds of thousands to one.
After all on Sunday in Hungary, Alonso’s Renault lost a wheel and it bounced harmlessly down the track, before coming to rest by a crash barrier. But that was totally avoidable, as the mechanics had not put the wheel on correctly.
It also has lessons for us all, in that how many of us check all the wheels before we take our car on the road?
Sometimes I do, but on my last trip to Holland, I found on return that I had a damaged tyre, which probably should have been changed before I left. A failure would have been supremely annoying, as my Jaguar does not have a proper spare wheel! And do you know how to change a wheel on your car?
So although the tragic events on the race track of last week, were very sad and my heart goes out to everyone involved, do we take those simple precautions that would make us all safer on the roads, at work and especially in the home?
I doubt it!
An Interview with Bernie Ecclestone
There is a revealing interview with Bernie Ecclestone in The Times today.
Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief, said yesterday that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and praised Adolf Hitler for his ability to “get things done”.
He might have done but if you have read Adam Tooze’s book, The Wages of Destruction, about the economic history of the Nazis like I have, you may have a different view to Mr. Ecclestone.
The comments on The Times web site on the whole are hostile.
But if there is a problem that he can do something about it is Formula One. I like it on the television and am old enough to remember the greatest Formula One drive of all when the great Stirling Moss in an underpowered Lotus, outdrove three Ferraris at Monaco.
I went to Spa last year and to say it is boring for those that pay a lot of money to see it is an understatement. Organisation and commentaries were bad and we were very much left in the dark with what happened at the end, when Lewis Hamilton won and was then disqualified.
Compare that with the sort of service you get at horse racing at a gaff track like Yarmouth.
The Anonymous Widower 