So You Want to be an F1 Driver (SoWorld) – Round 3 – date announced

Just heard from Kaz that Round 3 will be at Rye House for outdoor karting on 28 January 2009.  He received a letter about it.  I haven’t heard anything.  I was on the reserves list, so I hope the lack of a letter is not a bad omen.

Will post more when I have more info.

Brundle and Coulthard included in BBC F1 Team

 

Two posts in one day!

 

Not many posts about F1 lately, but I wanted to share this old news I’ve just seen.  Martin Brundle will be commentating and David Coulthard will ‘a pundit’ with Eddie Jordan and the anchorman Jake Humphrey (who?).

 

I must say, I don’t like the ITV-football-style sound of an anchorman and two pundits, but I’m absolutely delighted that Martin will still be commentating and that David will be involved.  David Coulthard has so much good stuff to say, and the more former drivers involved, the better.

 

I’m so pleased we’ve got rid of the adverts; I’ve been doing my bladder exercises already.  And talking of bladders, I’m glad we won’t have to listen to James Allen’s constant stream of irrelevant analogies.

 

Shame though that we’ll lose Louise Goodman.  She got off to a shaky start but was later able to get great access and(sometimes flirty) interviews with some of my favourite drivers.  Some people won’t be happy, but I’m pleased to see Ted Kravitz joining the Beeb’s line-up.  More of a worry for me is Lee McKenzie (female) who I don’t think I’ve seen, but she comes from ITV and Sky (oh oh) and is daughter of an F1 newspaper reported (oh oh again).  Hope we’re not dumbing down.

 

I haven’t been keeping up with the news, so I wonder if they’ll bring back the music from the old BBC Grand Prix programme, The Chain by Fleetwood Mac.  Listen to it now, and if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face, make your heart race and give you goose pimples at the end, then you’re either too young, or not an F1 fan.

Race in a real F1 race, as it’s run, from your sofa

I can’t see this happening for a few years, and I think there would be a subscription model that’s fairly expensive. But there’s the potential to play an F1 racing game against real F1 drivers, live, real-time, as the race is run, as if you were really there on track. Read about it here on the BBC motorsport website.

Now that’s what I call a racing simulator!

Hamilton has the wrong attitude

This BBC report says that Hamilton thinks the 10 grid-place penalty is harsh, and the rule is ‘silly’. He’s currently my favourite driver, but his attitude is beginning to wind me up.

You don’t crash in the pit lane, period. It’s the most dangerous part of the circuit, and you need to have respect for all the people who work there. On the track you’re only likely hurt yourself or another driver; and that’s the risk you accept when you go racing. On the track, you respect yellow flags for the safety of yourself and the marshalls. The pit lane is a permanent danger zone, and rules are in place to protect people there. There is no excuse for not observing pit-lane rules.

I accept that the red light was on at the end of the pit lane to stop cars exiting the pit into the train of cars following the safety car, but it’s still a pit lane rule. If you don’t adhere to that rule, the people in the pit lane are at risk.

Hamilton’s attitude is bordering on Michael Shumacher’s attitude; I’m number one and I’ll do what I want. As F1 uncensored said on Twitter, Hamilton lacks humility. I don’t agree with much of what F1 uncendored says (grin), but I agree on this point.

Come on Lewis, you’re losing the respect of the fans (and those who work in F1 I assume). Far better to say “I made a mistake, I’m sorry, and I’ve learned from it”.

Lewis and Rosberg get grid penalties – F1 | ITV Sport

As I expected, Lewis Hamilton is penalised after running into the back of Kimi Raikkonen as Raikkonen waited at the red light at the end of the pitlane at Sunday’s Canadia Grand Prix. Rosberg, who ran into the back of Hamilton is penalised too. The penalty is 10 grid places at the next F1 Grand Prix in France (2 weeks time). I had posted on Twitter within seconds of the accident that Hamilton should be penalised (and I’m a fan of his). Here’s the full story Lewis and Rosberg get grid penalties – F1 | ITV Sport.

In the previous race, Adrian Sutil had been running fourth when a mistake by Raikkonen caused him to run into to back of Sutil and put Sutil out of the race.   It’s ironinc that Hamilton put Raikkonen out of the race with the crash in Canada while Raikkonen was waiting at the red light for the cars following the safety car to pass; a safety car deployed after Adrian Sutil crashed.

Before the race, Ted Kravitz had interview Robert Kubica saying something like “From your position on the grid, you would hope for a win”, to which Kubica replied “I don’t think so”. He won though with a fantastic drive. He made a 24 second gap in eight laps to ensure he remained 1st after his pitstop. Amazing.

If you twitter, please follow me for quick updates.  www.twitter.com/ColinBowen.

Ferrari boss makes Mosley U-turn – typical duplicity

BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula One | Ferrari boss makes Mosley U-turn

Just some news after Mosley gets through his vote of confidence. Basically, the big companies with enough clout were honest enough to call for his resignation. The myriad small companies and organisations that would suffer if Mosley became upset with them, they all voted for him to stay. Since the minows have more clout than the big boys, Mosley wins.

So You Want to be an F1 Driver – Round 2

Just a very quick post to say that I competed on Round two last Thursday.  I’m not out of the competition, but I’m not in either; I’m on the ‘maybe’ list.  Depending on how many people went through on the day, and whether SoWorld organiser Tim Matthews takes pity on me, maybe I’ll go though.  As soon as I hear, I’ll let you know.  The good news is that my friend Kaz has gone through to Round 3.  I hope to see him there.
 
I had intended to go into more detail in a post on Thursday evening, but staying on to do the assault course a second time and a (soft) drink with Kaz after the event made it a late return to the Travelodge for me and I didn’t get a chance.  A long drive home followed by sickness (not me), tiredness (me), and mayhem at home the following day put me behind for the weekend.  If I get a chance to post more about the event at the weekend, I will.