The Blog of G

Yes indeed kiddies, the 2010 F1 season is going to be officially kicking off in just a few short hours with the first practice session of the first race. Yeah there has been testing before now but you can’t trust the lap times in testing because we don’t know if we’re seeing a lap on full fuel tanks or low-fuel etc.

With the return of no refuelling for this season, it makes trying to judge the form for the upcoming season a wildly pointless affair, at least that’s my thoughts on it anyway. Although we can see that the big names (Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Redbull and possibly Lada sorry meant to type Renault) are looking like they will remain at the pointy end of things.

This year has got to be the most eagerly anticipated season in F1 for a long time. Why? well there are so many reasons, there have been rule changes, driver changes, new teams, new circuits and more announced and in F1 the more new things you throw into the mix the more the anticipation builds.

Will the rule changes mean that one team gets a relative jump in performance like Brawn GP did last year? will any of the new “rookie” drivers surprise and excite people the way Hamilton’s arrival did? Will the new teams be the “mobile chicanes” or “embarrassment” that some have suggested? Will the new circuits bring new excitement to the circus?

At this point, every question brings to mind another and another and another, you get the idea. There is another reason to be excited about this season as well and it’s a doozy, something that hasn’t happened in F1 in so long that I’m not sure it’s happened since I started following the sport in 1978. There are 4 (former) F1 World Champions starting the season and they’re all in cars that I’m expecting to be highly competitive and 2 of them are in the same team! I’m starting to sound like an informercial

Monza, Parabolica, Tyre wall

But wait there’s more! (yes, i went there) As if all that wasn’t enough, there’s another big story, in fact a huge story and one that is sure to dominate a lot of F1 columns this season (it certainly has taken a lot of them in the season build up) The return of the one, the only, the legendary, Micheal Schumacher.

Without question the most successful F1 driver of all time, is he going to add to the legend or destroy it, at his age (41) and with his name already on almost every page of the f1 record book I don’t think he can destroy the legend. But what is there left for him to achieve? well for one thing he’s only 9 victories away from having 100 F1 race wins to his name and that might be enough to grab him another world title.

All these questions will start to be answered on Sunday, when the lights go out and the engines roar. I can’t wait, really I can’t, I may not sleep again until the first race is over. There is one final question that only I can answer?

Who will I be supporting this year?

Well, I’ve been called a Ferrari Fan but that’s only because some of my favourite drivers have driven for them (Giles Villeneuve, Stefan Johansen, Michael Schumacher & Felipe Massa) But I was a Schumacher fan before he was a Ferrari driver and the same goes for Felipe. Am I an Alonso Fan? well no, some of my previous posts about him should make that clear.

So I have 2 drivers to choose between from that statement alone, but I’m also a fan of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, so that could make me a Red Bull fan, but then there’s, also an up and coming driver who I think has been underrated, Nico Rosberg and finally a driver whose name alone brings memories flooding back like Jacques Villenueve‘s arrival did.

That’s Bruno Senna, he like Jacques has a legendary shadow hanging over him, Uncle Ayrton, I don’t think he has a car to compete with the big boys this year but then Uncle Ayrton won in a Lotus that people didn’t rate terribly highly either.

Oh the choices, I guess I’ll just have to support them all as much as I can, I’d love to see anyone of them lift the crown at the end of the year, but there can be only one WDC 2010 and I guess when I look deep, deep down into my soul, I want to see Schumacher lift the crown again, I want to see the “old guy” (at least in F1 terms) not just beat the “young pretenders” but do it by a humiliating margin.

Why?

Oh come on do you really need me to answer that?

Schuey wins Nurburg 2006

Oh alright then, It would be the greatest comeback of all time, it would be the ultimate “never give up” story, jaysus it’d be like Rocky come to life!

And finally, here’s a thought to keep you distracted from all the other F1 goodness until sunday. I remember way back in Schuey’s early days an interview where he was asked what his ultimate goal in F1 was, his answer? to win 10 World championships, he has 7 and he’s signed to Mercedes for 3 seasons and I think he’ll need luck on his side but, I don’t see any other driver on the grid this weekend that has a chance of ever winning 10. Go Michael!

First thing’s first, what a thrilling GP weekend, Qualy was like the haydays of the one hour session and Prost and Senna taking it all the way to the last thousandth of a second. The race didn’t have a dull moment, wheel banging, overtaking, mechanical and electrical failures, a crash or 2, a Fire on the pitlane, a blowout on the main straight, I think any doubt about the excitement levels in formula 1 have been well and truly done away with.

So, is it to early to speculate? Lewis Hamilton could be the 2007 world champion, personally I’m a Massa fan these days but I’ll talk about that another time, Lets just take a look at what Lewis has accomplished in only 4 races in Formula 1.

1. He has finished every race, always good for a rookie to be able to do that.
2. He has passed cars on the first lap of every race.
3. He has finished on the podium at every race so far.
4. He seems to be consistently faster than his team mate.
5. He seems to be consistently faster than the current World Champion.
6. He’s the youngest driver ever to lead the world drivers championship.
7. He’s never lost in Monaco (and that’s where the next race is)

And  I think he’s also the most successful formula 1 rookie of all time with 4 podiums in his first season and there’s only been 4 races!

The Lewis Hamilton story is an incredible one and it is sure to draw more and more attention to Formula 1 as time goes on, even if he starts making “the rookie” mistakes that everyone is still half expecting. What he has achieved so far is astounding, Lets not forget the current World Champ is the man who beat the most successful driver in history to 2 world championships and Lewis has made him look just a little silly recently

So I’m asking the question does anyone think we could have a rookie world champion at the end of the 2007 season?

Before the F1 new season gets underway it’s worth mentioning that there has been a few last minute changes to the rules, thankfully Grandprix.com has it covered, I think the new tyre rule might backfire (why save the softer tyre?) but we’ll all know after Saturday night/sunday morning’s race.

Over on ITV-F1 they’re talking about Kimi being outpaced by Massa in testing, that could get interesting.

Meanwhile it was announced recently that David Richards and some buddies have bought Aston Martin. Why anyone would want to sell that brand I don’t know but I’m very curious to see what will happen there.

Other things that have caught my eye recently were the report that Melbourne was considering a night race. That would certainly make things interesting for the stewards! And that Bernie seems to think that the points system needs a bit of a change, I’m inclined to agree with his thinking, but I’d love to here what other’s have to say.

It’s been a while since I had an F1 post, but then the off season is never terribly interesting there is always some rumour or other, not a huge amount of news and the odd award. So here’s a quick round up.

First off the pre-season rumours of Silverstone’s demise from the calendar are back, (did they ever go away?) this time in some sort of weird Grand Prix swap with the French??? and shure lets fire in the threat of Donnington for good measure

David Richards is a busy man, what with running prodrive, Aston Martin’s racing program, getting his Formula 1 team on it’s feet and now, apparently, he’s trying to buy Aston Martin? hmmm here’s a thought Aston Martin F1 Vantage 2008.

Over in Ferrari land, well they are not missing Michael or both there drivers would like us to believe. It’s only fair to wonder is the ould fella is maybe over staying his welcome but then who could blame him, it’s Ferrari for gods sake Still it must be nice to know the books are all good, they look good in testing and Massa is picking up the Bandini Trophy in recognition of his impressive performances for Ferrari last season. Well deserved if you ask me. It’s not all perfect though, their recent TV commercial shoot went a bit pear shaped in Australia, hopefully though it’ll be the only bad luck for Ferrari down under in 2007.

Roll on March 18th

Last weekend, I woke early on Sunday morning a bit like a Kid on Christmas day, excited full of anticipation for what the day would bring. As we know at this point It wasn’t the best day for Ferrari in Suzuka. Michael’s championship hopes all but gone, he even said him self he didn’t want to win it like that, meaning Alonso not finishing in the last race. The constructors championship doesn’t look good for them either 9 point’s adrift but as we head into the last race of the season, the last race of an era even, I’m looking forward to what I hope will be a memorable climax of a phenomenal championship and career.

Anyway back to Suzuka, The pre-race coverage on ITV contained something very rare. They managed to grab an interview on race day, no less, with one of the most formidable men in F1, the evil genius behind the Ferrari conspiracy, Mr. Jean Todt. You can read it here.

I thought this was particularly interesting in reference to Felippe Masa. I can’t remember the last time I heard any team principle be so up front about there “second driver” and my hat goes off to him for not only standing up for his driver but also the way he slapped down the implied Ferrari conspiracy that Ted Kravitz was looking for confirmation on.

Congratulations Jean, I hope Felippe always has this much support from you