Spa 2011

As always, I was thrilled Spa was the race taking place.

+However, I was sad that Schumacher's tire decided to depart from the car and then attempt to chase Michael and the car down. That was a real bummer, especially when you saw what kind of race Schumacher ended up having. Right now that Mercedes isn't even a 5'th place car and Michael was able to get it up that high, after starting dead last. It is nice to know the old goat has still "got it". It is just such a shame that he's been having uncharacteristically bad luck this past two years.

+That was a kind gesture of Nico to give Michael 5'th place. I hope Schumacher took him out to dinner that night.

+I was also sad about Senna's dash to the first corner. I was quite happy that he was racing and getting a chance to prove himself a worthy race driver (or a rich kid of a legend) and he placed well and had a chance to really shine, so it was a bummer that he blew his wad like an overly excited teen and caused all that contact.

+When the Brown Possum crashed out and appeared all motionless I was quite worried. As much as I enjoy seeing Hamilton crash out of races due to stupid shit he does, I always like to see him get up and out of the car as well. I'm glad he was OK in the end though as I want to see him crash out of more races due to his sometimes silliness.

+I'm sick of Red Balls...

Overall though, a decent Spa race.

Nick is not so quick...

I'm sort of not a fan of Nick Heidfeld. I don't hate the guy or think he is a horrid race driver, but for years now I am always amazed that he is continually able to find drives in F1. When Kubica had his accident this winter I was kind of excited for Senna, as I wanted to see him in a decent car since I am still mildly skeptical of his ability and driving a decent enough black and gold "Lotus" Renault just like his old uncle did back in the day, seemed like a perfect opportunity for everybody. I couldn't quite understand why Renault insisted on having an experienced driver other then for car development due to the lack of in-season testing and maybe as some kind of progress marker for Petrov? On the flip side, I imagine Renault knows that their neither their car and/or their car with Heidfeld behind the wheel are good enough to win a race this year, so why not take some Brazillian money and see if Senna Jr. is any good. I strongly feel that Renault kind of wrote this season off the second they found out about Kubica so this really would have been a good year to develop potential talent such as Senna - as there is no way for him to test - Renault could have and should have done this the other way around, had Senna start the year and if he didn't perform up to their standards replace him with old Heidfeld - but doing it the other way around seems silly even to me for a variety of reasons legal and strategically.

Either way, I hope Senna is able to prove himself and I hope Heidfeld doesn't bitch, whine, or sue too much over this. The guy has been around in F1 for over 10 years and done almost 200 races. He's 34 years old and has never won a race. He should be thanking the heavens for the races he received this year as they were a gift more than anything else.

Bernie, Honda, and Senna Jr.

I just read an article on grandprix.com that claims Honda has signed Bruno Senna. I found this odd as up until now, there had been no word on whether the team had been "saved" or not, which would make it a rather curious thing to sign a driver if it is not even known if the team would make the grid for the first race.

Obviously things have been going on behind closed doors because signing a driver to a nonexistent team would be a bad thing on many levels, as I'm sure under the circumstances said driver would probably be able to sue if in fact Honda couldn't go racing, since Senna could have easily signed up for another season in GP2, even though the team he was with last season had to fill his seat... so what I am getting at is obviously things are going on at Honda that we don't know about... so I was not surprised to read further on down the article to see that supposedly none other than Bernard Ecclestone may in fact be involved with keeping the team alive. Grandprix.com went on to explain:

"This would not be a surprise as Ecclestone is keen to make sure that the teams are not unanimous within the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) and having a financial interest in one of them is a good way to ensure that this happens.

It is believed that the majority of the money to run the team will be coming from Honda itself as it is cheaper to pay to keep the team alive than it is to lay off all the staff."

Go figure?