The only thing I didn't mind about Vettel getting back to his winning ways, was that it was nice to hear The Michael Schumacher Song again (German/Italian national anthems) which I have sort of missed. They go together really well. For a long time I thought it was just because I was so used to Schumi winning all the time back in the early 2000's, but we've seen Seb and Lewis win quite a bit over the past few years and their mash ups don't sound nearly as good at The Michael Schumacher Song.

Speaking of good old Michael, I bet the reason Seb didn't do his little jump ON the podium was that such a move is probably trademarked by the 7 time champion.

I hope Fernando Alonso feels like a real jackass right about now. It would be one thing is Vettel was winning again in a Red Bull, but it is another thing that he is literally doing it in Fern's old ride. Alonso might not have been winning titles in that Ferrari, but he was always pretty competitive bar last year (but who was, other than Mercedes?) and should have had a bit more patience and just stayed put. It wasn't like he was under appreciated and inadequately compensated. I mean, maybe he'll win a title in the McLaren, but I doubt he'll stick around long enough for that engine to become competitive. That just seems to be the kind of guy he is. Always jumping around, landing in the wrong place at the wrong time in stop-gap cars.

As much as I appreciate Alonso and am sick of Vettel, I do respect Seb and am sorta kinda looking forward to seeing what Fernando can or can not do with this pig called a McLaren-Honda.

(AFP Photo/MANAN VATSYAYANA)

Come on, Lewis!

Lewis Hamilton needs to fucking get over the last race and Schumi not just rolling over like an old dog and letting him through, like entitled Lewis thinks should be the case.

He keeps talking about how in Malaysia he was not defending, but trying to break a tow and that is why he was wiggling and such.

All I can say is that if Schumacher had pulled the same shit on say... Jenson Button, Schumi would have been given some sort of reprimand but I'm pretty sure the stewards left him alone due to the fact it was funny that The Brown Possum get a taste of his own medicine.

He did not like it.

Monster Monza

Today's race was pleasant, and as always at Monza, seemed to go by way too quick! I quite enjoyed the penalty handed out to Liuzzi. That *must* have been some form of steward humor!

+While I will admit that Schumacher did a bit of artful blocking today, I found it amusing that The Brown Possum whined about it, considering it is not a foreign defense maneuver of his. I was glad though that Schumacher was warned to lay off and was not punished, as that would have been lame. Whilst McLaren mentioned that he was twice warned by the stewards via Brawn, what I would be curious to know is before Hamilton was ever penalized or warned publicly, had such "warnings" come to him the same way they had to Michael today?

+Not to take away from Vettel's brilliant race craft, but I can't wait for this year to be over and the blown diffusers to be banished and hopefully if Red Bull finds another way to obscurely bend the rules next year, instead of letting it go such as they did with these difusers, the FIA will tell them to eat a dick and all will be well. That car is too fucking fast. Red Bull came up with and developed it before everybody else. Once everybody else realized it was the way to go, they started dumping money and resources in to it. That's the only reason the FIA didn't flat out shitcan it like it intended to was it probably would have really slowed the Red Balls down a lot + the other teams had already wasted all that money because apparently it was not illegal. I'm not salty at Red Bull for exploiting this, I'm mad at the FIA for telling them not do continue to do so earlier than they did.

Hungary For More Action!

+The Hungarian GP can even some how manage to be a tad bit boring in the wet! Now don't get me wrong, today's race was quite decent but there was a very solid lull there in the middle of the race for awhile. I actually nodded off for a few laps, luckily I missed nothing.

+How interesting it is that in only the second track that Button has twice conquered, the conditions were amazingly similar to those in which he clinched his maiden GP win back in 2006. I guess that is pretty cool considering it was also his 200'th race. I was really surprised when SpeedTV was doing a little career retrospective on Button and they said it was in 2003 that JB had that heavy shunt in practice at Monaco... That kinda made me feel old as I think that was the first season I watched religiously from start to finish, every practice, quali & race. I remember when Sergio Perez had his bizarrely similar crash to Button's this year at Monaco and they showed them both - I recalled being wowed JB's was from '03. I must have put it out of my mind though, considering I was once again wowed today by how long ago that was!

+While I'm glad Jenson won, I once again felt The Brown Possum's strife and felt he ran a solid race considering the adversity he faced making 6 stops or something outrageous, along with that spin and all.

+I swear I heard today was only the 2'nd time that the Hungarian GP was wet and/or damp, which makes it even more odd that these "rare" conditions had the same winner. I also think I heard that with something like 186 million pit stops, that this race officially had the most pit stops ever, taking the crown from another race that happened this year. What I would like to know, is what race previously held the record prior to the Pirelli era?

+Lastly - Two things I found humorous today was when Heidfeld's car burst in to flames, the manner in which he exited. Looks like the wet car almost caused him to slip. I am glad he and his beard did not eat shit and fall. That would have been really embarrassing. The other amusing thing I noted was when Massa kissed the wall with his rear wing there was a dude with a camera like right there but he was walking AWAY with his back turned to the happening, which was really odd cos it seemed like it was going on VERY close to him. Maybe he had ear plugs in... but I couldn't help but wondering why he didn't hear a small Formula 1 car sliding towards him and the tire barrier at a mildly decent speed.

Kamui Power!

+I was happied to read earlier today that Sauber resigned Kobayashi. Sauber is a good place for him and I can't wait until he is signed with a real contender. It seems like it will only be a matter of time, cos the guy is awesome! He was pullin' off ridiculously fine passes in his first races before they made magical wings. It will be a glorious day when he makes his way into a Renault or better!

+I've always been a fan of Jarno Trulli but I think it is time for him to move on to DTM or NASCAR and call a day on his F1 career. He's been whining too much and that is probably why Team Lotus let Chandhok drive, which is fine by me. While I really have no idea of the guy's ability considering he's always driven turds on wheels, I do think Karun is a nice guy with a few bucks, so why not give him a chance till someone better or richer comes along. It is not like Jarno is paying Team Lotus or bringing any fine results and he's driven close to 250 races...

Bad Home GP Luck & Random Thoughts

+I find it curious how some of the "Big Boys" in F1 often have bad luck at home GP's when they qualify good. Today for instance, was not Vettel's day amazingly, which is fine with me since he already has such a massive lead and all, though I *almost* felt bad for him. I would have rather had Fern or Webber win as opposed to The Brown Possum, but it was nice to see Hamilton's genuine appreciation for his race win.

+At the British GP I truly felt bad for Button. What a horrible and terribly uncharacteristic problem that befell him! Then again, I kinda felt bad for JB today too, but that is mainly because I have had a newfound respect for him since he won his championship a few years back after riding him so hard for years as being a waster. I imagine if he wasn't Lewis' team mate I wouldn't be wanting The Brown Possum to fail as much as I do at times. I think my beef with Hamilton is that he's a bit too cheeky and some times comes off as entitled on track for my liking as we already know that he is a brilliant driver and I think he's a stand up guy off track, so as a whole I appreciate LH but rarely find myself rooting for him during races.

+While I am a fan of Vettel, I hope the SpeedTV guys are right and that maybe Red Bull's performance drops off a bit like what happened to Button in his championship year. I've already accepted that Vettel & Red Bull are probably going to win the championship again this year, but I sure wouldn't mind seeing some more wins by Ferrari and McLaren and my unlikely dream win of the year would be to have Schumacher bring home Mercedes first win in a wet race in Brazil after starting 12'th or something. It would also be nice to see Massa win again as even though Ferrari say he's racing for them next year, I suspect it'll probably be his last with the Scuderia.

There better be a triumphant return...

I was very pleased to read that my new main man, Kamui Kobayashi, found a decent ride and has signed for the recently revived Sauber sans BMW team. I look forward to his fun style of racing and possibly pissing off smooth kings of driving like World Champ J. Button.

Other than that I am as "over the moon" as little old Bernie Ecclestone is with all the stories I continue to read about Michael Schumacher's supposed return to F1 with Mercedes GP. When you are reading stories with Luca di Montezemolo talking about how in his eyes it is Schumacher's "twin" that will be racing for the Silver Arrows next season you can only assume gears are turning and Schumi really is on the verge of coming back.

I just love it!

If Schumacher does in fact return to the grid I wonder if Jenson Button will be kicking himself in the ass for not staying with Brawn... if it was a challenge he was really after.

While very few will debate that Lewis Hamilton is a great driver who will win more championships in the future, even fewer will debate that Michael Schumacher is a force of racing nature.

If Button wanted a same-machine challenge going head to head with Schumacher would have been the wisest choice on his part considering he apparently wants to be chewed up and spat out by his team mate. While I am rather confident Lewis will not have much of a problem doing this to JB, Schumacher would humiliate Button in a way that Max Mosley has to pay to receive.

I understand the main reason Schumacher is being poached is because Mercedes GP want to start their re-introduction to F1 with a beastly German super-team, on top of having the means and will to procure such a talent. If this were still Brawn GP there would be far less of a chance they'd be knocking on Schumi's door, even after letting their champion go to McLaren and their old reliable saunter on over to the Williams pasture to graze. Maybe they would? Maybe Schumacher would still have come back had the team been Brawn and not Mercedes? I don't know.

All I do know is I am excited to see Schumacher either live up to his fans expectations of a come back or fail miserably. I also know if after achieving world champion status if the next step in Button's personal career path was to try to go head to head in the same car with someone he deemed to be a worthy adversary that Michael Schumacher is the man to try to prove something against.

We've got interest now!

According to Bloomberg, Daimler and Aabar are paying around $184.2m for 75.1% of Brawn GP making the saviors of Honda's F1 team an immense chunk of coin. You do the math. How amazing it was that a sub-par team called Honda decided to quit F1 after spending a great amount of time and money developing what would end up being the strongest car for pretty much the first half of the season.

Instead of putting all those people who worked so hard for the team out on their asses they sold the team to Ross Brawn and company for a British pound sterling and THEN financed that season for them with the understanding that "You get one free year and then it is up to you to make this work and if you don't then it is your conscience that has to deal with making all these people jobless"

This ultimately led to the newly named/birthed Brawn GP who went on to sew up the constructors championship AND the drivers race as well in only their first year, something that had never happened before and to top it all off it was the team's only year... and on somebody else's dime!!!

If that wasn't a good enough of a story now they've gone and flipped the frotting team for $184.2 million dollars because Mercedes wanted to have more say in how an F1 team was run as well as not having much interest in financing a team that will soon be producing supercars that will challenge their own works?

I do recall an earlier entry at the end of March where I proclaimed "Ross Brawn may be Jesus Christ" and I'm beginning to think I was right. Making crappy bloated teams into dual, lean championship winners and then selling the team for a tidy pile of money... a lot like turning water in to wine if you think about it, but with a capitalistic lean.

The Nervous Ferret Rides Again!

I'm not sure how I feel about Jean Todt becoming the new president of the FIA. While I expected him to win, I am surprised at how badly he kicked Ari Vatanen's ass.

If Button does leave Brawn over money issues and joins McLaren or something I'll be kind of offended and surprised. He says racing is not about money but at the same time apparently feels he is not paid well enough. He should join Toyota. I'm sure they'll pony up 20 or 30 million to him and he can not win and be more rich. It would be nice if Toyota one day built a F1 car that was good and had a driver capable of taking it to victory.

Picking on McLaren again...

So both McLaren's have been each been sent back 5 spots on the starting grid due to purportedly holding up BMW's Nick Heidfeld. I watched qualifying and saw the supposed incident. The live shot I saw of Heidfeld slipping between the two McLaren's made me wonder if a fuss could be raised and upon replays of the incident it looked to me as though in fact the McLaren's had not impeded Heidfeld, I mean it wasn't like he had to lift or anything. Later on Heidfeld said it may have cost him a few tenths of a second which is serious enough time in F1 and if the case is true Heidfeld could have finished higher on the grid saying P2's time was 1:36.230 and Heidfeld's P7 time was 1:36.753 meaning not much time was between grid positions 2 thru 7, so in theory the 5 spot penalty both McLaren's have suffered can't be seen as a harsh punishment in respect to the supposed crime, though I sort of feel it is unjust.

Trading Places

So McLaren signed the giant headed wonder Heikki Kovalainen to partner Lew Hamilton next year. I am glad about this since I feel that Kovalainen is a solid race driver and it would have been criminal if he did not have a seat in F1 next year. We all know Hamilton is going to do better and the fight between teammates on the track isn't going to be as close as was the case with Alonso and Hamilton this year, but I have a feeling Heikki will hold his own and not be made to look like a total fool by Lewis.

Conversley, I still have my reservations about the Alonso/Piquet line up at Renault for 2008, but we will see.

In the end I find it amusing that Alonso went from McLaren back to Renault, and that Heikki whom filled Alonso's vacant Renault seat this year is now filling Alonso's vacant McLaren seat next year.

Maybe we should call Kovalainen "Shitty Alonso"?

Renault not guilty?!

So I just read that Renault are not guilty of the same breach of rules that cost McLaren their constructors championship and $100 million dollars! How is that possible? It even looked like Renault were a bit more guilty than McLaren due to the fact that it seems more people saw the McLaren documents at Renault than McLaren people did of the Ferrari drawings at McLaren. So I must say that I'm quite baffled.

Were Renault cleared of any massive fines because they were purportedly more forthright with the FIA when they supposedly first found out they had McLaren information? Or was it because if Renault were heavily penalized that they may just choose to leave the sport and Fernie Alonso would have no place to race and this would be seen as a massive victory for McLaren who want to win something this year?

I honestly don't know, however I look forward to the FIA's explanation whenever it comes out and hopefully maybe they will revoke McLaren's fine or something, considering Renault was not punished at all, not even posthumously stripped of their 2007 constructor's points, which was what I figured was going to happen.

We will see. Yes. We will see.

Laymen

After the $100 million dollar fine was handed to McLaren I made a post on my Live Journal with a copy of the news piece and a blurb about how I can't even conceptualize $100 million dollars. My buddy Milhouse asked me to explain what happened in Layman's Terms so I did, finally concluding with:

The best (or worst) part is that apparently Ron Dennis, the head cheese at McLaren, alerted the FIA to the new evidence that ultimatley got his team the $100 million dollar fine.

As it goes, he and Fernando Alonso were having a very heated discussion and Alonso purportedly said he and McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa had exchanged information that came from the 780 pages of Ferrari notes that that Coughlin guy had.

Anyhow, The Fern was like "I'ma go tell the FIA on you if you don't all suckle on my Spanish fly and let me be the number one driver in the team" and Ron Dennis was like "Eat a dick, spic!" and called the FIA. Ron Dennis says The Fern was trying to blackmail him, which may or may not be true. However, it all sure backfired and done blowed up in Ron's face when all was said and done considering the team got that fine and were stripped of their constructors points, yet the driver he hates got immunity for bringing this information to light, even if it was originally shed in an attempt of personal gain.

That's kind of a kick to the groin.