Lewis Hamilton, Throwing The Hammer Down!

True to my word, I have revived this blog, as Sebastian Vettel is no longer the reigning Formula 1 World Champion.

Once it became clear early on in the season that one of the Mercedes drivers was going to be WDC I found it hard to decide whom to pull for. While I've never disputed his speed or talent, Hamilton has often rubbed me the wrong way in the past, so early on I was leaning towards supporting Rosberg. Though as time wore on, between Lewis' undeniably awesome drives and Nico's continual devolution from a seemingly intelligent, well thought, racing driver to a rather smarmy, mildly desperate, best-of-the-rest racer I found myself hoping Hamilton would just embarrass his entitled rich boy teammate.

So in the end, I'm glad Hamilton won, as any other outcome would have been unsatisfactory. However, I am also glad Rosberg ended up losing in style, between refusing to retire his crippled car and then immediately going to congratulate Lewis. Nico definitely upped his stock doing those two things. Maybe if he ups his game, it would even be possible to root for him next year?

The main reason I don't entirely mind the dominance of Mercedes is the fact that it isn't completely one sided like the Red Bull dynasty was. At least Rosberg is winning races, consistently landing on the podium, staying in touch with his teammate, and generally making decent starts. Though that last start of Nico's looked like he was visited by the ghost of Mark Webber.

It was really satisfying seeing Vettel squirm this year in his Red Bull. If Ricciardo hadn't won a handful of races, it would be have been easy to forgive him and just say that he didn't have a car that could do the job, much like Alonso's Ferrari, but alas, we know that while Red Bull were beaten, the RB10 was in fact capable of winning races. I tell you, Ricciardo won a lot of fans that day he scored his maiden victory and kept on gaining more fans every time he bested Seb.

Another thing I was really glad to see was Williams' return to competitiveness. Years ago when I first started getting into F1, for some reason they became the British team I supported. I've stuck by them over the past decade, so it was nice seeing Bottas and little old Felipe up on the podium more often than not.

Speaking of Williams, you have no clue how happy I was to see that stupid turd Pastor Maldonado languish in that piece of shit Renault. While I kind of felt for Grosjean, I'm still pissed at him for fucking Alonso out of the 2012 title... Seriously though, I can't wait till Pastor's oil money dries up and he is out of F1. I have never disliked an F1 driver as much as I deplore him!

The only things I disliked about this season were the horrendous sound of the cars and Bianchi's accident.

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.

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.

The Kob

I like Kamui Kobayashi. He is goofy looking. He smiles a lot. He gives entertaining and candid interviews and most important he is a balsy, aggressive driver... but doesn't appear to be a "crazy" or "wild" driver like I always felt Takuma Sato was. Hopefully he will get a drive with Toyota next year. Hopefully Toyota will still be in F1 next year.

Earlier today I was reading some articles about who goes where next year. The topic of USF1 was brought up, how they want to promote American drivers yet there are no Americans currently holding a superlicense. I figure Scott Speed probably still has a superlicense. Do they expire? I mean he only got shitcanned from Toro Rosso a year and a half ago. However, maybe the article I was reading meant that any American that USF1 is mildly interested in does not have a superlicense. I suppose that is fine considering old Scott Speed says "I hardly even follow Formula One any more". He's content to keep driving those big old NASCAR shitboxes around ovals while Red Balls foots the bill. I can't say I completely blame him I suppose... though I'd still follow F1.

Vettelstone

There were some good dices today during the race. It was nice to see Ferrari not totally sucking. The Red Balls seem to be working nicely with their new additions. Old Seb Vet made it look easy out there.

I truly hope that Donington Park fails in a way. I like Silverstone. A lot. Even if Silverstone does have to take a break eventually I'd still rather see the British GP at Brands Hatch as opposed to Donighton... but whatever.

I'm sad it will be another three weeks before the next outing of F1'ing.

It's funny...

"But on the bottom of that I don't want to see 'Webber is a pussy with safety'. I like taking risks, and I'm up for the challenge, but we need to always find a balance. And we will learn."

The above is a good Mark Webber quote about whatever it is that the two Red Bull drivers don't like about the current safety situation. Anybody that calls any F1 driver a pussy is a jerk cos even the pussiest of drivers still have a pretty big pair on them I would imagine.

I'd Cry Too!

That there Japanese Grand Prix was a wacky one! I'd never seen a F1 race started behind the Safety Car before and I imagine quite a few other people had not either, considering it has only happened four times in F1 history.

Overall it was quite an impressive race. All of the drivers, over and under paid earned their dollars considering the conditions were atrocious! I was really thrilled to see Sebastian Vettel leading the race at one point knowing that he'd be standing on the podium. Then he took out The Web of Mark. Oh man. My heart sank!

After the accident happened they showed a guy in the garage who was clearly distressed. For a moment I thought it was a mechanic or something but then I noticed the HANS Device and realized it was poor little 20 year old Vettel quietly weeping in his garage. But I'm not here to make fun of him, considering I would have been weeping as well had I lost myself and a sister team mate podium positions.

While the main reason Sebastian was probably keeping his helmet on was to muffle his cries of distress, he was probably also weary that Franz Tost was going to physically accost him much as he did to Scott Speed when Speed pulled a boner in wet conditions, and here was the man who replaced Speed causing a much greater problem in the wet. I'd be afraid of Tost too!

Poor Sebastian. To make matters worse, he gets a penalty from the FIA for the next race. Vettel's team mate Liuzzi was docked his point for overtaking under yellow. That sucks too, though it is cool a Spyker got the point. Still, jeez. Bad weekend for any team owned by Red Balls. I'm suprised the FIA didn't find a way to shitcan Coulthard's fine fourth place!

Oh what could have been! If Seb hadn't attacked Webber from the rear there could have been two Red Bulls on the podium. DC would still have had his 4'th place and Liuzzi would have had that eighth. I bet that would have been the first time all four Red Bull cars scored in the points!

But hey... it happens.
What, shit?
Yeah.