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.

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...

How depressing...

So I get all excited thinking Schumacher is going to come back and drive around, thus making me happy, even if he wasn't winning all the time. Then that doesn't happen. That really pissed me off. I would have liked to see the lap times he did testing the old Ferrari as I give it a 50/50 chance that it really was his neck bugging him on long hauls or that he'd lost a bit more speed than he thought. Who knows. I was quite surprised at how poorly Luca Badoer showed.

While I was really bummed Schumi didn't rise from the retired and that Badoer was shitty, I must say I thought it very cute Ferrari signed Turdsy Fisichella. Now, I've never been a huge fan of Fisi, and have actually been wishing he would just leave F1 now for a few years, I do have a soft spot for the guy. I remember in 2003 or 2004 when when he was out of a drive with either Jordan or Sauber that I read a story on Yahoo about Turdsy wanting to drive a Ferrari. It was absolutely pathetic and schmaltzy. But now he is a driver for Ferrari and can go away at the end of the season. So I guess it is a win-win.

Now we've got the whole Renault thing. We'll discuss that soon.

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"?

Alonso once again latched to Renault's teat

Even though we all saw it coming months ago, it is official that Fernie Alonso is back with Renault. Since it seemed inevitable, I can't say I'm surprised, though since it took so long to announce I sort of am. Like, I knew it was going to happen because it makes the most sense. But then came Renault's spy troubles which obviously held up Alonso's re-involvement with the team. Then Renault somehow get cleared of no wrong doing and FINALLY Fernie is back in the loving arms of The French manufacture. Point is, is that anything could have happened because nothing was happening and even though you were pretty sure you knew what was going to go down, it wasn't, so for all we knew, Alonso could end up striking a deal to race on the moon with an alien vehicle manufacture??????

Hopefully Heikki Kovalainen picks up Fern's old seat at McLaren. It'll be sad if he doesn't, cos I like that huge headed Finn and as I've said it before, I do not trust Junior Piquet. Heikki would have been a good team mate to Fern. While I hope I am wrong, I think Nelshino may be a little hot headed next year and will not be a good team mate for Alonso. The only reason I want Alonso to have a bitch team mate is because I'm sick of Alonso whining about not being treated with the respect a 2 time beater of Michael Schumacher deserves. Oh well. So it goes.

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.