Bloggers Inc

2009-05-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

FIA vs Teams and some Miscellaneous stuff

In a related move FOTA has suspended Williams from its membership for signing up for the 2010 season. This is spoiling for a huge fight and as of now it seems like the 2010 season is in trouble. With the spending "cap" at the center of the dispute it eventually all boils down to the money. The FIA seemed to be backing down , but with some signs of splintering by Williams it remains to be seen how this will go. Ferrari have gone to court and its looks like it will be some time before the issues are settled. I guess with the economy looking up things could take a further turn.

In a related move the FIA seems to be inclined to allow a breakaway championship and they are willing to grant recognition for the same. This seems to be one of the ways of limiting the damage of the big teams walking away from the sport.

Lewis backs Button....

With his car not really showing any great pace Lewis Hamilton has put his money on Button winning his first world championship! Most people would tend to agree with the Briton a Whopping 40+ points ahead of KR, FM & LH. Vettel and RB are closer , but you wouldn't realistically expect them to win.

2009-05-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

Brawn Buttons Up Monaco
Jenson Button and Brawn once again showed a pretty pair of heels to the rest of the teams and easily won the Monte Carlo GP. Easily the most glamorous GP the race itself has over the years been decided pretty much on the Saturday during qualifying. There was quite a bit of overtaking for once this year and some pretty awesome speeds shown by the top 5 of JB, RB, KR, Fm & MW for a good stretch of the race.

While Kimi seems to have put behind his qualifying woes of last year, out qualifying his teammate and just missing the pole by 25 thousands of a second. He definitely must have fancied his chances of leapfrogging the brawns of the start. But he surprisingly made a relatively poor start and let Barrichelo into second place. The race was pretty much settled there and with everyone struggling on the super soft tyres ten laps in and Barrichelo in more than most , Button was able to pull out a decent 16 second lead which he managed to maintain till the end. Another surprising struggler was Sebastian Vettel particularly surprising given his teammate drove a strong race and was able to keep in touch with the Ferraris and the Brawns. Massa put in a storming performance once he was past Vettel and at one stage was lapping at qualifying pace and pulling out fastest lap after fastest lap. Unfortunately for him the other 4 cars were also flying and the advantage was probably not more than a 10th of a second on these laps. It was an awesome sight to catch these Formula 1 cars literally burning up the track and passing within inches of the barriers lap after lap.

Mclaren had a horrid race and though Heiki was running pretty solidly till he crashed Lewis could not really find any pace and must be pretty frustrated especially when his old pal in 6th place Fernando Alonso lapped him. The Toyotas and the BMWs disappointed from qualifying and the Williams were a bit off the pace though Nico drove a particularly strong middle stint.

The good news is that Ferrari seems to have finally found the pace and a bit of reliability but the team is still struggling on the strategy and pit stops making a rash of errors even during this race. Clean stops for Kimi and Massa could have resulted in them finishing ahead of the 2nd Brawn of Barrichelo. Kimi would also be disappointed with his drive overall though he was consistent he was just a bit of the pace, and if he had kept his place at the start he could have been challenging for the lead. Massa didn’t have a great qualifying given that he was not much heavier than Kimi and he unfortunately had button in front of him before his second stop and couldn’t really push hard enough to overtake his teammate and Barrichelo. So once the second round of stops were done everyone basically settled down for the finish with not much happening except to see if the Force would be with India.

But perhaps a case of heartbreak for the Force India with Fisi just a little more than second out of the final point scoring position (on top of the close loss in the IPL final) not a very good day for MR. Mallya.
The Ferraris would go into Turkey with a bit more confidence, given that the KERS (if reliable) should help them there. But they seemed to match the race pace with the brawns and if the supporting cast can get their act together they should be challenging for a win there.

The championship seems to be pretty much in the Bag for the Brawns so all we can now hope for is some exciting racing in the coming GPs….

2009-04-20T03:24:00.000-07:00

The Chinese Puzzle….

This season started like no other in the sport in that the championship could have been (it still may have been) decided in a court rather than on the track. Well it seems like the first part of it is done. With the court of appeals upholding the diffuser design its advantage Brawn for the moment and I guess its up to other teams to get on board. How long this will take will eventually decide the outcome of the title, though right now with the testing ban and other cost saving measures in place would it be harder for the sports big guns to catch up?

My only question to the whole deal is why couldn’t this be decided before the first race ? Wouldn’t it seem farcical if the court ruled differently and the results nullified?

This year seems to be most affected by the rain gods. I don’t remember this much rain to the start of any formula 1 season so far. If I’m not mistaken the safety car driver has probably completed more laps than some of the drivers. I was an awesome pole by Vettel and with Fernando Alonso in P2 it seemed like the racing would get more interesting! That his qualification was due to being extremely light ensured that he wouldn’t be near the lead.

With the start behind the safety car it seemed like it would play into the hands of the brawns as they were definitely more heavily fueled, and with the awesome pit strategy with button coming back out in second place after refueling it seemed like a cake walk for Button to claim his third win. But Vettel started string some quick laps, I think some 14 consecutive laps in the 1’ 54’s range ensured that he emerged after his pit stop just 1.4 seconds behind button. In the meantime Webber and button had a good battle between them, (each going of a couple of times) before Webber also managed to break away and build up enough of a lead to make 2nd place safe.

Lewis Hamilton had an eventful race spinning around 3 to four times before finishing behind his teammate in 6th. The Ferraris were having a decent race until Massa retied from 3rd place and Kimi just did not seem to be moving after his pit stop from 4th. In between Massa and Lewis had a bit of a battle till Kubica drove over Truli, bringing out the safety car which took a long time to pick up the race (wonder if he will be getting any Christmas cards from the Italian!)

Force India seemed to be on track for its first points after a strong drive from Adrian Sutil, but he lost the backend with 6 laps to go under pressure from Hamilton. So Vijay Mallya is still looking for his first points. Fisi is now under pressure and is almost certain to lose his seat next year (if not earlier). The Bruno Senna rumors keep getting stronger!

All in all a very exciting race and with one of the court dates settled we can now look forward to the racing. All except the Mclarens who must still be a bit worried after the Melbourne controversy. However the recent retirement of Ron Dennis and the firing of Ryan should make things a bit better for them. The whole incident seems to show that Hamilton influence is certainly growing stronger in formula 1, and I do think that he would be tempted to a better car/better offer in the future (a far cry from the Mclaren for life tune he was singing in the off season). On the verdict itself, my own view is that they would not risk losing a lot of eyeballs by banning Lewis who definitely gets a lot of fans to the sport, and banning him would make most of them lose interest in the championship. A fine like last year or a team level punishment would seem more likely.

The season still seems to be in a state of flux and the significant improvement of the Red bulls with their diffuser expected to added soon could be expected to contend with the brawns and the Toyotas. Adrian Newey was the architect of the dominant Williams and Mclaren cars in the ‘90s and the current honcho at Red Bull must be looking to show up Ross Brawn after his comments at the diffuser trial and the initial signs seem to be encouraging.

The Brawns seemed to have met their match for the first time and they could not keep up with the Red bulls, but pretty much left the others behind. Button mentioned a problem of maintaining the heat in the tyres, guess we will know in a few days if this is only a wet weather problem and whether they will still dominate in normal conditions. Jenson Button still seems to be the odds on favorite for the drivers championship.

The Toyotas are strong but they are yet to win a GP and their window seems to be closing with the other teams playing catch up. Though they had some bad luck in China, they seem to be a few tenths off the pace to win GPs at the moment.

In earlier years the short Austral-asian start to the season meant that teams could afford to write of the season till they got to Europe before getting their season track. With the revised schedule it now is no longer possible to do that

The Macs looked better with the new diffuser and the wing adjustments; also the Renault seems to be in the forefront of getting a new diffuser on track. The Ferraris seem to be in trouble with both speed and reliability problems. The Renault seems to be unpredictable and seems to be performing on the back of Alonsos skill.

A short break and then we are off to Bahrain and the possibility of the 3 powerhouses of Formula1 potentially ending up with less points than Button, or will the thousands of engineers mange to catch up with the Brawns ?… either way its and exciting road ahead.

2009-04-07T00:24:00.000-07:00

The Storm at Sepang

Well the experiment by Bernie and gang to have the race at a more viewer friendly time was washed out (spectacularly I might add). Well with most teams and drivers looking at the rain and working out their strategy looking at the weather as against what was happening on the track!!! So the half race was a most disappointing result.

So here is what seems obvious after 2 races.

1) The Brawns look awesome, and they look good even in the wet
2) The pecking order has changed. It’s Brawn, Toyota, Williams and the red bulls that are fighting it out in the front.

Well to the race itself and one of the most amazing starts with cars going almost 4 wide into a single corner, without any major incidents to boot! Alonso had probably the best start with Button and Barrichelo not really starting of well. After a few laps it was quite clear that Alonso was quite heavy and he still managed to keep Barichelo behind him for quite a few laps!

Kimi’s race was probably spoiled by the time he spent behind Alonso as the front runners pulled out close to 25 seconds before he could get in front of Alonso and all the front runners were able to pit and come out in front of him.

We got to see the KERS working during Alonso’s battles with Weber , but whether it is a significant advantage is still open to debate!

What were Ferrari thinking?
Well the first two races have certainly shown that the brain trust at Ferrari is no longer what it was. First they screwed up with Barrichelo in qualifying on Saturday and then they decided to send Kimi out in full wets, which needed the rain to fall within the first lap and when it didn’t his race was effectively over. The Barrichelo decision was probably overconfidence and the Kimi decision was probably desperation!

Some of the other teams also made a mess of the tyres choices (Toyota and Truli) but overall no one really gained from the tyre poker. If there was any advantage it was to the lower placed cars who were heavier fuelled and were able to pit later and probably avoid a pit stop as against the cars in the lead and even this was not much of an advantage as the cars in the lead had built up enough of a cushion for the extra pit stop.

Overall a disappointing race, and we must wonder if the timings will change again next year, but if the teams are more concerned about the storm than just plain racing to me there is something wrong and needs to be looked into. Also there was not enough of a run in he wet to give some of the drivers who excel a chance to make up some ground!

So I guess its over to Shanghai and bit more clarity. We should also have the diffuser ruling in by then so we could be a little clearer as to who has the advantage…
As of now its seems that brawn have the brains to rule!

2008-08-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Agony and the Ecstasy of a Gold Medal….

By now reams and reams of Stuff has been written on Abhinav Bindra. India’s first individual gold medal ever is a feat to be celebrated without any restraint. The sad part is that it’s difficult to be sure if we will win one more. Even this gold has more to do with the determination of Abhinav himself and the unstinting support of his family. Its ironic to see the president of the Indian Olympic association and all his office members laud the achievement when they have not really done anything towards helping the sport flourish in the country. His case highlights the fact that in India to flourish as a sportsperson you need to be a cricketer or you need to do so in spite of the system and many talented sports persons have been sacrificed at the altar of a system fighting to pull them down. It takes only the exceptionally good and mentally strong to succeed. So while its great that we are ecstatic in the current, what does the future hold?

Given the sad state of state support towards our sporting infrastructure and towards sportsmen and women in general it is difficult to be optimistic about this being the first of many gold medals in the future. Perhaps nothing mirrors this sorry state of affairs than the performance and the results of the Indian Hockey team. The team that once was the gold standard, by which teams were judged at the Olympics, today finds it difficult to win any event of note. Years of mismanagement have ensured that the sport has languished, talented players have been discarded along the way while the lucky few in the sporting establishment have for years plundered what little money was allotted towards the sports.

While the IOA has been putting out optimistic statements, the ground reality is that the infrastructure and systems in place are still most unsuitable for sports to flourish. The hope is that this medal serves as a catalyst for the country to get its sporting house in order and that the precious resources that are being allotted for the development of sports find their way to people its intended for and not get lost in the big black hole of sporting babudom.

Today a country waits and hopes that the wishes of Abhinav Bindra that the gold medal he has won changes the face if sport in the country.

Amen

2008-03-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Gentlemen Start Your Engines....

The finale still seems fresh! Kimi lifting the championship! A championship down to the wire, a rookie who set the tracks on fire, a Champion who almost pulled it off.... its all history now and another season is upon us. Would have caught it first hand but that's a story for another day.

So what do i look forward to this year. Well the main protagonists are back and with Massa and Heiki in the mix it should be a fun season as long as all the cars hold up. What am i looking forward to this year

Kimi defending his title

Hamilton running him close

Alsonso in the mix, though the Renault may not allow him to do so.

Will an Indian team do what an Indian driver hasn't done as yet!

Or even better will an Indian driver in an Indian car rule the roost!!!

I can hardly wait.....

2008-01-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

Cometh the hour...Cometh the man!

The current series down under has been widely discussed and shredded threadbare! The story lines emerging are too numerous to mention! Controversy, racism, gamesmanship, allegations, passionate fans n both sides of the divide... oh and there happens to be some very good cricket being payed there too! But all of them are posts for another day. This post is about leadership and how great leaders act when all is crumbling around them. This post is about probably the greatest cricketer India has produced to date!

The chips were down , his team had just lost a match they shouldn't have, his batsmen had crumbled, the umpiring was atrocious , a member of his team was being accused of racism. Amid all the chaos and confusion one man stood tall, dignified, poised voice steady calm , measured a rock! Even the winning captain seemed churlish, defiant, defensive!

Yes this post is about Anil "Jumbo" Kumble. It has been the same story throughout his career. Even his appointment as captain was met with scepticism, a step backward most experts cried! Give it to someone younger!.But in hindsight for once the selectors have made the right choice. No one could have been better suited to the handling the fiasco at Sydney and come out with his head held high.

I remember his first series in England, i didn't think he would make it. He didn't set the world on fire right away. But he wen back worked n his craft, and the results are there for all to see. The criticisms have not stopped. For ages people have said he can't turn the ball, he is too predictable, play him like a medium pacer with an off cutter. Well as of yesterday 601 of the best the world had to offer couldn't manage that !

But most of all he epitomises the spirit and the manner in which any sport should be approached. Compelling moments for me, post the Sydney test, His hundred in England, and bowling with his jaw broken in the West Indies.

You can't deny the talents and achievements of a Tendulkar, the dedication of the Wall, the fearless leadership of Saurav, the batting prowess of Gavaskar, or the all round abilities of Kapil Dev. But to me most of the tests won over the past 16 odd years are in no Small part due to the wiles of one man who couldn't turn the leg break. To the greatest Indian cricketer of all time and an awesome model as a man!

2007-10-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Some Thoughts on the the India Australia Series...

The series is over and i guess most people are relatively happy with India snatching a narrow and fighting win in the last game. The Aussies had the measure of us , an looking at them we see the gap that exists between them and the rest of the world. Somehow we are never able to be consistent enough to seriously challenge the mighty machine that is Australian cricket. There seem to be this assembly line of youngsters waiting to step on to the world stage and deliver.

This was a win that was mainly due to the batting of Hayden and Symmonds. Strange how many batsmen tend to get a kick start to their careers while playing us. Between them they were able to ensure that Australia ended up above 300 in almost all the games. The 2 games they didn't manage it they lost!

All aspects of India's game needs to improve, but the biggest improvement required is bowling at the death!!! The days of giving away close to 100 runs over the last 10 overs and still pull out a win are over. Isn't there anyone who can put the ball where they want to delivery after delivery ? Does anyone know how to bowl a yorker ? how about 3 or 4 in a row ? You could still go for runs, but you just increase the odds in your favour !! And will some help bhajji figure out how to get some wickets ???

Finally, the one thing that surprised me is that the Aussies genuinely seemed rattled by the Indian chatter.It seems like they like dishing it out and they can't take it when someone else is dishing! If only we could back it up with strong consistent performances. It almost felt like the Aussies were whining..... Can't see what they were complaining about have seen Warne,Mcgrath and even Lee celebrate with even more agression. Personally i would prefer that this was not the way we went about it, and let the performances do the talking , but just seeing the reaction maybe it would not be so bad!!!

So lets hope for an agressive India sticking it to the Aussies at home !!!

2007-10-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

The Finnish line awaits ....

(Sorry couldn't resist that childish pun) No prizes for guessing who my favourite would be to win the drivers championship, but the odds seem to be quite long on that.

Looking back on one of the most open of seasons, remember Michael any one ? Well except when he happens to be at the race, this was a year when we pretty much didn't really miss him. This was a year when the big guns and some youngsters really stepped in and showed us what they were capable of and the season has been electrifying , a three way tie for the championship. Looking back this season was meant to be about Alonso and Kimi, but Lewis and Massa were not exactly going to lie back and let things go without a fight. No matter what happens over the weekend, there is no doubt that Lewis is a future world champion. He has been electric of the line and his aggression on overtaking and his awesome defense are a joy to watch. Personally i counted 3 mistakes he made over the season and that is just awesome for a rookie!! He really seems to have his head firmly screwed on his shoulders!!

The guy who has got the biggest jolt is probably Alonso, and he has not really done his reputation much good! Though there will always be a market for his driving skills (given the stories coming from Benetton!!). But this was a year when the mask was off!!! It seemed to have started from last year , but Alonso has really seemed desperate on and off track this year. He has seemed truly rattled by the pace of his teammate. But all things said and done he is just 4 points behind in the championship.

Finally Kimi has had an up and down year. There have been weekends when he (and the car) have seemed awesome and some other weekends when he has looked ordinary. Perhaps it was just getting used to a new car , and a new team. He did seem to be getting better towards the end of the season(some awesome drives at Spa, Shanghai ) but we won't really know till next season!

So the championship is neatly set up lets hope for a good (wet???) race at Interlagos... seems the best way to sign the year off! I believe its Hamilton's Championship to lose ! He basically has to trail Alonso and he is champ, but he is a racer and ideally he would like to win it beating both Kimi and Alonso. The smart money seems to be on Alonso, But i would love for Kimi to win it after being so close almost every year , but he needs luck and that seems to be the one thing he lacks.

On a lighter note there was off course Ferrarigate !!! Looking at how the season has gone maybe a few more teams needed to get on Ferrari technology and then imagine the fun and games, with the likes of Kubica, Heikei, Rosberg, Webber Vettel being added to the mix... what fun and games !!!!

Either way can't wait for the weekend to begin !!!

2007-05-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

F1 – Some of the Old and a Lot of the New in Spain

With four races done and dusted it’s the most competitive season in years. Well most everyone was looking for Alonso to win his home GP (some even expected him to run away with the race). The qualifying session was probably an indicator (in hindsight) that this may not quite be the case. There was also some good work done by Truli (too bad his race got messed up even before the start) and good old DC (perhaps Bernie really riled him up).

Once again an incident at the start pretty much decided the outcome of the race. I guess it was the law of averages catching up with the Spaniard after Massa did him a favour at Malaysia. Perhaps knowing that it would be difficult to overtake on the circuit, Alonso pushed too hard at the start into the first corner and pretty much left Massa with no choice but to push him of the track. I guess good driving on both their parts ensured that they both didn’t crash out. Alonso was also quite lucky that the pack couldn’t take advantage of his off track adventures and he managed to rejoin in fourth place. Lewis continued his good starting form bettering his qualifying position, the Ferraris must be sick of the sight of the back of his car by now.

The race seemed to have settled down among the top four, till the famous jinx seemed to strike kimi again, engine failure would cause hi retirement from the race. To win the world championship, sometimes you do need luck and the early signs don’t seem too favourable to Kimi. While Lewis had managed to keep the Finn behind him, he seemed to have trouble keeping up with the Ferrari ahead of him. Massa was on a roll and by the 10th lap had pretty much had the race in his pocket barring any mechanical problems. Alonso meanwhile seemed to have problems keeping up with his teammate and any chances of him leapfrogging his teammate slowly but surely evaporated. At the end of it all we had a rookie leading the world championship. We have a world champion suddenly looking to be the fastest in his team, and suddenly Massa in the Ferrari looks like the package to beat.

Most of the action and the drama in race happened in the pits and in the middle pack of the race. Massa had a vapour fire, Heidfeld lost a nut, had to come in after a lap and then eventually retired, and the normally reliable Renaults messed up the fuelling of their cars forcing them to make an extra stop. Unfortunately there wasn’t a single overtaking maneuver or even a serious attempt. Overall a good race for DC, Kubica, Nico & Sato, their best performance this year. The Super Agurri have a point and get the travel subsidy for the year. The biggest irony this year is except for the Ferraris, all the non-factory teams seem to be performing better than the factory teams. The Adrian Newey designed Redbull seems to be coming on, but there are reliability issues on the engine and the hydraulics.

So all in all a reasonably interesting GP, but the implications seem to be more interesting. Here are some of the highlights:

1) We have a rookie leading the world championship
2) We have a championship leader who has yet to win a race.
3) Four podiums in his first four races has never been done before. (Fangio had 3)
4) Ferrari have won 3 out of the four races and still trail in both the championships.
5) Super Agurri have a point while he factory Honda team does not!
6) A BMW has finished 4th in all the races so far. (Heidfeld 3 times)
7) Ferrari has had an engine failure and Mclaren hasn’t.

Monaco should pretty much be about qualifying on pole and hope your engine doesn’t give up, but lets hope for some surprises!!

PS
Wonder how much Steve Slater is paid, it might be worth our while to replace him (Akki, Mr. Ranjan) ! Can’t take too much more of his commentary.

2007-04-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

Malaysia.... The Macs are Back!!!

Two people decided the outcome of the Malaysian GP pretty much on the first lap. First Massa messed up the start and also ended up slowing his Kimi just enough for Lewis Hamilton to overtake the both of them and let Alonso drive of into the distance.

If there was a big loser this weekend it was Massa. Coming into the season and through the winter he seemed to have the pace to keep up or was even faster than Kimi. There was talk of him contending for the championship , but if his driving this weekend was anything to go by , he has a long way to go. He just doesn't seem to be mentally tough enough to contend for the championship at the moment., but its early days yet and i could be wrong. For me the driver of the day was once again Lewis Hamilton. The way he calmly took the Ferrai's on the outside and held of Massa, frustrating him into a mistake shows that with the right amount of luck a race win and a world championship is not very far away. So after 2 races he has finished on the podium both time and only bad pit strategy prevented him from having 2 second places to his name. Also he has lead in both his starts (must be some kind of record).

The Macs looked very strong during the race and they have truly caught up with the Ferraris. The ferraris in fact didn't seem to have the pace . Kim's engine didn't give up on him , but the cloud hanging over the engine seemed to definitely affect their performance and pace. It would be interesting to see if the Macs would enjoy an advantage in the reliability stakes, especially during the second races with the same engine. All in all a solid race from Kimi and a master class from Alonso. Truly the two of them seem to be the class of formula 1 at the moment , with the rest playing catch up. Massa needs to step up to the plate or the Macs could run away with the constructors.

Among the teams the BMWs are definitely the best of the rest and are edging up to mix it up with the Ferraris and the Macs. A little better qualifying strategy could be the difference. It was also nice to see the Williams back among the second rung teams. Hopefully they will get even better. Strangely the factory Hondas and the Toyotas still continue to disappoint.

Well all in all a good race... onward to Bahrain.

2007-04-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

When the Heart beats for ..... India !!!
As i look back at the performance of the Indian team at the world cup, its just got me thinking as to how we rarely revel under pressure, especially when we talk about representing the country. Got me back to one of the shows Harsha Bhogale did, and a statement he made about Leander, and i quote,"I feel that Leander should be the honorary 12th man of the Indian cricket team for the passion he brings while representing the country, which is sorely lacking among our cricketers".

Truly perhaps the only person in history who seems to revel in the pressure and the honour of representing the country. His heroics while playing for the flag far out do anything he has done on the tour as an individual. Numerous and heroic wins in the Davis cup , and Olympic bronze and almost another with Mahesh.

Surprisingly some of our most heroic moments have been in the sport of tennis and especially in the Davis cup where the likes of Vijay Amritraj, Zeeshan Ali, Ramesh Krishnan, Leander & Mahesh have made a mockery of the rankings and superior opponents to steer the country home.

Is there some way to spread this spirit around ?

2007-03-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

Man U ....

What an awesome performance from the red devils against Bolton. Though Chelsea did put up a solid performance of their own, it looks like the League title should be back at Old Trafford barring some major loss of form. This was Bolton , a team 5th in the league , competing for a European slot next year , and they were humiliated!

Looking back at this year Fergie has sort of gone back to his old ways of getting the right role players in key areas and It also helped that Christiano Ronaldo finally hit his stride and fulfilled some of the potential he has been showing all these years! He has reduced the fancy footwork , and concentrated on running defences ragged, he could still work on his finishing , but overall he has been awesome this season, probably the player of the year . The back four has been solid with Neville , Rio and Vidic being Solid and Van De Sar doing his bit in goal. With some awesome striking from Saha at the start of the year , and some good contributions from Larson they have not missed Ruud Van Nistelroy this year .

Overall a gr8 team performance this year, Fergie still has the touch. Look for a potential double. Don't think they are quite ready for Europe though. Maybe next year !!! Too bad for the form of Liverpool and Arsenal or we would have had a four team awesome football league.... but if wishes were horses....

2007-03-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

The ICEMAN Burns up the Road.

Well some random thoughts from the inaugral GP of the year. well as predicted it was the Kimi show at Melbourne. There has been a lot of relatively negative press surrounding him over the weeks surrounding the GP and even after qualifying on how he is not a team player like Michael or Fernando, but there if there is one fact that everyone tends to agree on its that the dude is quick. On Sunday we got a demonstration drive on just how quick he is ( having the quickest car on the grid also helps!) . From the moment the lights went off there was no one who was even close. So i repeat that though its early days yet, its Kimi's championship to lose this year. So here is my ranking on the rest of the grid.

Drive of the day : (Besides Kimi) Lewis Hamilton was awesome in his first GP. He seemed faster and more in control than FA , and were it not for a faster car (Ferrari) and some dubious pit work ( A Mclaren speciality) he could have been contending for the lead and a second place finish was a given !

Massa : A good drive but a bit disappointing, he should have been challenging for the podium given the package he was driving. The Hondas seemed to jinx him he was flying till he came up behind Reubens.

FA: Solid drive but Lewis is going to be closer than i thought he would be , the good news is that he was solid and so were the macs. Bad news was the start where he seems to be missing the Renault launch control. If he can put some distance to Lewis then he should have a bit of an easier time . Macs could sneak in the constructors championship.

BMW's (Heidfeld & Kubica) - Heidfeld seems to be flying and the BMW is clearly the best of the rest at the moment . Only concern seems to be reliability, much to the bad luck of Kubica.But they are still a bit off the pace , though with two fast drivers competing and with BMW behind the team it should be a good year for them .

Renault : O how the mighty have fallen. There seems to be no doubt as to who is missing Michelin the most. No FA doesn't make it any easier. Cant help but feel that with FA in the car they would be more competitive. Fisi had a decent day , and Kovalainen had an up and down day , but i don't see him doing great things this year. Look for them to compete next year with a a better car and an exciting line up. Should be a fun battle of Gen next with a Piquet in the car.

Toyotas v Williams : It was a good performance from both teams considering last year how everything seemed to be going wrong during winter testing and at the start of qualifying. But There seems to be some flexibility in the team , but this is one of the interesting factory v non factory competitions that should provide some interest during the year. Expect them to do better than the Hondas in a similar battle.

Honda V Aguri : To quote DC which i don't do often , " I don't know why u guys are surprised with their (Sato's) performance . This is the car which won at Hungary and scored the most points in the last quarter of the season , which makes u wonder whats wrong with the factory team ". Well i guess that sums up whats at stake with the Hondas. Hopefully they will get better as the season goes on but right now the Agurris hold the aces.

The rest : Well u can expect these guys to be scrapping over the minor places for most of the season , with possibly the Red bulls having a slight edge.

well thats it till malaysia..... till next time take care .

2007-03-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

Formula 1 Season - Preview

Well the season should be on us in a few hours, and here are my first thoughts going in after the winter testing and the first qualifying sessions.

The fight right now seems to boil down to the Ferrari's and the Macs. The one team who could also be in the frame seems to be the BMW Saubers . As far as the championships go this is the year for Kimi to claim his title, he may not get a better chance. His strongest competition could be from Massa and off course the defending champion Alonso. The macs seem on the pace this year but the Ferraris seem too strong, but its early days yet. This could truly be the year the BMW's become one of the elite and in Heidfeld and Kubica they have two talented drivers who should be up there if the car is on the pace. Look for the renaults to probably get in the frame somewhere towards the second half of the season. This is also a make or break year for Fisi, and unfortunately for him the car does not seem very strong this year. If Alonso easily out paced him last year with the same machinery this year does not look very bright, expect a Piquet in the cockpit next year and maybe bye bye Fisi as far as formula 1 is concerned. Among the rookies Hamilton seems to be very quick and should be able to keep pace with Alonso , though Alonso should be ahead more often than not. So if the Macs are good expect him up there . With Heiki Kovalainen it may take some time for him to really shine .

among the others the biggest disappointement could be the japs. The Honda is expected to be no where this year and even Toyota is not able to bring its dominance in the world car market into formula 1. I expect Toyota to out perform Honda, but i don't expect them to be at the front too often. Williams should have a better year than last year , but i still don't expect them to contend. This year could actually be fun in that we could have non factory team beating up on the factory teams as far as the Honda and the Toyotas are concerned. I expect the Super Agurris and the Red bulls to be in the Mix jockeying for the middle positions.

As for the rear i think the Spykars (in spite of the Ferrari engine) should rule here, maybe with some competition from the Toro Rossos.

All in all i expect an exciting season with more race winners and a lot more young guns shinning on the day. But for the drivers championship its either Massa , Kimi or Alonso....

So cheers to the season ahead.

2007-03-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

Give me a break ----- Schumi ????

My favourite grouse.... Schumi... don't know why, but i just can't stand the guy... its not totally rational, but there is is !

Why the sudden outburst ??? well my favourite part of the year is upon us and there was the Bombay times doing a headline piece on how we will miss schumi this year and maybe formula 1 will be boring! Its strange but you can easily spot a pseudo fan , people who follow F1 coz maybe they think its HIP !! Chances are that 95% percent of these people will be Ferrari and Schumi fans. Its just the way it is in general to follow people who win , but at least get your facts right, get some idea on how the sport works before you go mouthing of as an expert.

well this really has me steaming. NO schumi .. bring on the champagne i say. Lets face it when we talk about the pinnacle of racing we are talking abt a few tenths or a few hundereds of a second. Lets not forget there are some really talented blokes burning rubber out there. Give most of these folks the fastest car out there and chances are they would find their way to the top step of the podium ( Great case in point is Massa, and even Reubens paced Schumi quite often). So for all you ignorant dudes out there (the person who thought up the headline) read my lips - "No Schumi , NO problem". Let the racing begin and i for one can't wait. The possibilities are endless and most entcicing ! Fernando Alonso in a Mac (Don't particularly like Alonso after last year, love the Macs) . Kimi in the scarlet! the rookies and the sophomores Kubica, Hamilton, Nico , Kovalainen. Its probably the most talented and most exciting new class of drivers in the top flight in recent memory. If anything Schumi has held so many promising drivers back , and kudos to ferrari for getting him to leave when they did.

Now there is no disputing that schumi was one of the greats the sport produced, no one was more focused and had the win at all costs mentality than him, the master of the in and out laps, but his time was up. Lets not forget this sport has survived the end of Senna & Prost. Senna's death and a whole lot retirements . Remember there are a 100 more great drivers waiting for their opportunity. So having Schumi out there was great, but the new generation has staked its claim and so lets hang around for the rise i am sure we will not be disappointed!!!

Gentlemen Start your engines !!!!

2007-03-15T01:45:00.000-07:00

All hail King Anand

An Indian is the World No 1 in sport. Can you even guess whom we are talking about? Too bad it coincides with the world cup of cricket!! It more important to try and analyse what Dravid said and what he meant rather than to celebrate one of the most amazing achievements in sport by an Indian.

Well for those of you who missed it, Vishy Anand is the World No. 1 in chess. One of the best players in the world for most of the last decade and a half, he has seen the end of the 3 k’s (Karpov, Kasparova and Kramnik), the split in the world championship, unification matches, and he still remains man the Russian chess factory fears.

There have been disappointments along the way to be sure the loss to Kasparov, losing the championship to Karpov after doing all the hard work.But through it all he has remained the man to beat at most tournaments and possible the best blitz player of all time. But to me the true genius of the man is that he managed to come out of our system, he remains an inspiration to a whole new generation of really young talented chess players in the country, and perhaps to me the most crucial is that in sport known for big ego and odd behavior, he remains a genuinely nice guy with none of the eccentricities that seem to be the norm in the world of chess.

So three cheers to the best in the world of chess, and to the one world champion we have. GO Vishy make us even prouder! To those of you in the media how about some noise crowning the King?

2007-03-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Lets win together !!!!
Not a rabid cricket fan by any stretch of the imagination , but as a lover of sport and with the world cup round the corner i have to get my two pence in so to speak. But the real trigger thats got me going has been the statement by Yuvraj and the still continuous analysis and opinions right from the experts to my neighbhorhood pan wala. If we all had a vote ui am pretty sure that we would possibly have more than a million combinations for the team to represent us at the world cup. My point is that we have a team there and nothing we say or do (barring an injury) is going to change that. So the best thing we can do is get behind the team thats there(BTW as i write this we have just demolished the West Indians). I mean whats the sense in picking on individuals that are there and demoralise them and put pressure on them by questioning the logic of slecting them!

The two guys who have been most picked up on are Sehwag and Pathan. Well i don't know if its just me but i love the sight of Viru in full flow. It reminds me of a younger Sachin , terrorising bowlers. There have been many a match where my TV is off the minute viru was out. As for Irfan, at his best he is truly be among the top 3 all rounders in the game today. The way i see our team today , we have 3 types of batsman, the blasters, the responsible men and the finishers. I label Viru, Robin and Irfan as the blasters. The responsible men are Sachin, Sourav and Dravid, and finally the finishers are Yuvi and Dhoni. So ideally we need one of the blasters to fire in every match , we need the responsible men to be a bit more consistent and yuvi and Dhoni taking turns to finish them off. So ideally we could survive on one awesome innings from the blazers and some cameos as long as the others play their parts well!!

In conclusion i would urge everyone to get behind the team and just wish for the guys to fire, adn just sit back and enjoy the fun!!!! Go India!!!!!!!!!!

2007-03-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Target :.... KPS Gill
Well its a rather strange event that brought about this post, actually a bit of a combination actually. Just got through a season of the PHL and today happened to watch some young kids playing some really good hockey, and that got me wondering about the state of Indian Hockey.
For the life of me i can't figure out why we still have KPS Gill as the head honcho ? After years of taking us from bad to worse, if that was possible. Today we seem to be easy meat even for the minnows of world hockey, i mean we lost to China !!! whats happening ??? Why after all the screw ups is there no one in sight to challenge the domination of KPS Gill. I mean even Jaggy Dalmia was overthrown when the board was making money and the team performing relatively well. What does the Gill man have over everyone else ? when can we hope for some new blood to change the face of Indian hockey and let the abundant talent that seems to be there at the grass roots to blossoma nd then who knows what the future holds! Till then all we can do is pray and hope that changes happen before its too late !!!!!!!!!!