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.

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….

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.

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!

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

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.....

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!