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Michael Bowen suggested this would make an interesting subject(in a comment on the post "The power of Kimi") and I agree. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top. To make it worthwhile, let's have at least one reason behind your choice. There are two categories - current Formula One drivers, and drivers from the past. (You never know we may even get some statistical analysis from IDR at the end if enough of you have a go). Of course in Europe, America or South America, it is unlikely to be a pint...
To get the ball rolling here are my choices:
Current drivers
My choice would be Kimi. When I met him in Barcelona during pre-season testing, I was amazed by his general easy-going warmth and humour. The guy may not be the biggest intellectual on the grid but you can tell he would be a laugh and a half to have a drink with(and I would imagine one pint would certainly not be enough).
Driver from the past
 There will only ever be one James Hunt. My wife adored him so did millions of Britons. A vulnerable individual in many ways from what I can tell but with a wild and rebellious streak. A night in the pub with him would certainly have been character-forming. (Interesting that Kimi chose to call himself "James Hunt" when entering that skiddoo race in the pre-season last year).
Pic of James Hunt by Michael P. Whelan via flickr
EG writes: James Major is the online sports editor at The Times. He travelled to Montmelo as a corporate guest but watched the race as an ordinary punter sitting in the stands. (I tried to get him a pass for the paddock but failed!). Here are his impressions of the value for money side of it, the racing and the crowd. Completing the job, James has filed his best pictures at the end(click on images to enlarge).
James Major writes: With only the 1992 British Grand Prix under my belt - I watched Nigel Mansell storm to victory on a terrific day at Silverstone in 1992, paying £5 for entry - I approached the Spanish Grand Prix as an F1 novice. Let me know whether you agree with my first impressions of the "Formula One Experience"...
Continue reading "The Times's very own James Major gives you the low-down and the prices on the Spanish GP" »
 Having read the many comments on the action at Montmelo, there is little to add. You guys have done the analysis already. One point I would make, however, is about Kimi. Are we seeing the beginning of a Kimi hegemony in Formula One? I must admit I have never believed Kimi would stick around long enough to dominate the sport for more than one or two seasons but there are signs this may yet happen.
I mentioned in an earlier post a conversation I had in Barcelona with one of his closest advisors and the view there is strikingly positive. Not only is Kimi's driving bang on the pace, he is enjoying himself in a way he certainly was not in his last years at McLaren where he felt suffocated by Ron's strict regime and so on. And the bottom line is Kimi may well stick around for a good few years yet. I hope he does.
The less formal atmosphere at Ferrari and the less demands on his time out of the car there suit Kimi's understated and straight-up style perfectly and you have to credit Jean Todt for getting this right. There is no doubt that Kimi feels far happier in red than in grey and the mood set by Todt has been carried on perfectly by Domenicali who is a pretty chilled guy himself.
Another point to make is that Kimi is handling the role of being world champion extremely well. He has come to terms with it and is using the positives - the bounce, the extra confidence - without appearing to have succumbed to any of the pitfalls. He must be one of the more modest, unassuming champions in Formula One for a long time. I, for one, have never heard Kimi throwing his weight around, demanding equal treatment, imposing himself, displaying even a hint of vanity or any of that sort of stuff. Kimi never involves himself in politics and if he complains at all it is usually a general observation about his car. The Iceman is a perfectionist and if the set-up isn't quite right, he is happy to share that. In general however, he just gets on with it and, in the car, he is starting to look ominously consistent.
For those of us lucky enough to watch him at work, it has been interesting to gradually get to know him, even if from afar. There is no doubt that having reached the pinnacle, Kimi has relaxed a little more and we are all seeing more of his sense of humour(which was always there of course) and his natural charm. He is quite a shy individual and is still criticised(especially outside the sport) for being dull, but I think he is finding the public side of his role less intimidating than before.
It is instructive to compare where he is now with what was happening 12 months ago. Looking through the coverage in this paper, we ran a story around this time last year entitled "Ferrari dismiss Raikkonen troubles as Massa shines". There is a neat symmetry with what was happening to him at that stage with what is happening to Lewis this year. Both won the first race in Australia with ease, but then went into the doldrums. While Lewis may be suffering a touch of "season two" syndrome, in Kimi's case it was more about settling in at Ferrari and getting used to being the man in Michael's car. He also had a team-mate in Felipe who was enjoying a purple patch(going into Monaco, Felipe was on a run of five poles in six races). There were more troubles to come for Kimi at Monaco(crash in qualifying - driver error, started 16th) and the coverage got worse("Raikkonen misfiring in bid to close gap on pace-setters), but the Iceman gradually found his rhythm and by the end of the season he was the most consistent driver in the field and has been ever since.
This year, by contrast, Kimi has started in devastating style. Once the team had recovered from its collective woes in Australia, the Iceman has taken full advantage and dropped only two points; he followed a win in Malaysia with second in Bahrain, and now a win in Barcelona and he is already nine points to the good over the chasing pack led by Lewis.
In terms of the battle between Ferrari and McLaren(and BMW) this season, it is still far too early to say how it will turn out(even if the red cars have the whip hand at the moment and are likely to be strong again in Turkey). And it is still way too early to write Felipe off in the battle at Maranello. But you have to like Kimi's chances just now of defending his title at least once - and maybe a third time and after that, who knows?
Pic of Kimi by spiegelbild via flickr
Here is a slightly modified version of a quickie race report originally filed for Times Online. More on the race at Montmelo later.
The Spanish Grand Prix proved what the build-up to the race had suggested, that the Ferrari's are out in front in this year's design race just now and Kimi Raikkonen in particular has hit a rich vein of form.
With a one-two for the red cars from Maranello - Felipe Massa drove a solid race to finish second - Raikkonen has now extended his world championship lead after four races from three to nine points from Lewis Hamilton in second.
For the McLarens it was a mixed and dramatic afternoon. Hamilton who started fifth on the grid, made an excellent start (reminiscent of some of his best last year) and got ahead of Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber. He then drove a steady race to finish third with Kubica tracking him all the way to the finish.
Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, meanwhile, endured a frightening high-speed crash on Lap 22 when his front left wheel exploded going through Turn 9. The Finn's car buried itself and him in the tyre wall, but amazingly he appears to have escaped with only concussion and a sore elbow after experiencing 29Gs and an impact lasting 100 milliseconds (according to Martin Whitmarsh).
The local hero Fernando Alonso starting from second on the grid in what some of his fans have dubbed the Renault "family car", was immediately taken by Massa and then drove unchallenged in third place until, predictably, he became the first of the leaders to pit.
At the halfway point, Alonso had just inherited fifth place from BMW's Nick Heidfeld (who was penalised for re-fuelling when the pitlane was closed), when the Spaniard's engine caught fire, ending his race, to the disappointment of his thousands of fans, many of whom left before the finish.
Only 13 cars completed a race which saw a long safety car period while Kovalainen was recovered from his heavily-damaged car.
Rubens on his record-equalling 256th start, had a race to forget and retired after driving one lap with his front wing impaled under the front suspension.
A great qualifing session before a packed house at Montmelo saw Fernando drive his heart out to stick the Renault on provisional pole, only to be denied at the death by the Kimster who snatched the top spot by just under a tenth.
A Renault up at the top of the field is something we haven't seen for a long time and it will have given the French team a huge boost. An emotional Fernando said afterwards he was not expecting to be so competitive this weekend.
"I knew that only Kimi was running behind so when I crossed the line I knew it was front row in the worst case, so that is something we didn't expect at all, not in this race or maybe during the whole season, so I cannot be more happy than I am now," said the Asturian hero.
"The car feels better," he added. "I am happy with the car and we made a step forward no doubts. We found more at the test when we compared the changes back-to-back and we saw here a clear result, a big improvement in the car. All weekend it has been difficult with the track conditions. For the race we will see what we can do. But this second place of today is more than we expected for the whole weekend."
An up-beat but certainly not ecstatic Pat Symonds spoke in the paddock afterwards and indicated there is still a long way to go. He said he thought a podium finish tomorrow is unlikely and said he still believed there are six cars quicker than the Renaults(Ferrari, McLaren and BMW). He also said he believed McLaren were having a particularly poor weekend.
But Symonds stressed that second place on the grid was a big positive for a team which struggled through all of last year and has had a difficult start to this campaign. "We're not where we want to be. Let's enjoy the moment but let's not pretend it's anything that it isn't - mixing optimisim with realism is quite difficult to do in sport," he said. It will be interesting to see where Fernando pits tomorrow.
Apart from Fernando, significant points were the first pole for Kimi this season and the first time this year he has qualified ahead of Felipe. Once again Robert got in ahead of the McLarens and well ahead of his team-mate. The down to earth Pole is fast establishing himself as the de facto numero uno at BMW. But what of the McLarens? Lewis got in just ahead of Heikki but fifth and sixth on the grid is not where they want to be in a performance which seems to underline that the "silver arrows" are not on the pace just now. The "up and down" Williams team, meanwhile, had a "down" day with Kazuki 12th and Nico 15th.
As I write there is a typically hair-raising GP2 race entertaining the crowd...
This morning at Montmelo the Formula One team principals met in the Toyota motorhome to discuss KERS and then Mosley. Representatives of all the teams were present apart from Super Aguri. The Times understands that there was a clear majority of sentiment in opposition to Mosley continuing as president of the FIA. Seven teams were in favour of issuing a statement expressing concern(or similar) about his position with three against.
The teams who wanted to say something were, in no particular order:
Toyota
Force India
McLaren Mercedes
Honda
Williams
Renault
BMW Sauber
The teams who do not want to say anything
Red Bull
Ferrari
Toro Rosso
According to one knowledgable source Bernie Ecclestone, who chaired the meeting, sided with the majority. It is interesting that Mark Webber has spoken out against Mosley but his team as chosen not to.
Stop press: there are conflicting reports about Williams which may have expressed support for Mosley as against his probable successor Jean Todt. Also Ferrari may not have expressed a view. Needless to say speculation about the meeting is raging on a hot afternoon in Barca. There is no dispute however about Bernie's role or the majority view.
No doubt there will be more on this...
Mosley will not go away. I believe he enjoys the attention. Very sad all round. The sport, the FIA are all paying and here in Barcelona he once again overshadows the race. This time his much heralded(by his spin doctor Richard Woods) trip to Israel has been unceremoniously cancelled. It seems the Israeli sports mininster did not realise Mosley is an embarrassment and a man whose position is untenable. The withdrawal of the invite underlines that Mosley himself is unfit to represent the organisation he still leads. The Isrealis made clear they would like the FIA to come to Tel Aviv for talks but not Mosley.
Here is the statement from the Israeli sports minister: "The Minister for Science, Culture and Sport, Galeb Majadle, who is now in Jordan attending the WRC's Jordan Rally, met during the course of his visit with the president of the FIA, Mr Max Mosley.
"Their discussions were on the issues of motorsport in Israel, which is in its starting stages, and the support it receives from the FIA; and the suggestion that the FIA will follow closely the development of this sport in Israel.
"The Minister, who was not at all aware of the scandal currently surrounding Mosley's name, would like to make it now clear that his invitation was not intended to be personal to Mosley himself but rather to the representative of the FIA as a global organization.
"In any event, once the scandal was brought to the Minister's attention, he has requested to withdraw immediately any official invitation to Mosley until the matter is reviewed more thoroughly once back in Israel."
Super Aguri will race this weekend following an eleventh hour decision by Honda to come up with the cash to get them to the end of Sunday and then home again. This is believed to be in the region of $200,000(yes, Formula One is an expensive business).
Continue reading "Super Aguri get the green light" »
First practice was pretty uneventful apart from a couple of session-shortening errors from Felipe who spun twice and was restricted to just nine laps as a result of flat-spotting his tyres. The Ferraris look dominent and were half a second up on the McLarens, with Kimi leading the way from Felipe and then Lewis third.
At McLaren there does not seem to be too much concern but I think it is fair to say the paddock is generally expecting a Ferrari masterclass this weekend with Lewis and Heikki left to fight over third place. The same pattern may well hold for Turkey, but let's see...but we should always remember that practice can be very misleading.
Continue reading "Ooh Ahh, Felipe spins and "Pepe" is expecting..." »
I'm in Barcelona. It is great to be back at a circuit, ready for some track action. There is much to report but I am busy with the paper for now. Just one snippet that may be of interest. We saw Lewis today in the McLaren "brand centre" - the big round thing in the paddock - and he was asked about that terrible start he made in Bahrain. This was the moment a difficult weekend in the Gulf really went "west" for Lewis and it was largely responsible for him eventually finishing 13th.
This is what Lewis said about it: "Before you stop(on the grid) you are required to switch on the launch map. You have to do it before you stop. If you do stop and you haven't done it, you have a three second window. I stopped and I switched it on at four seconds. I thought it was on but it wasn't. So when I went into the sequence of doing the start, I realised it wasn't set in the right position and the anti-stall kicked in when I released the clutch. That was basically it - I had to try and pull away as quickly as possible."
Result: Lewis lost six places before the first corner and this was followed by his clash with Fernando. After that his race was more or less run.
 The price Fernando is paying for destroying his future with McLaren last season continues to rise. Having failed to cope with the challenge of Lewis and essentially getting himself fired(with a gagging clause to boot), the Spanish double world champion has already paid a big penalty by going back to Renault where his car is not good enough to even get him on the podium.
Now it seems his chance of baling out of Renault and heading to Maranello next year - which was the silver lining to his long black cloud - appears to have been eliminated. Normally when Luca di Montezemolo prounounces on the big issues of the day, his thoughts either dictate or anticipate future policy. In this case Montezemolo appears to have ruled out Fernando going to Ferrari and he did it with a dig in the Spaniard's side.
"To line up a Raikkonen-Alonso double act would mean wanting to damage yourself," Montezemolo told Gazzetta dello Sport when asked about a possible move for Fernando later this year. "I want two equal drivers that work together." Taken together those two remarks appear to imply that Montezemolo believes Alonso is not a team player and suggests too that the Ferrari president believes Alonso was the more disruptive of the two McLaren principals last season.
If this is so, it is bad news for Fernando and it reminds me of an off-the-record assessment of him by another team principal at the end of last season when speculation was raging about where he would hang his hat next. The team principal suggested that there were not quite as many outfits in the Formula One pitlane who were desperate to sign Fernando as Fernando himself seemed to believe. In other words, brilliant driver though he may be, his conduct out of the car had damaged his reputation and his employment prospects.
Continue reading "The price goes ever higher for Fernando Alonso" »
EG writes: As everyone has no doubt seen, there has been much discussion of Max Mosley's decision not to resign on this blog. To round things off before I head out to Barcelona, here are the collected thoughts of one of the most thoughtful correspondents on this site "D".
After his introductory remarks, he posits 12 key questions, the answers to which he believes lead to the right view of Mosley's conduct and what the FIA president should do now.
"D" writes: As a man Max Mosley is many things but the one thing above all, for which even his most ardent critics would give him credit, is that he is very, very clever.
He is not, however, wise. Wisdom and cleverness are different things: wisdom is about how a man applies his cleverness. And character is about whether a man applies his wisdom nobly.
Mosley is a man who has let down himself, his family, his friends and the prestigious organisation he serves as president by recklessly indulging with specialist prostitutes in financially commissioned
self-gratification of a deviant sexual nature that is repugnant to a great many people.
Continue reading ""D" gives chapter and verse on Mosley" »
Credit to Mark Webber who has never been afraid to speak his mind and has the courage and common sense to point out the damage the Mosley scandal is doing to the sport.
Webber did not specifically call for Mosley's resignation but his remarks can leave no one in any doubt that he believes a swift end to this miserable business is in the best interests of Formula One.
Continue reading "Mark Webber says it as it is" »
 I don't think I have ever done a post about Rubens, so here goes(I am using a brand new computer - as you all know, there are few experiences more weird than switching machines. This one is leading me towards glasses I fear). Anyway, the Brazilian will, by his own estimate, equal Ricardo Patrese's record for the most Grand Prix contested by one driver when he starts the Spanish Grand Prix in a week's time.
Rubens will have competed in no less than 256 races when he leaves Montmelo and he will become the outright record holder once he has done his work in Turkey two weeks later. It is a superb achievement and testament to Rubens's staying power and professionalism in managing to survive at the top, or near the top, of the sport for so long.
Continue reading "The record beckons for Rubens" »
EG writes: IDR is one of this blog's stalwart correspondents. Here he analyses the predictions you made in response to Manolidas's request. Have a read...
IDR writes: Well, as Manolidas has asked us for our best prediction for Montmeló, I have done some work (bloody work btw) to see how are our expectations:
I have taken all the predictions except GFEHR for obvious reasons (Sorry man but I’m still wondering what sarsuela is!) and JOAN comment because, as in the most of the occasions, is off topic.
The results come from 39 predictions (from MANOLIDAS to QED), including the doubts of ANON, the wishes of PHIL H, and the clever predictions (wishes?) of HENKKA'S SON (4 YRS).
For making the ranking I have taken the equivalent points of each prediction made by the posters. (I mean, each vote for 1rst. Position is equivalent to 10 points, and so on)
And the winners are:
Continue reading "IDR does the numbers on your predictions" »
EG writes: here is something interesting by my colleague at The Times, Kevin Eason, published in this morning's paper. (Kevin, by the way, was my predecessor as Motor Racing Correspondent).
Bernie Ecclestone wants Max Mosley to accept defeat
Kevin Eason, The Insider
The public stance has been one of constant support in the face of blistering worldwide condemnation, but behind the closed doors of his offices in London's fashionable district of Kensington, Bernie Ecclestone is turning up the pressure to resign on Max Mosley, his old friend and the president of the FIA, Formula One's governing body.
Ecclestone, who could claim to be the creator of the modern Formula One, is increasingly alarmed at the reaction to tabloid tales of Mosley's alleged Nazi orgy with five prostitutes. The Mosley affair even cast a shadow over the funeral on Wednesday of Richard Lloyd, the motor racing entrepreneur who died in a plane crash last month. Some of the most famous names in motor racing - including Damon Hill and John Watson, the former drivers - were in the church in Brackley, Northamptonshire, and then met in the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) at Silverstone, where there was one hot topic of conversation.
Overwhelming opinion at the BRDC was that Mosley must stop fighting his corner and go with some dignity. One close friend of Ecclestone said last night: “President Mosley is in danger of becoming motor racing's President Mugabe.”
The drip, drip of unrest from within the boardrooms of some of Formula One's big sponsors is also having an effect. Ecclestone did not become a billionaire building Formula One into box-office business without being astute and his soundings tell him that the time has come for Mosley to accept defeat.
Manolidas writes: I suggest a game for Barcelona race to guess the final result of the race.
The results will be:
1- Raikonnen
2- Kubica
3- Hamilton
4- Alonso
I would like to see other people forecast for Barcelona Race.
Just a quick catch-up. The news about Sebastian Vettel is encouraging for him and fully justified(he is tipped to move to Red Bull next season presumably at the expense of DC). My only concern for him - who is highly regarded in the paddock as a genuinely quick driver with a mature head - is whether Red Bull is the right destination and not something a little more competitive. I suppose he has to take a view on Red Bull's prospects and also he is still very young and can afford several seasons outside the top-three. It will be interesting to see how he gets on.
Meanwhile we hear that Max Mosley has got an invite to Jordan for the World Rally Championship event next weekend. His people are trumpeting this as the first evidence of a rehabilitation. We shall see. My colleague in the Guardian, the legendary Alan Henry, wrote it up as a development which "will come as a relief to the organisers of the Spanish Grand Prix" who will thus avoid the "tricky issue" of the King having to come across Mosley on the grid.
Form in the last five races
Kimi: 1st(China), 1st(Brazil), 8th(Aus), 1st(Mal), 2nd(Bah), 39points
Felipe: 3, 2, DNF, DNF, 1, 24pts
Nick: 7, 6, 2, 6, 4, 21pts
Robert: DNF, 5, DNF, 2, 3, 18pts
Lewis: DNF, 7, 1, 5, 13, 16pts
(I have added Heikki which is a bit unfair because of his change of team)
Heikki: 9, DNF, 5, 3, 5, 14pts
Thinking about Lewis's recent form, I noticed a useful table in this week's edition of Autosport magazine which compares his performance with his main rivals and links up the end of last season with the beginning of this one. This, of course is pretty hard on Lewis, because the data begins just when his form dipped. Still, it makes interesting reading and he comes out last in terms of points scored as compared with Kimi(1st), Felipe(2nd), Nick(3rd), Robert(4th), Lewis(5th).
On Lewis there are a number of issues. First, to what extent his performances over this period are down to his own failings or to those of the team. China will remain a debatable one; had Lewis been a more experienced driver he would have come in for tyres whether his team wanted him to or not. But equally, had McLaren not been so tactically inflexible the calamity on the pitlane entrance would never have happened.
Brazil: Lewis made a big error tangling with Fernando at the start which was completely unnecessary and then there was the mysterious business with his car. If you are a conspiracy theorist you blame the dark forces; if you are a Ferrari staffer or a dyed-in-the-wool Alonsoist, you blame Lewis for pushing the wrong button; if you are a senior McLaren manager(Whitmarsh) you blame a technical glitch. I, genuinely, have no idea, but again the point is debatable.
Australia was a perfect score, then came Malaysia. Here I would blame the team more than Lewis. Both he and Heikki were penalised for driving on the racing line in qualifying. OK you may say the drivers were at fault(and they were warned on the radio apparently) but the race went haywire in the pits when the mechanics could not get his front right wheel off. Motivated anti-Lewis agitators blame this on his aggressive driving up until that point which is a little far-fetched I would imagine.
Continue reading "Lewis's recent form(and that of his rivals)" »
EG writes: some of you have expressed an interest in hearing a Finnish perspective so here is one from our very own Finland correspondent, Heini, who sent this in a comment on the post "Frozen Season."
Heini writes: I want to answer the question about how Finns see Kimi and Heikki.
Of course this is mostly my own opinion but we are very excited for both of them. It's great to have two Finns in the top teams both fighting for the championship. And we do want to see them really race against each other as well as everybody else.
Heikki is maybe cheered a bit more because he is a more outgoing person than Kimi and it's easier to like him. And we do expect Heikki to win the championship some year, maybe even sooner than later. In the Finnish media both drivers are treated as equals. I personally like Kimi a little bit more, though Heikki is very close behind.
Then there's also Nico Rosberg who has Finnish nationality though at the moment he's driving for Germany(we would like that to change.) Nico's father, Keke, is respected in Finland (having won the F1 championship) and that respect also covers Nico. But because Nico hasn't lived in Finland and doesn't speak Finnish quite many aren't ready to say he is a Finn.
In conclusion, we hope to see two Finns in the podium as first and second (never mind in which order Kimi and Heikki would be). We've seen that many times in rallying, so why not in F1 also :)
It has been obvious for some time that many teams who have no chance of winning this year are moving their design and engineering resources to their 2009 cars much earlier than normal. Most teams are already well ahead on their 2009 programmes with Williams, for example, already devoting one tunnel full time to it, well before the normal switch-over in about June/July.
Now Ross Brawn has admitted that there will be just one more update to Honda's current car after the Barcelona upgrade and then that will be it. The danger in all of this - or the likelihood - being that once the running order is established in the middle and lower part of the grid this season, the teams will effectively give up and just go through the motions for the rest of the year.
For those unfamiliar with the reasons behind this(I looked at this issue on the blog back in March), the new aero regulations for next year plus other rule changes(KERS, slicks) are going to produce radically different and much "cleaner" looking cars. It has been "back to the drawing board" for the designers and engineers and the smaller or less competitive teams sense a great opportunity to catch up. But they need to start early and that is what they are doing. Williams see a big opportunity as do Honda(the first "Brawn Honda) and Force India, for example.
While the mid and lower order may freeze, the top three teams cannot afford to slow down the intensive rate of development on their 2008 cars for fear of losing a possible championship. So the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and BMW are going to have to be very careful how they balance out their effort. I spoke to Mario Theissen about this in Bahrain and he admitted he was worried about it, especially given the fact that BMW has only one tunnel(it also has "Albert" the supercomputer, however.) Stefano Domenicali expressed the same anxiety on behalf of Ferrari. It all makes for an interesting mix for '09, even if the impact on this season may not be wholly positive.
Just a quick comment from me to say how exciting it is to see the level of debate go up and up here. There are so many good points being made by so many people. A great medium is being used properly by people all over the world.
I find this situation incredible. Whether we agree with the methods used to catch him or not, Max Mosley has been exposed as a person unfit to hold public office. He is clearly unfit to head up a worldwide body representing millions of ordinary people and a body, which under his leadership, has made a strong suit of doing the right thing, standing up for high moral principle and setting an example.
As others have said, if Mosley had been the head of an Olympic committee, a politician or the CEO of a public company he would have been required to resign immediately. I have read all sorts of moral arguments in his favour and against him in recent days but my gut feeling that his decision to stay on is wrong has only increased. In fact I would argue that the only element in this sordid and sad tale that is more incredible than what went on in that basement flat in Chelsea, is the fact that Mosley has the appetite, the elephantine skin, the sheer nerve to continue.
Thus we will all have to deal with this for weeks and maybe months. Surely Mosley can see that the right thing to do was to spare the reputation of the FIA and step down while he cleared his name or whatever it is he hopes to achieve in court? Had he stepped down immediately, I am sure there would have been a lot of laughter and a lot of outrage(as there would have been anyway) but he would also have received justified sympathy for having done the right thing in very difficult circumstances. Mosley would have salvaged some dignity in his exit and would have been seen to have put the sport and the organisation he represents ahead of his own interests.
Looking forward, how much fear is in play here? The FIA strikes me as a den of deal-making and favours given and returned, with Mosley's intimidating presence at the top. How many people who make up its 222-member General Assembly have the guts, the moral backbone to stand up to their president and do the right thing? For example what about the British affiliate, the Motor Sports Association(MSA). Why has this organisation said nothing about Mosley? Are we to assume by its silence that it supports him? If so why? I called them and was told that the MSA believes it is in the "interests" of British motorsport to keep quiet.
I quote: "It's a complicated and difficult situation and the MSA has to do what is in the best interests of British motorsport. Right now the mechanism is in place for June 3rd and that will be followed through and there will be a ballot...there is nothing that anyone will say now that will have any impact in the intervening period."
With all due respect to them, this is nonsense and is almost certainly at odds with the correspondence they have been getting from their members. (Even they admit "not all of it is supportive"). If enough national bodies make clear in advance that they will oppose Mosley on June 3rd, then everyone, including him, can be spared a lot of trouble, a lot of money wasted, and we can move on.
Mosley is buying time. He knows that fatigue will set in in the media and the story will ebb away. But his unfitness for office will not change. He may get some benefit as the weeks proceed. However I would guess that this affair is going to seep like an open wound and infect everything the FIA does between now and then and especially its most prestigious championship, Formula One where, privately(and in some cases publicly) Mosley has little or no support.
I just had a look at the "dashboard" for this blog and noticed that, for the first time, the number of visitors or readers from the United States has jumped above Spain. It seems the Mosley scandal may be behind this.
The figures below show the number of visits to the site over the last month. Those of you who read the blog last year will notice a sharp fall-off in Spanish readers and a big increase in British ones.
Last season Spanish readers were running neck-and-neck at the head of the table with the Brits(at about 35,000 each). This obviously reflects Fernando's less competitive position this year(because he is in a Renault) and his split from McLaren.
There is world map page on the dashboard which is fascinating and enables you to highlight any country and see how many visits there have been to the site.
Just in case any of these are you, here is a random selection of territories which are not in the top-10. Russia, 318; Kazakhstan, 16; India, 890; Kenya, 188; Burkina Faso, 1; Angola, 2; Paraguay, 6; Guatemala, 11; Iceland, 85. Welcome all.
Top-10 nations for readers of The Times F1 Blog
1. United Kingdom 81,366
2. United States 20,774
3. Spain 12,504
4. Canada 5,788
5. Australia 5,318
6. France 4,317
7. Germany 3,762
8. Finland 2,207
9. Netherlands 1,731
10. Italy 1,710
This was the weirdest race I've ever been to. I have now attended 29 Grand Prix and this one was in a class of its own. It is hard to overstate the degree to which the Mosley affair dominated life in the paddock and media centre.
To give you an indication, as I have already said, watching practice on Friday was almost impossible; during the race itself I actually stopped watching at one point, either on the screens or trackside, to have a meeting(unheard of) while at the end, I didn't even notice that the drivers on the podium were not given champagne. Of course, you may put that down to slovenly reportage and ignorance; my guess is that I was talking to someone, or several people, about Mosley. After the race there was the strange experience of writing a race report(sport) and then turning to a completely separate piece on the latest revelations in sado-masochism(scandal). Anyway, hopefully you get the picture.
Racewise, and particularly from the point of view of my British readers, the outstanding element was Lewis's errors which were so unusual last year. The key one was at the start when he selected the wrong engine setting and the car went into anti-stall. This was the moment his race went awry and why he found himself behind Fernando in 10th place on lap two. Lewis's mistake on the grid was classic rookie behaviour. If he had done that at the Bahrain Grand Prix last season, no one would have been in the least bit surprised. All the more odd that it happened this year. There was some talk pre-season about "second season syndrome." Perhaps that is what we are now seeing.
Continue reading "Reflections on a Grand Prix in Bahrain - a race overshadowed" »
EG writes: This is proving a great day for the readers of this blog. Here is "D", writing an "off-topic" comment, reminding us of those killed in years gone by and especially Ayrton Senna and the great Jim Clark.
 D writes: 40 years ago today, at Hockenheim...
For most people in whom motor racing is central to their lives 1 May 1994 is seared into their souls for its savagery. The legendary Ayrton Senna was killed.
And Rattie, too, the day before.
But those of us who are getting on in years remember the times when Formula One was much more dangerous and the loss of those we knew well was sadly a much more frequent occurrence.
Elio de Angelis, Ronnie Peterson, Jo Siffert, François Cevert, Pedro Rodriguez, Roger Williamson, Peter Revson, Jochen Rindt, Piers Courage, Bruce McLaren... It's a horribly long list.
There was, however, one whose death and whose loss shattered everyone in a way that none of us who were around at the time have ever been able to get out of our hearts and our memories.
Jim Clark.
At Hockenheim, on the 7th of April 1968.
The whole world changed, devastatingly, for a great many people that day, and has never been the same since. Innocence was lost forever. The greatest and the nicest of them all had been taken. To be the best was not enough.
Many a silent tear will be shed, across the globe, today.
(Sorry this is off-topic.)
Pic of Jim Clark's grave courtesy of "D"
EG writes(again): On the subject of Jim Clark, some of you may be interested in this piece from my second race
Lewis switched to a one-stop strategy after he ran into the back of Fernando Alonso on lap two. Have you determined the cause of the accident?
"It’s an interesting situation for those of us on the pit wall, because you see an incident such as that and have to respond in terms of pulling him in, getting the car repaired, looking at fuel load options that might help him recover and so on. At the time we didn’t actually know how it all unfolded, however. People come up immediately after the race and ask, "So, was he brake-tested?" and you can’t answer. It is assumed that you are being evasive, but in truth you simply don’t know. It was only when I went into the engineers’ room and started looking at the details that I realised Lewis’s upper front wing had disappeared about two seconds before the accident, so he suddenly lost downforce. We haven’t analysed why that happened but we suspect the structure had been weakened by previous contact. To be fair to Lewis it could have broken of its own accord, but that has never happened before so contact is the most likely cause. There’s certainly no evidence that Fernando did anything wrong. The impact damaged other elements of Lewis’s car apart from the wing - he just had to cope as best he could."
EG writes: The above is from McLaren's official race de-brief released today. BTW there are tons of comments waiting to be published on this subject. I will try to get round to putting them up but that "day job" of mine(and sleep deprivation) is getting in the way again...
EG writes: Daniel sent this as a comment. Have a read:
"What I don't understand is this. Fernando is ahead of Lewis, so Fernando gets on the power on the exit of the corner before Lewis does and therefore appears to pull away from Lewis, as viewed from Lewis's car.
Now if that is generally the case, and having watched F1 since the mid 80's and I've not seen any different, how did Lewis so rapidly catch up with Fernando, enough to be able to collide with him? Does he have some sort of "warp speed" button that we are unaware of? Can someone please explain how this can happen other than Fernando lifting off the throttle when he would typically have been under hard acceleration? It just doesn't make sense to me."
My "day job" has taken up a little bit too much time and now I am rushing for a flight home overnight. Just a very quick note on the race. Above all I thought this was a superb masterclass from Felipe who went into the race under big pressure. He out-drove his team-mate - much to his critics' surprise and did not put a foot wrong. The Brazilian is back and he will most likely be a contender this year.
For Lewis the race, as he said himself, was a disaster. He screwed up the start which is very unlike him and then it looks most likely that he made a mistake running too hard and aggressively behind Fernando. I spoke to Pat Symonds about this after the race and he showed me the relevant data from Fernando's car. Although no expert, I could see that there was no sudden change in the lines of the graphs. Pat agreed that the notion that Fernando had "lifted" was "rubbish".
So all in all a rotten day for Lewis and for McLaren who look pretty shaky after their dream start in Melbourne which already seems a long time ago. In the paddock, Ferrari were naturally beaming but so were BMW and rightly so. The Hinwil-based team of realists and careful spenders are making progress and everyone was talking about it. Sooner or later circumstances are going to play into their hands and a first win will be the result.
That's about it for now. After the heat and dust of the desert, it's back to the snow of southern England. Perfect. But what a weekend...
Max Mosley who will have enjoyed five more pages of coverage in this morning's News of the World, reacted with fury when he discovered that the Crown Prince of Bahrain's letter disinviting him from this afternoon's race had appeared in The Times.
According to well-placed sources he got on the phone to Bernie Ecclestone who happened to be sitting with the Crown Prince in Bahrain at the time and completely lost his temper. He is alleged to have shouted various things which were extremely uncomplimentary about Bahrain and about his future travel plans which are not thought to have included this part of the Gulf.
It is not clear whether the phone was on the speaker setting or whether the Crown Prince simply got the gist of what was being said from Bernie's reaction. (It is also possible, I suppose, that the prince could actually hear Mosley's raised voice). Either way the president of the FIA is thought later to have phoned the Bahraini ruler to apologise.
Although the race is on this afternoon, the press room and the paddock has, once again, been transfixed by the Mosley scandal. I would say the general view here is that Mosley's claim that there was no Nazi element to what happened in that Chelsea basement 10 days ago, has been discredited by this week's edition of the NoW. As I have said before there is no way Mosley can or should survive this and the quicker he, and those who can influence him realise this, the better.
At the risk of repeating myself, there is not a single voice in the paddock here raised in his favour apart from Richard Woods, the FIA spokesman(who is not having a very good week at the office) and Alan Donnelly(an unnofficial spokesman for Mosley). As one team principal representing a large multi-national put it: "There is no way back and we want this dealt with quickly."
McLaren held their regular "Meet the team" press conference in the team hospitality area after qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
I asked Ron about the recent letter Mosley sent to Bernie about the change of plan on the McLaren garage allocation. Mosley(writing pre-scandal) proposed that the compromise arrangement devised by Bernie which put McLaren at No. 5 in the pitlane in both Australia and Malaysia be abandoned and McLaren go back to the bottom of the 'lane where they now are.
Some of you will have read about this on an earlier post on this blog in which I quoted Bernie as follows: "Then I had a letter from Max the other day explaining - he said Bernie, I have had a lot of complaints from people saying that you sort of arbitrarily put Ron there which is something you've never done before. You've always been very strict no matter who the team is and suddenly, out of the blue, you do this and the teams are complaining. So I think you ought to follow what you've been doing for 30 years and put them where they should be which is at the end of the pit lane."
Since this became public none of the teams have said publically that they complained. I asked Ron if he knew who had complained and he gave a one-word answer: "No". Then I asked him if he had heard of anybody complaining and again he said "No". The implication was - and I am pretty sure most people heard it that way - that McLaren had been moved on a pretext.
I put this to the FIA's spokesman who said he could "confirm" that "there have been complaints." So the FIA or Mosley is sticking to its claim that the move was made in response to complaints and that there was no other motive involved. It all seems a little odd but then again after the week we've had normality seems a long way off.
The Times Formula One blog decided, on this occasion, to test the waters for itself and conducted a one-end-of-paddock-to-the-other survey of the teams to find out just who did complain. Here are the results.
In answer to the question "did you complain to the FIA about the McLaren garage allocation?", the following answers were given. In many cases the source was what you might call "very senior". In the cases of Ferrari(Luca Colajanni) and Honda(Nick Fry) the response was on the record.
Force India: "No"
Super Aguri: "No"
Honda: "No"
Toro Rosso: "No"
Toyota: "No"
Red Bull: "No"
Williams: "No"
Renault: "No"
BMW Sauber: "No"
Ferrari: "No"
Cleary something does not quite add up here...
Yes the "Pole on pole" headlines are upon us and congratulations to Robert after another scorching drive in qualifying to claim his first pole in Formula One and the first for BMW Sauber. The team from Hinwil is making the impact it hoped as Mario's masterplan continues. This is all the more impressive given the problems BMW had early in testing with the new car.
It is interesting that it has been Robert and not Nick who has got his car on the front row twice so far this season, fully vindicating the judgement of several of his rival drivers who rate him as among the very best(even if his dream is to become a rally driver). Lewis has said as much as has Fernando. The issue now is the BMW race pace which is not yet a match for Ferrari and McLaren and what Robert can realistically do tomorrow.
Felipe(2nd) had a good day though he was obviously disappointed not to finish at the top after dominating practice. But he still has an excellent platform to finally get his season underway and take his first win. The Brazilian has looked impatient to get on with it all weekend and he knows that he can't afford any more howlers.
Lewis has looked and sounded subdued since his big off on Friday afternoon. It is clear the McLarens are struggling for pace against the Ferraris but, on the positive side, he has got himself ahead of Kimi(fourth) and ahead of his team-mate Heikki(fifth). For the team it will have been gratifying to see Lewis back up there after the mechanics spent most of the night preparing his car which ran with a new chassis.
Other pointers, Nico is back in the thick of it for Williams after the aberration of Malaysia and Honda's performance(Jenson 9th, Rubens 12th) again underlines that Ross Brawn has got a bad car further forward than most were expecting. For Renault it looks like a hard grind as Fernando has said with the Spaniard finishing 10th and Nelson 14th.
There was a nice touch at the end when Fernando waited for Robert to get out of his car to personnally congratulate him. Robert is one of the most popular drivers in Formula One. There are no airs and graces about him and he has remained true to himself despite the money and attention that has come his way. He has got a great sense of humour and he is a courageous competitor - a great addition to the top drawer.
Here is some food for thought on Mosley from my colleague at The Times, Matthew Syed and a reposte from Daniel Finkelstein.
A report from the front line of Formula One in the Kingdom of Bahrain - a business activity, a den of politicking and conspiracy theorists and last of all a sport. I tell you, it is impossible to watch what is going on on the track today and I am failing in my duty to do that because the whole place is Mosley-obsessed.
If you get five minutes to yourself you are lucky. The jokes, the speculation, the predictions, the conspiracy theories, the jokes, the speculation, the predictions. Just as I was writing this, I have had to stop again for a further bit of speculation from a visiting colleague. Mosley has completely overshadowed this event and I suspect, until he g |
There will only ever be one James Hunt. My wife adored him so did millions of Britons. A vulnerable individual in many ways from what I can tell but with a wild and rebellious streak. A night in the pub with him would certainly have been character-forming. (Interesting that Kimi chose to call himself "James Hunt" when entering that skiddoo race in the pre-season last year).
