The Canadian Grand Prix has been dropped from the 2009 Formula One calendar. Why? Who the hell knows. Instead it gets replaced by the Turkish Grand Prix.
In the vein of things making music that normally don’t, like Tesla coils, I present a Renault Formula One V10 singing God Save The Queen:
If that doesn’t whet your appetite, how about La Marseillaise?
F1 Fanatic played this game and I thought I would too. I haven’t looked at their choices, so I’m interested to see how opinions match. Here goes, in 2007 Championship points order:
A few explanations are in order, I think. Kimi is “opposite” because he seems to be the opposite of what everybody thinks of him. For some stupid reason his nickname is “Iceman” because he’s cool and collected, when he’s nothing of the sort! He’s a throwback to the playboy driver years of the 70s. He shoves course workers when he’s crashed. He always — always — takes a nice long swig out of the bottle of champagne when he’s on the podium. He’s about as far from an “iceman” as you could get.
Nick Heidfeld is “fourth” because he always seemed to place fourth this season.
Jenson Button is the British driver of “yesterday”, thanks to Lewis Hamilton.
Takuma Sato is accident-”prone”, crash-”prone”, and also excitement-”prone”, such as when he overtook Fernando Alonso in the closing laps of the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix.
Rubens Barrichello is “poor”, as in “poor Rubens crashed again” or “poor Rubens has a shitty car”.
The ones that are blank I couldn’t think up names to. My faithful readers can undoubtedly come up with some good one-word descriptions!
F1Fanatic has the shocking news: Ralf Schumacher will not be racing for Toyota in 2008. This comes as no surprise to anybody following Formula 1, as Ralf’s performance in the past three years has been sub-par, especially when you consider the rumours that Ralf’s paycheque is one of the highest in the championship.
In 2007 Ralf has scored a measly five championship points. His qualifying performance has been absymal, occasionally failing to make it out of the first qualifying round. This is unacceptable for a team the size of Toyota, which is rumoured to have the highest budget in all of Formula 1.
It didn’t start out this way for Ralf and Toyota, as in 2005 he finished sixth in the Drivers’ Championship and helped Toyota take fourth in the Constructors’, only 12 points behind Ferrari. 2006 was a disappointment. Ralf scored 20 points and finished tenth and the team finished sixth. And 2007 is worse yet: Ralf is in fourteenth place and Toyota is again in sixth, but would be in seventh had McLaren not been stripped of their points.
Clearly Toyota’s strategy of having two seasoned veterans in place for multiple years isn’t working. That’s not to say that the drivers are the sole reason behind Toyota’s failure to make it out of the midpack: the massive budget clearly doesn’t result in a car that can go fast. But drivers are often the easiest part of the package to replace, and bringing in a new driver can revitalize a team. It’s rumoured that Timo Glock, 2007 GP2 champion, will be brought in to replace Schumacher.
That could be a good fit, as Timo has raced in Formula One before. He’s contracted to BMW, but they’ve already confirmed Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica for 2008.
And where would Ralf go? F1Fanatic suggests Williams, Super Aguri, Spyker, or ProDrive. I like the fifth option: retirement.
I’ve never been a fan of Ralf Schumacher. I think he’s an average driver who never shows any passion for driving a Formula 1 car. He rarely displays any rationalization for his massive paycheque or Toyota’s devotion to him. I don’t think a young team (like Spyker or ProDrive) would be well-served by him coming on board — Toyota was helped briefly when he started with them but since then they’ve languished in the midfield. And Williams would be taking a huge step back in bringing Ralf back. No, I think the only option Ralf should take is retirement.
Ralf, you followed your brother into Formula 1, and as far as I’m concerned you can follow him right back out.
Remember Monaco 2006, when Michael Schumacher parked his car at Rascasse, robbing Fernando Alonso of his speed and thus his pole? Schumacher was punished for that, but if he wasn’t, ITV are reporting that
Alonso planned to lie down in front of Michael Schumacher’s car on the starting grid at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix if the stewards did not penalise the German for intentionally stopping his Ferrari at Rascasse during qualifying.
Now that’s the way to protest! None of this appealing to the FIA International Court of Appeals garbage. Settle your disputes on the racetrack, literally!
