Be Excellent To Each Other

Quite frankly, considering Chris Langhams body of work in comedy throughout the last thirty years, I think he is entitled to the pick of the nursery.

I assume my sarcasm detector has failed to fire here.

But just in case, of COURSE no-one's saying that but "The thick of it" doesn't suddenly become a bad show or his acting bad just because of that incident. The reaction to Eccelstone's comments could be summarised thusly.

"Langham was excellent in the thick of it"

"YOU LIKE TO TOUCH CHILDREN"

And that's just crap.

This is getting boring now.

It's FOTA not Fota, you Bbc dicks.

Wrong. BBC is an initialism, whereas -ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRK *irony death*

I thought I'd check if I needed to aim my acronym anger vertically - because the Metro was also using 'Fota' - but

The BBC seem to use it for a lot of acronyms. Wipa is another one I've noticed today (West Indies Player Assocation).

Fifa, Nasa?

NASA is definitely also all-capitals, as WIPA should be. I've no idea if Fifa is a valid acronym or not.

The fact that it's the bloody Bbc doing it, not just any old incompetent media outlet, makes it more annoying.

Yeah, I'm just saying that's what BBC seem to use.

Yet they get FIA and WMSC* correct in that same article. Baffling.

* And their own acroname, of course**
** And CNN and RTE, in the external links sidebar***
*** And FAQs, in the Contact Us page.

Perhaps FOTA isn't in the auto-correction dictionary on their copy of Word yet.

I've already explained why, though. It seems to be BBC standard that any acronym only has capitalisation in the first initial because they're pronounced as words. FIA and WMSC aren't.

Well, you said "initialism" which I've never heard of, but I have heard of acronym, which they are, and acronyms are written all-caps. Especially when the entity itself does it that way.

Major lolz. Do you not remember a certain former poster losing his rag about this a while back?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym_and_initialism

NB: Wiki capitalise all their acronyms; I'm not sure why BBC don't. I think it's to differentiate between the two.

Is nitpicking meant to be hyphenated or not?

It is nitpicking, yes, but I'm trying to come up with a reason why the BBC would do it. That seems the only plausible explanation. Fota you'd pronounce as a word; you don't say 'EFF OH TEE AY'. FIA you say 'EFF AYE AY'.

*shrugs*

No. And "anger" was too strong a word, it's just annoying, especially from the BBC. It's not my fault people keep saying "but it's okay really" when it's not really.

Je. Sus.

Anyway, this isn't a discussion for the F1 thread.

EFF - WON

Good grief, Massa was unlucky yesterday. A spring fell from the rear suspension of Barrichello's car during qualifying, bounced along the track and smacked Massa in the head. Very Hard. At 175mph. Massa was rendered semi conscious and subsequently ploughed straight across the next corner into the tyre wall. Apparently the spring broke his helmet just above the visor, fracturing his forehead just above his left eye. youtube clip of accident

Barrichello was already talking about the possibility of retiring this year; he's such a nice man that I wonder if it definitely being his suspension might seal it.

Interesting race going on.

Almost strange to see Hamilton back at the front and Button struggling...

That was a good one, as much for the failures and effect on the championships as anything.

That's unfortunate, and strangely coincidental given the death of up and coming Formula 2 superstar Henry John Surtees last weekend.

For those who don't know, he was racing (Brand's Hatch, I think) and the guy in front came off the track and crashed, and one of the guy's wheels came off the car and bounced across the track, hitting Surtees on the head as he drove past. Killed him instantly.

Here's an interesting thought - will Ferrari ask Schumacher to come out of retirement to fill in during Massa's recovery? It's unlikely I admit but it is an intriguing possibility which I suspect he would turn down if asked.

Massa is out of immediate danger, but apparently there is a lot of damage to his left eye. That could easily mean the end of his F1 career.

Worryingly, though...

He's already said no, but whether Ferrari asked is unknown.

Don't they have test drivers who would be the normal choice? Or don't they even have test drivers any more what with not being allowed to do as much testing?

Most teams seem to have 'reserve' drivers now as testing only occurs out of season.

Have you seen the Ferrari test drivers? Luca Badoer and Marc Gene. Its fair to say that if Nigel Mansell declared himself available, they would leap at the opportunity.

How about Mika Hakkinnen? I'd love to see how he'd do against the new guys.

They should definitely get Jackie Stewart to do it.

Squeeze Brundle back into the cockpit, and mic him up.

I wonder whether this (and that new Toro Rosso kid, who everyone was worrying about at the weekend) may lead them to revisit the no-testing rule. There must be some way that they can get replacement drivers some track time, otherwise whoever goes out in Valencia is going to be seriously underprepared and potentially dangerous.

Piquet has been shit though. Did he serve his time as a tester?

He was all right last season. I don't know what's happened.

He turned off the driving assists.

No, he was shit last year, and served as test driver the year before.



Pretty much, yes. He'd have to have a fairly large bone waved in front of his face, considering such things as the car not being overly fantastic, what happened to Mansells reputation when he rejoined. Fitness worries and the like. He retired for a reason you know.

For other reasons, it's highly unlikely Alonso is going to race for ferrari. For a start, I don't see the renaults missing Spain - Appeal will at least postpone the race suspension (See: Schumacher being allowed to race in germany in 1994, also: Valencias ticket sales problem) but sponsors wouldn't allow it anyway. Alonso is contracted to Renault.

I'd be surprised if anyone other than one of the test drivers raced in Valencia considering Ferrari are on the record as mainly looking to 2010, and by all accounts they're very good at development work.

Where Alonso drives depends on who Santander sponsor next season.

He actually did in a pit-lane interview I heard on Five Live during the Moto GP on Sunday. Quite whether he meant to though, I'm not sure. His actual words, when discussing his youth riding bikes and being asked if a return to competition in motocross was on the cards, were "no... cars maybe, but not bikes, no".

Where Alonso drives next year isn't what I was talking about.

But despite that, both Ferrari drivers are contracted to Ferrari next year, so Ferrari would have to break a contract to fit him in. It seems unlikely that Raikkonen will break any performance related clause. Santander are sponsoring Ferrari next year, but that aside, I'd take anything the press say with a pinch of salt, given he was also 'going to Ferrari' in 2009, in 2008, in 2007 and in 2006.

Bye, bye, BMW.

That's a shame. The Sauber always had plenty of power, but it didn't seem to be able to go around corners.

They've had an appalling season so far. They really should've worked on the car more last season and given Kubica a tilt at the title.

So, time for some wild speculation; Kubica to Ferrari and Heidfeld to Brawn for next season.

Kubica to Renault, PK out, Heidfeld out.

Heidfeld to Ferrari, Kubica to queen 3 check.

You've sunk my battleship!

Leg before Piquet.