Be Excellent To Each Other

For his talent and ability, he's not an easy guy to like, is he?

I don't care what he's like as long as he wins races. I've had enough of useless Brits who are nice. See also Andy Murray.

I don't understand why it's necessary to like him. He's a racer, which is a good thing in my mind and something F1 seems to be lacking enough of. I'm bored shitless of all the "fast" drivers out there who seem to be simply content to be in F1 and don't have the talent or ego to want to win at all costs. Hell, being able to pilot a car fast is one thing, be able to race for position while piloting a car fast is another level up entirely. It's far more entertaining to witness someone alive behind the wheel pushing hard than some "twat" at the end of the race making the usual tired excuses of why, even though he was a second a lap faster in real terms he got stuck behind a slower car for 20 laps as he didn't have the balls to overtake. That's the main problem with F1 for me.

I have no problem with someone talented and arrogant. I can't stand false modesty almost as much as I dislike arrogant people with no talent.

I'd like to see Hamilton win this year but I have real concerns he'll throw it away like last year - I didn't watch any of the interviews of pre/post race commentary as I find it crushingly pointless and dull, so have no real idea of who made the wrong decision with regard to his tyre choice for Q2. Still, ITV's coverage is bad enough to almost warrant it's own thread. I quite like Martin Brundle, Steve Rider is only there as it's his company that produces the show - he's a waste of space and Mark Blundell is king of the pointless witterers. James Allen, though I concede he is a big F1 fan, should simply stay one as he's no more qualified to commentate than I am.

James was a really excellent pit lane guy.

He's 1 step above his head on this one.

I can't wait for it to be back on the BBC.

It's a funny one isn't it. To say I can't stand him as a commentator is an understatement, yet I quite like his writing, when he does post race analysis, but the most level headed analysis of F1 I've come across is Mark Hughes on ITV's F1 site. He cuts through all the bullshit that is so endemic in the sport.

I actually watched this one on Star Sports Malaysia (as it was the first torrent to finish, I was out all weekend) and they had one main commentator who was a mistake prone idiot and an analysis commentator who was level headed, constantly correcting the main guy and absolutely brilliant.

The more things change...

It does baffle me that they fly these bastards all over the world to sit in a room, probably with no windows, watching exactly the same feed as us and tell us what were seeing!

Speed don't fly the main team, I've no idea if Star does.

They do have windows though. More than once, especially in enduros, the Eurosport guys have managed to keep tabs on off camera things because they have a view of the pits.

I'd like him to win, but mainly as I've been a McLaren supporter for more years than I can remember. (I do tend towards being non partisan in most things, so I'm generally happy so long as Ferrari don't win, and of all the other teams, I do like TR the most, simply due to having Gerhard Berger as boss, and Mr Berger being a completely excellent guy, and certainly one I want to be happy. I was very pleased to see him on the podium again)

Meanwhile, we have Alonso doing his usual job about complaining about Hamilton (First his talk about the chicanes last week... apparently he wouldn't cut them and take an advantage - Monaco 2005 would seem to disagree with him there in the most emphatic terms, twice) and now about his overtaking here. He's turning into the new Prost in his ability to whine endlessly.



You have no idea how many people I wanted to badly hurt after seeing James Allen and Damon Hill having a fit when Jenson Button won in 2006. (Alright, you probably do, it was two.) Compared to the kind of hype about Button, the Hamilton thing is mild. Plus, Hamilton has actually been leading the world Championship for the majority of the last two years, so it's kind of expected that they'll talk about him. As for Blundell, he was terribly boring when being interviewed as a racer, I don't see why they thought it would be a good thing to employ him to talk to people, as he's bloody awful at it.

It's more to do with the fact that he appears to have nothing interesting or informative to say when discussing qualifying tactics or the race in general. He seems incapable of making intelligent analysis of any fashion and all he seemed to do this weekend was hold Steve Rider's umbrella like a good little boy happy to be allowed to wear a pit pass.

I will admit, I laughed. I laughed for a long time.

Overall, I quite enjoyed that, helped by the ferraris cocking up in style.

Bwahahahahaha!

Apart from the fuck up in the pits, race was dull.

Yup, another dull as fucking dishwater race. Circuit looks awesome from the air, but as MaliA says, apart from Ferrari fucking up and Flavio Briatore pushing the remote control to make Nelson's diff explode, it was a dull race.

I found the final few laps quite tense. You just knew someone was going to make a mistake through tiredness, and the bumps. Fortunately it happened to be a ferrari.

Although I would've liked some more racing, as compared to settling for position.

Massas attitude once he was no longer leading really sums up quite why I don't think he's a particulary worthy champion.

I like the idea of the McLaren mechanics shouting "run" at the Ferrari guys, but Massa was probably saving his engine for the next race. The track looked pretty, but didn't really provide much entertainment. They should have made part of it dark

That was his last race on that engine anyway - they used up the joker before monza, so that engine would've done monza/singapore.

Still a pretty, dull race is a slightly improvement on a pretty dull race.

I'm pleased I didn't et up at 5-30 to watch it, but yeah, it was OK, I guess.

Bourdais punished for Massa driving into him.

What the FUCK FIA?

Yeah I didn't really understand that penalty either, what exactly was Bourdais supposed to do?

To avoid Massa he would have had to go on the grass or come to a complete halt, seems a bit desparate from someone up high to make the championship go to the last race

Roles were reversed today. Somebody obviously wants Massa to be champion, or they wouldn't keep throwing points at him. I'd love to see Kubica come along and take the world title.

Brundle is a rubbish presenter. Stop staring at me, man! Get back into the commentary box.
Is there any news on who the commentators for the BBC are going to be? I'd quite like DC to take over the 'walks', I think the drivers would talk more to him than Brundle. I wouldn't mind Ted Kravitz having a shot in the commentary box either. James Allen will be fired, hopefully.

Jon Legard and Brundle in the box.
Football and Olympic presenter Jake Humphrey presenting with DC being Blundell.
And former WRC class winning co-driver and A1GP host Lee McKenzie in the pits.

To pre-empt every male on the board, she looks like this.


Here with her driver on said rally who you might just recognise


And here's 3 tits.


Note, none of this is official. But I've heard it from enough independant sources to believe it. I believe they may also move Holly Samos to the TV.

Sadly, this is another incident that increase my disbelief that F1 is not corrupt.

Very odd race. I hope Hamilton doesn't blow it again this year - his competitive composure seems to disappear in a fug of righteous arrogance which is not good. Yes we know you're good Lewis, but to be truly great you need to be calm and secure in that knowledge, not allow yourself to become so overwhelmed with the desire to win that you cut off your own nose to spite your face.

Massa should have been given a Stop and Go for the collision, not a drive through - he drove into Hamilton, just like how his mentor won his first two championships. And punishing Bourdais for that first corner incident was cretinous, truly cretinous.

What bugs me most about Massa is how bloody sheepish he always comes across - like, no, leave me alone I don't want to talk to you. He always looks contrite and like a wounded puppy - stop picking on me seems to be emanating from his eyes.

Ah well, I still think it's Lewis's to lose this year. Much like last, though I have a completely off the wall theory that McLaren killed it for him on purpose last year to avoid being put in a situation where the FIA would have taken it off them.

Well, I've sat on it for a day. If I'd posted yesterday, I'd probably have labeled it the least fair penalty I'd seen. But no, it's probably the third (After Montoya getting a penalty for schumacher hitting him in the 2002 malaysian GP and Alonso getting a grid drop in the 2006 GP) Oddly all three in favour of the ferrari.

There's really no way you can lay the blame at Bourdais feet. Massa had the entire road to use, and he still tripped up over him.
Furthermore, Whiting had previously said in both Singapore and Fuji that the car exiting the pits had right of way.
Why did they have to wait until the end of the GP to make a judgement anyway?

Secondly, the first corner pile up is hardly a new feature of F1, it's been there for as long as I've been watching it (around 20 years) and long before even then. Why is this the first time I've ever seen a penalty?

We're left with a situation where Massa is now 11 points up from post race stewarding desicions, it's somewhat sobering to think that if he hadn't had that degree of assistance, he'd currently be level with Kubica on points. Kubica surely beats him on the talent front.

The FIA seriously need to cut down on the amount of penalties handed out. That they're so keen to hand them out for standard racing incidents is more than a little worrying., given that racing is what I watch it for, and the only way to cut out racing incidents is to not race.

But I guess incompetance is what you get for using stewards who have in some cases never even seen an F1 race before. (and arguably corruption is what you get for having Mr Spankys right hand man as their advisor)

The Alonso one was fair according to the rules Renault themselves bitched till they got.

That wasn't unfair, that was them making their own bed and having to lie in it.

I still think Lewis is going to win it. He can't not, can he?

He's got 5 points.

This time last year he had 17.

You tell me.

Hmm. Up until this last race, I'd have said he's matured much more as a driver, but the first corner of the first lap made me rethink all that.
I think I'm going to start cheering for Kubica. He really has done fantastically well this season.

Kubica would fully deserve the championship. He's in an inferior car and he's not made as many mistakes as the other two.

Hamilton has a chance of overhauling Schumacher's record, but he needs to iron out his inconsistencies and stay at the top of his game (and in the best car) over the next decade. If McLaren go poo, he'll struggle (especially as I could never see him going to Ferrari).

Schumacher seemed to make a lot of his own luck behind the scenes. I've no idea how Hamilton fares in that regard.

I think it's fair to say post 2000 Schumacher would have walked 2007 and 2008 in that car.

But Hamilton isn't supposed to be compared to 2000+ Schumacher. It's fair to compare him to 1992/3 Schumacher.

And that guy made just as many mistakes.

The problem is that he's young and inexperienced at dealing with the bullshit politics that infest F1 - and he wants to win the title probably too much. You could argue that he feels that he has been penalised a little unfairly this year for one thing or another, which might be cranking up the tension a little bit if he's feeling a bit victimised about the FIA handing Massa points and not penalising him for similar discrepancies.

How would you feel in his shoes - I know I would feel mightily pissed off with the perceived lack of parity the FIA seem to be showing him. Hamilton has had points deducted this year for pretty lousy reasons and has been punished unfairly for pretty minor incidents - especially when you consider the number of fucking points that have been gifted to Massa by the FIAs largesse.

I don't know about cheering for anybody the way the FIA are fucking ruining the spectacle for everybody, but it certainly pisses me off that a genuinely gifted driving is forever getting his wings clipped by the "establishment" because they don't like the cut of his jib.

Fucking privileged to be there, mate. Every time I got a bit stroppy about something I'd take a look at my wage slip and cheer myself up

Aside - does anything else find something not quite right about Hamilton's dad?

Unfortunately that seems to be the attitude of the FIA as well. Do as you're told, we're in charge. And don't race or try to race too hard. Be grateful you've got a position in F1. It's the pinnacle of processional high speed ad hoardings, not about racing. That's also the Kimi, Jenson, DC school of motorsport - fuck racing or trying hard, think about the money.

Now Alonso is saying he'll help Massa if possible.
This isn't really surprising. I bet it felt great to be Alonzo when he lapped Hamilton - I'm surprised he didn't wave

In what way? Just how he's always there you mean?

Well, he is Hamiltons manager, so he would be there. I think he could do with being interviewed a bit less though. (See also: Massas father)

I have heard some things. Nothing too bad, but some things.

I don't know how long Brundle has been DCs manager (I don't remember anything about managers in his autobiography), but I think I could figure out reasons for his absense. Before then, I don't know who his manager was, so wouldn't recognise them if I were to see him (and if he was, he'd still be less likely to get camera time) See also: Massas father often ending up on camera. That didn't happen so much in previous years yet he has always been there. I seem to remember Buttons father being said to be a regular fixture at Buttons garage, but I wouldn't recognise him if he were to end up on camera.

That's right, they did an interview with him after Jenson won.

Forumla 1's shit though. Touring car racing is much better.

I was sufficiently sickened by Allens fit that I didn't watch most of the after race show.

oh and in reply to "It's basically a discussion about the whiter-than-white Hamilton and the evil, evil Massa.", I'd say that the main bone of contention I have is with the FIA Mosley really, which long preceeded Hamilton ever entering the sport. It's him who put the current stewarding system in (for the sake of speedy decisions, apparently) which really is broken.

contemptible bounders, shirley