Observations

We are one race short of the halfway mark of the 2008 Formula 1 season. And at this point, some surprises have emerged. BMW are second in the constructor's championship and leading driver Robert Kubica is also in second of the driver's race. Surprising to say the least and I would not have expected these guys to have kept their season opening momentum to go on for so long. Hopefully the guys in Hinwil and Munich keep pushing on to the end.

Toyota and Red Bull are neck and neck in the middle order. Toyota especially is a big surprise. The cars certainly are quick and they've even managed a podium spot in last weekend's French Grand Prix. Had they not shot themselves in the foot in 2006 with that last minute switch to Bridgestone tyres and then sacking the technical director for the marketing men's own mistakes I reckon they'd be at least on BMW level by now. As it is, this lumbering giant is making slow progress. But progress nevertheless and they are outperforming their customers at Williams. Deadly rivals Honda are absolutely nowhere this season as they were last year and Toyota's results must be hurting them a lot in Tokyo.

Red Bull on the other hand is a customer team that is completely whipping the works Renaults. Some say the Renault engine has huge flaws. That may be so but the Red Bulls are at this stage making better use of their motor and despite the presence of Fernando Alonso, the works cars can do nothing about it. Its good to see a "private" entry murdering the big manufacturer. Although in this case its a well financed privateer.

Lewis Hamilton didnt deserve to have the 10 spot penalty for France. Not at all. He deserved to have his superlicense sanctioned and placed under probation for his act of pure incompetence in Montreal. Its one thing for you to crash into another car whilst your brake balance is out of whack at 180 mph but to completely miss two stationary cars right in front of you whilst travelling at the leisurely speed of 80 km/h is a sign of pure stupidity. And the twit doesn't even want to admit his mistake. "If" he says, he has ruined Kimi's race then he is sorry. Its not an "if" moron. You bloody well chucked it out the window. And once again, in France he completely denies his any wrongdoing when it was clear that he gained an advantage by straightlining the chicane.

And apologising to the team for not doing his best. Oh come on. That was pure pretense designed solely for the benefit of the media. Ron has trained this one well. But of course, the British media are now quickly turning on him as is their habit. I suppose having enjoyed the adoring attention in the past, he likes it not one bit. But being the big mouth that he is, he's now taking them on with all sorts of trashy talk.

And just who was the idiot who suggested that he be suspended on wires and lowered on to a stage play in London? I really do not understand just what good he or the Porsche crashing train driver (son gets a little money and buy some nice toys for yourself eh?) thought that would do. Is he supposed to be a racing driver or a clown? That is just pure humiliation but it really befits him.

Without sympathising with Hamilton it brings me to the point on what Formula 1 drivers have to go through these days. Its no wonder Kimi is so fed up and there is talk of his retirement. All the stupid media responsibilities, meeting up with stupid corporate sponsors, annoying fans, I mean, who the hell needs that? Isn't his own display of skill and speed on the track enough? Thats what he gets paid to do. Drive the car like the devil himself. And while he doesn't put on a fake smile at least he is honest unlike these young PR washed robo-drivers like Hamilton.

Why do these people think they own him? I completely sympathise as this just reeks of rampant American style NASCAR commercialism that fools like Joe Saward of Grandprix.com keeps on preaching about. Hey this is racing. Its not supposed to wrestling sport entertainment. If thats what you want, then bloody well go watch stupid NASCAR where the good old boys will happily smile like idiots for "the show."

And note to Joe Saward, if you love NASCAR so much then bloody well write about NASCAR. I am really am so sick of reading about stupid theme parks, hamburgers and silly romance novels that you think are such fantastic ideas for grand prix racing. There is a cultural gulf between America and the rest of the world and guess what? We don't always care about, want or need American ideas. And what annoys me most is the increased American inspired commerical exploitation that is inevitably changing grand prix racing for the worse.

More On KERS

From this article by the UK's Guardian:

"'It's nonsense,' said one team engineer. 'We're saving costs with the engines - which is fine. But some of the larger teams are reputedly spending $70m [£35.5m] on Kers in the hope that they will find a performance advantage. It means even the smallest teams have to look at spending between $5m-10m they don't have. One of the Kers systems uses batteries to store the energy. They cost £150,000 and would need to be thrown away after each race. Where's the sense in that? But we're stuck with it for as long as Mosley is in charge.'"

And we're trying to save costs right Max?

Strangely Familiar

So Max won the vote. Well I guess most of us expected such a thing despite many, many reasons (aside from dubious sex charges) to get rid of him. But whats interesting is the way he won. The big clubs that make up the membership of the FIA include the Amercian Autombile Association and the German auto club ADAC. The few big clubs together represent that vast majority of motorists (and presumably motorsport participants). And yet, each of these clubs get just one vote, the same as any other affiliate however tiny these are.

This of course led Bernie to a snipe at African clubs sending votes Max's way which has angered the African clubs. Well, the Africans can protest all they want but it still rings true. The smaller clubs (African or otherwise) need the FIA (or specifically Max) to send good things their way. Some of course, are hoping to receive or keep their grands prix and other motorsport and motoring events. And guess who they voted for?

All this sounds oddly like a certain presidential election eight years ago where because of the collegiate system caused the guy who got the majority of popular votes to lose and instead a complete moron and his cronies took charge of the world's most powerful armed forces to deadly consequences for 600,000 people (including his own) in the Middle East. All of course on some incredibly spurious reason that all of the rest of the world doubted but was sold and bought wholesale through the media by the moron's charges. So much for championing democracy. Its full of shit. I of course digress here but I just had to put that in.

As for what happens now to motor racing in all forms is anyone's guess.