2008 F1 season

2008 was a crazy season... the drivers championship was won by Ferrari's Massa for a minute before it was taken from him by Hamilton by pulling a last minute overtaking maneuver on a 5th place driver... The reason 2008 was undecided till the last lap of the last GP in part because of good driving by drivers, and in part because of fumbles in the pit.

Top drivers erred like novices - case in point, a) Hamilton bumps off Raikkonen in the pits when he fails to see the pit lane is closed for exit...Hint for Hamilton : If 2 cars in front of u are stopped, take a cue from them and don't think about your girlfriend when you exit the pits. [Pit light was a stupid stupid introduction in 2008 F1... This is not Nascar... If F1 has lived without pit lights for so long, this rule change was completely dumb and an unnecessary introduction...]

b) Hamilton spun the car on a clear dry track proving again that his focus was elsewhere...

c) Raikkonen takes out a Force India car in Monza and ruins their chances of a point scoring 5th place finish... He demonstrates (again) that he was never totally committed into F1 and bringing him to Ferrari was a humongous mistake by the bosses at Maranello - Raikkonen never truly represented the Fierce Ferrari brand in spirit. It takes something special to drive a Ferrai - a passion that a dead-fish-expressioned Raikkonen can never exude.

F1 is unlike any other motorsport - it is the pinnacle of motor racing - the opportunity to convert a mistake by the opponent and capitalise on it presents itself for a brief moment and in those precious milliseconds, if the driver is not 100% committed and focused on the racing and the sport, it is lost equally fast...

The worst performing team, in my opinion was not a rookie team, but it was my favorite team Ferrari - fumbling in the pits, releasing Massa with the fuel hose still stuck in car, it made the tifosi feel Ferrari drivers are battling internal team chaos along with other teams on the track. They had so many lost chances to clinch the championship - chances that were lost by rookie mistakes made in the pit in earlier races... (Both cars queued up in the pit lane, the early release of Massa are the 2 infamously memorable mistakes that come to mind.) The season showed a lack of spirit... a lack of cohesiveness within the team and the cracks in the team were evidently visible after a long reign of superiority and performance expected from the Scarlet champions.

It was clear from what happened in the season that Ferrari had put their money behind the wrong guy. While it was Massa who consistently delivered superior performance and took the fight to McLaren, his championship was lost in the pits when Ferrari fumbled under pressure and internal team politics. Personally speaking, Raikkonen was never a great racer. he can handle an F1 car, but he cannot bring an underperforming car to the top slot. Also, its one thing to muscle a lower order car out of the way, but another thing to hold back a top driver... This is where Raikkonen fails, and Massa fights - Case in point - Belgium GP when Hamilton takes Raikkonen and later Raikkonen puts the Ferrari into the wall... not because he is trying too hard, but in frustration.

The 2008 season was chaotic... The rule changes did manage to achieve what it intended to do - bring F1 fans a season that was not decided till the last lap of the last race - but the achievement arrived with more drama and less style...

F1 also felt the pinch of the global economic crisis and the year saw 2 teams leaving F1. Super Aguri and Honda. And if these were not enough blows to F1, there was Crashgate when the Renault team asked their driver, Nelson Piquet, to deliberately crash his car at a strategic point, thus prompting the deployment of the safety car, right after their other driver Alonso had pitted. F1 hit an all time low in recent times.

But it was not all bad... there were good moments in 2008 which saw some excellent overtaking maneuvers taking place on the circuit... Hamilton proved to be an expert at muscling the competition out of the way and his aggressive moves on the field were a delight to watch.

PS: Shouldn't McLaren be banned in 2008? In moves 12, 11 and 10 in the above vdeo, the front wing of the McLaren is seen to be flexing at high speeds...... As far as I know, F1 cars are not supposed to have moving and flexible wings... Wonder how that was not caught by any of the other teams (unless all has a similar problem or the rule is non-existent in 2008) - can someone enlighten me on this?

Some good overtaking in F1

Enjoy some good overtaking in F1 in recent times!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3c_a9qR65k

McDowell Signature Indian Derby 2010

First things first - This blog is alive again... that doesn't mean the other one is dead! Just that with the comeback of Schumacher in Formula 1 racing, I decided its time to revive the blog and keep it exclusive for Formula 1. The other blog can be for other stuff as well as racing :-)

Now before you ask, why am I blogging about the derby here? The answer is simple... Mallya = Force India F1 team... Enough said!

For the uninitiated, the McDowell Signature Indian Derby is THE racing event in the country. If you are a racing fan, this is a must attend event. If you are a horse racing fan, it is a must attend event. And if you are not either, the fashion is simply outstanding! Anybody who is somebody will be seen at the derby. This is one time when the fashion is as competitive off the field as on it. Women in their sexy best and men at their charming best. But wait, the derby is not just about being sexy... Its very important to be elegant as it is to be sexy. Its about being classy and especially about not being cheesy :D

Watching a race on the telly is one thing, and watching it live is a completely different beast! The atmosphere is electric as your favourite horse (or racer) is nearing the finish line with the 2nd place racer pushing him as the finish line draws closer. The roar of the engine and the rhythmic sound of hooves against the dirt are music to the ears of a racing enthusiast - both make the heart pump faster, as the adrenaline rushes thru your veins... will my favourite win? or will the competitor snatch away victory in the final moments... the wait is nerve-wrecking, yet exciting! A test not only of horses and machines, but really of the Jockeys and drivers as well, for the latter have to be equally fit as the horses and the machines they race.

The derby has lots more to offer then just glamour, glitz and racing. Performances by various artists and entertainers are a must watch. And there is the inevitable fashion show - a necessary evil, yet exciting... after all who doesn't like watching the lovely models do their thing on the ramp!

The big day this year is in the coming weekend and I so wish that I could attend it! Who would want to miss a day at the races and if one can rub shoulders with the whos who of tinsel town, its just icing on the cake!

Here are some pics from the 2007 McDowell derby ... enjoy! And if you can make it to the Mahalakshmi Race course on the 6th and 7th Feb, I'll envy you!

Michael Schumacher's Comeback 2009

There is no doubt that Michael's comeback to Formula 1 is the biggest event of the 2009 F1 season. No sooner than the announcement was made, the papers next day were abuzz with pictures and stories about the King of F1. Times of India even had the same title (the king is back or something to that effect) that I had used in my blog a day before. Oh well!


The difference between champions and others is the amount of commitment the former gives to the sport. Within a week of the announcement, Schumi lost 3 kilos of body weight. If you think 3 kilos do not make a difference, think again!
A) In a sport where the time is measured in one thousandth of a second, 3 kilos can make you faster than your competitor.
B) 3 kilos can give you an extra lap worth of fuel, allowing you to pit later than your competitor (and your teammate).
C) 3 kilos less weight can allow your car designers to balance the car better - it can give them the flexibility to re-distribute the weight of the car, allowing it to handle much better!


The last advantage comes with its own little challenge - As the (almost) bankrupt BMW Williams team disallowed Michael Schumacher to test the F-60 (the 2009 Ferrari F1 car) , the car designers will have to entirely rely on calculations and models to "gauge" the cars performance with the new weight distribution and with Schumi in the cockpit. The other part of the challenge is - Schumacher has not driven the F-60 even once! While the competition is close to being half way thru the season, Schumacher will drive the F-60 in Friday practice for the 1st time on a track that he has never driven before (the track was newly made after Schumi retired). While other drivers in F1 (Read Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso) crib and complaint about the lack of their car's performance openly, Michael has quietly adjusted to the circumstances and started testing in an old 2007 Ferrari with slick tires instead of grooved ones! That's a champion for you! Perhaps Alonso and Kimi can watch and learn as Schumi shows everyone that "A good craftsman never blames his tools!".


Not only that, Schumacher has already completed an entire day testing the car and training his injured neck muscles. That's a champion for you. At the age of 40, Schumacher will be more than twice the age of the youngest F1 competitor (19 yrs 4 months)! It takes sheer guts and Iron-like-will-power to make such a comeback.


Even before he retired in 2006, during the retirement, and post retirement - there were (are) no silly news about Schumacher in the media. The only news you get to see are about Schumi testing! No silly night-club games, no drinking binges, no playing the fool! No sir! Not Schumacher!


Perhaps that's why he could easily be amongst the fittest F1 drivers, even post retirement!


The comeback could not have been at a better time for Formula 1. A sport that runs on big money, such a comeback means, sold out tickets at the racing venues and big time TV eye-balls! I would not be surprised if there is at least a 30% increase in television viewership for the Valencia race on 23rd August 2009 as the F1 fans, Tifosi and Schumi fans are all eager to watch the king make a comeback! Honestly, for them (and for me), it does not matter if Schumacher performs or not. Just watching him get behind the wheel of the red car will be joy enough for the die-hard F1 fan! There are many F1 fans who stopped watching the sport after Schumi retired. More people did not follow the sport with as much gusto now than when he was racing - Schumi's comeback will bring these fans back to the sport - Then there will be others who will be watching just to be part of the buzz, while there will be those who will watch the race on Valencia, just to see him fail!


Whatever be the race viewer's category - the weekend of 21, 22, 23 August, Valencia Spain will see F1 fanatics have eyes only for one car and one driver. That car will be a red Ferrari and the driver will be Michael Schumacher! Period!

Michael makes a comeback! ... and an overdue award!

Its a done deal! The king of F1 is scheduled to make a comeback to replace an injured Filipe Massa. I cannot wait for Aug 23 to see the racing legend's comeback in the European GP!

A lot of Questions will be answered there.... A few on my mind are - Will he be the same Schumi after the break? How good will he be in the new car? Will he be fit @ 40? By how much margin will he beat Raikkonen? Suddenly August 23 is so far away when all these questions will be answered...

The circumstances are sad as Massa is badly injured, but I'm glad Ferrari roped in the king to fill the void! Anything to see the legend behind a Ferrari yet again!

Welcome back Michael Schumacher! You were missed!

----------x------------x-----------

The PROXIMITY award was given to me by Vee and Smita in Dec 2008. I did not pass it on to anyone because at that time, I did not know 8 people who didn't have this award! :D

Off I go to find 8 blogs worthy of this awards.

This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY – nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award. (Note added by Eye-in-sty-in: At their own time and convenience)

I pass it on to -

Sujata - http://sujatasengupta.blogspot.com/

FE - http://udtahaathi.wordpress.com/

Ripples - http://verbalfiend.wordpress.com//

Lynn - http://trippinwithrip.wordpress.com/

Aparna - http://aparnadasgupta.blogspot.com/

Ekta - http://ektakhetan.blogspot.com/

Andaa Curry - http://grey-orgasms.blogspot.com/

Shanu - http://fullonbakwaas.blogspot.com/

ForeignDesi - http://foreigndesi.wordpress.com/

Wits n Nuts - http://witsnnuts.wordpress.com/

Americanising Desi - http://2short2sweet.blogspot.com/

Kamana - http://musings-ephemerallyeternal.blogspot.com/

Shayari - http://bukkichowta.blogspot.com/

Purpleheart - http://marshmallow--cream.blogspot.com/

Anamika - http://theselfspace.blogspot.com/

The award has been given based on the comments left by these bloggers on my blog. If u want such awards, the trick is to visit my blog more often and also leave intelligent comments.

PS: Their writing ability n wit may also have played a little part in the selection.

For those who have not yet received this award, it does not make you less worthy by any means. So please dont go about slashing ur wrists yet! Your time will come soon :-)

2009 Spanish GP qualifying, T4 and some funny clips

Did anyone else watch the qualifying for the Spanish GP? For the first time this season I felt that red car found its groove! As the Ferrari aggressively turned the corners on the Spanish track, one could tell the car was a serious contender this time! I did not know at that time who was the driver - it could either be Filipe Massa who found his "mad-streak" yet again or it could be Kimi Raikkonen who had to undergo yet another bowel movement and thus was driving fast to get to the loo! To my delight, it was Massa who was able to break into the top 4 slots in qualifying that were almost sealed by the Brawn GP and Red Bull cars.

The best part was the red car was not running light either! Does it mean that my favourite team is back in contention? Has the season officially begun at Ferrari then? Perhaps the wake up call came when they were seen battling a Force India car for position in the previous race in Bahrain! What remains to be seen is if this is a fluke or a reality? The car weight suggests its could be a reality as Massa is the heaviest of all the top 6 qualifiers! I cant wait to find out in the next 10.5 hours as the Spanish GP begins!

Pos., Driver, team, Qualifying weight of car
1. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 646kg
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 651.5
3. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 649.5
4. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 655
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 651.5
6. Timo Glock, Toyota, 646.5

The Brawn GP team is sporting the Terminator Salvation livery on their cars to promote the 4Th movie in the franchise! Have you watched the previews? Aren't they just awesome? I cannot wait for T4 to be released on May 21!

Raikkonen's bowel movement moment !

This clip has a better, cleaner and funnier foot-in-mouth situation !

Lewis Hamilton Disqualified from Australian GP!!

You know the season is off to a bizarre start when you are closer to the 2nd race, but the results of the 1st race are still being decided!

In a new twist to the already twisted tale of the Australian GP, Hamilton has been Disqualified! Yep!! Disqualified! The saga started when, post race, McLaren raised a complaint about the Toyota of Trulli overtaking under safety car conditions. The race stewards had a meeting and Trulli was found guilty. The result was a 3rd place finish for Hamilton and a 12th place for Trulli and Toyota.

A second inquiry revealed that McLaren and Hamilton had Lied in the 1st inquiry! The radio chatter between the team and driver revealed that McLaren had instructed Lewis to let Trulli pass!

FIA's statement on the same and the much interesting transcript of the radio chatter can be read here.

The result us a DSQ for Hamilton and a reinstated 3rd place podium for Trulli!

This leaves the winners of 2008 drivers and constructor's champions without any points in the beginning race of 2009!

At this time, the Brawn GP team deserve all the accolades that are being showered at them. The reason I use the words "At this time" is because a hearing is scheduled for the 14th of April 2009 concerning the interpretation of rules for the "diffuser" by various teams - Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams. With the recent performance by the Brawn and the Toyota team, coupled with the non-performance by McLaren and Ferrari teams, the latter will use this opportunity to try and throw a wrench in the works for the other teams! Because for them, winning seems to be more important than the sport and when a debutant team wins in such a grand fashion, it only rubs salt into the injured egos of the big guns at McLaren and Ferrari. the question remains - In case of an indefinite answer to the rule interpretation, will the FIA uphold the results in the interest of the sport? or will it be money and power swinging the results?

The good thing for now is that the controversial diffuser broke on Barrichello's car in a 1st corner incident! This proves beyond doubt that the Brawn cars have genuine pace!

A conversation with a friend also brought up an interesting point - According to him, both Button and Barrichello are known to carry bad luck. The fact that the Brawn GP team won inspite of their bad luck, speaks volumes about them! (For me, the biggest carrier of bad luck is Kimi! I personally believe that the only reason he won the 2007 season is because of Luca Di Motezemolllo throwing his weight behind him! Ferrari will be a much better team the moment they chuck Kimi out!!)

The last time a team making its debut had a one-two finish was at the 1954 French Grand Prix led by Juan Manuel Fangio for Mercedes. The Brawn GP team did it while running with a Mercedes engine too. That should be some consolation for McLaren, huh!

After the dramatic start to the season, I cannot wait to see what surprises Malaysia will spring!

Bizzaro begining - 2009 F1 GP season!

The day finally dawned or should I say "Brawn"(ed)!

As is traditional with season openers, the race sprung a lot of surprises! The most delightful came in terms of Brawn GP. This is the Honda team of last year that was taken over by Ex- Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn and sponsored by Virgin!

This team came out of the blue and ended up winning the GP in its debut! The impressive thing is that they beat the stalwarts of racing like Ferrari, McLaren and Renault! So much for their legacy!

The biggest disappointment of the race was none other than the prancing horse! Both their cars retired from the race - a rare happening in the illustrious Ferrari legacy that is known (now just a "has been known") for their bulletproof cars! Wonder if after this result, does Luca de Motezemollo still thinks that all the choices he made in 2007 were good!

The most pitiful event of the race was the collision between BMW's Robert Kubica and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel (running 3rd n 4th at that time). Both had a good chance of scoring high points, but greed for the podium prevailed and all was lost!

The biggest beneficiary of the race was McLaren's Hamilton. Having started the race from the 18th position following a dismal qualifying session and a gear box penalty, he would have finished the race 6th, but thanks to the crash b/w Vettel and Kubica and an error by Trulli, he finished the race in 3rd! A winning driver needs more than skills in F1 and hamilton is once again proving that luck is on his side along with skills! I think he is the best driver to fill the huge void left by the exodus of Michael Schumacher.

With the next race in Malaysia - on the coming weekend, Ferrari had better pull themselves out from this deep hole that they are stuck in - and they better do it fast! Running the cars light on fuel is not a good way to capture grid positions and certainly no way to win races and championships! If they have forgotten how to do it, here is a reminder - it is thru hard work, determination and team spirit! (remember 2006?) Sulking and spinning the car in frustration is not the way to do it either! (R u reading this Kimi?) Show some class or did you wanna take another dump!

For now, its Brawn GP's exciting debut that has me pepped up for the 2009 F1 season! Well deserved victory, I'll say!