Singapore Nightmare

Ferrari has got real talent…to screw up. They are developing partial amnesia. Past experiences are forgotten. WHY PUT BOTH THE CARS IN PIT-LANE AT THE SAME TIME?? Why again? Even during safety car period..why? Kimi suffered due to yet another rig failure on Massa’s car this time. And finally…when he could have scored some consolation points..he drives his car into the barrier. 4th race without points.

Worst race ever!

Alonso won .. Hamilton scored 6 pts… and both Ferraris screw up.

Nightmare!

Night Riders zoom in Singapore

Amazing!

Too good!

Singapore is awesome!

The atmosphere was electrifying!

Ferraris look damn good under floodlights!

Massa on top in qual!

More and more races on the way to become night races…like Japan!

Indian GP postponed to 2011..reason…infrastructure!

Hamilton loses hearing….so does F1

Another ‘what the hell?’ moment of the week.. The farce that this hearing turned out to be, thanks to the stupidest decision in the history of Formula-1, highlights the flawed structure of FIA. After a grueling 5 and half hrs of session, FIA panel has ruled that the appeal itself is invalid! Yeah! 6 hrs wasted straight away. It will be good for the season, making it more interesting….but that is not even the point. The point is FIA has insulted Mclaren and each and every Formula-1 fan by keeping us waiting for 2 weeks to give this lame decision which could have been given right away after the race. This wastage of time and energy is a madness!

Another reason for this is another case fought on the same line as mentioned in this ESPN-Star report involving Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil. This highlights the paradox!

Vettel enters Formula-1 hall of fame

After a flawless 306 km drive through Monza, Subastian Vettel became the youngest F-1 driver to win a race. 1st win for Team Toro Rosso. And we got to see another amazing race thanks to wet conditions. Results

The race started under safety car due to wet conditions; bit disappointing. Starting from the back, Kubica and Hamilton could advance comfortably through the track, but Kimi struggled to overtake drivers like Nakajima. It was a sad scene. Massa proved that he is a good wet weather driver by not screwing up. Thats good enough I guess. Almost all the cars followed the same pattern and used extreme wet weather tires for 2/3rd race and then switched to intermediates.

Every driver looked alert about illegal overtakings and conceded their places like good boys. Coulthard was involved in 2 accidents today- Nakajima and Fisichella….crushing the hearts of over a billion people. Fisi looked good in the initial stages. He held back Kimi and Hamilton for 7 laps.

Overall a good race. Lots of overtakings, lots of excitement. Massa went a point closer to Lewis. This is going to be an awesome season.

Now its the big day. 28th Sept… Countdown to Singapore begins… Hold your breath, its coming!

Idiocracy-seems possible!

I recently saw a very low budget movie with a mediocre starcast- Idiocracy. I only knew Luke wilson and had a feeling that I have seen couple of other guys. But all that was immaterial in comparison with its amazing story. The theme itself is a very common Sci-Fi concept…Human Hibernation. Only here, it goes terribly wrong and the guy, Joe Bauer wakes up in the yr 2506 (Just like Eric Cartman in South Park, or is it the other way round?).

What the movie suggests is that instead of becoming wiser, the world starts dummying down exponentially. The process of natural selection only favors the ones with high reproductive power irrespective of IQ. In fact, it favors the dumb ones. So our hero wakes up in a world where he is the smartest guy in the world. People have become unbelievably lazy and stupid. Their philosophies are completely changed. They consider water to be only a toilet utility! Everybody drinks Brawndo-the thirst mutilator only. Their president is 5 times Ultimate Smack-Down champion. The movie goes on about Joe’s struggle to survive there initially and how he helps them later.

The reason for writing this post is because certain incidents in the recent past have started to exhibit this much feared trend of increased stupidity. With the announcement of initialization of Hadron Collider Big Bang experiment, the reactions of people were as stupid as of the future people in Idiocracy. Some theories are listed by Avnish here

Indian News channels have almost reached that level now. Its evident from the topics they handle and the way they handle them. We may also be on a downward slope. So watch out! Time may come when your grandsons will be voting for ‘The Great Khali‘ to become PM of India!

Vettel on top

Rain hasn’t had enough in Spa. It has reached Monza to screw up Ferrari some more. Monza saw the most unusual qualifying session of the season today. Results

Vettel 1st, Webber 3rd and Bourdais 4th meant 3 Red-Bull affiliated cars in top 4. Their best result ever.

Key points-

1. Kubica, Kimi and Hamilton fail to make it to Q3. First Q3 Hamilton has ever missed. The mighty 3 looked hopelessly helpless with rain pouring down.
2. Fisichella is 12th. Force India looked good in wet conditions. If it rains tomorrow, he may take a gamble and go on a 1-stop strategy. Might spring a surprise like Glock in Hungary.
3. Ferrari were 0.5s a lap slower than Mclaren on a light wet. Rain isn’t helping them.
4. Massa has an amazing chance to gain a remarkable lead in championship with Hamiltan back on 15th.
5. Three most aggressive drivers in three most powerful cars in F1 will start below 10. An amazing race lined up for tomorrow!

Surrender is not an option..for Raj

Any IDEA who this guy is?

What a way to make a point!!

Kimi to stay in Ferrari till 2010

Ending all the speculations about his future in Formula-1, Kimi has extended his contract with Ferrari till the end of 2010 season. His recent ‘failures’ and aloofness to talk about next move made some people believe that Kimi is considering retirement. Some of them even started enlisting alternative careers for him. Glad all that is over now.

Massa has already been committed to Ferrari till 2010. This means unchanged Ferrari line-up for atleast 2 more seasons. But most importantly, NO ALONSO IN FERRARI!! (YE!!!)

What the hell is your problem?

Its a bit too much I guess. I partially agree that 25s penalty imposed on Hamilton in Belgian GP seems a bit harsh. Mind you, that this was completely under the rules of FIA. My problem is with extreme reactions of media about the whole incident. Media is giving it a shade of racism, which is hysterical. Mclaren has constantly blamed stewards of partiality when it comes to their car against the scarlet. Media has gone one step further to point out that Massa escaped with a fine in Valencia after the unsafe release from pits incident; while Hamilton was effectively handed a post race stop-go penalty. You have to see both the incidents to understand their intensities. Besides, the two concerned incidents took place at different locations, the offenses were completely different so there is no point relating them.

If Hamilton is claiming that he did not commit the offense, he is lying. He DID come out ahead of Kimi from the corner. Then backed off and again overtook. This counts as an offense, as for a teeny-tiny second, he hindered Kimi’s track. Hamilton later said ‘Kimi pushed me wide. I was little bit ahead and I was on the outside of turn. He pushed me to the point where I would either have been on the kerb and crashed into him or have to go on escape route, so I took the escape route.’ You see Lewis, there is this thing where you keep your foot while driving…thats called brake pedal. Use it once in a while when you are about to crash into somebody. This guy does not even consider backing off as an option. I admire his spirit, but that cost him his 1st place.

What surprised me the most was Niki Lauda’s recent outburst. I was expecting an attack on the rule itself, but instead he blasted the stewards for their decision.
If you are pointing out the absurdity of the rule itself, I have no problem. The rule is not properly formulated, but its a rule and you have to follow it.

Today’s DNA Pune edition has an article written by Dhananjay Khadilkar titled ‘Was Hamilton a victim of colour blindness?’ in which he says ‘This is a pointer to a widely held perception in Formula 1- red car always rules.’ Here we go again. Media must relearn their formulae of extrapolation and should know where to stop. While giving an example, Mr Khadilkar states ‘Last year too, FIA imposed a hefty fine of $100mn on Mclaren for their role in the spy scandal that involved Ferrari.’ How the hell is this thing related to the other? And speaking of scandal, it is quite clear that Mclaren got off with a good deal. I mean when the team’s boss accepts in front of live media that ‘Yes, we did it!’, I was surprised that FIA even considered letting them compete this year. They should have been banned for 5 yrs. And $100mn was just a moral victory for Ferrari, the sum meant nothing to them. They showed that by using the entire sum for charity under Schumi’s guidance. So media should stop bringing that up every now and then, even Ron Dennis agrees that it was fair. So what the hell is your problem?

Ye to sach hai ke bhagwaan hai….

(A crude translation of the title- It is true that god still exists)

Referring to my earlier post.. An interesting development has taken place. Hamilton has been penalised for gaining an unfair advantage over Kimi on a chicane during Belgian GP, yet again…just like in Magny Cours. The 25s penalty pushes him to 3rd place behind Heidfeld giving Massa full 10 pts. The news has acted like a painkiller for me…I can’t feel the pain now..but when the effect wears off, I will again be drowned in the reality that Kimi didn’t make it!

The revised driver’s championship  standings are

1)     Lewis Hamilton-  76
2)     Felipe Massa-  74
3)     Robert Kubica-  58
4)     Kimi Räikkönen-  57
5)     Nick Heidfeld-  49
6)     Heikki Kovalainen-  43

Its game on. Ferrari will definitely have to concentrate on Massa now, if they want to keep their hopes alive.