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Archive: Max Must Go

They don’t call it Formula One for nothing

9 August 2006 00:52

Categories: Formula 1, Max Must Go

So the FIA seems to have got its way in terms of the controversial ‘engine freeze’ proposal.

For those of you who don’t follow the politics of F1 too closely (and I don’t blame you), the FIA want to ban engine development. Teams will have to use the same engines race after race — not for a few races or a full season, but for years, probably until at least 2009.

This is a completely batshit proposal, even by Max Mosley’s standards. Essentially this means that the winner of every World Championship for the forseable future will be a Ferrari or Renault driver. Unsurprisingly, the teams that were most in favour of the engine freeze proposal were Ferrari (and Ferrari arse-lickers Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Midland) and Renault.

How much notice have the engine manufacturers got to make the only engines they’ll be able to use for years to come? Less than two months. The engine freeze will come into effect before the end of this season. What on earth is happening to the sport?

Given that one of F1′s biggest selling points is its image of being at the forefront of technology, the FIA, worryingly, appears to be becoming opposed to any actual innovation. Any teams that try to do something different are told to stop doing it. Look at how BMW were forced to remove their innovative fins, and how Renault have been scared into removing their mass damper system.

In future it seems as though aspiring F1 teams will be able to buy other teams’ chassis on the cheap. What is this? Formula 1 or Scrapheap Challenge?

A common jibe about F1 is that the cars all look the same. But it seems as though the FIA won’t be happy until the cars actually are all the same.

1 comment

Cheating Ferrari strike again

27 May 2006 14:14

Categories: Formula 1, Max Must Go

Michael Schumacher — not brave enough to let anybody else get a lap in.

And of course, because it’s Ferrari, the authorities will turn a blind eye.

Update: “Schumacher takes ignominious pole.”

Schumacher Takes Controversial Monaco Pole:

Schumacher has been guilty of these sort of tactics in the past, and his demeanour in the press conference was a little shakey. Michael didn’t appear to be as confident as normal and made a couple of slip-ups as he gave his account of the qualifying session.

Steve Rider and Mark Blundell on ITV’s coverage described Schumacher’s press conference performance as “sheepish”.

Update: GrandPrix.com’s qualifying report:

There is a restaurant in old Monaco called Pinocchio’s and one can only wonder if Michael Schumacher will be dining there on Saturday evening as there were more than a few people in the Formula 1 paddock who think that Michael’s pole was growing on his face.

Haha! Also, there is this news report:

Within minutes of the end of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, there were rumblings in the paddock that a number of the F1 drivers are so unahppy about what happened to Michael Schumacher that the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association is going to demand Schumacher’s resignation from the board of directors of the organisation because they consider his manoeuvre at Rascasse to have been unsporting and detrimental to the image of the sport.

Update again: Short-sighted Sid compares Michael Schumacher to a true Ferrari great, Gilles Villeneuve, with video evidence to prove it.

Update: News of penalties are coming in now. Fisichella’s been moved back three places. He was deemed to have held up David Coulthard. Now what about Schumacher?…

Update 21:13: None of the other drivers are happy at all.

Meanwhile, the stewards have yet to make a decision. In a sense you can understand this. Whichever way they decide to judge it, the decision will have big repercussions. We probably won’t be hearing the end of this for a while.

Update: Radio Five Live is reporting that Schumacher has been sent to the back of the grid.

So it’s an all-Ferrari back row! Alonso’s on pole, Webber will start in second, and Räikkönen third. What a fantastic position for Webber to be in.

And if any of you haven’t seen the incident yet, here is a video of it on YouTube (via F1Fanatic).

Update: Confusingly, GrandPrix.com have a story headlined, Schumacher dumped to the back of the grid, but report that he will actually start 8th.

4 comments

NOTICE: Feeds and URLs may change

27 July 2005 01:51

Categories: Admin, Asides, Biased BBC, Blogging, Commuting, Current affairs, DVD, Edinburgh, Famous Langtonians, Fife, Film, Food and drink, Formula 1, Games, General, Humour, Links, Make My Vote Count, Max Must Go, Music, Newspapers, Nostalgia, Politics, Scenery, Sport, Technology, Television, UK General Election 2005, University, Weather

I’m posting this in every single category to make sure everybody who might need this gets it.

I’ve decided that my categories are a mess, and tomorrow I’m going to attempt to clean them up a bit. I’ll be creating new categories, deleting rubbish old ones, and changing where they go. Some posts might end up in different places. Just a heads up, because it does mean that some feed URLs, and indeed website URLs, will change.

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Friesacher to go?

15 July 2005 17:27

Categories: Formula 1, Max Must Go

Well, it seems to happen at least once a year, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to learn that Patrick Friesacher is struggling to find the money to keep him in that Minardi car. Possibly the least impressive driver of the year; Minardi probably won’t be too unhappy to see him go. Robert Doornbos seems to be the most likely replacement to me. But hands up who’s ever heard of Can Artam, because I haven’t. He’s languishing in 17th place in the GP2 series…

Elsewhere in F1-land, would David Richards really buy Jordan? It seems to be received wisdom that Alex Shnaider is already bored with Formula 1 (or didn’t realise how expensive it would be). But I found the Eddie Irvine thing more likely.

Today’s F1 Racing magazine landed on the doormat today and it has a massive piece on what has become known as ‘Indygate’. I quote some of it below.

Click for more »

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Still keeping up?

14 July 2005 20:44

Categories: Formula 1, Max Must Go

Okay, so now apparently the Michelin teams aren’t guilty of anything.

“New evidence” has come up pointing out that the teams were obliged to follow Michelin’s safety advice, and therefore were not at fault. Except everybody knew that all the time, so goodness knows what the FIA are up to.

I’ve given up trying to understand the FIA. I suppose we should just be thankful that this is all over and that the sport can now (hopefully) move on.

Update: The official Formula 1 website is asking for people’s views on two particular proposals for qualifying systems for 2006. I voted for proposal two, although the smaller teams may not be too happy with that as it will not guarantee them television time.

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