This is from today’s Le Mans Series race at Le Castellet. Is this one of the biggest failures of race organisation possible? The safety car doesn’t peel in. Yellow flags continue to wave. Yet the green lights switch on to signal the start of the race. Chaos ensues. As many have pointed out, it is […]
Why did McLaren rely on Race Control to tell them the obvious?
One of the most incredible moments of the Australian Grand Prix was when Jenson Button gave up trying to overtake Felipe Massa properly and cut the chicane at turn 12 instead. It’s easy to see why Button became impatient — he was clearly faster than Massa for several laps, but just couldn’t quite find a […]
Is it time to tear up the FIA rule book?
In terms of racing, this year’s race at the Valencia Street Circuit was easily the most successful of the three that have been held so far. Although arguably it was mostly as a result of the shake-up that occurred after Mark Webber’s horrendous accident with Heikki Kovalainen — which we really do not like to […]
When is a green flag not a green flag?
Up until yesterday, it had been a good year for F1. The spotlight has been on the racetrack rather than the stewards’ room. It had even reached the stage where some people — including me — were asking if the stewards were being too lenient. Overall, it seems as though the reign of Jean Todt […]
Brilliant Brazil
I love the Brazilian Grand Prix. It is a unique circuit — not only anti-clockwise, but uniquely short in the same way you might think of Spa-Francorchamps as being uniquely long. It is also special because it has now comprehensively replaced Suzuka as the proper place to settle a World Championship, particularly due to its […]
Japanese Grand Prix ponderings
This won’t take long. First of all, it is worth pointing out just how awesome Sebastian Vettel was at Suzuka. At this “drivers’ circuit” which suited the Red Bull car down to the ground, Vettel was untouchable. An error meant that instead of the normal on board channel, the BBC broadcast the on board camera […]
Thoughts on the Renault punishments
Apologies I’m so late on this one. I have had a busy and tiring week. On Monday, before the outcome of the WMSC meeting was known, I decided to think about what the outcome might be. Was there any punishment — even zero punishment — that I could not imagine the FIA handing out? I […]
Piquet’s Singapore Sling — yet another F1 scandal
Up until now, I have refrained from writing about the latest scandal to envelop F1 — allegations that Nelsinho Piquet’s crash at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix was engineered in order to fix the race so that Alonso could win. Now that Renault have been summoned to an extraordinary meeting of the WMSC (sound familiar?), […]
Crikeynen! Kimi wins again at last
What a grand prix weekend that was. It just goes to show you what a decent circuit can do for racing. Boy, can Spa do it for racing. It also clearly does it for Kimi Räikkönen, who is always mesmerising in this most inspirational of settings. Räikkönen confuses people a lot of the time with […]
Badoer: the fastest-ever slowest driver?
Allow me to explain. Despite all the jibes about Luca Badoer struggling, it occurred to me that he may now have another unusual record to add to his list. Here is the official lap chart for this year’s Belgian Grand Prix, as published by the FIA. Do you spot anything unusual about it? Despite the […]