Formula 1 has lost its charm, fix please!

It's all been pretty strange with F1 of late... I personally haven't watched most of this year because of lack of TV coverage where I am, weirdo timezones but ultimately because I haven't cared much.

From my perspective that's a strong statement (not caring about F1). I've been F1 crazy since around '96, I think my obsession peaked during varsity but I'm slowly falling out of love with F1. Why? Well I'd summarise it as follows; too much bullshit!!!

Let me try and explain:

F1 has always had its conspiracies, think Damon Hill vs Schumacher at Adelaide '94, think Villeneuve vs Schumacher at Jerez '97 think... ok screw this I'd go on forever if I have to continue like this. But during those times, I loved it. F1 had elements of excitement, intrigue and passion all rolled up into one.

What's changed in the past couple of years though is all this off-track political and espionage crap! As funny (and disturbing) as it was to watch Max go all Nazi S&M on us, we've witnessed too much politics in what is essentially a spectator sport. One or two I could handle but the combination of all of them (pick one: 2005 - Michelin fiasco /2006 - Renault Mass Dampers /2008 McLaren Stepney Gate/2009 - The double diffuser saga, Hamilton's Liar Gate, Flavio's Crash gate) makes me physically sick just thinking about it.

2009 really has been a low, no disrespect to Brawn, Button and Redbull Racing, but it's been hard to really care for F1 when I as a spectator feel so disillusioned by the sport. Some might say that because McLaren have sucked this year I've lost interest. I can promise you this isn't true, if you ask me, my favourite seasons of F1 have to be 2003, with the old memories of the '97 and '98 seasons coming in second and third (McLaren only had success in one of those three seasons - '98). Anyway, back to my point...

Now that I think about it, it's a combination of a few things that've made F1 suck:

• The off-track politics (detailed above)
• Tracks - Hands up, how many people would prefer Bernie's 20 races a year at 17 snoozefest exotic Hermann Tilke tracks at the expense of SpaFrancochamps, Suzuka, Hockenheim and the old Osterreichring in Austria which in my opinion epitomise the essence of F1. New locations like Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Singapore and Valencia have all been quite honestly horrible in terms of providing good racing. Dare I say it, but of Tilke's works, only Turkey and Malaysia has provided spectators with something worth watching (and with Malaysia, that's partly because of the storms we get there).
• Schumi - Was Schumi (not Ralf) that important for F1? I think so, judging by the excitment generated by his non-return to the grid to replace the injured Massa. But we really must try move on! Scrap this point - oh, now Kimi's gone too :(
• The FIA Stewards- what a lol! don't get me started
• The manufacturers - They really have stirred up more kak than providing us with something to cheer about. In fairness to them, they did try though. Atleast Honda and the departing BMW have set up some sort of continuity with takeovers (Brawn/Mercedes and Sauber). Same can't be said for Toyota, seems they've wasted both their time and ours since they joined F1... pity.
• Crazy yo-yo rule changes with qualifying, refuelling, penalites, etc...
• Certain cost cutting ventures - Sure you must cut costs in these times (I think the limited engine and gear box rules have been a success), but KERS for example has cost many millions in its development and is now scrapped after a solitary season.

Hope

Amid all this crap, there does seem to be some hope for the future of F1.

• The FIA has undergone a proper restructuring, Jean Todt at the top sounds alot better than Max Mosely. Together with running a better organisation, Todt should hopefully address the stewarding and rule change issues. Time will tell I guess.
• Contrary to what it sounds like, the exit of some manufacturers from the sport might not exactly be a disaster. The return of the era of private teams is back on the cards. The entrants for next year include Lotus, Campos, USF1, Manor, Force India, Redbull, Toro Roso and McLaren together with the manufacturer teams of Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault.
• Who knows, I might be back in GMT+2 :P

I don't know if the above will fix anything, but here's hoping...

To summarise, I wanna see is some good old fashioned racing, I wanna see drivers fighting each other after a crash, I wanna see last lap heroics. I don't want industrial espionage, I don't want teams telling their drivers to crash into a wall and I really don't wan't wanna see what FIA presidents do in their spare time.

Roll on 2010!

Comebackability!

Been a while since I've blogged, think it was the combination of busyness and a lack of anything I really wanted to talk about till now...

Straight to the point then, Lance Armstrong made his sensational comeback at the Tour de France last month, and what a return it was! He was epic and 3445km later (after countless drug tests that ended up embarrasing the french authorities rather than him - yet again), Team Astana owned the field with a calculated and measured team performance with Armstrong finishing 3rd in the overall standings, awesomeness!

I've never really seen the worth of twitter till I followed him on it before the tour started, the insight you get first hand makes it instantly worth it! (i'm not gonna start following Ashton Kutcher tho)...

Armstrong has last week confirmed his participation in next years Tour de 'Lance through the all yank Team Radioshack. By then, the 'comeback' novelty would probably have worn off, but it'll definitely be great for the sport, livestrong!

Anyway, Armstrong has shown yet again that he's a legend! It's not about the bike...

Moving on to the more temporary (or not?) return of Der Regenmeister from outta nowhere!

Can't believe I of all people am excited about it, but it's true! When he retired I did say that despite all the controversy and the opinion I had of him, F1 wouldn't quite ever be the same again. It didn't really show in 2007 and 2008 because we had such epic back to back world championships decided by one point each year, but with 2009 in it's boredom I think we'll all be happy to see it. It's gonna be tough for him because he hasn't driven an F1 car since the big aero/tyre revamp this year, but I think his racing instinct will see him through it... It's actually a good time to get back in, the ferrari is looking alot better than it was, infact ferrari and mclaren are on a bit of a resurgence after the early season 2002'esque snoozefest, so no better time I think.

On a more humble note, poor Massa... If this is gonna be the end of his career it'll be a bummer, so much so that it might've been better for him to have won last year (can't believe I said that)... Btw, any Timo Glock conspiracy theorists can go suck it, he was on worn wet tyres for the F*&king umpteeth time!

As much as the Schumacher return overshadowing Massa's incident feels a bit insensitive, a friend of mine explained his 'lightning rod' theory with schumi now attracting all the attention and perhaps it's for the best. I think Massa needs to be outta the spot light as much as possible, him and his family can then recover better without the media continously in their faces. Bigger picture I guess...

Lastly to the football and the transfer rumour silly season. Rumours have surfaced over the past evening on the possible return of Paddy Viera to Arsenal! I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this, at 33 Viera is a shadow of his old self, but that defensive midfield role is looking a bit thin at the moment. Viera with one leg is in my opinion better than Denilson and maybe he can teach his lookalike Diaby a thing or two. Regardless of his ability now, I think his experience and character might bring something to the dressingroom that we're currently lacking.

Arsenal have lost a lot of its african connection to the deep Saudi pockets of man city, both 'King Kolo' Toure and Adeoffside are gone now so I seriously hope le boss tries and fills the gaps. I dunno if Viera is a part of the answer, there are also strong links to the dutch pirate Klaas Jan HuntelAAR joining our attack but shrug... in Wenger we trust!

confidence!

Those of you that know me know that I'm quite a big fan of sports, 3 in particular: soccer, cricket and f1. I also have a habit of shouting for teams in those respective sports that are particularly frustrating to support. Unbeatable on their day, mediocre on others - Arsenal, McLaren and India.

That said, perhaps the secret of my taste in teams is the fact that I like the underdog or as I sometimes put it, "I live on the pain".

Arsenal's had a strange season so far, horrible for the 1st 3rd, awesome in the middle, now looking slightly unstable on the home stretch... excuses on our countless injuries aside, I still have some hope for us, maybe something is still salvageable from the season. Atleast we've managed to get some respect and belief back tho... 3 games against man u (incl champs league SF) and one against chelsea are the remaining spotlight games of the season, so there'll be more to come from me on those games no doubt.

India's been doing well of late, so I can only assume there's gonna be a big downturn in form (touch wood) come when it's needed - ie WC 2011. lacost -DON'T COST!

McLaren, eish don't get me started. but its still looking like the best season of f1 in a long long time (even tho last two years were amazing with the WDC decided by 1 point, the unpredictability of it all in 2009 and the impending return of the big teams later in the season makes it an awesome prospect!)

Anyway I was up at 5am today to catch the Arsenal Liverpool game, hot daym! 4-4, i couldn't belief! you can read the match report wherever, but I honestly haven't enjoyed a soccer game or and individual performance (ARShavin!) so much in a long time! shite defence from both sides helped, but go check out the highlights, lotsa fun!

I'd probably say something about the IPL and the buzz, but I'll leave that to the others who're actually experiencing it live, in aus theres not much happening wrt IPL, aus is such a fail for live sports, GMT +10 means I miss pretty much everything besides live AFL (aussie football rules) and local rugby games... shmeh =/ (as i say that I see live coverage of aus vs pakistan starting now from dubai, shmeh I think I'd rather watch simpsons reruns on Fox 8 thanks)

anyway, with my usual optimism for all my teams- let em go and own!

I'm quite confidence ^_^