The Finishing Straight - Singapore (by HappyDude88)

ONE point is all that is needed now for Sebastian Vettel and if he doesn’t win the championship, I will flush my head down the toilet seat and film the embarrassing moment on YouTube!  The only man who can now deny the inevitable is Jenson Button and on their driving standards this season, these two have been a class apart from anyone else.

     I have given Vettel so many accolades this season, so it’s only fair for me to praise Button in this blog.  Since his sensational last-gasp victory in Montreal back in June, Jenson has been driving out of skin.  For me, he is in the best form of his career, driving that even outdoes what he was achieving in his championship winning campaign of 2009.  He has put in more consistent and stronger performances than Lewis Hamilton throughout the campaign and has now made himself the default no.1 at McLaren.  Button had a couple of shaky moments at the start of the championship; no-one should forget him driving into the wrong pit when leading in China and he had a dismal weekend at the Nurburgring, but more often than not, he has delivered when the task is set to him.  Once again, he elevated himself to high status in Singapore last weekend, outperforming what the car was capable of.  Late on, he put in a spurt to almost give the viewers a tasty finish and although it never looked like he could usurp Vettel at the front, he kept fighting until the end.  The Red Bull/Vettel combination looks like it could dominate Formula One for a number of years, but carry on with this momentum into next season and Jenson Button does have a chance to win the world championship again. 

      Whilst we continue to see the brilliant from Jenson Button, the bad continue to overweigh the good from Lewis Hamilton.  He got into some unnecessary scraps throughout the Singapore weekend with his nemesis from Monaco earlier in the year, Felipe Massa.  In the dying moments of Q3, Ferrari and McLaren stupidly sent all their cars out together at the same time, which left them squabbling for track space.  Massa and Hamilton took their grudge a bit too far, dicing in a position where an accident was a silly possibility.  On this occasion, Massa looked to be deliberately holding up Hamilton, who wanted to clearly get on with his one qualifying attempt.  There was no need for games for the Brazilian, as he re-stirred a pot that has been brewing all season.  24 hours later, I predicted a potential clash in the race between the two and ultimately, they delivered.  The contact at turn seven damaged a tyre on the Ferrari and left Lewis needing emergency front-wing repairs.  Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.  Although he has his platinum card from the race stewards, which at this rate, might be upgraded to gold class, I felt the penalty was a bit harsh.  The turn-in point was clumsy from Hamilton and Massa didn’t deserve to have his wheel punctured.  However, it wasn’t an incident that was deliberate, malicious or idiotic, just daft.  Hamilton was penalised just as much as Massa at the end of the day, so the stewards could have let it be as a racing incident.  Says a lot for Massa doesn’t it; he finishes ninth and Hamilton fifth, despite the McLaren driver making five trips into the pits during the race. 

     Felipe took it badly and showed his emotion in an unsavoury moment in the driver’s interview pen afterwards.  Hamilton was talking about his race to the German television station, RTL when Massa applauded him saying ‘well done,’ and shoved him.  Hamilton said ‘don’t touch me; pal’ twice, before concluding his interview and going off to cool down in the hospitality lounge.  There was no need for Massa to do this and his conduct was frankly, appalling.  If he’d been a bit more aggressive, he might be up for an FIA charge against assault and have his racing license taken away.  For me, Lewis did the right thing by not responding aggressively and walking off without murmuring a frustrating word, like his Monaco rant.  If Massa wanted to talk, leave it until behind closed doors and I think Martin Whitmarsh and Stefano Domenicalli need to speak to their drivers and thrash out their differences.  There is no need for this rift; and it’s damaging the reputations of both drivers.

UNDERPERFORMING: Massa is not doing enough

     To conclude this issue, Massa needs to take a hard look at his own performances.  Once again, he hasn’t delivered the results this season.  True, he had an excellent start to the campaign and produced some solid races, especially in Malaysia, China and the Nurburgring.  However, he hasn’t collected a podium finish now since Korea last October.  That is an appalling stat for a Ferrari driver, even Eddie Irvine was a more trustworthy no.2 driver.  No wins in three years, I have had my symphonies for the position that Massa is in on many occasions, but you can’t qualify and finish sixth every weekend and think its okay.  It is probably best he moved onto another team, because his championship challenging days are only a distant memory.  Every time I hear Rob Smedley on the radio, I sometimes think he is wasted as a race engineer and could be a decent driver.  There is more chance of Ed Miliband ever becoming Prime Minister of this country than Felipe Massa has of winning another Grand Prix for Ferrari.

     Other topics of interest over the Singapore weekend and the decline of Lotus Renault alarmingly continued last weekend.  Vitaly Petrov, who has had a very impressive second season in the sport, finished 17^th in the race, having been outraced fair and square by the Team Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen.  Eliminated in Q1, Petrov must be wondering whether this is a nightmare.  He was on the podium at the season opener in Australia and that must feel like last century, not six months ago!  Eric Bouillier can’t use Nick Heidfeld now as his scapegoat anymore either.  This car should be put in the scrapheap, it’s quite possibly the worst ever Renault that has ever been designed.  How can you go from being the third strongest team in the opening two races, to fighting with the class B team’s five races before the season’s end?  Robert Kubica’s impact on the team has been severely felt by his enforced absence this season and whilst I hope he regains full fitness, I sincerely hope Renault pull their finger out next season and actually give the drivers a car that they are capable of delivering the required results.

     The three Formula One rookies in midfield teams this season all put in stirring efforts in Singapore.  Once again, Pastor Maldonado narrowly missed out on points for Williams, but pulled off a classy overtake on his team-mate Rubens Barrichello in the dying laps.  He has had his moments on insane behaviour this season and other events where he has been attempting to make alterations to the circuit design.  However, he has performed credibly in a dismal car and in difficult circumstances.  I actually do hope he gets another season at Williams to see just how good he really is.  Whilst on the point of Williams’s drivers; Barrichello was laughing and so was I when I heard about the story of Kimi Raikkonen coming back to F1 next season as Rubens’s replacement.  Get a fax message through to Sir Frank Williams; you are better off with Rubens, Kimi’s only going to turn up, drive the car and go home.  He couldn’t give a flying monkey’s about all the technical development and although he might bring more points than what Rubens car, I can’t see where the team would go with Raikkonen onboard other than stagnated progress.

HOT: The humid conditions didn't affect di Resta, who scored his best finish

    Back to the rookies and Sergio Perez finished a solid tenth and earnt a deserved point for a weekend where he proved his street fighting capabilities.  Perez’s season will be sadly remembered for that horrific qualifying crash in Monaco, but I think he has performed solidly throughout the season, despite the tendency to get into some unnecessary accidents.  Sebastian Buemi can vouch for that.  However, it is Paul di Resta who continues to take all the headlines in the rookie department.  He drove like a man on a mission in Singapore and finished sixth; his best ever career result.  Backed up by an eighth place result for Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil and the team now look odds-on to finish sixth in the constructors championship.  As the year has gone on, Force India have made drastic improvements to their package, so credit to Vijay Mallya and the technical team back at Silverstone for finding the change in performance.

      However, we must finish this edition of the Finishing Straight talking about Sebastian Vettel.  Nine wins, eleven pole positions, countless fastest laps, immense ability on the first lap, dynamic overtaking, flawless pitstops, his driving at the moment is like poetry in motion.  Once again, Vettel was my Driver of the Day and Driver of the Weekend in Singapore and don’t count on him not winning all the remaining races.  He has destroyed the opposition in Japan, Korea and Abu Dhabi in previous years and will want to finish his dominant season in style.  Michael Schumacher’s almost insurmountable tally of 13 wins from 18 in 2004 is looking incredibly vulnerable now, especially with this new German great in the pound seat now. 

2011 Singapore Grand Prix - Only one more point needed for Vettel

TOAST: Only Jenson Button can stop Vettel's title charge now

THE dominant Sebastian Vettel now only needs one more point to wrap up the inevitable and retain his Formula One World Championship.  He took the flag in a fascinating Singapore Grand Prix to record his ninth success of a 2011 season in which he has crushed the opposition.  Only 2009 world champion Jenson Button can stop him now winning the title and if he does, then I will flush my head down the toilet seat!  Vettel only needs a single point at the next race, the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in a fortnight to become only the eighth driver in history to win back-to-back world championships and the youngest of that crop.  When you think that only Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Alberto Ascari, Ayrton Senna, Sir Jack Brabham and Mika Hakkinen have achieved this feat, it just underlines the fact that Vettel is one of the legends in the sport’s established and colourful history.

     Once again in Singapore all weekend, the Vettel/Red Bull combination was simply untouchable.  Although Button got to within 1.6secs at the end of the two hour event, Sebastian had the race under control once again.  On pole position by nearly half a second, he simply left the competition standing at the start and had a 25 second lead before a scary crash for Michael Schumacher brought out the Safety Car.  However, in the spectacular nightline scenery, he made a mockery of the restart and before Button could think about closing again, 12 seconds had disappeared in three laps!  Problems with backmarkers, especially with the duelling Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello wrecked any hopes of Button catching Vettel right up in the final laps.  It would have been an unlikely repeat of the Canadian Grand Prix, but the closing laps could have been even more gruelling than what they were.

      As Vettel had his traditional Sunday stroll, others toiled in the humid conditions.  Once again, Mark Webber made his customary slow start, baulking a flying Lewis Hamilton.  Webber dropped to fourth from the front row of the grid, as Button and Fernando Alonso took full advantage.  Hamilton fell to eighth and his afternoon was compromised even further by another run-in with his childish partner in crime, Felipe Massa.   

PUNCTURE: Another run-in with Hamilton ruined Massa's evening

     After their incidents in Monaco earlier in the season, it became clear that neither has learned their lesson from those events back in May.  The pair blamed each other for a near-miss in Saturday’s pole position qualifying shootout.  On Sunday, they had a collision at turn seven, that ruined their races.  Having just exited the pits from their first stops, Massa defended the inside line into the corner and was ran into the back by a rather clumsy turn-in attempt from Hamilton.  Massa collected a puncture and could only fight back to ninth by the finish.  Hamilton earnt his traditional drive-through penalty for causing a collision, but other smart overtaking, combined with good timing in the Safety Car phase meant he recovered to fifth.  Afterwards, Massa sarcastically congratulated Hamilton in the driver’s interview pen for the clash and it remains to be seen how far this bitter dispute goes between the 2008 title rivals.

     Whilst Hamilton was making headlines, Schumacher made a dramatic exit stage right on lap 29.  The seven-time world champion was involved in a feisty dice for position with team-mate Nico Rosberg and the Sauber of Sergio Perez.  The trouble began when Rosberg ran wide onto the marbles in the final corner on the previous lap, lost position to Perez and then aggressively claimed the place back with some force into the first bend.  Moments later, Schumacher tried to catch the rookie off-guard exiting turn seven, but misjudged Perez’s rightful braking distance and launched himself over the Mexican and straight into the barriers, narrowly missing Rosberg.  Luckily, Schumacher was unhurt, whilst both Rosberg and Perez went onto score points.

     Massa wasn’t the only Ferrari driver to have a tough day, as Alonso fought all day with tyres that simply didn’t like the set-up of his car.  His promising long race pace in Friday practice turned out to be a flash in the pan.  Twice, he got outmanoeuvred by Webber on the track, once after the Safety Car restart into the pathetic turn ten chicane.  Webber’s clever moves earnt him a deserved rostrum finish, behind Button.  Alonso had to settle for fourth, once again achieving the maximum his car was capable of on the day.  Vettel’s only minor scare was when Team Lotus released Heikki Kovalainen into his path during his final pitstop.  No damage was fortunately done, with Lotus expected to receive a fine for the incident.

     Scottish rookie sensation Paul di Resta had another outstanding event and ran as high as third briefly during the first round of pitstops.  Sixth place, two positions ahead of experienced team-mate Adrian Sutil confirms his standing as rookie of the year.  Rosberg held off Sutil, Massa and Perez in the final lap to finish seventh.  It was also a good day for Team Lotus, with Kovalainen finishing 16^th, notably outracing the Renault of Vitaly Petrov.  Once again, 15^th and 17^th place results sum up Renault need Robert Kubica back ASAP.  Their weekend was simply forgettable.

      However, Sebastian Vettel had another unforgettable weekend.  As he coasted across the line to take the delirium from his Red Bull mechanics, the fireworks exploded on the Marina Bay harbour, to complete another perfect day for the young German.  He now has two hands on the title and is aiming for more records in the final five races of the season.  Suzuka will end up seeing him crowned as youngest back-to-back world champion and knowing the way he has set his standards, he will go to Japan not for one point, but the maximum result and complete the mission in style.  

F1 special - The Renault crashgate saga (2008-2009)

By Simon Wright (Feature piece)

AS FORMULA One returns to Singapore for its fourth night race, I thought it would be time to comment on one of F1’s deepest scandals, when cheating went to a new, ultimate low.  Years before, some had seeked technical clarifications to eliminate those trying to bend the rules.  There was the Brabham ‘fan’ car of 1978, which was banned after one race.  Benetton’s alleged illegal traction control device used during the 1994 season, but never totally proven and McLaren’s extra brake pedal at the start of the 1998 season, declared illegal after they whitewashed the opposition in that year’s season opener.  However, no-one had stooped so low to attempt at fixing a Grand Prix result.  In Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jnr, Formula One was about to go down a very unsavoury path.

BUILD-UP TO THE INCIDENT

     It is the autumn of 2008 and Renault has underperformed for a second successive F1 season.  The team may have double world champion Fernando Alonso back on their driving roster, but they are a long way behind Ferrari, McLaren and BMW Sauber in the constructors championship and struggling to hold off Toyota for fourth spot; a poor reward for the team that conquered the sport in Alonso’s previous successful spell with the team two years earlier.  Alongside the Spaniard is Brazilian rookie, Nelson Piquet Jnr.  Son of the three-time world champion in the 1980s, he struggles throughout his debut season, outqualified by Alonso in every Grand Prix and only collecting sporadic point’s finishes.  Although he picked up a fortunate second place thanks to a well-timed pitstop at the German Grand Prix, Piquet’s drive is under severe threat.  Alonso looks frustrated at the car’s lack of ability for the best in the business to test the likes of Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton, both in superior machinery and fighting for the title, but nowhere near Alonso’s standing as a racing driver.  As Formula One arrives for its first ever night race; the Singapore Grand Prix, noises from the paddock suggest that Renault are considering their long-term future in Grand Prix racing.  With a crippling recession affecting America and Europe directly on the horizon, it seemed logical to walkaway from a business that was seeing results not being delivered.

     Alonso is mighty around street circuits and looks quick in Singapore all weekend.  In fact, his strong practice times suggest he has a great chance of qualifying in the top three for only the third time this season, on a genuine fuel load.  However, a fuel line works loose and his car coasts to a halt in the opening moments of the second qualifying session.  The reaction of the Spaniard when he climbs out of his broken down car speaks volumes.  A great opportunity has just gone and rather than take on Massa, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen for the race win, Alonso is doomed in 15^th and set for a long race behind the likes of Sebastian Bourdais’s Toro Rosso and Jenson Button’s Honda.  With Piquet being eliminated in Q1 and starting one position behind Alonso, Renault’s chances of any success in Singapore are looking bleak come Saturday evening.

THE INCIDENT

The race begins and Alonso has been placed on a light fuel load by Renault’s director of engineering, Pat Symonds.  Symonds believes that a standard one-stop will get Fernando nowhere on raceday and going aggressive on the strategy might put him in contention for some solid points.  Although he moves up to 12^th on the opening lap, Alonso gets stuck behind the ridiculously slow Toyota of Jarno Trulli, who is on a heavy fuel load and lapping five seconds slower than the race leaders.  Piquet made a dreadful start and runs 18^th, gaining a place when Bourdais has an early spin down an escape road.  On lap 12, Alonso comes in for a scheduled pitstop, relegating him to the back of the field.  All hopes seem to be lost until two laps later.

COWARDLY: This crash sparked a chain of ugly events for Renault

     At first, it seems like just a normal racing incident, just another crash for Nelson Piquet and another blemish on his dismal first season in the sport.  On lap 14, he gets out of shape at turn 17 and hit the barrier on the outside.  As I’m watching the race live on ITV, even I think it looked a rather elementary mistake to make.  However, I quickly dismiss it as a mistake because the driver involved had made several driving errors which had seen him chalk DNF’s up.  The car looks a mess, but the impact with the wall is fairly light.  The Brazilian is thankfully unhurt, but his car needs a crane to be removed, so the Safety Car is dispatched.  Both Red Bull’s and Rubens Barrichello’s Honda have pitted in time, but lost track position to Alonso.  With the pitlane closed until the pack forms up, the frontrunners will face a similar consequence.  Once Trulli and Nico Rosberg pit, Alonso moves into the lead and dominates proceedings from there.  He beats Rosberg and Hamilton to the chequered flag to score an unlikely win from 15^th on the grid.  Once out in front, he drove superbly like a champion and after the year he has had, he deserved some fortune.  It is Renault’s first win since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, also won by Alonso and the Spaniard’s first since Monza 2007. 

TAINTED: Alonso's victory was lucky to say the least

    In the cooling down room to the podium ceremony, Alonso is joined by Renault team principal, Flavio Briatore.  Alonso brings up the subject of the Safety Car, admitting his surprise at the success and he got a lucky break.  Others such as Nick Heidfeld, who finished sixth for BMW Sauber already, suspect something amiss with how Alonso benefited, because of Piquet’s crash.  For now, the incident is put to bed, but a year on, the actions of three men come out into the open and this incident will go down as one of the biggest cheating scandals in sporting history.

THE REVELATION

The summer of 2009 sees the Renault team struggling again for results.  When Alonso loses a wheel and drops out of the Hungarian Grand Prix, TV images catch Briatore, who manages the career of Nelson Piquet Jnr catching an early flight home.  This is seen as an insult in Piquet’s lack of race performance.  He finishes 12^th in Budapest and still has yet to score a championship point in ten outings during 2009.  On August 4, the Brazilian is dropped by the Renault team for the rest of the season, to be replaced by GP2 frontrunner, Romain Grosjean.  In a statement on his website, Piquet blamed Briatore square on for his abrupt departure;

“The conditions I have had to deal with during the last two years have been very strange to say the least.  There are incidents that I can hardly believe occurred myself.  A manager is supposed to encourage you, support you, and provide you with opportunities.  Flavio Briatore was my executioner.”

     On September 4, 2009 – the following statement was released on the FIA website, which suggested that Renault were in serious trouble;

"Representatives of ING Renault F1 have been requested to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Monday, 21 September 2009.  The team representatives have been called to answer charges, including a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, that the team conspired with its driver, Nelson Piquet Jr, to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix with the aim of causing the deployment of the safety car to the advantage of its other driver, Fernando Alonso."

    Four days after his sacking by Renault, Piquet had given evidence to the FIA about his part in the race-fixing scandal.  He said that he had crashed on purpose in Singapore to bring the Safety Car out, having been told to do so by Symonds and Briatore.  He claimed he did what he was told, as it would assure his seat at the team for the following season.  A Brazilian TV station made allegations about the claim during August’s Belgian Grand Prix.  At the next race in Italy, Alonso claimed that he knew nothing about the ‘plan,’ whilst both Briatore and Symonds claimed Piquet had made it up as a pack of lies.  On the Monza weekend, Renault who had initially declined to comment until the WMSC hearing were furious to find out that Piquet’s damming statement had been leaked to the worldwide media.  Briatore announced he would be launching criminal charges against the two Piquet’s.’

"I feel really, really upset and sad.  What you see today - everything was against Renault, and there was a big damage already for us.  This takes the sport into disrepute.  I feel Nelsinho is a very spoilt guy, very fragile.  We tried everything.  All I wanted from him was only performance.”

     Four days after the Italian Grand Prix, Renault confirmed that they would not be contesting the charges put against them from the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.  They also confirmed that both Briatore and Symonds had left the team, effectively admitting their guilt to one of the most outrageous fixes ever seen in sport.  It beggared belief that someone could even think of hatching a plan like this, especially when you consider the threats of safety to other drivers, track marshals, photographers and spectators.  F1 2009 had already gone through a bumpy ride, with Lewis Hamilton having been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix for lying to the race stewards in Melbourne.  A threatened breakaway in the summer had taken the sport to the abyss, Massa had suffered head injuries in a freak qualifying crash in Budapest and BMW had become the latest manufacturer to withdraw from F1.  This was the latest line of dark stories to batter its reputation and by far, the most damming and ugliest.

THE VERDICT

BACK: Pat Symonds is still playing a minor role in the Virgin team

On Monday 21 September 2009, Renault was given a two-year suspended ban from the FIA Formula One world championship.  There was no fine for the team and with no immediate expulsion; it felt like the team had got off lightly.  Pat Symonds was given a five-year ban for his role in the incident and is still serving that, although he is currently allowed to be working as a consultant away from the racetrack with Marussia Virgin Racing.  Flavio Briatore was given a lifetime ban from all forms of motorsport, which has since been quashed in the appeal courts.  Although he has been seen fleetingly in the paddock since 2009, it is unlikely that Briatore, who has now also relinquished his position as main owner of Premiership club Queens Park Rangers will ever return to the sport.  Remarkably for giving evidence to the prosecution, Nelson Piquet Jnr was granted immunity and would be allowed to race in Formula One again.  However, no team has ever found the runner-up in the 2006 GP2 series worthy to race in the sport again and rightly so.  Renault lost Alonso to Ferrari at the end of the 2009 season and the team reduced its stake in the team, selling up to Genii Capital and handing former DAMS boss Eric Bouillier the opportunity to rescue the ailing team.  Three major sponsors, including Dutch insurance company ING, pulled the plug on lucrative deals as they didn’t want to be associated with a team that clearly had produced an act of recklessness. 

MY VIEW

SORRY: Piquet regrets his actions, but his F1 career is over

Formula One has moved on from this dark incident gladly and the politics have died down in recent seasons.  I still can’t believe that a plan could be hatched to produce such desperation to win a motor race.  Although Renault and Alonso have moved on, Nelson Piquet’s career ended for his idiocy, whilst the memories and trophies that Briatore and Symonds won in their time together at Benetton and Renault will always be tarnished.  The Singapore Grand Prix lives on and is still one of the most dramatic and glamorous races on the calendar, but I doubt it will ever shake off its unfortunate tag of the race that saw a sheer act of cynical behaviour in risking the lives of hundreds to win a race!  I just hope no-one would ever think of doing something so cowardly again.  

The magic 8 ball - What does it say?

ANYONE who knows me will already know that I am absolutely dreadful at predicting anything.  It's a pure fact.  2010 was a luckier year for me in that aspect, but 2011 has already followed the previous poor rate of success.  I may not have a crystal ball, but the magic 8 ball, which you can still get at weird shops and fairs, and also even as a phone application is my predictor.

So, last night, I put him to the test and asked it some questions.  This is the feedback it gave me.  Trust it as a sign...

Will Jamaica still be in the Commonwealth by this time next year? Don't count on it

Is Gordon Brown going to make a sensational return to politics? My sources say no

Will a Skins movie ever be made? Without a doubt

Does Milton Keynes stand any chance of ever gaining city status? Concentrate and ask again

Do you see wedding bells for Nicole Scherzinger and Lewis Hamilton? Without a doubt

Should Chelsea realise they made a mistake and sell Fernando Torres in January 2012? Outlook not so good

Will a British side win the 2011/12 UEFA Europa Leauge? Outlook good

Do you see Ed Miliband remaining as leader of the Labour party at the end of the year? As I see it, yes

Is Sebastian Vettel going to wrap up the 2011 FIA Formula One world championship next weekend in Singapore? It is decidedly so

Will Gaddafi be found in his hiding place? Without a doubt

Will England win the 2011 Rugby World Cup? I'd better not tell you now

In 2,000 years, would you say that dinosaurs return to rule the planet? Reply is hazy, try again

A u-turn by Simon Cowell; will he return to be a judge for the live shows of The X-Factor?  Yes- definitely

A Manchester club to win the 2011/12 Barclays Premier League? Reply is hazy, try again

Do you see Sarah Palin being the next president of the United States?  Very doubtful

Can Nick Clegg make himself even more unpopular with another change of heart?  My reply is no

Will HMV follow Woolworths in going bust by the end of the year?  Ask again later

Do you see it snowing on Christmas Day 2011?  Yes

Out of someone I personally know, will there be a winner of the National Lottery?  Cannot predict now

Do you see Hollyoaks being axed by Channel 4 next summer?  As I see it, yes

So, there you go.  Believe it or not, the magic 8 ball has had its say - let's see if it carries physic powers!

F1 2010 (The Computer Game Review)

BY JASON WRIGHT

Although the support of Formula 1 has grown in recent times, for several years now, its place in the gaming market has been very much in the doldrums.  The axing of EA Sports’ take on the series in 2003 meant the titles became PlayStation exclusive as they were made by Sony.   Though these games still were massive bestsellers, Sony hardly developed and improved the format and with the titles became boring and repetitive, finally having its contract terminated in 2007.

It wasn’t until March 2008 when the FOM decided to award a new contract.  Codemasters was given the rights to restore F1 to its former glory in the games world.  The decision was soon taken to only release a 2009 version of the game on the PSP and Nintendo Wii, intending to put all its effort into 2010 for it to really attract the likes of Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, the former of which has never had an F1 game until now.

Utilising their self-titled ‘EGO’ games engine, which has made the Race Driver and Colin McRae DIRT titles such a success, the task was simple but as always, complicated.  To not only give the player the experience of racing in F1 but to live the life off the track as well.

As expected, the game is mainly built around the career mode.  Unlike in the Sony versions, the player jumps straight into the championship, without having to go through the daunting task of earning a super license, compete in a shoot-out for a race seat or take part in pre-season testing.  Starting with one of the three new teams on the grid for this season, Hispania Racing F1 Team, Virgin Racing or Lotus Racing, it’s the player’s ultimate task to be successful, rise through the ranks to the point that they are eventually racing for a championship challenger like McLaren-Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing.  The player has the choice of stopping after their third of fifth season in the sport but after having done seven seasons (in this case, the year 2016), that’s it, they will have to retire.

It is what’s off the grid that adds excitement to the game.  Never before has the player been able to talk to media, which varies from whatever language the game is in, (the English version allows you to speak to BBC Radio 5 Live’s David Croft and Holly Samos.)  These interviews can seem innocent but players have to watch out, just the small word of criticism spoken can land the player in hot water with their team.  Performances in races also matter, out-race your more experienced team-mate and you can get first call in technical upgrades on the car.  You also get an agent, named Gabriella, who sounds Italian, who will handle contract negotiations and transfers to a new team.

Sony’s ultimate letdown in recent years was its tedious AI (Artificial Intelligence) system which usually had the cars racing around in a straight line with no action, changes in order only happened in pit-stops.  Codemasters has been extremely careful not to repeat this mistake and bases each circuit and weather condition on deciding whose best in those particular environments.  Good examples are that Felipe Massa may be the one to beat in Turkey as he’s won three times in the last five years there and Lewis Hamilton could be the one to watch out for in wet weather because of his strong drives in these conditions in real life.  It actually also has cars crashing into one another at any time.  Players have to also watch out for hazards such as bits of bodywork on the track or a stranded car on the racing line.  This does though have a downside that this game does not have any mechanical failures or a Safety Car.  Codemasters has had the decency to admit this before its release and has already confirmed it will work to bring back mechanical retirements for the 2011 game, although whether the safety car will also return remains to be seen.

Advanced technology in games has allowed the opportunity to provide the best wet weather racing yet.  Skill and nerve is what’s required now, just like in real life, in order to master the tricky conditions.  The dynamic weather setting will allow to automatically selecting the most common conditions for each circuit.  Malaysia, Belgium and Japan are perhaps prime examples of where it is most likely to rain.

Other missing features include no race commentary, instead receiving constant feedback from your race engineer via team radio.  Some players though might consider this as a good thing as in-race commentary could distract their progress in trying to listen to it.  After all, who wants to listen to the tedious Jonathan Legard!  It is also not possible to watch live footage of either practice or qualifying when in the garage, instead relying on just the live timing page.  Also, there is no World Championship mode this year though the grand prix weekend mode allows up to all 19 races on the F1 calendar to be contested at any one time, auto saving in between, so players can race the full championship calendar, or for the first time ever, ability to mix up the order of the races (e.g. you could possibly want to go to Singapore first and have Britain as the season finale).

In conclusion, the gamble that Codemasters in rushing through 2009 and fully committing to 2010 has well and truly paid off.  As long as they make significant improvements year after year, this completely heralds a new dawn for F1 games.

2010 Singapore Grand Prix - Flawless Fernando Triumphs In Singapore Night

Fernando Alonso managed to resist an all-race attack from Sebastian Vettel to clinch a priceless victory in today’s Singapore Grand Prix on the Marina Bay circuit.  The usually spectacular nightline sky was lit up by an eventful race dominated by Alonso and Vettel.  The pair finished a full half a minute ahead of the chasing pack, after sixty-one laps of torturous punishments in very humid conditions.

The real loser on the night was Lewis Hamilton, who suffered another damaging shunt, this time with fellow championship contender Mark Webber which saw the McLaren forced into a very costly retirement.  It was the key incident of the race that allowed Alonso and Vettel to make the decisive break on the rest of the field.  Despite an early Safety Car period to clear Vitantonio Liuzzi’s deranged Force India away from the Turn 10 chicane, the first half of the race turned into a processional affair, with the leading two driving around in circles and no sign of any dramatic action around the corner.

This changed on Lap 30 when Kamur Kobayashi, already nursing damage from heavy contact with Michael Schumacher seconds earlier, hit the tyre wall at Turn 18, just underneath the tunnel.  He was collected by the hapless Bruno Senna, which resulted in a second caution period.  At the restart, Webber was badly delayed by Lucas di Grassi’s Virgin which allowed Hamilton to grab a decisive run on the Aussie exiting Turn Five.  Into the braking zone for Turn Six, Hamilton was slightly ahead, but on the outside of the corner.  He turned in, thinking he had given Webber enough space, but slight contact was made.  As in Monza a fortnight ago, it was only relatively minor, but Hamilton had been critically hobbled and parked up the escape road with broken rear suspension, beating his arms on the cockpit in sheer frustration.  Lewis is now twenty points adrift with four races to go, and it now looks like a very tough task to regain the championship he won in such amazing fashion in 2008.  Webber just about survived to finish 3^rd, and maintain his championship lead, which now stands at nine points over Alonso.

All day, Vettel looked to have the measure of the former double world champion, but Alonso, a controversial winner in Singapore in 2008 for Renault was always a step infront and would raise his pace, should he come under any critical danger.  Despite a last-lap attack in backmarkers from the German, Vettel realised the valour was the better part of disgression and settled for the 18 points which keep him firmly in the title proceedings.  The other championship contender, Jenson Button looked unhappy all weekend with the balance of his McLaren kept his car on the road to finish 4^th, and therefore keep his hopes, though slim, still alive.

The most dramatic exit of the race came from the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen in the dying embers of the race.  Kovalainen had been spun around by the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Buemi, whilst dicing for 13^th place.  The contact damaged the engine on his car and set alight to his Cosworth Powerplant.  Foolishly, the team told Kovalainen to carry on past the pits, but he stopped on the start-finish straight, with his car very quickly turning into a flaming barbeque.  Heikki jumped out and grabbed a fire extinguisher off the clueless Singapore marshals, who looked very reluctant to help out.  Kovalainen did a great job to put the flames out on his own, but it will raise questions of the marshalling structure of street circuits. 

The other star of the race was Robert Kubica.  The Pole was running in a comfortable 6^th, when he had to pit on Lap 45 to replace a punctured tyre.  Undeterred, he drove out of his skin to pass six cars in eight laps, including one of the moves of the season around the outside of Adrian Sutil’s Force India at Turn Seven.  Kubica finished a very creditable 7^th, after his dramas.  Elsewhere, Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello put in very solid drives to finish 5^th and 6^th, whilst the points were completed by Sutil, Nico Hulkenberg and the unlucky Felipe Massa, who after starting last, due to a gearbox glitch in qualifying, spent all afternoon in traffic.  Since the conclusion of the race, Sutil has been penalised twenty seconds for gaining a track advantage at the start, dropping from 8^th to 10^th in the final classification.  Fellow German Nick Heidfeld has a very unhappy return to the sport, clashing with Liuzzi on the first lap, then later, being rammed into the wall by a fired-up Schumacher, who picked up front-wing damage and finished an unlucky 13^th.

Singapore produced a glamorous spectacle and although five men still remain in the championship battle, Lewis Hamilton may well have kissed his chances goodbye for another season.  For Fernando Alonso, the momentum is 100% behind the Spaniard and it will be interesting to see how he will fair in Suzuka in a fortnight’s time, which technically should be a Red Bull walkover.  However, Formula One is never settled on a piece of paper and with the drama that 2010 has thrown up so far this season, anything is possible in Japan next time out.

Flavio Briatore - A Finished Article

On Friday, Queens Park Rangers probably got some really good news, as after months of turmoil that have seen the West London club plunge to the lower reaches of the Championship table, their chairman Flavio Briatore stepped aside from his role.  With his Formula One future looking doomed, has sport now lost one of its most colourful figures of recent times?

Briatore took over QPR in 2007, as part of a consortium that also included fellow Formula 1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone.   Together, they promised Rangers a load of cash and the glory land of Premier League football, something the club hasn’t experienced since relegation from the top-flight way back in 1996.  The heady days of Les Ferdinand banging in the goals on a regular basis and top-half finishes in the Premiership’s inaugural years seem a long time ago.  True, money was given to spend for managers, but stability was something the Loftus Road club has not being able to achieve, with alarming results.  Nowadays, managers aren’t given a load of time to stamp their authority on a club, with Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes and Arsene Wenger the only three managers still at their current clubs at the end of 2002.  However, QPR were sacking managers quicker than glue was sticking to paper.  Briatore has often been known to have a short fuse and a lack of patience with people, but the way he was running the club was ridiculous.  It was seen to him more of a business venture, than a football club.

His dismissal of Jim Magilton before Christmas was an absolutely scandalous decision.  Magilton, who had stabilised Ipswich for several seasons, without taking them to the next level had steered Rangers into the Championship playoffs by late October, playing some very attractive football in the process.  However, it went sour very quickly and a bust-up with playmaker Akos Buzasky after a dismal display in a Sky televised game down at Watford was the final straw.  Briatore got involved, when he didn’t need too and suspended Magilton, sacking him shortly afterwards.  Paul Hart barely lasted five minutes and now, Mick Harford is in temporary charge, QPR’s 10^th manager in less than two years.  No wonder why no-one wants to manage there, it’s a poisoned chalice!  Saturday 2-1 win over Doncaster Rovers should see the club move away from the relegation zone, which could have disastrous consequences for the club, should the unthinkable happen, but they have a long way to go, if they want to achieve Briatore’s initial ambition.  He may remain on the board at QPR, but without a leading role, the club may now have the chance to look forward to a brighter future.

Briatore’s Formula 1 days look numbered too, after one of the most disgraceful cheating episodes in sporting history.  With Renault threatening to pull out of the sport, following a couple of years in the doldrums, Briatore took action that would have severe ramifications for many.  On Lap 14 of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, rookie Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet had an accident that brought out the Safety Car.  This led to the benefit of his team-mate, Fernando Alonso and the double world champion went on from 15^th on the grid to win F1’s first ever night race, in controversial circumstances.  Renault remained in the sport, but Briatore’s actions were soon going to come back and bite him hard.  Last summer, Piquet was axed after a string of poor performances in the Renault and then went public about the events of that weekend in Singapore.  The FIA investigated, Briatore fell on his sword and quit Renault, along with Director of Engineering Pat Symonds.  However, it didn’t stop Flavio getting a lifetime ban from the sport he truly loves.  This has been overturned on appeal, but with the matter still unresolved, Flavio faces some anxious times infront of him.  For somebody who spearheaded Michael Schumacher’s rise to fame, and Alonso’s double championship success in 2005/2006, it seems unthinkable that he won’t be around on the Grand Prix grid anymore. 

To sum up, Flavio Briatore is damaged goods and he faces a long and stressful battle if he is to return to a premier stage in sport.  Sadly, he looks like a very finished article.