Singing in Formula One

The Grand Prix of Japan started out at six in the morning Edinburgh time.  I neglected to set an alarm and was waking up at intervals all night because I didn't want to miss the live running of the race so I was just a wee bit fuzzy when the race coverage started.  I wasn't really quite sure if I was still asleep as I found myself in the middle of a blazing nightmare with Suzi Perry, Eddie Jordan, and David Coulthard doing something that might have been singing together.  Eddie Jordan was quite funny, David Coulthard was not funny, and Suzi Perry just should not sing ... ever.

Going into it, my Formula One hero, Mark Webber, is on the pole for the start.  Even though he has no hope of winning the World Driving Championship, I still hope he wins at Suzuka.  This is his last season and I'm sure he would get a smile out of beating Vettel who really screwed Webber early in the season by violating team orders to take a win away from him.  Webber would legitimately have won but both of them got team orders to slow down to save the cars.  Webber did, Vettel didn't.  Booooooooooo.

Formula One cars look really exotic these days but they aren't very pretty.  It looks like if you mounted R2D2 onto their bodies then they would turn into spaceships.  The best looking Formula cars came from Lotus as championed by Jimmy Clark and the Lotus looked all the more beautiful in winning at the Indy 500 as the Offenhauser cars were fat, lumbering walruses.

The drivers look different today too as almost all of them look like winos.  They never shave and don't look at all like the stylish Formula One drivers of the past.  What's unusual about the current drivers is they never have beards but they're never clean-shaven either so they're deliberately affecting the look.  Who knows why.  Ayrton Senna was maybe one of the last of the glamour drivers as he was a hot Latin who was flamboyant, controversial, and absolutely brilliant.  Of course he drove for Ferrari.


And so the race.


For some while the race for the lead hasn't been all that interesting as Vettel would run out well ahead of the other cars and that wouldn't change through the entire race.  In Japan, Grosjean showed an excellent performance as he got a fantastic start and was leading for about half the race.  Vettel did finally take him but it wasn't an easy thing and then the focus was on the battle for second place between Grosjean and Webber.  There was a very exciting pass when Webber took him near the end of the second to the last lap but it was an excellent contest.

Congratulations to Vettel as his talent and speed took him to the win again.  Congratulations also to Webber for taking second as he had two DNFs (Did Not Finish) in the last two races, neither of which were his fault, so that made it very good to see him bringing it home.  Special congratulations to Grosjean as his performance had him playing with the big league and he did an excellent job of it.  One of the intrigues in Formula One is not so much watching the leaders but who will be the future leaders and Grosjean is looking very good.

Seeing Alonso come in fourth was also very good as he is another favorite of mine.  He did some very brave passes at Monaco last season and they weren't brave in terms of forcing another driver into a dangerous position but rather they were brilliantly executed.

It was good to see Gutierrez scoring his first Formula One point for his finish.  In Formula One, the only way to score points for the championship is through where you finish.  I love NASCAR but they give points for ridiculous things like who is driving the fastest yellow car on Lap 27.

The best story came from Louis Hamilton and Niko Rosberg about when they were at another track for some set-up work.  Track conditions looked excellent so Rosberg was belting around it but he drove into a small wet spot, slid off the track into a tire barrier, and absolutely destroyed his car.  This was hugely embarrassing, particularly on his first lap on the track, but he smiled a moment later.  Hamilton had started out just after Rosberg.  He hit the same water spot and slid off the track in the same way.  The difference was that Rosberg's car was already there and Hamilton hit it, destroying his car as well.  They said they were in just a wee bit of trouble with the Team Manager for that stunt.



Follow-ups to previous comments:  Nope, I didn't hear anything about Vettel's suspension.  They're still going on a lot about DRS but that's about it for anything technical.  That's not a failing in Suzi Perry as she does the intro / outtro bits but not the commentary in the race.  I like her as she doesn't come across as the flashy glamour girl and she isn't using a teleprompter; she really knows her stuff.