Al's Blog from the Bog

It’s true that a night race seems slightly more exciting than the usual daytime events on the F1 calendar. I don’t know if it’s the unfamiliar light and shadow, because there is only one of them or something about Singapore, but it is a bit special.

It was a good race: plenty of drama from start to finish, lots of overtaking and some excellent drives. I think the media focussed rather too much on the possibility of Vettel wrapping up the championship.

The thing that struck me most, however, was the “incident” involving Hamilton and Massa.

Hamilton has had a tough time since his championship win. There appear to have been some problems in his personal life – we’ve all had those – and he hasn’t been able to quite live up to the expectation generated during his first two seasons.

Massa has not had it easy either, especially since his near-fatal accident in Hungary a while back.

So I suppose it was entirely predictable that today’s coming-together, resulting in a broken nose for Hamilton’s car and a puncture for Massa’s, would been seen by the media as more erratic behaviour from Hamilton, a sign of his (alleged) inability to handle the pressure from both the other teams and his team mate.

I see it slightly differently. I think the media (and some commentators) love to have a bad boy/brilliant-but-troubled driver on the grid and they have decided that Hamilton is their man. So everything he does is spun in that light.

The truth, for me, is simple. Hamilton was unlucky at the start – if he’d gone to the right of Webber it may have been a different story – and then he MADE A MISTAKE trying to position himself to overtake Massa. The rest of his race was brilliant, recovering from way back after his penalty to finish 5th. His driving showed controlled aggression and brilliant overtaking. That is all. Nothing to interpret or read between the lines.

(Whether or not his punishment for the collision was fair is another matter.)

It is notable that the media did not choose to highlight the, at best, ungentlemanly conduct of Massa in the press ring after the race. Double standards in the media? Surely not!

F1

Jenson Button takes 3rd place in Abu Dhabi. Photo © BBC

The 2009 F1 season has now ended, so how will we survive the 19 weeks until the start of the 2010 season? Thank goodness there will be plenty of rugby to keep me going over the winter!

Congratulations to Brawn GP and Jenson Button on their championships, to Rubens Barrichello, Lewis Hamilton and to the Red Bull team for their heroic efforts to keep the season spicy until the end.

Most of all, congratulations to the BBC for an excellent return to F1 broadcasting. To paraphrase Sebastian Vettel, there were some mistakes but overall it was a great season.

The finale in Abu Dhabi was quite a spectacle: a fabulous looking circuit, lots of glamour and the thrill of day turning into night as the race progressed.

One minor quibble about the BBC coverage: a noticeable feature of the season has been the huge amount of fawning (I was going to say a*se-l*cking, but that would be rude), particularly from Eddie Jordan. EJ seems to have two things to say: either HE was responsible for the success of driver X or team Y, or we must prostrate ourselves in worship before person Z  because of what they have brought to the sport.

It’s been a great season and I have enjoyed BBC’s role. It has been infinitely better than previous seasons, with no ad breaks and the red button, but I do hope that Auntie will, like the teams, strive to be even better next year. Jonathan Legard has been a weak commentator but, as long as Martin Brundle is alongside him, I can live with that. Eddie, however, must be consigned to the bin of failed experiments.

F1 BBC, F1, sport, tv

Sunday’s F1 GP at Spa, Belgium, was one of the most exciting races in recent memory, but subsequent events heaped ridicule on the sport.

As seems to be the norm, Ferrari and McLaren dominated proceedings and, with the exception of a slippery first couple of laps, the race settled down into the usual processional event, although there was a lot of overtaking in the midfield to keep a bit of excitement going.

Unusually, however, the order at the front started to tighten up as the race entered it’s final third. And then came the rain. It’s a shame, but this is just about the only thing that really livens up F1 these days. Suddenly cars were slithering round corners and Lewis Hamilton, a bit of a rain king, was taking massive chunks out of Kimi Raikkonen’s lead in every sector.

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F1 Belgium, F1, Spa

Despite the praise from some quarters for Hermann Tilke’s track design and the overtaking opportunities afforded by it, today’s inaugural F1 GP in Valencia was not one of the most exciting races we’ve seen. A great lap on Saturday put Felipe Massa on pole and a flawless ‘lights to flag’ drive today saw him take a comfortable victory, which even the flying Lewis Hamilton was unable to threaten.

As far as racing is concerned, there was very little action anywhere in the field, with strategy and mistakes being responsible for most of the small amount of excitement.

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F1 F1, Ferrari, Spain, Valencia

I’m delighted to read that from 2009 the BBC will be covering Formula 1. ITV have done a pretty good job over the last 12 years but a source of constant irritation – and sometimes rage – has been their need for ad breaks during the race, often leading to critical moments in the races not being broadcast.

The BBC have a great history of high quality coverage and, with their excellent website, will no doubt enhance this reputation in the future. Great news for F1 fans!

F1 BBC, F1