Official 2014 F1 thread - spoiler alert

I'm sure you are right.

But it's funny you should refer to it as a "circus". Of course it is! So is MotoGP, so are all sporting events.

I was really struck by this when I went to the Silverstone GP a couple of weeks ago (for yes, I was there). There was so much merchandise available for all the fans and much of it was being bought. But I couldn't help wonder how much of it would be worn, or even make sense, outside the confines of MotoGP attendance (a couple of times a year at best).
It was all about supporting your rider (a bit like a favourite gladiator).

And the event in itself is of no importance. It's just a show that comes to town, a circus, pure entertainment. It's very easy to forget this amongst all the commentary and the gossip. People take it all so seriously (esp. in F1) but it's just a game that has been concocted, with its own rules and for everyone's amusement. And that is all it is. It's a completely artificial world.

 

In F1, I'm not really a fan of anything. But I have a soft spot for Williams ever since filling their transporter with diesel prior to their setting off for some Spanish GP in 1980 when they won their first title. I'd never heard of them. I also couldn't believe that anything hi-tech and successful could actually come out of Didcot, the local town they were based in.

 

Isn't Didcott a centre for railway engineering? It was the affiliated town of a ship I served on (twice).
I was never a fan because I think Frank Williams always treated his drivers pretty poorly. But I do quite like Claire...

 

Frank always said that he didn't need the best (and therefore most expensive) drivers because his cars were so superior.

 

Didcot does indeed have a Railway Centre where there are innumerable steam locos and a load of other restored paraphernalia. It's great. It's by far the best bit of Didcot - in fact pretty much the only good bit. if i was a multi-millionaire, I'd give a sizeable grant to Didcot Railway Centre. They just have too much stuff to restore for the amount of workforce (nearly all voluntary) that they have. with more funds, they could take on some full-time craftsmen.

Go and support them by spending an afternoon there. There are normally locos in steam at the weekends. Well worth the fairly paltry entrance fee.

 

I think it was Frank Williams who said he wasn't interested in employing the driver who has just won the championship - he wants to employ the driver who is going to win next year's championship. Hence his habit of sacking the reigning world champion.

 

And Frank may have been right - when his team actually had a decent car... Which explains why they've won bugger-all for so long...

 

Hamilton, back in the game.

.....thanks to Rosberg's steering wheel behaving like a Multistrada's dashboard.

Or maybe the all-powerful Bernie, sitting in his lair, pulled a few levers and decided to even things up a bit as the season-end draws near.

 

Rosberg can't really complain much. He's now had 2 DNFs compared to Hamilton's 3 and he's still behind.
It was the best result for championship interest as it's really evened things up.

 

Are the steering wheels made by Apple ?

 

Yes, the double points thing on the last race is a load of toss.

If you look at it, Mercedes have now had 5 DNFs between their drivers - 5 races in which only one finished.
So essentially, if another one happens in the final race - with the loss of the double points - that will pretty much decide the championship.
The odds are clearly high, about 36% it would appear, or one in three, that this will happen.
One chance in 2 is the flip of a coin, so one in 3 makes a mockery of the entire season.

 

As I recollect, in 1973 Peter Williams on the works Norton would have won the British 750 championship - except that there were double points for the last round at Brands Hatch, with the result that Barry Sheene on the Suzuki just scraped it and was awarded the championship. I thought it was rather a mockery at the time, but it's by no means a new idea.

 

Sore throat back again? Or lost your glasses?

 

Doesnt sound too good!

 

good race for Hammy ( and Jenson ) ,, did sNiko have a handling prob or was he just not good enough ?.................... hope Bianchi is ok, tho does look bad,

 

Bianchi's undergoing surgery apparently, which is better than I suspected, I thought he was done.