spa!!!

when have we last seen the ferrari all front row.. we dont get to see that often, or less than wat we used to earlier. spa! the word brings excitement to drivers and fans alike. the winding circuit with wonderful landscapes and the fastest corner, the corner driver go flat out, eau rouge.. considered by many as the best corner in terms of everything.. the number of g's drivers go through, the speed of it, the uphill transcend.. wow.. the corner can fill my mind even wen i drive through it in simulator games .. the la source hairpin at the head of the circuit after a curved start straight, is a great place to overtake.. many drivers have gone out of races trying to push too hard in that corner.. the first sector is the largely flat out sector testing the limits of the car and the driver to be on the throttle even while turning left right and again left through the eau rouge.. the greatest challenge is for the drivers to take it flat out..

as alonso had put it himself, i quote "You come into the corner downhill, have a sudden change [of direction] at the bottom and then go very steep uphill. From the cockpit, you cannot see the exit and as you come over the crest, you don't know where you will land. It is a crucial corner for the timed lap, and also in the race, because you have a long uphill straight afterwards where you can lose a lot of time if you make a mistake. But it is also an important corner for the driver's feeling. It makes a special impression every lap, because you also have a compression in your body as you go through the bottom of the corner. It is very strange - but good fun as well"

but to me spa wil always be my favorite track for all the above reasons and others, michael raced his first race in formula1 in this very circuit.. he got a lucky break when one of jordans drivers could not make it to the race. having not raced here at all previously, he went around it several times on a bike and then qualified on 9th place.. whoa! just a peek for wat had to come from him later.. and exactly an year later, in a ford he won his first race in the same spa circuit. spa has had so many memories for all drivers.. and for us fans as well. the rain drenched circuit race 3 seasons back is an clear example.. we surely did miss it last year, but it is well and truly back..

spygate in f1!! are we finally done??

supposedly the biggest controversy to hit formula1 since the ferrari team orders in austria more than 3 seasons back.. and by no means is it similar to the austria case.. this is as bad as match fixing. this is, to put it in plain words, embezzlement of intellectual property.. although the rumours were that nigel stephney had indeed given important ferrari's finer details to mclaren, there was not enough evidence to prove that he did give information and more importantly mclaren used it in their cars. but now with engineers from other teams claiming that stepney had approached them as well, the issue was reopened and now there seems to be a clear case of information been transferred from one team to another.. and the mclaren drivers giving FIA all the information in turn for immunity.. but to think of being in ron dennis's place is a little hard now.. not because of what his team is going thru, but when he had the information that ferrari has been using illegal floor boards in australia, he could not go out in the open and accuse them, as he was not supposed to have that information.. pity him.. he had the evidence to prove that , but wat would the fia think of the way he had got it.. although i donot agree of the hefty fine would make that much difference, as mclaren is a well off team making a turnover of more than 300-400 million per year.. the thing that would really hurt them is that they cannot win the championship and it is as good as in ferrari's garage already.. but what would have hurt them better is if they had took off points off the driver's points as wel, but that FIA by passed as the drivers provided some inside information in exchande for immunity.. maybe that was the decision ron had to take, to sacrifice the teams constructor's championship for the drivers championship.. which by no means is an easy task.. but a man'as got to do wat he is gotta do.. and he did the right thing.. a drivers championship could be more popular than the team championship.. not that mclaren need any new sponsors.. hmm. so the question is are we done with the stepney-gate controversy? it has had a bad impression on formula1, and FIA would do well to silence this and move on.. and earn more millions for bernie..

formula1 without schumi

almost an entire season has gone by without schumi. do we stil miss him? hell yeah. ferrari seems to better this season than last year. this would have been a championship winning car had it been in his hands. but i think kimi and felipe are doing a decent job, there is no longer magic in the team. schumi in the pit wall cant put ferrari on the front. accepted that mclaren are loads better than they were last year. by the way were they there last year? hmm. i have to try real hard to think of one of any of their famous moments, n i stil cant think of any. perhaps alonso is a good driver who gives a lot of important inputs to the team or maybe he is just plain lucky to be at the right place at the right time.. speaking of the right place, i cant but mention about lewis. although he may be paced on a stage higher than he ought to be. but i take nothing away from him. he has just been phenomenal.. but has he filled the void schumi had left? yeah to an extend but no way close to filling it completely. schumi was more than a driver, he was a statistician when it comes to fuel and laps, a rock when he is ahead of a car trying to get past him, a mechanic when he gets out of the car into the garage. he lived, breathed on formula1. the best part is he knew exactly when to hang up his steering wheel.. very few sportsmen have been able to time it right, leave the stage before they run out of tricks. tht requires a clear mind and bold thought.. but come who may, lewis or kubica or anyone, he wil still remain the greatest, most technically equipped driver to have ever raced in the history of formula1.. but i bet anything he still thinks about formula1 even when he is asleep.. kudos to the seven time world champion.. but schumi formula1 will never be the same again..