Does Ferrari’s Penalty Fit the Crime?

Ferrari were handed a 10,000 Euro fine, but is that enough?

The European Grand Prix wasn’t the most thrilling race ever, but the final result was surrounded by controversy. Felipe Massa cruised to victory and was joined on the podium by his championship rival Lewis Hamilton, and Robert Kubica, who is now pressurising Kimi Raikkonen for third in the world championship.

But Massa’s win was in question after Ferrari released the Brazilian from his second pit-stop in the path of Adrian Sutil. The pair avoided any collision, and in a statement the stewards announced that they would delay their investigation until after the race. It has since been decided to hand Ferrari a 10,000 Euro fine for their mistake, meaning the Ferrari driver, who is now second in the standings after today’s race, will retain his win.

In my opinion, Ferrari should be penalised with a 10-second time penalty or a ten-place grid drop at the Belgium Grand Prix. Mark Brundell, in his post-race analysis on ITV, disagrees, as he thinks Ferrari shouldn’t receive a penalty as no accidents were caused. But, surely creating a risk like Ferrari did, is enough to warrant a tough penalty?

European Grand Prix 2008 Predictions

The two Friday Practice sessions clearly showed that Ferrari have the pace this weekend. I expect Felipe Massa to have full confidence in his ability after his impressive performance at the Hungaroring three weeks ago. But, I’m sure the reliability issues which stopped him from winning in Hungary, will be in the back of his mind throughout the weekend.

Another factor that goes in Ferrari’s favour is the hot temperatures. During the afternoon practice session on Friday, the air temperature was 44 degrees centigrade with the air temperature reaching highs of 30. We have already seen that track temperatures can have a huge influence on the result of the race as, at the Hungaroring, Ferrari only found speed as the weekend progressed and the weather heated up.

The reason for Ferrari’s pace in the heat, is that they are able to look after their tyres much more effectively than their rivals. The Spanish heat will mean that tyre wear could play an important part in the outcome of the race, especially seeing as Bridgestone have selected their softest tyre compounds for the race at the Circuito Urbano Valencia.

On the other hand, Team McLaren are on a role after a string of dominant race wins this season. Lewis Hamilton has declared his love for street-style circuits on many occasions, so coming to a circuit that resembles Montreal must give him confidence. During Friday practice, Lewis’s ability to learn and adapt to new circuits shone through. He was able to nail the circuit immediately, and recorded consistently quick times throughout the day.

Like Hamilton, Kubica is able to master new circuits very quickly and he is another driver who is a fan of Montreal. The quickest time set by Robert in P2 was a 1:40.149, which put him down in eighth place after Timo Glock in the Toyota and Fernando Alonso in the Renault set blisteringly fast laps in the 1:39’s. I expect Kubica to be fighting with Alonso during Sunday’s race, but I will be surprised if he manages to get on the podium.  

There is a very high chance that we will see the safety car on track during the European Grand Prix. There are three points of the circuit which sees drivers reach 185mph, and the circuit being lined with walls, the smallest mistake can turn into a big accident in the blink of an eye. This could play into the hands of the midfield runners and could produce another surprising result, as the people who fail to get into the third qualifying session will be be able to factor a safety car into their race strategy.

All of these elements paint a confusing picture and makes it very difficult to predict a result. I feel Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen will come away with a race win. Felipe Massa does better on circuits that are familiar to him and his inconsistency will probably let him down. I think we can expect Lewis Hamilton to be standing on the podium at the end of the weekend, but I see him on the second step.

My Prediction:

1. Kimi Raikkonen

2. Lewis Hamilton

3. Felipe Massa

Euro GP Practice 2: Raikkonen and Ferrari Dominate

Kimi Raikkonen topped the time-sheets in  the second practice session of the weekend in Valencia.

Lewis Hamilton was the first of the front-runners to set a quick time. On his second attempt, Lewis pushed his quickest time up from a 1:41 to a 1:40:6.

To begin with, it appeared that Kimi Raikkonene had the edge over his team-mate, Felippe Massa this time round. At the start of the session, the Finn was close to a second quicker than Felippe, but, approximately 30 minutes into the session, Massa became the first driver of the weekend to climb into the 1:39’s, recording a time of 1:39:976.

For a while, the two Ferraris jostled for the top spot on the time-sheets, while the McLarens fought hard to hit the high 1:40’s. Eventually, Lewis Hamilton breached the 1:39 barrier, setting a time of 1:39:7, taking him to third behind the two red cars.

The dominance of the Ferraris lasted until well into the session, when a surprising lap from Fernando Alonso in the Renault, who was previously running approximately three seconds slower than Raikkonen and Massa, saw him shoot to the top of the times with a 1:39.497.

Before the end of the afternoon practice, Alonso’s impressive time was beaten by Raikkonen, while Button took his Honda RA-108 to third in the final few minutes of the session.

Euro GP Practice 1: Vettel tops the time-sheets

Vettel puts in another impressive performance

Sebastian Vettel in a Scuderia Toro Rosso set the fastest time in Friday Practice One at the new Valencia street circuit with a time of 1:40:6.

 The young German was a force to be reckoned with throughout the 90-minute session, managing to upstage the big-guns on three seperate occasions.

Vettel got his Toro Rosso hooked up to beat the best efforts by the Ferrari of Felippe Massa who ended the session second quickest, and the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton who took third despite a spin.

Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari was unable to make an impression on his team mate, the McLaren pair and the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica and consistently set times approximately six tenths of a second slower. 

In his last attempt, Massa managed to top the times, but his lap was immediately followed up by another quick lap by Vettel, who beat Massa’s time by 0.009.

Am I The Only One?

Lewis Hamilton at the British Grand Prix 2008

I’ve just came across an old article by Jeremy Clarkson in the June 2008 issue of Top Gear magazine. I am a huge fan of Clarkson and I tend to agree with everything he says, but when reading his regular column in TG magazine, I found myself dissagreeing with him. 

His latest article was about how passionate football fans are compared with Formula One fans. Clarkson notes how people jump around the room whenever their team scores and how this isn’t the case when Formula One fans watch a grand prix.  

I’m not disputing whether football fans are passionate or whether they act in the manner described by Clarkson when watching a match, and I know that, until two or three years ago, Formula One was a bit processional. But, as a long-term Formula One enthusiast, I have to say that I leap out of my seat screaming and shouting with excitement when my favourite driver makes an impressive overtaking move, or when they cross the line to take a race win.

Obviously I can only speak for myself, but I can’t be the only one who screams and shouts at the television. In-fact I am sure I’m not the only one, because when I made the trip to Silverstone for this year’s British Grand Prix, I was blown away by the atmosphere. It was incredible, despite the monsoon weather conditions and the hurricane winds. 

There are obviously going to be more passionate football fans in the UK, because the sport is a national institution and, in my opinion, it’s partly because football is much easier to understand. Formula One on the other hand, is far more complex, as it’s as much about strategy and the development race as the on-track action.

I think most people look for a sport that doesn’t require much intelligence to completely understand and enjoy. The fact that a large percentage of football fans get into physical confrontations with their opposition backs that up, because anyone with an ounce of intelligence wouldn’t get into a fight over something so trivial as losing a game.   

Maybe that’s a bit offensive, but i can’t come up with another theory as to why they behave that way. Nobody could convince me that beating up your opponent’s supporters, symbolises your passion for the sport and your team. As Joleen and Keith have already pointed out in their comments to this post, you will never see that sort of behaviour at a grand prix, yet we will still scream, jump, whistle, blow our air-horns and wave our flags with as much enthusiasm as a Manchester United fan at a home-game.   

I invite anyone who doesn’t agree with me about Formula One fans being passionate to come and watch a race with me. You will be surprised.

Student Loathing

Why do students have such a bad name? I’m completely confused about the reaction my fellow students and I get from people who, when you reveal to them that you are in university or college, look at you as if you’ve just spat in their face.

 

I know there are stereotypes, the most common of which says that all students are binge-drinking, unhygienic layabouts, who just spend their loans on booze and who shag anything with a pulse. I also know that, because this stereotype exists, there must be an element of truth in it. In-fact I know this is the case, because I know plenty of people who meet all of the above criteria.

 

But, for the majority, these stereotypes are completely untrue and we are as hard-working, clean, well mannered and prudent as the next person.

 

 But my problem doesn’t lie with the stereotype mentioned above. Recently I heard a middle-aged woman refer to all students as ‘dishonest’. I was deeply insulted by this comment because it was completely unfair. Since when have students been dishonest? That isn’t even a real stereotype, she simply conjured up this word from thin air and used it to belittle us.  

 

I study in a small market-town which couldn’t be more middle-England if it tried, and I hear weekly stories about locals applying all sorts of labels on my friends, most of which are ludicrously untrue, but I’ve never heard of anyone labelling students as dishonest. Is this what people really think of us?    

 

In my town, the local people are stuck in the middle ages; perhaps because that’s when most of them were born. None of them can appreciate how much business we bring to the area and how safe the town is, even though 3000 youngsters from out of town live and study there. Surely the fact that they have part-time police says something? Also, at the council meeting I attended about a year ago, the biggest issue, apart from what colour to tile the public toilets, was a group of ‘hoodies’ congregating in the central car park. There was no mention of them causing any disturbance though, so surely this says something as well?  

 

During the day, the town centre is bustling with university and college students so it’s pretty clear that without us, most of the high-street stores and restaurants would have ceased trading a long time ago.

 

This would be catastrophic for the town, as it would become a ghost-town, which would lead to high rates of unemployment, especially since most of the stores, pubs, bars and restaurants employ students (and pay them next to nothing) from the uni.  

 

And that’s another thing. I know some people think we just go to university to doss and avoid getting a job. They won’t begin to consider that we actually have projects, exams and dissertations to do. I’ll accept that the first year of university is relatively easy. There is still usually a lot of work to do, but the majority of the time is spent partying with friends. The thing is, a party lifestyle isn’t cheap, and your student loan won’t cover the cost because you need that to buy food. So you end up getting a part-time job. So were getting educated in order to get decent jobs and most of us are working at the same time.  

 

I’m not saying we’re all angels, because we’re not, but we’re not the anti-Christ either. A large majority of us respect people and their property, however we don’t get what we give.