This is the right moment…

On the back of an absolutely amazing race, the end of an era is set to draw to an end in only 6 weeks or so.

At the end of the current Formula 1 Grand Prix season, legend Michael Schumacher will hand in his driving gloves and move on to greener pastures within the Ferrari organisation.

“This is the right moment – this is my last Monza race. I have decided to retire from racing. It’s been an exceptional time that motorsport has given me and I have loved every moment – the good and bad. They are what make life so special.”

^{Michael Schumacher at Winners Conference after Italian Grand Prix}

I make no secret of the fact that my allegience lies with Schumacher, not Ferrari. I am truly saddened to see the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time retire, but I was expecting it.

However, at least he beat the snot out of Alonso, and then picked up 10 points to Alonso’s 0 for the race. :-) And I have to say, I was cheering with the crowd when Alonso’s engine blew! :-)

Oh what a race. What a wonderful, truly magnificent race.

Well, for the first time in I can’t remember how long, no one had an issue at turn one when the race started. Well, maybe that’s a harsh way of putting it. There were no accidents on the first lap. ;-)

Kubica drove like a demon. As much as I wish it’d been Massa in that spot, I’ll let him have it. He performed amazingly well.

Kimi was outstanding as ever. Damn cold though. Just no personality to him. Not sure how I’ll enjoy him being at Ferrari in the #1 seat. Oh well, will find out I guess.

Alonso you bloody beauty!!!!

I have to admit I was getting a little annoyed that Alonso had gotten up to P3 and looked like he was going to stay there. He was pulling away from Kubica and that was bad. So when that engine let go, I was clapping and cheering along with the crowd. :-)

I’m completely buggered. I’d love to write more but I’m too tired right now. Will update this late afternoon, early evening.

Damn that was an awesome race.

Here’s the updates I promised.

Well, Alonso feels hard done by. In a way I almost agree with him, but when Massa was on that hot lap in the qualifiers, and he wasn’t, he had to make sure he got out of the way in time. People say that looking at the camera angles there was lots of room between them, but then you also need to consider the turbulence and heat coming off Alonso’s car.

Was it a Pole winning lap? Can’t say to be honest. It was very fast through sectors 1 and 2, but I guess we’ll never know and speculation is just pointless.

However, was it worth 5 places on the starting grid for Alonso?

What is it with Rosberg’s car? 4 technical failures in 4 races. That’s simply not acceptable. I would be seriously pissed if I were him. He started off so well but now… I’m not saying he’s a mediocre driver. I can’t because we have hardly seen him drive lately. My question is simple though… Is the car failing because of the way he drives, or is the car failing because the car is a useless piece of junk?

I see BMW lost out in their efforts to get Midland. :-) They wanted to pull a RedBull and have 2 teams, thus two votes. ;-) I’m glad they didn’t though. Personally I think no one organisation should have more than 1 vote regardless of the number of teams they race. But that’s just me. As it stands, the better funded teams could start to truly dominate the sport too much by their back room dealings. RedBull hasn’t so far, but who’s to say that BMW or Mercedes or Renault or Toyota wouldn’t?

On the flipside, with Midland now becoming the Spyker MF1 team as of November, we now have yet another European car manufacturer entering the fray. The question ultimately becomes, can yet another sports car manufacturer be successful in a field of giants? Especially one as young as Spyker.

Consider the experience and years of testing and development with teams such as Honda, Toyota, Renault, Ferrari, Mercedes and even BMW.

Does this mean we should expect a Dutch Grand Prix sometime in the near future?

What the hell is up with Super Aguri Honda? They’ve got their new car and yet they still screw up bad. Everyone is quick to blame it on the drivers, but at least Sato finished last night.

Then BAR Honda says they had to tune back their motors last night and that is why they didn’t perform as well as the might otherwise have done. Bullshit. They blew up a shitload of motors during the week, but that’s their problem. Tuning back the motor doesn’t excuse the poor performance of the team as a whole.

Quite frankly, both Honda teams are really starting to get to me. I think its time someone cleaned house there.

I’m still very much liking Webber as a driver. I know he’s been around a long time, but his driving performances lately do impress me. Give him a decent car and I’m sure you’d see him ahead of Ralph Schumacher a lot more often. Will be interesting to see what its like next year with him #2 to Coulthard. The Colonials … ;-)

Ooooh… Getting back to Kubica and BMW… Did you know they changed their front wing for Monza? Evidently it worked well. Damn well as shown by the inability of Massa to find the pace to pass Kubica.

Could this be the beginning of an amazing turn around for the Sauber team? The start of true competitiveness with Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault? Some might say its about time, but then… Will they really be able to rise up above the Japanese car makers? How long has it been since Honda or Toyota won a championship? Almost a silly question I guess. ;-)

Some things about the race did bother me. BMW/Kubica should have gotten a stern talking to for pulling out beside Alonso in the pit lane like that. As much as I hate Renault, that was just serious bad behaviour. Still, worked out in Alonso’s favour. The Renault just had seriously more pickup off the mark as soon as they crossed the limiter line.

Michael Schumacher’s pit tactics were just perfectly executed. Watching him come out of pit lane ahead of Kimi at that first stop… :-) Big Smile on my face. :-) There was only one time when it got even bigger, and that was when Alonso blew his engine :-)

I don’t care what you or anyone else says. At the end of the race, seeing the Renault just hanging in the air like that and not actually being moved and put away…. That was sweet, sweet candy. :-) Let the thing just stay up there for the rest of the season. :-)

What? I’m mean? No, not at all. :-) I can’t stand Renault, and I can’t stand Alonso. Kimi leaving Mercedes to go to Ferrari is a damn good thing because I don’t think even I could team with Alonso myself. ;-) And having two drivers that good in the same team? Who would be the #2? It’d be a bigger team battle than we see now and then between Button and Barichello.

Speaking of which, 3 years is a long time for Kimi to sign up to Ferrari. Do you think he’s eyeing himself as the next Michael Schumacher? If thats the case, he needs to learn to show some emotion. His damn face is made of marble. I swear it. I’ve never seen him smile or do anything but hold a completely stone faced blank expression. I just simply can’t make myself like him because he simply has no personality to like. He just comes across to me as being as much of a machine as the car he drives. Hell, whether he’s P1 or P2 or P3 at the end of the race, he has the same expression!

I really am going to miss watching Schumacher race next year and ever after. I know its the best thing for him in his life right now, but still… He truly is the icon of motorsport in general. In my opinion, the greatest driver to exist yet. He climbed his way through all the ranks, from Karting on through and now he finishes with a record that will be damn hard to beat.

Alonso might have been able to beat it if he’d stuck with Renault, but truthfully, he better hope that the performance we’ve seen from Mercedes lately holds.

Oh… And I guess I should explain why I keep calling them Mercedes instead of McLaren. :-)

In the week leading up to this weekend, rumors hit the waves that Mercedes is attempting to buy a controlling share of McLaren and thus have full and complete title to the team. Much the same thing that BMW did with Sauber (Mr Sauber still owns 20%) from what I’ve heard. This gets even more interesting in that both companies, DaimlerBenz/Mercedes and McLaren have been completely quiet on the rumor.

As everyone knows, if you don’t deny something, there must be some truth to it. ;-)

So, in anticipation of Mercedes buying the controlling majority of the team, I now call the team Mercedes and to hell with that Kiwi that started it all those years ago ;-)

Okay, maybe not quite, but its kind of feeling like the big car manufacturers are starting to push out the teams that have been around for a long time. Benneton got sucked into the Renault brand, Sauber into BMW, Jordan into RedBull… Midland has gone to a Euro car maker now too.

Big business…

Then again, I have been saying for a long time that Formula 1 racing is today what horse racing was in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The top sport of the chain for the wealthy. Once you’d put all that money into a horse, now it goes into the design of a car.

Right, I’m going to stop here now. Am starting to ramble ;-)

Ciao