Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
Don’t write off the old continent just yet
By Alan BaldwinSpeaking about the Formula One calendar and the continuing expansion to east and west, the sport’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone declared this month that Europe was “finished“.
“It will be a good place for tourism but little else,” he told Spanish Sports daily Marca. “Europe is a thing of the past.”
With the financial pages full of Europe’s woes and the rise of the fast-moving BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) bloc, the 81-year-old was not just being his usual deliberately provocative self.
Formula One has always followed the money and there is still plenty of that sloshing around in the Middle East and Asia.
Formula One’s youngest world champion was always a man in a hurry
From the very first moment he arrived in Formula One as a curly-haired teenager, new world champion Sebastian Vettel was a young man in a hurry.
The 23-year-old Red Bull Driver, who became the youngest winner of the drivers’ championship with victory in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, has set records from day one.
F1 team orders — What’s all the fuss about?
Red Bull have gone out of their way to stress that they will not be handing out team orders at the decisive season-ending F1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi. Oh no. They do say they “expect” Sebastian Vettel to help team mate Mark Webber win the title should the situation arise but will not be “ordering” him to do so.
This seems to be an important distinction in a sport where the phrase “team orders” carries with it a stigma equivalent to “professional foul” or “ungentlemanly conduct” in soccer.
The F1 title race, in old money
McLaren’s Formula One champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton have both sought solace in the scoring system after recent setbacks.
But in fact, if they did the maths they might feel a little bit sore. Applying the 2009 points to the 2010 results so far, the title battle would actually be even tighter.
Team orders? That will be $100,000
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Any Formula One team wishing to manipulate the outcome of a race in favour of one or other of their drivers at least now knows the going rate after this week’s hearing in Paris into the recent Ferrari furore.
Team orders? That will be $100,000 — at least until the end of the season, after which there may well be no charge at all.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
What’s behind Spain’s run of sporting success?
Spanish sports fans have never had it so good.
The Iberian nation is celebrating its latest triumphs after a month of success that local media have called a golden age.
On Sunday, Alberto Contador sealed his third Tour de France title, Fernando Alonso won the German Formula One Grand Prix, and Jorge Lorenzo roared to MotoGP victory in the U.S.
Formula 1 starts 2010 with a headache
Former champion Niki Lauda did not mince his words last year when he said that Formula One’s Singapore Grand Prix race-fixing scandal demanded the heaviest of punishments to restore credibility.
A Times headline called Brazilian Nelson Piquet’s deliberate crash at the 2008 race “the worst act of cheating in the history of sport.”
The same old Felipe Massa?
Felipe Massa won a lot of respect in Brazil a year ago when, having missed out on the Formula One championship by a single point after winning his home grand prix, he proved gracious in defeat.
“I know how to win, I know how to lose,” he said.
The Ferrari driver returns to Interlagos as a spectator and special guest this weekend after suffering life-threatening head injuries in Hungary in July.
The worst kept secret is finally out…Alonso moves to Ferrari
In the world of Formula One, it is very hard to keep a secret.
We’ve known for months that Fernando Alonso would be replacing Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, a move confirmed on Wednesday.
Insiders also reckoned he had signed a deal a while back, which Alonso himself has revealed, although he said it was originally for 2011.
Would you drive into a wall if someone asked you to?
Crashing a Formula One car is easy. Even I could do that, although fitting into the cockpit might be a bit of a squeeze. It’s the driving that is difficult.
In the old days, when there were fewer races in a season but more funerals, you crashed at your peril.
