Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
Don’t write off the old continent just yet
Speaking 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.
When it comes to the driver market, the situation is rather different. It has not been a good month for Russians, Indians or Brazilians while French fans can scarcely believe their good fortune.
Romain Grosjean will be Kimi Raikkonen’s team mate at Lotus next year, fellow Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne will be at Toro Rosso and Charles Pic makes his debut for Marussia.
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.
He will not race again until next season, but is on the mend.
Some, however, are asking whether Massa is the man that he was. Not physically, since he has been given a clean bill of health, but in that he appears to have become far more outspoken in his absence.
He suggested early on that Jenson Button was buckling under the pressure of leading the championship — a fair enough point of view — and that he had been ‘robbed’ of the title himself last year by the Renault race-fixing scandal.
This is a very poor article, you clearly don’t know felipe massa at all. He has always been the cheeky little guy, and he never said button will not be champion he said if he carrys on driving in this way he will not be champion, which is 100% right.
With the singapore situation, you try loosing your dream because 3 idiots planned to disrupt the race, see how you would feel and what you would say.
Anyone still want medals to decide F1 title?
If Bernie Ecclestone had got his way before the start of the season, Jenson Button might have been crowned Formula One champion in Singapore on Sunday.
The commercial supremo’s plan for the championship to be decided by an Olympic-style medals system, with the title going to the driver taking most golds, would have left Brawn’s Button out of reach.
With six wins in the first seven races, the Briton’s tally cannot now be matched by anyone else.
Singapore winner Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Button’s Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello all have two wins with three races left.
The only interest in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix would have been the constructors’ championship and it is pretty much a given now anyway that Brawn will win it in their first full season.
Brazil and Abu Dhabi, making its debut with what promises to be the most lavish race yet, would have been irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
As it is, Button has edged 15 points clear of Barrichello and could win the title at Suzuka. But the battle could equally very well go down to the wire as well. There is still plenty at stake.
A medal system a rubbish idea. What kristopher says can work, since the constructors championship is also based on how much points the driver scores, so the entire points system has to be divided, when this happens too many calculations and complications will arise. It all depends on FIA are ready for this, divide the points among the pole, fastest lap, pit crew and so on.
Has time run out for Rubens to shed the number two tag?
It was hard not to feel just a little bit sorry for Rubens Barrichello after his second place behind Brawn GP team mate Jenson Button at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
After passing Button at the start to take the lead, Barrichello’s hopes of a first race win since 2004 were apparently dashed when the team switched the Briton to a two-stop strategy.
The Brazilian may be determined not to play second fiddle to Button as he did to Michael Schumacher for all those years at Ferrari but these things tend to develop a momentum of their own.
As Alan Baldwin’s piece illustrates, Barrichello was still talking the talk afterwards but the fact that he was addressing questions about preferential treatment and team orders was an indication that his chance of retaining parity with Button in the team may have already passed.
Button’s four wins in the first five races of the season make him a clear favourite for the drivers’ championship and Ross Brawn is unlikely to let sentiment stand in the way of securing the title in what would be a sensational debut year for his team.
As Alan pointed out, Brawn was technical director at Ferrari when Barrichello was controversially ordered to let Schumacher pass him to win the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, triggering rule changes forbidding team orders.
Remember last year last race last corner? Remember how both Toyotas posting similar times on that last lap to use as evidence that there was no foul play.
Remember the year before, the 17 points gap that evapourated within two races (I speculate Mr E promised Ferrari the title in return for keeping the McLaren drivers in the show) and how Kimi didn’t even look excited by achieving his dream of becoming a world champion? I wonder who controls those timers up from his control room?
Did you notice how surprised Button was when he got pole position yesterday when he clearly didn’t expected?
I bet Button required #1 status in return for his 50% pay cut. I bet Rubens was told whoever is on Pole would win the hence his BIG shock yesterday. I bet Mr E manipulate the Button’s time yesterday.
Please prove me wrong just so I can enjoy real F1 again 
Ali
Brawn Supremacy provides F1′s feelgood moment
Brawn GP’s one-two win on their debut in the Australian Grand Prix may turn out to be the feelgood moment of the Formula One year (although maybe not for those locked in the great Melbourne diffuser debate).
Race winner Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were the happiest drivers in the paddock by a very long way on Sunday night and even team owner Ross Brawn seemed momentarily overcome.
This was one of those moments that harked back to the ‘good old days’, when ‘garagiste’ owners could come to a race and beat the well-funded factory boys. The team with no sponsors taking on the corporate might of McLaren and Ferrari and win.
Well, maybe not…
Button’s car was the product of many, many tens — if not hundreds — of millions poured into their team by Honda over the course of a year before pulling out in December.
But that is not to deny the hard work and heartache — real, genuine pain felt by staff facing redundancy at a time of global recession – that went into producing that magical victory.
