Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
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.
Cosy in the cockpit with a Formula One champ
Mika Hakkinen has the air of a man who has seen it all before.
He stared death in the face when only an emergency trackside tracheotomy saved his life after a crash at the Australian Grand Prix.
He returned to Formula One to win the drivers’ title in 1998 and 1999. He enjoys homes in Monte Carlo, France and his native Finland.
And he is sitting on my knee.
Well, almost.
Terry Dolphin has been building, servicing and fine-tuning high-performance racing cars for 30 years. He paints this picture best.
“This is the same technology that won the World Championship in the mid-90s,” he smiles genially, glancing admiringly at the sleek, black Supercar baking in the Singapore sun while Hakkinen gets into his racing gear in a tent next door.
aMAZING. bET mISSUS hAKKINEN IS VERY PROUD
Amazing. Bet Missus Hakkinen is very proud that her son is featured with Ossian.
Suspended sentence for Renault — does the punishment fit the crime?
The news has just come in from Paris, where Renault have been handed a suspended ban from Formula One, while their former boss Flavio Briatore has been banned from all F1 activities, including driver management, and ex-technical chief Pat Symonds is barred for five years.
So the immediate result of the inquiry into race-rigging at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix is that Renault can stay in the sport, provided they stay on their best behaviour for the next couple of years, even though the offence was described by the FIA as one of “unparalleled severity”.
Does that punishment fit the crime, would you say?
It’s well worth reading the FIA media release on this in full. It confirms that Renault admitted conspiring with Nelson Piquet Jr to cause the crash. Here’s a section of the statement:
The World Motor Sport Council considers Renault F1’s breaches relating to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to be of unparalleled severity.
Renault F1’s breaches not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself.
The World Motor Sport Council considers that offences of this severity merit permanent disqualification from the FIA Formula One World Championship.
when will Alonso get punished for anything?
it had been involved in every F1 scandal since he begun racing, and still, always get a FREE PASS, why?
clearly, he is a cheater, traitor, manipulate man
The worst act of cheating in sport?
The back page of today’s Times carries an opinion piece that pulls no punches about Formula One’s race-fixing controversy.
“The worst act of cheating in the history of sport,” is the headline.
Not the worst act of cheating in F1, but the worst in any sport, in the opinion of columnist Simon Barnes.
What do you think about that assessment? Former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine scoffs at that idea.
“Formula One has always been a war and in war all is fair,” he told the BBC. ”When I was in various teams you would do anything to win. Back in the day, it was normal. This is probably slightly on the wrong side of the cheating thing but in days past every team have done whatever they could to win — chat, bend the rules, break the rules, sabotage opponents. This is just the FIA going on a crusade.”
Looking back at examples of sporting fraud, the systematic doping carried out by the former East Germany really will for many stand out. That was state-funded and long-lasting. Athletes’ lives were put at risk while scores of others had their careers blighted by doped up rivals taking top honours.
Years of training, effort and commitment laid waste by cheats who were not found out until it was all too late for those competing against them.
Just added my own blog this month. I need some inspiration. Thx.
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Resident Left Field Expert
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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.