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Check Out Line: Duke wins, but there’s another bracket to fill

Check out a different kind of tournament bracket still underway.

The Duke Blue Devils may have won yet another college basketball title Monday night, but consumers can still make their "Sweet 16" picks in Consumerist.com's annual "Worst Company in America"  tournament, which runs through April 26.

In its fifth year, the website, owned by Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, lets consumers vote for their least favorite companies in matchups much like the NCAA tournament. Starting with 32 "teams," the tournament pairs companies in votes in which the "winner" (think about it, in a worst company vote you want to lose) advances to face the next competitor.

In the first round this year, Bank of America beat Citibank, GM beat Toyota and in an "upset" Cash4Gold beat defending "champion" AIG. Other companies that advanced included Walmart, Ticketmaster, United Airlines, Best Buy, Apple and Comcast, which has lost in the title game the last two years.

In addition to AIG, past winners have included Halliburton, Recording Industry Association of America and Countrywide. In last year's final, AIG whipped Comcast 3,528 to 1,968 as voters took their frustration over the recession out on a company that was bailed out by the U.S. government.

"They were just constantly in the headlines," Consumerist.com co-managing editor Ben Popken said of AIG. "They became a real focal point for what went wrong with the economy."

Consumers nominate companies to compete in the annual tournament, which was created as a tongue-in-cheek way for shoppers to "bite back" using social media and the Internet, according to Consumerist.com. To be considered for inclusion the website now requires that companies must regularly provide products or services to consumers.

Tears as Toyota pull out of Formula One

Toyota team principal Tadashi Yamashina was in tears as the Japanese company announced it has withdrawn from Formula One with immediate effect.

Japan has deserted motorsport on mass during the economic crisis (Honda and Bridgestone to name just two).

Company president Akio Toyoda apologised for the team’s failure to record a single race victory since joining F1 in 2002 despite an estimated annual budget of around $300 million.

“It was a very difficult but unavoidable decision,” he told a news conference in Tokyo.

The departure opens the door for BMW Sauber’s new Swiss owners to take their place on the grid.

PHOTO: Toyota Motorsport Chairman and Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina cries at a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo November 4, 2009 REUTERS/Issei Kato

Diffuser confuser for F1 opener

This week’s Australian Grand Prix diffuser controversy was more of a confuser for the casual spectator, even if it was a classic of its kind.

Never mind the talk of air flow and aerodynamic interpretations. The bottom line is that it may be weeks before we know for certain who won Sunday’s Formula One season-opener.

If a Brawn, Toyota or Williams finishes first then everything will be left shrouded in uncertainty.

Despite a raft of rule changes and talk of a new determination to set aside differences and bring the sport closer to the fans, it has to be said that Formula One retains an infinite capacity to shoot itself in the foot.

The next two races will be overshadowed by a controversy mired in technical minutiae and arguments of baffling complexity, with the verdict to be decided by a court of appeal.

Jenson Button could win Sunday’s race in a fairytale turnaround (even if his Brawn GP car is the product of millions of dollars of Honda investment) for a driver who seemed to have squandered his talent and be heading for the scrapheap only a month or two ago.

The fans will be buzzing, there will be a real sense of novelty… and then it could all go sour again.

More chaos in Formula One

The Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams Formula One teams have been cleared by stewards to race in Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix after protests by three rival teams over the design of their rear diffusers were rejected.

Red Bull, Renault and Ferrari had lodged protests on grounds the rivals’ cars did not comply with technical regulations. The three will appeal the protest’s rejection.

The new Brawn GP team, who have been comfortably quickest in pre-season testing, and the other two teams have been using innovative but contentious rear diffusers – a key part that governs the quick and smooth flow of air under the car to increase downforce.

Rivals argue the cars are illegal in a dispute that has been simmering for weeks. All this follows the controversy over this season’s points system.

“Sadly a lot of the column inches this weekend are going to be about controversy and it can easily become acrimonious,” McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh told reporters before the protests were lodged.

“That’s the way of Formula One, to sometimes stumble across into a very acrimonious environment. In defence of everyone, I don’t think anyone has set out deliberately to cheat here.”

from Raw Japan:

Toyota’s long and winding F1 road

For not seeing a win since joining Formula One in 2002, Toyota's commitment to the sport is admirable, especially after Honda's pullout in December left the team the last Japanese standing in the glamour sport.

Toyota have been one of F1's biggest spenders, with an estimated annual budget of $300 million, previously exceeded only by Honda. But the question for the sport's perennial underachievers remains just how much cash do they have left to burn?

Team principal Tadashi Yamashima told me on Monday that Toyota had been close to following Honda out of the sport, and the Cologne-based team's budget has been slashed several times as the world's No.1 car maker  is set to suffer its first ever annual operating loss.

Honda blamed their own exit from F1 on the need to cut costs and Toyota's survival in the sport was by no means clear-cut. A renewed sponsorship deal with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic was said to be a factor in their continued F1 presence.

"I had never seen such cost cuts in all my time at Toyota," Yamashina said, adding that dozens of contract workers lost their jobs as the team was forced to streamline F1 operations.

Still, Toyota are upbeat about their chances in the new season that begins in Melbourne on March 29.