Germany 2006 GP Winners Losers

Winners

1. MS. Last year, around this time, Kimi was able to demonstrate a huge advantage over the Renaults, and yet, it was Alonso who won the championship, and too with a comfortable margin. I'm not sure if Alonso or MS would win, but the championship is getting a whole lot closer. Ferrari have a clear advantage over Renault now that the weights in the suspension have been ruled against Renault. The one thing that is Ferrari's strength this year as against McLaren's, is their bulletproof reliability. MS converted that reliability into another easy win.
2. Massa. More than the 2nd place, he managed to get himself between MS and Alonso and thereby did what all that is expected of him
3. Kimi. A welcome return to the podium
4. Weber. Agonizingly close to finishing in the points for the change but as usual the Williams gave up before the end
5. Button. A good result given the disasters that the Honda team has been experiencing in the last 3 races

Losers
1. Alonso. The drop off in performance has been quite sharp in this race. I didn't expect him to win but I did expect a podium from him. I still feel that Renault will improve in Hungary and will be able to challenge Ferrari

Myopic view of f1, formula1, 2006, germany, gp, winners, losers

France 2006 GP Winners Losers

Winners

1. MS. Clincal, professional and leagues ahead of his team mate
2. Ralf Schumacher. When he's in the mood, he's as good as anybody else. Today was one of those days
3. Scott Speed. How on earth can a Toro Rosso (a.k.a Minardi) finish ahead of a Sauber, Williams? 10th place is pretty amazing for Torro Rosso especially considering JV, Klien, and Rosberg were behind. Great result
4. de la Rosa. The other spaniard in the race, but he did make it more memorable than his more illustrious countryman. His were the only exciting moments in the race
5. Alonso. Damage limitation to the maximum. 2 points lost but once we get to Hungary I'm sure things will turn back in his favour.

Losers.
1. Honda. As usual - WTF?
2. Williams. I'm not sure whose season is going backwards faster - Williams or Honda. Right now, Honda is winning on a canter but Williams aren't too much behind. Its a shame considering their heritage.

Myopic view of f1, formula1, france, 2006, gp, winners, losers

Now McLaren say Goodbye to Montoya

With Immediate effect as well. link.

Myopic view of f1, formula1, nascar, mclaren, montoya

No not JV but Montoya

That's right folks, Juan-Pablo is moving to NASCAR. link.

There were rumors circulating that Villeneuve would move to NASCAR buts its Montoya who has confirmed the move. This is pretty sensational. JPM's options were limited for 2008. Alonso was moving in and given that JPM's record vis-a-vis Kimi was pretty poor, it was obvious that he was going to head out of McLaren. However, there was no information on where he was going to go.

JV too might be packing his bags. BMW aren't too interested and there are not many teams that are interested in him either. On the whole, I hope this brings in some exciting new talent to F1.

Myopic view of f1, formula1, nascar, montoya, villeneuve

sublime savage stupid

I took out my old T-Shirt with French colours from 2002. It has a No. 10 on it. No. 10 for Zidane. Today he was sublime for 110 minutes and then lost it in a second of madness. A disgraceful headbutt is the last thing that Zidane should be remembered for, but it looks like that will be his karma. I doubt whether I will be wearing this shirt ever again. BLOODY ^&*(^&*%$ &*(@#^$*&^ #@&*^$$$ &*^@!#$ HELL!!!!

In the end it did not matter. Italy has won. Not because they were stupid, but because they were level headed (sic). Buffon, Cannavaro, Grosso all heros and deservedly so. After all they didn't concede a single goal until the Final and that too it was a bit unlucky.

So that ends a great match and a pretty decent world cup.

Sigh!! Back to our usual programming.

Myopic view of football, soccer, worldcup, france, italy, zidane,

Microsoft to supply ECUs for F1

In a previous post, I had mentioned about Bridgestone being the sole supplier for tyres. It now looks like Microsoft is going to supply the ECUs. link (via slashdot).

Naturally, the comments at slashdot were overflowing with anti-microsoft comments. Some of them are really funny. Sample these -

Gentlemen, restart your engines!!!!!!!!! (link)

and a reply to that

Using [ctrl]-[alt]-[brake] of course. (link)

Myopic view of f1, formula1, microsoft

Ferrari are going to win lots of races next year

why? That's because its official that Bridgestone are going to be the sole tyre supplier next year. link.

McLaren struggled for a year when they switched from Bridgestone to Michelin and that was the year that Ferrari were super dominant - 2002. No wonder M Schumacher does not want to retire this year. Next year is going to be a cake walk.

Myopic view of f1, formula1, 2008, tyre, bridgestone, michelin

What's the role of a captain?

David Beckham has stepped down as the English Football captain. What difference would that make? There doesn't seem to be much that captain of a football team needs to do. Take Rooney's Red Card. Did the Referee first talk to the captain and then make his decision? Does the captain make any tactical decisions on the field? Perhaps he and the coach get together to decide the overall strategy for a game, but its mainly the coach's job to do the thinking.

That's quite different from a game like cricket. No other sport puts so much power in the hands of the captain. A good captain and good tactics can win not just a match but also a series.

Myopic view of football, cricket, captain

Indy 2006 GP Winners Losers

Winners

1. Trulli. Great drive. Not spectacular, but to start dead last, from the pits and to nearly finish 3rd is amazing. When you also consider that fact that Toyota isn't even the 4th best team currently, that takes some doing.
2. MS. I think it was a foregone conclusion even before the race that MS would be really difficult to beat here. That's not just because of his past record and Ferrari's dominance of Indy, but also due to Bridgestone. However, the thing that really made it special was his in and out laps for his first pitstop. He was visibly faster into the pits and that put him ahead of Massa. In the end he finished an incredible 12 seconds ahead of Massa and that's pretty stunning
3. Massa. Good solid job to get Ferrari their first 1-2 in almost 2 years. Great start and managed to beat MS to the first corner with ease. Also his tactics at the restart were pretty awesome. However, in the end MS was just too good for him and that's why he is lower on my list.
4. DC. Right combination of Bang-on-target strategy coupled with all the luck in the world. If not for the first corner melee he might have finished 10th or 12th but end of the day its 2 points in the bag.
5. Fisi. Good job to finish 3rd and upheld some Michelin pride. Was faster than Alonso all weekend and that's pretty awesome.
6. Bridgestone. They were lightyears ahead of Michelin at Indy. I think its more due to their better knowledge of Indy as compared to Michelin. By supplying the IRL with tyres gave them an edge in this race. However the next race is the French GP and I doubt whether Michelin will sit back and let Bridgestone whitewash them at their home GP.
7. Italian Connection. 3 Italians in the points (Fisi, Trulli and Luizzi). 2 Italian teams in the points (Ferrari and Torro Rosso). 1 reminder of Italian racing heritage.

Losers.

1. JPM. What can I say? I was a fan of his driving a few years back especially his no-nonsense, no-compromise style, but his tenure at McLaren has been quite dissappointing. This race too it was pretty bad. Looking at where Trulli finished on a 1 stop strategy, the McLarens had a good chance. They might not have caught the Ferraris but I think Fisi was in striking distance.
2. Ralf. That's 3 DNFs in a row at Indy. There's something about Ralf, Indy and Round things. Last year it was his massive crash that triggered the Michelin Fiasco. This year it was a wheel nut failure.
3. Alonso. Poor race given his high standards. Looked a pale shadow of the man who won the last 4 GPs. The weird part was not just him struggling against the Ferraris but also Fisi. That almost begs the question. Now that half the season is over and Alonso isn't going to be staying, is Renault going to focus more on Fisi. They couldn't care less if Alonso won the WDC but would dearly like the constructors.... Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Its probably just a one-off.
4. Williams. Struggled throughout. The car just doesn't seem to work in high speed circuits. Hungary isn't too far away and we may see some Weber magic there, but there was not such thing in this race. Rosberg struggled and Weber didn't even get till the first sector of the first lap.
5. BMW. Promised more than they finally delivered. Heidfeld was a victim of circumstances but JV had a great chance of finishing in the points. Could have even challenged Alonso for 5th. If not Alonso, I'm pretty sure he would have gotten past Barrichello's Honda. Yet another mechanical failure has meant that a golden opportunity is lost.

Myopic view of f1, formula1, indy, 2006, gp, winners, losers