Tag Archives: F1

Sports

“Don’t worry mom, ‘Baku welcomed all of us’”

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I’m watching the regrettably/called F1 Grand Prix of Europe and cannot get my thoughts of the suspicious looking purple advertising boards in which somebody seems to want to publicise the fact that ‘Baku welcomed all of us’.

Am I the only one to find this strange that somebody thought it important to announce this? I would have said that this is something that should be taken for granted. It seems as though this somebody – I wonder who was actually responsible for those adverts – thought it important enough to state the obvious, I didn’t quite see any signs saying ‘Le Mans welcomed all of us’.

I may understand a ‘Baku welcomes you’ (it even rhymes), but the use of the past tense is somewhat suspect. The democratic credentials, or lack of them, might have persuaded the authorities that they should give assurances about the fact that there was no crackdown on errant F1 teams or fans. Let’s put it this way, Azerbaijan is not exactly a stalwart of human rights and democracy.  And the F1 being staged there comes across as a way to showcase a ‘normal’ European nation. Hmm, right.

Probably the same people thought it justified to congratulate themselves with other advertising board saying ‘Well done Baku’. I would have thought that it would be better to wait for the end of the race for self-congratulations. I would have been far better to have ‘VisitBaku’ ad boards instead.

Speaking about the race itself, I am not a big fan of city circuits, but it’s not too bad with overtakes and all. But I still believe that there are many racetracks which are far better suited for purpose, probably because they are, erm, racetracks. And yes, I am not a fan of the Monaco Grand Prix either – it’s only saving point is the historic element behind the race.

World of Cars

F1: Qualifying mess

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My wife question my sanity when I woke up before 7am on Saturday morning to watch the F1 qualifying. “It’s only qualifying,” she said. After recovering from the shock of such a statement, I tried to explain the importance of qualifying in motorsports. She wasn’t bothered.

So Saturday morning arrived and I duly woke up early for qualifying. I was excited. The four-month wait was finally over, yeah!

Lights turned green and Hamilton set the ball rolling on the 2016 season. It was a great start, with a great deal of traffic and excitant. It didn’t last. The staggered exclusion is, on paper, a great idea. In reality, it sucks.

Firstly, some teams seemed not to realise that when the time ran out, the time ran out and that was that (like Haas F1, whose driver Grojean had a superb lap which was useless as he was already out).

The problem was that since it was a staggered elimination, drivers who were not directly affected chose not to bother after setting a good lap. Boring doesn’t even start to explain it. I found the ad breaks far more entertaining (thanks Renault, Clio looks great).

However, the worst part came at the end where drivers simply gave up / were not interested / couldn’t be bothered to take to the lap. Once Hamilton set a pole-winning lap, everyone just got out of their cars and went wherever it is that drivers go after qualifying.

The Swiss TV presenter seemed a bit shocked at the fact that with more than 2 minutes remaining, it was all over. Even Hamilton looked somewhat confused.

Now, let’s be fair to the FIA. Their aim was to improve the sport. This measure obviously didn’t work. To avoid criticism, they should revert to the old system or introduce something else for Bahrain. But please, FIA, don’t keep this qualifying format – it’s terrible.