Sky Formula 1 intro revealed

 

So, it may not be ‘The Chain’, but i think this is a damn good intro. Nice choices with the clips through the years and i think the updated ‘Just Drive’ is a good song, if slightly slow for motor racing.

Hello boys, I’m Baaaack

Past the bad movie reference, this post is simply me saying Hello again and welcome to my annual attempt at keeping up with this blog.

With a bevy of massive movies out this year, and the possibility of a very interesting Formula 1 season (and a tense finish to the current English Premier League season, i will have my hands full keeping up.

Wish me luck

2011 Spanish GP Review

Circuit De Catalunya, Spain. A race track that has seen its fair share of races was home to one of the two more exciting races so far this season.

 

Qualifying was almost a normal affair, had it not been for the pace of Webber and Heikki Kovalainen, the former pipping his team mate to yet another pole position and the latter taking the Team Lotus into Qualy 2 and 15^th place. With Hamilton, Alonso and Button rounding out the top five places, the race was set to be an interesting one.

 

When the red lights flicked into oblivion, it was the red of Ferrari and Alonso that had the better start. Utilising his entire KERS allotment for the lap, the Spaniard rocketed past Vettel and Webber, the latter finding himself dropping two places as his team mate jumped on the fact his focus was on the Ferrari on his right and swept past on his left. The real loser was Button who dropped from fifth down to tenth with too much wheel spin off the grid.

 

Two things became apparent quite quickly after the start, one was that the top four cars were pulling away from the rest, and second, that the DRS zone had been placed in the wrong place and was seemingly useless.

 

Having lost the place he’d won from Massa on the start, Buemi found himself another place down on lap 4 after Button started to regain his lost position by passing the Torro Rosso.

 

Fresh off a horrible race in Turkey, Schumacher was not starting the race much better. With Rosberg, Massa & Button all on his tail and Petrov steaming away ahead of him, the Schumi-train was steadily making its way around the track with the three cars behind him all unable to turn their DRS into an advantage.

 

Lap 8 saw the top four separated by just 2 seconds and with a lead over Petrov of 11 seconds. That all changed on lap 9 when Vettel blinked first and dived in for his first of four stops. Coming out behind Button in 10^th, Vettel quickly passed him and went on to pass Rosberg, Massa & Schumacher all on Lap 10.

 

A lap later and both Alonso and Webber pitted, a move that came off badly for Webber as when Hamilton pitted on Lap 11, the McLaren driver was able to leapfrog Webber into third behind Vettel and Alonso.

 

Button pitted from 5^th on lap 14 (Giving him the option of going for a three-stop race or copy his team mate and go for a four stopper). Leapfrogging two cars with the stop, Button was able to regain the 5^th place on lap 15 after using the better traction on the McLaren and easily passing the Mercedes of Schumacher. Despite being 27 seconds behind Webber in 4^th, Button started a charge to the Red Bull ahead.

 

Lap 18 saw the start of the second set of stops for the Four stopping cars with Vettel once again setting it off, with his team mate and Alonso once again pitting together a lap later.

 

This meant that Hamilton was in the lead and the McLaren driver proceeded to push, getting the Fastest Lap on lap 20. 3 laps latter he made his own stop, but the time he had gained from staying out enabled him to leapfrog the Ferrari of Alonso into second, with Webber still behind the Ferrari in fourth.

 

Lap 29 saw the race duo of Webber and Alonso pit together again, both drivers on the harder tire, and, like so many races recently, there was a drag race down the pitlane with Alonso this time on the blue paint. The longer that the FIA allow this to happen, the more chances grow that there will be a collision sending a car, or car parts, into the garages and injured pitcrew.

 

While the two drivers continued their battle, Button was steadily closing up on them.

 

Lap 34 saw Vettel back in and Hamilton copied him a lap later with the order staying the same. With Alonso and Webber battling each other, the front two had created a fairly sizeable lead. Button, on a stop less than the two cars in front and on the softer tire, was catching them by around 2 seconds a lap.

 

With a working KERS, for once and unlike Vettel, Webber pushed to pass the Ferrari ahead. Lap 34 saw Webber try a pass into turn 10, but he ran wide allowing Alonso to take the place back again through turn 11.

 

Lap 36 was when Button ended the charge to the duelling Red Bull & Ferrari by using the DRS to take Webber on the outside of the first turn. The advantages Button had with the softer tires meant that at turn 11, Button was able to pass Alonso into third.

 

Sadly for Ferrari, Massa’s quiet race got a lot quieter as his gearbox began to fail with a spin on lap 38 and his retirement on lap 59. Once again Massa has been severely outclassed by Alonso (Who has recently signed a multi-year deal to stay on the Prancing Horse), and voices are starting to question how long the Brazilian has left in the team.

 

Lap 40 arrived with Alonso pitting again, but this time Webber continued on. With Alonso appearing to be locked into the 5^th place behind Webber and the quick Button, who wasn’t as quick as his team mate Hamilton or the other Red Bull in Vettel who were having their own battle out front. On lap 42, the gap between the German and Brit was barely 1.2 seconds.

 

With both drivers needing a final stop, the precision of their pit crews were essential when Vettel dived in on lap 48. Unfortunately for Hamilton, his crew was 0.6 seconds slower than the red bull crew when he pitted a lap later.

 

With the fresher tires, Hamilton was putting in some good lap times when Heikki Kovalainen left the track on lap 50 and impacted the barrier. Happily it wasn’t anywhere as severe an impact as the one he had at the track while in a McLaren and he walked away unharmed. His Lotus, sadly, did not survive the crash intact.

 

As per the rules, the drivers had to slow down through the sector that the Lotus lay battered, but the rest of the lap was free for the drivers to push as hard as they want. Unfortunately Webber, Button and Hamilton all passed through the sector while putting down their fastest time in that sector.

 

This blatant disregard of the rules awoke the stewards from their slumber and they called the drivers before them after the race and reprimanded them all.

 

The final 13 laps saw a battle between Hamilton and Vettel in which the two drivers were never more than a second apart. Happily for the German and sadly for the Briton, Hamilton could not gain enough of an advantage with his KERS and DRS to pass the Red Bull, but that didn’t stop him from trying every alternative.

 

Behind the two, Webber had started a charge to try and catch the other McLaren, bringing the gap down to 2.3 seconds before his tires gave up on lap 63 of a 66 lap race) and the race ended with him 12 seconds behind Button.

 

The race finished with Vettel taking another win, though this was the first one he really fought for rather than romping from light to flag. It was probably his most deserved win of the season so far.  He also became the 20^th person out of 21 to win the Spanish GP from the front row of the grid.

 

The two McLarens of Hamilton and Button took 2^nd and 3^rd respectively with Webber holding off Alonso for 4^th. Behind them was Schumacher managing a rare finish above Rosberg, who finished in 7^th with his rear wing and radio both failing during the race. Heidfeld, Perez and Kobayashi rounded out the points.

 

Next stop on the crazy train that is Formula 1 is the jewel in it’s crown, Monaco, A tight, twisty street circuit that is never a boring race. Hopefully Schumacher remembers the safety car line ruling this year.

allow me a few moments….

GLORY, GLORY MAN UNIIIIIIITED!!!

With the deserved win today against Chelsea (A game that was both fun and nervy for us Manchester United fans) the team are one point or a Chelsea draw away from completing a historic and record breaking 19th league title win.

The season hasn’t been all the team’s way. There have been bad calls, bad performances and downright confusing FA actions, but though all of this the team have managed to stumble through and ultimately get a hand on the treasured trophy.

For me the main players that have propelled us to the title are –

Edwin Van Der Sar has been a god-send between the posts this season, that man has (in some games) single handedly saved us and with his retirement in three games time… he will be missed greatly.

Ryan Giggs… Giggsy, He’s 40-something years old and still able to outrun defences.

Rooney…. Yes, i said Rooney. He’s had one hell of a troubled season, but i firmly believe that his performances while playing slightly back than normal have been instrumental in winning certain games.

Berbatov, Yes there have been games where his… drive has been lacking, but when on form, Berba is a force to be reckoned with. His five goals in the 7-1 crushing of Blackburn (Who are the team’s next opponents ) are a testament to just how mighty he can be.

Hernandez. £6Million 20 (& counting) goals. Compare that to people like Torres who cost £50Million and can only score against a (all but) relegated team. Little P has shown in his Rookie season that he fully deserves his place in the first team and his magic touches… are just that, magic. His goal today (i believe) was probably a big part of securing the win today with it’s almost immediate impact from kick off.

As mentioned previously, it hasn’t been a walk in the park. United have lost games we shouldn’t (Won games we probably shouldn’t as well) and we have seen questionable refereeing calls go both for & against us.

In the end i believe it is the teamwork shown that was ‘wot won it’ for us. The times the team banded together for the winning push are the ones that have the team on the verge of not only taking the Premier League title, but the record of league wins away from Liverpool (19 to their 18).

Normal Blog programming will resume soon with the review of today’s interesting Turkish GP….

Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist

Fast and Furious 5: Rio Heist (by its full UK title) or Fast 5 in the US, is (obviously) the fifth movie in the Fast and Furious franchise.

This review will contain spoilers, so if you are allergic to them, look away now.

A direct continuation from the 4^th movie (but still set before the 3^rd), Fast 5 sees Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) on the run after breaking Dom out of the prison transport truck he was in on the way to start his 25+ year sentence. In both a nice touch and a little bit of laziness, we are treated to a slightly longer version of the last scenes of the 4^th movie where we were shown just how Dom was broken out before the action starts up again down in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

As with all the Fast & Furious movies, Fast 5 is cheesy, silly fun. But it’s awesome cheesy, silly fun. Part of this comes from the camaraderie the main three have with each other and the various familiar faces they bring in to complete a job. The inclusion of the Rock as a badass ‘Old Testemant’ style bounty hunter on the trail of the three fugitives doesn’t harm the movie either.

The returning faces includes Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce (his passport photo will no doubt give you at least a chuckle), Matt Schulze as the returning Vince from the original movie, Sung Kang as the fan favourite Han (probably part of the reason movie 4 & 5 have been set before 3 is to utilise his character, and i for one am glad of that) and Ludacris along with a couple of other faces from the first two movies.

The movie’s big bad guy (Apart from the Rock’s Hobbs) is played by Joaquim De Almedia, formerly seen squaring up to, firstly, Harrison Ford’s Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger. And then Keifer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer in 24, as the Favela kingpin Reyes, a man the main trio are fooled into doing and failing a job for (Thus setting off the train of events that play out through the movie). While a good actor, Almedia is never given enough to show off that he is the bad mofo the characters are warned he is. His right hand man though, played by ‘The Unit’s’ Michael Irby, is shown to be a real bad apple and his third quarter actions are the catalyst for the characters actions in the final portion of the movie.

Another main character in the Fast & Furious movies have always been the cars the characters drive. From Dom’s seemingly cursed 1970 Dodge Charger throughout the various movies (Fans of the car may not like The Rock by the end of Fast 5) to the 1965 Corvette Grand Sport shown in the trailers to Brian’s 1972 Skyline and the two 2010 Chargers used in the, frankly, insane vault heist with the 2011 Chargers (In their police interceptor guise) chasing Fast 5 has an extremely good list that stays in form with the characters tastes. The train heist that starts the movie’s train of events also includes a 1966 Ford GT40 as the carrier of the ‘macguffin’ that turns Reyes’ wrath onto our anti-heroes.

Special mention must go to the Gurkha LAPV Hobb’s team use alongside the usual Ford SUV.

The preceeding four movies all heavily used CGI to show the drivers in the cars (Though Tokyo Drift often placed the actors in the cars with the actual driver out of shot), case in point the first race in 2 fast 2 furious, and would often have stunts performed by CGI vehicles added in post production. Fast 5 on the other hand appeared to buck the trend and go for more live action stunts and show the actors in the vehicles. The stunts also appeared to be ratcheted up a notch, with both the bank vault heist and the train job being highlights. The bank vault heist also seemed to ratchet up the body count looking at the resulting wrecked vehicles (though we are subtly told not to care as they are all bad guys out to kill the good guys).

The twist during the vault heist is a good one and was not telegraphed until a few seconds before the reveal.

For me, Hobbs is one of the more interesting characters. He’s a badass, known for always bringing in his target without fail. He’s also shown as a guy who never wants to know the target beyond their name and face, it’s never really explained if this is his way of dealing with his work or if he just doesn’t give a damn. The beating Hobbs & Dom give to each other is brutal to say the least. When it was revealed that Johnson was cast against Vin Diesel, the inevitable fight sequence seemed to be the main thing fans wanted to see (outside of the vehicles). Hobbs’ late movie semi-turn to the ‘dark side’ was inevitable, but well done. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that jazz.

Speaking of final sequences, as with the trend, Fast 5 is a movie you should wait around for once the credits starts to role as the audience get to see a familiar face (uncredited as well) approach Hobbs’ in his office and show him a recent image of….

Well. I shall leave that up to you to go and watch yourself.

Fast 5 does have its faults. There is a strange side plot of sorts with the rookie police woman Hobbs requests as an interpreter and Dom. It seemed to serve no real purpose but to add another female character to the mix (And seemingly to Dom’s arm if the final scenes were to suggest). It was also pointed out that had Dom not told Mia to deliver one of the train job cars to a different location than planned, none of the movie would have taken place, and there was never really a reason why Dom decided to double cross the crew Dom, Brian & Mia were assisting in the job.

With Han dying in Tokyo Drift, it’s unknown why the director (Justin Lin, the same director as Tokyo Drift) added in a sub plot of Han hooking up with the female weapons guru of the group, as it only seemed to serve as, well…. no reason.

It felt that the inclusion of the two bickering members of the crew was something that quickly became stale as the bickering banter was more annoying than it was comical.

Overall, Fast 5 is well worth a watch (though you can leave your brain at the door if you want to) and one of the better in the series. With the possible plot direction brought up in the (literal, looking at the release date in the UK) Easter egg, there is ground for a VERY interesting 6^th movie.

2011 Chinese GP Review

For reasons officially unknown, Eddie Jordan has never been to any of the three Chinese GP’s the BBC have shown. He missed out on a corker today.

The action started in Qualifying as Webber gambled and lost, resulting in him missing out on getting into Q2 and leaving him starting the race in 18^th.

Once again, Vettel took pole with the McLarens of Hamilton & Button in 2^nd & 3^rd respectively.

There was drama before the race when Hamilton’s car failed to start in the garage as he went out to the grid. Upon removing the engine cover & airbox it became apparent to the McLaren crews that the engine had leaked fuel into the airbox.

With the clock running down to the pitlane closing and lewis starting the race from the pitlane, the McLaren crew had to take the engine apart, remove the leaked fuel, then put the engine back together in only three or so minutes. Happily for the team, they managed to do this and get Lewis out about 30 seconds before the pit lane closed (though not all of the bodywork was in place at the time).

When the red lights went out, Vettel bogged his Red Bull down and wasn’t able to perform his usual rocket start, this enabled both Button & Hamilton squeezing past him, leaving him fighting Rosberg (Who had qualified in a rather good fourth place) through turn one, though Vettel had the line through turn two.

For the second race in a row there were no major incidents on the first lap.

Apart from the McLarens, only Schumacher made a great start, getting up to 9^th from his 16^th place start. For the first seven laps, the top three drivers traded fastest laps as they pushed to create a lead for the first pit stops.

Webber, who had had a rough start, was passed by the Sauber of Perez and decided to pit on lap ten and swap the Hard tires for another set of hards in a move that raised a few eyebrows at the time.

A lap later it became apparent that neither McLarens were breaking away from Vettel, so two laps later Button entered the pit lane with Vettel following him in.

Bizarely, Button mistook the Blue overall Red Bull pit crew for his Silver overall McLaren crew. This mistake dropped him behind Vettel coming out the pits and ultimately lost him any chance of the win. After the race a Red Bull mechanic claimed that Button had done it on purpose, though it is not known if he was being serious or if he has a great poker face.

As both McLarens had stayed out a lap longer than planned, Hamilton’s tires were crooked on his in-lap meaning he was overtaken by the Ferrari of Massa and stayed behind the Ferrari after his stop was completed.

Having pitted on lap twelve, Rosberg was the winner of the first round of stops as he lead the field. His team mate back in 8^th was involved in a good battle with the Ferrari of Alonso that lasted a few laps until lap twenty three when exiting the hairpin, Alonso’s DRS activated for a second and the Ferrari dived under the Mercedes through the last turn.

This should not have happened as the Ferrari was outside the designated DRS zone. While the conspiracy theorists saw this as another example of Ferrari bending the rules, it is believed that the system malfunctioned.

That being said, the malfunction enabled the Spaniard to get past the German and there was surprise that the stewards did not reverse the positions.

By lap twenty three, Webber had managed to claw his way up to 11^th and gatecrashed the battle between Kobayashi & Sutil for 9^th & 10^th

Lap twenty four saw the start of 2^nd round of pit stops with Button diving into the correct box and the trio of Hamilton, Rosberg & Webber a lap later. With Vettel & both Ferrari’s staying out (Indicating a 2-stop) Vettel was in the lead after the 3-stoppers with Massa & Alonso in 2^nd & 3^rd behind him and Rosberg the fastest of the 3-stoppers in 4^th.

With fresher tires button, Rosberg & Hamilton all sped up to the back of Alonso’s car and passed him, with Hamilton being the last on lap thirty, using acceleration alone to get past the Ferrari in turn 14. Two laps later the Spaniard pitted, with Massa following him in the next lap.

Lap thirty six saw a move by Hamilton on Button that must have had the McLaren pit wall holding their breath as the two drivers came out of the last turn and entered the first corner Side-by-side, with Button conceding the place to Hamilton. A lap later Button completed his final stop, with Hamilton doing the same a lap later, the order between the two staying the same.

As Hamilton pitted, Webber was continuing a run through the field by passing Schumacher before pitting for his final stop on lap forty. The pace of the 3-stoppers opposed to the Ferrari of Alonso meant that the Spaniard stayed behind them all though their final stops.

Having raced away from his team mate, Hamilton was all over the gearbox of Rosberg, who gave the former WDC driver a challenge to pass until he dived past the Mercedes into Turn 6. Behind them Webber was flying by putting in a Fastest lap that was a full three seconds faster than Vettel.

It was now clear that it would be WHEN rather than IF the 3-stopping cars would catch up to Vettel.  Lap forty four saw  Hamilton start a passing move in turn 14 that took until the first turn on lap forty five to complete, Hamilton then turned his sights on the Red Bull of Vettel in 1^st.

The same lap saw both Webber and Button get past Alonso and Rosberg respectively. Four laps later Button got past Massa to make it a RedBull & McLaren top three while Webber charged towards both Rosberg & Massa, the latter being passed by both Webber & Rosberg on lap fifty one as Hamilton continued to close the gap to Vettel.

Having chased down Vettel, Hamilton passed the German on lap fifty two while Webber continued his great drive by closing the gap to Rosberg, who he passed two laps later, his sights turning to Button. the message sent to the McLaren driver was simple, ‘Beware of Webber.’

As it happened, Webber was able to pass Button on the penultimate lap, turning his 18^th place start into a 3^rd place podium finish.

Despite having started the race with severe worries he would even have made it, Hamilton drove a commanding race to halt a run of Vettel wins this season. Webber also drove a stormer of a race after his mistake and it was felt that had there been a couple more laps, he would have beaten at least his team mate and maybe even Hamilton.

Pirelli, who had come under fire in Malaysia for the state of their tires, brought a good batch with them this week. It was also interesting to take note of the number of finishers as 23 of the 24 cars finished the race (Despite Perez running a Force India off turn one and Di Resta playing bumper cars with a Lotus Renault) with the only retirement being Alguersuari just after the first round of stops from damage incurred from the team not securing his rear right wheel. (The number of finishers is potentially a record in Formula 1)

Once again though, it was revealed that the KERS system on the Red Bulls didn’t survive the race and the team must now use the three week break (Yes i said three weeks) till the next race to work out why they cannot use the system without trouble.

Another team that must look at itself during the break are Ferrari, who have struggled in all three races so far this season.

A damn good race with shed loads of action and not even a drop of rain to help, it’ll be a while before this race is forgotten.

2011 Malaysian GP Review

Apologies for the time taken to post this review, A good friend passed away last weekend, and it’s been difficult to find the… desire to do much this week.

P1 Vettel 01:34.870
P2 Hamilton 01:34.974
P3 Webber 01:35174
P4 Button 01:35.200

That was the gap between the top four drivers after the Malaysian Qualifying sessions. Just under 0:00.400 of a second separating four cars. Mere metres. Add in that they all posted these times in the dying seconds of Qualy 3, it was an exciting watch.

From the off Vettel was a rocket, taking off and was barely troubled for the rest of the race. Unlike his team mate, who had his KERS fail on the formation lap, meaning he would have to complete the race with around 30kg of unnecessary weight on his car and no BHP boost.

The surprise of the start was the speed the Lotus-Renaults had off the line, Heidfeld leaping into second ahead of both McLarens and Petrov moving from his 8th place start to 5th.

Surprisingly, with the nature of a race start, the only damage received was a puncture to Barrichello

As Webber, struggling with the lack of KERS, and Kobayashi fought, the Malaysian skies darkened and the dreaded monsoon rain threatened to arrive. Happily the only rain to hit the track were a few drops as the two drivers battled with the order swapping hands between the Japanese and Australian five times in 7seven laps.

Lap ten saw the first of the pit stops with Webber diving in and exiting in17th. Two laps later, Hamilton triggered the start of the rush by diving in and taking on new tires. By the time the first round of stops (Bar the Saubers who had shown in Australia before their disqualification for a surface being 4mm outside the rules that they could run longer than anyone else on a set of tires) had been completed, Hamilton had leapfrogged Heidfeld into second with Massa dropping behind Alonso, who was closing on Button.

Lap 17 saw Alonso beating Button into Turn one and then starting a charge to Hamilton who was in turn 6,3 seconds behind Vettel. The next four laps saw the Brit cut that by 2.4 seconds as Alonso fast caught up with the duo.

With each of their sets of tires at a different stage in the strategy, Massa was able to use his fresher tires and overtake Webber on lap 22. While this was happening, Kobayashi had shot off into the distance to begin a battle with Schumacher.

Lap 23 saw the 2nd round of stops, lasting until lap 30. The top four’s order stayed the same.

After the stops it became apparent that the Red Bull KERS had not finished its development as Vettel’s system joined his team mate’s in deciding not to work. Instead of slowing the young German, this triggered him to push and increase his

Hamiltons good race ended during the 3rd round of stops as a sticky front left tire caused him to drop time on his team mate, allowing Button to leapfrog Hamilton when he pitted a lap later.

A few laps later after Webber, on a different pit strategy, stopped, Hamilton was once again forced to deal with his nemesis, Alonso. This would be a battle that would rage on after the race had finished in the stewards offices.

Hamilton’s tires were poor, causing him to lose time to Button, but Alonso’s DRS had failed. Two crippled cars, both driven by former world champions. On lap 46, Alonso tried a move into turn four that failed, causing the Spaniard to drive into the right rear of Hamilton and breaking the nose on his Ferrari. Hamilton didn’t get off lightly either as he had suffered damage to the McLaren’s floor.

Alonso immediately pitted for a new nose, while Hamilton struggled on to Lap 53, where he ran wide, giving Heidfeld the chance to overtake, before he made a 4th stop, dropping Hamilton back to 8th.

A lap later saw the interesting sight of a flying Lotus-Renault. Having run wide, Petrov kept his foot down to rejoin the track. He did, but not in the manner he wanted as his car was launched into the air by a gully, the impact upon his return to earth snapping the steering column off the car. The Stewards on the corner swore they heard a muffled ‘Ye-haw’ as Petrov flew by. All joking aside, the Russian was uninjured after the bone shaking impact.

For the second time this year Vettel ran away with a race, leading from start to finsh. Button & Heidfeld rounded out the podium, with Webber, Massa, Alonso, Hamilton & Kobayashi making the top 8.

Once again, the Stewards ultimately decided the final race order, with both Hamilton (For excessive weaving, something he’d been warned about at this race last year) and Alonso (For hitting Hamilton) were given 20 second penalties, with the race ending positions, only Hamilton suffered as he dropped behind Kobayashi.

Next up; Shanghai and the longest straight on the schedule. Will the Red Bull & Vettel dominance continue or will the Pirelli tires mean that the run is cut short?

We’ll just have to wait & see

What is up with the English Football Association?

As you will have seen if you saw my very first posting on this little blog, I am a Manchester United fan, and proud of it. Today’s blogpost will be a bit of a rant (For obvious reasons)as recently the FA have undertaken a number of decisions that have been… well, WRONG.

First up… SAF getting a 5 game ban & a £30k fine for criticizing a referee. Today, it’s revealed that the West Ham boss, Avram Grant, has been given a 2 game ban & a £6K fine for doing the exact same thing. Never mind the blatant inconsistency, why are the FA punishing managers for pointing out the lack of quality in the EPL referees and not trying to fix said lack of quality?

Another strange decision a few weeks ago was to allow Wayne Rooney to get away with elbowing a wigan player. Should have been a straight red and an automatic 3 game ban. As a United fan, that would have sucked. But it would have been fair.

This weekend, Wayne Rooney scored a penalty that completed a hat trick for him and turned a 2-0 defeat into a 3-2 lead (ultimately a 4-2 win) against West Ham. While understandably excited, Rooney looked at the Sky Sports camera and used a naughty word.

The result of this slip of the tongue? A 2 game ban.

Over the weekend there is no doubt that a large number of players were filmed using the same naughty word. Their punishments? Nothing.

Is this frankly bizarre ruling the FA’s way of making up for the fact they sat on their backsides and did nothing after the Wigan game or is this yet another example in the growing list of times the FA have hit Manchester United harder than other teams?

The former is kinda understandable…. but still wrong. If it’s the latter, then why? What is it that United have done for the FA to treat the team with such disdain and inconsistent rulings?

A few weeks back, Ashley Cole pointed a air rifle at a work exchange kid and fired the trigger. Cole claimed he had no idea the weapon was loaded, a statement i find rather dubious (i say as a matter of my own opinion, not fact)). Where were the FA then? What punishment did he get for that?

That’s right… NOTHING. In what bizarre universe is swearing on camera worse than shooting a kid with an air rifle?

And don’t get me bloody started on the entire Rio-Terry-Capello- Captaincy FUBAR…

What can be done to fix the glaring bias in the FA? Would a complete rebuild be in order or would just replacing certain individuals be enough? I personally feel that anyone who has run a top flight team should be banned from running the FA, or the FA should be run by a committee of representatives of the top flight teams to ensure a fair level of action is put to the teams when they are charged.

2011 Australian Formula 1 GP

With Bahrain postponed due to the countries troubles, Australia and Melbourne Park became the start of the 2011 Formula 1 season.

And it started with a bit of a bang, with the new Team Lotus reserve driver, Karun Chandhok, spearing the car into the wall between turn 3 & 4 on his first lap out of the pits (He was also the first car period to go out on track this weekend). A few red faces around i bet.

Throughout the Practice sessions and Qualifying, the RBR’s of the reigning WDC Vettel and Webber duelled with the McLaren’s of Hamilton & Button and the Ferrari of Alonso. Ultimately Vettel reigned supreme, romping to pole ahead of Hamilton, Webber, Button and Alonso.

With the introduction of the 107% ruling, both HRTs of Liuzzi and Karthikeyan were not fast enough and were automatically DQ’d from the race.

It is felt that, with the severe lack of pace the untested HRT showed Saturday along with the desire to leave parts strewn across the track, HRT will not turn a wheel in a race this season. Unless the team can fix this, it is unlikely that they will survive until the end of the schedule.

How the FIA allowed them to make up the numbers this season is unknown, but the team’s display of incompetence is starting to become embarrassing for the sport and the sooner they either buck up or fold and leave the better.

The Race itself was interesting on a number of levels.

With Vettel’s dominance in Qualifying, he had an easy race, leading for most of it and comfortably taking the flag. I fear that we could be seeing another German dominance in F1. While success is a good thing for Vettel, it may not be a good thing for the sport and i hope that he is not allowed to romp his way to a 2nd title in two years. If only to make the sport more exciting.

Usually, the first corner of Melbourne Park is a magnet for a big crash on the first lap (See Ralf using Rubens as a ramp a few years back), but this year it was turn three where the fun happened, at least for us fans that is.

Rubens decided to go straight on at Turn 3, which bunched up the pack in reaction, leading to Schumi & Alguersuari touching. Schumi’s puncture lead to his retirement 20 laps later due to damage to the car from the flailing rubber. Alguersuari replaced his nose, ending the race in 13th.

Lap 8 saw the first ‘controversal’ moment. Diving into turn 12 side by side, Button was forced to take to the emergency lane to keep from collecting Massa. As per the rules, Jenson should have let Massa back through. To make things complicated, Massa slowed coming out of the turn and Alonso was able to snatch a place.

As this would have meant Button had to give 2 slots back, he and McLaren waited for Race Control’s call before they’d act. This was taken out of both groups hands as Ferrari immediately brought both cars in for pit stops, automatically turning a position swap into a drive thru.

While this took place, Vettel and Hamilton pulled away from Webber and Petrov

After Vettel pitted around lap 13, he found himself behind Button, who did the team mate thing and made it hard for Vettel to pass him. Vettel then used the run off area on the outside of turns 4 & 5, but this was deemed legal and Vettel carried on to win the race.

23 laps gone and Ruben’s day got worse, and Rosbergs day was ruined. In a lunge that was NEVER going to succeed into turn 3, Rubens speared into Rosberg’s sidepod, causing Rosberg’s car to leak vital fluids and retire. Rubens was forced to change his nose, then serve a drive thru penalty. He retired on lap 49.

With the new DRS wing system in it’s first race, the resulting jump in overtakes didn’t come. It took until Button passed Kobayashi on lap 25 that we saw the first pass with the system.

Not long after that Hamilton suffered damage to the underside of his car and he was forced to nurse his car home with the front tray scraping along the ground. Even thought the tray was sending sparks out from under his car, Hamilton’s times were barely affected.

Focus then turned to the battle between Webber in 4th and Alonso in 5th. Alonso had closed the gap to under a second, which enabled him to use the DRS wing to try an over take. He need not have bothered as Webber came in for his 3rd pit stop of the day. A combination of putting his foot down and Webber going wide on his out lap meant that Alonso was able to leapfrog Webber when Alonso made his 3rd stop of the day soon afterwards.

Webber, now on the hard compound tire, briefly attempted to get back passed Alonso, but he quickly fell backwards and ended his day 5th.

Still smarting from his last encounter with Massa, Button attempted another pass, this one succeeding, as he stayed ahead of the Rookie Perez in the Sauber, who would only pit once in the entire race. (Sadly for Sauber a technical infringement discovered after the race meant that both cars of Perez & Kobayashi were DQ’d after the race).

Shortly after being overtaken, Massa made his final stop of the day and dropped back to 10th, though he would move one place higher before the chequered flag flew.

In the final few laps focus turned to a potential battle that had ended last season, Petrov Vs Alonso, Round II. Despite closing the gap, Alonso was once again unable to pass the Russian, giving Petrov his first podium of his F1 career.

Today belonged to Vettel though. Comfortably leading the vast majority of the race, he coasted to the finish and another win.

The other winner was McLaren. After their abysmal showings in the multiple tests, it was felt that the team would struggle majorly this season. Both Hamilton and Button (who finished 6th) showed that the car was able to compete with all but Vettel.

Post race, there was a lot of speculation on whether his under tray would pass the stringent FIA standards. Happily for McLaren & Lewis, the car passed and the position stood.

Initial indications from the race point to another season of dominance from Red Bull, though McLaren will be nipping at their heels .

Formula 1 2011

New season means new drivers, new technology, new teams (sort of), new tracks, new tires and new rules. And this year there are plenty of them.

Five new drivers have joined this season, with Heidfeld joining them to take the place of Robert Kubica after his horrible rally accident earlier this year.

Sauber had the Mexican Surgio Perez replacing Pedro De La Rosa as Kobayashi’s team mate.

Force India saw Liuzzi take a giant step backwards and move to HRT. His place was filled by the reigning DTM champion, the Scottish Paul Di Resta.

Virgin replaced Lucas De Grassi with the Belgian Jerome D’Ambrosio alongside Timo Glock.

Williams replaces the hastily fired Hulkenburg with the Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, the current GP2 champion.

The final new driver was Narain Karthikeyan at HRT.

The rest of the field is unchanged from last year

After the debacle that was Singapore 08, Renault had been searching for a new direction to move away from the scandal. This year that arrived in the form of Group Lotus who took over and immediately gave the team a new look by bringing back the iconic Black and Gold livery. The season was looking good after the first test with both Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov looking strong.

Sadly, Kubica’s season (and potentially his career) was cut short after a horrendous accident while rallying. It is hoped that he can return in 2012.

This year India joins the F1 schedule with a brand new circuit, still under construction, it is felt that the track will be ready long before the race later this year (Unlike last year’s Korean track that was still unfinished AFTER the race had ended).

Some of the bigger changes have happened in the technical side of the sport, with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) making a return alongside a new moveable rear wing system that is meant to enable better racing and more overtaking, the system is a driver activated flap in the rear wing. Upon activation the flap opens enabling the car to gain a speed advantage and hopefully pass the car in front.

DRS is introduced with a series of restrictions though. In FP1 to 3 & Qualifying, drivers are allowed to use DRS at any point on the track. During a race however, a driver can only use the system at a certain point on the track (Different for each track on the schedule) and only if the driver is within one second of the car infront.

With Bridgestone pulling out of F1 at the end of last season after 13 years supplying the tires, Pirelli stepped in to void

The final change this year is the return of the 107% ruling, which automatically DQ’s any driver who doesn’t qualify within 107% of the pole sitter’s time.