Welcome back! (Sort Of...)

Look sort of familiar? Well it should do - the Lotus colour scheme is back in F1 after a 16 year gap. They are officially Lotus too - if they were to miraculously win a race, it would count as another one for the Lotus records book. All this seems a little weird, when you consider that it's mostly owned by a Malaysian Businessman and backed by the Proton car company.

They certainly have a big bit of history to live up to, but are wisely only looking toi finish races this year. That might still be a bit optimistic, seeing as Rottweiler Mike Gasgoyne only got the ball rolling 5 months ago. Still, he's worked something near to miracles with the performance of several other teams... usually just before his attitude finally gets too much for them and he was given his P45. Prospects? Scrapping with Virgin at the back, although they have a couple of experience drivers who have both won races...

Jarno Trulli is most famous for losing his rag last season and waving his arms around like a windmill on a breezy day at a somewhat bemused Sutil, and creating that curious situation dubbed "The Trulli Train" whereby his pace tailed off but no-one could get past him. Still, he's a good driver and a great qualifier, so might be able to haul the car up the grid a bit. Expect extra carriages on the train this year though.

Heikki (Crikey!) Kovaleinen kind of disappeared at McLaren. Occasionally great, he mostly did a Heidfeld, and just vanished compared to his star team-mate. He needs to rebuild his reputation, but a new team at the back of the grid? Wow. He's going to need to shine VERY brightly to get noticed.

Nice to see a car in those colours again, isn't it?

Comments

Malaysian Grand Prix - Vettel hot, but not bothered

Malaysia. It's always hot, and it always rains. Except the 2nd part is no longer true (unless you count the drizzly bit around lap 14). Saturday's qualifying session had highlighted the fact that Red Bull and McLaren seemed well matched on pace, but also that Ferrari were struggling. Whilst Vettel bagged another pole, followed by Hamilton, Webber and Button, Alonso was only 5th, and Massa 7th, with Nick Heidfeld an excellent 6th on the grid between the two red cars. At this point, I would like to break momentarily for a small rant: How many times do I have to say Heidfeld is good? Why wasn't he given a top drive years ago? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! ARE YOU BLIND!!!?? Ahem. The Hispanias somehow managed to a) turn up b) remember to bring cars c) get both of them on the track d) actually get both of them within 107%. Pretty remarkable really. Oh, and it didn't rain. Race day looked a more likely candidate for a drop of the wet stuff. The start was exciting, with

I know I'll regret this...

For @Feisty_Onion @BroughtonLass @LizWestmorland Me... before the grumpiness set in. Have a great weekend.

Senna bags Willy drive?

The great thing about F1 rumours is that they change every 5 minutes. Just last week it was looking like Barrichello might be back in at Williams, as new engines, tech staff and a general reshuffle would mean they needed someone who actually knew what they were doing in an F1 car. Which rules out Maldonado, obviously. Now it looks like Senna might be about to get a seat with the team where his Uncle lost his life. I'm sure Bruno's mum must be delighted. I don't hold with all this superstitious mumbo-jumbo though, and with the extraordinary level of safety in modern F1 cars, Bruno should be pretty safe. There is one significant problem with Williams signing him though - and this is going to be a bit unpopular I suspect - Bruno isn't very good. Yes, he put in a couple of reasonable performances with Renault, but Nick Heidfeld (ah... Nick and his lovely beard...) would have been able to do likewise, has he not been dropped. And then they dropped Senna too. Thi

grumpyf1

Search This Blog