grumpyf1

....Oh, I'm sorry. Was I meant to be typing something....? Right. ....Erm. What, now? Sorry, bit distracted for some reason. Ahem. OK, here goes. Singapore earned it's place as my favourite amongst the new races straight away when it first joined the F1 circus 3 years ago. It just looks so fantastic and usually manages to provide a great race. Well, it did again in 2010 too. More on that in a minute though. First off, we had two new drivers in for this race, with Christian Klien returning for the first time since 2006 in the Hispania, after Yamamoto got food poisoning. That might just be a handy phrase to cover the fact that the cash had stopped flowing. Of course, Sakon might have been.. er.... flowing himself, but I think a temporarily empty wallet might have been the problem, rather than his insides. At Sauber, Nick Heidfeld returned, replacing the hapless (and form-less) de la Rosa. Both acquitted themselves well in qualifying, Heidfeld a tidy 14th and Klien beating Se

Radioactive Tubular Girls by LeeDM101 / Video by Instamatic from Tim Baker on Vimeo . What do you get if you mix Calvin Harris, Mike Oldfield, Kraftwerk and Duran Duran together? This is genius of the highest order...

I've just completed my second week as a Marketing Officer. Well, I say second week. I was off 2 days the first week, one day this week and left early to go for some training today. So I've just completed my first six and a half days of actual marketing. I believe that 6.5 out of 10 is actually quite a high attendance rate for a Marketing person. Well done me. I'm a credit to my profession. There have been a couple of minor challenges so far: Day 1: Arrived refreshed after two weeks in the strange void between Client Services and Marketing, during which I spent a large part of my life cruising up and down the M6. If that makes me sound like some kind of huggy-bear/superpimp type character, then I'll cope with that as a concept. *long pause* I'm still coping. Anyway - my desk was missing something when I arrived. After a bit of pondering, a touch of wondering and a fair amount of puzzling, I realised that the bloody great big mac that had been there before I wen

Good bit of news today. Well, I say good. Good if you're Nick Heidfeld. Not very good at all if you're Pedro de la Rosa. Heidfeld has been twiddling his thumbs this season whilst being Mercedes Test Driver, which in real terms means he's done rugger ball since the start of the year except for wearing headphone at races and generally looking as cool as possible without actually being in an F1 car. A bit of excitement (not to mention a bit of driving and some dosh probably) came his way recently when new-for-next-year tyre suppliers Pirelli wanted someone to drive the completed Toyota that didn't get a run this year with their new rubber on the corners, to see how it all went. It's unclear if this helped him get the seat at Sauber for the rest of the year, if it was his undoubted talent, the fact that he's driven for them before or (and this seems most likely) because Pedro de la Rosa was a bit crap. Kobayashi has substantially outperformed him this season,

If you're not a big fan of Formula 1, you probably thought that race was pretty dull. Two things: Firstly, why are you reading this then? It's a blog about Formula 1. Are you totally nuts or what?! Secondly, it wasn't dull but in fact very tense. Okay, after the first lap or so it wasn't a thriller (cue Michael Jackson) but it was edge of your seat stuff as far as the championship goes. For the first time this season there was no Red Bull parked on the front row, with the more traditional Ferrari & McLaren battle reconvened for the Italians' home race, and at the start it didn't look like it was going to go to plan for them. Button got a good start and even though Alonso made a robust move to intercept him (translation: He tried to barge him out of the way), Jenson was first into the first corner... just. Massa held his own against Alonso too, whilst a fast starting Hamilton was up to 4th and then challenged Felipe a bit too late. Floppy front wheels ar

Blimey. I wasn't expecting Alonso on pole. I had a sneaky feeling that Jenson was going to be quick with his unusual rear-wing-the-size-of-a-sideboard & F-duct combo, but I wasn't really expecting to see 'Nando on pole. Still, fair play to him, although it did mean that Luci Di Grumpizemelo got to punch his fist at the tifosi. The git. Some clever stragesing by Button's half of the McGarage gave him a surprise second, so we have the delight of the two guys with the toughest job of getting the title at the front for race day. Me likey. Oh yes. Massa did well for 3rd (but really, other than his Dad, who cares at this stage?), Webber did a brilliant job for 4th after a car more unreliable than your average builder failed him in FP2 and 3 and Hamilton looked pretty grumpy to be lining up 5th. Not as grumpy as Seb though, who had to settle for 6th. FOTA have changed the timings graphics for this race and they're BLOODY AWFUL! Although we now get to see all th

Friday practice sessions are a funny thing. For starters, you don't expect there to be a lot of excitement, as the end result equals precisely nothing. From my point of view, getting to see a session is about as rare as rocking horse poo. Today though, I saw most of free practice 2 as I was luxuriating in the warm embrace of a day off work. Contrary to popular belief, I do actually have a job and go to work sometimes... I'm not always on holiday. You know what? I really enjoyed it. For starters, the 5Live commentary team are actually really good, and with the luckless Karun Chandhok once again without a drive, his insights were not only interesting, insightful and informative, but he was also pretty good at it and funny to boot. I'd like to suggest to the BBC that they drop Jonathan Legard and give Karun the job instead. Anyway, for what it's worth, Vettel was fastest in FP2, which was a bit of a surprise, as it was widely assumed that the McLa's would be c

So next season we're going to get a whopping 20 races, running from 13th March in Bahrain through until a spectacularly late 27th November in Abu Dhabi, and including a race in India for the first time. Pluses: Less nasty withdrawal symptoms from not having a race to look forward to. Mostest races ever = lots and lots of F1! Minuses: What if someone runs away with the championship? It'd be a long old wait after that, wouldn't it? The teams will be tired. Boo hoo. It's not like most of them are underpaid. I'm sure they'll figure it out. Just to repeat in case you weren't clear.... 20 RACES NEXT YEAR! Weeeeeee! (The squeaking noise is me bouncing up and down in my chair). (On the cassette deck tonight is Eric Serra's soundtrack to "The Big Blue" from 88.)

According to the FIA's intensive research, none of the new teams wanting a place on next year's F1 grid are up to scratch. That's a bit of a shame in my opinion (and this is my blog after all, not a bloody democracy). I think the new teams this year have added and interesting element, and whilst the old-school teams are grumbling, they all had to start somewhere and struggle their way up the grid. Personally, I think they should take the blue flags away. If you can't overtake a slow back-marker then tough. You aren't good enough. End of. It's doubly bad because it means Jacques Villeneuve won't be back, and I SO want to see him dicing with Schumacher again. I'm quite fond of Lotus because they have a great attitude and good drivers, I like Virgin because they're trying hard and I love their paint job, and I like Hispania because it still amazes me that they showed up at the first race with one of their drivers never having driven a lap before q

So. The Ferrari International Assistance (FIA) are not taking any further action against the team after their subtle-as-a-transvestite-with-a-mustache team orders incident. Hmmm. I was at least hoping for a suspended ban, although they got basically the same. Nothing. I understand that team orders happen - course they do. But right now they're banned, and the chaps in red took the Michael by making it so very obvious. F1 fans aren't stupid (me excluded, obviously) and it made people very angry that they thought they could get away with something so obvious. The most galling part is that we might see Skeletor, sorry, Luca di Grumpizemelo, looking irritatingly smug on the TV. He has two expressions really - the indignant/defiant/"I'm right" one and the "See, we WERE right" one. Expect to see the latter. Unfortunately. Should be good to hear from Stefano Dominoespizzaicali as well. Nice bloke, but he doesn't make sense all that often. I'm expe

Have spent a fair bit of time on Twitter recently. I'm possibly addicted. But I thought it was about time I emptied my brain out completely, so here goes... Spent an entertaining 5 days over the Bank Holiday weekend working at a Craft Fair in Henley. It would be fair to say that working in a tent with Nigel, Neil and Paul is always a laugh. Even after many years, I always assume it's the last time we'll all work together and am always surprised when we turn up again the following year. This season, Neil wore bin bags for socks, his girlfriend's trousers and a ladies cardigan. Metrosexual would be an understatement. Our employers put us up in a B&B and fed us too. Here's the evidence.... And yes, that is the sauce and a bit of cucumber just waiting for some shredded duck. There were some interesting female rowers in the Chinese restaurant that night. One of them should lay of the steroids a bit. Her 'tache would have made Freddie Mercury feel inadequate..