Skip to main content

Ooooooh, matron!

Image
By
The new McLaren wasn't launched until after the first test session in Valencia had been completed, and featured a rather bizarre assembling of the car by the public, team and drivers. It does look rather like they got it wrong wit the sidepods, but apparently they're meant to look like that.

It got me thinking... where have I seen that look before? Of course... Kenneth Williams' nose.

McLaren are gambling on spending a bit more time in getting their car ready being better than rushing to get to the first test. We'll find out later this week if that seems to have been a good idea.

Its certainly the most radical looking car, what with the weirdo sidepods, highly complicated front wing and wacko double airbox. The team will be hoping this gives them the edge on Red Bull and Ferrari that they were unable to find in 2010.

Sticking with their two former World Champs is great news on that from too. Button has had a full year to get himself fully integrated into the team, and Hamilton has hopefully sorted his head out after some rash moves and personal demons last year. Its sounding a lot like the new Pirelli tyres might work in Jenson's favour too.

You can tell the Macca boys are gagging for the titles after missing out recently. Will 2011 be their return to the top?

(Listening to The Who on Radio 2.)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Suffering from natural obsolescence

By
You know you’re getting old when it dawns on you that you’re outliving technological breakthroughs. You know the sort of thing – something revolutionary, that heralds a seismic shift it the way the modern world operates. Clever, time-saving, breathtaking and life-changing (and featuring a circuit board). It’s the future, baby! Until it isn’t any more. I got to pondering this when we laughed heartily in the office about someone asking if our camcorder used “tape”. Tape? Get with the times, Daddy-o! If it ain’t digital then for-get-it! I then attempted to explain to an impossibly young colleague that video tape in a camcorder was indeed once a “thing”, requiring the carrying of something the size of a briefcase around on your shoulder, containing batteries normally reserved for a bus, and a start-up time from pressing ‘Record’ so lengthy, couples were already getting divorced by the time it was ready to record them saying “I do”. After explaining what tape was, I realised I’d ...
Post a Comment
Read more

"It's all gone quiet..." said Roobarb

By
If, like me, you grew up (and I’m aware of the irony in that) in the ‘70s, February was a tough month, with the sad news that Richard Briers and Bob Godfrey had died. Briers had a distinguished acting career and is, quite rightly, fondly remembered most for his character in ‘The Good Life’. Amongst his many roles, both serious and comedic, he also lent his voice to a startling bit of animation that burst it’s wobbly way on to our wooden-box-surrounded screens in 1974. The 1970s seemed to be largely hued in varying shades of beige, with hints of mustard yellow and burnt orange, and colour TV was a relatively new experience still, so the animated adventures of a daft dog and caustic cat who were the shades of dayglo green and pink normally reserved for highlighter pens, must have been a bit of a shock to the eyes at the time. It caused mine to open very wide indeed. Roobarb was written by Grange Calveley, and brought vividly into life by Godfrey, whose strange, shaky-looking sty...
Post a Comment
Read more

A fisful of change at the shops

By
A recent day out reminded me how much the retail experience has altered during my lifetime – and it’s not all good. I could stop typing this, and buy a fridge, in a matter of seconds. The shops are shut and it’s 9pm, but I could still place the order and arrange delivery. I haven’t got to wander round a white-goods retail emporium trying to work out which slightly different version of something that keeps my cider cold is better. It’ll be cheaper, too. But in amongst the convenience, endless choice and bargains, we’ve lost some of the personal, human, touches that used to make a trip to the shops something more than just a daily chore. Last weekend, we visited a local coastal town. Amongst the shops selling over-priced imported home accessories (who doesn’t need another roughly-hewn wooden heart, poorly painted and a bargain at £10?) was one that looked different. It’s window allowed you to see in, rather than being plastered with stick-on graphics and special offers calling ...
2 comments
Read more