Sauber? Midfield time, then...

When Peter Sauber rescued the team that used to bear his name after BMW legged it out of the exit door, he probably knew he was going to wind up pretty much back where he left off a few years before. Midfield.

After startling everyone with some super-fast times in testing last year, it looked like the car the Beemer Boys had designed might actually be a cracker. It turned out it was in-fact distinctly average. At this point, please have a ponder about that eh? Someone quick in testing, but crap when the season gets underway? You've been warned...

Anyway, the new motor looks tidy enough, but I can't say I'm expecting anything other than the usual though - there doesn't seem to be anything radical going on, does there?

Driver-wise, they don't have any experienced old-hands this year, having dumped Heidfeld (grrrrr) in favour of the wallet friendly Pasta Carbonara. Sorry - Pastor Maldonado. Don't expect miracles there then. The team are interested in him for the speed of his bank transfers, not his driving.

In the other car is the startling Kamui Kobayashi. I only own two current F1-related shirts. One of them has a cartoon of Kamui on the front with BANZAAAAAIIIII!!!! on it. He is a nut-case. But he pulled off some fabulous, breathtaking moves last year, simply by doing something that the other drivers just didn't think anyone would be daft enough to give a go. Expect more fireworks this year. And some big crashes too.

The team are hoping to score regular points and improve on their 8th place last year. Hardly ambitious, but very... midfield.

(Tunes this evening are from Sash! "Encore Une Fois - The Greatest Hits". I know - cheesy Europop stuff. Do I look like I care?!)

Comments

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

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...

Suffering from natural obsolescence

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 ...

A fisful of change at the shops

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 ...

grumpyf1

Search This Blog