Mystifying Magny-Cours
You know the oil companies are in deep PR trouble when they are forced to find ever more creative ways of justifying their existence. It must take untold concentration for oil company executives to have to fight against every sinew to keep from shouting "yes!" as the fuel price flies mercilessly skyward. Instead Exxon-Mobil and BP spend millions on television advertising telling us about all the advances they are making in this or that environment-friendly technology but never mention the evil word "oil".
Yesterday it was the turn of Shell. Felipe Massa - an emotional, Latin man - during the press conference immediately following him stepping off the top step of the podium at Magny-Cours mysteriously became the first driver I have heard publicly sing the praises of an oil company. Massa had just won his first ever French Grand Prix. As if that was not sufficient reason to go berserk, Massa was for the first time in his Formula One career leading the drivers' championship. When asked how he felt after winning the race, this is what he had to say: "The team did a fantastic job – all the suppliers, Shell especially, because all the time we need to bring good fuel and good lubricants as well, so it was a great job from everybody."
Really? Is this supposed to be news for us, Felipe? Are we supposed to start loving the bastards at Shell? But what else is a giant oil company to do in these ghastly days? The poor chaps at Shell have to do something, haven’t they? I mean to say, here we were suspending disbelief (and jettisoning principle) while watching as pointless an activity as there possibly can be (that is to say, if we are serious about cutting back on the use of fossil fuels and saving our fragile planet). On a normal day, the thought of twenty cars charging round a circuit for seventy laps burning hundreds of gallons of precious fuel doesn't fill you with undying love for Shell while you fill your car up at a Shell petrol station with fuel at £1.20, does it? Well, it is for this reason that Massa had to do his PR bit yesterday. He also saved me a small fortune; but I value my limbs too much to linger on this particular subject...
Magny-Cours is not renowned for producing bizarre races but the circuit's swansong disproved the rule (yes, once again, we are told that there will be no more Formula One racing at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours - let's wait and see). Mystery dogged the race from the start. Was it or was it not going to rain? Every Lewis Hamilton fan out there was praying hard for rain. Unable to do any better than come third in Saturday qualifying, Hamilton started the race in thirteenth place and needed rain and some chaos if he was going to score any meaningful points at Magny-Cours. In the event, after ominous forecasts of thunderstorms thirty minutes into the race, all we got we got were a few miserable droplets of rain at around lap seventeen which were not sufficient to cause any difficulties for anyone.
What was more mystifying was the decision-making of the race stewards. Two decisions struck me as decidedly odd. First, Lewis Hamilton was forced to suffer a drive through penalty for having gained an advantage by cutting a chicane - effectively, taking a short cut off the circuit. From the beginning, Hamilton was on a charge. He wanted to gain as many places as he could so as to salvage as many points as possible before leaving France. At turn seven, while dicing with the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel, his car was briefly thrown off the circuit but he rejoined the circuit seconds later.
What is important, though, is that Hamilton cut the chicane after his overtaking manoeuvre, not before. In other words, he did not successfully overtake another car by means of a short cut. Had he done so and not given the place back, as the rules require him to do, his punishment would have been clearly deserved. In the circumstances, it is difficult to see what the stewards considered to be so objectionable about his driving that it was worthy of a drive through penalty which ruined his race. For my money, this was unduly harsh. But I do not have the benefit of the various camera angles enjoyed by the race stewards as they examine each such incident over many minutes, so cannot say definitively.
Second and more mystifying was the non-decision regarding Kimi Raikkonen. Comfortably leading the race by a useful margin, Raikkonen's Ferrari began to slow down about halfway through the race and he was forced to concede first place to his team-mate. The reason became clear when the Ferrari hove into camera view. Raikkonen had broken his exhaust and it was hanging perilously in the air as he raced past. This, for my money, was a clear black-flag incident. Raikkonen should have been forced to abandon the race immediately. His car was in danger of depositing a nasty piece of metal in the path of another car or driver and, therefore, should not have been anywhere on a race track. Instead, Raikkonen was permitted to drive his car for the rest of the race and managed to secure second place; thus salvaging a crucial eight world championship points.
We have seen evidence of inconsistency from the stewards many times before - particularly during the era of Michael Schumacher at Ferrari - so this is not new or surprising. If you are ever told that a driver enjoyed the benefit of a dodgy rule interpretation, you will not need to be told which team he was driving for!
Enough of that. It was pleasant to see the return of Jarno Trulli to the podium after an absence of more than two years. I have always liked the jolly Italian but could not agree with his view that his and Toyota's success meant good luck for the Italian football team in its game against Spain yesterday evening. Perhaps inevitably, they lost.
Consistent point scoring is what makes for a world championship. Robert Kubica's fifth place yesterday places him conveniently behind Massa in the drivers' championship (Hamilton really ought to borrow a leaf from the Pole’s book). With Raikkonen and Hamilton not terribly far behind, we have the first genuine four way championship we have seen in a long time. Splendid!
Gitau
23 June 2008
Yesterday it was the turn of Shell. Felipe Massa - an emotional, Latin man - during the press conference immediately following him stepping off the top step of the podium at Magny-Cours mysteriously became the first driver I have heard publicly sing the praises of an oil company. Massa had just won his first ever French Grand Prix. As if that was not sufficient reason to go berserk, Massa was for the first time in his Formula One career leading the drivers' championship. When asked how he felt after winning the race, this is what he had to say: "The team did a fantastic job – all the suppliers, Shell especially, because all the time we need to bring good fuel and good lubricants as well, so it was a great job from everybody."
Really? Is this supposed to be news for us, Felipe? Are we supposed to start loving the bastards at Shell? But what else is a giant oil company to do in these ghastly days? The poor chaps at Shell have to do something, haven’t they? I mean to say, here we were suspending disbelief (and jettisoning principle) while watching as pointless an activity as there possibly can be (that is to say, if we are serious about cutting back on the use of fossil fuels and saving our fragile planet). On a normal day, the thought of twenty cars charging round a circuit for seventy laps burning hundreds of gallons of precious fuel doesn't fill you with undying love for Shell while you fill your car up at a Shell petrol station with fuel at £1.20, does it? Well, it is for this reason that Massa had to do his PR bit yesterday. He also saved me a small fortune; but I value my limbs too much to linger on this particular subject...
Magny-Cours is not renowned for producing bizarre races but the circuit's swansong disproved the rule (yes, once again, we are told that there will be no more Formula One racing at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours - let's wait and see). Mystery dogged the race from the start. Was it or was it not going to rain? Every Lewis Hamilton fan out there was praying hard for rain. Unable to do any better than come third in Saturday qualifying, Hamilton started the race in thirteenth place and needed rain and some chaos if he was going to score any meaningful points at Magny-Cours. In the event, after ominous forecasts of thunderstorms thirty minutes into the race, all we got we got were a few miserable droplets of rain at around lap seventeen which were not sufficient to cause any difficulties for anyone.
What was more mystifying was the decision-making of the race stewards. Two decisions struck me as decidedly odd. First, Lewis Hamilton was forced to suffer a drive through penalty for having gained an advantage by cutting a chicane - effectively, taking a short cut off the circuit. From the beginning, Hamilton was on a charge. He wanted to gain as many places as he could so as to salvage as many points as possible before leaving France. At turn seven, while dicing with the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel, his car was briefly thrown off the circuit but he rejoined the circuit seconds later.
What is important, though, is that Hamilton cut the chicane after his overtaking manoeuvre, not before. In other words, he did not successfully overtake another car by means of a short cut. Had he done so and not given the place back, as the rules require him to do, his punishment would have been clearly deserved. In the circumstances, it is difficult to see what the stewards considered to be so objectionable about his driving that it was worthy of a drive through penalty which ruined his race. For my money, this was unduly harsh. But I do not have the benefit of the various camera angles enjoyed by the race stewards as they examine each such incident over many minutes, so cannot say definitively.
Second and more mystifying was the non-decision regarding Kimi Raikkonen. Comfortably leading the race by a useful margin, Raikkonen's Ferrari began to slow down about halfway through the race and he was forced to concede first place to his team-mate. The reason became clear when the Ferrari hove into camera view. Raikkonen had broken his exhaust and it was hanging perilously in the air as he raced past. This, for my money, was a clear black-flag incident. Raikkonen should have been forced to abandon the race immediately. His car was in danger of depositing a nasty piece of metal in the path of another car or driver and, therefore, should not have been anywhere on a race track. Instead, Raikkonen was permitted to drive his car for the rest of the race and managed to secure second place; thus salvaging a crucial eight world championship points.
We have seen evidence of inconsistency from the stewards many times before - particularly during the era of Michael Schumacher at Ferrari - so this is not new or surprising. If you are ever told that a driver enjoyed the benefit of a dodgy rule interpretation, you will not need to be told which team he was driving for!
Enough of that. It was pleasant to see the return of Jarno Trulli to the podium after an absence of more than two years. I have always liked the jolly Italian but could not agree with his view that his and Toyota's success meant good luck for the Italian football team in its game against Spain yesterday evening. Perhaps inevitably, they lost.
Consistent point scoring is what makes for a world championship. Robert Kubica's fifth place yesterday places him conveniently behind Massa in the drivers' championship (Hamilton really ought to borrow a leaf from the Pole’s book). With Raikkonen and Hamilton not terribly far behind, we have the first genuine four way championship we have seen in a long time. Splendid!
Gitau
23 June 2008
posted by Gitau at 2:24 pm
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