The Holy Pasty?

I haven’t written much about Formula 1 this season. I may have mentioned it a few times and those who follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/soteriamag) will have seen a few updates every now and then relating to F1. Now both championships are done and dusted it’s worth a word or two. The reason? Well “The Wright Stuff” this morning really infuriated me, the guest going through the papers mentioned something like “some bloke has won something driving around in circles”. I think more has to be made of an achievement like this in Motor Sport, why did the Wright Stuff production team allow her to bring it as the story when she clearly wasn’t interested? I understand that F1 isn’t everyone’s cup of Tea but that’s no reason to belittle JB’s acheivements, or for that matter those of Brawn GP, a team that 12 months ago didn’t really exist!

I have never been to an F1 race or met the F1 drivers (if anyone wants to buy me tickets for the British GP next year when they decide where it is then I’m up for that!) but I have watched and interviewed drivers from the lower formula’s trying hard to get into F1. It’s not easy. JB has had to fight through Karting from the age of 8 to get to where he is today. With the constant pressure of training and finding sponsorship, proving all the time that you are good enough to get to the next level, to get to the top. OK when you are at the top the payoff comes with millions of pounds in wages, sponsorship deals etc, but your career can be a short one, through injury (you only have to look at the incidents in the lower formulas this year) or through contract negotiations or any number of reasons.

Sitting in one of these cars is not like a Sunday drive either. The fitness regimes that the drivers go through to be fit enough to race for 2 hours solid, not to mention the concentration that has to be sustained is huge. Jenson is probably one of the fittest on the grid and regularly takes part in triathalons. All of this is dismissed by someone’s disinterest in the sport. If it was football there would be a huge celebration about a British team winning a world cup, but for driving no-one is prepared to invest in the future of the sport or celebrate what is a huge victory!

Some people have called into question whether Jenson is a worthy winner. However with 6 wins early in the season he maximised his chances, and by keeping consistent even though every thing wasn’t going well for him he made those chance work. He’s at the front, this year he started off in, arguably, the best car, but he didn’t have that advantage later in the season despite some excellent performances from Reubens punching above his weight! Jenson is a worthy winner, because anyone who can lead the championship all year, ignore the mental strain of the media and expectation, and everything else bearing down on them and still bring the car home in almost every race in the points deserves to be the champion, no matter who they are!

Formula One is known as the height of glamour in Motorsport, but the World Series by Renault had a little touch of it yesterday and I’m not just talking about the pit girls marking the grid positions. No of all people I bumped into, whilst waiting for an interview was Chris Eubanks. Someone my dad thought was a footballer when I spoke to him on the ‘phone!

I managed to squeeze an interview in yesterday with Renault 3.5 driver James Walker, who actually finished the race in fourth. However 3rd was my interview target for today, Oliver Turvey. So he made the podium for the race and then also got the top step as he was also the highest finishing rookie. So interviewing him will certainly be interesting! I’m looking forward to another good day.

At the same time as I was relaxing after a busy day yesterday, Greg was busy at the Eden Session Kasabian concert. Look for updates from both events on www.soteriamag.co.uk.

Tags: Chris Eubanks, James Walker, renault, World Series

Well I haven’t been on here in a while! There are many reasons for that but I don’t want to bore you with them. If you want to keep up with all the latest bits and pieces then you can now follow me on Twitteronline casino or facebook.

You may have noticed, if you have looked at the website, that the new magazine has been out for a few weeks now and I think it’s pretty good. OK so the covers a little…different but it strike the message home! If you haven’t had your copy yet then now is the time to ask for it or to sign up for a free subscription at the website!

I have a lot of reviews work to do over the next few weeks (as these are added they will be tweeted on twitter) and then I have a series of events over the next few months that I am really looking forward too. The first is the Gadget Show live and then immediately afterwards something that came to my attention last week, the Liskeard Drama Group are putting on a theatrical version of “Guards, Guards” by Terry Pratchett on the 23rd – 25th April and the 30th April – 2nd May. People who know me know I love Terry Pratchett’s work and I have never seen the plays. They rarely seem to be performed in Cornwall (although Wyrd Sisters was done at the Minack theatre a few summers ago, but I couldn’t go!) which is a shame, but this one will be. Watch my blog for more details as I get them – tickets will be £5.

Of course other things that I am excited about include the start of the new Formula One Season, yesterday saw a fantastic race and things are all over the place, especially with the defunct Honda team becoming Brawn GP (soon to be Virgin Brawn GP) and winning their first race with a 1st and 2nd it’s amazing! This is the first time that anyone has done that in 50 years. Congrats to Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello!  With Hamilton taking that points for third after starting 18th after poor qualifying and a penalty for a gearbox failure! What a race, I’m expecting more like that next week. Then it’s into the MotoGP season again too! Woo Hoo!

So hopefully I will get around to blogging more about these things as they happen!

Well what a fantastic race! After all the talk and ITV build up, this year very careful not to favour Lewis as much as last year when they thought the race was a formality, in the end it came down to the last couple of corners of the last lap. You can’t get much closer or more tense than that.

I have waited until today to post about the race itself because I was convinced that for some reason the stewards were going to find some way of penalising Lewis, not that I have a persecution complex on Lewis’ behalf of course! However winning the world championship by 1 point with a possible “gifting” of a place by Glock could have been seen as suspicious and investigated by the Stewards!

I have to say Massa (and Ferrari) did everything he could possibly do, short of hanging back and punting Lewis off the track! He performed brilliantly with a lights to flag victory in difficult and changeable conditions which the Ferrari car hasn’t been particularly suited too this year. So well done Felipe! I have to say that I was really upset for his dad, the Ferrari guys were celebrating, his dad was jumping up and down and the camera’s caught that moment when he was told that Felipe hadn’t got the title, his face dropped. My heart really went out to the poor guy!

If you haven’t seen the race then perhaps you should head over to rent a car bulgariawww.ITV.com/f1 and watch the highlights. Lewis is the world’s youngest World Champion in F1 and the UK’s first in 12 years since 1996 when Damon Hill won the title!

Congratulations Lewis!

After last year we cannot help but speculate about the outcome of the 2008 Formua 1 World Drivers Championship. Last year it was all in Lewis Hamilton’s pocket, with a 7 point advantage going into the final race! He didn’t win it!

This year, his second chance, ironically with 7 points heading into the final race once again, but some things are different this year. For a start, he’s a year older and hopefully wiser. He says that he’s coming into this race in a better mental condition this year and that can be no surprise when you consider the difficulties Lewis and the team had last year. A team-mate that was contesting for the title and not generally a good relationship all around and then the red car behind closing on the championship, but supposedly a long way off and looking out of it in Kimi. Of course we can’t forget the whole scandal that hung over the team and the massive penalty handed down from the powers that be, and the extra levels of scrutiny on the team.

Hamilton didn’t get pole, but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I think Massa is fuelled light, it’s probably the same for the other surprises in the top few cars like Trulli. Unfortunately this means that Hamilton is starting further back than McLaren wouold have expected and this could bring them some problems down into the first corner. If he can start fourth and stay there he will have the championship wrapped up nicely. If Massa is too short on fuel Hamilton may find he is back in contention with a heavier car coming light as Massa has to stop. I don’t know if Massa will be able to pull away into the distance at the start but I do hope that there isn’t a “Trulli Train” that Hamilton gets stuck behind.

All these things can happen, but we seem to overlook that this, regardless of outcome, is quite an acheivement for someone of Hamilton’s age, to be fighting for the championship for the second year in a row (and only his second year in F1) with a 7 point advantage. OK so he got into one of the best cars on the grid, true, but he also has to face the immanse pressures and PR responsibilities that go with that other drivers don’t face. Also Heikki, considered a prodigious talent, is in the same car, but rarely matches Hamilton for pace and result. So yeah there was some advantage, but there’s also a supreme skill that has brought him to this point again. It would be good to have a British World Champion and in my completely biased opinion he totally deserves it. Massa has been gifted a number of the points, but he has fought hard, he has become a worthy competitor and lasted a championship distance in sight of the lead – all credit to him, but Lewis has my vote!

Tags: Felipe Massa, Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Motorsport, Trulli