The Haphazard Blog

With the demise of American open wheel racing, I’m left with one racing series I like: Formula 1. This season has been interesting and uninteresting at times. The changes from last season to this season (chassis, KERS, slick tires) made the beginning of the season a wild card.

The top teams from the previous season, Ferrari and McLaren, were caught off guard when Brawn (formerly Honda) took advantage of a loophole in the chassis specification that let them generate significantly more downforce. With in-season testing banned, it would be a long time before the teams who didn’t figure out the loophole before the season started would catch up.

Brawn and Jenson Button streaked out to win 6 of the first 7 races. People who know me, know that I think Jenson Button sucks. Up to this season, he’s been racing in Formula 1 for 8 years, had 150 or so starts and won one race because of heavy rain. Way better drivers have come and gone. I think the only reason he wasn’t shown the door was he was the most promising British driver when he started and then no one else came along (David Coulthard preferred to be called Scottish). After this season, he would’ve been done. Lewis Hamilton was the man. Instead, he lucked into getting the best car on the grid and built up enough of a lead with those early wins, he’ll win the championship. Predictably, he has fallen right back as soon as the competition put better cars on the road. He can’t even do better than his teammate.

(As an aside, this does give Danica Patrick some real hope. As she continues to hold on to her seat, she may luck into a car that is superior and win as well.)

This Renault mess is interesting. After they fired Nelson Piquet Jr., he revealed that he was told to crash in a race last season to help his teammate win the race. Not the best move on his part to rat out his former team after the fact, a.k.a. pulling an Eric Mangini. If his F1 career wasn’t over before, it is now. The demand for crappy drivers who can’t bring buckets of money with them is non-existent in F1. As expected, the FIA came down hard. Flavio Briatore got the worst of it. Not only did he receive a lifetime ban from F1, but they also banned him from being involved in anything that is FIA sanctioned. And as the cherry on top, they stated no driver he manages will be granted a superlicense to drive in F1.

In the end, I just haven’t been that excited about this season. It started out exciting with underdogs dominating, but it quickly got old as I realized how castrated the sport has become. No one could really catch up over the course of the season. The entire season was won during the off season (and in Brawn’s case, during the previous season when they decided, screw it, this car sucks, let’s work on 2009). With all the limitations, it has hurt the competitiveness in my opinion. I agree there needs to be cost controls, but they are in the wrong places at times.