(I can't sleep... so time for a brain dump!)
A few hours ago, some British bloke called Hamilton - heard of him?(!) - became the youngest ever Formula One world champion. He did it by about 5.4 seconds. In the very last corner of the very last race of only his second season in Formula One.
It's certainly the most exciting climax to a season in recent years, and certainly the most open championship in a long while. And yet it was so close to being remembered for all the wrong reasons... when even F1 greats like
Niki Lauda call foul of the stewards, there's clearly something amiss.
At the very least the stewards have been horribly inconsistent (for example, awarding Massa a fine but no race penalty for unsafe release from his pit box... then a few weeks later for the same offence - when it wouldn't affect his race outcome - correctly awarding a penalty). At worst they've been outright opposed to anyone not in a red car - like Bourdais' penalty in Japan for, evidently, being driven into by Massa. And, of course, Lewis's penalty at Spa for, um, overtaking Raikkonen. Who then promptly drove into a wall. Wonder why there's not as much overtaking in F1 as people would like?
The officials in F1 seem to have a history of blatant bias in their decisionmaking. This year, it was all against Hamilton; but, not so long ago, it was all against Schumacher. Remember those days? The bias is always there; but, like the bias of a car's brakes, it does get adjusted back and forth from time to time.
Yesterday was the end of an era in Formula One in more than one way. It was David Coulthard's final race, having announced his retirement a few weeks ago. In keeping with the rest of his season, he got himself involved in a crash almost straight away, ending his race. (There must surely have been some races this season where DC wasn't involved in at least one incident... but I can't recall any of them right now...) It's not been a great final season for a man who, at his best, surely deserved more than the 13 victories by his name.
Thankfully, Brazil 2008 also sees the end of the grooved tyres introduced back in 1998. They were designed to reduce the car's grip and thus its speed, in the hope of both increasing the safety of the sport and (by limiting the speed difference across the field) give more overtaking. The actual result was pushing more of the car's grip to depend on aerodynamic downforce, triggering an increasingly complex array of appendages to spew from the wings and sidepods of just about all the field. This created such a "dirty air" effect behind the cars, that (you guessed it) overtaking became a whole lot harder - as you lose so much downforce travelling close behind the car in front.
As part of a plethora of changes for 2009, slick tyres are being reintroduced, together with restrictions on the rear wings designed to reduce the dirty air effect. Other changes include a "kinetic energy recovery system" (KERS) - which converts kinetic energy to an electrical store when braking, and can release that energy for a short horsepower boost when required. Alternatively, it can cause fires and electricute your mechanics. We'll have to see on that one...
There's talk of the FIA imposing a standard engine package for F1 cars, to reduce costs. F1 has always been, and should always be, the pinnacle of motorsport in both skill and technical prowess. It'd be a real shame to turn F1 into a more-hyped version of some of the lower formulae that use a same-engine (or even same-chassis) setup.
The 1997 season was the first time I watched a Grand Prix. I must have started watching halfway through the season, but my earliest F1 memory is Schumacher vs Villeneuve in Jerez, the title decider... that race said just about all you needed to know about Schumacher, and I loved it.
1997 was also the first season shown on ITV; 2008 is the last. Next year the sport moves to the BBC, along with commentator Martin Brundle. (I hope they don't keep interrupting it Grandstand-style for live "action" reports from Miscellaneous Golf Tournament. Though I'm told Grandstand is now, much like sport on the BBC in general, deprecated.)
Brundle's commentary counterpart, James Allen, has come in for a lot of stick from a vocal bunch of people. He took over the lead commentator job from the legendary Murray Walker at his retirement; to Allen's credit, he knew he couldn't fill those shoes and he didn't try. Instead he made his commentary his own; Yes, he could be repetitive on occasion - and, no, he could never be the next Murray Walker (could anyone?) - but Martin and James did a damn fine job, thank you. Please try and place the criticism where it's really due... after all this time, I still have yet to identify a single useful contribution from Mark "I Like Ferrari" Blundell. At least Tony Jardine sounded intelligent!
So we enter the long, cold and dark winter of the Formula One night, not quite sure what the 2009 season will look like. We have a new world champion, a new set of rules, yet more new circuits (that never approach the atmosphere of a Monza, Spa or Hockenheim), a new TV crew...
29 March 2009, Albert Park, Melbourne... bring it on.
