F1 - Melbourne GP + Alonso Ads
Well, here we go again... My F1 posts...
F1 - Aussie GP @ Melbourne
Like I said in my previous post, I wasn't too enthusiastic about this race. Alonso starting from #11, Kimi #15, bloody Wonder!Boy on Pole... Bleh... I even killed time by wandering around the city instead of watching the pre-race happenings. How odd...
But, you know what? I'm actually pretty happy where Fernando finished! After that casualty-filled race and personal problems --- his teammate retiring, almost running out of fuel before the safety cars 'bailed' him out, getting stuck behind Kubica for seemingly just FOREVER ---- P4 is amazing. If any of the top three guys had any problems, he would've been on the podium!!!
Biased here, of course, but I thought this race really showed off Fernando's qualities. Obviously he didn't have the fastest car out there, he started from mid-way down the grid, he had to content with what appeared to be a disastrous pit-stop strategy (when he was stuck behind Kubica and I heard that his team decided on a short middle stint and a third 'splash-go' pit-stop, I was ready to write him off), but if there's one thing I really admire about Fernando, it's his cool consistent determination. He just stuck it out, took chances when it's available, and simply finished the race!
Favorite Moment: After Heikki overtook Fernando and Fernando overtook him back on the next straight! Awesome! Especially because the commentators were SQUEALING with excitement at the fact that Heikki supposedly showed Fernando up by overtaking him with the same car he gave up, but then, HAHA! Fernando just cooly took the position back! 'Shut those commentators up :D. And McLaren, apparently:
He added that he had been aware of the irony of going wheel to wheel with Kovalainen - the man he swapped cars with at the end of last season.
Alonso admitted to cheering when he overtook the McLaren, but only after seeing his former team do the same when the Finn passed him.
"After seeing the McLaren pit wall doing that, I did that as well when I overtook him!" he joked.
source
Don't get me wrong, I still like Heikki (he seems like the genuine friendliest guy on the grid), but he's gone to work for the Devil the Enemy McLaren, so I can't be supporting him when he's out there covering for Ham. I'd absolutely LOVE it if Heikki could beat Ham, but I honestly don't see it happening, with McLaren's mentality. I just don't want him to be another 'Barrichello' to Ham's 'Michael.'
Second Favorite Moment: Duh, another Alonso overtaking manoeuvre, passing both Kimi and Heikki (a Ferrari and a McLaren!) in one go :D.
Other than those...
I felt terrible for Kimi! He put up SUCH a great battle, getting up to as high as third at one point, but that one mistake behind Kovalainen just made things that much more difficult for him. The fact that he saved his car from hitting the barriers showed his quality as a driver though :D. I wasn't really sure what ended up ending his race, but I suppose, with what I know about Ferrari, they usually come back kicking major ass on the next GP after setbacks such as today.
Massa was rather messy today, I wasn't sure why. Maybe the lack of traction control? That crash with Coulthard was a cringe-worthy moment. Coulthard's reaction was pretty candid and funny though, haha...
'Felt particularly sorry for Kubica, having done a BRILLIANT qualifying to have his car lost the pace like that, and for Sebastien Bourdais, losing the car THREE LAPS AWAY from achieving a decent amount of glory for the Red Bull 'B Team' on his début. Well, at least he still classified seventh and earned two points!
There were too many crashes and DNFs for me to comment on all of them. Melbourne is, as always, notorious for too-crazy-weather-that-it's-almost-funny (last year, it was a torrential downpour, no?). Today's scorcher was surely unexpected and uncomfortable for the drivers. THAT, coupled with the narrowness of the 'street' track and the lack of traction control, perhaps explained why only SEVEN cars actually finished, though I believe Barrichello was later disqualified for a pit lane infraction (giving Bourdais and Kimi, who DNF-ed before the race end, some points). Nakajima, who wasn't ever on camera throughout the race, actually finished and got three points!
Oh yeah, and Ham won *yawn*. I didn't much like his rushed 'shoving' of Heidfeld and Rosberg straight after the podium photo to jump to the champagne spraying. God! Please teach this boy some humility!
F1 - Melb GP
1. Boy!Wonder *eyeroll* - 10pt
2. Heidfeld - 8pt
3. Rosberg - 6pt
4. Alonso - 5pt
5. Heikki - 4pt
6. Nakajima - 3pt
7. Bourdais - 2pt
8. Kimi - 1pt
Now, some photos :D. Despite the technical inferiority of his new old team, Fernando does look so much happier these days being back with Renault! And for me, it's so much easier to support a team I actually like :). Yes, I'm back to being a Renault supporter... Okay, I may seem fickle, but I 'go' where my drivers go (ie. Renault, and Kimi really does make Ferrari attractive --- Two years ago, if you had told me I'd be supporting Ferrari, I'd think you're smoking something).
With Flavio:
He's just kinda hot in this one, with his hair and stubble:
I'm glad to see he's still friendly with Heikki (Heikki once mentioned in an article that his closest friends among the drivers are Fernando and Kimi).
Kimi and Heikki, a couple of Finns, just hanging out:
Also, check out these new Fernando Alonso ads for Renault and ING...
I LOVE how they seem to 'fit' with Alonso's personality (not really a press whore and not particularly comfortable with 'working' the reporters) and even address the inaccuracy of his somewhat bad image last year :D. ING & Renault are really going for the "WE support our drivers unequivocally" hook, aren't they?
But speaking of ING, this week I was surprised to see people walking around Melbourne wearing the ING Renault shirt most often. I was like, 'When did Renault become the most popular team?' Then I realized that it had perhaps something to do with the fact that the race is called the "ING Australian Grand Prix," duh! At first, I thought ING was an Aussie company, but as it turned out, it's a Dutch enterprise! Huh. That explains all the orange. I still miss Renault's old blue-and-yellow, but, ehhh, they look good on Fernando...
F1 - Aussie GP @ Melbourne
Like I said in my previous post, I wasn't too enthusiastic about this race. Alonso starting from #11, Kimi #15, bloody Wonder!Boy on Pole... Bleh... I even killed time by wandering around the city instead of watching the pre-race happenings. How odd...
But, you know what? I'm actually pretty happy where Fernando finished! After that casualty-filled race and personal problems --- his teammate retiring, almost running out of fuel before the safety cars 'bailed' him out, getting stuck behind Kubica for seemingly just FOREVER ---- P4 is amazing. If any of the top three guys had any problems, he would've been on the podium!!!
Biased here, of course, but I thought this race really showed off Fernando's qualities. Obviously he didn't have the fastest car out there, he started from mid-way down the grid, he had to content with what appeared to be a disastrous pit-stop strategy (when he was stuck behind Kubica and I heard that his team decided on a short middle stint and a third 'splash-go' pit-stop, I was ready to write him off), but if there's one thing I really admire about Fernando, it's his cool consistent determination. He just stuck it out, took chances when it's available, and simply finished the race!
Favorite Moment: After Heikki overtook Fernando and Fernando overtook him back on the next straight! Awesome! Especially because the commentators were SQUEALING with excitement at the fact that Heikki supposedly showed Fernando up by overtaking him with the same car he gave up, but then, HAHA! Fernando just cooly took the position back! 'Shut those commentators up :D. And McLaren, apparently:
He added that he had been aware of the irony of going wheel to wheel with Kovalainen - the man he swapped cars with at the end of last season.
Alonso admitted to cheering when he overtook the McLaren, but only after seeing his former team do the same when the Finn passed him.
"After seeing the McLaren pit wall doing that, I did that as well when I overtook him!" he joked.
source
Don't get me wrong, I still like Heikki (he seems like the genuine friendliest guy on the grid), but he's gone to work for the Devil the Enemy McLaren, so I can't be supporting him when he's out there covering for Ham. I'd absolutely LOVE it if Heikki could beat Ham, but I honestly don't see it happening, with McLaren's mentality. I just don't want him to be another 'Barrichello' to Ham's 'Michael.'
Second Favorite Moment: Duh, another Alonso overtaking manoeuvre, passing both Kimi and Heikki (a Ferrari and a McLaren!) in one go :D.
Other than those...
I felt terrible for Kimi! He put up SUCH a great battle, getting up to as high as third at one point, but that one mistake behind Kovalainen just made things that much more difficult for him. The fact that he saved his car from hitting the barriers showed his quality as a driver though :D. I wasn't really sure what ended up ending his race, but I suppose, with what I know about Ferrari, they usually come back kicking major ass on the next GP after setbacks such as today.
Massa was rather messy today, I wasn't sure why. Maybe the lack of traction control? That crash with Coulthard was a cringe-worthy moment. Coulthard's reaction was pretty candid and funny though, haha...
'Felt particularly sorry for Kubica, having done a BRILLIANT qualifying to have his car lost the pace like that, and for Sebastien Bourdais, losing the car THREE LAPS AWAY from achieving a decent amount of glory for the Red Bull 'B Team' on his début. Well, at least he still classified seventh and earned two points!
There were too many crashes and DNFs for me to comment on all of them. Melbourne is, as always, notorious for too-crazy-weather-that-it's-almost-funny (last year, it was a torrential downpour, no?). Today's scorcher was surely unexpected and uncomfortable for the drivers. THAT, coupled with the narrowness of the 'street' track and the lack of traction control, perhaps explained why only SEVEN cars actually finished, though I believe Barrichello was later disqualified for a pit lane infraction (giving Bourdais and Kimi, who DNF-ed before the race end, some points). Nakajima, who wasn't ever on camera throughout the race, actually finished and got three points!
Oh yeah, and Ham won *yawn*. I didn't much like his rushed 'shoving' of Heidfeld and Rosberg straight after the podium photo to jump to the champagne spraying. God! Please teach this boy some humility!
F1 - Melb GP
1. Boy!Wonder *eyeroll* - 10pt
2. Heidfeld - 8pt
3. Rosberg - 6pt
4. Alonso - 5pt
5. Heikki - 4pt
6. Nakajima - 3pt
7. Bourdais - 2pt
8. Kimi - 1pt
Now, some photos :D. Despite the technical inferiority of his new old team, Fernando does look so much happier these days being back with Renault! And for me, it's so much easier to support a team I actually like :). Yes, I'm back to being a Renault supporter... Okay, I may seem fickle, but I 'go' where my drivers go (ie. Renault, and Kimi really does make Ferrari attractive --- Two years ago, if you had told me I'd be supporting Ferrari, I'd think you're smoking something).
With Flavio:
He's just kinda hot in this one, with his hair and stubble:
I'm glad to see he's still friendly with Heikki (Heikki once mentioned in an article that his closest friends among the drivers are Fernando and Kimi).
Kimi and Heikki, a couple of Finns, just hanging out:
Also, check out these new Fernando Alonso ads for Renault and ING...
Click to viewI LOVE how they seem to 'fit' with Alonso's personality (not really a press whore and not particularly comfortable with 'working' the reporters) and even address the inaccuracy of his somewhat bad image last year :D. ING & Renault are really going for the "WE support our drivers unequivocally" hook, aren't they?
But speaking of ING, this week I was surprised to see people walking around Melbourne wearing the ING Renault shirt most often. I was like, 'When did Renault become the most popular team?' Then I realized that it had perhaps something to do with the fact that the race is called the "ING Australian Grand Prix," duh! At first, I thought ING was an Aussie company, but as it turned out, it's a Dutch enterprise! Huh. That explains all the orange. I still miss Renault's old blue-and-yellow, but, ehhh, they look good on Fernando...