Guest blog this week from Halo, Baby!
It was already shaping up to be a poor race weekend on Saturday when it was announced that dirty Di Resta would be co-commentator for Sky, when Sirotkin killed-off Q1 by spinning out to cause a yellow flag and when Q2 became the most pointless 12 minutes of the season so far (as 3 of the 15 drivers had massive penalties and 2 were not running due to tyre tactics).
At the risk of pissing in the wind, I’m getting so sick of SkyF1’s infatuation with Lewis Hamilton, who I will never stop despising. I mean, why did the grid-walk have to be interrupted to show a fluff piece where Hamilton, dressed like a holidaying Rupert the bear, was interviewed in Borneo by Anthony Davidson about eco stuff (no mention of irony in terms of the carbon footprint caused by the F1 circuit killing the Borneon rain forrest).
The lovely folk at Liberty Media have brought in a mixed bag audiovisual stylings to F1, summed up in a race where 37 laps in we witnessed a “the Pit Window is OPEN” flashing graphic. And then there’s Hamilton’s “gangsta” F1 profile pic where he does the pointy gun thing.... Though the slow-mo internal graphic of a Sauber’s brakes was pretty damn cool.
So, what did we learn from this race?
- No one notices Toro Rosso anymore (it escaped us that they both went out within the first half-dozen laps);
- That Williams and McLaren have forgotten who they were and should be and have entered into a race to become the new Marussia [Ed. Make that Minardi];
- That Carlos Sainz has a long memory and a strong sense of justice (“remember the 5 second penalty I got two years ago for...”)
- That Force India are no longer prepared allow Perez to write-off cars for our entertainment;
- That Vettel has resigned himself to runner up this year, as displayed by blowing within a few corners his position ahead of Hamilton;
- That Max Verstappen has an “ultimate objective” (according to early team radio) and that he’s so freaking fast he’ll probably achieve it;
- That the (not) podium interviewers think up their own questions.... and that this is a very poor idea;
- That Di Resta thinks Hamilton is “a very special human being”;
- That it’s OK to shaft Bottas for a couple of (ultimately unnecessary) driver points for Hamilton;
- That Toto Wolfe is crap at apologies;
- Oh, and that beards are officially no longer hip (as demonstrated by Putin’s wee buddy, Bernie E)
