What a win we saw yesterday in Japan for Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. It was great to see somebody new atop that podium, and the young Frenchman deserved it after a top class performance.
“But wait!!!” I hear you cry in full unison. Romain didn’t win it.
Well, yesterday, as the usual post race feelings of anger, sadness, insult and injury that so many F1 races have brought this season took their usual Sunday afternoon hold of me I made a decision.
You see, I have chosen to disqualify the Red Bulls from the race I watched (Well, lets be honest with ourselves, at this point in Vettel’s dominance I should say the race I half watched). In fact I’ve done the same for the ENTIRE Championship, and recalculated the points to reflect this.
This means that yesterday we saw Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso move 41 points clear of Kimi Raikonen to take one step closer to a 5th world drivers title, adding to his 2005, 2006, 2010 & 2012 titles (oh yes, I forgot to say, Red Bull in this instance have been DQ’d from all championships since 2010). Thats what I saw anyhow.
It was either this or go into another F1 hibernation similar to the one I took half way through 2002 during another certain German drivers dominance (in fairness the title was already sewn up way before the half way point that year anyhow). The decision I was faced with was a tough one. Ignore the sport or ignore the team. Back then, and much to my own detriment, I chose to ignore the sport.
And were getting back there again, but this time it worse. It’s not even as though this is a team steeped in history, tradition or anything else slightly redeeming. They are a team steeped in fizzy drinks. Basically put, they are a pineapple and a lime away from being Lilt. (Which actually I wouldn’t mind so much; Imagine F1’s first totally tropical team).
Personally, I can’t stand the drink, let alone the lead driver, and the whole thing is leaving a sour taste in my mouth. People say that Vettel is not a popular champion. People said the same about Schumacher. Nobody likes the big time champions unless the personality is there to back it up. Senna and Prost spring to mind, as does Jim Clark, champions that had something about them, more than positive messages about the team and sponsors. There is very little opinion present. OK, he’ll occasionally drop the odd podium interview expletive which will make the likes of Eddie Jordan blush, but aside that, between him and Christian ‘Charisma of a Damp Flannel’ Horner it’s just all very bland.
At least we were allowed to not like Schumacher. At least he had previous misdemeanours in the locker that we could dredge up to justify our anger at him winning 5 titles in a row. At least we could look at Ferrari at that point in history and brand Jean Todt’s merry Tifosi as the villains, with their team orders, destroyer budgets (which was tantamount to cheating without cheating) and constant testing; they actually had to change the rules to curb that particular run of titles. What excuse can we use against Vettel? The fact that he’s just a bit too quick? Ominously quick?
I’m not here to say ‘RED BULL ARE CHEATING’. I do not think they are breaking the rules. I just think they are bending them as far as the maximum load tests will take them. It does however strike me as strange that the Seb’s RB9 is seemingly the only consistent in Formula One. And when you look at the performance of his outbound team mate in the sister car, and every other team struggling to find consistency this year there is only one answer. SEBASTIAN VETTEL IS A ROBOT. Can any of you seriously have watched Brazil or Abu Dhabi in 2012 and not have been reminded of T1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, in the relentless chase scene through the LA sewers? The fact is that like the Terminator he is a driver that will not quit. And in this Instance, there is no Arnie to save the day. In fact the only Austrian in sight is the man paying the bills.
No. The only way he could become a popular champ is to say ‘I’m having a year off’.
If he is the greatest driver of all time then please bog off to Indycar and win the Daytona 500, then bog off to France to win the LeMans 24 hour and become a Triple Crown winner. Basically put I don’t care where he bogs off to, just as long as the bogging and the offing occur.
That or we need Ferrari to lose the scruples they’ve gained over the last decade or so. This dominance was supposed to happen, and it was all set to kick off in 2010 with Fernando supposedly to be the man to do it after his ‘worst kept secret in F1’ move to Ferrari. The planets look to have aligned for the Italian marquee, and at the beginning of that year it looked a decent bet. Things since then have gone quite differently though.
But I digress. For a man who is ignoring Red Bull I’ve already spoken about them way too much. So for your pleasure here is the recalculated F1 world Championship standings WITHOUT the Fizzy Pop Marquee and their points redistributed to the teams who would’ve gained if they didn’t compete (All in it took about an hour...You’re welcome). Please note that Mark Webber is also disqualified because you know what they say, in for a penny in for a pound.
Pos
|
Name
|
Pts
|
1
|
Fenando Alonso
|
262
|
2
|
Kimi Raikonen
|
221
|
3
|
Lewis Hamilton
|
201
|
4
|
Nico Rosberg
|
165
|
5
|
Felippe Massa
|
127
|
6
|
Romain Grosjean
|
127
|
7
|
Jenson Button
|
99
|
8
|
Nico Hulkenberg
|
67
|
9
|
Paul DiResta
|
63
|
10
|
Sergio Perez
|
52
|
11
|
Adrain Sutil
|
45
|
12
|
Daniel Riccardo
|
33
|
13
|
Jean Eric Vergne
|
28
|
14
|
Esteban Guttierez
|
14
|
15
|
Pastor Maldonado
|
8
|
16
|
Valteri Bottas
|
3
|
And here’s the constructors...
Pos
|
Manufacturer
|
Pts
|
1
|
Ferrari
|
389
|
2
|
Mercedes
|
366
|
3
|
Lotus
|
348
|
4
|
McLaren
|
151
|
5
|
Force India
|
108
|
6
|
Sauber
|
81
|
7
|
Torro Rosso
|
61
|
8
|
Williams
|
11
|
