Bourdais Out At Toro Rosso

Officially official Formula One news this week is that Toro Rosso has decided – as everyone expected – to cut their losses and say goodbye to Sebastian Bourdais. It remains to be seen whether or not he will be back in F1 with one of the new teams next year, but there is a good possibility. It also remains to be seen who will fill his seat. You can probably put good money on his seat being filled by Jaime Alguersuari, but it could also be filled later in the year by World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb. If that does happen, the grid will be 6.5% Sebastians, as there would be Vettel, Buemi and, possibly, Bourdais in a new car. That is a bunch of Sebastians.

In other officially official news, Max Mosley has decided to step down for good!! However, the pit lanes and paddocks the world over were not celebrating and heartily partying because they don’t like the fact that Jean Todt is the man that Mosley wants to be the next FIA president. They think that Todt would be too divisive and that he would end up being just another Mosley type. The person that the teams would really love to see head up the FIA is none other than Ari Vatanen. He is a former World Rally Champion and is seen by the teams as being balanced and sensible. All of this will shake down in October, so stay tuned for more on this as the race heats up.

One last bit of news is that a Brazilian sporting network is reporting that Nelson Piquet Jr. has raced his last race. It is not known for certain yet, but it would in no way surprise me. Maybe he can be back with a different upstart team next year as well, but it remains to be seen what will happen with Junior.

Top Gear 13.4

Top gear 13.4

 

I saw what I wanted to see, and I got the answer that I thought I would. This week’s episode of Top Gear saw an epic battle between the Ford Focus RS and the Renault Megane R.26.R. While the Ford has the edge as far as creature comforts go, the Renault has the edge in the driving dynamics department. I know that Jeremy had picked the Ford to win, but Richard was right in his assessment of the Megane. It is the GT3 of hot hatches, and it showed why. The Focus has to make due with trying to cope with 300 horsepower driving and steering the front wheels. The Renault only has to make due with 227, but it is still through the front wheels. However, the Ford has a trick new front differential that Clarkson described as feeling “weird” when he went around corners. He could literally feel the tug and pull on the steering wheel when he flung it into a corner. The Megane, on the other hand, is set up to be very stiff and it showed. There was hardly any body roll in that car and it really looked to be the more fun. The first test between the two cars was a drag race. Now, the Ford eventually won (and why shouldn’t it) but for most of the time, the Megane was in the lead. And if you listened to them afterward, it seems that Jeremy only caught up to Richard after 120 mph. Now, I don’t know about you, but that would be a win for the Megane in my book. If it takes the Ford up to 120 mph to actually catch and pass the thing, there is no where on public roads that you will ever find that happening – or shouldn’t anyway. This means that the Megane was faster to 60 and to 100, and those are more like the speeds that drivers push to every day.

Then came the race around the track. They did the split screen to make the race look closer than it was (with some careful editing) but it turns out that the Megane is more than a full second faster just around that track. Now, this doesn’t mean that the Focus is bad, in fact it’s probably very good, but it just isn’t the fastest all-out hatch if that’s what you’re after. Lightness and set-up come more into play than just throwing power at something. That has been proven time and again, but this just reinforces it. So if you want a fast, loud, green or orange hatchback with very cool looking seats and a nice stereo, you will want the Ford. If you aim is to track your ride and beat the competition all the time, the Megane is what you should be looking at.

The next part of the show featured a race. This race was sort of predetermined from the start, but I’ll recap anyway. The boys (Hammond and May) would be piloting the brand new Porsche Panamera and be going up against a letter that was being mailed with the Royal Mail. They both started at the very bottom of Britain and went all the way to the top of the Island trying to beat the letter. Their car was equipped with a big 4.4 V8 and had many options that were ridiculously priced and unnecessary. For instance, did you know that leather isn’t a standard item on a Porsche Panamera? I didn’t either, but apparently it is an option. Stupid. To my unsurprised, they didn’t beat the mail, and they both liked the way the thing drove. As they should; because it’s still a Porsche. But I have to say that I agree, and always have and always will, with Jeremy Clarkson who thinks the car looks godawful. I hate the design of the car and for the same price, would get the Maserati Quattroporte GTS. Whatever.

The guest was Usain Bolt, the world record holder for the 100 meter dash and three time gold medalist in the Olympic games. His lap was very good and he ended up about fifth or sixth fastest. Very impressive.

The last bit of the show was Clarkson playing a game called British Bulldogs (don’t ask me what it is, but if any Brits out there would like to tell me, go right ahead) but he used a 500 bhp Mitsubishi Evo and went up against some Army guys. Of course he was going to get it shot to bits, that’s what happens. Though he did bring up a good point that cars used by drug dealers should be sold in bits instead of instantly destroyed. Not only could the government be making lots of cash, but they would be selling the parts to people who actually want them. Oh well. The episode started off very good and then seemed to taper off toward the end. However, next weeks episode should be a doozy. Not only will it feature the new Z4 and the Jaguar XFR, but will have a cheap car challenge and the very hot Sienna Miller! I can’t wait.

 

Race Nine: German Grand Prix

So it turns out that I was completely wrong. Oh my god was I wrong. Well, I did have some of the points finishers in points, but I certainly called the wrong guy to win it all didn’t I? The German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring went off without a hitch, and saw some exciting on track action before an emotional first win for Australian Mark Webber. As the lights went out, Webber was losing ground quickly to Rubens Barrichello and dove across the track to his right and banged into Barrichello’s car; hard. I mean it looked pretty deliberate, and it resulted in a drive through penalty. On the opposite side of Webber, Lewis Hamilton shot up the grid, thanks to KERS, to get into second place at the start, there was a problem though and Hamilton’s right rear wheel immediately came off the rim and he was left floundering around at the back of the grid for the rest of the race. Drive through penalty aside, nothing was going to stop Webber from winning his first race after 130 attempts. He completely dominated the race and finished ahead of his teammate (and my pick for winner) Sebastian Vettel. Coming home third after a great race was Felipe Massa in his Ferrari, and fourth was Nico Rosberg with a brilliant drive of his own.

            If you want to know what I said about how the race would turn out, here is a brief excerpt:

 

            So, who do I like in the German GP? It has to be Vettel. I know that the last time a race went down I predicted Button to win his home GP, but he disappointed. I don’t see the same from Vettel. If nothing else, I look for this to be a very close race between him and his teammate Webber for the checkered flag. And as much as I would like to see Webber finally win a race, this just isn’t the place where he is going to do it. So, I predict Vettel home in first, Webber a close second and Button third. Unless something very peculiar happens – for instance, a huge wreck at the first corner – I don’t see anyone stopping Vettel from completely demolishing the competition.

 

            Man. If you replace Vettel with Webber, then I was right, because Mark completely dominated from the word go. I was also wrong about the Brawns as it seems that they have fallen off the pace a little. Either that or they are having a sting of bad luck. It seems that Barrichello is mad once again at his team because of their strategy. I know that a pit stop went bad for the Brazilian, but he has to race his race. If he were to be a second or two faster over the course of the race, he could have at least beaten his teammate Jenson Button. But he wasn’t. He ended up in sixth (where Button ended up in his home Grand Prix without a sniff of a whisper of a hint of a bad word) and scored points, but must have felt he could have won the race. I must have been watching a different race though because it seems to me that he didn’t perform when he needed to and that the other drivers were just faster than him on the track. Jenson’s lap times were much faster than Barrichello’s and it was inevitable that he was going to be caught. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the next couple of weeks and if anything even does come of it. Probably not, but who knows? Because of Barrichello’s poor result, he has slipped back two places in the standings and they now read: Button, Vettel, Webber, Barrichello. I’d go farther back, but those are the only people who have a realistic shot at this thing still.

            Oh and before I forget…what happened to Jarno Trulli? I didn’t hear a thing about him all day, and he finished way down the order. Was his car just horrible? Was there a problem? I picked him to be in the points and he goes out and has a terrible race. Oh well, maybe he can get his act together for the Hungarian Grand Prix in two weeks. Also, a review of the new Top Gear in a couple of days.