F1 News

If the F1 rule book were ever to be published, it would be a gigantic volume, as it ought to be. Rules governing ride heights, wing dimensions, engine capacity and so forth are, of course, necessary and even the layman with no understanding of the technical side (like myself) accepts this.

But what alienates fans is needless tweaking with the sporting regulations. Some of us already get misty eyed thinking about the days when qualifying was about going and setting the fastest lap, without all this fuel burning and knockout rounds. And what about when a team was able to choose the best tyres for the race and not have to also race with a deliberately inferior tyre for one stint in order to create a contrived ‘interest’ in tyres that is frankly irrelevant?

Now there are rumours going around that teams will be exempt from penalty for the first engine change of the year - as long as the engine failure takes place in a month with an ‘a’ in the name and the driver has had porridge for breakfast. Or something like that. OK, I made the last bit of that up, but I don’t envy the job of F1 commentators and writers explaining to their viewers and readers why Massa will be demoted ten places this race because it is his second engine failure of the year but Kovalainen won’t be punished because it’s his first engine change of the year. Who is going to keep track of such matters and who, quite frankly, is going to care?

Casual F1 fans, the ones who jump on board when a driver from their country starts doing well, is not going to get hooked on the sport by such arbitrary decrees from the powers that be.

• Also on F1 News: F1 News: Jenson Button says “Remember me…?”
• Elsewhere on the web: 2008 F1 rule changes

With the Spyker/Midland/Jordan team being bought out by the King of India (or whoever it is that Vijay Mallya claims to be) and in the process getting a billion new fans in the form of the entire Indian population, F1’s perennial backmarkers are getting more coverage than one would normally expect of a team that is glad to reach the end of the race on a good day.

Add to that the fact Adrian Sutil is rather good and Giancarlo Fisichella was rather good and thinks he still is and we have the potential for a garage-load of stories completely blown out of proportion.

Who is the number one driver at Force India? Giancarlo Fisichella? “Oh no he isn’t”, claims Sutil, who may as well pack his bags now if he is willing to let Mr Yesteryear beat him in 2008. “Oh yes I am” decrees Fisico himself, who has probably already bought his suitcases for the end of 2008, when he must surely retire.

Expect F1 commentators around the world to debate the delicate political balance at Force India and its potential implications for, ooh, minutes. We’re all looking forward to Force India’s Monaco team orders as Sutil is told to hold station in 18th place and not jeopardise a double finish for the sake of, well, nothing, the Hungary controversy as Fisichella holds up Sutil in a crucial race to qualify for Q2 and the dramatic three-way season battle for 14th place in the championship as the season’s in-fighting allows Takuma Sato to creep up and threaten to usurp them.

Editor’s note Just in case there are a billion Indian F1 fans reading an F1 news site for the first time and have taken that seriously, some words of wisdom from Fisichella to put it all in perspective - “don’t expect us to win races“, a realistic Fisico has told the eager press. Aw, really? Shame.

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• Also on F1 News today - Jenson Button says “Remember me?”

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Britain’s second favourite F1 driver, Jenson Button, has come out of the woodwork to remind the fickle public of his existence. His comments in the press today about Honda challenging for the 2009 championship must really be seen as a declaration of his own intent rather than an assessment of his team’s genuine potential.

Even if we take “fighting for the championship” in 2009 to mean ‘regularly winning races’, the only way this would be possible would be if Honda’s 2008 car was at least as good as, say, BMW’s was in 2007 - clearly the best of the rest but without a win to its name. For Honda to make such a step up this year, even with Ross Brawn at the helm, is unrealistic.

So why is Jenson making such proclamations? Drivers who plug around in the midfield, especially when they’re paid vast sums of money (as Button is) can be seen to be making up the numbers, particularly if they aren’t even the most successful driver in their own country anymore. But 2008 is a new slate for Honda, now that they have Ross ‘the Miracle Worker’ Brawn in charge, and Jenson is keen to reassert himself as a motivated team player (one that doesn’t call his car “a complete dog”), who has faith in his team and who hasn’t turned into Ralf Schumacher. So when Button says “we have to be fighting for the world championship” he means that he personally must be, or at least he wants to be, and if he can’t, could someone from a better team please come and release him from Honda and get him back to where he thinks he belongs?

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• Also on F1 News today - Water pistols at dawn for the new Force India drivers… but does anyone really care?

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Technical and logistical difficulties have now been resolved and we’ll be up and running again just as soon as some F1 news stories start to come in…

It’s a quiet time of year in the world of F1. The teams are plugging away at preparing the new cars for next year, doing things that just don’t make the headlines.

You won’t find the the pages of F1 News being filled with off-the-cuff remarks by past and present F1 drivers on the fact that the 2008 title chase will be a four-way battle (I could have told you that, but as I’m not Michael Schumacher, my guesswork - which is all this is at this stage - doesn’t carry quite so much weight) or that Kimi Raikkonen wants a strong start to the season (who exactly wants a weak one?).

When genuinely interesting F1 news stories start to filter through, you can be sure that you’ll see them here.