The Malaysian GP was a chaotic race and very hard to explain to the Formula 1 viewers around the world. How did a Ferrari win when the cars have been uncompetitive so far? How did a Sauber miss a win simply because of a young driver’s over-excitement? What happened to McLaren and Red Bull? Why was Mercedes so poor again? The only answer to all these questions is the same answer: tyres. The trick in Formula 1 in 2012 is to have a car and a driving style that suits the tyres at the temperatures in which they operate. The good news is that we will probably continue to get interesting races because teams are struggling to figure out how to manage the tyres. This is good news for the fans. F1 is meant to be about entertainment and no-one will argue about Sunday being great TV viewing. F1 loves a new winner and a Mexican would have been terrific for the sport. A Ferrari win never hurts the sport (unless there have been 20 consecutive such results). It would be goo too to see wins from Williams or Lotus. Both teams seem to have cars that might be able to win and perhaps one might even imagine the bizarre scenario that we saw a few years back with Sebastian Vettel, with a Toro Rosso winning. Those cars look good too.
So, after two races we really don’t have much more of an idea about who is where in the F1 pecking order… Great!
Today is also a momentous one for me. And a sad one too, in my respects. For years there was still one place I could go to escape from the Internet and not have the ability to file stories. It was on a plane. I could still work on the computer, if the seat area was big enough, but I could do not file stories or surf the Web. Right now, I’m sitting on an Airbus A380 (I need not mention the airline because you already know my preferences and, inevitably, some people think that expressing a preference must indicate that I have been slipped a wedge of cash. As usual with these things the conspiracy theorists are wrong. I am paying the airline… Anyway, whatever the case, I am at 32,000 ft somewhere over Iran and I am writing the blog. My sanctuary is gone.
