Monday, October 22, 2007

The Aftermath...it's The Aftermath...

A quick shout-out there to my buddy (and one of my three regular readers) Pablo. Thanks for the comments, dude. As the resident Spaniard reader, I was very interested to hear that he was actually rooting for Lewis Hamilton, and not Freddy Alonso, as I'd have thought would have been required by Spanish law. It's been no secret around the Speedhouse that I'm a borderline Hamilton stalker, and have been since about a third of the way through his year in GP2, so I'm pleased that Big Lew is actually reaching across national lines to grab some folks who I know used to be Alonso fans. Lew did press too hard early in the race, and it cost him, so perhaps I should not have said what I did about learning from the mistakes made in Shanghai. Oops. As for Alosno, I've been a bit perplexed by the reaction of the Latin press, and their insistence that Fernando is not to blame for his troubles at McLaren. Frankly, I've thought he's handled the whole thing like (to quote the brilliant lads at sniffpetrol.com) "a massive baby." And today's post-race reaction by Alonso to McLaren's protest of Williams' and BMW's non-penalty is some extra fuel to that fire (no pun intended). I used to be an Alonso pseudo-fan (i.e. I was tired of Schumacher winning every year), but those days are long gone. Once you've crossed the line of racing jackassery (see also: Tracy, Paul; Harvick, Kevin), you're dead to me. I shan't be drafting you for my All-Racing Fantasy League team next year, Fred, and I hope you're stuck on two championships as long as you continue in F1.

With that said, I'm happy to see Kimi actually win a championship. He deserves it, after years of rotten luck in F1, and I'm only bummed out by the fact that I won't be anywhere near Finland for the next four months, or about as long as the party is likely to last.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yea, I was blown away by Hamilton at the beginning of the season - though I was perplexed at how hard he would push even though he didn't really have to. For a while, that worked for him - in the end, I think it bit him in the arse. Too bad, would have been sweet to see a rookie take it!

As for Alonso, I too admit that I was a fan because he actually showed Schumi some competition - the fact that he was a Spaniard was just a bonus! :) After seeing some of the crap he pulled this year, I couldn't be more disappointed.

Again, couldn't be happier for Kimi!

Looking forward to next year because:

1. NO TRACTION CONTROL - can not wait!

2. All 3 championship contenders in different manufacturer's cars! (would be shocked if Alonso stayed with Merc)

3. See how much truth there is behind the "Alonso effect" - how much his presence on the team improves the car. (Back to Renault?)

Thanks for the shout-out! You should link my name to my blog! ;)