The secret plan of just how the anticipated McLaren line-up of plucky Brits, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, intend to take on the dastardly all German Mercedes team is leaked to ‘The Mirror’.
27/03 Australia
10/04 Malaysia
17/04 China
08/05 Turkey
22/05 Spain
29/05 Monaco
12/06 Canada
26/06 Europe
10/07 Britain
24/07 Germany
31/07 Hungary
28/08 Belgium
11/09 Italy
25/09 Singapore
09/10 Japan
16/10 Korea
30/10 India
13/11 Abu Dhabi
27/11 Brazil
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2010 Archive
Posts Tagged ‘Brawn’
Honda’s $400 million F1 blunder
Following the excitement surrounding the Brawn GP title double at Interlagos on Sunday, spare a thought for poor old Honda, who during 2009 alone, have seen $400 million worth of F1 cash slip through their fingers.
Firstly they decide to bail… out of F1 and give the team to Ross Brawn, gratis, along with $100 million to sort out redundancies and to pay off contracts. Other expenses involved in closing down the operation at such short notice are reckoned to be in the region of $50 million.
Now, just to cheer up Honda even further, media analysts, Margaux Matrix, say that the nine hours of TV coverage that F1 has provided Brawn with this year, is worth at least another $250 million.
Nice one Honda, nice one…
Street parties break out across Somerset
Joyous crowds burst out onto the streets of Somerset last night as Jenson Button finally won the world championship he seemed to have lost interest in last July. Reports from Button’s hometown of Frome, tell of up to six people… out celebrating the news.
Said one partygoer; “As soon as Jenson crossed the line at Interlagos we got the trestle table and sausage rolls out which we normally keep for royal jubilee’s, the end of wars and the like.”
He went on; “Here in Somerset we generally couldn’t give a monkeys about F1, it’s all a bit high falutin for us but even though he never comes here and lives in Monaco, we’re going to crack open the cider and have a big party.”
The scenes are reminiscent of 2008, when Hertfordshire dump Stevenage, went Hamilton crazy for all of about five minutes before the novelty wore off.
Jenson to race for rubbish in Brazil
Jenson Button has vowed to go for the win in Brazil (makes a nice change) as he seeks to finally close out the F1 title. However, should he win then he will be presented with a trophy made from old… plastic bottle caps.
For reasons unknown, the Brazilian chemical company Braskem is collecting discarded bottle caps during the course of the weekend which they intend to melt down and then make into the winners trophy. Apt really, that in a city surrounded by hundreds of open rubbish dumps and shanty towns that they should celebrate their main event of the year with a piece of crap.
Jenson still on course for title…eventually
Analysts have worked out, that at his current strike rate, Jenson Button should wrap up the drivers title at the Spanish Grand Prix next May. Despite finishing in a lowly eighth in Japan, Button is still ‘not worried’ about his dwindling… championship lead. Yeah right.
Brawn to be riled
Nick Heidfeld naturally has an expression that looks similar to a child who has just had his lolly stolen, but it would now appear that the German has every reason to feel down in the dumps. In an interview ahead… of the German Grand Prix with with the Suddeutscher Zeitung newspaper, Nick reveals how he came close to signing for Honda last year which probably would have meant he would now be sat behind the wheel of the all conquering Brawn BGP001 rather than the truck of a BMW he is currently lumbered with.
Said a glum Heidfeld; “Of course I think from time to time what would have happened, especially now I see them winning race after race”
Apparently, according to a source close to the driver, he can sometimes go whole minutes without thinking about what might have been.
Letter from America
While some American F1 fans, like me, are already kind of excited about seeing the new USF1 team on the grid next year, there are already plenty who say that it is just not going to happen, budget cap or… not.
It would seem that going back to the Moon is more likely and straightforward.
Apart from a launch on Speed TV, not a lot more has been heard of how Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson plan to take on the likes of Brawn, Ferrari, McLaren and company.
The plan, as much as we know of it, seems to be to run the team out of the US and a base in Spain (at least they will rack up the air miles if nothing else) and to have both drivers of American origin. Well, let’s see, that will be Danica Patrick and A.N.Other, because as much as I hate to say it, all the top-line drivers from these shores are on gazillion-dollar-a -year NASCAR contracts and it would be a fair bet that USF1 aren’t looking at paying the drivers too much of the green stuff.
Mind you, Jacques Villeneuve is desperate for something to do and Canada is pretty much the 51st state anyway so why not let him have his mid-life crisis in one of the seats?
Some snooty UK journalist said last week that he’d been to North Carolina to check out how things are going with USF1 and that “there was nothing there”. Nothing unusual there buddy – that’s North Carolina for you.
However, a quick look at the USF1 (or are they called USGPE – who knows?) website is not too encouraging either. Nothing there after all these months and let’s face it, setting up a website is not exactly rocket science – most 3rd graders could knock you one up for fifty bucks during recess.
I don’t doubt that the guys behind the team know their stuff and are keen to do well and hopefully these rumours about YouTube wanting to sponsor the outfit are true but basing the whole concept around a country that doesn’t even have an F1 race and wouldn’t know Jenson Button if they suspended him from the Statue of Liberty is surely not a great idea.
Michael Schumacher, when after a vacation where he would not be recognised, would usually choose one of two countries. Norway, where they are so uninterested in the outside world that Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama could walk, hand in hand, wearing tutu’s, through the centre of Oslo without so much as a sideways glance from the locals, or America, where the only sportsmen that count are American ones.
This is after all, the only country in the world that has a number of ‘World Series’ or ‘World Championships’ played on solely on American soil.
That, I’m afraid is the way it is. Period. A ‘European’ sport like F1, that nobody in the US cares about, has close to zero chance of diverting fans (or sponsors) from NASCAR or Indy Racing.
If USF1 could maybe consider hiring Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin to race in those tutu’s – then people might just watch…
Our somewhat sceptical F1 fan from the other side of the pond is John Gerhardt of Roanoke, West Virginia – thanks to him for this piece.
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