Today: Christmas Cheer

It was an official white christmas for some locations in the UK today. Thankfully Reading wasn’t one of them. With everything tht had to be dealt with this christmas – a snowy one would really be pulling Santas rather large thigh.

My grandparents (dad’s side) came to visit us this christmas, and far from the usual family discussions (argumental debates) it has been a pleasent and fun time having them here. Yes we’ve had the typical “Harriet has gone off crying because (insert family name here) just couldn’t stop and think for 10 seconds” I got over it, and then carried on with a tradition that has been brewing the past 3/4 years where my Grandad and I never let our glasses empty…

This was just Christmas eve.

Staggering up the stairs and then trying to wrap christmas presents whilst in this erm… ‘state’ is a right laugh. Especially when your loving father doesn’t leave enough paper to wrap everything with… *eyeroll*

Morning comes and the delightful Waitrose bag that was used for stockings (i walked STRAIGHT past it the night before) contained some much needed neurofen a toothbrush and a meercat sylvanian family set… along with the standard socks and essential underwear.

Our stockings are odd. They consist of anything that we need in the month of December (shampoo, vaseline, chewing gum….) and have chocolate added to it. I also got a lovely pair of soft lazy trousers. LOVE THEM.

Traditionally my family have a full English brekkie. Which I cooked this year… I didn’t realise I had done it all till i realised that my mum had just focused on her Bubble and Squeak….. 🙂 WIN!

PRESENTS!!!! fun times. New straighteners, another Red Bull Jacket which will result in my mum having the other, and me having this one… At least she knows where the Bull Shop is 🙂 🙂

My grandparents (both sides) enjoyed their presents me and my brother got them and I felt I helped my mum out suitably today 🙂

I did make the starter. Prawn Cocktail. yum.

Exhaustion has hit me now though… 6 nights rubbish sleep tends to render you useless after  a while. I’ll watch the first few overs of the 4th Ashes test and then sleep i think.

Hope Everyone has had a lovely day, Bring on New Year!

Today: The Reality

Sunday saw the final race of the F1 season, and before i go into a brushed over analysis of what i thought about the race, firstly I would like to say a big congratulations to Sebastian Vettel. Who, against the odds, against the bookies, (and mainly against Fernando Alonso and the oddly on-pace McLarens) defeated all the rivals to end up on top. 4 points is apparently the defining difference that makes this years WDC, and he got it!

Yes as a Mark Webber fan i was bitter, i was heart broken – much less than i am sure the man himself was – but i just sat in silence, knowing that the team i have become rather attached too has just been made a double world Champion for the 2010 season.

Knowing alot of Vettel fans, i was delighted to see my twitter feed rammed pack full of delighted (and one instance @tommyb89, drunken) messages of joy. It was nice to see that they didn’t even expect it either! And thankfully, I have come around to being happy for them, which if you’re a highly competetive person, is a very hard thing to do!

The race itself saw the championship contenders in a bit of a mix. The McLarens who have been distinctly off-pace the last few races seemed to glide over the lightly dusted surface, and almost rain on Vettel’s parade. Mark Webber was limping behind in an almost heartbreaking 5th and then Alonso was there somewhere too…..

There are a few key things to note from the race, 1- Liuzzi is probably the most UNLUCKIEST driver of this season, with the incident with Schumacher, thankfully both survived unscathed!

The resulting safety car saw numerous people pit…. then after….. O MW…. o FA….. strategy gone wrong? response gone wrong? hindsight is one of those things i don’t particuarly want to think about now. Fact is, they got held up behind Algesuari, (ish), then Petrov, in one of his drives of the season, didn’t put a foot wrong for almost 3/4 of that race. Decimating any title hope that Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber had.

Kubica also succeded in annoying another championship contender – Lewis Hamilton. For a LONG time. and it was only when he pitted that Hamilton managed the jump.

The race in itself was dull, the fact that the title was being decided there made it ever more frustrating. Not an amazing race to end the 2010 seaon on. But definately a good result. Who honestly saw that one coming ehy?

The 2011 season starts in around 110 days and with that it seems a lot of new drivers are coming in. Hulkenberg has lost his race seat for next year, HRT has lost the deal with toyota, Di Grassi has lost his seat….. questions are still being raised over the fate of young Petrov and Mr Liuzzi, and then we’ll also be losing Nick Heidfeld.

Although the driver transfers are all part and parcel of the F1 criteria, it is a sad fate to see such young talented individuals leave. However it does seem like people are planning on leaving in 2012. So who knows! maybe we’ll just get an out-flux of golden oldies leaving and no young drivers?

Keep an eye out on the young driver tests this week. Today RBR‘s Daniel Ricciardo (My future favouritest driver) topped the timesheets in the RB6. That’s above di Resta, who has been driving a Force India for half the season’s FP1’s.

Future star right there? DEFO.

I’ll leave you with these images, the first chmpionship that RBR has ever won. The 2010 constructors. And Sebastian Vettel, 2010 WDC.

2010 Constructors with a 1- 2 in Interlagos, Brazil.

The first real shower of a World Champion

Today: The F1 Wash Cycle

So, we’re coming to the end of the season, the colours have been separeated from the darks, and the whites are first in the wash cycle.

So when it came to saturday, and the white cycle was mid spin, we catch a glimpse of a blue sock. SHOCK. we cannot stop the cycle and open the door, surely the damage is already done?

The blue sock in the white wash? how would the whites feel about that? their cycle being tinged by the sock!

Will the sock run through the rest of the cycle without hindering the whites? Or will the sock run its colour and taint the whites cycle?

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Nico Hulkenberg qualified a surprising pole position, granted in the changeable condtions Interlagos offers, but a fantastic lap, 1.1 seconds ahead of the unmistakenably fast Red Bulls, and trumping Ferrari as well as his Williams Team Mate Reubens Barichello.

Much Like Sebastian Vettel did in his rookie year for Torro Rosso, when he started on Pole Position he held the position to take the victory – again in the wet.

Hulkenberg has a hefty challenge ahead of him, a dry race prediction and the 4 championship contenders breathing down his neck, I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to look into his mirrors before the lights drop tomorrow. However he seems to have the dryest set up of all the front runners, hence his jaw dropping achievement in qualifying yesterday.

The race today will throw up some interesting results, if the top 5 manage to survive past the first corner the rest of the race should yield a few surprises.

However much i want Mark Webber to finish up on the top step, and however much I want Red Bull to wrap up the WCC, Wouldn’t it be nice to have a blue sock thrown in the mix?

Today: I Read a Guardian Blog for the First Time

Well after an eventful weekend in Spa Where new dislike and insults were added to the up and coming Sebastian Vettel, I was of course in a very grumpy mood!

I did infact write a 4-page blog (on Word as i was at work at the time!) Which unfortunately…. didn’t get saved! So i did what any other student would do – i stropped and played playstation and went to visit my Mum.

So here is my general summary of the Spa weekend!

Red Bull had a great qualifying with Mark Webber on pole and Sebastain Vettel in 4th, with a strong showing from Lewis Hamilton and the blisteringly quick Renault of Robert Kubica between them, Jenson Buttin managed 5th, whilst the Ferrari’s of Massa and Alonso could only manage 6th and 10th with season best qualifier for Barichello on his 300th GP in 8th.

The first lap was all but uneventful, Drizzle across half the track meant that the slicks sped through the dry and skidded through the drizzle! Barichello was an unfortunate victum of the Spa microclimate where he locked both wheels and skidded straight into Alonso, finishing his 300th GP before finishing the first lap. The general chaos from this bought out the safety car.

Few laps on and Vettel makes the move on the slower Button, and doesn’t get it right. AT ALL. He manages to salvage his race and hobbles into the pitlane whilst Button is forced to retire, furious at the event that has just occured.

Skip to the pits and Kubica makes a mistake and is distracted whilst pulling into his pit box, totally overshooting it and taking out one of his mechanics in the process, Allowing the Terrible start Mark Webber had to be ‘undone’ as he took second position from Kubica.

Vettel had his drive through, puncture, and about 40 pitstops….

The race finished with the Brit Lewis Hamilton on the topstep, Mark Webber’s salvaged second step was a relief after his poor start, and Kubica maintaining his 3rd place qualifier to take the third step.

Petrov and Schumacher drove crakers to make up 14 places each and kamoui Kobayashi made it into the points as well.

The next race is at Monza where RBR are said to struggle with the long straights whilst Mclaren and Force India are said to thrive. The Mercedes engine – which has more horsepower than the Renault engine- showed itself at Spa and teams with this engine are looking pretty smug!

The next big thing however is the WMSC on Wednesday this week, where the fate of the long standing Ferrari will be decided. General concensus from in the F1 camp is that they deserve a punishment, but won’t get anything substantial after their $100,000 fine. The fans who feel robbed (Ferrari fans as well) want them to be banned – constructors points removed -driver points re-dished out from the race – Alonso to be made to wear a dress, you name it they want it.

Richard Williams posted a erm intersting article [here] on The Guardian about the up and coming WMSC defending Ferrari’s actions, whilst it’s all well and good saying that team orders have helped people in the past, most of these instances have been in the FINAL race of the season, where the other guy in your team has NO chance of winning the WDC. Nowadays team orders are against the rules. Just like KERS for the 2010 season, just like ride height, just like anyother rule in the book.

Ferrari broke this rule, and hence should be punished!

He goes on to say that team orders are in place for team principals to control their drivers. Then goes on to use RBR and Turkey as an example. Now at the time, as an RBR fan i was very very very annoyed. But then After i went to Germany to watch the GP and experienced first hand the ‘team orders’ debacle, i am glad to say that RBR crashed into each other. Woul i prefer it not to happen? Yes. Would i want to be robbed of a race? No. I feel i was robbed by Ferrari.

I dislike Alonso and i make no attempt to hide it, however if he had won fair and square by properly over taking Massa i would have been annoyed yes. But i wouldn’t have felt the anger and dissapointment that Ferrari made me feel.

“Team orders that interfere with a race result are strictly forbidden”

This is the rule for the sport today. They aren’t racing 50 years ago. Yes this is a buisiness, but we as the fans are the clients. You race to please us.