A Fresh Look at the Circus
Germany’s Sebastian Vettel continued his relentless march toward a second consecutive Formula 1 driver’s championship with a win today at the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix.
Held at the storied Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the race was eventful, full of overtaking and great drives by some of the top drivers, notably two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who held on to fourth place driving an inferior Ferrari and recently un-retired seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who worked his way up from the very back of the grid (24th) to finish in the points in eighth place.
On a personal note, it was the first Formula 1 race I’d watched on TV since I can remember, and although I only caught a dozen or so laps before church this morning, the experience reminded me a lot of my time in Europe. There, the sport is as big as, say, NBA basketball over here, and watching a whole race every other Sunday afternoon was a must-see event. I have to confess that as easy as it is for me to rant against the seemingly arbitrary micromanaging of the participants by its regulatory organizations, and the death of technical leadership by the sport, it remains a thrilling spectacle, a fitting showcase for what are still the highest-performance racing cars in the world. You can bet I’ll catch the next race at Monza in two weeks.
There are certain phrases which, upon reading or heard said, give me a thrill of pleasure at the impertinence and apparent blasphemy of the writer/speaker. Such was my feeling upon reading exactly what sort of Ferrari Alonso was driving. Lovely. ;)
Hahaha
“Inferior?” :)
Well, it is. Not exactly an unfamiliar position for the Italian team after long win-less spells in the early/mid ’80s and ’90s, basically depending on whether or not they had a good driver at the time (Prost or Schumacher). I’m not a huge fan of the team, but I will say I do like them better when they’re the underdogs, which they definitely are at the moment.
I got hooked on f1 about 5 years ago and haven’t looked back. Each season the racing and the drama have improved. If you are not averse to a bit of Internet hijynx, do yourself a favor and watch the BBC broadcast. It is miles better than the speed coverage. Do a little investigation into get_iplayer and better yet get iplayer Automator if you have a Mac.
I’ll have to check out the BBC coverage. Thanks for the heads-up!