Friday, April 8, 2011

F1 Pitstop – Australia Quickie

So I’m still basking in the Afterglow of this year’s Australian Grand Prix Mates... As I can’t say it was an overly exciting race, albeit I still haven’t watched the tape recording yet – as its always funny finding out more about the race afterwards, then when you were there.

As in those F1 Landsharks are so brutally fast, that they simply appeared to be high speed blobs ‘O muted colour, as it was impossible to discern the cars numbers or who were driving them as they hurtled past our vantage point! They were going so fast that my most Excellante Tour Guide thought that one of the cars was running Toyota sponsorship – which I found to be totally weird; Hmm? May be its “K-squared’s” (Kamui Kobayashi) chassis, since after all he’s “Turning Japanese – I really Think so!” As a quick perusal by Jake through our program revealed it was actually Total sponsorship instead...

And I haveda say without a doubt that was the SLICKEST race I’ve ever been too... Having had the great fortune of witnessing Formula One in 6-countries, I can categorily say that Melbourne was the smoothest in terms of ingress/egress plus roaming around I’ve enjoyed in years. The Trams set-up was absolutely BRILLIANT! And they came on an average of every 1-2mins; CRIKEYS! Depositing us right at the gate, whilst another new feature for me was retrieving our tickets at Will Call, which took all of 5mins max! Not to mention that Albert Park is a totally user-friendly venue for ‘Walkabouts and we even accidently discovered a Handicap viewing platform to watch the race from...

And although ‘Master Zebb thoroughly dominated the weekend’s events, i.e.; qualifying and the race, simply running away and hiding on Sunday, I was more impressed by “PET’s” performance then Vettel and Lewis Hamilton’s. As I think it was Brilliant! Seeing the first ‘ROOSKIE to podium in a Grand Prix, as surprisingly Vitaly Petrov scored third place for Lotus-Renault GP... (Or whomever they’re calling themselves these days...)

And you could hear the collective air escaping – like a hot air balloon flatuating over the crowd darling Mark “Handlebarz” Webber’s slipping backwards during the race to a lackluster fifth place finish... As how many drivers would kill for 5th, eh?

And I haveda say I sat smirkingly to myself thinking about singing ‘Ol Dandy Don’s (Meredith) theme song to DER TERMINATOR, nee M. Schumacher; Turn Out the Lights – The Party’s OVER! Michael, it definitely is! As in when you’re getting blitzed by sophomore standouts VO5 ‘N “K-Squared (Petrov & Kobayashi respectively) In supposedly inferior equipment, i.e.; Renault & Sauber, not to mention almost nearly pipped by a Mexican rookie in the ‘Seester Sauber, Uhm? I think it’s high time to hang up the helmet, kapishe?

And speaking of the Mexican HotSchue, nee F1 debutant Sergio Perez, I was  pleasantly surprised to learn Sunday morning he was the top rookie of the season’s opening round, as I’d expected Paul di Resta to claim this honour. Thus I was even more surprised when reviewing the initial race results to find Perez’s name in P7, ahead of his more experienced Team leader Kobayashi, in P8, albeit I’m assuming there will be some that will quickly point out this was due to their illegal rear wing. Which the team was subsequently disqualified for, hence moving di Resta into a points scoring position... Which is funny to Mwah, since I swear I heard him (his Scottish brogue...) being interviewed over the track’s PA system after falling out of the race midway!

And I’m guessing many will disagree? But I think it’s a travesty that the 107% rule has been reinstated – hence causing the Hispania’s to be eliminated from racing on Sunday. As do we really need to be excluding racecars from the grid at the moment? As I told my most Excellante Guide – I’d have been surprised if he said: “There’s the Hispania merchandise booth right over there...” to which there only seemed to be the heavy hitters as usual, i.e.; Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and someone else...

And upon returning home, another friend quipped: “The HRT merchandise booth is their trailer!” (Although they’re actually working outta containers for the first three Fly-away events...)

Thus, I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing ‘Tonio (Vitantonio Liuzzi) dragging the Hispania F111 onto the back of the grid this weekend in Malaysia...

Don’t forget to check out F1 Debrief tonight/tomorrow – whenever it’s midnight in your neck ‘O duh woods...