Rambling on…

I’m writing this just as Massa prematurely leaves the pitbox with the fuel hose still attached! This isn’t the first incident this year, there have been numerous other pitlane related errors, something that wouldn’t have happened when Todt, Brawn and Schumacher were around… and I suspect when a traditional lollipop was still in use.

Think of it logically, if you have one big carbon fibre board which has “STOP” and “1st GEAR”, along with the pre-requisite advertisers’ logos.. it’s quite impossible for the driver to miss it. Even if it were pulled up early by mistake, it is easy for the lollipop man to actually just drop it back down in front of the driver, thereby stopping the driver.

But if the LEDs have already indicated a go, is the driver still gonna be looking at the overhead lights? I doubt it… so Ferrari.. Suck it up.. bring back the lollipop!

related links: F1-Live: Ferrari denies need to ‘lollipop’ return

** Update: Looks like Ferrari reverted to a lollipop on Raikonnen’s second stop.. I didn’t catch the other stops though…

Post-Hungary and Lewis is already saying that Alonso has not spoken to him since Saturday’s qualifying.

Well that’s what you get when you have two competitive drivers and no real team orders to speak of. At least at Ferrari during the Schumacher era, you didn’t have that kind of problem. But then again, with Schumacher around, you know he’d dominate either on the track or back at the factory (with his superhuman work ethic).

How often do you see Alonso giving high-fives and back slapping his mechanics? Not very often. You see that alot with Lewis. So who’s the rookie? Even if Lewis wasn’t a Brit, I think he’d still manage to rally his McLaren mechanics around him.

As for the qualifying on Saturday, who was wrong? Well.. all of this wouldn’t have happened if Hamilton moved over like the team asked. But he’s not one to just move over right?

So, Lewis Hamilton, Formula 1 rookie with 11 races under his belt. But driving like a seasoned and hardened veteran. We’re in for a good few years of racing to come!

RTM is the official Formula 1 broadcaster in Malaysia for 2007.

Anyone care to tell me why the Malaysian government has cared to spend millions of Ringgit building the Sepang F1 track only to have RTM show us delayed telecasts of the races? Yes, the race was covered live for Sepang… but what’s the point in only having live coverage for the Malaysian race when the other races aren’t covered live? It’s a long championship which isn’t won or lost in a single race for pete’s sake!

Malaysia is already struggling to keep the race as it is with Singapore coming up with a night street race. Bernie Ecclestone was clearly putting the pressure on Sepang when he said that the facilities are starting to look like they need a bit of fixing up.

Let’s not forget that RTM gets its commentary from the excellent team at ITV over in the UK. Former F1 driver Martin Brundle and James Allen provide an excellent insight into F1 that even Starsports can’t offer over on Astro. This is one of RTM’s trump cards, but does it recognise it?

So, if RTM keeps screening the races at midnight, how is it going to drum up support for Formula 1 in general in Malaysia? So what if it clashes with the news slot? Who cares? If I wanted to watch news, I’d go to the other terrestrial channels. It’s not like RTM’s news coverage is any good anyhow!

While we’re on the topic of F1 and RTM, what’s the thing with cutting to race highlights when the drivers are popping the champaign on the podium? Were they drunk while driving? What is it? Enlighten me… Not that RTM displays any sort of F1 knowledge in any sense of the word, they even cut the podium ceremony in Bahrain, where the celebratory drink isn’t even alcoholic!

Buck up RTM!