You got to see this:-)

I was watching F1 qualifying on Saturday on Star Sports. Except that Star Sports had a zzzzz bzzzzz sound accompanying the commentary. Now car racing fans will know that you cannot watch qualifying or the race without commentary or the car noise. But a fan can't do without watching either, so I brought the volume down and was just watching.

Suddenly when about 10 minutes of quali was left the screen blanked and returned with a buzzing ESPN instead!! And soon after a clear and sound Star Sports appeared in the spot ESPN had vacated. Thanks to the F1 fan or fans or politician or bureacrat who is a F1 fan, or a friend of a F1 fan, who called the cable dude and told (or rather yelled at him or them) them to switch channels.

I know this for sure, since a few races back the exact same thing had happened. The F1 race was to start on a buzzing channel, and just as I was cursing myself (actually cursing the chaps in the cable control room) it switched to a clear and sound channel;-)

Two years back a dumbass in the control room piped in Tamil commentary for a F1 race. The very first one that too. Oh that was because our own Narain Kartikeyan was making his debut. And so I was watching quali in mute. And when sometime later I removed mute English commentary was back on.

There this programme on Fomula 1 on the Discovery Channel (India) on Wednesday last at 9pm. It featured the Toyota team, but I thought doesn't matter, so long as they show behind the scene stuff it would be very watchable.

Got to watch it and did not find it very interesting. I kept waiting for inside stuff like the action that takes place when the trucks go to a race. All the unpacking, setting up, and getting ready for the race. But no. Nothing of that sort was shown. Instead all the while we were in the Toyota F1 factory, and it looked more like a Toyota propoganda movie;-)

Also the name of the programme could have easily been Anatomy of a Formula 1 car's front wing, because this is what is mentioned throughout the one hour programme. They mention how Toyota is doing very poorly and how this new front wing is supposed to wonders if not more. And then when there is just five minutes left, they all suddenly pack for the Canadian GP and leave.

After that we are told (through a bland caption that fills the screen) that the new front wing was sent across and that Truli (the second driver) came 6th and won the first points of the season. You will think first points for Toyota since they make it sound so. Actually Ralf Schumacher had already got 8 points by the time they came to Canada. It was Truli's first point of the season. And what happened to Ralf with that new wing? He retired.

I received this 1:18 scale model of a Ferrari F2005 early in September. Here are the photos. This is the car driven by Michael Schumacher in 2005. He was the 2004 champion when he drove this car but lost the title to Fernando Alonso in his R25. The Marlboro ads are missing as per regulations, even the disguised logos are not shown.

I used to think the Team Spirit logo on the Renault R25 was their disguised tobacco logo. It isn't. According to Renault it is the World Team of the Year award they received at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Barcelona.

This is the last Michael Schumacher Ferrari to carry the No 1.



( Read more... )

In July I had bought the 2005 Renault R25 in which Fernando Alonso became a World Champion. Today I received the 2005 Ferrari in which which Michael Schumacher started as a World Champion.

It is numbered 1, while the Renault was numbered 5. Photos to follow. This too is a 1:18 model like the Renault.

The Renault R25 driven last year by Fernando Alonso as replicated in 1:18 scale by Hot Wheels is now my new and proud possession. This is the first F1 model car that I have in my scale model collection. I bought it at Rediff.com. Four more thumbnails behind the cut.



( Read more... )