Podium or Pits is Badger's weekly guide to what's hot and what's not in F1. Stay tuned for a Badger endorsement, filthy lucre, trophies, DR-yes and Martin Brundle's future travels...
Badger endorsement - it's not often we at Badger feel the need to endorse one candidate over another. However, in the finest tradition of F1 politics, we're entering the fray. And we've got teeth. And claws.
Check out her video entry below and make sure to add your thoughts to the comments on James Allen's website. Go on, you know you want to...
World © Sutton Bernie Ecclestone in Singapore
Money + F1 = bribery? - This is quite complicated, but stay with us. Essentially, allegations of financial impropriety during F1's sale in 2006 are swirling. The man responsible for the sale, Gerhard Gribkowsky, is accused of any number of things, one of which is receiving large payments from Bernie Ecclestone (i.e bribes.)
Bernie denies the accusations and claims the money was paid because he was being blackmailed by the accused regarding other financial shenanigans. All we'll say is that this has the potential to get most fun. Stay tuned.
Read this Telegraph article for more details.
World © Kalisz/Sutton Sebastian Vettel with Peter Prodromou, Spanish Grand Prix. This is what we're talking about.
Proper trophies - if you're a regular reader of Badger you know that trophies in the shape of sponsor logos are a bugbear of ours. We no longer want to see Sandantar logos clutched the bosom of the winning driver; Vettel must have hundreds of the things.
It transpires someone in India's been listening, as the new trophies will feature "uniquely Indian symbols" such as the Taj Mahal AND they're designed by a British Silversmith. Rule Britannia.
World © Kalisz/Sutton Main straight, Buddh International Circuit, New Delhi, India.
D.R-yes? - we're not sure how we feel about this -there will be two DRS zones at the Indian GP.
Obviously, and given the fact this is the first F1 race at the track, it's somewhat hard to say if this is a good thing or not. However, if the track's been properly designed (we're looking at you Mr. Tilke) then it shouldn't need two. Should it?
Brundle trundles off? - It's going to happen isn't it? We don't have to be happy about it, but there's no other way this is going. Is there?
Comments and Discussion
Well Brundle has rubbished that Telegraph story, but says he will be commentating and it will be for either. Personally I think the BBC should just bin the whole F1 thing if they're only going to do it half arsed (as they probably will do in 2013) and let Sky do it properly.
Depressingly, Mark Thompson's cock-a-hoop at hiving off the F1 coverage. He's been going around congratulating colleagues, and claiming the savings have enabled BBC Four to be retained. Now, we've all enjoyed its F1 docs, etc but it does seem that its retentions signals that the beeb will now abandon all live sport. Worst of all, BBC Three remains totally unmolested...