Hulkenberg Acts Human
Golden boy and Le Mans winner Nico Hulkenberg has seriously damaged his hopes of ever getting a top drive this week (because he’s seriously underrated, haven’t you heard?), and threw the reputation of F1 drivers into disrepute, when he texted Felipe Massa to apologise for the incident at the Singapore GP. Quoted from Autosport : ‘”He sent me an SMS to apologise, so it was nice,” Massa told reporters at Suzuka on Thursday.
Drivers are baffled and hysterical why their fellow racer made such a human gesture, and after reviewing the replays would want to admit fault. Luckily he’s just been confirmed for Force India next year, and Vijay Malya apparently can’t be arsed to go through the legal proceedings to terminate his contract.
Lotus Lose Their Hospitality, Still Alive
Lotus staff have had to get the Japanese phrase book out to find their own dinner after the circuit locked them out of their allocated hospitality suite. We understand at least most of them are still alive, owing to a decent attempt at translating “sushi dominos pizza”. Romain Grosjean heard their ex-engine supplier Renault were still half decent at being French if nothing else, and popped over for some croissants and the kind of espresso that, if the F1 technical working group allowed as a homologated fuel, would fix Renault’s horsepower deficit overnight.
Mercedes In Crisis?
Mercedes are definitely in turmoil after their pathetic race last weekend, and in a turn around that is bound to sell more papers and content, have largely been written off by most of the F1 press for this season, predicting them in a fight with Manor at the back of the grid. It’s been decided by journalist boffins with far more knowledge of F1 than the likes of us, that they are clearly hopeless and can’t win their way out of a paper bag with the word “winning” written on it, in part down to their complete and utter complacency this season. That’s until they trounce everyone in the Japanese GP, after which they’ll become a boring, soul-less, dominating, boring team that proves F1 is broken, yada, yada, yada.
It doesn’t help writers much that unlike the last dominant team their team principal is a surprisingly honest and approachable chap, and it’s practically impossible to write about a team when all you’ve got to say is what a hell of a good job they’ve done.
Max Respect
It’s brilliantly refreshing to see Max Verstappen publicly point blank refuse a direct team order, something the team were quick to heap praise on. “Remember the team and philosophy who we’re moulding young Max for…” one Torro Rosso mechanic (might have) said to us.
As fans, one thing we hate is drivers listening to team orders – that just gets them booed on podiums. Or is it the other way around? Whatever, Max is crashzy and we love him! It’s just what F1 needs; why spend years honing your skills and racecraft, climbing the ladder to get to the pinnacle of motorsport, when you can skip all that and prove you can entertain and get on the pace in F1 before you’ve passed your driving test? As long as people are prepared for plenty of mistakes owing to your complete inexperience. It’s only fair.
