Arcoarena

Ralf Schumacher has recently branded the Ferrari team ‘arrogant’ according to this BBC article

He says
“How can they be so arrogant as to start the season with the old car?”

Well….they started the season last year with the old car and wiped the floor with everyone else. Although that strategy hasn’t worked this year they still aren’t in dire problems yet so hopefully we’ll have an exciting season watching Michael trying to claw his way back.

The formula 1 season has started again. I can’t say I was enthralled by the first race but oh well.

One interesting event was Honda’s retirement of their cars which Toyota are now claiming to be unsportsman-like. The BBC article brings up a few interesting points.

Since when has anyone if F1 not tried to bend the rules as much as they can get away with? I don’t even agree that retiring the car and hence avoiding the 10 place penalty in the next race for an engine change is wrong or bad for the sport. What we want is more of a mixture of teams doing well. The good teams (i.e. the ones that always finish in the points) will have to have more reliable engines as they will need to last two races. The slower teams can retire, change engine and hopefully benifit from others retirement. I refuse to accept that whoever wrote the rules was naive enough not to consider the outcomes of the rule.

F1: Montoya slams Schumacher - Juan Pablo Montoya accuses Michael Schumacher of dirty driving at Imola. [BBC News]

Quotes from Montoya

“It’s very disappointing to have racing like that and I will be surprised if he gets away with it.”

He [Michael Schumacher] must be blind or stupid.”

“Look at Indianapolis last year - there I was given a drive-through and that cost me the championship.”

“I would be champion now - and he gets away with it. The rules are not fair”

I’m a big fat looser that can’t handle the size of my own ego

Ok so maybe that last one was a fabrication, or should that be an interpretation -reading between the lines. But come on get a grip. Grow up for God’s sake. I personally don’t like Montaya after the heated debate with Jaques Villeneuve when he said “Atleast I didn’t kill anybody”, refering to the accident in Australia that year where one of Villeneuve’s tyres from a crash killed a steward. That’s just totally unacceptable.