The judgement is in. Jenson Button and Takuma Sato are banned from racing in the next two grand prix. It’s better than the team being thrown out of the championship but it’s still a bitter blow to a team who had good hopes of being up there with the top teams.

Did they cheat or was it a misunderstanding? It’s hard to say; the FIA say one thing, BAR say another. I’m tempted to believe the FIA but I still disagree with the penalty. Barring a team from racing is not only punishing the team, it punishes the fans. We want to see good competitive racing, and losing a competitive team, even for only two races, reduces the excitement level of a sport already suffering from lack of excitement.

Remove their points from the last race, give them a heavy fine, make them start from the back of the grid for the rest of the season, but let them race.

The 2005 Formula 1 season has started with the first practice sessions in Melbourne, Australia. It looks like McClaren are going to be strong, taking three of the five fastest places. Pedro de la Rosa, the McClaren test driver, was fastest, beating Kimi by three tenths.

Minardi were not on track. It looks like they may not race thanks to Ferrari’s arrogance and obstinance. Paul Stoddart is threatening court action, but I’m not sure what his legal basis is. I still don’t get why Ferrari care about a team that doesn’t have any hope of beating them. Update: It looks like he did have a legal basis, Minardi will be taking part in the qualifying session after winning in court!

Some press conference quotes:

Juan Pablo: it’s actually pretty good, it’s been really good. It’s been a good time for adaptation … the car is pretty good to drive … it suited to me so it was good … I think both approaches are pretty good … [relationship with Kimi] is good … We both really enjoyed riding bikes and stuff, so it’s good.

Well that’s, umm, good, then.

Q: Given [Minardi] are not a threat can you see any reason why they should be excluded?
MS: If .. you play soccer?

Q: I used to..
MS: Imagine there is a new rule in soccer and you always play with ten people and there is always one team that is not doing very well, would you accept they play with 11 or more people…?

Q: If they were effectively playing with their hands tied behind their back already, yeh.
MS: I don’t think it is a serious subject to discuss.

Got you there didn’t he Michael?

My predictions for the season:

• Ferrari will struggle to remain dominant and Michael will get desperate, either making mistakes or cheating.
• Jenson Button will win the British Grand Prix.
• Juan and Kimi will be at each other’s throats by the third race.
• Williams will blame Nick Heidfeld for everything that goes wrong.
• Fisichella will out-perform Alonso.
• Jacques won’t get near the podium.
• David Coulthard will go into rehab for Red Bull addiction.
• Ralf Schumacher won’t shut up about how crap Williams were and how great Toyota are.
• Narain Karthikeyan will crash. A lot.
• Juan and Michael will take each other out at least once.
• Michael Schumacher will come second in the Driver’s Championship.
• Ferrari will win the Constructor’s Championship purely on reliability.

So thanks to Ferrari and his boyfriend Michael, Bernie Ecclestone maintains his strangehold on premium Motorsport. He gets to keep his millions, and earn a few million more. OK so he’s giving the teams another $500 million, but that’s pocket change in the big F1 picture. What Bernie really needs to do is stop stiffing the fans. Give us high definition TV feeds. Give us more on-board cameras. Give us team radio eavesdropping. Give us lower ticket prices, and better access to the pit lanes. Oh and stop threatening to take your toys and go home whenever someone mentions tobacco advertising bans.

Well it was a great race. An easy win for Rubens, although Kimi pushed him in places. Jensen tried to use a two stop strategy to get in front, and did manage to leapfrog Kimi, but he didn’t have the pace to catch Rubens.

Michael’s good luck finally ran out, and in a big way. All of the bad luck that’s been accumulating over the season hit him this weekend with a spin during qualifying, a spin in the race, contact with other drivers, dodgy strategy and bad pit stops. He finished in 12th place.

Jacques is back, managing to drive a renault into 11th place, not bad after a year off. He did get overtaken by Mark Webber at one point though.

It was cool hearing the team radio on the tv feed. Would be even cooler if you could understand a word they were saying though.

After a dubious start for both Ferraris, they romped home to a 1-2 finish, but this time Rubens was the the one taking the top spot. Congratulations Mr Barrichello!

The track was damp at the start, leading to some indecision over what tyres to use. Rubens went for intermediates which was a mistake because he had to come in 5 laps later. Michael chose dry weather tyres, which was also a mistake because he spun out on the first lap. Both drivers overcame these difficulties with some stunning pace in the later stages.

A good drive from Jensen, who lead for a long time, gave him the third place on the podium and pushed BAR into second place in the constructor’s championship. Good race, definitely one of the most exciting this season.

I was up bright and early at 7:50 this morning to watch the qualifying session for the Monza Formula One Grand Prix in Italy. Rubens put in a stunning middle sector to claim a record setting pole position but Juan stopped another Ferrari one-two by qualifying in second place. That should make for an interesting start tomorrow, and there’s a threat of rain to liven things up a bit too.

On June 8-10 2001, we went to the Montreal Grand Prix. This year we had seats on the pit straight, in Gold 2, looking across at the BAR and Jordan pit garages, and down at the end of the grid formation.

These are some of the photos from that weekend. Note, the pit straight is NOT a good place to get racing photos, so don’t expect to see any!

Crescent Street

On the Thursday before the GP, we went down to Crescent Street to see what was going on. It was quite disappointing, with nothing but people trying to sell us mobile phones, credit cards, insurance etc. etc., but I did get a
couple of shots of cars on display (btw, don’t try getting into NewTown on GP weekend without a reservation!):

• Jacques’ BAR
• Jacques’ BAR close-up
• A Jordan

Practice and Qualifying

• Frentzen leaves the pits
• Our view of the pit lane
• Barrichello Running back for the spare
• That’s Eddie, in the middle, in the shadows

The Driver’s Parade

• David Coulthard, looking ‘cool’
• Thumbs up from Eddie
• Jacques looking bored
• Mika surrendering
• Schumi in his jeans

Race Day

• David’s head is much bigger in real life…
• The RCAF CF-18s flyby
• Button arriving on the grid formation
• Fisi waiting to get in his car…
• …but he didn’t stay in it long
• BAR pitstop
• The Williams team celebrate their win
• Oops!
• A BAR ready to be inspected
• Jaguar ready to be inspected
• A shot from on the track, at the last corner

And Finally, Jennifer fell in love with the ferrari and williams mechanic’s shoes, so here they are:

• Ferrari (I got an email from a nice man at Ferrari telling me these are red Nomex fireproof boots from Sabelt)
• Williams

In June 2000, we went to the Montreal Grand Prix. We had seats in stand 21,
one of the silver stands on the eastern (Casino) hairpin.

These are some of the photos from that weekend.

The Support Races

• 2 Fighting Ferraris
• And another 2
• A gaggle of Ferraris
• Yet more Ferraris
• A few racing Beetles

The Driver’s Parade

• Jean Alesi. The scanner wanted to scan this
  in greyscale, and I let it, because it looks cool!
• Eddie Irvine enjoying himself.
• Close-up of Eddie
• A slightly distant Heinz-Harald Frentzen
• The Pride of Canada…
• Johnny Boy
• Mika from a distance
• Mika, closer this time
• Mika again, now you can see the bad sunglasses. (I don’t think that’s a Nazi salute, he was just getting his balance!)
• A bearded Rubino
• Schumi looking way too relaxed, and waving like the Queen
• A slightly blurred Trulli

The Qualifying and Race

• Profile of Ralph
• Schumacher from the side
• And again…
• Mika, going for it
• Mika, coming towards the hairpin
• Jacques, David and Ralph fighting it out on the hairpin
• Jacques, Schumi and David on the hairpin
• David overtaking Jacques in the wet
• Oops! Jacques and Ralph take each other out
• Rubens in the wet. This is probably my favourite photo of the weekend.