Formula One 2009: Jenson Button, Brawn GP, ‘nuff said.

When it comes to summing up the 2009 Formula One season, I believe the subject line covers it well: Formula One 2009: Jenson Button, Brawn GP.  Enough said.

Barely a year ago, Honda announced that they were to pull out of Formula One with immediate effect, leaving the Brackley-based team somewhere up that creek, almost paddleless.  Honda agreed to keep the team running whilst it sought a buyer, but if nobody had stumped up the cash by the opening race of 2009 in Australia, then the team would be shut down.

As 2008 became 2009 the future looked bleak for the team that had started out life amongst much fanfare as British American Racing ten years earlier.

But, with barely days to spare before the start of this season, Ross Brawn put together a deal that saw him buy the team from Honda and turn up in time for the season opener in March this year.  Everybody was glad to see them, everybody congratulated them on making it, everybody was pleased to see Richard Branson leering right behind the team.  Nobody outside of the team thought they would do anything good.

And then they won.

In a two-fingered salute to their former owners, Brawn GP were simply stunning.  Button won all but one of the first seven races and even a hard challenge from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and the distraction of the diffuser furore failed to put a dent in his confidence.  The middle of the season fell away from the Briton slightly as he struggled for form whilst Barrichello, determined not to be seen as the team’s Number Two, and the Red Bull drivers of Vettel and Mark Webber all vied to bring themselves to the front of the title challenge.

But as the season came to its conclusion, it was all about Jenson.  He would have loved to have had another win, just to put his late-season detractors in their place, but it wasn’t to be.  His drive in Brazil, however, from twelfth to fifth to secure the Driver’s Crown was nothing less than the drive of a World Champion, and although a win eluded him in the final race at Abu Dhabi too, his last gasp effort to try and take second from Webber was simply stunning – probably the most exciting bit of the whole race.  A podium position was enough for Jenson, however.

Between them, Button and Barrichello also secured the Constructor’s Championship for Brawn GP in their first season of trying, an accolade that had eluded British American Racing despite their boasts of winning in their first season all the way back in 1999.

It capped what has been a simply stunning season, complete with drama, intrigue and the magical press frenzy that was generated when everybody thought Michael Schumacher might return to the cockpit to replace Felipe Massa, who had to sit out the remainder of the season after being struck on the head by a broken piece of, ironically, a Brawn GP car.

The Schumacher Story never came to fruition, unfortunately, but it didn’t detract from what a great season it’s been, all covered brilliantly, in Britain at least, by the return of F1 coverage to the BBC.  Jake Humphreys and his bickering cohorts, Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard, complete with their commentary and pitlane teams, put together a wonderful show, and the Red Button alternative viewings rivalled almost anything that Sky Sports, and certainly ITV, could have put together.

And as the season came to a close, both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel strutted their stuff behind the wheel, showing their feathers and letting Jenson and Brawn know that, come 2010, they weren’t going to make it easy for them to defend their titles.

It all changes again next year, too.  It’ll be the last year for Bridgestone tyres, refuelling is banned, new teams are apparently going to be turning up in Bahrain for the start of the season, and the drivers are all shuffling around.  Add to that the news, this morning, that Toyota have announced they are pulling out of Formula One with immediate effect and it leaves one wondering just what next year holds in store for Formula One fans, and all those who now wonder how secure their jobs are in Cologne.  One can only imagine Toyota are hoping to have a similar success to Honda by selling out to an independent whose passion for winning races outweighs all business motives.

Meanwhile, there’s only one thing that can be left to say: Brawn GP, Jenson Button, World Champions 2009.  How I wish I’d put a pound on you both at the start of the season.  Congratulations!

‘Nuff said.

Should Stephen Fry Quit Twitter?

The answer to that question, in short, is no.

That’s not because I follow Stephen and don’t want him to leave the service, but simply because one person branding him as ‘boring’ is not really a reason to leave.  If Stephen himself is becoming bored by the Twitter phenomena that he, himself, helped to accelerate then that’s a different reason but, sadly, when you put yourself in the public spotlight, there will always be a contingent who will have something negative to say.

This week, Paul Daniels also found himself on the receiving end of some pretty mean comments about his height and, in the end, he decided to take a few days break from the service.  Perhaps this tactic would benefit Mr Fry, and would possibly help him while he’s feeling a little low.

Quite frankly, however, it is amazing that this has become the news story that it seems to have become.  Certainly, Stephen has been a huge advocate of Twitter and has helped grow its popularity in the micro-blogging arena, but is his possible departure from the service really worth a discussion group on the BBC’s website?  Before we know it, it’ll be a topic on an upcoming episode of Question Time…

When I was a kid, I was always taught to ignore bullies and they’d eventually go away.  It didn’t always work quite as effectively as my parents had hoped, as kids tend to just become more and more mean when their abuse doesn’t seem to be working, or they store it up for later use, but there is certainly a strong argument for being the ‘bigger’ man and rising above the meanness; and, most of the time, simply walking away from conflict did work.

The rise of the Internet and mobile phone technology, however, has seen “cyber-bullying” become ever-more prevalent, and ignoring abusive text messages can be harder than avoiding the taunts in the classroom.

The reason for Mr Fry’s musings about leaving the service seem to have come from one individual branding his posts on Twitter as “… a bit … boring… (sorry Stephen)”, which to me doesn’t really warrant being branded as “too much aggression and unkindness”, which was Stephen Fry’s initial response.

There are certainly many more users of Twitter out there who post far more boring updates than Stephen Fry does (myself included, probably – I’ve just posted one about how many miles per gallon my Renault did in October, for crying out loud!) but, with 929’686 followers, there are certainly many more people out there who find him interesting than there are who don’t.

Looking at Stephen’s Twitter updates this morning, it looks like he’s making peace with the chap who branded him boring in the first place.  So maybe he’ll stay after all, and that sort of makes this blog a little bit redundant.

And more than a little bit boring…

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Stephen Fry’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenfry
Paul Daniels’ Twitter: http://twitter.com/thepauldaniels
The bloke who didn’t really bully Stephen: http://twitter.com/brumplum

In October The Renault Used…

I can see this new regular feature of my blog quickly becoming known as “What That F***ing Renault Vel Satis Did To Me This Month!”; if only it didn’t make the title line so long, I’d probably do it.

It’s been a pretty traumatic month with the Renault, with it deciding that it’s enduring pain-in-the-arse personality would show up again, this time by breaking down on my mother’s driveway one Friday night when I needed to get back to the pub, having just dropped the children off in the hopes of having a relatively quiet, stress-free weekend.

It got worse when the breakdown guy turned up, announced it was the starter motor and that, at 9pm on a Friday night, there was nothing he could do to help me.  He couldn’t even get me home as, it turns out, my breakdown cover via Churchill Insurance doesn’t include home recovery.

The following morning the car was taken to a local garage who confirmed that, indeed, it was the starter motor – and that, for this particular model, no third-party manufacturer part could be sourced.  Nor could a refurbished part be found.  And it couldn’t simply be fixed, either.

I would have to wait until Monday morning, when I could speak with the garage I purchased it from as, after all, the damned thing is still under warranty.  Except that, when I eventually got hold of my garage, it turns out I was lied to, and no warranty was ever provided as part of the car sale.

That will be a whole different blog, at a whole different time, once the discussions between myself and the garage I bought the Renault Vel Satis from have completed.  In the meantime, suffice it to say, I ended up getting the garage in Buckingham to repair the car, at a whopping price of £428.81 including VAT.  (To be fair £7.92 of that was for a new hazard switch, having discovered – when it broke down – that the one in the dashboard didn’t work.)

Still, it kept the fuel and mileage figures down for this month as it took me a week to get it back.  And on Wednesday the electric windows stopped working…

Renault Vel Satis 3.5V6 Performance Log:

It should come as no surprise that the miles per gallon figure for this month is quite low.  Aside from the one slightly-extended round trip to Buckingham, the car hasn’t been used much this month and most of the journeys it has done were short hop trips of less than four miles.  That’s not really when this engine shines.  Still, it’s returning an average of eight miles per gallon more than the old Jeep ever did, so let’s not think it’s too bad, eh?

• Fuel Used: 23.4 gallons (down from 37.3)
• Economy: 22.4 miles per gallon (down from 22.9)
• Distance: 521.7 miles travelled (down from 853)
• Average Speed: 28.5 miles per hour (down from 37.9)
• Service due in: 14’597 miles
• Odometer reading: 64’353 miles

Ironically, in my last blog on this car’s performance I mentioned that there weren’t any notable incidents during September, save for the one occasion when it refused to start when I pushed the button.  Turns out that was a portent of doom, didn’t it?

Today, I shall mostly be…

This week has been one of those where I seem to have run around doing absolutely nothing productive.  Most of it has been spent trying to find a cheaper alternative to the starter motor on the car, and shouting at the garage who sold me the car in the first place.

Neither was very productive: the starter motor was ridiculously expensive and the garage that sold me the car ridiculously uncooperative.

No matter, the car is finally back and does, at least, work.  But that has meant there are loads of jobs left over from the past few days that really must all be done today.  So, today I shall mostly be:

• cleaning beer lines
• cleaning the cellar
• cleaning the glass washer
• doing the dray order
• preparing the bar
• looking at Sky Sports for the pub once again
• buying stock for Sunday’s bar at the village hall
• trying to finish off a blog for The Publican magazine that I started earlier in the week…

And all of that has to be done before a party of fifty turn up for a buffet at five o’clock this evening.

To make things that little bit more difficult, the children are also home today as half-term has already started, apparently…

Button Wins The Driver’s Championship!

As Webber gets ignored on the podium, everybody else is looking for Jenson Button – Formula One’s latest champion.
Compare him with Hamilton, for just a second: Hamilton won the championship in Brazil in 2008 by finishing in fifth place, driving car number 22.
Jenson Button has just completed one of the most breathtaking races I’ve ever seen him compete in… and has won this year’s championship in Brazil, finishing in fifth place, driving car number 22…
And let's not forget that days before the season started Brawn GP didn't exist.  Now they've won both the Driver's and Constructor's Championships.
Amazing.  But I still have a headache.