There is not much new in the world of Formula One racing, as the teams finally take a real break and prepare for the new year and the testing of new cars, which begins in February. This is when the media receives a slew of Christmas greetings from the teams and other F1 related people, like circuits and promoters. Now, then, is also the time for me to wish this blog’s readers a merry Christmas, and a thanks for another year of faithful readership.
Still, here is a small news roundup from the past week:
Some news came from the Ferrari camp after a luncheon held by Luca di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari, in Maranello, Italy: The team plans to present a radical new car in February. Ferrari won only one race this year, with Fernando Alonso winning the British Grand Prix on the 60th anniversary of the team’s first ever F1 victory. “This year we showed we know how to lose, but now that’s enough. It’s time to start winning again,” said di Montezemolo.
A couple of races before the end of the season, the Mercedes team released some interesting statistics about the drivers who made the most overtaking moves in the season. Michael Schumacher was at the top of the list, despite appearing to have had another bad year since his comeback last year. Yesterday Autosport published the updated figures to the end of the season that it obtained from Mercedes, and Schumacher was still at the top. But most of his overtaking was done in the early laps of the races, as his car was better than the qualifying position he had achieved.
Here is the list of the top overtakers:
An interesting report came out three days ago on the Indo-Asian News Service, saying Formula One had overshadowed cricket in India briefly in October with the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.
“The Grand Prix in October generated huge interest in the cricket-crazy country. On the race day (Oct. 30), the BIC was teeming with close to 100,000 people, creating a festive atmosphere. The screams of fans matched the vrooming and zooming of the drivers, including India’s very own Narain Karthikeyan,” the report said. “Interestingly, earlier that week there were few takers for India’s ODI cricket series against England.”
Who would have thought it possible?
And who would have thought that Jenson Button would finish only second in the series this year but finish first in Campaign’s – an advertising industry publication – year’s worst celebrity advertisement of the year for his Head Shoulders ad: