Is Valencia a street circuit?

This week sees the European Grand Prix held around the port of Valencia - one of 5 F1 races held on temporary, or street, circuits during the season. But can the Valencia circuit really be called a street circuit?

Personally I feel it is not a street circuit. A street circuit is a track that isn't altered or changed from its normal look - Monaco being the perfect example of this. Whereas the likes of Valencia and Singapore have been adapted for racing - including run off areas.

A street circuit should also have the drivers on edge where the fear of one mistake puts them into a barrier - at Valencia there is only a couple of corners where this fear exists (turn 2 for example), so how can it be regarded as a street circuit if it doesn't test the drivers like a street circuit should?!

In conclusion Valencia, in my opinion, cannot be called a street circuit. It should be regarded along the same lines as Long Beach as a road course or temporary circuit. A street circuit should be what it is called - a street - and Valencia certainly isn't

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All in a teens life: The Second One - Laptops and Gadgets

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In defence of Michael Schumacher

To all the dear ones have dissed, humiliated and insulted Michael Schumacher :

I think Schumacher has driven appallingly today - Martin Brundle

In all honesty he looked a shadow of his former self on Sunday - David Coulthard

Schumi’s blackest lap - Bild

These comments are all truly absurd, baseless and have been said by the speaker without thought. This is not only my opinion but is also that of thousands of Schumacher's supporters, who still believe that Michael still has what is takes to be a World Champion!! Let me break his 2010 season down for you :

It all started in Bahrain. The under-steering Mercedes MGP W01 proved to be a tough one to handle, and turned out to be a car that Schumi struggled with. The season kicked off with the Bahrain GP (later called the bore-hrain Grand Prix) where Michael qualified 7th and finished one place ahead in 6th.

Many were expecting Schumacher to win his first race in 2010, but were let down. But did he let them down or was it that they let themselves down with unrealistic expectations. Yes - he is a 7 times World Champion and the greatest F1 driver, but when one considers the limitation on private testing and a break from racing for 3 years, I believe that Schumi's performance was as good as any one else's.

Then came Australia. Qualifying 7th again, he got off to a great start, but then was hit by Alonso as he was tagged by Button. Michael ended up with a broken front wing and had to pit, pushing his down to last place. But he got back incredibly, and made two super moves on Alguesuari and De La Rosa to finish in 10th. That was a good performance, but the critics called it a lack lusture one. I, on the other hand, was happy to see him grab one point after the chaos and troubles he went through. The media didn't think so.

Michael qualified 8th for the Malaysian GP, and the race looked promising until lap 9, where Michael retired with a loose wheel nut. The race looked promising, and he would surely have finished in the top 5, but then, the car again let him down.

China was surely a race to forget, as Schumi struggled without any rear wheel grip and finished 10th. This is when the media and critics bashed Michael big time, but to no fault of his. He is the Regenmeister and thrives in such conditions, so obviously it was the Merc. But the media were blind and didn't see that it was the car, but believed that it was Schumacher who underperformed and believed that he must quit. It was an outrageous comment, but Schumi took everything in his stride and moved on. The media criticized him in Bahrain and Australian, but they really bashed him bad in China.

Michael reacted to all that criticism and answered not through words, but through his performance, in Spain and Monaco and Turkey. He finished 4th in the race at Catalunya and 6th in Monaco, after pulling an opportunistic move on Alonso at the last corner. But here, it wasn't the media, but the FIA and the Stewards who bashed him. He was slapped with a 20 second place penalty, which demoted him to 12th. The irony was that as Schumi overtook Alonso, the green flag was showing, which indicates a return to normal racing conditions. His opportunistic move showed the world that he still had that flame to win, and fight for every point and position. Turkey was a good race, where Michael finished 4th, after what was a consistent, error free drive from him.

But bad luck hit Michael again in Montreal. Having qualified only 13th, thanks to the car's tyre management problems, because of which he had to do a fast lap on cold rubber. He started the race well, and was, at one time as high as 3rd place, but then a tangle with Kubica on his outlap, resulted in a puncture and his race was doomed, and he finished 11th.

What no one sees here is the way luck has played games with Michael. Canada, Australia and Malaysia are all testimony to the fact that lady luck hasn't been on his side lately. The Mercedes MGP W01 is not the best car in the paddock. Coupled with poor strategies and bad management, and thoughtless comments by veterans, Schumi's 2010 season hasn't been his finest. I really don't understand why the media has attacked him such. Even Alonso underperformed for 2 years in a Renault. His is nearly the same story, Great talent, Bad car. The only thing is that he did not return from a 3 year break.

But Schumi is sure to bounce back, and bounce back he will, with great results, to silence all those who humiliated and insulted him!!

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The Slipstream: Far East Show Down

Hello and welcome back to the Slipstream. First off I would like to express my condolences to Robert Kubica, and all citizens of Poland as their nation mourns a horrific tragedy.

As the F1 realm centers on the Shanghai circuit, it appears that the Crashgate saga is finally and thankfully over. Rumors of Schumacher's possible departure from Mercedes flooded the internet to fill in the two week gap between GPs, and it appears that the silly season has already started. The press also started to play up fictitious heat between Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Come on guys? Do you still yearn for the days when you could play Hamilton and Alonso against each other? Does Hamilton potentially feuding with Button leave you all warm and fuzzy inside or is it just the blind obsession with the 2008 World Champion that explains it all?

Over the past week it became known that Felipe Massa fueled speculation that he is either holding out for more money from Ferrari, or that he is considering other options besides the Scuderia. Personally, I think that is a bad move this early in the year, and with the championship being so wide open it would be a bad move to create friction with the team.

With pre-season speculation thrown right out the window I do believe the Red Bull team is the team with the fastest car, but much like the 2005 McLaren-Mercedes, it has a glass jaw and seems far too fragile for it's drivers to finesse to victory on a consistent basis. McLaren and Ferrari are just that, McLaren and Ferrari. Both teams seem to have found their stride and both will be featuring F-duct systems this weekend. I would expect the Red Bulls to bookend either a McLaren or Ferrari driver this weekend on the podium.

The real fight this season seems to be in the middle of the grid, where the re-charged Renault team are fighting off challenges from Mercedes GP, Force India, and Williams in terms of the "best of the rest" label. Some of the slicing and dicing shown on the US coverage has been impressive amongst all four of those teams. Even if it's just a brief few seconds while the commentators continue to fawn over Hamilton's "brilliant" drives.

Force India is the team that has really surprised me. Consistent finishes and quality drives out of both Sutil and a more mature Liuzzi. Taking into consideration that this team changed names more than P-Diddy did last decade, they are doing impressively well. It would be great to see that team score a few podiums and really show what a "customer" team can do. I hope Eddie Jordan is proud because he has reason to be.

Out of the new teams, Lotus is really kicking the other new guys to the curb. Massive backing from the government of Malaysia will do that but their driver line up could not have been better for the team. If the new teams were judged on just looks alone though, I would give the nod to the Virgin team. Their car and their whole operation looks very professional, and I hope they get their design issues settled out so they can compete against Lotus for potential points.

So expect the Red Bulls to show well but fall short of the win. The Slipstream will be back next week with a GP wrap up and the debut of a new feature for every post-Grand Prix week. Remember to stick with the Slipstream and YallaF1.com for all of your Grand Prix news and updates. Take care and thank you for reading.

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The Slipstream: USF?

Welcome back to the Slipstream. After a brief sabbatical to take care of a few things, I am back and ready to give you the reader, an American perspective on the world of Formula One. As always I would like to thank YallaF1's Team Captain for letting me post here and hope that you are enjoying a pretty exciting F1 season so far. This week however, I am going to try and break down what really happened with the failed USF1 effort. Having seen what the other new teams have been able to bring to the grid, it does appear that the USF1 effort would have been behind even the HRT squad in terms of overall pace but that is sadly something we might never know.

Formula One and the United States have had a long and rich history together. Phil Hill and Mario Andretti are the only two world champions from the States, both winning their titles in tragic circumstances. From the days where the Indy 500 counted towards the overall World Driver’s Championship, to the famous tracks of Watkins Glen and Long Beach, F1 has always had a place in the United States, until recently. With the fallout of the 2005 US Grand Prix still lingering, the series left the United States after the 2007 race leaving the future relationship between American fans and Formula One cast in serious doubt.

In the fall of 2008, the world was rocked by the worst financial crisis in a generation. This crisis impacted Formula One in declining ticket sales but it seemed that the shock waves would only hit outlying factors of the sport. With Honda departing in December of 2008, and rumors of Toyota, Renault, and BMW walking away if they did not join the rumored break away series, you could not blame anybody for having a bleak out look for the future of Formula One. The Honda F1 “dream” was over, and the series was entering the new design era with speculation that the entire F1 house of cards would fall in on itself by 2012.

Rumors of an American centered Formula One team started to propagate. Buzz and excitement flew across the motor sports world. Questions of legitimacy were being asked in every F1 publication, doubts sank into even the most optimistic US Formula 1 fan. Was this team legitimate? Who will race for them? Who will sponsor them in this economy? All questions posed across the F1 global community.

A sign of encouragement was first seen in late February of 2009 as Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor announced that the rumors were true, and USF1 or United States Grand Prix Engineering was born. Not only did the team exist, they were already talking about who might drive for the organization when the green lights signaled the start of the 2010 season in Bahrain.

Popularity and excitement around the team grew at a rapid pace. This was helped by the presence of Mr.Windsor during Formula One race broadcasts and the frequent hype generated by the team’s de facto soapbox, Speed TV. Known as mainly a NASCAR channel, the network took it upon themselves to help generate excitement about the team. It did also help that the team’s main base of operations was based in Charlotte, North Carolina, home to all of the major Spint Cup teams. USF1 was starting to come together, but doubts over its late start and the lack of drivers would continue to linger around the team.

As spring rolled into summer and some of the other newly announced F1 teams such as Manor, Lotus, and Campos began to at least mention driver preferences, little was heard from the Charlotte backed organization. When the other teams were signing title sponsors, Mr. Windsor and the team would only give subtle overtures and avoidance to anything considered a tough question requiring a straight answer.

When pressed on the subject on air, Mr.Windsor would only respond with “we are fielding many possible line ups” and offering only vague hints at even potential considerations to fill both seats. It was the hope of many US fans that there would be at least one US born driver announced. In a way, the over exposure on the Speed network allowed NASCAR to put it’s mark on the team in a way that I doubt Mr. Windsor had wanted to. During the summer when the buzz about the team was the most intense, NASCAR commentators would suddenly insert drivers like Kyle Busch, Scott Speed, and Juan Montoya. It almost seemed that NASCAR wanted a piece of the team that would soon be operating in its corporate nexus of Charlotte. The rumors about drivers ranged from the absurd to the absolute bizarre, the strangest being Indy Car driver Danica Patrick’s remarks that “she wasn’t interested” in considering pursing a seat for the team.

The reality about the team started to manifest itself when it was announced this past summer that YouTube founder Chad Hurley had thrown financial support behind the team. Rumors of Best Buy signing on with the team were also starting to gain steam as well. Best Buy had been trying to break into the European market for years and being on the side pod or vortex generator of a F1 car would have certainly helped their brand exposure in the European, Asian, and Middle Eastern markets.

Things became slightly more troubling when the first driver was announced and it was nobody anybody really expected. When Jose’ Maria Lopez of Argentina was announced as the team’s first driver a collective “Who?” rang out across the motor sport world. After months of speculation and hype, this was all that USF1 could announce? While the other teams were preparing for their debut in Jerez, Spain, USF1 was still trying to secure not only general sponsorship, but also additional funds to keep Lopez’s services. It was looking as the fate of the team was becoming more of a forgone conclusion that they would never make the grid in Bahrain, maybe hope remained for the middle of the season, or even a delayed launch until 2011.

The team’s demise was confirmed by the FIA when their entry list for the 2010 season was released two weeks ago. USF1, long suspected of not being able to make the grid would not race in 2010, and the American team from Charlotte who “hoped” to sign US talent “eventually” closed it’s doors with both team principals having yet to comment.

The team’s failures are many and there still may yet be hope for a US team to make the grid in today's “new team friendly” F1 but the faults of USF1 started at the very top. When pressed for answers, Mr.Windsor who was acting in the capacity of team spokesperson would provide very vague answers to some very basic questions such as engine provider, title sponsor, and driver candidates. Even if Mr. Windsor didn’t have the answers to those questions, he could have gone a long way to establish creditability for the team if he just admitted that the team was still looking for all of those things. Instead he just skirted away from the chance to establish fact in a team surrounded by fiction.

If he was also able to sign somebody like Ryan Hunter Reay or Marco Andretti to even a test contract it could have been a great help in finding sponsorship. Marco had been given a test by the Honda team a few years ago, and while it was a basic demonstration for the young American, it seemed to be a prelude to possibly a test seat by 2010. Both of those men could have been a great help to the team by convincing fans of not only the legitimacy of the “US” in USF1, but also help bring sponsors to the table.

The presence of several other series in North America was also an obstacle to USF1's success. For the money that it would take to become even an associate sponsor, let alone a title sponsor, a business could sponsor a top level Indy Car team and get perhaps ten times the television coverage and exposure in the regional market place. That same money could also go towards being a major sponsor on a Nationwide car, or Camping World series NASCAR truck and get a sufficient return. That is not taking American LeMans, or Daytona Prototype Series cars into consideration either.

The demise of the USF1 effort was upsetting, if not frustrating to see. While there were many fans who hoped it would succeed, the team did not want to show it’s support back to the fans that desperately wanted it to succeed. Had the team staged a demonstration run at Watkins Glen, or in New York City, I am sure that there could have been serious excitement generated by a team started on good intentions but faced with the hard realities of today.


As I was working on this column, rumors of a F1 race in New Jersey, close to New York City have been spreading across the various news sites. Let me be the first to say that this is a bad idea, but I will continue to track this story and bring you the very latest in regards to this proposal. With that being said, next week's Slipstream will be a feature on the first three races of the year and a preview of the Chinese Grand Prix. Take care and thank you for reading.

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Welcome aboard KC!!!

I have longed to see an Indian colors in the grid and last week was a ray of hope and yesterday I tweeted KC that I just cant wait to see the official confirmation. And lo, it did happen and am very happy for Karun.

The combination seems too good and it presents a good opportunity for Karun to develop and rise to the occasion. With Bruno Senna as team mate the expectations will be much more than usual. On the other hand Bruno himself will have to race under pressure which I presume will be a great help to Karun.

One more factor which works for Karun is that there will less of pressure from people back home since its not like how it was when Narain gate crashed the F1 circuit. I still have those memories when people thought he ought to have won all the races. Imagine Jordan beating the Ferrari would be straight out of comics or sometime the next film script might allow that.

The Indian F1 fan is much more matured and Karun is not the first driver to do the feat and then ofcourse we shall have comparisons. This time around the look of the grid is something pretty awesome what with Ring Master aka King being back. I am referring to Micheal Schumacher. He would be the most watched person.

I think KC's presence in the grid is more than a reason that I will be regular. Wishing Karun all the very best and hoping that he will do well as much as possible in the given car and hope he beats his team-mate the first competition on the grid.

KC presence should boost a bit on the marketing front vis a vis selling F1 for the Indian audience for an Indian GP in 2011 hopefully.

This should get some relief for all Indian drivers especially after what Mr. Mallya had said. Well hope things will be better for sure. Now will wait to watch the qualifying to see if KC can spring a surprise, I would wait with my fingers crossed.

Indian F1 fan.

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