The Nojvnof1 files Syndication Sun, 16 Dec 2007 17:13:33 +0000 wez@totalf1.com (TotalF1.com Forums) IP.Blog 60
Now, night racing. This topic was on the news here during the recent Aussie GP and it got me thinking, do we need it?? In my opinion, no we don't, night racing is too much of a gimmick and I believe it's only being considered as an option for one reason and one reason only, the European audience. Whilst it is a privilege to hold the season opening race, I don't believe it should be held at night just so those elsewhere can watch the races at a reasonable time. Is it inconvenient? Yes of course, but any dedicated fan will get up at any hour to watch the race, especially the season opener.

We here in Aus have to stay up late for most European races. The races start at 10pm although the coverage is slated to start between 10.30pm and 11pm on a Sunday night (however this is just a ball park figure as Idol and Big Brother are notorious for running well overtime). This effectively means we don't finish a race until just after midnight, and that's on a good night. This is on a Sunday night remember, where people have to get up for work or school. Yet, we don't complain (about the time difference that is, the scheduling and shows running overtime is another matter!), that's the way it is. We only have 3 GP's in our timezone (Australia, Malaysia and Japan), the rest are in Europe and in North and South America (which start at about 2 or 3 on a Sunday morning.

Sure, there would be benefits to a night race, not only would the Aus GP meet the goal of making it more viewer friendly for European audiences, it would be something different for the audiences here. We've had the GP here for 12 years and for some, it could get stale. For me, it's always special, whether it's at night or during the day. Throw in the V8 Supercars (which were sorely missed this year) and it's close to perfect. However, what benefits would a night GP being to Melbourne? Isn't one of the main arguments in favour of the GP to do with tourism? Melbourne is a brilliant city at night, let alone during the day, but more can be shown when the sun is up.

Therefore, I find myself arguing against a night race in Melbourne as we in Melbourne, and Australia for that matter, would benefit more from it being held during the day. The only winners of a night race would be the European audience, who would get more of a sleep in.

nojvnof1 out!!!]]> Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:06:39 +0000
Now, as the heading of this blog suggests, last weekend was about three men, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Yes, I refer to him as the future as I've seen enough to know this kid is the real deal. I thought he was during his GP2 season last year, and his performance all weekend all but confirmed it. I'd been agonising whether or not to go at all for a while considering Jacques wasn't there. Anyways, I decided to go (I went on Friday, was going on Sunday but was feeling crook and couldn't go), but it was weird. However, it had a feeling of closure. I know saying such would make me open to a heap of insults, but that's the honest truth. Don't get me wrong, I'd totally accepted JV was finished in F1, in all honesty, I actually thought he'd get dropped long before August, but it wasn't until I was at the track and didn't see him flying past that it sunk in. I mean, everyone wishes that their driver is allowed to retire from the sport they once conquered on their own terms and in the same gracious manner Michael did at Monza last year. However, Jacques' career has been far from conventional and his exit was, whilst predicted, still very sudden, and in a way, ungracious, considering all the controversy. Enough of that however, that's the past and we've got Le Mans to look forward to.

How good is Lewis Hamilton?!?!?! This kid is the real deal. It was the best performance I'd seen from a rookie since...yep you guessed it, Jacques himself way back in '96. Jacques of course had an advantage as he had a superb car that was the class of the field by some mile, and a teammate, who was a good driver, isn't, in my opinion, in the class of Alonso. Lewis had a superb preparation however. His career has been brilliantly managed and he seems to have his feet well and truly on the ground. He seems so composed and has brilliant racecraft. His move at turn one to go outside of Alonso and Kubica was sublime! I don't expect him to be Alonso this year, but there will be a race or 4 where he outraces Fernando and will win a GP. I believe McLaren are at the head of a long chasing pack which is after Ferrari and it won't be too long before they're mixing it with Ferrari on pure pace.

If Hamilton's performance was outstanding, then how do we describe Raikkonen's domination of the race. It was Schumacher-esque. Having said that, Massa was screwed by his gearbox problems in quali so we may not get a true indication of their performance relative to one another until Sepang. Although I believe Kimi would still have won, but Felipe would have been right up there with him. Renault was a major disappointment. Aside from their 'fruit salad' livery, they didn't have the pace of Ferrari or McLaren and Kovalainen had a shocking race. I rate Heikki so I think this was just one of those races for him where everything went wrong. He's a very good racer and will perform well this year, it's just a pity his debut race had to be one of his worst performances. As for Fisi, he was solid in unspectacular, but I see Nelsinho in his seat next year, perhaps even later this year.

BMW Sauber were quick, but their reliability problems returned and robbed Kubica of a decent points finish. This will be one of the intra team battles to watch. Honda were a shambles (once again) and their livery isn't helping. I don't know what's worse, the aero performance of the car or the aero. Perhaps they're as bad as each other. I wonder what Button must be thinking though. He's no longer Britain's favourite F1 driver and he looks to have another poor season. With the pressure of the British F1 contingent focusing on Hamilton, this might be the respite Button needs. If the car comes good, JB will deliver, I am sure of that.

I was absolutely thrilled to see Williams competitive again. Sure they weren't up there with Ferrari or McLaren, but there were enough signs to indicate that the team will have a better season than last year's shocker. Nico was very solid whilst Alex will in time be a match for him. RBR were true to their testing form and as I thought, Webber had DC's measure. Toyota didn't look too spectacular, but weren't as bad as their testing form had suggested. Super Aguri had a decent race but I wonder how long they'll be allowed to race their current car, same goes for Toro Rosso. I was glad to see Speed have a decent weekend and I believe he'll have a much better year. As for Spyker, they may come good later in the year thanks to Gascoyne and his team, but for now, not much is expected from them.

Well that's pretty much it for my first blog entry in a very very long time. Feel free to compliment/criticise at will and I will aim to make more blog entries through the year, uni work permitting of course.

Bring On Le Mans 2007!!! Go Jacques, Go Peugeot!!!

nojvnof1 out!!!]]> Sat, 24 Mar 2007 10:18:59 +0000
Anyways, here following is a list of all the teams/people I support in different sports. I follow most sports although motor racing is the big one. So here goes

F1: Jacques Villeneuve, although I don't mind Alonso and Kimi.

CART: Paul Tracy, Alex Tagliani, Andrew Ranger (the big hope for Canada, and the guy I'll support in F1 after Jacques should he make it), Justin Wilson

IRL: Darren Manning, Patrick Carpentier. I'm not a fan of the IRL series in itself, but I followed these drivers in CART, so it's kind of guilty by association

WRC: Petter Solberg

V8 Supercars: Holden Racing Team (Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly)

AFL: Geelong Cats
NRL: Melbourne Storm

Football/Soccer
English Premier League: Manchester United, West Ham United, Southampton
Serie A: Juventus
Spanish Primera Liga: FC Barcelona
German Bundesliga: Bayern Munich

So there is the list. I must admit to catching on the Le Tour fever. At the moment, the greatest cycle race in the world, the Tour de France is on, and I've stayed up to watch a few stages live, and I'm hooked. I have a great respect for these gladiators, who put themselves to the ultimate test over a 3 week period. I don't have a particular favourite team or cyclist, but Lance Armstrong is a class above, not that anyone needs any convincing on that fact.

Well I'm off, check back with you all another time

nojvnof1 out!!!]]> Wed, 20 Jul 2005 10:00:35 +0000
Now, as promised, I'll discuss how I got into F1. Well my memories of it are vague and sketchy, but I do remember watching tv one weekend, channel surfing, when up came the Australian GP from Adelaide. I remember it was on the day of the race and I caught the end of it. If I recall correctly it was in the very early 1990's, probably 1991. I saw a few minutes and got bored. The next year I recall watching a race live from Japan and got interested in F1, becoming a fan of Senna. Of course I was only a young boy, and knew very little of the sport, and even then I didn't follow it much, but I liked this Senna guy. I must admit to not watching that fateful race at Imola as it was on late and I had school the next day, but I remember being on the bus the Monday after, and as we passed a milkbar, there was a newspaper headline, something along the lines of "Senna close to death". I then turned to my friend, also an F1 fan, and he explained how he had a crash. I remember watching the whole weekend in Adelaide, supporting Damon Hill. As you know the rest is history.

I didn't watch F1 much in '95 except for the Pacific GP and Aust GP. However things changed in 1996 when Jacques came into F1. I knew alittle of him from his days in CART and all I knew was that his father was a great driver who had died in an accident. I sat glued to the tv the whole weekend and have been a big fan of JV's ever since - as alot of posters on here will attest to

Many people ask me why I support Jacques. They ask why I don't support Webber or Schumacher. Well I am big on qualities such as loyalty and honour and there was no way I would jump ship. Being a JV fan has been a roller-coaster ride to say the very least, a ride which is probably unique to only JV fans, as no other driver has been through the experiences JV has. Many people will remember Jacques for some of his bad races at BAR, those 3 shockers at Renault, and him moving for big bucks to BAR. I like to remember that brilliant rookie season, that Championship, his brilliant drives at Estoril in '96, Barcelona '97, Hockenheim '98 and the many others which I won't bore you with. JV is also a unique character, too honest for his own good I feel. He would have fitted in perfectly, and would have been appreciated much more by the critics had he driven in the era of his late and very great father.

There were the sheer lows of 2003. All the politics and the like which led to his sabbatical, only to be overshadowed by the sheer elation felt when it was announced that JV had returned to F1. He'd first test, then race with Renault at the end of '04 and race with Sauber in '05. Justice has been done in the eyes of every JV fan. And to make things better, DR was given the boot from BAR after doing his utmost best to destroy JV's reputation in the paddock, something I for one will never forget. The press are always quick to jump on JV's back, most evident when it was reported he would be dumped after the Aust GP this year, after only one race

Well that's all for now,

nojvnof1 out!!!]]> Sat, 16 Jul 2005 09:23:41 +0000

This is all new to me. I've never had a blog or anything, and I've been more of a reader on the internet than someone who writes alot of stuff. That was until I joined this forum early in 2004. I really have no idea what I generally will be writing about, although it will be heavily influenced by motorsports, all types. I'll be giving my views on F1, CART, WRC, MOTOGP. I might also diversify my posts to include the odd book and cd review. I'll also try and write about my other sporting passions, mainly football (soccer) and Aussie Rules.

As I write this it is late Saturday afternoon and so far it has been a good day as my Aussie Rules team, the mighty Geelong Cats, had a massive victory over the reigning Premiers, Port Power. We've been struggling with injury as of late and last week had 10 of our best players out, and understandably got smashed by Sydney. Today was different, we had a few players back, and we were playing at home this time, and went on to win by 79 points. A vital victory as our form of late hasn't been at its best due to the big injury list, and that it is vital we keep on winning to remain in the Top 4 on the ladder and get that double chance in the finals.

Well that's all for now, I'm off to read what my fellow posters have written on these forums. I don't know how regularly I will post in this blog as uni starts up again pretty soon and if it's anything like the first semester, then I'll be one busy boy uni wise. My next post on here will probably be more about how I got interested in F1 and a bit of my take on JV's career. It may be tonight, it may be tomorrow, but it will happen. Is this the first of many blog entries??? We shall see.

nojvnof1 out
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