





So the silence is broken on F1 and Sochi by someone in F1. Niki Lauda has pronounced "All those responsible have decided that we are racing there," he told German television RTL, "so in this case we have an obligation, and that extends to Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA." Sound familiar? Exactly what we heard over Bahrain. The powers that be know what they are doing and we have a contract. As I recall the Ukraine has a contract with Russia that gives it control of the Crimea. What happened to ethics, morality and humanity? Just a thought, but how many Mercedes are sold in Russia.
Even that wimp Jimmy Carter organized a boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980, and JFK called Khrushchev's bluff over Cuba. So what does the world do now Russia is supposed to no longer be a threat? Nothing. This is no different to Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
So Bernie has finally come out and said what most of us suspected. India has not paid up, so no GP. It had nothing to do with timing, and perhaps some to do with tax, but in the end if Bernie is not paid in advance then no GP. The Indian promoter has found out what most of us already know, you can't make money on an F1 race if you are not the Government.
NASCAR has tweaked qualifying, as predicted here. Cooling the engines is a big issue, and dealt with by running the cooling water through a separate ice filled bath once they are back in the garage. That system was not allowed during qualifying when the cars are parked out on pit lane, so after a run the cars would go back out with all the tape off the grill to run around slowly on the inside lane of the track. Not a big issue on a large oval, but a half mile? So they are now going to be able to bring a unit out to pit lane and slow laps are not allowed. Still not improving the show, but an important safety measure.
Was anyone else underwhelmed by the new qualifying session for NASCAR? Unlike F1, which this is presumably based on, starting on pole is meaningless in NASCAR, so not really any sense of excitement. The first session saw cars backing out into pit lane, blocking other drivers, and then parked at pit out, effectively blocking that. Not a good arrangement in my mind. I know they are trying to build the show at the track, but the old system was actually more exciting with one car on the track, but with the speed tracker showing us where the car was at all around the track, and the fast guys in practice going last. Let's see what NASCAR does to tweak this.
My last blog talked about the lack of spectators, and there were certainly none at PIR yesterday, but they did show up for the 500 on Sunday, on the front stretch at least, only to sit in the rain, lightning and tornado warning. See what the Weather Channel thought of their severe weather response.
http://www.weather.com/news/nascar-daytona-500-severe-weather-did-track-officials-do-enough-20140223
Not good enough from what should be our best track operator.