Category Archives: Formula One

Anything You Can Do

I haven’t written much here for a while. I don’t really know why but I haven’t gone away – perhaps I am just spending all my time moving my Windows Media library across to iTunes. Yes, after all these entries about music players, I gave up and switched to an iPod Nano. And, after all those trials and tribulations with other music players, I am very happy. I even bought the Nike+ kit so that I can track how far I have run at the gym. Seriously, I’ve tried many of the music players and they just don’t have the ease of use and integration that the iTunes has. It’s the seamless interaction that makes it all work so well.

Still, that’s not why I picked up the keyboard today. Earlier I watched the European Formula One Grand Prix; and boy what a race that was. But I don’t really want to talk about the race itself (I am sure you can read all about it here) but I did want to talk about one of the best pieces of advertising that I have seen a long while.

Even if you are not a petrolhead follower of Formula One – and especially if you are British – you can’t have failed to have read some piece about the Championship scrap between Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The latest advertisement from Mercedes (which is of course the team they both drive for) plays on this rivalry beautifully. Anything you can do, I can do better:

I just think the whole thing is really well pitched and they seem to have had some fun making it.

On this day…

2002: Fix My Car
2002: Running Shoes
2002: Oh Canada

Red Bull part company with Klien

Just a few weeks ago I mentioned that Christian Klien might not have a drive next season. Well, he hasn’t got one for the rest of this season either! According to BBC Sport, “Red Bull have dropped driver Christian Klien for the rest of the season after he turned down the team’s offer of a Champ Car drive next season” The good news is that the same article suggests that “Klien is tipped for a role with the new Spyker team after the Dutch sportscar maker bought the struggling Midland team”.

On this day…

2007: Green Before Her Time
2005: A New Beginning
2004: Fish For Me
2002: Still The Same Bart
2002: A JavaScript Moment
2002: One Year On

Schumacher to quit at end of year

After a fantastic race in Italy, Michael Schumacher announced his retirement. The seven-time world champion will retire from Formula One at the end of the season. Ferrari also announced that Kimi Raikkonen has signed a three-year deal and Felipe Massa’s contract has been extended to the end of 2008. More at BBC Sport.

On this day…

2007: A Mastery Of Technology
2005: Staying For Breakfast
2004: Where’s Matt’s Tongue?
2003: A Video Moment
2002: Around The World

Formula One Calendar 2007 For Outlook Import

A couple of years ago I made a csv file that allowed you to easily import the Formula One calendar for that year into your Outlook file. I didn’t get round to making one for the 2005 or 2006 seasons despite the fact that I got the occasional email from people asking about it. Yesterday, the official 2007 Formula 1 calendar was announced and I knocked together a quick .csv file that will import the dates into Outlook. Trust me, the data will need updating. I suspect the times, distances and (possibly) some of the tracks are not accurate. I was doing it in a rush so please keep an eye on the Formula One section to see if I update it at all.

Again I have provided the file as a .zip that you must first extract the .csv from. Then, in Outlook, you will need to go to the File menu and Import the data (import from another program or file) and place it in the calendar. The file is provided as is and you use it at your own risk. I don’t know anyway you can remove it without deleting each entry individually. Once again, I have included a category name ‘Formula One’ so you can easily find all the entries this file creates. It should be easier to find them in Outlook and remove them if you need to. If you already have a Formula One category in your Outlook calendar you may want to edit the file before importing so you can change the category name. The file is fairly simple and you should be able to read it in any spreadsheet program (and even some text file readers will read it).

I know the previous files were downloaded a number of times. If you download this one then why leave a comment and let me know that you’re using it.

PS: Google did a great one for this year’s races so I hope they’re going to do the same for next year.

On this day…

2002: Cookie Me

Go Ant Go!

Honda Driver Anthony DavidsonThere have already been two posts about F1 this week, here and here. Well, time for a third. I thought it worth noting that Anthony Davidson stood in for Martin Brundle as one of the ITV commentators last Sunday. Not only was it fantastic to have Honda’s third driver there for Jenson’s win but I thought he did a mighty fine job. Here’s hoping we get to hear (and see) a lot more of him in the next few years.

UPDATE: Just look at what I said last year. Amusing coincidences?

On this day…

2005: Tipping BAR Honda To Win
2004: Gym Buddy – We Must Not Stop Now
2002: Survival

Changes At Red Bull Racing

Christian Klien Christian Klien
Yesterday, while celebrating Jenson’s big win, I omitted to mention that Mark Webber has signed to drive with Red Bull Racing next year. While this might be great news for some it does mean that Christian Klien is being left without a drive next year and, as this picture might suggest to you, that can’t be a good thing really. Christian might not have had the best performances of the year but can that really all be placed at his door and not the car? He’s results have not been that much worse that team-king David Coulthard. “My aim has always been competing in Formula One and I am not willing to give it up so easily,” Klien told F1Racing.Net.

On this day…

2005: Swiss Re Tower, London
2004: Back Ache
2003: More Gay Marriage
2002: Water, Water Everywhere

Button Is A Winner!

Jenson Button won!Well, what can I say? Jenson went and did it in superb style yesterday. After six years and 113 races Jenson made it from 14th on the grid to take the podium at the winner in a thrilling race that saw both Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher fail to make it to the rain-soaked finish line. “We made a great choice on the tyres and also on the last pit-stop,” Button told the BBC’s website. If there was pressure to get that first win then it’s surely off now but I imagine the pressure will be even greater to win a few more and then a championship. Better get my flag ready for next year’s Silverstone race, huh?

Read more >> Button pays tribute to Honda team
The World reacts to Jenson Button’s first win
Button ‘can be F1 world champion
Dad believes first win is just the start for Jenson

On this day…

2005: London’s Living Room
2004: Saturday News
2003: RSS Feeds
2003: No More Clause 28
2003: July 2003 And All That
2002: Where Are You Now, Miss Boo?

Bye Bye Juan Pablo

Juan Pablo MontoyaTeam McLaren Mercedes and Juan Pablo Montoya have mutually agreed for him to step down in the forthcoming races of this year’s Formula 1 World Championship. The team has decided that Pedro de la Rosa will join Kimi Raikkonen in the race driver line-up.

On this day…

2006: And We’re Back
2005: Yummy
2004: My Data
2002: I Like Yahoo!

A New Champion

Ah, Monday morning and so little time to say anything. Nevertheless, Fernando Alonso’s Formula One Championship title (he’s the youngest ever Formula One champion) can’t go without note [Alonso clinches Formula One title] nor can Christian Klien’s superb qualifying performance [itv.com/f1 – Klien goes from zero to hero]. I preferred the later UK start time for the Grand Prix. 6pm seems like a much more sensible hour.

On this day…

2004: Lord Hill’s Mighty Tower
2002: Hot or Cold
2002: Plastic, Moi?

A New Beginning

On Friday, I mentioned that The Guardian was getting its new look tomorrow. You can follow the paper’s editors as they plan prepare tomorrow’s paper at The Editors’ Weblog that has launched on the site.

In tomorrow’s sport section I hope they cover Formula One in some detail. It’s been announced that Red Bull Racing will take over the Minardi team from November. Minardi’s boss, Paul Stoddart, told BBC News,

Small privateer teams are probably phasing themselves out … it’s hard to imagine a truly privateer team can break into F1 again

I think that’s sad for the sport really but the who really has got that much money?

On this day…

2007: Green Before Her Time
2006: Red Bull part company with Klien
2004: Fish For Me
2002: Still The Same Bart
2002: A JavaScript Moment
2002: One Year On