Full Throttle

Where to start?

I guess one of my favorite things about F1 are the images, funny to say about a race, to select images ahead of on-track action but it is what it is - a spectacle.

I’ve always loved the super slo-mo shots of cars catching air over the rumble strips at Bus Stop, or low angle shots through a corner via a moving camera. In-car shots, pre-race walks through the starting grid, and never to be forgotten Brolly Girls all add the the photographic spectacle. (And Miss Universe Dayana Mandoza of Venezuela, ooh-lala! - ed)

Singapore his given me a new “best shot,” the aerial shot that encompassed the entire track. Seeing the Marina Bay Circuit as a ribbon of light in the night was fantastic. You could say I’m easily entertained, but look at those shots again.

Notice how well the lighting crew did their job. Notice how there was almost no light bleeding over and away from the racing surface, it was precisely directed just where needed most, for drivers and spectators.

As for the race itself, it was spectacular also, but not for actual racing. (so what else is new - ed)

Spectacular was Nelson ‘Don’t Call Me Junior’ Piquet running out of room - or talent - “driving” his Renault into the concrete barrier at the exit of a turn. “Sorry guys” he was heard to say over the radio. The sorry part was descriptive at least.

The ensuing Safety Car probably sealed Ferrari’s fate for 2008. Between Kimi tossing points away with a late race encounter with a barrier and Massa trailing a mechanical-like Boa Constrictor down the Paddock the team leave the Lion City pointless and drops them to second in the Constructors Championship.

The pointless haul was the first time the legendary team failed to score any points since the start of the 2006 season in the Australian Grand Prix.

Spectacularly slow describes both the Ferrari crew as they “ran” tortoise-like in retrieval of Massa’s dangling fueling rig and race stewards as they took all of 20 minutes to decide whether Rosberg and Kubica entered the paddock before the pitlane was open. They eventually made the right call - but 20 minutes! The stewards continually out-do themselves in the stupidity department.

Unspectacular was Lewis Hamilton’s run. After placing second behind then leading Massa he dropped back, after the two Prancing Horse’s came up lame he obviously decided that six points was better than trying to grab eight, a decision aided by a late race crash when Force India’s Adrian Sutil created a second safety car stint.

Alonzo was elated with the win, spectacularly so, as he should be in gaining his first win since the Italian Grand Prix in 2007 when he drove to victory for McLaren.

“Fantastic! Well done guys! Not like yesterday, it was a good car everywhere!”

But be warned, at a few websites and a couple blogs the hyperbole is being spread rather liberally all claiming this win should be the clincher for the Alonzo/Renault contract talks.

Ok, I get it, you’re Alonzo fans. Alonzo did what he had to do given the Ferrari gift, but to claim this was something special and would sway anyone, either inside or outside the Renault organization, is just a smidgen over the top.

Renault gets their day of glory for the year, as does Alonzo, but unless some spectacular misfortune happens to others in the next three Grands Prix both are done for the year.