Who is my favorite driver?

"Umm well it was Schumi but he's gone so I guess it's his replacement, Kimi. Yeh go Kimi! Oh, turns out Kimi doesn't like to smile or really do much to make me want to follow him. Okay so then I guess I'll follow Massa. Go Massa! Well I can't claim he's my favourite driver, seeing as I force myself to say it and I really don't think he's great. Hmm well I guess I just go for Ferrari these days...Go Team!"

This has been my dilemma since Brazil 2006. Who would replace Schumi as my favorite driver?

My problem is that I follow Ferrari. In my opinion it is the only team to go for. The passion and history behind it dwarf any other team in Formula One past or present. The experiences I've had following Ferrari have been so tremendous that it would be a crime to ever stop following them. From the late 90's and the pain of watching Schumacher and Irvine battle to get their cars to challenge the likes of Williams and McLaren to the euphoria of watching Schumacher win his first title with the team in 2000. Then the Ferrari Years started and the highs kept getting higher. Then a man called Alonso got into a Renault and took it to 2 world titles in 2 years, ending the Ferrari Years and the reign of Michael Schumacher as F1's King.
When Schumi retired I was shattered to say the least. I had never followed Formula One without Schumacher being on the grid. I was lost.

I turned my attention in desperation to the Iceman. Kimi came to Ferrari from McLaren and he was considered Schumacher replacement. Now I'm not a very big fan of Mclaren, I actually hate them with an unrivaled passion (following Ferrari between 98 and 2002 was probably the cause of this.)
So my dilemma then was that I wanted to follow the best Ferrari driver at the time, and Kimi looked like he'd be that man. It took a bit soul searching to get over the fact he was a Mclaren driver, but eventually I made peace with it. So as well all know by know Kimi has no personality what-so-ever! Yes he likes getting drunk, which is also a hobby of mine, but really there is nothing in him to really make you like the guy. The other driver at the time was Massa. I think he's a good driver and he probably has the most passion for doing well out of anyone on the grid. I just couldn't call him my favourite driver.

So here I am nearly 2 years latter. Who is my favorite driver? I don't know
During the last 2 seasons, the fact that I wasn't only supporting ONE driver meant that I was noticing the rest of the grid a lot more. This I think has led me to become a bit of a neutral supporter when it comes to drivers. I still like certain drivers over others, but it doesn't bother me so much anymore. All I've cared about is that Ferrari do well.

In a few days it seems as if we'll be saying goodbye to Kimi after a short stint and welcoming Fernando Alonso to the team. At first I really didn't want him at Ferrari but after some thought I've changed my mind. Alonso is the most talented driver on the grid in my opinion. Sure Kimi, Lewis and even Kubica are great drivers given the right car and right situation but in Formula One its all about consistency. Alonso gets the job done every time, no matter what car he is in or what grid position he starts from. Seeing him in a Ferrari is going to be amazing.

So who will be my favorite driver? No one.
I'll be supporting the red cars as I always have, Alonso and Massa should make a great team, that is of course if Massa is cleared to race.

Who knows...maybe Schumi will be back!

T.P.S Report - Singapore Grand Prix

The T.P.S Report will break down races and race weekends throught the rest of the season.
I'll look at the expectations before the race, what I thought of the outcome and any other worthy subjects that came up during the race.

T.P.S Report for 2009 Singapore Grand Prix

During the build up to Singapore only one story was making the headlines, the Renault lie-gate affair. My thoughts on this are that basically they shouldn't have done it, Piquet should have said no and Flavio and Symonds needed to be punished for what they allowed to happen and for thinking of the plan in the first place. But it seems justice was served, maybe Flavio got a bit of a harsh punishment? I think it was his time to go anyway.
The story of qualifying was that the Brawn cars failed to get good grid positions and with Rubens crashing at the end of Q3 Vettel and Rosberg were denied finishing their flying laps. Lewis had pole, another dominating drive in Quali from him. The McLaren seems to have found the pace again lately, although Heikki continues to battle with it.
Rosberg and Vettel were looking like they had a chance to win from their grid positions and with a chaotic start predicted it looked like we were in for a decent race.

The race was more eventful than I expected. 2 safety car periods, a few crashes, lots of retirements and some very stupid mistakes that ended up locking in the win for Hamilton. Lewis was in a race of his own really, the car was perfect and he had clear track ahead of him. Passing isn't really possible in Singapore unless its done during pit stops or because of a spin/accident.
Rosberg threw away the race when he pissed the pit exit, why i'm not yet sure! Vettel then got caught speeding in the pit lane, which there is no excuse for these days.
Drive of the day for me was Glock closely followed by Alonso.
Glock made his Toyota work, he had the pace and getting past Alonso was key to him securing a podium for Toyota. If the rumors are true and Toyota are getting rid of both their 2009 drivers for next year, Glock has just kept his name on everyone radar with this podium, maybe Toyota will even keep him now.
Alonso also got a great result out of that Renault. I still think Alonso is one of only a few drivers on the grid today that can get a podium out of a mediocre car. He's proved his talent in every race he has been in and with an imminent move to Ferrari maybe only a week away, I think the best of Alonso is yet to come. But that's for another blog entry!

Overall Singapore didn't disappoint. The title looks like it will go down to the last race and with Button finding a bit more form lately, I think he has in in the bag.
But this is Formula One, Kimi won the 2007 WDC in the last race and Massa was World Champion for a few seconds in 2008 before Lewis got that one spot back on the last corner of the last race!
Anything can and usually does happen!

WELCOME

Well the old blog lasted about 2 hours over at livejournal, the site sort of sucked a bit.
So I jumped over here and started a new blog, this one will last I think.
Here is the original post from the 1st blog

"Welcome to my Formula One blog, The Purple Sector.

I'm not going to waste much time introducing myself, a quick look at my bio should bring you up to speed.
I'm a huge Formula One fan in Australia, my allegance is to the Ferrari team and always has, although lately I seem to be neutral while watching races (blog to come).
I think about and read about Formula One too often not to be able to share some of my insights and thoughts about the sport, hence I have created this blog.

Not really sure if anyone will ever read this or visit this site but if you do, I hope you enjoy my views and opinions and feel free to comment and reply to anything I write.

Can't wait to start putting my thoughts onto paper, er, screen?

ED"