Music: This Boy by James Morrison
Yeah. Still listening to James Morrison's album. And James Blunt. Good stuff (Tel, don't euww me). I've listened to Britney's Blackout, once. Okay gak aaa. Not bad. I'm at work now. I have at my disposal all the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Smallville, Ugly Betty, House, 30 Rock, hundreds (no, seriously) of English/Korean/Chinese/Thai movies.. everything. You name it. But when the mood is not there, nothing of these are of interest to me right now. I'm also currently reading this really awesome book, The Time Traveler's Wife. It is really good, but again, I'm not in the right mood. I'm 3 quarter through though. In different circumstances, I would've finished the book in at least 3 days. Its been a week since I started.

What should I do.. what should I write? Okay, its probably a good time for me to wrap up the F1 2007 season like I said I would in my Kimi's The Greatest entry, before jadi citer basi (Well, mmg dah basi pun).

You might think the season's over, but technically, its still not. There will be a hearing on 15th Nov regarding Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld's (they finished 4th, 5th and 6th respectively) illegal use of fuel that was below (or above?) the predetermined temperature, or something like that. The stewards at the Brazilian GP couldn't actually prove it, and dismissed the matter. But McLaren decided to appeal to the FIA court to re-look into it. Should the 3 drivers be found guilty, they could be disqualified, points from the GP could be stripped, and Hamilton will technically move up to 4th place and freakin win the Driver's Title. That's just crap. McLaren insists that the reason they're appealing is because they want to uphold the integrity of the sport bla bla bla... which is totally hypocritical. Erm.. hello.... Spygate? I won't accuse them of trying to win it for Hamilton, lets give them the benefit of the doubt (although I don't really want to). Even Hamilton said he does not want to win it like that. So now, every awaits the final verdict from the FIA court. I do hope they are sensible people who would not let anything like this happen to the drama-laden F1 season this year.

As you would know (or maybe not), Alonso and McLaren has parted ways. He won't be honoring his 3-year contract with McLaren. And get this, McLaren is not imposing any penalty fees, none whatsoever. Its like saying to Alonso, we think you suck, just go away, we are voiding your contract, you don't even have to pay anything, just get the hell out of here, in your face, kind of thing. Haha. That's how I look at it anyway. But no matter, Alonso must be happy to leave the team. But truth be told, I actually thought that Alonso would stay (if McLaren did not

kick him out). My rationale would be, Alonso would definitely want a fast and reliable car. McLaren proved it this year, they have a sweet package this season.. Which other team can the double world champion expect to drive a car as good as the McLaren's? Well, of course there's Ferrari but they have long ago confirmed that their driver line-up for next season(and the next) will stay as it is, what with Kimi's contract running till 2009, and Massa's contract recently renewed till 2010? Alonso blatantly said he does not want to go back to Renault, either because he thinks Renault will still not perform next season, or he just doesn't want to be there because of past experiences (he was with Renault for 5 years), but then again, that was at least 2 months ago, before Flav came up with a new deal to offer to Alonso, in his very unsecretive attempt to lure Alonso back to his team? Thing is, Alonso wants a 1 year deal, which is probably because he wants to keep his options open, but Flav wants at least 2 years. But the details of the new deal by Flav is not disclosed to the public. So I don't know for sure what's going to happen. Williams clearly said they were gonna keep Rosberg, but they do have a vacant seat due to Alex Wurz retiring from the world of F1. BMW Sauber is so totally gonna stay with Kubica and Heidfeld, they are a good pair and Sauber would want continuity for the team if they want to start winning races next season. Well, that's what I'd do if I was the Team Principal anyway (hahaha cakap cam bagus). Anyway, my conclusion is that, Alonso would be going backwards now that he's not driving a McLaren anymore. But then again, anything can happen. F1 is so unpredictable, you never know. The driver market is currently at a stand still, and will be so until Alonso announces his new team.

Alonso pisses me off really, attitude-wise. I do admit that he's a good driver, or he wouldn't have won two championships would he? But he's such a whiny asshole. He complains about everything, and does not exercise restraint. Even when he was at Renault, leading the points in the middle of the season, driving a championship winning car, he said his team does not back him up. WTF? These people are working their asses off to provide him the best car, and he said that? I'd think that many team principals (excluding Flav) are reluctant to hire Alonso despite his having won two titles because he's such a pain in the ass, backstabbing, ungrateful driver. Hahaha... well, again, that's just my opinion.

So, what's so great about Hamilton? Well, he is phenomenal so to speak. He's competing for the title in his rookie year. Nobody else has ever done it before. It salute him for that. But what people don't really talk about, is that he IS driving a McLaren. Put Heikki or Rosberg or Sutil for that matter, they might perform nearly as good. Put Hamilton in a Spyker, he would probably perform as good as Sutil, or maybe slightly better. Its the car that helped him to be as phenomenal as he is now. Looking at the trend this year, Hamilton did really good early in the season. Whereas Kimi wasn't as good. Alonso was, in the middle I'd say. I think its partly because of the tyres. Alonso and Kimi had hiccups in adapting to the Bridgestone tyres. McLaren and Renault used Michelin before this year. Hamilton had no driving style yet, so naturally, he could drive the Bridgestone easier, and faster, cause that's all he knows. Both Alonso and Kimi had to adapt to the new tyres. Also, I know for a fact that the car setup did not suit well to Kimi's driving style. The race engineer, Chris, worked with Schumacher previously, but they're driving style to different. So it took a handful of races for Kimi to find the setup that suited him perfectly. When it finally did, Bam! just look at his results in the second half of the season, catching up with Hamilton from roughly a 20-point deficit. I admire Hamilton's PR skills. He knows what to say and was very humble, but only in the beginning. Towards the end of the season, he started saying stuff that showed his arrogance. That kinda did it for me. I didn't like it. Sorry. But now he's getting better again.

I wanna touch a little on the Spygate. It's really sad that something of such happened. And between the two top teams in F1 at that. A not very nice kink in F1 history. Anyway, McLaren was stripped of the constructors points, which in the end, didn't matter. I kept tabs on the points, and Ferrari won anyway, 204 to 203 points. The best team wins. If FIA really wants to punish McLaren, they shouldn't even compete next season. Logically, whatever McLaren knew about Ferrari's car would be designed into next season's car. But FIA has made it clear that they will monitor McLaren very closely next year to ensure that none of Ferrari is on McLaren. Something like that. I don't know. But of course I do want McLaren to race next year.

Ron Dennis really has two faces. And he doesn't walk the talk. He says apple but do oranges, you know. The easiest example is all his talk about both drivers in his team are always given equal opportunity and none favored over the other. This season, clearly, he favored Hamilton over Alonso. Eventhough I don't like the fact that Alonso whines about it, but for sure there's some truth in it. Coulthard said it was so obvious during his time that Ron favored Hakkinen. Montoya went as far as to quit F1 altogether, he was Kimi's team mate previously. And there was the Senna and Prost's case as well. Ron Dennis should've just kept quiet and not say anything about equal treatments to his drivers. The fact that he insists on it when he clearly doesn't, fuels the matter. What BS.

Ok I'm already tired. But just some quick comments on the other teams and drivers. Third (or second) in constructors is none other than BMW Sauber Petronas! They proved that they were capable to compete with the top teams and occasionally outpace them. Heidfeld and Kubica are very good drivers and I hope they start winning races next year. Next in line would be Williams. Although not as good as Sauber, but they were able to compete with the front runners towards the end of the year, and Wurz even scored a podium (2nd place) once. Their prospect looks good and on track for next year. Renault was the top of the middle pack. Kovalainen really improved through the season, Fisi was just, Fisi. Honda sucked like it has never sucked before. Either Renault or Honda actually had some errors having to do with their wind tunnel, which in turn affected their car design. Hmm I don't remember which team though. Probably Renault. Honda's problem was mainly because their new aerodynamics boss (Shuhei), err.. didnt know anything about aerodynamics! I hope they do good next year coz I'm a Jenson Button fan. He's a very good driver in the wet. Barichello did not even score a point. Need I say more? All that Buttongate 2 years ago now looks like such a waste of time. So yeah, I really hope they buck up this season. Red Bull was surprisingly good! Well, they do have Adrian Newey working for them so that should give some good results of course. They have the oldest driver line up in Coulthard and Webber. I think Coulthard really proved to the naysayers that he should be retiring by now. He did good. Super Aguri also did well, considering that they are a really low budget team. But since they're using Honda's last season's chassis, which was very fast, they're very lucky. Japanese helps their own kind really. Super Aguri is owned by Aguri Suzuki, and, Takuma Sato is their main driver. Go figure. Ermm.. Spyker.. ahh... they sucked real bad. But Sutil is a good driver. I think he'll go far. and lastly, Scuderia Torro Roso. They are a non-factor really. And Scott Speed, wasnt't speedy at all. No wonder he was kicked out. He scored zilch, and Sebastian Vettel who replaced him, earned 6 points already. Good decision by STR.

Hmm, that didn't look quick at all. Okay, time to do some other stuff. 130 minutes till my shift's over. Have a good holiday people. Later.