LariatTom

A decent day of entertainment, though once again some dodgy driving from some of the drivers across the TOCA classes. Maybe some of it is just rust from having not raced since last autumn, but there were some very silly incidents across the day. Sheddon looked very good in that final race and having tested that softer race tyre before the season starts, maybe he gained a bit of an advantage by knowing how far he could push it. He should be strong again this year. Plato nearly made it through the entire first race without having a collision too!

Nice to see Formula Ford on TV again, though I'm really not a fan of the new cars. The wings do absolutely nothing in terms of adding downforce and the organisers said that they're purely a cosmetic thing to give drivers a feeling for driving with slicks and wings from an earlier stage in the single seater ladder. The debate about the single seater ladder being a mess will rage on until the end of time. Or until we reach a point where the majority of the world-class drivers are pay drivers and there are just a handful of supremely talented people who make it to the top primarily because of their skills.

Elsewhere, the FIA GT Series had their inaugural race after revamping the FIA GT1 World Championship. A pretty strong field of 22 cars or so, which is a vast improvement from some races last year where they struggled to reach double figures. Good racing there, and those races are on YouTube if anyone wants to watch them.

That definitely seems to be the way forward for a lot of race series these days to try and get more exposure. Blancpain will hopefully be streaming their races again this year, Indycar tend to upload their races a week or so on delay (though they may be geoblocked in the UK...) and then you've got the FIA European F3 championship hosting their races online too, which had some good racing from Monza before the downpours came into play as well as the ALMS putting their races up in full so you can watch things like the 12 Hours of Sebring at your own leisure. Hopefully the WEC put races up on-demand this year as well. The live streaming is usually great, but it can be annoying not being able to watch it back at a later date

Now...if only we could get British GT to put out some video coverage of their season apart from 20 minutes of highlights on a Saturday morning!

Ridiculously scary incident. I watched that Nationwide race as well as the 500 last night. It was amazing that they didn't wreck earlier in the lap when Larson got a tap from behind but somehow managed to keep it straight. NASCAR could really do with having some sort of rule in place over blocking. Regan Smith (the guy who was leading going into the final lap) admitted that he had made the move across to block the overtake and try to keep ahead for the win. If you've got that, combined with NASCAR's rather easy approach on being able to wipe another opponent out on the final lap to take the win, you're going to get incidents like these...especially at places like Daytona where they're running with restrictor plates and in pack racing.

While the injuries to the spectators are bad enough (and it does say on your ticket that motorsport is dangerous), it's amazing that there were no deaths in the crowd with wheels and sizable chunks of car flying around. In the end though, the catch fencing did the job, even though it broke and kept the engine and second wheel from going further into the crowd. Amazingly, the drivers pretty much walked away from the crash. To that point though, it was a cracking race and a lot better than the Sprint Cup race. Everything seems focused on Danica at the moment, which is understandable to a point. US motorsport, and probably motorsport in general, desperately needs another female to come along and take some of the media pressure away. Danica says she wasn't raised to be the best female driver, she was raised to be the best driver. She's to be treated equally. Having her as the focal point throughout the race...it ruined it slightly for me.

That's a good point. For what it was though, it was an incredibly expensive piece of kit for three days and at somewhere like Silverstone, if you went GA but then got a FanVision, it probably would have worked out cheaper to sit in a grandstand and have the big screen (but obviously miss out on the extras like live timing).

If there is another company who can take over from FanVision, then hopefully that happens. Part of me expects FOM to get their own piece of kit set up for 2014, but that'd still leave a gap for this year.

On the plus, the motorsport year is well and truly underway with the Dubai 24 today and tomorrow. Coverage (though not covering the full 24) is on Motors TV with Radio Le Mans commentary. The radio guys, as you'd expect, are doing the full 24 with a crew of 5 or 6 guys, so tomorrow morning might be some interesting commentary when they're all starting to feel tired! If you go on the website, there's the usual array of live timing, trackers as well as online coverage with static cams for through-the-night coverage.

Also, I highly recommend Andy Blackmore's 2013 calendar guide. All of the major motorsport events are listed there, so there's no excuse for not knowing when something is on. A lot of clashes and I think when I counted the other day, I found something like 40 weekends where there was some form of motorsport I'd want to be watching this year.

http://www.spotterguides.com/2013-wall-planner/

Just on twitter and all of a sudden on my timeline ButchReedMark and Doug Williams are discussing Allen keys. Its what twitter was made for.

Part of me wanted to go to sleep last night and part of me wanted to see how the discussion on Allen keys would play out. Out-fucking-standing.

Couple of bits and pieces to keep things ticking over during the winter.

There's a new team called RAM Racing (no relation to the former F1 team of years ago) who will be participating in the GTE category of the ELMS next year with a Ferrari 458 GTE. They were officially unveiled to the media this morning and there was an Inside feature on Radio Le Mans which they broadcast this morning to introduce the team to the world. They've already got Johnny Mowlem signed up as one of their drivers and Guy Smith will be driving for them during the Dubai 24 Hours next month.

The Race of Champions is this weekend from Bangkok and will be broadcast on Motors TV in the UK and around Europe with the Nations Cup taking place on Saturday with Germany (represented once again by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher) look to retain their title for another year.

The individual event looks a bit tasty this year. Vettel's been drawn in the same group as Jorge Lorenzo, so we've got F1 Champ vs Moto GP champ while Ryan Hunter-Reay (Indycar champ) is in the same group as Schumacher and Romain Grosjean. Always a good event, so if you've done all of your Christmas shopping and are looking for some friendly sporting action, this is as good a place as any on Saturday and Sunday.

I've seen plenty of rave reviews for The Walking Dead on here and among friends...so I went ahead and bought all five chapters last night. Really sounds like something I'll enjoy playing and should definitely keep me busy for a while.

If I find it disappointing, I blame you guys for building my expectations up so much.

Ferrari know what's right for the sport. A courtroom decision isn't what is right for the sport. They've not even said they've approached the FIA about this topic. As I said, storm in a teacup.

This is from Will Buxton a few minutes ago. Like a lot of journalists who aren't called Andrew Benson, he's fairly certain there were green flags.

An impeccable source on the inside of a haughty building in Paris confirmed green flag suggests there is no case to be answered

Tomorrow will come and pass without Ferrari lodging a complaint, that'll be the end of the matter and we can finally move on.

Yeah, there's a green flag being waved at pit exit. This seems to be a storm in a teacup from the BBC where they're going off one mildly cryptic tweet from Alonso and it looks like the vast majority of F1 journos reckon there's a green flag there and there's no case to answer. I wouldn't trust Benson's words if my life depended on it. There are far better and more reputable sources to get F1 news...and they either have nothing on this matter, or a vague mention and then look at the evidence properly and see green flags. I honestly don't think Ferrari would want to win a world championship in a courtroom. It doesn't look good for the sport and it'll drive people away. If they're that pissed off about it, come out all guns blazing next year, give Alonso a decent car and he'll win the world title.

If that decision gets overturned and Alonso wins this year's title, I will take one of Neil's horrendous forfeits. Hold me to that.

I'm not.

What a race though, that had just about everything. Both guys were world champion at various points in the race, both drove brilliant races and both deserve to be champion. In equal cars, Alonso probably would have won that championship but he dragged that Ferrari kicking and screaming to the edge of being world champion. Well done to both men, congratulations to Sebastian and hopefully they have another great rivalry next season.

Great send-off for Schumacher to get to the points for his final race and a massive mention to Caterham for finishing in 10th place in the Constructors' Championship after Petrov's 11th place finish there. That might keep Heikki in a job at Caterham for next season.

I tell you what though, I'm glad there isn't another F1 race until March, I think I need that long to recover.

I wouldn't put any money on Kamui ending up at Williams. They've made it pretty clear that their drivers need to bring some money for next year, and money seems to be slightly more important than talent these days. I don't think Maldonado has been confirmed yet, but I can't see him going anywhere for 2013 and he'll be partnered by Bottas since he's been driving on most Fridays during the season. Both of those guys bring sponsorship and money, and to his credit, Bottas was a bloody good driver in the junior categories.

Kamui's F1 career could well be over since I can't see him getting a drive for 2013 now. Caterham have confirmed Charles Pic for their team next year and neither of their current drivers are certain of a job next year with Heikki pretty much accepting it's out of his hands. Senna's still in the running for the Force India seat alongside both former Toro Rosso drivers and Adrian Sutil, and that seat is hopefully being confirmed this weekend. At that point, you've only got Marussia with a seat alongside Timo Glock, and that's pretty likely to go to Max Chilton. HRT won't be around next year barring a miracle since the crew have been given redundancy notices and the factory is now empty thanks to a quote from staff in Spanish newspapers so we're out of seats.

One saving grace for Kamui could well be the WEC. Toyota will be looking to field two cars full time next year and having a Japanese driver in each car (Kobayashi and Kazuki Nakajima) could be great PR to take the fight to Audi. I wouldn't be surprised if he appears there next season, and with the WEC being an FIA World Championship it can now be viewed as a viable alternative and option for drivers who can't find a drive in F1.

EDIT: Damn these work computers and their love of double posts. Sorry!

I think if Hamilton had thrown one up the inside of Vettel into a braking zone, he would have taken the position since Seb couldn't take the risk of losing a front wing and dropping points to Fernando. Part of me thinks that if there hadn't have been traffic, Seb being quicker in the final sector to pull away could have made the difference. It's all a case of ifs and buts and at the end of the day, Hamilton deserved that win.

What's changing at Mercedes for next year? Absolutely nothing really. To be honest, they've probably got one of the top design teams in F1 that isn't called Adrian Newey but they need to fit all of the pieces of the jigsaw together. Looking to 2014 though, he may well be sitting pretty at Mercedes if they get on top of the new regulations and come out with all guns blazing. I think they'll be right up there with the new rules and no doubt the Hamilton factor will help bring another tenth or two out of the car.

I get the feeling I'm in the minority on here pulling for Vettel next weekend...I don't think I've ever wanted Brazil to throw up a boring and predictable race, but that'd suit me down to the ground provided we get similar results to the last few races. Even if it's not, an incident-free race for both guys please. No incidents with other drivers colliding into them, no gearbox penalties...just two men driving for the title.

Thought it was a good race, but not the instant classic that some have made it out to be. Part of me wonders whether Vettel would have been able to keep Hamilton behind him if they hadn't stumbled across that traffic during the early part of the lap. Hamilton seemed to be able to close the gap with the DRS but Seb was consistently quicker in the final sector to reopen that gap by another couple of tenths. I don't know if Sky showed the potential title outcomes for next week since I turned the race off not long after the podium to catch some of the Nascar finale. But in short, with a 13 point difference, these are the scenarios:

If Alonso wins (285), Vettel must finish fourth (285) or higher to be champion. Vettel wins the title on results countback.

If Alonso is second (278), Vettel must finish seventh (279) or higher.

If Alonso is third (275), Vettel must finish ninth (275) or higher. Vettel wins the title on results countback.

If Alonso isn't on the podium, Vettel wins the title.

With Brazil usually throwing up a couple of surprises anyway AND there being a threat of rain, I'm feeling more than a little bit nervous about next weekend.

Also, if I may...what a complete bag of shit the Mercedes W03 is. Schumacher dragged that car kicking and screaming to a good starting position and then absolutely shocking race pace where they couldn't get the tyres to heat up but still destroyed the tyres meant they were nowhere and had to do a two-stop strategy. Ridiculous. Have fun next year Hamilton!

Compton has looked very good so far. He was unlucky to get out when he did in the first innings but he looks comfortable in the middle. You wouldn't think he's in his Test debut with the way he was playing today. Even if he doesn't go on to make a big score tomorrow, he'll get runs in this series and is a very good replacement for Strauss at the top of the order. If Cook plays on Day 4 like he did during that final session, he could go on to make a very big score in this innings. Trott should be alright...hopefully and we'll just have to hope that KP doesn't come out all guns blazing and throw his wicket away. These are the games when he needs to show he's a team player and help to build as big a score as possible.

Obviously, the first target is to make India bat again. If and when we get to that point, it's about trying to build a lead that gives the bowlers something to aim at, whether that's to try and bowl India out relatively cheaply or holding on for a draw. Of course, it could be all over in two sessions if we get a repeat of the first half of today...but let's see. The alarm is set, I'll be up for some cricket.

Fucking miserable. That first innings was nothing short of a complete shambles. A couple of wickets were bad luck, I don't think Patel's LBW should have been given and I think Compton was just unlucky because he was looking quite settled for a first Test match under huge pressure.

Cook never looked dangerous and capable of making a really big score and everyone else was just an idiot throwing away their wicket. KP will never learn, Bell got out playing the most absurd shot for your first ball. Even Prior gave his wicket away in the end when he probably could have played more controlled shot, though I can forgive him slightly for being at the death of the innings and trying to make some extra runs in a hurry.

Time to dig in boys otherwise this one will be over tomorrow. There are about 25 overs left today and I wouldn't bet against us potentially being three or four down. I threw it out there a few days ago that I reckoned we'd be on for an innings defeat...sort of wish I'd put money on that now. At least I could gain something financially from this misery.

The race where Schumacher tried to manfuacture a dead heat finish was in 2002. Some viewed it as payback for when Rubens was made to give away a victory at the Austrian race with Schumacher doing this just to toy with people and prove he could do it.

The 2005 race...oh, I still have nightmares about that. There are some horror occasions when I'll flick onto the online F1 channel I watch (which is of course, completely legal and above board...) and they'll be showing the 2005 season. I'm ashamed to admit that I've sat through that 2005 farce more than once though it does provide some comedy moments with Brundle's gridwalk and the very real moment at the end of the second pitstop when Rubens looks as though he's about to turn into Schumacher at T1, taking them both out of the race and giving Tiago Montero a win. I wouldn't be surprised if they had fallen out by that point, I would imagine Rubens had been told by then that he wasn't being kept for 2006, so he wouldn't need to worry about staying on Michael's good side. With the championship gone, he didn't exactly need to gift him any more finishes.

Ticket sales for this race are actually pretty strong for a first race. The majority of the 120,000 tickets have been sold for race day with something like 80% of those going to Americans. The trick will be to get them coming back next year and building on attendance. Of course, scheduling the race against the final weekend of NASCAR was utterly foolish on the part of the FIA. Then again, Bernie and the FIA want to put a French Grand Prix into the calendar next year on the same weekend as Le Mans. If that doesn't scream stupidity between two FIA sanctioned events, I don't know what does. Let's not forget that Le Mans is part of a world championship these days so to have a conflict of this nature would be utterly ridiculous.

Speaking of NASCAR, has anyone else been keeping track of the Chase for the Race for the Cup for the Thing

The racing sims on the market these days are absolutely fantastic. iRacing has been using the same gaming engine for the last few years I believe which is making it a bit old but obviously with enough consistent updates, it remains hugely popular. Another one that is growing in popularity all of the time is SimRaceway, which has only been around for a couple of years but has some top line racing drivers like Dario Franchitti and Allan McNish helping to develop the system as well as racing. That one's free to sign up for and the method for buying cars is beyond reasonable where you pay 1/100,000th of the real life price. They got a partnership with Mclaren earlier this year so a whole host of Mclaren cars from across the years are available as well as some LMP1 cars. Their reconstruction of the new COTA track is absolutely amazing too.

It shows how brilliant they are when you get things like the Nissan Driver Academy where they can take top drivers on Gran Turismo and then be able to put them into sports car racing. Luca Ordonez has been able to make a career out of racing now with drives in the top championships around the world which seems crazy, and in fact he's had his licence reconsidered by the ACO to upgrade him from a Silver to Gold driver (which now means he's classed as a top level professional driver rather than a gentleman driver)..

I don't like him and I probably never will, but I respect him. I can respect him for starting to grow up a bit and shake everyone's hand after retiring on Sunday, I can definitely respect him for moving to Mercedes in what looks to be a big step back in performance at the moment. I wish he'd ditch the dodgy US accent though.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to avoid the results of a race for over 24 hours.

 

One big annoyance this year with the BBC generally is that they don't protect the results of the race when they're showing highlights on delay. It's so easy to turn on the radio, website or tv and get the results spoilt before they've even broadcast. It wouldn't be that hard to have a network ban on results until their packages have aired, or at the very least do the old "Look away now if you don't want to know the result".

That's utterly ridiculous. I know at the start of the season, a few people were getting grief for posting about the race on Twitter with the BBC audience complaining that it was spoiling the race for them. That quickly stopped though once they realised it was just easier to stay off Twitter for a few hours. The BBC actually spoiling the result of the race is ridiculous though.

I mean, I'd imagine they still give the old "Turn the sound down and look away if you don't want to know the football scores" before Match of the Day on a Saturday night, so why not do the same for F1?

Two weekends away meant two weeks of watching a race the following day, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to avoid the results of a race for over 24 hours.

It amazes me how two of the dullest tracks in Valencia and Abu Dhabi have produced two of the best races of the season. I never thought I'd be saying those words...but it really was a good race. Obviously, that was helped by Vettel's charge through the field from the back, but there was enough excitement anyway to make it a really good race. Vettel seems to be getting all of the luck in races and he was ridiculously lucky with the safety cars in that race to be able to change his wing (admittedly after completely destroying it). Everything points towards the Circuit of the Americas being a track that should suit Red Bull and I can honestly see him tying up the championship there. If he doesn't, then it could be a situation where he just needs one or two points in Brazil to seal the title.

Kimi's drive was brilliant. As he was so keen to remind the team during the race, he knows how to win a race and did just that. An impressive drive and it gives Lotus something to celebrate and build on for 2013.

Even as someone who isn't his biggest fan, Hamilton has been super unlucky this year to retire from two races while on for two almost-certain victories. He seems to be accepting things a bit more these days which is good to see. I'm doubtful that Mercedes can deliver a good enough car for him next year, but it really will be fascinating to see what he can do with a dog of a car. I recall him dragging the 2009 car to some half decent results in the early part of that season before they got their act together, surely that's pretty much all he can hope for in 2013.

I'll be at the wXw/CZW Tournament of Death on Sunday in Oberhausen so I'll do my best to post updates/results on my Twitter page (@thomaskayll) during the course of the show. It'll be an 8 man tournament over three rounds with single elimination. No idea of match brackets since they're leaving that as a surprise for Sunday, but here's the list of lucky entrants and the first round stipulations.

"The Bulldozer" Matt Tremont (Master of Pain 2012)

Jimmy Havoc (Hardcore Lottery Winner 2006, 2007, 2009)

"Der K

When is the Texas race?

Circuit of the Americas makes its debut on November 18th with Brazil concluding the season a week later.

Quick heads up for anyone looking for some motorsport action today, Petit Le Mans starts in a few hours with coverage on Motors TV from 4.45pm (though I believe they're not showing the entire race thanks to a Nationwide Cup race this evening). If you fancy catching the entire 10 hours, coverage is available on the ALMS website and on the EPSN3 player for anyone with US access to that. Well worth checking out, as the name suggests, it's a smaller version of Le Mans around one of the finest race circuits in the USA. I think we've got 44 entrants for the race thanks to the European Le Mans Series joining forces with the US field, as well as the racing return of the Nissan Deltawing who are right among the LMP2 cars (though once again, the Deltawing races without a category).

"as an active driver" would mean that if he chose to stay with Mclaren, he'd basically take up an ambassadorial role for the team. Chances are he'll do a few more years though, but he'll most likely end his F1 career with Mclaren. It's crazy to think that he's been in the sport for 13 years now and he's got over 220 starts.

The US race for this year at Texas is still on, it's New Jersey which was meant to be on the calendar next year which has been postponed. Different sources (some official, some not so) have different stories and reasons, but most point to 'off-track' problems which probably means money. Bernie's been threatening to pull that race for a few weeks now over a disagreement with money including saying that the original contract they had was now void. Speaking from my own perspective, I'm not overly fussed about this. It would have been nice for the sport to have two races in the US, but the promoters were virtually relying on fans doing a double header of Canada and New Jersey on back to back weekends.

A couple of people I know have won some personal bets with New Jersey being cancelled/postponed. Not bad..

I'm of the belief that Vettel has had a pre-contract signed with Ferrari for several months and this isn't a brand new development, more that it's seemingly coming into the open now that Massa is being confirmed for 2013. If Vettel has signed a pre-contract agreement with Ferrari, then it'll have performance based clauses in it on his side whereby Ferrari have to be in a certain position in the Constructors' championship or have a certain amount of points by a designated point of the season. At that point, the clause becomes active and he'll sign. It's something that's been discussed a fair bit on various motorsport podcasts in the last few weeks and months with a good number of people saying the deal is already as good as done and that's why Ferrari were holding out on sorting their second driver for so long because they only need someone on a one year deal.

Christian Horner seems pretty certain that Vettel will be with RBR in 2014 since he's under contract but at the same time, he pretty much said that if Seb wants to leave and go to Ferrari, he'll leave and go to Ferrari. No good ever came of keeping a driver at a team when he wants to be elsewhere really.

Fernando probably won't mind too much. If he gets beaten by Vettel in 2014, he's at a point where he can quite plausibly retire or go and spend the twilight of his career at another team (Mclaren will have seats going by the end of 2014 with Button's contract rumoured to end as an active driver then). There's always that slight advantage of knowing a team and knowing a car which gives you a boost for the first few races, and that's when he could feasibly set his stall out and show that he's up for a fight.

The new rules for 2014 could swing things in the direction of the works teams, which is possibly why Hamilton took that gamble of going to Merc, as well as the chance to do what Schumacher couldn't and build the team into winners. Honestly though, you never count out a team that has Adrian Newey designing the car and working on it. They'd still be right up there.

As a completely different note, I will never complain about UK coverage again. I watched the race yesterday on RTL and they sure do love their adverts. I know that with Qualifying, they take a break between each session and usually throw one in the middle of Q1 as well, and at some points I've sat through ad breaks that are going on for the best part of 7 minutes. The German commentary team are fun and Kai Abel might rival Eddie Jordan for bizarre shirts on race day. I do miss Brundle though...

I've been watching the 1996 season over the last few weeks after finding my old videotapes of the season and converting them all to watch on my laptop. That F310 was a complete dog of a car for the majority of the season, but Schumacher was able to wrangle some fantastic results out of the car. At the N

Thought I'd throw my thoughts into the hat (and it kills a bit of time before the end of my shift...it's one of those days).

Hamilton going to Mercedes really didn't come as much of a shock to me. He's apparently been wanting a way out of Mclaren since last year (if you believe the Red Bull rumours to be true) and with his contract up at the end of this year and the potential for some movement in the driver market, it makes sense for him to go. Obviously, it's a bit of a risk since Mercedes aren't a winning team at the moment bar Rosberg's victory earlier in the year, but this is Hamilton's chance to REALLY prove himself. If, like Schumacher at Ferrari, he can build a team around him and take them from being on the fringe of podiums/victories to a strong, championship winning team, then he's done one of the hardest things in F1.

If he has a poor year in 2013, then we can almost be certain that it's because the Brackley squad haven't given him a good enough car. If he's looking further afield to 2014 though, then there's a chance he's sitting in a very good position. Brawn has already said that he reckons his team have a good chance in 2014 with the new regulations and engine change, and as we know from 2009, Brawn is pretty good at pulling a good car out of the bag when there are major changes in the technical regulations.

Rosberg being promised equal status is a little more surprising, but I think it's only fair that they start off as equals. Chances are that Lewis will establish himself as the quicker driver and there will be a natural shift of power in his favour...but why consign Nico to number 2 from the very beginning? If he thinks he can beat Lewis (and he has to, otherwise he's already beaten) then he needs to know that they're starting the 2013 season on the same footing.

What's next for Schumacher? He's lost his seat at Mercedes because he took too long to make a decision about next year and whether he wants to keep driving...if he'd said earlier in the season that he wanted to stay, he'd be staying. Honestly, I reckon he could go to Sauber for a few years. They've already said they feel good about next year's car and I think it was Alonso who was reported as saying that Schumacher could have won the last three races if he were driving a Sauber. If they can give him a car as strong as this year's car, then he'd have to be hoping for podiums and maybe a win.

I may as well throw in what the German press are saying since I see far more of that than UK press at the moment. The majority of articles and pieces I've seen about Schumacher's future say that he's probably going to Sauber. Ferrari is a bit of an optimist's dream and supposedly thinking of offering him a seat in one of their WEC cars.

Sauber or retirement are the two real options. And if he does leave F1, then the passion for racing is still there. I wonder whether he'd be interested in a return to sportscar racing and having a crack at a drive in the WEC...