Everything is Average Nowadays

Left in the dark. The room is silent, a lone figure standing. He is confused, lost, unsure about his own future. The future is dim, clouded in uncertainty. This is how a optimistic, new start for 2010 went down the drain. This is how Robert Kubica may not be having the most fun Christmas time.

It was a jump down the year before, 2008 was glorious, the win in Montreal, the pole in Bahrain. BMW flew before a single shot in the wing saw them slam to the ground. Spectacularly. One podium, just a solitary podium in 2009, a shadowed drive in the Interlagos sun, the day Jenson Button became World Champion. Kubica was forgotten.

The career which started back in mid-2006, disqualification from his first race in Hungary. But by his second race in Monza, he had shown immense potential, a glorious third place finish, to complete a podium featuring Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. Talent was shown right from the off.

2007 showed no podiums, but there was still an inkling of what he could do. After the horrific crash in Canada, he bounced back with an incredible 4th in France. A stunning drive which earned him much praise. No podiums, but the best had yet to come.

Straight from the off, 2008 was expected to be awesome. A mistake away from pole in Australia. And then Bahrain, not a single person expected him to do it, everyone thought it was going to be a Felipe Massa walkover. It was the first ever BMW pole. The internet went made with ‘Pole4Pole’ and everything seemed crazy. Then came the crazier Canadian Grand Prix, the first win. His only win.

2009 started promising, a vague chance for a win in Australia before Vettel and the wall put pay to the idea. Then came the spell where nothing happened, the struggle to get points. The solitary glory of Brazil before bowing out on his BMW career in a lonely 10th in Abu Dhabi.

Renault had already come calling by this point. Post Japan he was announced as the number 1 driver, a promising prospect.

And then it all fell apart when Renault hosted meeting about uncertain futures after Toyota pulled out of the sport.

Renault were sold earlier in the month to Genii Capital, a Luxembourg based investment firm. Robert Kubica has since said he is unsure whether or not to stay in the team, he doesn’t know any of the conditions of the contract, its a bad time to be a Renault driver. The only Renault driver is Kubica.

Kubica is certainly worthy of a top race seat, but the only one on offer at the moment if he doesn’t go on with the under new management Renault team is Mercedes. Which, does have a bit of queue before it. Michael Schumacher is of course favourite for it, bar the recurring neck injury striking again in the medical tests. Second in line is rather ironic, former team mate to Kubica for two and a half seasons, Nick Heidfeld.

Aside from Mercedes, there is only the option of one of the new teams. Certainly something which is well below his capability. Although it might be an area for a new challenge, such as Timo Glock going to Virgin Racing. Robert Kubica must be looking at something which will be able to win the championship. That is not going to be what the likes of Campos Meta will be able to offer him.

There is the midtable option of the Sauber team. Which makes a lot of sense of going from moaning all season about BMW Sauber, to moving to Renault, before moving to Sauber for 2010. Yet it is more competitive.

Renault may still be the only choice that Kubica will opt to stick with, and despite the fact that he knows no details of the deal, it will make much more sense than moving anywhere else. Renault will have a car that will at least be more competitive, more or less a midfield team based on this years performance and all of the new teams entering the sport.

But I would give Robert Kubica a chance at a better team. This might not happen for a few years (or it could happen at the end of 2010 depending on how the Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button relationship goes at McLaren). Kubica has proved he can win races and be very good in a consistant car, even has been an outsider in a Championship battle.

Yet what anything Kubica does for 2010, its not going to be for the wins. A few podiums with any sort of luck. Its not been an ideal scenario for Robert Kubica, if anything, the situation is only going to get more complex in the near future.

My Top 5 F1 Liveries

If you know me well, you know I like my liveries. And you will probably also know, I hate white cars. I’m not even using BMW as an exception here, I find the car bland, dull and unimaginative. I love original cars, and you will probably find that out later on. Before I start, this post was inspired by Lukeh at the brilliant Thoughts of a Trying Atheist blog. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend that you do. Well, here goes.

5: Shadow DN9

After a lot of browsing on the internet, I came across this. I can only describe it as brilliantly fantastic. How original is it? I have no idea what it is meant to resemble or how many races it was used for (I have noticed various liveries used for the DN9 car). But this strikes out to me. It isn’t sponsor endorsed (unless Satan Prints happened to be going at the time).

4: Renault R24

Many agreed that Renault had messed up after 2007, using a horrible paint scheme that shouldn’t work, and doesn’t. However since the team returned in 2002 till 2006, the team used a lovely red and yellow scheme, which worked fantastically. Probably best used in 2004 and the R24, it managed not to look busy sponsor wise, which is very hard to achieve. And it simply works. It is great.

3: Honda RA107

Okay, now you are thinking I have lost it. You are thinking this car was unbelievably ugly, and I, really cannot see how you can feel that way about this car. Sure, it was only used because Honda couldn’t get a big sponsor to fit on their car. But this is amazing and significantly better than the 2008 attempt or the ‘Stickers’ car. This captures my imagination, it is original. And after all, that is what I love in a F1 livery.

2: Spyker F8-VII

Well, for starters, it is orange. How many F1 cars do you see that is orange? And it sticks out like a sore thumb, except the car ain’t needing any treatment. There is nothing wrong with this car, it represents the colours of the Netherlands. What a shame Force India bought them out and produced such a drab and dull livery the next season.

1: Jaguar R3

If there is ever a livery better then this, then I must be in heaven. Jaguar can hold their heads high, they may not have done much in F1, but they did give us this. The R3 I say is the best, but it could have been any from five, they were all pretty much awesome. British Racing Green works on a car, especially a F1 car, it is gorgeous. Shame Aston Martin don’t get to be in F1, because we could be seeing that, without the white bits. Heaven.

And that concludes my top 5, honourable mentions go to the Jordan EJ11 (2001) especially down to the detail on the side of the nosecone with the teeth. And the yellow, surprisingly works. Also, the Williams FW28 (2006), just wishing they used a bit more blue.

Cars sadly these days lack any originality, with the exception of Toro Rosso, a car I love. Too much white and it must stop. Thankfully, BMW are pulling out so one less white car and Renault are losing ING, so here's hoping a return to the fantastic blue and yellow. The rest should take a long hard look at themselves, before I send the lot of them an e-mail with my ideas.

A Lost Cause

And so he leaves, causing a bit of a dust storm in his wake, but after 28 races, Nelson Piquet Jr finds himself back out of Formula 1. But after the war of words issued by the ex-driver, has Piquet been treated unfairly in his short spell in F1?

Nelson Piquet didn’t do that bad before his step up into F1, he did have more of a reason to be in F1 than Sebestien Buemi for instance. Buemi only finished 6th as his highest championship position in GP2, compared to Piquet’s 2nd, in a year that also featured the likes of Lewis Hamilton, who did blitz the competition. He trounced his team mate, Alexandre Negrao and finished ahead of former/future F1 stars Timo Glock, Giorgio Pantano and Gianmaria Bruni. A fairly successful spell in the lower formulae if you ask, certainly worthy of an F1 drive. Especially if Buemi got one for what he had a unspectacular GP2 campaign.

But from here, did he get in bed with the wrong people before being pushed onto the floor? He tested with Renault in 2007 before being promoted to race driver alongside ex-two time champion of the world, Fernando Alonso. It was never going to be fair play from day one. Flavio Briatore was always going to give Alonso main priority in the team, hence why 2007 driver Heikki Kovalainen was not signed on.

But showing, on your first qualifying session at the 2008 Australian Grand Prix, you weren’t quick enough to beat Takuma Sato, in a Super Aguri, a team which had barely tested, a team which didn’t even know if it was going to start the season, then bad signs were ahead of you my friend. And then, first corner, you crash into Giancarlo Fisichella. Signs really aren’t pointing to stardom.

Two problems which plagued Piquet all throughout his F1 career, poor qualifying and the habit of spinning off at the worst possible moments. It wasn’t until the German Grand Prix in 2009 that he managed to out qualify Fernando Alonso for the first time. He failed to get out of Q1 an impressive eleven times, in a car equal to that of say, Williams. Comparing him to Kazuki Nakajima, who has done one more race than him (doing the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix replacing Alex Wurz), Nakajima has failed to get out of Q1 ten times. Why hasn’t he been sacked then? I’ll let Nelson Piquet say.

“I am certain it is because of the unfair situation I have been in the past two years. I always believed that having a manager was being a part of a team and having a partner. A manager is supposed to encourage you, support you, and provide you with opportunities. In my case it was the opposite. Flavio Briatore was my executioner.” 

A big ouch Mr Briatore. And if I were Romain Grosjean right now, I would not be looking forward to working under him at Renault. There is nothing there for him, it is a one driver team. And it will stay that way until Alonso leaves, or Renault leave. It’s a quick sand trap place, get stuck in and it is very difficult to get out. I feel sorry for Grosjean right now.

It is amazing to begin to feel sorry for Nelson Piquet after the Formula 1 fans absolutely massacred him over the past one and a half years.

The poor guy did have a horrible habit of making mistakes. A fine example is the Australian Grand Prix of this year, where he crashed on the lap after the safety car returned to the pits, because he had cold tyres. Nelson Piquet is a mistake prone driver, interestingly, the exact same can be said for his likely replacement, Romain Grosjean.

In this seasons GP2 series, the Frenchman driving for Barwa Addax was involved in a massive accident in the Monaco race and then in qualifying for the Hungarian race, took himself and Franck Perera out of qualifying.

But this isn’t about the suitability of Romain Grosjean, that's for another time, if I get to that. Nelson Piquet should still be in Formula 1, had he been given a fair chance by Flavio Briatore, he could have really impressed in the championship had he been given the right tools for the job. He showed that when given the same upgrades as Alonso, he was just as quick, if not quicker. Heck, when that Renault was mighty fine quick at the end of 2008, he wasn’t struggling at all. He scored a 4th place finish, a result we are crediting Nico Rosberg for getting recently. Piquet hardly got a congratulations for that result in Japan 2008. Overshadowed by Alonso’s win, probably, but still worth recognition after the season he had. Certainly more credible than the podium he got in Germany.

I never much shared much symphony with Nelson Piquet, often had the feeling of him that he was rather arrogant. But in light of what he had to deal with at Renault, I do feel sorry for him. He is without doubt a talented driver, if not error prone. But, isn’t that what Takuma Sato is? And he didn’t do half bad in F1. It is a shame to think the only way back in F1 for him is for his dad, Nelson Piquet sr, to buy a team and hire him.

But Renault will carry on, just regard Nelson Piquet as a worthless piece in their long history in motorsport. Someone who was easily replaced, just there to be a teammate of Fernando Alonso. That was his job, number two. But even as number two, Renault treated him more like a test driver. He might as well have been Romain Grosjean this season, more chance of racing fairly down in GP2.