You may or may not know that several months ago my friend Craig and I launched (well almost) our own hosting website. I’ll tell you more about that in another post in the future when we have finished tinkering. Part of that process meant signing up as being self employed, I thought that I’d take the opportunity to earn some extra funds and build websites for people in my spare time. Well the first of those websites has now been launched.
I asked my resident king of sports knowledge (I say king meaning he knows more than me) Trefor Little (aka my dad) to write down the top 5 sporting achievements of 2009. In no particular order then:
England winning the ashes
Andy Murray reaching Number 2 in the world rankings
Jenson Button winning the world championship
Usain Bolt breaking the 100m and 200m world records again
Manny Pacquiao becoming the first man to win seven different titles at seven different weights
Come back on the 4th for his list of the top 5 achievements of the decade. What do you think?
We arrived at the campsite around 3:30 on the Thursday and set up camp. Once this was done we headed off for a walk, we found the perimeter road around the track. We passed the entrance to the track and wandered all the way around the track to Vale which is about 2/3s of the way before finding a gate stopping as getting further… great. We therefore just sauntered back to the campsite for a BBQ
Jenson Button came into Formula One and impressed over his first season in 2000. He didn’t match his teammate but he showed promise and at times like in Spa he shone. For the next season he made the move to a Renault team that was still trying to find its feet in the sport. Over the course of the season he had some good drivers but finished well down on his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella. He stayed with Renault for another season and did better beating Jarno Trulli on points before making the move to BAR at the end of the season being replaced by Fernando Alonso who took the Renault to 55 points in 2003. In 2004 Button got 3rd in the championship with some brilliant drives in a BAR which matched his driving style. He then made the decision to move to Williams. A decision he then decided was not a good move and cancelled his contract before it started losing money to pay his way out.
The FIA last week announced a voluntary budget cap on the F1 teams. In exchange for keeping to a spending limit of £40 million a team gets an engine sans rev limit and some other tweaks that could see them being faster than their non budget capped cousins.
There has since been an outcry from some of the teams saying that they will reevaluate their participation in the series if this rule stays. Today Red Bull, Toyota and Ferrari said that if the rules came in they would leave the series. You also have to feel that Mclaren, BMW and Renault would not be the biggest fans of the new rules if those teams threaten to leave the FIA will take notice.
Right so F1 drivers have to renew their racing licence on a yearly basis:
Formula One drivers are refusing to sign their mandatory FIA superlicences amid a fresh dispute with the sport’s governing body about their price, autosport.com can reveal.
Last season drivers were unhappy about a price hike from 1,725 Euros plus 456 Euros per point for the licences, to 10,000 Euros plus 2,000 Euros per point for the 2008 season.
They accepted the payments then, however, despite calling on the FIA and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone to justify the increase in costs.
I am obviously weird for liking Formula One so much but the news today that the Canadian Grand Prix has been dropped from the 2009 calendar should annoy even those with a passing interest. The Canadian Grand Prix has always been perfect, it is a track that has everything you need, it challenges the drivers and the tracks and it can always throw up an interesting and entertaining race. Lewis Hamilton got his first win there and this year he made himself look like a prat having dominated the weekend to that point.
So last Sunday at the Belgian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton had his victory taken away from him two hours later by the stewards. This has stoked a few flames and made a lot of people (once again) doubt Formula One.
Honestly with all the backroom politics I am surprised that anyone watches it anymore. Now most people will know that I am a big Lewis Hamilton fan and went to Brands Hatch’s DTM meeting mainly to see him. But I am also a Formula One fan so lets see if I can deconstruct the penalty.
