So much for formula 1 racing drivers having lightening fast reactions, if that were true for all drivers, then why didn’t Rubens Barrichello recognize that there was going to be no gap alongside Michael Schumacher to get by?

I agree the move from Schumacher was dangerous because he could see Barrichello in his mirrors, but surely Barrichello must have recognized that Schumacher was not going to let him by safely or easily, so why risk it? Look at the angle of Michael’s car (at this point Rubens could have slowed down or avoided taking the move)?

Look at the angle now and yet his foot is still firmly on the peddle, even with the pit lane exit looming up ahead. It was inevitable that Barrichello was going to be heading for the wall if he didn’t lift off the gas, yet he carried on going, so surely he is as much to blame as Schumacher. Look at Barrichello’s right wheel, already crossing the line.

New Rule Proposal: There should be a rule, such as the rule that states cars exiting the pit lane are not allowed to cross the white line, the same rule should apply for cars coming past the start / finish line towards the pit exit. Rubens has clearly risked himself by crossing that line and heading towards the pit wall and he has also put his car in the path of any car exiting the pit exit lane. Imagine if there was a car exiting the pits at that very moment in time… I guess we don’t want to imagine that!

In my opinion both drivers were at fault although the incident could have been avoided by Rubens and Michael. Both drivers should have both received grid slot penalties for the next race, but as always it’s the F1 world against Schumacher. If he is not being bashed by Eddie Jordan or Jonathan Legard every race for coming back to F1, then it’s the rest of the paddock.

Let us not forget the other great drivers who found themselves in a similar position.

Related Links:

• Schummi was trying to discourage Rubens. (PlanetF1).
• Schumacher handed 10-place grid penalty at Spa. (Formula1.com).
• Schumacher given ten-place grid drop for his swerve at Barichello (F1Fanatic.co.uk).

The world cup starts today in my homeland South Africa and keeping up to date with all the latest scores over the next few weeks is going to be critical especially if your name is Bowen and you have multiple bets running on the various games that are being played. So I am pleased to report a little football widget / application called Pelota for the Nokia N900 /N97 and Nokia 5800.

Funlabs have realeased the widget called Pelota, which run in a real-time mode. It informs you about the status of the world cup games being played. For every goal that is scored, the widget beeps and vibrates and displays the score on your screen.

Update @ 1703: The widget works brilliantly, beeping loudly when a goal was scored.  What an exciting game that was?

Have you seen the flash based South Africa world cup 2010 calendar doing the rounds at the moment?

For the football fanatic it is a dream come true as you can see every possibility in one simple and quick location. Just move your mouse over the different links and you can schedules for each games, cities and stadiums where the games will be played, the national teams and all the games they will be playing, the groups and stages. Look a little closer and you will see arrows on each of the sectors and if you click on these it will give even more information.  A very clever, well thought out website. Most likely going to be very popular over the world cup.

Four races into the 2010 F1 calendar and Michael Schumacher has started to make progress by finishing in a comfortable 4th place at the Spanish Grand Prix. He made up two places and successfully fended off Jenson Button for most of the race. After passing Jenson coming out of the pits. Jenson was fast asleep approaching the 1st corner and Michael was quick and decisive. This is what Jenson had to say after the race about Schumacher;

I didn’t really know where Michael was on the outside of me. He turned in and if I didn’t back out of it we would have crashed. So he didn’t really give me a lot of room there. There you go, you’d think with his experience he would know. It wasn’t really the right move.

Poor old Jenson Button. He was looking for a scarlet red Ferrari, that is why he didn’t see Schumacher. Jenson, if you can’t take the heat or the experience of a seven times world champion passing you, best you get use to it quickly.

Jenson didn’t have the guts to pass him back and made silly attempts throughout the race. He needs to face reality, just like the rest of them, that Michael is there to race and pass people, not be soft and polite on the race track.

Old Eddie Jordan has also started to change his tune on Michael Schumacher. Remember what he said when he heard Schumacher was coming back to F1;

Schumacher ‘out of his mind’ and has ‘no hope’ of F1 title.

In fact even Jonathan Legard is sounding a bit like the previous biased ITV commentators, with his Michael Schumacher comments. He kept asking Martin Brundle if Schumacher is taking control of the team, of course Brundle is too wise to talk against a driver that is clearly as good as the best at present.

I smell fear starting to creep into the F1 paddock. No one, including Schumacher said he would come back and in his first few races be competitive and winning, and I am not saying that either, but this was the 4th race of the year and he has clearly turned a leaf by out qualifying his young team mate (who has won nothing in F1) and beating him with ease in the race today. It won’t be long before Schummie is back on the podium. Once Mercedes and Brawn get that car up to speed, they will be challenging Alonso, Hamilton, Webber and Vettel. Don’t ever rule Schumacher out.

You know the saying “When in Rome, do what the Romans do“, well the office guys and gals are all talking / thinking / breathing College Basketball as there is some big tournament starting today. There are 64 teams and they all play each other over the course of 3 weeks. It’s a knockout championship and there can only be one winner. Typically there is some form of a rivalry going on in the office in the form of a fantasy basketball competition via the CBS Sports Website. $20 to enter, 26 players in the office and $400 prize money.

When there is money to be won, those who know me, know I will enter regardless of actually knowing the sport in question. Basketball is one such sport. I have never followed it, but a chance to win $400 is worth following it for the time that I am here.

So they got this thing called a bracket on the CBS Sports website, which is a grid of all the teams, who they are playing, and it shows the winners and losers, and ultimately who will play each other in the final and it all works on points I think.

I had the computer pick my fantasy winners and losers and I changed a few of the winners to make it more personal. I looked at the names of the teams and decided who would win or lose by their names. Very scientific as you can see.

They started playing at 12pm today and after the first round of games, guess who is tied in 1st place (out of 26 fantasy basketball fanatics – ha ha ha)?

Schumacher ‘out of his mind’ and ‘no hope’ of F1 title

Those words coming from Eddie Jordan on a recent interview when asked what he thought about Michael Schumacher return to F1?

Let’s leave it at that and comment again when Schumacher wins a race or beats the 100 race win mark or god forbid, wins another world championship.

I bet you Eddie “idiot” Jordan will backtrack soon or later.

The Northern Cape and specifically the small town of Kakamas have won an appeal to have one of the preliminary world cup matches played at their grounds. After visiting the pitch, the FIFA officials deliberated for a few hours and eventually agreed that one match would be played at the rural grounds.

The brand new dust bowl outside the small town of Kakamas.

The local council and tribesmen had to prove to the FIFA officials that the pitch was playable on, and that there was enough room for spectators. The pitch is surrounded by a natural bank or bowl (hillside) giving all the potential spectators a wonderful view of the field and players. The pitch has recently been brushed of all rocks and pebbles, so should not trouble the players who are wearing body armour. The local council have promised to rid the area of snakes, scorpions and spiders.

Security fences surround the pitch and bricks mark the centre of the field.

Security of the players has always been the number one concern, but the tribesmen were quick to point out that the ground was surrounded by a fence, which would keep out the troublemakers. (foxes, small rabbits, wild animals etc).

Brand new pitch,  soccer nets and raised spectator seating can be seen in the background.

Mr Ibullsh Itunot, the sports minister for Kakamas said,

We are delighted to be having one of the football world cup games held at our ground.  We have not been told who will be playing here, but the local township are extremely excited at the prospect of having at least one international team playing on our famous “dust bowl” ground. All the big cities in South Africa are spending millions of rands building wonderful stadiums and we are proud to be apart of that world cup fever. We are a small community and this sort of worldwide visibility will put us on the map of the world. Obviously we can’t offer players and spectators the grandeurs that Cape Town, Durban or Johannesburg are offering, but I am sure player/spectator will experience Africa at it’s best.

Looking at the 2010 world cup calendar, it will be the only open air game where the pitch is totally void of any solid structure (concrete walls, stands, seating etc) and it will be the only green stadium. The openness of the pitch will come as a big relief to both players and spectators as temperatures at the ground often reach 35 degrees Celsius or above.

More wild animal will be needed to light up the pitch.

There was a suggestion to play the game at night, but the local tribesman are worried they will not be able to safely manage the players and / or spectators in the dark with only a few choice animals offering the needed light for the game.

If the many rumours, news articles and image coverage are true, then we are definitely ending 2009 on a high and will start 2010 with a 41 year old, seven times world champion! Yay!!!!

I don’t want to jinx it, but there is a lot of news today on Michael Schumacher and his return to F1 next year driving in the same car that brought good fortune and luck to Jenson Button. Even Jenson Button is getting in on the action by saying “Schumacher will be putting his reputation on line“. Totally nonsense of course for Button to think that. He is just scared like the rest of the drivers.

Michael Schumacher has spent the last 3 years watching Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Vettel, Webber, Button, Barichello, Kimi race so he knows what they are about? He knows that Massa and Barichello are still number 2 drivers, he has seen that Alonso is still hungry for another championship in a Ferrari. He knows Vettel is a future champion and he knows Hamilton is a cheat and can be beaten.

It will be one hell of a year in 2010 if seven times world champion teams up with Brawn for the 3rd time and shows the youngsters once again who the real champ is?

Come on Mercedes / Brawn, Schumacher – tell us it’s true!!!!

Related News Headlines:

• Schumacher will be putting his reputation on line, warns Button
• Michael Schumacher set to return to F1 in 2010 – Yahoo
• Michael Schumacher ‘ready to sign’ for Mercedes for 2010 Formula One season – The Telegraph
• Schumacher to sign with Mercedes – The Associated Press
• Schumacher Close to Deal With Mercedes – New York Times
• Schumacher ‘not over the hill’ – Damon Hill
• £7million… and it’s all for Schu – The Sun
• Schumacher back in F1 – NZ Herald News

If you asked me what I did on Saturday and Sunday all I could tell you is one thing only – I watched the F1 Brazil Qualifying on Saturday that lasted two and three quarter hours because of the rain and I watched Jenson Button battling his way through the traffic and ultimately winning the Formula 1 world championship for 2009. It was a fantastic drive from Jenson and I am sure he made up his mind on Saturday that this would be the race that he gave it his best shot to take the title. By far the best race he has driven in for ages if not ever. I think he said something similar.

Yes, he won six races in the early parts of the year, but then he was driving a superior car at the time. He looked a worried man in the last few races with Barrichello and Vettel hot on his tail, but he definitely put an end to their challenge in the race yesterday. He drove with courage, skill and determination and for me is a worth champion along with all the other greats.

Isn’t the photo above an awesome sight to see. Taken by Darren Heath and published on the BBC F1 website.

Well done to Brawn GP as well. They have done a fantastic job to beat the likes of Mclaren and Ferrari, who have been in the business for years.

I do feel sorry for Barrichello, but what a good sport he has been? Right to the bitter end, the poor man had the worst luck one could have in a race, but even at the end of the race he showed true sportsmanship by congratulating Button. He looked quite cheerful in the post interviews.

A big THANK YOU to James Barrett for the free tickets to Brands Hatch today. In a way it was the perfect end to a wonderful birthday weekend.

We got to see some incredible birds (the feathered kind) and of course the skimpy clad ones simply known as “Pit Babes”.

There was plenty of bumber to bumber action and close racing on this very special track.

The highlight of the day was definitely the British Touring Car Championships where Jason Plato managed to win all three races, something that has only been achieved once before,

but it wasn’t enough to stop Colin Turkington from winning his first BTCC.

Note: The above photo and the Leyland Paints Pit babes were not photographed by Lookatbowen.com and are sourced from btccpages.com