I remember watching him smash the Jaguar on the front row against Schumacher. I remember him being taken out of Fuji by Vettel under the safety car when there was absolutely no doubt he would of ate Hamilton up and win his first ever GP. The blokes got undeniable talent – unfortunately it’s results that count. This mixed with his ever present bad luck don’t bide well with part time motorsport journalists. I’ve never been more hopefull that this is the year it turns around for him.

Greg, a nice introduction to some intelligent discussion. I was going to take the bait about whether or not F1 is a sport (of course it is, tho concede that if you were to rank a list of sports based on ‘purity’, motorsport wouldn’t be near the top) but you saved me the trouble by revealing an interest of sorts.

I will, however, take the bait about Cahill. He is already well rated, as he should be.

To your questions tho, my thoughts are as follows:
1) Prior to the last round of pit stops I turned to my other half (I’m slowly trying to convert her) and explained that once Vettel came out again, presumably still in front of Webber, Red Bull would call off the dogs and inform their 2 drivers that they could keep up a race pace, but not a racing pace. No point chucking a 1-2 into the weeds, is there. You’d think that most teams would do the same thing in that position and McLaren have certainly been exponents in the past. Webbo certainly lost time behind Button but it is questionable whether this had a material effect on the outcome. Once Webbo cleared Button he set fastest laps. Only for Vettel to respond. This will be a fascinating battle, Webbo finally having a team-mate who might just beat him (Heidfeld at Williams doesn’t count).

2) I presume you are saying Mottram is at a disadvantage for physiological reasons? This will apply much less to Webbo, even if there is significant physical demands on drivers. Those demands are ones of g-forces, concentration and dehydration, rather than the predominantly cardio challenges a runner faces. The main disadvantage he may face – it has been muttered once or twice, but never been a serious issue as far as we know – is the need to have the car designed around his size more so than other drivers require. The bigger the driver the more it limits the designers freedom. But, ahh, the weekend’s result – both qualiy in the dry and the race in the wet, it’s worth remembering – put paid to any thoughts of problems in that regards, you’d have to think.

PS: Working with free radicals? Sounds you like you’re with Amnesty International!

And a big thank you to Ch.10 for One Digital

His name reminds me of that Simpsons’ episode where Homer changes his name to Max Power…Best quote ever: “Nobody snuggles with Max Power! You strap yourself in and feel the G’s!”

However I do want to make two comments on Mark Webber.

First, a confession: F1 interests me as a sport but I find it very boring to watch. So all I ever watch, and this only occasionally, is the post-race coverage. I find it fascinating just how sanitized and pre-programmed F1 manages to make the post-race activities. The way it is all so stage managed makes me think of Bernie Ecclestone’s horrible hairpieces.

I also like listening to intelligent, articulate sportspeople of all types, and I find that F1 drivers are uniformly intelligent and articulate, for obvious reasons. (I also like to practice my German, and honestly, if I closed my eyes I could swear that was Michael Schumacher speaking last night. In case anyone is interested, Vettel said nothing in German that he had not already said in English, and the German word for aquaplaning is aquaplaning.)

I digress. From my 20 minutes of F1 watching yesterday, I found interesting that:

1. The commentators were at pains to point out that Webber only lost time on Vettel due to being stuck behind Button. This does indeed suggest that the Australian can genuinely aspire to winning a F1 race this season.

But I also noticed in the interview that Vettel tried to score subtle psychological points by saying that he did not push his car once Webber got past Button. Translation: he was saying to Webber “I am faster than you, even though it may not look that way.” Is this true?

2. Webber is a very big man by the standards of F1 drivers. Not only could one see this, but when team principal Chris Horner was congratulating his drivers after the race, one of the TV commentators said something like “Actually, he’s only lifting Sebastian Vettel off the ground, because Mark Webber is too big.”

Every time I see Craig Mottram running a 5000 m race at a major championship, it strikes me that he is a head taller than all his competitors, and that surely this makes him too big to succeed (if it were possible to be so big and to win, then there would be others his size!). Does the same hold for Mark Webber in a F1 cockpit?