This is arguably one of the best racing moments during last year's championship campaign... Fernando Alonso in his McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 versus Takuma Sato in his Super Aguri SA07. This exemplifies the spirit and desire of the smallest team on the grid but with one of the biggest motivational drives. Too bad we will never see what Super Aguri could have really achieved with more resources.
The end has come for Super Aguri as they officially withdrew from the current F1 championship today. Forced into financial trouble by lack of payment from last year's title sponsor, SS United Group Oil & Gas Company, Aguri was in desperate need of money. A deal was put together with the Magna Group when it just fell apart at the last minute. A new deal was sought and one was found with the German-based Weigl Group however, it is apparent now that Honda rejected it. Super Aguri had no other choice but to withdraw. This unfortunate turn of events also leaves Takuma Sato, Japan's native son and hero, and Anthony Davidson, who gave Honda his best years as a tester then as a race driver for Aguri, out in the cold. For them, they may have raced their final Formula One race.
Through it all, Super Aguri proved that it was the little engine that could and will be missed. With the increasing costs of F1 and the ban on customer cars, it may be increasingly difficult for private teams to enter the sport in the future. And now there are 10.
For weeks and even months now, Super Aguri F1 Team aka "Super Best Friends" have been struggling to simply survive and keep racing, even if they are backmarkers in every sense of the word and act more as mobile chicanes than competitive F1 race cars. The fact that they even raced in Spain last week was amazing and a testament to their resolve and "the little engine that could" concept.
Sad news is emerging from Istanbul today, site of next weekend's Turkish Grand Prix. Super Aguri's trucks and motorhome are now denied access to the track/paddock at Istanbul. Nick Fry, Honda Racing F1 CEO, has supposedly informed Formula One Management that Super Aguri will not race at Turkey. Honda is still holding Super Aguri's race cars at their headquarters at Brackley until this financial situation is resolved.
Aguri is rumored to own Honda $100 million. Honda wasn't prepare to run and finance two full time F1 teams and time has run out for Aguri. Honda had hoped that Aguri would have found independent backers by now. The Magna Group buyout proposal looked promising but fell apart in the 11th hour when they backed out. Last week, the Weigl Group buyout proposal came to light and has some promise but Fry remained skeptical that the Weigl offer would be approved by Mother Honda.
I was never a big fan of Super Aguri however you can't help but to cheer for the little engine that could. Super Aguri is the ultimate underdog and F1 needs underdogs, as much as top tier teams like Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes and BMW Sauber. I'm surprised by the recent hard line that Honda is taking against Super Aguri. While 2006 seemed like a love feast between the two sister teams, now Honda seems like it wants nothing to do with Aguri and wants to be free of them as soon as possible. Perhaps this is a knee jerk reaction to being shown up last season when Super Aguri outperformed and in the eyes of some, embarrassed, Honda Racing F1?
Nevertheless, this may be the beginning of the end for Super Aguri. I hope Aguri will find a way to save his team.
I've being watching this potential takeover of Yahoo! by Microsoft with some interest for the past few months since this megadeal would be possibly reshaped the entire internet as we know it today and a gamechanger in my profession.
Well, those of you who were against the deal... Rejoice!
MicroHoo! is a no go, at least for the foreseeable future. Microsoft has officially withdrew its bid and abandon hopes of taking on Yahoo! to fight Google. I couldn't imagine an internet with a Microsoft owned and operated Yahoo! or (gulp!) an internet without Yahoo! (redirected to MSN). Hopefully Jerry Yang and company can put this behind them and turn the corner in the next few months. If not, look for another bid from Microsoft towards the end of the year.
Ah, another release of a Grand Theft Auto game brings out all of the self-righteous goody-goodies, like Jack Thompson, demanding a ban of GTA and the retailers selling it. More recently, the infamous lawyer turned anti-video game attack dog has compared Grand Theft Auto IV to polio, when he said...
Grand Theft Auto IV is the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio. We now have vaccines for that virus... The 'vaccine' that must be administered by the United States government to deal with this virtual virus of violence and sexual depravity is criminal prosecutions of those who have conspired to do this. If you doubt me, look at the aforementioned streaming audio/video. It will make you sick.
Polio?!?!
Here's a better idea. How about banning irresponsible people from making babies? Then you won't have irresponsible parents in this world blindly buying whatever their kid ask for. GTA IV is rated M for Mature. Mature means adult only. Violence. Prostitution. Drug smuggling. Gun-running. Political corruption. Racial tension. And of course, grand theft auto. Mature doesn't mean kid friendly and as soon as irresponsible parents understand this basic concept, this world will be a better place to live in... and polio free.
Starting from pole, Kimi Raikkonen storms to his second victory of the season at Barcelona, with Felipe Massa in second, making it another Ferrari one-two. As a result, Raikkonen is leading the driver's championship with 29 points, Hamilton in second with 20 points and Scuderia Ferrari retakes the constructor's championship from BMW Sauber with 47 points.
As scary as this looks, even scarier is the fact that Heikki Kovalainen was still in the car at the time that this photo was taken.
Ouch! Thankfully Kovalainen is OK and this is a true testament on how the safety of F1 cars has evolved and improved during recent years. A decade ago, Kovalainen would have been seriously hurt or possibly worse.
In a stunner, Fernando Alonso qualified second in the Grand Prix of Spain, in front of his home crowd. Is Alonso and Renault really back or this is some fluke? I think Renault has made some huge performance grains in the past three weeks but I suspect Alonso is running light, maybe extremely light. Look for Alonso is pit early tomorrow. This is going to be interesting if Alonso and Renault can keep this going. Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes, BMW Sauber and now Renault will all be fighting for the championship. To be continued...
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