F1: Lewis, McLaren, Night Racing, and Jason Plato

Here are just a few brief motor racing issues that have crossed my mind recently.  I’ll start with the driver that everyone has an opinion on: Lewis Hamilton. 

No one can deny that the guy has amazing talent. I even wrote an article a few weeks ago saying that he was stepping into the shoes of Michael Schumacher in terms of controversy and that he could well be the one who permanently takes on the mantle of greatest current driver in the sport right now.

But something has happened, and it’s not on the track.  No, it is his attitude off the track particularly in reference to his apology press conference in Malaysia that has left a sour taste.

When Schumacher attracted controversy either through himself or through the team, they stuck together in public.  Privately may have been different, but you never heard about it.

You wouldn’t ever have seen any articles true or false stating that people inside the team were beginning to turn their backs on him as reported on the Planetf1 website. But yet Hamilton has attracted this through the way he turned all the blame on the now sacked team manager Dave Ryan. 

He didn’t stick with the team, he removed himself from blame, and perhaps he should take heed of what has happened before in other teams and times to keep everyone moving in the same direction, not try and separate yourself from them. 

You win together, you lose together; you want the full team support because in the end it’ll help you to win as proved recently by Schumacher and Fernando Alonso at Renault. Sometimes thing's don't go well, so you take it on the chin with the rest of them and move on.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to learn from the Ferrari drivers. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa have been constantly trying to motivate their team from. They know there’s a lot to do and they’ve made mistakes this season but they just have to keep working forward, together. 

Let’s just hope they don’t write the season off as Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali has been quoted as saying.  If after Spain there is no obvious improvement they may just concentrate on 2010. 

Surely Ferrari can’t just throw away a season, they’re far too big for that. But then again, there are obvious reasons behind writing a season off, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work.

This now brings me nicely on to night racing. The MotoGP in Qatar was postponed until the following day last weekend because of rain.  Normally they wouldn’t have done this, it’s only rain, but it was a night race and the glare from the lights meant the riders couldn’t see.

Formula One has already proved this year it likes to schedule races at times when things might go wrong but it’s too late to sort it out. So let us now say no to Malaysia and China, who are both considering night races.

One opportunity in Singapore is enough as that actually looks good with the city landscape.  Malaysia and China have boring scenery around and there’s no point increasing the risk of having races cancelled especially when we now look to have proof that rain and night racing don’t mix.

Finally I’d just like to talk about the British Touring Car Championship.  It’s brilliant, bumper to bumper stuff and you get three short action packed races in one day.  It’s a great spectacle. 

But more specifically I’d like to talk about Jason Plato.  He recently drove in the first round at Brands Hatch in a year old Chevrolet Lacetti that he’d driven for only six laps before.

During the weekend he battled hard, hit people, people hit him, he was knocked down the pack, battled back up again and won a race in controversial circumstances. 

That sentence to me sums up why the championship needs him because right now the budget is not in place for a whole season and it would be a travesty for him not to be involved.  If anyone knows British Touring Cars, they know Plato. 

If you want further proof search “Jason Plato, What a save” on Youtube.  Awesome.