It says a lot about how little is going on at the top level of the sport when some ten day after the conclusion of the Malaysian Grand Prix, conversations still veer towards the Webber / Vettel nonsense from Sepang.
There were a few well-placed murmurs that pretended to be truths and some small stories that disguised themselves as big ones, before the veils shifted {note 1}, but other than that, all appears to be obscenely quiet.
Must have been Easter. For some strange reason, people appear to enjoy time off. On the other hand, I was afflicted by a dose of the dreadful manflu – for those who don’t know, an exaggerated version of the common cold that produces extended whimpering and sniffling, while on the search for endless sympathy. Woe is me and all that stuff.
In the unreal world, things are not set to resume in Formula One until next week’s Chinese Grand Prix, during which everyone will be talking about… the Webber / Vettel nonsense from Sepang.
Meanwhile, the GP3 Series are currently several hours in to the first day of their final pre-season test at Silverstone, while World Series by Renault gets going this weekend at Monza (let’s hope they enjoy better weather). On the other side of the Atlantic, the IndyCar Series moves on to Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, where it is always sunny, even when it is not. So there is plenty to do and see and watch and entertain one’s self with.
After a weekend sleeping, one is now only catching up with the start of the FIA GT Series from France, where Sebastien Loeb Racing – almost predictably – picked up a win, with Alvaro Parente partnering Loeb. The Frank Stippler and Edward Sandstrom piloted Audi WRT won the Easter Monday feature, although the latter came somewhat controversially thanks to a post-race penalty.
It is something of a shame that the GT Sprint Series is such an unknown entity. The category generally provides some good, if rough and ready racing and its hour long format split by mid-race pitstops makes it almost perfect for television.
While Motors TV do a good job in bringing the category to our screens in Europe, the FIA GT Sprint Series produces a format crying out for a terrestrial television slot.
There are some who get sniffy about a GT race only lasting an hour, but as the mantra goes “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it.”
{note 1}
Clue – if a change in the technical regulations for Formula One have been announced, then it may be best to confirm said changes via a source with or near the FIA rather than taking for granted a foreign language site run through Google Translate.
