The bickering and squabbling over at the McLaren camp has again highlighted the biggest problem with McLaren. An F1 paddock may be big enough to fit two world class drivers and their cars but it will never accommodate their egos. A fact proven by McLaren when they hired Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in 1988 and again when they got Raikkonen and Montoya together in 2005. As Michael Schumacher very correctly stated, there is only one number one driver. With this power struggle there is always one clear loser. Montoya left F1 to join NASCAR (I guess he didn't like taking corners too much). And now Alonso has left McLaren for an uncertain future.
2007 also exposed an ugly side of the Spaniard. The world saw him for the prick who he really is. A grown man who cried like a baby because he couldn't bear to have the spotlight taken away from him and put onto a mere rookie who was in his first year as a F1 racer. How dare you Lewis??? And give Fernando his candy back too!! And now it seems no one wants this spoilt child. After all would you? No one will except perhaps a Mr. Flavio Briatore. The man who made Schumacher. The person who gave Alonso his first break. The one running things over at Renault. So may be the sun hasn't quite set on old Alonso. Muy buena!!
However its been more than a year since Renault showed some spunk. They spent 2007 sputtering. Fighting it out more often with the Torro Rossos than the rosso red Ferraris. However, a year is millenium in F1. There is nothing to stop Renault from making a car as superior as the one they had last year. But somehow I feel they wouldn't be able to pull it off. My gut still tells me that Renault will be battling it out in the middle of the pack rather than waging a war at the front with the Ferraris and McLarens.
Of course it is definitely plausible that he may join some team other than Renault but which? Ferrari? Of course not.. they have a good thing going on. He may do better by joining the likes of Williams or BMW but are they good enough to get him the third championship he so badly desires. I doubt it. From where Alonso is he has only one way to go... down. Once you are down that road in F1 its hard finding a way back up.
Everyone who owns a TV in this country and has heard the term F1 must have heard it, seen it or read about it. A certain bearded liquor tycoon has purchased a Formula 1 team and renamed it Force India. Yes, F1 fans all over the country are corking open bottles of bubbly (beer that is) and celebrating over the fact the one sixth of humanity has a home team to cheer for in the world's second most watched sport. But before some of us get all wasted cheering for team India in F1 and some others wasted for cheering with all those cheering for team India lets think about it for a second.
Those boys at Spyker who have found a new boss in Mr.Mallya aren't really what you call a championship winning team. They have never been consistent on the track nor off it. They were called Midland F1 in 2006 and Jordan before that. Hell, they haven't even been consistent in being owned!! The last time I heard of them win some points was at the US Grand Prix in 2005 where all the Michelin runners refused to race due to safety issues. That left just Ferrari and Jordan out to pick up some points. It wasn't really a race. More of an obligation to the organizers, spectators and television broadcasters.
Now what Mr. Beer Seller has done is plaster the name of a country of 1.1 billion on to two cars which would more often that not finish first at the wrong end. I can imagine the headlines now.
Force India finish last.. again. Force India..not a force to reckon with. Force India.... forced off the track. No other team has a country in its name. And with good reason. Formula 1 isn't like other sports. Italian teams managed by a Frenchmen hire German drivers to drive British designed cars to win races in America, Brazil, Japan and China among others to win the world championship (If you haven't guessed it yet I was talking about Ferrari and Michael Schumacher). Its truly a global sport where a team doesn't identify itself with a country. The only thing that matters is winning not winning for someone.
When you put India on the team you identify India with it. You identify the hopes and aspirations of a country which is just beginning to get the F1 bug with a team that is more used to failure than success. Imagine the millions who glue to the TV screen for the first time ever to cheer India and be greeted with failure. Lets face it. Force India will not be a force to reckon with in 2008. Nor in 2009. Corporate giants like Toyota who have spent five years in Formula 1 have yet to find their footing. Its highly unlikely that Force India will be a force to reckon with for quite a few years. Till then the shame of watching their "national"team lose all the time would have turned many not-die-hard-fans-of-the-sport away from F1. I never thought I would write this but I really do wish that Mr.Mallya had renamed his new acquisition team Force Pakistan! And as an icing on the cake he could hire a Pakistani dude named Musharraf to drive it too. Nothing unites Indians like watching Pakistan get kicked in the nuts!
