Simon Lazenby.

I know that what I have to say will divide opinion but sometimes a blog just has to do that.

I don't want to start a debate. I don't want to get nasty.
I just want to say how I feel about this situation.


Now you may of heard the story in the Daily Mail about Simon Lazenby being drunk and disorderly on an EasyJet flight back from Valencia.
But that's not what I want to talk about.

But I do want to talk about Simon Lazenby.
I do feel very sorry for Simon. He really does divide opinion in the F1 community.
"Oh he's just a poor Jake Humphrey"
"He knows nothing about F1"
Blah blah blah.

Funnily enough I realised that some people seem to have extremely short memories. Because I remembered that when it was announced that Jake Humphrey would be hosting the BBC F1 coverage.
There was uproar. ACTUAL UPROAR.
"How can a children's TV presenter host a major sporting event?"
"Jake who?"

Yet now Jake is so loved by the F1 community he's deemed a bloody national treasure. (Not in my eyes though. You can see why here)

Yes Simon may of made some mistakes since hosting the Sky F1 coverage and yes he may of said the wrong thing at times. But he's always admitted them and ALWAYS said sorry.
People seem to forget that he's human. He's only nine races into a new job and in the last few races, seems to have really settled into the role. Especially with people like Ted, Natalie and Johnny.

What people seem to miss about Lazenby is that he is bloody funny (He really is. Hence why he has the nickname Lolzenby to his loyal subjects.), witty and a seemingly nice bloke.
What I like about Simon is that he actually tweets to his fans. He may not post many status tweets but he does talk to some us, gains our opinions and actually wants to improve how he is on screen.
He cares about what people think of him. He wants to impress us. The F1 fans. The F1 community.
That to me makes him all the more human and all the more endearing.

So maybe at times he tries too hard and gets it a little or even all wrong.
Who else hasn't done that at some point in their lives?
I know I have.

As for the alleged drunk and disorderly plane incident.
I would like to point out that Georgie Thompson does have a drink drive conviction under her body con dress. Yet no one seems to be mentioning this when it comes to her presenting skills and so they shouldn't.
A private life is a private life. It doesn't affect her work. She does a good job.

So will Simon keep his job next year?
I don't know, but I for one hope he does.

The Spanish GP for me showed how good Simon really is.
He was cool, calm and collected when the fire broke out in the Williams garage.
He took charge. Tried to give us the fans as much information as he could possibly get, whilst trying to talk to and find influential F1 figures and make sure that they were all okay.
Spain proved that Simon and the whole Sky F1 team had class and compassion.
Something that a sport like F1 always needs.

So you can get your poison pens out for Simon Lazenby.
Bring it on.

The Simon Lazenby fan club may only be small.
Be we are mighty.

You can also follow me (Or send your abuse which ever floats your boat) on twitter @squiffany

FanFormula: Week 15. Spain.

So this week's FanFormula video is of course all about Spain.

I thought it was a pretty boring race myself.
I mean controversy, a new winner and then fire with added bravery. 

Standard race really.
(Haha of course I jest)

So in this week's FanFormula. I do some more singing, I teach you all a new hand gesture and I get angry that I can't say the word incident. 

This week's FanFormula questions.

Question One. 

Qualifying saw Hamilton's penalty and Karthikeyan's qualifying outside the 107% rule. What do you make of both incidents and the resulting steward decisions?

Question Two
In the Senna vs Schumi crash, who did you think was at fault?

Question Three

Maldonado took his first victory in Spain (The first Williams win since 2004). Do you think this signals the return of Williams to the top of the grid or is this just another topsy turvy result for the 2012 season?

Bonus Question

Who would you say drove the best race at Catalunya and why?

If you want to get involved in future FanFormula videos you can by going to http://fanformula.weebly.com/

And if you want to hear more of my rambling then you can also follow me on twitter @squiffany

Testing. One, Two...Testing.

If you didn't know or have never read my blog before.
I love F1.
I pretty much live and breathe it.

Except in one key area.
Testing.
Especially the off season testing before the F1 season officially begins.
Like the testing going on this week in Jerez.


I was sent home from work today. After being poorly the last couple of days.
But when I got on twitter. It was full of testing tweets.
The tweets about seeing the cars on the track for the first time, how many laps cars did or who crashed out. Is totally acceptable.
But to me.
The tweets about who is posting the fastest times.
This is like me posting about my hair colour, David Attenborough Polar bear footage or Katie Price's boobs.
They are all pretty fake.


Of course they exist. (My hair colour is looking pretty marvellous at the moment)
The testing times did happen.

But they aren't a realistic gauge of how things will be in Australia in March.
Yet everyone seems to get super duper excited about who's the fastest.

Last year Barrichello topped the sheets, yet where was the Williams last year?
There it was dragging it's sorry self over the line just before the Virgins, HRT and Lotus.

I'm not saying that if your fastest over testing your not going to do well. Brawn in 2009 had a really good testing session then won the both championships the same year.

I just find it hard to get excited about something that has too many variables.
From now until March. The cars and the drivers will completely change.
Drivers will be fitter and cars will have tried every part/loophole going to get the car to it's full racing capacity.

Yet everyone seems to play the world's uninteresting guessing game of who will be fastest/competitive in March.

I think I know why we do this though.
F1 fans go through nearly five months of no F1 action. By the time we hit the launches and the testing, we know that it isn't too long to wait. So we get excited by any glimpse of a so called race. Mainly because we have been starved for so long.

So even if it's just the race to get to the top of the time sheets in testing.
We get excited.
Cars have moved and it's literally GO GO GO.

Personally I have to wait the extra month (Because we all know that F1 is always worth the wait) and make my own judgements of the cars at qualifying and the race.
Because for me. The first race is the test.
The test of who will be the fastest and who can catch up to them throughout the season.
Plus after five months of being starved. It makes getting up at four in the morning, seem that little bit easier.

Feel free to comment below or you can follow me on twitter @squiffany.

Where thou art Rubens?

It's has come to that time of year when most of the seat in F1 are filled and we end up waiting like lost limpets for the last few seats to be filled.

Now we just have two seats that haven't been confirmed.
HRT and Williams.

HRT is always a hard seat to predict. Mainly due to the fact that HRT are dirt poor and they will literally put anyone in that car. If Luca Badoer is not in the car for 2012 I will be shocked.

Joking a side.
HRT will go one of two ways. An older driver who has either been out of F1 for a while or has been bumped out of a team recently. Or will go for a young driver who has a lot of sponsors.
Rumours of  HRT seat filling have included Nick Heidfeld, Jaime Alguersuari and Karun Chandhok.
We might be waiting a while to find out the result of this one.


The other seat still not to be confirmed is that at Williams.
But only two people seem to be up for that job.
Bruno Senna and Rubens Barrichello.
Now Bruno Senna is the one tipped the most for that seat.

But this is where I get a little bit torn.
Don't get me wrong I know that the Williams at this moment in time is not a race winning car.
But I would love to see Bruno Senna in a car from the beginning of a season for once and actually do well.

But the other part of me would love Rubens Barrichello to have just one more year in F1.
Celebrate 20 years and then leave with a bang.
Rather then how he could leave at the moment.
With a whimper and a backlog of tyre marbles.

Rubens, I admit is not what I would really call an exciting driver anymore, plus he is on a salary and Bruno is not. Bruno will and can bring a lot of money and sponsors to Williams.

But Rubens is and has always been the only constant in my F1 life.
I would love to spend 2012 having a huge celebration.
A Rubens Barrichello leaving do if you would.

So to any F1 team out there.
Please give Rubens a job for 2012.

Because the Iceland party platter needs to be brought out in honour.
True story.