The FIA has had a driver on the stewards panel at each Formula 1 Grand Prix for a couple of seasons now, and inevitably some of the novelty has worn off. Certainly there’s not the same ‘big reveal’ around which driver it will be each weekend.

But I thought it might be interesting to look back at two full seasons of driver stewards, and see who’s been up there in the stewards room. So I made this:

Formula 1 FIA Driver Steward League Table

NB: earliest appearance used as tie-breaker

Analysis!

My assumption, I admit, was that relatively less successful drivers have probably dominated. I don’t think that’s the case though.

Johnny Herbert is the Driver Steward Champion, if you like, with five appearances. He had a very respectable – if not extraordinary – F1 career: three-times a winner, a clutch of podiums, and a lengthy stay in the sport.

He’s followed by two drivers with four appearances each, both with hefty F1 experience, albeit with differing levels of success: Derek Warwick had a handful of podiums; Nigel Mansell is obviously a former world champion.

Four drivers have made three appearances, and they’re a mixed bunch too: double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi; Heinz-Harald Frentzen, winner of three races; Alexander Wurz, who had a few podiums; and Emanuele Pirro, who had an unremarkable time in F1.

The only driver steward to have never competed in F1 is Tom Kristensen – but his eight Le Mans 24 Hour victories probably make up for that. To be fair, Pirro is a five-time winner too, and Wurz twice.

The rest of the table is a similarly varied selection of drivers: from brief stints in F1, to four-time champion Alain Prost, and everything in between. Those who weren’t long in F1 tend to have achieved elsewhere: Danny Sullivan was IndyCar champion; Allan McNish is another multiple Le Mans winner.

The one exception is Martin Donnelly, whose F1 career was cut short by a huge crash at Jerez in 1990.

Britain!

The only thing that stands out is that the top three are all British. In fact, an awful lot of them are British. But there have been more British F1 drivers than any other nationality, so it’s probably to be expected.

Summary!

Drivers of quality – from respectable racers to legends of the sport – have been quite willing to do their bit, with former world champions no less likely to come back for more. In short: the FIA hasn’t had to plumb the depths of former Formula 1 drivers. It doesn’t look like Zsolt Baumgartner will be needed any time soon.

More!

For completeness, here’s the full list of driver stewards for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. To the best of my knowledge anyway – some of the later 2010 races were a bit tricky to determine.

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It was agreed today that three Formula 1 constructors will change their names.

Lotus Renault GP will cease to be Renault, and change to Lotus, because Renault don’t really like them any more. Conveniently, Team Lotus will switch from Lotus to Caterham – and probably change their team name too.

Marussia Virgin Racing meanwhile will go from Virgin to Marussia, to better represent where the money’s coming from. Which, inevitably, isn’t Richard Branston – he’s too clever for that.

Here comes the maths bit

As any mathematician will tell you, the order in which you do things matters very much – and changing Formula 1 team names is no exception. The FIA needs to take care in the order in applies the name changes, or we could end up in an awful mess. Let me needlessly elaborate at excruciating length.

Functions

To enact these name changes, the FIA could simply apply three functions to all thirteen constructors. Let’s define those functions:

Order

So if we nest those functions, we should have our new team names. Let’s see how that goes:

Oh no! Now we’ve got two bloody Caterhams. That’s not what anyone wanted. Let’s reverse the order:

That’s better.

Conclusion

So, FIA: please remember to apply g before f, or we’ll all end up in a right pickle. Alternatively, just change all three names at once. That might work too.

It’s been a while, but there’s no better way to review a Formula 1 race than quarks.

Up

Early. But I’ve not watched an F1 race live for months, so no excuses. And it was broadly worthwhile, if only for Martin Brundle walking an unsurprisingly sparse grid, musing on the futility of asking Michael Schumacher for a word.

Down

Lewis Hamilton seems very down. He greeted pole position on Saturday with staggering disinterest. The only notable radio message played in during the race was Hamilton telling the team not to talk to him while he’s braking – which I’m sure is a fair point, but still.

He seemed a little perkier after impressively holding off Mark Webber to take second place in the race. But only slightly.

Charm

Michael Schumacher was unceremoniously punted out of the race by Vitaly Petrov. But both men were remarkably lovely about the incident. Schumacher told Lee McKenzie on the BBC:

“I have to say Petrov and I have had some great racing this year, so to have a few get-togethers, that’s racing.”

Petrov, meanwhile, accepted responsibility and apologised.

Bless them.

Strange

One good thing about F1 expanding into new territories is that it brings new and unfamiliar sponsors. And looking them up online is a good distraction in less interesting periods of the race.

So: SK ZIC is a Korean brand of engine lubricants; POSCO is the Pohang Iron and Steel Company.

Oh, and the massive shipyard structures in the background? Hyundai.

Top

It wasn’t a consistently fascinating race, but first laps that good are rare. Proper ding-dong stuff, nothing to do with DRS, just solidly aggressive overtaking moves.

There was some good stuff later on between Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton, too.

Bottom

That battle was slightly compromised by DRS though. With the activation zone just after turn one, it meant that a driver losing a place there would have DRS to fight back on the following straight. Not helpful.

You’d not think that Angry Birds and Formula 1 would have much to do with each other – other than to keep Nick Heidfeld occupied when he’s hanging around the paddock feeling unwanted.

But not so this week – and surprisingly, in more ways than one.

Crowd gaming

Apparently there’s something called crowd gaming. From what I can gather, this involves crowds making a lot of noise and something happening on a big screen as a result.

A company involved in such things – Uplause – recently announced a deal with Rovio, they behind the aforementioned mobile gaming phenomenon. The fruits of this deal will be seen for the first time at the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend.

How will it work? The specifics are a little vague. But then, the noise of a crowd is a a little vague as a control method for a game, isn’t it? Probably safe to assume that a louder crowd will be a more successful crowd. It does sound like fun though; it usually is when large crowds act together.

Rumours that the pigs will take on the likeness of Flavio Briatore for this weekend are as yet unconfirmed…

“Apparently these are Angry Birds”

Formula 1 collided with Angry Birds earlier in the week, too, when F1 journalist Adam Cooper found himself unexpectedly flying to Singapore on a special Angry Birds themed flight. His baffled tweets on the matter (here, here, here, here and here) were most amusing, and just a tiny bit fearful.

Photo Credit
Uplause – Flickr – used with permission

The business side of Formula 1 is murky to say the least. The ownership structure is a tangle of companies, as perfectly illustrated by this diagram from Joe Saward a few months back. With the Gribkowsky case going on, and CVC in the news this week, it’s all rather serious.

But there’s a fun side to Formula 1 companies too: the companies using the Formula 1 name in rather more spurious ways. By searching for ‘Formula 1′ on Companies House, it’s easy to find these companies: they’re the ones not based at 6 Princes Gate, London – AKA Bernie HQ.

So there’s the genuine Formula One Limited, but also Edinburgh’s Formula 1 Limited, the business of which is “buying & sell own real estate”.

Associating your company name with the pinnacle of motorsport is no guarantee of success though. All now dissolved or liquidated: the self-explanatory Formula One Cleaning Ltd, Formula 1 Drinks Limited and Formula 1 Labour Services Limited; the regional Formula 1 (Newcastle) Ltd and Formula 1 (North East) Limited. Thankfully Formula One (Brighton) Limited is still active.

There are, inevitably, a lot of automotive-related companies trying bask in a bit of reflected glory. There’s also some rather more unexpected re-purposing of the sport. Formula One Home Improvements Ltd – the obvious place to turn to for painting and decorating. You wouldn’t think that Formula 1 would be the best way to make your golf business stand out, but try telling that to Formula 1 Golf Limited. Need a doctor? Try Formula 1 Locums Limited.

With an obvious affinity, you’d think that Formula One Yachts Limited would be on to a good thing. Alas it’s now a dormant company. And if a company can’t trade on F1 to sell yachts, then we’re all doomed.

Photo Credit
Nick J Webb – Flickr – Some rights reserved

It’s seemed like a long old summer break, but Formula 1 is back, and at Spa no less. There are plenty of reasons to love the circuit, but for me the highlight is one of F1′s greatest corner names: Pouhon.

I’m looking forward to hearing how David Coulthard pronounces it in the commentary – especially since he won’t need to concentrate on getting Nick Heidfeld’s name right. If memory serves, Jonathan Legard used to really make a meal of Pouhon. So to speak.

It’s the start of a good run for corner names, with Monza next on the calendar. That means only one thing: Curva di Lesmo.

Just to prove that I’m not entirely childish, a couple of races after that it’s off to Suzuka, home of my very favourite corner name: Spoon Curve. Presumably named because it looks a bit like a spoon. Brilliant.

Sadly, with Istanbul Park likely to be absent from the 2012 calendar, we’ve probably already said goodbye to my final corner name highlight: Turn 8.

Most of the new circuits are distinctly lacking in both imaginative corners and imaginative corner names. Turn 8 at Istanbul Park might have only a generic label, but through sheer force of character, it’s broken free and come to mean that turn 8.

The Turkish Grand Prix might not have accomplished much in its seven years, but making a proper corner name out of a sequentially assigned number is something, I suppose.

Photo Credit
Pouhon, Spa: Nick Redhead, Flickr – Some rights reserved
Turn 8, Istanbul Park: ph-stop, Flickr – Some rights reserved

Formula 1 is on its summer break, and as we’ve established, anything passes for news. In fact, even in busier times, anything a former driver says has a habit of being turned into ‘news’.

So, it was with great excitement that I spotted quotes from 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter in a magazine, which even news-starved F1 websites don’t seem to have picked up on. That’s got ‘NEWS’ written all over it, right?

Let’s see what he had to say:

“Buffalo produce half the milk cows do but with twice the flavour, which makes it perfect for buffalo mozzarella.”

Yeah, I probably should have pointed out that the magazine is Waitrose Kitchen, and the feature is mainly about Laverstoke Park Farm.

Where by ‘mainly’ I mean ‘entirely’. No comments about Kimi Raikkonen; no thoughts on Sebastian Vettel’s dominance; nothing to say about Michael Schumacher’s comeback.

Oh well. If Laverstoke Park Farm fancy sending me some delicious organic produce to, er, review, then I’ll be only too happy to oblige. I’ll keep an eye on my emails…

Photo Credit
Lothar Spurzem, Wikimedia Commons – Some rights reserved

There was much rejoicing yesterday when AUTOSPORT.com reported comments made by Jacques Villeneuve in an interview with Brazilian website TotalRace, regarding fellow former Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen:

“If Kimi won the championship, he did it by luck, because he didn’t deserve it.”

Cue understandable calls of pot, kettle and black.

That’s quite apart from the fact that Villeneuve seems unsure whether Raikkonen actually did win the title. If you can’t remember, Jacques, it’s probably best to keep your thoughts to yourself. (Yes, it probably just got a bit mangled in translation, but that’s no fun.)

More non-news, please

It’s these sort of non-stories that keep websites going during the summer break. Doubtless there are more to come before racing gets back under way.

I’d like to see Michael Schumacher questioning whether Fernando Alonso used shifty tactics to win his titles.

Or Nigel Mansell speaking out to criticise modern drivers for being too boring.

Jacques’ gems

Back to Villeneuve, looking at the Google Translate version of the interview, he has even more valuable insight to offer.

Pointing out the bloody obvious:

“Kimi, in my opinion, was disinterested.”

And on Michael Schumacher:

“Think he’s making good money, having fun and walking very fast.”

I agree with Villeneuve: as long as Schumacher is walking fast, that’s all that matters.

Photo Credit
kosare, flickr – Some rights reserved

The Formula 1 summer break is in full swing. The resultant lack of news has freed up some time, and I’ve put it to good use – by playing Formula 1 Google Auto-Complete Word Association. Snappy title, eh?

It’s easy: type something F1-related into Google, and see what the top auto-complete suggestions are. I’ve done it for all the drivers. It’s quite illuminating. Sort of.

Twitter

The suggestions for most drivers feature twitter somewhere, and it’s the most common top suggestion. Proof that fans are indeed clamouring to ‘engage’ with F1 via ‘social media’. Which equates to following drivers on Twitter – Facebook doesn’t get a look in, as far as Google’s concerned.

Relationships

The next most common top suggestion is girlfriend – often for drivers whose private lives are actually private. Evidently salacious gossip is in demand in F1 circles as it is elsewhere. Personally I couldn’t care less who, if anyone, Sebastian Vettel might be having relations with.

There’s obviously speculation of another kind going on too, with gay cropping up four times. Adrian Sutil is the only one for whom it is the top suggestion – surprising, given the interest around his activities in a Shanghai nightclub, which account for the next suggestions (eric lux and fight).

Small men

Another word that crops up a lot is height. Often for the shorter members of the paddock – take a tiny bow, Nick Heidfeld – but also the taller likes of Mark Webber and Vitaly Petrov.

At least Heidfeld can be satisfied that, with goodwood, he is also remembered for setting the fastest time on the hillclimb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1999.

Specific events

A lot of drivers are remembered for specific events. Some even older than Heidfeld’s: Rubens Barrichello’s horrific crash at Imola in 1994 (imola crash 1994), for example.

Others are very recent: Pedro de la Rosa driving for Sauber with ten minutes notice in Canada this year, and going out in McLaren overalls as a result (mclaren overalls).

Improbably, hits marshall is a suggestion for two drivers.

In the case of Sebastien Buemi, it refers to this demo run in Japan earlier this year when, for some reason, a marshal ended up trying – and failing – to jump the car.

The other is Pastor Maldonado, in relation to the 2005 incident under yellow flags in Monaco.

Unusual associations

I’m not sure if people are querying his nationality, or whether they’re interested in the pronunciation of his surname (he drops the second ‘i’), but italian is a suggestion for the definitely Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

Spare a thought for actual Italian Jarno Trulli, for whom wine is the top suggestion. He must be pleased by the interest in his wine business, but would perhaps still prefer to be thought of first as a racing driver.

The full list

Continue reading for the full list. The suggestions are constantly changing, so it’s very much as at the time of writing.

Look out for Pastor Maldonado’s braces, Jenson Button’s endorsements, signs that Jerome d’Ambrosio’s nickname is sticking, and how boring Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher are.

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I’m finding it hard to get overly worked up over the new TV rights arrangement for Formula 1 in the UK. You know the deal: in short, we’re losing live coverage of half the Grands Prix on BBC TV. There will still be highlights on BBC TV, and live coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live. Meanwhile Sky Sports will broadcast the whole shebang live.

Obviously this is a shame. Ideally, the status quo would have been maintained. But with cuts absolutely necessary at the BBC, that clearly wasn’t an option. With that in mind, the best case would have been coverage switching to ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5. It seems safe to assume that they didn’t have the money.

Given that, a highlights package on the BBC is the best I would have expected. So retaining live coverage of half the Grands Prix – including Monaco and Britain – is a delightful surprise.

We’ve had a better run than most sports – especially comparably popular sports – in terms of keeping live coverage on free-to-air. It wasn’t going to last for ever, really, was it? A pessimist is never disappointed, I suppose.

Plus, I’ve only watched one of the last four races live, due to other commitments, and I’ve survived. It might even be nice to have half my Sundays back.

There will still be highlights free-to-air – and, lest we forget, live coverage of half the races. There are potential benefits, too, for Sky Sports subscribers, new and old.

It’s not so bad. Really. Keep calm, and carry on.