It’s been an unusually busy year for motorsport films. There was a little hype in the motorbike press around the mediocre I, Superbiker. The excellent TT3D: Closer To The Edge got slightly wider coverage.

But nothing like the widespread praise Senna has had since its first screenings last year. Two weeks after its UK release, it’s taken a million quid, and the film’s distribution is only increasing.

It’s success is richly deserved. Senna’s relationship with Prost is the central story, told through a wealth of archive footage, with contemporary interviews over the top where required. It’s fantastic stuff, with more than the odd modern day echo to be found.

That’s by no means all there is to the film though, and equally fascinating are Senna’s relationship with F1 doctor Prof Sid Watkins, and the huge importance Senna took on in his native Brazil. Some of the behind the scenes footage – from drivers’ briefings and the stewards’ room in particular – is simply staggering.

This all ensures that, whatever your prior knowledge, you’re utterly invested in Senna by the time the events of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix come round. Needless to say Senna’s death is dealt with respectfully, and the scenes from the funeral and around Brazil are hugely emotional.

My fuller Formula 1 awareness only really began in the mid ’90s, so for me it was hugely satisfying to have some of the gaps in my memory filled in. And it’s only made me want to fill in more of those gaps, which has to be a good sign.

As is the fact that all bar two people of the Saturday afternoon audience stayed right to the end of the credits, then proceeded to file out of the screen in virtual silence. It’s that kind of film.

There have been a number of Formula 1 races this year when the TV direction has been less than ideal. There’s been plenty of shouting about it on Twitter, often aimed at FOM – meaning Formula One Management Limited. Wrong!

Some races are the responsibility of a local TV director, but even when they’re not – and I’m now donning my pedantic hat – it’s not FOM any more.

It’s Formula One World Championship Limited – or FOWC if you like – as the pre-race F1 ident indicates. What do you mean you don’t read it?

To be fair, it was FOM until the start of this season, and had been since something like 1999. Before that it was Formula One Administration Limited – which until this year was still the company behind the official website, but that now also falls under FOWC.

It’s the start of the famous 100 year commercial rights deal that has resulted in the change from FOM to FOWC. That was done by the FIA under Max Mosley, for about tuppence ha’penny. Under Jean Todt, the FIA seems to have realised it wasn’t a great deal.

I’m probably just about the only person in the UK who’s actually pleased that Senna is only being shown in a small number of cinemas from its release date of 3rd June – this Friday. Because that’s also when I go on holiday for ten days.

Widespread nationwide screenings will follow on the evening of Tuesday 21st June – much like I, Superbiker and TT3D: Closer to the Edge, which also had their widest distribution on a single Tuesday evening.

Details are on the film’s Facebook page, but it’s not comprehensive at the time of writing – for example, my local cinema will be screening the film this Friday and Saturday, but isn’t listed there.

So I’m pleased that I won’t miss out on seeing Senna at the cinema. But I will miss the Catalan and British MotoGP rounds, BTCC from Oulton Park, the whole of the Isle of Man TT, the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, and the Le Mans 24 Hour. At least.

That’s some bad holiday planning right there.

My reaction to the Monaco Grand Prix via, as usual, the medium of quarks.

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After a strangely tedious pre-race show a week ago in Spain, the BBC were right back on form – thanks to a much shorter distance to the commentary box. That meant David Coulthard stuck with Jake Humphrey and Eddie Jordan longer, and more importantly that Martin Brundle was able to do his grid walk. The tight and packed Monaco grid always has the potential for rich pickings, and it really delivered this year.

Highlights included: Brundle paying more attention to his broken sunglasses than what Christian Horner’s had to say to him; mistaking music producer Stuart Price for Adrien Brody, then pretty much dismissing him for not being famous enough, before going on to warmly greet Geri Halliwell of all people; declaring that if Michael Schumacher doesn’t want to talk to him then he doesn’t want to talk to Michael Schumacher; wondering out loud whether he’s ever spoken to Pastor Maldonado, let alone on the grid; and virtually shoving a photographer out of the way before talking to Jean Todt. It was a good one.

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Driving standards were very variable. Paul di Resta was penalised for a rough move on Alguersuari at the hairpin, and later had contact in the same place with d’Ambrosio.

Lewis Hamilton started the race with a scary but superb move on Schumacher, but was also responsible for another bad move at the hairpin, this time on Felipe Massa – who then crashed out on the marbles in the tunnel while continuing their fight.

Hamilton’s worst crime, though, was taking out Pastor Maldonado, who was running in a fantastic P6 after the restart. He and the Williams team really didn’t deserve to have that strong result taken away from them. Hamilton, for his part, seems to be blindly blaming anyone but himself.

Charm

Bless James Allen. He was obviously busy this weekend, having TV unilaterals to conduct for the FIA as well as a race report to write for his blog. So busy, he mustn’t have heard that the race would restart after the red flag: up went that race report declaring Vettel the winner, while the rest of us were waiting for the race to get back under way.

It didn’t get better: his correction expected Vettel to continue on the same very worn tyres, when they’d already been changed on the red flag grid.

Never mind, eh? We all make mistakes. (Especially me.)

Strange

I don’t know what was going on in the pit lane during the first round of stops, but it must have been pretty distracting, because almost no-one had a clean tyre change.

There was a sticky tyre blanket for Vettel, which had a knock-on effect when on Webber when he stopped immediately afterwards; McLaren just weren’t ready for Hamilton, having gone in and out of position; Massa’s rear jack man missed his target on the first attempt; and Petrov failed to pull away properly after his stop.

Maybe Geri Halliwell was running through the garages screaming like an irritatingly excitable child.

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The race was an incredibly tense strategy-fest for about thirty laps – after Button’s third stop, until the accident which caused the red flag. Incidentally, I was quite pleased to see Adrian Sutil drop to 7th after his involvement in that: he’d been running in a quite undeserved P4 before then, a massive beneficiary of the earlier safety car.

In fact, it was a great strategic race throughout: and I’d have been glad to see any of Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso or Sebastian Vettel take the spoils. It looked like Vettel’s race after he disappeared into the distance at the start, until Button seized the initiative – and lead – with an early first stop. An early second stop for Button – which looked like it was pre-empting a safety car which wasn’t needed to recover Glock’s Virgin – didn’t work so well, particularly when the safety car did come out shortly afterwards, and brought the others back into contention.

After Button had stopped for a third time, it wasn’t clear whether Alonso and Vettel in front of him would stop again. They wouldn’t, so Button had to use his tyre advantage to catch and overtake them. He managed the first part of that, but we’ll never know whether he could have eventually overtaken them, because of the aforementioned red flag.

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Everyone assumed that the race wouldn’t restart, but the anti-climax was delayed when a restart was confirmed. It was only delayed though, because the teams were able to change tyres on the red flag grid. The top three inevitably drove to the chequered flag without incident, the variations in tyre wear having been eliminated. Shame that.

Pastor Maldonado! How the hell did I miss him when I was looking for someone who might spring a surprise at the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this week? I am quite the idiot.

Success!

His record in the principality speaks for itself. In four seasons of GP2, 2007-2010, he featured on the podium every year, taking two wins and two second places from seven races. The year before that, in 2006, he took victory in the Formula Renault 3.5 race. Pretty good, eh?

Let’s go on board with him in 2008:

Formula 1: Thursday practice

That neatly explains why he finished FP1 – his first session on the streets of Monte Carlo in a Formula 1 car – in 7th place. A full six places ahead of his vastly more experienced team mate.

But what happened in FP2? All he could manage was 15th – this time a couple of places behind Barrichello. The team was trying new parts, so that may have been part of it. But Maldonado hardly has an unblemished record in Monaco.

Not so good

The 2005 Formula Renault 3.5 race would have to be the low point: Maldonado failed to slow down under yellow flags at the scene of an accident, and ran into a marshal. He was banned for four races.

He’s not immune to cases of ambition outweighing talent either: here’s his unspectacular crash during qualifying for the GP2 race last year on YouTube. He picked up a drive through penalty in the sprint race for a jump start too. And in 2008 he crashed out of the sprint race after a collision with Karun Chandhok.

Formula 1: qualifying and the race

What can we expect from Maldonado on Saturday and Sunday then? Clearly it could go either way, but I’ve got hopeful fingers crossed.

Anyway, he’s looking like a better bet for a good result than my previous picks. Trulli was slower than Kovalainen in both of Thursday’s sessions, in 18th and 19th. Meanwhile Heidfeld is looking anonymously acceptable, with 11th and 10th.

Ah, the Monaco Grand Prix. Where the driver really makes a difference, and the machinery temporarily takes a bit of a back seat – if that’s not too mangled a metaphor.

For that reason, Robert Kubica will be especially sorely missed this weekend. Everyone was desperate to see what he could do in the promising Renault generally this season, but Monaco is where he could have shined brightest.

Fingers crossed he manages to get back behind the wheel before the season is out, even if only for a Friday practice session.

Back to the here and now though: who are we left with to spring a surprise around the streets of the principality?

The front-runners

It’s hard to imagine the victory not going to one of ‘the five’ – Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Button or Alonso.

Of them, only Sebastian Vettel hasn’t won in Monaco. So curiously, it would almost be a surprise if he makes it five wins in six races.

But it wouldn’t be a shock to see any one of them on the top step of the podium come Sunday afternoon.

The just behinds

Felipe Massa has been on the Monaco podium twice, but has never won there, and a sudden flash of brilliance from the Brazilian doesn’t look hugely likely. A win for him would be a surprise. And a delight.

What about Mercedes? They’ve got the next best car, but does either driver have it in them to pull something out of the bag? Michael Schumacher is a five-time winner, but 12th place last year was hardly the highlight of his season. And Monaco hasn’t been Nico Rosberg’s most successful stomping ground. Probably not, then.

And Renault? The car was on the podium last year thanks to Robert Kubica, and if anything it looks stronger this year. Nick Heidfeld has been on the podium at Monaco before – a 2nd for Williams in 2005 – and has looked the stronger of the team’s current line-up of late. Maybe the softly spoken German is our best bet for an upset.

And the rest

I think it’s worth watching for a Team Lotus surprise. Not a win, obviously, but beating some of the established teams – and maybe, just maybe, some points? It seems to be the way they’re headed, and Monaco should level the playing field a little.

Heikki Kovalainen has tended to have a slight edge over his team mate, but it’s Jarno Trulli who has the better record here: he won the race for Renault in 2004. I’m looking forward to seeing if one of them can summon up a bit of Monaco magic on Sunday.

Photo Credit
Jochen Wolters, flickr – Some rights reserved

As usual, my instant review of the Spanish Grand Prix is via the medium of quarks. It’s the only way to review a Formula 1 race, I think you’ll find.

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Jenson Button finally made an alternative strategy work! So many people have told him that he’s kind to his tyres, that he seems to feel the need to try to save a pit stop every race, despite the fact that it’s a strategy which has failed to work for him this year. The final podium position was his reward today, for blindly sticking with that strategy. Well done.

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Poor Mark Webber. Beating his team mate to take pole position was a great result, but he slipped straight back to P3 at the start, and then P4 after the first set of stops. Alonso dropped behind Webber, but Button got ahead of him at the same time, so 4th is where Webber finished.

Charm

It was a fantastic start for Fernando Alonso, scything through from P4 on the grid to lead after the first corner. Like just about everyone else using #BBCF1 on Twitter: I don’t much care for Alonso, but it was a storming bit of driving. He may not win us over with his personality, but it’s he does some good stuff on track.

Strange

There was more cryptic fun on the team radios, with McLaren telling Hamilton to use first the blue button, and then the yellow button in an attempt to pass Vettel for the lead. They didn’t tell him to use the Red Button though – presumably because, according to my TV, that would have switched him to ‘Live Tennis’.

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It was a close battle between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, Vettel marginally taking the win. It was a superb battle in the closing stages, Hamilton less than a second behind Vettel. Moreover it was a tense battle, since DRS and KERS might have given Hamilton a chance. They didn’t, but that’s not the point.

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The only thing that spoiled it was Vettel throwing in Flintstones and Crazy Frog impressions over the team radio after he passed the chequered flag. Idiot child.

We’re a good four races into the Formula 1 season now, so it seems like a good time to have an update on the odds for the driver’s championship. The last update was just before the start of the season, so let’s see what’s changed.

In short: a lot. Sebastian Vettel has always been the favourite, but now overwhelmingly so, at 2/5. Given that he’s won three of the first four races, and has a points lead of well over a race win, that’s not surprising.

The only other man who’s odds haven’t worsened is Lewis Hamilton, who becomes the second favourite at 8/1. He’s the only other race winner, and sits second in the standings, so fair enough.

Fernando Alonso is close behind, at 9/1, though that’s a mighty drop from being a close second favourite pre-season. He’s fifth in the standings, but if anyone can bring it back from the brink, then it’s Alonso – as he nearly proved last season.

Which means that the drivers third and fourth in the championship are less fancied than Alonso. Mark Webber remains fourth favourite, but quite a way behind at 17/1. Jenson Button has fallen right back to 49/1, despite being just 13 points behind Hamilton. The problem for both is simple: they’re not beating their team mates, and if they don’t beat their team mates, they’re not going to win the championship.

The same goes at Mercedes, where finally Nico Rosberg has better odds than Michael Schumacher. They’ve both fallen back, as the competitiveness of their car has become clear, but to differing degrees: Rosberg to 79/1, Schumacher off a cliff to 450/1. A similar fate has befallen Felipe Massa, now at 360/1.

A new term was added to the rich Formula 1 lexicon at the Turkish Grand Prix at the weekend: “magic paddle”.

It’s what Mercedes told Michael Schumacher, over the team radio, to use during qualifying. Cue much intrigue, discussion and speculation. In short: it was a lot of fun.

What a shame, then, that the teams almost universally resorted to rolling out unimaginative “plan B” messages in the race itself, to switch their drivers to a four-stop strategy. The jokes about the recording artist of the same name are getting tired; and Ferrari’s radio message to Alonso in Italian late in the race was of mild interest, but quickly decoded.

So let’s try harder, shall we?. F1 teams, you can have these for free:

Suggestions for cryptic F1 team radio messages

• Highest engine setting, richest fuel mix:
  

  WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!

• Conserve fuel and tyres:
  

  We’re going to Disneyland Paris

• Adding a pit stop to the race strategy:
  

  Do the hokey cokey

• Dropping a pit stop from the race strategy:
  

  The eagle has body odour

• Michael Schumacher is about to try to overtake:
  

  Shields to maximum

• About to be lapped:
  

  There’s somebody at the door! There’s somebody at the door!

  (skip to about 1:15)
  

Any more? Let me have the in the comments or on that there Twitter.

There’s only one way to review a Formula 1 race. QUARKS.

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A three-stopper for Jenson Button didn’t work, losing out to his team mate, Hamilton, and also Rosberg in the final stint. It worked out better for Sebastien Buemi though. He too lost a couple of places in the last few laps, but still finished in 9th from P16 on the grid. By means of comparison, Alguersuari in the other Toro Rosso started one place behind, but finished 16th after four stops.

The other man on the up, as widely expected, was Kamui Kobayashi, who started at the back of the grid after technical problems meant he couldn’t set a time in qualifying. He ended up in 10th place, and had an overtaking heavy race as we’ve come to expect from the Japanese delight. He three-stopped too.

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It was not a good race for Michael Schumacher. Shortly after the start, he didn’t leave Petrov any room on corner entry, and the resultant contact was inevitable – and pretty much Schumacher’s fault. After a pit stop for a new nose, the race continued in the same vein, Schumacher not acquitting himself terribly well in close quarters with other cars. A richly deserved zero points for 12th place.

Charm

Martin Brundle does not charm his way around the grid walk, particularly when it comes to RTL’s Kai Ebel. At least with Sky Germany’s Tanja Bauer, there’s a bit of friendly banter amongst the interview barging.

Ebel just seems to like getting in the way when Brundle is broadcasting live, and of course Brundle isn’t afraid to vent his frustration on air. He’s a “nuisance” apparently. He certainly appears to be a bit of a ponce, if his website is anything to go on.

That lack of charm contrasts sharply with Sebastian Vettel, who was the subject of today’s Brundle vs Ebel bout. He managed to enjoy the media in-fighting, speak intelligently to both interviewers, and talk rubbish with Brundle about Toblerone. He’s a remarkable chap.

Strange

Pit radio messages are becoming ever more interesting. In qualifying we had the intrigue of Mercedes telling Schumacher to use the “magic paddle”, which seems to be a sort of short-cut button to change a number of bits and pieces at once. The race was disappointing though, with McLaren and Mercedes both joining Red Bull Racing in using a tedious “plan B” system. F1 teams, please try harder.

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Sebastian Vettel is a bit good, isn’t he? Pole position, race win, and only one lap – after his first pit stop – not leading the race.

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Poor Timo Glock. He must be wondering what the hell he’s doing at Virgin Racing. The team is making hard work of beating the hugely under-prepared Hispania, and on his way to the grid today he lost fifth gear, and the team couldn’t get the car out for the race. Surely there are only two options: Virgin makes a big step forward, or it’s Glock’s last season with the team. The latter seems the more likely.