Foreward: Due to PW moving house, we have forgotten to write a PW for this week. Fortunately, we also forgot to send last week's PW, so we present it to you now. All the topical F1 news and opinion, from seven days ago. Enjoy! Normal shoddy service will be resumed next week.
Kamui Kobayashi, j'accuse
Is it possible, PW once opined as it slouched unevenly on the lager-crusted bar of the dingy, overpriced and soulless local boozer that it calls home for six nights of every working week, for any media outlet to be truly unbiased? Unfortunately, it was a question that PW never got an answer to, because it was an hour after closing time and it looked around to find itself alone and abandoned by even the Dingy Overpriced Soulless Arms's landlord.
Still, it was a question that PW found itself ruminating on again this week, after watching some decidedly biased analysis from the BBC's F1 team. In theory, the BBC is often cited as the leading 'unbiased' news source, largely because complaints of its inherent bias are shouted relentlessly by every side of the social and political spectrum. It seems that the Beeb had found a way to exist as an unbiased eye on the world, by being simultaneously biased against everyone.
And yet throughout their broadcast of the Belgian Grand Prix, there seemed to be something unnervingly, and more importantly unnecessarily, biased about the programme. If this was the Beeb's efforts to re-appeal to British F1 fans in the wake of their controversial Sky TV sharing deal, then it left PW almost as sick as it was the morning after that night at the Dingy Overpriced Soulless Arms.
Because on a weekend where, in what has been a rarity in 2011 so far, none of the British drivers did anything particularly spectacular, the BBC appeared to begin channelling ITV's old editorial policy for no apparent rhyme or reason. And the whole undignified mess culminated in the surreally vigorous defence of Lewis Hamilton for his part in the collision with Kamui Kobayashi.
"I don't think he was at all at fault at that," DC mused in the commentary box moments after he watched a replay that showed Hamilton drifting across into a patch of road where a Sauber was, before going on to add: "It didn't look like Lewis was moving back across to the left, so he was still giving him some space, but it looked like Kobayashi started to turn in before Lewis."
It was a defence that made little sense, especially to anyone who had functioning eyes in order to watch the accompanying replays. And one that went on for some time. "I don't understand why Kobayashi thought he could actually go around the outside of him," Coulthard went on to bluster, when asked to consider the mindset of a man committing to taking the racing line through a corner.
Martin Brundle appeared slightly less determined to outright blame the Sauber man, instead just aiming to make sure that he found an excuse for Hamilton. "It seemed to me that Lewis hadn't recognised that Kobayashi was coming back at him," he mused over another replay, "Lewis is looking right, Lewis is looking at the apex."
The onboard replay of Hamilton generally doing little other than gently coasting to the left added little to the case for the prosecution of the Japanese driver, so was greeted with silence from DC and an off-hand comment about how strong the McLaren's nose was from Brundle, before he immediately handed over to TedatMcLaren to give his theory on how the team had just been denied a win because they somehow had Red Bull in their pocket.
Then, the news came through that the race stewards had unsurprisingly declared the collision a racing incident, and had no plans to take any further action or go ahead with DC's plan to hang, draw and quarter anyone who had ever worked for Sauber. "I'm a bit surprised by that, are you," Brundle muttered conspiratorially. "Yes." DC replied, "Nothing to do with Nigel Mansell being up there, I'm sure." No, whatever happens, it can't be the British guy's fault. Of course, Hamilton's post-race apology to Kobayashi on Tw*tter has, by and large, been glossed over.
There were other odd points about the coverage, such as DC's insistence that Button's comfortable DRS-assisted coast past Rosberg would be a pass they'd be reliving on the post-race forum, even though there were a billion more interesting overtaking moves throughout the race. And then there was one point where you could actually hear applause in the BBC commentary box as Button completed a fairly comfortable pass on Felipe Massa at the Bus Stop.
There's nothing wrong with the BBC being a bit pro-British, of course, far from it. In fact, in a sport such as F1 where there has actually been some genuine British success lately, it would make a lot more sense than, say, the endless jingoism surrounding the ever-terrible national football team. But the BBC should really be able to do the pro-Brit thing without resorting to twisting facts and blatant lies in order to massage the McLaren men's egos.
Hopefully the Belgian weekend was just a one-off, and the Beeb will be back to their usual solid standards in Italy. Otherwise it'll be enough to drive PW back to the comforting bosom of the Dingy Overpriced Soulless Arms all over again.
Quote of the Week
I hope now that all the people stop asking me about this nonsense." - Jaime Alguersuari prays for an end to speculation over his F1 future after qualifying a career-best 6th for the Belgian Grand Prix. Alas, the rumours probably did stop for a bit, but then started again when he was Leeroyed at the first corner by Bruno Senna.
News and Rumours
- According to some almost-believable reports from the inventive European F1 media, Robert Kubica will make the next step in his recovery from his rallying injuries by driving in Toyota's F1 simulator later this year, apparently because the Cologne-based computer doohicky is "much better" than Renault's own.
- The long-suffering better half of F1's most enduring bromance, Rob 'Smedders' Smedley, will be auctioning off some random F1 objects in a charity event this week, including a signed pair of Felipe Massa's overalls, a signed pair of Fernando Alonso's flameproof underwear, which he'll hopefully be washing beforehand, and - most excitingly - a Williams rear wing endplate signed by Pastor Maldonado.
- According to the UK's Daily Mail rag, Sky Sports are looking at luring BBC's current radio commentator David Croft into the lead role for their super-dooper new F1 coverage from 2012, while famous 'fit blonde lass #4 off of Sky Sports News' Georgie Thompson is in contention for the presenting job, having experience of presenting motorsport and uncomfortably flirting with Tony Jardine during the channel's coverage of A1GP.
Some Shameless Patty links
- All of Patty's Belgian GP coverage is available on our index page here, and our almost-readable race review is here.
- Belgium's Fifth Column is here.
- It was a joyous weekend for Romain Grosjean in the GP2 Series at Spa. Read why here.
- Meanwhile, in GP3, the championship remains wide open after last weekend's pair of races, which you can read about here.
- Before the Belgian GP, The Head lamented the loss of Ickle (again) here.
- Keep up with all the latest news with Patty's news section.
- Tweet Patty, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Yours was this our bravest and most sensational newsletter ever-ingly,
Patty Weekly
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