Formula One and Hamilton – A Heady Affair!

By Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

The season is about to end just the way it started. Lewis Hamilton stormed his way into stardom and now the fate of the championship hinges on his! Who would have thought that Formula One would have such a sensational season in the very first year since Michael Schumacher’s retirement? Yet the season has roared on, ingloriously or otherwise, and no one could have predicted this kind of down-to-the-wire scorching finale! And Hamilton will, one way or another, determine who wears the crown made exclusive by the Ferrari’s phenomenal icon!

“Hamilton who?” was not only the banner held up by a Fernando Alonso fan. It was also on the lips of most racing aficionados. Would McLaren gamble on a rookie? Was this not the same McLaren that had two Finns heading their line up? Mika Hakkinen may have hung up his boots, but Kimi Raikkonen moved on. But both of them had sufficient star power even as they climbed into the prestigious seat. What was McLaren trying to pull off?

But Lewis Hamilton shrugged challenges of races, culture and a sore, vengeful past champion to make his entry into Formula One not only dramatic but also, one that history would feel proud to be have chronicled. Even Ferrari fans, who felt lost in the absence of their colossal icon, tried to stay loyal to two stars in Felipe Massa and Raikkonen, could not help but acknowledge Hamilton’s presence, admire even.

This is not an ode to a McLaren player against a Ferrari. (The author of this piece has moved where Schumacher has travelled and has ended up showing loyalty where Schumacher left her, in the Ferrai pit garage!) But this is a curious reflection on how a debut driver stands not only on the verge of being crowned champion but also, holding the fate of other established drivers, including a two time world champion in his nimble but firm fingers.

Hamilton went from one ‘fluke’ victory to a champion-like stand repeatedly. Causing consternation for Fernando Alonso was not on the agenda. But causing the world championship to change hands was. Alonso has gone from being heir apparent in Schumacher’s presence to a grouchy, bitter, and embattled and surprisingly aging champion. Empathy would perhaps best describe the emotion one feels for Alonso.

It is apparent Alonso has moved on from being reserved to being

McLaren have fallen from grace and ironically, in the same season they should have been hailed to take considerable risk on a debutant, one that would go on to challenge the world order, nay, turn it on its head.

The two week wait (a normalcy between races in the Formula one race season) seems suddenly interminable. The Brazilian Grand Prix, always a race held with fascination and trepidation, will now also hold the key to the suspense. No matter what happens, Hamilton will have a say. This page of the history of the Formula One season 2007 hinges on Hamilton. Go on, turn the page, Hamilton! Can’t wait to see what’s on the other side!

Fascinating Race of Unequal Equals!!!

By Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

Parallels are not often drawn across different sporting arenas. Yet sport, especially cricket is considered a great leveler. That being the case, England are beginning to question why they find themselves trying to save face on home ground. Across the field, or should we say tarmac, Fernando Alonso is asking pretty much the same question. In danger of being dumped unceremoniously, will Alonso play the same scapegoat card that England are holding tight in their pocket in the event that India should pull off the unthinkable?

It must seem an unlikely idea to even compare banalities of cricket with a sport like Formula One. After all the only time the two sports even came together was for a photo op between Sachin Tendulkar and Michael Schumacher. However, the situations in both sports are not as remote as one thinks. The conundrum of equality amongst teams, amongst men must all be queried, deliberated upon, if not downright dissected.

India finds themselves in a unique position, but not that uncommon. Times in the past have shown the team on the rise only to hand the initiative back to the hosts. It has happened in Zimbabwe. There is no reason why it should happen in England. But cricket has a way of both, elevating and humbling human spirit, in manner few can fathom despite years of studying the game. Sometimes about India this time though wants every Indian to believe it could just happen. England could well slip up in the face of an Indian resurgence.

On the same note, it should be rightly remembered that India could very well have found themselves in the hole that England find themselves today ahead of the third and final Test at the Oval. It took a couple of desperate innings and a massive let off from the weather gods for India to get out of the hell hole at Lord’s. Now finding themselves in a situation where one innings could have a telling and decisive effect on the series as it stands, perhaps England wants everyone to remembers the circumstances at Lord’s that deprived them of what they consider a rightful victory.

The way the whole jelly beans issue was blown over the top worked brilliantly into India’s hands while opening up England’s edged behavior dramatically. Suddenly the rambunctious lot needs to be tamed and told to get down to the nitty-gritty of trying to win the final Test and square the series. And really the odds should look pretty even, or should we say, equal. India’s batting should have outshone England’s. England’s bowling should have shown the Indian line up a thing or two. But where England’s batting has failed to keep up, India’s bowling has tottered between temperamental and tenacious. The teams do look equal, even when they should not.

It is hard to tell how much the jelly beans actually affected the outcome of the Trent Bridge Test. It will perhaps be arduous research subject no doubt. But it showed India in the plaintiff’s position and a naïve victim of an unruly bunch of schoolboys. England had not only lost the Test but also, come out looking like sore losers. It was easy to label that England’s despicable behavior threatened to throw the fine line between friendly banter and rivalry to outright bullying, bustling tactics into a tedious tantrum. But subtle tactics are far more fascinating to read. If memory serves right, India dished out almost eye for eye. This was not about being the righteous one. This was about putting people in their place and showing hospitality and etiquette at a foreign table were both better left for the bestsellers. This was a cricket field and there would be nothing gentlemanly about it. But it would be equal, about using the same tactic, one against the other. Fair, wouldn’t you say?

Perhaps the only thing cricket can be grateful for is that at least the game is not being sullied by dissensions within its own ranks (mind it; this is only within the boundaries in which this article is being discussed. The perennial muddles of the cricket are best left out at the moment.) Look across to Formula One and the fiasco is threatening to throw apart the whole system like a pack of cards. Forget a rival competition, Formula One is embroiled in a massive mess of embittered egos that a solution only leads to new complications.

The best solution for the rest of the overshadowed Formula One competitors would be for McLaren and Ferrari to take each other and breathing in a complete new world order that would turn Formula One on its head. But neither is McLaren nor Ferrari going anywhere. But that may not be the case on their camps.

Kimi Raikkonen seems contented enough to wrest the early glory that Felipe Massa soaked in with the timely displacement of Michael Schumacher. But clearly the battle is not where we expected it to be. Lewis Hamilton’s spectacular rise may have given a huge fillip to Formula One in Schumacher’s absence, but it has been nothing short of nightmare of the McLaren bosses, and Fernando Alonso.

The heir apparent and two time world champion is fuming. Worse still, he is beginning to feel disowned. The king wanted to be treated like one, unaware that a commoner was threatening by way of natural talent. While it became obvious that the 2007 season would be a more perceptible battle between champion and challenger, the scale is getting deceptive equal. It is hard to make out who is the veteran and who is the rookie and their rambunctious behavior has meant more headaches than on Ron Dennis can handle.

Handling Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard must feel like a piece of cake for Dennis and the crack in his otherwise austere career may come with the news that Alonso has been offered open doors to walk out in the midst of a typical dirty boy tricks that made the McLaren team eat not humble pie but also the laughing stock meal. Yet unclear who’s telling the truth in the principal’s office. But Alonso has been billed trouble maker, Hamilton the cause for trouble and McLaren the team to take the punishment.

For Alonso, to command respect as a two time world champion is considerate. But to expect the team to deprive another of the same level of development only because he happens to be a rookie is preposterous. At the end of the day, it is a team and it is a battle of equals, of talent that is; of that there can be no doubt.

Holier than thou or eat cow? It is hard to tell one from the other. It is, in very clichéd fashion, the pot calling the kettle black. If Sreesanth is being outlawed for bowling a beamer at England by all of England and Kevin Pietersen, where do England get off for their slighting behavior? How can England maintain that we-could-do-no-wrong face and put up (a seemingly naïve but deceptive) Monty Panesar as the poster boy of England’s pristine gamesmanship when not so long ago a certain England captain lay his greasy hands on a cricket ball? It’s all equal, fair and square, if turned the other way around. Now let’s get on with the game, gentleman, please!

Winds of Change Sweeping across the Globe?

By Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

Turmoil and transfers. Retirements and relegations. Sacked or silenced. Sport across the globe has seen mindless methodologies and expeditious, not to mention exorbitant, endorsements and sponsorship deals. Questions keep a-begging: if football transfers can be money raisers and club saviors, why can’t money spin for cricketers? The world order constantly threatens to undergo a change. But will it? It just might.
It is only appropriate coming out of a weekend that Formula One comes prominently to the mind. Even more so when the wet start to the day in Ireland has ensured that there be plenty of time to deliberate on sporting events across the globe happening at the same time or thereabouts.
With Michael Schumacher finally hanging up his boots (or did I speak too soon?), boring was writ large all over Formula 1. There was only one heir apparent. How was Formula One to keep up the tempo in the absence of arguably its most rambunctious, furiously fast, and a ruthless inspiration in Michael Schumacher? Kimi Raikkonen did burst on to the scene a little earlier on the scene. But not much else has gone his way. Where the Ice man’s career has been frozen, a Spaniard’s has been ignited. All that seemed to be missing was the obvious coronation of ‘King’ Fernando Alonso.
But then there was the familiar case of “Was that a bird? Was it a plane?” Only in this case, it was a certain coloured (unheard of in Formula One, shocking so) young individual who stole Alonso’s thunder from right under his nose! Lewis Hamilton could not have timed his entry into Formula One any better. The exit of one champion has most certainly heralded the coming of another. To have finished at the top of the podium in all the races of the season thus far, Hamilton has stolen the (McLaren) team’s limelight, relegating the world champion to the backstage (Alonso certainly felt like it).
In all the Hamilton euphoria which could only have enhanced the fierce competitiveness of Formula One racing, another power struggle was brewing within the Ferrari camp. Raikonnen should have been the outright star induction in the Ferrari camp. Instead Felipe Massa has already shown in the earlier part of the season why he has been a worthy understudy to Schumacher. He had been waiting in the wings, unlike Reubens Barrichello who will go down in history as Schumacher’s most worthy team mate and an exemplary right hand man but a talent controversially unharnessed. Call it the price you pay for a seat in the Ferrari!
The personality of Schumacher may be hard to replicate. Formula One has plenty of characters at the moment to ensure that Formula One is not an endangered species any time soon. But there is no cutting in between with Michael Schumacher. It was either love him or hate him. Some things never do change.
But there is a third angle to another gentleman. You can love him, hate him or ignore him. Ignore him, except at Wimbledon. That though can be quite tricky. Agreed that Wimbledon takes a day off on a Sunday. However, how can this weekend in the year be left bereft without a thought for one of the most arguably lavish tennis tournaments anywhere in the world? Why this weekend becomes more important than most other Wimbledon weekends is the fact that week two of this year’s prestigious Grand Slam will not see Britain’s favourite (and perhaps only real hope at best) Tim Henman. For a decade now, all of Great Britain has attached romance to Wimbledon as their (only) knight in shining armour thrived on the surge of euphoria at home to put up a performance of a lifetime. Judging by Boris Becker’s apt comment that wild card entries should have been served out on a platter keeping the future of the nation in mind, Wimbledon will perhaps struggle a little bit harder his time in the years to come to draw the same deep emotions that have seen crowds throw their hearts behind their one realistic British hope.
The reason why this Wimbledon is going to feel more damp and cold than at any other time in over a decade is due to an impressive Feliciano Lopez showing the subtle nuances of a defeat handed swiftly, perhaps bringing home a few key points to bear of where the future of British tennis stands. To Henman’s credit, this will not have been an uneventful exit, having survived a marathon five setter to trounce Carlos Moya in the opening round. Sadly his ecstasy and that of the home ground will be a short lived affair, at least this year. Britain’s dry run continues.
Well by the time the idea for this article formulated, the rain decided to stay away after all and soon Ireland, or at least a little stadium down in Belfast, was abuzz with a decider that India so desperately needed to win and South Africa had no intention of losing. A slugfest would best describe the happenings back in Belfast. In the end, it was a case of the team who withstood the punches and actually had strength enough to dish out the final knockout punch.
The match after a six hour wait was well worth it as both teams showed triumph through toil. South Africa’s early debacle called on Herschelle Gibbs and Justin Kemp to pull out the final heroics for the series. It nearly proved the series clincher. But for Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, India found themselves in a similar hole that needed some serious digging to get out of. The match teetered to a nail biting finish, though it should never have given than India had six wickets in hand.
Mickey Arthur may not have found all the answers he was seeking on this tour. One of the few coaches to have survived a rocky World Cup, Arthur may well head back home with the same nagging, lingering worries about a bowling attack that can decimate the opposition on one day and look woefully pedestrian when the opposition determines to take it apart. India will have fewer worries for the moment, at least till they touch English shores. The boys may have just earned themselves a little more free rein in the absence of a coach. For the time being, it’s an age no bar party, led by none other than Sachin Tendulkar!