Formula 1 Update

A few notes to tie you over until Formula One returns to the European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain:

Useless French driver (and Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi's teammate at Scuderia Torro Rosso) Sebastien Bourdais got canned, and replaced by Jaime Algersuari, a 19-year old who'd never driven a Formula 1 car before. Thus ends STR's run of having only drivers named Sebastien or Sebastian in their line-up (Last year they had Bourdais, and blog-favorite Sebastian Vettel).

Useless Brazilian driver (and humongous cockbag Fernando Alonso's teammate at Renault) Nelson Piquet Jr. seems to also have been canned. No word on a replacement driver yet, as its still a few weeks until the next Grand Prix. Probably going to be Renault Reserve Driver Romain Grosjean, if I had to guess.

Almost World Champion Felipe Massa survived his freak accident during qualifying in Hungary, and seems to be on the mend. Not sure what, if any, permanent damage he sustained as a result of meeting a 1 pound spring at over 150mph, but he seems like he wants to get back to racing. Consensus is that he won't do it this season.

But the interesting result of Massa's accident and subsequent lack of ability to compete is his replacement. Ferrari has recently announced that former Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher will fill Massa's seat while he's gone. For those of you who don't know much about Schumacher, he's statistically the best driver in F1 history, including a record seven World Drivers Championships and 91 Grand Prix victories to his name. And for those of you who watch Top Gear, he was the one who recently drove the Ferrari FXX around the Top Gear test track, and was jokingly revealed as the Stig (mainly because he was the only one that Ferrari would allow to drive the FXX).

Schumacher retired after the 2006 season. I started watching F1 during the 2007 season. So, I've not actually had the opportunity to see Mr. Schumacher race yet. It'll be interesting to see how he does, especially since the F60 (Ferrari's car this year) seems to be underperforming, compared with the Brawn and Red Bull cars. However, with Kimi's 2nd place in Hungary, the F60 could finally be coming alive.

Schumacher's addition to the Ferrari garage may also give Kimi the incentive he needs to step up his game. It seems he only drives his best when he is properly motivated. This hasn't happened a lot due to the underperforming nature of the F60 thus far in the season. I'm guessing he'll be at the top of his game to avoid getting beat by someone who hasn't driven a F1 car competitively in about 3 and a half years.

Interesting times may lay ahead for F1...