And why shouldn’t they? Some of the greatest Formula drivers have been from Brazil and three out of 24 drivers on the grid today are Brazilians. Unfortunately, none of them will be competing for a podium finish: Felipe Massa hasn’t been able to finish any higher than 5th this season, Rubens Barrichello is 39 years old and is driving a Williams that has still to show that it can be competitive and Bruno Senna still has a long way to go before he can step up on the podium.

The race is now on; it takes a while to write anything when I’m simultaneously following the BBC One broadcast from São Paulo. Not surprisingly, Sebastian Vettel is leading from pole position and pulling away from the pack. To quote BBC commentator Martin Brundle: “How does he do it? How? Does? He? Do? It?”. Why? He is a great driver in a great piece of machinery.

That’s a problem with Formula 1: A great driver will need a great car to win races. Take Fernando Alonso, for instance. He is a phenomenal driver, but has been struggling with a sub-par Ferrari all season. Had Alonso had Vettel’s car this year, I’m sure he would have been crowned 2011 world champion. Don’t get me wrong, great effort by Sebastian Vettel, but the cars play a very big role in the rise or fall of a Formula 1 driver. To be honest, I’d like to see a Formula 1 adaption of some of the GP2 Series rules: “All of the teams to use the same chassis, engine and tyre supplier so that true driver ability is reflected.”

The main argument against adapting those rules is that Formula 1 is about both the driver and the car manufacturer. With the huge amounts money being spent on research and development of a new car before each season, some of the new technology can be used in mass produced cars. But what’s the odds of seeing DRS technology being used on a Fiat Punto? KERS has potential as a Fiat Punto-friendly technology, but it’s already something used in other mass produced cars, like the Toyota Prius. To sum it up, I’m not really seeing any F1 technology being used anywhere else than in F1 cars.

The championship should be more about the driver and much less about the car.

A lot of great things have been said about the track. The width of the track varies and turn 10 is supposedly one of the most spectacular turns on any circuit. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology – a BlackBerry and the interwebs – it’s possible for us commoners to get a glimpse of the track even before the drivers have had a chance to test their cars there. Trackside Operations Director at Lotus Renault GP, Alan Permane, is an eager Twitterer and has been kind enough to post a lot of pictures from a walk around the circuit. Here are the pictures with his own comments and links to the original pictures:

The track does look a bit dirty, let’s hope they’ll manage to clean it up before practice 1 on Friday. Since the tarmac is brand new, the track will be slippery and the driver’s only experience with the track so far has been simulator driving. It’s a shame that both the drivers and constructors championship are already decided, but we’ve still got the potential for some great driving this weekend. Add the potential for the odd power failure (as reported by several people on Twitter) and disgruntled farmers (whose land was acquired to build the $350-million circuit) to the equation and we might be in for a very dramatic weekend.

As an added bonus, here’s 2011 World Champion Sebastian Vettel taking us through a lap:

Here’s a quick recap of the 2011 season so far: Renault’s Robert Kubica was seriously injured in a rally crash even before the season started and whether or not he will ever return to F1 is being decided these days. The first race of the season, in Bahrain, was canceled because of the political situation in the country at the time. Pirelli is providing the tires this year. The introduction of DRS has proven absolutely genius in terms of the number of overtakes per race, but some argue that overtaking is now actually too easy on some tracks. Hamilton and Massa has not been too focused on racing this year, but far more interested in playing bumper cars and then throwing crap at each other after each race. Hamilton is pretty sure he gets penalized for his actions on the track because he’s black. Alonso is still the driver that never, ever gives up. Michael Schumacher’s F1 comeback is still a failure and anyone has yet to be surprised about that. There are some really interesting, young and up-and-coming drivers on the grid this year, like Paul Di Resta and Sergio Perez. And even though there are four races left, Red Bull’s German wonder boy Sebastian Vettel has already secured the world championship title, making him the youngest ever double World Champion and also the youngest back-to-back Champion.

The speed, the technology, the cars, the drivers, the drama and the potential for massive crashes! How is it possible not to love this sport?

I’ve been watching the racing on BBC One this year, which proved to be a very welcome change from the horrific coverage on Norwegian pay TV. The only issue is that the commentators are retired British F1 drivers, and this naturally makes them very biased towards the British drivers, especially Lewis Hamilton, whom I can’t stand for no apparent reason – although the “maybe it’s because I’m black” statement didn’t do anything in his favor. To a certain degree I can understand Hamilton’s frustration. He entered the F1 world as a kid and went almost straight to the top, but this season has been one of his weakest so far. This weekend, however, he’s on pole in the Korean Grand Prix, with Martin Brundle and David Coulthard in the BBC circle jerk commentary box claiming that “the old Hamilton is back”. We’ll see if a single pole is what will bring the old Hamilton back, but with the speed he’s had this weekend it’s likely that he’ll be the first to cross the checkered flag, though.

Since the Formula 1 site is still kind enough to allow me to generate high quality versions of all the pictures they publish, here are a few snapshots from the 2011 Formula 1 season so far.

• “Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama
• “In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.” — Dalai Lama
• “Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” — Dalai Lama
• “Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” — Dale Carnegie
• “Most of us have for more courage than we ever dreamed possible.” — Dale Carnegie
• “You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.” — Dale Carnegie
• “The cure for boredom in curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Dorothy Parker
• “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” — Douglas Adams
• “It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “No leader can be too far ahead of his followers.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “What one has to do usually can be done.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “You always admire what you really don’t understand.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away.” — Elvis Presley
• “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “A politician divides mankind into two classes: Tools and enemies.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “For every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any who.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “There are no facts, only interpretations.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “To do great things is difficult, but to command great things is more difficult.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “Leisure is being allowed to do nothing.” — G.K. Chesterton
• “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” — George Bernhard Shaw
• “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.” — George Bernhard Shaw
• “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” — George Bernhard Shaw
• “Those who can not change their minds can not change anything.” — George Bernhard Shaw
• “Those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music.” — George Carlin
• “It is better to be alone than in bad company.” — George Washington
• “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” — Goethe
• “Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.” — Goethe
• “I have nothing but respect for you – and not much of it.” — Groucho Marx
• “I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.” — Groucho Marx
• “Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.” — Groucho Marx
• “Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, and I’m going to be happy in it.” — Groucho Marx
• “Advertising is legalized lying.” — H.G. Wells
• “If we don’t end war, war will end us.” — H.G. Wells
• “Our true nationality is mankind.” — H.G. Wells
• “Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.” — Henry Ford
• “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” — Henry Ford
• “The only real mistake is the one from where we learn nothing.” — Henry Ford
• “Vision without execution is just hallucination.” — Henry Ford
• “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t — you’re right.” — Henry Ford

Well, at least after we’ve cleared December. It’s traditionally a month when a lot of things happen, and this year seems to be no exception. From the top of my mind comes the annual Christmas party at Terje and Inger’s place where we’ll make fun of Terje because he eats like there is no tomorrow, the Christmas party with BEKK where people will dance on every table and of course the semi-annual gingerbread bonanza in our humble apartment. Last year, Anniken was out and about on her South American tour, but this year she’s where she should be – not in South America. Instead of cramming everything in on a Friday evening, we’re having an open house on a Saturday so that people can just come and go as they please. People are getting kids left and right these days and it just seemed like a better arrangement for them.

I used the Android gingerbread man in the invite, but I doubt anyone noticed. It’s my small contribution in the struggle to wake up the Apple sheep.

In other and totally unrelated news I’ve now changed the profile picture I used on this site. Even though the portrait shot by Life Mary was one of the better pictures taken of me, it was getting old and a little change was needed. To spare you from seeing yet another image taken in a bathroom mirror, I got help from Tray and Matt and their South Park avatar creator at South Park Studios. Life Mary’s picture looked a lot more like me than the avatar, though.

Now only a single race is remaining this season and there are currently four drivers who can win the championship. My money is on Fernando Alonso, but he wins there will most likely be a lot of ruckus about the Ferrari team order that helped Alonso win in Germany. They got fined $100.000 USD, but that’s just a tiny drop in a very, very large Ferrari ocean, and certainly not a thing the Ferrari accountants will lose any sleep over if they win the driver championship. As long as Hamilton bites the dust, I really don’t care which one of the other three drivers takes home the trophy¹⁾.

Some pictures and a detailed hour-by-hour description from London will be posted of course, but not now. I just wanted to check in and let you know I was still alive. Just in case you wondered. Which you probably didn’t.

¹⁾ You’re probably wondering why I don’t like Hamilton. So am I, because, to be honest, I don’t know.

Why am I rambling on about Korea? Because of last weekend’s F1 race from Yeongam, of course. It all started very wet, as I told you all about in the previous Formula 1 thread. So very, very wet. Even though it dried up after a while, race control decided to start the race behind the safety car. Boring. But after quite a few laps, the safety car left the circuit and the race started for real. Championship leader Mark Webber, decided to celebrate that fact by being a bit to throttle happy on the curb, resulting in a spectacular spin where he managed to take poor Nico Rosberg with him and smash both cars to tiny pieces.

The Korean Grand Prix turned out to be a complete disaster for Red Bull when Sebastian Vettel’s engine blew up and caught fire with only ten laps left. In the end it was Fernando Alonso who took the checkered flag – his fifth win of the season. With the results from Korea and only two races left, the championship is still wide open, with several drivers having the championship title within reach.

Here are some selected pictures from the Korean Grand Prix, all borrowed from the official Formula 1 gallery. Enjoy!

¹⁾ If all you see here are squares, you need to install some better fonts on your computer. But since you probably would have the right fonts installed if you’re able to read Korean, you’re not missing out on anything if squares are all you see.

The race should have been on as I’m writing this, but, like in Japan, it’s raining quite a lot and the start was postponed by 10 minutes. Because the race is held on a brand new circuit, none of the drivers has ever driven a rain lap on it. Also the brand new tarmac will bleed a little oil and mixed with the water, you get a very slippery mix. As a result, the race will start behind the safety car. As I’m writing this, we’re only mere seconds away from that to happen.

Aaaand we’re off! With the current championship standings, this could easily turn out to be a very interesting race, but it might take quite a few laps before the safety car enters the pits.

Alonso just reported on the team radio that it’s the worst conditions he has ever raced a Formula 1 car in. And there’s the red flag, and the race is being postponed until further notice. Crap. Well, while we’re waiting for the race to start for real, let’s enjoy a few pictures from yesterday.

A challenge for us European viewers when the teams move to Asia is the time difference. The qualifying session started at 7 in the morning CET on Saturday, which meant that I had to get up rather early to watch it. But who cares if you have to get up early during the weekend? If you get tired during the day, you can just take a nap. So I got up, only to realize that the session had been postponed for half an hour because of heavy rain. Then it was postponed for another half hour before the qualifying session was moved to Sunday morning, Japanese time – 3 O’Clock in the morning central European time…

But what the hell, even though it was in the middle of the night, it was still weekend, and the option to take a nap during the day if necessary was still valid. So I got up a few minutes before 3 AM to watch the qualifying. Unfortunately, watching it proved to be quite a challenge.

I’m watching F1 on Viasat On Demand this season. It’s great because I can watch the races on any computer connected to the Internet – last weekend I spent at Nesodden with Anniken. The problem was that the people managing the site had not been able to configure the postponed qualifying session in their playout system. So no Formula 1 for me in the middle of the night.

You’re probably laughing now. What kind of moron would get up in the middle of the night to watch a bunch of cars driving around in circles? Well, I would, apparently. After about 15 minutes of searching the interweb for working pirate broadcasts of channels showing the qualifying session, I found one from German RTL with decent quality.

In the end, the qualifying ended well, with Vettel in front of Webber. Hamilton qualified third, but was moved down 5 places on the grid because he had to have his gearbox replaced. Haha. During the race, he managed to break third gear on the brand new gearbox. Double-haha.

After the qualifying was over, I went back to bed, crept up to Anniken – my favorite place to creep up – and slept for another four hours before I got up again to watch the race. And it truly was a great race, with some spectacular crashes, great fights for positions and Kamui Kobayashi showing that it’s possible to overtake on parts on the track no-one thought possible – time and time again. He is now one of my favorite underdog driver.

Here are a few selected shots from the racing weekend that I borrowed from the official F1 gallery.

The next Formula 1 race will be at the brand new Korean International Circuit in Yeongam, South Korea. The fight for the championship is even tighter now than it was before the Japanese Grand Prix. Exciting!

• It’s one thing to give advice, it’s another to take it.
• “A generation which ignores history has no past – and no future.” – Robert A. Heinlein
• “So the best way to be happy, is to make the other person happy.” – Dalai Lama
• “A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.” – Robert Frost
• “Most people would rather be certain they’re miserable than risk being happy.” – Robert Anthony
• If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
• “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain
• “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – Ambrose Redmoon
• “It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.” – Oscar Wilde
• “The first time I see a jogger smiling, I’ll consider it.” – Joan Rivers
• “How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.” – Fred Brooks
• “I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals. I’m a vegetarian because I hate plants.” – A. Whitney Brown
• “Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.” – Voltaire
• “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
• “No matter how old you are, there’s always something good to look forward to.” – Lynn Johnston
• “The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.” – Cousin Woodman
• “Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?” – George Carlin
• “The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.” – Robert Bloch
• “When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep — not screaming, like the passengers in his car.” – Jack Handey
• “Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” – Douglas Adams
• “I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places.” – Henny Youngman
• “Everyone needs believe in something. I believe I’ll have another beer.” – William Claude Dukenfield
• “If your wife wants to learn to drive, don’t stand in her way.” – Stan Levenson
• “The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.” – Paul Fix

There you go; a few classics that you’ve undoubtedly have heard before and a some new ones. Please let me know if you spot some duplicates in the complete listing. Thank you!