Ye gods, where do I start? Strange what a few days' hiatus can do.
The French GP: Can't say I'm surprised, although I'm immensely disappointed that the grandstands at Paul Ricard are gone and it can't be held there. And if it was going to be Le Mans, I'd want it not just on the full circuit - but with those chicanes on the Mulsanne straight removed. Any engine on its third race would be in deep trouble! But, I suspect Bernie and his wombles are going to get it their way again, so the 2011 French GP can be an awful farce round
the car park at Disneyland once they've had time to sort the cash out.
Video of the 2009 cars: I'd say wait until there's a video that's in the correct aspect ratio before making a final judgement. Squeezing a 16:9 picture into 4:3 is only going to make them look weirder than they already are. Incidentally, I assume the duck's bill shaped noses are part of the 2009 rules.
Medals: I continue to say "Arse!" to this idea. That said, the idea of a point for pole position and another for fastest lap, much the same way it's awarded in other series, would be a better reward for brilliant driving than reverting back to 10-6-4-3-2-1, as there's a chance to open a 4-point gap between first and second while still allowing Force India a chance of a point at a couple of races. I am wary of proposing a much larger shake-up, though - I'm sure there are a fair few drivers of the 80s and before that feel cheated that they only had 9 points for a win and nothing for seventh; it'll be a lot easier for the Alonsos, Hamiltons, Vettels and others who have started their career properly since 2003* to beat his 798.5 points total. In fact, I'll bet Michael Schumacher's 1369 points isn't an invulnerable target.
Still, this points-record problem didn't trouble the Yanks in 2004 when the number of points available to any one driver at a CART event was increased from 22/23 to 35, and points were awarded down to 20th instead of 12th.
* No, I hadn't forgotten Alonso had a drive in 2001. It was with Minardi, and even he couldn't drag it to sixth.
Qualifying: why are they even thinking of changing it? It works fine as it is. If there's going to be a tweak, then allow the top ten to run on qualifying fuel loads so they can go all-out for the fastest lap of the session when it really matters. Otherwise, leave it alone.
And finally: in news that I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to hear, I feel a new and exciting Inventive Post coming on. Give me a few late-night hours and you'll see.
Even if nobody can (or wants to) follow the races this season with all these stupid rule changes, at least we'll have some great commentary about it.
