Schumacher to Mercedes

Ending weeks of speculation, Mercedes GP, which bought out the Brawn GP team, have confirmed that seven time F1 World champion Michael Schumacher will be driving for them in the 2010 season. There is still a lot of talk about how difficult it might be for the 41-year old to readjust himself to the pace and compete against talented young drivers hungry for success half his age. Even his Mercedes GP teammate Nico Rosberg has openly stated that he would not be the No. 2 driver in the team. Let alone Rosberg, apart from the likes of talents like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, Schumacher also has to battle it out with former title rival Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, as well as defending champion Button and Mark Webber. If Button could do it, Webber could also. And Webber has proved that quite convincingly last season.

The field is tighter than ever, something that Schumacher has reportedly admitted. Assuming the Brackley-based outfit keeps up its winning ways, it could very well be a eight-car horse race to the Championship title. Ferrari will be all charged up after having a season which it would rather forget. Now that double F1 World Champion Alonso has signed up with Ferrari, they would go all out to win. Ferrari will have an added edge, knowing from previous experience how Ross Brawn runs a team, how Schumacher drives, and how they two combine together. Hopefully this can be used to their advantage. Button moving on to McLaren means that McLaren now has an all-English driver line-up with two recent F1 World Champions and they definitely will be determined to prove a point about how good the English are at racing, as always. Buoyed by their recent success and their new-found confidence in the fact that you do not necessarily need a Mercedes engine in the back to win races, this time Red Bull will be hoping to lay their hands on that Constructors' title which eluded them by the narrowest of margins last season. All Adrian Newey needs to do is to come up with a good chassis for the Renault engine again. Speaking of engines, we could very well see some good showing from the Cosworth-engined cars of Williams and Lotus. Perhaps even Manor, renamed Virgin Racing, will see some good results, maybe even Top 10 finishes in the points. As of now, all bets are off for the upcoming 2010 season. Maybe the opening race in Saakhir will provide us some revelations. Until then, we have no choice but to wait.

Manufacturers taking over existing teams have generally not met with success in the past-Honda, Toyota and BMW to name a few, two of them who exited the sport at the end of the last season. One hopes, for the sakes of both Michael Schumacher as well as Nico Rosberg, that Mercedes would prove to be an exception. For now, the world waits with bated breaths to watch the return of the King as well as the legendary Silver Arrows.

Return of the Silver Arrows

The beauty of the Three Pointed Star

I was just traveling along the highway when something caught my eye. It was a car, just like the millions of cars that use the State's highways, yet there was something different about this one. Instead of staggering movements that other car engines generate to propel their chassis forward, this one was smooth, slicing through the air like a hot knife through butter. It was like watching sheer poetry in motion. So smooth, so graceful. It was then that I stained my neck out the window to find out which car it was and saw the unmistakable grille and the all too familiar signature three-cornered star.

Image Copyright NextAutos.com

I also saw another Mercedes, decelerating ever so gracefully to a halt at the University signal.

The Mercedes isn't all about luxury or status, they have got a beautiful engine inside them too. I just realised that. Better late than never.

Linus Torvalds gives thumbs up to Windows 7

We Are The Champions

Brawn GP has finally done it. From being on the scrapheap at the beginning of the season, for sale as low as $1, Brawn GP has finally managed to become the first ever team to win the World Constructors Champion on debut. All credit goes to Ross Brawn and his team for reinventing a back-of-the-grid team like Honda F1 to a worthy championship winning team, all in a month or so, without the millions of dollars of research and technology to support them.

I'm sure that in the future many will be studying this as an example of how it doesn't take millions of dollars and bleeding-edge technology to be the best in F1. For now, it is sweet victory to be savoured at Brackley, and after all those months of worrying over whether they were going to have jobs to support their families and send their kids to school, the team thoroughly deserves it.

Lewis Hamilton with The Stig

Fernando to move to Ferrari in 2010

Ferrari has announced that their 2010 driver line-up includes Fernando Alonso. For Alonso, what more could he ask for? Fernando is already 28, competing against much younger drivers in a sport where younger drivers hungry for success keep continuously entering the arena. For Fernando, this could be his last big chance to earn a third Drivers' title and enter the history books for a place alongside the legendary Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet Sr., Alain Prost, Jack Brabham, Niki Lauda and Jackie Stewart, all F1 drivers who have achieved the title three times. Two-time title winners like Emerson Fittipaldi or Jim Clark are not really that known or remembered, except for Mika Hakkinen who had the fortune to be rated by Herr Schumacher as the toughest driver he drove against. Alonso too stole the title from right under the King's nose, but the Red Baron didn't grant Alonso the same honours as he did Hakinnen. MS has now revealed that he was part of the decision to sign Alonso on at Ferrari.

Fernando's best chance at a third world title is here and now. Micheal Schumacher is still with Ferrari, albeit in an advisory position. Together, they could work together to get even more titles for Ferrari. The world's best racing drivers are now officially teammates at the most successful team in F1 history. Can't wait to see what 2010 has in store.

2010 : Dream Team at Ferrari?

Marriages are made in heaven, after all

I just attended a friend's wedding the other day. It was held at a quaint little church by the waterside. Sanfred was looking handsome as always, while his bride looked like an angel.

The crowd was just about the right size, with only those who genuinely cared to be there at their wedding being present in attendance, instead of every known person attending. It was far from The Big Fat Indian Wedding that one is normally accustomed to. And it was a very pleasant change.

The food was great, the music was excellent. Everything was just so perfect.

It was a piece of heaven, then and there.

I realised, for the first time, that marriages truly are made in heaven, and for me it wasn't simply an over-used cliche anymore.

To put it in one word, it was beautiful. In the true sense of the word.