Its Thursday before race weekend, lots going on so today is bite sized links to the less reported comments with a few wry comments from me.

1. Psy – the Korean pop star with one off world wide hit “Gangnum Style” is going to wave the chequered flag on Sunday. Yes I know this was announced yesterday but celebrities waving the chequered flag does not always work too well. Ask Pele about Brazil 2002. (YouTube link). For those of you without video capabilities, When Pele was asked to wave the chequered flag at the Brazilian Grand Prix it seemed a perfect PR opportunity, the country’s, if not the world’s, greatest footballer at one of its biggest sporting events. And, to be fair, it is not exactly a task burdened by onerous or complex rules. But, it seemed the organisers appeared to fail to explain the intricacies of Formula One to the great man, so when Michael Schumacher crossed the line to take the victory, followed home by brother Ralf, Pele was busy chatting with officials and forgot to show them the flag. Alerted to his mistake, he enthusiastically waved the flag at the next driver past, which happened to be Takuma Sato who was some two laps behind the winner, meaning technically he had won the race. “Pele is very little,” noted Schumacher. “I didn’t see the flag though, that’s the only thing I noticed.”
2. Talking of Psy, whether he is a one hit wonder or not, he his HOT HOT HOT at the moment. The promoters of the Korean GP had a spoof video made with the “Gangnam style” soundtrack behind track workers dancing and clips of F1 action at the circuit. It was posted on YouTube and the video went viral worldwide. Of course FOM and Bernie’s lawyers spotted it and told YouTube to take it down as it was showing clips of copyright material. This morning my daughter who knows I’m connected to F1 but she shows no other interest in the sport – she asked me out of the blue, “Daddy where can we see the Gangnam video with your racing cars?” Trying to attract the youth to F1 Mr E? – FAIL!!!
3. LAUDA WATCH: This is to be a regular feature as we believe his joining Mercedes F1 “as the boss” will cause carnage. Anything you find please let me know. Anyway our favourite German tabloid Bilde tells us today that Niki is already getting under Helmut Marko’s skin (excellent). Marko says, “Lord Lauda has been wondering how long  Adrian Newey still has on his contract”, he goes on to state they have a contract with Newey until 2014. Helmut then goes on to make fun of Mercedes F1 questioning why they would need Newey when they have Ross Brawn and “3 other art directors. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians”. This will be fantastic, like 2 wooly mammoths locking tusks.
4. Mr E’s expert comment on the much maligned Romain Grosjean appears to be distilled to a fairly concise, “He should have gone to specsavers“. If only he’d actually said that it would be really funny.
5. I did a fun piece on the Lewis/Jenson twitter break up earlier this week (link) and the inevitable happens at the press conference today…..(writing). Lewis says he’s apologised to Jenson for his mistake and sadly added “Maybe Twitter and me don’t go too well at the moment. I need to step back and think about how I try and improve that.” Hopefully this will not be a return to bland corporate speak from Hamilton. Jenson has milked this and took the opportunity to lecture Hamilton saying, “You have to be careful what you put on Twitter. We’ve got over a million followers. It is what it is, and Lewis apologised to me.” Yet the likeable, smooth, suave Jenson has been stirring the pot on the quiet and he adds, “There are millions of people to follow on Twitter. I see him [Hamilton] every weekend”. Yet Jenson is being disingenuous because he started following Perez as soon as he signed for McLaren and further, I’ve had a lot of people tell me since I wrote the story that Jenson was in the past following Lewis, because they were following them both at the same time.
6. Who will dance “Gangnam Style” if they win. Nico says “yes”. Jenson said, “”Not now you’ve told me that {Nico will]. I don’t want to be a follower.” Wink wink. Lewsi humbly profered “”I think I’ve embarrased myself enough this week.”
7. Vettel kept this one quiet, he climbed Mt Fuji with Alex Wurtz this week. I can tell you if he did the full lot its over 12,000 feet and the air is a bit thin up there. Return journey between 6-7 hours. (Autohebdo.f1) Don’t think he woudl have done the finger thing at the top though – as he isn’t the first – unless he went up in an F1 car.
8. Grand Prix Diary has come up with an interesting fact. Bono (our of the stadium band U2) is FIVE times more likely to become Pope than Karthikeyan has of winning the race on Sunday. Odds from online bookmaker PaddyPower, classed under novelty bets – Bono to become Pope 1000/1 – Kart to win in Korea – 5000/1.
9. Webber seems to have calmed down after storming into the Lotus motorhome to accost Grosjean last Sunday. When asked today whether he was happy with Romain’s response, he drawled, “Yeah, absolutely. I went to see Romain, we had a discussion about it and that was that. So, yes.” What Mark may have forgotten is that during the 2007 Japanese GP he was taken out by a super fast new young gun. After the race he fumed “It’s kids isn’t it? They have not got enough experience –- they do a good job and then they f-ck it all up.” (M.Duemotori) He added that he’d noticed Vettel being a bit “wild” in his mirrors prior to the shunt, That ‘kid’ has now won 2 WDC titles. Chin up Romain, the precedent looks great.
10. The Sun newspaper, equivalent to Germany’s Bilde showed their in dept knowledge of all things F1. Following the Japanese GP they decided to publish a big headline “Button: Get sorted Seb….Jenson Button blasted accident prone SEBASTIAN Grosjean”. Mmm. And I worry about my proof reading at times.
11. To Ferrari. I’m not sure if I’m reading to much into this, but there appear to be some cracks developing between the Ferrari boss Luca de Montezemolo and the F1 team and Alonso. After Japan he called for “a huge effort” from the team’s engineers to improve the car. (ESPN) He went on, ““I will speak to Fernando by phone soon to give him even more motivation with which to tackle these last five races, with the bit between his teeth, as indeed I expect all the team to do”. In the aftermath of the race Stefano Dominicali said, “Clearly the way we approach the race changes completely after this afternoon: we will try and score as many points as possible in a race that will be very tough and tricky, especially in terms of tyre wear.” (Ferrari.com) I could make a cheap shot at this comment, but the worry clearly is on tyre wear if they try and push too hard. However, the message has changed over the past 4 days. Whether Luca has made the call or not, we don’t know but Fernando clearly sees matters differently. In the press conference today, “I think we’ve been attacking in all the races. We were fighting in all the races the maximum we can, approaching the races to maximise the points we have available. Sometimes we were on the podium, sometimes we were fourth, sometimes we were fifth and this will not change now“. Tension in the team? To change or not to change? Maybe Ferrari think Alonso has been a bit cautious.
12. Kimi says he would rather finish 4th in the WDC than second, because if he’s in the top 3 he’d have to go to the boring awards ceremony in December (as.com). Also having never driven the Korean circuit Kimi was asked how he learned a new track. Unsurprisingly he responded – “I drive it”.

(This page will update through the day as more stories come online)

Please leave a comment with your observations.

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