Great news that Fernando Alonso has become the new F1 world champion. A great driver with a great attitude and personality. He’ll make a great ambassador for the sport, and hopefully reinvigorate interest in the sport world-wide, as well as in his native Spain.
Compared to Michael Schumacher, he’s certainly happier to break a smile, and – whilst he is a good driver – Raikonnen doesn’t do himself any favours with his disdain for the media (particularly, it seems, with Martin Brundle) and generally wooden appearance. I realise it’s perhaps a little trite, but a world champion needs to give something back to the fans, give them something to get excited about, and it’s been a long time since we’ve that in a champion, for all their on-track talent.
Let’s face it, Schumacher, Hakkinen, Damon Hill, none of them really had that particular Je ne se quous, so it’s great to see a driver who really looks like he’s enjoying every minute of it, both on the track and off it. Given that F1 has been reinvigorated by Ferrari’s lack of pace this season, the championship has been much more interesting: A shame that some great battles have been cut short by tyres, reliability or pure bad luck.
Next season, with Button staying at BAR (phew! There’s a chance we might have a British contender for the title next season if Honda live up to expectations and deliver some real power to otherwise excellent package), and a good line-up in the peak cars, we should see some great battles. F1 certainly needs it – the Ecclestone and Mosley’s of the sport are doing nothing to help it’s image. My dream ticket? A change in F1 management, and a re-envigorated middle-order of teams, and we’ll have a sport that really lives up to it’s potential.
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