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Merry Christmas!
This blog is not dead yet. I’m trying to keep it alive.
2010 is an eventful year for me. It has its up moment and also down moment.
2011 is going to another challenging year. God is faithful.
“I can do all things through Him who gives me strength” – Philippians 4:13
Happy New Year everyone
Renault F1 today announced that Group Lotus (owned by Proton) will be the major title sponsor and shareholder and in 2011 the Renault F1 will be renamed to Lotus Renault GP. Not only that, they also announced that Lotus Renault will be using the black and gold livery on their car.
This announcement and action by Proton is indirectly telling Tony Fernandes:
(a) Since you (Fernandes) are using Renault engine next year, we’ll (Proton) buy Renault so that you (Fernandes) won’t be called Lotus Renault
(b) Since you (Fernandes) have decided to race the black and gold livery, we’ll (Proton) will make the announcement first to run that same livery and……buck off Fernandes!!!!, says Proton.
In my opinion, Proton’s action is such a disgrace to the nation.
Firstly, as fellow Malaysians why don’t we join hands in developing the current F1 team that we have, (i.e. Fernandes’ Lotus Racing) instead of buying shares into other teams. I wonder if Fernandes had decided to use Ferrari engine in 2011, would Proton approach Ferrari to buy some of its share just to ensure Fernandes can’t use the (hypothetically) Lotus Ferrari name?
Secondly, Proton made the shot to use black and gold livery on Renault next season even knowing the intention of Fernandes to use the similar livery.
This is totally childish mindset of Proton. Using money (which I presume to be taxpayers’) to do something so stupid like this. What’s the point?
Extremely disappointed with Proton. Sigh…….
Wow…..time flies. It’s December tomorrow.
Dropping a line or two here to “show” that this blog is still surviving like myself.
Extremely busy and not to say extremely stressful. Lots of mountain to climb.
Nonetheless, God is my strength. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Amen!
Flora wrote our day by day account/diary in Japan in her blog. We were in Japan for 15 days.
Now that she has finished all the 15-day post, here’s the link from Day 1 to Day 15.
Day 1: Melbourne to Singapore (メルボルンは、シンガポールに)
Day 2: Yokohama Part 1 (横浜パート1)
Day 3: Yokohama Part 2 (横浜パート2)
Day 4: Mitaka, Shinjuku and Shin-Yokohama (三鷹、新宿、と 新横浜)
Day 5: Yokohama Part 3 (横浜パート3)
Day 6: Takayama Part 1 (高山パート1)
Day 7: Takayama Part 2 (高山パート2)
Day 8: Takayama to Kyoto (高山は京都に)
Day 9: Kyoto Part 1 (京都パート1)
Day 10: Kyoto Part 2 (京都パート2)
Day 11: Miyajima and Hiroshima (宮島 と 広島)
Day 12: Nara (奈良)
Day 13: Fushimi Inari, Uji and Arashiyama (伏見稲荷、宇治、と 嵐山)
Day 14: Tokyo Part 1 (東京パート1)
Day 15: Tokyo Part 2 (東京パート2)
Hope you enjoy reading the day by day account. Feel free to comment on her blog.
Cheers
Gosh….. didn’t realise I have not been blogging for nearly 2 months.
Anyway, a very quick update.
(1) After my last post, I was really busy writing a paper to meet the dateline. We (my supervisors and I) worked till the last moment (literally) prior flying to Japan. Those moment was really not enjoyable. Can’t even prepare to go Japan well. Good thing Flora was very understanding and she did most of the preparation.
(2) Conference in Japan was good. Made many good contacts. My presentation was ok. Managed to answer all the questions asked. Got some feedback about what can be improved. Well, that’s what conference attendee always says 
(3) Post conference trip in Japan was excellent. Travelled to Yokohama, Mitaka, Takayama, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nara, Inari, Uji and Tokyo. Really enjoyed the trip.
(4) Back in Melbourne to continue my daily routine.
That’s all for now folks!
The reasons I haven’t been posting anything for so long are
(1) Lazy (being honest here . Tonnes of photo need to be edited put me off. )
(2) Busy (with research stuff….)
(3) Church had a 21 days fasting and I chose to fast internet except for office email.
Hhhmmmm……
Total silence at 930pm, 1200am and 430am…..
Ohhhh…. World Cup had ended……
I guess IGNORANCE is the best word to sum up Alex’s frustration towards Malaysian F1 so called “follower” during his life in Minardi. Malaysians are very new to the sports (F1) and they expect Alex to take on the giants of racing legend e.g. Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Kimi Raikkonen etc! Alex penned down his emotion really well in this book and at times when I read, I do really feel for him. In fact, it’s the Western press that was doing Alex real justice. Those Western press are experts in the area and their comments/reports are well justified.
Alex’s life in Minardi in my opinion can be summarised into three sections (1) getting in the groove, (2) the lowest of low and (3) there always clear sky after the storm.
(1) Settling in the middle of the season is not going to be easy. It doesn’t do any good when you are in (with all due respect) a Minardi and partnering Fernando Alonso! But Alex did a good job by managing to qualify despite issues with the cars. Both Fernando and Alex qualified in the spare car which was setup for Fernando. That’s a good debut effort. After those 3 outings, Alex felt that he lacked the physical strength needed to drive an F1 car. I guess that contributed largely to the several downfall in Alex’s outing in 2002.
(2) I guess lots of people underestimated the difficulty of driving an open wheel racing machine needless to say F1. They thought driving those machines is just like driving a normal car! Most people don’t see the reason why these F1 racers need to keep fit constantly. It’s the G-force! For those who still can’t comprehend it, just sit yourself in a roller coaster. And imagine you are at 3-4 times the speed (depending on the speed of the roller coaster you are in) and you need to negotiate corners, watch out for other racers and do that for almost 2 hours! I myself had the experience and this is in a closed wheel racing car! That itself, I couldn’t handle. After 2 laps, I felt like vomiting and my whole body were stretched to the max inside the car. I felt like I was going to be thrown here and there whenever the car is taking a corner. Now, imagine doing it in an open wheel car! Just imagine that!
I was driven by the Porsche GT racing driver
Go….
Travelling at 230kmph.
Alex was struggling physically and it caused him mentally too. That’s the reason he didn’t do well that caused him to not be able to qualify 3 times in 2002. It was a dark day in his F1 career.
(3) I guess those two races off were a blessing in disguise for Alex. Anthony Davidson, who has tonnes of mileage in F1 car as BAR F1 test driver that replaces didn’t seems to be that wow-ing (from the book, not from me). So for Alex who didn’t do much F1 testing prior racing doing equally the job as Anthony (with no intention of disrespecting Anthony) had made Alex doesn’t look that bad after all. I thought Alex did a much better job when he returned from his “break”. If you follow his lap time during Practices/Qualifying/Warm Up, he was quite often better than Mark. I guess a clear sky is always there after a storm best illustrate Alex’s final few runs with Minardi. However, his earlier season’s issue had given him a second chance. But only those who followed him closely would know that Alex had improved really a lot.
Life is likewise. You have your time to get in the groove. You had hit you lowest point and you know there is always a clear sky after a storm. In the final part, I will post about Alex post F1 life and put my 2 cents on the whole F1 with Alex.
Let me start with the quote from Tony Fernandes’ blog
“I never for once believed that Malaysia lacked talent, brains nor ingenuity, merely opportunities. – Tony Fernandes“
How very true is that statement. I’m sure you will find all sorts of reason to that shortcoming but I don’t intend and don’t plan to lay any of those out in this post.
When this book, Alex Yoong – The Driver’s Line is out, I said to myself, I must get hold of that book.
Fortunately enough, my family is coming for a visit and I asked them to get me this book. I thought it was a very heart-warming book to read. I can identify and relate with most of Alex’s situation in my personal PhD journey.
Tony’s statement will be the core of my three part posts. In this part 1 of the post, I will set the scene of how I watch Formula 1 for all its excitement and its worth. In part 2, I will review more on Alex’s journey in Minardi and the final part, I will relate his journey with my PhD journey and some of my two cents on the whole thing.
This book is written in a “diary-journaling” style. It started with Alex’s childhood and his journey to Formula 1. His thoughts and feelings for each races he did in 2001 and 2002 with Minardi. Life after Formula 1 and up to his new role with Lotus F1.
Most Malaysian (sadly) handed a report card with a score of F even before knowing what’s going on in Alex’s life in Formula 1. Just getting this book for example, a score of F has already been given by most people saying, “Why you want to be bothered reading a book of a not famous people?” Alex is someone. At least you would have heard of his name. That itself meant he is quite someone.
Perhaps, I do agree with most of Malaysians that he is not yet ready for Formula 1 but again, opportunity don’t come that often and once you got it, you just have to go for it. This book did a lot of explanation on why certain things happened to Alex. In short, he was never even given the fair opportunity to justify his position and sadly Malaysian media never gave him that chance. I agree with Alex that we can’t blame the Malaysian media for what happened because the Malaysian media just simply do not have enough experts in Formula 1 to write constructively on Alex’s performance in Formula 1.
I started following Formula 1 “crazily” in 2001. And that was the year Alex made his Formula 1 debut as well with the team Minardi. When I first heard the news, I was proud because a Malaysian had made it to Formula 1! Putting aside all those negative comments that sprung out from his involvement in F1, I slapped myself in the face as I can’t believe we have a driver in F1!!!!! I am so proud of him, as fellow Malaysian.
Watching F1 is not about looking at who’s winning and period. You have to watch it by first categorising the team into several division. In 2002, you have the premier group (Ferrari, McLaren, Williams etc), then you have the first division (Sauber, BAR, Jordan etc) and you have the final division (Toyota, Arrows, Minardi etc). By comparing their performance within those group you will see the excitement as each division has different target to achieve. Secondly, you compare the drivers within the same team. Of course you can’t compare a Ferrari and Minardi because their machine is just totally different. But if you compare the performance between drivers within the same team, that’s the best if not the fairest comparison of a driver’s skill.
Thus, to see how did Alex perform, you have to compare him with Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber during his time in Minardi. Aikkssss….. yes, you must be seeing familiar names. Yes, the 2005-2006 world champion Fernando Alonso and the current 2010 championship contender, Mark Webber were Alex’s team mate in Minardi. That itself tell you what Alex is up against and Alex is actually a good driver after all.
With that set in my mind, I can now follow and gauge Alex’s performance. I must set things straight first. I never mark him F and I always supported him regardless the outcome. Of course he did have his downs but he had his ups as well. As fellow Malaysian, you win, you win together, you lose, you lose together.
Me and Alex at the launching of the 2002 Minardi car in KLIA. I purposely bought that shirt to support him and I still wear it till today! Entry to the event is by special invitation only. I still remember I have mid term test that evening and I rushed like mad back to uni after this event to sit for the test. My situation that time is just like Alex’s situation being offered a drive in Minardi. If I do not go to this event, I would not get a second chance to attend such event. How many of us can say I have been to a Formula 1 team launch event in his life? So just take it and try and go for it.
After reading the book, I think Alex must have felt the support he had at least from a few fans like myself, though not much on this were mentioned in the book. Our (Alex’s fan) presence (there were 6 of us) must have given him some love from home (I hope to think so ). Here lies the journey of a humbled Malaysian to take on the world of Formula 1.
Part 2….. to come.
