A Formula One Blog with a Difference 30/10/2007 As anyone who runs a Formula 1 blog knows, the most informed and accurate comments come from Alianora la Canta. Although she may sound like an Italian Countess, she is actually from Derbyshire in England and has the most extensive and detailed knowledge of F1 facts and figures ever amassed in one human brain. She is authority itself and probably knows more about what the FIA get up to than the FIA itself does (actually, thinking about it, that's not too hard, is it?). If I am correct about Max Mosley losing his marbles, it is Alianora that is finding them, categorizing and then filing them for later reference.Takuma Sato smiles as he signs for the great AlianoraIt is Alianora that keeps us on our toes; we are careful with our opinions and statements, knowing that a step too far into fantasy could bring down on us the Alianora comment that puts us gently but firmly back on the straight and narrow path to F1 blog accuracy. This is a service that F1 bloggers appreciate and value and one that the rest of the blogosphere would benefit from too.What is less well known about Alianora is that she is also an F1 blogger; she runs one of the most unusual blogs around, La Canta Magnifico Blog. It is one of those blogs that is attached to a forum - as a result, it does things rather differently from the standard blog platforms and takes a while to get used to. My advice to start with is to click on the green version of the four colored squares in the top right corner. Better? I think so, anyway.Ignoring what are probably the most annoying smilies on the net, have a dig around and see what you can find. The posts are categorized and I can recommend in particular the Satire Section. For those who like to know the very latest F1 regulations, the FIA Section is invaluable - Alianora's posts, As Media Collide (Part 1) and Part 2 are especially interesting.Alianora is also one of those rare creatures, a Spyker fan, and here you will find her thoughts on the team and such matters as customer cars, a subject dear to the hearts of all Spyker people. Whether or not Alianora will continue to support the team now that it has become Force India remains to be seen.For those who want to become really geeky, Alianora can give you details of engine and gearbox changes throughout 2007 - the relevant categories are appropriately named. But I must give you warning: I once asked Alianora what changes to the F1 rules she thought should be made and she promptly began to re-write the entire rulebook; she is probably still engaged on the task and might even now be writing Max Mosley out of the equation.Be careful what you ask for is the lesson. Alianora will give you exactly that, down to the last jot and tittle. I still feel guilty at the amount of work she took on in response to what was, from me, a vague and passing question.I heartily recommend Alianora's blog - it has something for every F1 fan. And it demonstrates effectively that our wonderful Alianora is indeed La Canta Magnifica!
Clive
patrick Must show solidarity for my fellow Derbyshire bloggers... although I long ago moved to the wild and woolly North (well, Edinburgh, anyway).Anybody who can keep a track of what the FIA are up to deserves some sort of award, frankly. Date Added: 30/10/2007
Clive She watches them like a hawk, Patrick - the poor blighters don't stand a chance! Date Added: 30/10/2007
Alianora La Canta First of all, thank you Clive for the lovely review. It's really sweet of you to say such nice things about my blog.I can't do much about the smilies (there's only one smilie set available to me on my blog system). In theory I should be able to change the colour scheme permanently at my end though - I'm still rather puzzled as to why every time I tell it to go green, it changes back to orange the moment I refresh or move off the page.I try my best with the FIA-watching - someone's got to keep an eye on them, or who knows what stunts they'd try to do? It was said in the film V for Vendetta that "People should be very careful what powers they delegate to any government" and since the FIA is F1's equivalent of a government, we shouldn't give them carte blanche to do as they like without saying something when power is used wrongly.Oh, and by the way, I can say that the Rainbow Ruleset project that Clive referred to is still bubbling away in the background, keeping me out of mischief and amused. At some point I might remember to update the blog entries on the project accordingly (at least I don't expect anyone to follow my rules until they're publicly posted...) Date Added: 31/10/2007
Clive Best of it is that it's all true, Alianora. :)I can't think of a better person to keep an eye on the FIA than yourself. If only they knew who was watching, they might behave a bit more sensibly. And you're certainly right about being careful what powers are given a governing body. Can anyone remember who first gave them such extensive power, however?When the Ruleset is finished, perhaps we should send it to the FIA - it would solve a lot of their problems. Date Added: 31/10/2007
Alianora La Canta The FIA's power has been there since it was the FISA in 1950. And in those days nobody cared who formally had power, so long as it was done reasonably. In the case of F1, it's always been a case of redistributing power between various parties, for the power was never shared in a balanced way in the first place.The trouble was that all the different parties in F1 started to act in ways that the other parties felt were unreasonable (this came to a head in the late 1950s). When that happens, whoever has the most power is always tempted to use it. The FISA began using its power, but it did so in a way that those it was governing found difficult to accept. Suddenly they started to care quite a lot about FISA's powers, and the story of the FISA and the FIA since then has been largely about keeping other people in check with one hand and implementing change with the other. Date Added: 02/11/2007
Clive It has a turbulent history, that's for sure, Alianora. And ever since I started taking any notice of it, the FISA/FIA has had lousy taste in presidents! Date Added: 02/11/2007
Alianora La Canta You're not kidding! Max Mosely may have been the only FIA president during the races I've watched, but by all accounts his predecessor, Jean-Marie Balestre, was erratic and biased. Then before that was someone whose name I don't know, but was prone to such things as supporting the track owners against the team bosses at the 1975 Spanish GP... Date Added: 02/11/2007
Alianora La Canta By the way, I would like to apologise to anyone who's attempted to access my blog today - my host appears to be experiencing some downtime. Hopefully it will be up and running again soon, but meanwhile I've been putting updates at NaBloPoMo. Date Added: 02/11/2007
Alianora La Canta Good news - the blog is now working in its normal location. Apparently the servers had a technical problem. Date Added: 03/11/2007
Björn Svensson I have to agree with you Clive.I, for one person, loves to read well informed and well grounded blogposts and comments, and not just the ordinary chattery that goes on alot around the internet and the blog-world. Alianora Certainly is one of the most reliable bloggers around, so be glad that you have her here on this blog so frequently. Even though she might keep ypu quite busy some times. Date Added: 08/11/2007
Clive Alianora is a pleasure to have visit the blog - she it is who keeps me on the straight and narrow and curbs my wilder fantasies. I am glad that you appreciate her too, Björn. :) Date Added: 08/11/2007
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