I feel quite guilty regarding the lack of posts in the last week and must apologize again to my readers. The fact is that I have run out of steam and circumstances have dictated that I take a bit of a breather. It has proved difficult to raise any enthusiasm on anything happening in the sport at the moment and each day's news, especially on the Max saga, brings only a response of "so what?" from me. I am facing facts, therefore, and extending my rest until the weekend (only a couple of days away); regular posting will resume thereafter, I promise.
Kazuki Nakajima in the German GP
Other bloggers have been doing an excellent job of dissecting the news anyway and I have little to add. Keith Collantine continues to show how it should be done on his most excellent F1 Fanatic blog and Joe Saward has written two very good articles on Sebastien Bourdais' departure from Toro Rosso and Jean Todt's candidacy for Mosley's job. That last fills me with horror and dread and it will be a while before I can enumerate all the reasons why he is the last man who should be FIA President. I can only hope that the FIA experiences a rare moment of good sense and elects Ari Vatanen to the post.
Otherwise, I have only a couple of points to make, both in the nature of setting things straight. There is the matter of Lewis Hamilton's puncture at the Nurburgring, for instance, and the question of whether Lewis was foolhardy to attempt the first corner in the way that he did. Keith Collantine has already pointed out (but it seems to have been ignored by most commenters) that Hamilton's rear tire was already flat as the cars approached the corner. This is quite clear from the photograph used to illustrate Keith's article, Webber shrugs off penalty to grab maiden win (German Grand Prix review) - note how the right rear appears lower than the left.
Whether Hamilton was aware by then that he had a problem is debatable but there can be little doubt that he was committed to the corner on a line assuming that the tires were fine. In the circumstances, it is remarkable that he made the corner at all.
And then there is poor Nakajima, still being condemned as a likely candidate for sacking in Bourdais style this year. Yet Kazuki qualified higher than Rosberg in Germany and set the fifth fastest race lap, quicker again than his team mate's. His race was ruined by a collision with Trulli on the first lap for which both drivers blame the other; my recorded race video misses the relevant incident and so it is impossible to know whose fault it was.
Naturally, Nakajima's critics assume that he messed up again (as if Kazuki were prone to incidents - which he is not) but Trulli's account indicates that the Japanese driver was ahead of him at the time. If that is the case, the responsibility was on Jarno to avoid a collision.
So Nakajima is actually doing rather well and his improvement continues to the point where he is a worthy team mate to Rosberg. He may have the seat thanks to the influence of Toyota but he happens to be a very capable F1 driver too. If luck ever smiles on him for a change, he is quite capable of making life difficult for Nico.
And that is it for the moment. Of course, having made a little break for myself, I will probably wake up tomorrow with plenty to say and the enthusiasm to write it...