Formula 1 - The silly season

It's usually around this time of year, about halfway through the F1 calendar, that the silly season begins. It's a time of guesswork and prediction, speculation and rumour. Which driver will be driving for which team next year? Who will be moving up the order, who will be moving down? Which rising star will get their first race seat and which driver has decided enough is enough, time to move on and retire from the pinnacle of motorsport?

That last question can easily be answered but it's an answer which throws up many more questions. Australian, Mark Webber, currently team mate to Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing, will hang up his horns at the end of this season. There are two drivers waiting in the wings at Toro Rosso, the RBR junior team, ready to jump into his race seat. I believe both Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne are part of the young driver programme and joining the big boys would be a natural progression. But the natural choice isn't always the best choice as Kimi Raikkonen's contract with Lotus expires soon. Could he be the next Red Bull driver? Kimi will have to decide whether he wants to re-sign with the team that brought him back into Formula 1 or make a move to fill Webber's vacant seat.

Personally, I think that Raikkonen should stay at Lotus as it's a team that are gradually improving, year on year, and that as successful as RBR have been over the last four years, it's a success that won't be easy to maintain. Kimi could find himself being passed on track by his current team if he jumps ship too soon. History has shown that F1 teams tend to evolve in cycles, a few years of growth and winning followed by a few more declining and fighting to claw their way back to the top.

It's at this stage that teams like Williams and McLaren now find themselves. Williams have failed to score a single point so far this season, an unprecedented position for this multi championship winning team and McLaren, celebrating 50 years in F1 later this year, haven't had a driver anywhere near the podium. It's this information which leads me to believe that Kimi Raikkonen should stay with a team that are on the upswing rather then joining an already waning Red Bull. Although they are still leading both championships it's not anything like the domination they showed in previous years.

That still leaves the question unanswered and is likely to remain that way until a driver or team confirms it's intent for the following year. Until then, enjoy the silly season.

Harrow stabbing: update

Since posting on this blog yesterday about the stabbing which took place in Harrow, I have learned a little more through the grapevine. Don't take it as gospel but I have no reason to doubt the information as I heard the same details from more than one source.

At about 9:30 on Monday morning the police were called to a house on Hindes road and were joined by various medical teams including an air ambulance which landed nearby in the Harrow recreation ground. Two adults, one male and one female, were taken to Northwick Park hospital. Apparently, this was due to a domestic dispute which seriously got out of hand. As I understand it, during the argument the male had attacked the female with a knife and then turned it on himself. It is unconfirmed at this time whether there had been a fatality or not but at least one, if not both, are in a critical condition.

With the exception of a solitary police officer standing outside the address, everything appeared quite normal this morning. The crime scene tape had been removed and both Hindes road and Harrow View were open again. 

Harrow Stabbing

Five police cars, two ambulances and an air ambulance overhead. Not something you expect to see every day, especially when it's all but next door to the school your son attends. So I stopped to take some photos and post them on twitter. It wasn't long before I was being tweeted by the local newspaper asking if they can use my photos. I told them they could and answered a few questions. It wasn't long before my name was being used in the online article which I have copied and pasted here, along with the photos that I posted on twitter.

Murder detectives at scene of Harrow stabbing

Jul 8 2013 By Ian Proctor

MURDER detectives are present at a house where a man and a woman were discovered with serious injuries believed to be sustained in a stabbing.

Police were called at 9.30am to a report of an assault at a property in Hindes Road, and paramedics responded to a 999 call about a stabbing at the address.

The house is a corner home at the junction of Hindes Road and Headstone Road. 

A police spokeswoman said a man and a woman were found "suffering injuries" and a London Ambulance Service spokeswoman confirmed the pair, both believed to be in their 30s, were alive at that time.

The woman was in a critical condition and both were taken to hospital.

Police have been unable to provide an update on their condition but Trinity Church in Hides Road is being used as a base by murder detectives.

Lee Smyth, 40, of Radnor Avenue, who was picking up his son from a pre-school in Radnor Road, said: "I can tell you that the road is still closed from Welldon Crescent to Harrow View. 

"It is blocked off completely. Apparently there was a murder in a house on Hindes Road and I asked an officer and he told me it was nothing to worry about.

"Now is the time we would normally pick up our kids from pre-school and the teacher let them out the back way."

Hindes Road remains closed off and there are delays on Headstone Road.Norbury School, in nearby Welldon Crescent, Harrow, remains open while Quainton Hall School, next to Trinity Church, had already closed to pupils on Friday.

Did you see or hear anything or take any photographs of the incident? Call the newsdesk on 01895 451054 or e-mail hannah.bewley@trinitymirror.com

Tyred Out

The British Grand Prix started off well with Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes leading the race from pole position, closely followed by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and fellow Mercedes driver, Nico Rosberg. It was not to last though as, within a handful of laps, Hamilton's left rear tyre disintegrated coming out of turn 5. Having only just passed the start/finish straight he was forced to limp around the rest of the lap before he could enter the pits for fresh rubber, dropping him from first to last.

This was not to be the only tyre issue during the race as Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) and Sergi Perez (McLaren) all had major blow outs, some quite spectacularly, while battling for position at high speed. The amount of debris from these tyres required the deployment of a pair of road sweepers under safety car conditions. There was much debate about the reason for the tyre failures during the GP. If it wasn't from a sharp kerb/circuit issue then Pirelli will need to get its act together pretty quickly.

Toward the end of the race Vettel's Red Bull suddenly lost power, cruising to a standstill on the racetrack. A huge cheer went up from the pit straight grandstand, not, I feel, from any sense of dislike for the triple world champion himself but more for the fact that, like myself, the predominately British crowd knew that this would blunt his lead over the other drivers.

I don't know about you but I like a championship to be decided at the last Grand Prix of the season between two or three drivers, under immense pressure to claim the title of Formula 1 World Champion. How exciting was it when Lewis and Sebastian won their first titles? Nobody could have guessed the final outcome until the final lap had been completed by each of the drivers in the hunt. That's when F1 is at its best.

Rosberg claimed victory on this day, flanked on the podium byRed Bull's Mark Webber, who had a tough but determined race after being knocked off track at the first corner, and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, second in the championship and desperate for his third title.

As a McLaren fan I wasn't impressed to see Sergio Perez retire close to the end of the race with car damage from his high speed blowout or Jenson Button crawling across the line in an unlucky 13th place. The twitter hashtag #BelieveInMcLaren has been adopted by the team in recent weeks. I haven't given up on them but it isn't easy to watch such a successful team failing so miserably.