In what some British sections of the press would call an interesting press conference, it was the same old witch-hunt from the press at the Monaco Grand Prix that would certainly get McLaren fanboys into a tizzy (and it has with moral lectures all over the internet).

Michael Schumacher was asked questions about the qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006 in which it was alleged that he braked and parked his Ferrari to prevent others from setting a faster time and that he did it deliberately. The stewards at that time had found him guilty of the charges and a punishment was given to Schumacher who had to start the race from the back of the grid.

But certain sections of the press needed to rile up the issue again to increase their circulations and F1 websites too to earn more hits and comments (us too, but we are on Michael Schumacher’s side), Just look at the barrage of questions being thrown at Michael Schumacher during the Monaco press conference :

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First Schumacher was asked if he had any regrets about Monaco 2006, he replied :

“I guess it didn’t, but it doesn’t change as well if we got back into it, because we’re now in 2010″

On more prodding, He further said

“I had great fun in the race, I have to say. Coming from last, and going through the field, I think I finished fifth. That was good fun.”

And then when someone pointed out that Saturday was a low point in his career, he said

“You made it – some of you guys,” he said. “I mean, let’s look forward and not backwards.”

Then BBC reporter David Croft jumps in with the final whammy and asked Michael Schumacher if he would do it again and Michael Schumacher responded by calling him boring.

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Even if we neglect the third degree over here, the press does seem to be pretty motivated to make an issue out of the non issue again and make him admit his guilt over here by hook or by crook.

We don’t see Ronn Dennis, Lewis Hamilton being grilled with the same ferocity over spy gate or liar gate ? or should we collectively call those as McLaren-gate ? Needless to say, I plan to rile up all the McLaren cheating attempts (there have really been too many) throughout the season.

Even journalists who swore on their lives that McLaren was innocent during the spygate do not see the hypocrisy of their actions in criticizing Schumacher for this incident in 2006. Columns are filled asking Michael Schumacher to ‘own up’ to the incident forgetting that McLaren and Hamilton didn’t own up but were caught and there was enough evidence to be presented in a full fledged trial.

Michael Schumacher is clearly doing the right thing by telling the press to look ahead as its friggin’ 2010 now and not 2006, but journalism is a very dirty business isn’t it. News at any cost is the mantra and hey if it bashes the other side, then its even better. What’s the point in making him admit that he did it, do courts force the accused to admit guilt after being sentenced ? , they don’t because its a waste of time and effort, the punishment is delivered according to the evidence and its time to move on.

In the talk about the Red Bulls, the Ferraris, the McLarens and the Mercedes cars, we often forget about the smaller teams who have big plans. 3 years ago people called Vijay Mallya a fool for dreaming up a podium in 2010, not such a big fool now is he ? The big teams are equally arrogant as well, take the Red Bull formula one team for example, they don’t think formula one bloggers need media access and dont even have the courtesy to reply to requests, same is the case with the Virgin F1 team which we don’t even cover due to their attitude.

The Hispania HRT F1 team has the potential to be the next dark horse in the amazingly unpredictable sport of formula one. Under the stable leadership of Collin Kolles the team has the right kind of expertise needed to deliver a competitive car.

The budget is a little shaky and therefore they had to take 2 inexperienced drivers in the form of Brazilian Bruno Senna and Indian Karun Chandhok as both of them seem to have brought sponsors with them.

Anyway, the team was looking forward to another 2 car finish at the Spanish Grand Prix but fate had something else written out for them. Karun lost out on a collision with Alguersuari for which Alguersuari had to face a drive through penalty and Senna just plain crashed on the 4th lap

The team now looks forward to a good GP at Monaco, team principal Collin Kolles had this to say :

“I am disappointed that we didn’t finish our home race. It’s a real pity because both drivers had good starts. Bruno Senna had to stop on the opening lap despite a very strong start which moved him up to 17th from 21st on the grid. Karun Chandhok was similarly strong and had a very good pace but retired mid-race after contact with Alguersuari. At least, the performance was much better than in Qualifying yesterday. Now, we look ahead to next weekend and are determined to have a good result in Monaco.”

Karun Chandhok commented:

“I am very disappointed with the outcome of the race. It’s a real shame what happened with Jaime. I stayed out of his way, kept the car completely straight and he just turned left into me. I was really pleased with my race until then. ‎I had a good first lap and was trying to be sensible with the option tyre and get them to last. My pace relative to the other new cars was good and I was pulling away from Di Grassi quite comfortably. In the end, although we changed the front wing, the damage to the front right suspension was too much and I had to stop. It is a disappointing end to a good day for the team.”

In a development that has the potential to shake up the formula one tyre wars, Bridgestone seemed to be hinting at a u-turn from its formula one exit announcement. Till now everyone was working on the assumption that Bridgestone who have been the sole tyre suppliers for formula one since 2006 will be exiting at the end of the 2010 formula one season. But recent comments made after the Spanish Grand Prix suggest the Bridgestone may have had a change of heart.

There are rumours that at the FOTA meeting at Spanish Grand Prix, there were indications that Bridgestone may stay much to the chagrin of other players in the tyre wars : Pirelli, Avon Cooper and Michelin who have shown interest in taking the reins of formula one from Bridgestone.

Hiroshi Yakukawa who is Bridgestone’s director of motorsport was quoted as saying :

“This has been a very strong weekend for us.

“We hosted guests from the USA and Brazil as well as many from our European markets, which has illustrated the importance of Formula One as a business tool. Our sales companies continue to support our Formula One activities, showing the significance of this to our business.

“We are proud to have the support of all of the teams in this fantastic sport and now look forward to heading straight to Monaco for what is likely to be another fabulous race meeting.”

One wonders if an official announcement regarding the U-turn does come from Bridgestone, how the other tyre companies hall react.

Sorry for no race review, blame exams

Update: Michael Schumacher was third fastest in the second practice session also behind the Red Bulls.

In what is good news for formula one and Michael Schumacher fans all around the world, the German seemed to be on pace in the practice session of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. We have been following this story all week right from the press stories against Michael Schumacher to the Mercedes GP change of the chassis of Michael Schumacher’s car in order to make the car more suitable for him. But the joy could be shortlived as teams could be testing different experimental combinations before the actual race.

Lewis Hamilton was fastest during the session while Jenson Button was second fastest in the session. Mark Webber for the Red Bull team was fourth ahead of his teammate Sebastien Vettel. Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher’s teammate was sixth in the practice session.

Fernando Alonso was eighth in the session while teammate Felipe Massa was twelfth in the other Ferrari car.