Intrigue, Passion, and Cheating, it must be an F1 Race Weekend!

Look! Right there, it's a parked Ferrari! But why is he parked? What is he doing. In the final minute of today's qualifying at Monaco the worlds most talented driver either lost control of his car and stalled it at a most unfortunate time for his rivals....Or he deliberately took a bad line into Rascasse and stalled his car on purpouse to impede the progress of Fernando Alonso and a few other drivers, and in doing so secured himself the pole position!

Admittedly, I haven't seen this yet, since I taped it and am stuck at work taking a break to write this. But these are the sort of intrugue and aqusations that make up virtually every weekend in F1. Renault's team have already protested the pole. Williams looks to be doing so as well. And looking at a sampling from Formula 1 forums the fans are up in arms! Some sample thread headlines...

Schumacher - Ultimate Sportsman
Schumacher - A force for Unity
Michael the Cheater
MS Cheats to pole
Schumi flees the scene of the crime
Schumi is a cheating pig
Schumacher, cheating scum
Does it even matter if Michael cheated?
That's why he's a 7 time champ

Me? This stuff is all part of the appeal to me. In part, yes its unfortunate that stuff like this happens. Cheating will always put a black eye on the sport. The situation in Indy last year with only six cars racing also put a black eye on the sport. In that situation, I was initially pissed yes, and still am sore about it, but at teh same time utterly and completely fascinated by all the politicing behind the scenes. (And make no mistake, that was a Michelin politic decision, not safety) In this situation, I am just laughing about it. That's racing. Yes, it's unfortunate that stuff like this happens for the sport, but at the same time it just makes the race weekends that much more memorable.

And now this just in....

Within minutes of the end of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, there were rumblings in the paddock that a number of the F1 drivers are so unahppy about what happened to Michael Schumacher that the Grand Prix Drivers' Association is going to demand Schumacher's resignation from the board of directors of the organisation because they consider his manoeuvre at Rascasse to have been unsporting and detrimental to the image of the sport. Amazing!

As the season preview over at Grand Prix.com asked a few months back, "But the question is will the season be exciting? The answer is Formula 1 is always exciting, and those who think otherwise, just don't get it." I love this stuff.