Raptor

Aye

We can but hope he'll return to CART to kick arse next season. While he's lost some of his edge (IMO) thanks to a shìte car, I'm certain he'll rediscover his form when the fun factor returns.

retired_lydiadiebolt

In the risk of turning a story thread into an off-topic thread, let me just respond by saying I'd think he'd be crazy to go back to IndyCars. He has nothing to prove there, especially since both versions are now so mickey mouse.

I just hope that he manages to stay in Formula One for at least one more season and defy the critics (including amongst his own team! ) and really show us what he's made of.

I saw a news story on the TV channel that now shows F1 races (Channel 10 - used to be Channel 9) last week about him and his team, and he went on for a little bit about how he hates to give up a challenge and leave things unfinished. Let's hope his bosses see that determination and not turn to some other test-driver to fill his spot!

And everybody else will win the grand prize of nothing if you can guess which current F1 driver we're rambling on about!

retired_lela2424

And everybody else will win the grand prize of nothing if you can guess which current F1 driver we're rambling on about!

NO IDEA BUT I'M CURIOUS...

retired_lydiadiebolt

Since there's only twenty current F1 drivers, you have a 5% chance of guessing correctly!

retired_lydiadiebolt

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by B.E. Gaity:
Hi Dixie,

It's great to see that JV is having better luck on the football field than he's had so far on the race track :p!

Love the story.

B.E. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thank you very much, B.E.! You're the proud winner of the grand prize of nothing for knowing that the driver we were talking about is none other than Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 World Champion and undoubtedly the best driver in the field.

I'm glad you love the story, B.E.! I like it too!

retired_lydiadiebolt

"So Bernie, in the seventeen years since you bought McLaren, which of your many achievements do you think was the most memorable?" "Well," says Bernie, "I don't remember buying McLaren." (Bernie owned Brabham!)

Conference - Game 11: F1 Power v Stevenage

If you said Stevenage, you would have been correct. Congratulations. We begin brightly, but Villeneuve has been off the boil of late and he misses two good chances inside the first quarter-hour mark. Michael Schumacher also fails to take full advantage of his chance on 19 minutes, but he’s just warming up, you see. His first helpful contribution is to set up his younger brother for the first goal of the game on 37 minutes, one which Ralf takes with aplomb, much to the delight of the home crowd. But our joy is shortlived because on the stroke of half time, Twidell punishes our lax defence by blasting home from 10 yards, ending John Filan’s long run of game time without conceding. That earns the boys a rocket at the break, and it seems to do the trick because within six minutes of the restart, we’re back in the lead, thanks to Michael, who scores in his sixth consecutive game. Our captain makes sure of the points on 66 minutes when he rises highest to prod home his brother’s cross. A good result that sees us move up to the top for the first time this season.

F1 Power (4-3-1-2): Filan; Trulli, Coulthard, Margas, Button; Humphreys (Webber 83), Alonso, R. Schumacher; Pitcher; Villeneuve, M. Schumacher (c) (Riedle 73).

Stevenage (4-4-2): Southall (c); Duckett, Heaton, Carr (Bunce 66), Miller; Clarke, Twidell, McMahon, Metcalfe (Abbott 45); Hay, Pearson.

Final score: F1 Power 3:1 Stevenage
MoM - Michael Schumacher

Conference - Game 12: Hednesford Town v F1 Power

Against a club in 19th place in the Conference going into the game, we should expect to extend our winning sequence quite comfortably. But it doesn’t quite turn out that way as our hosts pack quite a few surprises. We dominate possession and attacking territory for the first half hour but for no reward as Stewart proves especially adept at stopping Villeneuve finding the net for the third time this season. Then it goes horribly pear-shaped as Carty manages to steal clear of my defenders just long enough to smash Colkin’s low cross past Filan on 41 minutes. Our response is fairly swift, especially after another stern half-time address, for on 52 minutes, Pitcher has us level with his fifth of the season. But in the wet conditions, our normally smooth passing game is rendered almost null and void, while Stewart is brilliant in goal for our hosts, so when Carty heads home Owen’s cross on 71 minutes, I know it’s not going to be our day, and so it proves as we go down to our second loss of the season, much to the board’s disappointment, which they choose not to hide from me. Our stay at the top is shortlived, as we drop back to second behind Stevenage.

Hednesford Town (4-4-2): Stewart; Bradley (c), Evans, Comyn (Jackson 2), Wraight; Colkin, Cooper, Owen, Bagshaw; Brown, Carty.

F1 Power (4-1-2-1-2): Filan; Trulli (Riedle 81), Coulthard, West, Button; Wallwork; Räikkönen, R. Schumacher; Pitcher; Villeneuve, M. Schumacher (c).

Final score: Hednesford Town 2:1 F1 Power
MoM - Ralf Schumacher

retired_lydiadiebolt

I share a corporate box with former team bosses Eddie Jordan and Craig Pollock, and one of my bosses Bernie Ecclestone at Highbury to see Arsenal beat Bayern Munich 1-0 thanks to new boy Palermo, who seems to have fitted in nicely at the Gunners. Ecclestone confides in me that they expect F1 Power to be in the Champions League in at most eight years from now. They seem to be a little ambitious to me, since we’re not even half way through the Conference season yet.

Still, Bernie is not a man you can easily say no to, as both Eddie and Craig have found out in the past, and I’m not one to quibble with the grand designs he has for this club. He and Max Mosley have gone back a long time together and this is something apparently they’ve talked about during the few idle moments they shared when they weren’t planning world domination through Formula One. Well, I guess it would really fit into their plans of world domination since football is the opiate of the masses (after all, it’s more important than living or dying, isn’t it?).

So Eddie, Craig and I have to put up with Bernie telling us all how I’m going to lead F1 Power into a new golden era and that we’ll have the stadium to match our lofty position amongst the elite of Europe’s glittering clubs, capable of taking on anybody from Real Madrid, through Manchester United, Juventus, Bayern Munich to AC Milan and beyond, and beating them all handsomely in front of at least 45,000 spectators at the state of the art F1 Glory stadium in the heart of London.

It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it, but we still have a long way to go, and the next stop is to bounce back from our loss at the hands of Hednesford Town and show the Conference that that result was just a blip in the form of the gathering juggernaut. If we really are as big as Bernie would have everybody believe, then we’ll roll right over the top of Scarborough.

In the meantime, Javier Margas enjoys two minutes on the pitch for Chile in a 2-0 win over Bolivia in Santiago.

retired_lydiadiebolt

Conference - Game 13: F1 Power v Scarborough

Goals for Jacques Villeneuve are rather like busses. He waits an age for one to come, then as soon as one does, so does another. And I’m thankful for that. On 15 minutes, Taribo West arrows a pass into the path of the French-Canadian and the striker does the business expertly. Three minutes later, Coulthard picks up an errant goal kick and sends it forward to Villeneuve, who dances through into a shooting position and doesn’t let us down! He had threatened to score against Hednesford Town but some great goalkeeping foiled him time and again, so to have two on the board before 20 minutes was very satisfying. We could have, and should have had more goals before half-time, and when Brodie volleys Ingram’s pass home on 49 minutes, I’m in for a nervous wait until the final whistle. We are the better team in the second half, but we can’t land the killer punch to settle the game, and Filan needs to pull off some saves of his own to make sure we don’t drop two points today. But we make it through to the end of the game relatively intact and as Stevenage are beaten by fourth-placed Kingstonian, we take back top spot in the Conference.

F1 Power (4-3-1-2): Filan; Trulli, Coulthard, West, Button; Räikkönen, Alonso, R. Schumacher (Hughes 71); Pitcher (Humphreys 71); Villeneuve, M. Schumacher (c).

Scarborough (4-4-2): Ford; Brunton, Ellender, Ingram, Betts; Gildea, Thompson (c), Tremble, Russell; Windross (Toone 45), Brodie.

Final score: F1 Power 2:1 Scarborough
MoM - Jacques Villeneuve

retired_lydiadiebolt

After the game, I’m awarded with the Conference Manager of the Month award. Räikkönen again captures the young player of the month award, but Michael Schumacher surprisingly misses out to Richard Sadlier, on loan from Millwall to Hereford, for the player of the month award.

I’m contacted by Bernie, who is currently in Spain looking after some other business interests, to tell me that Max and the boys on the board are generally pleased with my performance as manager to date. It’s good to see that Bernie doesn’t hold any grudges over my polite but firm rebuff to his initially constant desire to pick the team. Now, he only puts his suggested first eleven forward to me every other day, while he also usurps the scouts’ roles by ‘suggesting’ the names of players he’d like to see me buy for the club. The trouble is, they wouldn’t be interested in joining F1 Power in a million years given our current situation, but Bernie thinks there’s merit to the idea that we sign them now and in a few years we’ll be able to pay their wages.

We’re drawn to play non-league Atherstone United in the qualifying round of the FA Cup - apparently that’s a big thing around here.

The first manager to bite the dust in the Conference is Jake King, sacked by Telford United’s chairman, Mr Andy Shaw.

I lose Nick Heidfeld to a torn groin muscle in a reserves match against Hereford. That will be bad for the young German defender/midfielder, since he was good value as a cover for players in the first team and kept the pressure up on them. Hopefully, Dr Sid Watkins can get to work with his magic to put him right.

retired_lydiadiebolt

Conference - Game 14: Hereford v F1 Power

On a wet and woolly October evening, we produce workmanlike football to dispose of our hosts who depressed their fans with an insipid display. We really should have had more than the one goal we did defeat Hereford by, scored by Villeneuve (his third in two games) on 35 minutes, but putting a shot on target in the dreadful conditions that confronted us at Edgar Street made it pot luck, almost. Still, if we had played a better team, our lack of accuracy in front of goal could have cost us, and I think I’ll ask the coaches to work on our forwards’ shooting during the week.

Hereford (4-4-2): Cooksey; Sturgess, Wall, Strodder (c), Clarke; Parry, McIndoe, Robinson (Beale 59), Williams; Sadlier, Moran.

F1 Power (4-1-2-1-2): Filan; Trulli, Coulthard, West, Wallwork, Button; Wallwork; Räikkönen, R. Schumacher; Pitcher; Villeneuve, M. Schumacher (c).

Final score: Hereford 0:1 F1 Power
MoM - Scott Cooksey

FA Cup - qualifying round: Atherstone United v F1 Power

Although I make several changes and give several fringe players the chance on a fine, warm October Saturday afternoon, there really was going to ever be one result in this game. Two goals in each half see us run out easy 4-0 winners over our hosts, who need to field a team of amateurs to fill the numbers. Debutants Adolfo and Rubens Barrichello put us 2-0 after 33 minutes. Captain Michael Schumacher added a third (his tenth of the season) on 50 minutes, and Juan Pablo Montoya, who has recently been making noises to my assistant about looking for another club because he isn’t getting a fair go here, made my job harder by scoring the fourth goal on 67 minutes. Many of the players look impressive this afternoon, but you have to wonder whether they would look so good against people who play football for a living.

Atherstone United (5-3-2) drag in a bunch of amateurs to play for them.

F1 Power (4-1-2-1-2): Firman; Trulli, Coulthard, West, Willmott; Wallwork; Webber, Barrichello; Adolfo; Montoya, M. Schumacher (c) (Riedle 57).

Final score: Atherstone United 0:4 F1 Power
MoM - Rubens Barrichello