Maximillian Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche is famous for saying "God is dead" (and a hell lot of other things, about which I am too ignorant to have completely no idea whatsoever). Now it's Maximillian's turn to say something similarly memorable (or so I think).

Formula One is dead.

Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix was a mere procession, without any significant overtaking or scraps at all. In fact, all the meaningful action took place in the very first CORNER, where Lewis Hamilton managed the wrestle second place away from pole-sitter Felipe Massa, allowing his teammate Fernando Alonso to build a comfortable lead which he only relinquished during the pitstop.

Other than that, you have to count Massa's ambitious dive inside Hamilton a couple of laps later, which made him run wide and cost him two places from third to fifth.

And that was pretty much about it.

Anytime a car race turns into a mere procession, where cars follow one another like train compartments, is just not right. Sadly, this has become the norm in both races in Formula One this year.

In the first race in Australia, where history says that there would be a couple of safety car periods which would bunch the cars up together, there was none. Zilch. No safety car period, no bunching up. Cars just circled the track one by one and the only meaningful action, for Christ's sake, took place in the very first CORNER again, where Hamilton made a great move from fifth to third. And two weeks later in Malaysia, déjà vu, and once again it was Hamilton in the limelight.

Perhaps Sepang is just a bad race track which, from the first time it held a Formula One race in 1999, has never provided any race which came close to being called "good", not to say "great".

But the truth is, Herman Tilke, the lucky guy who was tasked to build the Sepang circuit, is also the designer for lots of other new circuits, like Sakhir in Bahrain and the one in Shanghai. (To be fair, his Istanbul track is one of the best IMHO.)

But what about the cars?

I am not a technical guy, but it's fair enough to say Ferrari and McLaren are the ones to beat, and their domination so far suggests that no one else can catch them. That's why you can expect that barring any technical problem, the top four places of the starting grid to be filled by these two marquees in the remaining races this season. And once the race starts, these four cars will be gone sooner than you expected.

I always say that 1982 is the best season ever in Formula One (or perhaps in racing of any kind). It's a season full of surprises and the unreliability in car performance made it virtually impossible to predict the result of each race.

My only hope is that the 2007 season will develop into something truly interesting as it goes on. Remember, the first two races in 1982 were won by Alain Prost in a Renault, who at that point was looking like to be the dominating force that season. But he would go on to score just 16 more points in the remaining 14 races.

That's amazing, isn't it?

But would that happen again this year? Sadly, I don't think so.