Schumacher to join Vettel at Red Bull

Wouldn't that make a great headline and an interesting team pairing! Anyway, it's good to see Michael back on form - it certainly looks like he's on a level with Rosberg now. But wouldn't it be interesting to see him in the best car up against the current best driver in the world.

The way things are going Michael must start wondering if all his records will tumble to Vettel. But anything could happen to the cars over the winter so who knows what 2012 will bring. Loved the India circuit - should be even better when the dust has dispersed. And wasn't it good to see Lewis and Felipe waving handbags around watched by Mr Bean!

Doesn't the BBC know when Halloween is?

Halloween is pretty obnoxious at the best of times but is not improved by the BBC trying to stretch it out over 3 days! Don't they know it's only Halloween on the 31st October - and not on the two days prior to then as well. Standards in West London have been slipping for some time. It's time we sent the ridiculous festival back to America where it belongs. Yet another commercial excuse to sell tat. And don't get me started on Xmas.

Give us our referendum

So once again we have been denied a referendum on our membership of the EU. Surely there can’t be a more important topic than who actually governs us. We were conned in 1975 and since then there hasn’t been an opportunity to voice our views on the direction the EU project has gone. Totally disgusting – won’t the politicians ever listen to the people that keep them employed? We elected each and every one of them on the basis that they would represent and reflect our views as our servants and not our masters. I applaud all the Tories that defied the 3 line whip – but what about the rest? I for one will never vote Conservative again. Now, come on David Cameron, give us our referendum!

A bad week for motorsport – RIP Marco Simoncelli

I was terribly saddened to turn on the TV to hear the awful news of Simoncelli’s tragic freak accident. Coming so soon after Dan Wheldon’s death it will no doubt set the anti-motorsport crowd off. So be it. I just hope things are kept in perspective. To my mind, road accidents in which families suffer tragedies through no fault of their own are far worse. I lost my own Mother, Aunt and Uncle in a car crash eleven years ago and it has not changed my views/enjoyment of motorsport. At least competitors in all motorsports know what they are doing and choose to put themselves in a position of risk.

Marco might not have had too many friends up and down the MotoGP pit lane but he certainly blew a breath of fresh air into the sport. Now, sadly, we will never know how good a rider he could have become. RIP Marco Simoncelli.

The Jury's out on DRS

As we near the end of the season it may be time to reflect on the introduction of DRS. So has it been the much heralded solution to the lack of overtaking in Formula One? Well, we’ve certainly had a season full of overtaking and many people will say with some justification that it has made overtaking too easy! But this year was always going to be difficult with DRS zones being set by guesswork. Now with plenty of statistics to go on it should be possible to set DRS zones far more accurately next season. That being the case perhaps we should only judge DRS after next year. Having said that, it would seem that there is quite a lot of interplay between KERS and DRS where one can sometimes be used to nullify the other. KERS is beginning to look like a defensive tool against DRS and perhaps DRS works best when combined with KERS. It’s certainly giving drivers something else to think about - and wasn’t it interesting to see Webber overtake Hamilton in Korea only to be instantly repassed.

Dan Wheldon Modern Day Gladiator

A truly sad weekend for IndyCar racing as Dan Wheldon dies in an accident through no fault of his own. A great racing driver and a true gentlemen. He will be sorely missed. There has been much talk of the prize money challenge and how this may have been in part responsible. It is hard to see how that could be the case – although if Dan had not been at the back of the field he wouldn’t have been in that particular accident. More suspect was the number of cars racing on such a tight circuit. It is right that drivers have the ultimate right to risk their lives doing a sport they love – so long as the race organisers do all they can to minimise the risks without changing the inherent nature of the sport. There is always a risk of an airborne accident in open wheel driving so it must be a duty of all concerned to make the cockpits as safe as possible without removing the open wheel element of the sport. All racing drivers risk death and injury. Truly they are modern day gladiators. RIP Dan Wheldon.

My novel is now available as an Ebook

Finally got into the Epublishing world by publishing my novel When The Flag Drops as a Kindle Ebook. The conversion process was not quite as straightforward as Amazon suggest – a steep learning curve with quite a bit of formatting to tidy up, and plenty of fun with HTML. The process involved messing round with three pieces of software – notepad++, mobipocket and Kindle preview. Good job I’m an ex-programmer who’s handcoded websites in HTML and CSS. Anyway the book looks great with its new cover. And great value at just 86p Now all I need is a Kindle!