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Great work and insight once again Murry! Well done!

You are greatly missed in the commentary box, with respect to Martin and Jonathan.

The only criticism is my question never gets asked! Maybe one day.

Once again, u r right!
Kamui Kobayashi will be another F1 LEGEND!

Interesting view on Webber, but i can't help disagree with two things. Firstly, just because Webber is the oldest of the championship contenders doesn't mean he should automatically be favourite. It should be based on who is the quickest, and in that respect Vettel wins. Webber has shown great tanacity and mental strength thus far, but i fear his lack of speed lets him down. In terms of who is most likely to be champion all we have to do is look at Singapore, where the Ferrari and Red Bull were pretty equal, but Alonso with his speed managed to drag the car to pole. He is the biggest threat, as the Mclarens are too slow and Vettel is too unpredictable.

Secondly, I understand that the commercial history of F1 is somewhat darker than other sports, not least for its long tie ins with Cigarette firms, but for a drinks manufacturer to win the constructors championship would be disappointing. Teams like Ferrari, Mclaren and Lotus are famed for their owners passion of racing, not because they liked to drink a high caffine drink every once in a while! As for the banks, well, only the illiterate and the downright ignorant discredit them, otherwise why would it have been necessary to spend tax payer money to save them? And i personally thinks its rather foolish for you Murray to tar all of them with the same brush, it discourages investment and is simply untrue!

For a soft drinks manufacturer to come in and throw all their money around and be successfull, shows that all it takes is money, not brains to win in F1 and it discredits teams like Ferrari and Mclaren whose history far outweighs the likes of Red Bull, who are mere infants in the sport in comparison. The same is being done in other sports like motorcross and rallying, they just want one or two championships and then when they have milked the cash cow for long enough, they'll move on. Ask yourself, would you see them in 10/20/50 years time, i seriously doubt it. They are a sponsor behaving like a constructor, without the need for long term commitment.

Knight24k, Murry didn't say Webber was favourite, he just stated who he would like to see win the Championship. He chose Webber because he is the oldest and has the least chance of perhaps winning it in the future. When asked who Murry thought would win it, he said he had no idea.

As far as a drinks company winning the championship, we'll just have to wait and see :-)

@Knight24k You can't really say Murray Walker is wrong to chose Webber as the man he'd like to win the WDC because it's just his personal choice.
And I'm 100% sure there is as much brains and passion at RBR, with the likes of Adrian Newey and his expert team, Christian Horner a life long racer and Dietrich Mateschitz who has been involved in the sport since at least 1995, as there is at the more established teams.

Mate you go me all G'd up!!

The link
"IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE THE UK, CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO"

doesnt do what it promotes...... after clicking it still says "UK only"....

Knight24K; I feel you are being a little naive in your last paragraph. Of course F1 takes lots of money, and all the big teams spend it regardless of where it comes from. It is certainly not just money that wins championships. It's hard work, determination, and driving skill. I might also add that having a very good design team headed by a brilliant aerodynamicist also probably has been the biggest single factor in building up the design skill and providing the drivers with potentially championship winning cars this year.

"IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE THE UK, CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO"

That link doesn't quite work. Redirects the user back to the UK-only version.

@Knight24k

If you think bailing the banks out with taxpayers money was the correct thing to do, and the right thing to do, you are totally misinformed/need to gain some knowledge on finance and money markets/easily misled by politicians.......

that money which was supposed to become loans to lend out by the banks to small businesses............was instead used to cover the writing off of their bad assets, due to securities backed by houses.

Knight24K; You have a short memory! In 2009 McLarens budget was £300M, Brawn GPs was £100M. Who won more races ?
It does take money, and a lot of it to be competitive in F1 but to say its all down to money is rubbish...its mainly due to assembling a team with the right technical expertise. Usually having one or the other of Ross Brawn or Adrian Newey helps!
I agree with Murray it would be nice to see Webber win the WDC. Vettel will have his day but he does need to mature a bit; I think some dummy spitting has gone on behind the scenes over the course of the season like during the Silverstone Wing-gate episode.

@Knight24k

Also just because red bull aren't 'an established team' doesn't mean anything.
youve decreed by default, that a team must have been in F1 for 'a prolonged period of time' before being worth of winning a championship. This isn't based off any logic, just personal preference.

Winning in F1 is about A. who has the most money, which is negligible among the top 3 teams, and B. who does the best job.
Redbull have done the best job this year, made the best car, therefore they deserve to win the title just as much as any other team.

As for Webber being a favourite, where was vettels speed in Monaco, or Spain? Where was vettels Head in Turkey? Silverstone?
Webber is ahead of Vettel because half the time outpaced Vettel in terms of raw speed. Who's to say he cannot outpace vettel at the remaining 3 races? Who's to say Vettel can even race well and guarantee 3 wins? It's absurd.

At this stage in the game its down to a bit of luck and personal choice as to who is going to win this years champ. Redbull have the best chance as they have the best car, but as for the driver, who knows?

I agree with Murray on Webber. I would love to see him win it-he comes across as just a great guy, and lets face it he has not been treated well by his team, who despite saying the opposite-clearly do favour Vettel. Webber deserves the title this year in my opinion, he is great under pressure, is extremely fast, and as Murray said, will probably not get another opportunity to win the title. Vettel is young and his time will come, but this year, I hope Webber can hold his nerve

Thanks for your thoughts murray :)

I want Mark Webber to win as well, He's a down to earth bloke, who has the passion and great fighting spirit.

Webber was asked in the interview last week, would you do whatever it takes to win, and he paused for a second .... and very seriously replied: yes i would. This fighting spirit and desire to win is evident in his driving, his passive aggressive comment's when the vettel collision and wing controversy incidents happened and his on track revenge in response to these incidents.

He's got it in him to win and he's got the car, i think the only way he will lose is if he is robbed by misfortune.

Looking at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ F1 forum afterwork I was pleasantly surprised to see Murray Walker leaning on my dads MG at Brooklands museum! No-one knew!
It was the perfect excuse to phone dad and tell him to get a computer and get online!

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, is there any chance of getting a copy as it was his birthday a few weeks ago?
Great to Mr Walker again.

@MrFancyPants

you have a short memory, also, Brawn might have had a relatively small budget in 2009...........but the car was designed in 2008 very early on, using Honda resources, and Honda money.....and Honda had the biggest budget of anyone.

so....yes money is still hugely important. but as toyota proved you also need the right people and a couple of good drivers.
however using brawn as an example doesn't serve your argument any use.

"IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE THE UK, CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO"

That link doesn't quite work. Redirects the user back to the UK-only version.

Still doesn't work......

Same as no. 17. The link for non-UK still doesn't work..

Great to see my question answered, thank you Murray and the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. I like the idea of Red Bull winning the championship too, its the start of a new era in F1 i think, an era which ignited last year. Red Bull should be here for a very long time to come lets hope!

I understand all the comments you guys have made, and actually agree on most of the points. For instance, I too would like Webber to win this year, but that doesn't mean he can continue what he did in Japan, coming second best. He needs to up his speed a little bit so he can contend with Alonso and Vettel, and maybe indeed Hamilton.

oigioeiee, I never said what the banks did was RIGHT, i just said that it is unfair to tar some of the honest ones, with the same brush as the ones who caused this crisis. And I have enough financial knowledge, having studied economics at university, to know that although it was distasteful, it was necessary.

My point about Red Bull was that they have enough money to hire the best talent, to buy the best equipment and to research the best technologies. I still think that if it were a mere sponsor instead of a constructor, it would look more promising. I think some of their weaknesess showed through this year with the Silverstone incident. And you have to remember the advantage these guys had at the start of the season, its still a miracle that other drivers are even considered for the title at this stage given the massive performance difference between the Red Bull and every other car at the start. They should have done a Brawn, but they did a Piquet Jnr and ruined their own chances. Red Bull's and Brawn's case both show that if you have enough money to lure the right talent away, then you can succeed. And in this way, i think they are just in this sport for bragging rights to say "look, we competed at the pinacle of motorsport, and beat the likes of Ferrari and Mclaren, using our superior resources" and use that as a marketing ploy, discrediting the rest of the teams. Personally i prefer the teams that wanted to go racing because they enjoyed it, not because it looked good on their portfolio!

And no one has still answered my question of whether they think Red Bull will stil be here in the future, 10/20 or 50 years from now. I still beleive their in it for the short term and as soon as Dietric has his prize he'll be off to milk the next cash cow.

Good blog Murray. I agree with you on Mark Webber, even though I am a McLaren fan (and you enjoyed slating them in this video...) but I fully acknowledge that Webber deserves a title by now. It would be great for the sport too.

OF COURSE it would be great for a drinks company to win the world championship title! It's so fantastic to know that you don't have to be solely a car manufacturer or money-man or former racer to win a title in this sport. Don't forget that winners Benetton were a fashion brand...

McLaren have actually done better than Ferrari throughout MOST of this season, and they've got the points to prove it.

Thanks for answering my question Murray - it's proved a topic open for debate.

Although I have reservations towards Red Bull having no prior relationship or pedigree in F1, you cannot fault the commitment of Dietrich Mateschitz' vast investment within the sport.
Time will tell if it will continue to invest in the future and become entrenched in the fabric of F1, creating in the process a legacy it can be proud of.

For those looking for the out-of-country link, the correct link is:



Found it searching the site.

Benetton were the design company, not the high street fashion retailer.

when is it that murray didn't make any of his videos after hamilton had won?

I have a question for Murray Walker. I read somewhere that they are going to change the way downforce is created by removing it from the front wing and using the car instead. I can't remember what it is called, (ground effect or something similar), but this is how the cars used to be. Is this a good thing, like I suspect, and will it make overtaking easier?