Blustery Afternoon

The new Formula One season starts this weekend. This year the coverage has been taken over by BBC. So far the BBC coverage is a lot better than ITV in yesteryears as the Beeb gives a fairer coverage to all the racing teams. They also have a lot of interesting graphic and background stories to go with their programme. But most important of all gone were the dreadful commercial breaks!

Drastic changes have been made unfortunately making the F1 cars looking like ugly ducklings. These are to cut costs, which amounted to a total combined costs of two billion dollars spent last year by all the teams, equivalent to the economy of a small nation. The cut aims to reduce spends by about 30% this year to ultimately 80% over the coming years.

The changes have resulted in several changes to the car body, spoilers and so on resulting in less grip but not impeding the car behind because of the turbulence from the car in front. So far the result in the qualifying has been great with a good mix of teams up at the front where else the big three - Ferrari, Maclaren and William struggling. So it's an early start tomorrow in Europe for the main race as the opener is in Melbourne. And no doubt this year will see a lot of controversies with teams pushing the interpretations of the laid rules and regulations to the limit.

The same can be said about the weather this afternoon which kept on changing almost every hour. The sunshine can quickly change to cold and blustery weather. We went on a cycle ride through Wassenaar, going round nearby to Voorschoten before turning back to our house. On the way we passed this Indonesian School which is just a small building. There is a large Indonesian population here but mostly are already well integrated into the society. Some can't even speak Indonesian anymore. The Indonesian Embassy here tried as much as it could to support and relive the cultural heritage of their former countrymen. There are always events being organised by the embassy to try to bind these people together and to keep their roots still intact. These are commendable efforts.