Today's race outside Barcelona saw Williams return to the top step of the podium for the first time in almost 8 years. And today also happens to be Sir Frank's 70th birthday. They've really come a long way since last year which was without a doubt, their worst season in F1. Pastor Maldonado won the race, which was quite impressive because most had written him off as a "pay driver"(but he also won GP2 in 2010), and as I said, the team haven't won since '04. Pay driver's have always taken a lot of grief because some feel they take seats from more deserving drivers. As Vitaly Petrov said earlier this year, "everyone is a pay driver." And he is correct. Unless you're on a heavily funded team, your seat is only safe if the title sponsors are satisfied with you. And even then Alonso would have to consider a pay cut if Santander Bank decided to withdraw.

Today's race was pretty decent in terms of keeping my attention. Spain is usually a parade with only a few cars in the midfield changing places at the pits. Today, everyone seemed all over the place.

It's also interesting to note that the mid field teams are making a serious push this year. Williams, Lotus, and Sauber are beginning to shine, while McLaren struggles, and Red Bull has clearly been hurt by the ban on blown diffusers. Mercedes has improved, but Schumacher's luck this year has been shit. People are beginning to question how long Mercedes plans to remain in the sport. This will be a make or break year for them as the Mercedes board will be voting in a few months whether to keep the team going.

Fuck SPEED. Fuck Fox and the political statement they made today. The winner, Pastor Maldonado is from Venezuela. Venezuela is run by the socialist dictator Hugo Chavez. Most people in Venezuela seem content with his rule. In the US, we love to hate on socialism and guys like Chavez. We pretend it's due to socialism, but in reality, it's because Chavez is tolerated by his people, and he maintains his nation's sovereignty in the face of multinational corporations who want to exploit their resources. So what does this all boil down to? Pastor Maldonado is a pay driver. He is backed by PDVSA, which is the Venezuelan state owned oil company. Typically at the end of a race, they cut to the commercials. When the broadcast resumes, they show the winning drivers parking and getting out of their cars. The drivers have to immediately go for weigh in. From there, they go to the podium ceremony where the national anthems for the driver and the winning team are played, trophies handed out, and champagne is sprayed. Then they cut to a commercial. When the broadcast resumes, the top 3 drivers are moved inside for the post race press conference. They only show a portion of it. Then commentators for the network give a quick recap, go through the points standings, mention the upcoming race, and it's done. This is have they've done it since I've been watching the past few years.

Today, Maldonado won. The cameras quickly switched to other drivers. Then it switched back to him as he finished his victory lap. They showed him getting out of the car. Then they cut to a long commercial (which is unusual.) When the broadcast resumed, they were handing out trophies, then they sprayed the champagne. The anthems were done during the commercial, which I've never seen. After that, they quickly ended the broadcast and started to broadcast a fucking soccer match.

SPEED is part of Fox, and I can't help but wonder if the lack of anthems was due to the teabagger bullshit that Fox heavily endorses. As for the rest of it getting cancelled for a fucking soccer game, I think that's just pure shit. It's SPEED. It's a network that has always focused on motor racing. You think your average NASCAR viewer has any interest in watching a bunch monkeys fresh from the jungle chasing a ball around? The whole thing was just weak. F1 will never get a big following in the US as long as the broadcasters are allowed to play games.