David Coulthard’s Season Preview

David Coulthard and his fans will line-up for the 15th Formula 1 season in the early hours of Sunday morning. The Red Bull Racing driver will be looking to get off to a flying start at Melbourne, Australia after a relatively steady season in 2007.

The Scot is now the oldest driver in the field with his 37th birthday only weeks away. He has also entered the most grand prixs in the field with number 230 coming up in Melbourne.

These stats and figures haven’t put Coulthard off; in fact he seems to relish the prospect of giving the youngsters a run for their money. He has also stepped into the unofficial spokesman role for the drivers concerning safety, as well as the recent spying scandal which embarrassed the sport.

The former McLaren and Williams driver is coming to the end of a glittering career which has seen him finish runner-up in the drivers championship in 2001 and 13 race wins between 1995 at Portugal and 2003 at Australia. His most notable wins came twice at his home grand prix, Silverstone, and twice at his current residence, Monaco.

Since his move to Red Bull in 2005, Coulthard has proved the critics wrong by consistently being strong in races including a podium finish at Monaco, to which he wore a Superman cape in 2006. Notably he has finished above his team-mate in his 3 seasons at the Red Bull Racing team, with Christian Klien, Vitantonio Liuzzi and current team-mate Mark Webber all falling short of the Scots season total.

This season sees a new addition for Coulthard and the rest of the drivers with a night race in Singapore. The race will be staged mostly on the streets of the city with only part of the race being held on purposely built track for the race. The race will commence at 8pm, Singapore time in September as history will be made when the red lights go out.

An exciting amendment has also been made to the final qualifying session with only ten minutes to clinch pole position on the grid. This will result in less time of the burning off fuel stage and more flying laps being recorded.

Red Bull as a team will want to improve on their 5th placed finish of last season, although they will find the task more difficult since McLaren’s points will be recorded this season, and a stronger looking Renault team with Fernando Alonso back on board. The team will look to finish ahead of their closest rivals: Williams and Toyota, while trying to cling on to the coattails of the Renault and BMW Sauber team.

Coulthard himself will want to improve on his 10th place finish of the 2007 season as well as the 14 points which he gathered. His personal aim will probably be aiming for at least the top 8. However, this will only be fulfilled if Red Bull’s reliability improves from the 2007 season.

Franchitti Back on Track

Life has never been busier for Bathgate-born Dario Franchitti after his Indy 500 win in the Indy Car series last year. The former karting driver, who won Scottish & British Junior Karting Championship as well as the British Senior Karting Championship went on to win the 2007 Indy Car Championship after 3 other individual race wins at Newton, Iowa; Richmond, Virginia; and Joliet, Illinois

The Indy 500 champ is also married to American actress Ashley Judd as the hectic showbiz lifestyle continues. With the media clamouring for the new celebrity couple to replace Posh & Becks, Franchitti is never out of the limelight.

After his Indy Car Championship win, NASCAR came calling and he signed up for Chip Ganassi Racing and is racing in both the Nationwide Series and the Sprint Cup in the 2008 season.

 Franchitti also has to adjust from racing a one-seater car to a stock car. This transition will take time for the 34 year old but he has already made significant progress in NASCAR – especially the Nationwide Series.

As said earlier, the Nationwide Series has brought the Scot relative success in his first 3 races with a 20th, 24th and most recently a 6th place finish. This has left Franchitti in 9th place in the overall standings for the series.

The Sprint Cup, however, is a much more competitive series and the Scot has struggled to break into the top 25 with a 26th, 33rd, 32nd and another 33rd place finish to leave him 36th in the overall standings.

These figures may suggest doom and gloom for Franchitti but he currently shows that he has adjusted best to NASCAR compared to his fellow rookies. He currently tops the Raybestos Rookie of the Year for the Sprint Cup standings ahead of his 4 rivals.

Things are expected to pick up for Franchitti in future Sprint Cup races as he begins to grow the necessary experience in NASCAR. The team are trying to make the process speedier by entering him into the Nationwide Series to gain racing experience in a Stock Car and smooth out the transition from Indy Cars.

With 24 Sprint Cup races and 32 Nationwide Series races still to take place there is plenty of time for Franchitti to improve on performances and make it into the top 12 of the Sprint Cup standings to qualify for the ‘Chase for the Sprint Cup’ races at the end of the season.

The Road to Augusta

Colin Montgomerie made a positive step in the World Match Play Championship in his bid to reach The Masters in Augusta. He was sent packing in the 3rd round by eventual runner-up Stuart Cink – but that didn’t stop him rising 8 places in the World Rankings to reach 54th.

On the Wednesday he beat the World number 8, Jim Furyk, 3&2, and on the Thursday went on to triumph 1 up against another American, Charles Howell III, the World number 38. However, veteran Montgomerie was knocked out by Cink 4&2 on the Friday.

The race to Augusta is very much on now for Montgomerie, who, to qualify, must be in the top 50 by the Sunday before The Masters starts. He will play the Johnnie Walker Classic in India this week, then the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea and the CA World Championship in Florida before the cut-off date at the end of March.

It’s a sad contrast to the times when Monty was pushing to win Majors left, right and centre. It has remained a mystery as to how he has never won a Major, and will be forever known as “the best golfer never to win a Major” unless he can pull something special out of the bag. In his primetime, the 1990s – he won 7 European Tour Order of Merit titles in a row, as well as the title in 2005 so there had always been an perception of inevitability about him conquering his long term battle, but yet he is still trying to conquer.

It also shows how downhill direction of the standard of Scottish golfers on the World Stage. Even as recent as 2005, there was a large contingent of 11 Scots in the field at the British Open in St. Andrews, whereas there were only four in 2006 and seven in 2007.

Montgomerie’s success has covered up the lack of depth in the Scottish game over the past 15 or so years. His 8 Order of Merit titles and constant competitiveness at Majors has kept the Scottish golfing fans satisfied, but the time will come when Monty will finally hand over the baton to a young heir.

Only in 1999 has there been a Scottish golfer who grabbed more of the limelight than Monty – Paul Lawrie. He won the British Open at Carnoustie, and was the first Scot to win a major since Sandy Lyle at The Masters in 1988. However, that offered Monty only a brief break out of the spotlight as Lawrie failed to live up to the expectations piled on by the media in search of a new hero. Marc Warren has also been tipped for the top after triumphing in the Scandinavian Masters 2 years in a row. He also played with Montgomerie when they won the golf equivalent of the World Cup at the beginning of the year.

Hope springs eternal in the long-term for Scottish golf fans, but Monty is the only man with whom they can place their hope in the short-term.

Has the Fairytale Ended?

Gretna Football Club look to be hanging over the edge of the cliff as a crisis seems to have set in at the youngest senior Scottish football club.
On Monday it was unveiled that staff and players had not been paid by the SPL side as bizarrely owner Brooks Mileson is the only person who has the authority to pay employees of Gretna FC. The players were also told not to report to training on Tuesday.
Mileson, 60, is currently at a hospital in Newcastle as his health has deteriorated over the past couple of years, suffering from ME and having two stomach operations.
Then on Tuesday morning it was unveiled that manager Davie Irons and assistant manager Derek Collins had left the club to take over at 1st Division side Greenock Morton – it all has the analogy of the abandonment of a sinking ship.
Rumours are currently circulating that Director of Football and Caretakor Manager Mick Wadsworth will leave his post to take a job as Technical Director with the Canadian FA. There is also speculation the club will enter administration on Wednesday – which will result in a ten point deduction from their current SPL total that will leave them 19 points adrift of safety and, miracle-barring, certain relegation to the first division.
Gretna FC entered the Scottish Football League in 2002 and created history by achieving 3 consecutive promotions in 2005, 2006 and 2007 to the SPL. In 2006 the club also reached the Scottish Cup final and only lost out to Hearts on penalties.
Mileson is estimated to have a personal fortune of £75million according to the Sun through insurance construction and property businesses. The problem for Gretna FC is that the heirs of his fortune are not keen on their inheritance going to a struggling football club. Gretna FC will now have to find a way which they can be self sustaining in a bid to keep the football club alive and avoid following the likes of Third Lanark, Meadowbank Thistle and Clydebank to extinction.

Sibling Rivals Win

Warring Murray brothers, Andy and Jamie, both won their respective tournaments this weekend after their row over Andy’s Davis Cup absence.

Older brother Jamie won the doubles in Florida’s Delray Beach International, his first title with new partner Max Mirnyi. They beat top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan 6-4 3-6 (10-6) in the final.
On this side of the Atlantic, younger brother Andy won the singles title at Open 13 in Marseille. He beat unseeded Mario Ancic in straight sets in the final to claim the fifth singles title of his career and his second this year. The win also lifted him back into the world’s top ten after falling to eleventh after the Australian Open.
Andy Murray pulled out of the Davis Cup tie due to “experts’ advice” about a knee injury which has been causing problems for him this season. Experts said that changing surfaces would only aggravate the injury further.
Jamie Murray said it was “very disappointing” that his brother wasn’t playing and claimed “if he really wanted to push himself he could have played”. He went on to say: “it kind of effects the way we (Davis Cup team) feel about him”.
But the argument seems to have created some positive competition between the pair with two titles in the family this weekend as both aim to climb their respective ranking tables.
Andy, 20, has already committed to play future Davis Cup matches and expressed his disappointment at missing the tie against Argentina in Buenos Aires. He looks to have justified his decision to miss the Davis Cup tie with his win in Marseille, but of course he will really be justified if he wins an elusive grand slam this year.

Chief Executive a success?

Eight months ago Gordon Smith was the surprise appointment by the SFA as chief executive. “A positive step” the then Scotland boss Alex McLeish claimed. Many said that David Taylor’s successor was a fresh start for Scottish football and were glad that a “football man” was appointed compared to the usual businessman who has ample experience in running an organisation.

Many of his proposals have captured the imagination with bold plans to make the Scottish game more appealing. Before the job even became vacant he submitted a paper to the SPL regarding a winter shutdown which would see no games played in January and February and the season extended into June. However, the SPL are opposed to the idea and read out a statement to clarify that no winter break would be incorporated into the 2008/2009 SPL fixture list.

His next bold proposal was to re-introduce alcohol into Scottish football grounds. This was after a successful trial at Scotland international rugby matches at Murrayfield. Smith plans to have a voucher system at the turnstiles where spectators over 18 attain “two or three” vouchers so they can buy a limited amount to try to avoid problematic situation. Of course, the vast majority will undoubtedly be responsible with the new proposals – as seen with international rugby matches. However, there is a massive difference between rugby and football – crowd wise. At all international rugby games, the crowd is encouraged to integrate and there is a friendly atmosphere, even between fans of fierce rivals England and Scotland. The culture of football is somewhat different. Unfortunately there will never be a time where Celtic and Rangers fans will be encouraged to sit together. Football is already tainted with violence from a minority of fans and alcohol will only fuel it, even if it is only a few pints.

Gordon Smith also wants referees to be able to review matches after the game so that cheating and diving can be punished. Video has already been used for reviewing red card appeals and off the ball incidents. From this video evidence then bans can be rescinded for unjust red cards, handed out for tackles or incidents which were missed by the referee or extended for violent incidents worth more than a red card. The calls were renewed for video evidence to ban cheats when Saulius Mikoliunas won a penalty for Lithuania against Scotland with a blatant dive, which at the time, could have been very crucial to potential hopes for Euro 2008 qualification. However this was quickly shot down by world governing body Fifa who said it would “contravene the rules”.

Arguably his boldest plan is for the league structure of the SPL and the 1st division in Scotland. Under his proposals Smith wants to see two leagues of 12 teams. After each team has played each other twice in their league the leagues then splits. The bottom four of the SPL and the top four of the 1st division form a new league and start again on zero points. The top eight of the SPL and the bottom eight of the 1st division will carry on with their leagues with their respective points which they have already gained in the previous two rounds of games. The new league will be a play-off-esc league with each team has played each other twice. The top four of the play-off-esc league will start in the SPL and the bottom four will start in the 1^st division the following season.

Gordon Smith has adventurously tried to reignite the home nations competition between Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The English FA however did not react positively to the proposals which led Smith to contact the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) to participate in a Celtic Cup between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The four nations have agreed in principle to start the tournament in 2009 with the door still open for England to participate.

Hello world!

The Scottish Budget is to be voted on today – 6th February 2008.