Lights out and away we go!

This was suppose to be a happy post, seeing that the Formula One season kicks off this weekend in Melbourne but we start the blog on a somber note. A legend of the sport, and FIA Race Director for the past 22 years,  Charlie Whiting sadly passed on this week. He joined the Federation in 1988 and has been integral in not only the success of the sport but also in keeping the needs of the drivers his number one priority during his time. Every single driver, past and present have been giving their heart felt thoughts about Charlie since his passing and this can only show the character of the man he was. We as the fans and public won't really know much about the behind the scenes when it comes to driver briefings, and race management but Charlie ensured that this remained smooth sailing for everyone. He will be missed by one and all in the F1 world. 

Back to the racing, Winter testing normally gives us an indication on which teams to look out for in the season to come and there were no surprises with Ferrari and Mercedes on top of the time charts again, with Red Bull now powered by a Honda engine, not too far behind. Overall it was Ferrari that were the fastest in Spain but if we learnt anything from Winter testing, is to not take these results for granted as come race weekend, given the conditions and strategies, a lot can change. With FP1 and FP2 just being completed at Melbourne, its Merc who showing good pace down under with Ferrari playing catch up. It will be interesting to see what happens during qualifying tomorrow. 

They've been many changes in teams this season with some drivers swapping teams, swapping seats but for the current constructors champions it all remains pretty much the same for them. World Champion Lewis still heads up the driver line-up with Valteri Bottas being the number 2. It was interesting as to how last season started with Toto giving both drivers free reign to compete with each other but obviously to keep the team in mind when doing so but ultimately it was Lewis who forced his way up the points tally which meant Valteri had to bow down for the rest of the season and allow his team mate to compete and win the Championship in the end. So not sure if the team will adopt the same approach again this season or if the 4 times world champions will have a say in how things go down on race day. 

Ferrari, the darling of the sport really need to get some silverware as it's been a good few years without any and I'm sure the powers at be in Maranello have set targets for the team. There has been change at Ferrari, coming from the top with Mattia Binotto taking over the position from Maurizo Arrivabene, interesting move from the Italians and a strategic one at that. There is a change in driver as well with Kimi Raikkonen departing for their sister team. Alfa Romeo Sauber and see's their driver Charles Leclerc come across to partner Sebastian Vettel. Vettel showed good promise at the beginning of last season as he mounted a substantial challenge to Lewis but after some costly errors by him and the team midway through the season saw his challenge disappear. He seems pretty confident about the car this year around and also gave it a name "Lena", with newbie Leclerc along side him, it will be one to watch how their relationship develops over the season. 

Red Bull are still that one team everyone knows not to forget about, Christian Horner still has his work cut out for him this season with a new driver pairing of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, lets hope he wont have to deal with as much of the friction there was when Daniel Ricciardo was there. It was no secret that Max and Dan didn't see eye to eye, especially on the race track, none so evident that the race in Baku when the pair collided on the straight. Max still remains RBR's number one drive but he has to prove his worth this year round, some costly errors made him still look immature last season and with now reliability a thing of the past with the new engine suppliers, we hope he will be making things extra exciting on the top of the grid. 

Other notable changes, as mentioned before see's Kimi join Alfa Romeo Sauber. It's always great to have the charismatic Fin in F1, his charm is one the reasons we like to see him on the podium and many like to see him at the drivers gala dinner at the year end so lets hope he scores some decent points this year. Another happy note see's the return of Robert Kubica to the Williams seat, after his leg break it was hard to see Robert's return to the sport happen but he proved everyone wrong and hopefully can fly the flag high for Williams Racing again. With the first race in Australia, we can't forget about the ever smiling Daniel Ricciardo, after a difficult year at Red Bull, he was pretty open after he signed a deal with Renault about his time at his former team, he said he felt no love for him there and hopefully the French will show him a lot of it. Winning his home race will be a stretch but lets hope we see him in the top 6 at least. 

With some new rules being thrown into the mix as well as changes to the cars, this years Formula One season is bound to be another nail biter, even more so than last year. The FIA have now decided to award points to the person who does the fastest lap on race day, so you'll be seeing many gunning to achieve that. This is a tricky one with most teams choosing to look after their engines towards the end of the race but this being optimal time to get those fast laps in, it will be interesting to see who is willing to take the risk for that extra point. I can't wait to see who crosses that checkered flag on Sunday but if the past few races are anything to go by, don't be surprised to see that red car going through first. 

The Finale

The Formula One season comes to an end this weekend, after Mercedes-Benz AMG Petronas wrapping up the constructors championship in Brazil and Lewis Hamilton, the drivers world championship the race before in Mexico, many wouldn't see the point in this race but you're wrong. With Abu Dhabi being a dead rubber race for most of the last few seasons, it still pulls out all the stops to make sure it's worthy of the season that passed. Having attended one myself, I'd rate it as a must if you're an enthusiast of the sport. It gives you the opportunity to visit a world class track, unlike any other, the glitz, the glamour attached to F1 just escalates in the Emirates, with the track being on an island, the yacht's  all docked along side it, the majestic Yas Viceroy Hotel hovering over the track and of course the fireworks. 

But with every final race of the season comes some sad goodbyes, with drivers changing teams and some drivers bidding farewell to the sport. This year see's one of the greats retire from the sport, a two-time world champion and often one of the unluckiest drivers in the field, Fernando Alonso. His 17 year career in the sport which started for him in 2001 at Minardi wasn't all doom and gloom though with him securing 32 wins, 97 podiums and over 20 pole positions. The Spaniard fort many a great driver in his time, while having stints at Minardi, Ferrari and Mclaren but it was at Renault where he truly flourished winning back to back titles in 2005 and 2006 under the guidance of Flavio Briatore. He will be sorely missed in the sport but after clinching a LeMan's winners medal last year with Toyota Gazoo Racing, he has his eyes set on claiming the triple with a win at Indy 500 in sight. His attempt last year was flawless from his side but as per usual in his career of late, the car let him down. 

There will be many drivers changing seats in next years Formula One season, the big one would be the straight swap between Ferrari and the Alfa Romero - Sauber F1 team, which see's youngster Charles Leclerc and Kimi Raikkonen change over. Much has been spoken about the young french man this season. While we still haven't seen his full potential, Ferrari will expect big things from this talent, after the disappointment of the last two seasons, the Italian team will have a point to prove with them bolstering their line up for next year. As for the Iceman, many breathed a sigh of relief to hear he will be staying in the sport and not hanging up his drivers gloves just yet. The often controversial Fin has been a bit more vocal this year, showing more emotion and jovial-ness on racing weekends. It really looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself out there and to his credit performed damn well, I'm sure much more than what his team expected him to do on certain occasions. It will be interesting to see how he goes about his business at Sauber but either way, we're glad his still apart of the sport. 

The other big name move was Daniel Ricciardo leaving Red Bull Racing to join Renault, the Aussie didn't have the best of seasons and with his high profile clashes with his team mate Max Verstappen during races, that didn't help his morale at all. Red Bull seem to be backing the young Dutchmen who has shown some great potential but often has brain farts at crucial times in races. If Christian Horner can set his head straight, he will be a proper contender next year. Once the fireworks have disappeared from the nights sky in Abu Dhabi on Sunday night, it's a long wait till the lights go out in Melbourne next year March, so lets just soak it all in this weekend and enjoy the season finale. 

The Race to 5

There's no denying I'm a big fan of Scuderia Ferrari, from the early days with Mansell to that unforgettable Schumacher era, and with others like Kimi and Fernando of late, the team brings so much to the sport, many say if Ferrari ever left, Formula One should shut up shop. Now in saying this, I am a proud supporter of the two cars on the grid every race day and for many who have been following the World Drivers Championship battle this season, it's been all too familiar with Sebastian and his car showing great promise in the first of half of the season but failing dismally in the latter. While this year was a bit closer than last, the end result was evident from 5 races left on the calendar, it would have taken a miracle and some extreme bad luck  for Lewis Hamilton not to secure his 5th title. 

While both drivers fought hard this season, there can be only one winner and last weekend in New Mexico, Lewis Hamilton showed the world why he was the best at what he does. The Brit is an incredibly talented driver and even though his car was not the fastest, he made the most of it where it counted, around the bends and in qualifying securing more pole positions than Vettel or higher placings on the grid. He also had the backing of a great team who's strategies for every race weekend was near perfect, all of this helped him achieve his 5th world drivers championship and credit must be paid to him for achieving this accomplishment. 

However, I have a bone to pick with many about his rival Vettel. While he might not be everyone's cup of tea, the sport has painted him with a black brush in the latter half of the season. With Formula One's TV deal, most of the international stream has to put up with the rubbish that Sky Sports has to say. Sky Sports being British have a certain bias towards their own driver, even though they won't admit it. It's with this bias that many tend to dislike Lewis which is really sad because he is really a great driver. There were a number of incidents that contributed to Vettel's title challenge demise this year, some were faults by him, many by the team in terms of strategy etc but for most of it, it was just racing and at the end of the day, that is what Vettel is, a racer. 

Now if you hark back to Vettel's career when he just began, he took chances, made them count and hence he was so successful at Red Bull Racing, granted the car was brilliant but his driving played a big part in him achieving so much at such a young age, fast forward to present day and nothing has changed in his driving style, unfortunate for him he just had a lot of bad luck this season. In the clashes he had with the Red Bulls, both in Japan and Austin, both were recognised as racing incidents, and if you analyse both closely, he had a gap and in the case in Austin he had the better racing line but yet the Sky Sports team chose to label it as "rash", "dangerous", and my favourite "desperate" by Sebastian. It's like none of those former drivers they have on their commentary team ever raced before. There was an opportunity to overtake, he took it, it didn't work out, and most of the time its a 50/50 on what would happen and unfortunately for him, he spun on both cases. Then there was blame put on the car for doing what it did, it's like he could never win with these commentators. 

Karma soon came to bite them in the ass in Austin though, with VSC called in early on in the race, just after 12 laps, Mercedes brought in Lewis for a change in tyres as he was behind Kimi at the time and wanted to get his lead back after it was taken from the start and hopefully wrap up the title that weekend. The Sky Sports team saw this as a genius move and wondered why Ferrari didn't do the same, its as if they had amnesia and forgot all about how heavy on tyres the Austin track is. With a 1 stop strategy this would be disastrous for any driver! As the race went on, Lewis began to suffer, lost many places in the field and had to go back for a tyre change again, the commentary team didn't acknowledge Ferrari's reluctance to take the gamble and pit their cars early but rather focused on how Lewis saved his race but ultimately couldn't seal his 5th drivers title that weekend. 

It gave Ferrari and Vettel a glimmer of hope going into Mexico but even they knew it was all done and dusted even before the weekend began. As per normal in Mexico, the Red Bulls were on fire and secured a top two spot in qualifying, Ricciardo suffered mechanical failure again during the race but left the road open to Max Verstappen to claim his 5th race victory, with Hamilton finishing in 4th place, it was enough for him to claim victory in the drivers title challenge, some nice words were said between him and Vettel, which is always great to see, even though the commentary team want us to believe they hate each other. All is not lost for Ferrari though, they're still in for a shot at the constructors title with them trailing Mercedes Benz by 55 points, with Lewis wrapping up his title, we're not sure if he will be racing as hard as before and with Bottas having a point to prove after playing second fiddle the entire season, these last two races could be quite spectacular to see. 

Can we get back to racing now?

So after the triple race weekends which saw the French, Austrian and British GP's in quick succession, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel ended off with an 8 point lead in the drivers championship which many would not have predicted after the French Grand Prix, in which he finished 5th and with Lewis Hamilton winning the race took over as leader on the table. Fast forward the two races and the tables have turned but the main talking point after the Silverstone Grand Prix was a conspiracy by Ferrari drivers who deliberately tried to take out the opposition during races and make it look like "incidents". I needed a few seconds to regain composure after hearing that the first time and I'm even struggling right now with it. 

Firstly, this is Formula One we're talking about here, apart from the mega LMP1 cars that take part in the WEC, this is the fastest you're gonna get around a track, also the cars which cost millions to make are built with carbon fibre, while it is a strong compound and can withstand force at speeds in excess of 300kph, they turn to brittle when clashing with other cars on track so why a team, not even an individual will want to purposely damage their car during the race is beyond me. What I find more ridiculous is that this was coming from a team which is regarded as the best, their team principle and number one driver. It was utter madness from their part, I know they must have been hurting after the last two races, in Austria none of their cars finished the race as Bottas was taken out early after his clash with Vettel which saw the Ferrari driver also damage his front wing and at Silverstone where Kimi touched Hamilton after locking up his front right tyre, in which Kimi also had his front down force affected for most of the race as we heard over the radio numerous times. 

After the race, while being interviewed by Sky Sports F1 team, which for the sake of keeping this piece short I won't go into, chatted to Toto Wolf in the paddock, while he didn't directly say it, we all knew what he meant by his comments. Lewis Hamilton said it in his body language and attitude as he deliberately avoided the interview in parc ferme but aired his opinion in the after race driver interviews, saying that Mercedes need to do more to stay away from the "red cars" as he feels like both incidents were intentional. Obviously the two Ferrari drivers seated next to him couldn't believe what he was saying and said their part, stating it was stupid to assume so. Kimi did apologise and admitted it was his mistake, and felt justice has been done by him serving his penalty. 

Which bring us to the next contentious issue, the penalties. Lewis Hamilton feels that the Ferrari drivers have not been penalised appropriately for their actions and that the governing body need to look into how they deal with incidents like this because it affects a lot of things like drivers points, constructors points and so on. I've been watching the sport for the better part of 20 years now and as far as I can remember, this is how the punishments have been handed out over the years, why must be now come and change things because it happened to you? Both collisions were deemed as racing incidents as any motorsport enthusiast will back and therefore the stewards awarded the appropriate penalty but now Lewis wants them to go re-write the rule book because he doesn't like it. 

Things boiled over when Kimi Raikkonen's wife put a message on her Instagram story which read, "If you cry like a girl when you lose, do ballet. #JustSaying" at first everyone thought the message was aimed at the disgruntled Lewis Hamilton, but later she clarified it to be towards the entire Mercedes-Benz F1 team. While it might be in bad taste that she did it, you can understand where she's coming from. Her husband being a veteran of the sport and a driver that many look up to, maybe not for his personality but certainly his skill to be accused of something like this would offend him. But anyway, it later came out on Monday that Lewis accepted Kimi's apology and agreed that it was just a racing incident and not something malicious which was concocted by the Italian team but he didn't apologise for what he said, his team them came out and said via Twitter that they never mentioned anything of the sort....okay then someone please tell that to Niki Lauda.

Look, at the end of the day everyone is human and you can understand Lewis's frustration, having pulled out a phenomenal lap in qualifying the day before to get him onto pole position at his home grand prix, you can only imagine how he must have felt seeing that advantage slip away when not only Vettel but his team mate Bottas getting ahead of him at the start, so naturally when Kimi tried to take advantage of his poor start, got it all wrong, locked his tyre and collided with Lewis which caused him to spin and end up in last position, it would have sent his blood pressure through the roof. Kudos to him though, he kept his head, went back to business and brought his car home in 2nd place, albeit with the help of 2 safety cars but that took some skill, skill which not many drivers on that circuit have. And we saw some damn good racing in the final 8 laps with all 4 cars gunning for podium spots! So now that the dust has settled and everyone has made good with each other, can we get back to racing?

F1 2018

The 2018 season of Formula 1 officially got under way this morning at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. After what felt like an eternity, the break has finally ended and we can get back to some excited racing, well we hope it's exciting. Then again, it won't be hard to beat the new F1 logo and theme song, not sure what the hell they were thinking when they approved that! Anyway, enough of the bitching, lets see what we can predict for this years race calendar. From initial testing in Spain, it was clear that Mercedes-Benz are the team to beat again this year, with both Silver Arrows showing good speeds, even with that stupid halo on the car. While Ferrari were expected to close the gap on their arch rivals, it seems that Red Bull Racing who have the backing of Aston Martin now have come up as new challengers to the Germans. 

From this mornings FP1, it was evident that RBR's  are taking the challenge to Merc with both drivers just falling behind the Mercs and the Ferrari's rounding up the top 6. In FP2 however, Max Verstappen showed some great speed to pip Bottas into second fastest around the track, so from the onset, Red Bull look to be back and firing on all cylinders. A big question still hangs over their reliability over the entire race duration, as last year saw a few races which ended with just one or none of the cars making home. With it being on home soil, Daniel Ricciardo will also want to push his car and his team mate this weekend to score some good points at his home race. 

Ferrari have been rather quiet about many things ever since testing began in Feb, their speeds haven't been the greatest and there are many already writing the Italians off in terms of their chances of competing against Mercedes let alone winning the championship. Last year saw them get off to a flyer with Vettel winning in Australia and going on to lead the drivers championship up and until the mid-season break after which all went sour for the team in red. While both Sebastian and Kimi aren't showing fantastic times in testing and practice, over a race distance, things might be a little different, so the Tifosi hope. With Red Bull Racing upping the anti, Ferrari definitely have their work cut out for them as they now have 4 cars to fight off on the grid, one things for sure, they definitely have the talent behind the wheel to keep them in the reckoning. 

Mercedes-Benz F1, the poster boys of the past few years of Formula One, it seems like their golden boy Lewis Hamilton can do no wrong but we've seen brief flashes of his frustration last season when things don't go his way. His biggest competitor this season might come in the form of his Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas. Both having the same car, same engine, could this be the year that Bottas doesn't play second fiddle and take the challenge to Hamilton? We've seen it a few season ago when Nico Rosberg did so, it didn't bode well with the Englishman as he even cited favouritism in the camp, to give the German the edge over him. Whatever the case, if Bottas does in deed go full tilt, we hope we don't see a case where both cars take each other out as we did in previous seasons with Lewis and Nico. No doubt though, Mercedes-Benz are the team to beat again this year, it will be interesting to see how the season pans out though. 

Wrapping up the rest of the teams, there are some that could cause disruptions to the top 3, Force India, Williams, Torro Rosso and Sauber Alfa Romeo come to mind. These teams are not only there to make up the grid but could prove to be vital in determining race results, they might have some surprises up their sleeves as well. One which team that many hope have a few surprises is Mclaren, the bright orange, Renault powered car that will be fizzing around the track this year, piloted by fan favourite, Fernando Alonso and second driver Stoffel van Doorn has been showing some pace so far, with the cars finishing in the top 10 at the end of FP2. So who knows, maybe this year might see them scoring some decent points. 

Regardless of which team and driver you support, I'm sure we are all just glad that Forumula One is finally back, nothing can be read into the first few races because as last year went to prove, leading the championship for half the year doesn't mean anything if you can't follow it up in the second half. Pressure is on for me to pick a race winner for this weekend, seeing that I nailed it against all odds last year. With rain expected for the weekend, that could throw a massive spanner in the works, if it were dry I would have gone for Bottas to pip his partner, but in the wet, we can't really be sure who will be strong so I'm going for my exact pick from last year, Vettel to bring the car home in first place on Sunday. 

F1 2017

The first free practice sessions got under way early this morning in Melbourne and with it ushers in the new Formula One season. Many enthusiasts were waiting for this day ever since the checkered flag was waved in Abu Dhabi last year, I was one of them. While some were a bit disappointed by the dominance of the Mercedes team last year, I thought the drivers battle for the championship between Lewis and Nico was pretty intense and made for fascinating viewing. Both drivers had their own style and brought 110% to every race, and while there was no love lost for most of the season, in the end even when the German managed to pip his team mate, they both displayed great sportsmanship. That for me is what racing is all about. 

There is a reason F1 is one of the most richest sports in the world, the glamour attached to it will never fade, it is the rock-star in the sporting world and will remain so in the foreseeable future even with the sale of it late last year which saw long time CEO of the FIA, Bernie Ecclestone relinquish his title. Even though he was loathed by many, Bernie was the man that put F1 back on the map and gave it the prestige it deserved and while there were many controversial moments in his tenure, and boy were there a lot, there is no denying he played a pivotal role in the sport. 

Getting back to the action this year, one still feels that the rest of the teams have a lot catch up to play to the Silver Arrows, but while some teams may still be just shy off the pace, it doesn't mean they won't play a major role in being deciders this year. Ferrari is one of the teams that invested a lot of time during the off season to get their car ready for the start of this one, unlike last year where they were left scratching their heads and went back to the drawing board after the first few races. With the hungry German, Sebastian Vettel still unofficially leading the way for the Italian team, you can be sure that the fight is very well on with the leaders. The ever charismatic Kimi Raikkonen doesn't really care what number driver he is, he just gets the job done and prefers not to be disturbed while doing it. It's a solid partnership that should collect a handy amount of points for Scuderia Ferrari.

The next real team I see challenging has to be Red Bull Racing, for so long they were the leaders in recent season with Vettel leading the way to back to back championships for the team you can't help feel that their bubble of bad luck is waiting to pop. With the Aussie driver Daniel Ricciardo leading from the front, he will want to make a mark at his home GP this weekend. His co driver Max Verstappen isn't too shabby either with him taking his first win last season and showing he has what it takes to handle the pressure and get the results. So far in the free practice it was RBR that showed the most resilience against Mercedes so this weekend will be interesting. 

While the other teams are a lot to discuss, they aren't there to merely make up the numbers. There's been some good improvements in most of the teams and some great drivers that are making their mark with them as well as some experienced drivers. Williams see's Felipe Massa return in what must be the shortest retirement ever recorded and Fernando Alonso is back to try and propel Mclaren Honda back to the top where they once were so used to being. With new aerodynamics and engine changes to the cars, as well as bigger tyres, this should make for more  over takings and closer racing for the lower lying teams which will have a major impact this years championship. So you can be sure that the pink Force India car isn't the most exciting thing on the track. 

Coming back to the title favourites, while I want to believe Ferrari and RedBull have managed to close the gap, early indications still say that the Germans are quite ahead of the pack and with Lewis Hamilton bitter for losing out on his 4th title last year, he will be ready for it this year. They have a strong team and with their new driver Valterri Bottas on board, he should be the perfect number two man to assist Lewis in his quest this year. While I say they are favourites, the first race of the season has always been tricky for them with a surprise winner most of the time. So I'm going again with that scenario and hoping Lewis is right and backing Ferrari to take home the first win of the 2017 Formula One race calendar. 

Battle of the Arrows

I love my Formula One, and when people come to me and say it's boring I like to punch them in the face because they clearly don't watch it or understand it. This season is panning out pretty much the same as the past few seasons with Mercedes Benz Silver Arrows being pretty dominant and the other teams playing catch up so to speak but it's been anything but boring. It's had its fair share of drama and it's only escalating as the season goes on.

The battle for the drivers title has really heated up between Mercs two drivers though, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton aren't afraid to square up physically on the circuit to beat one another and while we hope they keep it clean, it depends on the drivers how they handle matters on the track. Mercedes Benz maintain that they will not be giving team orders to either of their drivers and they will be allowed to race each other, which is what the fans want to see. 

Gone of the days where you have a number 1 and number 2 driver in a car that's clearly miles better than the rest. In the era which saw Michael Schumacher dominate the sport with Ferrari, it was made evident that Rubens Barrichello played second fiddle to the German, take nothing away from Michael, he was the best by far but some races the Brazilian had the better of him but the team would issue an instruction via radio for him to move over and let Schumacher claim maximum points. It didn't sit well with many of the spectators and some of the commentators but it worked for the team at the time. 

None of that though, even after the two took each other out in Spain and most recently last weekend in Austria which saw an unbelievable final lap with the two of them coming together and Lewis overtaking Nico who's car suffered the worse after the collision to win the race. Rosberg crawled home in 4th, adding some vital points for his challenged for the title but it could have been much worse for him. There were a lot of different opinions about what happened but in the end the FIA deemed Rosberg the guilty party and subsequently fined. 

This weekend see's Lewis race at "home" in the Silverstone Grand Prix and while the spectators were clearly against him in Austria, he doesn't have to worry about any booing should he visit the podium again on Sunday. I agree with many of the sentiments shared on Sunday about the booing, it's harsh and don't believe their should be a place for it in sport, if you're unhappy with the driver, just don't clap. Show him the bird like what I did from my couch. 

It's the business end of the season with so many races in such a short span of time, so it will be interesting to see what happens. For now it seems like Rosberg and Hamilton are going to be the only two challenging for the drivers title, unless they keep crashing into each other. So while the rest of the season might be slightly predictable, it's still going to be interesting to see how it goes down. 

Also another thing to rejoice on is that everyone's favourite driver, the Iceman, Kimi Raikkonen has renewed his contract with Scuderia Ferrari which will see him in ther drivers seat for the Italian F1 team in 2017. While he may not be the driver he was a good few years ago, he still hasn't lost it, seeing that he was on the podium this past weekend. I think people should just leave him alone because he knows what he's doing...