The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Formula One: Increased venom as F1 tyre war erupts again
- Rugby: It's all I have to play for, says Wilkinson
- Doping battle at breaking point
| Formula One: Increased venom as F1 tyre war erupts again Posted: 17 May 2013 06:09 PM PDT LONDON: Formula One's increasingly-bitter 'tyre war' erupted again, with increased venom, this week when Ferrari followed Lotus in hitting out at rivals Red Bull and accusing the champion team of having a selective memory and tyre suppliers Pirelli of bowing to pressure. In an astonishing succession of statements, following Pirelli's decision to change the structure of their under-fire tyres from next month's Canadian Grand Prix, it became clear that both Ferrari and Lotus believe Red Bull has pressurised the Italian rubber company into complying with their own wishes. Pirelli has denied that is the case, but in a row that has intensified significantly since last Sunday's chaotic, pit-stop strewn Spanish Grand Prix, the paddock has divided and feelings are running wild in the run-up to next weekend's showpiece Monaco Grand Prix. In the 'Horse Whisperer' column on their own website, Ferrari - who won that race with a four-stop strategy for Spaniard Fernando Alonso - on Friday declared: "It seems one must almost feel ashamed for choosing a strategy that, as always for that matter, is aimed at getting the most out of the package one has available. "On top of that, if this choice emerges right from the Friday, because all the simulations are unanimous in selecting it, then why on earth should one feel embarrassed when compared to those who have gone for a different choice, only to regret it during the race itself?" The 'scarlet scuderia' also stressed that Red Bull's criticisms about the tyre strategies in Spain came two years after their world champion driver Sebastian Vettel triumphed in Catalonia with a four-stop strategy. "These are difficult times for people with poor memories," they wrote. "Maybe it's because of the huge amount of information available today that people are too quick to talk, forgetting things that happened pretty much in the recent past. "Or maybe the brain cells that control memory only operate selectively, depending on the results achieved on track by their owners. "A classic example of this is the current saga regarding the number of pit stops. Voices have been raised to underline the fact that various teams, some of whom got to the podium and others who were quite a way off, made four pit stops in the recent Spanish Grand Prix, making the race hard to follow. "It's a shame that these worthy souls kept quiet two years ago when, at the very same Catalunya Circuit and on the Istanbul track, five of the six drivers who got to those two podiums made exactly the same number of pitstops as did Alonso and (Brazilian Felipe) Massa last Sunday in the Spanish Grand Prix." Ferrari's outburst has come just five days after Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz attacked the state of F1, after the Spanish Grand Prix, claiming the sport was no longer about racing, but instead was simply about tyre preservation. Defending triple world champion Vettel floundered as Red Bull failed to make a three-stop plan work and had to slot in an extra change of tyres as they failed to finish with a car on the podium. Lotus boss Eric Boullier expressed his frustration on Thursday that teams could potentially be penalised for better adapting their cars to 2013's more aggressive rubber. He said: "There aren't many sports where there are such fundamental changes to an essential ingredient part-way through a season. "Just imagine for a moment that because a football team can't run as fast as its opponent, the dimensions of the pitch are changed at half time!" - AFP |
| Rugby: It's all I have to play for, says Wilkinson Posted: 17 May 2013 06:05 PM PDT DUBLIN: Jonny Wilkinson admitted Friday that getting a first taste of a European Cup final at the age of 33 represents all he has to play for. The former England international will be key to Toulon's hopes of victory in Saturday's final against fellow French side Clermont. "There's no doubt that at this stage in my career, this is all I have got to play for. This gives you an idea of what this represents," said the 2003 World Cup winner. "These days, I try to make the most of one match at a time. "But to have the opportunity to play in a game like this for the first time at this stage of my career, it's incredible." Wilkinson, the leading points scorer in the French Top 14 this season, has known only disappointment in Europe. He has played in two losing Challenge Cup finals including last year when Toulon were beaten by Toulouse. But he has been a key player in this season's European Cup quarter-final and semi-final wins over Leicester and Saracens respectively. "It was my first semi-final a few weeks ago and this is my first final," said Wilkinson. "I realise every day the luck that I have had being here and with this squad which has given me the opportunity. I want to make the most of it. "I am proud to be here, we have done a lot of work this season." Clermont are the favourites on Saturday where they will attempt to become the first team since 1996 to go through the campaign undefeated. On Saturday, Wilkinson will come up against opposite number, Australian fly-half Brock James who expressed his admiration for the Englishman during the week. "I have great respect for his play and also for the man he is," said Wilkinson. "Having someone like him, that's good for Clermont. Playing against him will be a big challenge." - AFP |
| Doping battle at breaking point Posted: 17 May 2013 06:02 PM PDT LAUSANNE: The fight against doping cheats in sports could reach breaking point if more money is not found to finance testing programmes, a top official told AFP. The director-general of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), David Howman, believes that his organisation is under increasing pressure to catch cheats. But governments, already feeling the pinch of the global economic crisis, have been unwilling to match their demands with hard cash. "It really worries me because I think nobody knows how much we have to do now," Howman said in an interview. "It seems that each year we get asked more and each year we do not get any more money. "At some stage, things will break and I do not want to be there when it happens because it would be very embarrassing for everyone." He added: "This year we have to sit down with as many people as possible and show them that if we do get more money that certain things that we have been asked to do just will not get done." Howman was responding to a report given last weekend to the executive committee which examined the alleged "ineffectiveness of testing" programmes, as less than one percent of the approximately 250,000 tests conducted every year lead to a positive case. The report was put together by an ad-hoc working group, chaired by former WADA president Richard Pound. A number of suggestions and recommendations were made to improve the system. Some of them have been already included into the last draft of the next world anti-doping code that will be adopted in November, including the obligation for anti-doping bodies to submit their testing plans for approval by WADA. "It is not just a WADA issue, it is an issue for all the members of the anti-doping community to say: are we really doing a good job or are we pretending we are doing?" said Howman. "If we are doing a good job, many of those cheats, the sophisticated cheats, would be getting caught, and they are not. Something is not quite right. "The idea behind the report was to look at anti-doping everywhere, so everybody that is involved is really part of the question to be asked - is it the laboratories, testing agencies, governments, everybody." Howman is also concerned about the lack of incentives to catch dopers observed in the international federations or the national anti-doping agencies, who are often reluctant to see major names caught up in a doping scandal. "Nobody wants a controversy. You don't want your heroes testing positive," said the New Zealander. - AFP |
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