Formula One supremo
Bernie Ecclestone believes Michael Schumacher was wrong to return to the
sport, claiming the German had severely damaged his legacy as a
seven-time world champion.
The 43-year-old Schumacher quit the
sport in 2006 before being tempted into an ill-fated return in 2010 at
Mercedes where he spent three seasons being largely outshone by teammate
Nico Rosberg.
He brought the curtain down on his second spell at last month's Brazilian Grand Prix where he finished seventh.
"I would rather he had stopped as a seven-time world champion than stopping now," Ecclestone told www.formula1.com.
"People
new to the sport -- people who have joined the F1 fan fraternity just
recently -- will remember Michael now, not as he was. They don't see the
hero that he was but the human that can fail."
But Ecclestone
had some words of comfort for Schumacher, admitting that three-time
champion Sebastian Vettel will find it hard to break his record of seven
crowns.
"He is not half way there. It will be a question of how good his team will stay -- or how bad the others are," said Ecclestone.
"When
Michael won his five titles with Ferrari it was because Ferrari did a
better job than any other team -- that is the same with Red Bull at the
moment. Whether they can continue, you don't know. Let's wait and see."
SOURCE
Schumi, as we affectionately call him, like all other sports greats, made a comeback in 2010. Still remember in 2009 when Massa had a life threatening accident, Schumi almost made a return for Ferrari as a backup. Suddenly everyone was buzzing about the prospect of the greatest F1 driver of all time getting into the cockpit again.
Sadly that didn't materialise due to a neck injury and Luca Badoer took over instead, to much dismay considering how crappy he is as a racer. But the comeback did arrive, not in Ferrari but at the newly formed team Mercedes GP.
We all thought they can make a huge challenge considering how Brawn GP blown everyone away with their maiden season in F1. Sadly, Mercedes GP failed to reproduce such performances with their many issues with the car.
I wouldn't say Schumi wasted the 3 years. Try putting yourself in his shoes. The temptation is always there, though the outcome isn't what as desired, it put to rest what's left in the basement, like how Rocky Balboa made a last hurrah in the ring.
I believe to all Schumi fans, he still is the best with 7 world titles. Vettel has the biggest shot at breaking that record but there's still a long long way to go for Schumi's fellow German.
SINGAPORE: A total of 19,351 Certificates of Entitlement (COE) will be made available between August this year and January 2013.
This is a cut of 2,809 or 12.7 per cent from the 22,160 certificates available in the previous six-month period from February to July 2012.
The cut comes mainly from the small cars category, where the quota will see a drop of 36.6 per cent. The category will now have a monthly quota of just 786 certificates, down from 1,239 between February and July this year.
The COE quota for the open category also dropped significantly. It will now have a quota of 485, a 21.3 per cent drop from the previous six-month period.
The COE quota for big cars will be 701 per month. This is comparable to the monthly quota of 699 between February and July 2012.
For goods vehicles and buses, the COE quota has been increased to 360 per month, a 12.85 per cent increase from the previous six-month period.
There will also be more monthly COEs for motorcycles, at 894 - up from 820 in the previous six-month period.
Market watchers said they expected smaller quotas due to a fall in the number of vehicles de-registered over the past six months.
It fell by 8.7 per cent, compared with the second half of last year.
Triangle Auto's director Michael Wong said: "If you compare this scrap rate to the last six months - which is July last year to December - the total number of scraps for Category A has actually fallen. So that is why you have a lower Cat A COE, and that's one of the main reasons for the reduction."
Market watchers expect COE premiums to go up for small cars, testing the recent highs of S$67,000.
Tan Chong Motors' general manager Ron Lim said: "The issue on hand is that demand has sort of cooled off following the announcement that Land Transport Authority (LTA) or the government itself is going to review what they can do to curb this COE crunch.
"There are quite a number of customers who have been holding back and this is building up a pent-up demand. And now with this cut, you're going to see COE prices moving up quite sharply, at least in the short term."
Bidding under this quota will start with the August 2012 First Open Bidding Exercise.
LTA said the COE quota for August 2012 to January 2013 consists of two components.
These are: the provision for a one per cent vehicle growth, based on the vehicle population as at December 31, 2011; and the replacement COEs for vehicles de-registered between January and June this year.
The next COE quota announcement for the COE bidding period from February 2013 to July 2013 will be made in January 2013.
In May this year, LTA had announced that the vehicle growth rate will be reduced to 1.0 per cent per annum from August 2012, before being further reduced to 0.5 per cent each year from February 2013 to January 2015.
In addition, a total of 4,789 remaining adjustments for over-projections in Quota Years 2008 and 2009 that were scheduled to be spread over bidding months from August 2012 to January 2014 will now be deferred for one year from August 2012 to July 2013.
They will resume from August 2013 to January 2015.
SOURCE
It is going to be crunch time in the COE bidding from August 2012 to January 2013, especially for Category A which cars up to 1600cc uses. This category will see a massive decrease in quota from the current 1,239 to a much lower 786.
So what do buyers of this category face? Intense competition and skyrocketing Cat A COE prices which will spill over to Cat B buyers. Taxi companies putting in bulk bids into Cat A is not going to make things any better. Current Cat A COE price is S$59,421. With a decrease in quota, its price may shoot up to above S$70,000.
Bread and butter Japanese cars will face even stiffer competition from its continental counterparts with C&C and Performance Motors bringing in small engine turbocharged Benz and Beemers. One of them is the new and improved Mercedes-Benz C180, which is already a very popular model today.
Buckle up guys, 'cause the COE is going on a trip to the moon on a rocket.
