Schumacher has signed a three year contract with Mercedes, a little surprised by the length of the contract, but not that he signed. It is a nice full circle for Michael, Mercedes got him into the Jordan at Spa in ’91 for his first race after Bert Gachot was jailed in London for pepper-spraying a taxi driver.

The three year contract allows Michael to stay with the team until the end of 2012, which happens to be when Sebastian Vettel (in another Mercedes powered car) is out of contract with Red Bull. It’s no secret that Mercedes wants Vettel in the car eventually.

It gives Mercedes some stability and there is no question he is technically one of the best test drivers around. Another big bonus to the team when testing is limited and every testing mile needs to mean something.

In 2006 Schumacher beat Alonso in a great season long battle. In addition to Alonso wanting another run at him, there will be Button, Hamilton, Vettel and Weber all in competitive cars and wanting to beat maybe the best driver ever. If it comes together for these drivers 2010 has the potential to be a great championship.

Lewis Hamilton once said that his biggest regret was that he never got to race against the seven time world champion, he does now.

Assuming Ross Brawn provides him a good car I don’t think anyone doubts Schumacher’s ability to be at the front of the grid. As his Ferrari team mate Eddie Irvine said “Michael Schumacher at 90% of his best is still better than the vast majority of the F1 grid.”

Baring a total disaster I think his legacy is safe, no one can take away 91 wins, seven championships and clearly being one of the best drivers in the history of F1.

It also means Nick Heidfeld is looking for a seat; he seemed to be waiting as Mercedes second choice if Michael decided not to come back.

Sir Richard Branson is a man who understands value for money. What started as a market stall and some Mike Oldfield vinyl has grown into a vast empire that has touched everything from air travel to board games.

In the past the brand invested heavily in stunts like crossing the Atlantic in a record time, a balloon trip around the world and so on. Clearly there has been significant value in this, though what Sir Richards life insurance people must have thought when he decided to take part in some of these is probably unprintable.

Last year the brand got involved in F1 with a relatively minor $4m investment in Brawn GP, Virgin said the return was excellent and claim they got about $90m of TV exposure. This is the value of sponsoring a winning team at the sharp end of the grid. There was an interesting piece in one of the newspapers in the UK this week about Virgin and racing.

2010 year they are title sponsor for on of the new boys, Manor GP has been rebranded as Virgin GP. In return Virgin has inserted one of its very highly regarded directors as team principal. Alex Tai gets the Virgin brand, what it means and all but guarantees that Virgin GP will reflect the core values of the Virgin Group.

Sir Richard said “There was a temptation to write out a big cheque to Brawn and continue but when a team has won you can’t do any better and so we found a new one.”

Not sure I totally buy into this, once Mercedes had taken over Brawn it seemed unlikely that Virgin could stay as a sponsor, let alone have any say in the image put forward by the team.

Virgin GP is clear they have a limited budget, they don’t have a wind tunnel in the factory, an item considered so essential that many teams have two, and they are typically both in full time use. There is some software around that can reduce the need for wind tunnel time, but I’m told nothing available today really replaces putting a car in a tunnel.

I think chief designer Nick Wirth is an engineers, engineer. He’s been successful in the past as an aerodynamicist, chief designer and had brought new teams to the grid during the last phase of privateer growth in F1 as team principal of Simtek. A team who made a high profile entry with the MTV logo splashed on their cars and clearly tried to do F1 the right way. They were moderately successful in terms of results and finished 9^th in the constructor’s championship during their first year. The year was clearly marred when Austrian Roland Ratzenburger died in one of the cars at Imola the day before Ayrton Senna had his fatal accident.

With a smallish budget, a small team led by a team principal with limited racing experience, the technical side is lead by an engineer with a decent track record. I’m very interested to see how it plays out, clearly they don’t expect to be a force to be reckoned with in 2010, but the team seems to have what’s required to make it through the year and create something that a future can be built on.

Having Richard Branson involved, even if his role is limited to promoting the team, is a wild card that the other new teams don’t have. He’s made plenty of good moves in the past and understands the value of the media, going to be interesting to watch.

I fly a lot; it comes with my job, along with living 6000 miles away from aging parents, and wanting to occasionally see the sun while living in Seattle during the winter. I don’t particularly enjoy 10 hours sitting in a 26 foot wide aluminium tube, but it’s a necessary part of my life.

Even though I’ve worked in aero for more than 20 years, I still find the whole thing incredible. I work in a factory that creates machines that fully laden weigh close to 500 tons and carry 500 people close to half way around the world at 600 miles per hour and works 6 miles up in the air. I get the physics, I understand how they fly and have spent most of my career involved with making them better, but this still astounds me.

Every now and again I have to find time to wander across the production floor, and spend a few minutes on 747 or 777 that’s in the process of being built to remind myself that as a company we create some thing incredible every day. It’s very easy to loose this perspective when I’m stuck in my office looking at processes, plans and issues.

I’ve found a number of tricks to make flying long haul more bearable. Ambian and a glass of wine made the trip form Seattle to London go by quickly and helps with the jet lag. I largely slept though the kids using the rear of economy for games of tag.

As an indication of how much I flew at one point, for a number of years nearly every movie I saw was on the tiny screen. Saw Star Wars Episode-1, 2 and 3 on airplanes, and to be frank the experience was not quite as good as the big screen.

On the London to Seattle trip I got to watch the entire Bourne trilogy, 6 hours of it, one after the other and then finished it off with classic Steve McQueen in Bullit. I am a big fan of the video on demand (known in the acronym filled world of aero as AVOD) systems on aircraft, while I’d not pay much more for an aircraft with one, it would sway my decision if prices were similar.

On a side note, I get that airlines have spent the last 5 years eliminating costs and reducing as many expenses as they can,. As I consumer I don’t begrudge the airlines a profit, they are in business after all. I still don’t understand how they are making a penny when charging $600 (including taxes) to fly from Seattle to London and back again.

However the meals are now almost inedible. I think I was just given what may be the worst meal I’ve ever had, it was labelled “Vesuviun Chicken”, I’ve no idea exactly what it was, but I’m pretty sure it’s been a long time since it even resembled a chicken. When breakfast at Garfunkles in Terminal 4 at Heathrow looks appetizing it’s bad.

However, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve flown through Heathrow T4 and the Bloody Marys at the Caviar house are as good as ever. It’s a toss up between theirs and Lola in Seattle for the best Bloody Marys I’ve had.

Despite the withdrawal of Toyota, Honda, BMW and Renault limiting their exposure within the sport, the cost of competing in Formula One remains very high. Other than Mercedes, Ferrari and perhaps Renault teams are wholly reliant on sponsorship. And competition for sponsors is fierce.

Lotus is partially owned by the Malaysian Government, who have stated that no public money will be going to the team beyond some breaks on facilities at Sepang in KL.

In the past many new teams have not made it through the season. There have been a number of reasons, but it’s typically come down to starting the season under financed and either hoping to find additional money as the year goes on, or they just underestimated the costs involved.

I understand at least one of the new teams is still looking for substantial part of their finance packages. With this in mind it seems unlikly that every team on the entry list will make the grid in Bahrain, let alone still be competing in Abu Dhabi in November. With that in mind, clearly there are some concerns about the health of the series remaining.

There is little doubt that F1 is being forced to undergo a fairly fundamental change away from the big spending manufacturers. Money is what makes F1 go around and so far the FIA’s attempts to keep costs in check have met with only limited success.

For the foreseeable future the series is going rely much more on independent teams. These are employers whose business is primarily motor racing, not selling fleets of cars. This is how F1 used to be from the early 70’s up until the mid 90s, when manufacturers began to take over the teams that in many cases they had been suppliers too.

I think some of the big teams are concerned that this shift may alter the prestige of F1, and in turn reduce the vast sums of money the sport generates.

This income depends primarily on F1 continuing to offer hard racing, be seen as the cutting edge of engineering all while retaining the glamour and overt ostentation that make the sport so appealing both on TV and in person.

However if the circus starts to suffer in any way then it’s possible that the top series in the world could loose it’s edge and in return and hurt the revenue that makes the whole thing special.

It’s that time of year when I need to buy my planner refill for next year, for the last couple of years I’ve been using Franklin Covey to help organize my work-flow. Generally I like the system, but the lists can become a little difficult to manage. In short it’s a top-down/pull planning system that does its initial sort by importance and is weak when it comes to urgency.

When stuff percolates to the top of the list there is no time context in the FC system. There seems to be a bunch of low priority stuff that never makes it to the top of the list and stays there for months. It requires a both time and a little discipline to look down the list and deal with small stuff before it comes bigger, and FC does not seem to be conducive to that.

I picked up David Allen’s widely known book “Getting things done” (GTD). I’ve worked with a few devotes to Allen’s system in the past, but have never read it or thought too deeply about it, after all FC worked just fine, even if it became a little unwieldy after a while.

The start of GTD is collecting everything that needs to be done in a bucket. It does not matter what that bucket is, email inbox or notebook both seem to work. You then work down the list and if an item requires your attention you either do what’s required to close it, defer to later on or delegate to someone else to work. If an item does not need attention, but is only for information then you either file it somewhere for later use or to “incubate”, or throw it away.

GTD in practice seems to have the opposite problem to FC. It becomes a bottom up/push planning system that stresses urgency of a task over everything else, including importance and context.

FC says that efficiency as doing things right, but effectiveness is going the right things. GTD does not seem to help with the effectiveness part of the equation, while FC spends a lot of effort on it.

I spent little time talking to one of the GTD proponents about this, and he agreed that the system as written does not prioritize tasks in detail and it requires discipline to pick what really needs to be done, opposed to what is just as urgent but you’d prefer to do.

While FC has worked rather well for me for a number of years I’m looking for something that combines the list management/urgency of GTD. I clearly need to do some more reserch and thinking about this. Idealy I’d like a system I can sync my I-Phone into too.

Will he, won’t he… Bernie told the London Times that it would be “magic” if Michael Schumacher decided F1 with Mercedes was his future. And if Mr. Ecclestone says that it’s a good idea then, clearly discussions have progressed beyond Ross Brawn making a quick phone call asking “what do you think about coming out of retirement and driving for us?”

This rumour has been circulating for a couple of weeks now, clearly something is going on as there have been no denials from either the team, driver or his manager.

It would be quite a risk for Schumacher, but the longer this story runs, the stronger the possibility becomes. I think the other top tier teams would welcome the chance to have another go at Schumacher, they would certainly appreciate the additional exposure this would give the series.

The British GP saga finally seems to be done with; yesterday Silverstone’s owners signed a long term contract for the race. For the last 20 years I think the British GP has always been under some kind of threat, but it’s also been assumed that somehow everything will come together and there will be a race in Britain.

Countries like China, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi that are willing in invest millions in government money to get some of the reflected glory that hosting F1 can bring. Silverstone is privately owned and all of the income comes from ticket sales.

As cool as these new facilities are, they don’t have the tradition, or sense of occasion that the classic, old school tracks has. The whole series is enhanced by races at Monaco, Spa, Monza and Silverstone, and I think Bernie and the other organizers understand that.

Ther 17 year contract gives the BDRC the stability they need to make the investment that the circuit desperately needs. As ever the financial terms have not been disclosed, but it’s reputed to be around $20 million in 2010. Abu Dhabi on the other hand is said to be closer is rumoured to be paying closer to $45 million. This lower rate for Silverstone indicates that Bernie understands the importance of the traditional stops for the F1 circus.

I can’t imagine a championship with out a stop at Monaco (or Spa, or Monza, or for that matter Silverstone), however if they were to submit an application to host a race for the first time today, they would never get it. The track is narrow, too many places to crash, limited run off areas and really poor facilities for the teams. The garages are some distance from the track in an underground car park and the cars are moved every morning and afternoon back and forth to the tiny, cramped pit garages.

Yet despite this, it’s possibly the highlight of the year for everyone involved in the F1 circus. The parties were better in Adelaide, but walking up the hill towards the Casino on Friday night in a tux (in the practice Thursday and Saturday, race Sunday years) was one of those special moments that make all the travel, pressure and endless late nights worth it.

The Sun makes a prediction on how England will do during the group stage in South Africa.

The next step towards the final in Jo’burg was taken yesterday with the draw for the groups were made.

The draw was kind, England have nothing to complain about and will play the USA (the trash talking at work has started, I need to teach them the fine art of sledging), Algeria and the group is rounded out by Slovenia.

It’s not a slam dunk, but it’s about as straightforward a path as any other top seed team and easier than most. The odds on England were cut from 8/1 to 13/2 just after the draw.

While I think England should emerge comfortably from the group, and should win the group, in the past England have struggled to get out of what looked like relatively straightforward groups in the past (Spain 82 is exhibit A). However I do believe that with Capello in charge the players will not be allowed to overlook any game and the team will be extremely well prepared for the opening match against the US.

For all this confidence lets be clear, Algerian and Slovenia are not gimmes. I don’t think there is any such thing at the World Cup Finals, they look like easier games and should be three points for both the US and England. However someone is going to slip up, every tournament one or two good teams will not make out of the group stage.

The second round game is equally interesting, win the group and it could be African champions Ghana, come second and it potentially sets up another classic duel with the Germans for a place in the final 8.

Unlike Germany 2006, Capello has made it clear that the team are there to play football and win the World Cup and indications are this will be a far more focused camp than in Ericson ran in Germany. He has said he will not allow the high profile WAG circus to become a distraction the way it did in Germany.

On the bright side it will be easy to find a bar around Seattle to watch that game. However it may not be the most comfortable time and I have a feeling that other than the George and Dragon, Three Lions and one or two other bars, I will be in the minority with my cross of St George and England scarf.

June 12^th is going to be a late start at work and I won’t be the only one.

Glasvegas, Glasvegas

Scottish band Glasvegas was discovered by the same man who propelled Oasis to the crest of the Britpop wave. Their self titled album is full of big sounds and was recommended to me by my brother.

I got the same feeling listening to this than I did when “Sean the storeman” lent me “Definitely maybe”. Both albums came very heavily hyped, and both live up to the lofty expectations.

“Flowers and Football Tops” had a huge sound and is a great opener. The best may be “My own Cheating Heart Makes Me Cry” a great personal song that shows great range. These are just two standouts on a very, very good album.

Any Scottish alt band is going to be compared to the Jesus and Mary Chain, a great band I’ve seen live once. Glasvegas is every bit as good, hopefully with out all the baggage that the J&MC brought to their live shows.