Confessions of a Sinner

Wow, what a difference a day makes. I nearly regret writing yesterday’s post because of how quick information came out on the Hamilton incident.

First off, it was great to actually get the audio files from the FIA. For the fans, this is important that we actually get to see the evidence, rather than just be told what it is. Granted, I would’ve liked to see the telemetry data myself between the pair, and a transcript of the stewards meeting. The latter however isn’t needed since the truth finally came out today.

David Ryan, McLaren’s sporting director and the man who attended the stewards meeting with Hamilton has been suspended after telling Hamilton to ‘mislead’ the stewards.

Okay, this really annoys me about the character of Hamilton. He was told to lie, and he did. Honestly, I thought the guy had more integrity than that. Why not stand up and say ‘this is wrong.’ Heck, you listen to the radio transmissions and you see how much he wanted clarification on the whole thing. He didn’t do any wrong, until he lied to the stewards.

The sporting director takes the rap for this idiotic move. In this day and age of technology where basically everything is recorded, how did they think they could get away with it? It also begs the question as to why McLaren have spent the last couple of days claiming that they didn’t mislead the stewards when they clearly did. This may have been between Hamilton and Ryan at first, but I’d bet the McLaren bosses learned pretty quickly about it once he was disqualified.

The whole thing is a stupid, unnecessary affair because Hamilton was actually in the right in regards to overtaking Trulli. They just shot themselves in the foot big time.

Apparently, he received applause from a number of journalists after the press conference when he came clean about it all. You won’t be seeing one from me. He apologised and that is all well and good – but only after they couldn’t hide from the bare face facts of it all. The fact it took this long to come out takes a lot of the shine away from the apology.

F109 Countdown: McLaren

McLaren:
2008 Results
Best Finish: 1st (Lewis Hamilton x5,Heikki Kovalainen x1)
Points Scored: 151
Championship Position: 2nd
2009 Drivers: Lewis Hamilton & Heikki Kovalainen

Last, but not least, we finish up the F109 Countdown with McLaren, just seven days until the start of the new season.

If we are to believe what we have seen in pre-season testing, McLaren are going to struggle mightily at the start of the season. Do I believe that will be the case? No. I’m firmly of the belief that they are sandbagging. Now, maybe they won’t have the ultimate pace, but I find it hard to believe they won’t be in the thick of things.

It has been usual to see them hovering near the bottom for most of the pre-season. For a team like McLaren, which strives for excellence, it is out of character. But not impossible.

In the past, I’ve catalogued how McLaren have failed to produce winning cars consecutively. Last year was actually a change in the norm when they produced a championship contending car. So maybe there struggles are real, and that they will be in trouble.

I still have a hard time believing it. As I mentioned in previous articles, they have known well in advance how things were going to play out. For a team the size of McLaren, I can’t imagine they would take their eyes off the ball that much.

If they are, it will be intriguing to watch how their drivers react. Especially Hamilton. Not since Schumacher have we seen a driver with such raw talent on the grid. But, sceptics will point out that he walked into a winning ride, so how he deals with what is paraded as an ‘uncompetitive car’ will be a true showing of his talent.

If it is a poor car at first, I still expect him in the hunt. Personally, I think great drivers are defined by what they can do when they are not in the best car. I read how Senna did it; I watched when Schumacher did it. Even Alonso pulled some stunning results in a dodgy Renault. This could be a real chance for Hamilton to really cement his legacy and prove to any doubters regarding his skill.

As for Heikki, I would definitely class him as a driver who needs to perform this year. There was too many up’s and down’s from the Finn last year. While the early stages of the season could be put down to bad luck, some of his latter season runs, where he was needed to back up Hamilton, were poor.

Now with a year within the team, there will be no excuses for him. He has to put it out there and show he can match Hamilton. He has to contend for victories. Any less will be a failure.

Conflicting Reports

Over the last few days there has been some conflicting reports about when Ron Dennis informed Hamilton of his decision to step down.

Autosport have run an article on their site claiming that Hamilton knew before Christmas of the plan. Other sites, such as Crash.net and ITV-F1.com have run with a different take on it, stating that Hamilton only knew ‘minutes’ before it was publically announced.

In my opinion, there can only be one realistic answer – the one offered by Autosport. This isn’t a slight against ITV-F1, who I’ve long poked at the inadequate coverage of, but just simple common sense.

Ron Dennis was a father-like figure during the career of Lewis Hamilton. He has nurtured him from aspiring go-kart racer to Formula One world champion. Over the past two years, Dennis has staunchly stood by his driver no matter what, even against some vicious media criticisms.

Now you want us to believe that Ron Dennis, just ‘minutes’ before publically announcing he was stepping down, decided to tell Hamilton.

Not a chance!

Having watched over the career of Hamilton, Ron Dennis would not risk putting a few bumps in his young chargers mental state as he prepares for his title defence. Between the new rules, coping with being a champion and the massive expectation that Hamilton has on his shoulders, there is no way that Dennis would just add another burden to him.

That is why I would side with the facts offered by the Autosport article. I would be highly surprised to find out if down the line, we hear more facts stating that the other articles were on the money. While I’m not discounting such an occurrence, I find it highly improbable.

Dennis to step down as McLaren launch

Ron Dennis has announced he is stepping down from the position of team principal of McLaren, as the team launched their 2009 contender. Dennis will focus on other projects within the McLaren group, handing the reigns over to his right-hand man, Martin Whitmarsh.

I try to be as impartial as possible when I am writing this blog. I don’t believe in writing for one side only. There is too much of that in the media as it is in this day and age. Even to those that I am not a genuine fan of, over the past few years I have given the fair crack of the whip when writing here.

But for Ron Dennis, I find that very hard. Ever since I first started watching this sport, he has always rubbed me the wrong way. I think he is probably the single greatest reason I never found myself pulling for a McLaren to win, even when they had drivers that I supported.

Most of memories of him are is excuses. It’s his fault, it’s their fault. That is all I can remember him saying whenever McLaren lost a race. There was always an excuse, never a ‘we got beaten by the better man’. From the interviews I have seen of him, he has always seemed too smug, cocky, and arrogant. It actually came to the point where if he was to be interviewed, I would just change the channel, rather than listen to the stories he would concoct.

The decision has been a long time coming. After the Spy-gate scandal, it was rumoured that he would step down. These rumours persisted right up until the first grand prix of the year. A number of media outlets suggested that the reason McLaren were bumped around in the pit-lane order was due to an ‘agreement’ that would have seen him step down.

Towards the end of the season, he hinted that if Hamilton won the title, he would step the wayside. Such a decision made perfect sense. Dennis has been a father-like figure to the world champion. He has seen him going from karting protégé to Formula One world champion. Leaving on a high is always the way someone would like to end a chapter of their life.

Pictures of the new McLaren can be found on Autosport here.

Money makes the world go round

With all the talk about Sato and Bourdais trying to scrounge up funds to get a seat at Toro Rosso, it definitely reinforces the idea that heads clashed at the team over driver policy.

Back in May, the former driver spoke out about his desire not to employ chequebook drivers in the team. Granted, the economic climate has changed since, but given the amount of talk about the prospects having to bring money to the table, one can't help but wonder. (see: Chequebook Drivers? No Thanks!)

McLaren have joined Ferrari in calling for a postponement of the KERS system because of the cost of the system. The top-two could also have an ulterior motive for it, given that both would have had to delay work on their 2009 whilst others got the train early.

Of course, many in forums alluded to such when Ferrari made the call with the all too familiar Ferrari 'whinging'. I wonder how these same people will perceive McLaren's stance on it. I can see this issue splitting into two camps. I don't see those who already have a system in place willing to play ball.

Speaking of McLaren, team principal Ron Dennis has commented about Honda and it's Earth Dream concept, more or less saying what I have for two years now. So it has taken two years for people to notice this. And for some reason I don't have any official job in the sport.

Ending on a happy note, major props to Nascar's Jeff Gordon, who said he is willing to take a pay cut for the betterment of his team. In tough times, cuts need to be made. The biggest problem is, it is often hard to take back what is already given. People in all sectors are bitching and moaning about not wanting to even freeze their salaries until the skies clear.

With all this selfishness , Gordon's gesture is one I hope everyone, not just in the sports world, will take not of. Whether it be motorsport, football or any other sport - the money handed out has risen to a ridiculous level.

Lightning Strikes Twice!

I thought about sleep, especially after staying up for the Nascar race. I tried, missing most of the pre-race show, which usually isn't a loss, but Martin had control of the show today and from what I saw, it was actually more balanced! Maybe Martin is practising for the Beeb next year. But sleep wasn’t coming so I decided to continue the epic night of motorsport, even if I’m going to feel it later on today. The first few laps at least made it worth tuning in live.

Lightning never strikes twice, they say? Fernando Alonso will raise a point against that. He drove through the Ferrari – McLaren melee at turn one and hooked up behind Kubica. The Spaniard was short-fuelled and was dutifully asked to pound in the lap times to make up the gap. ITV spend all their time making up words for Hamilton and saying how he is doing stuff comparable with Schumacher, Senna et al. What Alonso did, what was asked of him – was exactly what the greats did.

Robert Kubica held off Raikkonen for the second step on the podium. The result leaves him just twelve points off Hamilton. Should a freaky set of results occur in the last two races, the Pole could still be in with an outside shot of the title. It was a day for the underdogs, with Piquet coming home fourth, Trulli in fifth. The Toro Rosso’s coming home in sixth and seventh, with Bourdais out-racing his much vaulted team-mate on this occasion. For Piquet and Bourdais, the results are important towards saving their drives.

It was a disastrous race for Massa and Hamilton. Both were reckless, silly and lacking the composure that the media continue to spew that both have in unequal measure. Schumacher must be kicking himself for not sticking around a few extra years because the way these young pups are driving, it would have been an easy two championships.

On a week where Robert Kubica highlighted his and other drivers opinions to Hamilton’s dangerous driving (which of course was fobbed off by the aforementioned and Ron Dennis), he gets a penalty for such driving. It was only a matter of time before he got penalised for his reckless acts on the track.

Funny how the same people who bitched and moaned about Schumacher’s driving style are the same people now defending Hamilton. Oh lads, get your noses out of Hamilton’s arse, clear off the brown stuff and start calling the race with impartiality!

As for Massa’s penalty, well, for sim-racing, we always say the racing track is the white lines, plus the kerbs. But in real racing, that’s different. I don’t agree with the excess that the ITV chaps were lambasting Massa for it, but he did nerf him off, so a penalty was deserved.

For the first time, I used the Formula1.com telemetry, which is great to have with the amount of breaks ITV insist on forcing on us. Not to mention, when ITV go all quiet on peoples lap times, at least I can keep track. For example, we never heard anything about Hamilton’s horrid middle run which composed of 1m21’s, 1m22’s. That sort of stuff is HELPFUL to us, the viewer!

At the end of the day, the result suits McLaren to the ground. They come out of it smelling of roses despite the dodgy driving. James Allen's dodgy maths aside (claiming that even if Lewis had a seven point lead, he would still win by finishing behind a Ferrari one-two - a Ferrari one two would be four point gain per race), Hamilton enters the final two races with a six point gap and can wrap up the title in China if he outscores Massa by more than four points. On the flip side, a Ferrari one-two in the final pair of races would see Massa the champion.

Personally, I’m getting sick of his paranoia over penalties. A driver sneezes and the ITV guys are calling for heads or there is an incident to be investigated. It is getting pretty sickening at this stage. Maybe for 2009, we should have everyone drive in bubble cars.

PC’s Driver of the Day: Fernando Alonso. Like any great driver, he meticulously drilled in the laps to make his strategy worked. That is why Alonso is a double world champion and the best racer in the sport at the moment.

Make Up Your Mind!

Over the past week, we seem to be getting a lot of confusion statements out of the McLaren camp.

First off, we got the ‘oh, my neck hurt and I nearly didn’t race’ excuse. Yes, that’s right. I used the word excuse! If you’re hurt and sick, then say it before the weekend, not after it when you have been comprehensively beaten. It just makes you look weak.

Then McLaren hammered on about being conservative, that they just had to wait for Ferrari to slip up. But, before the race, Hamilton was all ‘I’m never going to let myself get beaten again’ like he was at Hungary. This is the same guy who claims he races to win and nothing else will do. Why the sudden change in strategy?

Waiting for something else to happen is not only lazy, but dangerous. You have to make your own destiny. There is every chance that Ferrari overcome their problems and if is Lewis is in Sunday drive mode, he could lose his shot at the title.

After the whole we were taking it easy story, there was another, where Hamilton a basically said that he was pushing his ass off, and he still couldn’t catch Massa. This completely contradicts what he and McLaren said post-race. Nothing new from the boys in silver.

Ron Dennis, who he himself is stuck a will he, won’t he tug of war with himself about retirement, chimed in stating that Lewis is the best driver in F1 today. If I was trying to talk my driver as the best driver today, I would point out to his awesome drives, even those he didn’t win, to prove how great he is. Alas, Dennis went to the stats book. You don’t judge how great a driver is after two years. Let him grow, mature, see how he does over time and then say that. Oh, and Ron, the car matters. You may think it’s not, but when you have one of the best cars in Formula One, it does.

Which leads us to the final statement of the week – so far, although I don’t think the press offices do much business on a weekend. Lewis stating that he isn’t number two to anyone, including Schumacher. Sure, just when we think your ego can’t get any bigger – you go for the death star sized ego. Well done! This ties in with the point above. It takes a lot of audacity to compare yourself to a seven-time world champion, who smashed practically every record in the books.

Don’t get me wrong, Hamilton has an abundance of talent, something I have nothing but respect for. He may very well achieve the same sort of success as the German. But keep your tongue in your mouth and just drive. Maybe it’s the final run-in; he’s like an excited kid waiting for Christmas. He can’t hold in his excitement and suddenly all this ego enhancing dribble comes running out. It was the same last year, when he stuck his nose into the spy-gate affair when he really didn’t need to.

Let your driver do the talking.

Massa Wins Under A Cloud

Felipe Massa got his championship challenge back on track with a dominant victory at Valencia. Of course, it wouldn’t be Formula One without controversy and we got that too with Massa’s final pit stop.

I can just imagine that the Ferrari hater/McLaren fan boys are already feverishly typing away at how Ferrari are getting preferential treatment, lead by James Allen’s ignorant commentary no doubt. At least Brundle took the objective view and is waiting for all the facts to become apparent.

Was it dangerous? Well it looked dodgy. But, as said in an interview with the Ferrari press officer, this isn’t the first time this year that such a close call has happened. Yet none of them were even shown up as been investigated. Of course, Allen tried to gloss that over – but then again, this is the same guy who tried to justify Hamilton failing to see a red light at Canada so, as you can see, there is only so much you can take from a commentator who is bankrupt of any credibility. (By the way, anyone watching the ITV preview show notice that they edited out Allen’s gasp of ‘NO’ that he shouted when Massa crossed the line to take pole. Funny stuff that.)

Will they take the win away? I think if he is penalised, it will be a grid penalty at Belgium. It’s been a while, at least in my recollection, since there has been a time penalty. But we will have to wait and see. If there was to be a time penalty, they had enough time in the race to enforce. Either way, nobody will be happy. Like I said, I can already hear the rants now.

Going back to the race, Massa was supreme. For the sake of the championship, we have two great drivers fighting for it. Kimi’s dwindling hopes took a hit with an engine blow, but to be fair the world champion was nowhere today. He looks ever more like a driver just waiting it out for his retirement. Unfortunately for Ferrari, which is still a year away. If he doesn’t buck up and start earning his wage, serious conversations need to happen with Ferrari.

His race pace was sluggish for the most part, except near the end of a stint. His race went from bad to worse when he dragged his fuel rig with him on the second stop, injuring his fuel man. More questions of the Ferrari computer system, according to our resident clown James Allen. Again, Martin had to play the save in saying that there was no green light on the system. What would we do without you Martin?!

Lewis Hamilton finished second, doing the best the car allowed him. Had to laugh hard at the petty excuses Allen made about McLaren going conservative even before half-way. The chap just looks for excuses – this been the same guy who only a few races ago buffed his chest and shouted aloud that McLaren had overtaken Ferrari. Hey, guess what? Yet another James Allen mess up to report! On the podium, when Hamilton took his trophy, whistles rang out amongst the crowd. Obviously Spanish fans don't forget last year. Of course, Allen tried to play it off as cheers. Seriously, anyone could tell they were negative cheers. Once more, Brundle brought some sense to the situation. I wonder if he gets paid extra for such saves?

Kubica drove a solid race to finish third, again proving his talent above the car. BMW have the focus switched and for him to outdrive Raikkonen and Kovalainen goes further to show the Pole’s raw talent. Trulli and Vettel backed up impressive qualifying performances with fifth and sixth. A one-stopping Glock picked up a couple of points with seventh and eight went to Rosberg. A good day for the second tier teams.

PC’s Driver of the Day: Felipe Massa. A close one between Massa and Vettel. I give it to Massa, given that for the second time this year, he has shown the mental capacity to come back from some pretty depressing results. The wind is in his sails and for his sake, hopefully the full support of Ferrari.

Playing Catch-Up

Apologises for the lack of updates here as of late. Even writers have vacations from time to time! So, to get back up to speed with all that has happened in the past few weeks.
• Heikki Kovalainen is confirmed at McLaren for 2009. I suppose it helps when you willingly let your team-mate by to go on to win a race is a big plus at the talks table! While Heikki has had some bad luck this year, chucking him out after a single season would be harsh; especially that he’s proved he is happy to be Hamilton’s underling.

• Heikki wins his first race! Luck played a part with Massa’s engine going up, but let’s not forget the Finn had to get himself into second in the first place. He’s had some terrible luck this year that eventually, it was going to balance out.

• Rosberg says he is staying with Williams. Not like there is much better options out there. In 2010, it will be crunch time to for Rosberg if he is to make good on his talent.

• Force India looking to retain drivers. For a team that is anything but consistent, it would be a good move. I don’t think either driver is stellar, but for a growing team, stability is good. Again, not like there is much better options out there.

• Calls for refuelling ban. I’m on the fence with this one. Differing fuel strategy is often the only way some teams can be somewhat competitive – or for a team with a poor car to play themselves back into contention. Banning them could lead to another avenue of strategy thrown out the window.

• Observers calling for Heidfeld change. Mainly Stuck, a former grand prix driver. Why the hate on Quick Nick. So he hasn’t been as stand-out as Robert Kubica. Only EIGHT points separate them in the championship. The German is taking allot of heat despite hauling himself back onto the rear wing of his young team-mate.

• Across the pond, Nascar had its first ever wet race in the Nationwide series. The race in Montreal started dry, but after a few laps the rain fell. The decision was made to put wet weather tires and wipers on for a historic moment. Despite a lack of experience, the drivers acquitted themselves well and produced a great race, until poor visibility called an end to it before full distance.

• Pundits claimed Kyle Busch was in a slump. I think any driver would love a slump that meant you only got a top-15. How did Wild Thing respond? Running away with Watkins Glen after a strategic mistake saw Junior taking out of contention. This is the second time this season that he has answered critics like this. Think some people would learn by now eh?

From here on out, updates should be back to some regularity! Stay tuned for Nascar from Michigan and F1 from Valencia next weekend!

Iceman Cools Spanish Hearts

Kimi picked up his first pole position of the year with Alonso plopping his car into second. The Spaniard is obviously on a lighter fuel load but it will be interesting to see just how light he is come tomorrow.

McLaren endured a poor last section. I think they could have run light in an attempt to jump the BMW’s. If they have then they are in serious problems considering how things turned out. The third row is not what they expected. Kubica kept up his great form as of late with a second row start alongside Massa.

Major surprises of the day came from Rosberg and Vettel being beaten by their lesser experienced team-mates. Both will be looking for a good race day to save face. Barrichello, on his record equalling 256^th Grand Prix start, depending on whose statistics you read, almost made the top ten. That Honda looks horrid with the ‘Dumbo Ears’ on it. They must look like a crosshair reticule in the cockpit.

Tomorrow’s race day will be one to watch. Can the McLaren’s recover anything? How will Kubica go in relation to the two McLarens? What can Alonso do? What is Ferrari’s race pace going to be like? So many questions that will be answered tomorrow at lunch time. It’s going to be worth watching for sure!

On another note - How long did it take ITV to use the Spygate excuse for McLaren and Hamilton’s poor showing? Just four races. For any of you who saw the ITV pre-show you would’ve seen it. Why am I mentioning this? Well just to prove a point really. I stated a while back this excuse would be brought up when McLaren season took a turn and there we have it. Credit to McLaren for not actually saying it when they could have though.

Massa Back In The Hunt

Felipe Massa got his championship back on track with a dominant win at Sakhir, leading home his team-mate for a Ferrari one-two.

The Brazilian needed to produce a performance and he duly delivered. What makes his performance this week all the more impressive was that he carried more fuel than Raikkonen. Once the Ferrari’s hit the front it became apparent it would be one a Ferrari one-two but credit to the BMW’s who kept them honest to the flag.

Most of the talking points will come from the opening few laps. Hamilton bottled it at the start with his McLaren getting off the line late, leaving him mid-pack. A lap later he proceeded to run into the back of his former team-mate Alonso, much to the disgust of the ITV commentary team. Immediately the calls came that it was on purpose, that Alonso had taken revenge on his former team-mate.

Oh come on!
If someone sneezed near Hamilton they would blame them for getting a cold. Back in 1998 when a similar incident occurred between Coulthard and Schumacher, there was never a bad word said about Coulthard. But when Alonso does it, things are different. Did they ever think that he is was pissed off after a bad start and his famous patience they prattle on about go out the window?
After his car showed signs of damage as the car proved a handful on track. For some strange reason he was pointing fingers at people he was overtaking for position. Why I don’t know. He was racing for position and had no given right for these cars, albeit slower, having to let him by.

Regardless of his issues, the McLaren's didn’t have an answer for the BMW’s, let alone the Ferrari’s. Kubica’s pole was on merit and not because of a significantly lower fuel load. Heidfeld used his experience to jump up to fifth by the end of the first lap before taking Kovalainen for fourth. It’s the second year in a row that Heidfeld can add a sweet pass on a McLaren to his scrap book. BMW are quickly becoming a legitimate threat to the top teams and the points that the German-Swiss outfit take off the top two could ultimately decide the championship. I don’t know if they will contend, I think they still need to make a few more steps before that. Much will depend on how BMW keep the development on the car throughout the year. A first win is looking more and more realistic for them.

The McLaren of Kovalainen finished fifth and never really looked like he could hang with the top four. Best of the rest fell to Jarno Trulli who again produced a good race performance. Why haven’t we seen this kind of consistency from Jarno earlier in his career? Right now he’s earning a contract extension with Toyota. Webber, another hero from Malaysia continued his fine run of form, beating Rosberg and showing up Coulthard who like the rest of the Brits had a torrid day. The final point went to Rosberg who will no doubt be disappointed after showing a good turn of pace throughout the weekend to be left with a single point.
Timo Glock got his Toyota to the flag for the first time finishing ninth after early battles with Alonso rounding out the top ten; The Spaniard struggled after his altercation with Hamilton with damage to his rear wing. Fisichella had a great day in the Force India finishing 12th. Had to laugh as Martin called him the ‘Star in a reasonable priced car’, a phrased coined from BBC’s Top Gear. Maybe Martin is letting us know more of his 2009 plans there.

PC’s Driver of the Day: Felipe Massa. The Brazilian had to deliver a performance here to get not only his championship back on track but to mend his flagging reputation. Dominant all weekend there never looked a driver that could match him. Honourable mention to the BMW pair who kept both Ferrari’s on their toes and now leads the constructor’s championship.

Pole Kubica

Robert Kubica earned his and BMW’s first pole as a constructor at the Sakhir circuit, just edging the Ferrari of Massa.

Now we just have to wait till tomorrow to see if the pole is on merit of because of low fuel. It’s so hard to judge the pace of the BMW now given how close they are to the top two teams now. A year or two ago it would be a definite thing that he was running low on fuel in comparison. As it stands we just have to wait.

Massa appeared to have it in the bag but lost time on his final lap. I’m sure the Brazilian will be hoping that will be his only mistake of the weekend. He has been electric so far in terms of pace, although had an incident with the yellow flags during session one. Well, it would be a minor incident if it wasn’t for the ITV Sport witch-hunt against him. You know it makes more sense why people think Ferrari are cheats with such anti-Ferrari bias that these guys puke out of their mouths. They hammered on about it for ages in an attempt to cover up for the McLaren’s otherwise poor showing up that point.

The car was out of the way and off the track and the marshal looked nothing more than over enthusiastic. Mike Gascoyne said it best when asked about it. There was nothing in it and little that Massa could do with just three seconds to the line. It’s a nothing case. I’ve seen plenty of people not put the brakes on already this year when going past yellow flag. But hey, a penalty would put the ITV Golden boy in good stead which is all they care about. Have to remind myself that this is the ‘ITV Lewis Hamilton Kiss-Ass Show’ featuring a Grand Prix.

Similar to Malaysia, Hamilton didn’t look particularly comfortable but still snagged himself third spot. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is running lighter than the Ferraris. They are reported to be burning up their rears allot quicker than those around them, meaning short as possible stints would be the flavour of the day. The opposite could be said about Raikkonen who is beside him in fourth. The champion has shown a tendency to run longer than Massa on fuel runs and by no means will be counted out.

Kovalainen lines up fifth alongside. Heidfeld's lacked the pace of his team-mate which would indicate a discrepancy in their strategies while Button will start ninth, too much fanfare by the ITV ass-kissers with Alonso rounding up the top 10.

Crisis? What Crisis?

That’s all we heard coming out of Melbourne. Ferrari is in trouble and that McLaren are superior. The McLaren’s had more speed and there was more to come.

Then came Malaysia and we saw why you can never judge a season by its opening race. The Ferrari’s for lack of a better word spanked the McLaren’s where it counted. Blocking penalties or not the McLaren’s didn’t have an answer for the Italian team. Now we are getting the oh so familiar ‘judge us later on in the season’ quotes.

Like I said, you can’t judge a season from its opening race. The frenzy about the dismal weekend for Ferrari was nothing more than an attempt to generate interest. Any seasoned Formula One fan knew different.
Raikkonen was at his imperious best yesterday, bided his time until the pit-stop before lacing in the quick laps to jump Massa before comfortably driving home. Massa’s start to the season has got to be of concern and really does put question marks over his. Two driver errors have cost him points and bring back memories of the pre-Ferrari Massa – the one who spent more time sideways than pointing the right direction. Ferrari would do well to give former mentor Schumacher a call and take the young Brazilian aside for a few tips on driving sans traction control. He’ll need to turn it around fast to justify Ferrari’s faith in resigning him at the end of last year with a number of drivers eyeing a Ferrari seat in the future.

The McLaren’s just lacked a proper balance from qualifying onwards. Any inboard shots showed the pair of them struggles to get a decent rhythm going. Neither was helped by the penalties but that been said, both cars were good enough to get the jump at the start. Doesn’t matter if you’re a Ferrari, McLaren or a Force India – if you are stuck behind someone it’s pretty darn hard to overtake. Once bottled up it was obvious it would be damage limitation. Although when free they still weren’t particular mind-blowing.

Kubica did a fine job to finish second. The Pole kept his head down and out of trouble. Unlike Melbourne where he tailed off after the first stop, Kubica gave a constant performance and fully deserved second. Trulli was another who had a fine day. It’s been some time since we have seen such a run from him.
It was a bad day for all of the Australian GP heroes. Heidfeld spent much of the day in the second half of the top ten before popping up with the fastest lap of the race while the Williams team suffered a weekend to forget, failing to string together a consistent performance.

PC’s Driver of the Day: Jarno Trulli. This was a close call, especially given the sterling jobs done by Raikkonen and Kubica. Trulli nicks it given his tendency to fall asleep during races. At Sepang Jarno coupled his typical qualifying pace with a solid race which gives up that Toyota may be turning the corner – for real this time.

McLaren's Penalised

Both McLaren's were docked five spots for impeding Alonso and Heidfeld. It's hardly surprising that some action was taken. I'm a bit surprised that any penalty was given for blocking Heidfeld given that according to the commentary he posted his best first sector. That been said, up to then Heidfeld's pace had been poor so even when blocked it would've cost them. Personally I don't think they purposely tried to hold the pair up. It just happened.

As I said I'm not surprised. Brundle commented that people were likely to get hauled up for going at a snails pace back to the pits. The FIA now have to get their fingers out and put and end to this before Bahrain.

Now I await the FIA punishing McLaren only conspiracy theories.

Massa On Pole As Rain Fails To Come

Felipe Massa stormed to pole position this morning with Raikkonen second, securing an all-red front row. Kovalainen outpaced his team-mate as Hamilton struggled around the Sepang circuit.

The expected rain never came despite 20 minute warnings throughout the session. I got up early given my overloaded day to make sure I got to see it as opposed to hearing it on the radio. A six am start isn’t as bad as the Melbourne start! But wait a minute! A Ferrari front row? Weren't the press saying that the Italian team had no qualifying pace and that McLaren had it easy? Ahh don't you love it when people put their foot where their mouth is.

Coming out of qualifying the biggest concern is the fuel saving at the end of qualifying. We escape the issue in Australia, although it was highlighted but today we saw the dangers of it. Heidfeld and Alonso but ran out of sync and ended up with their own personal game of asteroids out there as they danced around cars going at pedestrian pace.

Why this wasn’t addressed after Melbourne, where the problem was noted is beyond me. It’s not like we haven’t had this issue before. Cars going to the grid on race day have been stopped from crawling around because of the dangers. Last year we have seen cars after the final qualifying session. It begs to question why it didn’t add together for the rule-makers. It will be interesting to see if anyone will be penalised for blocking given that it is a big no-no these days.

Tomorrow’s race is still under the threat of rain. McLaren will be looking for it given the raw pace of the Ferrari’s. They needed to be ahead of the Ferrari’s to have a chance to contain them. Other quail mentions go out to Trulli who showed his usual quick lap pace and team-mate Glock. Both Toyota drivers made the top ten for the second time, although question marks always remain over the race pace.

2008 Season Preview - Part III

Two for the price of one today! Here are parts two and three of the season preview today! Enjoy! Only seven days till the start of the season!

Ferrari

Can the Reds stay on top?
Ferrari is under new management with Jean Todt moving upstairs. Slowly the team is been cycled from the Schumacher days to this new era. Last year Ferrari suffered an abnormal amount of reliability issues, something that during the Schumacher era was rarely seen. Pre-season has seen a number of niggling issues in the same department. With today's near bullet-proof reliability in Formula One they can ill afford to have cars falling off the road. The addition of Schumi to the testing team can only aid them in their quest to have the car sorted for Melbourne. There are no excuses for Ferrari not winning this year, with the exception of the immense talent of Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen – World champion. Well deserved and this year he will be more dangerous. He spent the best part of a year in the shadows, according to most pundits like Alonso and Kubica working on adapting to the new Bridgestone’s. This year, like Ferrari, there are no excuses. I expect a dominant and hungry Raikkonen to hit the track and never look back this year. Looking forward to seeing him dice with Hamilton this year. One word – epic.

I said last year that 2007 was Massa’s chance while Raikkonen settled. For the first part of the year Massa was working as planned. For the most part of the year Massa looked like a genuine title contender before it all became to fall away with too many reliability issues putting him to the back of the grid. Overall, Massa looked more like a proper Ferrari driver than those erratic crazy drives a thing of the past. Will he be anything more than a Ferrari number two now? That’s the question. The Brazilian is good, but now that Raikkonen is settled I don’t see him breaking the Finn’s lead.

McLaren

Will Spygate affect them?
It’s still hard to say. Pre-season testing pace would seem that the financial dent isn’t causing a problem to the team. Perhaps Mercedes dipped into the savings to make up the balance! Of course if results don’t go their way, spygate is a perfect scapegoat should the year go away from them. Talk leading up to the first race has been about Ron Dennis’s future. It will be interesting to see how McLaren are over the long distance runs. The team has struggled in recent years to be able to develop race contending cars two years in a row. Usually if the car is bad they’ll be quick to dismiss the year and work on next year’s car which inevitably is a contender. This year they have two young drivers in charge of the development. Let’s see if McLaren can break that cycle.

How Lewis handles this year could define his career. He’s no longer the rookie, the unknown quantity. While Formula One doesn’t have the football equivalent of ‘second season syndrome’ that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Lewis is a fantastic talent and no doubt he will push the outside troubles out of his mind and just get on with the job. Providing what McLaren offer him he will no doubt run the Ferrari’s for the championship.

This is Kovalainen’s big break. He’s now got to take it. The Finn can ill afford a similar start as he had with Renault. He’ll be expected at minimum to finished fourth which is a step up for him. I can see him doing it though. After such a torrid start he improved throughout the year. All of that was character building and that can only go to serve him well this year. I could see the Finn winning this year. One thing for sure will be to study the team dynamics compared to last year. See how much fireworks are created in this team!

BMW

Can BMW make the next step?
I’ve seen it before. Honda and Toyota are the two teams foremost in my mind that looked to be on the road to making a breakthrough. Both tried to make that last step too fast and ended up following flat on their faces. Look at how far back into the pack they have fallen. BMW are on the cusp but need to be careful on how they approach this next jump. Regular podiums have to be the priority for the German-Swiss outfit along with fighting McLaren and Ferrari on all tracks. As the season progressed the gap between the top two and BMW seemed to grow, something the team needs to address this year. Depending on who you listen to, a race win is possible this year. This year’s car has caused problems in testing, something I was worried about and at the very least they need to be third best come Melbourne.

After years trudging around in the lower end of the grid, Heidfeld finally had the car to show his talents last year. A podium in the crazy Canadian grand prix and a memorable duel with Alonso at Bahrain were the highlights of ‘Quick Nicks’ year as he solidly came home fifth in the tables. He showed highly rated Kubica the way home more often than not and if either BMW driver is to win this year, my money is on Heidfeld. Depending on the Renault he could be in a fight for fourth, even third depending on Massa’s consistency this year.

Now entering his second full season it’s time for Kubica to start delivering the goods. It took the Polish driver half a season to adapt to the tyres, similar to Raikkonen and Alonso. His return after that massive shunt in Canada showed the drivers through grit. Like Heidfeld, he’ll be looking to fight for podiums on a more consistent basis. He has the ability to win, though like I said I would see Heidfeld getting it because of his experience. That been said, Kubica is more than talented to get the job done if the opportunity presents itself.

Racism rears it's ugly head

It was only a matter of time before the racism card reared its ugly head in Formula One.

With the way the whole McLaren inter-team duel panned out, people probably should’ve expected it to happen during the test. Spain has a recent history of racism issues in sport, most notably football. Whether it’s given in domestic matches or in international matches such as England’s most recent friendly with the country or even going back to the Spanish coach making comments about Thierry Henry in a paltry attempt to inspire another player. The fact he is still the coach of the national team would make you worry about how Spanish authorities will handle this.

I’m surprised it took till this morning before the media really seemed to get a grapple on this. English sports writers had enough to write about with England’s rugby performance I bet. The FIA have sent out a strong statement saying they want this cleaned up or they will move on. Be interesting to see that if it continues in further tests or at either of the Spanish rounds of the season will they follow through. Such actions would get heads turned.

Maybe football could learn from them who at times seem to be slow dealing with the issues. I read that the UK sports minister is demanding that something be done along with the FIA. Perhaps his own comments would be better off in offering to help Spanish authorities in dealing with the issues, especially given England’s long history of misbehaving fans.

It’s an issue that needs to get nipped in the bud quickly. We don’t need motorsport turning into the mess that other sports have fallen into over the issue. Nobody deserves that sort of abuse and those who give it need some serious lessons of life given to them. Sure we want our fans to be passionate and care about those they support but to resort to such disgusting ways is not on.

T-Minus Sixty-Five Days

This week sees the 2008 season begin in earnest with the first car launches. Title hopefuls Ferrari and McLaren were the first to showcase their championship challengers followed by Toyota’s new challenger and Force India confirming the final available race seat.

The defending champions Ferrari launched on Sunday, once more christened with the number one plate in the traditional red. The car features a longer wheelbase than last year, a feature that many teams appear to be employing with the traction control ban. This area is one that Ferrari may capitalize on compared to other teams given that the F2007 featured a longer wheelbase than others – the reason pointed out for the lack of success on places such as Monaco and Hungary. What is yet to be seen is whether Ferrari have improved on the weak reliability of the 2007 car, so often an Achilles heel to the Italian team.

McLaren followed up their launch 24 hours after Ferrari with the MP4-23. The car has a #23 number plate and Hamilton’s 23^rd birthday was all on the day of the launch. The conspiracy theorists must have had a field day with this one. It’s a sign! Didn’t hear any of them point out that it’s Heikki driving the #23 car though. The car looks much the same as last years and would beg the question of how much Ferrari-stolen data parts did they have to tear off for the car to be legal this year. The big question many ask is how competitive will it be with the fallout from Spygate. How long will it be before Ron uses it as an excuse? Not long I bet.

McLaren have failed to build a decent car two years in a row over the past number of years. They are either ultra competitive or title challenging, thus not devoting as much time to the development of the car for next year OR they are stuck in the doldrums in which they give up early and focus on the car meaning they come out ultra competitive. It’s the cycle they have become trapped in and need to break.

After the big guns came Toyota with a car that isn’t an evolution of their previous buckets. Time will tell if it’s all big talk which Toyota are becoming well-known for or if they have actually made a step forward. Their head boss has been giving two years to prove his worth, or more so the teams worth in Formula One. The honeymoon period is long over for the Japanese giant and if things don’t improve I’d expect them to cut their losses and jump ship from the sport in 2010.

The week finished up with Force India confirming Giancarlo Fisichella as team-mate to Sutil. Given the options he probably represents the best choice for the former Spyker team. While Luizzi and Klien have raw pace they both lack the experience that someone like Fisichella can bring to a team like Force India in the development department. Even if Sutil shows him the way around the track in 2008 both he and the team can learn allot from the Italian. Case in point is the improvements in 2007 of Williams and Nico Rosberg with an old hand like Wurz in the team.

Just got to hope those trousers aren’t going to be a common thing in the paddock!

Unwarranted Invite

Just when we thought we were seeing the beginning of the end of the Spygate affair, Luca di Montezemolo comes out with another prod towards McLaren. We really didn’t need one of the childish jabs from the Ferrari boss especially given that after months the fans were getting to the end of the tunnel. McLaren owned up in admitting that things had gone farther than they claimed to know. The FIA in turn cleared their 08 car and more or less began to wind down the Spygate affair.

For him to come out and offer the photocopy employee that alerted about Couglain’s shenigans to come over to Italy shortly after the aforementioned just seemed to be nothing more than one more swift kick aimed at McLaren. It reminds me of the petty gamesmanship that we saw around Spa when even Hamilton got involved in some of it. Ferrari have been vindicated from their point of view so why not just keep the head down and focus on 2008 and be the bigger ‘man’ so to speak.

Thats it for 2007. We have much to look forward to in 2008 with car launches in early January before the work towards the new season begins in earnest. Bring on Melbourne. Hope you all have a happy and safe New Year.

The Good, the Bad and the Racing

Over the last few days we’ve seen the two faces of McLaren. The good in the signing of Heikki Kovalainen to partner Hamilton. The fact that Heikki was left out in the cold at Renault was eye catching, given how he outpaced Fisichella for the majority of the year. One of the rumours going around is that Heikki was dropped because he was considered too fast for Alonso who is out to avoid a 2007 repeat. He must not remember that Piquet Junior did finish second to Hamilton in GP2 and I doubt he will be keen to lie down given the opportunity.

With the freedom of Kovalainen, he was the obvious choice for the second McLaren seat. I’m sure fans of the Finn were getting a little worried that de la Rosa, with his Spanish connections to many sponsors who joined because of Alonso would get the nod. Nice to see McLaren do the right thing and bring in a top driver who will hopefully push Hamilton and bring the most out of both drivers.

Of course we saw the bad of McLaren over the weekend as well with an admission (finally) over the Stepney-gate issue. A statement claimed that dissemination (in English – transmitting) of Ferrari data went deeper than originally though. They have stopped development on three parts that could be potentially linked back to Ferrari data. It makes the FIA’s decision to wait till February to clear the McLaren 2008 car more prudent now. It’s possible the FIA stewards found something and have given McLaren an opportunity to rectify the problem.

The statement has led to calls for the head of Ron Dennis. Personally, I would be happy if this was the end of someone who whinges anytime his team got beaten. End of the day the buck stops with him. He staked his reputation on his team been clean and playing by the rules and the statement appears to be nothing but an admission of guilt. Will he survive this? Time will tell. Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end of this spy fiasco once and for all so we can go racing clean again.

Race of Champions was on this weekend in Wembley – an event I unfortunately missed due to television issues. That was a shame because I was looking forward to the crème of racing talent going at it, especially to see Schumacher racing again for fun. If the go-kart racing in Brazil was anything to go by it would’ve been a treat. Funny thing I noted was that the Brits were selling up the prospect of Hamilton been there to race Schumacher months back. But come the event there wasn’t a peep and no Hamilton, out because of a sponsorship commitment or something similar. After all the chat about the prospect of him been there one would think they would bother to say ‘oh, he actually isn’t coming – maybe next year.’ Should be able to catch a highlights show of it somewhere.

Speaking of Schumacher, it would appear he has found a part-time hobby as a taxi driver. Running late for a plane the champ took over from the taxi driver and drove to the airport. Bloody hilarious that and decent of him to give a generous tip. The taxi driver will have a story to tell his kids. That been said, how proud of his own driving can he be when he had to give up the seat? This is one of the stories that are a bit surreal. It’s the sort of story you would think ‘I wonder what they a racing driver would do in such a situation’ and it was just great to see Schumi take the bull by the horns.