Formula 1 2008: the season starts here
And let’s hope its a better one that last year. While the racing was at least slightly better than in 2006, especially with Brit interest at a height with the amazing debut season of Lewis Hamilton, the whole sport became mired in what can only be called farce with the “Spygate” scandal involving McLaren and Ferrari.
This year, hopefully, the FIA will allow all of that to be laid to rest (they’ll have to think up some other ruse to make sure Ferrari win) and we can get on with some proper racing.
There’s been some moving about in the off-season; former champion Fernando Alonso has moved back to Renault – who had a bad season last year without him (and were also found guilty in the off-season of spying, but escaped punishment due to the inadequate nature of the FIA) but good things are promised for 2008. He swaps with Heikki Kovalainen who says that he expects to be treated as an equal to his new team-mate Hamilton at McLaren. Time will tell. Meanwhile Alonso is joined at Renault by Nelsinho Piquet – bringing back one of the all-time great racing names to the Formula One paddock. You can see the full drive line-up on the F1 site.
Not too many of the cars have shown their colours yet, but Hamilton’s been out in the new McLaren and says that “It was fantastic to get my hands on the MP4-23 this morning in Jerez” and he thinks good things will happen. Meanwhile, Alonso called his first drive of the Renault “encouraging”.
BMW Sauber have thrown down the gauntlet to the big two teams, saying that they “are confident we can turn the battle in front into a battle of more than two teams” and challenge for race wins. They scored points at every race last season, but were over 100 points behind false champions Ferrari at the end of the season. It remains to be seen whether they can really do it.
So as usual all the pre-season feather-ruffling is in full swing; lets hope that this year we get some decent races and honest results to bring some credibility back to the sport.
Today’s (un)surprising fact
It’s been announced today that Fernando Alonso and McLaren-Mercedes are to part company, two years before end of their contract. Apparently it’s a mutual decision based on the fact that Alonso was not a happy bunny for most of the season. Neither side will be liable for any financial penalties.
It’s not a shock that Alonso is moving on; everyone expected it after the comments that were made to the media before, during and after the Ferrari-McLaren spying scandal. Alonso, I think rightly, expected to be top-dog at McLaren for 2007, and he was rather unprepared for the Hamilton factor. Not only was this rookie being given at least equal and possibly better support by the team but he could also drive a lot better than anyone had any right to expect. As result of all the in-fighting and background shenanigans, Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari came in at the last minute and stole Alonso’s crown.
It’s expected that in a year or two, Alonso will be driving for Ferrari but no-one yet knows where he’ll be going for 2008. Wherever it is, he’s going to be hard-pressed to win back his Championship crown without a red or silver car underneath him.
And the saga continues…
I’ve written before about Formula One and the near-farce that was the 2007 season. I’ve also written about Lewis Hamilton, rookie challenger who so very nearly won the Championship this year – missing out in the final race, to trail eventual champion Kimi Raikkonen by just one point. Well, things are moving again today.
Max Moseley, president of the FIA and pretty much boss of Formula One, has been talking to the BBC about the season just gone and the 2008 season to come (check this link for the BBC’s story). I’m not a big fan of Mr Moseley for two reasons; first, I don’t think he really has the best interests of the sport at heart and second, he and the organisation he controls, seem to be inconsistent and biased with their rulings. Let’s take a few examples from the BBC report:
He thinks that Lewis Hamilton being successful will have a negative effect on the sport: “It will start to be negative because we’ll get the Schumacher effect where people start writing to me saying can’t you do something to slow him down”. I don’t remember hearing him making such a statement when Schumacher was racing, or when Alonso won two Championships on the trot, or when Ferrari were winning the Constructors Championship every year. There is well-known ill-feeling between Moseley and McLaren boss Ron Dennis – is this perhaps why he feels a successful McLaren driver would have a negative effect?
Surely if one driver or team is consistently successful, it’s up to the other drivers and teams to raise their game to compete. Formula One is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport; it is a competition for supremacy. That supremacy can only come from being the best, consistently. Is Mr Moseley suggesting that (as with schoolchildren now) there should be no winners or losers – everyone is equal?
He goes on to suggest that if it wasn’t Hamilton who was drawing people to F1, it would be one of the other new young drivers like Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica or Sebastian Vettel. Perhaps if they’d been driving the McLaren they might have been more successful this season, but these three have not lit up the scene in the way that Hamilton has. Strangely, as he appears to be a big Ferrari fan, Moseley makes no mention of Felipe Massa, who surely has made more of an impact on F1 than any of the other three drivers he did mention.
Making reference to the McLaren-Ferrari “spy-gate” affair, Max Moseley says “although the behind-the-scenes stuff was annoying for us and the people concerned, for the public it really adds to the general interest.” Not sure I agree on that one; what the spying affair did was really throw into sharp relief the inconsistent way that the FIA applies its decisions. It was shown that there was two-way flow of information but it was not proved that McLaren had used Ferrari technology on their car. Ferrari do not appear to have been subjec to the same scrutiny. McLaren were robbed of their points and the Championship was basically handed to Ferrari who, up to that point, were completely out of the running. Yet Ferrari ran an illegal car in the first race of the season and escaped any punishment.
For 2008, McLaren will be “closely scrutinised by the FIA to ensure the team had not included any Ferrari ideas on it.”. Quite how they’re going to be able to determine this is not stated, but Moseley says “Finding something will not be easy. On the other hand, there are sources we are going to deploy who will give us as good a chance as its possible to have to find it.” Which seems to be saying that they’ll find something even if there isn’t anything to find.
When asked about Hamilton’s involvement in the spying row (Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa were shown to have been involved, from email evidence they submitted), Moseley says “He’s not a known quantity to me. It would be surprising if he didn’t know something of what was going on, but I’ve got absolutely no evidence that he had. On that basis it would be wrong of me to suggest that he had.” Even though that’s exactly what you’ve just done, Max.
Formula One is supposed to be a development sport; it’s for prototypes (like MotoGP is with bikes). That development will inevitably lead to one team having new kit, or new ways of working, that give them an advantage. The other teams will then try and find out what those are. The recent row is perhaps a little more direct than its ever been before – with two top designers swapping information over the phone – but its part and parcel of the sport. Of course, the fact that they’re talking about a 10 year ban on engine development from 2008 rather makes spying a waste of time.
Formula One used to be a must-watch sport but no more. The ridiculous amount of new rules (especially the utterly stupid “two types of tyre must me used in the race” rule), the inconsistency of application of those rules and the boredom brought to the track by the stifling of technical development just make it an expensive irrelevance. I’m not so sure I will be paying any attention in 2008.
It’s all about the maths
This weekend is the final race of the Formula One season. Rookie Lewis Hamilton leads the championship by four points from team-mate Fernando Alonso, and seven points from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. All should be plain sailing, but with Lewis’ DNF in China a couple of weeks ago nerves are a little frayed.
Ideally, Lewis will keep it simple and win the race. That way he takes the championship – and becomes the youngest winner ever (a record he’ll take away from reigning champion Alonso), as well as the first driver to ever win the championship in his rookie season. But Alonso and Raikkonen are both determined to win as well, and both have been more consistent than Lewis recently.
So, it’s likely to come down to the maths; I can hear James Allen and Martin Brundle now as they try to keep on top of the points changes as the race progresses. Today, the official F1 site has posted details of who needs to finish where for the three possible outcomes to the championship, but I’m going to summarise them here.
For Kimi to win the championship
He must win the race, but also Alonso must finish no higher than third and Hamilton no higher than sixth. It’s asking a lot, but this is Formula One – and at Interlagos, which can be tricky – so anything could happen.
For Fernando to win the championship
He must win the race, but Hamilton must finish no higher than third. If that happens, it will not matter where Kimi finishes.
For Lewis to win the championship
Ideally he should make it easy and win. Failing that, he just has to finish in front of Alonso and Raikonnen. If he can’t do that, and Raikkonen wins, he needs to finish better than sixth. Alternatively, if Alonso wins Hamilton must come second. Save us all the tension, Lewis, and win the race.
Of course, both Fernando or Kimi could win the championship without winning the race (Fernando could go as low as fourth, but Kimi can only afford second), but that would rely on the other two contenders having DNF’s or finishing way down the order and if you are going to start factoring in all those connotations we could be here all night!
In the UK, race coverage starts on ITV1, Sunday 4pm – I know where I’m going to be! Come on Lewis!!
Time to do a Schumacher?
Now, I’m not one to suggest that the FIA might be biased towards a certain red-coloured make of Italian car (oh hang on, yes I am), but it is beginning to look somewhat less than fine and dandy if you happen to be driving a silver-coloured make of Anglo-German car.
After a superb effort at the rain-soaked Japanese GP, Lewis Hamilton, champion-elect and Fernando’s besh-mate (really), is now under investigation for erratic driving behind the safety car. Seems a couple of others weren’t paying proper attention and had a crash that ended both their races and now they reckon it’s all Lewis’ fault.
The particular move they are complaining about seems to have been to take a different line into a corner – perhaps to feel for grip – which may have been unexpected but hardly erratic. Lewis is now threatened with losing the points he gained in the race and suffering a 10 place penalty on the grid for this weekend’s Chinese GP.
Who has the most to gain from that? Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari’s number one driver – who has closed to within five points of Alonso and would be only seven behind Lewis if Lewis was penalised.
My advice to Lewis? Follow the example of another Ferrari driver – a certain Mr Schumacher – and if you can’t beat ‘em fair and square (and let’s face it, the FIA don’t seem to be being even-handed with penalties at the moment) run ‘em off the road!
Update: the FIA decided – rightly – not to penalise Lewis for his driving behind the safety car. Not really sure how they could have made that sound plausible, and I think someone must have made that point to them. So now we can go into this Sunday’s race knowing that all Lewis has to do is finish in front of Fernando and Kimi to win the championship. Go Lewis!
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