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!
FIA loves Ferrari, hates McLaren
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/6991147.stm
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6767.html
It’s been obvious for a few years that the FIA - the governing body of Formula One motor racing - are big fans of Ferrari. Today it’s been shown that they will do all they can to bring Ferrari back to the top when Ferrari’s cars and drivers aren’t doing the job. In the “spying”row that still hasn’t been adequately explained to the viewing public, McLaren have now been found guilty, excluded from the constructors championship and fined $100m.
Isn’t it about time the farce that Formula One has become was put out to grass?
Update: the FIA has published it’s full decision on the issue (read it here); looks like - despite what they’ve said in public - McLaren were a bit more involved in the whole thing, and that there was a regular throughput of information from Stepney (Ferrari) to Coughlan (McLaren) rather than just the one document. What the FIA has not been able to do, though, is to prove conclusively that the leaked information was used to make changes to the McLaren cars.
I suppose, really, that no-one should be surprised by this level of industrial espionage in Formula One. There is a lot of money at stake, which makes the actual racing almost a secondary consideration.
Go Lewis!
Formula 1 has this year welcomed a young British driver to the grid, Lewis Hamilton. Driving for McLaren, who have been nurturing his talent for the last ten years or so, Hamilton has made the best start to the season of any rookie ever; one third place and four seconds in the first five races of the season. [edit: make that one 3rd, four 2nd and two wins in his first seven races, to be 10 points clear at the top of the championship, ahead of reigning champion Alonso]
A stand-out aspect of this young star’s driving is his ability to gain places at the start of the race, one of the most important over-taking opportunities in what is, largely, a very processional motorsport with only limited over-taking opportunities.
He also has the ability to drive very maturely under pressure - whether that pressure is coming from his team-mate (current world champion Fernando Alonso) or his Ferrari rivals Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. All-in-all he exhibits driving ability of someone with much greater top-flight experience, as well as being the current top British driver, ahead of veterans like David Coulthard and Jenson Button.
Which makes Jacques Villeneuve’s comments in Autosport magazine all the more difficult to understand. Villeneuve, lest we forget, is a former world champion who is not currently racing in Formula 1 since he became too expensive for the poor results that he was getting.
An more unkind observer than I might think that Villeneuve is jealous because he was only champion in the year when he happened to be driving the best car, or that by the standards of Formula 1 he is only an average driver, or that he only got where he did by trading on the name of his more flamboyant, exciting father.
What I would take issue with is when Villeneuve says that Lewis make “aggressive defensive moves away from the grid”. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? It’s a race, for goodness sake, not a politeness competition: “Oh please, after you..”
He also criticises “chopping moves” that Lewis has made; from what I’ve seen, Lewis makes determined and definite advances. He has not caused any accidents, he has not caused any damage to an other drivers car; he just goes past them. Again, isn’t that what he’s supposed to do?
Finally, in another criticism, Villeneuve says that Lewis has “started to look the way Michael Schumacher used to”. That’s Michael Schumacher, seven times world champion, the most successful Formula 1 driver ever. That Michael Schumacher. I think that if I was in my first season in my sport and someone compared me to the greatest exponent of that sport that ever lived, I’d take that as a compliment not a criticism. I certainly wouldn’t want to be compared to a nearly-man like Villeneuve!
It seems to me that there’s a certain amount of sour grapes attached to Villeneuve’s comments and I’d say to Lewis Hamilton: keep it up son, you’re doing great, don’t change it.
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