McLaren’s Problems Are Finally Catching Up To Them

At the end of last years formula one season you could be forgiven for thinking that McLaren had gotten off a little light, after being caught spying on Ferrari. However, now that the ’08 season is in full swing, we are starting to see the side effects of the hefty fine and developmental restrictions that McLaren received.

So far Mclaren have only managed one win to Ferraris three so far this year and have at times, looked much slower then their bitter rivals. Infact, BMW have often qualified a driver higher then one of the McLaren boys. This lack of pace is almost certainly the result of the punishments received at the hands of the FIA last year.

The question is, can McLaren get back on track and give Lewis Hamilton a chance at the world title?
I think not. I can only see Ferrari getting better as the season goes on and so long as Kimi doesn’t relax too much (as he is prone to do) I think this years title is already sewn up.

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Hamilton Must Learn To Chill

Nobody’s perfect I guess. And whilst Lewis Hamilton comes pretty damn close to the perfect race driver sometimes, he does have a flaw. That flaw is trying to do too much when the chips are down.

Yesterdays 13th place finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix lost Hamtilton the lead in the world championship and despite the claims of foul play from the ITV crew, the problems were all of Hamiltons making. And it started when he failed to secure pole position in qualifying.

I don’t know whether Lewis was too fired up or too tense, but something happened somewhere that resulted in him having the worst start of all the drivers on the grid. He dropped back several places and could see his race going up in smoke. So he pushed it hard, too hard and ended up driving into the back of old rival Alonso, so desperate was he to get past him and redeem himself.

Once the front wing was broken the race really was over for Lewis. The fact that he managed 13th is a credit to his driving skills but praise alone will not win him the world title. He has to learn that sometimes, squeezing out a points finish when things aren’t going your way is far better then blowing it all in a haze of frustration. Whether Hamilton can learn to control this side of his temperament could be the deciding factor in whether he becomes a world champion or not.

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How Does Two More Parades A Year Sound?

Yesterday the team boses for Formula One agreed to an extension of the race calender to include two more races – bringing the season up to 20.

I can’t get enough of F1, it’s always there for me after the Superbowl and the Six nations have passed by and I need my sporting fix, but I’m not sure that more races are what the doctor ordered right now.

It’s not that I don’t want to see more Formula-1, it’s just that I think this is a decision that is largely based around generating money, much like many other recent decisions. Would it not be better for the FIA and the team boss’s to work on how to improve races and make the sport more competitive, rather then give us two more pointless parades a year?

At the moment, with most races being decided during the last three minutes of qualifying on a Saturday, I feel that the focus should be shifted away from the almighty buck. It’s not like the sport doesn’t make 100′s of millions of dollars already, why not spend some of that money to improve the spectacle?

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Formula One is Back!

Phew, the start of February through to mid March can be a bit of a slog, what with only the Six nations to get us through, but Formula-1 returned to our screens this weekend and was action packed to say the least.

Only six cars out of the twenty two that started, finished the race yesterday (Rubens Barichello would have been the seventh but was disqualified). Which kind reminds us why traction control was on the cars in the first place.

It’s all very well to demand a more driver orientated F1, but the truth is that these cars are ridiculously fast and Humans just can’t keep pace mentally. I mean, two of the guys who scored championship points in this race, didn’t actually finish!

Perhaps this was all down to first race nerves in slippery cars, but if the next race in Malaysia has three safety cars and fifteen retirements, the FIA may have to look at back tracking on traction control.

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Formula-1 Teams/Drivers List 2008

The 2008 Formula 1 season gets underway this weekend and will feature races from all over the world. Here is the list of teams and drivers for this year:

Team 1 – Ferrari
#1 Kimi Raikkonen FIN(aka ‘Robotkonen’)
#2 Felipe Massa BRA

Team 2 – BMW Sauber
#3 Nick Heidfeld GER
#4 Robert Kubica POL

Team 3 – Renault
#5 Fernando Alonso SPA
#6 Nelsinho Piquet BRA(aka Nelson Piquet Junior)

Team 4 – Williams
#7 Nico Rosberg GER
#8 Kazuki Nakajima JPN

Team 5 – Red Bull
#9 David Coulthard GBR
#10 Mark Webber AUS

Team 6 – Toyota
#11 Jarno Trulli ITA
#12 Timo Glock GER

Team 7 – Torro Rosso
#14 Sebastien Bourdais FRA(There is no #13 car)
#15 Sebastian Vettel GER

Team 8 – Honda
#16 Jensen Button GBR
#17 Rubens Barrichello BRA

Team 9 – Super Aguri
#18 Takuma Sato JPN
#19 Anthony Davidson GBR

Team 10 – Force India
#20 Adrian Sutil GER
#21 Giancarlo Fisichella ITA

Team 11 – McLaren*
#22 Lewis Hamilton GBR
#23 Heikki Kovalainen FIN

*McLaren start as the bottom team this year as they were stripped of all constructors championship points due to the spying scandal.

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McLaren (Finally) Admit To Spying On Ferrari

There’s something unsatisfying about an admission after the fact. Instead of a genuine apology, it comes across more like a plea of self-pity – ‘I’m so sorry I got caught’.

Yesterday McLaren admitted on it’s website that
“It has become clear that Ferrari information was more widely disseminated within McLaren than was previously communicated,” - translation: ‘We lied about how many people had access to the stolen info and about who was using it. And for what.’

“McLaren has written to the WMSC to apologise that it has taken an FIA investigation to find this information and have expressed our deep regret that our understanding of the facts was improved as a result of the FIA inspection rather than our own investigations.” – translation: ‘We’re very sorry you caught us cheating’

The worst thing about this tardy confession is that it came via McLaren’s website. If you’re going to make a weasel apology, at-least have the sack to do it in person for Pete’s sake.

McLaren will now have to overhall many of their new design features for next years car as they were based on the stolen information. This could be bad news for Lewis Hamilton, as design changes this late in the game may affect the cars’ performance next season.

[BBC Sport]

 

This Spy Business Just Will Not Die. And That’s a Good Thing BTW.

After last weeks horrendous miscarriage of justice court decision, Ferrari were told that they would not have a right to appeal. Thankfully though, they appear to have found a loophole.

Because only the McLaren team were allowed to present their case, Ferrari have claimed that they have not had a chance to present all of their own evidence. Which is fair enough really, I mean, nobody likes to be kicked out of a room where others are talking about them do they? As a result the court of appeals has now agreed to review the case along with Ferrari and any other teams input.

This is potentially catastrophic for McLaren as the previous court statement said (in plain English) ‘If McLaren are found to have gained any advantage from this spying in the future, then they will be banned from the World Championship’. That statement was carefully constructed to not sound like McLaren were being let off scott-free for spying on their main rivals, but the FIA were not planning on the case reaching appeal.

Now the precedent has been set and if Ferrari can prove that McLaren did indeed, gain an advantage from having 780 pages of secret technical data (can we say: ‘No Brainer’?) then the court will be forced to ban the McLaren team (which includes rookie Lewis Hamilton) from this years World Title race.

[BBC Sport]

 

Ferrari Are Not Thrilled About Being Spied On.

Understandably, Ferrari are feeling a tiny bit outraged at the complete lack of punishment the McLaren team received for spying on them.

“We are reflecting on what to do after the incomprehensible and grave decision made in Paris,” 

…was the head of Ferrari, Jean Todt’s comment after McLaren were let off scott-free. And he’s right too; It’s a bit like a kid who steals exam results and then claims that his grade is valid because he didn’t ‘use the information to his advantage’.  Just to clarify, McLaren were found guilty of spying but were not given any punishment because ‘There was no evidence that the stolen information was used to gain an advantage’.

“It’s difficult to understand that one who is deemed to be guilty goes unpunished,” 

And this isn’t some small over-blown incident either, McLaren’s chief designer was caught with a 780 page dossier of Ferrari’s technical information. I am a little less stunned then Ferrari about the lack of punishment here, as Formula-1 has regularly shown a bias against the Ferrari team. The biggest issue here though, is that it sets a dangerous precedent for other sports.  What the court has essentially said is that the act of espionage itself, is not a crime in the sporting world.

It would be fair to say that this is one of the worst judgements in sporting history and it is not going to go away quickly.

[BBC Sport]

 

Ranking the Formula-1 Drivers

Ranking Formula-1 drivers is not an easy thing to do whether it be pre, mid or close season. The fact is that the cars play a major role in how good a driver looks and in order to rank them, you have to look at how they compare to others in their particular bracket of car strength.

And then you have to bite the bullet and admit that those two assbags that you hate (including that robot who drives for your team, ragnamit) are actually competing for top five spots in your list.

So that’s what I did and, for good or for ill, here’s my rankings:

#1 – Kimi Raikkonen (Robotkonen) – Yes he’s a humourless, personalityless drone but the truth is that when Kimi drives at 100% (and he rarely does) he is the best driver in Formula-1 today.

#2 Lewis Hamilton – Lewis is without a doubt the most difficult man to place. Since F1 has returned to Europe, Hamilton’s lack of experience has shown, but but but… this kid is a rookie who made the podium in all of his first nine races and that just doesn’t happen in Formula-1. He has constantly bitch-slapped his team-mate, who just happens to be the reigning World Champion and, although it’s unlikely, he may just win the whole damn thing this year. Where the heck else can you place him?

 

Hey, Maybe Alonso Doesn’t Hate Hamilton’s Guts. (yeah sure…)

So, Alonso wins the European Grand Prix in style whilst Hamilton is relegated back to 9th place and zero points. You can read my full report here, but before you do, check out this new Mercedes ad below. It plays on the media frenzy around Alonso and Hamiltons’ supposedly strained relationship. And it’s brilliant.

For those of you not in the know, the guy at the end is former McLaren Formula-1 World Champion, Mika Hakkinen.

‘The Legend That Was Almost Marcus Winkelhock’ – EC