I must say it was an exciting British Grand Prix that threw it’s weather straight in the drivers faces beating up on Ferrari, but shining down on Lewis Hamilton.

It was Lewis Hamilton who tamed Silverstone today and did it in nothing less that great form. Lewis had a spectacular start from 4th almost passing team mate Heikki Kovalainen in first by the first corner. Both drivers drove head to head even touching until as expected Hamilton passed kovalainen quite easily on lap 5, most likely as a result of team orders.

It was Hamilton’s race to lose. He drove a perfect race and his only challenge came from Kimi Raikkonen after kovalainen spun on lap 10 Raikkonen began to challenge Hamilton, but after both pitted together and Hamilton took on new intermediate tires and Raikkonen elected to stay on his used intermediates Hamilton never looked back. By the end of the race he had lapped all but Nick Heidfeld in 2nd and Rubens Barrichello in 3rd, yes Rubens Barrichello in 3rd. When just about every other car on the grid spun at least once, Hamilton, Heidfeld, and Barrichello held it together finishing 1,2,3, but Hamilton was clearly in a league of his own today.

Heikki Kovalainen started on pole, but the super start and fast pace of Hamilton sent him back to 2nd by lap 5 and a spin on lap 10 down to 4th. Despite 2 spins, Kovalainen drove a good race, but in the rain he just didn’t have the pace to make up lost ground.

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After a full week of hair pulling, I’ve finally worked out enough blog bugs to be able to consider posting regularly again and start with my almost mid season driver report card.

Lewis Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes

Need I say 2008 has been a tough season for Hamilton? I call it the ’sophomore blues’ and he is certainly not alone. Many an athlete have found themselves in a second year mess after a barnstorming rookie season and all have had to work through it to prove their worth to the sport, media, team, and most of all themselves.
I cannot criticize Lewis too harshly for the mistakes he has made, but I can hope he learns from them. His recent lashing out at the media has caused him even more wide spread criticism and why, because he chooses to give the media what they give him. How unjust is that? Lewis has gone from darling of the sport to ‘goat’ in less than one year, a pill tough enough for anyone inexperienced or otherwise to swallow, but one he must. How ever unjust he feels he is being treated, his emotions must be kept in check.

Hamilton is by no means out of the fight for the championship and if and when he does win, the media and the British will love him once again.

2008

2007

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There was an interview in the Times Online F1 Blog where Bernie Ecclestone was asked who he thought were the top 5 drivers in F1 so far this year and a few comments as to why. You can see it at the link above, but here’s Bernie’s list anyway followed by mine. You will see I differ from him seeing things a little differently.

1. Fernando Alonso
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Kimi Raikkonen
4. Robert Kubica
5. Felipe Massa

and another driver from a lesser team who has potential:

Sebastian Vettel

I’m a bit surprised at him putting Massa down the list in 4th after he questions Raikkonen’s desire to win on and off the track. Massa is a driven guy, of that there’s no question this year anyway. Massa’s putting his driving where his mouth is and not only that, he’s driving clean of late. Well, I put him 4th in my list as well.

He thinks Robert Kubica along side Lewis Hamilton and he would blow Lewis away. That’s a competition I’d like to see.

My list does vary a bit from Ecclestone and yes it is objective without favoritism.

1. Fernando Alonso

Despite not liking him too much, I can’t place anyone currently racing above him. He is an electrifying driver always pushing to the limit. He makes any car look much better than it is just like Michael Schumacher did. He complains about his car this year because his hunger to compete is stronger than it is. This year if he was at McLaren, he’d show Hamilton and the others what winning is all about.

2. Robert Kubica

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What’s happening now in F1 is brilliant. We’re beginning to see cracks in the armor of the normally strong leaders and a level of immaturity on the part of Hamilton. The evidence is on the track and it shows in the standings when looking from 2007 to 2008.

The first thing staring me in the face it the lower point total by not only the top driver this year Robert Kubica, but also Lewis Hamilton in 2nd. Both drivers have a lower total than Hamilton did as the leader after 7 races last season.

Apart from Alonso being out of the picture, the usual names still remain, but with far less confidence than last year. Many mistakes have been made on track so far in 2008, mistakes that are showing the vulnerability of the normally better drivers. When first looking toward this season just after the end of 2007, most considered it a pretty good bet that Ferrari and McLaren would do battle for the top just as before with all 4 drivers capable of grabbing big chunks of points in every race. Now, introduce BMW-Sauber into the mix and I see both Ferrari and McLaren back on their heels a little.

I saw a fine example of that when Hamilton punted Raikkonen from behind in the pits. Hamilton comes into the pits in first, and leaves his pit in 3rd. The difference is Robert Kubica, not Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton didn’t just see Ferrari in front of him, he saw BMW-Sauber as well and the possibility of only 6 points with 2 other teams grabbing 10 and 8 points. When you look at it, this is a big deal not only for Hamilton, but for McLaren as well.

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Is Lewis Hamilton having fun or what!? The price of stardom in his case requires the need for a good calendar and a little discretion, something Lewis is still learning.

The Cannes Film Festival is where we start. It was here Lewis Hamilton attended the Indiana Jones film premiere with the current Miss Grenada Vivian Burkhardt. It was also at this time that the proud mother of Burkhardt told the Grenada press that the pair are an item.

But at for the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, Lewis invited singer Dannii Minogue to Monaco to party and watch the grand prix as his girl/guest. hmmm.

Now it gets fun, in Monaco Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger spent time mingling on the grid and some reporters too serious about their job to really notice just who people really are mistakenly thought she was Vivian Burkhardt who had actually gone home to Grenada so she wouldn’t distract Hamilton. Her mother said Lewis needs time and space to prepare for the grand prix.

After Lewis wins the grand prix and no Vivian Burkhardt, he celebrates his win with none other than Nicole Scherzinger and according to the tabloids she told friends that her and Hamilton are an item and have “been seeing each other on and off for three months.”

Now Lewis, do what you want to do, but don’t head off to Grenada of all places for a holiday with Nicole, but that’s what he has apparently done. Oh, and where’s Sarah Ojjeh in all this?

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Great driver he is! Wonderful young man that Lewis. He’s making the right decisions for a great F1 career. These are just a few things influential F1 people said about Lewis Hamilton only 6 months ago, but oh, what a difference 6 months can make.

No question this season hasn’t been what Lewis Hamilton though it would be. In 3 races so far this year, he has won one of them, but as he himself said, it was an easy race to win and now after a poor outing in Bahrain, his status as a number one driver is faltering. Yes, it’s early yet and you can’t make a serious decision just yet, after all, Kimi Raikkonen had a tough start to last season as I remember and of course went on to win the championship.

Aside from some suspect driving this year, Hamilton has been facing criticism for a number of things and even from some of his strong supporters.

Last season, Hamilton was urged to join the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) as an influential driver, but decided it wasn’t the time. Now this year, he is again facing questions about not joining and he says he is too busy.
Think what you want about the GPDA, but as an association it has been influential in some serious improvements in safety over the years and is necessary as an avenue for drivers to be organized officially and professionally present concerns and solutions.

As far as being too busy? Sure he is busy, but so are a lot of the members and the only regular commitment is one meeting per grand prix. Hamilton aught to re think his position on this one.

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Two interesting stories have come to light in the last couple of days surrounding [tag]Lewis Hamilton[/tag] and [tag]Nico Rosberg[/tag]. Back in 2004, Lewis Hamilton and his father had a falling out with [tag]McLaren[/tag] and threatened to leave. When that happened, where did they come looking for backing? Williams.

[tag]Patrick Head[/tag] revealed that they could have signed Lewis Hamilton in 2004 while racing in the [tag]F3 Euroseries[/tag], but weren’t able to. It was actually engine supplier [tag]BMW[/tag] who said no.

What happened at McLaren was that Lewis wanted to move up a series for 2005, but [tag]Ron Dennis[/tag] said no and to stay in F3 for another year. After some discussion about this, Lewis and his father Anthony went looking elsewhere, in particular [tag]Williams BMW[/tag], but had no luck there.

“They rang up and said ‘can we come and see you?’,” Head recalled. “And they came in and said ‘Ron Dennis has dropped us’.

“We were with BMW at the time and I think Sir [tag]Frank Williams[/tag] rang BMW’s motorsport director Mario Theissen and said ‘look, this guy looks as if he could be pretty good and whatever and he has come to us saying can we help him’.

“And I think Mario said they weren’t prepared to provide any support and we weren’t in a position financially where we could finance his racing.”

In retrospect, it was a good idea for Lewis to remain in F3 for the next year as he in fact won the F3 Euroseries title in 2005.

Apparently Frank Williams, seeing how good Lewis is, is a bit annoyed at not being able to sign Lewis Hamilton. Maybe so, but he did end up signing Nico Rosberg and has him in his pocket and I wouldn’t complain about that Frank.

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Bloggers always have unique opinions on different topics so I’m now featuring popular [tag]F1 blogger[/tag] posts in the right sidebar delivered daily. Spreading the links around can only be a good thing.

Testing is fast coming to a close and although a lot of progress has been made, [tag]Timo Glock[/tag] is not Confident [tag]Toyota[/tag] have achieved their goal of Closing Gaps. Since this post, he may have had to eat his words a little as Toyota have begun to show more improvement than originally thought.

[tag]Bernie Ecclestone[/tag] is at it again, playing musical chairs with [tag]F1 circuits[/tag]. The [tag]British Grand Prix[/tag], and [tag]Australian Grand Prix[/tag] are targets while Russia and Portugal are looking for openings by 2010 or 2011.

Meanwhile in Australia, they aren’t crying yet about the future loss of their grand prix, instead they are opening the grid to [tag]Grid Boys[/tag]. Yes, guys will be prancing around the grid side by side with the girls at this year’s Australian Grand Prix.

[tag]Day 2 Testing at Jerez[/tag] showed [tag]McLaren[/tag] fighting hard to close the gaps between them and [tag]Ferrari[/tag] while [tag]BMW-Sauber[/tag] have finally, but maybe too late come to grips with the [tag]F1.08[/tag].
Williams are also showing good form this pre-season while Honda, what can I say, are just not moving anywhere yet.

In a strange move, Bernie Ecclestone has granted McLaren the 5th pit garage instead of their previously designated las pit garage. At this time it hasn’t been confirmed and I wait to see if indeed it is true and why.

After I posted this story, a reader commented that there is nowhere in the [tag]FIA Sporting Regulations[/tag] that explain how pit garages are designated. After some research, I cannot come up with that answer.

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3 posts in one day is a little off for me, but today, well…it happened.

Another good weather day at [tag]Jerez[/tag] except for the wind. 16 driver were out today and some because of wind ended their day early not expecting to get the data they needed. [tag]Lewis Hamilton[/tag] was one of them, quiting early at 15:00.

Even though wind was a factor, [tag]Mark Webber[/tag] in the [tag]Red Bull[/tag] came out on top with a 1:18.628 in 72 laps and had both [tag]Williams[/tag] right behind. Fuel loads were probably pretty good to achieve those times and clearly Williams has solved their wing mounting problem. [tag]Honda[/tag] continue to struggle with not much difference in their time from yesterday, but at least they weren’t last.
[tag]BMW-Sauber[/tag] with [tag]Nick Heidfeld[/tag] and [tag]Robert Kubica[/tag] piled on the laps today, but initially had long runs scheduled, but again, wind prevented any clear results and they abandoned that idea.

A few incidents on trace disrupted things a little. Coulthard parked unexpectedly on track and Nelson Piquet jr. copied later with an engine failure, and then Sebastien Bourdais caused a stoppage right near the end of the session.

1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1min 18.628secs 72 laps
2. Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1min 19.091secs 98 laps
3. Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1min 19.215secs 91 laps
4. Fernando Alonso Renault 1min 19.710secs 104 laps
5. Robert Kubica BMW-Sauber 1min 19.829secs 116 laps
6. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1min 19.857secs 68 laps
7. David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1min 19.883secs 97 laps
8. Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 19.889secs 114 laps
9. Nelson Piquet Renault 1min 20.014secs 110 laps
10. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1min 20.152secs 84 laps
11. Nick Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1min 20.201secs 109 laps
12. Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 20.536secs 76 laps
13. Jenson Button Honda 1min 21.147secs 85 laps
14. Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1min 21.376secs 101 laps
15. Rubens Barrichello Honda 1min 21.710secs 58 laps
16. Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1min 22.244secs 86 laps

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Not another racism in F1 post! If that’s what you’re thinking you really should read on.

The topic of [tag]racism in F1[/tag] has been dealt with from just about every angle and then some. Bloggers, columnists, talks show hosts, newspapers, radio, television, etc. This is a serious issue, and it’s tainting F1. Now, the [tag]FIA[/tag] has taken a strict stand on racism in their sport and have begun to move in the right direction.

[tag]Racing Against Racism[/tag] is what they call it. A campaign to educate and hopefully put an end to racism in F1 and I’m all for it. I posted what ended up as a controversial post earlier called Take a Different Angle on Spanish F1 Fans, with my thoughts on what happened in Spain, but if you read it in it’s entirety you will have noticed that when I was wrapping it up, I suggested that punishing the fans (as a whole when the issue is a small minority of fans) by taking away the grand prix was not a good idea, and I also wrote that the FIA needed to step up and offer support. Well, now they have and It’s a great idea.

The FIA wants to work together with all teams, drivers, and circuits in as many international motorsport series they can reach and that is a lot of coverage.

A spokesman said:

“International motor sport can reach a huge global audience to send out positive messages of racial and sporting equality.”

“We will be encouraging all those involved in motor sport to support our new campaign, from recent world champions to the next generation of potential champions at the grass roots of our sport.”

The obvious first step being considered is to create a website where all fans can pledge their support.

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