It’s looking more and more like Kimi Raikkonen will be with Ferrari through 2011. The German Newspaper Bild-Zeitung is reporting he is just about to sign a contract keeping him in Ferrari red for a few more years.

If this happens to be true, I’m a little shocked. Kimi hasn’t had a good year so far and for the defending F1 champion to be in the middle of a world of speculation about his driving and controversy about his actions out of the car isn’t what I expect from him. Firstly, although Felipe Massa has had his share of mistakes and even some criticism (I don’t know why) for his drive in Germany, he is driving much better than Raikkonen from practice to qualifying to races. It is true that the F2008 hasn’t been great lately and McLaren are steadily improving, but Massa continues to challenge McLaren whereas Raikkonen isn’t. He seems lackluster and without edge.

Now, everyone has their bad moments they have to work through, but I would have thought that damage control would be important to Kimi during these bad times just to limit criticism and even bad publicity, but I see just the opposite. I see a frustrated and almost angry Raikkonen in unfamiliar territory with no idea how to handle himself. There have been two incidents lately that are hard to argue against. first was the Cahier shove (although an Oscar should go to Cahier) and now in Germany he he was involved in a bump which resulted in a young girl being knocked to the ground crying. Now Kimi didn’t run into the girl, rather the book her mother (I’m guessing it was her mother) held out to him to sign knocked her down, but what follows on camera wasn’t good at all. The only reaction from Kimi was to look back to see what happened while walking away. What he should have
done was take 2 minutes and go back to see if she was alright. Now that would be good publicity.

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This German Grand Prix was sort of a for gone conclusion for me. Lewis Hamilton was fast in practice, grabbed pole position and was miles ahead of everyone on the track throughout the race. He really
was very strong this whole weekend and his mean passing toward the end of the race sending Massa very wide was a show of dominance.

I will be the first to admit that I have ‘bashed’ Nelson Piquet Jr. all season and now am beginning to eat my words. He did have some pretty good luck however when he pitted for a lot of fuel just seconds before Glock hammered the wall sending the safety car out. Lap 37 he was in 14th and 2 laps later when just about everyone pitted he was 3rd. Nevertheless Piquet was faster than Alonso and more importantly for his career he was mistake free.

I’m having a hard time figuring out the Ferrari drivers. Massa to me is faster, more aggressive, and just plain better than Raikkonen which I though I would never say, but at the same time I say he is more aggressive, it has been suggested he opened the door for Hamilton on the final pass. I’m not sure I agree with that at all. Lack of grip and overheating brakes were Massa’s undoing making it seem like he simply opened the door for Hamilton. Massa is known to be an aggressive hot headed driver and he did what he had to do in that situation. Kimi Raikkonen looks like an average driver in a Ferrari so where has he gone? This race he did nothing to impress me until it was far too late when he made a bit of a charge, but in the end he finished right where he started in 6th.

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2008 German Grand Prix Results

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Lewis Hamilton outlasted Felipe Massa to take the pole for tomorrows German Grand prix. He and Massa traded fast laps throughout qualifying seemingly with no competition from other drivers.

For Fernando Alonso, it was a strange but good day. He qualified ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and both BMW-Saubers, but team mate Piquet jr. didn’t manage to get past Q1. Alonso seems happy with his qualifying, but as always he is concerned about the race.

“I’m very happy,” he told ITV Sport’s Louise Goodman.

“It’s a nice surprise because we went into qualifying with some doubts [and were] unsure about the car performance.

“In fact Nelsinho [Piquet] went out of Q1 and we were a little bit concerned.

“Race pace is always one of our biggest problems,” he said.

“We slide too much so we wear the tyres more than the others and then at the end of the stints we are not as quick as the others.

Both BMW-Sauber drivers seemed off the pace toward the end of qualifying. In Q1 things looked good, but from there on in they were off the pace. Heidfeld went out in Q2 after making a mistake and running wide on his last flying lap. Kubica managed Q3 but will start alongside Raikkonen in 7th.

Mario Theissen doesn’t sound too optimistic:

“Obviously we expected more from qualifying. Both our drivers had not been happy with their cars in the free practice. In addition to this, we faced further incidents. In the first part of qualifying Robert got stuck behind a car. Nick spun off in the second part of qualifying which may have cost him Q3. From the given positions it will not be an easy race for us. The weather predictions are unstable. In our situation a wet race would certainly help.”

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2008 German Grand Prix Qualifying Results

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German Grand Prix Friday Free Practice 2

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German Grand Prix Friday Free Practice 1

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After writing the article 2008 - A most Unpredictable Season, this race may be less than unpredictable.

Fresh of the heals of a dominant performance at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton and McLaren continue to look strong. Testing this past week at Hockenheim had McLaren consistently at or near the top of the time sheets and although that doesn’t speak volumes, when taken over a week, it does say something.

There is a certain embarrassment in the air around the Ferrari garage after such a poor performance at Silverstone. Dominance at Magny-Cours should have flowed over to Silverstone, but shockingly it didn’t. Now we have another medium downforce circuit that Ferrari traditionally love and I can’t imaging the ‘payback’ feeling not translating onto the track at Hockenheim. But on the other hand, Raikkonen’s luck at Hockenheim is shall I say ‘bad’. He’s had five retirements and one podium from his six starts.

Continuing with the top 3 teams, BMW-Sauber are at their home grand prix this weekend and I would be hard pressed to put either driver outside the top 5 and possibly higher with one in the top 3 a good bet. Nick Heidfeld is on a high after Silverstone and no one has scored more points than he in the past three races. Robert Kubica is sure to be steady and fast as well. His spin at Silverstone a thing of the past.

Now on to the track itself:

Aerodynamics

Hockenheim is another circuit made up of hairpins, long straights, and slow corners giving the drivers opportunity to pass. Therefore, speed is essential down the straights and good grip and balance to handle the medium and low speed sections. Because of this, downforce is usually set to medium to allow high speed, but the downside is that this does compromise grip when entering the lower speed sections.

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The first half of this season has been a strange and unpredictable one for me. After diligently following pre-season testing and reading notes from all of the teams, the running order I figured would be much the same as last year. I figured either Lewis Hamilton or Kimi Raikkonen would have a fairly substantial lead in the drivers championship and either Ferrari or McLaren would be firmly atop the constructors championship.

I couldn’t decide which driver or which team would be out in front, but had a good idea Hamilton or Raikkonen would be squarely on top. Thankfully this isn’t the case as we enter the second half of the season. A good fight between drivers throughout the whole season could not be better and the fact we have a fight between three drivers makes this season the best in a while.

There are a few reasons we are in this great position. BMW-Sauber has entered the mix and disrupted ‘normality’ at the front between Ferrari and McLaren. Traction control and engine braking are gone now and life at the front without them isn’t as easy as drivers thought it would be. Lastly, stupid mental errors are rampant and appear just about every race.

Take the normally bullet proof Ferrari and McLaren of last year and there is no resemblance at all as the consistency and focus factor jumps from one driver to another race to race. If you hadn’t watched a race all season and hadn’t read or listened to any news, you could easily figure this out just by looking at the current point totals of the leaders. A three way tie for first with these leaders having only 48 points has got to be the lowest in years. Last season after 9 races Lewis Hamilton was leading with 70 points and in 2006, Fernando Alonso led at this point with 84 points.

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10 months and 40 million dollars later and singapore has finished the three-story pit building for September’s street night race. The building has 36 garages for the teams, the Formula One Paddock Club (drop $7,500 for entry here) with hospitality areas for the corporate clients on the upper floor. On the second floor is the media centre and the race control facilities with 52 monitors.

“The pit building will serve as the nerve centre for the race,” Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, S Iswaran, said.

Things are moving a little ahead of schedule now after a slight delay to this building which sounds good. The lighting system could very well be completed before the end of August a week ahead of schedule.

(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

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