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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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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Lewis Hamilton has now put his name in the books as one of the best wet weather drivers after mastering Fuji, Monaco, and now Silverstone. His performance in the rain yesterday can hardly be considered a fluke as he was clearly the fastest and most consistent on the track.

Ferrari are troubled with silly mistakes. The decision to leave worn intermediate tires on Kimi’s car was an error simply not acceptable and only matched by Renault doing the same thing with Alonso. Granted some of the choice is left up to the driver, knowing what the weather might bring is up to the pits. It’s hard to believe Ross Brawn would do the same thing.

Felipe Massa had a horrible day and I put a lot of the blame on him for letting frustration get the better of him as the race progressed. This wouldn’t have happened if his team had given him the chance to get out of the danger area of the grid and start near the front.
On the other hand, his car seemed undrivable as every time he touched the throttle he went around and around and around. It’s amazing he kept going and didn’t hit a wall.

Strategy master of the day has to easily go to Ross Brawn. While Ferrari were scratching their heads and messing around, Brawn quietly had Rubens Barrichello (on full wets) challenging for 2nd.

Pass master of the day has to go to Nick Heidfeld. Finally having figured out the car, he out performed team mate Robert Kubica and made 2 great passes taking 2 cars at once both times to secure his 2nd place.

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What do you do if you are at BMW-Sauber and Bruno Senna is sniffing around? Senna is the current leader in GP2 and is looking for either a drive in F1 or a test position in F1. Right now we hear Senna is in talks with BMW-Sauber to become a test driver next season. There is also a small possibility that Senna may replace Nick Heidfeld who has just not come to grips with the F1.08 and there seems no reason he will by season end.
The team suggest that Nick is just unable to match this particular car (beast) with his smooth driving style. A style in complete contrast to Robert Kubica who is enjoying the car so far.
Preparation for next season is really a clean sheet in terms of car development with drastic new rules that should result in a more traditional F1 car. This being the case, would it be worth keeping Nick Heidfeld around? After all, he’s just having a hard time with the F1.08 which won’t be around next year.
This may mean Senna’s best chance at F1 is to test and maybe for BMW-Sauber. For him to take a driver seat on a lesser team would mean he wouldn’t be able to show his true talent and may be lost to bigger and better teams for quite some time.
To expand on the test position, BMW-Sauber, if parting ways with Heidfeld could promote Christien Klien into driver status along side Robert Kubica allowing Senna the test seat.

Speculation yes, but the season of speculation is almost upon us. Whatever the case with BMW-Sauber, they are in a position to need 2 front running drivers no matter what, but we won’t know anything for certain for a while yet.

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Monaco struck and Raikkonen was the prey or should I say Adrian Sutil. Anyway, Lewis Hamilton was the man of the day winning the race in fine style. Ironically it was an early mistake that set the tone for his win. Just a few laps into the race when rain was pouring down, Lewis got out of shape and brushed the wall. Punctured tire was all the damage, but when in the pits, the crew loaded him with fuel to go late in the race and possibly take advantage of the others taking earlier second stops. It did the trick! Hamilton drove quicker and quicker as the rain finally stopped and the track dried out. He switched to dry tires at just the right time and built a lead over Felipe Massa to almost 39 seconds. He then pitted and of course came out in the lead and went on to win easily.

It didn’t seem that this year’s Monaco Grand Prix would be Hamilton’s to win. Qualifying was good, but not good enough and Ferrari looked bullet proof. Last year a little controversy between him and Alonso sealed Hamilton’s fate to second when he felt he could have won the race. This is what you do with a disappointment, you take it and use it to motivate you next year and Lewis did just that.

I thought he drove a great race from his mistake on in. He was fast, on line, smooth and seemed to have little trouble in the changing conditions. He also stayed out of trouble. Love or hate him, he drove like a champion.

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1 L. Hamilton McLaren 2:00:42.742
2 R. Kubica BMW + 3.064
3 F. Massa Ferrari + 4.811
4 M. Webber Red Bull + 19.295
5 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 24.657
6 R. Barrichello Honda + 28.408
7 K. Nakajima Williams + 30.180
8 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 33.191
9 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 33.792
10 F. Alonso Renault + 0 laps
11 J. Button Honda + 0 laps
12 T. Glock Toyota + 0 laps
13 J. Trulli Toyota + 0 laps
14 N. Heidfeld BMW + 0 laps

Did not finish

15 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 7 laps
16 N. Rosberg Williams + 17 laps
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 31 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 40 laps
19 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 70 laps
20 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 70 laps

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Massa by only a hair on his last flyier takes pole and Ferrari locks up the front row with Raikkonen second. I must say Ferrari was on a mission to better their cars for Monaco and finally beat McLaren to pole.

Q1 saw the usual strugglers and maybe reality is starting to set in on Force India. After a dream start to the season and maybe some steady improvement, they’ve tailed off and here will start 19th and 20th.
Nelson Piquet is looking more and more out of place in an F1 car. Q1 was just too ragged and unorganized to be competitive and he’s starting a flattering 17th. When will it end for Piquet?

Nick Heidfeld was a surprise to me. Both BMW-Saubers started usually late in Q1 and Heidfeld’s times were not particularly impressive. When Q2 came around he remained in the garage until well into it. Knowing he was struggling, I’m not sure why he didn’t take more laps to ensure he’d get into Q3. The result, grid position 13.

David Coulthard on his last flyer in Q2 smacked the wall, big damage and a trip down the run off road. He made it to Q3, but thats all for him and he starts 10th.

Q3 was a great battle between McLaren and Ferrari. McLaren have always been better than Ferrari by a long shot at Monaco, but not today. Hamilton could not do anything about Ferrari speed and loses out to both Ferraris and starts 3rd.

Hey now, look at Felipe Massa. He’s been the best driver since he bombed in the first 2 races of the season and it is starting to look like he is a serious threat to challenge for the championship. Pole in Monaco is gold and he’s got it.

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Nick Heidfeld is beginning to sound like a guy worried about his drive for next year. The normally confident Heidfeld has not come close to Robert Kubica at any point this year and now it may be showing.
Although he has been strong during every race, he has had to battle from poor qualifying positions especially in the last 2 races where he qualified 9th and has started no better than 5th on the grid. Robert Kubica on the other hand has had a podium and BMW-Sauber’s first pole position along with finishing higher than Heidfeld consistently.

I think Heidfeld is a pretty good driver, not stunningly fast, and given a pretty good car he usually can get a lot out of it. This year that doesn’t seem to be the case as he has struggled with driving the F1.08 ever since it was launched. He even crashed it during a demonstration. Kidding aside, the F1.07 was a very different animal, one much more suited to Heidfeld’s smooth driving style. It was much easier to handle than the F1.08 which after much development in the last few months is quite fast, but twitchy and very stiff. It requires an aggressive driver, one who wants to tame the car and a driver who likes the car challenging him. Is this Nick Heidfeld?

Nick has complained about the car since the beginning as I said, but now his tone is beginning to soften a bit as he is now admitting that the car is good, but he’s just having a hard time driving it. Maybe he’s come to a realization that he may never be as comfortable in this car this year as he needs to be to be really competitive.

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Being such a prestigious race, everyone wants to do well in Monaco, but realistically who are the ones that can take advantage of this ‘wonky track’ and overachieve or surprise. It’s so hard to predict any outcome at Monaco especially this weekend with a serious threat of rain to make things even more outrageous than they already are. That said, who can up their game in Monaco?

Last year Lewis Hamilton lost to Fernando Alonso and we know what his reaction to this loss was. Not good. He acted like a spoiled child having a melt down and it didn’t go over too well in the media. This season without Alonso, Hamilton had a shaky start, but may be turning his season around with some better drives and finishes. Now in Monaco, Lewis is sure to be tough saying he has unfinished business in Monaco and maybe he has the car suited to Monaco to finish his business.

The MP4-23 has been good at this circuit and there is no reason to believe it won’t be this year. One advantage may be that the tires heat up very quickly on the car and traction may not be an issue for Hamilton. The tire fear of Turkey shouldn’t factor in at all. The corners are short, heating up the tires quickly, but cooling them down just as quickly making overheating a non issue.

Nick Heidfeld is looking up hill to possibly a win for him or Robert Kubica. Strong words, but I wouldn’t count BMW-Sauber out of this race.

The F1.08 is one of the strongest cars through slow corners and of course there are plenty of those in Monaco for both Heidfeld and Kubica to attack.
Robert Kubica may have the best ability to at least podium for BMW, but I can’t count Heidfeld out just yet. He has won 3 times in Monaco in his F3 and F3000 days and knows the circuit well.

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Is it really only May? It is, and the start of ’silly season’ may have begun already for one driver anyway at least. The talk is around BMW-Sauber driver Robert Kubica and who wants him? BMW-Sauber have him this year and have an option on him for 2009, but now Ferrari and Renault have started early and are knocking on his door.

Kubica has driven his BMW ‘to the max’ so far this year and has out driven Nick Heidfeld in just about every race so now his stock is beginning to go up substantially. This hasn’t escaped the eyes and ears of Ferrari and Renault and they have begun poking him to see where he’s at with BMW.

This could all be ‘bogus’ and a ploy on the part of Kubica’s agent Daniele Morelli to ‘up’ his salary and it probably is, but 2009 is an option year for Kubica and maybe a better offer will swing him one way or another.

Problem is, Ferrari have Kimi Raikkonen and don’t plan on sending him packing any time soon. Renault have Fernando Alonso and they hope to not have him packing any time soon either. Where would this leave Robert Kubica then? BMW-Sauber, that’s where.

Kubica is showing a great talent with his aggressive driving style and will to win and with the stats to back him. This doesn’t jive with being a second driver to anyone. BMW-Sauber have a no number one driver policy and so far it works for them. Ferrari and Renault on the other hand have a history of number one drivers and blatantly so, despite weak attempts on their part to convince us they don’t. Felipe Massa is suffering with this and Fernando Alonso certainly wouldn’t take driver equality or number two status under any circumstance.

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