After 6 races so far this season, interesting discussions are starting to take place in the internet forums and the media with 2 questions the center of attention. How good is Felipe Massa and who is the better driver on Ferrari at the moment? I could have posted those questions before the start of this season and the answers I received would have easily been Raikkonen as the better driver and Felipe Massa is ok, but mistake prone and not championship quality. They would have been stupid questions then. Now, I really do ask those questions because Felipe Massa is starting to turn some heads and finds more positive media than Kimi Raikkonen right now.
With preconceived ideas of who was the better driver, the season started in Australia with both Massa and Raikkonen making mistakes. It was an all around terrible weekend for Raikkonen who after car trouble only qualified 16th. In the race, Raikkonen succumbed to engine trouble, but had 2 ‘offs’ of his own making. Massa didn’t fair much better with a spin on lap 1 and a ‘kiss’ with Coulthard later. He also succumbed to engine trouble. So it was a bad race for Ferrari in general, both Raikkonen and Massa made mistakes yet in the days following, rumors started around the paddock that Massa’s days at Ferrari may be numbered. “He’s mistake prone, not consistent, etc..”, with these remarks stemming from previous seasons. Instead, look at 2008 as a separate year and don’t think about previous years and what you got was Australia poor for both drivers, end of story.

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Are BMW-Sauber and McLaren Mercedes evenly matched? That depends on who you talk to I guess.
4 races down and the drivers championship standings Ferrari, McLaren, and BMW-Sauber look like this

1. Kimi Raikkonen 29
2. Lewis Hamilton 20
3. Robert Kubica 19

5. Nick Heidfeld 16
6. Heikki Kovalainen 14

In Australia Lewis Hamilton dominated with Heikki Kovalainen finishing 5th 18 seconds back of Hamilton and set the fastest lap of the race. Nick Heidfeld finished second 5.4 seconds back of Hamilton and Robert Kubica finished 9th with a retirement.

In Malaysia, Raikkonen was dominant winning the race easily, but second belonged to Robert Kubica 19.5 secs back and quite a bit ahead of Kovalainen who was third and 38.4 secs back. Lewis Hamilton qualified poorly in 9th and finished 5th 46.5 secs back. Nick Heidfeld finished 6th 49.8 secs back of Raikkonen, but set the fastest lap of the race.

On to Bahrain. Again, Ferrari dominated this race with Massa winning and Raikkonen 2nd. 3rd place was Robert Kubica 4.9 secs back of Raikkonen and 4th place to Nick Heidfeld who was 8.4 secs back. Heikki Kovalainen, the best of McLaren once again finished 5th behind both BMW-Saubers a full 26.7 secs back of Raikkonen. We can safely say that Lewis Hamilton didn’t figure in any leader stats in this race.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton bounced back finishing 3rd behind both Ferraris 4.1 secs back of Kimi Raikkonen, but only 1.5 secs behind Felipe Massa. Unfortunately Kovalainen had a bad crash, but until then was keeping good pace with a fastest lap time of 1:22.453 and was in 6th place at the time of his crash ahead of Nick Heidfeld.
Robert Kubica finished the race in 4th after starting 4th only 5.6 secs back of Raikkonen. Robert Kubica was pushing Hamilton and both cars pitted together and came out the same way. In this race it was pretty clear that as the race progressed BMW-Sauber and McLaren Mercedes were running pretty much the same pace as the gaps didn’t change through to the end.

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After 3 races, there are a few drivers frustrated by their performance weather by their own driving or by bad luck and are looking to Spain and beyond to get back into shape. Adrian Sutil, David Coulthard, Nelson Piquet, Lewis Hamilton have all had to answer questions about their poor start to the season. Felipe Massa would have been on my list, but for now he’s recovered.

None of these drivers has had particularly good luck so far and that pretty much covers it yet bad luck or not, teams want more.

Adrian Sutil is one of those drivers. Mechanical in Australia, mechanical in Malaysia, and 19th and last on the grid in Bahrain. Given that, he has had some bad luck. On the other hand, his grid starts haven’t been impressive at all and are really highlighted by Giancarlo Fisichella’s performance. Sutil started Australia 22, Malaysia 20, and Bahrain 20 and by those figures alone he needs to pick up the pace. I don’t expect Sutil to match Fisichella, but confidence in him as an F1 driver would improve if he could close the gap even just a little on Giancarlo.

David Couthard has spent most of his time defending himself for on track incidents. In Australia he came together with Massa when Massa attempted a pass. Bahrain saw him involved in not one, but two incidents where he came together with Sutil resulting in a puncture. Later he and his mate Button came together in another overtaking maneuver. Some say David has no responsibility in any of these, and others say he needs to take some responsibility. Everyone has their opinion so I will leave it at that.

If David can have some clear races, points will come. Simple bad luck is the story of his season so far.

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Bernie Ecclestone may be the most terrifying person alive for Grand Prix hosts. If i was in charge of hosting a grand prix, I would be looking over my shoulder right about now.

Ecclestone has been loading a gun and pointing it at a few circuits lately and one (Australia) he is actually firing at. Come 2011, the F1 grand prix calendar could look vastly different. Here’s a bit of what is going on.

[tag]British Grand Prix[/tag]

Bernie has had his eye on this one for a few years now, giving organizers ultimatum after ultimatum. So far the British Grand prix has survived and remains on the calendar, but only barely. ecclestone has of course been very concerned over the facilities and the FEE. Sure, the Silverstone venue is updating, but with Bernie, you just never know.

“Assume the facilities are built and we like it,”

“The next problem is the commercial agreement for us to be there.

“This has not been discussed, other than the guy who came to see me some time ago saying there is no way we [the BRDC] could pay you even what we have paid you in the past.

“There are two things to overcome – first they need to build the facilities, then they need to pay the market rate. There is no sentiment in this from my point of view.

“I want only what we do in any other country, no more, no less. I sincerely hope they [the BRDC] are in a position to deliver what they know they have to carry out to get the grand prix in 2010.”

The British are very resilient and have a lot of traditions including their Grand Prix. If it is pulled from the calendar, they won’t go down without a fight.

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