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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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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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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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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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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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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