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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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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It hasn’t been very long since Super Aguri vanished from F1 throwing their drivers to the dogs, but there is hope for Takuma Sato in the near future (if 2009 is near). He has been linked to Honda and weakly rumored to Renault by French Magazine Auto Hebdo.

Rubens Barrichello may retire at the end of the year although he doesn’t seem ready based on what he says, or he may be shipped out of Honda for younger blood. I tend to believe that this year will be Barrichello’s last year at Honda and he will be replaced by ‘?’

The weak rumor circulating is that Takuma Sato may test with Renault this summer along with Romain Grosjean as an option to replace Nelson Piquet who is having a dismal start to his rookie season. Renault are trying to be positive about Piquet improving, but how can they. He isn’t giving them any reason to believe he can improve.

Steve Nielson had this to say:

“Formula 1 is a business – it’s a very cut-throat business – and if people don’t deliver, they go the obvious way.”

This fit of Fernando Alonso with either one of these drivers is much more appealing than Robert Kubica joining Renault, but these are just rumors and facts won’t come for a while.

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The story Surrounding Rubens Barrichello becoming the most experienced F1 driver ever isn’t a new story by any means. Throughout April many spins were written, but largely focussed on which race would be number 256 and how he may end his career as a big disappointment to Brazilian fans. Funny how controversy and the negative rule in the media, how the real story gets pushed aside as a trade in for readership. Now, a week before the Turkish Grand Prix, I say congratulations to Rubens Barrichello.

Yes, there is some confusion over just how many races he has qualified as having competed in. Statistics from the Grand Prix Guide have the Turkish Grand Prix as his 255th because it doesn’t consider Barrichello to have started the tragic 1994 race at San marino where Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger died and he himself almost died in a crash in Friday practice. The 2002 Spanish Grand Prix is another sticking point, a race he qualified for, but after encountering problems on the race formation lap, did not actually compete.

There are a few more discrepancies, and if you want to be picky, you may never agree on which race is the 256th. This is the reason the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix has been selected as THE race and that’s just fine with me. When he does compete in this race, Rubens will be surpassing Ricardo Patrese with his 256th grand Prix.

“As a boy, when I looked over the wall at Interlagos to look at Formula One, I always wanted to be there and to be a race winner.”

“I never thought I was going to be the longest driver in F1 history.”

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The best of this bunch in the Spanish Grand Prix has to be Red Bull’s Mark Webber, 7th in Bahrain and 5th (partly due to attrition) in Spain collecting a total of 6 points in those 2 races. Mark Webber has been driving well recently and deserves a look.
The same can’t be said about team mate David Coulthard who has been involved in crashes almost every time he turns a wheel. At this Spanish Grand Prix he did manage to finish the race despite being bumped twice (not his fault) finishing 12th of 13 cars left on the track. Webber with 2 great finishes and 8 points in his last 3 finishes and Coulthard with 0 points on the season. Webber is clearly carrying this team.

Honda’s Jenson Button finished very strong in Spain with a 6th place finish and his first 3 points of the season. I though Jenson drove a great race. On the other hand, Rubens Barrichello has had 2 retirements and this last retirement from the pits. His 2 finishes so far this season are 11th and 15th and I thought he would have done better than that this race. No points on the season for Rubens when maybe they could have been possible

So far Sebastien Bourdais is carrying the load for Toro Rosso with his 2 points on the season, but a double dnf for Toro Rosso hurts a lot. As I said in my Spanish Grand Prix review Sebastian Vettel has to be shaking his head at his bad luck. 3 first lap crashes this season has really given him nothing to show for 2008 at all. If Vettel can get through lap one of a race, have no other crashes and not suffer a mechanical issue, he could grab some points. Toro Rosso so far this season aren’t where the potential of Bourdais and Vettel can lead them.

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After the Bahrain Grand Prix

Rubens Barichello, Mark Webber, and Giancarlo Fisichella so far are the standouts in this category with my edge going to Giancarlo Fisichella. I give him the edge over Rubens Barrichello just barely. Fisichella is silencing his critics just as much as Massa has to. After crashing out in Australia, he has rebounded and been very consistent has had 2 strong drives taking his Force to 12th position in the last 2 races. I might just give him a Ferrari to drive.
Honda has improved, no doubt and so has Rubens. By the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix, he was challenging Alonso for 10th place. It may have been a damaged Renault Alonso was driving, but nevertheless Honda has improved so far. I look ahead to Barcelona for the next aero change.
Mark Webber consistent at 7th place the last 2 races. He dropped one grid position in Malaysia starting 6th and finishing 7th. In Bahrain his qualifying was much worse starting 11th on the gird, but pulling again up to 7th. More importantly he has scored points in these last to races.

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What was more anticipated, the car or the livery?

Honda revealed a different coloured car than we saw earlier this week at their official launch. The launch took place this morning at their headquarters in Brakley.

We’ve already seen the new RA108 on the track in it’s initial shakedown and a little bit of testing and initial impressions are, well, it’s better than last years car.

Honda has reaffirmed it’s commitment to F1 and is determined to revive a hurting team. One process in achieving this was to change direction in car design philosophy and this is exactly what is happening with help from a stronger engineering team with more experience. Ross Brawn having taken leadership has also steered this team in what they hope is a new direction and the right direction.

Livery! Toned down quite a bit and incorporating the teams’s Earthdreams Program. Essintially this is a concept representing Honda’s commitment to harnessing the passion of Formula One and its partners to provide support and investment for good causes through a unique cause related marketing initiative.

I’m really pulling for Honda this year. It was an embarrassing 2007 season Honda who have had such a successful time in F1 over the years. Let’s hope they can shave a few seconds.

Ross Brawn, Team Principal says:

“The RA108 car is a wholly different concept to its predecessors, in terms of its aerodynamic layout and mechanical structure. The design philosophy has been developed to allow greater scope for aerodynamic packaging and exploitation, particularly to facilitate the introduction of performance upgrades through the season.

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