Formula ONE 2013 Season – A curtain raiser

On 15^th Mar 2013 the Formula ONE season for 2013 would officially begin in Melbourne, Australia. The series of tests the teams carried out this year ended in Barcelona last week. Mercedes appear to be poised for a surprise with Nico and Lewis trading fastest times. Ferrari appear to be in better shape when compared to the year before with Fernando setting times that were closer to the fastest time for a particular day. They’ve also done long runs with heavy fuel loads with considerable success though many would still insist they’d have sandbagged through the runs to mask real performance.

Lotuses have done some good running, they’ve surprised everyone with their sturdy car and clever aero package last year, and they appear to be continuing a similar streak this year. McLaren, after showing some brilliant times on the timesheet in Jerez seem to have struggled with the car in Barcelona if we have to take what Jenson says at face value. I doubt if he’s really playing it safe and bucking expectation or a genuine worry that got Jenson to comment that the car still has a long way to go before it can be understood completely.

Red Bull, as they always do, haven’t given any clue as to where they stand, both drivers did their regular setup and test work without making it to the headlines all through practice. If there is one team on the grid that doesn’t need to worry about being in the headlines it has to be Red Bull. The three world championships would have  brought them considerable number of sponsors thereby providing enough financial liquidity that would be stuff of dreams for many others teams on the grid. A sizeable amount of money from Bernie’s coffer, which they’d have rightfully won as prize money, can be kept as reserve.

Despite how gung-ho some teams are, Domenicali being an example, or how tight lipped some others appear to be, the real measure of a car’s performance will be seen only during the race in Melbourne. Until then we can speculate as much as we’d want to, come up with a prediction of our own and substantiate it with data from the tests. That’d be an exercise in fallacy.

A few rules have changes from last year, here are two significant ones that’d be obvious during the race. DRS can be used only in the DRS zones during qualifying unlike last year. There is no “force majeure” in the rule book on qualifying and race day. This means teams like Red Bull, who allegedly stopped their car in the grid last year after winning because there wasn’t going to be enough fuel sample to give the FIA for tests, won’t be able to switch off their cars on the grid after finish citing technical reasons. All cars should be driven back to the FIA designated area and there should be the minimum amount of fuel available for testing at that point.

Lewis names Sebastian and Fernando as the people to beat, virtually writing Jenson off which is probably part of a larger mind game. In a few days the season resumes and this year appears to hold a lot of promise with the cars not very far from each other in terms of pace.

May the best team win!

Formula1 – Force India on right track – A response

This morning’s TNIE has an article titled “Force India on the right track” is lazy, lame and appears to be the work of a journalist smitten by Vijay Mallya that the tone is flattering. Shouldn’t journalists spend a moment to ingest what the PR machinery of teams feed them and sift the fact from fiction and balance things out instead of appearing like extensions of a team’s PR machinery?

This piece contains wonderfully spun gems like: “Sahara Force India carries with it the weight of a nation, whose potential in sports is largely unfulfilled”. “Sahara Force India’s reason for existence is the promotion of auto racing in it’s home country”. “It is a very intense team, and not a whimsical off-shoot of a show-pony millionaire”.

Sahara doesn’t have lofty ambitions of educating the indian viewer on the intricacies of the sport, its probably more interested in furthering the reach of it’s brand. With the recent ruling from the Supreme Court of India to return money to it’s depositors, Sahara is going to be facing a financial crunch which will most certainly test it’s commitment to Formula 1, something this article fails to mention even in the passing.

Vijay Mallya’s expensive indulgence in the sport is also going to face a test of his grit and mettle, his own problems in Kingfisher Airlines worsening by the day and the pressing need to infuse his businesses with fresh capital. Sahara Force India has has done reasonably well in the sport this year, but will they be around next year? The last work is still in.

The Sahara Force India Formula 1 team

Yesterday Force India announced the sale of 42.5% of the team to the Sahara group. Dr Vijay Mallya retains 42.5% while Michel Moi keeps 15 % of the remaining shares. This would mean Dr Vijay Mallya has given up 7.5% of his shares while Moi’s family has given up 35% of theirs. The whole deal is valued at $100 million which is offloading equity for more than double the price it was purchased. In Sep 2007 the old Spyker F1 team became Force India F1 (FIF1), the deal then was rumoured to be around $80 million.

Dr Vijay Mallya vehemently denied reports in the media about a possible sale 5 days ago, his statement was cleverly worded in which he said “As Team Principal, I will continue to run the team and I have no plans whatsoever to exit.” He continues to remain Team Principal while Subrata Roy becomes Chairman of the team. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Sahara to continue making new inroads with it’s branding effort. It already has high brand recall and visibility being associated with sports in India, cricket being the biggest and with Formula 1 it gets to create a new identity in luring the motor racing fan and in creating a new fan base for the sport in the country.

Its well known that the aviation business of the UB group is in a crisis with the airline defaulting on many payments and looking for cash infusion to keep them afloat. The partial sale of equity in the formula 1 team could be part of a long term plan for the group in finding a honourable exit from the extremely cash hungry sport. It’s also a clear indication of the Moi family’s intentions, from being 50:50 partner to retaining just 15% stake.

The media in India has been more than glowing in its coverage of the Force India F1 team, probably because of the UB groups big advertisement budget and Dr Vijay Mallya’s cloud. In the past I’ve pointed out how the Force India F1 team wasn’t “indian” at all. Atleast that part changes a wee bit with the Sahara group’s entry. The media hasn’t bothered to question Dr Vijay Mallya when he loudly claims he brought the race to India. They won’t ask him how his team is Indian at all except for all the Kingfisher models who show up in the paddock on race weekends. Let’s hope more engineers, technicians and eventually at least one Indian driver gets to drive a Sahara Force India Formula 1 car. Until then … let’s wait and watch.

The Monaco GP of 2011 – McLaren’s story

After making a good start Jenson Button did what a good driver would in keeping his position and setting himself up for an opportunity should one show up. He stopped slightly early for tyres, luck came in the form of a complete botch up of pit stops at Red Bull Racing and Jenson assumed race lead. By then the team appeared to have decided to run him on a 3 stop strategy. The second stop was one lap too early, getting onto super soft’s in hindsight seems to have contributed to what was in store there after.

Safety car was out, cars ran at speeds much lower than race levels saving tyres that much more and have tyres left for much more race distance and Jenson hadn’t use his primes yet. He had to pit one more time to change to primes which he did and caught up once again to the leader Vetter and Alonso who was frenetically chasing him down. A red flag, race restart and an unprecedented move of allowing cars repairs and tyre changes while they waited for the restart on the race track itself meant that Jenson would keep his 3rd position with no chance left remaining to give a go for the top podium spot.

Yesterday’s race might have given us different results if the two safety cars weren’t necessary. The other McLaren car has a different story to say. In the initial stages of the race Lewis was doing a good pace, he was on primes. An early brush with Michael caused some damage to his rear. He pulled off an excellent move on 5 time race winner Michael Schumacher. McLaren’s pit crew who usually do an excellent job let Lewis down at his stop, Lewis says he was asked to box and when he did the pit crew weren’t ready.

In the remaining period of the Lewis he demonstrated an abject lack of decorum and decency one would expect someone of his nature and calibre to have. Lewis tried to get into the inside of Felipe Massa entering Loews hairpin, Massa is no angel to go wide and allow him to pass, he’s racing too. Massa took his line and both cars brushed. They raced going into the tunnel fiercely and in the tunnel Lewis passed Massa who then loses control and rubs the walls coming out of the tunnel with a broken front wheel. Game over for him. Lewis said “I went up the inside and he turned in me on purpose” to his pit over radio, the message itself is baffling as if Lewis expected him to wait and let him pass. Lame that was.

On lap 74 Lewis tried to pull off another move on Pastor Maldonaldo who stood his line and turned at San Devote clipping Lewis off onto the kerbs and ramming into the barriers himself there. Maldonaldo’s race ended at that point, he was running 6th and would have brought home some much needed and deserved points. And then Lewis goes on to say “he turned in a good car length too early”, that’s absolutely ridiculous.

Lewis ought to know he’s racing people who are racing drivers too. Radioing to his pits or talking to the media about how everybody else is turning too early when he misses a chance to make a move and thereby causing an accident is the sour grapes story. The icing on the cake is attributing racist motives to the stewards’ decision, which of course he’s attributed to as a joke, Matt Bishop must have given him a lesson or two on what you say to the media.

This weekend is worrying for a McLaren fan, I’m sure it should be worse for the team. One is because if drivers go shooting their mouths off to the media in this fashion then where is the sport headed to. You got to accept defeat and mistakes with as much humility as you would take to success. Second is around some strategy decision the team have been making around pit stops and tyres. Third is Lewis Hamilton. It must be intensely frustrating being where he is, the pressure must be getting onto him, not to mention the girlfriend whose presence in the track almost certainly makes Lewis that much more aggressive. Don’t take my word for it, go to YouTube and see for yourself.

The red flag came in just moments before the McLaren pits said over radio to Lewis that he needs to drive back to the pits and retire because of the damage caused by the Torro Rosso to his rear wing was beyond repair. And then by some stroke of luck they are allowed to conduct repairs to the wing on the race track itself while being red flagged. Isn’t that a mighty stroke of luck ? Someone like Lewis shouldn’t forget the European GP of 2007 where a crane lifted him and put him onto the race track, check out 00:36 – 00:38 of the video link. There are lucky days, there are unlucky days. There are days when the machine behaves like it’s an extension of you and there are days when it’s a beast that doesn’t behave no matter how much you tame. We don’t need an English Fernando Alonso mate, we already have a Spaniard.

Martin Whitmarsh gives a measured response to the race to BBC, that eloquence and dignity is exactly what’s missing in Lewis’ ramblings. I hope the team talks to him and brings him back to the usually jolly fellow he is, the talented and aggressive racer, not this jerk that keeps ruining other people’s races and then says “these drivers are absolutely freaking ridiculous, stupid”. On the lighter side don’t miss this funny exchange between the Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard, Jake Humprey and a FIA official.

Note: This writer is a huge fan of Lewis Hamilton as his posts on this blog from the past would prove and has been following the McLaren Mercedes team’s Formula ONE races rather closely for over 1.5 decades. 

Formula ONE Season 2010 Preview

McLaren get to retain number 1 & 2 on their cars this year by  poaching Jenson Button. There’s no doubt that he’ll drive car number 1 while Lewis Hamilton will drive car number 2.  Martin Whitmarsh takes additional responsibility as the Chairman of FOTA, the association of Formula 1 teams. Mercedes has taken over Brawn GP, Norbert Haug will get to play a larger role in the new team and Ross Brawn retains the role of Team Principal.

Michael Schumacher makes a return to active racing with Mercedes GP. Would anyone ever have imagined Michael S to don an apparel which had the silver arrows on it after such a long, passionate and successful sting in Maranello? The Tifosi are going to be disappointed, but I hear German pride will kick in this time. I feel sad for Felipe Massa, he earned his stars under the tutelage of Michael Schumacher and was blooming into an exquisite driver in his own right when fate intervened.

Felipe returns back to racing only to find Fernando Alonso as his teammate, this is the one big bit of ill luck I’d attribute to his career through out which he’s been denied a little luck. Though they won’t accept this, Felipe will be expected to play no 2 to double world champion Fernando otherwise we all know how it might end up given Fernando’s days with McLaren with a certain rookie named Lewis Hamilton who was making his debut in F1 in 2007.

12 teams are listed on Formula 1’s official website, which means we’ll see 24 drivers on the grid. A 13th team might just make it on to the tarmac eventually, and that’d most likely be Sauber who lost BMW’s backing and have been left to fend for themselves. The 2010 season will see the return of Cosworth as an engine supplier. Teams that commit themselves to the £40 million budget will get slightly more freedom technically and commercially. Lotus makes it’s return to F1, Campos and Virgin are the other two teams that will race in 2010.

Such teams will be allowed to run movable front and rear wings and also have an engine with no rev limit (current max is 18,000 rpm). Commercially there are more incentives like an annual payout of US$10 million, free transportation of two chassis and freight of up to 10,000 kgs in weight along with 20 air tickets for each event held outside Europe. These are certainly welcome moves which are bound to excite the new teams but will Ferrari or McLaren be enthused? That’s something we can all debate on.

The new season will also see a ban on refueling, cars will start with fuels to last a full race, I hope to see cars running out of fuel every now and then. The front tyres are slated to be made narrower, minimum weight of the car has been increased to 620 kgs (currently 605 kgs) and the points system has been revamped. 25, 20, 15, 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1 point wait to be awarded to I, II, III, IV …… X positions on the grid departing from the current system of awarding points to the top 8 drivers.

Another interesting move to encourage overtaking is to ban wheel fairings, this year you won’t see those wheel cover like things on McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari etc which have a vent to direct the hot air from the brakes escape in a particular direction which aids in increasing downforce making the air dirty for the car behind. Ron Dennis is expected to be seen more on the track now that Max Mosley isn’t at the top of the FIA, Jean Todt has already started discussions to find out ways to make Formula 1 more environment friendly.

Force India and RedBull haven’t change their driving line up and 19 drivers have been confirmed by the teams as off today:

McLaren	Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari	Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa
Mercedes GP	Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg
Red Bull	Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber
Williams	Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg
Renault	Robert Kubica, ???
Force India	Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi
Torro Rosso	Sebastian Buemi, ???
Lotus	Jarno Trulli, Heiki Kovalainen
Campos	Bruno Senna, ???
Virgin	Timo Glock, Luca di Grassi
???	???, ???

There’s also been a fair share of drama and outrageous ideas been exchanged. The czar who owns F1 wanted medals to be awarded instead of points and recently he was in the news for saying that cars should be allowed to use run off areas, alternate routes a certain number of times in each race to make up track positions. KERS is officially in the reckoning for 2010 however I believe the teams have mutually agreed to not use this system although the increased minimum weight should give sufficient leeway to teams with heavier drivers in trying this technology.

At the end of this year we’ll also know which direction Force India will tilt given the media attention this team gets in India. Will it be a productive year or will FIF1 end up in the also ran list? Currently they have a technical agreement with McLaren where Mercedes provides engines and McLaren supplies gearbox, electronics and other hydraulic systems. What’ll happen to this arrangement now that McLaren and Mercedes are two distinctly separate entities?

There is also news doing the rounds that double diffusers will be banned completely. Given the fact that Red Bull’s competitiveness is almost entirely due to Adrian Newey’s aerodynamics and a good part of that performance comes from it’s diffuser we’ll have to wait and see what the teams are going to do to play around the rules and try to squeeze that wee bit of performance from their respective cars. From next week we’ll start seeing new cars being unveiled.

I hope we get to see tons of good racing and at the end of a year have a worthy champion, over to Bahrain everyone, cheers !!!

Formula 1 - How did it turn around? - A response

I usually try not to bother about how the press covers certain sporting events however this article in the Times of India is a good example of getting the facts wrong right from the word go.

The writer starts off by calling the erstwhile Spyker F1 team 'bedraggled and tardy'. Bedraggled they might have been but tardy, hardly. There's no space for tardy in the cut throat competition that exists in Formula 1. The writer should have known that Michiel Mol the co-owner of Force India also owned a part of the Spyker F1 team. Has he even heard about Mike Gascoyne who has worked with most of the F1 teams on the grid who was fired last year from FIF1?

The article goes on to say about the charm and convincing power of FIF1's team prinicipal. If McLaren were that convinced why was Simon Roberts taken aboard? Simon Roberts was McLaren's Operations Director at the time of being absorbed as COO in FIF1. Mercedes high performance engines was signed on as a engine supplier and McLaren would supply gearbox and hydraulic systems and also give on track support. KERS was available as an option which apparently FIF1 haven't exercised up till now. 

The only area where FIF1 has had to do some R & D was in the wind tunnel in Brackley which has a Jordan legacy attached to it. Of course the work these guys have done in the aero package has paid rich dividends in the medium downforce circuit that is Spa. Any one who has a decent understanding of the sport would invest in a windtunnel, that needn't be a good idea injust in 'hindsight'. The writer goes on to state that "Force India obviously found that important piece of the puzzle", pray what puzzle I ask? Isn't that a basic requirement if you want to run an F1 car in a competition?

The writer stretches his ignorance further by calling KERS "Kinetic Energy Restoration System" and "an ex McLaren brain" "Simon Peters". KERS my friend stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems and the "ex McLaren brain" is Simon Roberts. A simple visit to FIF1's website would have helped the TOI writer to double check his facts. But that is just too much to ask isnt it because then he'd have also seen that not one name on 'the force' page is 'Indian' except the team prinicipal. In fact RIL (Reliance Industries) and the lovely women on Force TV (who apparently also double as pit babes) are what's only Indian in this Formula 1 team's website.

The icing on the cake is this statement -"Mallya has brought pride to a nation that has achieved a lot but has never been associated with this technology driven sport". Can someone please say what brings pride to a nation that doesn't have engineers this team thinks are talented enough to work for them, that doesn't have an F1 driver this team thinks is good enough to drive for them? As somone who has been following the sport since 1997 I take great interest in the sport. It's nice to see FIF1 make such a great improvement to their running, but to call it an achievement to India, to run cover story on our newspapers and to expect that all Indians should take great pride in it is simply stretching things a bit too far.

Imagine the amount of revenue a team can make if it converts even 1/3rd of the cricket crazy sports fans to watch F1. How much more sponsors will line up to support the live coverage of the sport? The bidding price for live coverage in Asia would run into billions of dollars, look at the broadcasters competing for cricketing rights. Force India is a Formula 1 team owned partly by an India but to paint the car in the colors of my national flag and to even expect me to applaud it's achievements only because it's 'supposedly' Indian is a fallacy.

Silver arrows beginning to shimmer ...

It was terrific to see a McLaren driver back on the podium after China last year. Lewis Hamilton drove a near perfect race after gaining lead when Fernando went to the pits for fuel. Mind you, he didn't set the fastest lap nor did he speed away from the rest of the pack, he controlled the race from the front without giving any heartache to his crew in the paddock. It was evident from Germany last weekend that McLaren's upgrades were starting to deliver the performance they so badly needed. However it's yet to be seen if it's the nature of these slow corner ciruits that is masking the inefficiency of the aerodynamics on the McLaren's care which would be obvious in high speed corners where the Brawn and RBR cars simply fly through.

This year the FOTA teams are following a compulsory 2 week closure of their factories to allow their staff take a break in the middle of the season. In Valencia we should see some more performance enhancements done on the McLaren. When everyone was losing their patience with KERS McLaren and Ferrari didn't trash their KERS programme and the result was amply evident for everyone to see. McLaren get's the distinction for being the first ever KERS equipped F1 car to win a race, having trashed KERS it's high time BMW looked into the whole package and see how they could use it to better their vehicle's performance.

In 2007 McLaren was at the center of a storm in Hungary which was later termed as 'pitlane-gate' by some journalists. Fernando caused a problem impeding Lewis' pitstop by staying put after refuelling thus causing a delay in refuelling Lewis' car. This season it was Felipe's turn albeit a ghastly one at that. A damper spring which fell off Rubens' car floated in the air and hit Felipe, who was about 4 seconds behind Rubens, on the left eyebrow causing him to ram into a tyre wall. It was scary to see the driver motionless in the car till the medics carried him out of it into an ambulance. 

Fans of F1 are so used to see drivers get into worse accidents and walk out of the incident unscathed due to the extreme levels of stress on safety that this incident brought back the fact that in racing human's were involved. Timo Glock's crash in Aus 2008 was terrifying and when Timo walked out of the wreck without any injury it was a testimony to the high levels of safety that are enforced in F1. Felipe's accident could start off a debate about having a canopy to shield the driver, I hope better sense prevails when making a decision on this aspect. 

I hope Felipe gets well soon and is racing fit without any delay and turns out terrific performances in the GPs he gets to participate this year. I hope Martin Whitmarsh, having tasted his first ever race win as team prinicipal goes on to lead the team into more successes this year and put in a superior development effort into next year's car. I hope Formula1 remains this pinnacle of automobile engineering and continues to break new grounds through innovation and persistence. Am I hoping for too much?

F1 2009 - Thoughts after a race and a half

Albert Park this year has turned to be a complete revelation. Who'd have expected the team that almost didn't make it to active racing in 2009 to come from behind and take top honours. With testing having shown already that the usual front runners are going to have a lot of work to do to remain in the front and some surprises were in store. Williams is a good example of a team that seems to have got it almost right in terms of engine, aerodynamics and drivers. Their pace during testing has been quick and they've demonstrated considerable consistence topping time sheets. Toyota similarly have shown progress with their 2009 car during testing.

McLaren and Ferrari are the two front runners who seem to have a lot going against them. During testing they had huge problem keeping up with the rest of the pack though the reds from Italy managed to top the timesheets every now and then. It's another matter that these two teams adopted KERS early on and were focussed to run it on their car right from the first race.

Brawn GP came from nowhere with no sponsors in tow and swept the first race completely. Overnight Ross Brawn became a sensation, not that he was any less earlier. His work in Benetton with Michael Schumacher is part of F1 legend and the records he helped Michael break after moving to Ferrari is part of F1 folklore. Yes, Brawn was truly worthy of every bit of the praise it was receiving however probing a little further one would see that Honda Racing (before it became Brawn GP) spent all of 2008 developing the 2009 car. The 2009 car was supposed to be Ross Brawn's baby.

Jenson Button's second ever Formula 1 victory came in Brawn's first ever GP. Today in Sepang Jenson too his second consecutive pole position ever. Surely there's a lot in store for the fans.

Sebastian Vettel proved his driving capabilities in Torro Rosso last year and showed class in Melbourne this year. A freak incident with Robert Kubica cost both drivers their championship points and Vettel was served an unfair penalty of 10 grid places in Sepang. Sebastian Buemi's debut in active racing is proving to be interesting, there's going to be a lot to see from this guy this season. Force India with the ugliest looking car on the grid don't seem to have made rapid progress despite the technical support from McLaren-Mercedes. Ofcourse since they haven't done too much testing by mid season their true mettle will show.

After watching qualifying in Sepang I'm pretty sure of one aspect of this year. The frontrunners are the one's that are not running KERS and it makes sense because KERS needs significant economic investment. McLaren and Ferrari are the two consistent KERS runners and the weight of their cars are atleast 20-35 kgs more than the frontrunners. Add to this the fact that McLaren is having a problem with grip and cornering speeds and you know where the focus should lie. Easier said than done, how will McLaren go about closing the gap will be seen in the days to come. It would be unfair to expect McLaren to suddenly show up in the front row in the next race. However in a couple of races I expect them to be back in contention and I get this feeling that back in Woking a diffuser similar to the one's used by Brawn, Williams & Toyota are in the works and might debut in Spain, that would be subject to the FIA ruling from the hearing scheduled on the 14th of April w.r.t diffusers.

Starting from 13th & 14th would definitely not be a prospect Lewis & Heiki would be looking forward to but is there a choice? They will have to have a clean start and then make up as much places on the grid as possible. I hope Heiki adds to whatever Lewis is able to garner from each GP and avoid repeating the mistakes of last year. Over to Malysia .....

Formula1 - 2009 season - A curtain raiser

2009 will either turn out to be the year overtaking came back to F1 or the year of disastrous performances from drivers all and sundry. The reason being the sweeping changes introduced to the format this year. The absence of traction control brought a lot of focus back to the driver last year. We saw cars twitching into turns and skidding while driving out of it. Flat spotting tyres happened more often with drivers trying to outbrake each other into a turn. This year's regulations will bring max rev limit down to 18,000 rpm from 19,000 rpm. A driver will be allowed 8 engines for the season and 4 more for testing, any more engines will invite a 10 place penalty on the grid. Interestingly Renault has been allowed to introduce changes to it's engine to equalize performance with the others.

This years cars won't have any aerodynamic enhancements on their body work, this is to allow the cars running behind run in clean air rather than get caught in the turbulence impeding overtaking. The front wing will be seen lower and wider almost extending from end to end of the wheel of the car. Driver will be able to make adjustments to the wing from the cockpit, this has been limited to two adjustments per lap. Technically this means if a driver changed his wing to facilitate better traction on a slow curvy track, he'll have to switch to his normal position when he hit's a high speed straight. Any further change in the same lap won't be allowed though the quantum penalty he might invite is not clear yet.

KERS will see the light of the day in active racing this year. Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) is a new optional system which allows saving a car's energy lost normally during braking and makes it available for use on demand for the driver at a later stage. This system is designed to provide as much as 80 hp power to the driver, the catch here is that the driver is not allowed to use it for more than 6.7 seconds per lap. For the one's used to seeing the 'Fast and furious' series I believe we can imagine this to be something like the 'nitro boost' the drivers are shown to have in the movie. I'm ready to stick my neck out and say not all teams will run their cars with KERS in Melbourne, KERS comes with a significant handicap in terms of weight for the flywheel and battery and it might take some time for the teams to work out the performance equation which will vote for or against using KERS.

Bridgestone remains the lone supplier of tyres for F1 and this year's regulations bring in slicks back to active racing, no more grooves. Drivers will have to use two compounds in every race like last year but how the slicks fare in wet weather conditions is going to be anybody's guess. With reduced downforce this is surely going to go the cartoon way. It will also bring in tight racing and hopefully bring up more overtaking opportunities. 

There is a testing ban during the season which means teams won't be allowed to do any kind of testing after Melbourne until mid December. This is a move that is aimed at reducing costs and help prevent financially sound teams from splurging on testing while helping other teams to not worry about not having the money to conduct such testing. A hugely unpopular rule that was in force last year was about pitting when the safety car was on track. Imagine a car that was dangerously low on fuel and was on it's way to pit when a on track incident forced the safety car to come in. The pit lane would be closed and if this car enters the pit to refuel a penalty would be served (either a 10 second stop/go penalty or a drive-thru pit penalty). This year this rule has been withdrawn and the pit lane would remain open. To keep an eye on drivers who rush into the pits to take unfair advantage a new system will be employed which will calculate the time a car needs to take to get to the pits, if any driver arrives sooner he'll invite a penalty.

Some of these rules are aimed at helping F1 develop technologies that can be used on road cars but environmentalists will be disappointed that nothing has been introduced to help the sport take a greener turn. The cars look odd, last year's cars were stunningly beautiful while this year's are a little sore to see. The team line up is almost the same as last year the only change being in Honda Racing. This has been rechristened Brawn GP and the legendary Ross Brawn has invested his money to save this team after Honda withdrew from F1. Mercedes Benz has been allowed to supply engines to the Brackley outfit and it will be interesting to see Ross Brawn use his team and resources working with a Mercedes engine, using a Ferrari engine would have been a natural choice but it remains a mystery as to why he couldn't secure an engine deal with Ferrari. 

Force India wasn't anything to speak about last year and during the end the termination of some high profile personnel got it in the news. Vijay Mallya knows to work the media to his advantage. With McLaren electronics & gearbox and Mercedes Benz engines this team might be the dark horse this year. Who can forget Simon Roberts and the role he played in McLaren? He's taken up the role of the COO in Force India and prior to this assignment he was Operations Director in McLaren. Simon joined McLaren in 2003 as General Manager and was responsible then for for coordinating the manufacture and assembly processes, I.T., transport and logistics, quality, vehicle technology laboratories and human resources. If only the team prinicipal can concentrate on actual racing, instead of strutting pretty women (girls) on the grid week after week, this year could be a windfall year for this team with an Indian name.

All of the team predictably are holding all their cards close to the chest and rightly so. Red Bull appears to have gotten a lot of mileage and Mark Webber's recovery is well on track. Renault have been doing very well in testing, Alonso topped the time sheets this week. BMW have been the 'let your work do your talking' type and one can be sure that they are doing very good progress. McLaren should have a lot to worry about and this year's focus would be to get both the driver's and constructor's titles back to Woking. Ron Dennis has stepped down from the role of Team Prinicipal and Martin Whitmarsh (Marty) has stepped in his place. I expect Ron to show up at all races, this man got divorced last year and it can't get any worse than that.

One can expect Norbert Haug (Head of Mercedes Benz Sporting) to hang around in Force India & Brawn Racing's garage give that engine partnership he shares with this team. Abu Dhabi makes it's presence on the F1 calendar this year, Canada is absent with which F1 does not travel to North America at all. Remember previously we had a race in Montreal and in Indianapolis which lost their places in the last two years. Everytime I start writing about F1 I try to be brief but brevity is not my forte. This season promises a lot but can it deliver? Let's see how it all pans out, over to Melbourne.

Formula ONE - End of Season 2008

The Formula ONE season has finally drawn to a close (cliche). It's that time of the year where I sit down (cliche) and look at the whole season and try to write my usual junk (cliche). Though I promised myself that I'd post an entry to my blog before and after the race, knowing fully well that I was asking for the moon, the slob in me did nothing about it. I was more interested in keeping track of fuel levels, engine, weather and a multitude of thing that normally screws up McLaren's strategy (fan alert - I watch Formula ONE only for McLaren). This year has been disappointing for McLaren as a team (I got to be kidding right!!, they won the driver's championship this year then why?). I would prefer a performance like last year minus the controversy about stolen Ferrari data (Stepneygate in case you are squeezing your brains). Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, despite their intensely competitive nature of driving which at times worked against the interests of the team, kept adding points to the Constructor's tally of McLaren which saw them zoom ahead of the pack to establish early lead in the points table and consistently kept it going. McLaren finished the season with 218 points as opposed to Ferrari's 204 points but were denied the Constructor's championship due to the spy scandal, that was the hardest blow to any team in the history of Formula ONE. The $100 million fine they had to pay should have dented their P&L sheet badly.

The last season saw only two big teams competing for first and second places: McLaren & Ferrari. The other's didn't have the horsepower to dream of finishing ahead. This year has been a refreshing change on that front. The two engine rule and the various other technical regulations introduced like the lack of traction control all have played into the hands of an avid racing fan. How else could one have ever seen Sebastian Vettel drive his Ferrari powered Redbull designed car to first place for Torro Rosso in the Italian Grand Prix? Robert Kubica won his first race ever in Canada, last year it was Lewis'. BMW Sauber reaped huge returns by competing fiercely for qualifying positions and race results. In effect, Sauber's stole more constructor's points from McLaren this year than Ferrari. Heiki Kovalainen is without doubt a great driver and has performed reasonably well in his first year with McLaren. I did expect a lot more from him but am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt because he's young and is probably surrounded by similar folks. He doesn't have the support which Lewis Hamilton enjoyed last year. Remember last year, Lewis Hamilton was the rookie and Fernando Alonso was the champion roped in by McLaren to turn it's sagging fortunes. Fernando surely brought in immense experience into McLaren working hard with his team to extract 1/10th of a second in every move. After Adrian Newey's departure from McLaren in 2005 Simon Lacey was entrusted the aerodynamics department and in Fernando it looked like the team had found it's perfect sounding board, the one person who can rip test all the aero stuff they were designing, after testing those in the wind tunnel, and give them exact feedback. It worked well for McLaren until Lewis sneaked from behind showed he was no rookie but was there to win as well. A lot of water has flown under the Thames (for that matter any river in the world) since then and Fernando's exit at the end of the last season ushered in the entry of Heiki Kovalainen. McLaren won 8 races compared to Ferrari's 9 last season and this season McLaren won 6 compared to Ferrari's 8, Renault won 2 while Torro Rosso and BMW Sauber won 1 race each.

The last time McLaren won the Constructor's crown was in 1998 when Mika Hakkinen was world champion. Lewis is no Mika, he's a star already, a stud at that. Who else could have had 3 girlfriends in 2 years, one of them being billionaire boss' (clue:TAG) daughter all their good times splashed across tabloids and the internet. Lewis sometimes is too humble to be believable, he's never shown disgust or rage on the track or off it (nothing in the media as yet) and wins with panache and loses with equal spirit. He's any team owner's dream. I strongly believed his driver (Anthony Hamilton) would strongly try to pitch the superstardom hard in the F1 market and get a move to the red folks stationed in Maranello, Italy (Bah, I should have simply said Ferrari!!!). I don't see that happenning though, Lewis is comfortably signed up till 2012 and from the statements he's been giving out to the media he's pretty happy with McLaren and hopes to drive all his career for the team. The next season is going to be even more challenging with the introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), slick tyres and a 3 race engine rule.

How can I write a year end post and not talk about how the championship was won by Lewis? They were the most intensely thrilling 30 seconds in my life. Massa won the race and almost celebrated the victory and the championship as Lewis was running 6th one place lesser than the requirement to win the Driver's championship. At the very last moment he passes 4th place runner Timo Glock who slowed down due to dry tyres on a wet track and regained 5th position to steal the championship. The sheer tension of seeing all these unfold in front of one's eyes was a little hard to bear, tempers were running high as was the heart whose beat would have sounded like a rumbling train at 140kmph. That was it, Lewis Hamilton became the 2008 Driver's World Champion and brought the title back to McLaren after 9 years, the last time they had it was in 1999 with Mika Hakkinen.

Force India meanwhile has severed their deal with Ferrari for engines and has signed up with Mercedes Benz High Performance Engines (Illmer) for engine and McLaren Automotive Racing for hydraulic systems, KERS and support. So the VJM02 cars next year will be very competitive and I'd expect them to be in the top 8 at any time. Initially it was rumoured that McLaren would also supply Force India the chassis but that was not to be the case. With this deal, Force India also get's exclusive access to the whole list of McLaren's official suppliers which will certainly work well for them. Getting Collin Kolles & Mike Gascoyne out of the way will be the sad thing to happen and don't be surprised if Dr.Vijay Mallya becomes Team Prinicipal to reap the benefits of all the hard work these folks put in the past year resurrecting the team. Clever guy this man is, when it come to having the cake and eating it nobody can ever come close to him. (cake!!! clue: calendar)

F1 season start - Melbourne

The season has begun and the absence of driver aids has made it thrilling and full of suspense. A driver could be leading the pack and could loose it all out by getting onto the gravel in the last turn or a little too much speed and the attempt to control it could end the race. This year's season is going to be dependent on the driver more than the technology as we've seen in the past 5 years. Being a McLaren fan it was disappointing to see McLaren car bear numbers 23 & 24, I've never seen the car go below 10 in the last 11 yrs that I've been following F1. But, if this was a fight between the Big Daddy of FIA (read Max 'the rat' Mosley) and Ron Dennis the first round has gone to the latter. Kimi had engine problems at the end of Q3 and was barred from taking part in Q2. Massa did a splendid drive to get a position in the second row for tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton continued his top run and took pole, Kubica did an awesome drive by taking P2 despite the huge oversteer and subsequent run out of the kerbs into the last corner.

The new qualifying format allows all cars to run in Q3 (20 minutes), six slowest cars drop out at the end of Q3. The remaining 16 cars will then run in 15 minutes at the end of which the six slowest cars will drop out at the end of this session. The final session Q1 will run 1o cars and lasts for 10 minutes which will determing the positiong of the cars from 1 to 1o on the race the next day. The fuel burn in lap has been done with and cars can have as much runs as possible in any qualifying window the most important being how well a car does in Q1 if it get's through the other two sessions. The year has begun well, over to the race tomorrow. If one has to go by McLaren's form last year and the look this morning the race is theirs.

Alonso moves out of McLaren - It's official!

Here's the press release from McLaren which I've reproduced verbatim below. Who'll fill in his place is an interesting question. Where will he go to? Renault? Would it be a seat swap between Alonso and Kovalainen? Answers to all these questions should come in the days ahead.

Woking, 2nd November 2007: Following a meeting between Fernando Alonso and McLaren, it was agreed that it would be in the best interests of both parties to bring the relationship to an end.The mutual parting of ways has not been discussed until now, since it was felt that any such discussion could have seriously disrupted the team’s and Fernando’s 2007 Formula 1 World Championship challenge. Both parties believe that this was the right decision.

FERNANDO ALONSO: “Since I was a boy I had always wanted to drive for McLaren, but sometimes in life things do not work out. I continue to believe that McLaren is a great team. Yes, we have had our ups and downs during the season, which has made it extra-challenging for all of us, and it is not a secret that I never really felt at home. I know there have been suggestions of favouritism within the team and people say a lot of things in the heat of battle, but in the end I was always provided with an equal opportunity to win. Today’s decision allows all of us to focus on 2008, and I wish the team, Vodafone, Banco Santander, Mutua Madrileña and all the other team Partners who I have worked closely with during the year, the best for the future.”

RON DENNIS: “Everybody at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, especially McLaren’s Spanish Partners Banco Santander and Mutua Madrileña and the team’s title partner Vodafone, want to wish Fernando all the best for the future. He is a great driver but for some reason the combination of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Fernando has not really worked out, and in the end we reached a stage where none of us could find a way to move forward. We all believe that our joint decision to part company is for the best, and we will now continue to focus on our 2008 World Championship challenge.”

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will announce any additions to its existing driver line-up in due course.

Formula 1 season - 2007

We've reached the end of the season and it's official, Kimi Raikkonen is crown World champion. This was a surprise much to the amazement of Ferrari fans and Raikkonen drove extremely well in the final race in Brazil to steal the title from Lewis who was so close and yet so far. Murphy's law kicked in at the worst possible time in his McLaren car and Lewis ended up being tied with Alonso on the points effectively making him 2nd due after comparing finishes.

A lot of hungama is going on with the teams, Renault is yet to announce it's lineup and so does Toyota, Force India (Spyker), Honda and a host of other teams. Alonso being dropped by McLaren doesn't look like a possiblity to me, in an earlier post I'd written at length at how both Alonso and McLaren need each other. McLaren has appealed against a technical anomaly which saw two drivers from Williams and BMW not being penalized and any favourable ruling in this matter could make Lewis Hamilton the world champion.

Singapore circuit has been cleared for next years calendar and a night race should be exciting for the drivers as well as the spectators. I for one have been very lazy in updating this blog primarily because I'm stuck with no internet most of the time. Trick or treat, it's Halloween time and I hope the scares are not life threatening. I also wish all my readers a very Happy Deepawali in advance in case I end up not posting anything in the next week or so.

Christmas time is coming and the prospect of the very smell of the season is an exciting prospect, no matter how many carols you hear, no matter how many cards you send and receive, it's Christmas fever from now on and I'm going to indulge into the season. Every bit of it.

Japanese grandprix 2007 - Fuji Motor Speedway

The race at Fuji motor speedway which replaces Suzuka this year was eventful in many ways. Lewis started the race from pole with Alonso following him, Kimi and Felipe started from the second row. A delay in intimating the Ferrari team to use extreme wet weather tyres caused the Ferrari's to pit very early for a tyre change and loose grid position. Lewis was never challenged by any other driver. Alonso's first stop got him into a lot of traffic and had a tough time trying to pass cars in a race that looked more on water than tarmac.

Alonso aquaplaned into a turn and hit the wall which ended his race in Fuji. The finale saw Lewis take 1st, Heiki Kovaleinen take 2nd and Kimi take the 3rd positions. Sebastin Vettel's performance was good and at one point it looked like he'd finish 3rd by he sabotaged his as well as Mark Webber's chances by crashing into him. Heiki drove a perfect race and took a well deserved 2nd position almost giving in his position to Kimi in the penultimate lap but held up to finish ahead of the Finn.

It's just a week ahead to Shanghai and if Lewis wins here then the championship is sealed. The race was exciting in parts but was largely boring with the safety car leading the pack. I hope China sets the stage for some fine racing.

McLaren - Stepneygate - Constructors championship

Ferrari has finally gotten what it always wanted, the Constructors crown for the year 2007. I wouldn't want to debate if stripping McLaren of the points was fair or not, want to wait for the FIA report which should have the reasons for this drastic step. McLaren's performance this year was mercurial and this step by FIA (read Max Mosley) appears to be harsh and detrimental to the interests of the sport. The team that has some of the finest and highest paying sponsors had to take a beating from the FIA (read Max Mosley) for obvious reasons. My heart goes out to Ron Dennis and I hope they appeal against this decision when the FIA report is out. What a farce the constructors title has been reduced to be!

PRESS INFORMATION - STATEMENT FROM RON DENNIS - 13 March 2007

Paris, France, Thursday 13th September 2007

“The most important thing is that we will be going motor racing this weekend, the rest of the season and every season. This means that our drivers can continue to compete for the World Championship. However having been at the hearing today I do not accept that we deserved to be penalised in this way.”

“Today’s evidence given to the FIA by our drivers, engineers and staff clearly demonstrated that we did not use any leaked information to gain a competitive advantage.”

“Much has been made in the press and at the hearing today of emails and text messages to and from our drivers. The World Motorsport Council received statements from Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Pedro de la Rosa stating categorically that no Ferrari information had been used by McLaren and that they had not passed any confidential data to the team.”

“The entire engineering team in excess of 140 people provided statements to the FIA affirming that they had never received or used the Ferrari information.”“We have never denied that the information from Ferrari was in the personal possession of one of our employees at his home. The issue is: was this information used by McLaren? This is not the case and has not been proven today.”

“We are also continually asked if McLaren didn’t use the information, what was the reason for Stepney and Coughlan collecting all this data about Ferrari? We can only speculate as neither Coughlan nor Stepney gave evidence at today’s hearing, but we do know that they were both seeking employment with other teams, as already confirmed by both Honda and Toyota.”

“There will be no issue for the 2008 season as we have not at any stage used any intellectual property of any other team.”

“We have got the best drivers and the best car and we intend to win the World Championship.”

Monza - A low downforce circuit ... now what is that?

Monza is the fastest circuit in the Formula 1 calender and the reason for that is that it demands a low downforce setup from the cars to be able to extract maximum speed from the track. It's really important to make up those milliseconds in each chicane and corner to be able to carry maximum speed into a straight and build on it. The maximum speeds recorded by all cars running the race yesterday would have shown that something more has been done to the car to extract the speed from it with a little compromise on traction. Consider this - Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both hit maximum speeds of 350 kph in Monza while in Hungaroring Lewis managed to hit 296 kph while Fernando managed 299 kph. What do the race engineers and drivers do the extract this sort of performance from their cars? We know for sure that the engine specification remain same for the full year and the rpm is limited at 18000/minute. What exactly changes in the setup that helps drivers hit such high speeds?

Let's attempt to answer this question using the two pictures below. Picture 1 is Lewis Hamilton's car running in the Italian Grand Prix while picture 2 is Lewis' car running in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Let's first look at the section marked as A. This is the rear wing and in Monza it sported a flat profile which is evident in the way 'vodaphone' looks on it, it's facing the sky. This helps in reducting drag to get higher straight line speeds. The drawback to this is the reduced downforce in curves which don't make too much of a difference in a track like Monza where you don't have hairpin bends and too many tight turns. Look at section marked as A in Picture 2 and you will see the double profile rear wing which is slightly tilted to that extra bit of downforce for better traction and the difference is markedly evident in the way the letters 'vodaphone' appears to the front. It's tilted a little and not as straight as we've seen in Monza.

Turn 1 in Monza is the a tight turn which can take a car off it's line or cause a skid and depending on how much speed is carried into the turn a lot of nasty things can happen. All other turns are less tight. We can observe drivers attacking the kerbs with ferocity to turn as little as possible because of the reduced traction available and the less effort required to get in and out of a chicane/turn. Alonso did this to perfection during qualifying and all through the race to take the first place. In the section highlighted as B in Picture 1 we can see the absence of the the upper profile in the front wing. The front wing has two smaller flaps connecting the nose and wing which gives just the bare minimum amount of downforce required for this circuit. Compare this to the section marked as B in Picture 2 and you'll see that the double profile front wing could have hampered the front end aerodynamics of the car and shaved off those milliseconds that could have added up to a longer lap time.

Aerodynamics .... my oh my .... how much of a factor they are in a Formula1 car!

Italian Grand Prix - Monza - Alonza

What a finale to the Italian grand prix? High drama at the start and a couple of laps behind the safety car and McLaren finished in the positions they started - Alonso first and Hamilton second. McLaren dominated the race with blistering speed and a superb suspension which took all the pounding from hitting the kerbs, Alonso did this the best. Massa retired prematurely due to a suspension problem and a clever Ferrari one stop strategy for Raikkonen gave hope to a scarlet finish which wasn't meant to happen. A top class overtaking move by Hamilton outbraking Raikkonen who had taken 2nd place after Hamilton's 2nd pit stop. McLaren delivered a slap on the face of Ferrari and amidst all the noise and commotion over the spy scandal saga, this was a 'let the work do the talking' statement. On another note, Vijay Mallya is all set to launch a full fledged F1 team after taking over Spyker. It's high time Kingfisher branched out into a team, enough of piggy backing on Toyota. Hail Mallya!

Italian Grand Prix qualifying

Fernando Alonso takes pole in the race tomorrow in Monza by doing a flyer of a lap in 1:21.997 followed by Lewis Hamilton who took 1:22.034 to qualify. The third position is occupied by Felipe Massa followed by Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikonnen. I expect a McLaren one-two and an exciting race tomorrow unless McLaren do something really bad with the pit stops. Amidst the new allegations of email exchanges between Pedro DeLaRosa and Fernando Alonso about Ferrari's tyre setup leaked by Nigel Stepney to Mike Couglan, a victory tomorrow should provide some solace temporarily to the stressed out team.

Turkish GP 2007 - qualifying

Felipe Massa took pole by blistering through the last couple of seconds with a fine lap in 1:27.329 secs shaving a little over 0:00.040 secs of Lewis Hamilton's timings relegating him to 2nd on the grid. Kimi and Alonso take third and fourth places respectively. Fernando Alonso set the fastest time if one was to look at the qualifying session as a whole with a 1.26.841 in Q2. He was running the softer compound tyres then and could have been on lower fuel loads and he tried Q3 with the harder compound tyres. Lewis and Felipe were about 0:00.200 quicker than Kimi and Fernando probably because they went into Q3 with lower fuel loads.

I am betting my money on the McLaren's and Fernando in particular after seeing the way he drove in Istanbul yesterday and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up finishing 1st.

Fernando Alonso v/s Lewis Hamilton - McLaren at war after more than a decade

Do a search on either of these drivers and one will be bombarded with opinions, edits and blogs all over the internet about the recent problems and how the drivers have been reacting to it. I'd like to stay away from those topics and try to look at some other areas which is normally not highlighted. Alonso came to McLaren hoping to become it's blue eyed boy, a reasonable wish one could say for a double world champion. McLaren signed him at the end of his first world championship itself, this is a point to note. The Spainard would have been surprised to see a more democratic atmosphere where the team doesn't pamper one driver over another in terms of resources available and personnel.

McLaren has a policy of equality between drivers and this would certainly have come as a shock to Alonso. Ron Dennis is a good man, he's got a balanced outlook and keep his team well organized not to speak of his excellent talent in drawing sponsors to his team. But if there's one area he's lacking in then it's the lack of bravado on the track. He's not the boss on can drink a beer with, he's more understated and likes to talk less (apart from ronspeak which is a legend unto itself). Apart from Mika Hakkinen, we've never seen Ron hug a driver on Parc Ferme or even backslap the driver. This bond could be unique and can be linked to the devastating crash Mika had in Australia which took him out of action for a couple of months and impaired hearing on one side.

It also can be attributed to Mika's receptive nature, despite being a good driver and a hard man at swallowing pressure, Mika's lost his composure a couple of time, the most notable being Monza 1999 where a wrong shift of gear took Mika into the gravel throwing away his race lead where he bitterly sobbed in the sides of the race track. But overall Mika proved to be a man of character, he was the gentleman on the grid and was even branded unfit towards the end of his F1 tenure being branded 'too-good' for the race track. But even then Mika set the records straight by demonstrating excellent car control and capability in 2001, case in point - Silverstone and Indianopolis.

Back to Alonso now. McLaren needs Alonso as much as Alonso needs McLaren. There aren't too many options for the double world champion. The only place that would look like a promotion is Ferrari but Italians and Spainards are not good bedfellows. Alonso will not go from McLaren, I'm sticking my neck out on this one. Simply because the McLaren car this year is a rock solid package, it has completed every race it has started and except for just two failures during qualifying - Alonso's engine block and Hamilton's tyre, the car has performed incredibly well. I'm doubly sure that the research and development effort of McLaren is immensely being benefitted by Alonso's experience.

Alonso's experience on the track on various cars the best of them being the Renault is a testimony to the fact that he know a hell a lot about setting them up. McLaren's engineers could be benefitting immensely from this aspect of his relationship and this could be indirectly benefitting Hamilton too who is a rookie in F1 and surely wouldn't be able to fine tune the setup at the level he currently is in. Alonso also gives some Spanish sponsors visibility the most notable being Santander, his departure could raise questions on that.

Hamilton on the other hand has been a revelation. He's the classic case of being too sweet to spit and too bitter to swallow - a catch 22[only in the context of the Hungarian GP, Lewis's behaviour has been impeccable in all other races]. Ron Dennis would certainly not expected his protege to do so well in his debut. That is where the hitch lies in. Compare Hamilton's pay with Alonso and he should be grumbling inside at the disparity. The fact that he other is a double world champion means nothing to the rookie. As far as he can see, he's outperforming the champion in every race and qualifying session and he demands to be equalled in all aspects - sponsors, technicians, resources, money.

Hamilton is an incredibly straight and talented driver too. He's got the thirst to win every race he starts in and he doesn't seem to pound the car in the circuit like a JP Montoya. He knows his limits when pushing and knows when he needs to back off and simply complete the race. Nobody expected Hamilton to do so well, let's face it that's the answer to the problems McLaren is facing. Ron was not prepared otherwise he'd have found out better ways to synergize the two and get them focussed. Remember when Mika rejoined racing after the accident David was the guy with more experience and chances to win but Mika ended up being double world champion and the Mika/David combination went all the way till 2001 till Mika bid goodbye to Formula1.

This is the longest serving pair of drivers in the history of Formula 1 no doubts about it and neither Mika nor David nor Ron have shown scorn or disgust at the team like we've seen recently. That says that no matter how much you accuse Ron Dennis of not being able to communicate clearly he's done some things in fact a lot of things right in this case. Let's give the man some credit when it's due, Prost and Senna were like petrol, they can fire up anytime. Mika and David were competing against each other but not at the cost of the team. Mika's first Formula1 victory in Jerez is a testimony to the gentleman that David Coulthard is.

The three week break before the Turkish GP is bound to heal some of the wounds and will get the two drivers back to talking terms. Unless the FIA decides to play spoilsport, which increasingly looks like a possibility looking at Ferrari's media interactions, McLaren are going to finish this season right on top. At the end of the year anything can happen and I'd be very glad if the developments end up making a seat vacant for Nick Heidfeld to fit in, until then let's just enjoy the spectacle one race at a time. Over to the Turkish grand prix of 2007.