Goodbye Kimi?

After months of speculation, the news is finally out. Fernando Alonso is moving to Ferrari for on a 3 year contract. I am excited as I see Alonso cast in the same mould as Schumacher. Maybe, he is not as complete or as fast as Schumi, but he will get the maximum out of the car every single weekend. Kimi, on the other hand, has never been as consistent, there are days where it seems like he is on a different planet and days where he never shows up on the track.

There is a lot of speculation that he is going to Mclaren. I hope that is true, for losing him would be a big loss to F1.

I don't know what makes me support a particular driver. There are examples like Prost, Schumacher, Kimi, Heidfeld who I liked from day 1 and have looked to support them through their career. I think it is a combination of their performance with reports in the media that make me form an opinion about an individual. There have been only two cases where I changed my opinion, the first was Senna, who I hated initially but became a big fan of later on. The other is Alonso, who has really won over me over the past two years.

A new champion is crowned

So, finally one of the most exciting F1 championships ended with Lewis Hamilton being crowned at the very last corner. It was a completely disheartening time for Massa, who initially believed he had won only to lose it at the very last corner as Timo Glock's decision to stay on dry tires backfired.

Though Lewis is a great driver, I feel that Massa deserved it more. He had two sure wins in Hungary and Singapore taken away by other people's mistakes. Lewis by comparision did not have a single retirement. If things had worked out, Massa would have won quite comfortably.

On the whole, bar the occasional race, I found that the F1 races were becoming extremely boring and for the first time in many years, I did not watch a couple of races. The farce of the safety car lottery also made it worse, I'd rather that the cars start overtaking each other on track. Hopefully with the massive change in rules for 2009, we will have a better spectacle.

My picks for the best drivers and races
Races: Canada, Britain, Belgium, Singapore, Brazil. Three of these were rain affected and two were influenced by the safety car. Anyone see a problem here?
Best drivers: Kubica, Vettel, Alonso, Massa, Hamilton
Most underperforming drivers: Kovy, Raikonnen, Bourdais, Button, Fisichella

F1 2008 coming soon

The 2008 F1 season starts in less than 3 weeks. From the winter testing, it seems like it will be another Ferrari-Mclaren battle. In my view, Ferrari have the edge and when they feel the need to push, they are able to comfortably pull ahead of the rest.

Of the rest, Williams and Redbull have been impressive, whereas BMW have not really made the step up from last year. It should be interesting to see what Fernando can do in the Renault, though it seems out of the running for podiums.

There's not much to be said about Toyota or Honda, they're going to be hardpressed to get into the Top 10. Force India will be eagerly watched in India at least, but I'm not expecting any miracles from them. As for Super Aguri, it is still debatable whether they will actually last the season, as they are facing a severe financial crunch.

I'd briefly considered going to Singapore for the first ever night race. But I doubt it will happen, firstly with the race tickets costing 15K and add in airfare etc, there's no way I can justify spending 30-35K on this. Secondly, it's too close to the big vacation we're planning from Oct 2. So, I guess it's the TV for me and I'll wait for the Delhi grand prix in 2010!

Kimi - World Champion 2007

Wow, what a way to finish off the most closely fought championship in recent memory. Before Shanghai, only the most optimistic (and foolish) Kimi supporter would have given him a chance of being world champion. At Brazil, the odds shortened but it was still a very long shot. How it all came together is something that we will be wondering for a very long time.

With this win, Ferrari also move away from the Schumacher era into the Kimi era. Massa was very brave in the press conference hoping that his time will come, but I think that it is very unlikely. Kimi is now comfortable with the car, is the fastest driver out there still and as world champion, there will be a definite tilt towards his side of the garage. Massa should resign himself to playing the second driver role and collect a few wins, poles, fastest laps and a few million dollars along the way like Rubens and Eddie Irvine did.

With the championship over, all talk is going to be about Alonso and Mclaren. Everyone says that he will be leaving Mclaren to Renault. Renault are not even announcing their driver lineup until this plays out. It should be an interesting few weeks, keeping fans interested through the winter break.

I really enjoyed the world championship fight, but cannot say the same for the races. The only ones that will stay on were Canada, Nurburgring, Fuji, Shanghai and Brazil. Three out of those five were rain races, that speaks a lot about how boring F1 is nowadays.

My picks for the drivers this year were

A+	Hamilton	came up way beyond expectations
A	Rosberg, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Raikonnen, Alonso, Massa	All of them had flashes of brilliance but their fair share of mistakes
B	Webber, Vettel, Sutil	Each of them could have done far better if their car had been better
C	Kubica, Button, Coulthard, Liuzzi, Speed, Sato, Davidson, Trulli	All of them were disappointing, did nothing of note
D	Fisichella, Wurz, Barrichello, Schumacher	career ending performances for this bunch

Thrilling climax to 2007 F1 season

The final two races of the 2006 season promised to be a thrilling end to
a hard fought season, but that evaporated in smoke along with Michael
Schumacher's engine. When the circus moved to Brazil, Alonso's title was
a formality. That did not stop Michael Schumacher from producing one of
his virtuoso performances for which he is well known for.

This year, there was no such expectation. Lewis Hamilton came into the
Chinese grand prix with a 10/17 point lead over Alonso/Kimi, expecting
to wrap things up over the weekend. He did his chances no harm by
bagging pole (albeit, as we found out later, with a much lighter car)
and built up a 9 second lead in the first stint. At that time, I thought
it was just a formality, as even if Kimi caught him, he was well ahead
of the rest of the pack and would finish 4th at worst. It all started to
go wrong after the first pit stop as the advertised rain never came down
hard enough and the track started drying up. The front runners who did
not change their tyres after the first stop started going slower and
slower and lost upto 12 seconds a lap to those who took the gamble of
going on to dry tyres. Lewis was the worst hit as he had pushed a lot in
the opening stages and his tyres were in bad shape. Kimi caught and
overtook him easily (I think, as the power went off just when this
happened) and Fernando started catching him at 6-7 seconds a lap.
Instead of bringing him in, Mclaren asked him to stay out for another
lap and by the time they came to the long back straight, Fernando was
right on his rear. Lewis kept him off and headed into the pits but went
in too fast and instead of making the right turn onto the pit lane, got
stuck in the gravel trap and that was the end of his race.

Kimi won and Fernando came 2nd and in doing so, cut Lewis's lead down to
7 and 4 points. This leaves us with a mouthwatering possibility of any
of the three being crowned champions.

Kimi needs to win and hope Fernando finishes 3rd or lower and Lewis
finishes 6th or lower to become champion. If not, he needs to finish
second and hope that Lewis finishes 8th or lower AND Fernando is 4th or
lower. IMO, this is a very slim chance as even if Ferrari are
comfortably faster and Massa covers his rear, Mclaren should be ahead of
the rest

Fernando needs to score 4 points more than Lewis. If he wins, Lewis must
be lower than 4th, if he's second, Lewis must finish 5th or lower. If
he's third, Lewis must finish 7th or lower and if he's 4th, Lewis must
finish 8th or lower for him to be champion. If he finishes 5th or lower,
he is out of the championship.

Lewis is in the best position as he doesn't need to go all out for the
win. However, one could turn that on its head and say that he has the
most pressure as it is all his to lose. In fact, Kimi and Fernando
started their mind games right at the post race press conference by
setting the expectations very low for themselves and putting all the
pressure on Lewis.

It promises to be very exciting weekend in Brazil. I wish the next two
weeks goes off very very quickly.

Fuji Grand Prix

It was an amazing race yesterday, after 2-3 processional races. Every time there is a rain race, we seem to have such drama and I wonder if Formula One should have artificial flooding of the track every weekend to make things interesting!!! Lewis won, Alonso crashed and the Ferrari drivers came from the back of the grid to finish 3rd and 6th.

Finally, it looks like Lewis Hamilton is pulling clear in the race to the World drivers championship. Kimi is in with a mathematical chance, but to gain 17 points in 2 races is virtually impossible unless Hamilton retires in both. Alonso is 5 points closer, but it's still a tough ask. Hamilton can easily play it cool, settle for 4th and still win the championship. With the kind of advantage that Ferrari and Mclaren have over the other teams, that wouldn't be too hard.

An Indian win

It did not happen in the Twenty 20 world cup, our overhyped bunch yet again proved unequal to the task. But an Indian won yesterday in the GP2 championship. I was lucky to catch the last part of the race while channel surfing and it felt amazing to hear the Indian national anthem at a major motorsports event. I'm hoping this happens a few more times, with Narain Karthikeyan taking a full place in the A1GP championship.

Hungary F1 GP 2007

The Hungarian GP epitomized what F1 was all about. Deceit, politics and
intrigue were in abundance as was the lack of ontrack action. The
weekend started with the shadow of the espionage scandal hanging over
like a thick cloud and ended with the atmosphere in the Mclaren team
totally breaking down. It all happened in Q3, Hamilton went out followed
by Kimi and Alonso. Apparently, he was supposed to let Alonso through,
but that would have meant letting Kimi through too. So, he didn't and
Alonso had to slow down to get a clean run. With around 1:30 to go,
Alonso was in for his last tyre stop and Lewis was right behind. Though
Alonso was given the all-clear, he refused to leave staying on for a few
more seconds. This meant that Lewis wasn't able to complete his out-lap
before the flag came down. Alonso just made it through and promptly set
pole. This didn't go well with Lewis who exchanged a lot of swear words
with Ron Dennis over the radio. Later, we found out that the stewards
had taken a dim view of the incident and docked Fernando 5 places, which
effectively finished his chances for the race.

The person who benefited most was Kimi, who moved from 3rd to 2nd. More
importantly, he moved to the clean side of the track and was able to get
past Quick Nick at the start. From then on, the race was from
snoresville. The interesting thing was that people predicted that
Mclaren would run away, but instead it looked like the Ferrari was the
faster car and Kimi would have easily won had he started ahead of Lewis.
I also feel that Ferrari should have tried something different, maybe
converted it to a 3 stop, put Kimi out on hard tyres in the second stop
and told him to go for it a la Schumi. Chances are that he would have
still finished second, but atleast he could have tried. Maybe, with all
the retirements, they preferred to have a safe second instead of a
potentially risky strategy.

The championship now looks like Hamilton's to lose. The next few tracks
(Turkey, Monza, Spa, Suzuka, Shanghai and Brazil) should heavily favour
Ferrari. Even assuming that they score 1-2 everywhere and Kimi wins the
next five, Hammy would only need to finish 3rd to keep up Kimi and take
it to the final round at Brazil. Massa is one further point back and
since Kimi now seems to have the upper hand in the team, it's hard to
see Ferrari swinging his way. Alonso is the closest just 7 points back.
But, Hamilton seems to be just as fast as him everywhere and since I
expect Mclaren to fight for 3rd and 4th everywhere, even if he beats him
in every single race, he will still not be able to catch him. A
retirement for any of the top four could change everything though. Any
way it goes, it promises to be a fitting end to what has been an
enthralling season. And we haven't heard the last of the spy scandal
yet...

US Grand Prix

This was one exciting race. I really enjoyed the battle between Alonso and Hamilton. Especially after the first round of pitstops when it did seem that Alonso was much faster. But in Formula One, position is everything and try what he did, he could not get past. Position is indeed everything, as Kimi found out. If he had not lost out the positions at the start, I think he could have easily been on Massa's tail, which is less than 2-3 seconds behind Alonso. As he had almost 3-4 extra laps on his first stint, it is quite likely that he would have jumped Massa and possibly Alonso on the first stop and potentially won the race. Unfortunately for him, he got stuck behind Kovy, Rosberg and Massa and eventually finished almost 15 seconds behind. The one positive for Kimi fans like myself is that he does not seem to have lost his natural speed and when things come together, he is really going to fly!!!

A few friends have also asked me about my thoughts on the Indian Grand Prix. Firstly, I think it is extremely unlikely that it will happen. Formula One is all business and only money speaks. I doubt that India can come up with the required investments or the guarantee money to be paid to Bernie. Secondly, the infrastructure. In a typical race, the teams bring planeloads (I think 7-8) of equipment on Wednesday and fly out on Sunday. Can you imagine Indian customs clearing all of that in this short time? I didn't think so. Also, as the playground of the rich and famous, it will require hundreds of hotel rooms, which are in short supply in India. And somehow, I don't see Indians paying the 10-20K to see a F1 race in large numbers. So, the audience will end up mainly being those with the right "connections" and influence who will pull off free passes. It will make for a huge financial disaster, which the Indian government can ill afford. My advise to Mr Kalmadi will be to concentrate on the 2010 Commonwealth Games at first and once we make a success of it, think about Formula One.

Monaco GP 2007

I am slowly getting out of the Formula One craze that I have had for the last 15 years. It’s not that I’m losing interest, no, far from it, but the desire to see every minute of every race is fading. Part of it is due to the live timing from the FIA, I usually have my laptop on during the race and qualifying and I find myself spending equal time on that that on watching the TV. Also, nowadays, the races have become so boring and processional, that especially after the second pitstop, you can just tune off and not miss anything.

The Monaco GP was as dull as the previous race in Barcelona. I think the Mclarens were great and the skill of the drivers were breathtaking, but let’s be honest, they was never going to be any overtaking there. Even Massa, I think just decided to cruise after the first pitstop as he saw that he had no chance of beating the Macs and there was no chance of Fisi catching him. Kimi was unlucky, if he had not had Nick coming up in front of him, he could have got 7th place.

I’ve read reports that the Ferrari was never going to be good at Monaco due to its long wheelbase configuration which is not suited for tight and twisty circuits like Monaco. The next two races in Canada and Indy will be different. I’m thinking now that Kimi is a rank outsider for the championship, it will be like a weight off his shoulders and he should really be able to unleash the raw speed that lies within at these two tracks.

F1 Spanish Grand Prix

After what seemed like an eternity, the Formula One season resumed in Barcelona. Like other F1 fans, I was eagerly waiting for the weekend, though on past record, I should have known that the race is usually a procession. And it was easily one of the lamest grand prix I have seen. Other than the first corner, where Alonso went off and a little after that, when he appeared to make a move on Raikonnen, there was a monotony to the proceedings. If Raikonnen had continued, I have no doubt he would have jumped Hamilton in the pits but it was not to be. There was also the possibility that Heidfeld could have got one over Alonso, but the wheel nut put paid to that.

The only other bit of excitement during the race was whether Heikki Kovalainen would jump David Coulthard by going for an aggressive 3 pitstop strategy. At that time, I was thinking that it is a brilliant move, but alas, it turned out to be a fuel nozzle problem.

Lewis now leads the championship and has the edge on Aonso, who would have thought of that a couple of months ago? At Ferrari, Massa seems to getting the upper hand on Kimi. Kimi really needs to work on his start, it is compromising his races and preventing him from showing his true speed. Mclaren and Ferrari seem to have pulled away a little from BMW. The other midfield teams seem to have made progress, especially RedBull. The grid appears tighter than ever before, but F1 must really do something about the racing

2007 F1 season

This is turning out to be one of the best Formula One seasons so far. We have two teams that are equally matched with four drivers at the top of their game. It has produced three fantastic races full of tension, uncertainity and intrigue, just the kind of thing that makes Formula One so special. Yesterday, just before the start of the race, I was so keyed up that I could feel my heart pounding away, easily over 135 bpm. I know because that's how I feel after a very intense exercise schedule. No wonder they say that the F1 drivers heart rate goes to almost 200 bpm at the race start.

A few things that really stand out for me
- Lewis Hamilton is really the real deal. He drives like a true veteran, I really felt that yesterday, there was no way that he would make a mistake, he was that good. Reminds me of Schumi at his best. I think I am becoming a fan. It helps that I don't have to listen to the ITV commentators whose praise of Lewis would be puke-worthy (in the grand tradition of most British commentators), though the Star Sports guys are bad enough.
- I think Alonso would be shell shocked by his performance. In the last couple of years, he's had the measure of Fisi pretty much everywhere and has never been beaten in a straight fight. I think the last time it happened was with Trulli at Monaco 2004. But as he is a true champion, I fully expect him to regroup and eventually he will get the better of Lewis.
- Kimi really needs to rework his strategy. I still believe that he is faster than Massa and since the Ferrari is the fastest car, he should be the fastest guy around, but he is not getting a chance to run in clean air. For the next race, he needs to qualify light on pole and just run away from the group.
- I've always admired Quick Nick, a humble no-nonsense guy who gets on with his job with minimum fuss. However, I felt that he was never capable of really breaking into the top tier. Looking at his performance yesterday, I could be wrong, his pass on Alonso was fantastic.

There's a four week break now until the next race at Barcelona, it'll keep all F1 fans on tenterhooks throughout.

F1 2007 predictions

Many of the F1 car launches are complete. The first tests of the season are through. Renault, Mclaren, Ferrari, Toyota all look fast. But this is testing, one never know what fuel loads they are on, what tyres they are running, how hard they’re driving and so on.

I’m going to go out on a limb and give me predictions for the 2007 world championships

1. Kimi Raikonnen
2. Felipe Massa
3. Fernando Alonso
4. Giancarlo Fisichella
5. Jenson Button

Roll on Melbourne...