Kimi Raikkonen World F1 Champion – Or Is He??

Kimi Raikkonen wrapped up the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship yesterday in Brazil with a beautiful win after Felipe Massa helped him out and deferred to second place.
At the time of writing this article McLaren has stated they will file a formal appeal on the stewards’ decision to not penalize Williams and the two BMW cars over their use of illegal fuel which contradicts article 6.5.5 of the Formula One Technical Regulations. What it means is this. Should the three cars alleged to have used illegal fuel be disqualified from the race, it would elevate Lewis Hamilton to Fourth place and he would then have enough points to be named World Drivers Champion for 2007. While this appeal is heard the race can not be declared official, so Kimi will have to wait a couple of more weeks. I personally think that the appeal will be quashed but if it isn’t the penalty will most likely be one where the teams lose their constructors points but not the driver’s points therefore leaving the standings as they are with Kimi coming out on top.

Now, indulge me if you will for a few moments.

From a different angle, I find it hard to believe that McLaren whom have been basically bullet proof on reliability the entire season and Hamilton who has been the consummate professional finishing almost all his races on the podium and garnering his biggest wins on tracks he has never raced on before, all of a sudden collectively drop the ball in the largest way during the last two races of the season and flush the Championship down the toilet with ROOKIE mistakes when all Lewis had to do was show up in the top four or five positions to wrap it up. Take for the first example the Chinese Grand Prix, where Hamilton didn’t take on new rubber at his pit stop and then proceeded to stay out on carcass tires for 3-5 extra laps, all the while losing 30 seconds a lap on the last couple of them. Then, when he decides to come in he tanks it into the gravel trap at 40km/h. Result: NO POINTS. Secondly, Brazil. One would think that after China, McLaren would tell Lewis to just cool out and go easy during the opening laps. But what does he do, he tries to get it all done in corner three and when that resulted in only a few positions being lost his car mysteriously finds neutral on lap 8 for 42 seconds then it works perfectly for the rest of the race. Result: Far enough down the order to NOT win the Championship.

Why do I say all this you ask?

Well, a way back in the summer when McLaren was punished for the spy scandal, they were effectively disqualified from the entire season as a team, save for the drivers who were given immunity for handing over their e-mails. But really, the drivers are part of “The Team” and should have been disqualified as well. Now, when you do that and your name is Bernie Ecclestone you say hang on, if we kick the whole team out we stand to lose much more financially (Billions???) as a whole for years to come and cause irreparable damage to the sport. So to save face and make everyone happy you cut a private backroom deal with McLaren and say you can keep racing but at no time are you to win the Drivers Championship because you really shouldn’t be here right now. Once that deal is done, the sponsors are happy, you get a three way driver title fight, you increase your gate money at the remaining four races, your worldwide television audience probably doubles and everyone is on the edge of their seats until the final lap of the last race. Not to mention, a lot more people will tune in when next season starts on 15 March 2008.

Look, all I’m saying is this. The above scenario is a possibility, probably more than we would care to know. That’s all. It’s not a proven fact, and we will probably never know if in fact it did go down like that.

But for those people that believe all the mistakes made during the last two races were just ho-hum happenstance and “oh well, that’s racing”. I say this… thinking like that is akin to saying the Bilderberg’s get together once a year to discuss their recent vacations, play croquet, and eat sandwiches with the crusts cut off. It just doesn’t happen like that.

C’mon people, at the end of every day COMMERCE ALWAYS WINS, no matter what.

See you all in Australia on 15 March 2008 for the start of another season.

I might also add that as of me posting this article this morning it has been confirmed that the TV viewing audience for yesterday was the highest in the last Seven years. Just goes to show that what I said above is probably true. Well orchestrated Bernie, well done indeed.

Ciao

Down To The Wire In Brazil - The Math Of Formula 1.

Well Folks, here it is, we're down to Brazil and we have a Three way Battle Royal for the title.

LEADING POSITIONS...
1 L Hamilton 107
2 F Alonso 103
3 K Raikkonen 100
4 F Massa 86
5 N Heidfeld 58
6 R Kubica 35
7 H Kovalainen 30
8 G Fisichella 21

AND WHAT COULD HAPPEN ON OCT 21

Simplest Scenario: A top-two finish makes Hamilton champion.

If Hamilton WINS the race he becomes champion.

If Hamilton finishes SECOND to either driver he becomes champion.

If Hamilton finishes THIRD Alonso can only beat him by winning. They would tie on points but the Spaniard becomes champion on a superior wins count-back (five to four).

If Lewis finishes FOURTH he is champion as long as Alonso doesn't win.

If Hamilton is in any position in the top FIVE it does not matter where Raikkonen finishes.

If Lewis finishes FIFTH Alonso has to win to become champion.

If he finishes SIXTH Raikkonen can take the title with a win and would take the title on a superior wins count-back (six to four wins). But Alonso can beat both by finishing second.

If Hamilton finishes EIGHTH Alonso can take the title by finishing in the top three.

If ALONSO wins Hamilton has to be second.

If ALONSO is out of the top four he cannot become champion.

If RAIKKONEN wins Hamilton has to finish in the top five to beat him but it depends on Alonso's results.

If RAIKKONEN is out of the top two he cannot be champion.

And there you have it. C'mon Kimi, take it down my son.

McLaren Drops The Ball - Hands Ferrari the Win.

There are plenty of excuses you can make for Hamilton and, believe me, I’ve been making them. Not only do I believe all the excuses, I admire Hamilton tremendously. Everything about him, on and off the track, is impressive. His victory in the rain at the Japanese Grand Prix transformed him from a star in the making to the heir of Senna and Schumacher. But you know what? After McLaren dropped the ball AGAIN on Sunday in Shanghai I have serious doubts that Lewis will win the Championship in Brazil.

Truth be told, Alonslow and Hamilton shouldn’t even be racing right now as the team was disqualified over a month ago. And, both those drivers are part of “the team”. Wouldn’t you agree? McLaren have been dropping the ball and cheating the whole entire fucking year and to see them at the sharp end of the grid after all their proper fucking up of everything is just not right in any way shape or form.

So, after driving a brilliant race on Sunday in China the only driver even close to being worthy of the Championship crown is Kimi Raikkonen. Don’t get me wrong, it would be nice for Lewis to win in his rookie year but when you are running around a semi wet track on tire canvass and losing 10 seconds a lap to everyone, and you do it for three laps in a row, maybe…just maybe…you don’t deserve to be called the best. I say it was about 50/50 if you want to play the blame game. In many incidents in the past drivers have made their own decision to come into the pits when something is wrong, and had Lewis done that, he would have finished 3rd or 4th and wrapped up the Championship right then and there. The problem was that the whole team was concentrating on the after party instead of getting the job done first. So fuck ‘em.

Here’s to Kimi, I raise my glass to him and Ferrari, god knows it’s pretty tough to win a Championship when you have Four Ferrari’s racing in every race eh?

This is how I hope it goes in Brazil. Kimi wins, Massa second, Nico third, Vettel with his second fourth place finish in as many races and the two McLaren’s take each other out on lap one or two.

Remember, you heard it here first. See you in Brazil in a fortnight.

Ciao

Hamilton Wins In Japan - Lead grows to 12 points heading into China.

It was the worst race of the season, in treacherous wet conditions, but ended as the best – outside of the Montreal race that is. After 19 laps behind the safety car the officials decided to let the boy's race. Wow! And what a race it was. Chock-a-block full of wheel to wheel slicing and dicing, plenty of excursions off the track for those who were overzealous in their driving and points paying positions for those who held it together.

For Slowlonso, however, it was a day of disaster. Hamilton blew him off without any problem. This was a race where you could clearly see the benefit of getting pole position on Saturday (better vision while driving in the rain, preferential pitting options etc…). Fernando slipped way back after his first pit stop, had several off-course excursions, collided with Vettel and then properly fucked himself by crashing heavily in turn six later in the race. Now he's 12 points back and let me just say it will be very hard to make them up over the last two races.
I got nervous as hell when Kubica came down the inside of Lewis going into a turn while driving like it was bone dry on the track. He consequently lost all grip and slammed right into the side of Hamilton spinning both cars around in what looked like a synchronized ballet move. Thankfully the McLaren is built almost to Ferrari Spec's, so Hamilton's car was not affected by the incident and he continued on. The stewards of the race soon penalized Kubica with a drive through penalty for his stupidity.
Outstanding drives go to Kimi (whom I wish would drive that way at EVERY race), Kovalainen, Coulthard, and everyone else who brought their cars to the finish line in one piece. Every driver earned their stipend during this race, that's for sure.
Hamilton now leads the title chase with 107 points to Alonslow's static 95, while Raikkonen is now up to 90 points. Massa, on 80, is now officially out of the title chase with two races remaining, and he will be expected to help Kimi in his quest for the Championship. Basically, that means he could also be helping Lewis by slowing up Alonslow if he is ahead of either of them during the races.
Well, that's all for now. It will get nail bitingly fun from here on in.

See you next weekend in Shanghai.