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.
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
posted by GMS @ 9:30 AM
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