The weekend marked the end of the long F1 break and we were long overdue for our fix. Things picked up at the historic Spa Francorchamps circuit for the 2010 Belgian GP. The weekend started off with Mark Webber taking control of qualifying and earning pole but Lewis Hamilton was hot on his heels and managed to nab the second spot on the grid. Sebastien Vettel had a bit of a bobble in his performance and qualified fourth.
When the lights went out the next day Mark Webber fell asleep at the wheel and had a horrible start which Lewis Hamilton was more than happy to capitalize on and that was all she wrote. While Lewis was running away from the field Sebastien Vettel was trying to fight his way to the front after some bad tire decisions put him in mid-pack. He actually lost control at one point and slid into the back of Jenson Button, taking him out completely. Vettel’s car was ok but the stewards didn’t like his stunt at all and smacked him with a drive through penalty which pretty much threw him to the back of the pack. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton drove on to his first race win since June and preserving his championship points lead. While Sebastien Vettel’s championship chances may be totally done all because of a wet track and a bad decision. Check out a full race report on SPEED’s website.
While Audi was kicking butt in LeMans, F1 was putting on their own show in another French speaking country. Once again the Canadians got to enjoy the pageantry of F1 while us Yankees had to settle with watching it on TV. If you did get a chance to watch you would have seen Lewis Hamilton dominate the weekend and go on to win the race leading a McLaren 1-2 finish with Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari bringing up third. Lewis drove a pretty masterful race and with his teammate Jenson Button in tow they pulled off a second consecutive 1-2 finish. Lewis and Jenson now lead the driver’s points standings respectively while many are starting to question of the Red Bull show is over. Check out SPEED’s full post-race report for the juicy details.
The Ice Man commeth!! This weekend was a return to form for the red team as 2007 world champ Kimi Raikkonen took the win at the Grand Prix of Belgium. Although the competition was shaved down a bit as a massive collison took place before the first lap was complete. A huge pile up in the second turn collected points leader Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, and more than a few others which nicely thinned out the field for Kimi as he dodged the carbon fiber carnage. In a pleasent surprise Giancarlo Fisichella (who won his first pole in several years over the weekend) earned a 2nd place podium and earned the first points ever for the Force India Mercedes team. Good job Fisi! Check out the SPEED post race commentary below.
I guess when American open-wheel racing split Formula One really wasn’t paying attention! It was announced yesterday that FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) have reached an impasse with the FIA and would make efforts to start their own championship in 2010. Who is FOTA? Well they’re something of a union of some of the biggest teams in F1. FOTA includes: Ferrari, BMW Sauber, AT&T Williams, Renault, Red Bull, McLaren, Toyota, and the newest member Brawn GP. Basically every team on the grid! And they’re all sick of how Mr. Mosely and Bernie are running the show. At first this was all just hearsay but last night FOTA dropped a bomb of a press release to put the word out there.
As you can imagine many F1 fan boys and others who are heavily invested in F1’s success are running around like chicken’s without a head right now. Although I still remain skeptical about this whole situation. While a few of the FOTA teams have a lot of money and influence and could theoretically start their own series, my question is where would they race? The FIA still holds contracts with almost every race track in Europe! Does FOTA have the power to make all those tracks break ties with the FIA and risk inflated lawsuits? Probably not…
Personally I see this as just a massive power play on the part of FOTA and if the FIA is smart they’ll finally put their pinky’s down, pull their heads out of their “arses” and take FOTA more seriously. In the meantime I’ll try to keep you posted on the back and fourth of this nasty little situation.
A few days ago Ferrari streamed the reveal of their new F60 F1 Racecar on their website. Naturally video and photos are starting to trickle down. Check out this helmet cam vid of Felipe Massa breaking in his brand new toy on a test track in Italy. Stay tuned for more pics and video.
It seems like the 2008 Formula One season ended just yesterday and already Ferrari is preparing to reveal their 2009 race car. Ferrariworld.com will have pictures and video of Felipe Massa driving the new car around their Fiorano test track. It’s all going down on January 12th so set a reminder! We’ll follow up with some of the released pics incase you miss it.
In a hard fought season between Robert Kubica, Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa, and Lewis Hamilton a conclusion was finally reached over the weekend in Brazil. As Formula 1 2008 came to a close Kubica and Raikkonen were mathmatically out of the championship chase and it came down to Felipe and Lewis.
As the points stood Lewis only needed to net a 5th place finish to lock out Felipe and secure the title. However it looked as if the Vodafone McLaren team over compensated by litterally setting up the car and their strategy as a 5th place contender. The plan worked out for most of the race however towards the end it began to fail as Red Bull bad-ass Sebastien Vettel snatched 5th place away from Lewis during the last 3 laps while Massa was in first place.
Due to extremely worn and graining tires combined with a wet track Lewis struggled to take 5th back from the blazing fast German but was fading fast. Salvation came for Lewis in the last lap when Toyota driver Timo Glock fell back from 4th place also due to worn tires which allowed both Vettel and Hamilton to blow by. This controversial occurance placed the Brit back into 5th place thus securing his championship crown as he crossed the line.
I couldn’t help but hurt for Massa as he and his team were litterally informed at the last possible moment that they had not won the championship. Cameras captured the very moment when Felipe’s father was jumping up and down cheering then the imediate drain of joy from his face and the other red coats as they were told the unfortunate news that Lewis swooped the title away.
I also couldn’t help but get a tad emotional as I saw Lewis take the title and celebrate with his team, family, and friends. A while back it had been a dream of mine to be the first African American in Formula 1 and to win the title. Obviously that isn’t going to happen now and even though the media has generally tried to keep the issue of race out of the amazing story that is Lewis Hamilton I can’t help but feel proud that history was made. If I couldn’t do it I’m happy that Lewis could. Congrats!
With the season coming to a close and a points lead to maintain Lewis Hamilton decided to conquer the track where he bungled his shot at a championship in his rookie year. Already sitting on the pole from qualifying, as soon as the lights went out Lewis sailed off and that was all she wrote. He lead every lap from lights out to checkered flag.
There was a possibility that Hamilton could have clentched the title but that would’ve only happend if he finished the race 6 points ahead of Felipe Massa. However it wouldn’t be as both Ferraris were constantly snarling at the heels of Lews’ McLaren for the entire race.
Going into the Last Race of the season in Brazil only 7 points seperate Lewis and Felipe while Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica are mathamatically eliminated from contention. Can Lewis make history? Or will Felipe grab the title by force in his home country? Unfortunately we’re going to have to wait an agonizing two weeks to find out!
In a move that will leave many McLaren fans disenfranchised with the sport, the FIA ruled that McLaren’s appeal against Lewis Hamilton’s penalty at the Belgian GP was “inadmissible.” The FIA sited a rule stating that drive through penalties could not be appealed as the reasoning behind their decision.
However McLaren argued that Toro Rosso was allowed to appeal a similar penalty when their driver Vitantonio Luzzi was punishsed for overtaking under a yellow. The FIA referred to that situation simply as a “mistake”
This is a Fail of epic proportions on FIA’s part. However McLaren and the team are going to keep a “stiff upper lip” on the matter and focus on the remaining four races of the season as Lewis will undoubtedly fight tooth and nail to extend his scant one point lead over Felipe Massa.
In case you forgot this hearing was in regards to Hamilton being stripped of his victoryduring the Belgian Grand Prix when the race stewards imposed a 25-second penalty for an “illegal” overtaking manuver on Kimi Raikkonen. This decision bumped Lewis down to third place and handed the “win” over to Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
McLaren had several strong points to their argument including the fact that Lewis had to cut the “Bus Stop” chicane to avoid hitting Kimi Raikkonenwho drove him wide. Lewis then gave up the position and then took it back right away. I think the stronger point will come in the fact that McLaren spoke to race control twice during the race about the incident and both times the team was assured by control that Hamilton’s actions were within the rules.
Should the court side with McLaren it would mean the award of 6 points to their driver giving Lewis a more comfortable 7 point lead over Massa rather than the scant single point lead he holds now.
However, this is the FIA and crazy things tend to happen so we’ll have to wait until Tuesday when the FIA releases their verdict.
Although if you go by the above picture, Lewis doesn’t seem too worried…
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