Two drivers, three races starting with Fuji

I'm on the Virgin flight to Tokyo and the endgame is ahead. Three races, two drivers seven points apart and 30 more points on the table. Who is it going to be?

In just my third season covering the sport I have already learned that almost anything could happen. Remember Michael's engine blowing up at Suzuka in '06? Remember Lewis sliding off in China last year and then his car succumbing to that strange technical failure at Interlagos? (McLaren have not had a technical issue with the car for a long time...)

More recently we have witnessed Ferrari shoot themselves in the collective feet under floodlights and we have seen on several occasions this season the safety car play a large and unfair role in race results. It is quite possible that the final run-in from here could be heavily influenced by SC interventions at three tracks where rain is very likely. Then what about the FIA and the stewards? Are they yet going to play a key role in this battle? Are we going to end up in Paris again for another day in court before this over? Let's hope not.

So the truth of the matter is that, although Lewis has the advantage going into the Japanese Grand Prix by virtue of his seven-point lead and could win with a race to spare, it would be foolish of anyone to predict the final result. Having said that, however, I still feel, instinctively(therefore largely irrationally) that Lewis will deliver this time. This is mainly based on the strong sense we have been getting from him and McLaren for some time, that they know what they need to do to make him champion and they are not going to get tempted into doing any more than just what is necessary.

At all costs, the team and Lewis do not want to repeat the dreadful errors of the endgame last year and it is hard to see the negative side of that impulse. I suppose they could end up being too cautious over the next three races and let Felipe through but that doesn't seem likely. They are driving for the championship and they want it very badly. Lewis needs it to justify the hype - his life will make a lot more sense to a lot more people if he is champion in a month's time.
    
McLaren have the edge in the wet and this could prove handy. Fuji is likely to be wet at some point. Last year the race was run in monsoon-like conditions and we barely saw the volcano in three days. China was also wet - nothing like Fuji, but rain played a critical part, and there is always a chance of rain in Sao Paulo. So this is likely to favour McLaren.

I would argue that Lewis has the mental toughness and experience to keep it all together. He has won a lot of championships in his short career and, although he has made some silly errors this year, I think he will prove equal to the challenge of the "stretch" this time round. (It is a bit like the end of a golfing major isn't it? Two players - one a couple of shots up - with three holes to play and a test of nerve and the ability to perform under the greatest pressure imaginable to come).
                  
So it could be, or probably, should be Lewis (providing he doesn't take three off the tee, shank his drive into the trees or the water or three-put on the greens or mark his card incorrectly - the FIA will be waiting for him if he does).

But I would never under-estimate Felipe and believe he too would be a worthy champion in 2008. My worry for him is how well he will handle a situation where he is slipping out of it and needs to come back. His weakness is evident in situations which do not fit the script he and his team have written for him. It is quite easy to imagine him running Lewis very close or beating him but also making a total mess of the next couple of races and capitulating.

So it is all to play for as another engrossing season reaches its climax. Is this going to be the beginning of a "Lewis era" or is Ferrari going to rain on his parade like it did last year? One other point in their favour is that Kimi is likely to be a lot more useful to Felipe than Heikki will be for Lewis unless the McLaren number two ups his game.

That's it for now. After trying to stay on European time in Singapore, it is back to our old friend jet-lag for the next few days. We land at 9.00am local and in the afternoon there is a press conference in Tokyo which is being attended by Lewis, Heikki, Felipe and Kimi. Hopefully that will get us off on an interesting foot...it's raining in Tokyo...

 

 

Comments

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

I think there is a very simple rule with Lewis.

The moment he is on a high, he messes up afterwards. The moment he feels unsatisfied, he nails it afterwards.

In a racing sense, Singapore was a disappointment. In a championship
sense, it was a big comeback against the guy who was consistently beating him.

I can easily see Lewis deliver in Japan and then trip up in China.

What I could easilier see, though, is something happening in Japan.

Lewis has never won a track twice. He had two great opportunities in Canada and Hungary- but something failed him in the face of apparent victory. It seems like lack of concentration- his failure to stop Felipe from overtaking in Hungary and consequent over-driving, I think, and then his botched pit stop in Canada.

Somebody might point that that's just two races. But I think that at some point, he might lose concentration on circuits he's mastered before.

To contrast, he has performed remarkably well on circuits he didn't master last year. His pace at Silverstone has surely improved a lot. He mastered Belgium, something he didn't achieve in '07, where he spent the whole weekend trailing Fernando. He really improved in Turkey, etc.

So does that mean Japan will be bad and Brazil and China good? Possibly.

THere are a few things to consider:

1.) Reliability- no reliability problems yet for Lewis. It's huge. Compared to Heikki espeically. Heikki has dealt with a glitch in Monacomaking him start from the pit-lane, a transmission failure on the last lap at Belgium, a sudden failure in Spain...

But inspiraitonal leaders get their mechanics to work hard for them. Maybe Lewis won't have a failure.

2.) Brazil- It's going ot be mental hell for Lewis, especially if he's only four points ahead or something. I wonder how he will manage the tires in Brazil. HUGE in his advantage is Bridgestone's decision to NOT bring the supersoft tires. If they did and if Lewis was losing the world championship, I could see them pop easily under the burning sun. But who knows. Nobody would have said Kimi would lose France, and what happened...

3.) Japan- has the longest straight in F1. If not raining, Ferrari will own. If it rains, well, might be different story. And who knows, rain is a fickle thing. Lewis could easily aquaplane through no fault of his own. And ehck, it wasn't that long time ago when crashed in Monaco (when Felipe didn't touch a barrier all race long).

4.) China- Lewis lost bad here. Fernando was undoubtedly faster here and easily proved it on track. Seeing the race performance of the two, it is difficult for me to say that Fernando was making stuff up about the tire heats. Don't mean to bring up last year, but if Lewis is slower than Fernando it shows his weakness on a track. I personally love China- thought it was a great track to overtake. How long before a journalist asks the drivers which circuit is best for overtaking? I guess it's China from what I've seen (which is not much).

6.) Ferrari- can they bounce back? After being humiliated as clowns, I think they could easily rally themselves.

7.) Kimi- This guy is defending his title as well as Jody Schekter in 1980.

8.) Fernando- on pace and will be merciless.

9.) Vettel- will be so on pace in Japan because of his engine and the long straight and because of rain I bet he will be on podium.

Jap preds:

Lewis
Felipe
Sebastian

Now, something might happen to Lewis. I have some sort of feeling. Then again, I had that feeling for him last year as well. But I have this feeling that one of these last 3 races will be a non-score for him.

[Tim]

The title is effectively Lewis Hamilton and McLaren's to lose. To use a metaphor more often used when discussing an opposition party riding high in the polls in the run up to an election, Lewis is holding a ming vase and just needs to reach the end of the hallway - he just has to get to the end without slipping on the highly polished floor. At this stage, it's less about doing things right, more about avoiding the slips.

Lewis needs to be whiter than white on the circuit and, as F1 drivers go, he pushes his luck in this respect. This is partly what makes him an exciting racing driver, but it also puts him at higher risk of being bitten - see chicanegate at Spa. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the incident and the penalty, the fact remains that a more patient approach would probably have seen Lewis keep his victory. He can't afford to take this sort of chance again. A repeat of, for example, the Timo Glock and Mark Webber incidents at Monza would be a completely unnecessary risk. The less ammunition Lewis hands to the stewards and the FIA, the more difficult it will be for them to find a reason to shoot him.

Having said that (and this is where the highly polished floor analogy comes in), Lewis and McLaren shouldn't change their approach too much just because there's a title going begging as that carries a risk in itself. McLaren's success so far in 2008 has been partly based on their acceptance (by accident or design) of a higher level of risk than Ferrari. For example, the McLaren chassis is quick in qualifying at the expense of being too hard on its tyres during races. It also has a wider operating window than the Ferrari but at the expense of outright speed over a race distance. At the Turkish GP, where Lewis made a success of a risky three stop strategy where Heikki Kovalianen's more conventional approach should have been the successful one. Changing to a risk averse approach would go completely counter to this and there's always the risk that it will backfire.

Lewis and McLaren should approach each race as it comes - Ferrari will be. A seven point lead means that Lewis could finish second to Felipe Massa at each of the three remaining races and still win the title, but McLaren must avoid the trap of counting points and overcomplicating their approach. Too much sophistication or complexity can be a big risk - see Ferrari's pitlane lights catastrophe in Singapore, also Jackie Stewart's attribution of the Canadian pitlane shunt to McLaren giving Lewis too much information at the same time. McLaren need to focus on the 99% that matters most rather than trying to be too clever in reaching the final 1%.

Although I'm not suggesting that he would drive Lewis off the track just to enhance his team mate's title chances, Lewis also needs to watch out for Kimi Raikkonen. The reigning world champion is now in a similar position to Michael Schumacher at the end of 1999, when the German was asked to support Eddie Irvine's challenge. Kimi won't mind helping his team mate to win the title, but he will want everyone to know that he's doing it as well as reminding people just how quick he can be. At Spa Lewis seemed surprised that Kimi drove more forcefully than we've usually seen - he has to expect it in the remaining three races.

And finally, Lewis needs to avoid press conferences where he could be tempted to talk about balls or being the best in the wet - everytime he does it things seems to backfire on him next time out, as in Q2 at Monza...

[May]

I have a weird feeling that this is still Ferrari's championship to lose - which is totally counter-intuitive, as the Hamilton/McLaren duo have looked so consistent in the past races!

Best regards,

[Gilipolla Asturiano]

Lewis does not have to "justify the hype" in any shape or form, have you not seen the peerless quality of his driving this year ?

Whatever happens, as with 2007 he is clearly the class act of the whole field.

[F1-Insider]

Sad to be writing this but Massa will be F1 champion 2008 as, as others have also said, Hamilton, however well he drives will not be allowed to be F1 champion this year, I really believe Max Mosley had already decided this before the season even started.
There cannot be any serious F1 fans than could honestly say anything else but Hamilton has been the better driver in 2008, he has shown skill in the rain Massa can only dream of and Hamilton has provided excitement as no other.
It'll be interesting to see how Hamilton fails as McLaren will be doing their utmost to let the world and the press (not that they dare go against the FIA/Mosley line - email - Mosley stays etc) that everything they are doing is 100% above board.

With the news yesterday that Canada will not be on the calender in 2009 (from reading I understand this is again all about money, see: http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns20846.html ) is another reason why there has to be a shake-up of F1. No race's in all of north America and only one race in the American continent hardly supports the status of a real world championship.

Maybe the best thing that could happen in 2008 is for Massa to win the championship where the world sees through the FIA hogwash and McLaren/Mercedes finally take leave of F1 altogether and align themselves with a new American/European series utilising all the great circuits that F1 have thrown away. If this were to happen many fans would surely follow, especially if the series produced better racing which is highly likely just with the choice of circuits if nothing else, just think, any championship that boasted circuits like Silverstone, Suzuka, Montreal, Kyalami, Imola and so many other great tracks that F1 have allowed to rot. I say let F1 have Valencia, Singapore, Hungary and Bahrain all I believe it would really take is for one of the big F1 teams to put it's weight behind it.
To have a fresh, honest,well run open-wheel world formula championship competing head on with the FIA's F1 would only bring benefits for the fans and now that there are so many people who have had enough of the Mosley/Ecclestone/FIA F1 may now is the right time.

From what I have seen the cars from 2009 are going to look rather silly with their tiny rear wings it just smacks of rule change for rule change sake as Hamilton have proven this year time and time again that it is possible to overtake in F1 with the cars as they are so long as races are races on decent circuits. The FIA had chances with both Valencia and Singapore to give us two more great races and neither delivered (look behind the hype of a dark Singapore and the race was rubbish anyone who really watched it will know this and the article as published by Planet F1 really summed it up – F1 should never be about the roll of the dice be it by the race director (the one alleged to have lied to the FIA legal team) or any other event, F1 is supposed to be the very best the world has to offer regards motor racing and that most certainly is not what we are seeing at present.

According to the lasted Mosley saying F1 is doomed unless he gets his way. Well folks for those that are not aware F1 was better before Mosley became the FIA and even now when a great talent breaks the mould Mosley's FIA do all they can to stifle him, I say MASSA FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP, only then may we wee the changes I believe most would like to see.

F1-Insider

[mangstadt]

Well, I don't think anyone can sum it up any better than Anon and his big paragraph.

I agree with Ed in that either of the two candidates would be a worthy world champion. Lewis because he's proven that he's got what it takes even if he does talk too much off the track. We'll get used to him and in the end it's part of his charm. Felipe because this is his big chance and he may never be in such a close position to take the title as he is this year, so he'd better pounce on it if it comes within his grasp.

To make things interesting it would be fun if Fuji were the "non score" that Anon has predicted for Lewis. That would pretty much level the field again with just two races left.

It would also be interesting for another driver who hasn't yet scored a win this year to take one of the three races that are left. I'm thinking of Heidfeld, Rosberg, Glock or even Webber. It would be a career first for any one of them.

About the safety car, Ed. The rule may be disrupting for many drivers but I think the result of many safety cars at different races ends up treating all drivers more or less equal. It's a hazard, as are the rain, gremlins in the engine or clutch, lights and/or lollipops, fuel-rigs getting stuck, decisions by the stewards, punctures, lapses in concentration, you name it.

[JOHN WILSON]

if lewis doesn't win i'm never watching F1 again. If Brazil kept losing to Andorra you'd soon give up watching football. He's so far ahead of the rest that it's a scandal it's so close; then again the supremos want to keep it that way so when Lewis loses the title by a point they can declare a fair championship. There's no way they're going to let him win the title; Anyone with half a brain can see that.

[Hank]

As Murray Walker once said "Anything can happen and it usually does!"

[Jeff Bellamy]

Hamilton and Massa both deserve to win the championship this year and it's just unfortunate that one of them won't. They've both driven well. If it comes down to a tie on points that requires subtle application of the rules by the FIA there's probably no need to try and guess the result.
The title may be Hamilton's to lose, but that's exactly what he did last year. How many times did Mansell get agonisingly close only to slip up at the end?
Perhaps Mad Max will find a reason to penalise McLaren for something (they're too fast or the colour scheme is "too different")which will hand the championship to his preferred option. We'll just have to wait and see.
Now that Max has shown his hand and hinted very strongly that he isn't going to stand down this month, and that he's going to impose his rules on the teams irrespective of whether they make sense or are good for the "sport" as a whole, perhaps it's time for the teams to say goodby to the FIA and form their own championship where they will at least have some stability. Perhaps Max will do the decent thing and, having realised he's damaged the image and structure of the sport, will resign but I doubt it.
With the credit crunch looming, the possibility of manufacturers realising they can't afford to throw money at a sport when no one's buying their cars anyway and Max running the show I suspect that the future of F1 is looking decidedly shaky. It may be that half the grid in a few years time will be made up of privateers simply because there aren't enough manufacturers able to compete. If the global financial crisis is as bad as we are led to believe the manufacturers won't be able to justify continuing to compete to their shareholders if they are having to make headcount cuts because of dwindling sales. No one, not even Ferrari, will be immune. Cost cutting measures are long overdue (so why are they having to develop KERS?), but an element of common sense will be needed. The FIA idea of a standard engine an gearbox combination will suit private teams, but not the manufacturers who compete to advertise their own products.

[Thomas]

The Felipe Massa vs Lewis Hamilton show will continue in Fuji. They are the stars of the season, the top of the 2008-class and they are deadlocked in battle.

They have both destroyed their teammates. Their styles are completely different; Hamilton makes the car dance and relies on his incredible feel for the level of grip, Massa hard, precise and late on the brakes - places the car exactly where he wants it. Their cars are completely different, but they both get incredible speeds out of them.

Both would make good champions. I share Ed's feeling that Felipe will crack soon - actually I was almost certain he did in Singapore before I saw the green light - but he has not made a mistake since Silverstone. I'm hoping he'll keep it up for the last three races as well.

Lewis is great at putting his foot in his mouth, but it is to be expected. He is a young man suddenly on top of the world, he can be forgiven for being a little cocky. More importantly he is a great driver and he would make a good champion.

Let's hope this will be a battle on the track and that mistakes will not ruin this very exciting season-ender. 2008 is a classic season already, and a new world champion will only be good for the sport.

[Prof Plum]

Very much looking forward to this - and getting up early on Sunday. I like these super-early Asian races, so that I can concentrate properly on the spectacle with minimum distractions. So, let's not have too many night-time races.

Incidentally - Did you see the Max Mosley interview on the BBC yesterday - broadcast from his office at the FIA? There was a lovely model Ferrari on the desk behind him. Does anyone have any suggestions how you could get hold of one of these?

[Weasel]

Standing out in a well reasoned conjectural thesis, I would like to pick up on one point in Tim's post referring to the incident at Spa between Hamilton and Raikkonen, and I quote: "the fact remains that a more patient approach would probably have seen Lewis keep his victory"

At that particular juncture in the race Lewis was probably not psychic and precognitive of the fact that Kimi was going to stuff the Ferrari into the wall. He was fighting to win the race against a top level opponent and went wide when he had the racing line and was forced off the track, in order to avoid a collision which would have almost certainly garnered him 0 points. Having been forced off track and having avoided the otherwise certain collision, and having ensured that Kimi's Ferrari was ahead of him on the straightaway, Lewis seized his opportunity to overtake. Note also that Charlie Whiting twice told McLaren he thought the move was okay.

As a top level racing driver, what would you have done under those circumstances - carefully weighed your options, balancing up the pros and cons, after having consulted with your race engineer, team boss, the race director and the FIA stewards and your legal advisors, to get the go ahead or otherwise to overtake at the next opportunity?

[Colin Thomas]

I have just watched a TV interview with Max from his office at the FIA headquaters where he blamed the "Gutter Press" ( The Times? ) for the recent distress caused to his wife and family. Of interest to me, however, was the lone model of a F1 Ferrari displayed just over his shoulder.

[aljuk]

I there's any natural justice to be had then it will be Lewis. If the FIA find any way to pull a string or two, it will be Massa.

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

Guys.

It's a scandal Lewis is losing?

OK, then, point by point we're going to fix this.

Australia- Felipe deserves three points for his engine failure. (F+3)

Malaysia- Lewis deserves two points more for his botched pit stop. (L+2)

Bahrain- we're good.

Spain- perfect.

Turkey- perfect.

Monaco- Arguably Lewis won because of his crash and the SC that forgave him for it. but let's be nice and actually let him keep the points, which is very nice.

Canada-perfect.

France- if Felipe gets penalized in Singapore and should have been penalized in Valencia, Lewis deserves this penalty.

Britain- we-re good.

Hockenheim- good.

Hungary- Felipe should have won, putting Lewis down a point. F+11

Valencia- let's give Felipe a drive-thru cuz we feel like it. Felipe goes third, Lewis first. L+8

Belgium- L+8

Italy- we're good

Singapore- F+10, L-1

That puts them at a tie.

Remember, Lewis was lucky in Monaco. He should have finished third. The SC allowed him to reel in the two leaders after his crash. The crash forced him to pit at just the right time.

Felipe was unlucky in Hockers, where Nelsinho came out of nowhere because of SC.

Felipe has had failing engines, bad pit stops, a botched quali in GBR (but he spun so much you can't give him points), etc.

Felipe deserves this championship as much as Lewis.

I disagree with the suggested Valencia GP. Nothing happened. Felipe controlled the situation perfectly- he didn't crash into Sutil and avoided him even though the team didn't work. In Sing. he had a fuel hose attached, oso there I feel it was justified.

Oh, somebody mentioned lewis had great driving last year. All he did was win from pole. Nothing like Fernando's charge in Nurburgring or Kimi in CHina.

[Stelmara]

F1-Insider
You may well be right about Lewis and Massa and Max (Euston) Mosley's FIA I also think that there are at least two drivers that could do damage to Lewis during the race (but not in a racing way), I'll leave others to pick the two I'm eluding to.
If a driver causes an unnecessary incident resulting in two cars not being able to complete the race the one who had the most to loose will still have lost regardless as to whatever punishment the stewards gave the other driver, are others thinking the same?
Reading your post about a new McLaren/Mercedes led series and the tracks you mention I think you really do sum up the current state of F1 and how it's run and all the tracks you mention would be a great attraction to any other racing formula and should be in F1 anyway.
I remember watching qualifying for the Monaco grand prix which was great where Alonso was chasing pole on his last attempt only to come across cheating Schumacher spread across the track, I recall how I felt as this happened, very angry and numb as all the excitement of the day had been stolen from me. To me this season is a little like that as I don't think for a second that all the penalties and stolen race win against Lewis have been justified, who knows if all had been fair maybe the race in Japan would have been the one where he was driving to secure the championship.
watching Max (whckadoo) Mosley on the TV yesterday all as though butter would not melt in his mouth as he spoke about going to the EU re the newspapers and how F1 is in great danger unless it does as HE (I am king and I must be obeyed at all times) wants made and makes me feel sick.
I follow F1 with great passion and read most articles on it and the email lie as alleged to have been told by the current FIA race director has just vanished all as though it never happened, not a single newspaper of website has pursued it.
To conclude I think Lewis should win the championship without any doubt as he has been by far the best entertainment and driver during 2008 but alas I think Massa will win for the reasons F1-Insider says.

[rony]

To F1-INSIDER:
There WERE not one but two better championships than the last decade of F1: F1 of the eighties and the first half of the nineties, and the late ChampCar.
Why were they better? Because they demanded car control and the cars were spectacular to watch (overtaking was a bonus; you can still have boring overtakings).
F1 do not care if us, motorsport fans, quit; for every European who gets tired of F1, there are 10 new Far East new fans, which understand nothing but know that F1 is IN.
For the nuvo-fans they brought, per example, the new quallifing system, where you never see the whole lap - just cars crossing the line - and where the winner of Q3 is sometimes not the fastest but the lightest.
Everyone in F1 knows exactly what to do in order to make the show exciting: circuits like Zandvoort; cars with slicks, mechanical grip and manual tranmission; championship which encourage winning (bring back the 4 points diff between 1st and 2nd); ban reffeuling so the racing will be on the track and not strategic game off it; etc etc - I wonde how come Bernie, of all people, forgot it - and lost a fortune in his pay-per-view TV project because of the dull racing (the real fans would pay to watch enthusiasticly, the nuvo-fans just want to see who wins and some crashes).

As for Hamilton:
This is the Hamilton you want to see wins the championship? A "tactic" driver who spend most of Singapore behind two much slower cars DC and Nico) without any attacking effort?
If he cannot win the championship without boring us with deffensive drive, if he cannot win the chamionship by driving like he showed us in GP2 and in Monaco and in Spa and in Monza - why should we care if he wins it at all?
If Hamilton wants to win the title the same way Greece football team won the previous European Cup, he is not the Hamilton I admired untill Singapore.

[Stelmara]

Mangstadt
In one sense I would agree with your saying that the safety car is just another hazard bit it isn't really that simple as one may have a driver leading by nearly a lap only for that lead to be wiped out in an instant and we also have the fact that the safety car is only employed at the bequest of the race director, a race director that is alleged to have shown bias against McLaren with the email lie during the recent McLaren appeal.
Look again at the 1st deployment of the safety car in Singapore and ask yourself why could not the damaged car be removed under waved flags? In my view it was not stopped in a dangerous position as it was way off the racing line and in clear view.
The whole FIA rum F1 show is suspect at present. I hope, really hope that I am wrong, but when Massa does win the crown I hope do as F1-Insider suggests and comes clean in what we all know to be true in the FIA running of what used to be a sport (of sorts).

Jeff Bellamy
It is time as the Max (arrghh) Mosley FIA is rotten and no amount of wriggling is going to change that. He was asked by a BBC reported yesterday on TV if he had changed his way of life to which he replied NO. Sorry for going on about this but we also still have the email lie hanging and let's not forget who is at the centre of it. Whether it's the race director, the stewards, most of the journalists that report F1 to the commercial rights holder's CEO it's all wrong and I don't think it will ever change unless there is a revolution and that does not look like it's going to happen.

How about this for a thought: Lewis wins in Japan and China becoming F1 champion only for the would to be told in Brazil that Hamilton's car was found to have one of his tyre pressures 0.5psi more than it should have been giving him an unfair advantage thus all his points are to be removed and given to Massa, couldn't happen could it?
Mystic Meg

Gilipolla Asturiano
I totally agree with you but he still won't win.

[David Jones]

F1 Insider
Great post, a good read. If Lewis Hamilton has the championship stolen from him I hope that at last a breakaway from the FIA will happen as at least then we would all have hope of seeing a better cleaner faster and more exciting motor racing series.

Jeff Bellamy
Great post. Like you I think there will be a FIA fix somewhere. I hope that it's exposed when it happens but hold out little hope.

JOHN WILSON
Think I might join you on this

[supercampeaobrasileiro]

i hope that kimi rediscovers his form over the last few races - he is awesomely quick and could make all the difference - in theory, kimi is the best wing man in history!!!

[A Parker]

Weasel, you are exactly right. I can't understand those who are still insisting that Hamilton did wrong in Spa. Well done that you wouldn't let that go. I've become too weary.

Colin Thomas, you'd think what Von Spanky does in dungeons would have caused more distress to his wife and family than the gutter press wouldn't you ?

Aljuk, hear hear.

[Tim]

Weasel - I wasn't seeking to re-open the arguments on the rights and wrongs of the incident at the Bus Stop, which has been done to death. I had also included a line in my post on hindsight being 20/20 but deleted it for space reasons - in hindsight, I should have kept it!

Obviously, it was a split second decision. Of course no one knew that Raikkonen would crash out of the race less than a lap later. But Lewis would have been well aware of some key factors that were in evidence well before the Bus Stop.

Lewis knew he was much quicker than Kimi as the rain started to fall. He also knew that the Ferrari was not just slower, but a sitting duck. He knew that Spa was Raikkonen's last throw of the dice and that he wasn't going to play things safe - Kimi had even admitted as much before the race.

No one could have known exactly how things would play out - but Lewis could have managed the risks differently and emerged with a better result. He picked a riskier path and, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the whole affair, it didn't pay off. Six points was the price. Lewis can't afford a repeat.

[Alston]

Some quality stuff in this comments Blag! Interesting viewpoints regarding "standardising cars". I dont agree with that in principle. OK, driver's championships should be won by the best drivers fair enough, but F1 is not just about the driver. It is a miriad of elements that focuses on the driver. Manufacturers naturally want their products publicised, but we should not lose sight of the fact that they spend millions on research, that in the course of time; ultimately benefit everyone. I genuinely believe that F1 will be lost to us all if Mosely and the rest of his cronies continue as they are doing! It really is time that "Mr" Mosely clears off with Bernie in a pea green boat!!! Some new untainted talent could easily pick up the reins and carry F1 forward. I do not agree with night races, on the strength that if these new markets are the place to be, then more sponsorship may be obtained by not asking 'em to be inconvenienced in this way, Also the enormous electricity costs, rather makes a mockery of the "green" agenda!!!

[stuart]

I can't imagine the pressure these two guys are under, but that's why they get the big bucks! I've always followed drivers rather than teams, i was always a Schuey fan but never to the extent that I am a Lewis fan. Here's a real human being with foibles. However I don't think F1 really know what they want..they want overtaking..Lewis has pulled off some fantastic passing moves and, yes, has also muscled his way past if he has to ...the FIA punish him for this, but this is what we want more of..racing. We want more access to the drivers..but apparently Lewis talks too much (too many interviews?)....do we want him to be another monosyllabic Kimi...no.. I'm on tenterhooks this season because Lewis is not the finished article (yet) like Michael was, he still makes mistakes, he's still an excitable kid who has earned the right to be World Champion and in my book a worthy one. Massa on the other hand has popped up like an understudy in a stage show, he's just there because the star (Kimi) hasn't shown up...he just hasn't got it for me. Anyway here's to a bumper season despite the FIA stewards!

[May]

Anon, one question about your anaylsis - why is Spa L+8? Hamilton was demoted from first to third (+4) and Massa promoted from second to first (+2), so it would be L+6. Am I wrong?

I agree with your comment that Massa would be a worthy champion. As I said in a previous post, it took me some time to acknowledge Massa's merits, but as your post proves he deserves being in the fight for the WDC. And so does Hamilton.

Best regards,

[Richard]

TIM - "Six points was the price"

Are you sure four points wasn't the price?

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

May, you're right.

Richard, I think he means compared to Felipe, in which he lost six points (see May).

Belgium- if Lewis had been really cleevr, and I mean like Piquet Snr. clever, he would have realized how triply advantageous it would have been for Belgium to end as Kimi-Lewis-Felipe. Ferrari would again be divided and Lewis would extend his lead.

People at criticizing Mosley for doing the right thing, cutting prices. He says we must do it. Guess what- he is right.

He has a Ferrari in the background? Come on... he has to have some F1 decoration and Ferrari is the greatest F1 team ever. It would be a shocker if he had none at all or if he had all of them. You guys are going psycho.

Lewis is a really person with foibles- like are the other nineteen people. I don't think Lewis is as real a person as anybody else because he gives me the feeling that his statements on camera are different from those which aren't. On one side you have the charming kiddy, on the other the guy who says he knows he is just as good as Ayrton Senna. Considering he tied Fernando in the points last year, Fernando is also just as good as Senna.

[A Parker]

Anon, can you please give me a link to where Lewis said he was as good as Senna.

[Bog]

To Anon (and his big paragraph):
"Considering he tied Fernando in the points last year, Fernando is also just as good as Senna"..

well, I guess what's left from this metaphor is that Kimi is better than Senna.

[Weasel]

Maybe old news by now and slightly off topic, but, as reported in the sports section of several newspapers, I see we have now lost the Canadian GP for 2009. This sounds like some seriously intelligent marketing - erase the only two races in North America - one of the world's biggest commercial markets, in whose countries several major Formula 1 sponsors are domiciled. Yes, brilliant indeed. How may feet does F1 have left - it appears they have shot off the two with which bipeds are endowed. The Max 'n Bernie Clown Extravaganza goes on....

[Scarlet]

A Parker, Lewis never said he is as good as Senna, even the article that accused him of saying it didn't have a quote. It's just another case of people believing what they read.
I don't believe Lewis is anything but charming unfortunatley people are desperate to constantly portray him as otherwise. The lad can't say or do anything without it being analysed and twisted.
It shows how bad people are when Lewis can't even be nice without people saying he has a hidden agenda.
In Singapore Lewis handed his champagne to Williams, some people thought this showed how nice he is but others wouldn't agree they said he was just trying to look good in front of people. How pathetic can it get? Lewis can never win no matter what he does.

[Roger Carr]

I heard it direct from Tony Hancock: "It is not raining in Tokyo."

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

"http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-news/formula-1/f1-lewis-hamilton-criticized-in-germany?artid=101780"

or

"http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/081002095425.shtml"

Look at the end of the article.

Take care everyone. I'm still wondering anout hwat possibly could happen to Lewis. I have the feeling Ferrari will be good for the rest of the season. Not brilliant, but no more mistakes. But heck, they've been pro at re-defining rock-bottom. Kind of like the Swiss soccer team- just when you think they've had their most embarrassing moment, they get beaten by an even smaller team.

Maybe noting will happen to Lewis's car. But I think it would be mind-boggling for him to not have a mechanical failure all seasn but for his teammate to have three. This isn't '07 anymore for Christ's sake.

[Fer]

@Parker:

Please google it yoursel. This a blog, this is not a justice court to be asking for evidences. If you google "as good as Senna", you will find that the unique driver with results in google is Lewis. I don't know if this is a real true but I guess it is. And finally, this is not the point of this thread, please don't try to start another boring discussion about Lewis excellences.

Fer

[Richard]

TIM - I don't think racing at this level is all about calculating every move. It's also about making the most of every opportunity that presents itself.

Firstly, I don't believe that LH was prepared to overtake at that point in the first place. If you look at the onboard footage, it looks like he was caught out by KR's early braking, and had to go alongside just to avoid an accident. At that point, he found himself with his nose in front, and his racer's instinct took over, which is my second point.

Once he was in that position, LH, like any racer, will seek to maintain it. If he didn't have that instinct, he wouldn't be the driver he is. LH was faced with a slow Ferrari, but he wouldn't have known how long he'd have had the speed advantage for given the changeable conditions. For instance, had the rain started to come down harder, he wouldn't have known how the two different cars would have coped. The safety car could have been deployed at any moment, and LH would then have been prevented from overtaking. Backmarkers coming out of the pits could scupper overtaking opportunities. All manner of things can happen to spoil the chance to overtake, so when the opportunity is there, it surely must be taken.

Had LH hung back from overtaking, then became unable to do so, he would have been universally criticised for not seizing the opportunity when he had the chance. So LH followed his racer's instinct and he overtook whilst he knew he had the advantage.

Don't forget that the team thought they were managing the risk by twice consulting Charlie Whiting about the move. As far as I'm aware, this has always been a reliable way to determine the legality of a move in the past, so McLaren would have had no reason to believe it would be any different this time. I think it's reasonable for a team to believe CW wouldn't have reported the incident to the stewards after he said he thought it was OK. And the question has never been satisfactorily answered regarding why he did report it after telling the team he thought it was OK.

Long may his racer's instinct remain intact, although on Singapore's showing, it looks like he's already begun to lose it. I was very frustrated seeing him drive for points, but it's understandable in view of the comments his detractors are always making about him i.e. losing points by always trying to win, rather than calmly racking up 'safer' points

[David Jones]

Anon
With respect but you are starting to become a bore!

[Tim]

Richard - as Anon correctly pointed out, I did indeed mean six points relative to Felipe Massa.

[Christian]

Anon you're deluded enough to comfortably qualify as a true fan of FIAerrari! I find the Massa deserves it and countback harder to swallow than a tray of 'sweet meats'! Just to place a little perspective on things, Valencia and Singapore BOTH deserved time penalties for an unsafe pit release. DESPITE it not being driver error it still can result in a much improved track position. Mistakes like this happen when teams are racing to get out before another car in pits OR trying to get out on track in front of slower cars on one stops or just slower anyway. By NOT waiting a couple of seconds for (say) a force India to go past, then having to follow it out onto track will inevitably lead to a far higher chance of that cars strategy being compromised or losing lead, whatever. Therefore its IMPERATIVE that the team and driver receive a penalty that will ALWAYS cost them more time than they'd have gained by bullying their way ahead(or attempting to). If a team can get a far better track position and know their driver won't be punished, would any team obey the rule and delay releasing a car when its in a split second race to get back out on track?
Hamilton should be at least a race win clear (10 points) which would make sure a DNF in one of last 3 races isn't a disaster. I can't help but feel a DNF is going to happen. Everyone believes that justice will probably be done DESPITE Max's bias with Lewis crowned Champ but I can only hope thats true. After watching Massa crumble when things don't go right, a win for him and Ferrari feels wrong, watching Lewis carve his way through at Monza, Silverstone and Spa convinced me who's best at the moment. A Massa/Ferrari victory goes straight to heart of F1's credibility and severely tests the belief that the FIA is 'fit for purpose', especially after the testimony by the Fuji07 race steward about email+FIA bias etc...
Fuji=Vettel for podium and Hamilton win IF HE FINISHES! Kimi rounding off the three (team orders not withstanding)

[JR]

A. PARKER,

http://sport.rtl.de/formel-1/formel1_87057.php
(In German)

Regards,

JR

[McCheets]

RONY

There are many 'new Far East fans' who are genuinely interested in F1, very knowledgeable about F1, and who have been following F1 for as long, if not longer, than a fair proportion of European F1 fans (in particular those who only become interested in F1 when a compatriot is successful). Such people may not have been following F1 for as long as you have, and may not be as knowledgeable about the sport as you, however is it necessary for you to speak about them in such a derogatory tone because of these reasons?

I am not certain that the qualifying changes introduced were specifically for the ‘nuvo’ fans, and declining television viewing figures in Europe before these changes were introduced probably back my view. You should recall that before 2003 television viewers rarely saw a car followed for a whole lap in qualifying, then again not so long ago that qualifying wasn’t shown on TV in the UK.

Being a nuvo myself, I never saw F1 cars race at Zandvoort, however I understand that it was a great circuit. The likelihood of F1 racing on such a track nowadays is very low owing to safety concerns, and has nothing to do with pleasing followers of F1 who lack your background.

Incidentally, like it or not the Far East fans are the future of F1. Don’t be surprised if in 15-20 years time the scheduling of European races is altered to cater for television audiences in these countries.

[A Parker]

Scarlet, well said. There was a big debate on the Planet F-1 forum about this so-called quote about Lewis being criticised in Germany for saying he was as good as Senna, so I actually knew where this came from; I just wanted this Anon character to prove the links for me. This was never quoted in Autosport or the Times or the ITV website or any reputable publication. It was a spurious false "quote" which stirred up the usual hornet's nest of hatred and rubbish against Lewis. Of course Lewis is a charming, nice guy, but his every word (and even his every NON-word) is repeated and analysed and twisted to “prove” how horrid he is. It is beyond pathetic. I personally don’t have the time to scan the internet for things the other drivers have said or haven’t said in order to tear their characters apart. These people must have a lot of time on their hands and probably need to get out more. I think the case is if it’s not officially quoted on the McLaren site or in a reputable F1 site/publication or a reputable newspaper, it is the usual Lewis-bashing rubbish. I remember all the fuss over the £200,000 personalised number plate Lewis was supposed to have bought, which turned out to be totally false. But before Lewis refuted this in an F1 press conference (why on Earth would they ask him such a question in an F1 press conference anyway?), the internet was on fire with abuse and people saying this proved he was the devil incarnate.

I saw an advert (see link) for a Blackberry that Lewis has which shows he looks on the internet to see “what they are saying about us”. My God, he must have developed the skin of a rhinoceros in order to just get out of bed in the morning. http://www.storm-reviews.co.uk/blackberry-storm-video/lewis-hamilton-is-the-first-blackberry-storm-phone-user/

[Becken]

I really don’t know why I still come into the comments session of this blog. What a bunch of crazies guys you are, mates.

ANON – After Fernando´s win you are behaving like an ordinary Troll, mate. I love you comments, so what the hell has happened? As Richard has said WHAT A BORE!

Ok, lets talk about LEWIS AS GOOD AS SENNA. The main article came from here:

http://www.rtl.de/sport/formel-1/formel1_87057.php

They did not explain clearly in what mood or where or how or why Lewis has said that. I suppose that the German TV has taken the band Wagon on the trail at Place de la Concorde where Lewis hit back Nigel Tozzi.

So, take a look at the second article below, who talks about Martin Whitmarsh.

They use this quote to illustrate how Mclaren is arrogant:

"Kombiniert mit Lewis' überragenden Qualitäten im Regen or in English: "COMBINED WITH LEWIS' SUPERIOR QUALITIES IN THE RAIN”.

But Martin has never said that. The main article where the guys from German take this quote is here:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70689

And Martin has said:

"While Singapore is something of an unknown quantity, I think we've all experienced wet races in Japan, China, and Brazil, so we feel well prepared. ALLIED TO LEWIS'S FEARSOME ABILITIES IN THE RAIN, we have every reason to feel confident…”

Very different, isn´t?

So, do you still believe in what those guys are saying in the main article about Lewis and Senna? Do you remember the false case of the “LEW1S” plate thing?

You are talking about feel that something will happen with Lewis at FUJI or Shangai, or Brazil. Ok. But lets make a deal, ANON. While you wait until FUJI start, watch what Lewis can do after something strange has happened with him. It happened in GP2, at Turkey. I bet that if Fernando had watched this race, he would be more carefully with Lewis in 2007:

http://f1around.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/lewis-hamilton-x-nelson-piquet-jr/

Enjoy, ANON…

[A Parker]

Fer, if people insist on perpetuating falsehoods about LH, I will continue to refute them.

[Tim]

Richard - I'm beginning to regret even mentioning Spa and I don't see that there's any point in going into the fine detail of the move in question, as that's been covered extensively on this blog.

The point I was trying to make was that, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the incident or the benefits of hindsight, Lewis is willing to drive with a greater degree of risk than most of his contemporaries. This makes him exciting to watch as, by and large, he can be counted on to try overtaking moves that other drivers wouldn't even consider possible. However, the flipside of this is that he is more exposed to things going wrong than. Alain Prost was a driver who was generally at the other end of the extreme.

I'm not suggesting Lewis tries to drive like Prost - it would be completely alien to his nature and, as I've previously pointed out, such a change of approach could well backfire at this stage. But Lewis should certainly try to minimise his exposure to unnecessary risk.

I mentioned the incidents with Timo Glock (pushing Glock off track after passing him) and Mark Webber (banging wheels while defending) at Monza. Martin Brundle said that Lewis was pushing his luck with these incidents and he's right.

Lewis wasn't penalised but he could have been and this is what he has to be careful of - losing the title through a racing incident would be bad enough, losing it to a penalty for a driving offence would be absolutely awful.

[McCheets]

A PARKER

Having watched Grands Prix on the German RTL channel from time to time, I consider the RTL.de website to be far more reputable than the likes of ITV-F1 and Autosport.

Niki Lauda, whose comments about the Spa penalty you referred to on a number of occasions, is one of the hosts, and post-race there are always interviews with the likes of Norbert Haug, Michael Schumacher, each of the German drivers, plus all of the relevant people that ITV-F1 show (non-German drivers, personnel from the non-German teams). The interviews are substantially longer in duration than those on ITV-F1, plus the coverage of the post-race press conference is not cut as soon as one of the German drivers has had his say. Additionally, there are no pointless ‘special features’ in the build-up, such as ‘Cooking with Heikki’ (or whatever it was called).

Perhaps if you were to watch a race on the German RTL channel you would appreciate how feeble ITV-F1 is and at minimum include the former in your list of reputable F1 sources. Then again, as RTL is not a quasi-wing of the Lewis Hamilton fan club, you probably wouldn't appreciate its F1 coverage.

[McCheets]

BECKEN

The full sentence that you quote is as follows.

"Kombiniert mit Lewis' überragenden Qualitäten im Regen haben wir allen Grund, zuversichtlich zu sein, falls sich turbulente Bedingungen einstellen sollten", sagte McLaren-Geschäftsführer Martin Whitmarsch zu 'Sport-Bild'.

RTL.de is claiming that Whitmarsh made these comments to Sport-Bild, not Autosport. Hence RTL.de is not necessarily referring to the same comments appearing on the Autosport website. I can not find these comments on www.sportbild.de. This could be because the appropriate section of the website is no longer accessible, or because the article only appeared printed magazine. Alternatively, the Autosport article may have been incorrectly referred to as a Sport Bild article, and mistranslated. If the latter is true, then Autosport should be addressing the matter.

[Fer]

@Parker

I guess you are not the LH guild, I think his dad has this role ;) But, if you like it and you want to refute all this kind of comments, why cannot you to assume that certain comments you made here can be named as "indemostrable" or directly "falsehood"? Don't you think this is a lack of congruence? Please, i would like to continue learning about F1 in this blog, i would like to continue reading different and interesting reviews from different parts of the world, and this behavior and this kind of comments is a handicap to get it.

Regards,

Fer

[F1-Insider]

So Canada's back - shock what a surprise it was just the F1 commercial rights holder playing games to squeeze more money from all those he's able.

Expect the official news any time or should that really be as suits Mr Ecclestone (he may pontificate a little before it's all made official), what a way to run the pinnacle of motor sport.

Massa for the Championship. McLaren/Mercedes to new global series incorporating many of the world's best race circuits, back to full slicks and best of all back to the only real way to qualify, all cars 60 minutes minimum fuel load - now where have I seen that before?

The new series could release the genius of the engineers, we may even get a few cars that look different.

What better platform for manufactures to show their style, flare and talent rather than the Mosley (soon to be) single engine, huge amounts of the cars being the same and rules that mean all the cars look the same anyhow.

For the younger of you I can recall the year when the championship was between Senna and Mansell. Mansell had the better car but Senna was leading the series, during the second half of the year the Williams was getting better race by race and Senna was racing the pants off his McLaren when Honda pulled out ail the stops and suddenly gave their engine another 30 tp 50 hp with Senna taking the championship. Mansell was quoted as saying something like 'we weren't beaten by a better racing car we were powered out of the championship' (something similar).
The point being that teams had the ability to do what was required to improve their cars if they had the nous to do it whereas today the engineers design cars and improvements with one and a half arm tied behind their back.

[F1-Insider]

Christian
Good post but sadly I don't think Lewis will be allowed to win the championship as the FIA/Mosley have already decided where it's going (anywhere bar McLaren).

[Jordi]

Well, it is boring to keep arguing like in kindergarten:

-"you said! He said, I said!"

But what the hell, I have lots of free time.

LH is not a bad guy, but he is not angel either. As Tim said before, he has a big mouth and it seems to backfire every time, I say let him talk!!

BTW Tim, I really enjoy your posts, thank you.

I heard lewis saying on live tv, 20 minutes after the Italian Grand Prix
- "Who won?
Quite arrogant, in my opinion, when the winner was the new youngest F1 driver to win a race.

I heard Lewis saying on ITV:

-I will never let anyone overtake me on the outside again.
20 minutes later he was overtaken on the outside by kimi or felipe (can remember). This will go down as one of the priceless moments for 2008 season, in my book.

- It was reported that LH called the slower drivers monkeys. I haven't actually seen him saying that, but I haven’t read anyone denying it either.

- I read in the Times LH saying that he had bigger ***** than the actual world champion. Not nice.

Those are just a few examples of why LH is not very popular amongst his fellow drivers and some fans. I will not go into last year stuff, can’t be ask really.

All that stuff does not make LH a terrible person. Big head, big mouth, arrogant perhaps, but not a bad person.

Ok, 3 races left. Very simple: Rain? Mclaren wins, Dry? Ferrari wins.

Regards

[JR]

Becken,

Why Fernando had to take care of Lewis in 2007?, maybe because he gave him full support as a rookie team mate until Lewis betrayed him sticking two knifes in his back in Monaco and Hungary?

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

Wow. Never meant this to start.

Maybe the Germans are wrong. But do you really think that they are going to stuff false words down the driver with a GERMAN Mercedes engine?

Some say I'm a bore. If being a bore is creating huge discussions on blogs, than I can't wait to see what is excitement.

Maybe I'm being egotistical, but I have the feeling that those who say I'm a bore simply have trouble reading other people's views.

Maybe I should write in pink for you guys? That would spice up things. I've always been particularly partial to purple, however.

Christian, I can't qualify your comment as a bore because it is wrong about me in nearly all aspects.

Fan of Ferrari? I'm a diehard BMW fan. I would much rather like them to win the championships. I have the feeling they will next year. Being Swiss, I love the Sauber branch of it too.

Your argument about Valencia and Singapore is hilarious. You seem to forget that when I do the counting up of points and all, I give Felipe a 25 second penalty. Is that not enough? He'd still be ahead in the championship with those and without his multiple engine and pitstop failures. It is not being biased to Ferrari to state facts.

You talk about track advantage when coming out early in the pits. Hilarious. Maybe you have a point when you are talking about McLarens v. Ferraris. Felipe was lapping a Force India, which he did a mere seconds later.

Becken- I have the feeling Lewis will get a technical failure. I'd be surprised if he crashed or anything. I'm just expecting his car to fail at one point this season, which hasn't happened yet.

I don't care about the plate. He could have bought it if he wanted to; I wouldn't have held a stupid number plate against him. Jeez, my parents have their name on their number plates.

Hamilton/Senna talk- you guys make what ever you want of it. Disagree with it, whatever. I for one would not be surprised to hear this coming from the guy who is surrounded by journalists who say he is like Senna.

Heopfully you guys can survive more of my dissident, um, I mean boring comments.

[Becken]

So, as I said, Lewis confirm to a Brazilian insider (LUIS FERNANDO RAMOS) that he never has said something like “AS GOOD AS SENNA” or BETTER THAN SENNA or whatever:

POORLY, POORLY TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH (sorry guys, I hope you understand):

LEWIS´S ANSWER:

“This is rubbish. I have never said that. If I would say something like that about a driver, surely wouldn’t be about Ayrton. He is my favorite driver, the best ever and I think that nobody could defeat him today. I always said that would be a dream achieves a little bit part of what he achieved in his career. Would be good if you guys correct this on the media…”

LINK:
http://tazio.uol.com.br/f-1/textos/5298/

[Jordi]

Ed
"Remember Lewis...succumbing to that strange technical failure at Interlagos?"

Sorry Ed,I don't, but I remember that:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2007/10/23/video-did-hamilton-cause-his-gearbox-problem/

[A Parker]

Thanks Becken. It is sickening to read some of the vile rubbish written about Lewis. Some people believe what they want to believe especially if it fits in with their warped view of life. These people who have been buzzing and blogging all over the internet spewing indignation at the temerity of LH won't issue an apology for accusing him of something he hasn't said or done. They must get great satisfaction from hating someone so intensely. What a nasty world we live in.

[David Jones]

Anon (and his big paragraph)
You are beginning to remind me of Max Mosley! Didn't he once resign telling all he was off only to return (before he went) worse than ever before and looking likely to never leave? What with all your laboured posts I'm sure you will be able to see the similarity for yourself.
You do sometimes provide a jolly good read - David Jones who is really annoyed at reading Anon's stupid Paragraph after all of his posting on the Times F1 blog bla bla bla bla.......

F1_Insider
Love it, if I could make it happen I would and I for one would certainly follow the new formula if it ever took off I reckon it would be fantastic and would very quickly show F1 up as not being at the top of motor sport.

JR
Get real matey, try living in real-time instead of make believe this isn't Dallas!

Christian
Well written.

Stelmara
I also was watching the qualifying live watching Alonso timings as he was looking good for pole only for the nasty cheating of Schumacher to appear. All that rush I was feeling just stopped dead I felt the same having watched Spa only to hear later than he had had the race taken from him, all that joy just vanished. Hamilton has been so much more entertainment this year than any other driver and should he not be crowned F1 champion because of Mosley's/FIA dodgy dealings would be an insult to every true F1 across the globe and very very sadly we ALL know how much attention Max Mosley's/ FIA care about that.

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

OK then, my apologies. I'll Lewis on his word. Unfortunately the Brazilian press is not on my usual reading lookout, I hope that can be forgiven me. I am surprised by RTL, maybe there was a misunderstanding.
Considering the talk that Lewis has generated about Senna and the resemblances, I didn't think this one was too much of a stretch. But Lewis has said other stuff, like criticizing Massa's driving and saying Kimi lacked balls while driving in the wet.

All I'm saying is that I hate it when people picture him as a moral savior. Lewis has shown he is very capable of cheating (see the start of Hungary '07). I don't care if he cheats- the great ones all cheated- but I think he should be honest about it.

But who cares. With the stock market where it is, I think we could have much more intellectual conversations. Yes, I started it, and I deeply regret it. My apologies.

[Der Alte]

Dear Tim,

when you start talking about risks i think its quite funny that you are taking LH as an example. What has he drove, 30GP and made like one or two risky manouvers. What is also funy is when he himself proclaimed to be an "Iceman" too. What a driver made of ice does is the fastest lap in the final GP only 2 or 3 laps before finishing as a world champion.

He is good although idont like him but please, let him win something before you lift him up into the sky next to Senna.

BTW. do you honestly think someone else would have wonn the champion if kimis car would have been as he wanted it to be? 10fastest lap say quite much and remember Fuji last year before you say LH is the master in the rain

[Jordi]

Parker... you can talk!
The only thing you said after Alonso won in Singapore was "he is a cheat".

Did you get great satisfaction from that?

[JR]

DAVID JONES,
Unfortunetly F-1 world is quite often much worst than Dallas, remember Spa a moth ago?

[May]

Anon has always been respectful of the opinions of those who don't agree with him. I cannot understand how anyone can accuse him of being a troll. His analysis just points out that Massa may be undervalued, that he has delivered during the season, and that without mechanical failures he could be leading the classification by now (even if he had been second to Hamilton in Spa), therefore being a rightful challenger for the title - how is that offensive to anyone?

A. Parker/Scarlet - Hamilton was quoted by a reputed German TV as saying that he was better than Senna. As Becken points out, it could be a mistake due to a poor translation of Hamilton's words, something that happens frequently and not just with him (I do speak Spanish and I have seen Alonso's words grossly misrepresented in some of the reputable sites that A. Parker listed). Personally, I find it difficult to believe that Hamilton would give such a direct comparison between him and Senna, but I am open to somebody proving otherwise, as I do not expect him (nor anybody else) to be a saint. And Scarlet, Hamilton did not give his bottle of champagne to the Williams team; there was a full discussion about that in the same forum that A. Parker referred to, and a participant provided a picture that showed that he did give it to a McLaren mechanic. Apparently, the ITV images had given the wrong impression - even they can get it wrong now and then!

Becken, thanks for the link to the Brazilian site - nice interview. There is, however, something that really surprised me: when asked about his memories of the day that Senna died, Hamilton explains that he was at his local race track and then says "I can't remember, was it on a Saturday?", the journalist points out that it was on the Sunday, and then Hamilton says "Was it on a Sunday? Yes, during the test, wasn't it?" (Senna's crash), and again the journalist has to remind him that it was during the race. And please, don't take this as a harsh criticism on Hamilton!!! Anyone can forget things, but I found it weird, I was genuinely surprised.

Apologies for the long post! Best regards,

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

David, I'm not gonna lie, you do make me want to leave again...

A Parker, I apologize fo rhaving misquoted Lewis. I thought I could trust RTL, and I couldn't.

BTW, if you hate hate so much, then maybe you should retract your "Alonso is a toad" comments... those weren't very conducive to making the world a better place.

[Gary M]

Jordi, Lewis Hamilton never said he had bigger balls that Kimi. If you say he did indeed say that then please reference your quotes so we can see for ourselves.

Lewis said "If you don't have the balls to break late then that is your problem".

If you are going to contribute to an English language blog then you are going to have to ignore phrases that you clearly have no understanding of. Because your last post with supposed quotes from Lewis was just laughable. You seem so at ease with the idea of twisting peoples real words into what you want to hear it is just pathetic.

From now on you should not just tell us what you think you heard but you should really give us the actual words Lewis said and quote the source you got them from.

[Mrs Bishop]

Gosh get over it! Lewis is CUTE!

Haha, he's also one of the best drivers out there, and the best british hope we've had in years! Let us have our silly little dream! although maybe it's not so little :D

People on this blog are saying Lewis doesn't deserve to win because he is playing the percentage game, BUT don't all drivers do this at one point? he's driven more wrecklessly than any other driver this year...Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, etc...
You don't win championships for being exciting! although if you did surely it would be Lewis ;D

And you claim he is fake? and you really think that you know Fernando, Kimi, Felipe, etc. personally? Of course not, it's just that Lewis is very media savvy and the british public know his name over anyone elses! [i'm not talking about regular fans, maybe just the ones that watch "iconic" races] So he gets regular coverage, and therefore has more chances to screw up because he gets asked crazier questions, or misquoted...
Of course he could be a complete twit but who knows? Maybe all drivers are! who cares? its the driving that matters!

Yes i'm a Lewis fan but hey i'm not ashamed! :D

p.s why can't people be Lewis Hamilton fans? but can be Fernando or Kimi fans? I'm patriotic so KILL ME!

[Richard]

JORDI - just when I think your posts are starting to become more reasonable, you go and say something like this:

"I heard lewis saying on live tv, 20 minutes after the Italian Grand Prix
- "Who won?
Quite arrogant, in my opinion, when the winner was the new youngest F1 driver to win a race"

Did you ever stop to consider the following:

Many of the interviews with drivers following the race are not actually live, they're recorded, and played back a few minutes later. The interview with Lewis could easily have taken place just after the end of the race, but the live footage would have been of the podium ceremony, so the interview would have had to wait.

Lewis clearly wasn't sure who won the race. And in your eyes, this makes him arrogant does it?

And why was he more likely to have known who the winner was because he was the youngest GP winner?

I really don't understand why you feel the need to say such things, they don't do you any favours at all.

[Guilherme Fuoco]

I think that Felipe Massa will win the championship. He demonstrates a lot of seriousness. Lewis Hamilton is an antipathetic person. I cant believe that he compared his carrer with Senna's.

That's all.

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

Gary, maybe Jordi twists the words. But while he simply simplifies them, you go and read them like a lawyer.

What Jordi meant was that Lewis said Kimi didn't have the balls to break later, ie. to take more risks and try to go faster.

You're correcting of his quote does about... nothing to argue agaisnt it.

Lewis's comment was ludicrous too, because (if you believe Kimi) Kimi had to brake earlier because he was first. He had no idea when he could brake (since the rain had just started falling). So he had to take no risks. Lewis, on the other hand, could just brake as the same time as Kimi (see the little red light).

[Furio]

I am no hamilton's fan.
But, look at this page in wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_driver_records

After less than 2 seasons Hamilton is already in the list of records. The most impressive, in my opinion, is the "average points per race entered":

1 Lewis Hamilton 6.03
2 George Amick 6.00
3 Michael Schumacher 5.48
4 Juan Manuel Fangio 5.34
5 Luigi Fagioli 4.57
6 Lee Wallard 4.50
7 Fernando Alonso 4.40
8 Alberto Ascari 4.25
9 Alain Prost 3.95
10 Bill Vukovich 3.80

Then ask me: "do you like him?".
No, no, no!!!

[Gary M]

ANON (etc..)

Jordi may well simplify Lewis' words but he does it in a way that always puts Lewis in the worst light possible. Hence why I go and read them like a lawyer.

There should be no reason to twist anybody's words, if you are going to quote somebody then you should print their quote word for word, it is always helpful to have a source. Why would you want to "simplify" a quote anyway? Are we too thick to understand the real quote?

If Ed decided to misquote something Alonso had said I am sure he would know about it. Contributing to an online discussion should be no different, the libel laws still apply even in online notice boards. I really do not understand why anybody would go to the bother of changing someone's words unless they wanted to deliberately misinterpret what they said.

Unless there is another reason why you do this Jordi?

[tiptoe]

Just when I had started enjoying the blog this is becoming kindergarten: You said..., I said..., reference your quote..., nasty world won't last long...

I think British press put an enormous pressure on LH, they did it last year and the result was a lost championship.
This year is heading the same way, Massa has nothing to lose and no pressure while LH has to probe himself, another failure and the press will cut him into pieces.
Just read articles in the times online like: "Hamilton faces test of character", "Time for Hamilton to show his best side" or "Lewis Hamilton sits pretty but needs to be big in Japan".

[Jordi]

Anon, Thank you.

Gary, gary, gary...."If you don't have the balls to break late then that is your problem". Hamilton claims that Kimi broke too early, Hamilton rekons he can brake later than Kimi, therefore Hamilton thinks that he has balls and Kimi hasn't.
So my mistake was that I mention the size of the balls (bigger balls), but actually what LH meant is that Kimi doesn't have balls at all.
Thank you Gary.

[Jordi]

There is one more factor that might be important in this last 3 races. If LH is not very popular with his fellow drivers, If Glock, Webber, Alonso are not happy after LH manoeuvres in Monza, If Kimi is not happy about LH comments about his bravery and other drivers didn't like to be called monkeys...how are they going to react in a possible wheel to wheel battle, keeping in mind that they have nothing to lose?.

[Jordi]

Richard
Breaking the youngest F1 driver to win a race record is not something that happens every race, not even every year, so yes in my opinion I think its relevant and in my opinion LH came across very arrogant.

You are right, perhaps the interview wasn't live, perhaps it was recorded but neither of us know for sure, we both could be right, so please save your condescending attitude for better ocassions.

Thank you

[McCheets]

ANON

Keep up the good work, there are many who appreciate your input.

JORDI

Your English is fine, and I hope that you don't worry about those who try to mock your abilities to comprehend English, in particular those native English speakers who appear to be oblivious to the concept of punctuation.

[David Jones]

Anon,
sounds like I hit a nerve. I have nothing against you other than you saying one thing and doing another and of course have a different view on a number of your posts.

JR
Well you ain't wrong there so I'll give you that one

Mrs Bishop
Good post Mrs Bishop

[Richard]

I've just read this quote from Bernie Ecclestone about Lewis Hamilton on the Autosport website:

"He's an extraordinary talent, in the same ballpark as the Sennas and the Schumachers. Last year, as a rookie, he nearly won the title. Can you remember others like that?"

Here's the full article:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71284

This is a pretty serious endorsement of Hamilton's talent, but I'm sure some of you will disagree!

[PROF PLUM]

I have to ask the chap with the biggest paragraph - what little red light?

[Jordi]

Gary, aparently one of my post has been censured, too many xxxx words I guess. Let me try again.

So LH didn't say bigger xxxxx, he said that Kimi has no xxxxx.

Is that more acceptable?

[Jordi]

Ed, if the expression "having no balls" is so normal in English language and apparently no many of your readers seem to find it offensive, why you keep censuring my posts where I use that expresion?

[Anon (and his big paragraph)]

Prof Plum- the light that shines under braking.
I'm not sure if they have adopted them yet, but I think they have:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/57322

Richard: funny coming, from the hguy who says Fernando is the best driver out there. I have the feeling that if you put this guy in a room split evenly between Spanish and English journalists he will simply split in half down the middle.

Gary: sure, he shouldn't misquote. Jst don't get to smart about it and say that's NOT what lewis said.

Take care all!

[Richard]

JORDI - if you want to call Lewis arrogant when you have absoutely no idea whether he knew who won the race, it's your prerogative. In my opinion, sullying the guy's character based on nothing more than an assumption says more about your character than his.

It's not a case of us both being right. I'm not claiming I'm right, I'm just saying you should save your unpleasant comments until you're sure you're right. So please save your retaliatory comments until they're justified.

[william]

If he paints hes car red

[David S]

Lewis is a worthy World Champion, Massa is not. Simple.
Massa's toolkit fails to include a guide to raceday overtaking through the grid, wet weather studs or any method to deal with a less than optimal car....put him on pole with a car advantage and he has credibility but that a world champion it doesn't make....

For the good of the sport the BEST RACER should take it...Lewis, Kubica, KR, Rosberg, Button please step forward...

[Jordi]

Richard
Blogs are to express opinions amongst other things. I make it very clear that it was IN MY OPINION.

LH character is something that many people have been talking about, so forgive me for giving MY OPINION.
Please stop policing the blog.

[Richard]

ANON - Bernie's comments don't necessarily contradict the statement about Alonso being the best driver out there. He may well believe that, but perhaps his comments about Hamilton take into account how little F1 experience he has, and in time, maybe he thinks LH could be as dominant as Shumacher was?

[Richard]

JORDI - you do make me laugh. You made the point that you're entitled to give your opinion, yet you ended by effectively telling me not to give my opinion (i.e. don't police the blog). And you call Lewis Hamilton arrogant!

Just because you say 'in my opinion' before another one of your unpleasant statements doesn't make it any better, and I am perfectly entitled to balance your view with my own opinion (whether you like it or not). If you can't handle the criticism, perhaps you ought to refrain from making comments besmirching a driver's character without the slightest shred of evidence that you were justified.

If you want to call Lewis Hamilton arrogant, just say it. After all, we all know it's only your opinion. You don't need to legitimise it or justify it, you can say what you want. But please don't make a statement like the one you made above, and claim it makes him arrogant when you don't have a clue about the real facts. In this instance, you jumped to the conclusion that Lewis knew who won the Italian GP, and because he didn't gush praise on the driver as soon as a microphone was stuffed into his face, he's accused of arrogance.

I can just hear the pit radio crackling into life on the slow down lap: "Lewis, P7, change ignition setting to X, change to the leanest fuel mixture, drive slowly to conserve fuel, pick up marbles on the tyres to increase the weight of the car, proceed to parc ferme. Oh, and by the way, did you know Sebastian Vettel won today, and, after consulting our record books, we've realised that makes him the youngest ever winner of a grand prix. Now do be a kind chap and be sure to acknowledge it as soon as you get out of the car, won't you".

The more likely scenario is that Lewis was tired having just finished a gruelling race in the rain where he put together a string of overtaking manoeuvres throughout the GP. He finished in 7th so he would have been more concerned with who was 6th and who was 8th in the closing stages. Telling him who was P1 over the radio was not going to help him maintain his focus, so he probably wasn't told. He was also bound to be very disappointed after the race, having worked so hard to put himself in a prime position following such a lowly start, only to be scuppered by the weather. Of course, if you acknowledged the more likely scenario, it would have meant losing the opportunity to criticise Lewis, so it doesn't surprise me that you chose to avoid it.

I could remind everyone of the behaviour of a certain other driver in post-race interviews after the early races in 2007, a driver you don't call arrogant. However, due to the length of this post, I'll save it for another time.

[Tshepo (South Africa)]

my only gripe is, people pls stop posting comments which are too long to read, we are not writing a thesis here!

[Barry]

As I recall, Prost, Lauda, Stewart and quite a few others learned to play the numbers game. So WHAT. How many of you were fans when Clark died, and felt the gut wrenching feeling that Formula 1 had lost something it might never see again? Did you watch grieve for Lauda when he had his accident?, or thank god when he got back in the car. Or watch transfixed during the Arrnoux/ Villeneuve battle as it happened. Nowadays they'd both be penalized, if not suspended.
Sometimes I think that its best not to have a favorite team or driver, as it allows one to admire the exceptional skills these guys have, and leaves one with the satisfaction of having witnessed greatness in the moment. I hope that this might give some of you pause instead of claws when writing in.
Been an f-i fan since the early 60's, and I think you folks in Europe are a little spoiled. You should try being a fan in the U.S., with a guy like Bernie running the show.
His greed is ruining the sport. He temps tracks to meet his standards, they spend millions, fans hope, then he finds someone else to screw. Phoenix, Las Vegas. Jesus, what next? This is so much masculine bovine feces, its a wonder someone hasn't knocked the snot out of the little twerp.. As far as customer cars, let'em. I remember Rob Walker's team and what he did for up and comming drivers, as well as first rate drivers.
I think that Formula-1 needs to take a few steps backward, catch its breath, then get back to racing, not parading.
I hope I didn't p*** anyone off with this missive, but I just had to get in my 2 cents. And from what I can see, it's losing value by the minute.
Barry

[Pasquale]

Anon was right in his first post of those I read: Lewis didn't get any points in Japan. So, now, it would be finished with "non score" races for him, but who knows what else can happen? I am an old followers of Formula 1 and I remember the old times, the many times Ferrari won against McLaren when the silver arrows were stronger than Ferrari, when the Italian team used to win thanks to a great driver (useless to say who he was) and to a a perfect team, able to get the very best out of the car, gaining precious time at the pit stops, where often they were able to overtake the McLaren otherwise unbeatable. Nowadays things are quite different: in my opinion (and not only mine, according to what I see and read), Ferrari is the fastest and best performing car (without rain...), but with two good drivers, not the best ones, and a team often clumsy and not so sharp as they used to be when the splendid Hakkinen was the adversary to beat. Moreover, so far, Ferrari was fast and powerful, but not so reliable: its motor could suddenly crash, making useless all the speed, power and the possible good position acquired by the driver at that stage. At McLaren they hadn't problems like those, until today (see what happened to Kovalainen's car).
However, in general, at McLaren those things, these days, were only bad memories: perfect pit stops, no time handed over to the adversary, no foolish mistakes with wrong tyres, etc. I thing that most of the advantage they got lately depends on the improvements they had as a team in general, whereas Ferrari lost a bit of their previous maniacal attention to every single detail and they are paying something in terms of points for this new state of mind (you can't lose people as Todt, Ross Brawn and Schumacher all together without paying a price, I guess). That's the real, slight difference, between the two leading drivers now: Hamilton could be better than Massa, I do not know, they certainly are good drivers, but I do not think they are the best ones. They still make mistakes an experienced driver should not commit. They still take useless risks, when they should look at the final result and, deep-down, they're still a bit far from the strength of a Fernando Alonso. I do not like him as far as his personality is concerned: he doesn't seem so sympathetic (according to what I read in the newspaper, of course: I do not know him personally), but I must admit that, at the present, he is the best driver and that, as a Ferrari follower, if he was in Massa's shoes, at this stage he would probably have had a lead bigger than that of Hamilton upon Massa, despite all the problems caused to the Brazilian by his own team.

Two races are left to establish who's gonna win, but I do not think Hamilton can feel so self-confident about the final result: if he and Massa keep on driving as fools, as they apparently did today, even Koubica can get the title and ti wouldn't be undeserved...

Cheers

Pasquale

[Jordi]

Richard
If you have diferent opinion than me, just say it, that's fine man. But please refrain from questioning my character, there was no need to get personal.

Also, my opinion about LH arrogance its not only base on him pretending that he didn't know that Vettel won. Even Ed thought it was a well spread opinion in the F1 world, to the point that he wrote a treat on this subject:

"There has been some talk in the media centre about Lewis getting too big for his boots. I guess this has arisen again largely as a result of some of the things he said during the court hearing in Paris."

Lewis: the balance between self-belief and arrogance

http://timesonline.typepad.com/formula_one/

[Richard]

JORDI - my opinion is not about whether Hamilton is arrogant, it's about people using only their assumptions to make a derogatory statement about another person.

I'm getting no more personal with you than you are with Hamilton, the only difference is that I'm using real evidence which I can refer to, rather than relying on assumptions borne out of prejudging everything the guy does:

"I heard lewis saying on live tv, 20 minutes after the Italian Grand Prix
- "Who won?
Quite arrogant, in my opinion, when the winner was the new youngest F1 driver to win a race"

You used nothing else in your original post to justify 'getting personal' about Hamilton, that's why I responded as I did.

You're asking me to refrain from questioning your character, yet you're happy to question the character of Lewis Hamilton with absolutely no first-hand knowledge of the guy whatsoever. Please forgive me from 'getting personal', but isn't this rather hypocritical?

[Jordi]

Not really Richard,
LH gets paid what he gets paid, so he should not complain about media and public scrutiny. LH has 7 books about his live, he is in the news papers everyday and on tv every week, so I have a good idea about his character, and if I'm wrong I'm sure he can live with it.

How many people have been judging FA,Massa,Kimi etc in this blog? I would say that even Ed encourage us to do so with posts about Kimi "bad manners" LH "Arrogance/confidence" and so on.

Come on Richard, give me a break, you have been here long enough, you have read people judging drivers all the time, but you just get defensive when is directed to LH.

Ps: If I get personal with you, then you will have a point, but please dont try to defend LH, he is big enough and I only said that I think he is arrogant, so what? I also said that I think he is a nice guy!!!

[Richard]

JORDI - if you really concentrate, you might eventually understand the point I was making.

I have not criticised you for having the opinion that Lewis Hamilton is arrogant. I'm not trying to defend him either. In fact, I agree he is often too cocky for his own good.

I have criticised you for saying he's arrogant because he didn't know who won the Italian GP, when you've made the assumption that he did know and chose to pretend he didn't. You have absolutely no evidence of this, and I've already pointed out that it's not unusual for a driver to be unsure of the finishing order.

"I only said that I think he is arrogant"

No you didn't, you said:

"I heard lewis saying on live tv, 20 minutes after the Italian Grand Prix
- "Who won?
Quite arrogant, in my opinion, when the winner was the new youngest F1 driver to win a race"

If you'd just said you thought he was arrogant, I wouldn't have bothered to reply because it's hardly a startling revelation.

Listen Richard, that's getting ridiculous.

You are very right, I have no evidence that he knew it, its a matter of fact that I don't even have an evidence that Lewis Hamilton exist, and now that I have been concentrating very hard I realise that I don't have any evidence that you exist either!

Have a nice day

[Ricardo]

Richard said that Hamilton is too cocky, do you have real evidence of that?
Or you just criticise for fun?

[Richard]

RICARDO - yes I do have evidence, it's in numerous interviews which I've witnessed where he's said things that came across as cocky.

It's not the same thing as calling him arrogant because you believe he's lying even though you have no basis for saying this whatsoever.

[Richard]

"Listen Richard, that's getting ridiculous"

Was that you Jordi? I see you've taken to posting anonymously now. I'm not surprised by this, I think I would too if I made comments like yours!

[O Rygh, Norway]

For what I have seen I am starting to think that Richard and A Parker may be the same person! Well at least, browsing his posts, the anger and prepotence he uses to justify some of his comments indicate that he is a true british with the characteristic arrogance and attitude that defines britishness.

I am just a cold northern boy who enjoys vodka. The best drink...

And of course, I know that Richard and A parker are not the same individual. But I hope people do get the point!

I can guarantee you that he will answer this 'attack' on his integrity...Like I care!!!