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Lewis gets his driving suit washed by Jason and Philippa

Here is a little story which throws some light into a corner of Formula One that doesn't usually get much attention(another little tale left over in the notebook from Magny-Cours where, I am delighted to say, we will be going back next year).

Lewis was staying in a hotel near the track and on Saturday night after qualifying he wanted to get his racing suit washed ready for race day. Apparently the hotel would not do this for him, for some reason. So Lewis called his Dad and step-mum Linda who were staying at a B&B in an old chateau run by a young British couple about 40kms from the track.

Jason and Philippa Park were putting up several McLaren people for the weekend. Jason is quite a big Formula One fan, as it happens, and attended race day as a guest of MacLaren. However, neither he nor his wife were expecting to have to wash the race suit of one Lewis Hamilton as part of their duties. But that is what they ended up doing when Linda turned up with it and asked whether they'd mind...

Can you imagine? I'd be terrified that the colours would run or I(or my wife) would shrink it or it wouldn't be dry in time. "We looked at the labels to be honest," Jason told the Times Formula One weblog. "I think it was supposed to be dry-cleaned only and maybe that was why the hotel wouldn't do it. It was a bit of an issue, but we had Linda to advise and she has done it before of course, so we weren't too worried."

So Lewis's suit went in on cold wash, 30 degrees, in the family machine and was then taken upstairs to dry in the laundry room. Jason had a good look at the suit which is very carefully "built" for Lewis at McLaren. "It was quite impressive. What was most striking was how hot it must be to wear," he said. "He has a fire-retardent layer underneath and then the suit is fire-retardent as well, so it looked bloody hot."

Jason and his wife were not going to let the experience go without recording it for posterity, so the drying suit was photographed on its hanger, an image which might one day be adorned, perhaps, with Lewis's signature. They hoped their work might bring the young British driver some luck on what was going to be a difficult day. "I didn't see Lewis after the race sadly, but it didn't really do him a lot of favours," reflected Jason.

He believes Lewis is going to have an uphill struggle to be champion this season. "I would dearly love him to do it but I think the Ferrari car is too strong," he said.

The episode is interesting. It suggests Lewis only uses one suit per weekend and that he may have a favourite which he likes to use as much as he can. There are stories about McLaren team gear all having to be washed together and on a strict rotational schedule to ensure - believe it or not - that it all fades at the same rate. Maybe Lewis does his own thing, or God forbid, maybe Lewis is breaking the rules... 

Pic shows Lewis with the suit on, on Sunday at Magny-Cours. Looks like, from the top-half at least, that Jason and Philippa did a pretty good job.

Felipe takes the spoils in France

A disappointing day for Kimi as his Ferrari suffers a failure in the exhaust but Felipe takes the gift and emerges at the head of the drivers' championship, the first Brazilian to lead it since Ayrton Senna in 1993.

Jarno manages to hold off Heikki(4th) and others to get third in a much slower Toyota. Rain arrived on lap 57 but did not play a decisive part on what was not one of Formula One's most memorable days.

Lewis has a tough race. After starting 13th he overcooked it at the Nurburgring chicane while trying to get past Sebastian Vettel on lap one. He missed the apex to get the place but then did not give it back. Result: a drive-through penalty which made it very difficult to come back. Despite some impressive driving in the mid-field, he could finish no better than 10th.

This is Lewis's third scoreless race in 2008(his second in succession) and his third penalty of the season after the incident in qualifying in Malaysia, the grid penalty from Canada and now the drive through. All in all this is turning out to be a very different start to the season compared to last year(to put it mildly). Lewis is now 10 points off the lead and with much to do.

Before the race he had a go at the media in the wake of criticism in some papers of his driving in Canada. (I would imagine he was mainly directing his comments at the British press). Here is what he told ITV. "I found out that there was a lot of negativity in the media, and that's to be expected," said Hamilton. "That's what they do: they build you up and then they break you down, but they can't break me. There's a lot of crap coming out in the papers. I'm here to race, and I don't want all this stuff. But I'm very strong mentally, and my belief in my own ability is stronger than ever and there's nothing that can break me."      

Kimi grabs pole in France; Lewis(3rd/13th) apologises to his team

Kimi took pole by a smidgeon from Felipe on a track the Iceman seems to enjoy. The Finn was looking and sounding very confident after securing the Scuderia's 200th pole in Formula One, his second of the season and Ferrari's third front row lock-out of the year. Kimi says the car has been working well all weekend and he is looking to convert his work today into a third race win for 2008. Felipe was happy enough but said over-driving in sector three had lost him time.

Behind the Ferrari pair Lewis could only manage 3rd after making mistakes on the exit of Turn 7 which cost him dearly and he was disappointed with himself afterwards. With Lewis dropped to 13th by the penalty - he starts behind Sebastian Vettel - Fernando, who was four-tenths off Kimi's pace, starts third on the grid. Jarno is fourth, just ahead of Heikki who will have been disappointed to get only as far as P6, initially adjusted to fifth.

However Heikki incurred the wrath of the stewards who decided that he was going "very slowly" during an out-lap and thereby "hindered" Mark Webber in the Red Bull who was on a fast lap. They penalised Heikki five places, dropping him to 10th on the grid and with another tough race ahead of him.

A big surprise, perhaps, were the two BMWs with Robert back in sixth and Nick, who was struggling from the off, languishing in 11th. Will Nick still be in the team next year, one wonders. Will Nelson still be at Renault? In fact the young Brazilian drove pretty well to be 11th - adjusted to 9th after the various penalties at McLaren - but he was on a different planet to Fernando once again in, more or less, the same machinery.   

It is going to be a testing afternoon for Lewis tomorrow who is going to have to fight his way through from the back. Kimi showed it can be done here when starting 13th in 2005 and clawing his way through to finish second. Lewis apologised to his team for mistakes on successive laps at the exit of Turn 7 where he ran wide onto the astro-turf. This is the first chicane(Nurburgring) which is taken at 160mph in 6th.

"It was quite a disappointing qualifying for me," he said. "I have to apologise to the team. I had the same mistake on both of my laps at the exit of Turn 7 which cost me three-tenths." He was asked about the penalty: "The penalty doesn't particularly hang over you," he said. "We'll do the best job we can, take it on the chin, we'll learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Lewis said the Ferraris and the McLarens were close in performance but the red cars had a little extra pace in sector three. "We have set the car up (to qualify) as high as possible...it's going to be tough to overtake but we are quick enough so I am confident for tomorrow," Lewis added.

While BMW licked their wounds - Mario admitting the cars "are not as quick as usual" - at Renault, they were celebrating another top drive from Fernando with Pat Symonds confident the Spanish double world champion can finish on the podium. Fernando was also optimistic. "The times were very tight today in both Q1 and Q2. But I made it through to Q3 and was able to set a good time," he said. "The car has really improved and so for the first time this season, we have the real chance to fight for the podium. The Ferraris are certainly a step ahead but we will give our maximum to get a good result tomorrow."

Some stats from Bridgestone
Total laps completed by all drivers: 668
Average laps per driver: 33
Most laps by a driver: 44(Timo)
Fastest lap: Felipe(1min 15.024secs)
Compounds used: Medium/soft

NB: There is some debate in the press room about exactly who is starting where and how the penalties  will be imposed...

   

Milling about at Magny-Cours

Here are a few rough shots from the Thursday press conference at Magny-Cours in which the crap photographer shows you the milling about before the session begins. This is when the drivers are "released" from their PR handlers(who accompany them to the conference and then watch over them during it) and greet their fellow victims. Here, as you can see, it was Lewis, his old friend Robert and then the two Ferrari pilots, Kimi and Felipe. There are a couple of shots of the conference itself. As you can see the Kimster looks fitter than hitherto - less weight in his face. My picture doesn't show it, but Kimi looked very relaxed most of the time. To my mind he seems to have come to terms with this part of his job - all part of the Ferrari effect and becoming world champion, one supposes. At this presser Lewis appeared to be angry about something while Robert sounded about as bored and underwhelmed with life as it is possible to be. (Click images to enlarge).

Hitting the curbs at Magny-Cours

Watching Friday practice, it is hard not to notice the problems several of the drivers are having at the high-speed right-hander Turn 3 where a few have been off over the two sessions, including Lewis who went for a big tour of the gravel in the afternoon session at this point and Felipe who almost lost it completely going through the gravel with five minutes to go.

It is hard to say what is causing this. One theory is that the drivers are experiencing cross-wind at this point which is affecting downforce as they go round the turn.

In response to this post, Tim wrote in with this comment on Turn 3, for which I am grateful. "Turn 3 at Magny Cours - or Estoril, to use its official name - is a long, fast right hander. In some respects, it's not unlike the widely acclaimed Turn 8 at Istanbul.

Estorial is one of the key elements of a quick lap at Magny Cours. Get it right, carry some extra speed through the turn and you'll keep it all the way down the long straight until the Adelaide hairpin. Get it wrong, however, and you lose out all the way down the straight to Adelaide. In many ways, it can make or break a lap.

It's a long corner too, and feels like you're turning right forever before you can put your foot to the floor. It can be very tempting to try and edge out just a bit more speed - and find yourself off the road."

Turn 13, the tight right-hander into the downhill section in sector three, has also been problematic with three drivers off there this afternoon(Felipe, Nelson and Adrian). This, I understand, is a more normal area for early "offs".

The other aspect in the running today has been the impact of the curbs through 16 and 17 which look very high. We have seen almost all the drivers give their cars a real tanking as they go airbone off one side and hammer down on the other.

With 22 minutes of the afternoon session to go we watched some amazing driving by Fernando at this point. He came in hot and then hit the inside hard which threw the back of the car across the track to within inches of the grass on the outside before he managed to gather it up and aim it at the straight. We saw it from several angles and in slow motion - it looked better every time. Even the Renault mechanics were impressed...all in all a good example of why Fernando is regarded by the readers of this blog as the best driver in Formula One. Incidentally that lap put him third fastest behind Felipe and Kimi. Not bad. But within minutes he was fastest and that's where he finished. Just writing this I looked up and saw him again on the ragged edge at those turns - the man from Oviedo is certainly giving it all he has got here.

Afterwards Fernando sounded very happy with his day's work - despite an engine failure in the morning - but he did admit his position at the top of the timings in the afternoon was probably "fuel-related". After two pointless in Monaco(10th) and Canada(DNF), Fernando is hoping to get on the podium on Sunday or, failing that, to finish in the top-five.

The strike looks to be ebbing away before it has even started. Lewis has decided not to support any protest the drivers might make. Here is what he said when "clarifying" his remarks. "I am not involved in any strike talks; that is not my position. I am here to race; to do my job for the team, for myself and for the fans of Formula One...in any case, I don't believe for one minute that the drivers will take such drastic measures. We have the British Grand Prix in a couple of weeks' time and other Grands Prix to follow, and I'm certainly not planning on missing any of them."