After thoughts from the Chinese GP

The Chinese GP brought more suspense to the 2007 F1 Driver’s Championship, and indirectly more media hype and abuse is revolving Lewis Hamilton and co. Where McLaren seem to be using or are being used by the media in their tense relationships between their two rivals of teammates, Ferrari have been keeping quiet, conservative and are expressing great admiration for Kimi’s battle through this year, saying he’s on ‘Schumi’s level’. Here is the latest chit chat from all sides, and a bit of reaction from my side (sorry!)

Ah, the good old comparative approach. The main difference is, Kimi is cool in all aspects of his career and character, his style and attitude. And what’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold (Kimi hehe!). Hamilton made his first significant mistake of his debut year in F1 at China. Is that true? Let’s rewind….

I guess the European GP never happened then? Hamilton qualified 10th due to the qualifying accident he had due to his front right tyre (which seems to be his Achilles heel nowadays, like at China) and only finished the race in 9th. He was terrible with his car in the wet. He spun off and got back on track only to spin off again a few metres off the road. While Massa, Alonso and Kimi were racing upfront. And what of the British Grand Prix. Kimi was racing for the win and Lewis cracked under the pressure. He kept locking his wheels and ruined his tyres again and again (I know because he was doing it right infront of were I was sat at the chicane after Club corner.) Can’t forget his Monaco practise turn 1 accident either.

Lewis desires to compete in all things that seem worthy of admiration. Now he’s competing for the Iceman label. Granted, he is a brilliant driver and has done a fantastic job this season, as all drivers have their bad days indeed, but he’s getting to the point where making a point like ‘I’m cool too’ just doesn’t work. His impatience shown in the Chinese GP will spring up again in Brazil. I think he better quit talking whiles he’s ahead.

Ecclestone hails Hamilton, disregards Kimi and Alonso

"It is painfully obvious to me that the right guy to be world champion is Lewis," said Ecclestone.

"In fact, my main fear would be if he didn’t win it. Kimi Raikkonen barely talks to anyone and as such has done little for the sport, and as for Fernando Alonso, in his two years as world champion he has done nothing."

Oh dear. I had to include this quote as Shadman left a comment below reminding me of these ridiculous comments Bernie said before the Chinese GP. Kimi’s response? Completely not bothered as usual :

Alonso and Kimi unfazed by Bernie rebuke – "I don’t really care too much what people say about me," – Kimi

But the fans can be bothered about it. I thought F1 was about racing and not really about tv ratings? It’s no suprise that Bernie makes such comments, because he is a businessman. He couldn’t care for the what drivers are actually doing. Kimi and Fernando are racers, like Lewis. Kimi and Fernando are hard racers and have brought many, many fans to the sport. Spain is now holding two Grands Prix for crying out loud. And I guess Bernie didn’t see the army of Kimi supporters in the Chinese grandstands, as Shadman rightly pointed out and you can see in the Chinese GP highlights video I made. What has Lewis done, that Kimi and Fernando can’t do? It’s something to do with being a rookie winning races I guess. Oh, and having a darker skin colour at the same time. I just wanted to laugh when I read what Bernie was saying. But it’s actually very sad. By the way he’s talking, it’s blatantly obvious F1 is not a sport to him, or his friends. It’s a publicity event, making money from entertainment at the most cheesiest level – support the youngest and first black F1 world champion! – it’s not sporting when you’re using inconsistant ruling and biasing just to get what you want (i.e British black rookie winning the WDC for publicity purposes). Bernie, just say it you little senile pig – It’s Formoney One baby! What sport are you talking about? It can’t be F1, because you’re contradicting the two things. If Kimi doesn’t want to talk, then he doesn’t. He wants to drive and be the best, that is how a sport should be. It seems as if great drivers like Kimi and Fernando are not even respected for what they do and nor is any other driver unless they’ve got like a sensationalist ‘Special Offer!’ tag slapped on their forehead, completely irrelevant to what the sport is supposed to be.

"We were very keen to maintain the lead. It was so comfortable for him (Hamilton) to pull out the gap on Kimi that he gave the tyres a little bit more of a hard time. But Fernando and the two Ferraris stopped after him.

"I don’t think we did anything dramatically wrong and neither did Lewis. But the circuit was considerably drier than the pitlane entrance. That’s what made the difference."

"The problem was rain and his (Hamilton’s) tyres were in the worst condition. But we weren’t at all fazed about Kimi. We weren’t racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando. Kimi winning and Lewis coming second was adequate. It just didn’t quite work out that way."

So, basically, Ron has had a classic case of a Freudian slip where he more or less says ‘We were racing against that Alonso’ with the ‘We’ referring to the team and Hamilton, together. Whoops, in trying to disregard Kimi’s brilliant performance, you’ve made it pretty obvious of the favouritism now, Ron!

I admit that Alonso’s ranting in the team has not helped enhance his image and has definatly not helped himself in this championship situation. But Alonso has been helped ‘by accident’, as it seems the pure impatience of Ron and Hamilton during ‘their’ little problem showed that they did indeed make a forseeable mistake when they needn’t have. If they weren’t racing Kimi, then Lewis should have known trying to stand up against him was going to do him no good at all, especially with a blistering tyre. Nurburgring 2005 sprung to mind, where McLaren and Kimi suffered the last lap tyre blunder which sent Kimi off away from a definate victory. And the same guy benefitted – Alonso. I guess they hadn’t learnt from that mistake. Ron has and always will downplay Kimi’s successes at Ferrari but this was a classic example of them getting hot under the collar as they were threatened with the dangerous Iceman comeback in the championship as he has done in 2003 and 2005, and naughty boy Alonso got his revenge too.

"The second half of the season has been difficult and it still is, but I think in the end the two cars will be the same. They are going to give us both the same opportunities, I think we need to make that clear. There’s no problem there, but we know they are never going to have favourable feelings towards me."

"Yesterday I did not say anything that is not true," he added. "The team has been saying many bad things about me, from Spa onwards especially, so the relationship didn’t change too much. He (Dennis) was the first one to say that he was not speaking with me and things like that. From that point, I understood that the championship was not going to be easy for me."

Alonso senses that, after Hamilton’s set back in China, he’ll have a pretty good shot at winning this title afterall. But it’s down to how the team treat him, of course. He admits they won’t be favourable to him and he doesn’t expect it but saying that the team started saying bad things first is kind of incorrect. He’s been whinging since the light of day, the day when Hamilton beat him at Canada, but most significantly, at Indianpolis. We can’t forget that little swerve of frustration he did across the pit straight behind him can we? And who’s to say something similar won’t happen at Brazil, if Lewis is in great shape to win the championship? Would Alonso stop Lewis if he’s in a good position and rather see Kimi win it? Let’s just say ruthless has been his middle name, like a certain Michael Schumacher too, main difference is, Alonso is expected to withdraw from his McLaren contract. We can expect this season to close with a bang for sure, just depends if it comes from Alonso’s boot.

You must keep in mind that, apart from the squabbles, the requirements of the Interlagos track are more important that who is bitching and bragging. The McLaren’s good grip over kerbs is stronger than the Ferrari’s, however, as Kimi said below in his column, ‘the speed is there’. The weather at the moment predicts a shower on Sunday, so we can be sure Kimi will be absolutely fine – the way he controlled his car in the wet at China was great, in his super fast stint before the pitstop he jumped over the pitlane kerb (but he didn’t make a mistake and go into the gravel…) and the almost-fluke like pitstop release was down to the tenth.

If Kimi puts in another performance like that in Brazil, wins the race, but Hamilton still wins the championship, we can be proud of our Finn nonetheless. He truly is a great driver and actually behaves like a man unlike the babies at McLaren.

But, I think if Kimi wins it he equally deserves it as Hamilton does. Kimi has made mistakes but not all F1 world titles are about being perfect – sometimes it’s the story of the drive of your life – through the good and bad times and prevailing in dignity. Lewis and Fernando may be having their egos imploding as each day passes, but as racers they have made mistakes like Lewis did in China (Fernando also made mistakes in 2006). After watching the past few seasons I’ve realised that it’s not down to being the errorless robot at the wheel – it’s about determination no matter the situation you’re in. The points system make it incredibly difficult to catch up, and despite winning equal or more races than the current WDC leader you are still left with nothing in the points table. Of course, it isn’t nothing in the hearts of the true fans.

Kimi, considering how long overdue he is of a title, deserves this one as he had been let down a few times by unreliabilty when he came to Ferrari hoping he wouldn’t. Lewis on the other hand, is young, he has all the time with him and he’s in a very good team for a very long time. Let’s be honest, he hasn’t really had any set backs at all at McLaren. He’s been able to go at a steady momentum and that’s brilliant for him. But when you’ve been let down and had unlucky days and still fight strongly wiith honour, it has a special feeling. That’s why I’d be relieved if Kimi wins it this year just to erase down the long seasons of having to keep ‘hoping’ and ‘dreaming’ for him, but I wouldn’t be distraught if he doesn’t. It’s not Lewis’ fault that the media treat him like God, but he can control his mouth and attitude – something he has abused like Fernando has. It simply ruins the image of the driver holding the F1 world championship trophy, because that’s the moment they fight for.

Anyway, I do not regret seeing any of Kimi’s races at Ferrari this year. He’ll be the reason to buy your tickets for next year’s season now! He has simply reminded us of what he is, by building his way up in Ferrari, with his car and the team in an respectable and focused way, and by not paying heed to the political fiasco ridden 2007 season he has shown incredible sportmanship. This is why his fan numbers are increasing and why most people watching the sport (according to polls and votings in various websites and forum) would like to see this driver win the championship.

To end on a more funny note, here is a hilarious video of the live commentary from the French radio channel RMC during Hamilton’s retirement in the Chinese GP. A must download!