It looks like after many years there are no pay drivers on Formula 1 grid. Their last sanctuary disapeared when Vijay Mallya took over Spyker F1. The last proper pay driver – Christijan Albers – left the grid even earlier. Not (as he should) because of his mediocre performances, but because his sponsor stopped sending money.

Christijan Albers – Spyker

So now there isn’t a driver on the Formula 1 grid who has to pay to drive instead of getting paid for driving. At least for now gone are the days of fat purses buying F1 drives in teams like Prost, Minardi, Jordan (later Midland and Spyker)… At the same time however almost gone are also the days when other teams or drivers management could place their young and upcoming drivers to weaker back-of-the-grid teams for few seasons. This is what Honda could do with Super Aguri but never really did, this is what Toyota have done with Kazuki Nakajima and Williams, this is what Flavio Briatore have done with Minardi. Many different drivers started (and some also ended up) their F1 careers in with the backmarkers:

Fernando Alonso – Minardi

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Mike Conway did not do himself any harm by winning his first GP2 in Monaco last weekend. The tabloid talk about Conway and F1 has already begun. Does he have realistic chance to race in Formula 1 anytime soon ?

Conway’s current F1 connection is with Honda. He is part of the Honda Young Driver programme, he tested Honda F1 car last year and he does not seem to be unhappy there:

“Honda is a good place to be. They are starting to get results and next year they will be even stronger.”

But can Honda be his ticket to F1 racing ? Anthony Davidson has been part of Honda programme for quite some time. All he got out of it was 1 year and 4 races with Honda funded Super Aguri team (and 1 lap in Sepang standing in for sick Takuma Sato). What will happen with Rubens Barrichello’s seat next year remains to be seen, but it looks very likely that Jenson Button will stay with Honda. Even if there is vacancy next to Button, would Honda fill it up with another British driver ? (The last time I remember 2 drivers from same country in one team were Albers and Doornbos with Minardi, but both of them as paid drivers.) If Button signs new contract with Honda it will probably be for few years so the chances for another British driver to get a race drive with Honda anytime soon are not that good it seems. And unlike Toyota, Honda does not supply customer engines to anybody anymore … He may probably have to look elsewhere. But he is not alone among the current GP drivers with an eye on F1 and as we all know, there are not too many seats in F1 to go round …

Photo: Mike Conway/Sutton

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The judgment day is getting closer and Max Mosley saga is heating up. Yesterday a letter from Franco Lucchesi (FIA Deputy President for Automobile, Mobility and Tourism) to all titular members of the World Council for Automobile Mobility and Tourism revealed that Mx Mosley refused a compromise solution to the whole mess surrounding FIA and Mosley himself. The proposal presented to Mosley by Region I President Werner Kraus and Franco Lucchesi gave Mosley guarantee of vote of confidence on June 3, 2008 in return for Mosley’s resignation starting from November 2008.

The response from clubs came quickly – 24 clubs representing 22 countries (but not the majority of votes) have written a letter that pretty much says the FIA would be better off without Mosley:

“We strongly believe that the only respectable way forward for the FIA, and for yourself, is to have an orderly transition, with an immediate agreement and your commitment to step down. The FIA is in a critical situation. Its image, reputation and credibility are being severely eroded. Every additional day that this situation persists, the damage increases. There is no way back.

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Renault have admitted they are facing a dilema whether to keep improving this year’s car or shift the focus to development for next season. Pat Symonds:

“It is always difficult and the level of difficulty depends on two major factors – one is where you are sitting in the current championship, how threatened you are and what you can achieve. If you are in a solid third place and unlikely to get second but unlikely to drop to fourth, more or less as we were last year, you can think about turning your attention to the following year. If you are fighting, like we are doing this year, then you have got to keep the development.

There is nothing wrong with keeping the development going if it is all applicable to next year’s car, unfortunately this time there is very little that is applicable to next year’s car. Next year’s car is a very, very different animal, completely different aerodynamic rules, the KERS system, slick tyres – lot of things that will make it a very different car. So it is all the more important that we start early on it.

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He does not have the best car on the grid. He is still waiting for his maiden Formula 1 win. But with third of the season gone, he sits in 4th place of the drivers championship only 6 points behind the leader Lewis Hamilton.

1. Lewis Hamilton – 38
2. Kimi Raikkonen – 35
3. Felipe Massa – 34
4. Robert Kubica – 32

When asked by ITV whether he feels to be in the title fight, Kubica replied:

“I’m trying to do my best. We also have to see that if in Australia I had finished, we would have at least six points more and the worst race result would be fourth place, so I don’t think that’s bad.”

Of course had Massa finished in Malaysia he would likely have 8 points more (42), had Kimi not lost it in Monaco he would probably have 4 more points (39) etc… So better not go into all the “ifs”. But fact is Kubica is too close to the top for Ferrari’s and McLaren’s comfort …
He went on to elaborate further:

“We are there with such a lot of points because we are the most consistent team and driver in the championship.”

He sure has a point here. But is consistnecy without winning a race enough to win the title ? Never in F1 history there was a champion without winning at least one race. Mike Hawthorn (1958) and Keke Rosberg (1982) however needed only 1 race win to claim the title.

So does Kubica have a chance ? Is it perhaps time for BMW Sauber to take the gamble, relegate Nick Heidfeld to no. 2 status and throw all their support behind Kubica this early in the season to take an advantage of continuing team mate battles in Ferrari and McLaren ?

Photo: BMW AG

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There were some impressive performances in Monaco last weekend. Robert Kubica, Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Sutil in Formula 1, Mike Conway in GP2. Here are podiums from Macau GPs in 2005 and 2006.

Coincidence or do these guys really know how to handle cars on tight street tracks ?

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Monaco GP has some history of special helmets and liveries. Here is recap of four special helmets I noticed this year – the diamond helmets of McLaren drivers, Monaco flag and track map helmet of Nelson Piquet and 200 race anniversary helmet of Giancarlo Fisichella.

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Looks like Sonia Irvine’s Amber Lounge parties have serious competition from Vijay Mallya . Here are some photos from Fly Kingfisher Party in Monaco 2008, including again DJ Sakon Yamamoto (after his success in Istanbul).

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It has been suggested several times that the surest way how to secure an exciting F1 race is to sprinkle the track with water. It looks like we had just about the right amount of water to create an exciting race. We had changing weather, we had changing strategies, we had the top drivers making mistakes, we had some spectacular crashes, we had few drivers scoring their first points this season and we also had tears. That was Monaco 2008.

Lewis Hamilton was the favourite to win this race but that was before the qualifying. To start from P3 was not the expected result but McLaren were confident the strategy will play in their hands. They were right, but it was the strategy Ferrari got wrong that helped at the end. To win a race in Monaco in such treacherous conditions requires some sublime skills and a fair share of luck at the same time. But looking back at the race, I must say he was three times lucky. First he hit the barrier, punctured his tyre and was lucky not to crash out of the race. Then thanks to “Trulli train” he returned from the pitlane in 5th place, still well within the reach of the front runners. And finally he managed to finish the race despite punctured tyre, probably from Rosberg’s car debris. His luck should however take nothing away from his performance. Unlike Raikkonen and Alonso for example he kept his head cool and secured his third Monaco win, first in Formula 1.

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It was Monaco GP for Formula 1 fans yesterday. Across the Atlantic it was the day of another classic race – the 92th Indianapolis 500. I watched the race for a while from around lap 46 to lap 100. Most of that time the race was behind the pace car and pretty much nothing was happening, except those crashes that caused all the pace car intervals. So if someone asks me how I feel about the race, I would say pretty boring procession, because that’s about all I could see during those 50 something laps I watched . But while the cars were actually racing I was wondering, what is more mad. Racing at these high speeds so close to the walls of the oval track, or racing F1 cars in Monaco…

Some exciting moments apparently followed after I went to sleep. Marco Andretti helping his teammate Tony Kanaan to crash out of the race, or the pitlane incident between Danica Patrick and Ryan Briscoe (video inside the post). As Formula One fan I was jelaous seeing the massive 33 car grid (although all looking the same) and then … the huge crowd. I think I heard 350,000 people on TV but I may not be correct.

The race was won by Scott Dixon from New Zealand who spent more than half of the race in the lead (115 laps our of 200). Two former F1 drivers took part in the race – Enrique Bernoldi and Justin Wilson as well ex-GP2 driver Ernesto Viso (perhaps best remembered for his spectatular crash in Magny Cours last year).

92th Indy 500 race result:

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