Kimi Raikkonen's last win came way back in April in Spain

The 2008 Formula 1 driver rankings continue with part 3 - ranks 10 to 6. I did not have too difficult time to select the five drivers for this post but giving them their ranks was a bit different story. Here is how I settled it:

10th Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari had bad start to the season in Australia but few races later, after Spanish GP, it looked like Kimi may be the man to beat in 2008. Unfortunately for him, that was the high point of his season. The mid season slump took him out of contention and by the time his form returned all he could do was to support Felipe Massa. He was outqualified by his team mate 12:6 and that says something about the roots of his problems. At the end Raikkonen managed to reclaim the 3rd place in drivers championship but only because the second McLaren driver was nowhere near the top and the BMW Sauber and Kubica lost the plot in the final 2 races. He made my top 10, but only just.

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Sebastien Bourdais and Felipe Massa, 2008 Japanese GP

Another race, another controversy. And yet again it involved both main title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.

Incident no 1 - Race start - Hamilton (and Kovalainen) vs Kimi

I watched the video replay of the race start few times (at the moment you can see it here). Raikkonen had quite good start and it looked like he is ahead of both McLarens. Kovalainen was next to him, Hamilton behind. Hamilton however seemed to be quicker and squeezed between Kovalainen and Raikkonen. Watching it from the front it looked like these three are next to each other. Then just before turning into the first corner Hamilton moved in Raikkonen’s direction leaving Raikkonen with nowhere to go but straight. It is hard to say if Hamilton touched Raikkonen or not. Raikkonen says that both McLarens hit him, Hamilton (when commenting on the penalties imposed on himself and Massa) insisted that he did not hit anybody:

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Kimi Raikkonen, 2008 Italian GP

Kimi Raikkonen is still in the title fight. With 4 races to go and 40 points still to fight for he can still in theory make up the 21 points gap that at this moment separates him from the championship lead. His team mate Felipe Massa however is only 1 point behind the leader Lewis Hamilton and Stefano Domenicali is now making it clear what this means:

“I’ve always said that our main interest is the team. Of course, that’s the most important thing and the drivers know it. At this moment, at this stage, you can see that we haven’t, in our situation, taken away points from one or the other, and for sure, considering from now up to the end of the season, in the way that it’s possible to do, of course Kimi will do his best to be as aggressive as possible but also consider the fact that Felipe is much closer to the leader, Lewis.”

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Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

Ferrari again had an annoucement to make during their home race weekend in Monza. The team confirmed yesterday the extension of Kimi Raikkonen’s contract to the end of 2010 season ending the speculations about Raikkonen’s retirement. With Felipe Massa already having his contract for 2009 and 2010 it is rather safe to assume that Ferrari driver line up Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen will remain the same for the next 2 seasons. That is also what the team’s statement says:
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Felipe Massa, 2008 Belgian GP

So, we finally had a race that went to the wire. It actually went even further and the final result was amended about 2 hours after the race with 25 second penalties to Timo Glock (overtaking Webber under yellow flags) and the controversial one to Lewis Hamilton for cutting the chicane. The debate on that Hamilton’s penalty has already begun below another article. I wil focus this review more on the race action itself and later today post my take on the whole controversy.

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2008 European GP Podium

Hamilton’s second place finish in Valencia combined with Raikkonen’s retirement means that Hamilton’s championship lead is now 2 points bigger than it was prior to the European GP. But whether he really extended his lead or not depends on whom he considers to be his main title competitor.

Realistically there are only 3 title contenders left - Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. Although McLaren will deny it anytime anyone asks, Hamilton is clear number 1 and can expect full support from the team and also from his team mate.

In Ferrari the situation is different. Both their drivers are still in the fight as was the case last year at McLaren all the way to the wire. We all remember who has won it at the end… Raikkonen may be going through a slump period but only a fool would write him off. His gap to Hamilton is still smaller than it was last year with 2 races to go. His problem this year however is, that his team mate, Felipe Massa is clearly outperforming him at the moment.

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Felipe Massa, Valencia 2008

It was not the most exciting race of the season but still, it was a great weekend in Spain. I am really glad that it was this race that this year coincided with my annual summer trip to Europe. Spain is definitely a great place to enjoy Formula 1 weekend and the setting in Valencia is simply great. And perhaps next year the Formula 1 cars will also be able to show us the kind of racing GP2 offers .

Already on Friday it was becoming obvious that Ferrari will be the team to beat in Valencia. And at the end that also was the case. Felipe Massa claimed the pole and was well set for the victory. His first pit stop (a lap earlier than Hamilton) and the smiles on face of Martin Whitmarsh made the commentators on the track to hand the victory to Lewis Hamilton, but when Hamilton emerged from his own pit stop behind both Massa and Raikkonen, the speculations about possible superior McLaren tactics ended. From then it was pretty about Massa not making any errors and his car giving him no Hungary like shocks. The scare came during his second pit stop. His crew released him straight into the path of Adrian Sutil (who was a lap down). These two almost collided and the incident was under investigation. Massa himself blamed Sutil for it, not understanding why Sutil needed to rush ahead of Massa in the pitlane when he would still have to let him pass on the track. From the outside it looked more like an error of Massa’s crew. In GP2 race Karun Chandhok received drive through penalty for similar error, in F1 it was to be investigated after the race. It is hard to say what approach is better but … should not the officials apply the same penalties (or procedures) for the same violations (or incidents) ? I am not questioning the fact that Massa escaped without penalty (I do not think he deserved one) but the FIA’s inconsistency that naturally leads to debates about certain teams escaping lightly.

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Alonso and Sato, 2004 European GP

This is part 6 of the European Grand Prix mini history series - years 2004 - 2005.

Season 2004 saw some changes in the order. Williams begun their decline, McLaren suffered from reliability issues (especially in the early stages of the season). Their places were taken by BAR Honda and Renault. And Ferraris were running away with the championship from the very beginning. European GP was the race number 7 of the season. Michael Schumacher won the first 5 and was ready to get back to winning ways after crashing out of Monaco race. Schumacher claimed the pole position after running light in qualifying, quick Takuma Sato lined up next to him in P2. Jarno Trulli (Renault, the winner in Monaco) and Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) occupied the second row. At the start Schumacher pulled away with the help of Kimi Raikkonen who jumped ahead of Sato (BAR Honda) and Trulli and held them back. Also at the start, Williams team mates Montoya and Ralf Schumacher touched their wheels and Ralf was out.

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Last week an article appeared on Autosport suggesting that according to high level sources Spanish bank Santander (currently McLaren sponsor) is about to switch to Ferrari from 2010 season. Their motivation for the 2007 link up with McLaren was simple - arrival of Fernando Alonso. He is however no longer there and any suggestion of move by Santander to another team naturally sparks fresh speculation about Alonso’s future.

The “Alonso to Ferrari” talk begins to look more and more similar to “Raikkonen to Ferrari” talk few seasons back. Kimi took the place of retiring Michael Schumacher and some sources suggest that Schumi was made to make the room earlier than he had planned.

If the stories behind Santander’s link up with Ferrari and reunion with Alonso are true, who’s place would he take ? Who would be making room this time ? Kimi Raikkonen has contract with Ferrari till the end of 2009 season, Felipe Massa till the end of 2010…

Photo: Daimler Media

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After some Monaco drizzle we had the first proper wet to extreme wet race this year. It has provided us with all that can be expected - lots of spins, pit stop and strategy dilemas and some surprising faces on the podium.

It is not easy to review this race without missing something. A lot was happening on the track, the commercial breaks on ESPN Star came always in the wrong moment and Steve Slater did again his best to confuse us all with mixing up the driver names and talking bull while important things were happening on the track. How can someone like this guy keep the job with a TV station that broadcasts all over Asia is a mystery to me. But back to racing …

When we look back at the end of the season for the start of the year then Lewis Hamilton’s start to British GP will be high on the list of candidates. Starting from 4th but almost in the lead after few corners. Only very sharp defensive driving from his team mate kept him in second position. I am not sure McLaren pit wall enjoyed those few opening corners watching both their drivers getting way too close for comfort on the wet and slippery track. Both McLarens pulled away with Kimi Raikkonen in 3rd safely behind (safely for McLarens but safely for Kimi too). Hamilton kept pushing and Kovalainen kept defending. But then on lap 4 all of a sudden Kovalainen let Hamilton pass … TV applauded that as a great overtaking maneuvre from Hamilton, to me it looked like team orders in place …

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