All we need is 2 weeks break between races and the rumour floodgates open. Let’s have a look what’s new since the second edition.

Robert Kubica has been doing well and so it comes as no surprise his future has been talked about quite a bit. Few innocent remarks to Italian paper La Stampa created two contradictory rumours. First linking Rosberg with BMW Sauber (as Kubica’s team mate) and then linking Kubica with a move to Ferrari. Sounds interesting but whom would Kubica replace ? Massa is under contract till 2010 and doing well right now (after shaky start to the season). There has been lots of talking about Raikkonen’s retirement but if I am not wrong that is part of the post 2009 future. All I can say about Kubica and Ferrari is that Kubica’s helmet matches the Ferrari colour scheme quite well as the picture above shows .

Fernando Alonso has dismissed the rumours about him signing for Ferrari, so now it is time to link him to BMW Sauber, now also a race winning car. It may help that Robert Kubica does not seem to mind having Alonso as a team mate. The question for me however is if Alonso would be OK with Kubica in the other car. At the moment all that is sure about Alonso’s future is that he has not made any decision on it, at least that is what he says.

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F1Wolf

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Time for part 3 of this miniseries - Kimi Raikkonen. It would be fair to say that before the start of 2008 season Kimi Raikkonen was probably the hottest candidate for 2008 title. The Ferrari car looked strong during the winter testing, the 2007 title took lots of pressure from his shoulders and all the woes of being in the new team were things of the past. His start to the season was a bit shaky with quite a lot of mistakes in Australia. Two race wins and two podiums from next 4 races put him to the top of the championship standings and well back into the contest. Two races later however he finds himself out of top three …

Current position: 4th
Points: 35 (7 behind the leader)
Results so far this season: 8 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 3 - 9 - DNF

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F1Wolf

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About 2 weeks ago I asked a question if Robert Kubica has become a serious title contender. It looks like the Montreal race gave us the answer. Kubica’s maiden F1 win has not only broken the 24 race McLaren/Ferrari Formula 1 race wins monopoly but also propelled him to the top of the championship standings after 7 races. Whoever can achieve that amongst the competition from Ferrari and McLaren drivers simply has to be taken seriously …

Current position: 1st
Points: 42 (4 ahead of 2nd and 3rd)
Results so far this season: DNF - 2 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 2 - 1

Although his season has began with DNF Kubica made his intentions quite clear right at the start. After a strong qualifying run in Melbourne he barely missed out on pole position at the Australian GP. The maiden pole position came in Bahrain, the maiden win in Canada. Seven races, six top four finishes, 4 podiums, one win, one pole position. This all in a car that at least for now still is only the 3rd best on the grid … The comparison with Alonso and Renault in their 2005 and 2006 title winning seasons comes to mind …

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F1Wolf

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Although we are yet to reach half the season mark I think it is safe to say that the result of Canadian GP reduced the number of 2008 F1 title contenders to four - Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. I do take the liberty to count Kovalainen and Heidfeld out of title fight and it will probably not take too long before their teams do the same… Let’s have a quick look at these four and begin with Felipe Massa.

Current position: shared 2nd
Points: 38 (4 behind the leader)
Results so far this season: DNF - DNF - 1 - 2 - 1 - 3 - 5

Massa’s start to 2008 season was a nightmare. His DNF in Melbourne may have been result of a mechanical trouble but it was the spin on lap 2 followed by similar spin a week later in Malaysia (throwing away 2nd place) that prompted media talks about his immiment departure from Ferrari. He however handled the media pressure well and came back with vengeance in Bahrain. Still the Bahrain win did not help him to silence the critics, it was just another win from pole position without having to overtake anybody … The win in Turkey, although thrid in a row for Massa in Istanbul, did not help him much either. After all, it was just a win on his favourite track …

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F1Wolf

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The race start was little disappointing - all the cars made it and for the first 13 laps the race was rather uneventful. Lewis Hamilton pulled away from Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen. He looked like the man to beat. The only excitement came from Nelson Piquet overtaking every car that got in his way. But then Adrian Sutil spun off and safety car was out on track. Once the pitlane opened pretty much all the cars that were not on one stop strategy dived into pitlane. Raikkonen and Kubica jumped ahead of Hamilton after their pitstops but had to stop at the red light at the pitlane exit. Lewis Hamilton did not look up to check the light, he did not look ahead to check the cars in front him and hit the rear end of Raikkonen’s car. Nico Rosberg joined the party moments later and rammed into Hamilton. Kubica escaped unscathed but Hamilton and Raikkonen were out of the race…

Hamilton’s stupid mistake opened the door for BMW Sauber. It looked first the luck was on Heidfeld’s side. Once the race restarted he pulled away from the field helped by not that quick Barrichello in second place. After his pitstop he still returned ahead of his team mate but the “hint” on team radio about slowing down lighter Kubica made the trick. Kubica passed Heidfeld and never looked back. BMW drivers were definitely helped by misfortune of their main rivals but … they grabbed the opportunity and more importantly made no mistakes in a race that was all about not making any mistakes … Deserved 1-2 finish for BMW and clearly popular win for Kubica just about a year after his scary crash at the same track … Nick Heidfeld now remains the only driver without DNF this season … Did not make him to look too happy on the podium though …

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F1Wolf

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BMW Sauber took full advantage of problems and some silly mistakes of their main rivals and scored impressive 1-2 finish in Canadian GP. Robert Kubica drove almost a perfect race and a year after horrifying crash in Montreal he scored the maiden Formula 1 win for himself and for the BMW Sauber team. Nick Heidfeld finished in strong second place ahead of David Coulthard. It was a also good day for Toyota with Glock in 4th and Trulli in 6th. Felipe Massa in my opinion drove the race of his life. Despite not much going right for him he salvaged 4 points from Canadian GP. Rubens Barrichello will be very happy with another point scoring race. Sebastian Vettel has proven that starting from pitlane does not rule out points finish.

Race to forget for McLaren … I have no idea what Hamilton was doing in the pitlane but it is going to haunt him for one more race with the 10 place grid penalty he and Rosberg were given for that mess …

Robert Kubica now leads the drivers championship four points ahead of Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton.

2008 Canadian F1 GP race result:

1. R. Kubica - BMW Sauber - 1:36:24.447
2. N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber + 16.495
3. D. Coulthard - Red Bull + 23.352
4. T. Glock - Toyota + 42.627
5. F. Massa - Ferrari + 43.934
6. J. Trulli - Toyota + 47.775
7. R. Barrichello - Honda + 53.597
8. S. Vettel - Toro Rosso + 54.120

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F1Wolf

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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 ?

F1Wolf

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It was much more pleasant today. The temperatures dropped by more than 10 degrees. But season seems to be off to hot start .

The free practice was unlike any I have seen or heard of as far as I can remember. There were at one stage 20 cars within 1 second … Only two Super Aguris lagged behind. At the end the timesheets looked strange - Kubica fastest, no Ferrari, no McLaren top ten. Heidfeld and Webber were quick to dismiss any possibility of two front running teams being in trouble. Webber said something like “it is only practice, they simply do not need to practice as much as we do”.

More Photos here 

Then the qualifying began .

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The ING Renault team enters the 2008 season with a brand new line up. OK, not exactly brand new. None of the 2007 Renault drivers has survived Flavio’s winter clean up. However one of the new drivers is recycled, repackaged and more expensive Fernando Alonso.

Fernando Alonso - Spain
Born: 29 July 1981
In F1 since 2001 - 2001 Minardi, 2002 Jaguar and Renault testing, 2003 - 2006 Renault, 2007 McLaren
Best Result: 2005 and 2006 Formula 1 Champion
Career wins: 19
Pole positions: 17
Podium Finishes: 49

Fernando Alonso is the highest ranked active Formula 1 driver when it comes to race wins (19, ahead of Kimi with 15) and pole positions (17, ahead of Kimi with 14). Considering the expected relative strength of Ferrari and Renault in 2008, this may not be so by the end of the season.
The speculation about Alonso’s possible return to Renault began way before his exit from McLaren has been announced. Briatore went public not that long ago, that first discussions about this happened already in Melbourne 2007. Now he is back, the question is for how long. His long term commitment to Renault has been questioned with rumours about future move to Ferrari adding extra fuel to the fire. Recently Keke Rosberg specualted that Alonso may also be eyeing BMW Sauber … The fact is that he is now in Renault and he would need to give the team more than his famed 6 tenths if he is to add to his race wins and pole positions tally. Fight for the title may be out of his reach this season but I would not bet against him scoring some unlikely race win this year. Renault does not look that much worse than their maiden win seeking BMW Sauber. And with no offense intended towards Heidfeld and Kubica, none of these 2 guys is Alonso. Alonso will also likely be able to count on support from Renault’s nuber 2 - Nelson Piquet.

Nelson Piquet Jr. - Brazil
Born: 25 July 1985
Rookie, F1 experience in testing only - 2004 Williams, 2005 BAR Honda, 2006-2007 Renault
Career highlight: 2nd in GP2 Championship 2006

Nelson Piquet Jr. is kind of unknown quality. He did win couple of A1 races for Brazil, he was runner up to Lewis Hamilton in GP2 in 2006, but I think that the fact that he is now in F1 has more to do with his name than with his qualities. I am not saying he is not a good driver or that he does not deserve his drive in F1. I am just saying that being Piquet helped him to get where he is now. Now it is on him to prove himself. He for sure does not lack the confidence. A year ago he set his sights on Fisichella’s seat and was open about that, he has got it. But for him to last in Renault beyond 2008 season he would have to find the right balance between his desire to race to win and not causing 2007 McLaren like situation. The sooner he and his father accept that in 2008 Renault is all about Alonso, the better for them. The best opportunities for Piquet to display his skill will be in qualifying. In races he will have to follow what the team says …

F1Wolf’s prediction for Renault drivers in 2008:
No. 1 - Fernando Alonso, with a shot at some lucky win during the season
No. 2 - Nelson Piquet Jr. - one of the few obvious number twos this year

2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Ferrari
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - McLaren
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - BMW Sauber

F1Wolf

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