McLaren losing an appeal is hardly news, but anyway, it’s happened again
Lewis Hamilton’s appeal against the penalty he received in the Belgian Grand Prix has been rejected by the FIA.
The FIA International Court of Appeal’s decision means Felipe Massa remains the winner of the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of Nick Heidfeld and Hamilton.
I am not sure if the world is holding its collective breath quite like it was last year regarding a penalty decision against McLaren but tomorrow does signal the appeal date set for the incident at the Belgium Grand Prix.Although a tad unorthodox, McLaren had no choice but to appeal the decision. Race Control said their move was fine but the Stewards said no, Lewis gained an unfair advantage. Irrespective of where you stand on this issue, perhaps you could be one of Max Mosley’s ‘stupid’ people for thinking there is a McLaren conspiracy, the penalty has drawn the ire of thousands. It even prompted a petition no less.
Is it unheard of to challenge a Stewards decision? Well, no…actually one could look at last years Brazilian Grand Prix where Stewards did not penalize BMW and Williams for running cold fuel. Or you could look at McLaren’s appeal of the decision not to penalize Renault for possessing McLaren technical information.
In fact, I would be remiss not to mention Keith Collantine’s article at F1 Fanatic about this penalty appeal. Keith, one of my personal favorites, is a terrific guy and does fabulous work if you haven’t visited his site. I have tremendous respect for Keith and his site. No, it’s not because I don’t throw up at his site with Lewis pucker-factor at an all time high. Keith is much more professional than that. Something I wish I could say for other, better funded, high profile F1 websites. Keep up the great work Keith.
In the end, we have one point separating Lewis and Felipe. We have a night race coming at Singapore this weekend. Does it matter? Is it admissible? Is it a waste of time, as Max says? You know, I can’t imagine this being overturned. Should it be so; I will be shocked. However McLaren have a host of very intelligent barristers and an argument could be made that the initial approval from Race Control prevented them from doing any other actions to remedy the situation as they were officially told their first reactions were fine. What may be more interesting is the ‘clarification’ of the rule that could come from this appeal. All of us have speculated and there was some clarification over the last week about just how long a driver must remain behind, after conceding the position, before re-attempting a pass. I think we all would do well to get some perspective on the rule as it is very generic in the Sporting Regulations. Since we don’t have the luxury of a consistent group of Stewards for each race, and no explanation as to why, that I can find, we should demand a better defined set of sporting regulations to eliminate the interpretation of random Stewards; some of which have suspect credentials.
In the end I think Max will scuttle this appeal as fast as possible. Why? His friends/Stewards made the call and they are the ones who voted to keep him in office in June. Max is not about to throw them under the bus at this point and he will operate on the scorched earth policy with F1 before he does anything else to hurt his position. Such is the hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing and chest-pounding that has become Max Mosley post sex scandal. A sad reality and a pox on this sport. Oh…and I am a Ferrari fan by the way so lest you think I am one of the ‘stupid’ people who are McLaren/Lewis sycophants claiming the Red Car conspiracy; I am not. I just know a rat when I see one. Wonder where Wile E. Bernie and his ACME rat poison is? Or is that his FOTA rat poison? One can only hope.
Felipe Massa is in the thick of the title battle - can he become champion?
Felipe Massa must be the leading candidate for most improved driver of 2008. In fact, you could make that case for the last two seasons, since he put the shaky start to his Ferrari debut in 2006 behind him.
This time twelve months ago he didn’t look like being the man who would lead the Italian team’s championship bid this year, but that’s exactly what’s happened. So can he go all the way to win the title?
Massa’s move to Ferrari in 2006 was met with a degree of scepticism. It was hard to point to many stand-out performances from his three years at Sauber, and the convenience of his manager being Jean Todt’s son led to conclusions that Massa was being planted at Ferrari as a competent but non-threatening number two to keep Michael Schumacher happy.
That assessment was borne out in the first half of 2006. Massa made high-profile mistakes at Bahrain, Melbourne at Monaco. But as the year progressed he settled down and scored his maiden win at Istanbul - he remains undefeated at the track since - and a popular win in his home race.
This season started badly for Massa with mistakes at Melbourne and Sepang. But since then he’s scored points regularly, largely stayed out of trouble, and above all he’s usually had the beating of Kimi Raikkonen.
This is perhaps the most surprising thing of all because many expected Raikkonen to have little trouble keeping Massa down - especially having won last year’s championship.
It’s a very rare thing for the drivers’ championship to pass from one driver to another while the two are in the same team (Alain Prost did it twice).
But Massa, just one point behind Hamilton in the standings (seven if Hamilton wins his appeal), could do it. It would be especially ironic given that Massa relinquishing the lead of last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix helped Raikkonen become champion.
There are two particular areas in which I think Massa is yet to prove himself capable beyond question.
This first is race craft. Although he passed more drivers on track than anyone else last year, the statistic is flattered by the occasions on which he found himself towards the back of the grid having to pass much slower cars. It’s hard to think of many occasions where he’s gone wheel-to-wheel with other front-runners and come out on top, apart from his pass on Lewis Hamilton at the start of the Hungarorian Grand Prix.
Part of this perceived race craft weakness are his defensive skills. He more-or-less pulled over and let Lewis Hamilton pass him at Hockenheim. Last year Fernando Alonso brushed him aside late in the race at the Nürburgring to take the win.
The Nürburgring race ended in wet conditions, which is the other scenario where Massa struggled. But, like his race craft, this is an area where we have seen clear signs of improvement this year, particularly at Monaco. Still, that nightmare race at Silverstone will linger in the memory for a while.
There are competing explanations for what’s behind Massa’s turnaround. I think it’s hard to discount the observation that he’s simply improved with time. Plenty has been said about the role of Michael Schumacher and Rob Smedley in getting more out of Massa but, important though they have surely been, they can’t get in the car and drive it for him. Massa has simply been getting the job done, and his technical approach and/or driving style appear to get more out of the F2008 than Raikkonen’s do.
Massa has visibly improved almost every aspect of his game since joining Ferrari. But is he now world championship-winning material? Would he make a good champion? Have your say in the comments.
Will Nelson Piquet Jnr and Sebastien Bourdais still be F1 drivers in 2009?
Before the Italian Grand Prix ITV showed an interview with Sebastien Bourdais. The stress of knowing his F1 drive for 2009 is under threat was plain to see as he started crying at one point.
He’s not the only driver who’s place in F1 in 2009 is in doubt: Nelson Piquet Jnr is waiting to learn whether he’ll be driving for Renault next year. Which of these drivers deserves to keep their seat?
We’ve speculated a little over the last few weeks about some of the comments made by Robert Kubica regarding his team.BMW team boss Dr. Mario Theissen has told Autosport that the rumors of all-out infighting have been greatly over exaggerated by the press and that things are just fine between Kubica and BMW.
Just when you thought espionage, competition and name-calling were the rules of the game concerning Ferrari and McLaren, Ron has shared with Autosport that things are going very well between them. Who knew that McLaren and Ferrari may just be BFFE? This stand to reason, actually, because I must admit that with Stefano at the helm, we have had more transparency at Ferrari then the Todt years. That’s not a knock on Jean Todt because the guy managed differently.
With the new regime at Ferrari and Ron’s willingness to offer a hand of friendship, which must be commended given what Ron has been through in the last 12 months, this could be good for everyone involved. But what Negative Camber finds more interesting is Ron’s comments on FOTA. Keep your eye on this. Ron is a calculative man and exceptionally intelligent. He doesn’t mention things like this for nothing. Like Bernie, Ron knows when to drop certain hints and when not to. FOTA may be a lot bigger politically than even I was giving it credit for and wouldn’t we all be surprised to find FOTA as a regulatory body for F1 or…dare I say…GP1? Interesting indeed.
Who will win Formula 1 Championship this year? Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa is the biggest candidates.
So what you think? Lewis Hamilton or Felipe Massa? Vote here
Sebastian Vettel celebrates his magnificent win in the Italian Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel announced his arrival as a force in F1 with a masterful win in slippery conditions in the Italian Grand Prix. He led from the start on the wet track and held the lead for most of the race, switching from extreme wet tyres in the later stages.
Meanwhile the championship rivals struggled: Felipe Massa finished where he started, sixth, with Lewis Hamilton right behind him having started 15th, and Kimi Raikkonen ninth from 14th.