First pictures from Interlagos

Red Bull know Coulthard well, and so they got two nosecones ready just in case he wants to give some other driver a goodbye "nudge"

"All smile for the camera!" - pick the odd one out in this picture

The little man that wanted to be king - Massa has a lot to learn when it comes to looking confident

Preliminary weather report for Brazil

According to the weather.com 10-day forecast, the uber-preliminary forecast for the weekend is for scattered thunderstorms and a 60% chance of rain all three days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday! Now, as a Hamilton fan obviously this isn't bad news, but at the same time rain always increases the "anything can happen" factor. And with Lewis holding a 7-point lead heading into the weekend, I don't want "anything" to happen. But of course even if some horrible fate were to befall Lewis and leave him scoreless, Massa would still have to score 8 points for the championship, and I wouldn't bank on that happening in an all-wet weekend.

Jordan advises Lewis to "take Massa's wheel off" if pushed

Just a couple of days ago a rumor surfaced that Eddie Jordan may join the BBC's coverage next year, and already the rock n' rolling ex-team principal is causing controversy with his most recent comment. In an interview Eddie suggests that Massa may attempt a "professional foul" like he did in Japan, and if that happens, he believes "Lewis has to turn his wheel into Massa to ensure he does not finish the race either – he has to take his wheel off".

Now, that is an incendiary comment if I ever saw one. It is true that in the last 20 years we have seen plenty of what Eddie calls "professional fouls" in the title deciding races, most notably successful ones from Prost, Senna and Schumi in 1989, 1990 and 1994, respectively, and an unsuccessful one from Schumi in 1997. In the latter case, the manouver earned Schumi the image of Dick Dastardly of F1, and an exclusion from that year's championship. However, for someone like Eddie to come out and say outloud that Lewis should "do a Schumi" on Massa is a little bit much - he is an insider to the sport and comments like this just put F1 in a bad light. It is bad enough that there are conspiracy theories flying around - the sport does not need for (ex) top brass to openly endorse such behavior among the drivers.

And then there is the simple question whether Eddie is actually right in saying that Massa committed a professional foul when he hit Lewis in Fuji. In my opinion Massa did not intentionally hit Lewis in the same way that Prost, Senna and Schumi did to their title rivals. All he did was to attempt an overly ambitious / stupid move on Lewis that just happened not to totally backfire on him. So pretty much like Lewis' overly ambitious / stupid breaking manouver on Kimi into turn one, which just happened to backfire on Lewis. But than again, Lewis zealots are probably blaming god for being on Ferrari's side and punishing Lewis so that the championship battle could continue until Brazil :)

One more post about the BBC team...

Came across this interesting piece about the FIA having a serious problem with Martin Brundle and his various criticisms of their handling of various incidents. And they are suing him now? Seriously, this is what it has come to? Leave it to the FIA to always find new ways to embarrass themselves. As if picking favorites amongst the teams just wasn't enough, now they are engaging in witch-hunts against those who criticize their judgment on air. As the original author from the Daily Times wrote, "Mosley's father would have been proud." Ouch.

My own nominee for the BBC team...

Tamara Ecclestone!

Though on second hand she might distract the audience from other issues, such as racing...

Eddie Jordan to join the BBC team? Yes, please!

PF1 is now claiming that none other than Eddie Jordan might join Brundle and Coulthard next year at the BBC. Say what you will about rockin' Eddie, but I always liked his outspoken and no-bullshit approach to F1, and I feel he'd be great to listen too. Here's hoping...

In other news, James Allen, the gaffe-prone "pundit" from ITV started his F1 blog - you can check it out here. If this does not scream "I am out of the job and need to find a new occupation for myself", I don't know what does...

(source: PF1)

BBC lineup for next year final?

A recent article on PlanetF1 suggests that the BBC has finalized its lineup for next year, and it includes Martin Brundle. This is great news for anyone who is planning to follow the British coverage (I certainly prefer it to the US one) - Brundle really is in a league of his own when it comes to having a "feel" for the race weekend.

Unfortunately, PF1 also suggests that the BBC team will include Ol' Greybeard aka David "Whiner" Coulthard. Good for him, but I am not sure it's that great for the rest of us, but I guess if he contains his natural instinct to complain about everything than he may have interesting insights into the current F1 field.

As for the rest of the BBC team, I have never heard the names Jonathan Legard, Lee McKenzie and Jake Humphrey. Anyone knows who they are?

(source: PF1)

Did BMW's meisterplan cost them a shot at the title?

Up until now, Dr. Theissen's masterplan for BMW had been working flawlessly - in 2006 they became a regular points contender, in 2007 they were regularly fighting for the podiums and this year they achieved their goal of first pole and win. In true Germanic ordnung must sein fashion BMW then shifted their focus to 2009, hoping to get a head start on the competition. Sounds reasonable, right? It sure does, until you consider what might have been had they devoted more resources to developing the 2008 car.

Hindsight is a tricky thing - it's always easy to look back and pass judgment on whether certain decisions were the right ones. Earlier this season, no one could have predicted that Ferrari and McMerc would only mount half-baked championship challenges plagued by poor reliability, driver mistakes and FIA interference. But that is exactly what happened and due to these circumstances Robert Kubica wound up just 12 points behind championship leader Hamilton with two rounds to go. This situation makes me wonder whether BMW did they right thing concentrating on 2009 after mid-season?

To be fair to BMW, they did continue to develop the F1.08 after that win in Canada, but their effort was somewhat half-hearted and did not give the team the boost they were looking for. Had Dr. Mario been more of a risk-taker, he should have devoted more of the research budget making the F1.08 quicker still. Instead, the BMW slid back into the clutches of first Toyota and Toro Rosso, and then Renault. What's more, I speculate that BMW could have even gotten more money from Munich just for 2008 had the good doctor made a convincing case to the board. I have no doubt in my mind that with a quicker car Kubica would have at the very least taken the fight to Massa and Lewis, and then who knows what would have happened?

The real answer, of course, is that we'll never know. All I hope for is that by sticking to ze meisterplan and focusing on the F1.09 BMW will be able to win the championships next year, or else they will be kicking themselves for throwing out a great opportunity this year. Looking in hindsight, of course :)

UPDATE: Dr. Mario came out just yesterday saying that the F1.09 is "on schedule", which bodes well for the meisterplan :)

Alonso-Hamilton postrace handshake?

Been a little bit busy so haven't had time to gather and post my thoughts on the Chinese GP (not that I have all that many on such an uneventful race), but one thing that struck me as kind of odd was Alonso coming up to shake hands with Hamilton as he walked into the weighing room. Not that I think Fernando is that horrible of a guy or anything, but I was just surprised to see him eager to congratulate his (seemingly) bitter rival.

Haven't found video of it, but it is just after Hamilton hugs his brother and the 2 women standing next to him, then walks into the weighing room. Both Alonso & Hamilton still have their helmets on, and although I was pretty sure it was Fernando I still had to check this helmet guide just to make sure!

Again, I'm probably making a bigger deal out of this than it is, but it just struck me as kind of odd - "I'm doing everything in my power to make sure you lose the championship because I flat-out don't like you, but hey nice driving today, buddy!"

Good / bad weekend - Chinese GP

Good weekend:

• Lewis - had an edge over his rivals all weekend, and used it well to control the race in a manner that was Schumi-esque in both its maturity and the killer effect it had on excitement in the race
• Kimi - yes, he failed to match Lewis, but it was still a massive improvement on his recent form. And he out-qualified and out-raced Massa for the second race in a row - maybe the Kimi of yore will yet return to F1?
• Bushy Nick - having suffered a walloping second only to the one that Alonso has been giving to Petite Nelshino all season long, he finally managed to out-qualify and out-race Kubica
  
• Rubens - the feistiest Brazilian in the race was good ol' Rubhino, who somehow managed to pedal his Flintstone-mobile to 11th spot, ahead of both Williams' (though it may be a testimony to their poor pace as well), a Red Bull and a Toro Rosso
  

Bad weekend:

• Massa - never looked comfortable all weekend, which was disappointing of the driver who well and truly dominated the Singapore GP three weeks ago
• Kubica - he was always a longshot for the title, but it is nonetheless disappointing that he kissed his title chances goodbye with the least competitive showing of this season
• Bourdais - it seems that the Frenchman could not believe that for a change bad luck or a stewards' ruling were not out to ruin his race, so instead he took matter in his own hands and ruined the race for himself by hitting Truli in the first corner.
• Kovi - although he did show flashes of genuine pace in Q3, a botched second run left him in a not-so-great P4 position on the grid, while in the race he continued to show the same painfully consistent mediocrity that we've come to expect of him this season. Kudos... not
• Fisi - showed the maturity of a rookie in holding up every driver lapping him; that he did not get a penalty is a mystery to me
  

Kriss' verdict on the Chinese GP

Oh, what a difference 24 hours make! Just yesterday I thought that qualifying for the Chinese GP was boring - then came the race, and suddenly qualifying feels like a nail-biting roller-coaster by comparison. Maybe Sohan was right after all :)

The race did not start badly - in the first corner Bourdais collided with Trulli while attempting an over-ambitious move on the Italian, which allowed Kubica to overtake them both. Having overtaking Piquet off the line, this meant that by the end of lap 1 he had already gained 3 places. Not even 2 laps later Alonso managed a really elegant pass on Heikki, but unfortunately that was to remain the only memorable pass in the whole race...

What made this race so boring to watch was that once the status quo was established after two laps nothing really changed for the remaining 54 laps Lewis was constantly a little bit quicker than both Ferraris, which in turn were constantly quicker than Alonso, who had the measure of Heikki. He was duly followed by Bushman Nick, who... snore... zzzz.

I woke up for a split second when Heikki got a puncture later in the race, but that was hardly exciting - I find it hard to believe anyone was the least bit moved by that after yet another apathetic performance from the Finn. Kubica, Glock and Piquet did well to overtake Vettel on heavy fuel strategies, but that had more to do with the young German's unspectacular performance (Vettel's, not Glock's - the latter is actually 25 years old already), rather than the other three drivers' blistering pace.

There will of course be some people crying that Ferrari exercised team orders to get Massa in front of Kimi, just as they had done so memorably in Austria 2002. To that I say "yeah, so what?". I have no doubt in my mind that had McMerc been in this situation they would have done the same thing to keep their driver in the hunt for the championship. Plus Austria 2002 was unnecessary as it happened early in a season that Schumi was already dominating - here Ferrari had every right to expect Kimi to yield to Massa, as this would be the Finn's greatest contribution to the team in the second half of the season. To me, whether Ferrari even told him to move over is academic.

Oh, a closing word on Fisichella, who got in the way of every top driver trying to lap him. I am not a fan of doling out penalties like there is no tomorrow, but to me the Italian was really asking for it and I am disappointed to find the stewards did not oblige.

What a boring race

That's all I have to say.

Re: Chinese GP Quali: You are wrong.

Haha, of course you can't be wrong about your opinion, but I thought qualifying was great. Maybe not the best this year (because as you said, we're pretty spoiled as far as exciting qualifying sessions go), but still quite entertaining, I thought.

Kubica added some surprise, and he's now making me worry if he's caught a bit of the Bourdais syndrome (bad setup/tire problems --> whining --> stop driving). He always seemed to complain a lot but got on with his driving, but after the times he put in last night one has to wonder if he was really giving his all. Webber and Alonso also seemed to be wild card elements for a bit, especially with Alonso's comments about doing "whatever he can" to get Massa the title. Didn't work out of course, but he gave it a good shot. Sidenote: honestly, who does that? Has there been another example of a driver coming out and plainly saying that he will help a team other than his own to win the title, and out of pure spite no less?

And there was plenty of drama with Lewis! I think Kimi and Heikki were indeed on light fuel loads (which, of course, is entirely conjecture), but Lewis just outdrove Kimi while Massa was a bit sloppy and Heikki clearly made a mistake somewhere (he seemed pretty upset about his lap afterward). Yes, Lewis was fast all weekend, but the times were dropping quickly and you never know what could happen when you lose time to mistakes. Just look at Kubica. So, maybe his pole was predictable to some, but as a Hamilton fan I found it quite exciting.

Also, this is the second race in a row Massa claims he "lost grip when it mattered most." Is something going on there? He seemed to be quite solid in Q3 most of the year. Maybe he is pushing too hard when he is not the clear favorite for pole? Who knows...

Quick thoughts on quali

Just finished watching the Shanghai qualifying and, call me spoiled, but compared to the excitement this season has regularly provided this session was relatively uneventful. That Lewis got pole was all but inevitable unless the Ferraris did something amazing (they didn't) or one of the other teams went for a super-low-fuel shot at a glory pole (neither of them did). For a moment in Q3 it actually looked like either Kimi or Heikki might be going for a low-fuel pole, but then Lewis proved those theories wrong by claiming pole by 0.3s.

Other than that, the talking points in this quali have been:

• the small time differences between the cars up front and the mid-pack - only 1.0s seperated the top 15 cars in Q1, a tiny amount when you consider the long-ish high 1:30s lap.
• Robert Kubica only managing 12th after being 3rd fastest in the morning practice - Sohan and I can't really figure out what could have caused the sudden disintegration of the car's handling
  
• The great form of the Renault and Toro Rosso cars, especially in the hands of Alonso and Vettel

I will leave you with some food for thought - if it indeed rains tomorrow as the weather forecast is threatening it might, than the likes of Piquet, Kubica and Glock might find themselves in a very good position to score well in the race. After all, Kubica went from 11th to 3rd at Monza this year

Chance of rain - again??

I've been watching Formula 1 religiously for nearly 15 years now, and I can't remember a season with this many races in the rain... first Monaco, then Britain, then part of Belgium (enough to really throw off the race, anyway!) and a full on deluge for the weekend in Italy. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I'm a Lewis Hamilton fan and if not for the injustice in Belgium I would fully attribute his 11-point lead in the championship to the weather. Plus, you have to love the racing, and the chance it gives for guys like Sebastian Vettel to really prove their worth! But I just find it incredible that it has had such a huge effect on the championship this year.

And here we go again (possibly): according to the hour-by-hour on weather.com, a feature of which I have become quite fond this year, the Shanghai forecast is for showers all morning and scattered thunderstorms all afternoon on Sunday (only a 50% chance of precipitation each hour, though). Just like the constant threat of rain in Singapore, and the Saturday forecast at Fuji, this could easily turn out to be nothing. But I feel like it's really spiced up the championship this year and has added a nice extra wrinkle for amateur weather nerds such as myself, not to mention the setup gambles that the race engineers must be considering.

As a Hamilton fan, and considering just how good Lewis is in the rain, it almost feels like cheating when it rains. But hey, after all the FIA is doing to keep the man down, I say bring it on! And as for the "11-point lead in the championship" thing - yes, I am still living in a fantasy world where the FIA does the right thing... i.e. a world of complete delusion, if you'd like to characterize it that way.

Practice 1: Lewis draws first blood

If China is meant to be happy hunting ground for Ferrari than someone forgot to tell Lewis, who went quickest in the first practice session. Massa was 2nd, but the gap was an uncomfortably high (for him) 0.4s. Kimi and Heikki played second fiddle to the title contenders yet again, while Kubica went quicker than Alonso and Bearded Nick.

What surprised me most was the weak pace of the Toyotas on a smooth Tilke track, an environment they usually thrive (OK, don't suck) in. And Bourdais managed to go quicker than Vettel again, as he makes his final bid for keeping the seat next year.

Otherwise it's all the usual - Force Indias at the back, Honda not far away, Toro Rosso ahead of Red Bull.