March 16, 2008
A Bit Early For The Silly Season
Most of the cold weather projects should be done by now. But, the fact that my Mondial is still up on jack stands in the garage is actually a good metaphor for how the F1 season has started this year. Not everything is quite ready for the prime driving season. This year is opening up with several changes on the grid. Ferrari has given up on the non-Italians, so far as the management of the team goes, after the spy-gate scandal led the Maranello squad to distrust anyone whose name didn't end in a vowel. Crybaby Alonso is back with the supermodel stalker at Renault. McLaren is still smarting from being caught cribbing off of Ferrari's notes. And, Honda has hired Ross Brawn to ensure that their junior team (Super Aguri) doesn't show up the factory effort. On top of all of this, traction control was severely limited with the use of a standard ECU for all of the cars (since this came out of Woking, can it be assumed to actually be a Ferrari chip?). Australia was the first stage test to see if the dress-rehearsals and behind-the-curtain maneuvering were going to pay off.
Kimi Räikkönen
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The short answer to those questions was no. There is still much work to do on all counts. McLaren managed to convince most that they had their act together with Lewis Hamilton making the win look easy. But, playing devil's advocate (and because I am unashamed that my blood runs rosso corsa), the race was theirs to lose with no one else managing to put up a significant fight.
BMW may have taken the second spot on the podium, but Nick Heidfeld wasn't able to put up a significant fight. There is just something funny about the way the BMW looks this year. One of my committee members during my masters was an aerodynamicist, and his mantra was always "if it looks right, it will fly right". I think BMW's designers threw everything including the kitchen sink into the carbon fiber mold when they came up with the front wing design. It has curves in places that you would expect when a 300 pound person attempts to put on spandex; it isn't pretty. Kubica seemed to be willing to put up a fight, but Nakajima-san took him out during a classic instance of a driver running out of talent in a turn eleven laps from the end. Nakajima-san will be penalized ten positions in the next race because of it. I'm still trying to figure out if that means he will start behind the medical car.
Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa
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It seems like it has been forever since we saw a Williams driver on the podium, but Nico Rosberg is trying to live up to his last name and made the most of it for Sir Frank. The team ran into teething problems during the Friday session, but it was the best race performance that most of us have seen from them in quite some time.
Alonso tried to put the best possible spin on his fourth place finish, but it still needs to be put into context that the safety car was actually refueled twice and had new tires put on once due to its almost constant appearance. The Spaniard will be put back into his place once the cobwebs are completely cleared at the French team's competitors.
Honda was going to do well until Barichello ran a red light in the pit lane during a safety car period. The Brazilian can't be faulted. After several trips to Brazil, I could swear that red lights are optional in Sao Paulo...
Felipe Massa
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As for Ferrari, Australia wasn't kind to the scuderia this season. Both Massa and Räikkönen made mistakes that reminded us of their rookie years. It seems that the removal of driver's aids had more of an impact on these drivers than it did on some of the other teams. Maybe the cars of last year were just that much further ahead of the competition, but the team will have to overcome the reliability issues that came up on both the factory team and the Toro Rosso junior squad. Maybe it is time to bring back the foreigners. Let's just hope for the Ferrari faithful that this isn't a return to the mid-80's after so much success.
One race does not decide the championship; there is still a long season ahead. Most of the bugs will be worked out once the season lands in Europe, so don't be surprised with surprise finishes between now and then. Racing will resume in Malaysia this weekend. Last year was a McLaren 1-2; this year will be anyone's guess.
Kimi Räikkönen with Ferrari fans
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Race Results
