September 9th, 2007
In what was being billed as the best chance for Ferrari to show McLaren that they were back in the game and the title would go down to the wire, the silver arrows showed that there is a performance difference between the two cars and the Woking based team has the current advantaged
The Start
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The dynamics within McLaren are turning out to be a poorly written soap opera (could the powers that be really are using NASCAR as their benchmark series?) and the team is only getting bad press of late. Personally, I was way ahead of the curve with my own articles. It was rumored that Alsono wasn't going to share his setup with his boy wonder team mate to prove to everyone why he has won two world titles. His skills were unquestionable this weekend in a race that he dominated from the start and turned into a high speed parade from the start.
Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen
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Lewis Hamilton didn't have a bad weekend, but he was outclassed by his team mate. Finishing second allowed him to keep his three point advantage in the title race, but it is much closer. If the saying of history repeating itself holds true, expect to see the Spaniard take the rookie out in one of the closing races if there is a competitive advantage to be gained.
Piero Ferrari
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Ferrari's best hope at this point is for the FIA to really muck up the championship with a harsh ruling against McLaren as a result of what is now being referred to as "Stepneygate". The French sanctioning body has made harsh rulings in the past when there was evidence of shenanigans on the part of OEMs, to the point of teams being banned from several seasons. While it may be damaging for the ratings, I'm not sure that Luca, Todt, or the tifosi would care if the title comes with an asterisk attached if McLaren was disqualified. On the bright side, we may have a Ron-Dennis-looking-like-a-smug-jerk free season. That has to be good for the sport.
Luca di Montezemolo and Felipe Massa
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Getting back to the action on the track, Kimi Raikkonen captured the last place on the podium, but was in no place to challenge. Filipe Massa damaged some component on the car when he and Hamilton came together on the opening lap and had one of those rare Ferrari retirements. Fans may complain about Kimi appearing almost passive during the interviews and question his willingness to work hard for the team. He's been like this for years…
BMW continued to show that they are the best of the rest with a solid fourth and fifth place finish. Heidfeld finished ahead of Kubica, but the team is fairly evenly matched at this point. Unless a back marker finds some dramatic breakthrough, the ex-Sauber team should finish third in the manufacturer's championship.
Rosberg finished in sixth place in the beleaguered Williams chassis. Sir Frank noticed, not sure if his extended family caught all of the race. Wurz finished thirteenth and basically drove an extended test session this weekend. You have to believe that the team is 100% focused on the 2008 car at this point.
Kovalainen finished in seventh place with the Renault, no where near where the French team thought they would be in this season, something needs to change for them to be truly competitive again.
The last point of the weekend went to Jenson Button. Now the factory team is down to a gap of only 50% behind the customer team. On the bright side, they do have bragging rights over Toyota for a week.
The also-rans for the weekend include the usual suspects driving Toyotas, Hondas, Red Bulls spelled in two different languages and Spykers.
McLaren seems to be on track to dominate on the track, but the FIA could make a mess of the teams plans later this week. The fact that the team was served papers by the Italian police at the track over the weekend confirmed that all of Italy pulls for Ferrari. Not that that should come as a surprise to anyone.
Race Results
