Hamilton: Pushing hard but no major upgrades

Saturday 4th July 2009

Lewis Hamilton concedes McLaren-Mercedes are facing a difficult home race in Germany as the team will not be introducing major upgrades to their under-performing MP4-24.

This year's Championship has been anything but successful for McLaren and their defending World Champion as their 2009 challenger has sorely lacked speed, something the team has struggled to find even when adding updates to the car.

As a result Hamilton and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen haven't scored a single World Championship point in the last four races, leaving McLaren down in sixth place in the Constructors' standings, a marked difference to last year's achievements.

And, unfortunately for McLaren fans, Hamilton isn't expecting any better at the next race in Germany.

"While we aren't expecting any major upgrades for this weekend, I'm still looking forward to the race," he said.

"It's an honour to be part of the Silver Arrows and, while our results haven't recently shown it, we're still pushing incredibly hard and are all hopeful of moving closer to the front before the end of this difficult season."

The Brit, though, is nonetheless eagerly awaiting a return to the Nurburgring, which last hosted a Formula One race back in 2007, Hamilton's first season in F1.

"It's a fantastic circuit, a little older than a lot of the current tracks we currently visit and with quite a different feel to what we're used to: it's fast and flowing with some good spots for overtaking," he said.

"And it's in a fantastic part of the world too; deep in the forests of western Germany, where the fans seem to live and breathe Formula 1. It's always an amazing party atmosphere whenever we race in Germany."

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh has also downplayed McLaren's chances at Mercedes's home race: "While we can't expect to match our previous record in Germany, where we've won the race for the past two seasons, we're still pushing hard to develop MP4-24 into a more competitive proposition.

"Make no mistake, we're hugely proud of having the Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star on the front of our cars - and nothing would make us prouder than getting back to the front again as soon as we possibly can."

Source : Planet F1

2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Another highlight of every year is the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK. This event sees all things motorsport in one place covering many eras of racing and motorsports. All sorts of machines and personalities will be there and it is such an interesting event for fans to go. So sad that fans like me halfway around the world would not be able to make it.

For more information about the event, please read the Wiki on it here, F1Fanatic's highlights here or the official website here. A brief description from Wiki is here:

"Typically held in late June or early July, the event is always scheduled to fit into the motor racing calendar and primarily to avoid a date clash with the Formula One season, enabling not just fans but many teams involved in current motor racing championships to attend. Visitors can expect to see cars and motorbikes from over 100 years of worldwide motor racing history climb the hill, including the several of the latest Formula One machines. Aside from the machines, the event attracts a host of names from the past and present of motor racing, offering a rare chance to see world famous names driving a wide range of machines."

The highlight is of course Lewis Hamilton driving the 1988 McLaren Mp4/23 that was driven to success by Ayrton Senna.

ALONSO TO FERRARI?

This story of Fernando Alonso moving to Ferrari has been making the rounds for the last couple of years. And why not, a lot of good F1 drivers have ended up there as Ferrari is the oldest and most prestigious team on the grid (not necessarily the most righteous).

Although I don't like both Ferrari and Alonso, and I would hate the day that their association is confirmed, I have to admit that they would make a good pair. I don't like Alonso because I feel that he is not a very honest person plus all his cocky showmanship while driving for McLaren was unnecessary but I have to admit he is a damn good driver after watching him drive in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Give credit where credit is due.

I don't like Ferrari because during the Schumacher years they won too much and were cocky about it. If they were humble about it, it would have made a difference. That cockiness might have been attributed to Jean Todt being there. Plus the FIA bias didn't help and a lot of things that Ferrari did went unpunished whereas other teams got punished for something less.

So, for me alonso to Ferrari would be a real disaster as the cockiness of the team and Alonso would peak at that time. I'm certain Alonso will win another world championship then though. Sigh....

TAG HEUER - THE DUEL

Steve McQueen and Lewis Hamilton: The Duel is a virtual duel on the legendary track of Le Mans between two of TAG Heuer’s most famous Ambassadors: F1 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Hollywood screen icon Steve McQueen. It was made as a short film with Lewis and Steve competing at Le Mans at the same time.

It's quite good how they managed to make Lewis and Steve seem seamless on the screen, though the acting and timing could use some work. It's interesting also to note that the car Lewis drives is the MP4-24. How could a 60s Le Mans car compete against a 2009 F1 car? Still interesting what-if scenario.

OTHER HAPPENINGS

It has been a tiring and sickening few weeks as the politics of F1, especially the childish and loony attitude of FIA President Max Mosley came to a head. Fortunately, the FOTA alliance managed to pressure him to rescind the crappy and loony regulations that he likes to come up with, if not in 2010 the teams will waste even more money on loony things.

But, all is not as serene as we would like to think. Assuming that Mad Max really leaves the office, who would be his replacement? Is there a suitable candidate out there? I'm sure there is an experienced administrator with experience and passion in motorsports. But will this person be allowed to govern? Or would Max rather have a stooge in place for him to govern via proxy? The name Jean Todt has been bandied around and I for one am hoping that that is a very sick joke and that we'll get over it in the morning.

Jean has been linked to Mosley many times and was from Ferrari. It would be biased (if not already) of the FIA to have Todt as president. Plus he is currently spending a million dollars of my money on holidays every year while not really promoting my country. And he's ugly.

Talking about ugly, not really, sorry I joke. Kubica is fast running out of engines it seems. At this rate he's gonna be really pissed at BMW before the end of this season as he's not only driving a slow car but the lest few races he'll have tom start at the back of the grid due to engine change penalties. Poor Kubica.

Next year's regulations are to be the same as 2009 but with some changes. I'm not sure about the details as it has not been published yet but one thing is for sure, re-fuelling will be banned. I'm not too sure how to make of that as I was not watching F1 when there was no re-fuelling. There will still be pitstops for tyres I suppose but those stops will be super fast, no more overtaking in the pits..which is good. But setting up a car will be more difficult as you'll have to start the race with a full load. Not making it to the end when you are leading would be a pain too.

No surprise really that Brawn has dominated this season. Funny thing is it still surprises and it's still interesting waiting and watching the next race even when we know how strong Brawn is. Most F1 fans know why Brawn is so strong but did you know they had access to 5 wind tunnels? 5? Does Honda have that much money? They were said to have spent EUR500 million. No wonder the car is perfect.

And finally, a bit of good news and something to cheer about. Ron Dennis might return to the paddock IF Max fucks off. I'd be happy to see Ron back in the pits. He'll be able to help McLaren reduce the mistakes they make in the pits during races. I wouldn't want them to turn into another Ferrari with blunder after blunder in the pits. Welcome back Ron!

Raikkonen to contest Rally of Finland

Kimi has been trying out quite a few rallies lately. Maybe he's bored of F1 and the politics, maybe he knows Alonso is coming (shit!). Anyway, good luck Kimi and do your best.

Tuesday 30th June 2009

Kimi Raikkonen will make his World Rally Championship debut in his native Finland at the end of July.

Raikkonen, F1 World Champion in 2007, has already competed in three non-championship rallies this year and will enter Rally Finland in a Fiat Abarth Grande Punto.

His co-driver will be compatriot Kaj Lindstrom, who was formerly co-driver to four-times WRC champion Tommi Makinen.

"Rally Finland is not going to be easy for sure," Lindstrom told autosport.com. "The rallies we have done so far have been smaller events, a three-day WRC round is much longer and more intense than those national events.

"We have two days to go through the recce (reconnaissance) and make the notes. Kimi makes very good pace notes but there will be pressure on for the recce.

"One of the hardest things for Kimi will be the speed of this event. Rally Finland and the roads used are so fast, like nothing we have done before.

"But, let's not forget, this guy is a pretty good driver. He's very talented and I'm sure he will cope fine."

Rally Finland starts the Friday after the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest on July 26.

Raikkonen has competed in two rallies in Finland and one in Italy since the start of the year.

He has largely struggled since taking the F1 Drivers' title, however - Raikkonen's most recent win coming in Spain last year, with just 10 points coming from eight grands prix so far in 2009.

Source : Planet F1

'Ferrari to confirm Alonso at Monza'

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Tuesday 30th June 2009

Ferrari will reportedly confirm the signing of Fernando Alonso at their home race, the Italian Grand Prix.

Rumours of his pending move to Ferrari have dogged Alonso for the past three years, however, instead of joining the Italian marque he spent the 2007 season at McLaren before returning to Renault.

But his days at Renault are reportedly numbered.

Spanish daily Diario AS is claiming that on the Friday of the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari will confirm that Alonso will be joining them next season, having signed a five-year contract.

It is not known, though, whether he'll be replacing Kimi Raikkonen or Felipe Massa, who have both had a trying start to this year's campaign.

But whoever stays, his days too could be numbered as AS speculates that Ferrari are also interested in signing Sebastian Vettel for the 2011 season.

Source : Planet F1