F1 Comes Home

From 2009, coverage of the Formula 1 season will return to the BBC.

This is fantastic news.

No more advert breaks to ruin the action. There have been numerous occasions when vital action has been missed. “While you were away this happened….” and a replay of the incident is shown. Last season there were over 4 hours of adverts during the season according to Jon McKnight. This works out to be around 15 minutes during each race. Imagine if there was 15 minutes missing from the coverage of a football match!

Could this also spell the return of the original F1 theme tune? Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” is still associated with F1 racing, even 12 years after it disappeared from our screens when ITV got the rights to F1 coverage. In that time ITV have had four different theme tunes! The BBC got it right first time!

The next question is, who will be the commentator? Murray Walker will always be the No1, but he has said that he’s getting too old to be doing a lot of races each year. James Allen from ITV, in my opinion, is not going to move across, as he is not very popular amongst fans. I do hope that Martin Brundle is signed up by the BBC, as his invaluable additions to the commentary are superb.

In addition to the TV rights, the BBC will also be broadcasting on all platforms, TV, radio and online. Perhaps we’ll even get the coverage in HD too.

Might have to start saving the pennies to invest in an HD TV!

DC’s Comments from Australian GP 2008

For those of you who missed David Coulthard’s (RED BULL) comments after being taken out by Felipe Massa (FERRARI) :

It’s always good to hear what they really think!

UPDATE : CLIP IS NOW NOT AVAILABLE

McLaren Shortlist

Lewis Hamilton has revealed who he believes to be the short list for Alonso’s replacement at McLaren next season.

The short list consists of Nico Rosberg (Williams), Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) and Adrian Sutil (Spyker (or Force India F1 as they are now known))

So what are the chances of one of these drivers taking Alonso’s spot?

Nico Rosberg: Pretty slim, I would think. Rosberg has a contract with Williams for 2008, with an option for 2009. Patrick Head, Williams Director of Engineering, has issued a “hands-off” warning to McLaren, who would have to pay a great deal of money to buy out the contract, which they won’t have too much of after their fine this year.

Heikki Kovalainen: Under contract at Renault, managed by Flavio Briatore (Renault team boss). I think Kovalainen would only go to McLaren if Alonso signs with Renault.

Adrian Sutil: Has had some good performances in the Spyker this season, and could be the surprise choice to partner Hamilton next season.

There’s no word as to when anything will be announced so we’ll have to wait and see.

Alonso leaves McLaren, so who’ll partner Hamilton

Today, McLaren have announced that Fernando Alonso has left the team. The split is a mutual decision, and neither party will pay any financial penalty.

Alonso is now free to join any team for the 2008 season, with Renault as one of the favourites to sign him.

The other question is who will now partner Lewis Hamilton at McLaren next season? One name that has been continually touted around is that of Williams’ Nico Rosberg.

Personally, I really hope that this does not happen. Rosberg has done an amazing job at Williams this season, helping to revitalise the team, and having some superb races this season. It will probably not happen next season at least. Partly because he is under contract to Williams and if McLaren really wanted him then they would have to buy out his contract, which is one cost they could do without after their $100million fine.

So the next few months will be interesting as the drivers market settles down after Alonso decides where he is going.

FIA Presidental Nonsense

Max Mosley, the President of the FIA, is at it again with his comments.

After reportedly calling Jackie Stewart a “certified half-wit”, he has now said that Lewis Hamilton will have a negative effect on F1. Read the full story here at the BBC website.

Mosley has stated that,

“If he does the same thing next season as he’s done this season, it will certainly have a big effect,” he said.

“It will start to be negative because we’ll get the Schumacher effect where people start writing to me saying can’t you do something to slow him down.”

Yet again his comments seem to have no basis. I don’t think that I ever remember anything about people complaining that Schumacher was too fast and we need to slow him down. Is it me, or isn’t that the purpose of the World Championship that the fastest driver will always win, and that it is up to his rivals to try and beat him?

Personally I cannot see Lewis Hamilton having a negative effect at all on the sport. Especially not in the UK, where even non-Hamilton supporters will still give him credit for what he is probably going to achieve in the sport. This season he has definitely brought the sport to the forefront again.

I’m not the only person with these views, here are Wolfie’s comments about it.

Also looking towards the 2008 Championship, Mosley stated that next year’s McLaren will be heavily scrutinised by the FIA, to ensure that none of the ideas from the Ferrari dossier are used.

“The difficulty we have is that you’re not going to find on the McLaren a part that was designed by Ferrari.

“What you may find are ideas and at this level of technology at this level of motorsport, if the idea is given to the chief designer he will make a component utilising that idea which bears no relation at all to the component perhaps being used by the other car.

“So we will be looking for the ideas. The investigation will be thorough, it will use outside experts and we will do everything we possibly can to make sure that either of the McLarens has no element of Ferrari intellectual property in it or if it does we will then have to consider taking some sort of action.

“That would not necessarily be preventing them from running. It would be more likely that they would be given a negative point allocation.

“Finding something will not be easy. On the other hand, there are sources we are going to deploy who will give us as good a chance as its possible to have to find it.”

I can see it now that their could be as much controversy at the start of next season as we’ve seen this season, because I’m sure that McLaren would appeal and argue that all the ideas on their new car are their own. But we shall have to wait and see.

I’ve never really liked Max Mosley, and the sooner he leaves his position in the FIA the better the sport will be. But as he’s already been there for the past 14 years, and always seems to get re-elected, usually because no-one stands against him, I don’t hold out much hope for it happening any time soon!

F1 Calender for 2008

Just as the 2007 F1 World Championship is finished, the FIA has released the calender for the 2008 Championship. There are two new circuits staging races for the first time, Valencia and Singapore. Both of these are street circuits and will test the skill of the drivers.

Singapore has also been given the honour of staging F1’s first ever night race. With the race being staged at night, will enable the race to be shown live at a more reasonable time of day for the European audience. It will be interesting to see how it will all look. It is quite an exciting development.

Here’s the full calender:

2008 FIA Formula One World Championship

16/3 AUS Australia
23/3 MAL Malaysia
6/4 BRN Bahrain
27/4 E Spain
11/5 TR Turkey
25/5 MC Monaco
8/6 CDN Canada
22/6 F France
6/7 GB Great Britain
20/7 D Germany
3/8 H Hungary
24/8 E Europe
7/9 B Belgium
14/9 I Italy
28/9 SGP Singapore*
12/10 J Japan
19/10 CN China
02/11 BR Brazil

* Night race

Is there a final twist in the F1 World Championship?

As befits a season full of twists and scandals, how better to finish than with another one?

After the Brazilian GP, in which Kimi Raikkonen won the title, the race stewards got together to investigate whether the cars from Williams F1 and BMW-Sauber were guilty of fuel irregularities. The fuel from the cars of Nico Rosberg, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica was found to be outside the temperature range permitted for the fuel.

The race officials spent time analysing all the available data, and came back with the decision that there was insufficient evidence to penalise the teams. Had the 3 drivers been disqualified, then Lewis Hamilton would have been promoted to 4th, and would have gained enough points to be crowned World Champion in his first season.

Kimi Raikkonen is confirmed as World Champion, for now, as McLaren have appealed the decision to the FIA.

We shall see how it all pans out, but it would be a pity if this World Championship was to end in a courtroom farce.

Disappointment for Hamilton, Elation for Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen is the 2007 F1 World Champion.

At the start of the race Kimi was the least likely to secure the title. But after a really dominant race from the Ferraris, in which they finished nearly 1minute ahead of 3rd placed Fernando Alonso, it was Kimi who stole the title from under the nose of Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton had a nightmare of a race, not from the point of view of his driving, but technical problems that dropped him from 7th to 18th on Lap 7. Having started 2nd on the grid, Hamilton was quickly down to 7th due to some well choreographed driving from the Ferrari drivers, and being passed firstly by Alonso into Turn 3 and then dropped further down the order when he ran wide trying to re-pass Alonso going into Turn 4.

Imminently though, disaster struck! Hamilton’s speed dropped because of a dodgy gearbox and he was quickly passed by most of the field. After about 30 secs of just cruising, the McLaren kicked into life again, and Hamilton set off to recover the places that he’d lost.

He finally finished 7th, after a spirited drive through the field, which could have been helped if McLaren switched him to a 2-stop strategy rather than the 3-stop strategy he was on.

Kimi Raikkonen crossed the finish line first, after running in second until the final round of pit stops, when conveniently he and Felipe Massa ’switched’ places so that Kimi would gain enough points to become World Champion.

Congratulations to Kimi Raikkonen, if it wasn’t going to be Hamilton’s day, then I’m glad it was Raikkonen who took the title and not the spoilt brat, Fernando Alonso!

Another great drive from Nico Rosberg, who is showing that he is definitely a star for the future, and it was great to see the Williams really competitive again. Bring on 2008!