Another season has come to an end. The top two contenders have set for themselves a title shootout at Brazil. The chances are however skewed towards Hamilton who has a comfortable 7 points lead over Massa. All Lewis Hamilton has to ensure is that he needs to finish atleast 5th if Felipe Massa goes on to win the championship. And considering all the things he has done this year, its a small feat to achieve. For Massa though, it is an uphill task, not entirely in his hands. He needs to win to maximise his chances and hope for Lewis to commit a blunder, something Lewis hasn’t done this season.
So what hope does Massa have? If we look back in time, an year earlier, Lewis was under similar predicament. He had a seven point lead over Kimi Raikkonen when they arrived for the final race in Brazil (deja vu for Hamilton ?). But Alonso was the one challenging him then, and the top two contenders self destructed each other and allowed Kimi to claim the glory with a margin of just a single point.
Who are Massa’s allies? Well, ofcourse team mate Kimi for one. Alonso has vowed to help out Massa in his fight against the McLaren driver (few grudges last longer than expected). But not many to fill in the 5 places between Massa and Hamilton. I still maintain the best chance for Massa is to have Kimi smash into Hamilton at the start of the race (Raikkonen could argue that he just out-braked himself and couldn’t have done anything t avaoid the unfortunate disaster). Otherwise, Massa will just have to put in his best efforts and pray tothe gods to for once let Lewis’s car malfunction.
So who amongst these is the worthy candidate for the no. 1 driver in F1 position? I argue none!
Both Massa and Lewis had been awarded the best cars present on the grid. They had the best people working along to ensure that they go on and win each race possible. They had unlimited funds available to sustain the development of the 2008 car (most of the teams had switched to the next years cars long time back, while McLaren claims it has enough funds and crew members to develop both the cars – present and the future). So if these two are at top of the things, then its not only their effort, but the good fortune they have been blessed with of driving for their respective cars.
Take a look at drivers just a few places lower into the grid and you’ll find two champions. Robert Kubica and Fernando Alonso. They are the ones who have driven perfect races and extracted the most out of their cars, race after race.
Right from the beginning, Kubica maintained a good chart position performing consistently in each race. Finally, when he won the Canadian GP, he was viewed as a serious contender. But due to limited funding, BMW decided not to continue development of the present car and to actually switch to the new car. This was a big blow for Kubica who had a few words with the team principal. However, it is understood that things settled down, and Kubica continued his good run throughout the season. The BMW was not fast enough to out pace McLaren or Ferrari, yet he always mainted a gap which gave him a shot at the title.
Take a look at the double world champion and you’ll realise the stuff he’s made out of. He was shunted in McLaren for the rookie Hamilton, and decided to not continue. They parted ways and he returned to the team with which he had won the two championship titles. But this time Renault had been struggling. The freeze on engine development had hit Renault the most and it lost its footing. Infact, it was having to fight off the second tier teams. This was the team which welcomed back Alonso. And now take a look at what Alonso has achieved with the same team. No one ever predicted a podium finish for the spaniard this season, but instead he proved everyone wrong by claiming two races successively. He was amongst the points in nearly every race. Ranault now finishes the season fourth in the constructors championship – well ahead of their predicted position.
Had Kubica or Alonso driven in Ferrari or McLaren, they would have accumulated far more points than what Lewis and Massa have done. Alonso and Kubica have outclassed everybody on the grid. I would love to see them drive for Ferrari someday – they might go on to achieve (or perhaps better) what the legendary Michael Schumacher has done.
I would rate the drivers worthy of being the champions in the following order -
- Robert Kubica : He performed consistently with a car whose development was halted midway.
- Fernando Alonso : A very strong comeback in the later part of the season.
- Kimi Raikkonen : Worst hit by mis fortunes. He surely deserves to win, evident from the fact that he has most number of best lap times.
- Felipe Massa : Also hit by problems not his making. But whatever, I feel he doesn’t have the attitude to carry the championship tag. He needs to be more aggresive and think by himself instead of taking orders and doing whats safe.
- Lewis Hamilton : The least deserving candidate. Extremely arrogant. Known to make mistakes under pressure. Put him in a BMW and you’ll see him cry. He’s just riding on good fortunes to have actually start the career with a McLaren.
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