Tag Archive for 'renault'

Who Deserves The Formula One Crown

Published on October 22, 2008 in Sports. 2 Comments

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 -

  1. Robert Kubica : He performed consistently with a car whose development was halted midway.
  2. Fernando Alonso : A very strong comeback in the later part of the season.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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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Lewis Races From Pole To Chequered Flag

Published on October 19, 2008 in Sports. 0 Comments

Lewis Hamilton overcame the demons of his past to complete an almost perfect weekend, leading from the pole to the chequered flag. It was complete dominance on his part, and at no point of time were the Ferrari seen as competitive.

Even before the race started, the confidence level in Ferrari paddock was low. Hamilton appeared to be under no such pressure. The reason was to become clear in the next 15 laps. Massa had fueled lightest and yet failed to beat Lewis’s qualifying time ! The writing was on the wall – it would be almost impossible to beat Hamilton unless the rookie driver made a mistake.

But Hamilton drove a great race, zooming ahead from the start. He was pulling away on the harder set of tyres leaving the Ferraris of Massa and Kimi (who were both on the option set of tyres) behind by about 2 tenths a lap.

Kimi had a good, rather uneventful afternoon, in which he made no mistakes and completed the laps without ever challenging Hamilton. However, as was obviousy anticipated, he handed over the second position to Massa in the dying moments of the race to settle for a third place. He now stands fourth in the championship, trailing Kubica by 6 points.

Massa looked tired in his Ferrari. Evidently his car wasn’t handling as well as he would have liked it to. He was off the pace the whole afternoon. Aloso completed the race distance to take a complimentary fourth position. Having had back to back successes, he was content to play the safer game and settle for the fourth place. Renault now sits comfortably at the fourth position in the constructors championship.

Hekki suffered the most when his tyres deflated and later on the damage caused to the car while getting it back to the pits forced him to retire. Thus Ferrari now have a 11 point advantage over McLaren in the constructors championship.

The procession now moves to Brazil for the season finale in two weeks time. Lewis is pretty sure to be crowned champion. For Massa, there is little to fight for. All he can do is try to win, but the ultimate victory will depend on where Lewis finishes. A seven point deficit is too much to feel confident about. Unless somehow miraculously Hamilton commits a grave error and Massa finishes amongst the top two drivers, Hamilton has become the champion. Ferrari were the undoing of themselves. Questionable decisions from the pitwall, and unreliability issues plagued the chances of their drivers successes. I hope to see better performance by the prancing pony team in the next season.

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Alonso – Yet Again

Published on September 20, 2008 in Sports. 0 Comments

Twelve months ago, the two times reigning world champion, Fernando Alonso had the transfer market  buzzing with rumours. He was unhappy at McLaren. A rookie, who went by the name of Lewis Hamilton, had the pace to out run the defending champion. To make matters worse, towards the later stages of the season, Ron Dennis decided to throw his weight behind Hamilton. Alonso’s fall from grace was nothing short of spectacle. He became the whiny self, always complaining – so uncharacteristic of a leader.

The alliance shattered and Alonso became a free agent. He finally returned to the team which gave him his two world championships – Renault. The struggling team has hardly managed to impress any one this year. Full credits to Alonso for gathering all the points to put Renault besides Toyota in the championship.

With the season finale in sight, Alonso is rumoured to switch the team once again ! So ,what options does he have?

The first would a move to Honda. Ross Brawn has already dedicated his campaign for the next years car development. It would be repeating Michael Schumacher’s feat if Alonso can get Honda to where Michael put Ferrari (remember, Michael won the first championship for Ferrari after a drought of 7 years).  Alonso being great at developing a car, it is very much likely that Alonso – Ross – Honda partnership could be the one to beat in a few years time.

Having tasted the glory of being a champion, Alonso might not want to wait for another year before being back in the title hunt. He desires to be counted as a front runner, and not as a driver making up the mid field. The latest buzz in the market is that BMW has shown an interest in signing Alonso. Though not at par with Ferrari or McLaren, BMW does have what it takes to get Alonso on the podium next year. But then, this deal will put Alonso in the same dilemma he was an year ago – Kubica won’t sit there in his cock pit and let Alonso win the races. Alonso will have to fight his team mate, something he failed at in McLaren.

Renault would definitely want to retain Alonso for the next year. Having neither the car, nor Ross Brawn, the only way they can lure him into signing a contract is offering the best possible contract (financially and with a clause to leave the team if he wishes to). Otherwise I see no reason why Alonso should put up with a struggling team yet again.

It’ll definitely be interesting to watch how the stories evolve. For now, I am going to recline on my sofa and enjoy the end of the season as Hamilton and Massa make a last dash for the glory. Can Hamilton fight the demons which drowned him last year at this time ? Can Hamilton keep his nerves and the Brazilian ? Lets have some fun.

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