Formula One World Driver's Championship Goes Down To The Las
Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:58 pm
Forgive me for going off-topic, but I just had to share with you all. I am no longer the fanatic for F-1 that I once was, not since the death of Mark Donohue, but I still follow the races.
In a rare situation, last seen in 1986, three drivers are in a position to win the World Championship in Formula One Grand Prix racing going into the final race of the season at the Interlagos Track in Sao Paolo, Brazil. They are Lewis Hamilton with 107 points, Fernando Alonso with 103 points, and Kimi Raikkonen with 100 points. Since points are awarded 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for the first 8 finishers, Hamilton could tie it up with a 1st or 2nd place finish no matter what the other two drivers do while Alonso needs to win with Hamilton finishing no better than 3rd. Raikkonen can win if Hamilton is no better than 6th and Alonso no better than 3rd. Please see http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/ detail... for details.
What is truly remarkable is that Hamilton is an utter rookie in F-1 racing. Yes, he had come up through the European feeder series such as Formula 3 and Formula BMW, but it is huge step from these very much smaller cars to a 700hp F-1 car with all of the sophistication that goes with such a car. He has qualified in the top 2 or 3 positions in every race this year and China is only the second time that he has not finished the race and both of them were in atrocious conditions. In Germany, it was pouring rain so hard that the cars looked to be racing speedboats and in China, he was being told to stay out too long on worn out tires in an effort to see whether or not the looming rain would really happen and he wpuld need rain tires or dry tires. He got into a dice with Raikkonen and slid off into a gravel trap which left him stuck. It was, in the final analysis, his fault as he could have avoided that dice and simply let Raikkonen go or he could have forced the issue and come in for new tires. But he is still learning and it is really remarkable that he has done this well. No other rookie has ever done so well. It is especially incredible when you know that he was supposed to be the number 2 driver to twice and current World Champion Fernando Alonso on the McLaren team. As you may imagine, Alonso has not been a happy camper on that team.
Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen is laying back and hoping that the two McLaren drivers somehow eliminate each other so that he can take the driver's championship for Ferrari who have already won the constructor's championship as a result of a decision from the international federation governing automobile racing. That decision grew out of the discovery that McLaren had participated in an act of industrial espionage against Ferrari and the decision fined the team $100,000,000(!) and took away all of the team Constructor's Championship points for this year.
In any case, I intend to be watching on Sunday, October 21, to see how it all settles out.
In a rare situation, last seen in 1986, three drivers are in a position to win the World Championship in Formula One Grand Prix racing going into the final race of the season at the Interlagos Track in Sao Paolo, Brazil. They are Lewis Hamilton with 107 points, Fernando Alonso with 103 points, and Kimi Raikkonen with 100 points. Since points are awarded 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for the first 8 finishers, Hamilton could tie it up with a 1st or 2nd place finish no matter what the other two drivers do while Alonso needs to win with Hamilton finishing no better than 3rd. Raikkonen can win if Hamilton is no better than 6th and Alonso no better than 3rd. Please see http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/ detail... for details.
What is truly remarkable is that Hamilton is an utter rookie in F-1 racing. Yes, he had come up through the European feeder series such as Formula 3 and Formula BMW, but it is huge step from these very much smaller cars to a 700hp F-1 car with all of the sophistication that goes with such a car. He has qualified in the top 2 or 3 positions in every race this year and China is only the second time that he has not finished the race and both of them were in atrocious conditions. In Germany, it was pouring rain so hard that the cars looked to be racing speedboats and in China, he was being told to stay out too long on worn out tires in an effort to see whether or not the looming rain would really happen and he wpuld need rain tires or dry tires. He got into a dice with Raikkonen and slid off into a gravel trap which left him stuck. It was, in the final analysis, his fault as he could have avoided that dice and simply let Raikkonen go or he could have forced the issue and come in for new tires. But he is still learning and it is really remarkable that he has done this well. No other rookie has ever done so well. It is especially incredible when you know that he was supposed to be the number 2 driver to twice and current World Champion Fernando Alonso on the McLaren team. As you may imagine, Alonso has not been a happy camper on that team.
Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen is laying back and hoping that the two McLaren drivers somehow eliminate each other so that he can take the driver's championship for Ferrari who have already won the constructor's championship as a result of a decision from the international federation governing automobile racing. That decision grew out of the discovery that McLaren had participated in an act of industrial espionage against Ferrari and the decision fined the team $100,000,000(!) and took away all of the team Constructor's Championship points for this year.
In any case, I intend to be watching on Sunday, October 21, to see how it all settles out.