The FIA president Max Mosley recent proposed a budget cap for Formula 1 teams once again to reduce costs in F1. This time though, he proposed an increased cap of £40m starting from the 2010 season. In return, those who implement the cap will get greater technical freedom (Movable wings, engines not subject to rev limits) and unlimited off season testing.

Those who do not go with the budget cap will have no fixed penalties but will have their fate decided by the FIA depending how much much over the budget cap they spend (IMO, a very arbitrary sounding process)

The teams at the lower end of the performance spectrum have all welcomed this proposal, and are even supported by the current season leaders Brawn GP and Jenson Button.

However, former multiple driver and constructor champs Ferrari have voiced their opposition to this proposal saying that the budget cap is fundamentally unfair (Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo)

Max Moseley’s response to this

“The sport could survive without Ferrari,” he said. “It would be very sad. It is the Italian national team.”

Further:

He added: “I hope and think that when a team goes to its board and says, ‘I want to go to war with the FIA, because I want to be able to spend £100m more than the FIA want me to spend,’ then the board will say, ‘why can’t you spend £40m if the other teams can do it?’”

(via BBC Sport)

The budget cap proposal will be discussed and considered by the Formula 1 teams association (FOTA) on

Personally, I got interested in Formula 1 because of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher. I love the team and would be completely disappointed if they should part ways with the sport. While I can understand the need to reduce costs in these recessionary times, making such confrontational statements is not good for the sport either

Note:
The budget cap does not cover

• Marketing and hospitality;
• Remuneration for test or race drivers, including any young driver programmes;
• Fines or penalties imposed by the FIA;
• Engine costs (for 2010 only);
• Any expenditure which the team can demonstrate has no influence on its performance in the Championship;
• Dividends (including any tax thereon) paid from profits relating to participation in the Championship.

(via Formula1.com)

What a race. Amazing overtakings, loads of accidents and debut wins.
My thoughts:

Brawn GP create history by winning their debut race as a team with 1-2 standings. They were helped by some late accidents but both the cars ran an amazing race with Button leading from the start to finish.

Both the Ferraris did not finish the race and scored no points.

Rosberg had a pretty good race  but lost out due to problems in the final stage, losing positions quite rapidly.

Hamilton had a very good race coming 4th from the rear of the field, helped by the multitude of accidents

Sebastian Vettel had the worst luck when he was taken out Robert Kubica with 3 laps to go. Vettel was looking good for 2nd place. Hopefully his form is the sign of greater races to come.

The KERS system provided some additional interest to the races as evidenced by the Ferrari start and its excellent use by Alonso to keep faster cars from overtaking his.

Full Race Results:

Race Results thanks to BBC

In one of the most fantastic races of the year, the formula 1 race at Nürburgring, Germany was a topsy turvy race. It all started in lap 3 when it started raining, nay, pouring cats and dogs. As a result, almost all cars (with the exception of rookie Winklehock who had changed to wet weather tyres ahead of the race start) were caught out and started slipping and sliding with 5 cars aquaplaning at the same spot and getting “beached” out on the gravel.

By lap 3, the situation was quite dangerous that the safety car had to be deployed. Further, by lap 4 the race was in such a disarray and the mass of slipping forced the stewards to red flag and suspend the race for about 10 minutes.Just before the safety car was out, Hamilton who was also beached on the gravel got a lucky helpful lift out of the gravel onto the track where he resumed the race a lap down to the leaders.

The race soon restarted behind the safety car with Kimi Raikkonen, who missed the entry to the pit lane after slipping out of the pit lane entry, being the biggest loser going down to seventh position and the rookie Winklehock leading the race in his debut grand prix. Winklehock was followed by Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.

The race completely restarts on the 7th lap with Winklehock leading and quite a few drivers taking the opportunity to pit. Massa soon retook the lead with Alonso close behind him followed by Coulthard, Kovalainen and Kimi.

Hamilton who had just changed to dry weather tyres as the race restarted lost significant amount of time since the quickly drying track was not dry enough for the slicks on his car.

By lap 13, the track was dry enough to allow the drivers to switch to the slicks causing a traffic jam in the pit lane as most drivers trooped in to change tyres and take on fuel. In this middle stint, Hamilton drove a brilliant race passing multiple cars and setting 5 consecutive fastest laps matching the pace of Massa who was blazing away from Alonso and Kimi in 3rd.

On lap 36, disaster struck Kimi as his car slows down and finally drowns at the start of the pit lane due to possible mechanical failure.

With less than 12 laps to the end, the meteorologists predicted rain in 10 minutes which was slightly off because the rain came earlier. And by lap 52, it was starting to pour again on some parts of the track causing the drivers to make another bee-line into the pit lane.

The rain turned out to be a bad turn for Massa who seemed to have lost the edge he enjoyed in the middle stint with Alonso closing up right on his tail and overtaking him on lap 56 and then pulling away.

Alonso finally won the see sawing race followed by Felipe Massa and a brilliantly deserving Mark Webber taking the final podium position. Lewis Hamilton made a final lunge for the points but ran out of laps and had to settle for 9th.

This was a must watch race, one of the best in recent years.

Is there no end to Alonso’s whining? If he does not drive well, or if he makes mistakes, they are somehow his teams fault because the team shares the same nationality with his team mate who beat Alonso with a superbly flawless drive.

Alonso’s latest quote whine:

He said: “From the first moment, I wasn’t completely comfortable. I am in an English team, with an English team-mate, who is doing brilliantly.

“We knew all the support and help would go his way. It is something I understand and I’m not complaining.”

Honestly Alonso, you are starting to leave a very sour taste in my mouth. Can you just do your racing and stop blaming everything else including the air we breathe for your mistakes or for things not going your way. You are starting to sound like a spoilt child always ready to throw a tantrum.

Complete whine via BBC 

Apologies for the pun but Massa literally did almost get burnt when his car caught fire. But more on that later.

The Spanish Grand Prix of 2007 was one of the best races in the past few years with incidents, excitement and disappointments all through the race and across the teams. Starting from a first corner contact between Massa and Alonso causing the latter to lose his second place, falling to fourth, there were incidents all through the race up and down the race track.

After that incident at the first corner, Massa takes a comfortable lead, pulling away from Hamilton who along with Kimi capitalized on the off track excursion by Alonso. Alonso tried to pass Kimi but was held off by the stronger Ferrari of Kimi who maintains his third place till lap 9 when the Ferrari engine cut out all power and Kimi barely manages to crawl downhill to the pits, his race sadly over for the day.

By lap 13, 4 cars had already retired – Wurz (involved in an accident), Webber (sadly continued hydraulics problem), Trulli (fuel pressure problem) and Kimi (Engine failure)

Massa pitted for his first stop on lap 18. As he tried to get away, some of the fuel vapors from the fuel pump leaked out and caught fire for a brief moment. As Massa sped up, the flames thankfully died down but it must have been a scary moment for him and the team. Thankfully the fire caused no lasting damage to his concentration or the car.

Soon after, Alonso and Hamilton pitted retaining their positions at third and second respectively.

On lap 22, Button makes his pit stop, exiting from which, he makes contact with his team mate, Barrichello, losing his front wing in the process. A couple of laps later, Heidfeld’s pit stop goes haywire as a wheel nut on his front right is not fixed in place and hence he has to return to the pits immediately. This causes him to drop to the back of the grid and eventually causes enough damage to his car making him retire from the race itself.

The second stint of the race is quite incident free with most drivers consolidating their positions in the front though the mid-runners did have some racing and overtaking moves. The second round of pit stops goes through around lap 42 to lap 48. Around lap 46, Ralf retired his Toyota ending the team’s race in Spain.

Felipe Massa easily won his second race in succession with Lewis Hamilton coming in second and Fernando Alonso third. They were followed by Robert Kubica in a fine fourth, David Coulthard, and to my joy, Nico Rosberg in sixth. And for the first time in their history, Super Aguri scored a championship point as Takuma Sato secured the eight and final championship point behind Heikke Kovalainen and ahead of a charging Fisichella and Rubens Barichello.

The rest of the finishers were Anthony Davidson, Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil and Christian Albers in that order.

With the second place secured by Hamilton today, he has created history by being the first rookie to lead the formula 1 championship at 30 points followed by Alonso on 28 and Felipe Massa on 27. The formula 1 season for 2007 looks very exciting indeed.

It was a complete Scarlet and Silver fest today in the qualifying for the Spanish grand prix. The first two rounds in qualifying were dominated by the black and silver of McLaren. The third round was vastly different and one of the best qualification runs in recent years (more on this below)

The first round was pretty lackluster with both the Spyker Ferraris, the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher, the customer Toyota of Wurz and most disappointingly, Mark Webber being relegated to the absolute back of the grid.

The second round was much more interesting with the McLarens and Ferraris trading the provisional pole and Takuma Sato’s Super Aguri stalling in mid lap. Anthony Davidson had a scary moment when he spun his Super Aguri, barely missing the wall. Regrettably Nico Rosberg failed to make the cut for the final round of qualifying ending up at the eleventh position. Both the Hondas also finished their day in this round, failing to make it to the last qualifying round.

The final round was the most exciting round of not just the day but the past few seasons as well. Lewis Hamilton was the first to line up at the lights to get ahead of the others, just ahead of Kimi Raikonnen. Hamilton waited in the blistering sun for most than a minute, putting his engine to a significant risk of overheating. But it was worth it as he went out ahead of Kimi who tried his best to overtake Hamilton before the start of their flying laps. Hamilton drove defensively at low revs to try and cool his engines a little bit before he went all out.

Hamilton gained the first provisional pole, followed by Kimi. Both were soon beaten down as the speeds increased during the fuel burn phase. As the other drivers set their qualification times, with just 4 minutes to spare, both the Ferraris and McLarens came out again to go for the top positions, with Lewis again beating Kimi by an inch coming out ahead of the Ferrari. It must have frustrated Kimi a lot but he had the last laugh when he went faster than Hamilton. But both were beaten by the seemingly master of qualification, Felipe Massa followed by Alonso who just missed the pole position by three hundredths of a second.

The race now is set for another exciting start with Massa, Alonso, Kimi and Lewis in the lead and in that order. The renaults only managed to finish at the tail end of the top 10 separated by Coulthard.

The Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix was a debut to forget for Heikke Kovalainen, the rookie Renault driver. As if that misery was not enough, his drive has been labeled as “rubbish” by none other than Flavio Briatore, the Renault Team boss.

To quote BBC Sports:

“If I say it was good, I’m a complete idiot. It was rubbish,” Briatore said.

Kovalainen was modest enough to accept his failure but I seriously feel that Briatore’s comments were uncalled for. At the least not publicly to international media. What did he expect from Heikke? Come out and beat the pants of Alonso in a much better McLaren or out race Kimi Raikkonen in the meanest car on track? It was his Formula 1 debut after all. And he was in a car much off the pace of that of the other rookies, Lewis Hamilton.

While I am not arguing that Kovalainen drove a good race, far from it. But I believe that going public with such lashing and criticism towards a rookie, young, and entirely inexperienced driver is not the right morale boosting technique.

Warning: Race results and spoilers in this post.
A fantastic start to the Formula 1 Grand Prix season for 2007. With yesterday’s excellent qualification,Kimi Raikkonen continued his excellent form onto the race day.

Qualifying in the pole position, Kimi had an excellent start maintaining his position at the front of the pack. Running light on fuel, he quickly got down to business and pulled clear ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld both of whom beat Fernando Alonso to the first corner, pushing him down to fourth place. After the initial shuffle at the head of the pack, it was mostly formation running up till the pit stop window.

Massa who started the race at the back of the grid as a result of an engine change penalty had a brilliant overtaking 2 cars in the first lap and then picking his way through the back of the field to come up to 16th position by lap 4. At this point, his progress was impeded first by David Coulthard and then by the Hondas of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. The Hondas were the big disappointment of the day, severely under performing, especially compared to their performance last year. Massa managed to pass Button (who had earlier been passed by Barrichello) on lap 17 and starts chasing Rubinho once again.

In the meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen continued to put in some extremely fast laps to prepare for his first pit stop which was expected around lap 18-20. Lap 18 was the fasted of the race so far by Kimi who immediately pits in the next lap from the pole position, relinquishing it, in a historic moment, to debutant Lewis Hamilton who briefly led the race till his own pit stop on lap 23, one lap after Alonso’s pit stop. With that, Kimi reclaimed the lead. He continues to put in the fastest lap times to further increase the gap between himself and Hamilton.

Felipe Massa finally pits for his only pit stop on lap 30 for a new set of harder tyres and fuel worth 12 seconds, enough to take him to the chequered flag on the single stop. With the pit stops completing, Massa breaks into the top 10 after starting from the back end.

Next Kimi Raikkonen moves into the pit late for his second and final pit stop on lap 42 and comes out just behind the McLarens and regains the lead within four laps when both the McLarens pit. The order changes for them though with Alonso coming out in front of Hamilton after a super quick pit stop and a particularly slow outlap by Hamilton. This sets the order for the top 4 in the order Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld.

With the second round of pit stops finishing up, Felipe Massa moves upto the sixth position and starts hunting Giancarlo Fisichella in his Renault for the fifth position. It was one of the best fights of the race with Massa constantly trying to overtake Fisichella but never being close enough.

In the end, Massa had to settle for the 6 place, a much better result than expected at the start of the race. And with that, the first race of the season was won by Kimi in his Ferrari debut at Melbourne Australia.

Complete Race Results:

Race timings courtesy Formula 1.

Warning: This post contains potential spoilers including Qualification results.

The season has now officially started, with the qualification for the first formula 1 race of the year, at the Albert Park, Melbourne also known as the Australian GP.

The qualification was as exciting as one thought it would be with some of the “back-markers” showing it to the front runners and other expected strong performers lagging. The biggest surprise was Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato who displayed some brilliant driving in a mid field Super Aguris (Yes, considering today’s performance, they are mid fielders and not back markers anymore) to come out in front of bigger names like Renault, Honda and even a Ferrari.

The first qualifying session started of normal with the usual back field cars coming out first to get some lap times on the board. Then came the big runners out on the field literally taking over the timing boards as the times started to tumble. The McLaren’s and Ferraris traded the top 3 positions with Nick Heidfeld coming in the top 6 ahead of Fisichella. The first provisional pole was taken by Kimi Raikkonen closely followed by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in their McLarens.

The drivers relegated in the first qualifying session were:
Felipe Massa, Rubens Barrichello, Scott Speed, David Coulthard, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Adrian Sutil, Christijan Albers

Felipe Massa did qualify in the first round but has been relegated to the 16th position likely due to an engine failure he suffered in the second qualifying lap in the second round. More news on that as information becomes available.

In the second round of the qualification, the biggest exit was Felipe Massa who suffered mechanical problems in his second hot lap and had to abandon it. Besides Massa, Heikki Kovalainen in a Renault and both the Williams Toyotas were out of the qualifying as well. Anthony Davidson who had put in a good time to get to the 6th place early in the session was out-qualified down to the 11th place with the 10th place being taken by his team mate, Takuma Sato.

In the final round, it was business as usual with the Ferraris and McLarens performing the strongest. The Toyota’s which were struggling through most of the qualifying managed to earn some respect back by qualifying in the top 10. Takuma Sato maintained his position from the previous round at number 10.
In between, Kimi Raikkonen blitzed the track by a single hot lap which blew the rest of the field away and took him to the pole position. Both Alonso and Hamilton tried to beat Kimi’s time but could only manage 2nd and 3rd position. In the dying moments of the session, Nick Heidfeld drove an inch perfect lap to split the two McLarens and get himself on the second row of the grid, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

The final standings (According to Formula1.com):

Kimi Räikkönen 1:26.644
Fernando Alonso 1:26.697
Nick Heidfeld 1:26.895
Lewis Hamilton 1:26.674
Robert Kubica 1:26.696
Giancarlo Fisichella 1:27.270
Mark Webber 1:26.978
Jarno Trulli 1:27.014
Ralf Schumacher 1:27.328
Takuma Sato 1:27.365
Anthony Davidson 1:26.986
Nico Rosberg 1:27.596
Heikki Kovalainen 1:27.529
Jenson Button 1:27.540
Alexander Wurz 1:27.479
Felipe Massa 1:26.712
Rubens Barrichello 1:27.679
Scott Speed 1:28.305
David Coulthard 1:28.579
Vitantonio Liuzzi 1:29.267
Adrian Sutil 1:29.339
Christijan Albers 1:31.932

The stands covered in a sea of Blue and Yellow with spots of red. The competetion between 11 teams, 22 drivers each trying their hardest to get to the only spot that matters to most, the Pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Catalunya located in Barcelona Spain.

The qualifying produced all that was expected and more. There were really only two contenders for the front two rows, Ferrari and Renault. Alonso driving at his home grand prix was absolutely magnificent keeping up all the expectations that is expected of him and giving all the fans something to cheer themselves hoarse about.

But Michael was the one who really impressed me. In the first two sessions of qualifying, Michael ran only three laps in total, but in those three laps, he treated all the other drivers with such disdain like they were running street cars. In both those sessions, he out-classed everyone else to come out on top.

Unfortunately in the 3rd, he could not produce a similar finish, maybe when it mattered the most. He could only finish 3rd fastest which I would guess be due to a slightly higher fuel load (although why it would be so is beyond me). Alonso produced a classic lap running extremely fast and clean to secure the pole position. He was followed by his team mate Fisichella. The ferraris will occupy the second row tomorrow when the red lights go out. Mclaren were a sore disappointment with my second favorite Kimi managing only a 9th place. I was also disappointed by my current rookie favorite, Nico Rosberg who will languish at 13th place.

The complete qualifying timings and another review of today’s qualifying, can be viewed in Haas’ review.