The 2008 French Grand Prix will host the 18th and most likely final stage on the Formula One calendar for the Circuit de Never, Magny Cours.

Overall, the French Grand Prix has been hosted at many tracks, including Le mans, Dijon-Prenois, Clermont Ferrand, Paul Ricard and has held the title since 1906, pre-Formula 1.

The Magny-cours track is situated between Lisbon and Paris in what can only be described as the middle of nowhere, even less so than the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, which is situated in a small village in Northamptonshire.

Its surroundings include farms, in which the teams tell that it is the only point on the F1 calendar where they can see the site of cows in fields on a racing weekend.

Aside from the Grand Prix, Magny-cours is deprived of Formula One cars, as there are no longer official tests, preferring to be held at the Paul Ricard circuit, making Magny-cours as eventful as street circuits such as Monaco, Melbourne and so on.

The circuit is also outdated in terms of its facilities, with not a lot to do on a Grand Prix weekend, as well as paddock and pit facilities being refined in comparison to new additions to the calendar like Bahrain, China and Turkey.

The quality of racing on the track is not always great either, with only a couple overtaking spots on the circuit, including the infamous Adelaide hairpin, and the recently developed Lycee corner preceding the start finish straight.

In 2004, Rubens Barrichello managed to pull off a move on Jarno Trulli to take a podium place on the final lap of the Grand Prix.

The most eventful race at Magny-cours was no doubt the 1999 race, in which the wet conditions caught people out including Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen who at the time were Championship rivals.

The winners were the Jordan team, with Heinz Harold Frentzen taking his second career victory, and also second overall victory for the team, in which he would go on to take third in the drivers and constructors championship, not bad for an independent team.

Other highlights the circuit has to offer are no doubt the era of Michael Schumacher, who went on to take a record eight victories almost half of the overall Grands Prix the circuit held.

This includes his 2001 win, in which he overhauled the record set by the track's countryman (runner up of French grandprix, not all at Magny-cours) victories, Alain Prost (51). The following year, he managed to equal a record five driver world championships, set by Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s, with just under half the season still to go.

Recent drivers who have won at Magny cours in the new millennium include David Coulthard, 2000, who famously had a scrap with Schumacher (who eventually retired) ending up with the Brit sticking a finger up at the Ferrari driver.

In 2003, it was younger brother, Ralf Schumacher's turn to win in the almighty BMW-Williams, and then the previous three race winners, went on to win the title...aka Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

However no driver outside the front two rows of the grid has won in Magny-cours, meaning that qualifying well is definitely a must here.

This is a good point to talk about the session overall. One hour, split up into three sessions, a knockout of five for the first two leaving the top 10 to battle it out for pole in the final part of the trilogy.

This session was dominated by the two Ferrari drivers, with Kimi Raikkonen managing to take the teams 200th pole position, and will start alongside Felipe Massa, who has shown strong form this season also scoring poles and victories this season.

Although he qualified third, Lewis Hamilton will struggle to repeat the position which he took last year due to a 10-place grid drop. The penalty was implied following the Canadian Grand Prix, in which Lewis failed to see a red light in the pitlane and ended up colliding with Kimi Raikkonen, and will start 13th.

Nico Rosberg also suffered the same blow. Heikki Kovalinen in the second Mclaren, is the latest addition to the black book being demoted from p6 to p10 due to impeding Mark Webber on a hot lap, McLaren again on the back foot.

Surprise form from home outfits Renault with Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet topped the times in practice sessions. Alonso will move up to the third position after qualifying a respectable fourth and will be looking to score a podium for the team to increase their Championship position.

Surprisingly bad form for the BMW outfit, who scored a 1-2 in Montreal two weeks ago. At one point in the session, Nick Heidfeld struggled to even beat his provisional best which was 18th. The German finally managed a low 12th and was outqualified for the eighth time in eight races by recent debut winner and championship leader, Robert Kubica, p7.

Overall predictions for the grand Prix itself, you would certainly put your money on a Ferrari whitewash tomorrow. With Hamilton being bumped down to 13th, Alonso in third is consistently some four-tenths slower than the Ferrari's, meaning they will be able to pull away in the opening stint.

It will be interesting to see if Kovalinen can manage make a good start, which is important for both team and personal championship campaigns as damage limitation for McLaren must certainly be the plan this time.

A good qualifying pace from the two Toyotas and two Red Bull Racing drivers who both managed to secure top 10 positions, after Coulthard's recent podium achievements he will be wanting to add some much needed points, even if the super licence will mean it will cost him a bit extra. He has hotels; he can afford it.

Hopefully, with the times being pretty close, we should get a few battles early on in the race, but don't expect too much as Magny-cours can often let you down. The future for France?

There are talks of a street circuit being opening in Paris, which would add to the new additions of Singapore and Valencia as well as the traditional Monaco Grandprix. Another possibility includes Paul Richard, but unfortunately Magny-cours, I feel, will not be missed.

Everyone knows that Magny-Cours is built to suit fast, high-powered cars.  Ferrari fits that description to a T, and after Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa qualified at the sharp end of the grid, it looks almost impossible to prevent an all-red quinella.

Regular nemesis Lewis Hamilton has no chance after being demoted from third on the grid to 13th.  Likewise, another normally strong chance, Heikki Kovalainen, will be out of contention, demoted from sixth to 11th.

Fernando Alonso will be in the best position to see the rear ends of Raikkonen and Massa, and he has only been unplaced once on this circuit when driving for Renault.  He must be strongly fancied for a podium placing again this year.

The other contender for third place is Robert Kubica, who should have no trouble getting past Jarno Trulli (who is drawn just ahead of him), and will then hope for Alonso to make a mistake, or that he can get a little more out of the BMW than Alonso can from his Renault.

Raikkonen and Massa are likely to use their draws to set up a team win, but with the long opening stretch, all drivers are likely to get a fair start, so if Alonso can start well he may have a chance to get between them early, which would have a major impact on tactics.

If Ferrari can manage to make it to Turn 3 without being split, then the race will be theirs to lose.  From there, they can let it rip all the way to Turn 5, and nobody is going to catch a pair of Ferraris in full flight if they have a head start.

At Turn 5, they need to slow to a crawl.  It is a dangerous first-gear bend that needs to be negotiated at under 50 km/h, but once they are through that, they can put on another burst of speed.

With each subsequent lap, they should pull further and further ahead on the exit from Turn 3.  Only extreme bad luck or a major tactical blunder will prevent this quinella result.

Prediction:

1. Raikkonen
2. Massa
3. Alonso
4. Kubica
5. Coulthard
6. Trulli
7. Heidfield
8. Glock

Formula Ferrari

There isn’t any doubt that tomorrow the only team that can beat Ferrari are indeed themselves. As I predicted in my preview the Ferrari just works brilliantly around this track and this was demonstrated in qualifying. The fact that BMW Sauber are struggling and both Mclaren drivers have been given penalties and start furthur back on the grid have made a 1-2 finish an even stronger (if not guaranteed) possibility. The only man to worry about is Alonso who we all know when he is inspired can conjure up something special but the Renault although improved simply won’t be a match for the Ferrari. By the first pit stops Ferrari should have him covered.

Raikkonen Vs Massa should be interesting. Massa is looking very confident at the moment and was just pipped by Raikkonen to pole position. Massa’s long runs in free practise looked pretty decent so there is no doubt that Massa can give Raikkonen a hard time tomorrow. However I can’t see Raikkonen giving into the pressure and will push hard at the times he needs to do to ensure he can’t be passed by Massa either on the track or in the pits. They will be nose to tail for most of the race but Raikkonen will edge it. Massa would have had more chance of winning this race by claiming pole but he could still yet get ahead in turn 1.

Mclaren Damage limitations

 

Hamilton could only manage 3^rdso he goes back 10 places on the grid. Even worse for Mclaren is that Kovalainen got penalized for blocking Webber in Q1 so he has now incurred a 5-place penalty pushing him back down to 10^th. Mclaren will start 10^th and 13^th. The midfield cars look pretty quick so in terms of overtaking him they will be no mugs and they will both have to be extremely aggressive which could be fun to watch. In order to overtake they will need to get a good run out of Estoril in order to get a good tow through the turbulent air and get close enough to attack in the Adelaide hairipin. The important thing is that they both keep their front wings on and get a double points finish, neither driver needs a DNF as that will do the team a lot of harm in both championships.

Hamilton will be 3 stopping so he needs to make up as many positions at the start as he possibly can and if others are 2 stopping then they may well re-pass him again in the pits and he will have to overtake them again. Hamilton is in for a busy and hard afternoon. Kovalainen is running heavier so if he gets a good start his tactics may actually favour him so it should work out better for him.

I predict that the two mclarens will finish 5^th and 6^th and overall that would be a decent points haul for them baring in mind the tough situation they find themselves in.

Tight Midfield Battle

 

Red Bull, BMW Sauber, Toyota and Renault are going to have a very tight battle in tomorrow’s race. If Alonso can stay ahead of Trulli at the start then he has a good chance of retaining 3^rdplace throughout the race. Trulli’s race pace isn’t always the best and he often holds people up during the race. Fans often call this a “Trulli Train”. Due to this the midfield cars could be bunched so we could see some good wheel-to-wheel action between them or tactics being used via the pits, being bunched up would also help the mclarens catch the midfield runners and pass them.

I think Red Bull are in for a good result tomorrow, I think they are a bit heavier than the cars in front and could leap them during the stops. Red Bull’s race pace is normally good. The other thing the midfield teams will have to consider is the Mclarens trying to pass them, which cause problems to their race as they try to move their own race forward.

I am really looking forward to seeing this mid-pace fight tomorrow and mix the Mclarens in there as they fight through the pack and it will be interesting.

French Weather

 

There are predictions of thunderstorms in France tomorrow, which could affect the race. It would be great news for Mclaren as a little bit of chaos up front would help them make up some positions, also on a wet and low grip track it is far easier to follow the car in front and challenge to overtake them. A mistake in the wet from either Ferrari driver would also be possible. I can’t see either Ferrari driver throwing the race away in the dry.

From looking at various predictions most sites seem to be saying that rain won’t arrive till after the race so this may well not be a variable.

Final Conclusion and Prediction

 

This should be a very interesting race despite it on paper looking very easy for Ferrari. Raikkonen and Massa are neck and neck. The midfield battle will be almighty tight with the mclarens battling their way through to rescue lost points.

Like I said I think Raikkonen will be able to keep Massa at bay despite a determined challenge from the young Brazilian. Alonso has a great chance of 3^rdand I think Red Bull will be battling with the  for 4^th down to 6^th. Toyota and BMW’s race pace isn’t special this weekend so I think it will be Red Bull who get the most points out of the midfield teams and strengthen their 4^th place in the constructors. Alonso may get a podium for Renault but Piquet Jnr won’t score which is why I think Red Bull will get more points overall in the race.

1. Raikkonen 2. Massa 3. Alonso

Before qualifying for the French Grand Prix, Renault have torn up the form book again as one of their cars was again fastest in final practice. But whilst it had been Fernando Alonso in second practice, today it was Nelson Piquet who set the pace.

Piquet clocked a time of 1 minute 15.750 seconds in an intensely close practice session where 1st place to 18th place, Nick Hiedfeld's BMW, was seperated by only 1 second.

It was a morning for the "lesser" teams of Formula 1 to shine, with Mark Webber's Red Bull setting a time of 1 minute 15.759 seconds to end up second, only 0.009 seconds slower than Piquet.

Sebastian Vettel showed a good turn of pace by setting the third fastest time, ahead of Nico Rosberg's ever improving Williams in fourth.

The first of the big guns was Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari in fifth place, with a time of 1 minute 16.003 seconds, 0.4 seconds slower than Piquet's Renault

Lewis Hamilton, who has to take a 10 place grid penalty, ended up 7th with a time of 1 minute 16.182 seconds, with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli sandwiched between him and the Finnish world champion.

Fernando Alonso ended up twelth, 0.7 seconds slower than team-mate Piquet, just ahead of Heikki Kovalainen, with Ferrari's Felipe Massa ending up ninth.

The BMW's have struggled this weekend and it really showed in final practice. World championship leader Kubica ended up 14th in final pactice, with team-mate Hiedfeld in 18th.

So, a few conclusions to make. Renault have a great turn of pace here, BMW are struggling, Sebastian Vettel is ever-improving and the McLarens are also finding it hard.

With unpredictable practice results like this, and 10 place grid penalties for Hamilton and Rosberg, the grid for the race today could throw up a few surprises!

Final practice times for the French Grand Prix:

1. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:15.750

2. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1:15.759

3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:15.827

4. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 1:15.974

5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:16.003

6. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:16.147

7. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:16.182

8. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:16.235

9. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:16.256

10. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault 1:16.282

11. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:16.344

12. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:16.437

13. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:16.545

14. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:16.617

15. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams - Toyota 1:16.644

16. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:16.651

17. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:16.658

18. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:16.687

19. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India - Ferrari 1:17.365

20. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Ferrari 1:17.612

Motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, this week introduced the new prices for the FIA Super Licence, upsetting several F1 drivers, who feel the price increase is unfair.

You really have to hate professional sportsmen at times. It’s not enough that the majority of them are famous and have the privilege of being (debatably) talented enough to earn millions a year in wages and lucrative sponsorship deals, have women falling at their feet, and generally have life easy compared to your average guy in the stands cheering them on.

Let’s take a look at the figures.

Last year, a driver requiring a Super Licence had to pay 1,725 euros (£1,354) plus 456 euros (£357) per point won, but FIA president Max Mosley has increased it to 10,000 euros (£7,858) plus 2,000 euros (£1,570) for every point won. 

I agree that a 400 per cent price increase is maybe too high based on any real sense, but even for a modestly paid F1 driver who might actually have to contribute to his Super Licence fee; it’s hardly going to break the bank.

The fee is retrospective, so it will be interesting to see if the FIA try and force a retiring driver to pay for his points haul for the season before, as he jets off to his luxury home of one of Europe’s few tax-free havens.

So, for current F1 World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen, and last year’s runners-up Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, that’s around £180,000 this year just for their licence to race this year.

When drivers are earning a reported £25 million a year in the case of Raikkonen, and £10 million a year if you’re Hamilton and Alonso, it’s not much of a problem but the riches of the sport don’t extend down to the back of the grid where some drivers are averaging around a few million a year, or instead relying on their own sponsors to get a drive in F1.

In a year where taxes are going up on just about everything, and the retail price of everything from bread to fuel is going up, the FIA have decided to get in on the act as well. Put simply, it’s a tax on winning, the better car you have and the more you win, the more you pay. Has Max been talking to British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown?

At a time when Mosely’s position as FIA is continually under threat and his relation with the important players in F1 deteriorates, he’s not buying himself any favours here with the drivers continually complaining that the FIA fails to listen to their recommendations on matters of rule changes and safety and has reportedly failed to meet them regarding the price increase while sticking it up them with lining the FIA's pockets.

For their part, the drivers have already made some noise about it, with the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GDPA) discussion what options are open to them, with some suggesting they might even take industrial action, while all agree the price increase is unfair.

It’s ludicrous to think that some of the drivers may strike because of a licence increase, likely to be at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone next month. It would lead to yet another farcical situation in F1, even if the teams could replace the drivers with test drivers and draft in other contracted drivers.

GPDA director, Alonso has certainly been quite vocal on the matter, and is prepared to take part in protests whatever they may be, as the GDPA look to discuss the situation further over the course of the French Grand Prix weekend.

However, Raikkonen and Hamilton are not members of the GDPA and would likely race each other even if everyone else pulled out at Silverstone. After all, there is a world championship to be won, and that brings more money to a driver, a team and their sponsors.

Seriously, millionaire racing drivers striking because they’ve been asked to pay more is a bit rich to your average supporter. I’d like to know how many of the drivers actually have their licence paid for them by their teams or sponsors, and just how many are in opposition for opposition’s sake.

Either way, Max Mosely and the FIA have another problem on their hands, and it could just add fuel to the fire of an F1 breakaway from the FIA where the teams and the drivers are afforded a genuine say in how their sport is run.

In the spirit of pushing the envelope, which has often been the story of my life, I wish to put forth a relatively mundane explanation for why women are so poorly represented in F1.

Everyone talks about how women have made so many inroads into science/medicine, and how as pilots women can handle more g-forces (and not until 1993 were women even allowed to fly in combat MISSIONS, much less be at the helm of an F-16, but that's another article altogether).

So what is my rationale for this phenomenon?  It is this: Men are more prone to genetic mutation than women.

What does this mean?  Well, men are significantly more likely to be mentally retarded, have autism, hemophilia (which ONLY men can get, correct?) and are even far more likely to have relatively mundane problems like color-blindness than women.  On the other side of the bell curve, men, it certainly appears, are more likely to be gifted than women, whether mentally or physically. 

I wish I could draw it for everyone, but if you are familiar with a bell curve, for women it looks like a normal bell curve, but for men the curve is wider and lower.  There is talk of women just not showing their intelligence in classrooms and so forth, which is something I will agree with, but just at the fundamental genetic level, those mutations come up more in men.  So while there are thousands and thousands of gifted women, there are thousands and thousands more gifted men. 

When you look at F1, there are call it 25 people going out there and racing come Sunday.  Out of six billion!  I personally cannot believe that men are twenty-five times more likely to be gifted than women, so it still does not answer the question of why women are not in the sport.  Please stay with me and don't hit the comment button yet.

Continuing, if one is going to bring up Maria Sharapova vs Danica Patrick, as another article has on this site, saying that Sharapova gets large amounts of sponsorhip whereas Patrick does not, the response to that is that Sharapova competes in women's tennis, in a sanctioned class in which only women compete.  Danica Patrick competes against women and men in a sport which does not distinguish sex when its drivers compete.  And just as Sharapova might not do well against someone like Federer or Nadal, Danica Patrick it has been argued is not in the same league as Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, or Fernando Alonso.

To me, this argument is the same as stating that a WNBA team might not be able to compete against the Lakers or Celtics.  How many NBA players can dunk, compared with WNBA players?  Let us just start with that comparison.  What if, going back to my example, the answer is a ratio of at least 25 to 1?  That would lend credence to my comparison at the beginning of the article.  Even if height is simply the yardstick of measurement, the point is that the extreme of male height has proven to be greater than that of women.  A racing example would be frequency awareness.  The average person can only sense things inside and outside specific Hz ranges.  Racing drivers have been demonstrated to be more sensitive across a wider range of frequencies.  Thus, why would sensitivity to harmonics not be something that, like both retardation and giftedness, are demonstrated more in men?  Or to the extreme that makes them one of the 25 out of six billion to compete in F1?

Again, my only statement is that genetics are honestly on the side of men, so to speak.  Look at Lewis Hamilton, whose brother has cerebral palsy.  There is a family that has both a clear gift and a clear disability.  I still believe capable women are out there.  Personally, I do not think F1 is the sole cause, however.

What it probably does come down to is the drive to...well, drive, and support by parents and sponsors.  It appears that men have traditionally been the ones to do risky things like driving cars fast, and women have done other things.  So fewer women start racing karts at a young age, go race in more competitive series, and then make it into professional motorsport. 

THAT is why you'd see 25 men and no women.  Any sane sponsors or teams would be absolutely crazy to ignore a woman who was truly fast.  The publicity, whether negative or positive, would be too much to pass up.  But it is unfair I think to blame F1, the highest series in the land, and not blame every series below that for not helping cultivate female talent; or blame parents who don't support the racing bug in their daughters; or society for allegedly keeping women playing with dolls and not with toy soldiers and Hot Wheels.

If we are going to talk about promotion of F1, in particular things like the grid girls, sure, there is quite a bit of chauvinism that seems to be displayed.  The question is if removing them would help revenue.  That is what it comes down to.  Racing is about money and if having the grid girls will get men to pay more money or watch more commercials more than it turns off the women, then the grid girls are not going anywhere.  This is not unique to F1, either.  Even local Sports Car Club of America events can have trophy girls and such at the end of an event.  I even remember reading an issue of Grassroots Motorsports which talked about a woman who raced but also was a trophy girl!  She apparently did not dwell much on the supposed chauvinism of racing when she decided to do this.

If people are going to complain about women's representation in F1, there are two obvious options. The first is to create a ladies series for F1, similar to how many SCCA or NASA regions have classes which are exclusively for women.  The other is to go the other way, and get rid of Title IX, have both sexes compete together in the Olympics, and combine women's and men's sports at all levels, such as the NBA/WNBA.

I think that women have a greater likelihood of demonstrating lap times which can beat men than they will 400-meter-dash times which can beat men.  I think that more women need to be cultivated through the ranks of racing in order to find the rare women who are able to race in F1, just as the rare men who compete in F1 have to go step by step, many of their compatriots being weeded out along the way, until those 25 out of six billion are the ones strapping themselves into their cockpits.  I will be ecstatic if I saw the name Fisher or Patrick or Legge (currently racing in DTM after racing in Champ Car) on the side of an F1 car.  I think that sponsors and television producers would go crazy over women who proved they were competitive in an F1 car, and the publicity, both positive and negative, would greatly enhance the sport.  But in many ways it is simply a matter of odds, whether it be in the genes or whether you were able to nail that sponsor.  Thus, it is not a glass ceiling, but a steep slope, which is keeping women from being represented in F1.

I experienced an odd phenomenon last weekend. Gone was the majesty of the United States Grand Prix whose presence, despite being somewhat undervalued over the pond, always added a certain spice and excitement to the midseason.

It can be argued that some of the last races have been the most exciting in years, yet the French Grand Prix often bucks the trend and I fear it may do this year also.

The combination of searing heat, the billiard-table track and an altogether too placid crowd makes the Magny-Cours weekend lack the spice of many other race weekends.

In all fairness, this particular race should have been dropped many moons ago. Since the 1999 one-off rain extravaganza, French Grands Prix have been far too tepid. How about the 2001 or 2006 races? Does anyone remember anything spectacular happening?

It can be argued that the Spanish Grand Prix has the same problem, but at least at Catalunya, the crowd are enthusiastic. The sun-induced stupour of Magny-Cours really does detract from what is building up to be a scintillating second half of the season.

Yes, France deserves a race as much as Britain does. Men such as Alain Prost have proven France to be potent at breeding quick drivers. However since the halcyon days of Jean Alesi in the mid-90s, France has not had a successful Formula One driver.

Sebastian Bourdais has been hindered by being located at the back of the grid this year and Olivier Panis fluked his way to a victory in 1996, along with a couple of podiums in 1997, before unwisely breaking his legs in a smash at the Canadian Grand Prix of that year.

The only shining light is Renault, whose form has been comparatively woeful since the departure and return of their Spanish two-time World Champion, Fernando Alonso.

Surely there is somewhere else to run the French Grand Prix? The Paul Ricard circuit could come under this banner. That said, races from the late 1980s do not prove modern day excitement, especially with the heavily amended track and safety regulations (step forward Hockenheim, Spa Francorchamps) and the butchery of Hermann Tilke (Hockenheim again, please). Running a race throughout the streets of Paris seems as probable as the furore of a London Grand Prix back in 2004.

It seems Bernie Ecclestone's decision to finally remove Grand Prix status from Magny-Cours is justified, if a few years too late.

The current situation

4. Red Bull Racing 21

5. Toyota 17

6. Williams 15

7. Renault 9

These in my opinion are the four teams fighting for 4th sport. Honda and Torro Rosso have 8 and 7 points respectively but I don't think they will be in a fight with each other for 8th spot rather than with these teams for 4th spot. It looks like a very tight battle at the moment but as I will explain throughout this article I don’t think it will be tight come the end of the season. Putting more effort into the 2009 car (when the aero rules get a complete overhaul) as the season goes on is also likely to have an impact on how well the midfield teams will do for the rest of the season.

Red Bull

I feel Red Bull are starting to make good progress, their car is now much more reliable, last year it was chronically unreliable and now every race weekend their get at least one of their cars into the top ten. In the races they are now consistent and taking their points opportunities. Spain, Monaco and Canada are good examples where other drivers and teams have made mistakes and Red Bull have seized the opportunity. In races where everyone has run reliably so far they have picked up a point or two. This car is definitely as fast if not slightly faster than the Renault.

If it wasn't for DC's appalling season so far Red Bull may have even more points. Glock took him out of a likely 3 or 4 points in Spain. Massa's optimistic move on Oz lost DC points there. During the Spanish GP qualifying session his team gambled on tyres and he couldn't get out of Q1 on a weekend where he was looking very quick.

Renault

Renault have haven't made enough progress to leave this midfield battle and are really suffering points wise. In fact compared to last season the car is probably worse relative to where the team were last season. The car is fast enough to challenge for points but they are the opposite of Red Bull in that they haven't take all of their point scoring opportunities this season. In Spain Alonso had a chance for 3 or 4 points but the engine failed. In the wet Monaco GP Alonso made errors instead of potentially finishing in the top 4. And in Canada Alonso could have challenged for victory it wasn't for brake problems.

One of the main problems has been that whilst Renault just want Alonso to bring home points and be safe Alonso wants to take big risks for podiums or even a win and this philosophy is losing the team points rather than gaining them. The other problem is Piquet Jnr is finding it very hard to adjust to life in F1 and has scored no points so far. He has even struggled to get out of Q1 on a couple of occasions so far. Whilst he continues to struggle Renault are technically a one car team as far as points are concerned.

Williams

The beginning of the season looked very promising with really good times in testing and in Australia Rosberg's podium gave people the impression that Williams might well punch above their weight this season. Sadly that all seems to be like a false dawn now. After Melbourne the other teams around them have been able to take much bigger steps forward. So apart from that one great result getting into the points has been a struggle. Rosberg scraped into the points in Bahrain and Turkey but that is really as good as the car is at the moment. The car has performed better at slower cornered circuits but the team failed to get significant points from those two events. The team will have a few more good races this season but I can't see them improving the car enough to be able to consistently score good points on merit. Nakajima has taken opportunities to score for Williams well in 2 of the 3 crazy races of the season so far.

Toyota

Toyota completely changed their design concept for this season rather than just evolving their car like the cars around them. At the start of the season that seemed to be paying dividends. Particularly in Malaysia the Toyota was very quick. A Mclaren there was even holding up Trulli. He finished 4th and then backed that up with a 6th in Bahrain. Since then they look as if they have gone back downhill again after a surge of progress. Canada was the first time they looked promising since Bahrain but that was mainly through attrition. Although Glock in particularly looked alot stronger but Red Bull and Renault were ahead of them on the track and I think that story will continue.

In my opinion the 4th spot will be Red Bull's this season. The car is getting better with every race, its reliable and they seem to be taking their opportunities this season, hopefully DC's podium will spur him to score points regularly along with Webber to help concrete this 4th position. In terms of the development race I think Red Bull will make more progress than their rivals, now Willis and Newey have a very stable base to work on now the car will get faster quickly just like it did at the end of last season when the car finally got some reliability. This team is now one, which is going to start moving fast in my opinion. They could even get close to the top 3 come the end of the season.

Renault I feel are thinking more about 2009 now and this is the same for their star man Alonso. I think they will do well with their new upgrade in the next 2 or 3 races and then will drift away. Toyota are going to keep pushing and they will get enough points here and there to stay ahead of Renault in the championship. I don't think they are going to give up on the season straight away unlike others around them. They have as much resource as Ferrari and Mclaren so can run a few projects at the same time (albeit not with great awards at the end of it).

I think Williams will also keep pushing with their season but can’t see them getting many more strong results on merit, maybe the odd 7^th or 8^th here and there and maybe a 4^th or 5^thin a crazy wet race which we are likely to have again at some point but don’t see any further progress apart from that. If I were the Williams team I would be focusing completely on the 2009 season now, the team are too small to be running tow big projects (the 2008 car and 2009 car) at the same time. Understandably two competitive men such as Frank Willams and Patrick Head won’t want to finish so low down the table.

So in conclusion I don’t think this section of the championship table will change. The status quo from 4^th to 7^th but I wouldn’t rule out Honda maybe sneaking into 7^th spot. Red Bull I am very confident will take 4^th place, not only that but I think they will achieve it by a comfortable margin.

The dust from the Canadian Grand Prix hasn't settled yet, but it is already a very memorable race!

After Adrian Sutil's breakdown of his Force India racer, the safety car came out and all the drivers dove into the pitlane to get fresh rubber and fuel, and the red light at the end of the lane played havoc again!

With all the drivers stopping at the red light as all good citizens should, race leader Lewis Hamilton lost concentration and rammed his world championship rival, Kimi Raikkonen, in the back, giving both of them an early bath. It looked like a race incident, but it will be investigated by the race stewards.

Heidfeld inherited the lead after the pitlane havoc, and after he pitted, we had Barichello, Coulthard and Trulli take the lead. Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima became casualties later on. The former after over-steering and the latter after slamming into the back of Jenson Button. Giancarlo Fisichella had a spin on lap 52, but it did not affect any of the frontrunners since they were already fuelled up to the end.

This is the first Grand Prix since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix that neither a McLaren nor a Ferrari have taken the checkered flag first and this was the first time since the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix that the German anthem has played.

In the end, Robert Kubica, the first Polish driver in Formula One, took his first ever win, and Nick Heidfeld took maximum points for the BMW Sauber team! David Coulthard rounded out the top three, while Timo Glock finished fourth, Felipe Massa made it fifth with Jarno Trulli sixth, Rubens Barichello took seventh and Sebastien Vettel made it two points finishes in a row with eighth and the last points paying position.

This was the first time since the 2006 American Grand Prix that McLaren did not score points, with Heikki Kovalainen coming in ninth, while harassing Vettel for the last points spot.

Overall, a great race, an unlikely win for Robert Kubica, and an even more unlikely 1-2 finish for BMW. A lot of promise for BMW Sauber, and this season has turned into a threeway battle for the title!

Graham Rahal says finishing in 15th place “isn’t cool.“ Marco Andretti’s still wary of the sport’s politics after his father’s disastrous 1993 season. Danica, Helio, are Dixie are all committed to American ovals for the foreseeable future, as opposed to the European road courses of Formula One.

This season is much different for the Indy Racing League.

As opposed to 2007, when the series' two top drivers’ departures made the biggest headlines of the season, the IRL finds itself in a much more comfortable position in 2008, especially against Formula One. With the sudden ability to retain all of its drivers, the league appears poised to build a solid foundation of drivers and teams that may last 10 years down the road.

The reunification of the IndyCar Series and the Champ Car World Series this season, as well as the continued domination of Ferrari and McLaren in Formula One, hint that the top American open-wheel racing series may soon claim superiority over its more expensive European counterpart.

Many Formula One supporters will scoff at the mere notion of any open-wheel series ever overtaking the FIA’s longtime crown jewel. Only Formula One boasts the best drivers in the world, they might say, and any driver who can’t make it in the series just isn’t committed enough to run the best cars in the world.

How can a series based around a budget of $3 million compete with a racing industry that boasts billions of dollars worth of technology?

The answer is simple: The IndyCar Series provides actual competition.

Forget Max Mosley’s sex scandal and any other matters of racing politics across the pond; they’ve been discussed at great length already. Formula One has been little more than a parade for the past decade or so, with the only question being which Ferrari or McLaren driver would take the top spot on the podium (Fernando Alonso being the lone notable exception).

Michael Schumacher won five consecutive championships from 2000 to 2004. The last constructor to win a race besides Ferrari or McLaren was Renault: with Alonso driving, the team won the Japanese Grand Prix on October 8, 2006. That was 20 months ago.

In the 12 IndyCar Series seasons that have been completed since the series’ first race in 1996, only one driver has won multiple championships: Sam Hornish Jr. won in 2001 and 2002 with Panther Racing, and again in 2006 with Penske Racing. Counting the history of Champ Car as well, since 1996, 18 drivers have won major open wheel championships in the United States.

In that same period of time, six drivers have won Formula One championships. Three of those drivers won more than one, with Schumacher‘s five the mark to beat.

It’s not rocket science that domination does not make for good racing, and neither do parades. This is exactly why the IRL—despite taking its knocks from the viewing public for years—puts out a better on-track product than Formula One does at this point.

Even before the unification with Champ Car, bringing the decade-plus schism to a merciful end, the on-track product was more entertaining, and more drivers had a chance to win races. At least nine teams—both Penske cars, both Ganassi cars, all four Andretti-Green cars, and Panther Racing’s lone entry—found their way into victory lane between 2005 and 2007.

Accounting for the fact that two drivers, Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti, scored victories in Andretti-Green’s No. 26, a total of ten drivers accounted for these wins. For reference, the IRL had an average of 18 cars each of those years.

Meanwhile, 10 Champ Car drivers found their way into victory circles with six teams during that time frame—Sebastien Bourdais, Oriol Servia, and Bruno Junqueira with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing; Nelson Philippe and Robert Doornbos with Minardi Team USA; Paul Tracy and A.J. Allmendinger with Forsythe Racing; Cristiano da Matta with PKV Racing; Justin Wilson with RuSport; and Will Power with Walker Racing. For reference, Champ Car also had about 18 cars per race in each of those years.

Accounting for the fact that Servia and Junqueira shared a car in 2005, 18 different entries and 20 different drivers won the 48 IRL races and 41 Champ Car races contested in the last three years. Adding Rahal, Danica Patrick, and Ryan Briscoe this season, 23 drivers have won the 96 races put on in total.

In that same time frame, eight drivers have won 54 Formula One Grands Prix: Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen, and Michael Schumacher.

As Raikkonen replaced Schumacher at Ferrari and Alonso replaced Raikkonen at McLaren, those 54 wins have only occurred in seven different cars. Button’s win with Honda at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix was the only race of those 54 not to feature a Ferrari, McLaren, or Renault driver on the top step of the podium. After six races in 2008, no driver or team has added his name to this list.

Eight drivers in 60 races with four different teams; 23 drivers in 96 races with ten different teams.

The numbers don’t lie.

But are those numbers skewed by the fact that two open-wheel series existed in the United States at the time? Absolutely. One cannot assume that had the Champ Car World Series and Indy Racing league run a combined 18-race schedule in those three years, a total of 23 different drivers would have won races—although many of them would certainly have come close. (To mention the winners is to speak nothing of the drivers who have come close to victory. Vitor Meira, Tristan Gommendy, Dan Clarke, and Scott Sharp most readily come to mind.)

Yet of those 23 winners, the only defections have been Hornish, Allmendinger, and Dario Franchitti to NASCAR, and Bourdais to Formula One. Philippe, Doornbos, and Tracy are all actively seeking rides in the unified series. Da Matta is an exception to the rule - after nearly being killed by a collision with a deer in a 2006 testing accident, he is racing sports cars for Bob Stallings Motorsports.

That still leaves 15 different race winners from the past three years, out of 27 entries. Subtract Enrique Bernoldi, Jaime Camara, Jay Howard, Mario Moraes, and E.J. Viso-the series’ five true rookies this season - from the equation, and the tally is 15 out of 22 experienced drivers with wins in the past three seasons.

Only eight of Formula One’s 22 current drivers have ever even won races - forget the past three years. Although the sport goes through drivers like a baby through diapers sometimes, shuffling out consistency and experience for youth and quickness, it should be noted that only three of this season’s drivers were not in the series’ paddock last year.

Which series sounds more competitive to you?

If Formula One fans are not dismayed by the fact that IndyCar Series racing offers more drivers and teams a chance to win races, they also have the Champ Car unification story to consider. With 10 drivers and six teams having switched series for this season, the IndyCar Series has two distinct marketing advantages: one, that American open-wheel racing can finally define a single true champion; and two, that they can play up any major gains by Champ Car drivers in the new series, with Rahal’s win in his first start at St. Petersburg only the first big story.

Watching the Champ Car teams get accustomed to (and perhaps one day dominate) the ovals of the IndyCar Series is an occurrence many fans can look forward to. By 2011, when new cars and engines are introduced, both Champ Car and IndyCar teams should be on even footing.

The facts don’t lie. IndyCar racing is simply a more competitive and more entertaining form of open wheel racing than Formula One at this point, and it appears destined to continue on its upward swing for a very long time.

The Indianapolis 500 undeniably is a legitimate race again, despite years of claims from purists that series owner Tony George tainted the race by creating the IRL to feature it.

Drivers are excited to compete in the new series, with many of them no longer even considering NASCAR offers. Fans are excited to see all of their favorite stars competing in the same place again. Perhaps most of all, executives are excited for the series’ future prospects, with many projecting an eminent boom for the series—more sponsors, more chassis and engine manufacturers, more teams and drivers, more races in more locations.

Truth be told, it’s only a matter of time before Formula One fans grow tired of the sport’s politics and parades and shift their allegiances to the Indy Racing League.

Things are different now.