Alpine F1

We're four races into the 2008 season and although England's leading driver Lewis Hamilton got off to a great start we've seen mechanical failure, driver error and a car that is not only battling for pace with Ferrari's but the BMWSauber team too. It's been a great season so far with new rules & new cars sliding around corners, but the difference between all the top ten cars could not be closer. This makes the fight for pole more crucial and even more challenging than ever.

This year and especially at Barcelona the starting fuel load strategy dictates poll. Most thought that Alonso had emptied his fuel tank to win poll in front of his home fans but with a blitz of a lap from Kimi Raikonen in the Ferrari, he was denied. It was only after the first stop that we really knew how much fuel was in the car - Crucially 2 laps less than the Ferrari's and this showing what fantastic drive and improvement to the Renault car Alonso and Renault have made for the 1st European legs.

This point brings me onto another point that i think is rather important in understanding Mclaren's performance last year compared to this one. Of course there are many factors to consider in analysing and comparing a teams performance but this one in particular i feel is well worth understanding. Last year Mclaren had the world champion Alonso as their No.1 Driver with Rookie Hamilton as No.2 who was viewed as lucky to gain a few podiums in the first season. Everyone underestimated Hamilton's driving skill - Give him the fastest car and he will win races, Give him a reliable one and he will finish them. But most of all because he had nothing to prove there was far less pressure on him to finish and win thus gave him the initial championship lead through consistent podium finishes. My point here is that Lewis is a fantastic driver and that Mclaren is a fantastic team but where have things gone wrong for them both this season?

Above the errors, technical malfunctions and poor strategy i think that the Mclaren team misses Fernando Alonso. Now don't stop reading yet let me go on.....The trouble that he caused at Mclaren was inexcusable, childish and unprofessional for all of those reasons plus more he should have gone but there is one crucial element he brought to the Mclaren team last year that he is now doing with Renault for 08. That is his expert technical input in setting the car up for individual races. Mclaren now have Hamilton and Kovalinen as drivers, both excellent and highly talented professionals but they have less than 40 Grand Prixs between them. Couple that with a totally different car in accordance with 08 rules ie no traction, then they're in uncharted waters. As a contrast and to prove my point look at Renault's performance so far. The Asian leg of F1 saw a medium performance from the Renault with no real spark, come the European leg of the tour where all manufacturers have been working incredibly hard to improve their cars and with Alonso's input Renault challenge for Pole.

In an interview with Renault's technical boss, he discusses how much the engineers respect Alonso and his technical input. Furthermore he said that their technical progress was even further boosted by the fact that all new parts tested and reviewed by Alonso on track in practice were guaranteed to be tested to 100% efficiency. This inevitably boosts the development of their car and pace.

In conclusion, it's going to be a close year. Mclaren need to perfect their setup and strategy to put Hamilton in with a chance of catching Kimi Raikonen. The BMW's have made slow but successful progress over the last year and are now a solid top four contender but watch out for the Renault's. Also Redbull, Toyota and even Force India could be putting in surprise performances.

After a poor 2007 season in the f1 championship for Renault, they were heading into the new 2008 season with high hopes of a return to form.  Those expectations where higher with the return of former champion Fernando Alonso to the team.

Pre season testing looked good, with Renault looking faster then a year ago, and Alonso seemed a much relaxed driver after the troubles of last year with Mclaren.    As the teams got ready for the season opener at Australia, Alonso said the team were still around a second behind Ferrari and Mclaren, by the time qualifying came around it looked spot on.

Australia was a baptism of fire for Renault with Fernando and new team mate Nelson Piquet both struggling to make it into quali 3, in the end result Fernando managed  12th and Piquet a disappointing 21st on his first ever grand prix.                             
The team had hoped to be the fighting with Bmw, but after there poor pre season testing, they shocked rivals with there speed in the opening race, raising fears that the team had fallen back even further, even with Alosno's apparent 6 tenths that he brings to a car.

The race looked alot hope full for the team, after a first corner pile up, Alonso finished 4th while Piquet retired. But Alonso result was mainly down the mistakes and reliability problems of other drivers

Malaysia didn't have much improvement, even after Alonso gets through to quali 3, with Piquet looking faster then the previous race.  The race wasn't better, Alonso had a race long scrap for 8th place, and eventually finished there.

Could things get any worse?

Well they did, in Bahrain both drivers struggled with the cars poor pace, Alonso again made it into the top ten of qualifying, but only just in 10th place with Piquet 14th.  The race was worse with Piquet retiring near the end and Alonso's race was ruined by a clash with rival Lewis Hamilton, and ending the race not in the points.

Alonso was apparently unhappy, he knew things would be hard, but not this hard, with the car looking terrible. His future was in doubt as Renault, as he a clause which lets him leave the team if the team does not finish 4th or higher in the constructors championship, Alonso was looking into the possibility of moving to Ferrari for 2009.

The teams geared up for the start of the European races, and back to Alonso home race in Barcelona. with the 3 week break, teams used that time to test new parts and developing their car, Renault saying they had made alot of progress, how much though.

Practise looked good, with Alonso looking to provide a treat for his loyal fans, its nearly happened, in qualifying, for the first time this year both drivers made it into the top ten and Alonso wanted more, he took provisional pole, which stunned rival teams, but he was beaten in the final moments by Kimi Raikkonen, even so, this was better then expected.  The team admitted that Alonso was a on low fuel stragery, but even so, the car looked alot faster. The race started ok, he was down to third as Felipe massa overtook him, while his team mate piquet went into the gravel trap, ending hopes of a double points finish, even after Alonso's first pit stop, he was keeping up with the Mclaren's and Bmw's but his luck changed, and engine problem ended hopes of big points, his fans hearts broken, after what looked like the Renault team where back.

The signs are good, recently in an interview with Executive Director Pat Symonds, saying the team had gained 3 tenths on the top 3 teams, and now they could run with the Bmw's and Mclaren's.

The next race in Turkey will reveal all, can the team challenge the top 3 and stay there? 

If this is true will we eventually have a 4 way battle?, even though Ferrari look unbeatable,  time will tell.

Kimi Raikkonen started the day on the pole and held that lead for the entire race, collecting his second victory of the season in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix from the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

It was also the third straight victory for Ferrari—and as easy a race as a driver could expect driving a Formula 1 car at nearly 200 mph.

As I predicted, the race began with Felipe Massa passing second-place starter Fernando Alonso before the first corner.

The Brazilian played second gun to his teammate for the rest of the race. Hometown favorite Alonso managed to hold off Lewis Hamilton for third until lap 34, when his race ended with a blown Renault engine.

The Spanish Grand Prix is one of those funny races that typically see a higher than normal number of retirements. Today was no exception, as eight vehicles failed to finish.

The most notable was McLaren's No. 2 driver, Heikki Kovalainen. Something snapped on the front left of his car in one of the fastest areas of the track, sending him into the tire barrier at 180 mph on Lap 22.

The Kovalainen crash brought out the safety car for several laps. It also created a rules-based problem for the second time this season.

Once the safety car has been deployed, the pit lane is closed for a couple of laps. That sounds fair.

However, if you happen to be close to your refueling window, as Nick Heidfeld was today and Rubens Barrichello was last race, you might not be able to stay out the two or three laps it takes to reopen pit lane.

Both drivers had to enter a closed pit for fuel and were penalized with 10-second stop-and-go penalties.

For Barrichello, it wasn't a big deal, as his Honda was not in contention for points. Today, though, the penalty cost Heidfeld and BMW. Without the penalty, Heidfeld would probably have finished fifth.

The teams now have two weeks to figure out how to catch Ferrari. It will be a tough chore—Ferrari's Massa has won the Turkish Grand Prix the last two years, with his teammates finishing on the podium both times.

Race Points

Raikkonen - 10, Massa - 8, Hamilton - 6, Kubica - 5, Webber - 4, Button - 3, Nakajima - 2, Trulli - 1.

Drivers Championship Points

Raikkonen - 29, Hamilton - 20, Kubica - 19, Massa - 18, Heidfeld - 16,  Kovalainen - 14,  Trulli - 9, Webber - 8, Rosberg - 7, Alonso - 6,  Nakajima - 5, Button - 3, Bourdais - 2. 

Constructor Championship Points

Ferrari - 47, BMW Sauber - 35, McLaren Mercedes - 34, Williams Toyota - 12, Toyota - 9, Red Bull Renault - 8, Renault - 6, Honda - 3, Toro Rosso - 2.

Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest driver through two of the three practice sessions leading up to today's qualifying session. He used that experience to take the pole position for Sunday's Formula 1 Gran Premio de Espana Telefonica 2008 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

The day did not start good for Raikkonen as the best he could manage in the morning practice was 13th. This after topping the timing charts during both practices on Friday. Things didn't seem to be quite right again for the qualifying round although he was the fastest car by far in Q1 and 3rd fastest in Q2. The car seemed to have some serious under steer and it was only the quality of the driver that put the car that high on the chart.

With time expired on the clock, hometown favorite Fernando Alonso appeared to have created a miracle as he went P1. Alonso had not had his troublesome Renault near the top in qualifying yet this year so his topping the timing charts was a fantastic feat. His spell at the top was short-lived however as Raikkonen pipped his time by 0.091 to grab the coveted pole. In 18 races at this track, the pole sitter has won 14 times.

Raikkonen's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa had a struggle at times this weekend. After going P2 in the first practice session, he took a backwards slide down the charts in the next two sessions going P5 and P9. During Q1 he continued the slide as his time was only 12th quickest. The team made some adjustments before Q2 and that seemed to be the right thing as he led the charts during the second qualifying session and then was only beaten by his teammate and Alonso in the final session. This leaves Massa starting right behind Raikkonen and if recent races mean anything it could again be Ferraris one and two into the first corner.

The sophomore problems continued for both McLaren teammates Hamilton and Kovalainen. After a good start to the season, the two McLaren drivers again had problems this weekend. After a decent first practice session where Hamilton was third and Kovalainen was fifth, neither car was able to crack the top ten in the second and third practice session. Although both cars showed better in qualifying, the best they could do was a fifth place start for Hamilton and sixth for Kovalainen.

BMW Sauber, who leads the constructor's championship, had their drivers both qualify in the top ten with Kubica going P4 and Heidfeld P9. Jarno Trulli again made the top ten for the fourth straight race although his eighth place is his worst qualifying position of the season. Mark Webber, with his second time in the top 10, this time seventh and Nelsinho Piquet with his first top ten (10th) qualifying position round out the top 10.

It will be interesting to see the starts tomorrow as several drivers have had problems as they adjust to life without launch control. Lewis Hamilton was the most notable driver with a problem in the respect last race. It will also be interesting to see if the Renault of Alonso was shorted on fuel in hopes of getting him the pole in his home race. The Renaults have not been that quick all season so either he is short filled or the team made some great improvements to the car in the last three weeks.

Going into the Spanish GP weekend, there are several questions since the conclusion of the Bahrain GP.

First, will Felipe Massa continue with his fantastic qualifying so far this year and take the Spanish GP pole position for the second year in a row? His margin over teammate Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying in the Malaysian and Bahrain GP was significant, leading many to believe that Raikkonen is not perfectly satisfied with the car.

Kimi himself said that the setup he had for Bahrain was not ideal and he could not go as fast as he wanted. Rumors in the F1 circle say that Kimi much preferred the pre-Aus GP aero package to the current one, in which he held a noticeable pace advantage over his teammate throughout most of winter testing.

Kimi aims to forget his Spanish GP from last year and extend his championship lead, hopefully with a win.

McLaren are very much hoping they clawed back much needed pace following a rather mediocre performance in Bahrain. Sure, Heikki Kovalainen set the fast lap of the race, but he did it on fresh tires and a fairly light fuel load in the last stint. At most they might have come nearly even with Ferrari in pace following the recent Barcelona test, but it is impossible that they would have overhauled them.

Lewis Hamilton is looking to forget his disastrous Bahrain GP as quickly as possible with a solid finish in Barcelona. Given the speed Ferrari has in pocket, and the fact that BMW surely hasn't slowed their development, it may be very difficult for either McLaren driver to reach the podium.

While it might not happen for this race or the next, McLaren surely will bounce back and give their drivers the opportunity to win again. It is doubtful that Lewis Hamilton will end the season with only one win.

BMW are in far better shape than they expected to be three races into the season. Their goal is to keep the development rate in check with their closest rivals. Failure to stay with Ferrari and McLaren in this respect would dent BMW's great chance to fight for the Constructors Championship.

That said, it's unlikely they will slip behind, given their ability to leap another notch on the ladder between 2007 and 2008. Robert Kubica is itching to translate his wonderful qualifying efforts this season into a win. It's likely he'll do just that somewhere along the line.

As for the rest, it seems that the fight is still close between Williams, Red Bull, and Renault, though Renault seemed to lose ground in Bahrain. The latest developments at the Barcelona test saw a more encouraged Alonso and Renault, so hopefully they'll be back with the other two.

What of the battle of the Sebs? Sebastien Bourdais comprehensively outperformed Sebastien Vettel in Bahrain in every aspect. Will the Frenchman be able to continue matching/beating his teammate for pace?

If he is able to beat Vettel this season, he will likely be promoted to the vacant (at the moment) Red Bull seat for 2009. Spain will see if Bourdais can continue his momentum as he builds experience.

One of the more surprising intra-team battles is between Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil. So far Sutil has looked rather slow and disappointing compared with his battle-hardened, but much older teammate. This just goes to show the fact that Fisi shines in not-so-great cars, as he did with Jordan previously in his career.

Who will win in Barcelona? We will see. Hopefully it won't be a snore-fest like it usually is.

Dr. Mario Thiessen and Team BMW Sauber are happy campers after their better-than-expected results in Bahrain that landed Poland's Robert Kubica his first-ever pole position on the starting grid and a solid third-place at the winner's podium. His win secured BMW as the leader in the in the points for the constructors' championship.

Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld, whose race-rhythm was quite decent, was right behind Kubica for a fourth-place finish pushing him up to second in driver's championship points

Ferrari drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa were the top-2 finishers of this race. Race winner Massa and his determined driving style gave way to no mistakes while Räikkönen's patience and stamina delivered him to the second-step of the winner's podium.

The mandated absence of automatic launch and traction control is looking like the Great Equalizer this season, as these processes must be executed manually, a task failed by Lewis Hamilton, one of the most impressive performers of last season.

Hamilton, who was in a good starting position at fourth on the grid, acknowledged that he "let the team down" at the start of the race by not manually engaging into launch mode in time.

He was passed at the start by those behind him, and then soon after ran up the backside of Fernando Alonso's Renault. This resulted in the loss of the McLaren's front wing and I'm guessing a few choice Spanish cuss-words from the front-end of Alonso.

Renault's second driver, Heikki Kovalainen, finished 5th and gave us the fastest lap of the race at 1:30.193.

Judging by the closeness in championship points so far, I'm guessing that this season may be similar to last -- another nail-biter where the champion remained undecided until the very last race.

The next race can be seen live 4:30am PST on Speed TV  April 27th. It is the fourth race of the season and takes place in Spain. Word on the street is that Max Mosely is planning to attend providing his bondage gear is back from the cleaners.

Sunday 6th of April

Location: Bahrain

Track Name:Al Sakir,GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX

Coming Into This Weekend Massa Had Failed To Secure any point from the 2previous race because of mechanicals problems. This wasn't the case, as they say 3rd time the charm, and indeed it was for him, he dominated the weekend setting the quickest times in practice and qualification( Q2), he started the race in 2nd position having qualified behind by 0.027seconds, Hamilton Qualified 3rd and Kimi Raikonnen 4th.

The Lights went off and the cars were away, except hamilton, he had a very bad start, he lost several places and found hisself in 10th position. Massa on the other hand had a great start, overtaking kubica to take the lead. Kimi became 3rd putting pressure on Kubica.

Hamilton's Bad Luck this weekend end didnt stop. fridays crash was almost repeated in the race when he hit the back of alonso's car. oh the irony. he lost his front wing and had a hard time keeping the car on the track, His Race was over from the beginning.

Massa kept his 1st place, nobody challenged him during the whole race, he finished the race with the fastest lap to his name to finish a wonderful weekend for him. Kimi managed to overtake kubica to hold the 2nd place, with kubica closing the podium. hamliton didnt get a point his team mate kovaleinen managed only to get the 5th position.

The results of this race put the season back on fire. Here is how things stands right now :

DRIVER STANDINGS

CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS

So BMW's season looks promising, as everybody expected they are challenging the Big Two, Ferrari and McLaren.

With the season entering the 4th race 16days from now in spain, we are set to enjoy one of the most exciting season.

Felipe Massa blew past Robert Kubica at the start of Sunday's 2008 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX. The Brazilian took off in his scarlet Ferrari before the first corner and never looked back. The race was his to win and he did just that with a brilliant drive. Unlike the first two races of the season, he made no mistakes as he pulled away from the field.

After being caught by Kubica on the last lap of qualifying on Saturday, Massa was all business Sunday. Even team mate and defending World Driving champion, Kimi Raikkonen couldn't muster a challenge. Raikkonen also had a good start as he passed Lewis Hamilton before the first corner and passed the BMW Sauber of Kubica on lap two.  That was it for the rest of the field as the 20 other drivers fought for position behind the Ferraris and they the Italian team finished one-two for the first time this season.

Points leader coming into the race, Lewis Hamilton, had a day he would like to forget. Without the launch control that the cars have used in past seasons in order to get off the line cleanly, the McLaren Mercedes driver dropped the ball today. Starting third, he was down to 10th by the time they reached the first corner. To make matters worse for himself, Hamilton drove into the back of ex-team mate Fernando Alonso's Renault forcing him to pit to replace his nose cone. He rejoined the race in 21st place and 13th was the best he could do the rest of the way. 

With BMW Sauber grabbing the pole on Saturday, hopes were high for a good finish. Kubica and team mate Nick Heidfeld didn't disappoint as they brought their cars home third and fourth. That great finish along with the poor performance by McLaren allowed the German team to take over first place in the Constructor's Championship.

The disappointment of the day was the Renault team. Fernando Alonso could only muster a tenth and  drove most of the race with a bite out of his rear wing courtesy of the smack from Hamilton. Team mate Nelsinho Piquet only managed 40 laps before he parked his car in the garage. Toyota's Jarno Trulli and William's Nico Rosberg both finished in the points pretty much in the same position that they started.

Race Points:Massa - 10, Raikkonen - 8, Kubica - 6, Heidfeld - 5, Kovalainen - 4, Trulli - 3, Webber - 2, Rosberg - 1

Drivers Championship Points:Raikkonen - 19; Heidfeld - 16, Hamilton - 14, Kubica - 14, Kovalainen - 14, Massa - 10, Trulli - 8, Rosberg - 7, Alonso - 6, Webber - 4, Nakajima - 3, Bourdais - 2 

Constructor Championship Points:BMW Sauber - 30, Ferrari - 29, McLaren Mercedes - 28, Williams Toyota - 10, Toyota - 8, Renault - 6, Red Bull Renault - 4, Toro Rosso - 2

The next race takes place in three weeks at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Now the teams are back in Europe, the real season begins.

There have been rumours rampant that Fernando Alonso, the 2005 and 2006 Formula One World Champion, and slayer of Michael Schumacher, has only taken temporary refuge at Renault and will wait until a seat becomes available at Ferrari.

Today, that speculation went one step further when Alonso said "I have an option to leave so I can be in the best possible car, and it is clear Ferrari is one of the best."

So, will the Prancing Horse sign the Calm Spaniard?

 If Flying Finn Kimi Räikkönen is still there, then Ferrari probably shouldn't.

Why? It is what should be known as the "dream team effect." The members of the team are the best of the best in their sport, and each one of them will want to be that star that wins it for the team and this leads to internal conflicts and a loss of focus from the main task: to win as a team. We saw what happened with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton last year when given equal status: infighting which led to both men losing out on the world championship. It caused a lot of controversy in the sport, so much so that neither driver is talking to each other even though this is last year's story.

As well, having two world champions occupying 100% of the seats in your team can lead to one demanding all the priority because they are world champion, they have more championships or they have more experience with the team, etc. To put it in simple terms: do you ever dream of driving an F1 car to become world champion? You're taking out all the big drivers in the sport like Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, etc. and your team gives you all the attention because YOU are the one who'll lead this team to glory. That is the same mentality that a Formula One driver will have, and with that championship in hand, it just adds more justification. Having two world champion drivers on the same team creates that conflict because both believe they have the justification to be the leader and their teammate should be the de facto number two.

 Should Alonso join up with another world champion at the stable of the Prancing Horse? Simply no. It's a bad move for Ferrari. They should either forget about signing Alonso or dump Kimi Räikkönen. Alonso should stay put at Renault and bring them back to their winning days, that is probably his best option at the moment.

This is the second in a series of three articles previewing the 2008 Formula One season. Last time I discussed my thoughts on the teams. This time it is the drivers I take a look at.

Top Eight:

• Kimi Raikonnen is the defending driver's champion. Driving a scarlet Ferrari will again help lift him to the driver's championship. Like last year, it will come down to the end of the season however this year it will only be a two driver race with Lewis Hamilton.
• Lewis Hamilton finished second last year in his rookie season for McLaren. This year he won't have the controversy of dealing with a temperamental team mate as he did last year with Fernando Alonso having moved to Renault. Unfortunately for Hamilton, he will still not be able to beat Raikkonen for the championship but will finish a close second.
• Felipe Massa will continue to pick up points as he did last year when he finished fourth in the championship. This year without Alonso at McLaren, the second Ferrari driver will find himself in third at the end of the season.
• Heikki Kovalainen is Hamilton's new team mate. Like Hamilton he is driving in his second season. Last year he had a successful rookie season as the second driver for Renault. This year with the reliability and power of the McLaren, Kovalainen will finish a strong fourth.
• Nick Heidfeld had his best season in Formula 1 last year with the much improved BMW team. Heidfeld will have another good year but will not be able to improve on his fifth place.
• Robert Kobica had a good rookie season last year finishing sixth for BMW. This year looks to be a season where he will be closer to team mate Heidfeld in the final standings however he will still finish sixth.
• Nico Rosberg had an up and down rookie season last year finishing ninth for Williams-Toyota. This season will be a good one for Rosberg with his Williams-Toyota being a more reliable drive. Look for Rosberg to finish seventh.
• Fernando Alonso finished tied with Hamilton last year but will find his season with Renault far from the success he had last time he was with them. Renault is not as strong as the front runners however the team will be good enough that Alonso will be able to pick up some good points and finish eighth.

The best of the rest:

• David Coulthard and Mark Webber will both enjoy some success with the improved Red Bull-Renault. I look for these two drivers to finish ninth and tenth.
• Jarno Trulli will be the best of the two Toyota drivers but the Toyota team will still let him down and eleventh is the best he can hope for.
• Jensen Button and Rubens Barrichello will both struggle in their Hondas. The Honda looks to be improved over last year but that would not be a hard thing to do. It was so bad last year that it wouldn't take much to be an improvement. This improvement won't translate into many points for either of the drivers.
• Sebastien Bourdais will probably be wondering why he left Champ Car. The four time defending champion in Champ Car will struggle in the Toro Rosso even with the Ferrari engine. He is a good driver and will get the best out of the car but it won't be enough to translate into many points.
• Giancarlo Fisichella is an experienced driver who will help the new Force India team but the team is under funded and will not be in contention for many points but they should do better than last place where they finished last year.

I look forward to a good racing season this year. The reduction in driver's aids should bring the best drivers to the top. If the rest of the season is to be anything like the first race, we are in for a dandy.