Records were broken in the 2008 F1 season.  Now, for the first time in Grand Prix history, another record is broken.  Moving into 2009, all top teams will see their driver line-ups remain exactly the same as they did in 2008.

Ferrari, McLaren, BMW-Sauber and Toyota have all confirmed that they will be keeping their stable of drivers exactly as they are, whilst Renault did the same and are keeping Alonso and Piquet. 

Naturally, given some of the comments of the sometimes-irritating (yet frequently successful) Alonso, there was some speculation that he’d in fact be moving off to the territory of a certain manufacturer that has a penchant for painting their cars Rosso Red.  However, Ferrari saw fit to keep the one and only Raikkonen firmly in the driving seat.

This does beg the question of what sort of action we can expect to see next year.  Well, my theory is that with F1 being such an ‘open’ sport, there won’t be much difference.  The top teams will remain… well… the top teams.  Those in the bottom will also stay.  Will Lewis Hamilton prove how classy he is and take the first win of 2009?  That remains anyone’s guess.  One thing I’m sure of though is that if Renault has the car right, then Alonso will be on Hamilton’s back even more than he was this season.

He’s actually the youngest ever world champion and more to the point, is Britain’s world champion – since Damon Hill back in 1996. In what was one of the most fraught and nervous races of the whole season, Hamilton began back in fourth – which would have been enough for him to take the title. Unfortunately, a number of setbacks moved him around the grid.

The ending was complete drama, with Ferrari clearly not watching after seeing Massa take first, as Glock manages to slow enough for Hamilton to roar past to take fifth. This was enough in the points stakes to ensure that Hamilton got the points needed to be World Champion.

This means that of course the new World Champion doesn’t get a podium place, but would he want to be on there with Massa, Alonso and Raikkonen? I’d wager he’s more than happy getting his kisses from his girlfriend Nicole and the congratulations from his friends and family.

I’d like to take this opportunity to give a massive well done to Lewis and to say that I hope for the same next season! The man has done good and proved that he’s more than a match for the rest of the field – whether decisions go his way or not.

A brief note on all the criticism and all the dodgy decisions in this year’s Grand Prix season – it doesn’t matter what you do or say. Lewis Hamilton has the ability, the talent and the sheer will to succeed in the sport so good on him.

Things are more hot and sweaty in this year’s Grand Prix competition than they have been in a while – not least due to the controversy that Hamilton is causing.  Let’s put it in a little perspective though, he’s the new guy on the block and suddenly very few of the other riders are getting much attention.

In fact, there’s been talk that a lot of people are rather annoyed at the young driver.  They say he’s getting caught up in a ton more incidents than anyone else.  However, is anyone really counting how many incidents those at the bottom of the runnings are getting caught up in?  Does anyone actually care?  No.  The only reason that it’s of interest is due to Lewis Hamilton being top of the grid.

Alonso has been noted as showing a complete lack of class, after saying he would do whatever he could to help Massa to beat Lewis Hamilton.  He has since said:

“And first of all we need to have a competitive car here in Shanghai and in Brazil to be fighting with McLaren and Ferrari, and if we do that and Felipe Massa wins the race and I am second or third, I will be happy for Felipe to take as many points as possible and this is the only approach.”

Does this make up for it?  No, not really.  Massa was and is of a different standing, stating that “There is pressure all the time” – which is unsurprising given the fact that we’re talking about one of the most high profile, high speed careers that you can have, in the whole world.  You’ve got to admire the fact that Massa is just getting on with it, regardless of his last performance (and incident with Hamilton).

Perhaps what’s really interesting about the Grand Prix season this year is the fact that drivers are showing that they have a little personality.  It is starting to come out – when drivers are normally notoriously robot-like.  Nonetheless, the treatment of Lewis Hamilton in the papers really, really annoys me.  The fact remains that he’s number one (currently at least) in the world – and he’s got a good chance of taking the season.  So, I’d prefer not to see “Hamilton needs to grow up” and all the rest of the crap that they write about Britain’s best racer…

Lewis Hamilton had what looked to be the race in Japan sown up with a fantastic pole position from the qualifiers, but sadly this wasn’t to be. He finished outside the points in 12th place as he didn’t recover from a collision with Felipe Massa in the early stages of the race.

Unsurprisingly for the two in front, this meant that another driver took advantage of the difficult conditions and made what looked to be reasonably easy work of it. That driver was Fernando Alonso, who roared to success – as he did in Singapore.

Massa (Hamilton’s arch rival in this year’s F1 season) managed to take 8th place but was later promoted to seventh after Sebastien Bourdais received a penalty for another collision. Once again, Japan proved to be an extremely exciting race, if rather a let-down for the young British driver.

Perhaps, and I’ll just say perhaps at the moment, there is evidence of yet more controversy here. Ferrari’s Massa managed to collide with both Hamilton and Bourdais. In the first instance, both drivers received a penalty (Hamilton’s penalty was for crashing into Raikkonen). In the second, Bourdais was the driver who was punished.

What do you say here? I know some say that it’s business as usual – skipping Ferrari when they are clearly due more punishment for driver actions. Others still would say that were it a certain Lewis Hamilton then another penalty would have been imposed…

Ultimately though, what it means for the drivers is that Massa gained only one point – so he’s still 5 points behind Lewis. This situation pushes Ferrari to the top of the Constructor standings, with two Grand Prix races to go – Shanghai and Sao Paulo.

I’m sure you’ll have heard by now that Lewis Hamilton’s appeal has failed against his 25 second penalty from the Belgian Grand Prix (surprise surprise). In a not-at-all-shocking twist given that I predicted it, Hamilton has been left in third place, meaning that he’s only a single point up from Massa. This means that there’s a more exciting race to be had for sure, but it also makes me question if it were Ferrari who’d taken the same actions what would have happened?

Apparently, Sir Jackie Stewart has spoken out to say that the decision was wrong and that he feels Hamilton won’t be affected by it. Others have spoken out to say that every driver on the field that day said he did wrong and deserved it. Well, they would wouldn’t they? After all, he is what they are all aspiring to be. A huge success in the sport.

Others who comment on racing do say that Hamilton plays it close to the wire – which he deliberately goes to the absolute maximum of what the rules will allow for. Frankly, I’d be very surprised if he did that as it’s an extremely risky strategy. What he does seem to do is drive to the absolute limit. He’ll take risks where others won’t – just look at how he outbraked Raikkonnen at Belgium. He fights for his places, but he uses skill too.

It is the above elements that should mean he can be so damn successful in this all-new night race in Singapore. Wet weather now looks to play a part in the first ever night race which means good news for Lewis. He likes it the way the other drivers struggle and play the game by taking fewer risks in poor weather.

Heavy rain has hit Singapore this week and prompted concerns over visibility and performance on the currently unused street circuit. It should be one of the best races in the season on the anti-clockwise 3.15 mile lap. There are actually three overtaking opportunities meaning that those with strong enough lines should well get chances, whatever the weather. Whilst the race is to be held at night, there aren’t many worries over the dark – after all the circuit is going to be lit four times brighter than the average football match.

I don’t know if you saw the Belgian Grand Prix, but it was full of excitement.  That’s not actually true.  It was exciting in the way that F1 normally is.  Which is to say, lots happens at the start, there’s a boring middle where there’s a few changeovers thanks to pitting and then there’s a wonderful ending.  In this case, an ending that began, for Raikkonen at least, somewhere around the fifth lap.

Let’s fast forward again.  There was Lewis Hamilton, taking the top podium position and spraying people with champagne.  He thought he’d won.  Well, he had won, according to the stewards and just about everyone else that mattered (barring, one would assume, Ferrari).

In the second to last lap, after gaining ferociously on the prime tyres, Hamilton roared up behind Raikkonen, just waiting for him to make a mistake.  The time came, he overtook him, the opposite then happened and it was a genuine battle of wills between two great machines and two great drivers.  Unfortunately though, Raikkonen locked up, smashing his car into a barrier that resulted in him being taken out of the race.

However, it wasn’t that incident that the stewards were interested in (at least not for the purposes of the title anyway).  It was the moment when Hamilton and Raikkonen were head to head, or rather wheel to wheel.  It literally couldn’t have been closer.  Unfortunately, Hamilton got pushed wide and had to use the ‘escape route’ commonly found on many corners.  This meant that he had to give Raikkonen first place.  Hand it back to him if you will, as otherwise it would be declared an unfair advantage.

Lewis Hamilton, showing more wisdom than he would have done last season, did so.  He did it with honour and then came back with a roaring challenge.  Therefore, I’m at a loss, as a motorsport fan, to explain why he was then penalised with a 25 second penalty and knocked down to third place.  If he hadn’t given back first place, I would get it.  But he did.  So where does the unfair advantage come from?

If we are racing and I push you wide, you’re entitled to use the escape route – it’s in the rulebook.  You aren’t allowed to benefit any positions from it mind you, so perhaps the stewards are mad that Hamilton pushed into first – but he did drop back into second.  There are of course other rumours… something along the lines of ‘well, keeping the scorelines closer makes the sport more exciting’.  If that’s truly the case, I think they need to look at how they can encourage more overtaking and keeping the cars more even in terms of performance rather than making what appears to be poor decisions such as this one in the name of the sport.

This top one hundred may raise a few eyebrows; one because Sir Stirling Moss has been named number one and the great Michael Schumacher has been placed outside of the top ten. This is because in he deals with the Ferrari F1 Team, many people claim that he demanded seniority over other drivers.

Clearly Michael Schumacher is the number one F1 driver as he won 91 Grand Prix, while the top four of Moss, Clark, Senna and Prost only won 133 Grand Prix between them!

Anyway this is the list according to Autocar:

1. Stirling Moss

2. Jim Clark

3. Ayrton Senna

4. Alain Prost

5. Alberto Ascari

6. Juan-Manuel Fangio

7. Bernd Rosemeyer

8. Jackie Stewart

9. Tazio Nuvolari

10. Mika Häkkinen

11. Michael Schumacher

12. Gilles Villeneuve

13. Chris Amon

14. Tony Brooks

15. Carlos Reutemann

16. Achille Varzi

17. Emerson Fittipaldi

18. Jack Brabham

19. Mario Andretti

20. Niki Lauda

21. Jochen Rindt

22. Nelson Piquet

23. Guy Moll

24. John Surtees

25. Ronnie Peterson

26. Hermann Lang

27. Dan Gurney

28. Keke Rosberg

29. Kimi Räikkönen

30. Lewis Hamilton

31. Nigel Mansell

32. Fernando Alonso

33. Rudolf Caracciola

34. Didier Pironi

35. Jacky Ickx

36. Alan Jones

37. James Hunt

38. Phil Hill

39. Damon Hill

40. Mike Hawthorn

41. Giuseppe Farina

42. Jody Scheckter

43. Jean-Pierre Wimille

44. Graham Hill

45. François Cevert

46. Gerhard Berger

47 Pedro Rodriguez

48. Jean Behra

49. Jacques Villeneuve

50. Ricardo Rodriguez

51. Clay Regazzoni

52. Denny Hulme

53. Jean Alesi

54. Juan Pablo Montoya

55. Carlos Pace

56. Louis Chiron

57. Peter Revson

58. Jo Siffert

59. David Coulthard

60. Felipe Massa

61. Froilán Gonzalez

62. Stefan Bellof

63. Elio de Angelis

64. Lorenzo Bandini

65. Riccardo Patrese

66. Patrick Tambay

67. Jenson Button

68. Rubens Barrichello

69. Martin Brundle

70. Derek Warwick

71. Dick Seaman

72. Patrick Depailler

73. Peter Collins

74. Bruce McLaren

75. Michele Alboreto

76. Eddie Irvine

77. Richie Ginther

78. Jean-Pierre Beltoise

79. Johnny Servoz-Gavin

80. Thierry Boutsen

81. Rene Arnoux

82. Tony Brise

83. Tom Pryce

84. Innes Ireland

85. Jarno Trulli

86. John Watson

87. Luigi Musso

88. Raymond Sommer

89. Mike Hailwood

90. Roy Salvadori

91. Ralf Schumacher

92. Wolfgang von Trips

93. Stuart Lewis-Evans

94. Jacques Laffite

95. Eugenio Castellotti

96. Trevor Taylor

97. Piers Courage

98. Stefan Johansson

99. Jochen Mass

100. Brian Redman

Source [Bruce McLaren]

Preview: Malaysian Grand Prix

Where: Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Dates: 21, 22, 23 March 2008
Track: Sepang International Circuit
Laps: 56 required
Length: 5.543 km
Record: 1:34.223 Juan Pablo Montoya (2004)

The Malaysian Grand Prix should be extremely interesting due to the heat and humidity making it over 60 degrees in the cockpit – something very few of us could bear. It’s my prediction that it means we’ll see more incidents toward the end of the days’ racing. Sepang features fifteen turns altogether, several of which are pulling in excess of 3G’s of force – again, this is something that should keep the racing really interesting to watch.

A number of the turns allow for high gearing (a couple of which will allow the driver to stay in seventh gear), so expect some roaring performances into/out of these particular turns. Both Friday practices have now been completed (2-3.30am and 6-7.30am respectively) and the Saturday practice begins at 3am for one hour. Qualifying is at 6am and the race begins at 7am on Sunday.

So what’s happened so far? Well, the first practice saw a range of incidents. Not least was the apparently compromised Red Bull RB4 car that David Coulthard was driving. It looked to be a promising lap, but part way round, after running on a curb; Coulthard suffered what appears to be a track rod failure. This led to a request by the race stewards for the detailed technical report of the incident.

Of course, we want the sport to be as safe and fair as possible – but no one would predict mechanical problems of this nature, or they wouldn’t be happening in the first place. Either way, it would be a genuine upset if stewards decide that the car does not meet requirements, as they have the capacity to enforce a ‘no race’ exclusion on the Red Bull vehicle. The incident has left Coulthard missing second practice and placing him 16th on the grid.

Practice one held some interesting (and expected in the same instance) results. Ferrari set the pace for the whole morning, with both Massa and Raikkonen driving their cars particularly hard. Moving on to who I would like to personally see take the victory (I’m not biased at all!), the McLaren team started off well, not too far off the Ferrari team. Hamilton managed to steal pole in the second practice session with a blistering lap time of 1 minute 35.055 seconds – extremely quick and not a mile off the current record, even considering the to-the-wire F1 times.

Unfortunately for the other team I’m interested in – Super Aguri – things didn’t go half so well. Takuma Sato had overheating problems with his car, whilst Anthony Davidson just can’t seem to ring out exactly what he wants from his race machine. He couldn’t better his second practice time of 1 minute 39.021 seconds.

You can see the times here for the second practice session, which currently places Lewis Hamilton in pole position. Remember though, there’s another practice session and qualifying to go, though everything is looking good so far for the young English driver.

Based on the practice times table, it’s very clear that Ferrari is burning off to an excellent season start – something that is down to both driving skill and engineering. I’d never rule out Button in the Honda however – the amount of laps he is intent on driving shows is concentration and commitment. Overall, I think Malaysia could well be one of the highlights of this year’s F1 season. Mark my words; this is going to be a big one!

Lewis Hamilton, the Great British hopeful who missed out on becoming one of F1′s youngest ever champions by an incredible one point last year has managed to clinch pole position for this year’s Grand Prix in Australia. This is the seventh pole of his F1 career and should provide an excellent start for the young driver.

Hamilton’s McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen (a Finn who previously drove for Renault F1 in 2007) will feature in row two of the grid alongside Felipe Massa – the now Ferrari driver. This should be quite useful for tactical plays between the team-mates, always useful for the early races.

Kimi Raikkonen (not my favourite driver, but someone I have a lot of respect for the skill of unlike Fernando Alonso, who is now the driver for Renault and places at 12th place) has placed all the way down the field to 16th after he came to halt in the pit lane during the qualifier.

Due to the new F1 rule set (something I’ll cover in another post), Raikkonen was not allowed to participate in the second session even if his car was ready to go, due to the help he received from mechanics in the pit lane.

So, how does the grid line up for the first race of the season overall? Well here are the times from every qualifying racer:

Times
01. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.714
02. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:26.869
03. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.079
04. Massa Ferrari 1:27.178
05. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:27.236
06. Trulli Toyota 1:28.527
07. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:28.687
08. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:29.041
09. Glock Toyota 1:29.593
10. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari No time
11. Barrichello Honda 1:26.173
12. Alonso Renault 1:26.188
13. Button Honda 1:26.259
14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:26.413
15. Webber Red Bull-Renault No times
16. Raikkonen Ferrari No time
17. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:27.207
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:27.446
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:27.859
20. Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:28.208
21. Piquet Renault 1:28.330
22. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:29.059

Of course, I’d love to see Lewis Hamilton take the win. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy and if his performance on Top Gear is anything to go by, he’s even faster than the mighty Stig. As Anthony Davidson has been on television I’d love to see him win a point in the Super Aguri-Honda car – he’s been claimed to be one of the better drivers on the grid and only a weaker car has slowed him down. I can’t wait to see the season start – it’s sure to be a very strong one this year.