29
June
McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh told reporters today that he knows his team has underperformed thus far in the 2008 season. He hopes to get back on track during the second half of the season by getting back into the midst of championship contention. With Lewis Hamilton’s recent upswing attitude, that might just be possible.
The team is counting a lot on a good performance in Silverstone next week. Not only is the race in England, but both McLaren drivers left the testing site with confidence this week. The team has made several changes to their car including a few to aerodynamics, which should boost their performance as well.
Currently things aren’t too great for McLaren in the standings after a rough couple of weeks. The team is in third place in team standings with 58 points, trailing BMW Sauber by 16 and arch-rival Ferrari by 33. In the individual standings, Lewis Hamilton dropped to fourth place last week after a bad finish due to his penalty. He currently has 38 points, which is 10 behind current leader Felipe Massa. Heikki Kovalainen currently has 20 points and is in 6th place.
If McLaren can successfully put behind their recent problems, then they are far from out of it. As Whitmarsh said, “We’ve got a good car and we all know we can do it. Everybody still believes in themselves, we just need to make sure we do a better job, myself included.”
27
June
Lewis Hamilton topped the charts at the final day of testing in Silverstone, where the next race of the F1 season will be held next weekend. The young McLaren driver told reporters that he is going to “put down the hammer” to win races for the rest of the season and hopefully take a championship away from Ferrari. Hamilton said that Ferrari is strong on every track, but added that so is McLaren. He believes that his team can set itself apart from the crowd in the last 10 races of the 2008 season.
The driver explained how all they had to do was just drive the way they normally did. “You’ve got to learn to take a step back and realise okay, you don’t have to do anything, just drive the way you normally drive and you will be fine, you will get by”, said Hamilton. The young racer really seems to have some momentum going into next weekend’s race and that should certainly help him. That combined with the dream of a championship, especially one that he can snag away from fierce rivals Ferrari, is just something he doesn’t want to pass up. Of course there is also the want for revenge on last year’s close loss to Kimi Raikkonen.
25
June
The FIA has announced that Formula 2 will make a return to the sport as a feeder for F1. The group voted to revive the feeder in hopes that it can be a cost-effective way to develop young talent for the big league. They hope that the cost will be around 200,000 euros per car (per season.) Currently the major feeder for the sport is the GP2 series, which was created in 2004.
Prior to GP2 there was Formula 3000 and before that the original F2, which was abolished in 1984. Re-adding Formula 2 will give more drivers a chance to prove themselves worthy of F1 and it should also help increase popularity for the sport due to more races and events.
The introduction of the new F2 wasn’t the only matter on the table for the FIA though. They also discussed the entrance fee requirements for the 2009 season, in which they came up with the conclusion to go ahead with the price increases to a little over double of what drivers are currently paying. The reasoning of the FIA is that the money is not much to the drivers, so it won’t affect them a lot, but for the governing body the extra money is almost needed to cover growing costs.
23
June
Ferrari ended the French Grand Prix in the same way they started, except Kimi Raikkonen was switched with Felipe Massa. Massa took the win and Raikkonen got second to give their team some breathing room atop the team standings once more. The win also puts Massa in first in player standings, two above second place Robert Kubica.
Ferrari continued their domination, but perhaps the bigger story of the day was Jarno Trulli. The Toyota driver finished third, making it the first podium for both him and his team this year. The finish was very big for Trulli, who had a very disappointing run at the same track just four years back. He said he liked getting vengeance. Toyota certainly doesn’t mind either, as they are excited about their improving team.
While Trulli celebrated, Lewis Hamilton did not. After the penalty received for last week’s race, the McLaren driver was only able to pull off an eleventh place finish. He now sits at fourth place in the individual standings and McLaren is 3rd in team standings, behind both BMW and Ferrari by a hefty sum (but there is still enough time to change that by the end of the year.)
21
June
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa easily topped today’s qualifying rounds for the France Grand Prix. Raikkonen got the pole for a second year in a row and now looks for a second straight victory. The team really needs a good showing tomorrow if they want to stay atop the team standings.
Thankfully for them, their biggest threats aren’t in the best starting positions. Lewis Hamilton, after the last race’s embarrassing accident, will start 13th due to the penalty he received. Robert Kubica of BMW will start 6th with Heikki Kovlainen (McLaren) in 5th.
Behind Ferrari in the second row are Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli, both whose teams (Renault and Toyota, respectively) aren’t current a problem for Ferrari. The team really couldn’t have expected for a better start to the next race. All that is left to do now is drive a good race. With a win both Ferrari drivers will be able to claim the top spot in the individual standings and the team will retain its spot at the top of the team standings, so this race could mean a lot for Ferrari. It will be interesting to see how the two compete with each other as well as the rest of the field.
