8
June
BMW Sauber drivers Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld are celebrating tonight after a 1-2 finish in a wild Canada Grand Prix. Kubica now finds himself atop the individual standings and his team BMW second in the team standings, trailing Ferrari by only three points. BMW has been with Ferrari and McLaren for all of this season, but they have often been undermined due to stars Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen getting the bulk of the attention. That will probably change now.
Ironically, BMW received some help from both Hamilton and Raikkonen today. A little before the 20th lap of the race, Hamilton ran into the back of Raikkonen’s car while waiting for the red light at the end of the pit lane. The crash would take both drivers out of the race and Kubica would move to the front of the pack immediately.
It was quite a finish for BMW, who have now snapped the McLaren-Ferrari win streak dating back to October 2006. BMW has also achieved its goal of winning its first F1 race during the 2008 season. This was the first career win for Robert Kubica, who is now the first Polish grand prix winner as well.
4
May
There is finally some good news for Super Augri, whose future has been in doubt since the deal with Magma group didn’t go through. Now the Weigl Group of Germany is on the verge of signing a deal with that team that would solve their financial troubles. The German automotive company would gain a pretty big shareholding of the Japanese team if the deal works out. Once a deal is worked out Super Augri will present it to the Honda Board.
Super Augri is very happy over the quick transition into a new deal, which should keep them racing for a while. The team had discussions with Weigl before, but those eventually died down with the news that an agreement had been reached with Magma Group. As we all know, that didn’t work out. The team successfully revived talks with Weigl Group and since they had already been begun before, the process went a lot smoother and quicker. As long as the Honda Board accepts the deal, it should go through. The team and Weigl Group both hope to get approval before next week’s Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul. If the deal is not approved the team risks missing the race.
27
April
Ferrari couldn’t have asked for a better finish today, as Kimi Raikkonen won the race and Felipe Massa got second. Raikkonen, who started at the pole position, is now the 8th consecutive pole winner to win the SGP. More importantly, he now leads the individual standings by 9, in front of Lewis Hamilton who took third place in today’s race. Raikkonen later said that his team could have gone faster, but it wasn’t necessary so they didn’t try. Ferrari’s victory now places them at the top of team standings as well, with 47 points. They are followed by BMW Sauber (34 points) and McLaren (34).
Hamilton was happy to score some points for his team today, although he would have obviously liked to get a better spot. McLaren will now face quite a battle trying to overtake both BMW and Ferrari. Hamilton’s teammate, Heikki Kovalainen had a scary day after getting into an accident where his car flew into the wall. He ended up being flown to a hospital with a concussion. Thankfully it wasn’t too serious, but the team wanted to be safe so they sent him to the hospital to make sure everything was fine. McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said, “He banged his head in the accident and has concussion. As a precaution he is going to hospital to have more checks.”
Overall the day was pretty exciting and certainly very joyous for Ferrari. As for BMW, McLaren and the rest, they have their work cut out for them now.
14
April
Testing began in Barcelona today as is customary during the three week gap between the Bahrain Grand Prix and the start of the European races. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa had the quickest time with a best lap of 1:18.339 seconds. The second fastest lap of the day belonged to Honda’s Alex Wurz at 1:21.059 seconds. Wurz successfully rebounded after a small fire in the morning, but only ran 75 laps. Pedro de la Rosa of McLaren ran 113 laps, his quickest being the third fastest overall.
One of the big happenings of the tests is the new STR3 challenger engine which Toro Russo is preparing to try out. They haven’t tried it out yet, but will on Tuesday. Super Augri still isn’t testing this week.
These tests are actually more important than many fans think. They offer teams that are behind to tweak their cars and routines, which gives them a better chance at winning later in the season. For the teams already at the top, this is a chance to get a bigger edge over their competitors. In this year’s situation the leaders are all very close in points so they are also feeling the pressure just like the teams at the bottom.
6
April
Well, he did it! Felipe Massa, won the Bahrain Grand Prix, a task which many saw as necessary in order to save his career with Ferrari. Today couldn’t have been a better day for the team, as Massa won the race and teammate Kimi Raikkonen took second. Furthermore, McLaren (thought to be their top competitors) had a horrible day with Lewis Hamilton getting into a minor accident and finishing 13th. Notice, I said “thought to be their top competitors.” Why? Well, it looks like BMW Sauber has got a little something under its sleeve for both F1 powerhouses (Ferrari and McLaren.) After today’s race BMW holds the top spot in team standings on the year, with podium finishes in all three of this year’s races (Robert Kubica of BMW took third today.) Of course we still have a long way ahead of us, but BMW Sauber is certainly exceeding expectations.
In player standings Raikkonen still holds the top spot and is followed by Nick Heidfeld (BMW), Hamilton, and Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren), in that order. Today’s race has really brought the top teams and drivers a lot closer in terms of points and it will be great to see them duke it out against one another in the upcoming weeks of racing.
