Does he even have a F1 Super license?

Scefen - It means Button has been star of a race 5 times this season, Vettel and Webber in two ocasions. It is a bit confusing, but you need to also read the Winners/Losers section after every race to know who PlanetF1 considers the star of a race, and who made the overtaking move of the race. It has been already suggested in this forum, PlanetF1 should mention the Star of the race and the Overtaking Move of the Race in the Team-mate war feature also.

Is it legal that he endorses somebody to be his successor? That sounds interventionist to me. Not very democratic IMAO. It is similar to him just putting Jean Todt there without them bothering to vote. And as for favouring his former employers, how are we sure of Todt¿s impartiality just because Mosley said so. And how about some favours Todt will be obliged to in the future, after all it was Mosley who recommended him. Vatanen should have been a better choice.

Hey Robson, Where have you been? we missed you!! Or is it me that has not been reading all the stories lately. Anyway good comments. And yes, one DNF for Jenson and things gets more exited than it is at the moment. We all want the title to go down to the final race. I am beginning to look forward to GP weekends.

To Max-Headroom. Yes you are correct, it is exploitation. But look at the article again. It is the Bulgarians that are wanting to be fleeced by Bernie. They are the ones looking for a GP, and of course Bernie will be glad to please. He must be rubbing his hands already. In glee

Fernando is heading to Ferrari, so Kimi is already looking elsewhere to race after F1. Come to think of it, he is already a F1 world champion, so done and dusted. Adding a rally championship to his trophy case wont be a bad think. Of course he has to win it first.

Spot on dpearce33 - Max and co wanted to lower the quality of F1 in the name of bringing new teams in. Manor, or anyone for that matter can always enter F1, but be ready to compete at a higher level. F1 is not called the pinnacle of motorsprts for nothing.

Spot on RedBalls - Jean Todt should stand for FIA presidency. Then he will carry on favouring his former team Ferrari. That way we can have something to write about in this forum. Wouldn't it be so boring if everything was perfect, and there is nothing to complain about. F1 without the haggling, law suits, controversies, etc is just boring. Just ask Herman Tilke

For one I am glad that F1 will continue being F1. But how about Bernie?. He keeps sucking F1 dry? He should also agree to give out more money to the teams, and end this madness of adding exotic circuits and starting F1 races at ever odd hours. Max is taking all the flak and Bernie carries on as if nothing. The breakaway series was not only about ousting Max , it was also about bringing back F1 or whatever they would call it to circuits we love. Giving more money to the teams who are the ones providing the show. This seems a bitter-sweet victory to me.

I put my money on Ruben to win tomorrow. That is if he does not take out Vettel in the first corner. Then Webber will win then.

Max/FIA is getting desperate. First he said F1 can do without Ferrari. Then he said if the teams wanted, they can go form their own series. Now he wants to sue the teams so they continue in F1. Come on Max, stick to your words! Or has he now realized what every Tom, Dick and Harry had known for all this time? F1 without the big teams is just an empty name. Go FOTA. The real fans want big teams and real racing. We will follow whatever the new series is called. Max can stick with his now under rated F1

I think there is more to the double diffuser than meets the eye. Almost every team now has a double, triple.. diffuser but still cannot catch the Brawns. I think the Brawn cars have another secret nobody knows yet. It is only a matter of time before we all find out. I for once welcomed that the Brawns are beating Ferrari and McLaren, but I also expected the Brawns to have a stiffer competition, but there is none at the moment. Redbull is just a strong second. So the season is all getting too predictable and boring. After following F1 for the past 15 years, I am starting to not look forward to GP weekends.

Agreed Chylout- He was claiming of bringing 0.6secs to Mclaren. Why doesn't he give that to Renault now they need it so badly? Or was it just empty boasts???

..we didn't detect one "and that's a tidy lap" from Legard. But we did get "winding himself up" and "is it good enough?" I wonder how drivers wind themselves up like clockwork in that cramped cockpit.

I am commenting on this story again and hope PF1 publish it this time. I think everyone is all worked up about nothing. "Welcome to my world. We probably should have scrapped this car a long time ago. It is too late now," That he said that statement is completly misleading. You all can listen to the interview Lewis gave to the whole press after Q1 on the BBC website. He did not say anything of scrapping the car. That statement was coined up by The News of the World to generate controversy, like it always does. It is tabloid sensationalism and nothing else. Anyone remember the Max story? So before you all get worked up and start blasting Lewis, do check out the facts. He did say his car was getting slower while others were going faster even though everyone in the team and at the factory were working harder, but to scrap the car? NO. That is News of The World invention!!

Naaa... Jenson wants to make it look difficult. If he goes to every race and tops the time sheets in every practice session, and then goes on to grab pole position and then win the race, he might not be considered a worthy champion as people will say he had an enormous car advantage, which he has. I am sure even Max and Bernie will call for mid season rules changes to try and stop Brawn. It will just so boring.

For all Jenson/Brawn fans, I am not trying to start a heated argument here, but two things are really favouring the Brawns: The double diffuser and the ban on in-season testing. The diffuser design is legal no doubt; All FIA scrutineering have confirm it, they got it right when other did not. And like Brawn himself said, just slapping on a double diffuser afterwards won¿t do it. The whole car has to be designed from scratch around the twin diffuser concept. So other teams clamping on double diffusers afterwards and hoping it will work are getting disappointed. So definitely advantage Brawn. The other fact is the ban on in-season testing. In the older days, Ferrari with their private track would have just gone back to the drawing board, redesign a new car with twin diffuser, test it to the max, and would have been hounding Brawn latest in the third or 4th race of the season. Brawn did not make the rules, but there have made a better interpretation to it, and it is working to their advantage. They deserve everything they are achieving. But we still cannot avoid that bad taste in our mouth: What if everyone had the same simple diffuser? Would it have been a more level playing field? Or would Brawn have still run away with the championship? Let¿s wait next year to find out. Or we may never find out if Max has his way with a 2 tier championship.

Good point -mabel- The only problem would be finding pit space for 20 teams at any given circuit. The tiny streets of Monaco would prove the most dificult.

RichardW. Swimming in lane 8 at the olympics is akin to driving a ForceIndia at the back of the grid. Lane 8 is considered the slowest of all. I guess it is because of the turbulence hitting you from other swimmers, and from the side of the pool. Webber did not choose the best comparisons, but now you get the point he is trying to arrive at.

CanadianFan- I too agree. I think the Star of the Race and the Overtaking move should be posted in the same article so we can know why. As it is now, it's a bit confusing just listing the names at the end of the article. PlanetF1 please take note.

Too early I think. Jens will be champion if everything goes on as it is, but this F1, anything can happen. Who does not remember Lewis with a comfortable 17 points lead with 2 races remaining, and yet he lost the championship. Lets wait till Singapore or Japan before we start making the calls. Who knows, maybe by then Jens will already have 30 to 40 points lead.

thefasteddie - Agree with you. I don't think Jens himself will like to go anyway fast. As it is, it will take ages before Brawn rivals catch up, so if Jens like winning as he declares he does, he may as well stick with Brawn for at least a couple more years, even at a lower salary. Not saying Brawn shold not up his pay a bit, he deserves everything.

More Losers - F1 fans. This is becoming too predictive. I state it again, the rules were supposed to brign more exiting races with different winners, but we are now stuck with one pair: Brawn and Button. Is Brwan GP just so superior? Six races into the season and other teams seem to be standing still or sliding backwards, as it is the case with Toyota. If Brawn rivals did not catch him in the twisty streets of Monaco, then they can always forget about the next race at the fast Instanbul track. The rivals cannot even expect a Brwan DNF so they can catch up. So far it has been 100% realibility. For the first time I am no more looking foward to a GP weekend. Congratulations to Brawn and Button though, they deserve their victories, but it is getting so boring now. Not even Button father is celebrating as effusively as before.

I agree with Fernando on this one. The name will be still Formula 1 but the prestige won¿t be there anymore when all the big names are gone. This is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport, with the latest technological development. If a team cannot afford $150 million, then there is GP2. Every Tom, Dick and Harry cannot be in F1. Just making up the numbers with lesser teams is not the way to go. It will be reducing the quality of F1. And why is it that Max and Bernie are the only ones seeing the imminent danger of survival of F1, and the manufactures teams they are supposed to save from bankruptcy are seeing differently? I think it is all due to Max greed. He does not want to give a bigger share of the F1 revenues to the teams, because the pressure is building up on him. Teams¿ costs are rising and they in turn will demand more of the F1 revenues from Bernie, but he instead, through the FIA, imposes a budget cap. He can always tell the teams, why do you need more money if you can run on 40 million pounds? My own advice is to try and enjoy the last good season of F1.

Give him more money. Not only wings.

Ruben should just sit back and enjoy what should be his last season in F1; after all he almost had no seat in F1 this season. He should forget about being a champion, he has had his time, so accept the fact, move on and leave it to the new generation. I just feel sorry for him, but then that is life. He should rather fight for a win or two this season (Brawn allowing of course), do some pirouettes and some tire burning at the last race in Abu Dhabi, retire gracefully and maybe start commenting on Brazilian TV as DC does now on BBC.

It is all true that Ruben had to push harder and drive faster for his strategy to work. But that was making his life unnecessarily difficult. He was leading the race, so as the leader should have had the benefit of switching to the 2 stopper. When he was on the harder tires and needed to lap 1/2 to 1 sec faster than Jenson on soft, his tires did not work. Brawn confirmed that at the BBC post race interview. Ruben¿s engineer was urging him but that was because he knew that Jenson on a 2 stopper was on the optimum strategy, and every other team was on a two stopper. When the safety car came on track and everyone was saving fuel for 4 laps, I thought Ruben was going to seal the victory. Without the benefits of the supercomputers at the pit wall, anyone with some race sense would realize that a 2 stopper was the way to go. Ruben was fuelled for more laps than Button, and was leading. So he could have gone on 6 or more laps before being called in for his first pit stop, and effectively changing his strategy to stop twice. Well what do you expect from Brawn anyway, he always have a favourite driver. Just when this season was starting to get exciting, now we are going to waste our time talking #1, #2 drivers, and conspiracy theories like the bad old days.

So much for the new rules promoting overtaking. So we are now stuck with ugly cars that look like lawn mowers so that there could be more overtaking, and what do we get. Same old story like last year. Ruben winning would have been more exciting, but his team screwed him. We are now back to the Ferrari/Schumi days, only with a different name. Brawn/Button So boring.

Chusac - Agree with you. Ruben was screwed by his team. There was no need for a 3 stopper in a track like Bacerlona. Rubun would have needed to be 1 sec per lap faster than Jenson for a 3 stopper to work. In 2 similar cars, where was he going to pull that from.? Brawn is always denying that there are no team favours, but we all have heard that before during his time at Ferrari, and there were all lies. Shamful.

Shame on Brawn. Turn out what would have been a more satisfying result into another borefest. Jenson again!! It is the same thing he did to Ruben in Ferrari with Schumacher. Why did he not change Ruben to a 2 stopper instead? At a circuit like Barcelona, and with the 2 Brawn cars very similar, Ruben would have needed to be 1 sec faster than Jenson for a 3 stopper to work. There was no way Ruben could have pulled out such faster laps. I said it before, this becoming predictable and boring as the Ferrari/Schumacher days. And the so called genius behind it all? no prizes for guessing. Brawn himself. It has always been Brawn policy to favour one driver in the team, and that is not going to change. Even if Ruben is winning by a mile, he will always be called in for an extra pit stop so he can finish "fresher and stronger". How cynical. I am not a Ruben fan, but this was pure injustice. Well except you are a Jenson fan.

Button wins tomorrow and this whole thing will start to get boring. The new set of rules was supposed to bring different winners in the races. Different winners than the usual Ferrari and McLaren it has brought, but now we are stuck with Jenson and BrawnGP. Not even Ruben in the other BrawnGP is making any difference. It is starting to become like the the Schumacher/Ferrari days. I am not bashing Brawn and Button, but the races are becoming too predictable now. Maybe we need rain in all races to spice things up a bit.

Does anybody think Alonso wants to return to McLaren now that Ron is gone? Come to think of it, McLaren would be better off in terms of points scoring, with Lewis and Alonso pairing. Alonso would also be more respectful now towards Lewis as he also is a world champion and not a rookie as was the case in 2007, which was one of the reasons Alonso wanted and not getting, preferd treatment at McLaren. Alonso wants another world championship, or at least fight for wins, and reckons he stands a better chance to be doing that in McLaren than in Renault. So maybe Hekki and Alonso can swap teams again. Just my thoughts though. But how can one explain this sudden change in attitude.

And why not just give the money to Honda company. Accordingly it is money owed to Honda company and they still exist.

POLOMiNT - I beg to differ. There is so much innovation you can have with only 40 million quid. Technology does not come cheap. Sooner or later F1 will turn to a standarized series like any other. One thing Bernie does not realize is that, F1 is what it today due to the technological innovations which you cannot get to see in other forms of motorsport, and that appeals to the masses. Once that appeal is lost, then F1 will be be just like GP2, F3000 or any of the lower series out there. It would be nice to build a space ship for 40 million quid, but it is not just possible. My only hope is teams do not start to cut corners and affect drivers safety. We do not want the bad old days.

Isn't that contradictory?. Teams will be allowed unlimited everything, yet they can only get to spend 40 million pounds. How do they pull that off? Same as one is given a visa to each and every country in world and with a note saying. You can visit all the countries in the world, stay at all the luxury hotels, fine foods, but you can only spend 4,000 quid. I can see the day when the budget teams have come up with all sorts of contraptions, but due to inability to test thoroughly because their budgets does not permit, we see cars falling apart on the tracks. Unlimited engine revs? Anyone remember the days when teams could use one engine for qualification and another for the race because due to the higher revs they did not last that long? How many engines can your limited budget buy? So what happens if towards end of season a team max out their budget and they need new engines. They send the mechanics to push the car around the track on race day? So definitely we are going to have a two tier F1. The have all's, and the have some's. Will team teams have distintive marks so the viewing public can identify a budget team from a non-budget? Just some of the things one might be seeing if this is scheme is implemented. Sigh.... I used to like F1, but with it becoming a mockery, I'd better find myself another pastime. Bye F1.

I taught Kovalainen beat Hamilton in China. PF1 doesn't seem to think so. It gave all the wins this season to Hamilton.

Mosley added: "They (McLaren) have demonstrated there is a complete culture change, that it's all different to what it was. Does that mean FIA will not be punishing Mclaren as often as before? Bah.. How boring. Now there will be no hot debates again in the forums saying how unfair the FIA was to Mclaren, etc,etc¿ Maybe Ron should come out of retirement.

Funny that this was an article on Jenson and Vettel, but someone started slamming the BBC commentators for mentioning Hamilton a wee bit too much. Some people seem to seize any opportunity to criticise Hamilton for no apparent reason. You complain of British TV talking a lot about a British driver? Then do not watch Spanish TV, except you are Alonso fan. On Spanish TV all the adverts star Alonso whether it is for cars, petrol, oil, shampoo, dog food & all. Kubica's your favourite driver?, then tune in to Polish TV. Want Massa and Ruben, head for Brazil - highly recommended. If you do not understand a tad of Portuguese, then the garotas will sure make your trip worthwhile.

F1 As A Spectator Sport...? - Always said it. Holding a GP on a Sunday afternoon in the Middle East is a bad idea. Sunday is a working day, so they can not expect people to leave their work and flock to the circuit. And for a tiny island nation like Bahrain, it is even more difficult to make up the numbers. People used to go to the Bahrain GP from more afluent United Arab Emirate, but since they too will be having their own GP come November in Abu Dhabi, so why bother going to Bahrain. It is like putting 2 McDonalds opposite each other on the same street. Both will canibalized themselves. I am sure if Dubai wants its own GP and has a couple of hundred million to spare, Bernie will also give them a GP.

This is exciting stuff. 4 GPs and we have 3 different teams in front, and non of the usual suspects are included. Great for F1. If this is the result of the sweeping rules changes, then it was worth it. I hope Toyota can translate the pole position into a race win.

Yeah. Should have been 10. As he qualified 16th, he would have taken 4 grid slots peanlty tomorrow. And since he always qualifies towards the end of the grid, then he would have taken two more the next GP and so on, until he is done with the 10 grid slot penalty.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... We have all heard it before. Last time Vettel won in Monza, the same was said. He wins another wet race and all of a sudden he is a title contender. I remember before the start of the season when PF1 made made their customary predictions. They gave the championship away to Kimi, Felipe and Kubica. Three races later and three of them are yet to score a point. Lesson, lets wait a few more races before starting the prediction games.

If I were Vettel, I would not be switching to McLaren or Ferrari in a rush. Both teams are struggling at the moment, so why bother. Maybe when they start winning again, and that is not going to be soon.

BBC Coverage: Please can someone tell Jonathan Legard to cut that "Is it good enough" thing during qualifications. He just reapeats the phrase over and over without saying anything useful in between.

My own overtaking move of the race. S.Vettel on J.Button for the lead in the late stages of the race. Button still had to stop, so Vettel could have cruised along happily behind and wait for Jenson to make his pit stop. But he made a superb move on the BrawnGP. Extraordinary.

35kg is a lot of additional weight to carry. Sure you can run longer, but if the front runners are lapping at 1.5 sec per lap less, then they will have a considerable advantage before the first pit stops. Also a one stop strategy is not possible for China because of tire graining issues. Lets wait and see tomorrow.

And Adrian Newey is headed for the factory to redesign the RedBull. Maybe he should not mess with car just yet. They have a good car as it is. The question they will be asking themselves is if to continue with the developement of the current car, or design a new one to include the double deck diffuser. As Brawn had said, it is not just strapping a new diffuser to the back of the car, but managing the way the air flows right from the front wing to the back. So you may as well have to redesign the whole car.

Now that is a really hard stance. The FIA is succeeding in splitting up FOTA. Red Bull, Ferrari and BMW will surely stand behind Renault, and effectively you have a divided FOTA. In effect, racing for 2009 has moved from the tracks to the courts and boardrooms.

Really sad to hear that. Goodbye Ron and Goodluck in your new role.

It wasn't entirely Micheal's call for the wrong tires. If you watch the video highlights of the Malaysian GP at formula1.com. You could clearly see someone on the pit wall asking Micheal something, and he flungs his arms wide and shrugs, like saying, "search me, I am not sure" The guy on the pit wall takes thats as a yes, nods and then talk into the radio. The next images shows Kimi's car being fitted with wet tires and there is a very worried looking Micheal at the pitwall watching as Kimi passes by. He is not entirely to blame. He was as confused as everyone on the tire choices. But you wonder if Ferrari really needs to pay him the big salary he is paid now and he does not deliver the goodies. Just my observations anyway.

"we just didn't know about the rain". Which weather station was he looking at? Even hotel maids in Kuala Lumpur know it rains in the evenings at this time of the year. Typical of an obstinate old man with a dying brain. He always thinks he knows what is right for everyone, and won't accept his mistakes. Haven't he heard that you cannot eat your cake and have it. He wants to have races at exotic venues around the world, so he can suck the maximum from those governments, and then hold them at odd hours to keep audiences up in Europe, and in turn more money from advetisers here. The late starting of the Australian GP made for terrible viewing on TV. There were times you had the low sun glaring directly into the cameras and was impossible to see a thing. Imagine a driver going at 150 mph. In Malaysia they said it was going to rain, and it did, yet he says there was nothing wrong with the starting time. Is he plain stupid or just trying hard to annoy everyone? How many more half races before the TV companies here pull the rug from under him?

It is unbelievable; High tech V8 engines, gearboxes than changes gears in milliseconds, KERS, state of the art electronics and engine management systems, cockpits worthy of a space craft in Star Trek. But it has all boiled down to a piece of low tech metal stuck to the back of the car. A diffuser!! Isn¿t that great?

What a mess!. Everyone said it was going to happen, and it did happen. How come the FIA do not have the same weather forecast as everyone? The idea of trying to make the race start in the evenings, so European race viewers would not have to wake up early in the morning, is beginning to pay its price. I live in the UK and if you really love F1, then you can wake up any time to watch the race. I'd rather wake up early to watch a full race than later for half a race. There is no reason the Malaysian race should not have started 1 hour earlier and we wouldn't have had this mess. These are the issues FIA should resolve instead of going around chasing Mclaren and Hamilton to impose more and more penalties. The people who need to face the public and offer apologies are the FIA and Bernie. We are waiting....

What a mess of a race!! Bernie should be hanged for robbing us for whould have been an exiting race. Couldn't he have just checked the weather forecast before setting the race so late. Even the maids at the hotel in Kuala Lumpur knew that it rains heavily in the evenings in Malaysia this period of the year. And yet F1 with all the high tech could not figure out the weather.

Another pole and win from Brawn come China, and F1 becomes boring all over again. The rules were supposed to create a level playing field in which many more teams will be swapping poles, wins and fastest laps. But as it is, the one team dominace continues, albeit a different one from the traditional Ferrari, McLaren.

Yeah, just one miserly point. Why did not McLaren just tell the stewards that they allowed Truilli through? They were consulting at the time and had let Trulli through just in case. The worst the stewards would have done then would be tell Lewis to keep his 4th position. End of story, and carry on racing. But now we have this racket just for one point? I also think FIA should not blow this out of proportion. Their eagerness to penalise and the lack of clarity in the rules causes all these confusion. They are now making this look more serious than it is just draw attention away from the core of the problem. A set of vague rules.

Why does FIA wants to blow this out of proportion. McLaren and Lewis has been penalisesd. Good, now let go on with racing. I just blame McLaren for playing into the hands of the FIA. They should have known better. They should have just told the stewards that it was them who ordered Lewis to slow down and allow Trulli to pass while they were awaiting clarifications from Whiting. The least the steawards would have done was say, well you guys screwed, you keep your 4th position and case close. Which brings us to the next question. If Toyota had dropped their appeal and were not considering further actions, who then tipped the FIA to reopen the investigation? And why the zeal to aplly all the sactions in the rule book just for a minor infringement? One thing we know for sure. Hamilton can just write off this year's championship. As if his slow car was not enough, he is now in the sights of FIA. He will be penalised for even showing up on the grid.

This is not the end of the world. Schumacher delibrately slammed his Ferrari into Jaques Villeneuve and was subsequenly stripped from all his point for that season. But he went on to win more championships. Now lets get over this and go on with racing. FIA should make clearer rules, and driver should also learn the basics of those rules. It is not just getting into a car and putting the foot down. If I am stopped by a traffic police for violating the rules, do I say it was my dad who told me to drive that way? No. I'll be held responsible for my acts, so I have to learn the traffic laws before hiting the highway. Same should apply for F1 drivers.

deepwater330 - Still LOL. Spot on. I said it before, and willsay it again. The race is not over until the lawyers sing. Two weeks after a race and stewards will be still dishing out punishement and meddling with the results. Don't beleive what you see on the telly. The actual racing is done behind the scene. FIA decides the order the drivers finishes, and not the order they cross the finish line. Now no more waking up in the wee hours of the morning to watch races. I will just set the box to record it, then after a couple of weeks and if the results still holds, I will then watch to see what happened. And what about the fans who pay to go to races, get so excited to see their favorite driver on the podium and think their investment in transport, race tickets and accomodation was very worth it, but only to find out a week later that results have been changed, and again...

Now this Brawnmania is starting to get on my nerves. Brawn this, Brawn that.... So what they got up their sleeve this time? Another loophole in the rules? It goes against the spirit of sportmanship if he has to use loopholes all the time to win races. It is early to call anyway, lets wait and see what he's got.

Phlitypr - Lewis did not participate in Q2 and subsequently Q3 because he had a gearbox failure after Q1. McLaren had to change it out, and that is why he was penalised and demoted to last place on the grid. The Toyotas of Trulli and Glock are part of the diffuser 3 remember, so they have a performance advantage, for now, over the non-diffuser teams. All the same he was lucky. But still one has to give him credit for the fine drive in Australia.

Pamela, you got your answer there. The so-called independent panel will sustain the stewards descision and declare BrawnGP cars legal, simply because the is no Ferrari to gain. Had Ferrari finished 4th, then it will be a different story. Hamilton would have been penalized for 'slowing down and putting the rest of the field in danger', and Trulli of course would be banned all the same because of the diffuser.

And the biggest loser, IMO. HONDA!!. They'll now wish they did not sell the team that quick. Imagine what it would have been. Honda 1-2. So Honda spent all that money and Brawn ended up with all the glory. Sure Brawn would have still been recognized as the man who pulled Honda from the backfield to title contender. And to rub salt into the wound, Honda did not even receive a dime for the sale of the team, instead they were convinced to use the money they would have used to disband the team to keep it running till now. So Brawn apart from being an excellent engineer, is also a good negotiator.

What a race! Just one GP and you had everything back with a bang: First corner incidents, diffuser scandals, teams protesting others fo illegal body works, other being punished by FIA, stewards doling out inexplicable penalties, spectacular crashes, safety cars deployments, a new team trashing the whole field, you name it. I could go on and on, but you all saw it. We only hope the 2009 season will be as exiting as the first race. By the way, the Aussie GP results are unofficial. Expect more and more suprises this year. The race is not over until the lawyers sing.

The trio diffuser design is illegal. The rule says the diffuser should have a single horizontal profile at the top. One look at the trios diffusers and you can see they do not comply to the above rule. I wonder how the stewards took more than 6 hours to deliberate, and still come up with that verdit. The answer then could lie in FIA and Bernie. I guess they deemed it was better to legalize the trio's design, and have the other teams copy it as they will sooon do, than eliminate 6 cars from the grid in just one swipe. It is all politics. Personally I prefer it was the lesser teams that came up with the idea and not the usual two. This way the trio will at least carve out for themselves a substantial lead and by the time the other catch up, the championship will be almost over. This is sure going to be a close fought championship, to the last race as last year

Kimi Driver's Champion? Baah.. That's what you all said last season and he done no s**t. Hamilton may not win again this season because of the slow Mclaren. But Kimi won't either. Ferrari is now backing Massa as their No 1. So Button and Kubica in the mix at the begining, and will then fade away for Massa and Hamilton fighting again in the final stages.

30 Million a year?. You may as well take some Go-Karts and slap Formula 1 logo on them. This is supposed to be the pinacle of motorsport, not amusement park racing. The technological innovations is what makes it atractive, and that is why it is called Formula 1. 100 million I can understand, but 30 million? that is joke.

Good, for once they listened. It just shows that it was a stupid idea in the first place, that no one liked except maybe the old Bernie. Shows his brain is fading real fast. Trying to implement a system rejected by the majority of the fans. FOTA should now use their clout to kick Bernie's a** out.

Go McLaren... PF1, can you show us the time charts for the whole week. That way we know where everyone stands. Thanks.

Now we know why McLaren wanted to test today, when almost every one has finish their tests. It is the only way to be on top of the time charts;-)

I bet this was appoved when they saw McLaren was struggling in the winter tests, ha,ha.... With the old point system, Ham with a slow McLaren could at least gather points in all races, maybe a win or two in the season and still has a chance of repeating drivers championship in 2009. Now with this new system, we know Ham has little or no chance this year. But it wont be long before they change the point system again. All we need is a driver to say win 5 o 6 races, sums up say 80 points, and another wins less races,but finishes on the podium in all races, sums up substantially more points say 150, and yet fails to win the championship. Of course one can argue that a driver capable of winning 5 to 6 races will always finish on the podium in a lot more races. But what if? And in Formula 1 anything can happen. Or we can have a driver wins say 6 races, and seeing that his nearest rival has no chance of winning more races than he does, will just park his car, and we have a champion with two or three races remaining in the season. Of course the team can still ask the driver to out go fight for the constructors championship points, but what if he doesn't want to take the risk, and then goes out and cruise around the track the remaining races. By the way, does anyone remember that Ferrari was constructor champion last year. We all tune to know who is the Driver Champion or pay to go to races to watch drivers battle it out, so if that is decided 3 races before season end, I wonder who will care anymore.

Thanks Deepwater330. Seen the video. Mclaren got wacked there. Could be McLaren's lack of grip at the rear. They need to do something to that rear wing, or Ham and kov will be lapped by the whole field before turn one.

"It's doing the rounds on YouTube right now, the practice start on the Barcelona straight where the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen lines up what looks like three grid places behind Heikki Kovalainen. They floor the throttles and the Ferrari looks like its had an injection of nitrous oxide while the Mclaren's running on HGV diesel. By the time Heikki gets to Turn 1 he's been lapped." Please can someone point us the link to that Youtube video? Thanks

Why don't they just scrap KERS? They could save teams millions that way. Or FIA does not want to admit it was their mistake to introduce it in the first place.

We wish him well in the new path he has taken.

So far the MP4-24 is the better looking car after the three launches. Maybe it is because most of the pictures we see of the car are from the side at an angle. From the front, I guess they will all share the same ugly look.

Merry Christmas everyone, and especially to Team PlanetF1. And a joyous 2009.

So why not just give more points to the winner and make the point difference between winner and runner-up say 4 or 5. The medal system is just crap.

Not so fast Lewis. He might be forced to eat his words further down the line. Dennis will not always be at the head at McLaren. Changes in management mean changes in the way the employees are treated, so he might not always happy there as he is now. So I think it is premature to say he will drive for McLaren for the rest of his life. I find it boring myself to be driving the same car year in year out.

I still don't get it. If FIA is so keen on reducing cost, then why force the teams to develope KERS. Such an expensive exercise. They should look at the big picture. Saving $800.000 a year on lightweight nuts is nothing compared to the cost of developing KERS. And we are being told it will not lead to much more overtaking as earlier thought.

Cut cost? Why introduce KERS and other design changes that does nothing but increase cost. Now with a single chasis and engine supplier, what is there for the manufacturers'team to race for? Nothing. So more manufacturers will follow Honda, not only because of high cost, but lack of incentives to the manufacturers.

The new system is to promote overtaking. But then you are punished for overtaking(SPA anyone), or other drivers on the grid deem you dangerous and over agressive for trying, so what is the use. For Formula 1 to be exciting, drivers have to take risks, and those ridiculous penalties should also be removed. And why do they want to change things now. Is Ferrari complaining? I bet they are.

Geronimo - There is nothing useful they can get there. If you want to copy something, you might want to think of top teams, not backmarkers. Besides most specs will change for next season, so again nothing useful you can gather there.

Now more than ever, he wont be retiring soon. He now needs to keep milking F1 more to pay for those divorce lawyers. Maybe it is time the teams seek their own divorce from FOM.

philtypr - If you did not watch the race, you can get the highlights at www.formula1.com When Hamilton came out of the first pit stops after changing to dry tyres, he was 7th. He had to overtake Fisichela and Trulli to get back to 5th position. The pass on Fisichela was calculated and well executed, but on the other hand, Vettel sneaked past when Hamilton ran a little wide while allowing Kubica to unlap himself. As for the star of the race, I guess you got a point there. Massa was the star. But then Hamilton won the championship, and it is all that matters now.

In other words, Ferrari is not ready with a relaible KERS system.

F1_FREAK_666 - How about last year? Kimi won because of McLaren mistakes, and by a single point for that matter. And how was Kimi's performances this year? You answer that. F1 is not only about drivers. It is a combination of Team and Driver. Sure we have the likes of Vettel, Alonso, Kubica, etc. Give them a good car and they will make Hamilton work hard for his wins. PF1 I am sure is a British site and I don't see anything wrong with them supporting their own driver. Do you think Hamilton has a lot of friends in the Spanish press? Hell no. If you really want to be where they say negative things about Hamilton and Lewis, then you've come to the wrong place. You'd be better off on a Spanish F1 site.

While I dont agree with Bernie in many issues, I think he was trying to downplay the situation. Maybe he should have done things differently. But all the same he should step down, not for for the way he handled this situation, but for the way F1 is handled these days. Ah, he should take Max with him.

spdguru- F1 cars are not developed by drivers. Some don't even get to see the design offices and factory. Development is done by hundreds of engineers and technicians who through ingenuity push science to the limit building very fast cars. The drivers after testing the cars on the track suggest best setups, or problem areas. Some of these suggestions could lead to the engineers coming up with little modifications of some bits and parts. But saying that a driver developes a car is an overstatement. It's just like I would complain that my office chair is uncomfortable, and have an engineer come up with a whole new design. Does that make me the developer? No way.

What is it with F1 that they want to keep the 10 points system for the race winner? In MotoGP they award 25 points to the winner. That way up to the 10th position can have some points. And it is then posible to give the race winner 5 more points than the runner up. F1 could try giving 15 points to the race winner.

It was a gamble that Toyata took and it did not pay off. Remember what happened to Bourdais in SPA. He was in 3rd or 4th and on dry tyres in the rain, he was relegated to 7th place in the very last lap by those who had pitted for wet tyres. You all have to note that had Glock got in for wet tyres like everyone, he would not have been runing in 4th place anyway. It would have been Hamilton in 4th and Vettel passing Hamilton would not have had any concequences.

But the McLaren F1 LM supercar is a single seater!! Where is Hamilton going to seat his super sexy girlfriend? I'd cut another deal with Ron. Win 3 more championships and have McLaren build a 2 seater version of the supercar.

Dump those conspiracy theories. The pass by Vettel on Hamilton was a tactical gamble by the McLaren team and it paid off. They knew Glock was on the wrong tyres and sooner or later his laps time were going to fall in increasing rain. Instead of risking Vettel crashing Hamilton out of the race, they allowed the Torro Rosso through and knew from their calculations that they would catch Glock in the closing laps. It was a gamble that paid off. Of course it could have also gone very wrong. But now it does not matter anymore. It worked. Read the whole story here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article5071831.ece

tim_azzuri - The pass by Vettel on Hamilton was a tactical gamble by the McLaren team and it paid off. They knew Glock was on the wrong tyres and sooner or later his laps time were going to fall in increasing rain. Instead of risking Vettel crashing Hamilton out of the race, they allowed the Torro Rosso through and knew from their calculations that they would catch Glock in the closing laps. It was a gamble that paid off. Of course it could have also gone very wrong. But now it does not matter anymore. It worked. Read the whole story here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article5071831.ece

nikvema - Check out te official FIA reports on lap times. http://www.fia.com/brazilgp/documents/BRZ_08_Race_Lap_Analysis.pdf It clearly shows Trulli and Glock in both Toyotas having opted to stay out on dry tyres in the pouring rain were struggling at the end and were doing similar lap times. You also have to note that had Glock came in for wet tyres like the rest of the field, he would not have been running in fourth anyway. So Hamilton would have still finish 5th.

All that dough and got passed by a Torro Rosso? It would have been the worst case of money badly spent.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Lewis. More of it in the coming years. But spare us the heart stopping emotions. Don't wait till the last second to do it. Well done to Felipe also. He drove a fantastic race.

Yeah right Lewis. I won't be doing that either myself. Now that you are champion I have decided to stop following F1 like before. I almost my own hear attack today. But at the end everything was OK. Many CONGRATULATIONS!!. You can afford to take a one year break like Kimi did this year. But knowing you, that won't be the case. But for me, I am done. I will be content to just read in PF1 the results of the races. Way too much emotions today.

Lewis Hamilton is WORLD CHAMPION. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Lewis Hamilton. You made it and we are proud of you. Congratulations to Massa also. He drove a spectacular race today. He will make a worthy sub-champion.

linbrister - They will see the wing flexing and will say noting. After the race is over and everybody has gone home, then they will then issue a retrospective penalty to Hamilton and hand the championship to Massa. Clean.

With a broad like that for a girlfriend, I'd sing also. But please Hamilton, stick to zipping your McLaren around the tracks. What next? His girlfriend will be wanting to test a McLaren. Now that will make me go to all F1 races.

rcparsons- Ha,ha...I really laughed my head off. Unfortunately for the ladies out there, they are not real cajones o cojones. Just protectors and it makes the riders walk with a funny gait. I bet you saw them shifting on their seat from side to side as they take the corners, and that is corners after corners, laps after laps. Without protectors, they'ed be so sore at the end of the race from rubbing their cojones against the fuel tank. And then you have to throw in the occational 100mph crashes, you could not protect your most valuable asset even more.

Hamilton said the pressure is in Massa, and now Massa says the pressure is on Hamilton. Mental battle? Both should just shut up and do the talking on the track. Everyone, including Ferrari is taking it for granted that Massa will win win the Brazilian GP hands down, as if it is like taking a candy off a kid. Anything can happen. Even fresh engines do fail, and Ferrari's is no exception. Massa can even make a mistake himself in qualifying. And what if it rains, one little spin too wide and it is all over. Just don't count the chickens yet.

It seems the FIA, FOA, et,al have built a moat around themselves. Has anybody noticed that at wwww.formula1.com, the official F1 site, there is no option to leave your comments. After the Japanese GP, a video footage of the Massa-Bourdais incident was posted with the question "What do you think?" But curiosly, no mechanism was provided for people to say what they thought. Some are suggesting here that this article be sent to the FIA, but at FIA's website, the only contact info they have there is of the site admnistrator or webmaster. So it will be a wasted effort even trying. Our only option therefore is working the press: Leave your comments at your favourite site that permites it, most newspapers and TV stations have a F1 editor, write to them. We F1 fans have no allegiance to FIA so we can voice our opinions openly with fear of penalties as it the case with the teams. Keep the pressure up, it's our only hope of saving the sport we love so much.

Good to know we have folks knowledgeable in engineering and stuff on this forum. Maybe I should be posting my university coursework material here, and will surely get the answers.;-)

Don't forget Scot Speed. He made no good impressions either.

McLaren did not use Hamilton joker engine change because they did not need to. They were saving it just in case for the later part of the season. If say McLaren had used the joker change in Fuji so that Hamilton would have a fresh engine in Brazil, as he would have used the engine for both Fuji and Shanghai, and he then has a failure in Shanghai before the race. Now McLaren would have been forced to change his engine and he would have been slapped a 10 grid slot penalty as he had already used up his joker. We know what the consequences would have been. They are 18 races in the season and Hamilton had been using his engine for two races without any problems. Well at least he takes care of his engine. If he could only do the same for his tyres.

CooperS- The teams now have a one way telemetry. That means they can know what is going on with the car, but can not perform any changes from the pit wall as it used to be. But if you take a look an F1 streering wheel, it has hundreds of knobs, buttons, etc. They can tell the driver on the radio to turn one of those knobs and rev down the engine. While before they could practically take over the the control of the car from the pit wall, now there are limited things they can do, engine revs one of them. Another thing the driver can do while in race is vary the mixture of gasoline and air going into the cylinders, vary the brake balance between front and back. But all that is up to the driver and from what he is being told on the team radio. No more fancy electronics from the pitwall. By contimously turning down his revs, they are not allowing the engine to run at it's maximum, thereby reducing the chances it may fail. Engines running at higher revolutions are subjected to more stress, and therefore a shorter life. Remember according to FIA regulations, F1 engines have to last two races at least. In Shanghai, since Hamilton had already had a huge advantage in the later stage of the race, and there was no danger of Felipe catching him, there was no need to keep running the McLaren engine at maximum revolutions, so Hamilton must have instructed to progresively turn down his engine. That will result in less power, and less speed, but then he did not need it anyway. A 12sec advantage or 5sec is the same, he still finishes first.

Hot commodity? For mid field teams I guess. Ferrari don't want him. Unthinkable in McLaren. BMW have their line-up already, so he is stuck with Renault.

Now that Ferrari has made it clear they do not want him, in retaliation Alonso will declare he will help McLaren win the drivers'championship, retracting on his earlier promise to help Ferrari. You see they are consequences when you blackmail your own team. I bet Montezemelo would thinking, I can't trust this Alonso guy.

Heikki did not 'let' Hamilton pass him in Hokenheim. Hamilton was faster than eveyone on the field. There was nothing Heikki could do then. It would have been real stupid for him to try and block a faster car, even if it was from another team. He would have still been passed later on anyway. In Shanghai, Massa was so slow, Kimi had to actually slow down to let him first catch up and pass. And after he passed, he just kept producing the same slow laps. In Hockenheim, after Hamilton passed Kov, he quickly pulled away to catch and pass Massa and then Piquet. So, but situations, though similar, are not the same.

True, not having a North American or more US GPs will hurt the manufactures. In fact that is why they were hosting the Indy GP as of recent. The formula of having US GPs so as to expose manufactures in that market has been tried many times, but it just does not work. Formula 1 circus does not work like that. As it is, the local organisers get to build the tents, and the F1 brings the clowns(Montezemelo, no puns intended). There is no dearth of motorsport in the US and for F1 to be as popular in the US as NASCAR, it needs a lot of marketing to make people first understand the sport and then grow to like it and then flock to the tracks. That is a lot money that has to be spent, and local organisers cannot afford it, niether will Bernie chip in. We have seen in the past seas of empty granstands in US GPs. As it is someone needs to come up with a ten year plan a lot of money to burn, and hope by the end of that period they will break even. That kind of business model does not work in the States. With Asian nations flooding with oil money, the government is willing to spend, because they are not after monetary profits. Having a North American or US GP just for for the sake of having it and expose manufactures there just wont work. It has to have a business sense in the short term.

spacedmanssplif- If he not, then he will surely be on the podium for the worst championship defenders.

Not only did Hamilton caught and pass Kov in Germany. He then went on to overtake Massa and then Piquet. So in Hokenheim, Ham was not gifted points. He worked for it.

It is NOT the exactly the same thing McLaren did in Germany. There Lewis all weekend was faster than Kov. He took pole position and was on his way to win the race until the Safety Car came in and turned things upsidedown. After his pit stop, Lewis came out 4th and then started to reel the front runners in. Sure Kov did not give him much resistance, but Lewis was faster and would have passed him all the same. Additionally Lewis then went on and passed Massa and Piquet to take the chequered flag. Today was different, Massa was slower than Raikonnen in the whole race and Kimi had to actually slow down to let him catch up and pass. And after he passed he did not even make an attempt to catch up Lewis. Massa did not overtake anyone today. That is the difference between Germany and Shanghai

makarand_87. Agreed with you. But you forgot to mention the stewards. Massa needs them too to be able to clinch the championship in Brazil.

Without the SPA undeserved penalty, Hamilton would have clinched his title today, but as it that will be decided in the last race. I bet Bernie must be rubbing his hands gleefuly now. He wanted the title to be decided in the last race, and he has acheived it. Manipulatig race results, et al

So the pressure is on Massa now. He is heading into his home Gran Prix with a 7 points deficit. Let se how he handles that. But lets not forget last year, Hamilton had a 7 point lead to Kimi heading into the final race and he still blew it. Good luck for both.

If Massa goes on to win it, then it is a tainted title. First it was the stewards manipulation, now it is Ferrari themselves. Shameful

BRAVO Lewis!!!

Read between the lines. Massa is actually telling Hamilton to continue being his agressive self and go ahead and screw things up in the final 2 races. How funn.y

If he helps Massa win the championship as he is screaming to anybody who wants to hear, maybe Montezemelo will give him a Ferrari drive in 2010. A natural move since he already knows Ferrari setups.

The French have nothing to clarify, afterall they are using the same FIA antics, who cancelled the Canadian Gran Prix without even bothering to e-mail the organizers. FIA 1 - Trackowners 1

No problem. Alonso can go ahead and win the remaining races of the season. Hamilton only needs to finish one position behind Massa and still takes the Championship. There are other things he can do though: Ram Lewis out of a race. Hold him up. Clip his rear suspension as Lewis tries to pass, or deliberately tap him into a spin, or punture Lewis' tire with his front wing. We guess what is going through his mind, he's got nothing to loose. A drive through penalty, a grid position reduction or a race ban at most. Now Alonso is calling for permanent stewards so that they don't intervene in race results as they often do now, but he is also telling the whole world he will help Massa win the championship. Isn't he telling us he might intervene if the opportunity arises? Kind of contradicting.

Alonso is just begging for a Ferrari seat after Kimi leaves. That's all. Apart from ramming Lewis out of the race, there is nothing legal he can do to stop him. Which brings us to the question. What if Massa wins the championship, and maybe Alonso gets a Ferrari drive in 2010, will he accept to be the second driver in Ferrari? Remember how he was bitching last year in McLaren because he thought they were making him play second fiddle to Lewis.

Velocityboy - The teams cannot complain for fear of beung thrown out of the championship if they complain too loudly. FIA(Max) and FOM(Bernie) have the teams' balls in their hands by way of money from TV licences. We the fans and the press are the only hope to set things right by pointing out the injustices. We have to put up the pressure. F1 exist because of the fans. If we do not watch it, then no TV will buy any licence, and if there is no money then Bernie and Max will growing potatoes back in the countryside. So we fans feel cheated when we have to sacrifice our sleep, out nights out with friends, wake up in the wee hour of the morning to watch races, then go back to sleep knowing the results, but only to wake up later and find out the results have been modified by some part time stewards. So fans feel screwd, cheated. That is why we have to complain. It is on behalf of the sport. We have to defend befroe some moroons like Max and Bernie spoil it for us.

CooperS - Please leave his race out of this. Anyone can be tempremental. It has nothing to do with race. Lets talk about F1. It is more interesting

gingercat - They have mentioned it. Look at the last one by The Mirror. But it does not matter if they mention it or not. Of course it benefited Massa with another championship point, but the main point here is, Lewis recked his own race by that blind rush into the first corner. I'd like him to be world champion, but after seeing the 1st corner incident, I myself also arrived at the conclusion that he is not ready to be World Champion. This is if he continue to act like that. His temperement is going to destroy him, not FIA penalties. He only needed to tuck behind Kimi and bid his time. He would have had his chance during the pit stops or later in the race to overtake. Of course we are all judging from the comfort of our armchairs, we don't know what goes through the mind of those drivers in such a moment of high tension. But lets hope Lewis learns from his mistakes, for his own good and for the other drivers on the grid as well. Such mad rushes could easily result in a major crash with many involved.

tamumpower - In that case Kubica should also be penalized for defending his position against a much faster Kimi at that moment. Massa is lucky he did not spin out of the race.

Thing is after Ferrari's failure to score point in Singapore, Lucas Montezemolo(hope I spelt that right)called and threatened Mosley, and he promised to help Ferrari win both championship at all cost. So the next time Felipe is released into the path of someone in the pit lane, the other driver gets punished for daring to block a Ferrari. Same thing for Lewis if he tries to make a move on anyone. He will be punished for overtaking.

tarnsamai - Why wait until the end of the race to punish Bourdais? They wanted to see where Felipe finishes so they can work their magic. It happened also at SPA. They waited to see how Ferrari would be benefitted and then punish Lewis. If Felipe had finished 10th at this race, then they would not have bothered to punish Bourdais.

Again Lewis cracking under pressure. Same like Brazil last year. Realizing he made a mistake getting off the line and behind Kimi into the first corner, he would have kept a cool head and try a pass Kimi later on track or during the pit stops. As it was he caused the 1st lap chaos going excesively agrresive into the that corner and ruining the race for Kimi and later Felipe. Sure Felipe pushed him into a spin, but Lewis should not have been back there in the first place. He got himself into that tangle. Again, he has himself to blame, not the stewards for the penalty.

After seeing Lewis performance today, I'd say he is not ready to be world champion, contrary to what he claims. He should have just shut his mouth up and drive. Instead it was more talking and less driving. That is history repeating itself again, just like last year, he is cracking under the pressure. Lets forget about the penalty if he deserved it or not. He got himself behind Felipe to begin with, so he has himself to blame. Here is a driver who would have picked some good points and would have been leading now with a bigger margin. He needs a bit more maturity and a cooler head if he is to win any championship.

That is how world champions drive, unlike Lewis claiming world championship with still three races to go. Many congratulations to Alonso. I hope he finds a more competitive team next season.

Felipe running heavy and lying in 5th. That doesn't sound a good strategy to me. The front runners can easily pull out a 10 to 15 sec advantage before they stop as Felipe would be likely held up by Kovolainen or Alonso. Once he gets in the front, he will have to run 2 sec per lap faster to overcome that deficit, say he runs 5 laps more. That's quite unlikely. He would have been better off in the front row.

Both STRs made it to Q3 and the Red Bulls again failed. Maybe Vettel should start thinking seriously about moving to the "superior" RBR next year.

I guess Brawn is angling to get his job back at Ferarri. He must have realize he will get no where staying at Honda.

ynot808- You said the organizers cannot keep up with the cost of the Canadian GP. If they always have a sell out crowd, why no raise tikets prices. Just my thoughts. But I guess they must have already considered that. There is a limit to how much they can raise those prices. I'm sorry for the Canadians, nice blokes.

I thought the tires were made from recycled or biodegradble material or something. They just paint them green, and by that they help the environment? How silly. That gives me ideas. I will just paint my 8 cylinder gas guzzling truck green, and automatically reduce my carbon footprint.

Yeah, yeah we have heard that before. That is pure and simple PR talk from Max. Who is he trying to fool? Now that a lot of talk has been going on about the FIA favouring Ferrari, he comes out to say this. He is even deft in mentioning all what people want to hear. Lewis' background, his colour, blah,blah... Who cares. Just as someone mentioned here. That is all irrelevant. Lewis has the talent and that's what matter. If by saying all this bull, Max will make us chage our mind as to FIA favouratism, he's got another thing coming.

This is ridiculous. Why put two F1 races close together. Bahrain with has always hosted the Middle East Gran Prix is just half an hour away from Abu Dhabi. In case Bernie does not know. Sunday is a working day in the Muslim world, and F1 races are on Sundays. That why you always see a sea of empty spaces in the Grand Stands at the Bahrain races. Simply the locals have to go to work. It is similar to holding a race on a Monday in say Great Britain. And now he is taking another one to Abu Dhabi. Before you know, Dubai will also want its own Gran Prix, and you will have two Gran Prix in a tiny Emirate whose local population cannot fill a football stadium.

Buffy, Firestone and Bridgestone are the same guys...

Come on guys, where is your sense of humour? The article should be taken as it is. A satirica take on a subject. It is not meant to be a Pulitzer winning piece of writing. Also a lot of people are saying Hamilton is lucky to be where he is, I keep wondering what is the criteria used on arriving at that conclusion. What people should note that, irrespective of his race, economic background, etc.. He has what it takes to be in F1, and that is TALENT. McLaren won't put him in their car because they have pity for him or something. He is there because of his talent first and foremost. Sure there are other young drivers on the grid who may be as talented as him or more, but they all followed a diferent path to F1. Remember it was Lewis who as a kid went up to talk to Ron and shown his interest to drive for them, that is determination, and his father had to work two jobs to fund his early go-cart days and it was when Ron saw his natural talent that they decided to come on board. It is not like McLaren went out looking for a poor kid to put in their car and happened upon Lewis. McLaren is not a charity but a race team. He is not lucky, he's got talent. That he also has a big mouth, that is something else.

Of course Massa and Ferrari should not be counted out just yet. The points difference between both teams and drivers in minimal and there are still 3 races to go. One DNF for Hamilton and he will go from the hunted to the hunter.

I'd say hold it there. Why is everyone repeating that it is game over for Ferrari just because the screwed up in Singapore? Do the maths, it is only 7 points points difference in the Drivers Championship and only a single point in the Constructor's and we have 3 races remaining. Sure Hamilton could win the Championship without winning another race, and that is providing he finishes one place behind Massa in the 3 remaining races. But we all know that won't occur. He could finish ahead of Massa or he can also have one DNF or two. Everything is possible. Don't count out Ferrari just yet. It is not over until it is over. Just look what happened last year.

I'd say hold it there. Why is everyone repeating that it is game over for Ferrari just because the screwed up in Singapore? Do the maths, it is only 7 points points difference in the Drivers Championship and only a single point in the Constructor's and we have 3 races remaining. Sure Hamilton could win the Championship without winning another race, and that is providing he finishes one place behind Massa in the 3 remaining races. But we all know that won't occur. He could finish ahead of Massa or he can also have one DNF or two. Everything is possible. Don't count out Ferrari just yet. It is not over until it is over. Just look what happened last year.

That uncontrolable instinct could come back to hunt him later. If he had been patient in Spa, he would have been leading the World Championship with a bigger margin now as he would have passed Kimi later on without having to cut that chicane, and would have avoided the penalty. If he loses the championship by a few points, he shouldn't blame that FIA penalty, but himself for playing into their hands.

He should not be wishing too much for rain. Schumacher was the rain master but we remember him going off in one wet race in Brazil. Hamilton being overconfident in a wet race could be costly. One DNF for him, and with Massa scoring points and it could be all over for him. McLaren should focus on finishing the remaining races on the podium whatever the weather.

I think everybody is forgeting that Hamilton didn't win at Spa because he cut the chicane. It was because he kept his car on the the track to the end. Something Kimi did not do and crashed out. FIA punished Hamilton all the same because of a rule intepretation. So if that is so, then all chicane cutting must be punished, even if it is at the start of a race. Rules are rules, aren't there?

McLaren would have been banned by FAI from this year's championship by now if they had done something like that, even once. But being Ferrari, they will only look into it.

I don't see in any forseeable future the models, film stars, empresarios, etc flocking to Singapore night's race. That said, Formula 1 is about speed and overtaking to make it exiting. But for the first safety car, Singapore would have been another processional bore. Take for example, even though lapping 1 sec faster than DC in the Redbull, Hamilton was unnecessary delayed costing him finishing higher up on the podium. The F1 cars even look dull on TV in the dark. OK Singapore was an exiting debut, but give it 2 or 3 dull races and people will screaming to get it off the calender.

I guess McLaren loss of the driver's championship last year will even be more painful now seeing this sort of performance from Kimi. This is not worthy of a world champion. Period.

I wonder when people will realize that Kimi lucked to winning last year's championship because of McLaren's blunders. Four races in a row without scoring any points? A reigning world champion? In a Ferrari? Ok, his engine blew out on him in one of those races. But I don't think Schumacher will have performed this terrible. Luckily for Ferrari, the other Finn in the McLaren is no good either. They would have been trailing McLaren in the constructors standing by a bigger margin now. Being the fastest driver on the grid but do not score points is urterly useless.

No problem there. Biatore is Italian so as Ferrari, so no punishment for Alonso. If it were Hamilton, he would have been stripped of his win. Now talking of FIA inconsistency, why wasn't Felipe given a drive through penalty in Valencia for the same unsafe release into the path Sutil inthe pit lane?. Beats me.

Agree with you trantor. The same thing also came across my mind. I mean Alonso just stopped a couple of laps earlier and then Piquet crashes with no aparent reason. It would have been more credible if it were a car from another team. Fernando was not celebrating too much on the podium either. Seems he knows something that we all don't.

If it were Hamilton, he would have been automatically given 10 places demotion on the starting grid. And if he went on to win, a 25sec penalty also.

Just wait until it starts to rain and you have the light reflecting off everything. And then you have the low tech bugs that are attracted by the high tech lights plugging up the ultra high tech F1 cooling ducts.

A new star is born, bla,bla... Let's not forget that those same things were said when Jenson Button won his maiden Gran Prix in Hungaroring some years ago. And then what happened afterwards? Vettel win is good for F1, and I congratulate him for that, but the conditions played into his favour, same like Jenson. Let's wait and see what other races bring.