So, my relevant irreverent review of the racers of 2007

So we all know the main stories of 2007, that Lewis Hamilton had a record-breaking rookie season with McLaren, upstaging his team mate, the two-time reigning champion Fernando Alonso, and the championship went down to the wire, finally to be taken by Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari. Also that the parallel McLaren/Ferrari story was the spy scandal which now has finally been resolved with Ron Dennis making his public apology on behalf of McLaren. But lets look into a few of the details of 2007.

SETTING THE STAGE

First, it has been said by many others, but 2007 is the start of a new era in F1. Its the first season that Michael Schumacher is not racing anymore. And as he won a record seven F1 championships in total, and a record 5 straight championships, with Ferrari obviously, he was the dominant force in F1 for more than a decade. Only one existing driver had bested Schumacher in this decade - Fernando Alonso (twice, with Renault) and the last one to do it before the five championships in a row was Mika Hakkinen in 1998 and 1999 (with McLaren).

So also amazingly, 2007 was a season when only one active driver had any championships - Alonso. It is fair to say that Alonso was the top driver coming into the season. But as McLaren had had a very bad season in 2006 (no wins for the first time in ages), there was some concern that Alonso was departing from Renault onto a team that was not necessarily as strong.

The other near-superstar driver among the field was Kimi Raikkonen, who had twice finished second in the world championship - both times going into the final race still contesting for the championship. He lost it to Michael Schumacher in his second season for McLaren in 2003 and then lost it to Fernando Alonso in 2005. I was of course very proud to read that many of the insiders rated Kimi the best driver, ahead of Alonso, before the 2007 season started.


Then there was Felipe Massa who had a year at Ferrari with Michael Schumacher prior to Kimi joining the Scuderia. And critically, Massa had already won with the red cars. So in some ways, Massa was the boy on the inside, and Kimi the new-comer to Ferrari. And if Massa could beat Michael Schumacher in a couple of races in the same car, even at Schumacher's end of his career, then yes, Massa was a fast driver indeed.

But nobody expected Lewis Hamilton to be that competitive from the start.

A couple of interesting dynamics of the top cars and the season.


MCLAREN

As the season unfolded, it became clear that McLaren was the fastest car in 2007. The only reason it didn't win the constructors' championship was because of the Spy Scandal and having all constructors' points revoked. So we have the two-time reigning champion Fernando Alonso, with a rookie driver as his partner, and he was blessed with the fastest car. He should have walked away with the championship. No matter how great Lewis Hamilton is, that Fernando knew each of the circuits (well, except for Fuji in Japan) having raced all many times, and having the maturity and experience, no matter how fast Lewis was, and yes, would occasionally beat Alonso - as Fisichella had some times driven to better results than Alonso at Renault earlier - Fernando should have been enough of a champion, and have enough of self-confidence, to drive and win it all.

Instead, Alonso got involved with totally silly games of emotional crisis blaming McLaren of not giving equal treatment of its drivers, and eventually demanding to be given preferred treatment over Lewis Hamilton. This to me was very poor form. Yes, Alonso is a fast driver, but that showed very bad judgement, and very very bad sportsmanship. I had admired Alonso a lot when he battled Schumacher (and Kimi) the previous two seasons but now his image in my eyes was severely diminished. I can say I was happy Alonso did not win the championship.

So Lewis Hamilton, the wonder rookie. What a season. I was so happy for him when he finally won his first race (Canada I think). Finishing on the podium for nine straight races to start his F1 career. And to contest the championship to the final race. Wow, what a season. And a charming, delightful racer when interviewed on TV etc. Exactly what F1 needed for an era after Michael Schumacher. If he had won the season, I would have been hearbroken for Kimi as it would have been the third time for Kimi to finish second, but I would have been very happy for Lewis. (Of course as it ended, I could not have been happier for Kimi)


If this is how Lewis Hamilton races in his first season, even with the fastest car, then we will see enormous success out of him in the future. Future champion, definitely. Might even be the best driver of all time, judging by the start of his career in F1. We'll see. I wish him all the best for 2008.

FERRARI

Over at Ferrari we had Kimi winning his first race for the Scuderia. That immediately endeared him with his team. Then Ferrari had to change their floor (illegal movable parts) and the aerodynamic changes to the car hurt them for the immediate next few races. Even so, Massa soon won not once but twice, until Kimi got his second win at I think the 8th race of the season. I think the low point was Monaco - where Kimi had already won (a rare treat for race car drivers) when at McLaren - but to hit a wall, break the suspension for a wheel, and to come to a standstill at the infamous Michael Schumacher curve.. I was quite concerned at the time that Kimi was somehow losing it. But then he got into his groove, and as many experts have commented, Kimi was the best driver for the second half of the season, clearly, stealing the championship in the final race.

Personally for me this was a strange season of cheering for "my team". For more than ten years I had cheered McLaren's Finnish drivers and the silver car had been "my car" to cheer. And equally Michael Schumacher - as the clear rival to Mika Hakkinen with his two championships - in the red car was "the enemy" that I loved to hate. I was always thinking in any race - silver car good; red car bad. Now this season I had to adjust to the opposite as Kimi moved from McLaren to Ferrari - silver car BAD and red car GOOD. I found myself many times early in the season as the camera suddenly switched to follow another car, to momentarily cheer the "wrong car".

Obviously, if a season is going to result in a come-from-behind win for your team, then it is the most exciting and rewarding season. But along the way, as Kimi fell ever more behind, it was also a draining season that required a lot of courage to remain optimistic that Kimi could pull it through. Obviously the final championship victory was all the sweeter (for me as a fan, and no doubt even more for Kimi as the driver) for the season-long struggle. I may return to these personal themes later in the blog. Lets move to the other teams.

RENAULT

What happened? Renault had the best car in 2005 and 2006. Fisichella is not as good as Alonso, but Fisi is perfectly capable of winning races, and has won for Renault. Now he was the de-facto number one driver, with rookie Heikki Kovalainen dressing up as his team mate, Fisi should have been very well motivated and mentally prepared to win. But the Renault car itself was a dog this season (McLaren and Ferrari far better, BMW even was better than Renault)

But while Fisichella was throwing away his chance to lead the team, Kovalainen took to the task and by the end of the season Heikki had 30 points to Fisi's 21 and Heikki had finished as high as second once in this season, with clearly a car not worthy of a second place finish. Had we not had Lewis Hamilton as a rookie this season, everybody would be raving about Heikki's fantastic rookie season. Now it was totally shaded by the sublime season by Hamilton. No wonder McLaren snapped Kovalainen to replace Alonso. And it is funny, at Renault for his rookie season, Heikki steps into the team who manufactured the best car, and into Alonso's vacated seat. Now for 2008 Heikki for his second season again steps into the team who made the best car (McLaren) and again into Alonso's freshly-vacated seat.

BMW-Sauber

The former Sauber team received massive injections of cash and staff and effort, and with methodical German engineering focus, BMW is moving up and closer to the front of the grid. With the third best car, Quick Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica had good moments in the season and it was very enjoyable to see this team improving all through the season.

Williams

Which is not what can be said for Williams. Even though Nico Rosberg drove the best he could, the Williams car was not up to it. Considering the William team's long heritage of winning (third winningest F1 team of all time), we can only hope that their fortunes improve for 2008. Alex Wurz did not shine in his last year and has now quit F1.

Red Bull

The team is getting better and better. Coulthard and Webber did the best they could in the mid field.

Toyota

But a team that is severely disappointing season after season, is Toyota. For all the money the team has, and the long-term commitment, and the name drivers etc, this is a team that should be very ashamed that they managed only 13 points all season for Trulli and Ralf Schumacher.

Honda

And talking about disappointments, Honda's car was horrible this season. Jenson Button's six points were mostly the result of the rain in China, but Barrichello with no points. Why is he continuing racing? Anyway, the car was horrible and Button needs to be congratulated for sticking with the team all season.

Super Aguri

I want to mention Super Aguri (Honda's junior team). The team was created suddenly and with modest funds and in what seemed like a desperation move when Honda announced they were not renewing Sato's contract. Many thought this was a team destined to be a brief pretender until it would disappear. But Super Aguri - and Sato - showed they can get points - four of them in total - and of the back-markers, certainly Super Aguri is the team most worth celebrating. This will be one fascinating story for 2008, can they build on the success. And they will surely cause worry at Toyota and Honda if Super Aguri starts off collecting points..

Toro Rosso, Spyker

Then we have Toro Rosso and Spyker. Enough said.

That is the quick look back. I'll next examine a bit what I think might be coming this season.

Toro Rosso

Welcome to Tomi's Formula One blog

This will be a blog about Formula One and perhaps some other topics as well.I am an author of books on mobile telecoms, digital converence and social networking.

I have a blog about those topics together with Alan Moore, at www.communities-dominate.blogs.com and my business/professional website is at www.tomiahonen.com

So this blog will have none of those boring "work" topics. This will only be occasional postings about one of my passions, Formula One racing.

And a bit about me. Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen, Tomi Ahonen - yes, the pattern fits - I am from Finland. I am certainly not impartial. My final loyalties are to Finnish drivers (as we have no F1 team anymore, the only Finnish F1 team existed very briefly in the 1970s) which currently means the reigning F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen on Ferrari, and the just-transferred Heikki Kovalainen who joins McLaren from Renauilt where he was a rookie driver last season.

But I do my best to try to be honest and fair. Much as I did not like his style and demeanour, and knowing he was the chief rival to the most successful Finnish F1 driver of all time (Mika Hakkinen) - I do begrudgingly admit that Michael Schumacher was the greatest F1 driver of all time. Ayrton Senna might have been even better had he not died mid-career. So expect me to try to be fair and impartial.

I am 47 years old so I remember older drivers too, from the Fittipaldis and Mario Andrettis and yes, first Finnish F1 world champion Keke Rosberg. But I'm not old enough to remember the early legends.

I live in Hong Kong and have a very hectic life in my consulting business so I may not always find time to update this blog. I don't have any internal contacts to any teams or other related organizations, so don't come to this blog expecting any breaking news.

But I like numbers, I like F1, and I like to give my private pundit views on miscellaneous F1 happenstances. So expect the occasional rant and rave here.If you are a reader of the blog, please do comment on something I've written and tell me who you like and don't like, why etc.

Lets have some dialogue. I love talking about F1 and if you've managed to find my blog, I'm sure you love F1 as well.