F1 2007

I'll kick off with some thoughts about the recent Formula 1 season.

And what a fantastic season, if you love the politics and intrigue of F1. There could have been more overtaking, but we say that every year. I can't quite remember a season where four drivers have had the opportunity to become world champion, probably the last time was in 1986 until Ayrton Senna's chances diminished.

Of course four things will stick in people's minds.

1) The F1 Spygate saga. This has made the F1 season this year the most political since the FISA-FOCA war of 1982. I believe that both McLaren and Ferrari have failings in dealing with disgruntled employees, which led to McLaren receiving the largest fine in sport. Unfortunately, Ferrari seem to have been the beneficiary of this, claiming this year's constructors championship.

Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari President, has made some ludicrous claims that McLaren are racing a chassis which contains a large amount of Ferrari intellectual property. The McLaren is a short wheelbase car whereas the Ferrari is a long wheelbase car, different solutions will be required for the same problems.

I tend to believe that Ron Dennis and his team have been hung out to dry by the FIA and have been treated harshly. Possibly due to some past personal antipathy with the head of the FIA, Max Mosley.

2) Kimi Raikkonen is a worthy champion. Although I would have liked Lewis Hamilton to have been crowned champion this weekend, my second preference was for Kimi. He started great with a win in Australia (in an illegal car - no punishment for Ferrari, I wonder why), dropped back for a while but then reinforced his superiority over his team mate with some cracking drives at the end of the season. He's been, too often, the victim of faulty machinery but if Ferrari find their previous rock solid level of reliability then this year will be the first of many.

3) Lewis Hamilton has star quality. From the first races of the season it was clear that this guy has star quality in abundance. He can qualify like Ayrton Senna (a vast improvement on his GP2 days), overtake like Nigel Mansell, have his wits about him like Michael Schumacher and be relentless like Fernando Alonso. A shame that he didn't win the championship as he did deserve it, but with a little more experience he will make it. Sometimes he needs to drive like Alain Prost and not Gilles Villeneuve to claim the big prize.

4) Fernando Alonso behaved like a spoilt brat. Until this year I had the utmost admiration for Alonso. He is spectacularly fast and can put in a fast consistent lap time, lap after lap. But last year there were a few signs of his petulance when he said that he 'felt alone' in Renault, even when he knew that Renault were doing all they could to help him (to the detriment of this year's car). This year he's shown how rattled he is by a fast team mate, to the extent that he was prepared to blackmail his boss into getting his own way. He throws his toys out of extremely fast pram when he's bettered, what a contrast to Lewis and Kimi. Expect Alonso to only be in teams which guarentee number one status from now on.

Well that's my thoughts on this year, shortly I will be blogging what I think will happen during the winter.

Squiffy.