Fun F1

It’s common for the marketing people to produce World Champion T-shirts before the World Championship is decided. While we can’t confirm it, it’s almost certain there are some “Lewis Hamilton – Formula One World Champion 2007″ T-shirts floating around somewhere (probably left in Brazil)…

Who would have guessed Lewis wouldn’t take the crown in Brazil? He had a good grid position. He only needed 7th place. The world (well, Britain) was on his side. Yet he couldn’t rewrite the history books.

Or could he? McLaren are protesting the fact that the BMW and Williams cars that finished ahead of Lewis didn’t get penalised for their fuel being out of regulation temperature. So maybe those T-shirts might be worth some coin after all? For now, we’ll assume the result stands as we review the race itself…

Kimi Raikkonen – Sweet justice for the man who tried so hard at McLaren. The man who we thought would be unstoppable after the first race of the season. The man who won 6 races – a few more than any other driver this year. The man who had mechanical failures while his opponents (McLaren) had 100% reliability – yet he still managed to get more points. The man who hasn’t had to resort to off-track politics to try to get an advantage. The man who simply, deserved it the most. Well done Kimi, well done.

Lewis Hamilton – We’ll do a championship summary post later on, but as far as the Brazilian Grand Prix is concerned Lewis cracked under the pressure for the 2nd race running. To be fair his gearbox problem had more to do with the final result (update: as Paula points out below, the latest news is that Lewis accidentally hit a starting button which caused the “problem”. Thanks Paula! ), but the question remains – why the wild driving at the start of the race? It’s great that he wants to win each and every race, but give me a championship with 4 race wins instead of 5 wins any day…

Fernando Alonso – Great start, but that’s it. For whatever reason there have been so many races this season where we haven’t seen the magic he showed at Renault. I can’t help but think if it was Lewis in 3rd he would have been able to stay closer to the Ferraris…

Felipe Massa – Super job from the Brazilian driver. Shame he wasn’t allowed to win his home Grand Prix, or was he? Kimi sure did put in some quick laps before his last pit stop and he’s jumped Massa like this in the past. Either way, I’m sure Felipe could have had a different result if the World Championship wasn’t so close. Maybe Kimi will return the favour next year? Although something tells me Kimi will be even quicker next year…

Nico Rosberg – Yet another fantastic performance. Really would be good to see him up against Hamilton in a McLaren next year.

BMW – Good to see them back on pace after a few poor rounds earlier. They’ve been the thorn in Fernando Alonso’s side in many races this year and this time they really hurt Lewis Hamilton.

Kazuki Nakajima – Kazuki who? Apart from a very dangerous and scary pit stop, this guy seemed to actually have a little bit of speed at times over the weekend. I wonder where his future lies.. surely not as a full time Williams or Toyota driver next year?

Mark Webber – Good old reliability problems! Man, this guy can’t even buy a break! Another driver who’d be good to see in a McLaren.