It’s that time of year again, a new Formula One season is upon us and with new drivers joining new teams – this year’s world championship could be the most dramatic and unpredictable in the 57 years of the sport. With the spygate controversy and messy politics left thankfully behind, it’s a good opportunity to look ahead to what this year’s championship has in store.
Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen will be determined to keep their title honours after winning last year’s championship against the highly competitive McLarens. The season long battle with double world champion Fernando Alonso, rising star Lewis Hamilton and the ‘Iceman’ Raikkonen were the highlight of the racing season. It was a fascinating contest between these top quality drivers going for race victories last year and 2008 will provide even more spectacular action!
For Raikkonen, the Finn was ecstatic to finally win the drivers’ crown after several years of trying. Last season will be remembered for his sheer determination by driving flat out all the time! Despite struggling in the early part of 2007 with the new Ferrari… After the Finn has overcome his problems with the characteristics of the Bridgestone controlled tyres and the F2007, the Iceman was achieving some quite extraordinary results. To win the title in that gripping season finale in Sao Paulo was unbelievable. All odds were against him and yet the Finn focused on what was on hand and after two hours of some quality driving, he finally did it! Now the next challenge is to defend his title honours.
Lewis Hamilton may have missed out on winning the drivers’ title in his first season of racing in Formula One, but he shouldn’t feel disappointed, as his performance at McLaren was nothing short of remarkable. In fact, he scored four impressive race wins and came within a grasp of winning the ultimate prize in the sport in his rookie season. This year will provide him a better opportunity as the British star has the experience of knowing all the tracks and his rivals. It is now down to McLaren in providing a race-winning car to challenge the Finn.
And what about Alonso? Well, the Spaniard has returned back to his ‘spiritual home’ team that is Renault after a traumatic season at McLaren last year. It didn’t help that Fernando requested to have number one status at Ron Dennis’ team even though the team boss prefers equal status for its drivers… And as for his team-mate Hamilton, the British driver proved to be too hot to handle by out-qualifying and out racing him in several events. In addition, the whole Hungarian Grand Prix bust-up was the major turning point in his decision to jump ship and return back to Renault…
And yet sadly, 2007 will always be remembered by the politics and the outrageous spy scandal that dominated the racing action. The main talking point was the espionage controversy involving Ferrari and McLaren, which led to McLaren being excluded from the constructors’ championship and fined a record $100 million for having obtained knowledge on Ferrari technical data… There is still a debate to this day whether or not the team are guilty.
So that was a brief recap on last season’s championship. What can we expect to see in F1 2008? What are the new rules and regulations and who will come out on top? All this will be revealed in this in-depth preview to the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship.
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