Finns in Racing

Racing Finns

Since I’m a Finn, I need to support Finnish drivers. Last week was a good weekend for us; let’s see how they did and what my predictions are.
 

WRC: Championship races between Finland – France is heating up after Finland won 1-2 in Australia. At the moment France is leading but I’m confident we will catch up.

Like in F1, team orders are allowed and are much more visible than before. In some way it takes something away from the win when the race wasn’t won by driving the fastest time. Comment from Hirvonen was that he didn’t win the race but got 25 points. But, it is a team sport and team tactics are allowed. Could this be the problem for the French? There already have been some blowouts between the French drivers and there might be some new ones since both Ogier and Loeb are close in standings and fighting for the championships.
All we need now is flawless execution since every mistake will be expensive from now on. Since Ford is little bit slower, 110% is needed…

GP3: We have another champion; Valtteri Bottas was crowned as the GP3 champion, Congratulations.

He is also the Test driver for Williams F1 and hopefully he will be able to step up to F1 already next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him later this year driving the Williams F1 during practice sessions, I would let him drive if I would be at Williams. I believe this is already planned since Barrichello’s contract hasn’t been signed. But, is Kovalainen in Valtteri’s way?
 

F1: As expected, it hasn’t been a good year in F1.The only Real Finn, Kovalainen hasn’t been competitive. Same applies to the “Half-Finn”, Rosberg.
This was expected since it is Lotus’s second year. Rumor says Kovalainen is looking at his options; let’s analyze what options he has:
 

Ferrari: Unfortunately not an option after the Kimi fiasco. Granted, Heikki has different personality than Kimi, but damage has already been done and I don’t see it happening. I wrote about this already while back: Week 13 in Racing

Williams: I wouldn't do it, they are not going to be competitive for years to come. Also, they are focusing more on the Jaguar road cars than F1.

Mercedes-Benz: Don’t need any drivers. Di Resta will take Schumi’s place next year and Rosberg has a long contract.
 

Sauber, Red Bull, McLaren: Not an option since both drivers have a contract.
 

Virgin, HRT: Possibility, but I believe Heikki is intelligent enough to stay away, for obvious reasons…
 

Force India: A strong possibility since both drivers could be replaced. Di Resta will most likely move to Mercedes-Benz leaving his seat empty. Team has a strong Mercedez and McLaren backing.

Renault: I believe Senna will drive next year and Petrov brings money. Also it might be that Renault ends the F1. They don’t need to continue as a chassis builder. They can just provide engines and make money from Red Bull and Lotus.
 

Lotus: Obvious choice, but? I guess the question is that will next year’s car be competitive? I’m not a fan of Mike Gascoyne; he failed at Toyota, with bigger, unlimited budget and resources. F1 is very competitive and it will be difficult to catch teams like Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. You can, but it will take years and I don’t see small companies having the patience to wait years and spend millions without any guarantees of success. If I would be Heikki, I would leave now if possible…

Toro Rosso: Possibility and he might jump on this one as it can provide a stepping stone to a Red Bull seat.

Summary: If all goes as I predict, he will end up at Force India. If not, then Toro Rosso and as a last option he will stay at Lotus.

And then is Kimi, what is he going to do next year? I am 100% sure, it won’t be rally or Nascar , I bet he is tired of spending his own money to fund his hobbies. It could be F1 or Le Mans series, most likely Le Mans series. He tested with Peugeot and it apparently went well.

We'll see how this all shakes up...

 

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Kimi Räikkönen - F1 2007 Champion

Onneksi Olkoon Kimi. 

 

Great work Kimi and Congratulations. I'm sure whole Finland and Spain will join me in congratulating you. Not that big surprise for me, since I believed in you all the time. 2 days before the race I said Kimi will win. It wasn't easy though... Good old McLaren UNreliability helped you again.

This is a joke, don't take it too seriously: Hamilton lost because somebody mixed up the ECU's between Alonso and Hamilton.  Alonso's ECU was programmed to go to neutral after 30 mins of the race. For some reason this ECU ended to Hamilton's car...

 

Time to see how well I did. Remember, this was written before the season started.

Ferrari vs McLaren:
Based on last tests, Ferrari looks like a little bit faster. Ferrari has a long wheelbase chassis, but I believe the real answer is in engine, aerodynamics and of course tires.
The End: In races Ferrari ended up being faster. In few races McLaren was clearly faster, like Monaco. But in average I would say Ferrari was a faster car.

Ferrari is a question mark due to personnel changes.
The End: There was some issues during the races, most recent issue was Japan race, where Ferrari really screwed up. I believe though that they took knowingly a risk

McLaren’s reliability will be another question mark. Mercedes apparently is low on power. What is interesting is the low number of laps Alonso drove during the testing, almost half what Hamilton drove.
The End: McLaren reliability ended being really good. See Red Bull vs. McLaren.

What comes to races, I believe Ferrari will have hard time I first few races due to new personnel and chemistry between drivers and the team.

Räikkönen vs. Massa:
Based on 2007 test results, Massa is about 0.3s faster than Räikkönen. My guess is that Massa will outperform Räikkönen in first few races but then Räikkönen will be faster. It just takes time for Räikkönen to learn the car and the team. If you remember back, Räikkönen and Massa have both driven with Sauber. Räikkönen in 2001 (4th in constructor, best ever for Sauber) and Massa 2005 (8th). If you compare Massa and Räikkönen during their Sauber times, Räikkönen has a clear edge. But it will be a tight contest between them during this year. Remember that Räikkönen has always been faster than his teammate.
The End: Spot on. After France Kimi dominated the races. Massa ended up with more pole positions. Unfortunately for him, only race points count. After Britain race I said this: “I expect him to be ahead of Massa from now on.”

Hamilton vs. Alonso:
Hamilton has been pretty impressive during testing and has driven twice the laps compared to Alonso. What is weird that Alonso has driven so small amount of laps. Considering that he is the only one from McLaren having championship hopes, this is weird…
Clear edge to Alonso, but Hamilton will be surprisingly good.
The End: Mostly wrong, Hamilton ended up being faster. Based on tests I said he would be pretty good, but I don’t think there were many who really know how good he was. Only maybe some at McLaren.

Kovalainen vs. Fisichella:
I’m little bit biased here since Heikki Kovalainen is from the same Finnish village where I’m from. But it is not difficult to quess that Kovalainen will outperform Fisi. Fisi’s days are over and this is most likely his last year with Renault.
The End: Spot on. Heikki ended being faster and more consistent. It also looks like Fisi’s days are over.

Honda vs Toyota:
Tight race which will be better, my guess is that Honda will outperform Toyota. Toyota needs better drivers, same applies to Honda partly as well.
The End: Wrong. Toyota was way better. Barrichello didn’t score a single point.

Button vs. Barrichello:
Easy one, Barrichello has lost his edge and Button will outperform him easily. If you look back Barrichello’s career, he was good when he was with Ferrari. Barrichello will most likely retire after this year.
The End: Spot on. Barrichello didn’t score a single point but over all it was a really miserable season for Honda.

Renault:
Renault will be again the team to beat what comes to race reliability. They will take most points whenever they can and normally don’t take risks. Renault has very innovative personnel.
The End: Spot on. I believe Renault was the most reliable, McLaren close second.

BMW:
First few races will be difficult but latter part will be better. BMW needs better drivers. Kubica needs to cool down and Heidfeld needs to be faster in races. He is pretty good in qualifying’s. There is a rumor that BMW was using illegal front wing during winter testing,
The End: Pretty close. Next year will be very good for BMW. They will win some races next year.
 
Red Bull:

Coulthart is too old and Webber doesn’t fit into the car… Disappointing season for them.
The End: Spot on. Ended up being a really bad season for Red Bull, improving towards the end.

Williams: Reliability is a big problem, driver and testers need more experience.
The End. Wrong. Reliability was pretty good and car was pretty good at the end of the season.

Prediction for 2007 season:

Driver:
1. Räikkönen
2. Massa
3. Alonso
4. Kovalainen
5. Heidfeld
The End: Kimi, Alonso and Heidfeld were correct guesses, Hamilton screwed up the deal. 

Constructors:
1. Ferrari
2. Renault
3. BMW
4. McLaren
The End: Ferrari guess was correct, Renault and BMW ended up being reverse.

 

Other mentionable things said during the season:

Red Bull vs. McLaren:

04/06/2007 I said this: “Next interesting thing is that McLaren is so reliable now. Another team has now much more reliability problems than before: Red Bull. What's the connection you might ask?  Adrian Newey, he left last year to Red Bull. Few years ago he was rated highly as a great car designer. No doubt about it, he can create fast cars, but unfortunately also fragile cars. Car design has now changed and not done anymore from 5mm steel like years back.”

Alonso’s problems:

05/13/2007: “Alonso has even bigger one now, called Lewis Hamilton. It really looks like youngster is really faster than Alonso. Kid looks like a real deal, but as I have said, real test is the next race.”
06/04/2007: “As I predicted earlier it looks like Alonso is in big trouble and it is impossible for him to be at McLaren.”

“Alonso and Kovalainen will swap teams. It is clear that both of current McLaren guys can't be #1 at the same time, they are so competitive. Alonso will be at Renault with Piquet, Hamilton with Kovalainen at McLaren. Dennis likes Finnish drivers and Kovalainen is very much like Hakkinen. I'm not surprised if Flavio hasn't called Dennis yet... “

Overall, I'm fairly happy how I faired. Next year will be interesting, can't wait.

 

 

 

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F1 2007 Mid season update

Forward to brasil race... F1 2007 WDC is Kimi Raikkonen and manufacturer is Ferrari. Unfortunately it was an easy fight since McLaren was excluded from F1 2007 championship July 26th after FIA meeting. Why? Easy quess since if you remember Bar was excluded years back due to illegal fuel tank. They will be excluded since there is no way to quarantee a fair fight between manufacturers. Not even if McLaren denies having anything from Ferrari in their car. 

Read more: F1 2007 Mid season update

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F1 2007 season prediction

1. Räikkönen

2. Massa

3. Alonso

4. Hamilton

5. Heidfeld

6. Fisichella

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