The Blog of G

Continuing the whole Hungarogate ™/McLaren implosion saga, I’ve lost a lot of respect for both drivers over the last few days but with the coverage of Lewis’s ‘clarification’ today, I’ve lost even more respect for him. Don’t get me wrong, He’s a rookie and it was inevitable he would make a rookie mistake at some point. Whether or not he swore at the boss or not is now irrelevant, the fact that he felt the need to go to the press to ‘clarify’ doesn’t seem like the behaviour of someone that wants to ‘rise above it’ to me. That’s the rookie mistake, that’s disappointed me so much.

I’m tired of all this McLaren mess, maybe some classic McLaren action will help me forget…

Nope that didn’t work!

I’ve decided this season needs a theme tune so here we go…

Seems I may have been premature laying all the blame on Fernando for Hungarogate ™ with the news that Lewis wasn’t following team orders at the start of the session.

As a result Fernando was a bit peeved. So he decides he can’t see whether there are white lines on his tyres or not and spends 9 or 10 seconds on the radio checking that the team put the right set on. As a result Lewis misses his opportunity to do a flying lap by 4 seconds.

Now all hell has broken loose, McLaren are once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, let’s not forget Lewis’s accusations of team orders in Monaco, Fernando’s accusations of favouritism, The whole spy mess and now Hungarogate ™. It seems to me what should have been a dream season for McLaren has turned into a nightmare.

Is it just me or are both drivers acting like a spoilt brats?

Eddie Irvine seems to think so and he makes some interesting points. I have to say, I agree with him when he says…

To block Lewis like that in qualifying was one of the most stupid things I’ve ever seen and it reminded me of Michael Schumacher’s move on Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997

I think Eddie managed to sum up what I found so offensive about this whole thing…

“I can’t condone cheating, but if you must do it, there’s got to be a subtler way!â€?

At least when Michael and Ayrton were caught they were trying to make it look like an ‘accident’

I can see where he’s coming from, I am starting to think that Lewis has been manipulating things when speaking to the press, but then what driver hasn’t at some point in his career. Still that bit of arrogance that’s starting to show is a sign of what’s happening at the moment and I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of it. He’s the most successful rookie of all time by a long long way and it must be so hard to resist being arrogant when you are in a class of your own.

Last Saturday, when this all went off, I thought that maybe there was a culture of cheating starting to build in McLaren, I now think it’s more to do with 2 giant egos battling to be number 1 in a team that will not publicly condone such a thing and despite the success they have had in the past they have mostly come when there has been a ‘natural’ number 1 in the team (sorry DC I love your attitude these days but you were never a match for Hakkinen, except maybe the day Ron ordered you to let him pass). Remember Senna and Prost? That ended well for McLaren didn’t it

I feel myself, it’s only a matter of time before one of the brats throws the toys out of the pram and does something even more stoopid (and probably dangerous) than what we saw this weekend. I really hope it doesn’t come to that but barring Ron actually names a number 1 driver I can’t see this ending any other way. The question is which one will it be, the young gifted rookie or the 2 time world champ?

Well Done Lewis, and seein as how yer best buddy Fernando Alonso isn’t talking to you at the moment I thought this might cheer you up

I’m disgusted, Fernando Alonso, a two times world Champion, ignored his pit crew and sat in the pit box as Lewis Hamilton waited for a change of tyres and have one last crack at pole position. Fernando delayed Lewis long enough that he wasn’t able to attempt his last flying lap before the qualifying ended and took pole position from Lewis.

Shame on you Fernando, you have often criticised other drivers for tactics such as these and now you do the same! To your own Teammate? of course your counting on Ron Dennis not lodging a formal complaint, as it would compromise the team, your counting on Ron Dennis not feeling the need to ‘change your engine’ or ’start you from the pit lane’ or even firing you. It was obvious from the coverage that this was not planned and approved by the team.

I’m reminded of ‘Rascassegate’ at last years Monaco GP and Flavio Briatore’s comments in particular.

“Someone who was seven times a world champion wants us to believe that he didn’t do it on purpose – it’s fairyland.”

At least there could be some debate over Schumacher’s intentions, but, in my opinion, there can be no denying that Fernando sat still despite being ordered out of the pits by the team.

This all comes right in the middle of the whole Stepneygate affair and I have to say thing’s look bad for McLaren, they were found guilty of cheating, yet not penalised as ‘they gained no benefit’ from the information. I’m sorry, but cheating is cheating and unless some punishment is applied to McLaren even as a token gesture, I believe it calls in to question the impartiality of the FIA and it almost legitimises cheating maybe that’s why Fernando did it.

I’m sure there will be a lot of comment in the next few days/weeks regardless of what the outcome this weekend and in the whole spy thing, at the end of the day, it would be easy to say the only ones losing out are the stakeholders in the sport, as they are making a mockery of what has been an incredibly entertaining season in F1 for all the right reasons.

But I love F1, have done since I were a nipper and I’m a stakeholder in the sport, granted as a spectator only but it’s the spectators that the sponsors want to entice and it’s the sponsors that provide the funds for the teams and drivers to go racing. I’m glad I’m not a vodafone customer because I would now have to change phone companies, I’m glad I don’t drive a Mercedes because I would have to change it.

First thing’s first, what a thrilling GP weekend, Qualy was like the haydays of the one hour session and Prost and Senna taking it all the way to the last thousandth of a second. The race didn’t have a dull moment, wheel banging, overtaking, mechanical and electrical failures, a crash or 2, a Fire on the pitlane, a blowout on the main straight, I think any doubt about the excitement levels in formula 1 have been well and truly done away with.

So, is it to early to speculate? Lewis Hamilton could be the 2007 world champion, personally I’m a Massa fan these days but I’ll talk about that another time, Lets just take a look at what Lewis has accomplished in only 4 races in Formula 1.

1. He has finished every race, always good for a rookie to be able to do that.
2. He has passed cars on the first lap of every race.
3. He has finished on the podium at every race so far.
4. He seems to be consistently faster than his team mate.
5. He seems to be consistently faster than the current World Champion.
6. He’s the youngest driver ever to lead the world drivers championship.
7. He’s never lost in Monaco (and that’s where the next race is)

And  I think he’s also the most successful formula 1 rookie of all time with 4 podiums in his first season and there’s only been 4 races!

The Lewis Hamilton story is an incredible one and it is sure to draw more and more attention to Formula 1 as time goes on, even if he starts making “the rookie” mistakes that everyone is still half expecting. What he has achieved so far is astounding, Lets not forget the current World Champ is the man who beat the most successful driver in history to 2 world championships and Lewis has made him look just a little silly recently

So I’m asking the question does anyone think we could have a rookie world champion at the end of the 2007 season?