2007 Formula One Driver’s Championship Possibly Decided Off Track
Posted by Chan Kelwin in ThoughtsDidn’t I tell you that this season’s Formula One Driver’s Championship has been decided off track? Ok, I said it could have been decided off track, but still. Kimi Raikkonen won the championship despite being 7 points behind Hamilton and another 3 points behind Alonso. It would have taken a miracle for Kimi to win but he did. A “miracle” did happen. Or did it?
A brief summary of the race
Kimi had a great start at the start of the race. Hamilton was literally blocked by the two Ferarri and had no where to go. He ran wide and Alonso was right by his side. He later lost more places after having some fun time on the grass. At that point, he was still very well in the points. A few laps later, he “miraculously” had a gearshift problem causing him to lose drive. As miraculously as the problem occurred, it vanished after some time. However, this problem has dropped him to 18th on the grid.
Due to his problem, the McLaren team sent him out on super soft tyres on his first pit stop with a light fuel load. This was possibly to help him recover some places and allow him to attack at the end. It was assumed that he will be filled up until the end of the race on his second pit stop but strangely, the team decided that to switch him on a three stop strategy.
As for Alonso, there really isn’t much to talk about. He tried “his best” and finished third. Even so, that wasn’t enough to beat Kimi.
What is the problem?
Although it may not be true but I have a strong feeling that the championship has been decided off track. That Kimi Raikkonen will rise up as the champion. Why do I say so?
Firstly, McLaren’s involvement in the spy saga is a serious legal issue. Not only were they stripped off all constructors points and fined $100 million, I read that those involved could face jail sentence as well. Although the drivers may not have been directly involved in the spy saga, they have benefited from the stolen data. Therefore, it is safe to say that they wouldn’t have been as fast and scoring the amount of points they did without them. That means that even the drivers’ points should be stripped off as well.
Why didn’t the FIA strip off the McLaren drivers’ points?
Do you remember what happened at the 2005 United States GP? If you don’t, this YouTube video will definitely refresh your memories. Here is a full text report on the grand prix by itv.
The Michelin tyres could not cope with the flat-out banked turn 13. Ralf Schumacher’s set of Michelin tyres failed causing him to crash heavily on the Friday’s practice session. To make a long story short, all 14 cars running on the Michelin tyres boycotted the race by diving into the pits after the installation lap due to safety reasons. That left only six cars to start the grand prix. The FIA didn’t like what happened. However, the most important part is that thousands of other fans trackside hated it as well.
People started boo-ing. I believe some people even left the circuit. Some people got so angry that they started throwing water bottles over the fence onto the racetrack. I remember one car going over a bottle causing it to burst in a big splash.
After such a long post, what is my point?
Can’t you see? The McLaren drivers’ points must be stripped off. However, doing so meant that both the championships have been decided off track. How do you think the millions of Formula 1 fans out there would feel about that? There were a few more races left in the season. If both the championships have already been decided, why should anyone continue to watch the race anymore? People will start to boycott F1 once again. Don’t be surprised to see empty grandstands in every single race after that.
Instead, we have everything nicely panned out now. Alonso dropped off in the rain a few races ago and Hamilton lost it in Shanghai. The final race saw even more hiccups with the two McLaren drivers.
At the end, Kimi won the championship over one point. This must have been the greatest season in the past few years. I don’t remember seeing a championship where the drivers finished so close to each other.
The funny part is that although Kimi won, he was basically (almost) emotionless. If that isn’t bad enough, even the Ferrari crew members wasn’t as ecstatic as they should have been. They have just won the driver’s championship for god’s sake. That is a bloody damn miracle. Where is the joy? Where is the craziness? Where is the excitement?
Maybe they know something that we don’t?
Having said that, I enjoyed seeing Kimi winning the championship. I was no less nervous than anyone else in the Ferrari team after he has made his final pit stop with over a dozen laps more to go. All this could have been pure coincidence but what if it wasn’t?
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