Reflections - The 2007 Season Analyzed

[MikeLane]

Reflections On The 2007 F1 Season.

By
Mike Lane

Who could have predicted at the beginning of the 2007 season what an eventful one it would turn out to be?
There would be excitement, intense rivalry, political intrigue and the closest championship battle for years, which was to go down to the wire.

At the start of the season there were a number of questions unanswered.
Would Renault continue its run of success or would Ferrari make a comeback?
Would McLaren come to the fore with its new driver line-up and how would Red Bull, Honda and Williams improve this year?

Then there was the question of the drivers and how new partnerships might work out, as well as the new kids on the block.

At the first race in Australia, two of the new kids laid down a marker when Lewis Hamilton took third for a podium finish in his first race for McLaren and Nico Rosberg came a credible 7th in the less competitive Williams.

New Ferrari signing, Kimi Raikkonen, took the win with McLaren signing, Fernando Alonso, in second.

The second race in Malaysia saw the beginning of a pattern where McLaren and Ferrari would battle for and win the remaining races. Indeed apart from four races, these two teams would dominate all podium places during the season.

This second race also saw the first of four consecutive 2nd place finishes for ‘Rookie’ Lewis Hamilton. He was to become an overnight sensation and the big news of 2007.

The other early patterns to emerge were the strong finishes for BMW, particularly with Nick Heidfeld and the poor finishes to come for Toyota and Honda. In addition, Renault were not showing the kind of pace which had won them back-to-back championships in 2005 and 2006.

By race 5 in Monte Carlo it was obvious that far from being overawed by Alonso, Hamilton was going to give him a hard time and as the F1 show hit North America, Hamilton took back-to-back wins in Canada and the USA to lead the World Championship!

Ferrari reasserted their position in France and England with Raikkonen taking both wins.

This was quickly reversed when McLaren won at, both, Nurenburg with Alonso and then Hungary with Hamilton.

Hungary was to publicly signal the breakdown in the relationship, first between Alonso and Hamilton and then Alonso and McLaren.
Hungary was the event where Alonso famously held up Hamilton during his last pit-stop in qualifying and thereby prevented Hamilton from a realistic shot at pole position. Alonso was subsequently penalised and Hamilton started from pole to win the race.

The next four races were won, alternately, by Ferrari and then McLaren, but then the last two races by Ferrari to clinch the championship.

This was perhaps a championship won by the grit and determination of Raikkonen as much as the loss by mistakes for Hamilton.

A graphic illustration of the driver’s performances in the points winning situation, proves interesting reading.

Individual Driver’s Championship Results Here

It can clearly be seen that Raikkonen had more wins than his two main rivals and these were the final races of the season. Hamilton and Alonso had more 2nd and 3rd finishes but these were not enough to take the title.

However, it is staggering to note that Hamilton led the World championship from race 4, Alonso drew level at race 5 but then Hamilton led for the rest of the championship until the final race when he lost the Championship by one point.

This is why Hamilton was such a sensation in 2007 in his ‘rookie’ year.

Looking at the other teams we can see that BMW was by far the strongest team in third place, with Heidfeld and Robert Kubica both finishing in the points eleven times out of seventeen. Heidfeld had the better season with higher places, but nevertheless Kubica put in a solid season, particularly when you consider his horrific accident at Montreal when he hit the wall at 143 mph.

At Renault, Heikki Kovalainen showed veteran, Giancarlo Fisichella the way with points in eleven of the seventeen races compared with six for Fisichella. Undoubtedly this was a poor season by Renaults standard.

At Williams, Rosberg had a good year with points from seven races compared with his team-mate, Alex Wurz who only managed three. The Williams definitely looked a stronger car this year and we can hope for better things in 2008.

Red Bull had a disappointing year overall but one does get the feeling that steady progress is being made for the future. David Coultard managed points in four races compared with his team-mate, Mark Webber who got three, but Webber did manage a podium finish at Nurenburg.

Japanese teams had a torrid time in 2007 and never looked like improving.
At Honda, Jenson Button managed points in only two races, whilst Rubens Barrichello failed to get a single point.

Toyota fared a little better with Jarno Trulli managing points in four races, whilst Ralf Schumacher only managed points in three. This is not the kind of performance expected with the huge budget Toyota has invested.

Toro Rosso had three points finishes, with Sebastien Vettel bettering his team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Super Aguri had two points finishes both from Takuma Sato, with Anthony Davidson failing to get any, although Davidson seemed to get a fair amount of bad luck in terms of reliability issues. Certainly he showed some strong qualifying speed during the year.

Lastly, Spyker managed a single point with Adrian Sutil but with the management takeover for next season and large injection of budget, things should improve.

Overall, the racing was great and the drama exciting with the closest championship finish for a long time.

Of course the headlines diverted attention away from the racing at times, especially with the spy story involving Ferrari and McLaren. This was an unwelcome distraction and not good for the sport. Leaked information between teams has always gone on according to people in the sport, but I suppose where this scandal was different was the alleged passing of confidential information between two senior people within the two teams. I guess the FIA has put down a marker now with the punishment handed down to McLaren and other teams will be in no doubt where the line lies. This may be a good thing in the long term, but I do think it was incredibly badly timed when we had perhaps one of the greatest seasons ever and with Hamilton’s success, a new influx of young fans.

The other big distraction was the histrionics between Alonso and the McLaren team.
Alonso seemed to be unable to cope with the equal status within the team and perhaps more importantly, the challenge from the new kid on the block, Hamilton.

This did nothing for Alonso’s reputation, which is a shame because there is no doubt he is an outstanding driver and should have dealt with it in a more professional way.

So to sum up the year, it was a particularly good one with a fantastically close finish.
The racing was close and exciting, especially when Hamilton was flying and we had all the drama when he and McLaren failed to get it right.

My own belief is that this was a great learning curve for Hamilton and may make him much stronger for the future than he might have been if he had won the World Championship first time out.

2008 promises to carry on where 2007 finished, with great potential for BMW, Red Bull, Toyota and Honda to challenge the two leading teams. I am particularly excited by Honda’s potential with Ross Brawn in charge. He is without doubt one of the giants in this sport and if he can’t get Honda up front, I suspect no-one can. Perhaps we may see the true potential of Jenson Button who has been a little overshadowed this year by fellow Brit, Hamilton. Jenson is without doubt champion material but he has had an incredible run of poor equipment at his disposal in the past.

It will also be fascinating to see what Renault can do with Alonso back in the fold.

The prospect of Raikkonen, Alonso and Hamilton going head to head in different cars augers well for 2008.

I can’t wait.

Mike Lane
F1 Correspondent