Finally, it has been decided that F1 GP will take place in New Delhi in 2010, and according to Bernie Ecclestone, Karun Chandhok has good chances of making to F1 this year. ( check last para of this).

Karun Chandhok’s interview at formula1.com

BTW, no news from Alonso and his future team, is he planning a sabbatical?

After an action packed scandalous season and a grand finale in Brazil, I thought all the action is over, but it seems I was wrong.

Former Ferrari technical director, Ross Brawn is now team principle but for Honda, Jean Todt will be replaced as a sporting director of Ferrari, Renault has accepted possession of McLaren data but denied the usage (did we hear the same somewhere else this season?), Alonso is still uncertain where to go, Kathekiyan is (almost) set not to race in 2008, Schumacher is on track again and Hamilton is all set to become first $1 bn sports star.

This is too much, am finding very hard to see how 2008 season will be. Where will Alonso go or he will race or not? McLaren might start with negative points and if that happens what are the chances for Hamilton to win the championship (there are doubts already)? Where will Renault be after the scandal hearing, will they start from negative points or will be disqualified for a season? But in all this confusion, restructuring, there are few things that are clear. Kimi would start as World Champion and leading the pack with the fastest car on track.

Just read this news, I feel happy for Alonso and bad for McLaren, they lost a great driver.

Now the only question is where will Alonso go? and who will partner Hamilton?

My Guess, Alonso to Renault/Williams and Nico will partner Hamilton.

This is an excellent article from BBC discussing the recent controversy boiling in McLaren team.

Last race weekend, commentator Steve Slater also mentioned that Alonso’s popularity has dipped after he has moved out of Renault. I agree to it, and if the blackmail episode took place between Ron and Alonso that it is a true shame. Shame on the game and World Champion. But I have my own doubts, Spy scandal as is happened was all wrong doings of McLaren + Nigel Stepney, then how did Alonso appear to be villain in complete story? Is this another McLaren strategy to shift focus from there spying to Alonso. Whatever rivalry is going on between Alonso and Hamilton, why is Alonso responsible for all the drama? Is this because Hamilton is playing press very well? British media has more audiences than any other?

Regarding the move made by Alonso at first corner in Spa, I would like to say I loved it. I know it was a dirty trick, but still I loved it because it did not involve any courtroom drama. And we audiences would appreciate more and more incidents like this and fierce competition if everything settles on track only. Kimi also sided with Alonso on this incident.

When I was informed of $ 100mn penalty I was shocked by the huge amount, but now I figured out that it would be meager $30mn. I had one more surprise that FOM (Formula One Management) pays each winner a particular sum of amount, which corresponds to $68.9mn in case of McLaren. I want to know, why is more money paid to richer teams, to make them better or what. What about the poorer teams whose budget is far lesser than tenth of Ferrari’s or McLarne’s? Don’t you think that FOM should provide a budget to smaller teams, so they can compete better?

Another thing that I am not happy with is that Ferrari is still pushing the spy scandal and wants to take it further. I guess the fine and punishment is fair enough and most importantly it has stopped any further damage to the game. I guess what Ferrari wanted (The constructor’s crown) they have got it and should stop now for sake of the game. (I know none of the TIFOSIs would be happy with me)

Spa also marked strong performance by Spyker team, I loved the way Sutil was racing his new b spec car and it’s a good sign for Mallya that his team might be competing in middle order next year. It is really appreciable that Super Aguri and Spyker are performing better than Honda and Toyota.

My Championship Predictions

Predictions prove that Kimi still have chance to win the world championship, but if Hamilton and Alonso always finish fourth or below and Kimi always finish first. It would be very hard to keep McLarens out on fourth always, so Massa will have to play a very crucial role if Ferrari wants to get driver’s championship. I did not take any and DNFs into account, as it can happen to anyone and definitely Ferrari has more chances of DNF than McLaren.

Complete transcript of the WMSC hearing.

After following the Ferrari-McLaren espionage controversy I was feeling tired, but today when I read all new kind of allegations I am dejected, disappointed and sorry for the game. It all started with press reporting that the main aim of this scandal is to target Ron Dennis and FIA wants him to resign, and he has been offered this kind of deal too. This was followed by FIA denying any such thing.

But the most shocking news was that Ferrari and McLaren might have an out of court settlement before WMSC hearing. Till now Renault boss Flavio was completely supporting Ferrari to have sanctions against McLaren but some reports suggest Dennis has some evidences against Renault and if he reveals French team will be expelled out of championship. (Source)

In all this we see that English press is not commenting on anything now unlike when this controversy began. Along with the statement by Hamilton “we might be out of job next week” makes me think there is something seriously wrong somewhere. It is also suggested that Alonso is the whistleblower this time and this was evident at Monza after he finished the race.

Sir Williams is worried about the sponsorship loss due to scandal. But no one cares about the F1 fans and what they want. Fans want real competition without scandals, where just mechanics and drivers are involved instead of lawyers and courtrooms. It’s a shame on the game.

News: Probably no Indian driver for Spyker in 2008, a big blow for Narain.

As it happened

1. Feb 2007: Nigel Stepney makes it public that he is not happy with new Ferrari team. After few days Stepney is made head of performance team and he no longer would be attending any races.
2. June 23: Stepney accused of sabotaging Ferraris before raceday. Corrosive white powder is found in fuel tanks of the car. Stepney’s apartment is searched by cops and criminal case filed.
3. July 3: Stepney dismissed after an internal inquiry by Ferrari. Ferrari accuses Mike Coughlan , McLaren’s chief designer suspected of espionage against Ferrari. Coughlan is suspended from McLaren team.
4. July 4: Police raids Coughlan’s house and finds a 780 page Ferrari technical documents. McLaren confirms that no intellectual property is passed to any other members or is used in the cars.
5. July 6: Honda team confirms that Stepney and Coughlan met Nick Fry, Team Principal, Honda for job opportunity. Honda clarifies no design documents were transferred.
6. July 7: Max Mosley clears Honda in the scandal.
7. July 11: Coughlan provides an affidavit specifying all the relevant facts. Ferrari on other hand agreed not to pass this affidavit to Italian authorities.
8. July 16: McLaren confirms that ‘internal investigation’ confirms no Ferrari material was used or in possession of McLaren team member ( except Coughlan) before July 3. McLaren to face FIA World Motor Sport Council on July 16 for ‘keeping’ the other team’s technical document from March to July.
9. July 19: sources confirmed that Stepney tipped off Coughlan about Ferrari’s movable floor design before the start of 2007 season and McLaren asked FIA for rule clarification regarding movable floor and FIA did not allow to use movable floor, thus significantly hampering Ferrari’s performance in Australian GP.

Pitpass reveals that main reason behind FIA summoning McLaren because of alleged similarities between this year’s McLaren ( MP422) and last year’s Ferrari ( f2007). Video footage shows there are similarities between body parts and McLaren is using the same unique decal technology (Vodafone stickers) developed by Ferrari. Supposedly McLaren is using the red paint used by Ferrari also which is not McLaren style as they are used to dull colors.

Corriere della sera, an Italian newspaper claims to have seen the affidavit by Coughlan to Ferrari, and according to it three top McLaren officials have seen the document, but all asked to destroy the document. This arises few questions:

1. Did McLaren lie about the fact that no other official than Coughlan has seen the document. If yes than McLaren would be in trouble for hiding facts and may face more charges.

2. How a Ferrari confidential document, which was not supposed to be made public (or to be provided to Italian authorities) is present with a newspaper. Either Ferrari did it purposely or there is another spy somewhere. Italian newspaper La Repubblica also claims to have a copy of the affidavit.

3. Question form Jose: Why isn’t a tech-savvy company using soft copies?

4. Why FIA could not notice all these things (logo, color, same design) before?

I want everyone to come out clean after this event; it would be good for sport. I hope only very few people are involved and those should be severely punished. As Coulthard mentioned ‘this’ is not a Hollywood movie and will end, this scandal will have deep impact on the game. I also want McLaren to be punished (if proven guilty) but drivers (Alonso and Hamilton) should not be stripped off points and should continue racing as now, McLaren would not be a contender in constructor championship then. It will be a lesson for other teams too.

I was trying to find out what impact does decals and colors had on the performance on McLaren but could not find any. Jose helped me out with it, decals can cause difference of 0.000001 ng in weight and Prasoon thinks depending on smoothness, probably an aero advantage. According to Jose brighter colors can cause temporary to permanent eye damage for the driver following, which could slow him down, but FIA Ferrari spokesperson did not like the idea.

Update: Disaster for McLaren, FIA is preparing a lot of question concerning 30 more similarities.

More links:
Greatest F1 scandals
Relates post
Formula One is no stranger to spying
2007 Formula One espionage controversy

Christijan Albers’ contract with Spyker was terminated for some financial reason, one of his sponsors failed to pay. I feel it has more to do with the driving rather than finances. One of the main reasons might be numerous mistakes made by Albers during driving. He was the one who took the fuel hose along with car during a pit stop in French GP.

This termination gives chance to some of the other drivers to get on the track. Spyker wants Karthikeyan to be back on track, they are also in talks with Honda’s test driver Christian Klien. I don’t know it would be a good move for Narain to race with Spyker or not. Currently he is with Williams and is a second test driver, and I do not see him gaining racing experience there. He might get a chance to race with Williams but that seems to be a long wait, but getting back into a slow car is not a good option. He has offer for GP2 participate in the event and can also participate in A1GP, but it sounds odd, it’s a backward move, people move up from these events to reach F1 finally.

Trivia : there are fewer F1 drivers than total astronauts.

Heard the ‘breaking news’ on many channels about F1 in Delhi, was really excited and checked HT, there was complete coverage for half an hour (including interview with Karthikeyan). So much money, so many conditions, lot of things to do, I feel it would be very hard for IOA to have an F1 circuit ready in less than a year. Still I am excited and would definitely go for the race. Who all are coming?