It was shameful for Ferrari; on the home ground they could not provide the best cars to the best drivers. Kimi deserves to get full point for driving beautifully a car which was not up to the par. Many believe Hamilton made an exceptional move on Kimi on lap 44, but I would rather say it was just because of the car otherwise no one can overtake iceman in such a fashion.

Overall race was a dominated completely by Alonso; it never looked as if he will take a second position, I would say a brilliant performance by Alonso.

One more lesson to be learnt from the race was however good your strategy is, if car is not good, nothing matters. Ferrari and Williams, two most experienced and dedicated racing teams lost to McLaren and BMW just because of performance of car. I am really disappointed with Ferrari.

One more interesting thing I noticed during this season is, number of retirements each race have reduced drastically and that feels so nice. But because of that we don’t have much fun, hope rain in next race fulfills the dreams.

• Re-CHARGED (charged who??) drivers after 3 weeks break. Recharged drivers, bored fans.
• Did Ferrari gain reliability in the break?
• Is Massa ready to put pressure back on Hamilton and Kimi?
• With almost all the drivers fixed for 2008, will someone relax a bit?

Hungarian grand prix had more drama than I had expected. I thought Ferrari McLaren spy scandal verdict is out and Hungry is a place where we rarely see a wet race so what can happen? But Mclaren is home for controversy this season. Qualifying was good, and Alonso looked very strong throughout and got into P1. There was a “small” delay in pit stops for Alonso and Hamilton was blocked, Hamilton could not setup his best lap in the end, and Dennis was angry. Everything seemed ok and I switched off my TV.

Incidentally I had no net connection this weekend (and unlike few lucky ones I don’t have GPRS L ). Was surprised to find out about Alonso’s punishment and shocked for McLaren’s punishment. I had no idea what was it; I thought it might be the result of ‘appeal’ files by Ferrari. But at ‘raceday’ all the doubts were cleared and I realized the importance the autosport, pitpass, f1-live in my life.

Race was a bit boring for a season with four drivers fighting for Championship; it was mainly ruined because of Massa’s poor qualifying session. Rest of the race was just Kimi trying to overtake Hamilton. Mclaren did not get any constructor points and have not yet decided that they will appeal or not. But this incident proved one thing, Hamilton is getting much more attention and support from FIA than anyone else, I believe it was for Hamilton only the penalty was there anyone else in that situation would have started race from P2. Rift between teammates have widened and seems it would be last season for Alonso with Mclaren. Only question is where will Alonso go? BMW is only competitive car on circuit, and I am sure with Alonso’s millimeter perfect driving and BMWs reliability can get him to World championship once again, Williams/Toyota/Honda does not seem to improve along with frontrunners, Ferrari won’t accept Alonso, Renault will want him back as he can bring back the luck along with him.

I am still trying to figure out the logic why McLaren was penalized of constructor’s championship? It was McLarens internal issue and driver can be penalized grid places for his mistake, not the team? As pointed out by Prasoon it might be issue from Hamilton’s side but still it seems everyone is favoring Hamilton.

Now I am tired of the off-track incidents, now all teams should concentrate on track and provide what fans like rather that providing masala for newspapers.

Eagerly waiting for “the” verdict on McLaren-Ferrari Spy Scandal from WMSC (World Motor Sport Council). Found this article and it discusses what will be the consequences, if McLaren is punished what will be there new course of action. On what basis they will approach ‘International Court of Appeal’. This article also discusses previous incidents involving WMSC and there outcome.

By evening, verdict was out: ‘McLaren Guilty’, but no penalty. This result was a shock for everyone except McLaren which finds it ‘balanced and fair‘ but Ferrari is furious about this result and are planning to take this case ahead.

I feel McLaren should be punished, at least stripping some point of constructor championship because full team is responsible of a teammate’s activity. They cannot save themselves by blaming an individual. [ to be expanded]

In the meantime:

1. Yomamoto got confirmed by Spyker, this proved once again that money matters more than the driver skills for small teams. This was Narain’s last chance and I don’t see any hope anywhere other than GP2 or A1GP.
2. A picture worth thousand words. ( Check the referring URL to my blog, got more than 50 hits in 30 mins last night)

Comments to this post :
Prasoon : A clear breach of 151c and no penalty as if nothing had happened. wtf was my first response and then, I read the details as they say, they have ‘no clear evidence’.

The point where the counter argument of Honda and dismissal of team for 2 races was put up was a fitting counter example.
I just hope some proofs surface saying that McLaren did get some sort of input from Mike – that movable floors, brakes etc so that atleast a lil punishment is given – letting them go scotfree wasnt a “good verdict” at all.

Reply :I don’t understand the ‘clear evidence’ concept and regarding the idea of ‘not benefited’ is ridiculous. Just take an example, I steal a ‘diamond’ from some place and keep it in my house. I do not sell it or watch it daily to feel happy. Finally police catches me, but court can’t harm me as I am not “BENEFITED” from the diamond. Till i sell it/try to sell it I am not a criminal…right ???

Drama started with Qualifying, Hamilton had a problem with his front right wing and had a high speed accident. For few minutes Hamilton’s condition was not clear. He was unhurt in accident and was cleared for the race (first time lucky). Cause of the accident was failure in the wheelgun.

As expected (by few) the race was ‘wet’. First lap without water on track Kimi and Alonso started very well, but maximum benefit was taken by Hamilton who climbed up to 4^th place after starting from 10^th, it looked like Hamilton will have another podium finish but he has a puncture. Rain came to help him (Second time lucky). Everyone pitted in for tyre change, I was wondering if Massa would have to wait for tyre change as both Ferrari’s went in together but Kimi made a mistake and overshot the pit lane (First time unlucky). It was such heavy rain that there was aquaplaning everywhere and we could see all cars skidding, in few seconds we had ‘the most expensive car park’ (as our commentators love to call) at first corner with Hamilton, Button, Sutil, Speed and Lizzui contributing to it. Hamilton was lucky for the third time and ‘crane’ rescued him back on track. Why only Hamilton was rescued? Why not Button or any other driver? In all this Hamilton was lap down and race was ‘red flagged’.

Behind the safety car (for rolling start) Hamilton was asked to ‘unlap’. WHY? (Fourth time lucky) and safety car was deployed for one more lap so he could unlap. This time Hamilton went in pit lanes and came up with sleek tyres. But luck did not favor him, he skidded twice but was able to come back to track.

Rest of the race was normal after that, same pit poker, unlucky Kimi, aggressive Alonso, Ralf retiring in front of grand stand full of Toyota employees and Spyker engine failure. Hamilton could not score the points but he justified why he is on top in championship table, he drove very well and succeeded in some nice overtaking maneuvers. There were moments when you could feel the same fighting spirit, same style, and same aggression as ‘The serial winner who murdered Formula One’. My friends might not agree with me, but I am sure if he continues like this than we are lucky, there is history in making and we are here to see all.

Forgot to add, in all this drama who was leading the race after lap one? Rookie Markus Winkelhock, on his debut race. Good move by Spyker to start race with wet tyres.

PS: I got lucky and my ‘McLaren-Ferrari scandal’ blog is first result on Google

• Ferrari and Kimi favorite
• No testing by any team at Nurburgring, Bridgestone has very less data to select which tyre compound to be used.
• High downforce circuit.
• Hamilton suffering with flu, last race he made his first mistake, will he be back to normal or will we have another mistake?
• Winkelhock will debut for Spyker
• Four drivers home race : Quick Nick, Roseburg, Sutil and Winkelhock ( 4 is max)
• Most probably a wet race
• With scandalous clouds over McLaren, will it have any impact on team?

My Fav : Kimi…..GO KIMI!!!

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