Well here we have it, the most entertaining and exciting season in F1 for many years, there are two main reasons for this, firstly the retirement of the F1 master Michael himself and secondly the emergence of McLaren and Lewis Hamilton.
This by itself would make for an entertaining season but of course there is a large slice of lime in the cocktail now that gives it a refreshing sharpness. Of course I am referring to the now very public divorce of Lewis and Fernando within the McLaren team.
The latest spat has resulted in them not talking to each other; presumably this will be separate meals, separate training and separate beds if it continues. So where will this end? And what is the underlying reason for so much bad feeling from two successful drivers.
Well its as simple as this, enter Alonso, current world champion and expected to be the dominant force for 2007, then enter Hamilton the rookie, no experience, young, never raced in an F1 grand prix and a complete pretender.
No pressure then for Alonso we thought, but underneath he was already concerned, here was a young guy with nothing expected of him, it was his rookie season to get confidence and bag a few points. Already Hamilton had shown speed in testing and preparation, already he was displaying a cold professional edge, already he was the subject of much media attention and that alone would make Alonso squirm, after all Fernando is the world champion and so that alone demanded attention.
As the initial races unfolded there were 3 words written in praise for Lewis for every positive word written about Alonso, within 6 races most of the publicity for the current world champion was starting to look very negative.
He was beaten in testing, beaten in qualifying and beaten in the races, he was also being beaten in the drivers standings! Underneath he had already started the excuses, the its not fair routine, the team is biased, I am not getting my number 1 driver support all of the usual excuses one sees when a sport person is falling from grace.
The body language was all negative, the after race comments sour and the expression was green with envy. At this point Alonso needed something fast, he needed to put the rookie back in place and for a couple of races he did, and so did Ferrari. But at the last GP Lewis showed his mettle, he showed his hunger and he showed his will to win.
Alonso had nothing to respond with, Lewis showed his steely edge in early qualifying before Alonso blocked him in the pit lane as his response. The official version seems somewhat sanitised but the outcome was Alonso relegated from pole position and Hamilton winning the race.
The end result is a very open dissention by both drivers who seem to be acting independently of the team and the orders of the boss. I am sure that Ron Dennis is at best displeased at the current maverick approach by his drivers, certainly a picture of him throwing his headphones around is not related to him having no sugar in his tea.
The real winners here are the sports followers, the spectacle of great racing, a fairly even, big personalities and the drama of driver conflict, what more could we want from a racing season?
