High Intensity On and Off the Track

Article dated October 28, 2007

In what turned out to be a comprehensible domination of rookie Lewis Hamilton, 2007 formula one season saw a fighting winner in Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in a pulsating final race at Interlagos, Brazil. On other hand, Lewis Hamilton should consider himself extremely ill-fated to lose the driver’s Championship after having led the championship table till the last race of the season.

Going into the final race of the season, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, his teammate and defending champion Fernando Alonso and promising Kimi Raikkonen had their dreams still alive of the driver’s crown. Lewis had nothing to lose, considering his sensational debut season had the best of chances for the title. All he had to do is finish the race sixth. With connoisseurs’ of formula one around the world working out the permutations and combinations for the three way race, it produced a result of the rarest possibility.

The season witnessed gripping experience on the race-track and was equally observing off it as well. For any sport publicity is good to gain popularity. And if you think that it holds good irrespective of the controversies involved, then undoubtedly 2007 should go down as one of the most successful season, at least from Bernie Ecclestone’s point of view.

For the first time in recent memory, constructors’ championship was evenly fought between two giants of the racing circuit. With four drivers of unmatched competency, the possibility of prediction was absolutely nullified. But all that was marred with the spying scandal of Ferrari’s technical data. FIA’s World Motorsport Council, after looking into the facts, imposed a record $100 million fine on McLaren and deprived McLaren from all their constructor points.

Renault which won the constructor’s title in the last two seasons struggled throughout this year for a podium finish. However, BMW Sauber showed great consistency right from Australia to Brazil.

There was hardly any thing to choose between the drivers, who dominated the season, with Kimi Raikkonen winning six races, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso winning four each. Filipe Massa displayed his excellence and played a crucial role in his teammate Kimi winning the championship. He managed to take that all important pole position at Brazil Grand prix for the second consecutive year. Having won his home Grand prix last year he was leading the race with Raikkonen behind him till 19 laps for the chequered flag. And that made sure Fernando Alonso had the least of chances to finish first.

The other drivers to have a good run this season was the two BMW Sauber drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica who finished with 61 and 39 points respectively. Another rookie Heikki Kovalainen driving for Renault had a decent first season as well with 30 points and finishing ahead of his teammate, the experience Giancarlo Fisichella.

Not just all these, but the conflict of personalities between double time world champion Fernando Alonso and his rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton caught everyone’s attention. Alonso’s uneasiness was easily sensed by all as he many a times came out in open to disparage his teammate for getting all the attention and support from his team.

With a season of high intensity, drama and action just ended one just can’t wait for the next to start. Already people started speculating Alonso’s feature with McLaren after his rift with Hamilton. He has also dismissed the rumors of him joining his previous team Renault. Meanwhile, possibility of him teaming up with Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari next season was shutdown when Ferrari team management decided to extend Massa’s contract for next three years.

Formula one in India is gaining popularity ever since Narain Karthikeyan made his debut in 2005 but now Indian fans will have lot to cheer for coming season. Liquor-baron Vijay Mallya bought the ‘Spyker’ formula one team along with Micheil Mol, a Duct businessman. He also made sure that the team name includes India and now has got the approval of FIA World Motorsport Council to change the name from Spykar to ‘Force India.’

He has also promised of an Indian driver most likely to be Narin Karthikeyan or Karun Chandhok, thought the team is likely to retain Adrian Sutil who managed to score solitary point for the team this season. Therefore all the Indian fans can be happy of an Indian colors on the racing tracks next season. India’s presence doesn’t stop here he has also played a imperative role in bringing Formula One to India and the country is now all set to host its first race in 2009.

With all this happening sports lovers in India will now have an alternative to cricket that can score the imagination of everyone.