MALAYSIA TEST - 29th MARCH 2007

Date: Thursday 29th March 2007

Drivers: Lewis Hamilton
Location: Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Track Length: 5.543km
Weather: Wet to start, dry and hot until shortly before 16:00 when the wet conditions returned.
Track temperature: 48.9° Celsius
Air temperature: 30.4° Celsius
Laps run today: 57
Kilometres covered today: Lewis – 315km approx.
Best lap time today: Lewis – 1m35.918 at 15:17

Programme: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes continued its intensive test programme at Sepang today, in a session that was affected by the monsoon rain showers. Overnight rain lead to wet track conditions at the start of running. Shortly after 10am, dry Bridgestone Potenza tyres were fitted to Lewis’s MP4-22 and the team set about pushing forward with the test plan of tyre evaluation and general development of the package. Another downpour hit the track late afternoon and, having achieved enough wet running during the morning, Lewis remained in the garage. As a result of the wet conditions, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will be extending the test session to tomorrow, with Lewis remaining at the wheel of the MP4-22.
Duration of test: Four days (Tuesday 27th – Friday 30th March)

Sepang - 29/03/2007
1 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 - 1:35.918 (+ 0.000 ) - 57 laps
2 . M. Webber - Red Bull Renault RB3 - 1:36.138 (+ 0.220 ) - 62 laps
3 . R. Schumacher - Toyota TF107 - 1:36.700 (+ 0.782 ) - 69 laps
4 . V. Liuzzi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR2 - 1:36.712 (+ 0.794 ) - 56 laps
5 . F. Massa - Ferrari F2007 - 1:36.947 (+ 1.029 ) - 65 laps
6 . N. Rosberg - Williams Toyota FW29 - 1:37.070 (+ 1.152 ) - 71 laps
7 . J. Button - Honda RA107 - 1:37.472 (+ 1.554 ) - 93 laps
8 . A. Davidson - Super Aguri Honda SA07 - 1:37.606 (+ 1.688 ) - 44 laps
9 . N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.07 - 1:38.551 (+ 2.633 ) - 35 laps
10 . H. Kovalainen - Renault R27 - 1:39.654 (+ 3.736 ) - 20 laps.

MALAYSIA TEST - 28th MARCH 2007

Date: Wednesday 28th March 2007

Drivers: Lewis Hamilton
Location: Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Track Length: 5.543km
Weather: Hot and dry, clouding over during the afternoon.
Track temperature: 58.9° Celsius
Air temperature: 34.8° Celsius
Laps run today: 70
Kilometres covered today: Lewis – 388km approx.
Best lap time today: Lewis – 1m36.115 at 11:43

Programme: Lewis Hamilton took to the Sepang track for the first time today, as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes continued testing at the Malaysian Grand Prix venue. Lewis’s programme continued Pedro de la Rosa’s work of yesterday, including Bridgestone Potenza comparison work, and set-ups for the race. This was alongside the British driver familiarising himself with the track.
Drivers for tomorrow: Lewis
Duration of test: Three days (Tuesday 27th – Thursday 29th March)


Sepang - 28/03/2007
1 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F2007 - 1:35.268 (+ 0.000 ) - 55 laps
2 . A. Wurz - Williams Toyota FW29 - 1:35.702 (+ 0.434 ) - 108 laps
3 . D. Coulthard - Red Bull Renault RB3 - 1:35.712 (+ 0.444 ) - 82 laps
4 . R. Schumacher - Toyota TF107 - 1:35.751 (+ 0.483 ) - 79 laps
5 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.07 - 1:35.887 (+ 0.619 ) - 108 laps
6 . L. Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 - 1:36.115 (+ 0.847 ) - 65 laps
7 . T. Sato - Super Aguri Honda SA07 - 1:36.306 (+ 1.038 ) - 63 laps
8 . R. Barrichello - Honda RA107 - 1:36.563 (+ 1.295 ) - 36 laps
9 . H. Kovalainen - Renault R27 - 1:36.578 (+ 1.310 ) - 81 laps
10 . J. Button - Honda RA107 - 1:36.617 (+ 1.349 ) - 24 laps
11 . A. Davidson - Super Aguri Honda SA07 - 1:37.876 (+ 2.608 ) - 36 laps
12 . S. Speed - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR2 - 1:37.910 (+ 2.642 ) - 36 laps
13 . V. Liuzzi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR2 - 1:37.971 (+ 2.703 ) - 27 laps.

MALAYSIA TEST - 27th MARCH 2007

Date: 27th March 2007
Drivers: Pedro de la Rosa
Location: Sepang
Track Length: 5.543km
Weather: Hot and Dry
Track temperature: 64.4° Celsius
Air temperature: 38.9° Celsius
Laps run today: 60
Kilometres covered today: Pedro – 332km approx.
Best lap time today: Pedro – 1m37.106 at 15:42

Programme: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes arrived in Malaysia this week for the first test at the Sepang circuit, with an intense programme to complete over the three day session. Work for the team focused on general performance uplift, with a number of new components incorporated into the MP4-22, alongside Bridgestone Potenza tyre evaluation for next week’s race.

Drivers for tomorrow: Lewis Hamilton
Duration of test: Three days (Tuesday 27th – Thursday 29th March)

Sepang* - 27/03/2007
1 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.07 - 1:36.187 (+ 0.000 ) - 92 laps
2 . K. Raikkonen - Ferrari F2007 - 1:36.309 (+ 0.122 ) - 54 laps
3 . A. Wurz - Williams Toyota FW29 - 1:36.612 (+ 0.425 ) - 89 laps
4 . R. Barrichello - Honda RA107 - 1:36.826 (+ 0.639 ) - 82 laps
5 . P. de la Rosa - McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 - 1:37.106 (+ 0.919 ) - 60 laps
6 . F. Montagny - Toyota TF107 - 1:37.267 (+ 1.080 ) - 73 laps
7 . T. Sato - Super Aguri Honda SA07 - 1:37.389 (+ 1.202 ) - 72 laps
8 . D. Coulthard - Red Bull Renault RB3 - 1:37.609 (+ 1.422 ) - 83 laps
9 . N. Piquet - Renault R27 - 1:38.199 (+ 2.012 ) - 32 laps
10 . S. Speed - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR2 - 1:38.503 (+ 2.316 ) - 69 laps.

FIA clamps down on flexing floors

Ferrari and BMW Sauber are likely to have to modify the designs of their cars' floors after a warning was issued by FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting.

Apparently following an informal complaint made by McLaren Mercedes at the Australian Grand Prix, Whiting has sent a letter to all teams informing them that detailed checks will be carried out on cars' underbodies during scrutineering in future to ensure that teams are adhering to the rules about banned moveable devices.

The floor designs of both Ferrari and BMW passed the former flexibility checks in Melbourne, but the teams are likely to present modified cars to scrutineers on the Thursday of the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix.

Spain's Marca newspaper, meanwhile, revealed that McLaren brought the matter to the FIA's attention with a letter from engineering chief Paddy Lowe, in which he asked the governing body for permission to apply a similar design to its own MP4-22 model.

2007 Technical Regulations: 3.17 Bodywork flexibility:

# 3.17.1 Bodywork may deflect no more than 5mm vertically when a 500N load is applied vertically to it 700mm forward of the front wheel centre line and 625mm from the car centre line. The load will be applied in a downward direction using a 50mm diameter ram and an adapter 300mm long and 150mm wide. Teams must supply the latter when such a test is deemed necessary.
# 3.17.2 Bodywork may deflect no more than 10mm vertically when a 500N load is applied vertically to it 450mm forward of the rear wheel centre line and 650mm from the car centre line. The load will be applied in a downward direction using a 50mm diameter ram and an adapter of the same size, Teams must supply the latter when such a test is deemed necessary.
# 3.17.3 Bodywork may deflect by no more than one degree horizontally when a load of 1000N is applied simultaneously to its extremities in a rearward direction 780mm above the reference plane and 20mm forward of the rear wheel centre line.
# 3.17.4 Bodywork may deflect no more than 5mm vertically when a 500N load is applied vertically to it at a point which lies on the car centre line and 380mm rearward of the front wheel centre line. The load will be applied in an upward direction using a 50mm diameter ram, teams will be required to supply a suitable adapter when such a test is deemed necessary.
# 3.17.5 The uppermost aerofoil element lying behind the rear wheel centre line may deflect no more than 5mm horizontally when a 500N load is applied horizontally. The load will be applied 800mm above the reference plane at three separate points which lie on the car centre line and 250mm either side of it. The loads will be applied in an rearward direction using a suitable 25mm wide adapter which must be supplied by the relevant team.
# 3.17.6 In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 3.15 are respected, the FIA reserves the right to introduce further load/deflection tests on any part of the bodywork which appears to be (or is suspected of), moving whilst the car is in motion.

Q&A with Norbert Haug

McLaren’s fresh start paid off in Australia. Their two new drivers both finished on the podium, leaving the Mercedes-powered team atop the constructors’ standings. After such a fantastic result, no wonder Norbert Haug, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice President, was smiling…
Q: Melbourne was a fantastic beginning to a new era at McLaren. You must be very satisfied…
Norbert Haug: Great satisfaction is the feeling you get after a one-two result in a Formula One Grand Prix, but of course the start of the season for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes was a good one. I was particularly pleased for all our team members in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart who have worked so hard for a great 2007 season. Their first reward was that no team scored more points than us in Melbourne.

Q: Nearly everybody expected Fernando Alonso to be on the podium, but the fact that Lewis Hamilton was able to keep up with him is quite sensational. Do you agree the risky strategy of signing a rookie has paid off?
NH: Both drivers did a very good job and Lewis surprised a few people in his very first Formula One Grand Prix. Fernando and Lewis are an extremely competent combination, we have great confidence in both of them and there is a very good spirit inside the team. But all of that does not make any of us complacent. The team and the drivers created a good baseline in Melbourne, we all want to build on that and improve our package to be in a position to win races on a regular basis, like we did one and a half years ago when we won last.

Q: Even so, Kimi Raikkonen was almost half a second faster in the Ferrari in qualifying. How will you deal with that?
NH: Ferrari and Kimi were faster in both qualifying and the race. I think we have a pretty good understanding of what is going on and whilst Kimi did not push to the limit after his first pit stop, we didn’t either because we realised that second and third would be the best possible results for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes in the race.

Q: Has the weekend in Melbourne given you any indications where the shortfalls are?
NH: Our package is certainly a good one, but we have identified room for improvement.

Q: And will the test session next week in Kuala Lumpur help to close the gap?
NH: As everybody will be testing, all the teams will be hoping to improve their performance. We have to improve even quicker than the competition in order to catch up and overtake. Every team member is focused on this.

Q: With the regulations specifying you must use both tyre compounds in the race, strategy has become even more important. Were you able to find a workable strategy in Melbourne?
NH: Our strategy was okay. Fernando and Lewis went three and four laps further than Kimi, but (even) with the same amount of fuel they would not have qualified ahead of the Ferrari anyway - so we did everything right.

Q: How do you think the tyre regulations will influence results?
NH: Bridgestone did a competent job in Melbourne. We will see races this year where teams can use the softer tyre for two stints and others where teams will probably use the soft compound for one stint and for fewer laps. It will be interesting to see how these races will develop.

Q: Melbourne finally revealed McLaren’s position in comparison to its competitors. Were there any surprises for you?
NH: The order was very much the same as one of the last tests in Bahrain ahead of the new season. We need to improve by one place!

Q: Do you think this season will be a shoot-out between Ferrari and McLaren?
NH: This is difficult to tell. Renault will be strong, Honda will catch up, BMW is trying hard. Toyota pushes and works very hard for six years - all is set for a great and interesting season and we want a Mercedes star to cross the line first on as many occasions as possible.

Alonso to skip Sepang tests

It is said that Fernando Alonso will not test at Sepang next week.

The Spanish racer, however, did return from Australia to McLaren's Woking factory as the team plans a significant upgrade for its MP4-22 single seater to debut at the Spanish Grand Prix in May.

McLaren, as was predicted, was clearly superior to nine of F1's eleven teams at Albert Park, but the lap time deficit to Ferrari was possibly even more than was expected prior to the 2007 season opener.

The Spanish press quoted Alonso as saying: "McLaren is a team that is always among the fastest developers.


Lewis Hamilton (two days) and Pedro de la Rosa (one day) will carry out the test duties for the Mercedes-powered team at the Malaysian circuit from next Tuesday.

How close was Lewis to Alonso in Melbourne?

At the Australian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton completed one of the most remarkable F1 debuts the sport has ever witnessed.

Facing enormous pressure as a rookie driving for one of the very best teams on the grid, and with a double reigning world champion as a team-mate, he was nip and tuck as quick as Fernando Alonso throughout the weekend, never put a wheel wrong on a very unforgiving track – and finished in third place, one behind Alonso.

It was only the favourable race strategy that McLaren gave Alonso that allowed the champion to leapfrog his way ahead of Hamilton at the final stops.

Were it not for that Hamilton would likely have beaten him, courtesy of a better start into the first corner.

Exceeding expectations

Throughout winter testing there has been very little between the two drivers in raw performance – and that was a pattern repeated in Melbourne.

Despite never having seen the Albert Park track before, and despite getting his first experience of it in the wet opening session, Hamilton’s lap times throughout the Friday and Saturday practices were, if anything, slightly better than Alonso’s.

Only in that opening session – when the best times were set in a brief frenzy of drying track laps at the end – was Alonso quicker.

On Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, as each went about trying both hard and soft tyres, Hamilton was ahead.

Practice times need not be representative of real potential performance, however.

An experienced driver may not always need to set the ultimate lap to know whether one set up is better than another, for example.

The real test

So all eyes were on the pair as qualifying began and it counted for real. In Q1, both drivers were on the harder, slower tyre, knowing their car had the pace to comfortably qualify for Q2. Both drivers completed just one flying lap.

Hamilton was quicker by a couple of hundredths of a second.

Into Q2 Alonso, still not comfortable with the balance of his car, decided he was going to try two slightly different set ups, whereas Hamilton was provisionally going to do only one run, so long as it was quick enough to comfortably get into Q3, the top-10 run-off.

Both were on new soft tyres for each run.

Hamilton recorded a 1m25.577s, easily good enough to secure a place in the run-off.

Running just a few seconds behind him, Alonso’s first run netted a 1m25.602s. Yet again, Hamilton had shaded him.

Alonso pitted, had the set-up adjustments made, and went out again on a fresh set of Bridgestone softs. This time he eclipsed Hamilton’s original lap with a 1m25.326s, though Lewis didn’t respond.

Alonso was happier with his set-up on this second run, calming the turn-in response of the car so it was more in keeping with his aggressive steering style.

By the time he made his second run, the track would have rubbered-in more too, making it grippier, so further enhancing his advantage.

Into the top-10 run-off, Alonso’s new-found confidence in his car was beginning to show.

Both did two new-tyre runs on the soft. On the first runs Alonso was quicker by 0.14s. With some more fuel burned off and the track rubbering-in further, their second runs netted their grid-position times.

Alonso’s was 0.262s quicker, though Hamilton’s was compromised by a moment on the exit of turn 12 that the team reckoned cost around 0.1s.

Hamilton was further disadvantaged by carrying an extra lap’s-worth of fuel. However, this will have accounted for only around 2.5kg - worth just 0.08s around this track. So even accounting for Hamilton’s small moment and extra fuel load, Alonso would still have been faster – but only by around 0.13s.

Fast start

A few seconds into the race Hamilton showed his race-craft with a great move that took him past Alonso into turn one.

This effectively consigned Alonso to running in Hamilton’s wheel-tracks for the next two stints of the race. At no stage were they racing each other on track.

Hamilton would occasionally get a rear wheel onto the dusty grass on the exit of turn 12, whereas Alonso looked more within himself.

Each time Hamilton opened up a small gap, Alonso was able to quickly close it back down.

Their best race laps came in this first stint – and on the very same lap, further indicating that Alonso was simply allowing Hamilton to set the pace. Alonso’s best lap was quicker by 0.037s.

In the second stint Hamilton’s best lap was 1m 26.500s. Alonso’s was 1m 26.499s!

The switch in positions came about because McLaren had opted to fuel Alonso longer at the first stops, ensuring he would have at least an extra low-fuel lap over Hamilton into the final stops.

In the event, Alonso was able to stretch this to two extra laps on account of having saved fuel by running in his team-mate’s slipstream for so long.

Furthermore, Hamilton was delayed on his in-lap by Takuma Sato.

Alonso’s actual stop, at 6.5s, was 1.7s quicker than Hamilton’s.

This was more than would be accounted for by having to pump in two-laps’ less fuel (which would account only for about 0.5s of the difference).

Alonso duly made full use of all this and emerged from his stop comfortably ahead.

Hamilton’s crew, knowing they were at a strategy disadvantage going into the final stops, had been allowed to fit new tyres rather than the scrubbed set Alonso would get.

New tyres have a ‘golden’ first lap that’s about 1s faster than a scrubbed set, potentially helping a driver gain track position around the stops.

But the penalty is that they will then grain, making them slower over a stint.

The new tyres duly allowed Hamilton to make a very fast out-lap, but his delays behind Sato and at his stop ensured it wasn’t enough.

With his tyres then graining, as expected, he fell yet further away from his team-mate in the final stint.

Conclusions

So what did we learn about the relative performances of each driver once we stripped away their slightly differing circumstances?

We learned that at Melbourne Hamilton was close enough to Alonso to have forced the team into making a decision over which of them would emerge ahead.

Coming at a track that Hamilton had never seen before the weekend, and against as great a driver as Alonso, that has to stand up as a stunning performance.

But it's one thing doing it once, quite another to maintain it through the grind of a long season.

Also, Albert Park is quite a straightforward track, one that doesn't place great demands upon the technical ability of the driver.

Going into more complex circuits, it will be interesting to monitor whether Hamilton can maintain his deeply impressive initial form.

Race analysis - Ferrari out in front

Ferrari’s 193rd victory came courtesy of its debutant Finn Kimi Raikkonen, and he made it look oh so easy. As he started from the front, team mate Felipe Massa was at the back. The Brazilian had an electronic problem in his gearbox’s management, and then Ferrari elected to change his engine and thus he moved further backwards.
While Kimi opted for the medium-medium-soft tyre choices, Massa was on a single-stop strategy and thus started on the softs as he was likely to get held up in traffic early on. This was indeed the case as he battled his way past the Red Bulls and Hondas, and after his stop on lap 29, on went the mediums. If all Raikkonen had to worry about was the lack of a radio and the odd lapse of concentration, he really didn’t have much to worry about at all.

McLaren left Melbourne leading the world championship, with 14 points to Ferrari’s 13, but however much Ron Dennis might have bleated about the possible effect of BMW’s strategy for fast-starting Nick Heidfeld the writing on the wall indicated that the Ferrari was a second a lap faster in race trim.

Raikkonen reeled off a string of fastest laps early on, his best being 1m 25.235s compared to Fernando Alonso’s 1m 26.314s and Lewis Hamilton’s 1m 26.351s. Even had the silver arrows had a clear run at the first corner, there was no way they would have challenged the red car for victory this day. On the positive side, the MP4-22s were reliable and quick enough to leave everyone else behind.

BMW Sauber should have garnered nine points for their afternoon’s efforts, but the gearbox failure that stopped Robert Kubica on the 36th lap accounted for four of them. Nevertheless, five points for Nick Heidfeld’s fourth place got the team’s campaign off to a strong start even if Dennis accused them of ‘showboating’ with Heidfeld’s low-fuel strategy. It paid off insofar as it got him well clear of all McLaren’s pursuers once things had settled down, and enabled him to take the risk of using his soft Bridgestones from the start, whereas most opted for medium-medium-soft in their three stints.

The fact that Heidfeld finished was a great relief following the team’s gearbox problems from testing, but the gremlins struck Kubica and locked his transmission in fifth. In contrast to Heidfeld, Kubica had intended to use his soft tyres for a short final stint.

Fifth and 10th places for Renault came as a blow after their previous results in Melbourne, and the fastest laps indicated that on sheer pace they have been overtaken not just by Ferrari and McLaren, but also by BMW Sauber and Williams.

Like everyone bar Felipe Massa, Heidfeld, Alex Wurz in the Williams, Honda’s Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen in the two Renaults ran medium-medium-soft tyres. Fisichella did well to resist the intense pressure from Massa in the closing stages, but Kovalainen admitted freely that there was little to remember and much to forget about a debut in which he made too many mistakes. There is plenty of work to do in this camp.

Nico Rosberg’s performance in the Williams FW29 was a massive fillip for the team. He made some good moves, made the most of his chance to pass Ralf Schumacher and set the fifth-fastest lap to endorse the view that the new car is a lot quicker than last year’s. It’s also much more reliable. Team mate Alex Wurz was unable to emulate him as he spent most of his race stuck in traffic, and later became the launch pad when Red Bull’s David Coulthard misjudged his overtaking move in Turn Three and went right over the top of the FW29’s nose.

Toyota have always said that they don’t mind if they get beaten by a customer using their engine, and that’s exactly what happened as Rosberg led Schumacher home. After their strong qualifying performance many suspected that the Toyotas might have been running light, but they weren’t. They didn’t stop until the 24th and 25th laps. Unfortunately, they weren’t particularly quick, setting the 12th and 13th-fastest laps on the 1m 28s borderline. That put them behind Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Williams and Red Bull.

Towards the end of the race there was also a potential reliability problem when Schumacher’s engine began to lose pneumatic pressure. Trulli also had a brake problem. Despite all that, Toyota had a lot more to crow about than Honda, who had an appalling weekend. They opted to start Button on medium tyres, then soft, then medium, and Barrichello on soft, medium and medium. It didn’t make much difference. Button struggled with a big fuel load in the early going, and his RA107 then developed huge understeer. He asked for a front-wing adjustment, but because of a radio problem nobody responded. When he pitted again they did put plenty of wing on but it made no difference. To compound that he got a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding.

Barrichello, meanwhile, smacked a wall early on while he was being held up by Button, and though he later got past his team mate he could not do better than 11th place. He set the 14th-fastest lap, Button the 17th, so Honda clearly have a lot of aerodynamic work to do in the coming months.

The race was also a disappointment for the Super Aguri team, whose qualifying promise of 10th and 11th places translated into only 12th and 16th places for Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson. The latter’s SA07 bogged down at the start, dropping him to the tail of the field and later leaving him vulnerable to attack by Adrian Sutil’s Spyker. He was launched into the air, and winded when the car landed. Despite suffering some back pain, and the car sustaining a reasonable amount of bodywork damage, he did achieve his aim of finishing a Formula One race. Sato, meanwhile, struggled with balance problems, but clung on to chase Barrichello home.

With Mark Webber seventh on the grid, Red Bull entertained hopes of a decent points haul but left with nothing. Webber’s race began to go wrong with a sticking fuel filler cap during his first pit stop, after which he lost pace. He had an off-course moment as a result, and then spun in the pit lane while coming in for his second stop. While he at least finished, however, team mate David Coulthard aviated over Wurz’s Williams after an ill-judged passing move in Turn Three on the 46th lap. Not a race for them to remember.

In the Toro Rosso camp Tonio Liuzzi lost a place to team mate Scott Speed after getting boxed in in the first corner, lost more time in early traffic, and had to wait until the final stages to get into his rhythm. At one stage he took nine seconds off Webber, and beat Button on his way to 14th. Speed had kept in front of the Italian until lap 29, despite worsening understeer. The cause of that identified itself that lap when two deflating front tyres dragged him into the gravel and out of the race.

Finally, Spyker had an up and down race. Adrian Sutil finished 17th on his debut but Christijan Albers, who had started from the pit lane in the spare car, retired on lap 10 when he went off the road into a gravel trap after missing his braking point. Sutil fell back after his clash with Davidson, and after a drive-through penalty for failing to observe blue flags, he blotted his copybook by crossing the white line at the exit of the pit lane, incurring a second penalty.

Schumacher or no Schumacher, Ferrari convincingly demonstrated that they remain the team to beat. “A new chapter in our history has got off to a very good start,” Jean Todt said. “The chassis-engine package proved to be competitive, the team worked with dedicated professionalism and the drivers were impeccable. This all means that we can look forward to the rest of the championship with prudent optimism, even if we have seen there is some very strong and well prepared opposition and some very talented young drivers. We have not yet reached the desired level of reliability and we have to do a lot of work on this as well as on improving our performance. I was very happy to get two telephone calls, the first from Michael (Schumacher) as I was going up to the podium, which I handed to Kimi and the other from Luca di Montezemolo (Ferrari president) who was jumping for joy as if this was our first win in a decade. And indeed that is the feeling for us all!”

Rivals have been warned.

F1 world in a spin over Hamilton

F1's international observers have eventually joined the British press in heralding McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton as a Grand Prix superstar of the future.

Paddock praise knew no bounds at Albert Park on Sunday afternoon after the 22-year-old Englishman, making his Formula One debut in Australia, almost mirrored the performance of his team-mate Fernando Alonso and finished on the podium.

Hamilton pushed hard and held it all together
F1's international observers have eventually joined the British press in heralding McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton as a Grand Prix superstar of the future.

Paddock praise knew no bounds at Albert Park on Sunday afternoon after the 22-year-old Englishman, making his Formula One debut in Australia, almost mirrored the performance of his team-mate Fernando Alonso and finished on the podium.

"Hamilton announces his arrival in fast lane," declared the Daily Telegraph headline.

The Herald: "Hamilton - a racing certainty to be champion". Melbourne's Herald Sun: "Dream start for boy wonder".

The Times called Hamilton a 'marketing man's dream' and predicted a career in parallel with David Beckham, while F1 greats including Sir Stirling Moss and Niki Lauda rolled out unprecedented plaudits.
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"I've never seen anybody come into Formula One and drive such a perfect race, especially with a hard competitor like Alonso driving the same car," Lauda, a triple World Champion, said.

Even the most conservative observers at least had to compare Hamilton's performance with the podium debut of Jacques Villeneuve (1996), while the headline of the Spanish newspaper Diario As said "England goes crazy about Hamilton".

A double podium with Alonso and Hamilton

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton finished today's Australian Grand Prix in second and third places respectively achieving a strong start to the season for the McLaren Mercedes team.

Hamilton's third place was the best performance from a rookie driver since Jacques Villeneuve arrived on the scene in 1996. The English driver even lead the race for a few laps.

Today's result puts McLaren in the lead of the Constructors' Championship.

Fernando Alonso
"What a great way to start the season and my career as a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver. Of course it's always better to win but Kimi was a little bit quicker than us today, however we scored the maximum points that were possible, and I'm really pleased."

"My start was a bit strange with both BMWs being very quick off the line, and I was so busy defending my line from Heidfeld on the outside that it was not possible for me to stay ahead of him. I was then behind Lewis for a while and was just focusing on keeping up with him and sometimes dropping back to allow the car to cool down."

"I took second after the second pitstop as I was able to stay out for an additional two laps. Originally it was meant to be one lap but because I was behind Lewis I managed to save enough fuel for one more lap. Both of the Bridgestone Potenza tyre options worked well.
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We will now continue to work hard to give us the best opportunity to beat Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand Prix."

Lewis Hamilton
"I'm absolutely ecstatic – today's result is more than I ever dreamed of achieving on my Grand Prix debut. A big thank you to the team who have worked so hard during the winter to make sure I was as prepared as I possible could be."

"I made a good start but the BMWs were quick off the line and Kubica managed to get past. There was no room on the inside so I got on the left and managed to out brake both Kubica and Fernando coming into the first corner to take third."

"The race was intense, and I was working very hard. I made a few mistakes but nothing major and really enjoyed myself. It was great to lead the race for a few laps, but I knew it was only a temporary thing. Fernando got past me at the second pitstop as he was able to stay out a bit longer and I lost some time behind backmarkers. We now have a lot of work ahead of us with the Malaysia test and the rest of the season, but there is no doubt that we can build from what has been achieved today."


Ron Dennis
"Of course as always we came to Australia to win, but a somewhat unexpected strategy adopted by BMW was very disruptive to our race. Following Heidfeld's first pitstop the gap was just too big to realistically close it and the additional range from our strategy was subsequently wasted. Both drivers did an excellent job giving us a narrow lead in the Constructors' Championship."

"A special thank you to the test team and the workforce back at the McLaren Technology Centre who have worked so hard during the winter and contributed so much to the faultless reliability that we have enjoyed throughout the weekend. The coming Malaysian test should give us every opportunity to further improve the competitiveness of our cars."

Norbert Haug
"The season started well with Fernando and Lewis scoring 14 points out of 18 possible on their debut race for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Fernando showed with his performance exactly why he is the double world champion whilst Lewis made a perfect start to his Grand Prix career and proved absolutely worthy of the confidence we have had in him for the past ten years."

"Although we still have to work hard to further improve our technical package we showed today that throughout the winter we have made improvements. We will now focus on the Malaysia test and are looking forward to the next race. Thanks to everybody in the team in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart, all their efforts will pay off."

Raikkonen's Melbourne pace

The results of the Australian Grand Prix show that Kimi Raikkonen won the Australian Grand Prix by 7.242s over Fernando Alonso with Lewis Hamilton third in the second McLaren Mercedes.

The margin of Raikkonen's win could well have been a great deal more as he controlled the pace from early on in the race. Looking at the fastest laps of the 58-lap race, Raikkonen's best lap in the new F2007 is a second clear of anyone else. The maths are simple, flat out, Raikkonen could have won the event by a minute, as Felipe Massa spent his race stuck in traffic.

Renault won the Australian Grand Prix in 2005 and 2006 with first Giancarlo Fisichella and then Alonso. This year Fisichella fended off Massa to finish fifth, while Heikki Kovalainen had an erratic race to tenth spot. Fisichella's best lap was 1.6 seconds off the best of Raikkonen and over half a second off Alonso's best in the McLaren Mercedes.

The Ferrari advantage at this stage of the season is huge.

Pos Driver Constructor Race Time
1 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari 1h25m28.770
2 Fernando Alonso Vodafone McLaren Mercedes +7.242
3 Lewis Hamilton Vodafone McLaren Mercedes +18.595
4 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber +38.763
5 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault +66469
6 Felipe Massa Scuderia Ferrari +66.805
7 Nico Rosberg Williams F1 +1 lap
8 Ralf Schumacher Toyota +1 lap
9 Jarno Trulli Toyota +1 lap
10 Heikki Kovalainen Renault +1 lap
11 Rubens Barrichello Honda Racing +1 lap
12 Takuma Sato Super Aguri +1 lap
13 Mark Webber Williams F1 +1 lap
14 Tonio Luizzi Toro Rosso +1 lap
15 Jenson Button Honda Racing +1 lap
16 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri +2 laps
17 Adrian Sutil Spyker F1 +2 laps
Fastest Lap: K Raikkonen 1m25.235

And we are back....

I am really sorry I could not update the blog for past few days because of some issues at my end, but now I am back and blogging will start soon. We will start with Australian Gp results and analysis. We will also cover latest news in the Formula 1 circus and Mclaren related news.

Enjoy reading....

Massa favourite for early '07

World champion Fernando Alonso has admitted that Ferrari will travel to the Australian grand prix as favourite.

The 25-year-old told Spanish television 'Telecinco' that he might have to wait until at least mid-season until his McLaren single seater is able to compete with its Maranello based rival.

"There were some tests at which they did not look so great," Spaniard Alonso said, after Ferrari's Felipe Massa dominated the final session of the pre-season this week in Bahrain.

Referring to Ferrari, he added : "Now their experience with Bridgestone has put them ahead of us. The reality is that they are very strong and in the first half of the season they will have the advantage. We are going to have to be defensive in the first races and then attack when we know that we can recover what we have lost," Alonso said.

While Ferrari has enjoyed an uninterrupted relationship with Bridgestone, departed supplier Michelin's former teams including McLaren have had to switch ahead of season '07.

Alonso agreed : "We are still learning about these tyres. Everybody wants to be the best at the first race, but this car is what we have and it is a good basis."

The reigning back to back title winner insisted that Felipe Massa is likely to be the "big favourite" for Australia, despite early expectations that Kimi Raikkonen will set the pace at the Ferrari team.

"Everybody thought Kimi was simply going to replace Michael (Schumacher)'s speed," Alonso continued, "but the truth is that Felipe is going very quickly and is very determined."

Bahrain Test 1st March 2007

Programme: The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team completed their on-track pre-season test programme in Bahrain today. Fernando and Pedro continued the preparatory work for Melbourne, working through the test plan of aero development, Bridgestone Potenza evaluation and set-up programmes.

Driver Constructor Time Laps
Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m29.989 45
Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1m30.384 63
Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1m30.498 64
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m30.534 77
Fernando Alonso Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1m30.564 114
Rubens Barrichello Honda Racing 1m31.067 120
Pedro de la Rosa Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1m31.354 92
Scott Speed Toro Rosso 1m31.500 125
David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 1m31.589 66
Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1m31.720 83
Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1m31.742 92
Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1m31.751 98
Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1m31.791 82
Jenson Button Honda Racing 1m31.837 98
Franck Montagny Toyota 1m32.264 120
Takuma Sato Super Aguri 1m33.337 53