YH wrote:

> We could be down to 5 teams in the next season or so....

At this point would be worth me entering in my Ford Focus,only need a couple of cars not to finish and I would be in the points !.

Seriously,the outlook for the sport currently looks bleak.The FIA have already gone with Indycar style rule changes (single control tyre and proposed same engines etc.) to keep costs down.I reckon F1 machines will end up being basically bigger and faster GP2 cars.This system works fine in Moto GP (125cc,250cc & GP classes) and it would provide a great platform for drivers to progress through.This has got to be a better option than waiting for more car manufacturers to pull out due to the stupid budgets they currently need to stay in the sport.

Williams are the most likely to begin struggling badly financially. Toyota are currently cost cutting but they could easily pull out as they've been threatening to do for a while. Red Bull have been looking to sell the Toro Rosso team for a while.

And at least one less driver in 2010 if Alonso is to be believed when he says he'll walk out of F1 if they unify engines.

The Australian Grand Prix will not open the Formula One season in 2008. The honour goes to Bahrain next year the organisers of the Australian Grand Prix announced. The Australian Grand Prix will be held on the 16th of March 2008. The organisers of the Australian Grand Prix decided to pick a date halfway into March so it can organise the Formula 1 weekend with the popular Australian series of V8 Supercars.
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Bobwilliams
[url=http://www.drivenwide.com]Interactive marketing[/url]

Yeah, it's 9. Hawthorn, Surtees, Clark, G Hill, Stewart, Hunt, Mansell, D Hill and now Hamilton.

Is it 9 ?.

Hamilton led Massa by 7 points going into the final race. Massa had to win or come 2nd and Hamilton just needed 5th place or better. Ended up with Massa winning and Hamilton getting 5th.

Apparently, 13.1 million viewers tuned in for the last lap drama with an average of 8.8 million over the course of the race.

Glock didn't slow down on purpose. I watch the timing screens and both Toyotas stayed out on dry tyres. They finished the race with a lap time within a tenth of a second of each other. Also, Glock had so much trouble getting the power down up the hill after the final corner, he finished over 5 seconds behind Hamilton.

Not really, he had a good season, as did Massa.  They were the 2 strongest performers this year and both deserved the title.  Both also made mistakes during the season and had questionable rulings for or against them so it was either's championship.

McLaren did everything right this year, there's nothing you can say against them in the way that they played it.

Yep, a fantastic race.  I wouldn't be surprised if that got record numbers of viewers in the UK as the whole Hamilton hyped rolled on.

I see that there are the odd comments on the net suggesting that Glock was told to slow down to let Hamilton win, all unfounded.

Next year should be really interesting, if Renault move forward like they have been doing with Alonso and Massa and Hamilton both continuing their racing pace it should be a great competition.  Vettel is certainly one to watch (I chose him for my work Fantasy F1 this year).

Nice job,Hamilton deserved the title IMO.Did feel sorry for Massa though,cruel to think for 30 seconds you are world champion only to find out your not.

That has to be the most intense end to a Grand Prix I think I've ever seen. Full thoughts in my review of the season (which will be pretty long) in the next few days.

I wonder if had it been Kovalainen giving up his position to Hamilton so he could get more points the stewards would have penalised them for it...

Not a stellar race. Hamilton was easily the fastest and deserved to win. It's win or bust really for Massa now but I think McLaren, with the Kovalainen retirement, will be looking for Kovy to take the win away from Massa.

Grandprix wrote:
> Planet F1 did an interesting article. Hamilton would have been
> 93-73 up on Massa if it hadn't of been for the meddling of the
> FIA.

So Hamilton would have a 20 point lead with 20 points available.Meaning he would only be 1 point away from being world champion,regardless of how Massa scores in the final races.I was going to change my avatar but reckon I will keep it for a bit longer!.There has been none of this crap in Moto GP or World Superbikes,just good old fashioned wheel to wheel racing.Both series have been very exciting and produced worthy and totally respected world champions.If Massa is gifted the F1 crown due to the ridiculous penalties handed out to his opponents he will not be a worthy world champion IMO.

Don't know if Alonso was being serious or not ?,seems pretty sad to me if he was.Anyway,Massa doesn't need his help,the FIA will do that job for him !.

I must say I'm surprised by that. More concerning is the fact that Massa genuinely believes that he didn't deserve a drive through for taking out Hamilton. If anything, that's the only iron clad drive through they handed out.

Anyway, good race with plenty of action. China is pretty important now.

pb wrote:
> I think many drivers do get a superiority complex.  Kimi only
> escapes some of the attention because he never talks, to anyone!

He does disappoint me when he opens his mouth, but then I support him because of his on track exploits, such as 10 fastest laps in the last fifteen races which may not mean a lot this year but at least it shows he had the speed to do better (like in 2005).

> Massa seems more down to earth, but as you say he's been making
> mistakes he shouldn't be making at this stage in his career.

Well this is the first year he's had a real championship run.  He was out of the running after Fuji last year, so it'll be interesting to see how he deals with the added pressure of being the teams only chance, with Kimi likely to be out of contention at the same point this year (if he isn't already so).

> Alonso was somewhat grumpy and started to get that same complex
> when he was champion and I'm sure many others have in the past.

He does seem to be the fans' least favourite, with Montoya (when he was still in F1), then Kimi being next.  I think his English lets him down a bit, having in the past described every pole or win as a dream, which wasn't very inspirational.

> Maybe it's the sport which pushes the drivers into this mindset,
> or the people around them?

In L4yer Cake there's a bit about forgetting what $hit smells like, which is what I think happens if you don't have the right people round you, as Sir Jackie Stewart is probably the most modest multi world champion ever (although according to sky news he only won two :p).

pb wrote:
> Anyone deserves to win the championship if they drive well and
> get points, to be honest.

Felipe at Silverstone was just shocking.  Also go back to earlier races in the season when he was making rookie errors (much like Piquet Jr. has been doing all year).  The only reason I’d like him to take the wdc over Hamilton is because I think Lewis’ head would explode.  Did you hear him after the night race, talking about being stuck behind Coulthard, a fellow brit as if he was supposed to let him through.  Still though if he does take it, I won’t begrudge him, as he has the best work ethic out there by far.

Grandprix wrote:
> I think Hamilton has to win the title now otherwise there will be
> a cloud over Massa if he wins by less than 6 points.

Even though he has been the best (in terms of improvement) this season?  I don't think he deserves a WDC, but that's from a talent point of view, and not an attempt to make excuses just in case Lewis doesn't do it again which does seem to be a very British trait.