In a week that has seen one of the greatest put-downs the F1 world has ever seen we head to Mount Fuji and the location of a real (and very wet) F1 circus in 2007. The put-down had been delivered by Bernie Ecclestone, often described as F1's Ringmaster, after Ferrari boss Luca Montezemolo described the events of the Singapore GP as a circus. "If that's a circus," Bernie is reported to have said, "then Ferrari were the clowns."
You certainly don't get the heads of FIFA or the IOC, Sepp Blatter and Jacques Rogues, indulging in such knockabout humour. Though it's understandable that Montezemolo wanted to take his anger out on someone after Singapore and blamed the Safety Car - had Felipe Massa waited till the fuel line was off and rejoined the race, then he would have stayed in front of Lewis Hamilton and might even be three points in front of him coming into the Japanese GP, Safety Car or no Safety Car.
What Felipe should be comforted by is the fact that he produced one of the most stunning qualifying laps of the season to take pole in Singapore and he can easily score three more poles in the remaining three races. What is not clear is whether Kimi Raikkonen can stay right behind him to take three second places.
For a start Massa should stop listening to all the negative headlines about his chances for the World Championship - one single mistake, one engine failure from Lewis Hamilton could put him on the ropes. Raikkonen's comeback from 17 points behind Hamilton in 2007 is testament to that.
We know that at his home GP Massa will be on fire. He's a shoe-in for a victory. Ferrari perform well at warm tracks, Raikkonen did well in Brazil last year, and so Hamilton will have his work cut out if he's less than four points in front as we head to Interlagos. That means all Massa has to do is catch up three points in the next two races...
But having said all that, the likely cold and/or rain of Japan and China will perhaps suit McLaren better. And last year, even with traction control, Felipe Massa spun his race away at Mount Fuji. The race, which started in torrential rain, was one where Race Director Charlie Whiting inadvertently saved Ferrari's World Championship.
Whiting had sent an e.mail to all the teams before the start that they were compelled to start the race on the full wets. For some reason Ferrari ignored this and started on Inters. That reason was because their IT system was so blocked up the e.mail didn't arrive until after the race had started. Whiting demanded they changed to Inters or he was going to black flag them.
As it was, they were the right choice of tyre and instead of struggling round on them to see if conditions would improve, they took the penalty of the stop and then Raikkonen made a dramatic charge through the field using every inch of tarmac run-off he could find.
With rain never far away at Mount Fuji we could see at least one of the sessions run in the wet and that is almost always to Lewis Hamilton's advantage.
Hamilton spent a patient weekend at Singapore collecting points for his World Championship and though he clearly hates playing the percentage game, after 2007 he knows he has no choice. His ability at Mt Fuji won't be in question, but Heikki Kovalainen will have to do a lot better than he did at Singapore.
While Ferrari have a driver in Raikkonen who can interpose himself between Massa and Hamilton, rarely has Heikki been ahead of one of the Ferraris, let alone two. McLaren would have been better off luring Heidfeld from BMW than keeping Kovalainen for 2009. Nick was always going to be a McLaren driver from his F3000 days, but never made it to the full team.
With the news that BMW have re-signed Kubica and Heidfeld there might be a spirit of optimism in the squad going to Japan. Because Robert is only 13 points shy of Massa and if the wheels fall off the Ferrari wagon in the next two races he could even end up second in the Drivers' Championship.
The next big fight is the Renault vs Toyota battle for fourth place in the Constructors' Championship. Though Mount Fuji is home ground for Toyota, Renault are looking increasingly racy and have the advantage of a virtuoso driver in
Fernando Alonso.
Alonso's unlikely (but not undeserved) win in
Singapore made it seven different
GP winners in the
season, which just endorses the view that
2008 is a vintage year for
F1.
Nelson Piquet Junior has three
races to save his
F1 career, but it's looking increasingly unlikely he'll do it.
The other home boys, Honda and Kazuki Nakajima will be keen to impress in a country that loves its F1. There may be monsoon rain showers but the grandstands will still be packed. A bit like Silverstone in June. Nakajima will enjoy the focus of attention that always used to lift Takuma Sato - and with a new deal for 2009 in place, he should be free to take a few risks. Honda may not have such a happy time, but if they can beat Toyota at their home track then that will feel like winning the race
source :http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3265_4259515,00.html
