I’ve never been a Ferrari fan, mostly because I never liked Michael Schumacher. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for what he has achieved and for the talent that he definately has no lack of. There was just a certain air around him that just didn’t work for me. Back in 1996 when I started watching Formula1 I instantly became a Hakkinen fan. The cool, calm held back personality showed some kind of confidence combined with modesty and smooth driving precision. He didn’t need to be loud and articulate and flashy. He proved his worth with every race that he lead and won.
I guess it reflects a certain part of my personality, so when Mika left F1 at the end of the 2001 series, I was in need of a new hero to follow. A hero that exhibits similiar traits of confidence and style. I took notice of two drivers; the Columbian Juan Pablo Montoya from Indy 500 and a Finn, Kimi Raikkonen. In the years that followed both showed their own styles and personalities through the races they battled; Montoya revealed what I at first interpreted as gutsy and bravery, but which I later realised was probably aggression and temper. He left F1 in 2006 when Ron Dennis, McLaren boss, offered him an early exit.
Kimi shined often and proved to be very competitive in many battles between himself and other top racers. It always felt to me like he was right there on the verge of winning, but maybe inexperience or having his mind on parties prevented him from getting there. Schumacher and Ferrari was of course a very very strong opponent with impeccable skill and reliability. As Michael kept on winning race after race I slowely started losing interest in my favorite sport. It wasn’t racing anymore, it was mundane, boring and repetitive. I probably saw one or two races in 2005 and only a handful more in 2006. It was the strangest moment seeing Schumacher doing his last race and you could feel the air around the track, the pits, even the people that he had been competing with for the last decade. It was the end of a spectacular era that we may never experience again and the start of a legendary story that will be on the minds of every F1 fan, and the pages of every F1 book ever to be written. I felt sad despite my negative feelings towards this talented driver.
From a year that designated the end of an ara, to a year with new teams and drivers, 2007 was surely going to be exciting. Montoya was gone. BMW started their own team. Williams got Toyota engines. Kimi signed with Ferrari and Felipe Massa was suddenly the talk of the town. This sport has so many surprises! I had to make a pick, but staying with Kimi whilst he signed with Ferrari just felt like sin. So I didn’t pick, I just watched, and as the season progressed I got used to Ferrari. Ferrari didn’t equal Michael Schumacher and it felt good. Of course things couldn’t just be that easy, a newbie in F1, a Brit named Lewis Hamilton who started with McLaren started taking podium positions from very early on and threw the whole sport upside down. It was awesome, exciting and very far from the repetitive mundane days of Micheal Schumacher. We had real racing, filled with unknowns and “i-wonder-who-will” every week. F1 was back with a bang.
This weekend the French GP took place at Magny-Cours, in my opinion one of the weirdest tracks, but I liked it for exactly that reason. Very fast S bends as proven by Hamilton this year and hard to overtake corners. Alonso felt the pain as he tried lap after lap to pass, he was afterall the world champion and for him to be stuck in 7th place must’ve been frustrating like no other. You could see his desperation but the track was unforgiving. Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that for 2008 Formula1 will not return to Magny-Cours. Paris may be an alternative in 2008.
During Massa’s final pitstop, he was leading the race up to this point, Kimi pulled one out of the hat and made up precious seconds from second place. This allowed him to pass Massa during his pitstop for 1st place. You have to give credit to the Ferrari team in Maranello who worked very hard to produce much needed improvement to their car.
Let’s hope that this is the start of a turn around for the Ferrari team. I cannot wait for the next race at Silverstone in Brittain!
