McLaren's complaints should fall on deaf ears

They’re the European version of the Hatfields and McCoys. Instead of overalls and shotguns though, you’ll get three-piece Yves Saint Laurent suits and 750 horsepower racing machines. Still, the concept is the same when it comes to the animosity between Ferrari and McLaren within the Formula One arena. Jean Todt, current head of Gestione Sportiva, the formal name of the Ferrari F1 team, doesn’t much like his McLaren counterpart Ron Dennis. Recently departed McLaren driver Fernando Alonso didn’t much like Ferrari’s lead racer Kimi Raikkonen. Even the lawyers for the respective teams aren’t too fond of one another.

After McLaren’s golden boy Lewis Hamilton lost his driver’s championship this past season over the final few races to Ferrari’s Raikkonen, the team became a collective group of sore losers. Well, Hamilton excluded, but we’ll get to that in a second. Officially, McLaren filed a complaint, saying that cars belonging to BMW Sauber and Williams should have to rescind their finishing positions at the Brazilian Grand Prix for using fuel that was a tad “cooler” than F1 regulations would allow. See, Hamilton, who could have wrapped up the driver’s championship with a 5th place or better finish at the year’s last race came in behind the BMW and Williams drivers. So, if they were to be disqualified, Hamilton would in theory be eligible to be rewarded the driver’s championship. Hamilton for his part wants no part of this, but McLaren officials are pushing ahead with the plea.

This is pure desperation folks. Sure, the “cool” fuel may have been against F1 regulations, but if the folks at McLaren think they have a snowball’s chance in hell to reverse the final standings they’re probably standing a little too close to the exhaust fumes. There is little chance that the Formula One governing body will actually take the championship trophy away from Ferrari as a result of arbitration in a lawyer’s office – especially when the results were decided fair and square on the track. Ferrari and F1 fans in general would be outraged. Besides, McLaren probably has no perceived right to bring up issues of rules violations, after they themselves were caught cheating in a much more egregious manner earlier in the year. Tad hypocritical, wouldn’t you say?

McLaren needs to cut their losses, move on and find a driver next year to replace the departed Fernando Alonso. And, while there are is talk that the legendary Michael Schumacher may be a great fit alongside Hamilton on team McLaren, it seems just about impossible that a Ferrari blue-blood would ever set foot in a rival McLaren race car. The feud wouldn't allow it.

Update: Thankfully, McLaren's appeal was denied. Ferrari's Raikkonen will retain his driver's championship.

Miraculous finish to Formula One season; Ferrari's Raikkonen is king

As we mentioned in a recent post, the Formula One season, for the first time in 21 years we might add, came down to the very last race at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, sitting in third place behind McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso respectively, could only win the driver’s crown if he actually won the final race, Alonso finished in third or lower and Hamilton, who came in leading the points standing, finished fifth or lower. We’ll give you one guess as to what transpired on the reverse layout course in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

That’s right, in one of the most exciting finishes ever to a Formula One season, the underdog Raikkonen pulled a “Buster Douglas” and did the unthinkable, driving a perfect race to bring the driver’s championship home for Team Ferrari. With Raikkonen’s win, Ferrari also takes home the F1 sweep, by having its driver win the individual crown, while the team won the constructor’s title, albeit as a fall-out of the now infamous 2007 “spygate”.

"This is a great feeling," Raikkonen said. "We had some hard times, some reliability problems and lost some points. A lot of people didn't believe in us, but we showed that they were wrong and we were able to come back. It was a great season."

We’ve been plugging Formula One on this blog since we began writing a couple of months back. And if you are even the least bit interested in racing or cars, and didn’t follow the 2007 F1 season, you missed out one of the most dramatic and exciting sporting seasons ever – even Quentin Tarantino couldn’t write a better script.

You had the young repeat champion in Fernando Alonso, moving to a new team and looking for a three-peat. You had the once-in-a-lifetime rookie Lewis Hamilton, seeking to become the only first-year driver, and incidentally black driver, ever to win the individual crown. You had the constant bickering between Hamilton and Alonso, which left many wondering if the lack of team cohesiveness would be McLaren’s downfall. You had the first year after the legendary Michael Schumacher era at Ferrari, with new teammates Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa looking to keep the “prancing horse” legacy alive. And of course, you had “spygate”, filled with its own heroes and villains, and an unprecedented $100 million fine that left McLaren reeling just a little.

If you missed all that, shame on you. Maybe, you’ll pay a little more attention next year to what is easily the most thrilling and entertaining motorsports competition around.