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.

Alonso ready to ditch McLaren; Final race to decide F1 season

The speculation that current McLaren Formula One driver and two time defending world champion Fernando Alonso is going back to team Renault could soon become a reality. Alonso, who has made it an art of looking out for self, met secretly with Renault front-men Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds two weeks back during the Japanese Grand Prix. During the meeting Alonso discussed a two or three year contract with Renault starting next season. Sure, Alonso is under contract with McLaren for 2008, but given the fact that he essentially snitched on his team during the “spygate” scandal and has been bickering all season with teammate Lewis Hamilton, McLaren will probably be all too happy to terminate the remaining year on his contract.

While Alonso looks ahead to his future, there’s the matter of the current Formula One season, which got a lot more interesting when points leader Hamilton failed to finish at the Chinese Grand Prix. Going into the final race of the season in Brazil, the top 3 drivers – Hamilton, Alonso and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen – is separated by a mere 7 points. The first place finisher at the Brazilian grand prix has a chance to win a precious 10 points, meaning that the race for the driver’s championship will come down to the final race of the season, as it should.

So, what’s the ideal scenario for Ferrari and Raikkonen? For Kimi to finish first, teammate Felipe Massa to finish second, Alonso to finish anywhere from third on down and Hamilton to finish no higher than fifth. It’s a long-shot for sure, but that’s why they run the races.

In The News: September 30, 2007

Team McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton is on the cusp of history, as he ran away with a first place finish at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. With the win and with only 2 Formula One races remaining till season’s end, Hamilton, who came in only 2 points ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso in the driver’s championship race, put himself in position to become the first rookie ever to win the Formula One driver’s championship – pretty impressive indeed. As for the rest of the drivers that matter, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished third, moving all the way up the field after finding himself second to last earlier in the race, while Alonso crashed out (perhaps bad karma finally catching?) and didn’t finish the race. With 2 races and 20 maximum points remaining the top 3 drivers are: Lewis Hamilton (107 pts), Fernando Alonso (95 pts) and Kimi Raikkonen (90 pts).

A weekend of upsets shakes up college football

Talk about a looney Saturday in college football! In a day of upsets, the third, fourth, seventh and tenth ranked teams all lost their respective games, while the fifth ranked team lost on Thursday – the first time since 2003 where half of the college football top 10 lost in one crazy weekend. This weekend, No. 5 ranked West Virginia lost to South Florida, No. 3 Oklahoma lost to Colorado, No. 4 Florida lost to Auburn and No. 7 Texas lost to Kansas State. The weekend has thrown the BCS race and the college football rankings for a loop, but this is what makes college football – and football in general – such a great sport. On any given day, the most powerful teams in the land can take a dive against a scrappy challenger who outplays, outhustles, outworks and outsmarts their stronger opponent.

Favre breaks career touchdown record

Brett Favre broke Dan Marino’s career record by throwing his 421st career touchdown in the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. Good for Favre, but his record might not last very long given what Peyton Manning has done in his first 9 seasons in the league. Not counting the 5 touchdowns he has thrown this year, Manning has 275 touchdowns in those 9 seasons. At his current pace, if he were to play 17 seasons like Favre has, Manning could end up with more than 500 career TDs.

Soccer, Formula One and Golf shine in the NFL's shadow

Chances are if you were watching sports this weekend it was either the NFL or one of the major college football match-ups, like number 2 LSU versus number 9 Virginia Tech, for example. But, if football is all that cannibalized your sports viewing this weekend, you missed out on some really great, non-pigskin related, sporting events.

First up, the USA soccer team got their lunch handed to them by the Brazilian National Team, which is led by all-world stars Ronaldinho, Kaka and Robinho, among others. Team USA lost 4-2 in the friendly, billed interestingly enough as the “Clash of the Champions”. How does that work if only one of the teams has ever won any “championship" of note? But, we digress.

The Brazil game proved yet again, that Team USA and soccer as a sport in America has a long, long way to go. You probably know by now that soccer is the most popular youth sport in the US. But, unfortunately, once these soccer-playing kids hit puberty and eventually high-school, the most athletic of the bunch go into other sports, namely baseball and football. Until that trend changes, and until some of the strongest and fastest athletes in the US make soccer their sport of choice, the US will continue to lag behind on the world scene.

The king of the soccer world, Ronaldinho however, was only gracious in the win saying, “They are on the right path, and I believe in the future, it's a country that's going to have soccer with a very high level.”

Classy comments from a classy player.

Speaking of class, or lack thereof

As we mentioned in an earlier post, the Italian Grand Prix ran this weekend. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso put some distance between themselves and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa by finishing a respective 1-2 in the race at Monza – with Alonso finishing first and pulling within 5 points of Hamilton in the driver’s championship standings. With only four more races to go, Ferrari will need pull together a string of consecutive podium finishes, and hope that the McLaren duo falters, if they expect to have any chance of even sniffing the driver’s or constructor’s championships this season.

For the sake of “good guys” everywhere, let’s hope the Ferrari teammates are able to do just that. Because all the McLaren guys ever do is bicker among each other and with their team. Apparently, Alonso hasn’t heard that there is no “I” in TEAM. Following the race, Alonso made it very clear that he could care less about the constructor’s cup, as long as he’s able to catch Hamilton for the driver’s championship. At the same time he hinted at the issues that team McLaren has faced this year, including Alonso’s very public tiff with Hamilton.

"We are extremely lucky to have such a fast car and it means a lot to become world champion,” Alonso said after the race. “But, at least for me, it is not special if around the team there are problems. In the end it is good to be the drivers' world champion, but the constructors', from a driver's point of view, is not really a big factor."

Team McLaren must love hearing that from their star driver.

Jordan, Ali, Ruth…Woods?

This just in: Tiger Woods is really good! We’ve played golf from time to time, and generally hack our way around the course just like every other weekend golfer. So, we know how much skill and mental toughness it takes to be as consistently great as Tiger Woods has been over his 11-year career. Coming into Sunday, Woods found himself 1 shot down and very much in the thick of the competition in the third leg of the new FedEx Cup playoffs. By the end of the day Woods had shot an unbelievable low round of 63 and had blasted the competition on the way to his 60th career win (the youngest golfer ever, by far, to achieve that feat).

“I've exceeded my expectations and it's been a lot of fun to enjoy that whole road, that whole process to get to 60,” said Woods looking back. “It's been a lot of work, there has been some changes along the way, but I think that's all been great.”

Mark it down, Tiger Woods will not only go down as the greatest golfer of all time, but once he hangs up the clubs he will generally be regarded as one of the top 3 or 4 athletes ever, in any sport. And we’re not just talking about his skill on the course. Woods has had a huge social impact as well, in popularizing the sport outside of its traditional, sometimes non-inclusive boundaries, and getting new players excited about the game – us included. If they build a Mount Rushmore of sports 100 years from now, Woods should find himself on it joining the likes of Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan.

In The News: September 5, 2007

Calling Kobe Bryant confident is like saying Ferraris are fast – it goes without saying. The Los Angeles Lakers and recently minted Team USA star displayed some of that bravado during his current whirlwind, Nike-sponsored trip to Asia by announcing that he is confident that the US National team can win gold during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Kobe said that this US Team will face a “much greater” challenge at the Olympics than what the 1992 Dream Team led by Magic, Jordan and Bird faced in Atlanta. "We're preparing for (the Olympics) like we were playing for the NBA finals,” Kobe said.

Michigan takes monumental tumble

From being ranked number 5 to being clear out of the AP Top 25, the Michigan Wolverines took the largest tumble in the NCAA college football rankings since the poll expanded to 25 teams. The Maize and Blue lost this past weekend to former Division 1-AA school Appalachian State, marking what some are calling the biggest upset in the history of college football. If you think Michigan Wolverine fans were devastated by the loss to the lowly Mountaineers, imagine how Michigan football head coach Lloyd Carr must be feeling right about now. Carr, who was contemplating retirement after season’s end, might want to speed up those proceedings.

Don't sleep on Formula One

The Formula One season rolls into Monza, Italy this weekend for the aptly-named Italian Grand Prix. With only five races to go until season’s end, two drivers each from Ferrari and McLaren are locked in an incredibly close race for the coveted drivers’ championship. McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who have had a rather contentious relationship, are at the top of the standings, with Alonso only 5 points behind Hamilton. While, Ferrari teammates Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, who seem to be on better terms, having finished one-two at the recent Turkish Grand Prix, are third and fourth respectively in driver points. The remaining five races will be a literal sprint to the finish and should be a lot of fun to watch. The Italian Grand Prix will be shown on Speed TV on Sunday, September 9 at 3:00pm Eastern.

Beckham's former coach has serious beef

Soccer star David Beckham’s former coach, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, doesn’t think the former “Man U” star has what it takes to significantly increase the sport’s profile in the US.

"It is difficult with David going there. I don't know what kind of impact he can make," Ferguson said. "David Beckham himself can't change the whole country. In European soccer, and especially in British soccer, you can travel easily. If you are in Boston and need to go to Los Angeles, it's a six-hour flight. Supporters don't travel, so you are missing that rivalry between fans."

Soccer wasn’t specifically the only subject discussed, as Ferguson addressed an audience in Glasgow, Scotland. It seems that the Manchester United manager isn’t a big fan of Beckham’s high profile spouse, Victoria Beckham of the Spice Girls, either.

"He was never a problem until he got married," Ferguson continued. "He was a fantastic young lad. Getting married into that entertainment scene was a difficult thing -- from that moment his life was never going to be the same. He is such a big celebrity, soccer is only a small part."

Apple drops iPhone price. Is a sleeker version planned at the original price point?

Only month's after its launch, Apple cut the price of its decidedly cool iPhone from the original $599 to a somewhat affordable $399. Historically, particularly with its line of iPods, Apple has been known to hold the launch price point well into the product's lifecyle, so the quick price-cut on the iPhone is a clear indication that the product may be falling behind the company's sales targets. So, while At&T network users are the still the only consumers that can buy and use an iPhone (unless you use this hack), the new $200 cheaper price point should help move a lot of the devices this fall. The price-cut though brings up an interesting question. Is Apple planning on bringing a newer, sleeker, cooler iPhone to market at the original $599 price point soon?