Silly Season all year round

"Silly Season" is a term given to a time when rumours and speculation get rather out of hand for any given subject. However, in more recent times, thanks to social media and the internet in general, this seems to never stop.

Let's take one example, Formula 1. Formula 1 has a silly season every year when drivers are constantly linked to moves away from their current teams to pastures new. One such team who has had lots of links to drivers is McLaren. It's fair to say that the Woking based team has not had the best of years recently but with the return of Ron Dennis and a reuniting partnership with Honda for next year, The driver who has been talked about as leaving is Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion talked of retirement after his dad John passed away earlier this year but insists that he is not going to retire any time soon. After telling the press that he needs to focus more, Ron Dennis himself may be looking elsewhere for someone to get the team back at the front of the F1 field. Two of the surprising drivers linked are Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, team-mates from the infamous 2007 season.

It's unlikely that they would ever be team-mates again but one of them returning to McLaren, debatable. With Lewis, he left the team because he wanted more freedom and he wasn't happy after a retirement at Singapore, where ironically, a Mercedes-Benz component failed on the car. After that, he was talked into joining the Mercedes team by Niki Lauda. 

As for the eyebrow-endowed Spaniard, it's no secret that Alonso and Dennis' relationship deteriorated during that Hollywood-movie-worthy 2007 season. Where Alonso believed that the team preferred Hamilton. This all came to a point when Alonso blackmailed Dennis about the sensitive information from Ferrari about their car. It was Dennis himself who turned in McLaren to the FIA and got the immense fine and expulsion from the 2007 Constructor's Championship. Would Fernando Alonso go back to McLaren after that? Who knows. One thing is for sure, if Kimi Raikkonen can go back to Ferrari after he was thrown out then anything is possible. 

Two more names in the hat are Williams' Valtteri Bottas and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, who isn't having the best of times right now at Red Bull with his team mate Daniel Ricciardo smiling his way to being the best non-Mercedes as Vettel retires every other race. For Vettel to leave Red Bull it would be because he feels he needs a new challenge, and he'd get that at McLaren but he'd also get it at Ferrari, where he's been heavily linked to in the past. Vettel has said that he'd like to one emulate his hero Michael Schumacher and drive a red Ferrari but has also said that his favourite ever F1 car is a McLaren, the 1993 MP4/8 to be specific. 

As for Bottas, well his hero is Mika Hakkinen, who happens to be his manager. He drove for McLaren rather successfully. And it's not just him, plenty of Finnish drivers end up at McLaren at some point in their career and I'd imagine that driving for them one day would also appeal to Bottas. 

It's all conjecture without any real backup. I mean, Romain Grosjean has also been linked to McLaren because his manager is Eric Boullier, McLaren's Racing Director. That doesn't always mean that he'll get a drive there. I mean, Mark Webber's manager was Flavio Briatore and he never drove for Renault back in the 2000s.

The thing is, without any real sources to back it up, rumours are just that, rumours. Someone might go to McLaren or they might stick with Button and Magnussen. Who knows? I don't but maybe Eddie Jordan does.

Favourite F1 cars

I thought about doing this for a while and now I've decided to because why not, everyone likes a list of favourite things. This is based around F1 cars obviously. There may be a case of bias here as someone who has a favourite team, McLaren if you didn't know. However, you can appreciate cars from other teams. These cars are not necessarily championship-winning cars, they don't have to be.

Without further ado, in no particular order...


BrawnGP BGP 001

Well what can you say, you could make a movie about the story of BrawnGP, the team who rose from the ashes of Honda (rather ironic given recent events with Mercedes and McLaren) and almost never made it to the grid but went on to win both championships in its first and only season. The car itself was fabulous, it had an air of nostalgia about it with the minimal livery. It was fast too, with the shoehorned Mercedes-Benz engine in it, the BrawnGP 001 won seven out of the first nine races with Jenson Button behind the wheel, who became F1 Driver's Champion that year and also won the Constructor's Championship with teammate Rubens Barrichello. 

Interesting fact: Jenson Button himself owns the car, only three were made and Rubens used the spare one, as it was in his contract that he would get it if he became champion. There was a bit of an argument between Jenson and team buyers Mercedes, who said that he couldn't have it because he visited McLaren whilst still under contract. Jenson disputed this and in the end got the car. It was the oldest car on the grid when Jenson became champion.

McLaren MP4/13

The 1998 McLaren MP4/13 was a stunning car. In West colours and driven by Finland's Mika Hakkinen and Scottish chin master David Coulthard, the MP4/13 won both Championships with Mika winning his first World Championship, seeing off Ferrari and Michael Schumacher in the process. This was McLaren's first Constructor's Championship since 1991. The MP4/13 also holds the record at the Goodwood hillclimb. In 1999, Nick Heidfeld set the record at 41.6 seconds.


Lotus Type 72

The Lotus Type 72 is from an era when cars were carried over from one season to the next. The Type 72 was designed by Lotus founder Colin Chapman and powered by a Cosworth engine. In 1970 season, the Type 72 was introduced and helped Austrian Jochen Rindt lead the championship. However, during the Italian GP at Monza, Rindt was killed in a crash during qualifying. Emerson Fittipaldi was brought in and helped Lotus secure the Constuctor's Championship, and also Rindt the Driver's Championship, the first posthumous World Champion. In '71 the car struggled but in '72, with the now-iconic black and gold John Player Special livery, Fittipaldi won his first World Championship. 1973 saw more race wins and another Constructor's title, but retirements saw Fittipaldi lose his crown to Jackie Stewart before leaving for McLaren.

Williams FW25

The Williams BMW partnership was a strong one, and in 2003, was competing for the title. It didn't win, nothing could stop the all-conquering Ferrari team. The FW25 won four races with Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. Marc Gene replaced Ralf at the Italian Grand Prix after being involved in a testing accident. The reason why I like this car is that Williams were at their best for some time and with BMW were the strongest challengers to Ferrari for a short time, along with McLaren-Mercedes. The FW25 got Williams to second in the Constructor's Championship in 2003.

McLaren MP4/6

1991 saw Ayrton Senna win his third and final Driver's Championship in the Honda-powered McLaren MP4/6. Senna won the first four races including his home race in Brazil before Nigel Mansell and Williams hit top form. Senna and McLaren held on to win both titles and was the last time McLaren and Honda won together, at least before they re-unite in 2015. Senna is one of the greats and it's easy to say that it was he and not the car that won but F1 is a team effort, McLaren and Honda worked hard to halt the Williams.


Williams FW14B

Speaking of which, Williams lost out to McLaren in '91 but a year later, broke the Woking-based team's dominance on F1, with mustache extraordinaire Nigel Mansell winning the Championship in some fashion. The Williams-Renault FW14B was so dominant that it was often two seconds a lap faster than the next car. Adrian Newey designed a truly remarkable car, so much so, that the FW15 was available but was never used. In total, the FW14 won 17 races in 32 and Mansell wrapped up the title in '92 by winning nine races out of 16.

This next car is probably my favourite F1 car ever...

McLaren MP4-20

2005 saw a close Championship between two teams, McLaren and Renault. Kimi Raikkonen was up against Fernando Alonso for the Driver's Championship  The McLaren MP4-20 was faster than the Renault R25 but the Mercedes-Benz engine was unreliable and cost McLaren both titles. The reason why I love this car so much was when not blowing up, Kimi was able to pull off some incredible displays, getting pole at Monza with a full tank of fuel before getting a 10 place grid drop because he changed his engine. Then there was Suzuka, where after qualifying 17th, stormed through the field to win the race. The MP4-20 is also notable for achieving the highest speed ever recorded for an F1 car during a race. At Monza, race winner Juan Pablo Montoya hit over 231mph when he won the race. The MP4-20 is a car that deserves to be remembered as a great F1 car.

And yes, the MP4-20 is the car in the blog background.



I think that's the list, there could be more but these are the top ones for me. I noticed there are no Ferrari's on the list. That's mostly because of the dominant Schumacher era which was a dull, red blur.

Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

McLaren. What is going on at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes? (they won't be called that for much longer)

McLaren had a pretty good end to the 2012 season. They won the last two races to end a mixed year, with the loss of Lewis Hamilton to the Mercedes works team. Now, we know that title sponsor Vodafone are ending their relationship with the team which began in 2007, the year Hamilton made his debut in F1. The reason for this is unclear but I do believe that Hamilton's exit swayed Vodafone. This sponsorship deal was big money to McLaren and losing that deal must be a blow. However, McLaren have announced that a replacement will announced on December 2nd and Hamilton's replacement, Sergio Perez, is backed by a company called Telmex. Telemex is part-owned by a man named Carlos Slim, who is the world's richest man, with a fortune of $73 billion. Can anyone say Telmex McLaren Honda?

As for Honda, well, as I've written in a previous post, are rumoured to be returning to F1 as an engine supplier, in 2015 if reports are accurate. If true, this would mean McLaren sticking with Mercedes next year. What this could mean is McLaren reverse engineering the Mercedes engine with Honda and finding out it's pros and cons. Mercedes have insisted that they will protect themselves from something like this but I'm not sure how they could stop it if McLaren do use them.

Back to this season, it has been, in a word, shambolic. McLaren have been painfully slow and all pre-season optimism has evaporated into thin air. This was surprising given their end of season form last year and the promise they showed at the first pre-season test. The problem is apparently the new push rod suspension system, which is similar to the one Ferrari had trouble with last season.

Sergio Perez driving the McLaren MP4-28.

Will McLaren fix this issue? Possibly. They have three weeks until the Chinese Grand Prix and should be spending it finding why the car is so slow compared to its nearest rivals. McLaren will recover from setbacks, it's in their history.

When Honda pulled out of F1 in the early 90s, after struggling with Cosworth and Peugeot, McLaren recovered. After losing the West sponsorship McLaren came back and they will after losing Vodafone, Mercedes and Hamilton. If they don't then Martin (I can't stop making excuses) Whitmarsh should be fired. Teams have a tendency of bouncing back after losing their Vodafone sponsorship anyway. In 2007, Ferrari's ex-McLaren man Kimi Raikkonen beat the dueling bitch-fest between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton by 1 point. In the same year, Manchester United came back from 3 years of not winning the Premier League to reclaim their crown, after switching from Vodafone to AIG. Maybe McLaren can make it a hat-trick in 2014?

Going backpacking or gone forever?

This weekend, the 2012 Formula 1 season hits it's climax at the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos and the title will be decided between smug, whiny bitch Sebastian Vettel and eyebrow extraordinaire Fernando Alonso. However, attentions are already turning to the 2013 season and the biggest news is that Lewis Hamilton is leaving McLaren, the team who has supported him since he was just thirteen.

Lewis Hamilton at McLaren

Earlier this season, Hamilton announced that he was joining Mercedes and ending his long-standing association with the Woking-based team. The reason cited by Hamilton was that he wanted a new challenge and more freedom for sponsorship and other things. This is interesting given that his management company is the same one that orchestrated David Beckham's move to LA Galaxy several years ago. Of course, we can't forget that Hamilton's manager was his own dad before ending the professional relationship. Anthony, Lewis' dad has his own company and manages racing drivers, including Force India's Paul Di Resta. 

This surely means that Lewis' career managers were behind the move, since they had the most the gain from it. There's no way you can say it's to get a better car, since the Mercedes is struggling at this moment in time. That's not to say they won't improve for next year but given Hamilton won the last race at the new US circuit in Austin last time out and is looking good in Practice at Interlagos at the time of writing, you have to question the real motives of this moves. 

Hamilton's current team-mate at McLaren, Jenson Button, believes that his not-for-much-longer team-mate is making a mistake. Button said that "He has chosen to go his own way at the end of the year. It is his decision, although I personally don't think it is the right decision," and Jenson will know the Mercedes team better than anyone if you think about it. Given that had driven for them for quite a number of years in several guises: BAR, Honda and then the one season wonder Brawn GP.

Jenson Button driving the Brawn GP car which won both 2009 F1 championships

For years, even with the backing of Honda, who are rumoured to be returning to the sport, potentially as the engine supplier to McLaren, the team struggled to make real headway and only won one race as Honda in 2006 with Button behind the wheel. Ironically, had Honda stayed in the championship in 2009 they would have won both championships since Honda funded the development of the Brawn GP car which gave Button his Driver's Championship glory. Though that car was only as competitive as it was because they abandoned development of the 2008 car which was a total dud. To their credit, Mercedes have won a race this year, in China, and it was German shampoo model Nico Rosberg who gave them their first victory since they bought the team at the end of 2009. It was Nico's first and only F1 victory as well.

Not even the legend Michael Schumacher (pictured) can save the Mercedes F1 team from midfield  mediocrity so far. 

Since Button's comments, Hamilton has refuted any notions of regret at agreeing to join the Silver Arrows. Hamilton has said  "What I do have is a huge amount of love for the (McLaren) team. Leaving is always a tough decision and these last couple of races will be tough. "I'm happy I've got a new challenge ahead of me. I've got to build new relationships with people. Everyone does that in life so I don't know why I can't do it." 

However, the Team Principal at McLaren, Martin Whitmarsh, does believe that Hamilton is regretting signing on the dotted line to join BAR-Honda Mercedes, saying that he believes his reasons are that he has been offered more money and that Hamilton feels he has to 'flee the nest' so to speak. However, neither have ruled out Hamilton rejoining the team one day. That itself is a bit odd since you never hear drivers saying that they'd one day like to rejoin the team they're about the leave. Whitmarsh did go on the record and say that he would "have him back, yes".

"So let's hope it's just a gap year."

For the last time? Hamilton and Whitmarsh celebrating the victory at the 2012 US Grand Prix

Could we see Hamilton rejoining McLaren after three, or maybe even just a single year at Mercedes if things don't go too well?

It has happened of course. A driver rejoins the team he left for 'a new challenge'. The most recent example is Fernando Alonso, who in 2005 announced that he was joining McLaren from the all conquering Renault team of 2005-6. This only lasted for one year, despite him signing on for three years at McLaren. Alonso returned to Renault for 2008 and endured mediocrity for two years before joining Ferrari.This was down to him having his eyebrows ruffled by the new kid on the block, Lewis Hamilton. Annoyed at this and not being the Schumacher-esque dominator he had hoped, he sabotaged his own and Hamilton's chance of winning the F1 title, allowing Kimi "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" Raikkonen to win the championship by a single point.

Will Hamilton rejoin McLaren at some point? I think he will, it's just a case of when to be honest. McLaren have signed Sauber's Speedy Gonzalez Sergio Perez to replace him at McLaren and he is an exciting prospect and one to look out for next year for certain. I think it's more likely Hamilton will return when Button decides to hang up the helmet whenever that is. He's not getting any younger. 

In and out. Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez.

Only time will tell what happens but whatever the case. It's going to be exciting as hell to watch and that can only be a good thing.