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F1 World Championships: One Constructor, Two Drivers

Well if you haven’t seen or heard of the outcome of the Brazilian GP yesterday, you must have been in a coma. In a bid to win the driver’s championship Felipe Massa, in front of his countrymen, drove a brilliant weekend, from practice right through to his race win. And it wasn’t enough.

Massa, starting the weekend with a seven marker deficit to point’s leader Lewis Hamilton, needed the McLaren star to come home in sixth place or lower, and Felipe needed to win in order for the diminutive Ferrari star to claim the driver’s championship.

Having watched the Brazilian dominate the entire weekend, and with the awful suspicion that the second race engine of Hamilton was destined to fail, I was stunned to watch the last laps of the race unfold.

Massa and Kimi Raikonnen parlayed their light fuel loads and 1-3 starting positions into strong dominating runs throughout the race. Lewis Hamilton and McLaren seemed content to race for that title clinching fifth place position. And it’s the strategy that I believe almost undid an entire season of competition. They left themselves open to the vagaries of the weather and their opponents counter strategies. This is what makes this sport so intriguing.

With eight laps to go and Hamilton cruising in fifth place the not so unexpected happens: it starts to rain. Over the next two laps all of the leaders pit and take on intermediate wet tires. In a bold strategy to win points the Toyota’s of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock both stay out on dry tires, and Glock inherits fourth place. The BMW Sauber of Sebastien Vettel is in sixth place and the youngster is stalking Lewis Hamilton.

With one lap to go the inconceivable happens. Robert Kubica, a lap down and in traffic amongst the leader’s storms past Vettel and Hamilton, allowing Vettel to follow through and pass Hamilton.

One lap to go and Hamilton is in sixth place! Not where he wants to be. And no matter how hard he tries he can’t close the gap to Vettel. His championship aspirations are up in the vapor soaked air of Interlagos. Watching and listening to the announcers on Speed, it was inconceivable to all that the race would unfold in this manner, with Massa snatching the WDC from Hamilton on the last lap of the last race of the year.

Just when all seemed lost for Hamilton, the gamble of Timo Glock and Toyota came up short, as the worsening rain made it apparent that staying out on dries was not the correct strategy. On the last corner both Vettel and Hamilton pass Glock, giving Lewis his prized fifth place finish and his first driver’s championship.

Unbelievable, you couldn’t make up a more improbable race finish.

The unfortunate Felipe Massa takes his victory lap joyous in his misinformed state that HE was the WDC. I can’t imagine the roller coaster ride his emotions took in those closing moments: from the rapture of achieving his dreams to the cold realization that he came up one point short.

And thus to my posting title. Yes Ferrari has won the constructor’s title and Lewis Hamilton impossibly won the driver’s championship; but as far as I’m concerned Felipe Massa (not mASSa as I’ve come to call him lately) is as deserving of the title as Hamilton. He has hopefully cast aside all of his snide critics (me included) who said he couldn’t race in the wet, couldn’t handle the pressure, and would fold under the season long onslaught of 2007 champion and teammate Kimi Raikonnen.

Well here’s to you Felipe. You showed more class than any other driver of late, who has come so close only to lose it all in the end. As you stated at your press conference, you know how to win and you know how to be gracious in defeat. I would dare say that you gained more fans by losing the title than if you had won. Count me amongst one of those converts.

And what of next year? I can only hope that we fans will be witness to the unrealized title clashes we expected from Senna and Schumacher by the duo of Hamilton and Massa. And for years to come. Congratulations Felipe, you may not have won the title but you are furthest from being a loser than I could ever have imagined.

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