Todt, Dennis. Who are these guys? Well, they are perhaps not as powerful as Bernie Ecclestone, but being the team bosses of Ferrari and McLaren, they sure can pull their weight around.
The bone of contention has been McLaren’s breach of the International Sporting Code, after the team’s chief designer Mike Coughlan was found in possession of confidential documents belonging to Ferrari. Coughlan, who is now under suspension, allegedly got the material from sacked Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney, who was the man knocked over by Michael Schumacher during a pit-stop at the 2000 Spanish Grand Prix.

The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council did find McLaren in breach of the International Sporting Code, but let the team off as there was no substantial evidence to prove that McLaren used the information available to Coughlan. It’s speculated that Coughlan held almost 800 pages of Ferrari documentation – enough to design, engineer, build, check, test, develop and/or run a 2007 Ferrari Formula One car.

Todt wasn’t amused with the decision and said he believed McLaren had access to the data when the team requested a clarification over the use of ‘moveable’ floors. Dennis promptly replied, admitting that it was from a tip-off from Stepney and not because McLaren were privy to Ferrari documents.

Following the mounting pressure from Ferrari, FIA president Max Mosley has now referred the case to the Court of Appeal. McLaren’s championship hopes could be in jeopardy if they are found guilty of using the material.

However, should McLaren be docked points or excluded from the championship even given the fact that only their employee possessed Ferrari data and the team didn’t use it? It’s like a Coca-Cola employee having the secret formulation of Pepsi. Would you penalise the employee, or both employee and employer?

After all, Coughlan and Stepney apparently did together approach Honda in June with an eye at job prospects. So, perhaps it was just a thing involving the two of them.

What really would have been interesting is if they had not been caught so early, assuming all the allegations against them are true. Imagine a lower-placed low-budget team suddenly having access to all this costly data and giving the big boys a run for their money.

Now, that would be a tale to tell.

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Surprising because Raikonnen had been outdone till then by the three other top contenders – team-mate Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton – for the Drivers’ Championship. And the way Hamilton was shaping up, one would dare still consider him as just another rookie who’s had a great start to his career.

Raikonnen has now perhaps rightfully claimed his place as Ferrari’s contender for the Drivers’ title. Massa may just be a point behind, but he’s now suffering from luck deserting him at the crucial junctures, something maybe he shouldn’t have picked up from his more illustrious colleague.

For those who may have forgotten, this season has already witnessed three drivers having consecutive wins. Massa did it in Bahrain and Spain, Hamilton in the couple of GPs in North America, and now Raikonnen in the European countries separated by the English Channel.

It may also have to do a bit with the team momentum, which is crucial in the case of races on successive weekends. This season has 10 races packed in five fortnights over the season. McLaren did well at Montreal and Indy and Ferrari bounced back with Raikonnen’s wins at Magny-Cours and Silverstone. The latter dampened the homecoming party for local lad Hamilton, who still managed to maintain a place on the podium.

Raikonnen has won the most races this season, but would need to be far more consistent to push Hamilton for the title. We are halfway into the season and Hamilton still has a 12-point lead over Alonso and a 18-point advantage on Raikonnen. Now, assuming, Hamilton continues to be at least third on the podium for the rest of the season, he going to end up with a minimum of 118 points.

That means Alonso would need more than 60 points in nine races while Raikonnen would need 66. That’s an average of approximately 7 points per race. It’s not impossible though, since the 7 points is only needed if Hamilton continues this remarkable run. And if Hamilton doubles his points to 140 at the end of the season, it would in all probability be an exceptional second-half of the season for both Alonso and Raikonnen to pip him to the post.

If Ferrari focus on Raikonnen as their No.1, then he could benefit from the internal squabble between a champion wanting to retain his crown and a potential great who is aiming to fulfil something he’s been working towards and trained on for years. For those who say that the problems have been fixed, just clear out those corneas and watch the replays of the podium celebrations at Silverstone.

It’s definitely a fight to the finish.

But the image of that race had to be Robert Kubica’s crash. Fortunately, crashes like those – ones that take the breath out of any spectator watching – rarely happen in Formula-1 nowadays. Kubica was safe, and the team promptly decided to rest him for the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

Germany’s Sebastian Vettel replaced him, and the teenager did well to qualify seventh at Indy, a track very similar to the one at Montreal. Hamilton literally grabbed pole, after trailing his team-mate Fernando Alonso in the first two periods of the qualifying session. The Ferraris were struggling, but still managed to park themselves on the second row for the race-start, with Massa ahead of Raikonnen.

Nick Heidfeld was fifth in the BMW, followed by Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault, a good performance from the rookie. Jarno Trulli, Mark Webber and Giancarlo Fisichella make up the back-end of the top ten. The Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello are once again outside the front 10, and at one point the Super Aguri of Anthony Davidson threatened to out-qualify them both.

Speaking of the Super Aguri, can one forget the moment that reminded us how sport can be a great leveller? A double world champion in the best car was overtaken by a driver in a car mostly sidelined to be happy amongst the backmarkers. Many a time, Takuma Sato would have had to give way to Fernando Alonso before the blue flags would start waving, but this time he got an opportunity to challenge the champion and was triumphant too.

Hoping that Indy can match up to the pulsating drama that was Montreal.

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Michael Schumacher may have won in 1997 with the new points system, but he also would have lost the 1994 title to Damon Hill. Under the old points, Schumacher piped Hill by a solitary point; the new one would have seen Hill being World Champion by a good 8 points.

Other statistical highlights courtesy http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/statistics/
1992- Michael Schumacher’s first season was so impressive that, had the 2003-specification points system been used that year, he would have tied for second with Riccardo Patrese.
1995 – Had the 2003 points system been used in 1995, Johnny Herbert would have been third overall, instead of David Coulthard.
1996 – To highlight how the post-2003 points system rewards consistent finishing in the lower places more than occasional finishes in the higher places, compare Jean Alesi and Michael Schumacher. Alesi (no wins) trailled Schumacher (three wins) by 12 points in real life, but under post-2003 points he would have been just two points behind.

KONIG F1 – A FANTASY GAME.

This brings us to an interesting debate, on whether Hamilton would have been on par with Alonso on points had he been competing under the old points scoring system. The new points system came into effect in 2003, in order to spur greater competition and rewarded eight drivers with points instead of the earlier system of six finishing in the points. Also, the points for the second and third placed drivers on the podium were changed, which cut down the 4-point cushion for a race winner over the second-placed opponent to a mere 2 points. The old system was as follows: the drivers finishing in the top six were awarded 10, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points respectively for that particular Grand Prix. The new system: 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the drivers placing 1-8.

Going by the old points system, Alonso would be on 32 points for the races held so far, 6 points less than the tally with the current points system. Lewis Hamilton would be worse hit, his points this season would drop from 38 to 28 if the old system was still in existence. Hence, if we were still in 2002, Alonso would have been going to Montreal with a 4-point lead over his team-mate.

One can go on about the merits of the old and the new system. The major difference being that earlier a race win was given more importance, since the driver placed in second scored 4 points less than the winner, who got 10. Nevertheless the current system has been well-accepted by all and perhaps is a better one.

Last season, there was a close contest between Alonso and the now-retired Michael Schumacher. I think you get what I intend to do: Check if Schumi could have won that title in the farewell season had the points system been different. Schumacher was second-best by a good 13 points in the end, but the title race was much closer before the tragic engine blowout at the penultimate race in Japan.

Current points system: Alonso 134, Schumi 121.
Old points system: Alonso 116, Schumi 104.

So, it wouldn’t have really made a difference. The duo were equal on points before the race in Japan, which Alonso won and Schumacher didn’t score a point in. Interestingly, had it been the old system, Schumacher would have led Alonso by a point heading into Japan. So, could that 1 point have crumbled Alonso’s march to the title. Perhaps not.

Those still interested read on. We shall look at another title-race involving Schumacher, though this time around it is back in 1997, when the old points system was in place. 1997 saw the infamous incident where Schumacher tried to take out championship winner Jacques Villeneuve in the final race of the season – the European Grand Prix. Schumacher was penalised; the authorities disqualified him from the final championship standings.

What follows is to check whether Schumacher would have benefited had the new points system been followed.

Old points system (Actual standings): Villeneuve 81 Schumacher 78.
New points system : Villeneuve 89 Schumacher 94.

Interesting? And the standings before the European Grand Prix is given below:

Old system: Villeneuve 77 Schumacher 78.
New system: Villeneuve 83 Schumacher 94.

Villeneuve did not even have a shot at winning the title. Schumacher could have well gone on driving his way to the championship. Although, in hindsight, that would have made for a rather blunt conclusion to the season. And the connoisseurs of sport would have been denied the opportunity the decry that instance of sporting impropriety.

The title race is in all probability likely to be tight this season. But at the back of our minds would be the fact that perhaps a different points scoring system could have made a world of difference.

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Massa qualified third, while Raikonnen’s brush with the surreal pushed him back to 15th. Meanwhile, on the front row a two-time defending champion managed to pip the rookie who is seen capable enough by many to win the World Championship. A lot of talk going into this weekend was about the successes McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton has had at Monaco, albeit at lesser levels of motor sport.

However, teammate Fernando Alonso has once again out-qualified the Briton (a 4-1 record this season so far). But Hamilton will surely be looking to outdo the Spaniard at the start in Monaco. And a win at Monaco would definitely be one of the defining moments of world sport this year.

It is heartening to see that the BMWs have been pushed back to the fourth row, followed by the Hondas in Row 5. Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault, Nico Rosberg in the Williams and Red Bull’s Mark Webber fill the slots 4-6. Hopefully, Monaco shall mark the inflection point for a few teams and their drivers.

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It’s official. Strap your wiggly butts to your lazyboys and prepare for launch. Roger has started liking the dirt. It doesn’t choke his nares as before. His air-maxes have attained firm footing. And a certain someone in three-fourths is certainly frowning in displeasure.

If Federer’s pummeling of Nadal in the final of the Hamburg Masters is anything to go by, we have a French Open of epic proportions awaiting us.

It was not the eventual victory that mattered. It was the timing and manner of it – a handful of days before the French, all knives out against a ‘suspect’ Federer on clay, and this ripped teenager in highly un-recommended tennis attire having his own disdainful way with the champion. Here was a man who had just parted ways with his coach because he did not want any “interference” from any quarter in his preparation for the French. Was this the supercilious decline of a haughty champion? This was surely it. Or so we thought.

Federer’s scowl in the first set was representative of the 2-6 scoreline. His forehand lacked punch. His first serve was off by a mile and did nothing to extricate him from the hypnotic domination that his Majorcan opponent exercised over him each time they met across the net. It was been downright embarrassing, the way this teenager had made the magician appear to be a semi-professional drifter in their earlier encounters.

The first set followed an expected course. Nadal powered his way through whatever Federer hurled his way. Federer scowled, flicked his hair in that arrogant manner of his and (to the best of this writer’s tennis acumen) resigned himself to the ignominy of yet another defeat. Nadal even had a better percentage of points won at the net.

Then suddenly the first serve started hitting the sweet spot. The forays to the net seemed increasingly sure-footed. And before anyone could breathe a familiar gasp of awe, the Federer we knew was back at his dismissive best. He out-ran, out-hit, out-rallied, and out-played Nadal in every possible aspect of the game – in the second set Nadal was out-Nadal-ed by Federer. Second set in his pocket, we waited like scared cats for Rafa to step up a gear in his well-oiled musculature. He did. But Federer out-geared him there as well. I guess all the propitiating on my part had worked wonders. Not that this man needs the help of any Gods that require pleasing.

The decider was vintage (pardon the usage) Federer. He did not play as much as he rammed his brilliance into his opponent’s face. Nadal was blasted off court and ended his 81 match-winning streak on clay with an embarrassing 0-6 drubbing. But then there is no shame in losing to someone who would beat you with equal ease with a toothpick. Spectatorship was elevated to such euphoric levels that Custom Officials may well accost Federer for carrying contraband.

Midway through the third set, (with the end a good ten minutes and three games away) a commentator chimed – “It is going to be a deserved win for Federer. Nothing that Nadal can do about it now”. When someone is playing at this humanly unattainable level, precognition may well be excused.

For the record, Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal 2-6 6-2 6-0.

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The Role of Trainers

Somehow, this was familiar territory for Pakistan as well as Sri Lanka. The Lankans have been past masters at strangulating their opposition during chases, and the Pakis have been known to squander gift horses with reckless abandon. All this must have preyed on skipper Shoaib Malik’s mind as he strode in and was joined by Kamran Akmal in the middle.

Pakistan needed 131 off the last 20 overs with Malik and Akmal desperate not to yield an inch. But then the unfortunate happened. Continuing the spate of mix-ups Malik was run out by a brilliant retrieval at the boundary by Tharanga. In walked Afridi, who was offered a few words of advice by his skipper as he was leaving the arena.

Times aplenty Shahid Afridi has flattered to deceive, but even he would have admitted that the situation was tailor made for his brand of cricket. Two good overs would have swung the pendulum the crescent’s way. He took cautious singles off the first few balls. The asking rate of barely over five runs an over did not demand any batting calisthenics.

And then all hell broke loose. He unleashed a flurry of boundaries – Jayasuriya for consecutive fours, Bandara over cover and then straight back, but the best was yet to come. Afridi had something special planned for Bandara’s last over – Two screeching fours followed by four stupendous sixes – one of which was barely four feet above the ground in its flat journey to the advertisement hoarding. It was a 32 run over (4 4 6 6 6 6). Suddenly, a match which promised much more drama was turned into a no-contest by a man capable of ferocious hitting. This was what the world had waited for with bated breath during the World Cup. But then Afridi has a penchant for being unimaginably talented and infuriatingly callous. He also belongs to that rare breed of batters who try dispatching every ball to the boundary irrespective of the situation/ bowler/ pitch/ weather etc.

Needless to say, the Pakistanis raced to the target with 5 wickets to spare as Akmal smashed the winning boundary and reached 50 in the process. The Pathan ended with 73 off 34 balls (8 fours and 4 sixes.) Many thanks Shahid, for the unadulterated, unbridled power that you bring to the game in an age dominated by bare statistics.

Maybe I am anti-patriotic to the extent of being vitriolic, but you will have to accept that cricket matches not involving ‘Team India’ are markedly refreshing. The kind of zeal that lanky youngsters from Sri Lanka and Pakistan bring to the game is sorely lacking in the overweight, over-hyped paper tigers from India. Anyways, there must be something in the air of these Middle Eastern countries (Sharjah, Morocco, Abu Dhabi…) that unfailingly produces dramatic, edge-of-the-seat contests.

Searching unity under a young captain after the World Cup and Woolmer debacle, Pakistan matched skills with Sri Lanka who were looking to reassert their status as Cup Finalists.

Batting first Sri Lanka stuttered, pottered and finally sprinted to 235, a total which hinged on a brisk 69 by Maharoof. Shrugging off three untimely run-outs and some accurate fast bowling by Sami and Gul, SL was helped on by a solid knock 47 by Chamara Silva.

With his team far from safety at 194-7 in the 44th over, Maharoof was seen striding down the pitch to converse with his partner Bandara. He thumped his chest as if to say – “I am in charge here, just don’t do anything silly.” In fact, Maharoof countered wasteful batting by both Bandara and the very irritating Lasith Malinga by some lusty hitting at the end.

Both Sami and Asif bowled fast and straight; Umar Gul picked up three wickets but was carted for 61 off his ten. Maharoof managed a smile when he was outwitted by a wily slower one
from Gul, and yet another smile when he hoisted the next delivery over long-off for a six. It was an apt representation of Kipling’s lines – “If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat these impostors just the same.” These are the young and fearless of modern international cricket, unblemished by nauseatingly burgeoning bank accounts and channelling their gully-cricket instincts into the international arena. Australia had better watch out. But then, the
Aussies ain’t scared of anything either.

Pakistan began in trademark fashion, Imran Nazir whacking the wayward Malinga and Maharoof for boundaries in the first few overs. It is one of crickets great mysteries how a bowler with an action as ungainly and discordant as Malinga can be so successful at this level. I guess the batsmen are distracted to the extent of losing their wicket, for at the time of release, Malinga’s arm, forget about being parallel to his torso, is nearly perpendicular to his body. Nevertheless, I shall keep my trap shut in light of the freak’s great success in the games’ premier event.

Razzaq looks like a roadside romeo in his new hair-do. Even though they’re essentially of the same genetic stock, I can somehow identify a Pakistani miles away. Maybe it’s their prognathic upper teeth or the general ‘cheapness’ that surrounds them. This is not to say that the VHP inspired miscreants in UP and Bihar are not cheap – they’re even cheaper – but still the Paki brand of crassness is singularly unique. I would have to attribute my skill to endlessly watching Pak mutilate India on the cricket field in my formative years, where I painstakingly studied each and every mannerism of these brash victors for the secret of their success. “Killer Instinct” is what Henry Blofeld and co. called it in those days. Where is Mr. Blofeld these days? He’s probably too old now to even admire earrings, but you never know. You can take a man out of voyeurism, but you can’t take voyeurism out of a man.