F1-Blog

The new ‘face’ of McLaren

It seems that the McLaren team may run the radical new wing they have been testing at the Barcelona event.

Pedro de la Rossa was the first of the McLaren drivers to use the new wing at this weeks Barcelona test, and seems he was impressed with it’s performance.

Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed that because of the success of the part at the test, the new design will be available to both race drivers over the forthcoming race weekend.

Whitmarsh said - “There is a continuous program of aerodynamic development on the MP4-22, and during the Barcelona test this week, we had a more obvious one with a high mounted flap on the front wing assembly. It is something that has been developed over the last few months within the team. We were pleased with the results of that test and consequentially it will be one of the options available to our drivers during the Spanish GP weekend.”

Kimi gone Italian

Kimi Raikkonen has been confirmed as the replacement for Michael Schumacher at Ferrari next year.

The Fin will move from the English McLaren team over to the Italian team, if he thought however Ron Dennis was difficult, he could find it even more difficult at Ferrari, as many of the people there have openly critisised Kimi's off track antics in the past.

So it would seem that the Ferrari's will be piloted by Kimi and Filipe next year, so the only seat left to talk about is the one Kimi is leaving.

Will Ron Dennis take a risk and put one of the two GP2 drivers he has in his camp in the seat, or will Pedro de la Rossa keep the seat he has currently got.

Hamilton takes GP2 Title

In his first year of GP2 racing, Lewis Hamilton has taken the GP2 championship title from his closest rival Nelson Piquet Jnr.

Hamilton finished behind Piquet in third position, and it looked like he would have to finish well in the Sunday race to clinch the title, as he needed one more point.

However later in the day the stewards deemed that the fastest lap from Giorgio Pantano was set during a yellow flag, and this then gave Hamilton the one point needed to take the title.

Ron Dennis (Hamilton's major sponsor) had this to say about the new GP2 champion.

“The manner of his many outstanding performances this year, such as those at Silverstone and Turkey, has been phenomenal and he is a deserving champion,” he said.

“McLaren and Mercedes-Benz’s ongoing involvement in Lewis’ career began in 1998 and he is getting better every day, a trend that has been constant during the past nine years.