Poor Honda, they need a lot of changes if they want to compete in 2008.

Well they'd rather have won it properly, but the battle was a close one. Either team could have won.cjek

Felipe Massa could play second fiddle to team-mate Kimi Raikkonen as the Finn bids to be crowned the F1 World Champion

With three races remaining Raikkonen is Ferrari's best chance of winning the 2007 Drivers' Championship title. The Finn is just 13 points behind Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, while Massa is 20 adrift.

The Brazilian may therefore be called upon to protect Raikkonen in the grands prix rather than chase the victory himself. And if that's what Ferrari want him to do, Massa says he's okay with doing it.

"I work for the team," he said on Thursday in Japan. "If I don't have a chance, then for sure I will help the team.

"The team are very fair with me. We had a very good Championship, they were very fair in terms of how we worked inside the team, and I don't have any problems to help the team in whatever Championship if I have no chance.

"That is pretty clear. I am going to do the best I can to do what is best for the team."

Raikkonen, though, denied claims that Ferrari now have a No1 and No2 driver.

"I don't think we have number one and number two. We are racing. It is not why we are in this position," he told Autosport.


source & pic: planet-f1

Lewis Hamilton is hoping to clear the air with Fernando Alonso and discuss team-mate etiquette ahead of Sunday's Japanese GP

Hamilton was furious with his McLaren team-mate following the last race in Spa, where he claims Alonso tried to take him off on the opening lap of the grand prix.

"It was blatant. He pushed me wide quite deliberately. I out-braked him through Turn One. There was enough room for us both to get round but suddenly I didn't have any room," Hamilton said after the race.

"I tried to get around the outside but he pushed me wide. It was not a fair race manoeuvre."

And although the McLaren rookie has calmed down in the past few days, he still wants to talk to Alonso about the move in order to ensure it doesn't happen again.

"For both of us, we have got to be careful and remember that we are team-mates," the Brit said.

"I probably will speak to him later in the weekend about this, because I haven't spoken to him since the last race and I have my feelings on what happened at the last race.

"Here is another race, another day, but when we are out there we won't be giving any handouts, that is for sure."

The Championship leader also warned Alonso that if he wants to play aggressively, he can expect the same back.

"I am driving to keep the car on the track and be fair to everyone, but if that is how aggressive he wants to be then I can be just as aggressive as anyone else," he said.

"But I am not going to take any silly risks and take myself or anyone else off - just make sure I am ahead of them and it won't be an issue."

Hamilton heads into Sunday's race with a two-point lead over Alonso in the race for this year's World title and the knowledge that his rival may have the advantage in the final two races of the season.

It's therefore vital for the rookie to do well at Fuji, a track neither of the McLaren drivers know, although he does believe he can still beat Alonso in China and Brazil.

"He knows Shanghai very well, and he knows Brazil very well, but that has never stopped me from beating him in other places so I am not worried," said Hamilton.

"It is difficult to say what is going to happen at this race or the next race. Either of us could have a bad race and that could really spice things up.

"The key for me is just to make sure that I finish in the top three, get as many points as possible, and preferably win."

And what's a title race without a few mind games with Hamilton warning Alonso that he's the one under pressure as he's the double World Champion and Hamilton's just the rookie.

"I feel I have nothing to lose. He is the one defending the World Championship, so really he should have more pressure on him. But in the last two races he has done really well," he added.

"I don't know if he has unloaded a load of baggage and is not feeling any weight off the team, or anything. He seems to be quite happy in the team all of a sudden, or with himself at least."


source & pic: planet-f1

The FIA president Max Mosley has aimed a vitriolic broadside at F1 teams for 'wasting' money

Mosley sent the antagonistic letter - which was leaked to The Guardian - to all the sport's team principals accusing them of failing to implement cost-cutting measures.

The letter reads: "F1's vast profits are currently being wasted on pointless exercises for the private entertainment of the teams' engineers."

"As a result, several independent teams are losing money when they should be making a profit, while car manufacturers are forced to spend excessively. This is the problem which needs to be addressed."

Mosley thus neatly sidesteps the issue of how Bernie Ecclestone's F1 Management group divides the sport's annual commercial rights income of £400m. At present the top ten constructors receive a mere 50% of this income, with Eccelstone's company bagging the rest.

"Until the basic problem of costs has been resolved, time should not be wasted discussing how the money is to be distributed," an obdurate Mosley continued.

The president is also speaking from a position of financial strength after recently receiving £50m from McLaren after the British team were found guilty on spying charges.

And Mosley did not stop there. He added: "If it did not waste money on pointless, hidden and duplicated technology, F1 would be an immensely profitable business. Each [team] would be a valuable franchise. Instead it is living on subsidies from the car industry and hand-outs from friendly billionaires."

Mosley final assertion in the tirade can be regarded as nothing but a thinly-veiled attack on the likes of Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya, who bought Spyker F1 for an initial fee of around £40m.


source: planet-f1
pic: formula1latest

Toyota have refuted speculation that they are lining up a move for Felipe Massa, while the Brazilian also denied he was in talks with the Japanese team

The Daily Mail claimed that the Ferrari driver had 'opened preliminary negotiations with Toyota last weekend' - but ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix - Tadashi Yamashina quashed these rumours.

Toyota's team principal revealed that their 2008 lineup would only be confirmed at "the end of the season".

The German news agency dpa reports that Tadashi said: "We continue to contemplate all of the possibilities. We have still made no decision."

However, when quizzed about the Massa link he laughed and responded: "I know nothing about it".

It appears likely that the key mover in the silly season will be Fernando Alonso. The British media claims that the Spaniard has already agreed a £20 million deal with Ferrari.

But Massa has denied the verity of these reports by claiming that he still has a future in the Scuderia's cockpit.

The 26-year-old driver told the Chinese news agency Xinhua: "This story of me going to Toyota next season does not exist".

source & pic: planet-f1