In my mind the only smart thing Ferrari can do is get Sebastien Bourdais in the car. He’s the only driver with recent F1 experience that has ties to Ferrari. He has experience of the Ferrari engine through driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso this year and he also has the same manager as Felipe Massa – Nicolas Todt (Jean Todt’s son).

The only thing that should stop it happening is any contractual obligations or conflicts.

Some would say that Nelson Piquet Jr is an option and while he may be, it just doesn’t make as much sense as Bourdais.

Then you have Anthony Davidson stepping up to the plate saying he’s the man for Ferrari. That’s almost laughable but then again I’m sure he’d do better than Badoer.

I feel bad for coming down on Luca Badoer so much as he seems like a nice guy and has been so loyal to Ferrari (then again who wouldn’t be – I’m sure he has a nice pay packet ) – but Ferrari deserves better results than last place…

Other candidates for the 2nd Ferrari seat include:

• Michael Schumacher – again, that would be another huge headline.
• Sebastien Bordais – he has the same manager as Felipe Massa, Nicolas Todt (Jean Todt’s son). He also has experience of the Ferrari engine through Toro Rosso.
• Marc Gene and Luca Badoer – Ferrari test drivers.
• Any others..?

The worst part is not that he’s trying to capitalize on the situation… well, actually that does suck b*lls, but what’s with these idiots who bid for items like this? Bidding for this stuff just makes more scammers come out of the woodwork. I guess some people would need a van to go pick up their slices of Virgin Mary toast though…

Ok, while in reality there might only be 3 drivers genuinely in the running for the 2nd McLaren race seat in 2008, here’s our guesstimates on 5 drivers who have a chance to land the seat in order of most-probable to least-probable:

1. Heikki Kovalainen – I’d say the odds of Heikki being McLaren’s 2nd driver are almost 1:1. He’s a very smart choice because while he has flashes of brilliance, he hasn’t yet shown rock-solid consistency so he wouldn’t pose much of a threat to Lewis Hamilton.
2. Gary Paffett – While PDLR is the media 2nd favourite, Gary Paffett would make more sense. Why not give another young driver a chance? It worked out well with Lewis Hamilton last year so why not with Gary this year? He may not be as fast as Lewis but maybe that’s a good thing for the team (read: designated no.2 driver). And if he’s not as good as PDLR then get rid of the guy and stop teasing him with the hope of racing one day!
3. Pedro de la Rosa – Good ol’ PDLR is always in the thick of it isn’t he? But the sad reality is when he got an opportunity to drive for McLaren last year, he didn’t do anything special.
4. Adrian Sutil – Would have had a real chance if Force India weren’t asking for a lot of ringit for his services..
5. Ralf Schumacher – Actually, Ralf doesn’t really make it to the top 5 list… he’d only just make it on the top 500 list of drivers that have a chance to drive at McLaren!

First of all, doesn’t Michael have his own private jet? Can’t it wait?

How much time difference would speeding in a taxi make? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Plus, it’s not the sort of example someone involved in the Make Roads Safe campaign or the European Road Safety Charter should set now is it?

It just smells fishy to me…

It’s amazing how many teams Fernando Alonso is being linked to for 2008. The latest rumour is that Alonso would return to McLaren for a single year in 2008 with some conditions such as being able to run his own set-up plan at each race.

McLaren have denied these Alonso rumours…

Just as Honda denied rumours linking Alonso there…

Just as Red Bull Racing denied the Alonso rumours (or did they? David Coulthard certainly did but no upper management completely ruled it out)…

Just as Williams denied the Alonso rumours…

I guess Toyota didn’t even have to deny their Alonso rumours…

What’s next, Alonso to Force India!?

I think it’s fair to say when it comes to Alonso – deny all rumours!!

F1 Gift Idea:

Great gift: Remote Controlled Fernando Alonso 2005 Renault

The latest rumours have Fernando Alonso at Honda for 2008. If they’re true, it’s an even bolder move than Michael Schumacher moving to Ferrari in 1996.

This photo reminds us of last year in December when we found shots of Kimi Raikkonen testing a red car…

With the Ferrari and McLaren cars being fairly equal this year, what better time to bring back their past World Champions Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen respectively! Have a shoot-out for top spot on the timesheets

Of course, with the F1 title battle being so intense, such a test would probably have to happen after the World Championships are already decided… but one can dream

He raised the question of safety when it rains at night. I must admit, that’s something we didn’t even think of – and we love to be the devil’s advocate

Webber said:

It has never been done before, so how do we know? … I have raced a sports car in Le Mans so I have driven at night – even in wet conditions – and that was fine.

But what we don’t know is a situation where a massive amount of lighting is being beamed onto the circuit through rain and spray. So the lights are above the spray- we are under the spray – how does that work for us? We think that this creates a difficult situation – we think, but we don’t know.

A Grand Prix held in dry, perfect conditions and if the track is lit up like daytime, maybe the event could run well. But there is the million dollar question that we don’t know – what happens if it rains?

This is the sort of thing we want to hear come out of Mark’s mouth. Too many times we only hear his frustrations (which are valid but…). So good job Mark!

Heikki Kovalainen – After his performance at the Melbourne GP, there are rumours he is set to retire from F1 to start his own lawn mowing business..

Kimi Raikkonen – Brilliant performance. One slight driving error but otherwise fantastically fast.

Lewis Hamilton – Really nice to see a driver so happy on the podium and in the post-race press conference. Possibly the drive of the day.

Fernando Alonso – Worked his magic once again to get ahead of his teammate and finish in 2nd. Can’t decide whether Fernando, Lewis or Kimi deserves man of the race as they all were super!

Nico Rosberg – There has been so little talk about Nico this year that I forgot he was in F1… then bam! 7th place! Well done

Nick Heidfeld – Similar story to Nico here.. Made a great start to the race then never heard a peep from him… and bam! 4th place! B)

Felipe Massa – Really should have got past Fisichella.. maybe even Heidfeld. How many times have we seen Raikkonen or Alonso start and the back and make it to the podium?

Jenson Button – WTF?

Honda – WTF?

David Coulthard – No longer has Michael Schumacher to run into so took it out on Alexander Wurz..