Ok, so the shape of the car looks a little better… I think… hard to tell… the McLaren-style “horns” near the airbox certainly make it look cooler… and there’s no funny Honda wing… But what on earth (no pun intended) are the marketing department at Honda thinking!? White car with a blob on it that could be planet Earth but we’re not quite sure..? Come on guys. This is beyond a joke.

But here we’re all about Formula 1 fun, so nothing’s beyond a joke… We were able to spot a photo of what’s thought to be the Honda marketing department working on some ideas for the 2008 livery before the launch:

First of all, their car is the MP4-23.

Second, one of their cars is carrying the number 23.

Third, Lewis Hamilton is 23.

Only thing is, it’s Heikki Kovalainen who’s running number 23 on his car and not Lewis Hamilton…

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!

Prodrive Aguri Honda in 2009 anyone?

Not only have Spyker released a range of branded mobile phones (which seem like a budget version of the Vertu Ferrari offerings), they’ve also released some media/MP3 players and other gadgets. Will we see an Acer notebook next ala Ferrari?

You can see more at the Connect 4 Spyker site (WTF.. who comes up with these names? And to see the products you have to click on the PDF at the bottom.. go figure ).

Are you a Hamilton fan who feels cheated by Alonso (but happy that Lewis came away with the win)? Are you an Alonso fan who feels he was a scapegoat? Or maybe you’re just sick of the championship being “handled” off the track instead of on it.. We’d love to hear your thoughts

With such a “warm” conversation is it any wonder Michael Schumacher never drove for McLaren?

If you read what Ron said, it seems as though someone hacked into the McLaren radio during the 1998 Australia Grand Prix and falsely instructed Mika Hakkinen to enter the pits when he didn’t need to. To quote Ron:

Team strategy is what you bring to bear to win a Grand Prix. Team orders is what you bring to bear to manipulate a Grand Prix. And we do not, and have not, manipulated Grands Prix, unless there were some exceptional circumstances, which occurred, for example, in Australia (1998), when at that time someone had tapped into our radio and instructed Mika Hakkinen to enter the pits.

At the time I only ever saw it reported that Mika was called into the pits accidentally by the team, not by an outsider ‘tapping’ into their radio! I wonder who was responsible? A competitor? Or maybe a disgruntled fan?

Oliver Rowland, a 14 year old karting talent, has been signed to the McLaren Young Driver Support programme. Martin Whitmarsh has already confirmed they would like to put Oliver on a career plan similar to Hamilton’s despite denying he’s the next Lewis Hamilton.

It must be remembered that Nick Heidfeld is also a graduate of the McLaren programme.. so does this make Lewis Hamilton Nick Heidfeld Version 2.0?   Just as long as he’s not Ricardo Zonta Version 2.0! (who’s a good driver, but just doesn’t have the same level of success)

First of all he has claimed that Nick Heidfeld only belongs in F1’s “upper midfield”. Umm.. were you watching the recent races John? Nick has been knocking on the door of the top 3 for a long time now and cracked it the last time out. I’d call that top of the field, not “upper midfield”.

Could it be that John is badmouthing Nick to lower his asking price so that Toyota can make an offer?

Furthermore John has claimed that changing the Toyota driver line up wouldn’t improve things at Toyota. Ok, Jarno Trulli is doing an oookkkaaayyy job but Ralf Schumacher..!? Jarno Trulli is an ok number 2 driver, but Ralf is so bad you couldn’t even call him a number 3 driver! He’d be like a number 8 driver or something.. Although probably not 8 because many people find 8 lucky and Ralf is definitely not lucky with his tendency to end up in accidents.

If this is Toyota logic then here’s hoping Nick stays at BMW.