Ten Conclusions after the French GP

Hamilton is struggling to cope with all the added pressure this season

In 2007 Hamilton was the rookie punching well above his weight and causing surprises. The pressure was all on Fernando Alonso and he was cracking. There was no pressure on Hamilton at all. Nobody expects brilliant results in your first season.

Hamilton, under no pressure, raced brilliantly throughout the season. If Hamilton made mistakes nobody thought that badly of him, its what most onlookers expected anyway. Alonso could also develop and setup the car. Hamilton definitely benefited from that.

In 2008 it’s now a different matter, Mclaren have made him the team leader and put all their eggs in his basket. People now know what he is capable of and expect heroic performances in every race.

There are the added stresses of being team number 1 such as having to move the car forward and be able to set it up 100% for each race, very hard for someone who is only in their second year. An experienced driver is needed for the role to be carried out successfully. Also there is all the added sponsor and media committements now that Lewis has made a big name of himself.

All these pressures are adding up, errors are creeping in and it’s becoming a very erratic season for Lewis, which risks being derailed.

Ferrari have one hand on the constructor’s championship trophy

With Heikki’s spell of bad luck throughout the season and the various penalties Mclaren have been receiving Mclaren have lost a lot of ground to Ferrari. They are now 33 points behind in the championship.

As Ferrari are strong at practically all the tracks now, Mclaren are going to find it very hard to close that gap down unless Ferrari mess up a couple of races quickly. Mclaren themselves need to be a lot more consistent and get their car right 100% every weekend if they are to capitalize when these opportunities arrive.

BMW are still in range but signs are they are falling back and aren’t likely to have multiple wins this season which they need in order to fight Ferrari tooth and nail for the championship.

On a track where Ferrari are strong they are untouchable

Magny-Cours is a track that suits the Ferrari brilliantly. On tracks like this nobody can get near them. BMW Sauber fell back dramatically this weekend and Mclaren’s pace was never strong. Yes they were hampered by their penalties but Ferrari would still have dominated.

At tracks where Mclaren can win Ferrari can challenge them and even win. At tracks where Ferrari are great Mclaren can’t challenge them. I think this is a very important issue and the main reason why Ferrari should be able to win both championships.

The FIA are very happy to take every opportunity to punish Mclaren

Lewis and Heikki’s penalties in Sepang were definitely deserved, as was Lewis’s penalty in Montreal. However I think the FIA went over the top with their penalties here in Magny-Cours.

Heikki’s penalty was a farce along with Alonso’s blocking penalty in Monza in 2006. Heikki tried his hardest to get out of Webber’s way, there wasn’t much more he could have done. Despite being impeded, Webber still comfortably managed to get through to the next stage of qualifying therefore it didn’t cost him anything. Maybe he needed to have an extra run but Heikki didn’t deserve any punishment.

Hamilton’s punishment is a bit more complicated. Looking at the onboard shots it looked like he got past Vettel before cutting the chicane. By skipping the chicane slightly it cost Vettel the opportunity to fight his position back, which I doubt he would tried anyway as it wouldn’t have been beneficial enough for his race.

A punishment was more acceptable in this case than in Heikki’s case but the FIA need to make sure they punish similar offences consistently. I doubt a Ferrari driver would have been treated the same way for either offence committed by a Mclaren driver this weekend. Lets remember also Schumacher skipping the chicane twice in Hungary 2006 whilst trying to overtake De La Rosa.

BMW Sauber should now concentrate solely on the 2009 car

BMW Sauber have fallen a long way back during this GP weekend. However in this writer’s opinion they were already in this position before Monaco. BMW didn’t challenge Mclaren or Ferrari in Turkey. Their pace was ment to be spectacular in Monaco but they were disappointing until the rain fell.

In Montreal Kubica drove well but he was gifted the win by his two main rivals retiring and problems for both Massa and Heikki.

The reality is BMW are going to be challenged by Toyota, Renault and Red bull in future races rather than challenging for more wins and podiums. They have already met their objective for the season so maybe concentrating on the 2009 car is best for them in the long run. They have to make a huge jump (whilst sacrificing work on the 2009 car) to challenge Mclaren and Ferrari this season. Its going to be next to impossible.

Heidfeld’s star is rapidly falling

Failing to get into Q2 and only finishing 13^thin the race was a very bad result for Heidfeld. His form doesn’t seem to be getting better at the moment as Kubica is getting better and better. He needs to be matching his 2007 form if BMW Sauber want to keep him for the longer term so if he wants to attract others from top teams or even top midfield teams.

You are only as good as your last few races therefore his work in 2007 is being undone very quickly. There are a lot of young driver in F1 chasing top seats, the rest of this season could be vital for Nick’s career.

Piquet Jnr can driver an F1 car after all

After taking a lot of criticism in the first part of the season Piquet Jnr drove a very good race here. As Alonso fell backwards throughout the race Piquet Jnr’s pace was very good. So good that the mclarens were finding it very hard to get close enough to pass him in the early stages.

The best bit came in the latter stages when he managed to pass Alonso who made an error at the hairpin. Alonso wouldn’t have been expecting that after being third on the grid.

Renault’s decision to give Piquet Jnr more chances rather than sack him may prove a shreud call.

Toyota are capable of big improvement when they put their mind to it

Toyota’s pace was quite impressive this weekend. Trulli finished in third place and even gained a place off the line, something you don’t expect from either the Toyota car or Trulli. Even more impressive was the absence of the usual Trulli train, which is normal whenever he qualifies high up the grid. They couldn’t match Ferrari but Trulli comfortably kept Kovalainen behind him at the end.

The question will be whether this is just a one race special or whether Toyota have actually made some progress over the last couple of weeks.

Its important to have a French GP on the calendar but not at Magny-Cours

The French GP is vital to the F1 calendar but I think the French Federation need to find an alternative and more inspiring venue then Magny-Cours. Its not the worse track in the world but overtaking is really difficult and it’s been through a sequence of poor races. The last decent race was probably all the way back in 2000 when DC pulled that spectacular move on Schumacher at the Adelaide hairpin one lap after giving him the finger.

Out of the alternatives a new track at Disneyland Paris seems the best option but is it affordable?

The FIA Weather forecasts are useless

All the teams seem to be convinced that rain was forecast for the race but it never really arrived apart from for five minutes near the end, which didn’t affect the race outcome.

The official FIA forecast predicted rain for the first 30 minutes of the race and there was never a spot. Maybe Michael Fish is their supplier for up to date weather forecasts.