by Mark Roxborough
This Sunday is the Brazilian Grand Prix - and this year it's something special.
Any race in Brazil, at the famed Interlagos track, is going to be a splashy event. But this Grand Prix will be unlike any other - allowing one to get a feel for a somewhat inaccessible sport.
There are many things for which you can criticize Formula 1 racing - the lack of passing, the dominance of 2 or 3 teams, the team rules which sometimes prevent drivers on the same team from competing with each other.
Well, all of that, for this race, isn't relevant. This race has become one of the most anticipated motor sport events in history.
First off, it's the last race of the season, and it will determine who is the Drivers' Champion. There are 3 contenders for this championship - Kimi Raikkonen, driving for Ferrari, two-time previous Drivers' champion Fernando Alonso, and the current leader and rookie phenom, Lewis Hamilton, both of whom drive for McLaren-Mercedes.
It's very rare that it should come down to the final race of the season and still have 3 possible champions.
Second, we have Hamilton currently in first place and Alonso just 4 points off and Raikkonen only 3 points further back. First place in the race gets you 10 points and eighth place gets you a point with all kinds of places and points in between. Hamilton's lead is far too slim to cruise and hope that a 6th place will give him the championship. True, Raikkonen's chances are slimmer, but there is already talk that his partner at Ferrari - Felipe Massa - might try to impede the McLaren's, if the opportunity arises.
But the real excitement here is based on the pure hatred that now exists between Alonso and Hamilton, and Alonso and his team at McLaren Mercedes. The impetus for this hatred is twofold: first the McLaren team following a policy of not favouring any driver, which was perceived by Alonso as favouring Hamilton. Alonso believed that as he was the two time reigning world champion, he should, like many teams do, be given priority over Hamilton (which might include illegal orders to Hamilton to not overtake Alonso). And second, Alonso attempted to blackmail his team (literally) into favouring him.
Here is a summary of the details of this. The season had been marred by a scandal. It was found that a Ferrari employee had sent top secret documents to a McLaren engineer. The McLaren boss, Ron Dennis, denied knowing about it, and denied that the information was ever used. The governing body for motor racing ruled that no action should be taken, to Ferrari's dismay.
But in a heated exchange between Alonso and Dennis, a week or so after this decision, Alonso threatened to reveal details of emails that clearly indicated that he (Alonso) had had access to that top secret information, and had used it and other bits of information over the last months. He threatened to make these emails public, if Dennis didn't make him the #1 driver over Hamilton (which would have cost Hamilton his chance at the championship.)
Apparently, Ron Dennis hadn't known about this use of illegal information and was horrified at Alonso's threat, and basically forced Alonso to make these emails public, and, obviously, continued to not favour either driver. Well - interestingly, Alonso waited until offered immunity by the governing body - so that governing body ended up fining McLaren $100 million dollars (U.S.) and stripped the team of its team championship points (McLaren had been cruising to an easy team victory). But the Drivers' championship points remained intact. McLaren, then, got punished, but the driver who profited by the information, didn't. Alonso and his team haven't talked since. It's rumoured that Alonso will leave the team after this race.
So - going into this race, everyone is speculating that McLaren will try to do something to give the race advantage to Hamilton over Alonso. Formula 1 stewards are so wary of something happening that they are sending an observer into the McLaren pit for the duration of the race. People are speculating what, if anything, Massa will do for his partner Raikkonen.
It's possible for all 3 to end up in a tie. If so, the championship gets decided between them using a different basis - the number of victories. If it comes to this, Kimi Raikkonen wins.
For Hamilton, his objectives depend on where his two competitors are. If Alonso is in first place, Hamilton must finish no worse than 3rd. That pretty much guarantees that Hamilton will not be able to relax for the whole race - and that's an extreme amount of pressure for a rookie - especially a rookie who made a terrible rookie mistake in his last race, landing in the gravel while trying to pit.
The weather looks like it will be wet. That usually is a guarantee for a wild race filled with accidents and surprises.
The race is Sunday afternoon. It could be years before the sport is this accessible again.
Mark Roxborough is a Canadian businessman and lifelong contrarian. He has also written as Harvey Secord.