It’s crunch time in Formula One people.

You read it, the 2008 F1 season is closing in on the culmination of what has been another excellent season and the Belgian Grand Prix might just be the turning point for the top three Formula 1 drivers of the season in their quest for the world championship.

The 2008 F1 Belgium Grand Prix is on September 7 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium. This racetrack has been one of the most revered racetracks in F1. Spa-Francorchamps has been a mainstay of the world championship calendar since it began in 1950.

Renowned for its thrilling, high-speed corners and the capricious local micro-climate which can throw up blazing sunshine and heavy showers in equal measure, the mighty seven-kilometer circuit is still considered one of modern racing’s greatest challenges.

Looking at the drivers’ championship standings, McLaren - Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton still leads the pack with 70 points, six points better than Brazilian driver Felipe Massa of Ferrari. Third is Massa’s Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen with 57 points.

For Felipe Massa, he will ride on his momentum after winning the Telefonica Grand Prix of Europe. After coming so close to…

Read More » Who will win the 2008 F1 Belgium Grand Prix?

Because if he wants to win his first F1 world championship, he better finish strong in the final six races of the year.

The 2008 F1 season is about to close with only six more races to go starting with Belgium. Lewis Hamilton, coming off a remarkable rookie season, is on the verge of winning the first F1 title of his career but since he still has six races to keep his championship lead in the standings, he knows letting up now would be a very very bad idea.

At this point of the season, Lewis Hamilton is still leading the drivers championship with 70 points.

Not far behind are the two drivers from Ferrari, Felipe Massa with 64 and defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen with 57. And if last season’s conclusion of the championship race was to tell us anything, it would have to be the fact that nothing is settled until the last race is completed.

In case you have no idea what I’m stressing here, Kimi Raikkonen literally stole last season’s world championship away from the two competing McLaren - Mercedes drivers, Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, both were then dubbed as the odds-on favorite to win it all.

It’s ironic that Lewis Hamilton finds himself in a similar situation, the only difference is, he IS the championship leader this time trying to fend off two competing drivers from Ferrari.

That’s why winning Sunday’s 2008 F1 Belgium Grand Prix is very important because that could be the first step towards his goal of becoming a bona fide F1 world champion.

‘’From a human and physical perspective, these two races are…'’

Read More » McLaren - Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton looking to win the 2008 F1 Belgium Grand Prix this Sunday

They could, because at this point of the season, Massa is showing Ferrari why his team should do just that.

Much to everybody’s surprise, Felipe Massa has overtaken his more popular Ferrari teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, in the race for the drivers championship this 2008 F1 season with only six more races to go.

After playing second fiddle to Michael Schumacher and then Kimi, Felipe Massa has come to his own this year with 64 championship points to Kimi’s 57. And although Lewis Hamilton is still in first place, leading the two Ferrari drivers with 70, Massa definitely has a better shot of winning this year’s title than Kimi, despite the fact that Kimi still is THE defending champ.

That’s probably why the Ferrari team should start lining up behind Massa now or they could see their run for the drivers title end up with nothing.

We all saw that last season when McLaren - Mercedes let Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso settle for themselves who’s going to take home the title. It backfired when Kimi came out of nowhere to steal the drivers championship away from the two competing McLaren stars.

It’s ironic that Kimi Raikkonen finds himself in the same position and it’ll be up to him if he wants to cooperate with Massa or just go all out and try to compete with his teammate for…

Read More » Will Ferrari line up behind Felipe Massa for the 2008 F1 World Championship and leave Kimi Raikkonen alone?

After three weeks of absence, F1 racing returns.

Yep, the 2008 F1 season continues after a three-week absence probably to pave the way for the Beijing Games. Seven more races are left and at this point of the year, there’s no clear cut winner for the world championship yet.

Still leading the drivers’ championship standings is Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren - Mercedes driver has 62 championship points, overcoming a somewhat slow start to the season thanks to a pair of wins in his home country Britain and in Germany.

Defending world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, on the other hand, is not far behind. He only trails the young British phenom by five, scoring 57 championship points to pull within striking distance of winning the world title again with seven more races to go.

Raikkonen knows the F1 season is nearing its conclusion and in these last seven races, the fiery Finn is hoping to finish strong. It all begins in the 2008 European Grand Prix in Valencia where he looks to start well.

‘’We have to start well at Valencia, where it’s more important than in other places to drive with continuity from Friday on,'’ Kimi Raikkonen said.

‘’I hope I’ll have a trouble-free weekend to try to set up the…'’

Read More » 2008 F1 Season resumes in Valencia with European GP

And he wants to do that WITHOUT winning this year’s title.

WTF?!? My sentiments exactly. We all know that his current team, Renault, this 2008 F1 season can’t compete with the Ferraris and the McLarens. Alonso, a double world champion in Formula One, has fallen from No.1 the last few years to eight place as far as this year’s drivers championship standings is concerned.

However, being the competitor that Fernando Alonso is, he believes he still can prove that he is the best without winning the championship. How in the hell can this sick fuck do that? Performing better than the Renault car that he’s driving.

‘’I'll keep fighting for a podium or even a victory this year because that will prove that I’m still here,'’ Fernando Alonso said.

‘’I want to prove to everybody that I’m still the best so I need a super performance to do that, which means a podium or a win.'’

‘’And I’ll be trying to do it in the second part of the season.'’

At this point of the season, Lewis Hamilton is still leading the drivers championship with 62 points. Now the No.1 guy in…

Read More » Fernando Alonso wants to prove he’s the best in F1

With the price of gasoline these days, Coulthard’s idea not only aims to help F1, but to conserve oil supply as well.

It is probably the fuel fire in Hungary in the 2008 F1 season that gave the retiring David Coulthard this idea. And that idea is banning refuelling in pit stops during races.

According to David Coulthard, putting a stop to refuelling during races not only will help F1, it will also help drivers develop into better competitors and not just rely on how fast can his team perform in the pitlane.

‘’The spate of fuel fires in Hungary were all extinguished quickly and no one was hurt, but they did serve to remind us how potentially volatile pit stops are,'’ David Coulthard said.

‘’From my point of view a bigger drawback of refuelling is that it detracts from the racing by turning the grand prix into a series of low-fuel sprints between pit stops.'’

‘’In the days (pre-1994) when you carried your entire race fuel…'’

Read More » David Coulthard wants to ban refueling to help F1 (And probably to help his team win for a change…)

Well, we still have a few weeks before that happens but since nothing big really happens in NASCAR…

From 2004 through 2007, the championship system in NASCAR racing was known as the ‘’Chase for the Nextel Cup‘’, but with the 2005 merger of Sprint and Nextel, the name of the series became known as the Sprint Cup Series in 2008.

The 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup will begin with the Sylvania 300 on September 9 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway and will conclude with the Ford 400 on November 16 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

This year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup consists of the final ten races that conclude the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

The new system was changed last year and it follows a new format. Following 26 regular season races, the top 12-ranked drivers, determined by points accumulated during the season, will advance to contend for the Cup championship. Thus the 12 drivers’ championship points are reset to a base of 5,000 points per driver, with a bonus of 10 points awarded to each driver for each win during the regular season.

The driver who finishes with the most points after the conclusion of the Ford 400 will be declared the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and will be presented with the…

Read More » The 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup begins in NASCAR

Yes, he STILL has plans to join Ferrari but it looks like he would have to make a pitstop (no pun intended…) with Honda first.

As we go deeper and deeper into the 2008 F1 season, we learned that double world champion Fernando Alonso is going to leave Renault (again…) to become the No.1 guy in Ferrari.

However, as it turns out, Fernando Alonso would have to join Honda first before making the move that just might reshape the entire sport of Formula One as we know it. Whether you like the guy or not, Alonso is the most successful guy in F1 since Michael Schumacher and him joining Ferrari is like Kobe Bryant joining, say… the Pistons.

Alonso’s move to Ferrari is scheduled some time in 2010. But after realizing that his current team is in no condition to compete with the top dogs of the sport, it looks like he can’t wait that long. He wants to leave Renault now and give himself a shot of winning races again. Which brings us to his move to Honda next season.

After all, both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are set to be retained by Ferrari anyway until Raikkonen switches to rally and Massa gets tired of blown engines. (Hee hee…)

Of course, a return to McLaren - Mercedes is highly unlikely with Lewis Hamilton now…

Read More » Former F1 champion Fernando Alonso to join Honda

You don’t need a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

After 11 races into the 2008 F1 season, things certainly are not looking good for Ferrari. In just a month, we saw Ferrari drivers lose races due to mechanical issues and for an entity like Ferrari, an entity synonymous to winning, that is simply UNACCEPTABLE.

Their unreliability these days cost them too. Ferrari’s defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen is still five points behind the championship standings leader Lewis Hamilton, McLaren is slowly eating away on the lead they built at the start of the season in the constructors championship race and Ferrari’s No.2 guy Felipe Massa is just plain irritated.

In case you missed it, Felipe Massa was the latest victim of Ferrari’s unreliability. Leading by half a minute and with only three more laps to go, Massa seemed destined to win in Hungary and bag his fourth victory of the season.

After his Ferrari slowed down to a stand-still in the middle of the track, all Massa could do was put his hands up in disgust.

What people didn’t know then was the fact that we almost saw two Ferraris fail to finish in Hungary. Kimi Raikkonen, running third and focused to grab second place from Timo Glock, was advised by his team to just maintain his position and get his car to the checkered flag.

Apparently, Ferrari spotted a problem in Kimi’s car and if the defending champion continued…

Read More » You can’t rely on Ferrari in the 2008 F1 Season

That broken Brazilian is Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, and after coming THAT close to winning last Sunday, going out like that was mind-boggling.

The 2008 F1 season resumed at the Hungaroring, giving racing fans one of the most dramatic finishes of the season. Of course, racing fans like us just love drama like this, unfortunately for Felipe, there was nothing for him to do then but just curse in disgust.

Let me explain, Felipe Massa was leading the 2008 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix and was sure of winning his fourth victory of the season. All of a sudden, with only three laps to go from victory, his engine blew up in smoke, forcing him to retire from what was suppose to be his race to win.

With Felipe Massa retiring, Heikki Kovalainen, who was riding behind Massa, took the lead and eventually won his very first F1 grand prix. Sure, he was just fortunate enough to see Massa go out in smoke but hey, a win is still a win and you can bet your ass that he’s proud of it.

While Heikki Kovalainen was celebrating, Massa was playing the blame game, (surprise surprise…) insisting that he was given no warning whatsoever that his engine was about to expire.

Massa falsified the theory that he slowed down during the latter part of the…

Read More » Broken Brazilian in 2008 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix