Red Hot Ferrari Pepper: The Tifosis are gathering this weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix on the Tilke-treated Mt. Fuji circuit. Their jockey, Felipe Massa, fell 7 points behind the McLaren maverick Lewis Hamilton under bright lights of Singapore. His Woking based British team has also taken lead in the constructor’s championship over the Ferrari powerhouse. Rain may put more salt in the wound for Massa as it was in this race in torrential downpour last year that Hamilton stamped his authority as rain meister.

Lewis is looking to put the gremlins of last year’s final two races behind him and both the driver and the team have adopted a safe but sure not-win-at-all-cost strategy hoping to bring world driver’s championship to Britain for the first time since Damon Hill in 1996.

Massa is Maranello’s Man of the Moment. He is looking to be the first Brazilian world champion since the legendary and Late Ayrton Senna in 1991. His bad luck in Hungary and team’s blunder in Singapore has been very detrimental to his championship aspirations.

Both championship challengers have teammates who are Finnish-ed, at least for the season. Heikki Kovalainen’s moment of glory and only win so far was Massa’s misery in Budapest. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari’s defending world champion, seems to be lacking in zest and desire and is winless since the Spanish Grand Prix in April.

China is the next stop after Japan and F1’s final samba will be in Sao Paulo next month.

Podcast # 307!

Hamilton feels good about Fuji.
Renault still has faith in Piquet.
Weather could decide the race in Japan.

Tag Cloud

Alonso Barrichello Bassinaud Brawn GP BTCC Button Clark Rodgers DTM elf F1 F3 Euro Series Ferrari FIA Formula 1 Formula 2 Goodies Speed Shop GP2 GP3 Grosjean Hamilton Honest Engines Tallahassee Fla Indy 500 Indycar kimi Laguna Seca Le Mans McLaren Mercedes Michelin Mondial Monza Motorsports NASCAR Nasir Podcast Red Bull Renault Schumacher Shell Total USF1 Vettel Webber Weekly WSR