I wanted to say this for some time... this could very likely be Kimi Raikkonen's year in F1. He finally has a very decent car to drive - a smoldering red FERRARI. When he was a wild card rookie for Sauber Petronas in 2001... he did pretty good tremendously well during his time driving in a mid-range car. That's why I believe that he will one day be a world champion in F1 racing.
However, I do wonder if Alonso will still be able to defend and retain his title in the somewhat more unreliable (historically speaking) McLaren in the past few F1 racing years? He had a good start coming in second in Melbourne but will destiny continue to smile brightly for this young gun?
Relatively speaking, his understanding on how to get the best out of the car he is driving could be compared to that of Michael Schumacher. How else can you explain why Fisichella who is put into an almost always similarly set up Renault in 2005 and 2006 cannot deliver the results that Alonso showcased? Whatever it is, I'd still like to see Alonso in the top 5 at the very least... and to spice it up, a close fight between Alonso and Raikkonen would be spiff-spanking purrrfect.
Hmm... what about new drivers like Nico Rosberg? I hope to see if he can continue to bring out the sparks of brilliance he demonstrated in 2006. He showed much promise in some of the qualifying rounds and in laps before car reliability issues poked its ugly head out to kill any hope of raking in points for the Williams-Cosworth team.
And in case any of you haven't quite figured it out yet... I'm a fan of F1 and not strictly supporting a particular team. I truly enjoy watching how the drivers dish out their skills against all odds on-the-track (including team strategies that turn out awfully horrific in nightmarish proportions)... and occasionally... it's just nice to find out if the BMW Sauber team (as it is known today) is making any headway into fighting it all out with the big kahunas.
Oh yeah... that goes for the the Toyota team too since they are a relatively young team in F1 - having entered the fray only in 2002 with high expectations of making it into the top team in something like 5 years. That's pretty ambitious and we know they didn't really make it as a top team yet. They are aiming to win in their 6th season (tsk, tsk, lofty, lofty, but to be successful you need to aim high - real high).
Here's a quick look at how Toyota has fared over the years:
<key> 'team position at end of season'/'total number of teams' in season or year
10/11 in 2002 (ho-hum... the back-marker days)
8/10 in 2003 (still in the back-marker days)
8/10 in 2004 (yup... still in their back-marker days)
4/10 in 2005 (whoa, nelly! now that is a huge improvement!)
6/11 in 2006 (oops, a drop! back to the drawing board to crank it way up...)
Phew... I'm done FOR NOW!
You'll see more of my F1 ramblings as the season rolls on until the end of the year... haha!
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