Formula 1 blog

JANUARY
Pre-season testing continues in Spain. Toyota are one team encouraged by their winter progress and state that they will be looking for wins this season and the title the next. David Coulthard starts to press Red Bull for a decision on his 2008 race contract. Meanwhile, over in the United States, Juan Pablo Montoya surprises everybody by leaving NASCAR for a return to Champcars after an injury sustained playing snooker causes friction with his team.

FEBRUARY.
Michael Schumacher happens to remark to Corinna over breakfast that he will miss racing in 2007. This immediately convinces the motorsport media that Schuey is considering a comeback. By tea-time he is strongly linked to at least seven teams.
In Monte Carlo, disaster strikes the Red Bull / Torro Rosso launch, a typically understated affair, when Scott Speed is accidenatlly flattened by one of the 22 elephants brought in for the event.

MARCH.
The season opener in Australia is won at a canter by a surprised Anthony Davidson, after the rest of the field is eliminated on the first lap by a spinning Kimi Raikkonen, after the unfortunate Finn gets his wallet jammed under his Ferrari’s brake pedal.
Toyota say that 2007 is to be a year of consolidation for them and that they will be looking for wins in 2008 and the title in 2009.

APRIL
Fernando Alonso wins the Malaysian Grand Prix, but is disqualified after a protest by ex-boss, Flavio Briatore, who finds a hidden clause in the Spaniards old Renault contract forbidding him from winning for another team.
Montoya hits the headlines again, saying that ‘Champcars isn’t what it used to be’ before defecting to the IRL.

MAY
During scrutineering at the Spanish Grand Prix, the ‘customer car’ row erupts again as Super Aguri are disqualified after it is discovered that the SA07 is almost entirely based on a Honda Accord, thus explaining its bullet proof reliability.
Meanwhile, at Monaco,there is to be no repeat of the ‘Rascassegate’ parking scandal, as it is revealed that race organisers have erected ‘no parking’ signs and have painted double yellow lines around the entire track.

JUNE.
There are wild scenes on the streets of Poland, as Robert Kubica wins the Canadian Grand Prix. Sadly, Kubica causes a riot in Montreal of the wrong kind, when he makes a sarcastic comment in the press conference about local boy, Jacques Villeneuve’s new album ‘Too slow for zero’. Meanwhile in France, Juan Pablo Montoya, fed up with the IRL, turns up at Le Mans to launch his sportscar career with a crack at the legendary 24 hours race.

JULY.
It’s a dream day for Lewis Hamilton as he wins his debut British GP for McLaren, causing Jenson Button, in his eighth attempt at it, to go off in an almighty sulk. Sadly at the German GP, local fans are missing Michael Schumacher’s presence, and even though there are four other Germans still in F1, only three Adrian Sutil fans and a handful of security guards turn up at the event.

AUGUST.
For the second year running, the organizers of the Turkish Grand Prix are embroiled in a diplomatic row when they invite Vlad the Impaler and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to present the trophies. The faux pas is later described as an ‘innocent mistake’, but the FIA are not happy and confiscate Istanbul as punishment.
Juan Pablo finally finishes the Le Mans 24 hours, which did not go to plan when he accidentally turned onto the N34 on lap 12, and then got stuck in the infamous Rouen one way system. He joins the World Rally Championship in protest.

SEPTEMBER.
The Belgian round at Spa is sensationally won by Michael Schumacher, who, at Bernie Ecclestones request, is guesting in the Safety Car. Schuey later jokes that for years the drivers have been moaning about the Safety Car being too slow, so he thought he’d give them something else to moan about.

OCTOBER.
A three way title decider at the Brazilian Grand Prix between Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa is won by the Brazilian star. Brazil, which is an excitable place at the best of times, explodes.
After deciding that rallying is ‘too muddy’, JPM announces that he will be returning to F1 in 2008 and is in discussions with several teams.