So this, very much, is it. It’s Alonso’s to win and Lewis’s to loose. Kimi can still win the championship and it’s not impossible, but it will require at least one of the drivers from a team other than McLaren or Ferrari to be ahead of Lewis. This is not something that has happened very often this season. Except when it rains.
It is likely to rain today in Brazil but will now probably stay dry for the rest of the weekend. This tilts things away from Kimi for the championship because he’s basically got to rely on rain or Lewis being taken out of the race.
The form probably favours McLaren this weekend. The circuit is bumpy which the Ferrari hasn’t been liking, and the Ferrari hasn’t really been able to work the super soft tires as well as McLaren. Both of these point towards McLaren dominance of the event.
On the other hand we know Alonso will be down on power. The high altitude lowers the power delivery and coupled to this Brazil has a number of elevation changes. Going up hill needs all of the power that you’ve got.
The other downside for McLaren is that they are much more marginal on tires than Ferrari. While Ferrari can’t make the super softs go fast, McLaren can’t seem to make them finish the race in one piece.
It’s important not to forget Massa in all this. Sure he can’t win the championship but he can certainly win the race. He’ll only hand over to Kimi if Kimi can win the championship.
But imagine this for a situation. Massa covers Lewis. Kimi covers Alonso. Massa uses low fuel to put Lewis under pressure shredding his tires. All the while Kimi has boat loads of fuel but can still go faster than Alonso because of that extra power. If Lewis didn’t make it into the pits in time that would mean Kimi winning the world championship.
Essentially what I’m saying is that anything is possible.
My favourite theory for what might happen was something I read in the comments over at F1fanatic
Well, with a bit of luck Lewis will get a 10 slot penalty from a blow up in qualy 2 and will start from the back of the grid.
Kimi on pole, Fernando P2
Lewis will then fight through the entire field, overtaking everyone up to Alonso and Kimi by the last lap.
On the last lap lewis will dive between the pair of them and take the lead going into the final corner, winning the race by a tenth of a second.
This will have two effects – shutting up the whingy losers who don’t like to see their driver spanked by the young buck, and also, more importantly, make James Allen’s head explode.
This year even Michael Schumacher will be watching it from the Sofa. He wrote on his site:
“I can well think back to the tension a weekend like this one means to the driver and to be honest, I’m quite happy to be watching the race from my sofa at home this time.”
Most of the SofaF1 team will be watching the race over at mine this weekend. The beer is chilling, the expectations are building and the race is going to be thrilling.
Your predictions, as always are most welcome.
Good Luck, Scott Speed and enjoy this one, it’s going to be the last race for a while, and it’s going to be great.
SofaF1 