Force India's New Campaign

Today we at the Lighter Side of Formula 1 received a photo of Force India's new advertisement featuring Giancarlo Fisichella that will be sure to raise eyebrows--and possibly other things. Special thanks go out to Dazed1 for the snap.

Kimi's message to Lewis

We here at The Lighter Side of Formula 1, were shocked to learn that Ron Dennis has promised to give Lewis Hamilton one of only 5 existing McLaren LM cars if he can win the Driver's and Constructor's championships.

When Kimi was asked to comment about this, he responded, "Mmmmmbly stole from Ferrari mmmbly I'll fix it mmmbly."

Kimi then handed us an artist's rendition he had prepared.

Lewis Hamilton's Autobiography

Today, we spoke with McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton about his recently released autobiography titled "Lewis Hamilton: How I Became the World's Greatest Driver (almost)". Here is what Hamilton had to say.

"I'm very excited to have an autobiography on the shelves. Some people say that I'm far too young to already have an autobiography, but I know that people have been eagerly awaiting the chance to read about someone as great as myself." said Lewis.

Lewis continued, "What people don't know is that I actually am a superb writer. I may have invented the alphabet and paper, but I'll have to ask Ron if we stole that from Ferrari."

"Let's face it, even if I crapped on a piece of paper, I know I can at least sell a few copies to the ITV-F1 team.", Hamilton mused.

We here at the Lighter Side of Formula 1 have read the book, and have to say it was a decent read (almost). It was entertaining up until, like Lewis' 2007 season, it goes in the crapper during the last chapter. Lewis seemingly decides to declare this love for Ron Dennis, but goes on to reveal that he just can not seem to close the deal.

There have also been rumors of coffee table book of Ron Dennis' black and white portraits of Hamilton being released this Fall.

Massa - "I Lost the Car"

Felipe Massa on Sunday did not take the blame for his retirement from the Malaysian grand prix.

The pole sitter, who had fallen behind his teammate and grand prix winner Vodka Boy, through the first pit stops at Sepang, mysteriously spun into the gravel around mid-distance.

"I'm not sure what happened, I heard a strange voice over my pit to car radio, but it was at a much lower volume than normal conversations with the team. It sounded like Jean (Todt) speaking to Stefano (Domenicali), and it said something like, ok time to activate the Vettel program. Then there was strange twitch in the rear, and I don't know, I just lost the car completely." he was quoted as explaining to the British broadcaster ITV.

Massa's second retirement of 2008 means that while eleven drivers have scored points in the opening two races, the 26-year-old is now fourteen points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

Playing the blame game

None of the six Ferrari-engined F1 cars made it to the checkered flag last weekend at Melbourne. Both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa ended the day with engine failures and now the technical staff at the Scuderia have begun their investigations into the cause of the double DNF.

Ferrari's official comment on the situation: "This kind of thing can happen when you are working with one procedure that you do not know so well. Now we know that there is a conflict we can make sure it does not happen again,"

Speculation has it that the MES supplied ECU, co-developed by arch-nemesis McLaren International was the cause of the failures. Further examination into the cockpit of Melbourne winner Lewis Hamilton's race car found a possible link between McLaren and the Ferrari engine failures.


McLaren refused to comment on the allegations...

Kovi's big secret

Why did Heikki's car crap out on him after he made the stunning move over Fred?

See for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izYIXA5-s4Q


Note to Heikki: Next time save the fist pumping for when you get out of the car...

Head planning regular podium visits in 2008

After their fourth-place finish in last year’s constructors’ championship, Williams’ engineering director Patrick Head believes his team can go from strength to strength this season with regular top-three race finishes, providing his top secret plan of pitlane domination works accordingly.

Lead driver Nico Rosberg, starting his third campaign with the team, will be joined by Japanese kamikazi pilot Kazuki Nakajima and it’s a youthful combination that Head thinks might bring Williams serious results.

“The driver line up will not be as experienced as might be expected for a team competing for a championship,” he said. “However, we intend to be regular podium visitors in 2008 with Nico and as long as Kazuki continues to knock people over in the pitlane. We've re calibrated his targeting mechanism in his car to aim for mechanics in other teams, which I strongly believe will be added bonus to Nico's driving”

The new FW30 has looked impressive in testing, prompting media speculation that Williams could be the leading team behind Ferrari and McLaren this year. However, Head insisted that this can only be judged after the opening race in Australia.

“It is too early to say where we will be in the pecking order,” he said. “It looks as if Ferrari and McSpies have made strong progress from 2007, BMW have a car that seems quick with their added mini gun and Renault have made progress, I am sure some of which is coming from their secret bio fuel made of parrot shit.

“Red Bull are beginning to look stronger and Toro Rosso are making the best of a car that they are familiar with, they certainly cannot be dismissed. We have certainly made progress, but we will not see where we stand until after the season starts.”

Williams scored one podium finish last year, a third place for Alex Wurz at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.