Ferarri just unveiled their latest F1 Championship car for 2008, it’s the 54th so far, and changes totally the aerodynamics with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa giving it the thumbs up. The main competitors will be McLaren and BMW, the pilots said, but they are confident that even if the car will be more complex to drive, to win.

2008 brings a lot of changes when it comes to safety, materials and others so everyone had to change.

Just hours, after Ferarri, McLaren unveiled their MP4-23 (Hamilton is 23 years old) which will be powered by the Mercedes-Benz FO 108V engine, based on the 2007 FO 108T that never failed in the last season. It’s a 2.4L 8-cylinder engine, that goes up to 19,000 rpm on the 7-speed sequential gearbox and the two pilots, Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen are both excited about the car.

Formula 1 in 2008 will bring a nice addition. Night racing in Singapore.
Let’s wait for Sydney in March before we know who’s better.

A new version of the Mercedes-McLaren has been developed by British motorsports company RML Group for a handful of privateer teams who hope to compete in a new club racing series. The car was solely designed for the track and has no approval for on-road use but that hasn’t stopped 21 individuals paying the estimated €1 million price tag for the privilege of owning one of the hottest race cars on the planet.

The Mercedes McLaren SLR 722 GT has a top speed of 315 km/h and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds. Compared to the series-production version, the SLR 722 GT has been uniquely and comprehensively re-engineered by RML, especially with respect to the suspension, braking system, aerodynamics, interior and exhaust system. More than 400 components were redesigned. The key data of this edition limited to 21 two-seaters – kerb weight 1390 kilograms, maximum output 500 kW/680 ps at 1.75 bar boost,and maximum torque of 830 Newton metres to guarantee maximum racetrack performance.

It is being reported that Alonso will be leaving the Mclaren Mercedes team at the end of this season or after the GP in Brazil, to join his old team – Renault.

The German newspaper, Bild, reports that his unhappiness and conflict with his teammate are some of the reasons he decided to return to Flavio Briatore. I guess this should end the rumor that Alonso will join the Ferrari team, as some have reported. Whatever the outcome of this is, the most important thing will be decided in Brazil, where Alonso is trailing 4 points behind Hamilton for the Championship.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso finished the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai in second place. Whilst his team mate Lewis Hamilton retired, when he went off and got stuck in the gravel with worn wet tyres on a drying track. Kimi Räikkönen took victory, so the championship will now be decided among those three at the final race in Sao Paulo in two weeks’ time. After 56 laps in changeable conditions, 305.066 km and a total race time of 1:37:58.395 hrs, Fernando came home 9.8sec behind Räikkönen’s Ferrari. Despite his first retirement in 16 Grands Prix, Lewis maintained his lead in the Drivers’ Championship after 16 out of 17 races with 107 points followed by Fernando in second position with 103 points; Räikkönen is third on 100 points with 10 points available in the remaining race. For the first time since 1986, there are three drivers to fight for the title in the final race. (more…)

Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of signing a $110 million deal to stay on at the McLaren team until the end of 2012. The German newspaper Bild claims the contract, representing a mammoth pay-rise over his debut salary, is worth $17m every year plus – oddly for a McLaren contract – the ability for his father Anthony to negotiate separate marketing arrangements.

Mercedes-Benz’s Norbert Haug confirmed: “We would like to cooperate with Lewis on a long-term basis. He is a great person and a great driver.” Hamilton’s father said they are yet to sign the deal. “Not yet,” he said, then referring to the upcoming FIA inspections at Woking. “There are still things to go through, such as whether the team is definitely in formula one.”

The news coincides with Hamilton telling reporters in the McLaren motor home that he has earned more respect from the team than his championship rival Fernando Alonso. “And since what’s gone on in the last few weeks they’ve realized who the real people are in the team and who they really should back,” the Briton, 22, added.

“We arrived at Spa and he is sitting there laughing and joking. I don’t understand it.” Hamilton confirmed suspicions that his relationship with the Spaniard is almost non-existent. “He is not the person I imagined him to be,” he said. (GMM)

Related ‘Lewis Hamilton” news

Feud between Alonso and Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton wins the Montreal Grandprix
Hamilton leads the F1

Following the nine hour hearing at the FIA headquarters in Paris, the World Motor Sport Council have changed their original verdict and now find McLaren guilty of the charges of industrial espionage. The Working-based team have had their points stripped away and excluded from the 2007 campaign, and they have also been fined an unprecedented $100m (the largest ever imposed in motor sport history). The news comes as a shock to Formula One fans the world over, and of course also means that Ferrari have just about become the 2007 constructors champions, even though four races are still to run.

The WMSC has stripped Vodafone McLaren Mercedes of all constructor points in the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship and the team can score no points for the remainder of the season.

Furthermore, the team will pay a fine equal to $100m, less the FOM income lost as a result of the points deduction.

However, due to the exceptional circumstances in which the FIA gave the team’s drivers an immunity in return for providing evidence, there is no penalty in regard to drivers’ points.

Italian law enforcement authorities paid an unannounced visit to the McLaren pits on Saturday, as the team prepared for the Italian Grand Prix the following day. They informed McLaren team manager Ron Dennis that he was under investigation and also informed six other members of the McLaren team that they were being investigated. The investigation centers on Team McLaren’s possession of 780 pages of confidential documents stolen from Ferrari. (more…)