Observations

We are one race short of the halfway mark of the 2008 Formula 1 season. And at this point, some surprises have emerged. BMW are second in the constructor's championship and leading driver Robert Kubica is also in second of the driver's race. Surprising to say the least and I would not have expected these guys to have kept their season opening momentum to go on for so long. Hopefully the guys in Hinwil and Munich keep pushing on to the end.

Toyota and Red Bull are neck and neck in the middle order. Toyota especially is a big surprise. The cars certainly are quick and they've even managed a podium spot in last weekend's French Grand Prix. Had they not shot themselves in the foot in 2006 with that last minute switch to Bridgestone tyres and then sacking the technical director for the marketing men's own mistakes I reckon they'd be at least on BMW level by now. As it is, this lumbering giant is making slow progress. But progress nevertheless and they are outperforming their customers at Williams. Deadly rivals Honda are absolutely nowhere this season as they were last year and Toyota's results must be hurting them a lot in Tokyo.

Red Bull on the other hand is a customer team that is completely whipping the works Renaults. Some say the Renault engine has huge flaws. That may be so but the Red Bulls are at this stage making better use of their motor and despite the presence of Fernando Alonso, the works cars can do nothing about it. Its good to see a "private" entry murdering the big manufacturer. Although in this case its a well financed privateer.

Lewis Hamilton didnt deserve to have the 10 spot penalty for France. Not at all. He deserved to have his superlicense sanctioned and placed under probation for his act of pure incompetence in Montreal. Its one thing for you to crash into another car whilst your brake balance is out of whack at 180 mph but to completely miss two stationary cars right in front of you whilst travelling at the leisurely speed of 80 km/h is a sign of pure stupidity. And the twit doesn't even want to admit his mistake. "If" he says, he has ruined Kimi's race then he is sorry. Its not an "if" moron. You bloody well chucked it out the window. And once again, in France he completely denies his any wrongdoing when it was clear that he gained an advantage by straightlining the chicane.

And apologising to the team for not doing his best. Oh come on. That was pure pretense designed solely for the benefit of the media. Ron has trained this one well. But of course, the British media are now quickly turning on him as is their habit. I suppose having enjoyed the adoring attention in the past, he likes it not one bit. But being the big mouth that he is, he's now taking them on with all sorts of trashy talk.

And just who was the idiot who suggested that he be suspended on wires and lowered on to a stage play in London? I really do not understand just what good he or the Porsche crashing train driver (son gets a little money and buy some nice toys for yourself eh?) thought that would do. Is he supposed to be a racing driver or a clown? That is just pure humiliation but it really befits him.

Without sympathising with Hamilton it brings me to the point on what Formula 1 drivers have to go through these days. Its no wonder Kimi is so fed up and there is talk of his retirement. All the stupid media responsibilities, meeting up with stupid corporate sponsors, annoying fans, I mean, who the hell needs that? Isn't his own display of skill and speed on the track enough? Thats what he gets paid to do. Drive the car like the devil himself. And while he doesn't put on a fake smile at least he is honest unlike these young PR washed robo-drivers like Hamilton.

Why do these people think they own him? I completely sympathise as this just reeks of rampant American style NASCAR commercialism that fools like Joe Saward of Grandprix.com keeps on preaching about. Hey this is racing. Its not supposed to wrestling sport entertainment. If thats what you want, then bloody well go watch stupid NASCAR where the good old boys will happily smile like idiots for "the show."

And note to Joe Saward, if you love NASCAR so much then bloody well write about NASCAR. I am really am so sick of reading about stupid theme parks, hamburgers and silly romance novels that you think are such fantastic ideas for grand prix racing. There is a cultural gulf between America and the rest of the world and guess what? We don't always care about, want or need American ideas. And what annoys me most is the increased American inspired commerical exploitation that is inevitably changing grand prix racing for the worse.

In A Word

Toyota.

Nico Rosberg

Amidst all the hype surrounding Lewis Hamilton, spare a thought for the 2005 GP2 champion Nico Rosberg. Nico had a great debut race last year, finishing in the points and taking the fastest lap of the race. From then on, his results had largely gone downhill. Sometimes the fault lay with him but in large part it coincided with the worst ever season for Grove in grand prix racing.

This year, Nico looks like he's having a far better time. The Williams of course is no match for the Ferraris or McLarens up front but against cars of similar (or even slightly better) performance, Nico has been doing a splendid job. Both in my Indy awards and in the official FIA standings, Nico is currently the top independent team driver.

In the Indy Awards, Nico has had a couple of wins, a second and a fourth position. The last comes despite having failed to finish in Malaysia, through no fault of his own. Whilst the Red Bulls are looking increasingly quick they haven't had the reliability. In the Indy points standing, Nico has a massive lead and if you follow the Wag The Dog points, you can see that he eats the works Toyotas for breakfast, consistently faster and finishing ahead of them.

All things being equal, its easier being in a quicker car than an average or bad one. Narain Karthikeyan for instance was absolutely amazed at the ease with which the Williams can be driven as compared to the Jordan he was used to. Likewise, I am certain the latest McLaren is better balanced and has limpet like grip compared to the Williams. Thus, Hamilton up front has a far easier time and its easy to praise his successes, considerable though it may be.

However, Nico has a year's experience under his belt and that experience has been hard won on the back of a terrible season for Williams. With those hard times, comes maturity in addition to the raw speed and natural talent. Something that Hamilton has yet to exhibit, for he hasn't had the need to, lucky sod that he is.

God knows if Williams will ever make the necessary quantum leap required to once again challenge for honours at the front but should McLaren or Ferrari require a new driver (not that they really need it right now) then they could do worse than Nico. In fact, if BMW were smart and the time came to replace Nick Heidfeld then their former driver would be a most excellent choice. Its one thing having an exciting hotshoe like Sebastien Vettel in the car. But for the overall package, I think Nico represents an excellent choice.

I do hope however that Williams, now with Toyota power behind them are able to rally in the next few years to give Nico Rosberg the car that he deserves. Inevitably one does compare drivers to that standard benchmark called Michael Schumacher and it would be interesting to see if Nico can develop some of the leadership skills that Michael possesses to lead the Williams team to glory once again. Tall order but not impossible.

Whatever it is, Nico deserves a chance at the big time as much as Hamilton does.

2007 Australian Grand Prix

The Steeles of the recently revived F1Talk feared a Ferrari domination this year. They may be right. The way Kimi Raikkonen quite serenely won the Australian Grand Prix is an ominous sign for the other contenders. Serene is perhaps the right word for this race because nothing much really happened. Unless you're English and are absolutely over the moon with Lewis Hamilton's debut.

As in qualifying yesterday, I would have liked to see how Kimi stands against Filipe Massa during a race. Yesterday the Brazilian experienced gearbox and engine troubles. Today, he was following a completely different strategy having to come from right at the back. Yes, Kimi managed to lap him during the course of the race. And that must have been a psychological blow to him. But it would have been interesting to see how Massa would have run under a normal race strategy.

Do I sound like I'm behind Filipe? Well, actually no. For I still think Kimi will beat him over the course of the year. I just hope though that Ferrari will let the both of them duel it out together come what may.

The other team that had any hope of matching the Ferraris were McLaren. But lets face it, Kimi was really toying with them today. Setting that 1m 25.235s fastest lap was just rubbing it into Ron Dennis' face. He didn't need to go anywhere near that lap time and he was still simply pulling away from the two McLarens.

Alonso or Hamilton? For pure speed I think there's very, very little to choose between them. They are both equally as fast. My word, this could be quite a driving partnership for Ron. They've both got long careers ahead of them. One is a double world champion, the other can match the former. One slip, and its easily one or the other. There is very little margin if today's performance is anything to go by. Still, Alonso's strategy was the better one. Yes, Sato got in the way but even if he didn't I estimate Alonso would still have come out ahead of Hamilton at the end.

The ITV commentators were over the moon with Hamilton but lets put things into perspective. The 2005 GP2 champion, Nico Rosberg also had a great debut in the first race last year. Somehow it seems the GP2 championship does prepare a driver quite well for the challenges of Formula 1. And why not? The GP2 cars do have some massive performance all without traction control and other driver aids. But the challenge for Lewis now is to sustain this performance and not fade away like Nico did last year. Although one could say that Williams did not give Nico a great car to show off his talents.

Can McLaren catch up? Well, if you look at their qualy performance particularly on low fuel they do have some pace. Its when the fuel goes in and the races progresses that they seem to lose out to Ferrari. I think McLaren will need to work very hard to get the best out of those Bridgestone tyres if they are to have a chance. On some of the tighter circuits however, I think McLaren have an excellent chance of besting Maranello. The Ferrari you see has a longer wheel base. Great on circuits where aero performance is all important. Not so great in some of the slower bits. Still I think for McLaren, optimizing the aero with the Bridgy tyres is the key. As for driving talent, the do not lack any.

The BMWs much touted long distance pace could eventually was not enough to sustain a challenge to the front runners. But nevertheless, they have vastly improved and I believe they will improve still further as the season progresses and they have a better understanding of the new Japanese rubber.

And I was somewhat disappointed that the Super Aguris could not beat the works Hondas during the race. But Sato beating Jenson was a nice thing to see. Nico Rosberg did well I thought beating both the works Toyotas to seventh ahead of "I'm one of the top three" Ralf Schumacher. The fact that the Toyota engined cars have had a years greater experience on Bridgestone rubber is perhaps one of the reasons why the Hondas simply could not get on terms with their deadly rivals.

Again, if there is to be a Ferrari domination of 2007 I hope the two teammates will put up a good show for the rest of us. Kimi did a supreme job of the race today bar the odd mistake whilst fooling around. It'll boost his confidence and standing with the team and I'm sure he's going to get even better still in the car.

The Toyota Way

Last night I watched a repeat of the documentary called Anatomy Of A Formula 1 Team that was shown on Discovery channel. The documentary featured the Toyota F1 team and highlighted various aspects of the operations of a modern grand prix racing team. Track testing, design, manufacturing and logistics were some of the topics covered on it. The documentary featured events prior to the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix.

One thing that was repeatedly emphasized was the Toyota Way embodied by the Toyota Production System (TPS). This incorporate the Kaizen philosophy, which is Toyota's process of continuous evolution and improvement. The idea being taken from management guru W Edward Demming. At the time the documentary was made Mike Gascoyne had already been sacked (oops, I should say voluntarily parted company) and replaced by Pascal Vesselon, formerly of Michelin.

You get the impression that the whole Toyota F1 team is organised using the TPS principles, which had been proven successful in the design and manufacture of Toyota road cars. One gets the impression that the team exists to validate Toyota's methodologies. As Patrick had pointed out, the whole project seems like some sort of corporate flagship exercise. A big promotion exercise if you will with the Toyota Way being the product ultimately on display. Success in grand prix racing if achieved, would serve as a parade of its superiority both on the track and on the road.

So, the question is after billions spent and some 5 years in grand prix racing, why hasn't it worked out? Never mind championships, even a grand prix win has not been achieved. Although the team has come close. There is very little doubt that the Toyota way has been very successful in producing road cars. To some, the Toyota production line is among the very best in the world, if not the best. Cars are produced efficiently, cheaply and comes built in with very high quality and reliability. All the things you need to produce some of the most boring vehicles on the planet. But then Toyota knows that the average joe on the street is just looking for some boring, reliable car with huge space to stuff his shopping, the grandparents and the rugrats into. And therefore, its methodologies work there.

But could it be that the Toyota way is simply the wrong way when it comes to racing? Essentially the TPS is a design by committee methodology where everyone focuses upon his domain but with emphasis on open communication among the various groups and team members. Theoretically, why shouldn't this philosophy work? After all it had worked for Ferrari. Up until the new aero rules introduced in 2005, Formula 1 Ferraris have been constantly evolving a basic design reaching back, oh I don't know, perhaps to 1998. Some innovations were introduced here and there but it was a work of evolution rather than revolution. So why hasn't it produced magic in Toyota?

Perhaps magic is indeed the missing ingredient in the form of an excellent technical director. I hear howls of protest but bear with me a moment. The 2005 Toyota challenger was the first car under the Mike Gascoyne. It had to be all new. For with the new aero rules, a revolution was indeed the right step. I mean look at Ferrari. Whilst Luca di Montezemolo lay blame on tyres but Ross Brawn was more forthcoming. The basic design itself was wrong. It evolved the F2004 into the F2005 but the basic DNA was all wrong for survival in the new aero environment, no matter how much it was mutated. A revolutionary leap in the basic design was needed. Gascoyne produced it with Toyota, the Ferrari F2005 was basically an extinct dinosaur.

For a brief moment, the 2005 Toyota was the only match for the Renault R25 until McLaren's MP4/20 hit form. If Ferrari hadn't stolen victory at Indianapolis and if Toyota hadn't screwed up Ralf Schumacher at Spa, then for sure the team would have had their maiden win and in turn would have beaten Ferrari to third in the constructors.

So what the hell happened in 2006? Well, thats what happens when marketing idiots tamper with racing objectives. And marketing of course, is a huge thing in a road car company like Toyota. Some clever genius decided that it would be good for the team to use Bridgestone tyres for 2006, since that is the brand that is used on all Toyota road cars. The decision of course came late in the day after plans for the TF106 had already been in place and the car optimized for use with Michelin rubber. Do not underestimate the effect this had. It was enormous and no matter what Gascoyne attempted to do, it was to no avail. The car was simply unsuited to its rubber. Whatever is said of Gascoyne, I think he was made the scapegoat for the debacle.

And now the team lumbers on. Like McLaren, that other ailing Formula 1 team, the principals at Toyota believe a team approach, a design by committee arrangement is the best way and of course would fit in that holy of holies, the TPS. Now I realise, no one can do everything these days. Even 20 years ago, the thought of one superstar designer doing everything had long been banished. Gordon Murray, the man in charge of the mighty McLaren MP4/4 pointed out way back then that he never drew up the detailed blueprints of the car. At most, he sketched a few lines on a piece of paper. But I still feel a strong technical director, that is able to aggregate all the minute detailed work of others, with a clear understanding on the application of various technologies and able to provide strong design direction is still needed.

Of course, all Formula 1 teams have extremely clever people working for them. Its just that some are brighter still than the others. In the book, the Wisdom Of Crowds by James Surowiecki, the best results are apparently obtained when a group contains people of many different backgrounds, experiences and even intelligence. A group of similar minded people rarely produces the best results mainly because points of view are the same. In a group of the extremely talented then, everyone is useful from the merely smart to the Einsteins of the team.

That is the ideal situation but in small groups, it has been found that force of personality can dominate and set the direction of the group, whether it be right or wrong. The guy who talks first and most often usually drowns out everyone else, even those who may have had better answers. Situations like these have led to disasters like the NASA Columbia accident. If this is so and groups will be dominated by forceful individuals or leaders, then risky as it may be, you may just as well put the most clever person in charge of the whole group. Like a superstar designer for instance. Constant evolution is also a Ferrari philosophy but just look at the people at the helm of the technical team. Would anyone argue that Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne were key ingredients to Ferrari's unprecedented success?

Watching the documentary, I have no doubt that the Kaizen methodology at Toyota works beautifully on the production side. Once designs are approved, I wager the Toyota team can then produce a component faster, more efficiently and cheaper than any other team in the paddock. But in racing and in Formula 1 especially, speed and lap times are the ultimate priority. The design team led by a genius is key to such objectives. The Toyota Way I feel is unlikely to achieve that performance leap required by the team to be "the best ever team in Formula 1." Great at pumping out cars in volume but hey, in Formula 1 you only need two.

Toyota must break away from their current thinking. Showcasing corporate philosophies and marketing are really not the point of racing. Racing should be done for racing's sake alone with winning being the only objective. Toyota would be best served by looking at the way Renault organise. Just let the team get on with the business and stay out of their way. Thats how you win.