This weekend the teams and drivers are in Europe for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours.
The reigning World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari is going to settle for nothing less than first place after his race was destroyed at Montreal the last time out, after being hit from behind by Lewis Hamilton at the exit to the pit lane while waiting for the green light.
Raikkonen is now in fourth place on 35 points, 7 points behind the championship leader Robert Kubica for the BMW Sauber team and also behind the two drivers sharing 38 points, Lewis Hamilton for McLaren and Felipe Massa his team-mate.
The Renault at Red Bull Racing team also have high hopes for the Magny-Cours round after scoring a podium finish in Canada, leaving them fourth in the Championship.
David Coulthard hadn’t even qualified in the top ten, however, that allowed the team to adapt their strategy and filled him with fuel ready to do only one stop. The team predicted the safety car at some stage during the race and when it did, Coulthard did not have to refuel unlike many of the other drivers and made an error free race to give him that third step on the podium.
The Renault team have had a pretty bad season so far with Fernando Alonso only scoring 9 points out of 7 races so far in 2008 and Nelson Piquet with nothing to show for his debut year.
This is the teams home circuit and they are hoping for more motivation here with the home fans. The team have just completed a three day test at Barcelona which went well and they are hoping to see some improvement in France.
1 comment so far
1 Andrew Boyers // Jun 18, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I think Renault will continue to struggle this weekend, despite it being their home grand-prix.
Alonso has obvious skill – he’s not world champion for nothing, but the truth is that he simply does not have a car to match his ability. Nelson Piquet Jr has been massively disappointing this season. To have no points finishes shows great inconsistency and his races have been error-strewn. I’m not sure how long his errors will be tolerated – rookies before him have done a lot better – Rosberg, Kovalainen and Hamilton have all showed that they could compete at the top, but I’ve yet to see that from Piquet.
I think it will be an easy weekend for Ferrari, and I can see them taking a one-two with little fuss. Hamilton will do well to finish on the podium this time round.