Brad's Formula 1 Blog

Felipe Massa pointed out in a Ferrari team press release after the race in Valencia yesterday that his ninth career victory here was in fact also his 100th Grand Prix that he has taken part in. Then he pointed out another fact we rarely think of: That all of his races have been done using a Ferrari engine. Yes, he raced at Sauber - but remember that the engine powering that car was also a Ferrari engine.

On the other hand, I've counted only 99 Grands Prix for Felipe. Let me know if you come up with a different number!?!

After I mentioned the Nascar.about.com story about motor sports and the Olympics on my IHT F1 blog The Red Bulletin paddock newspaper in today's edition notes that there has already been a motor sports category at the Olympics. That happened in 1900 at the Paris Games and there were cars such as the Panhard-Levassor and Delahaye. Today, of course, motorized vehicles are outlawed at the Olympics.

Also from the Red Bulletin, as story working checking out the www.myF1dream.com site. An interesting experiment in trying to get fans to create their own Formula 1 team. The effort is several thousand fans strong - and the budget is so far built up to the level of many a failed Formula 1 team in the past: $0.00.

The British newspapers have started talking about the Lewis Hamilton and racism story again this weekend. Hamilton had been the victim of racist comments at a test session in Spain over the winter. But this morning during the McLaren Mercedes "meet the team" press conference in the team motor home, when asked if he feared any racist happenings at the race this weekend, Lewis said no. And I judged the expression on his face to be saying that there just simply was no story there whatsoever.

Felipe Massa continued on his roll today, providing a superb performance just when it was needed by scoring pole position on the Valencia street circuit for tomorrow's European Grand Prix. If this place is like most street circuits, then the pole position is very important. On the other hand, it does not look as if it will be like other street circuits. It has been a weekend full of surprises.

Not so surprising was that Lewis Hamilton starts from second on the grid, and will try to return the move that Massa made on him in Budapest when the Brazilian passed him at the first corner during the first lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix three weeks ago.

Kimi Raikkonen continued his bad qualifying, after setting the fastest lap in practice on Friday. He could do no better than fourth. But the Finn is not discouraged, since he knows anything can happen.

But Massa remains the most relieved of the drivers. "It's great to be on pole position," he said, "especially after the great disappointment of Budapest. But I'm well aware the race is tomorrow and so there is still a long way to go."

Kimi Raikkonen has been slightly eclipsed in recent races as his team mate at Ferrari, Felipe Massa, has climbed up the standings and had better results, while the Finn has run into various problems - particularly with qualifying. But Raikkonen set the fastest time in practice today in Valencia, and he said afterwards that he still had more speed coming. Yesterday, when asked who he saw as having the best chance at winning the title this year, Fernando Alonso said that despite everything, he still saw Kimi as the strongest contender. Last night as I ate my dinner in Valencia - couldn't get paella, since they only serve it to a table of a minimum two people, and I couldn't persuade them that talking to myself made me two - I noticed in the official program an interesting fact: Since 1993 DHL has offered an award to the driver who scores the most fastest race laps in a season. The first winner of the award was Ayrton Senna, with eight fastest laps. That number of fastest laps has not been matched since then, with six being the highest number. But this year, Raikkonen has already scored seven of the season's fastest laps - and we're not yet near the end! Behind him, the closest number of fastest laps come from Heikki Kovalainen and Nick Heidfeld, with only two fastest laps each. Indeed, the 2008 Raikkonen story has not yet been told.

Bridgestone is commemorating its 200th race in Formula 1 at the European Grand Prix this weekend. The company first began racing in F1 in 1997, and it is now the only tire provider in the series, after Michelin left a couple of years ago. Today Bridgestone PR people put out a couple of gold - or were they green? I'm color blind - tires outside their motor home and set up some chairs for a group photo shoot of all of the drivers in Formula 1. It's a rare moment to see all the drivers gathered together like that. Fernando Alonso was the first to sit down in the chairs for the photo shoot - but then he was asked to move and stand in the back row...to make room for the title contenders, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, who were sat side-by-side, with Felipe Massa, the other title contender and Ferrari driver, nearby. Fernando wore a black arm band to mourn the victims of the air crash in Madrid yesterday.

Fernando Alonso sits in Valencia today preparation for a photo shoot with all F1 drivers. Photo (c) 2008 Brad Spurgeon licensed to About.com, Inc.

With the world still thinking "Olympics," and motor racing far out of the radar, Formula 1 prepares for the European Grand Prix in Valencia. In fact, what better race than one at the location of the America's Cup yachting venue to follow on the Olympics? I'm looking forward to the latest of the F1 street circuits. And I think that after the three-week break between the last race and this one ends, the drivers will be as refreshed as they need to be to take on this new challenge. As a spectator, I just hope that Valencia is not going to provide us with a Monaco-like procession....

The Renault team announced the death of its former aerodynamics director, Dino Toso.

"It is with great sadness that the ING Renault F1 Team confirms that former Director of Aerodynamics, Dino Toso, lost his battle with illness this morning and passed away peacefully at his home. Dino was instrumental in building one of the sport’s most successful aerodynamics departments, which helped the Renault F1 team win double drivers’ and constructors’ titles in 2005 and 2006. His contribution to the team, both through his results and his courage in the face of illness, are an inspiration. He will be missed enormously and the immediate thoughts of the whole team are with his family."

Toso, 39, had cancer. He had previously worked at Jordan, where he was engineer of Damon Hill's car when Hill won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, the team's first race.

Unlike former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, the former driver who had a hard time in F1, Scott Speed, the last American driver in the series, has done well in reconverting his post F1 career. Speed won another race this weekend, and he's leading the series. It's the ARCA RE/MAX Series, and he has won four races in the season. He won on Saturday evening by 0.479 seconds against Jeremy Clements at the Nashville Superspeedway. Speed is driving an Eddie Sharp Racing Toyota.

The summer break is here, but the silly season is nevertheless continuing on. That's the time when we learn of where the drivers move to next season. This year has a few missing links, though. Check out the latest details of the F1 silly season.

Although it was fabulous news that Heikki Kovalainen took the first victory of his career at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, probably the best news of the race was elsewhere. This is a season in which rain, safety cars and accidents have ensured great racing in just about every single race. With clear blue skies and no serious accidents at the Hungaroring, we had an exciting race in which the outcome was decided by great racing and car reliability. With Lewis Hamilton having his tire blow and Felipe Massa blowin his engine, Kovalainen was right there ready to grab the victory. And all of this happened on a track where a dry race is supposed to be nothing but a boring procession. Again, what a season!