When its your favorite team sandwiching the team of your country, who do you root for?
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I'm referring to the Monaco GP that saw Adrian Sutil (of the first Indian Formula1 team) get all the way up to 4th position and was behind Felipe Massa and ahead of last year's (controversial) World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, also in a Ferrari!
What is amazing about this is - Ferrari is the No. 1 team in F1 and Force India is No. 10 - second from last in the sport comprised of 11 teams!
Also, the race was happening at Monaco, which is THE MOST glamorous race in the entire F1 season! Being held on the narrow streets of the island town, which is essentially a rock on the edge of the sea, the circuit always manages to bring surprising results. And this weekend's race had the rain Gods throwing another twist in the high-glamour high-drama race which was a nail-biter till lap 69.
Of course, Ferrari is my favorite team in F1 - but I was rooting for Adrian Sutil, not because the team is from my country - although that was a factor - but mainly because I love rooting for the underdog. To start the race all the way in the back in 21st position, but a good race strategy and a fantastic drive saw Adrian Sutil reach 4th position and that too in Monaco, a circuit where it is next to impossible to overtake, how could I NOT root for him!
Kimi is an idiot! Having filled the shoes of one of F1's most winningest, most record holding driver, who still holds a legendary reputation and a cult following by his fans - I'm talking about Michael Schumacher and not Kimi. In this race, he was penalized due to a rare goof up by Team Ferrari before the race begun, but teammates are humans and mistakes happen - being part of a team means that - should a mistake happen, you either try to capitalize on it or you try harder on the field. Not Kimi! He preferred to sulk and drove 2 seconds-a-lap slower than his team-mate. On Lap 28, he misses a turn and damages the front wing of his car - gets the 1st nose change - but the big mistake is made on lap 69 - with about 10 minutes remaining - seeing a driver in a "lesser" car in front of him, he gets greedy for a few more points, loses his cool and overambitiously runs into the back of Adrian Sutil - the result?
1) The rear suspension on Sutil's car is damaged and he has to drop out
2) The front wing of Kimi's car is damaged - a second time - and when he dives into the pit for a change, he joins back in 9th position and is out of the points!
3) For no fault of his, a back-marker is denied a hard fought 4th place after a fabulous drive
4) Force India team loses millions of dollars in TV royalty for next year (for each point scored in the current year, the team gets millions of dollars from the television sponsorship money earned by the sport)
For Ferrari, this is a drop in the bucket as they are a very rich team and already have many points in their kitty, but for a new team like Force India with a not-so-grand-budget - 5 points mean a lot! Those could be the ONLY points they could have scored in the entire season! All this is ruined for the driver and for the team because the driver who fills the shoes of the legendary Michael Schumacher at Ferrariis an idiot!
A question to the Ferrari team president, Luca di Montezemolo, who on October 22, 2007 - hailed Kimi Raikkonen's Formula One title as a product of team spirit - "What were you thinking when you ushered Michael Schumacher out of the door to make way for a naive Kimi?"!!!!!!!!!
PS: Kimi is the same guy who when asked last year "Where were you when Michael was receiving an award" replied on International Television "I was taking a dump!" - Good for you Kimi, perhaps you should stick to doing just that! And at the end of the 2008 F1 season, if you are still battling for the title, I hope you miss it by a margin of 4 points - the same number you could have got in the 2008 Monaco GP, but didn't - when you denied Adrian Sutil his 5!
Incidentally, Force India gets the engines for their cars from Ferrari!
