The 2007 F1 Season: Why Is It So Memorable?

 

There have been many memorable Formula 1 seasons. Some are legendary, such as the 2004 season when Michael Schumacher won his record seventh world title. Some seasons, like the one in 1994, are remembered negatively as they witnessed the horrific death of Ayrton Senna. However, the 2007 F1 season is significant because of the battle between Hamilton and McLaren versus Alonso, The Formula One Espionage Controversy (commonly referred to as “Spygate”), and Kimi Raikkonen winning the World Driver Championship (WDC) and World Constructor Championship (WCC) with Ferrari. The 2007 Formula 1 season was significant because of the conflict between Alonso and his teammate at McLaren, Hamilton. During the qualifying session at the Hungarian GP, both of them clashed in the pitlane. “...after Alonso blocked Hamilton in the pits during qualifying, preventing his teammate from completing his final qualifying lap. This followed Hamilton ignoring an instruction from the team ordering him to let Alonso past earlier in the session.” The problem started when Hamilton was ahead of Alonso halfway through qualifying, and by team orders, he was told to let Alonso pass, who was on a flying lap. Hamilton ignored the order, blocked Alonso, and ruined his qualifying lap. In retaliation, just before qualifying ended, in the pitlane, Alonso was released from the pits to allow Hamilton behind. However, he remained stationary for another 10 seconds, which allowed Alonso to finish a qualifying lap and get first place for race day, while Hamilton could not, and had to settle as runner-up. McLaren themselves reported Alonso to the FIA, who gave Alonso a 5-place grid penalty, forcing him to start from sixth. Alonso later stated in an interview that he stopped in the pits for longer because he was discussing on the radio why he was given the worst tires compared to his teammate. “By this time, the relationship between Dennis and his star driver was at the point of no return, with the McLaren boss quoted by BBC Sport as telling an FIA hearing: ‘We're not on speaking terms. The relationship between Fernando and I is extremely cold—that is an understatement’.” By the time the Belgian GP came around, Hamilton and Alonso had another fight. Alonso pushed Hamilton wide on the first corner, but he failed in the defense, and Hamilton got past him by the successive few corners. During the post-race press conference, Dennis clearly stated that he and Alonso were not on speaking terms and that he was a “recluse of a driver,” meaning that he would not communicate with Dennis at all. “We weren’t racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando.” During the Chinese GP, Ron Dennis, Alonso’s boss, famously said that Dennis did not want Alonso to win. He used the tire strategy in a way that would disadvantage Alonso and benefit Hamilton, had Hamilton not crashed out in the pit entry. This was an important race because it was the penultimate round with all three drivers, Raikkonen, Hamilton, and Alonso, in contention for the championship. With Hamilton crashing out and McLaren battling Alonso, Raikkonen had a massive advantage going into the ultimate round of the championship, the Brazilian GP. Another reason the 2007 Formula 1 season was significant because of the Spygate controversy. It was a scandal with McLaren owning confidential information about Ferrari’s F1 car for the season. “After analyzing Stepney's laptop, investigators discovered that, at some point, he had printed out the soul of the 2007 Ferrari F1 car: 780 pages that, as court documents would later reveal, constituted ‘technical documents for designing, engineering, building, checking, testing, developing, and running a Formula One racing car’.” Nigel Stepney was angry with Ferrari in 2007. He was due for a promotion when Ross Brawn left Ferrari, but the promotion was instead given to Mario Almondi. Stepney hated this, believing he was responsible for Ferrari’s success in the past eight years and hence deserved that promotion. In retaliation, he handed over nearly everything there was to know about Ferrari’s 2007 F1 car in the form of a 780-page document to McLaren’s Chief Designer, Michael Coughlan. Stepney sent emails, phone calls, and text messages to Coughlan containing information about Ferrari’s weight distribution, brake balance, tire strategy, and gas used to inflate tires. This shows that McLaren was getting information about Ferrari from more than just the book that Stepney gave them through text messages, emails, and phone calls. Some of these things included the weight balance of the car, the brake schematics, the gas used to inflate the tires, and more. Moreover, when Coughlan received this information, he would pass it along to Alonso and Pedro De La Rosa, McLaren’s test driver. Stepney was not only providing information about the car’s design but was also giving live updates about pit strategies from Ferrari mid-race, which would be invaluable information to have so McLaren could easily plan their entire race strategy to be better than Ferrari’s. Alonso and De La Rosa both knew that Coughlan was getting this information from someone at Ferrari, and they would often request information from Coughlan, who would ask Stepney, and he would give the necessary information. McLaren will be permitted to participate in the remaining F1 races in this season, but cannot score any points that would go towards the team. The drivers are allowed to keep their points. A fine of $100 million will be imposed on the McLaren F1 team. McLaren will also not be permitted to join the podium in the event of a top-3 finish, said by the WMSC. When Ron Dennis learned of the Ferrari book being passed within his team, he knew it would be catastrophic for the team if news got out. In a panic, he called Max Mosley, the FIA president, and told him everything he knew about it. A month later, Mosley launched a full investigation into the topic and demanded everything the McLaren team had about Ferrari and their car. A case was opened, and McLaren argued that while they owned confidential information about Ferrari, they did not use any information on their cars. On September 13, the final verdict was that McLaren would be immediately disqualified from the constructor’s championship. The drivers could keep any points earned for the driver’s championship, but if they achieved a top 3 finish, they would not be allowed to stand on the podium. The most significant punishment they gave was the $100 million fine, which still stands to be the most outstanding fine imposed on a sporting team. While the war between Alonso and Hamilton was brewing, and McLaren and Ferrari were fighting the espionage controversy, one man was making history. That man was Kimi Raikkonen. The 2007 Formula One Season was significant because Kimi Raikkonen won the WDC and remained the last WDC winner with Ferrari. “Michael Schumacher had announced his retirement and was no longer in the Ferrari. His place was taken by Kimi Raikkonen…” The year Raikkonen joined, both Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher left Ferrari. These two people were responsible for engraving Ferrari’s name in the history books as the greatest of all time, and Raikkonen would have to fight his way to the top without the support of the two greats. “...Ferrari and McLaren took turns on the top step of the podium.” Immediately from the first race, Raikkonen was showing strong pace, consistently fighting for first, which he couldn’t do when he was in McLaren because of the car’s massive unreliability. “A few laps later, the transmission in his McLaren locked in neutral for 30 interminable seconds with only the car’s inertia keeping it moving… Raikkonen was World Champion…” Before the penultimate round in China, Raikkonen was well behind the 2 McLaren drivers regarding points. However, Hamilton crashed into the pitlane and gave Raikkonen the win. In the Brazilian GP, as the race started, Raikkonen held second place, while Alonso and Hamilton fighting left the pair down in 10th place. Catastrophically, around the middle of the race, Hamilton’s gearbox got stuck in neutral for 30 seconds, and as he was trying to fix the problem, he lost many positions. By the end of the race, he was able to claw his way up to seventh, but in the closing stages of the race, Raikkonen overtook his teammate for first place and won the race in Brazil, allowing him to be the last driver to win the world championship with Ferrari. The 2007 F1 season is one to be remembered for years to come. Whether it is because of the Alonso-Hamilton feud, the Spygate controversy, or Raikkonen’s maiden championship, it is one that many people will look upon favorably, and it could be something we may not see for many years.