On this week #43: Raikkonen, the last Ferrari world champion
On 21 October 2007, Kimi Raikkonen clinched his one and only world championship title by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix, which brought the curtain down on one of the most incredible and controversial seasons in Formula 1 history. Putting to one side the incredible espionage story, known as Spygate, involving Ferrari and McLaren, the full details of which you can listen to here, the on-track battle between the two most successful teams in the sport was as thrilling for the fans as it was stressful for those involved on track and in the pits.
While the Constructors' title was already on its way to Maranello after the FIA World Council had excluded McLaren from the classification, the Drivers' title seemed to be very much within reach for one of the Woking team's drivers. With two rounds to go, in Shanghai and Interlagos, Hamilton had a clear lead on 107 points, 12 more than team-mate Fernando Alonso, whose relationship with the Ron Dennis-run team was in turmoil and 17 more than Raikkonen. In China, Hamilton blew his first opportunity to take the title in his rookie season, when he got stuck in the gravel at the entry to pit lane, when all he needed to do was finish second. Kimi won from Alonso which meant the title fight would go down to the final round.
Despite failing to score in China, Hamilton was still the clear favourite, as he was the only one who held his fate in his own hands. The Spaniard would need to win and hope to have another driver finish between him and Hamilton to secure his hattrick after winning in 2005 and 2006. But he knew the team would not go out of its way to help him, indeed his real allies were Ferrari. As for Kimi, he absolutely had to win, with Alonso no higher than third and Hamilton no higher than sixth.
For Jean Todt and his Ferrari team there was just one goal, to finish first and second which would mean they had done the maximum possible, after which it would just be a case of waiting to see what the two roosters in the McLaren henhouse could do. Even qualifying was a tense affair, with minor irritations between the championship contenders, while Felipe Massa produced an amazing lap to clinch pole position. Ferrari was clearly competitive in all conditions and at the start, the pair took off into the distance, Massa leading the way and Raikkonen a safe distance behind before getting ahead of his team-mate, thanks to running a slightly longer second stint. Behind them, chaos and excitement reigned.
Hamilton found himself behind Kimi and Fernando after the start and in his desperation to make up ground immediately, he made a mistake at turn 4, which dropped him to eighth. The Englishman had moved up to sixth when, on lap 8 came more drama, with a gearbox problem the cause of which was never explained. He slowed considerably, to the extent that it seemed his race was over. However, the McLaren sprung back to life, although by now it was down in 18th place. There was no way he could work his way back up the order to a position that would give him the title, given that there was no change of position among the top three. Furthermore, his team decided to switch him to a three-stop strategy, which would further hamper his progress as, on the short Interlagos track, there was a great risk of being passed and that was indeed what happened. When Raikkonen took the lead, he was effectively world champion, as long as the race ended with no changes at the front of the field and that nothing untoward happened among those drivers battling it out just outside the podium positions.
The last few laps were heart-in-mouth moments in the Ferrari and McLaren garages: neither crew was watching its own driver, with all eyes focused on the trio of Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg, who were fighting with no quarter given. For Hamilton, now seventh and a lap down, without the pace to pass those in front of him, his only hope was that at least two of the trio ahead of him would come to grief, promoting him to the fifth place that would have given him more points than Raikkonen. Despite their antics, the three “neutral” drivers made it safely to the chequered flag. It triggered wild celebrations in the Ferrari garage, while the McLaren crew stared at the screens in disbelief, watching a title that had seemed theirs for the taking a month earlier, slip from their grasp.
The Prancing Horse celebrations had to be put on hold for a while when it emerged the stewards were investigating a technical matter relating to the temperature of the fuel in Rosberg's Williams and the BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld, but in the end, they decided that no penalties were required. Stefano Domenicali, the Scuderia's Sporting Director at the time announced that the party could resume. At the time of course, no one could have imagined that Raikkonen's title would be the last for a Ferrari driver. News of an appeal put in by McLaren, later denied on 15 November, did not dampen the enthusiasm of the men in red, at this title that no one outside Maranello had ever thought possible.
