#italian gp 2007

[lewisarchive]

Sir Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the Italian Grand Prix (2007)

[umlewis]

lewis and nicolas hamilton during the track walk on media day, italy - september 6, 2007 📷 bertrand guay / getty

[umseb]

sebastian vettel in the garage on practice day, italy - september 7, 2007 📷 kräling / imago

[threecheers-forsweetrevenge]

2007 Italian Grand Prix, Monza circuit

[schumigrace]

fernando alonso | 1st place | monza 2007 | podium no.46

[iceman7raikkonen]

[coimbrabertone]

The Best F1 Season For A Non-Contender?

Well, the biggest story coming out of the 2024 United States Grand Prix is without a doubt the Verstappen/Norris thing.

To recap, Lando is coming after Max hard, gets run on the backstraight after run on the backstraight, but keeps going to the outside and can't pull the move off.

Finally, on lap 52, Lando has a good enough run that he's ahead, on the outside, but ahead. So what then?

Well, Max Verstappen is on the inside so he just divebombs to get the apex, goes wide, pushes Lando wide with him, and Lando has to pass around the outside in the runoff.

He's finally ahead.

Except no, fuck you, this is F1 and fun isn't allowed.

So the stewards are investigating this move where no contact was made, nobody got hurt, and there was enough runoff all around to land an Antonov AN-225 in.

And Lando gets the penalty. Lando.

Why? Overtaking off track.

Lando is 4.1 seconds ahead at the end of the race, gets dropped behind Max in the standings, everyone on social media is pissed. Some people - who are wrong - think that Max had the right because he was in front at the apex, others think Lando should've just given the position back and retaken it on track, which probably would've been the smart play in retrospect.

It's also kinda the racing equivalent of cuckolding though, isn't it?

Like, are we really watching for someone to have to give up a position to avoid getting a penalty?

"Ah yes sir, you drove me off track like a prick sir, but here's the position sir, have a good one sir."

Ridiculous.

Anyway, I'm sure this is the 97th different place you've heard about this incident, so I'll leave it there. Instead, I'm gonna talk about something overshadowed by all the petty bullshit going on between these two championship contenders.

And that's the fact that Charles Leclerc is quietly putting together a dream season.

First, he wins the Monaco Grand Prix. Winning Monaco is already a feather in the cap for an F1 driver, but it's also his home race, so that might just be one of the most special wins imaginable. Especially when you consider how miserable Charles' luck at Monte Carlo has been before now.

Then, he wins the Italian Grand Prix in a Ferrari for the second time, no less. He's won his own home race and he's won his team's home race, what more could you ask for in a season?

Well, the first race weekend back from his birthday on October 16th, Leclerc goes and leads home a Ferrari 1-2 at the United States Grand Prix. Now, I'm an American so the USGP is a special event for me - I wrote a blogpost all about its history last week - but I recognize that isn't the case for the Monegasque Leclerc.

Still, a GP win is still an amazing birthday present.

What a way to bounce back considering he was disqualified last year for plank wear as well.

So, that's three wins on the season, each one having something special about it. Does that make it the best season ever for a non-contender?

Well, that's a difficult question.

First things first, what do we consider a contender? In a way, everyone is contending for the championship, so they're all contenders.

Is it a potential shot at the championship then? Eh, probably not, because Leclerc still potentially has a chance at winning the championship.

So how about this: being a contender is having a realistic chance at the championship. So the championship leader and the direct challengers.

This year, I'd argue that's just Max and Lando, since Max has had the best car for years and started the season with easily the best car, while Lando has benefited from a recent surge by McLaren.

For another example, in 2007, I'd argue that Raikkonen, Alonso, and Hamilton were all contenders, but Massa was not.

So how about Massa's three-win season that year?

Well, he won Bahrain, Spain, and Turkey.

Two places without much connection to him, and then a track he already won at the year before.

In that respect, I'd argue 2006 was a more meaningful season for Massa. His first year in a Ferrari, he's far off Alonso and Schumacher, but he takes his first win at Turkey and then gets to win his home race at Brazil, solidifying his position as best of the rest.

Button 2010?

Eh, he's the reigning champion going into a good team like McLaren and ends up dropping away from the championship pack after Korea, and only takes two wins to his name: Australia and China.

I can't think of a reason those races would be special for him.

What about Button in 2011? Is he a contender that year? That's actually hard for me to say. He's second, he was painted as the challenger to Vettel, but he finished more than a hundred points off. Is that much of a rivalry?

Then again, can we really say 2011 only had one contender?

I'm not sure.

Canada, Hungary, and Suzuka are a decent set of tracks if you're gonna take three wins in a season, especially given how Canada went down, with it being Jenson's career drive.

That one could count then, I reckon.

How about further back in history?

What about 1966, when Ludovico Scarfiotti did literally two races - Germany and Italy - and won the latter. An Italian winning the Italian Grand Prix in a Ferrari has got to be special, right? Especially when you consider that this is the last time an Italian won the Italian Grand Prix. Not just in a Ferrari, but at all.

I suppose it's also as close as F1 has ever gotten to that 2006 Valencia Grand Prix in MotoGP where Troy Bayliss returned to MotoGP, filling in for the injured Sete Gibernau at one race at Ducati.

A race with Bayliss proceeded to win.

Troy hadn't won any races in full seasons with Ducati in 2003 and 2004, nor in his partial campaign with Camel Honda in 2005, but he comes back in 2006 as a replacement rider for one race and goes on to win that thing.

It's a wonderful racing moment, and Scarfiotti at Monza in 1966 is probably as close as F1 ever got to that.

Oh here's one.

Jody Scheckter in 1976. The whole world is watching Hunt vs. Lauda, McLaren vs. Ferrari, and here's Jody Scheckter in a six-wheeled Tyrrell casually winning the Swedish Grand Prix, taking four second places, and ending the season as best of the rest.

The Swedish Grand Prix was a great race for these one-off weird winners actually. Scheckter in the Tyrrell P34 in 1976, Jacques Laffite in the Matra V12 powered Ligier in 1977, and of course 1979 with Niki Lauda winning in the fan car.

Ooh, speaking of 1977, I think we have a contender!

...A contender for non-contenders? Yes actually.

Mario Andretti in 1977. He's got the Lotus 78, the first ground effect car in Formula One history, and it's not quite ready to win the championship, but it's still going on a tear.

Winning the USGP West at Long Beach, a home race for Andretti. Then winning at Spain and France, and finally winning the Italian Grand Prix, the other race Mario could call home. That sounds like an awful good season to me, potentially even better than Leclerc this year. He also finished third that year, so it lines up there as well.

How about this? We'll see if Leclerc can win another race or two this year, and if not, then I'll give it to Andretti. 1977, the best championship season for a non-contender.

Feel free to leave any notable seasons I missed in the comments below, I'm eager to hear what seasons y'all can come up with.

P.S

In other news this weekend, we had the Australian Grand Prix in MotoGP. Jorge Martin won the sprint and Marc Marquez the main race. The sprint was pretty uneventful save for a few scary crashes right at the end - particularly Bezzecchi and Vinales in turn one, with both riders thankfully walking away okay - while the race saw a pretty dramatic battle between Martin and Marquez at the end.

I don't exactly cheer for either guy, so it was a bit meh for me, but at least Phillip Island put on a good race.

As for NASCAR...quite frankly I didn't watch this weekend. I was watching F1 and after that I had a headache and I was mad about the Max/Lando stuff, so I just didn't want to bother with it. I hear Logano won though, which means he goes on to the championship four. Cue up the even year memes.

Even Penske tweeted a joke about that.

Penske tweeting jokes. Heh, that's a new one.

[wejustvibing]

In summer we signed and obviously at that time I saw my future with Mercedes. But an opportunity came up in the new year and I decided to take it. It was obviously the hardest decision I think I've ever had to make. I've been with Mercedes for, it's like 26 years they've supported me. We've had an absolutely incredible journey together. We've created history within the sport and it's something I take a lot of pride in. I'm proud of what we've achieved. But ultimately, I'm writing my story and I felt like it was time to start a new chapter.

For every driver growing up, watching history, watching Michael Schumacher in his prime, probably all of us sitting in our garage, see the screen pop up and you see a driver in the red cockpit and you wonder what it would be like to be surrounded by the red. You go to the Italian grand prix and you see the sea of red Ferrari fans and you can only stand in awe of that. It's a team that's not had a huge success, mostly obviously from Michael's days, but since 2007 and I saw it as a huge challenge. Without a doubt, even as a kid I used to play GP 2 as Michael in that car. So, it definitely is a dream and I'm really, really excited about it.

- Lewis Hamilton

[bikefuckersoftheworldunite]

Valentino Rossi showing off his special helmet at his home race in Mugello, 2007.

the heart on the helmet was a tribute to the fans; 2007 victory marked 6th win in a row at the italian gp for rossi

[batsplat]

greetings professor batsplat,

i recently heard somewhere about valentino having kicked someone else off the bike before the whole. sepang rosquez situation.

and i was wondering if you had any info on that / could shed light on the context? how it happened, what motivated him to do it perhaps etc.

thanks a lot <33

yeah I know why this gets brought up quite regularly, but tbh there's not much of a story behind it. valentino kicked someone, did not kick said someone 'off' the bike, didn't have complex motivations beyond venting some frustration. just the habitual problem of getting pissy about someone coasting on the racing line (x):

At the end of the 250 class qualifying, Italian Valentino Rossi, annoyed by a move by Yasu Hatakeyama, decided to practice kickboxing. Rossi "pressed" the Japanese rider against the edge of the track with his Aprilia and, bike to bike, threw a kick at the Japanese rider's thigh. The Italian, who had already hit his colleague's helmet at the Dutch GP, did not show the slightest remorse: "Every time I meet Hatakeyama, he closes me down. Today I was on the last lap and I could lower my time, and when I was going to pass him, he crossed the track and slowed down. I had to brake suddenly and I was very nervous. But I think that the next time I am about to pass him, he will not close me down." There were no penalties for Rossi, although both he and the Japanese rider received a verbal warning.

this was at argentina 1998 - here's the kick itself, courtesy of teenage valentino:

here's a HD clip of the kick as well as valentino's gesturing afterwards:

it's basically the exact same thing as casey kicking checa in 2007 or punching de puniet in 2011 (see here) for exactly the same reasons. or for a more recent example, take aleix slapping franky last year. riders are hotheads, they REALLY hate someone getting in their way when they're trying to do a lap, sometimes they lash out. this obviously does not mean it's a good idea and really should warrant some kind of penalty. neither valentino nor casey got penalties, but aleix got a six place grid drop. which, good! it's irresponsible and stupid, even if it's also admittedly kinda funny. still, it'd be pushing it to suggest there's much similarity between that and sepang 2015. although his description of the incident is fun (from oxley's vr files):

I got into a bit of trouble on Saturday for kicking the Japanese rider Yasu Hatakeyama at the end of the final qualifying session. I like to kick arse! I've had a lot of trouble with him all season - you go to pass him in practice and he shuts the door on you, even though he's going slow. I've spoken to him about it a few times and he always says "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" then goes and does it again at another race. It's very dangerous. On Saturday he took a short cut round the back of the circuit, and was going through this corner at about 20kph when I arrived on a very fast lap. It was really frightening, so I paid him back by kicking him as we returned to the pits.

how very casey of him

if you ARE looking for something a bit more relevant in terms of valentino using his body in the heat of battle, an even younger version of valentino might be able to help. this is all the way back in his rookie 1996 season - where he was known for his wild riding, especially in the early races that year, and on occasion did actually elbow AND knee his competitors in his determination to beat them. feral thing. in general, to my eyes valentino seems like he's quite good at using spatial awareness in w2w combat, of using the physical dimensions of his body to fight other riders... take for instance the finely judged knee retraction pass at catalunya 2009, how he immediately sticks his knee out again in front of jorge's line once he's past, that sort of thing

the most obvious example has to be the doctor's dangle - motogp urban legend ofc holds that it started in jerez 2005, where valentino wasn't actually using his leg to block sete, but since then? in popularising the habit of motogp riders of dangling their legs into corners, valentino also gave himself another nifty way of defending against opponents. sometimes it does look like he's using the dangled leg to quite literally block his rivals from passing... perhaps the most blatant examples of that come in motegi 2010, where he's willing to do whatever it takes to beat jorge. he does admittedly have plausible deniability in this race - the possibility that he was dangling his leg more excessively in order to help mitigate the shoulder injury. still, it's pretty comical at times

"When he does go through - if he does go through that corner, he's going to have to take Rossi's leg off!" "He is! Drag him along, I think."

I mean. come on. what is this. you cannot tell me this is ergonomically efficient. valentino did do this to some extent when he was behind jorge too, so I don't think the shoulder explanation is complete bullshit - but it does also feel like a bit of an opportunistic method of making his bike as broad as possible. jorge repeatedly almost rides into valentino's leg, including when he's finally had enough and makes the overtake that sets off the late battle between them. so yeah, valentino's definitely not a stranger in using his physicality to his advantage in conducting his wheel to wheel battles. one of the things that makes him so fun to watch

[lewisarchive]

Sir lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at Italian Grand Prix (2007)

[umlewis]

lewis hamilton, p2, during the post-race press conference, italy - september 9, 2007

[umseb]

sebastian vettel in the garage on practice day, italy - september 7, 2007 📷 kräling / imago

[none-ofthisnonsense]

F1 history fun fact: There has always been a German driver as main driver on the grid since the 1991 Italian GP.

(Michael Schumacher signed for Benetton right before that, and that GP was the first he competed with them.)

With only the higher profile ones:

1991 Italian GP-2006: Michael Schumacher

2007: several drivers including Nico Rosberg, Nick Heidfeld, Ralf Schumacher, Adrian Sutil

2007-2022: Sebastian Vettel

2023-24: Nico H��lkenberg

[starafar]

The Schumacher Dragon: Michael

In August 2009, when Michael was working towards a comeback, it was reported in a Chinese newspaper that he had ordered 3 "Chinese style" helmets. The article reported that Michael had said, "When I first went to China, a newspaper drew a dragon as my symbol." Later that year, he also spoke about this helmet in the lead up to ROC, which was held in Beijing that year.

However, the first glimpse of the dragon logo appears to have been in July 2004. At the German GP, Michael was seen with a temporary tattoo on his right forearm with the logo.

He would win the 2004 WDC two races later, at Spa. Following that at the Italian GP in Monza, the dragon would appear as a logo for the first time, on the back of his baseball cap.

The week after that marked the occasion of the first Chinese GP in Shanghai. It was here that the dragon logo would appear on his helmet for the first time. It appeared on the top of the helmet, temporarily replacing his seven stars, as well as on either side of the helmet.

This initial iteration of the dragon logo had, in addition to the large “力”, the character for “strength”, four characters - "迈舒马赫", which roughly translates to "Mike Schumacher". This would later be removed.

The dragon would not be seen on his helmet throughout 2005, but Michael continued using it on his personal merchandise. It featured both on the back of his cap, and also on his drivers shoes.

This continued into 2006, where it again featured on his caps.

However, Michael also opted to subtly incorporate the dragon back into his helmet design for 2006. This new design featured two large dragons, as well as the names of his family in Chinese (Mick “米克” and Michael “米克尔” on the right, and Gina “吉娜” and Corinna “科琳娜” on the left).

A special version of this helmet was commissioned for his final race for Ferrari, and to mark his first retirement, this time with the dragon and his family’s names featured in gold. It also included a list of his race victories around the top of the helmet.

During his retirement in 2007-2008, Michael was still frequently seen around the track in his new capacity as an adviser to Ferrari. He continued featuring the dragon as part of his personal branding.

Michael also tested for Ferrari during both seasons to help with development. During at least one of these testing sessions, Ferrari had it placed on the engine cover.

As mentioned earlier, Michael was planning a return to F1 in 2009 to replace the injured Felipe Massa, though that was ultimately called off due to a neck injury suffered earlier that year. However, pictures from when he was karting in August 2009 showed the “Chinese style” helmet he had planned to use. It was very similar to the helmet design he last used in 2006, but with details in white instead.

Michael made a return to F1 with Mercedes, driving with them from 2010 to 2012. He used pretty much the same helmet design throughout this time, with 2010 featuring the more subtle red version of the helmet:

And 2011 featuring more or less the same design in silver:

2011 was also Michael’s 20th year in F1. For this, a specially designed gold-plated helmet was commissioned and used at the Belgian GP.

He returned to the silver dragon for the rest of his time in F1, with the exception of one more custom helmet made to commemorate his 300th F1 race at the Belgian GP in 2012:

Michael also continued to feature the dragon on both his shoes and gloves, seen here in 2010 and 2011:

You’ll notice that for a brief period of time, Michael went back to the original iteration of the logo featuring the additional four Chinese characters, "迈舒马赫", translating to his name.

Although Michael retired at the end of the 2012 season, that was not yet the end of the dragon in motorsport. Michael used it one last time on his race suit at the Race of Champions in 2012, which he and Sebastian Vettel won for Team Germany.

Apparently a post is limited to 30 images, so on to Part 2: Mick!

Part 1: Michael | Part 2: Mick

[crystalracing]

Video ideas

-How Brawn's 2009 title win created the blueprint for Mercedes

-Was Kimi Raikkonen the best driver in the world between 2003-2007?

-Fernando Alonso's championship losses in 2007, 10 & 12

-Why Adrian Newey is the GOAT designer

-What is the point of Haas?

-Charles Leclerc future

-The legacy of Alain Prost

-Would Michael Schumacher have become 2007 & 2008 F1 World champion?

-Would Ronnie Peterson become a triple Swedish F1 world champion if he survived? (1978, 82 & 84)

-Would Max Verstappen win a F1 World championship with Ferrari?

-Would Rubens Barrichello have won 1996 & 97 F1 World championships with Williams?

-Jaguar F1 rejected him. He became a triple Indy 500 champion (Dario Franchitti)

-How Audi helped Tom Kristensen become the best driver to never race in F1

-Why Scott Dixon is New Zealand's greatest driver DESPITE never racing in F1

-How Valentino Rossi conquered motorsport DESPITE not racing in F1

-How Sebastien Loeb & Ogier became French motorsport icons DESPITE never racing in F1

-How leaving F1 enabled Team Penske to conquer Indycar

-Why Mercedes have fewer F1 wins than Ferrari (1955 Le Mans disaster)

-Why Spa-Francorchamps & Suzuka are F1's undroppble races

-How the new Senna won Indycar, but nearly got killed by a deer (Cristiano da Matta)

-How this man became F1's Deadpool (Alex Zanardi)

-How Renault's turbo revolutionised F1

-Revisiting Fernando Alonso's F1 debut

-Revisiting Toyota's F1 debut

-Revisiting Nico Rosberg's F1 debut

-Revisiting Lewis Hamilton's F1 debut

-Revisiting Sebastian Vettel's F1 debut

-Remembering Lewis Hamilton's maiden F1 victory

-Remembering Fernando Alonso's maiden F1 victory

-Remembering Kimi Raikkonen's maiden F1 victory

-Remembering Sebastian Vettel's maiden F1 victory

-Revisiting Toyota's bottle job at 2009 Bahrain

-Remembering Mercedes' first F1 win with Nico Rosberg

-Revisiting Sauber's & Sergio Perez's bottle job at 2012 Malaysia

-Revisiting Nico Hulkenberg's bottle job at 2012 Brazil

-Remembering Michael Schumacher's maiden F1 victory

-Revisiting Daniel Ricciardo's F1 debut (HRT, Alonso, 2011 Britain)

-Remembering Daniel Ricciardo's maiden F1 victory

-Remembering Jenson Button's maiden F1 victory

-Revisiting Michael Schumacher's F1 debut

-Revisiting Rubens Barrichello's maiden F1 victory

-How Damon Hill did F1 backwards

-Revisiting Mika Hakkinen's early F1 career

-How Jacques Villeneuve did F1 backwards

-Revisiting 1994 F1 Season finale at Adelaide

-Revisiting 1997 F1 Season finale at Jerez

-How Robert Kubica became the Polish F1 Deadpool

-Revisiting Subaru's failed F1 journey (Coloni 1990)

-Revisiting Porsche's F1 journey

-How the first ever safety car in F1 caused mayhem (1973 Canada)

-Why 2003 Brazil was the craziest F1 race ever

-Revisiting Kimi Raikkonen's comeback at 2007 Japan

-Revisiting Nigel Mansell's 1989 Hungary win

-Revisiting Alain Prost's 1982 South African triumph

-Remembering the Italian who battled Prost for 1985 F1 title

-Revisiting Montoya's McLaren nightmare

-How Sato went from F1 crash kid to Indy 500 legend

-Revisiting McLaren-Honda hybrid debacle (GP2 engine)

-Why hasn't there been an Italian F1 champion since Ascari?

-He should've been France's first F1 champion until this happened...

-Revisiting Kimi Raikkonen's 2013 Australia masterclass

-Revisiting the day Michael Schumacher became a 7 times F1 champion

-Revisiting the day Michael Schumacher announced his first F1 retirement

-Revisiting the weekend of Ayrton Senna's death

-Schumacher & Hakkinen's first fight at 1990 Macau GP

-Revisiting Coulthard's brain fade at 1995 Australia

-Michael Schumacher's first win for Ferrari

-Multi 87! McLaren team orders at 1998 Australia

-When Sebastian Vettel became F1 world champion

-How Sam Hornish beat Penske... and joined them anyway! (If you CAN beat them...)

-How Alan Kulwicki upset NASCAR royalty

-The craziest NASCAR season (2003 Curse of the leader in Busch series)