James Foxall's column

By James Foxall

28th October 2007

	Anyone who thinks Hamiton deserved to be champion is deluding themself

How fitting that a season such as this should end in high drama with the man least fancied for the championship lifting the title by a single point in the last race. Fuel controversies aside, let’s not forget that Kimi Raikkonen won more races than any other driver in 2007. And while Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso indulged in a series of thinly veiled butvery public slanging matches, the Finn kept his mouth shut and let his driving do the talking. But then keeping quiet is something Kimi is very good at – unless he’s got a bottle of vodka inside him!

While Lewis might have talked his way through the season more lucidly than any of his rivals, anyone who thinks he deserves to be champion is deluding themself. That isn’t to say his performances weren’t remarkable (they were) or that he wasn’t the revelation of the season (he certainly was).

It’s to say that when the racing was over, he had scored two fewer victories than Raikkonen. In a year when Formula One has hardly covered itself in glory off the track, and against a points system that doesn’t reward winners adequately enough in my view, it would have appeared a bit shabby if the bloke who had done most of the winning didn’t walk away with the title. And what of Alonso? He came into the season with the accolade of the world’s best and a reputation for being a bit of a dude. And then he screwed it up by showing himself to be a brat. But then we all need a baddy to boo, and if he carries on being the world champion whinger, that’s what he’ll become.

So monosyllabic world champion aside, is F1 in good hands for the future? On the track at least, I believe it is. In Alonso and Raikkonen we’ve got two title holders who are both in their twenties, but still give the youngsters plenty to aim at. More importantly, there’s a handful of young drivers who’ve proven that they’re ready to unseat some of the so-called stars from their pedestals.

Hamilton aside, Heikki Kovalainen demonstrated why it’s time for Giancarlo Fisichella to retire; Nico Rosberg’s youthful speed was the reason Alex Wurz quit; Robert Kubica hasn’t yet been a consistent rival to Nick Heidfeld, but he’s shown enough to suggest he might turn into one; and Sebastian Vettel proved that in the right hands the Toro Rosso actually isn’t a bad car. With an impending winter of seat shuffling to look forward to and hopefully a pruning of some of the dead wood – stand up Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella and take your places alongside Wurz and Ralf Schumacher – F1 2008 promises as much as this year delivered.