MOTORSPORT: Highs and lows of '08

Truth be told he gave us plenty of notice and, in this festive month, we've been a little tardy with our homework, but finally we've got the wheels turning.

The "headmaster" could have been really tough and asked us to look into the crystal ball as well.

That's something we're inevitably going to need to do anyway as we move into 2009 and the global economic and motor industry meltdowns take perhaps bigger shape.

The topics the "headmaster" gave us for now were:

>> The four best race cars of 2008
>> The best race team of '08
>> The motorsport surprise of the year
>> The motorsport disappointment of the year
>> The motorsport man/woman of the year
>> Gripe of '08
>> The team/driver/series to watch in 2009
>> What we'd pay to see in '09

The four best race cars of 2008
The toughest question first. We must say at the outset that we lament the lack of innovation and design creativity in so many race cars these days, especially in Formula 1, but perhaps that is another topic for another day.

Four cars that we thought we were the cream of the crop in '08 were Ferrrari's F2008, Jamie Whincup's Triple 8/Team Vodafone BF Ford Falcon, Audi's R10 sportscar and the Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Toyota Camry driven by Kyle Busch.

In opting for those four we are perhaps being a little harsh on McLaren's MP4-23 in which Lewis Hamilton won the F1 world title, the Citroen C4 in which Sebastien Loeb won 11 of 16 rounds of the World Rally Championship and his fifth straight drivers' title, and -- a trusted adviser tells us -- SEAT's diesel World Touring Car Championship car  (the WTCC is not a series we've paid a lot of attention to, and perhaps to do so ought be one of our new year resolutions).

The Ferrari F2008 we felt was the best of the year's F1 cars, certainly in the early rounds of the season after McLaren/Hamilton won the opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. The F2008 produced Ferrari's 16th world constructors' championship, even if neither of its pilots won the drivers' title -- although Felipe Massa won more GPs than anyone and Kimi Raikkonen set the most fastest laps in the races, even if he forgot how to win (and often even how to qualify well) after quarter-time in the season.
While we felt the Ferrari to be the best car overall, it was not the best at every race and perhaps by the end of the year the McLaren had surpassed it, even though Massa won the final race (and every so briefly seemed to have the world title as well). The mediocrity of Hamilton's teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, even though he won in Hungary, makes the assessment all the harder.
Certainly some of Hamilton's driving was superb -- especially at Silverstone in the British GP, where he won by more than a minute in the rain -- but he made plenty of mistakes too. The raft of rule changes (especially the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems), combined with supposed major cost-cutting, is going to be a challenge for F1 designers. Hopefully we will see some cars more technically exciting in '09 than in the past few years.

The BF Falcon should have been on its last legs in V8 Supercar racing, but Triple 8/Team Vodafone set world-class standards in the build and preparation of the machinery in which Jamie Whincup won Australia's premier series -- and, together with revered teammate Craig Lowndes, a third straight Bathurst. Not only was this Triple 8 Falcon better than anything Holden fielded in the second year of the VE Commodore on the tracks but also a class above, over the distance of 14 rounds, than the similar Falcons from Ford Performance Racing, Stone Brothers and the revitalised Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Racing.

Audi's R10 TDI not only won yet another Le Mans 24-hour sportscar classic but withstood the massive assault of the similarly diesel-fuelled Peugeots. Sportscar racing has perhaps seen more innovation than any other major forms of motor racing in recent years, and perhaps another new year's resolution for us ought be to pay greater attention to it. It's to be hoped the cutbacks by Audi and Porsche won't see yet another downturn in the fortunes of sportscar racing which has had such a roller-coaster ride over the decades.

Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch delivered Toyota its first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory in just its second year in that ultra-competitive series. Indeed, the combination scored eight wins for the season (as well as 10 in the second-tier Nationwide Series and three in the third-tier Craftsman Truck Series), although its efforts came unstuck in the last third of the season. Ford driver Carl Edwards ended up second in the series with nine victories, while Jimmie Johnson equaled the three consecutive titles of Cale Yarborough in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
The Chase, under which the top 12 drivers are pretty much equalised two-thirds of the way through the season and then start a fresh quest for the title, worked against Busch and Toyota, but the Japanese manufacturer's performance -- courtesy of Joe Gibbs Racing -- was outstanding, especially after its dismal debut season (not with Gibbs) and even if ultimately it came up short against the Hendrick Chevy and Edwards' Roush Fenway Ford. 

The motorsport surprise of the year
We knew the kid had talent to burn, but 21-year-old German Sebastien Vettel setting pole position, in the wet, and then leading the Italian Grand Prix from start to finish without putting a wheel out of place to become F1's youngest race winner with Scuderia Toro Rosso, which still operates out of the tiny  factory at Faenza in Italy of Minardi, which it took over three years ago, was the highlight of the year for us.
There were other great moments (in F1 Robert Kubica's breakthrough Canadian GP victory, for him and BMW, a year after his massive shunt there, Fernando Alonso's two brilliant wins in a Renault in the latter part of the season, and the best of Lewis Hamilton's magic) but not in the league of Vettel's achievement. Now he's moved across to Red Bull's primary team as Aussie Mark Webber's teammate, and with Renault engines rather than Ferrari. Webber has withstood plenty of in-house rivalry in seven seasons of F1, but Vettel may just be something else -- better than Hamilton and Kubica perhaps. Maybe in the Alonso/Schumacher league.

The motorsport disappointment of the year
It's so tempting to say Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley's sex scandal. Or the failure of the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) representative Garry Connelly to reveal which box he ticked at the FIA vote of confidence on Mosley. Or some of the curious decisions of the FIA's F1 stewards -- and lack of transparency in their decisions.
Or, irrespective of whether you're in the Ford or Holden corner, a 41-year-old five-time Australian touring car champion and five-time Bathurst winner being shafted and driven into retirement perhaps a decade prematurely. Certainly Mark Skaife's form was way short of the benchmark the Australian motorsport community had come to expect, but only a super-human could have performed in the face of the weights he carried on his shoulders -- some of them self-imposed, it must be said, but we hope Skaife's time on the sidelines is short and that he is back, and in a happier environment, before long.
But one disappointment tops all those we've already mentioned: Honda's December 5 announcement that it was quitting F1, putting its team up for sale, and that if a buyer was not found within a month the operation would be closed before the start of the 2009 season. We are reminded that the greatly admired 
Soichiro Honda, founder of the Honda Motor Corporation 62 years ago, said: "Without racing there is no Honda." A colleague has drawn our attention to a brochure for Honda's S2000 road car which still carries Soichiro Honda's words. Economic and motor industry times are tough, but motorsport fans -- and most particularly Honda's workers -- are entitled to feel betrayed by the F1 pullout. It is hard to think of a company, certainly other than Ferrari, that has made more of its F1 experience than Honda. Certainly its 2008 campaign was disastrous, but to think that the company that so successfully powered Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, and McLaren and Williams cars, even its own which Jenson Button drove to victory in the 2006 Hungarian GP, is almost beyond belief. Without F1 racing there may well still be a Honda car company, but a lesser one.

Now the man of the year. What a banquet to choose from ...

Sebastien Loeb. World rally champion a record five times. Apart from his 11 wins this year almost single-handedly gave, with just a little help from Spanish teammate Dani Sordo, Citroen the manufacturers' world title ahead of Ford, champion the previous two years.   

Lewis Hamilton. F1's youngest world champion. The first black F1 world champion. Some superb drives, especially in the wet -- the truest test of great racing drivers.

Fernando Alonso. Two GP victories in a Renault car that was nowhere near as good as the Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes or BMW-Sauber. More points in the final six races of the championship than either champion Hamilton or runner-up Felipe Massa. As Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper said, Alonso would have been world champion (for the third time) if he'd been in a Ferrari. The one man in the modern F1 field who already belongs among the greats.

Sebastien Vettel. That fairytale Italian GP pole and race victory in the rain. And, after hiccups early in the year, a second half of the season that catapulted Toro Rosso ahead of big-brother team Red Bull Racing. We're expecting that in the not too distant future Vettel will be a man of the year.

Robert Kubica. What a brilliant maiden victory, for him and BMW-Sauber, in Montreal, where a year earlier he was lucky to walk away alive. Although BMW's development failed to keep pace with McLaren and Ferrari, Kubica remained in the world title fight with Hamilton and Massa almost until the deciding round. An exceptional talent and a breath of fresh air in F1. It's not hard to comprehend now why Jacques Villeneuve was ditched to make way for him.

Jimmie Johnson. Has now done something that Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Senior could not do in NASCAR; that only Cale Yarborough had done before. Three consecutive titles in NASCAR's premier division (now called the Sprint Cup) -- the most competitive race series on earth. A champion with an abundance of humility.

Kyle Busch. Despised by many NASCAR fans, brash and still only 23, until The Chase began in the Sprint Cup he was on target for the crown -- and perhaps man-of-the-year honors. In league with Joe Gibbs Racing, delivered American success that Toyota could hardly have dreamt of so soon. One hell of a race driver. Now we have to see if he can fulfill the promise not entirely realised this year.

Carl Edwards. Won more Sprint Cup races than anyone this year, driving a Ford. Close, but no end-of-year cigar.

Roger Penske. Veteran US team owner, who finally won NASCAR's Daytona 500 at the 24th try, with driver Ryan Newman (who has since defected with Tony Stewart to Toyota). Penske also gave Aussie Ryan Briscoe a dream comeback to American open-wheeler racing that produced three victories, including at the last Gold Coast "Indy".
 
Scott Dixon. New Zealand's Indianapolis 500 winner and now a two-time IRL champion. A total professional now.

Jamie Whincup. Certainly the man of the year on Australian soil. A story of quiet confidence in his ability, complete dedication, determined to overcome any hurdles that confront him (unwanted in V8 Supercar ranks four years ago, out of the new Hamilton street round in New Zealand before the first race of the weekend). Has flourished, indeed excelled, against a superstar teammate. A huge credit to Australian motorsport.

Some would make a case for Marcos Ambrose, the Aussie now set for a full season in NASCAR's Sprint Cup (and whose performances in North America have been commendable, although we believe he still has a lot to learn and prove on oval tracks).

Others still might argue for the likes of American drag racer Tony Schumacher, who has now won the National Hot Rod Association's top fuel title five years in a row and six times overall.

But our man of the year is FELIPE MASSA. Not because he was the best driver of the year. He wasn't, and in the rain at the British GP here was terrible.

No, simply because, having won the final F1 GP of the year, his home race in Brazil's Sao Paulo, thinking for a few seconds (and most of those around him for quite a few seconds longer) that he was the new F1 world champion, and the latest Ferrari world champion, then seeing it snatched from him by Lewis Hamilton as the McLaren man overtook Timo Glock's Toyota within a few hundred metres of the finish line, Massa covered himself in glory by not only acknowledging the patriotic crowd and heartily congratulating Hamilton but uttering the immortal words: "I know how to win, and I know how to lose."

Yes, he knew how to win. He had just driven a superb race, on his home track, in front of his adoring fans, in a Ferrari, with all the expectations that carries.

And he knew how to lose. Yes, graciously.

In a year in which motorsport was shamed for months by the behaviour of its world head, Max Mosley, Felipe Massa emerged in the season's climax as a brilliant young ambassador for motor racing. Not just a sportsman, but a statesman. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King or Barack Obama could not have said it any better.

Dressing up the podium presentations by awarding gold, silver and bronze medals -- as Bernie is so strongly advocating -- is all very well, but in the drivers' championship let's get back to points down to sixth place. Down to eighth place in the constructors' championship if it helps in the divvy up of the cashpot perhaps, but stop the rewarding of human (driver) mediocrity in the world's elite motor racing series.

The team/driver/series to watch in 2009
For hard-core Australian motorsport fans it has to be the British Formula 3 Championship, in which West Australian youngster Daniel Ricciardo will be racing for the renowned Carlin Motorsport -- again with Red Bull sponsorship.

Ricciardo -- 19 and still little known at home, particularly on the east coast -- won 14 Formula Renault races in Europe this year, and the category's West European Championship.

He raced against lots (around 45) of the brightest young talent from around the world at many famous circuits that at other times host GPs.

Ricciardo might just be Australia's next F1 driver, especially if everything clicks for him at Carlin Motorsport -- which fielded the top drivers in British F3 this year.

It is from that championship that more drivers have graduated to F1 than any other.

It's still early days for Ricciardo, but we've got a feeling he's a very good one. A very good one.

As much as the performance of Triple 8/Team Vodafone has to be admired in '08, what we would love to see is an Australian-owned (even Australasian-owned) team emerge, or re-emerge, to knock off the foreign invaders.

Stone Brothers, as one of the only two Ford teams financially supported by the factory in '09 (along with FPR, no longer Triple 8) , is perhaps best placed. Ross and Jim Stone hailed from New Zealand but have more than earned their strips in Oz. Years ago.

Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Racing made giant strides in '08, with Will Davison winning two races for it. For '09 James Courtney moves in there, with Davison seemingly certain to take Skaife's HRT seat. DJR needs to keep advancing technically, and Courtney needs to add results to his undoubted ability, and we may just have an iconic Aussie team back where a huge percentage of the fans would like to see it.

Unless Tasman Motorsport or Garry Rogers Motorsport can step up on the Holden side, maybe the great white hope will be the new Kelly family Holden entity, perhaps in some form of technical association with Larry Perkins. That's a combination we'd very much like to see, and if it happens -- on the right basis -- it might just be the foundation of an entity that can challenge, even beat, the British-owned teams.

It won't be easy, and it probably won't happen in a hurry.

But we'd happily open our wallet at the entrance gate if we knew there was a real chance of an Aussie-owned machine winning a V8 Supercar race every time the field grids up.