F1 BLOG

Just thought I would throw together a few nice McLaren Photos to share with you all. Each photo will link to a full size image, just click the thumbnail.

Mclaren F1 Car at Silverstone

Here is a stripped down front end in the pit on the Mclaren car

And here is a sweet old Mclaren Formula One car back in the days of slicks

And finally a nice big collection of McLaren F1 rockets

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Ron Dennis at McLaren is making it clear that picking Lewis Hamilton as their number 2 formula one driver was based on ability and was not an emotional decision.

I suspect it was very emotional for Lewis Hamilton though. Personally, I think he will be an excellent team mate for Alonso. I can’t wait for the season to get started so we can see how he does in the real world.

I saw in the news today that Mika Hakkinen is going to do some testing for Mclaren. Ron Dennis says that Mika asked the Mclaren team to let him get familiar with a modern F1 car.

Dennis feels that Hakkinen’s experience in F1 can bring some added value to the team’s 2007 preparations. Perhaps this is the case but Mika hasn’t driven an F1 car since the 2001 Japanese Grand Prix so I wonder how large the gap in knowledge is going to be.

There is no doubt that adding another Experienced driver to their test stable can only help in the run up to the 2007 Formula 1 season.

The BBC is reporting that David Coulthard believes that by giving Hamilton a break into F1 before spending a year as a test driver could destroy his confidence and ruin his F1 career.

I’m not sure that I agree with Coulthard. While it is true that there will be a lot of pressure and attention on Hamilton at the age of 21 and with Alonso as a team mate I’m not convinced that this will by default ruin his career and crush the mans confidence.

Hamilton will also be in the spotlight, for better or worse simply because he is the first black driver in F1. Lewis is going to face alot of pressure and how he handles it could indeed make or break his career but I don’t think that pressure would be any less if he spent a year or two testing F1 first.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Lewis Hamilton performs next season and I think he may surprise a few people, David Coulthard included.