A Year Ago

... around 11:46pm, Marien texted me, "Congrats!"

Since then, I am useless... a useless engineer, at least.

A Year Hence

...and nothing's changed.

Or has something?

BMW Sauber here, Scuderia Ferrari there, McLaren-Mercedes Everywhere... plus Williams-Toyota on the side.

The 2008 Formula One Season has just recently kicked-off and the races for both driver's and constructor's championships are just as intense as the summer heat in Asia. With the first three of the scheduled eighteen Grand Prix's this year already completed, three teams found themselves separated by only one point from one another in the scoreboard.

While defending champ Ferrari has claimed two of the three victories via first place finishes from likewise defending champ Kimi Raikkonen in Sepang, Malaysia and Felipe Massa in Sakhir, Bahrain, it is McLaren-Mercedes sophomore driver Lewis Hamilton who drew the first blood in Melbourne, Australia where 13 out of 22 cars failed to complete the whole course under the blazing sun down under. Nonetheless, it is BMW Sauber leading the charts with 30 points - with three for three podium finishes from Nick Heifeld (2nd - Australian GP) and Robert Kubica (2nd - Malaysian GP, 3rd - Bahrain GP). Ferrari is in second with 29 (Raikkonen also ended up as Massa's runner up in Sakhir and 8th in Melbourne) and McLaren in third with 28 (Heikki Kovalainen was 3rd in Sepang and 5th in both Melbourne and Sakhir while Hamilton was 5th in Sepang). The only other podium appearance comes from Williams-Toyota's Nico Rosberg who placed 3rd in Melbourne.

As the circuit enjoy a three-week hiatus from competition before engaging again in three successive races staring April 27, many teams and drivers alike may want to regroup themselves and assess each other's performance in order to stop the domination of this year's Big 3 teams early in the season. One driver who has to re-evaluate himself is Fernando Alonso. After severing ties with both McLaren and former teammate Hamilton, whom he was tied for second place in last year's driver's championship race, Alonso went back to Renault where he is now experiencing a slumping showing. He is currently on a dismal 9th spot with 6 points after placing 4th in Melbourne, 8th in Sepang and 10th in Sakhir. FYI, he had a minor collision with Hamilton in the early stages of Bahrain GP causing Hamilton's car to lose its nose cone. For more team assessments and preview of the European series visit the official site of F1.

On April 27, the Gran Premio de España will kick-off in Barcelona, Spain. Two weeks later, it will be Turkey's turn in Istanbul and then Grand Prix de Monaco in Monte-Carlo after another two weeks. Massa, Alonso and Raikkonen were the past 3 winners of the Spanish GP and Ferrari is the undisputed top constructor with 10 wins, but we may witness a comeback from Hamilton after a career-low 13th place finish in Bahrain. This may also serve as the best venue for him to vindicate himself in front of all his Spanish critics who are either driven by racial biases and/or the fact that he is their countryman Alonso's adversary. But leave all the controversies behind, and concentrate on the race track for you might not notice how far the Big 3 would pull away from the rest of the field after this European series.

Massa (2 wins for Ferrari in 2006 and 2007) and Raikkonen (1 win for McLaren-Mercedes in 2005) hold the only 3 stages of Turkish GP held so far - so Istanbul may also be considered as Ferrari's turf. FYI, the Istanbul Park Circuit is only one of the three anti-clockwise circuits in the F1 calendar - the other two being Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy and Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil - where Ferrari has a good record as well. Alonso and Raikkonen were the last winners in Monte-Carlo with McLaren-Mercedes leading the constructor's tally at 14 wins. This will be a free-for-all race but McLaren will emerge as conqueror of Monaco yet again.

After the Bahrain GP, here are the latest tabulations for driver's and constructor's championship races:


The 2008 F1 Season has just begun and the mercury is quickly rising. Let's wait for the next three races to unfold and then, we will see if my predictions are correct. FYI, I am a Ferrari fan and I root for Kimi.

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Sources: Formula1 and Wikipedia

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Next Issue: NBA Regular Season - The Best of 2007-2008 in review.

Federer here, Nadal there, Djokovic everywhere... plus Davydenko on the side.

For more than three years, Roger Federer and somehow Rafael Nadal dominated the men's draw of the professional tennis circuit. From 2005-2007, they won 11 straight grand slams between them and their #1 and #2 rankings were never threatened by anyone. Early last year, a 19 year old Serbian named Novak Djokovic made an introduction of himself via a finals appearance at Indian Wells and a championship at Key Biscayne - the first two ATP Masters Series events of the calendar. That is the beginning of his ascent up in the charts, leaping from 78th place in 2005 to 16th in 2006 and finally to a career-best 3rd position in the ATP ranking system during the first half of 2007 - bypassing Andy Roddick and other perennial top five players.

After Nole's (Djokovic's nickname) phenomenal year, the race for the top ranking has never been this closer. In the late 1980's and the whole 1990's, having 5000+ ATP points could already secure you of being #1 in the world. But after the results of Australian Open 2008 - where Djokovic defeated Federer in straight sets in the semifinals en route to his first grand slam win, and Dubai ATP Tour event - where Federer exited in the first round while Nadal reached the quarters and Djokovic the semis, came in, Federer (6330) led Nadal (5980) only by 350 points, the closest ever since Federer led Roddick by the same margin back in May 10, 2004. And Nadal (5705), interestingly, led Djokovic (5280) only by 425 points after the latter defeated Mardy Fish to collect his 3rd AMS shield in March 23, 2008.

Okay, before we get drowned with too much statistics, let's not forget Nikolay Davydenko, the consistent yet unlucky player from Russia (he is always in Federer's half of the draw) whose ranking since October 30, 2006 has never been lower than no.5. He reached no.3 spot a week after and is now the constant 4th-seed at every tournament he plays. Have I already mentioned that he recently upset Nadal in the Sony Ericsson Open 2008 (Miami AMS), 6-4 6-2? Now you know...

Going back to the numbers, the Big 3 of Fed, Rafa and Nole is now called the Big 4 - adding Davydenko to the list of potential heirs to the throne of King Roger. All in all, the Big 3 has a combined output of 16 grand slam titles under their belts - 16 out of the last 19 (only Roddick - US Open 2003, Gaston Gaudio - Roland Garros 2004 and Marat Safin - Australian Open 2005 won the remaining 3). Adding Nikolay to the limelight, at least one of the Big 4 contested each of the last 13 AMS final matches since Madrid Masters of 2006 - 11 of which they actually won (only David Nalbandian managed to get the other two - Madrid and Paris Masters 2007 - defeating Novak once, and Rafa and Roger twice).

This week, ATP released its latest ranking (see table below).

It has been a long time since the #1 player led the #2 by less than 1000, and though it's usual that the differences between the nos. 3, 4 and 5 are also more or less 1000 points, the race to the top has never been this exciting. In months' time, or even in weeks', we may welcome a new world no.1 in tennis. It may be Rafa, it may be Novak - more likely Novak.

By the way, almost four months came and went, but the top 2 players have gone without a single title. This just shows that the Big 2 - or even the Big 4, are now vulnerable to the insurgence of the likes of David Ferrer, David Nalbandian, Mikhail Youzhny, James Blake, Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Mardy Fish, Janko Tipsarevic and of course Roddick who all want to spoil the dominance of the Roger, Rafa, Nole and Nikolay.

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Sources: ATP and Wikipedia

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Next Issue: Formula One 2008 Season - Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain GPs in review.