Incidentally, I know there’s often no real mix between this blog and the articles I do elsewhere on the IHT site via the newspaper. So I thought I would just signal readers to the Formula One Season Review special report that I did that was published in the newspaper as a special section a couple of days ago, as it’s a fairly complete round-up of the season - plus a story about “Stars ‘n Cars” (which is a category I did not do as much on the blog this year, I think). (The report also had a cool graphic showing the top four drivers’ progress through the season, but unfortunately that is not available online.)

Max Mosley spoke to a small group of the French press today after the FIA’s general assembly, and he told them that the appeal concerning the fuel irregularities on the BMW Sauber and Williams cars would take place in Paris on Nov. 15, the FIA has confirmed.

“The FIA president announced that the the FIA’s International Court of Appeal against the decision not to exclude cars 09, 10, 16 and 17 from the result of the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix will meet in Paris on Thursday November 15, 2007,” my source told me, and I had it confirmed by the FIA.

The FIA also announced a bold new initiative to help the world environment.

Here are the relevant portions of the McLaren explanation of its request for an appeal against the stewards’ decision not to punish the offending teams - Williams and BMW Sauber - at the Brazilian Grand Prix over fuel temperature irregularities:

“The team believes that the FIA has, in written clarification of the Technical Regulations and in its minutes of two Formula 1 Team Manager meetings, made clear how it would interpret and manage the Regulations and Procedures associated with the control of fuel temperatures. This process was followed in the normal manner by the FIA Technical Delegate following the Brazilian Grand Prix and the irregularities were reported by him to the Stewards of the meeting. Consequently the team does not understand the justification as described in the decision published late on Sunday evening.

“The significance of this matter and its timing is, of course, regrettable. The team wishes to win races and Championships on the track. However, if there has been an irregularity, which is not the fault of the team, we feel that the matter must be properly examined to ensure that the rules are applied. This is something that we believe the FIA would fully support and would wish to be seen to have done.

“Vodafone McLaren Mercedes wishes to stress, however, that it does not question the integrity of either the BMW or Williams teams. We know, without even enquiring, that neither team would have sought to achieve a performance advantage by such an irregularity and that the situation could only have arisen as the consequence of an operational error within the team on the day.

“Ultimately we feel that the FIA should determine whether an irregularity occurred or not, and the team will fully respect the process and any decision that is ultimately given.”

As I understand it, the FIA does not have to accept the application for an appeal. So the situation may soon be resolved, or a date may be set. Even then, however, the teams may be penalized, but Lewis Hamilton may not move up the finishing order as a result, depending on what the FIA decides to do.

And here I thought that as a fan of Lewis Hamilton I would be sad if anyone but he won the title. No, not at all. I am amazingly pleased with this extraordinary result, and a race that sent emotions fluttering about as if on a roller coaster, as the leader of the championship fluctuated throughout that amazing Brazilian Grand Prix today.

Kimi Raikkonen celebrates after winning the Formula One title. (Victor R. Caivano/AP)

On the other hand I suddenly feel more frustration than ever that the constructors’ title should have gone to Ferrari. The Italian team did not win the constructors’ title - but it very clearly and simply DID win the drivers’ title. McLaren drivers finish the season with 218 points, compared to only 204 points for Ferrari drivers. Yet Ferrari’s insistence on having Felipe Massa serve Raikkonen over the last few races, compared to McLaren’s strict adherence to its principles of giving each of its drivers and equal chance, ensured the drivers’ title for Ferrari, and ensured the loss of the title for McLaren.

I am happy, however, that the title did not go today simply to the luckiest driver. Raikkonen did just about all he had to do to win the title - although he must also thank Massa for not being quite fast enough somehow in that last pit stop - while Hamilton made a complete mess of matters.

It’s a big day for Formula One, not only in Brazil. Sébastien Bourdais, the Toro Rosso driver to be, today won the Champ Car title for the fourth consecutive time. No other driver has done that before. In fact, only Mario Andretti has won the series four times - while AJ Foyt holds the record of seven. But today, Bourdais went out in style, winning the race in Australia when he only needed to finish 14th. In winning at Surfers Paradise, Bourdais also became the only driver ever to win twice at that venue in the 17 years the race has taken place there.

Sébastien Bourdais showing great relief at winning the race in Australia, and his fourth Champ Car title. (Charles Knight/AP)

This is not a bad career: Rookie of the Year in 2003, followed by winning the next four titles and then moving to Formula One. This is original.

“Coming to that last corner, it’s just all the emotions flowing through your mind,” said Bourdais. “Just you realize how much has come to you and how much you’ve achieved with these guys and you get the sense that it’s coming to an end very closely now. What a fun five years it’s been.

“We started that relationship back in 2003. Just all the results really speak for themselves. You know, it’s how good these guys are. And they proved it today again when we came in the pits in third and came out first. From there, it was in my hands to try to make it stick.”

Let’s hope he can transfer some of that human resource management talent to Toro Rosso, in an area where the team accused Scott Speed of not being so good. On the other hand, being friends with your teammates - mechanics, etc. - is certainly easier when the team is very strong in every other area - which is not the case with Toro Rosso.

Thought I’d try a bit of live blogging, writing my thoughts and observations down as this session happens. Quite simply because this qualifying session could be the most important moment in deciding who the world champion is this year.

Q1

8: 22 left: I’m thinking about that observer in McLaren’s garage again, and how that might affect Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying. My thought is that it could affect Fernando Alonso’s session even more. Hamilton, I’m convinced, will want to perform even better because of this. Alonso, ironically, could think that he’s in some way protected, and therefore could do a worse job. Could that explain the morning session? He was well behind Hamilton.

7:49 left: Hamilton is out on his first lap and doing better than Webber on fastest lap of the session, but Hamilton is slipping about a little…. and does a -0.048 on Webber.

6:00 left: Alonso finishes his first lap far behind Hamilton after making a bit of a mistake (!!!)(ie, no mistreatment by team). He’s more than half a second behind Hamilton. Then suddenly, Raikkonen does the fastest lap.

4:10 left: Massa does the fastest lap and Hamilton drops to third at .730 behind Massa. Alonso’s down to eighth.

2:30 left: Mika Hakkinen is in the McLaren garage working for Ron Dennis as an observer of Alonso’s car to make sure that sufficient pressure is put on both drivers with regard to observers…. but still, Alonso continues to remain more than half a second behind his teammate today on the dry track.

0:00 left: On his last lap Alonso leaps to second position, but he had to go out twice to achieve this, while Hamilton stayed in the garage resting up for the next session. The surprise: Heikki Kovalainen fails to make it into Q2. Vettel and Liuzzi make it into Q2, both of them, but as per usual, Liuzzi is considerably faster than Vettel. So the eliminated ones after Kovalainen and in order of their qualifying are: Sato, Nakajima (in Wurz’s slow Williams), Davidson, Sutil and Yamamoto.

Q2

14:04 left: No one on the track yet!!!

13:00 left: STILL no one on the track! This is going to be FUN come the end of the session. Way hot in Interlagos, no one like this on their tires maybe….

11:09 left: And I thought qualifying was interesting as it was…now we’ll have two wild sessions, Q2 and Q3 since STILL no one on the track.

11:07 left: Ralf Schumacher is the first out on the track. Finally….

10:03 left: Hamilton goes out, Massa goes out, things start happening.

7:10 left: Alonso is on hard tires, but Massa and Hamilton on soft tires. Lots of action in exchanging fastest times…. Alonso, then Ralf, then Webber, then Massa, then Raikkonen….

4:06 left: After quite a bit of quietness from BMW Sauber, Heidfeld and Kubica out there doing fair… and then Kubica in fifth fastest time and Heidfeld seventh.

3:24 left: Starting to think this Q2 session NOT as exciting as expected. So what’s the point of 15 minutes????

2:29 left: All right, now it comes around: lots and lots of cars going again to a last effort, a last lap that will be massively busy. Just about everyone goes out at the same time…. GOOD LUCK!

0:39 left: Liuzzi still in for Q3!

0:10 left: Coulthard fighting to make it….

0:00 left: Coulthard makes it. But then getting bumped back. One after the other there’s shifting of positions as the last laps are finished. Here it is: Fisichella follows Kovalainen out of qualifying. Bad show for Renault. Barrichello is out, so are: Vettel and Liuzzi, Ralf and Button. Heidfeld sneaks in on 10th…

Conclusion: two quite interesting and different sessions. But now, now the big excitement starts with the truth to be told about how drivers are set up for pole….

Q3

15:00 left: Any predictions? I always refuse to predict. There are too many factors. But I have had a strong feeling for the least couple of days that Felipe Massa would get pole. Let’s face it: Ferrari need him on pole and will do all to ensure that.

13:50 left: Big pack of fuel burners with Hamilton leading everyone and Alonso behind him.

12:00 left: Hamilton naturally fastest since he’s first out….

10:50 left: Hamilton told by engineer that his pace is fine for the session. Rosberg second faastest and Kubica and Massa and Heidfeld and then finally Alonso.

7:27 left: The usual boring burn of fuel. But now Massa in the pits and things will gear up.

6:34 left: A near accident in stand with Toyota and a Honda, I think.

6:00 left: Hamilton and Alonso both in pit at same time and Alonso has to wait behind Hamilton…. fair?! Well…..

4:30 left: Raikkonen fastest in session then Massa fastest.

3:11 left: Hamilton second fastest and then alonso follows right after him over the line and he is fifth, is Alonso.

0:32 left: Raikkonen problems.

0:00: Massa on pole and Raikkonen second and Hamilton ….

0:00: No… no… Hamilton and Alonso …

0:00: Hamilton JUST misses pole… Alonso in fourth. The order: Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Alonso, Webber, Heidfeld, Kubica… Hamilton just a tenth behind Massa on pole….

That first corner tomorrow will be dynamite! Massa and Hamilton collide? Raikkonen wins? Alonso second and…?

All right, so there is this FIA observer standing over the shoulder of the Lewis Hamilton camp to make sure that Fernando Alonso has equal treatment. We know that Hamilton has a new engine, but that neither Raikkonen nor Alonso has a new one, they are on their second race with their engines. Now, let’s suppose that Alonso’s engine blows at this final race. Is it safe to infer that Hamilton, should he win, will be disqualified because Alonso’s engine situation was obviously not fair? Or let us say that Alonso makes a mistake and goes off the track…. Whose fault will it be? Imagine that Kimi Raikkonen was in second and Hamilton actually won…. but he’s disqualified for whatever “unfairness” reason, and Raikkonen is declared the winner, and thereby, the world champion?

Pure fantasy? Of course it is. But who’d have thought Ferrari would be declared constructors’ champion with nearly 30 points fewer than McLaren at the moment…? And no wonder I would have the feeling that anything off track is possible this weekend - after a season like that. The last race must be clean to ensure that the season is remembered with some kind of integrity in place.

Surely this idea of observer in the garage should be used, for the sake of fairness, not only against Hamilton and for Alonso, but between ALL teammates - if for any. That is the purpose of a governing body, I thought; to treat all competitors equally.

Just a bit of musing.

In the meantime, of course, McLaren and Ferrari have been showing that the battle is still on. Raikkonen fastest in the morning, and Hamilton was fastest in the morning.

Oh dear, I almost forgot… Hamilton and a couple of other drivers may be penalized for using two pairs of wet weather tires in practice.

Article 25.3 of the F1 Sporting Regulations states: “No driver may use more than one set of wet and one set of extreme weather tires during P1 and P2.”

That means the FIA has carte blanche. No, of course it doesn’t. Ferrari started the Japanese Grand Prix itself with illegal tires and was not punished, so obviously the FIA will not do anything against Hamilton and the two other drivers, Takuma Sato and Jenson Button.

Do the title contenders try to psyche each other? Like boxers staring each other down before a match? Or are they all just the finest of friends? Or perhaps something in between? A few quotes from the Thursday press conference in Sao Paulo:

FIA asks: In a situation like this, does Kimi Räikkönen get nervous?

Kimi: I think you are always a little bit nervous every race, but I try to do the same as in any other race, I try to do the best I can, I try to win the race, be one and two and then it’s not really up to us anymore, so that’s really all we can do and hopefully we can achieve that.

Lewis: If anything, I just feel a bit more relaxed this weekend, quite a bit more relaxed than I did at the last race.

Fernando: Well, for the last two years I was in front, now I’m behind. That’s the main difference. Sometimes you just need to be conservative, just to do your job and finish in a certain place and this year I need much more than that. I need to win the race, to be at the front and another combination of results from the other contenders. So it’s more difficult.

Questioner: Pole position last year, and finishes in the top four for the last four years; what’s your feelings about this circuit? Is it a lucky circuit, a good circuit for you?

Fernando: Well, it’s definitely a lucky circuit for me because the two championships that I won were won here, so it’s impossible to say that this is not a circuit that I like. For sure I love the place, I love the circuit.

The questioner asked the drivers if they had all the various combinations in their heads that would lead them to winning the drivers’ title:

Fernando: Yes.
Lewis: Yes.
Kimi (man of few words, usually, but answers practically the only possible combination): I don’t think about it so much. As I said, we try to win and see what happens.

Asked by Dan Knutson about their relationship being difficult:

Lewis: I think it’s as good as ever.

Fernando: We never had problems with each other.

Massa later, on Hamilton and Alonso, after another journalist questioned their relationship: No, you can see they are best friends…

Lewis: Fernando has started to grow his hair a little bit – because he is worried about losing it! You know, we enjoy it and we want to continue to do it for as long as we can.

Bob McKenzie of the Daily Express asked Fernando if he felt comfortable about having a man in the McLaren garage watching over his teammate to make sure he, Alonso, received fair treatment. (This was done after the Spanish racing authority expressed fears to the FIA of unequal treatment between the drivers at McLaren.)

Fernando: Not really, not really. I probably don’t agree with that decision but you know it’s not up to us. I think if they decide to do that, it’s OK, but we don’t need anything like that in the garage.

Livio Oricchio of O Estado de Sao Paulo asked Fernando: What was your reaction after hearing what Ron Dennis said in China? He said our competitor is not Kimi but Alonso…

Fernando: I was surprised. It is difficult to say what is true or what are just normal words that you say after the race and that you can take in a different way. You can put some problems asking me these questions and not him. So I don’t see anything strange, just surprise, but not really worried.

Marco Degl’Innocenti of La Gazzetta dello Sport asked: Does it happen that you think that you cannot win the title?
Lewis: No.

Just in case anyone doubted whether or not Felipe Massa would be committed to helping Kimi Raikkonen at the Brazilian’s home race this weekend, Ferrari today announced that Massa had signed for a further three years at the scuderia.

“errari announces that it has extended its agreement with the driver Felipe Massa through to the end of the 2010 racing season,” said the Ferrari statement.

“Felipe has been contracted to the Scuderia since 2001. To date, he has taken part in 34 Grands Prix for the team. He has won five times, had sixteen podium places and finished 25 times in the points. He has secured eight pole positions and the same number of race fastest laps, with a total of 166 points scored.”

I find it very interesting how McLaren Mercedes today sent out a press release stating that there would be, and always has been, absolutely fair and equal treatment of the two drivers on the team, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. It is a sign of how important that concept is to the McLaren team. Take a look at Michael Schumacher’s treatment at Ferrari and it is easy to see that the same concept of equality was never something that Ferrari particularly worried about. (Whether they were right or wrong is irrelevant, as is whether Schumacher deserved this or not. It could be argued that Schumacher was just so much better than most of his teammates that the team felt obliged to help him on a down day, knowing he would deliver in the end.) My point is that it is simply clear that Ferrari supported Schumacher over his teammates and did not worry about the concept of equality, whereas McLaren - which is being accused here and there of not treating both teammates equally - DOES value equality.

Here is the full press release:

“With only one Grand Prix left this season, the 2007 Formula 1 Driver’s World Championship battle is more intense than it has been for a long time with both the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes drivers having been at the top of the point standings since the fourth race of the 2007 season. Consequently there was, and is, competitive tension between Fernando and Lewis who are fighting as team mates for the Championship title.

“Following suggestions that there might not be equal treatment for both Fernando and Lewis, the team wants to make it absolutely clear that its policy of treating both Fernando and Lewis with complete equality and fairness will continue for the final race in Brazil on Sunday 21st October 2007. This policy has been conducted throughout the year and McLaren and Mercedes-Benz will continue to take every step that is within their control to ensure that both Fernando and Lewis will enjoy the same opportunity to win in terms of equality of car, engine, tactics and use of resources.

“Commenting on the matter, Ron Dennis, Team Principal of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes said:
‘This has been a tremendous season to which the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team and our drivers have, I believe, contributed a great deal. This contribution has been enhanced by allowing Fernando and Lewis to race each other with complete equality. This will, of course, continue in Brazil where the entire team will be doing its absolute best to win the Drivers’ World Championship.’

“Norbert Haug, Vice-President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport said:
‘There have been a lot of suggestions and rumours about equality in the team this year. The current point standings illustrate better than anything else the fact that equal treatment is in place. During the 12 years Mercedes-Benz and McLaren have been working together all drivers in the team had the same possibilities to perform. We will not change this principle for the next race which is the last of the thrilling 2007 season and we will see both Fernando and Lewis compete for the Driver’s World Championship title.’”