Raikkonen Victorious at F1 Finale in São Paulo

In the end it all came down to one point. One single point that divided three men in their quest for the 2007 Formula 1 Driver’s Championship.

At the previous race in Shanghai, the Driver’s title looked to be rookie Lewis Hamilton’s to lose, and lose it he did, in typical rookie fashion. After running hot into a corner, Hamilton slid helplessly into a gravel trap and spun his tires, unable to get back on the track and losing any chance at points in the Chinese Grand Prix.

Today’s race in São Paulo was no less disappointing for Hamilton. Starting on the grid in second position, Hamilton was passed by teammate Fernando Alonso coming into the first corner and his inexperience got the best of him. Hamilton desperately tried to reclaim second position and in doing so he slid off at the fourth corner on the first lap, dropping back to eighth position. Had he stayed calm and collected, he might’ve cemented himself into 3rd position and guaranteed himself a Driver’s championship. In fact, depending on the finishing order, Hamilton needed only to place 5th to win the Driver’s title. After slipping back to 8th position, Hamilton had an odd mechanical problem which put him in the back of the pack, 18th position. Miraculously, he rallied to come back to finish 7th, garnering him 2 points to finish the season at 109, just one shy of Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso, also in contention for the Driver’s title, ended the race in 3rd, his 6 points putting him also at 109 points, tying him with Hamilton (the tie-breaker here being in number of 5th place finished, in which Hamilton had more).

The race was so exciting because Hamilton just needed to finish in the top five, a simple task for a driver as talented as he is, and his inexperience forced him into mistakes. Hamilton literally raced himself off the podium, giving the title to Raikkonen, a man who has had more bad luck (and 2nd place finishes) than just about anyone, and surely deserved to win a championship. One of the F1 commentators described Raikkonen’s bad luck best when he wondered aloud in the last laps of the GP today when the “black helicopter” was going to “fall out of the sky right in front of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari” and put him out of the race.

All in all, this was an exciting Formula 1 season. Three fantastic drivers competing for the same crown going into the last race makes for some exciting drama. Next year’s season is shaping up to be a fantastically exciting one as well, put March 16th on your calendar, we’ll see you in Melbourne.

Indian Billionaire Mallya buys Formula 1 Team

If you’re not yet familiar with billionaire and all-around playboy Vijay Mallya, here’s a primer:

Mallya is Chairman of United Breweries Group, whose brands include the #1 selling Indian beer brand, Kingfisher, top Indian scotch and gin brands, and Scotch whisky distiller Whyte & Mackay (which he recently purchased for $1.2B). His two-year-old Kingfisher Airlines ingeniously acts as a marketing tool for his beer (alcohol advertising in India is heavily regulated and quasi-illegal). The airline, originally launched to promote his liquor and beer bottling business, is rapidly taking market share from the top private airline in India, Jet Airways, and is poised to overtake them in 2010 when its nonstop routes to North America begin service. He’s got a megayacht, the Indian Empress, which he uses to host lavish parties for high-profile guests. The hard-partying-billionaire reputation that Mallya has cultivated for himself serves to define his brand: he aims to convince ever-more affluent young Indians to move up to his level of luxury-by buying his brands of top-shelf hooch, naturally.

Mallya isn’t stopping at air travel: today he announced that he and a Dutch partner have bought the Spyker-Ferrari Formula 1 team for $110M. The purchase gives Mallya’s beer and spirits juggernaut another avenue in which to advertise its growing spirits business to the increasingly liberal Indian public. The deal cut with F1 boss (and fellow über-affluent) Bernie Ecclestone has deeper meaning, however. The whole world has been trying to secure annual visits from Formula 1 (Bahrain, Malaysia, and Turkey all have Grand Prix events), and so far, India has been left out of the picture. India’s dream of attracting a grand prix may have just been granted by virtue of this deal. Mallya is already planning a New Delhi street course not unlike that of Monaco, with a design budget of $100M largely to be shouldered by the Indian taxpayer. The Indian Grand Prix will surely be a knockout event, considering Mallya’s penchant for celebration and the strong role he’s sure to play in the GP’s planning.

Is it just me, or does this guy belong in Dubai?