"I am really motivated; the team is absolutely fantastic. I'm married
now and I turned into a man and I am more serious now."

The best year of his career is already behind him. Reasons why:

1. The technology that McLaren stole from Ferrari and the improvements
that Alonso brought to that team will become dated by the second half
of 2008. Teams like Renault or BMW can only improve. McLaren can only
deteriorate with their two current drivers. I expect McLaren to
struggle to win a single race during the second half of 2008.

2. The Fia won't create new rules to favour Hamilton any more. That's
one in a lifetime opportunity that a simpleton like Hamilton threw
away with his brilliant driving demostrations in Shanghai and Brazil.

3. Dennis will be exposed as a fraud. 2006, 2007 and finally 2008 will
be too much to take for Mercedes. Adios Tonto. Hamilton will follow
him out of the team soon after.

4. Hamilton might be gay but he is definetaly english so that's
enought to guarantee him a brilliant losing career.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=41561

Lewis Hamilton has fired an ominous early warning to his rivals ahead of
2008 by declaring he feels “more confident” going into his second season
of Formula 1.

The British ace narrowly failed to mark his first year in the sport 2007
with an unprecedented rookie title triumph, after a season of
record-breaking achievements.

And at the launch of McLaren’s MP4-23 in Stuttgart, the newly-turned
23-year-old said he felt he had learnt a lot during his rookie campaign
and now felt more relaxed ahead of his second term as a result.

“I think if anything I just grew; grew up as a person and a driver,” he
said in a press conference.

“I think all the experiences you have, good or bad, you learn and move
forward.

“This year I feel more at home, I feel more confident, relaxed and even
more sure of what I want.”

Hamilton will team up with McLaren new boy Heikki Kovalainen in 2008
following former partner Fernando Alonso’s departure from the team after
a turbulent year.

"Fritz" yahoo.comREMOVE> wrote in message
news:v4hgj.55745$5l3.21831@edtnps82...

brafield@hotmail.com hotmail.com> wrote:

It was not their decision anyway. According to some newspapers here
the order came from Sarkozy and in particular, Total was ordered to
not supply fuel to the rally (Total denies this). So it would be
impossible to go.

Even before that order the organization was in serious trouble, because
when the French government recommended that French people avoid Mauritania
the insurance companies told ASO that their insurance policy was no
longer valid.

Why Sarkozy decided to kill the rally is not clear. Maybe the threat
was reason enough, but there are some other theories being proposed:

- Chine is buying Mauritania ('s oil fields (Chinguetti and Tioff))
and this is retaliation;

- the rally is no longer called _Paris_-Dakar;

- distract the attentions from Carla Bruni and Sarkozy's millionaire
holidays (that doesn't work. The Dakar cancellation is already old
news for everyone except the motorsport press, while the pink press
will not tire of Carla any time soon);

Fritz wrote:

A rolling veg-o-matic. Next: virtual bodywork.

The Brit has said in an interview that he wants to dominate the circus and
become as superior a world champion as mr Schumacher was in his heyday. Mr
Coulthard said once that an opinion is like an arsehole - everyone has one.
A good line at this point. What we will actually see is that mr Räikkönen
will drive the well tanned fellow crazy.

On 6 Jan, 13:30, noone nowhere.com> wrote:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Doc

I saw part of the recent game between the celebrity footie teams
"Friends of Ronaldo" and "Friends of Zidane". I watched around 15
minutes on Eurosport. Schumacher was a striker playing on Ronaldo's
team. I was very impressed - he's very handy indeed. He understands
positioning, reads the game well, and triangulates with the other
players like a pro. His ball control is very good, too. He almost
scored a couple of times, and sold a few nice dummies. With his
knee-length shorts and his short back 'n' sides, he looks like a
refugee from the Fifties though.