It’s not easy to be ridiculously good looking

Robert Kubica is up to his old tricks. In an interview with Formule 1 Race Report, the Polish driver again took a pop at his own team:

“In the last two or three months, I had the feeling that the team and I were no longer pursuing the same goal.”

He’s a real team player, huh.

To be fair to Kubica, he has a point - he wanted to go for the drivers’ title, whereas BMW wanted to focus on 2009. Still, although there’s nothing wrong with showing ambition, he needs to learn to stop criticising his employers, or they’ll lose patience with him.

Test driver not impressed with prototype’s looks

Yesterday Gridcrasher created something of an online storm by suggesting that BMW Sauber’s 2009 prototype is ugly. A controversial statement, obviously - maybe it’s because we used wonky-faced Robert Kubica as a benchmark?

Well, vindication just roared into town, in the form of Christian Klien. The Austrian test driver (pictured) agrees with us that the new BMW is a dog.

“I never saw such a sexy car,” Klien said after testing in Barcelona yesterday (message to our sensitive Polish readers: Klien is making a joke - you see, he doesn’t really think it’s sexy. Clever, eh). “It looks very, very new to everybody.

“To me, for the moment, it’s the worst (looking) Formula One car I have ever seen. It just doesn’t fit together.”

However, in the interests of fairness, can we add that BMW’s new car is uglier than all non-Polish F1 drivers - including Lewis Hamilton. There, we said it.

German team’s new car looks worse than its driver

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica is the ugliest F1 driver… and now he has the ugliest car to drive. BMW’s 2009 prototype, unveiled at Barcelona yesterday, is out of proportion, much like Polish Bob’s features.

Check out some images of BMW’s new ride below:

Passionate Fans hijack a Grid Crasher poll

You may have noticed that the 22,000-odd votes we have received on our Who is your driver of the season? poll represents an ever-so-slightly higher voter turnout than we are used to. The sudden interest in democracy does not appear to be fueled by an overwhelming feeling that Robert Kubica was the best driver in the F1 2008 season (although he is obviously a very strong contender), but because Polish fans have hijacked the poll. We were aware that Speedway is huge in Poland, but we had no idea Kubica has stirred up such an F1 frenzy in the central European nation.

The Canadian grand Prix winner has confirmed another year with BMW Sauber, but do you think he deserves to be in a faster car? Should he join Lewis Hamilton at McLaren? Let us know below (preferably in English!)…

Quick Nick defends Lewis over Japan penalty

Most drivers seem to be rooting for anyone but Lewis Hamilton to win the title this season, but at least not all of them think Lewis was fairly treated in Japan last weekend. Nick Heidfeld believes Hamilton’s drive-through penalty, handed out after the McLaren driver supposedly ran Kimi Raikkonen off the track on the opening lap, was unfair:

“In the last race I think penalties were not justified,” Heidfeld told Autosport. “I did not see the race in full, I only saw the highlights quickly afterwards, but the one on the start with Hamilton was for me not worth a penalty at all. It is just racing. What did he do (wrong)?”

Ferrari voted the most iconic brand in F1

It’s official, sort of: Ferrari is one of the most iconic brands in the UK. The company has been voted one of the Top 20 ‘CoolBrands’, in an annual survey to determine who’s hip and who’s square.

The Scuderia charts at number 13, higher than any other F1 manufacturer. The only other F1 team to make the 55-brand shortlist is Williams, who become the first dedicated F1 team ever to be awarded the ‘CoolBrand’ button badge - the Ferrari brand encompasses much more than just F1.

Ferrari, cool - surely some mistake? Any time Gridcrasher has been to a grand prix, Ferrari’s fans have stood out as easily the least cool. And isn’t the brand considered a bit vulgar and tacky these days, especially when compared with hip young things like Red Bull?

Which F1 team is really the coolest? Vote after the click or leave a comment (or both)…

What Lewis, Felipe and co. really think about Japan

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
“I love Japan… The Japanese fans are some of my favourite in the world: so passionate, but really polite, charming and respectful. As for the race, one of the questions I get asked most is whether I prefer to drive in the rain: my answer is always the same, I’ll race in the wet or dry, I don’t mind. But it’s always easier for us drivers to race in the dry; I’d always prefer a dry race.”

Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren)
“There is no single corner at Fuji that particularly contributes to your laptime. It’s relatively easy to understand the corners, and it’s not a particularly tricky circuit. So it’s a place where you can’t afford to make any mistakes - you have to be absolutely precise and extract the maximum from your car to be fast.”

BMW Sauber resists Spanish star, sticks with Kubica & Heidfeld

The chances of Fernando Alonso staying at Renault next season now look nailed-on, after BMW today announced its decision to retain Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld for 2009. With no seat at BMW, McLaren or Ferrari to tempt him, and on the back of a fine win at Singapore, Alonso knows he is best-off sticking with Flavio Briatore and co. for one more season, before he - almost certainly - moves to Ferrari in 2010.