A year ago BMW driver Robert Kubica sat in the wreckage of his car awaiting an airlift to hospital. Today he stood atop the podium, winner of the Canadian Grand Prix. What a difference a year makes.

Kubica has threatened to win several times this season but the overall pace of the McLaren and Ferrari cars has denied BMW and left the team looking to take advantage of a mistake from their rivals. Today, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton handed them just such an opportunity on a silver platter.

When the safety car was deployed on lap 18 so Adrian Sutil’s car could be removed, the front runners all pitted for fuel and tires. Hamilton, who had led from the start, found himself third when exiting his pit box. In his eagerness to catch up he failed to see the red light at the end of the pit lane that instructs drivers to wait until the safety car has passed before proceeding. He slammed into the back of the stationary Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. Both drivers were unable to continue.

The melee left Kubica in a great position to win if he could avoid any drama for the rest of the race. Fortunately for Kubica, his only real threat on the track was teammate Nick Heidfeld who was operating on a different fuel strategy.

Predictably, the safety car jumbled the field, putting several faster cars behind slower drivers but both BMW drivers were able to take advantage. Heidfeld stormed off into the lead, able to pit and rejoin the race ahead of his teammate with help from slower cars positioned between them on the track.

Kubica, driving with a lighter fuel load and able to find a faster ultimate pace around the Montreal track jumped past his teammate during his second pit stop. Once the stops were completed by all the drivers, Kubica moved up to first, followed by his teammate to complete a perfect 1-2 finish for BMW.

The race proved to be an opportunity for midfield teams as well. With so many front runners failing to finish, the smaller teams doggedly fought to the flag to the delight of the fans. Red Bull, Toyota, Honda and Torro Rosso all walked away with unexpected spoils.

BMW scored their first win in style with a strong 1-2 finish which catapulted them into second place in the Constructors Championship, three points behind Ferrari. Kubica now finds himself in the lead of the driver’s standings with a third of the season completed.

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Once more, the Canadian Grand Prix produces an historic race and an incredibly unpredictable result.

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Descending from Scottish heritage I can tell you that laying out hundreds of dollars for a ticket to an F1 race causes my heart to ache. I take some consolation though when a race is as exciting as the 2007 Montreal Grand Prix but decidedly not from a race like the catastrophe that was the 2005 USGP.

But, imagine yourself having to shell out nearly a quarter million euro to get through the gates. That’s exactly what Kimi Raikkonen will have to pay this year to race in F1. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso will be paying nearly as much. Its all because of the new costs for an FIA issued super-license.

For the privilege of racing in the upcoming season, drivers will have to pay a flat fee of €10,000 plus an additional 2000€ for each point they scored during the 2007 season. The previous rates were €1690 plus another €447 for each point earned the previous year. For Raikkonen, that works out to €230,000 in super-license fees for 2008 while under the old licensing model, Kimi would only have had to pay €50,860. For the entire grid to license itself this season (22 drivers including 3 rookies) the total will be €1, 504,000. Quite the cash cow for the FIA.

The speculation behind this raise in fees is that it will help deter unqualified drivers from obtaining a super-license. I think that the FIA could prevent unqualified drivers from obtaining a super-license by just saying “No” to the applicant. In 2001, the FIA did this in the case of then rookie, Kimi Raikkonen whom they considered to be too inexperienced to race in F1. They ended up only issuing him a probationary license.

Even if they looked rather stupid after the fact in the case of Raikkonen - he scored a point in his debut, the FIA still stepped in as the regulator of the sport and evaluated the driver regardless of whether or not the fee had been paid. Could they not carry out the same process with any driver who applied to race in Formula 1?

Instead of consistently enforcing rules that would only allow the qualified onto the grid, the FIA has happily allowed the likes of Gaston Mazzacane, Alex Yoong and Yuji Ide into the exclusive ranks of Formula 1 drivers. Pay drivers like these three typically bring millions of dollars into a backmarker F1 team each year through their personal sponsorship deals with companies. Raising licensing fees, even as drastically as the governing body have done for 2008 will not keep pay drivers out of F1, it only insures a bigger slice of the pie for the FIA.

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