The F1 Thread (6 Viewers)

[Muz4PM]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Ferrari on pole, Raikkonen beating out Alonso in his Renault and team mate Massa for pole position. I was surprised to see Alonso make it to the front of the grid. Renault had been languishing in the back of the top ten for most of the season, now infront of his own countrymen and women Alonso has put himself and his team in a competative position.

The grid is

1. Raikkonen (Ferrari) 2. Alonso (Renault)
3. Massa (Ferrari) 4. Kubica (BMW)
5. Hamilton (McLaren) 6. Kovalainen (McLaren)
7. Webber (Red Bull) 8. Trulli (Toyota)
9. Heidfeld (BMW) 10. Piquet (Renault)
11. Barrichello (Honda) 12. Nakajima (Williams)
13. Button (Honda) 14. Glock (Toyota)
15. Rosberg (Williams) 16. Bourdais (Torro Rosso)
17. Coulthard (Red Bull) 18. Vettel (Torro Rosso)
19. Fisichella (Force India) 20. Sutil (Force India
21. Davidson (Super Aguri) 22. Sato (Super Aguri)

Quite an achievement to see Super Aguri even racing in Spain, considering the troubles they have had recently. I still question why are they still there? They don't seem to ever really be in contention for points, are they really viable at this point in time?

 

[ledzeppelin]

re: The Official F1 Thread

go kimi
good to see the race is on at a relatively reasonable hour on ten as well

 

[Muz4PM]

re: The Official F1 Thread

go kimi
good to see the race is on at a relatively reasonable hour on ten as well

Agreed, should be able to watch a portion of it before I have to sleep. Ferrari just seemed to have a slight glitch in Melbourne (someone said something about a broken valve), they are now racking together some consistantly fast times, certainly look like they will take the lead of the makers championship after this round.

Was surprised to see Heidfeld that far down the grid, especially considering his team mate Kubica is begining in fourth. Might be the balance which caused Heidfeld some problems. Good to see Mark Webber up in there in P7, lets hope he can finish and get some points. I wonder how much fuel Alonso has on board? That maybe why he drove so fast to enable a good start.

 

[Cape]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Kimi is going to walk this race tonight

Nice to see Kimi back on pole ... except when channel 10 decide that they would run the cricket over 40 minutes into the quali session at some ungodly hour of the morning And I see the race has now been pushed back to 10:50pm, yesterday it was 10:40pm

Fernando has to be on fumes ... did Spanish sponsorship move from Mclaren to Renault? But then, Piquet is also in the top 10, where Alonso has been struggling to get into Q3 all season, so they definately have made some improvement.

Funny, on RPM they just said that this is Webber's 50th time in the top 10 for quali, to compared Massa who has only been in there 47 times.

And Bourdais is outqualifying and out racing, that little hyped kid, Vettel. Fantastic!

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Hmm. I can't help but like that Alonso guy for some reason. Still, go McLaren!

Good to see it's on at a reasonable hour.

 

[el gwapo]

re: The Official F1 Thread

I may not like Ferrari but I still prefer Kimi over Alonso in pole. But gee it's shaping out to be another boring race for Mclaren fans. Let's hope for a podium finish.

I didn't see the highlights, is that dodgy chicane before the (old) final corner still there? I reckon it ruins the potential overtaking chance in the main straight, well decreases the chance anyhow.

 

[ObjectsInSpace]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Yes, the chicane is still there. It was put in place to slow the cars down and chnge the way they take the final corner and subsequently the main straight. The reason why it's nothing spectacular is because that section of the circuit is very cramped; there wasn't a hell of a lot they could do with it. While I might follow the race online, I won't be watching it. I don't like Catalunya because it producers racing that's little more than a procession at times; and even if it didn't, I still wouldn't watch it because it's a pretty boring circuit.

 

[el gwapo]

re: The Official F1 Thread

^ well I can say you've missed out on an above average race- something that was worth watching.

Raikkonen comfortably won, but without the big gap you'd associate with Ferrari at the moment. Massa was kept honest by Lewis, who in turn was kept honest by Kubica. Alonso was in the mix before going out, though he sounded happy he can mix it with the big 3 now. A couple of safety cars but there was a lot of awkward overtaking moves leading to interesting moments. Fortunately Kovalainen is safe, that was a crash ala MS Silverstone '99

 

[Muz4PM]

re: The Official F1 Thread

I had a laugh, Alonso nearly crashed on the warm up lap, what an anti-climax that would have been.

When I first saw the Kovalainen incident I thought, haha, a McLaren out of the race, excellent. I wonder if he is alright? Then when I saw the replay, I was horrified to see the extent of the crash. I was happy to see him alright, putting his thumb in the air.

I was unhappy though, Heidfeld, what was he doing? Pitting whilst the pit lane was closed? Unless he had no fuel left, there really aren't any excuses.

However, Ferrari certainly look like they are streets ahead of the rest, making it look easy and comfortable. Mind you, the key reason why there was such a small gap was the fact the safety car was out twice. Let's hope there is some more competition in Turkey.

 

[Kujah]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Cool that Webber came 5th- he's 8th overall now in the championships. Lets hope the reliability issues that plagued his Red Bull car have finally gone away.

 

[Muz4PM]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Cool that Webber came 5th- he's 8th overall now in the championships. Lets hope the reliability issues that plagued his Red Bull car have finally gone away.

Agreed there. Happy to see Webber into some points, considering the horror run he has had in F1's since he started.

 

[Cape]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Try telling the knobs on ITV that Ferrari were cruising, they are so hell bent that because Lewis finished a few seconds behind Kimi that he has the car which is equal to a Ferrari. And lovely channel 10 as always, some 20 minutes of racing were cut, in particular the safety car period when Heikki crashed (thank god he's ok, and is looking to race in Turkey); just because there's a safety car period doesn't mean its boring as watching paint dry. And no post race press conference? Yes, I'm very very pissed off

The stupid safety car rules of the pit lane closing have to go. How many people has it screwed over the past 2 years? Off the top of my head I can think of: Alonso, Rosberg, Massa, Fisichella, Barrichello, Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Kubica.

Spain is still as boring as ever and Ferrari and Kimi are going to run away with this years championships

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

re: The Official F1 Thread

I was wondering why they had that silly pit/safety car rule still in effect. doesn't seem to be a lot of benefits to that rule.

That crash looked pretty bad too. Good to see that Kov....the McLaren guy is ok.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Questions:

Why do people seem to dislike Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton?

 

[ObjectsInSpace]

re: The Official F1 Thread

People hate Alonso because he's left a lot of bruised egos in his wake. He's always been the prodigal son of his manager, Flavio Briatore, and other drivers have been pushed sidesways because of it. When Alonso first got the drive at Renault, he replaced Jenson Button, who was also managed by Briatore, who basically pushed the Briton aside and cut him loose in favour of Alonso, who only really had one season at Minardi under his belt. A lot of Briatore's decisions also favour Alonso on the track as well; his team-mate has often been given instructions to play second fiddle to the Spaniad. Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli were both victims of this in the past; they were forced to yield to Alonso. While Formula One is no stranger to team orders, it's generally been frowned-upon since David Coulthard pulled over on the last lap for Mika Hakkinen a Melbourne one year and Rubens Barichello did the same for Michael Schumacher a few years later. Renault are the only team who really favour one driver; for everyone else it's a case of "we'll support both our drivers until one is no longer in the hunt for the title, in which case we'll give the one in contention a little more attention". When Alonso moved to McLaren last year, he was expecting the same treatment as he had gotten everywhere else in his career. In truth, he wasn't unjustified; everyone was raving about Hamilton, and it's very easy to fail in the sport. Alonso was probably expecting to take on the role of the Master and Hamilton the Appentice, but it didn't materialise. He's also very hot-headed when he gets emotional - but a lot of Spaniards do that - and he becomes the most dangerous driver in the field when things really go bad for him (as evidenced by his numerous off-track excursions at the first corner last year).

As for Hamilton, there's no denying the kid has talent. In only his second race at Sepang last year, he managed to not only hold Felipe Massa off for most of the race, but he made the Brazilian look quite amateurish at the same time. There is, however, a point where it becomes too much. The problem is ITV: they're fixated on how Hamilton is doing to the point of being obsessive fanboys. Sure, the Hamilton vs. Massa battle at Bahrain last year was good, but it got to the point where Hamilton chose to consolidate his postion and it was obvious he would never catch Massa. However, further back in the field, David Coulthard was rocketing up the order having started very low on the grid, but we didn't see a moment of it because ITV were too busy focusing on Lewis Bloody Hamilton. They constantly talk about him as if he's the Second Coming, even when he's having a mediocre race. He's also quite arrogant - racing driver naturally are; they kind of have to be a little full of themselves to be able to do what they do - but he went from untried rookie to having a head bigger than Ralf Schumacher's in half a season.

Probably the best website to be going to is F1 Rejects. It's quite a good website because they review all the races and try to give as much attenion to all of the drivers as possible, as well as presenting the epynomous Reject of the Race award.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Groovy. Another question:

Like, I've been watching old videos on Youtube (mostly of the late 80's early 90's) that seem to be a little more exciting than what F1 is like today. Granted, these are compilation videos so I'm guessing it's a little biased. However, I have read many opinions that say it's not as good today as it was back in the day because there's a lot less overtaking, or something like that. I read somewhere, prolly wiki, that the FIA or whatever was considering banning aerodynamic aids other than the front and back wing in the future to aid in overtaking. Is this true? Thoughts on anything that I've asked/said?

 

[ObjectsInSpace]

re: The Official F1 Thread

Groovy. Another question:

Like, I've been watching old videos on Youtube (mostly of the late 80's early 90's) that seem to be a little more exciting than what F1 is like today. Granted, these are compilation videos so I'm guessing it's a little biased. However, I have read many opinions that say it's not as good today as it was back in the day because there's a lot less overtaking, or something like that. I read somewhere, prolly wiki, that the FIA or whatever was considering banning aerodynamic aids other than the front and back wing in the future to aid in overtaking. Is this true? Thoughts on anything that I've asked/said?

The thing of it is that when you're behind another car, the air is much calmer, which means you can go faster because there's less resitance. The problem is that the cars are now designed to cut though the air, and all the aids disturb the flow of air behind it. It's now much choppier and requires more effort to cut through than if tere was no car in front, so the pursuing car loses speed. The result is that the only times you'll see overtaking are A) in the pits, B) when someone makes a mistake and C) when one car is clearly faster than the other (ie Ferrari or McLaren vs. Super Aguri or Force India).

I do believe they're looking at ways to make more straight-line overtaking, but the Concrode Agreement - the contract that specifies exactly how a racing season is run and as only been seen by a handful of people - requires unanimous agreement from the teams, and it's like that they won't give up their aerodynamic advatages. That's why we're seeing a return to lick tyres next year: a soft compound rubber without any grooves cut into it, allowing far more grip than the current tyre.

 

[StuntManonFire]

re: The Official F1 Thread

These days F1 is boring to watch and is basically a bunch of rich boys driving extreamly expensive cars.

I have turned to watching MotoGP and the Indy Racing Series. Both awesome to watch, and don't need to sit behind someone for 30 laps just to pass them during pitstops (both also have competitive Australians, not that it really has anything to do with it).

Nothing will compare to F1 due to its prestige, but if you would like to see some actual racing, I suggest you switch stations

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

re: The Official F1 Thread

I guess the FIA can't just say "hey guys no more aerodynamic thingos"?

 

[Cape]

re: The Official F1 Thread

They have. Winglets are banned next year. Slicks might be back. The "Overtaking Group" have put in place a number of rules which will take effect as of next year. Forgotten what the rest of the rules are, but it is a lot to do with the aerodynamics and lack of overtaking (hence the name of the group).