'F1 season chat'

[sbd16vastra]

I think that is overly harsh, Kubica could have given him more space imho but i thought it was a bit 50/50.

i agree such a shame, there was no need for that at all they were both fighting and it was clear that vettel was just a little late on the brakes but thats racing

[Big_Chap]

Tanks for correcting me as i said I wasn't sure if the car used Honda stuff. Merc it is then ! so thats a great news as it what McLarens use!!

Meh, Honda spent upto (and possibly over) a year developing the car, as far as I'm aware merc just chucked a couple of V8's at them and they then modified what they had to suit. Although obviously the engine did power them to the line!

Good result for jenson, knew he still had it.

Shame about the vettel/kubica incident and I think it was 50-50ish! iirc kubica did give a bit of room but could have gave more and as said previously about the encouraging overtaking, vettel may think twice now in future given the 10 place drop

[Brett]

What a great race! Have been dying to get on here and read the thread since yesterday morning!!

Brilliant race, really pleased with the result. Button did a good job as I knew he could, Rubens was a bit kamikaze into the first bend but dont think incedents like that should be penailsed anyway - equally its daft to penalise Vettle for the next GP, racing incidnet IMHO and I think Kubica paid the price for closing the door as hard as he did.... why they penalise this sort of stuff now I dont know... its a shame when both drivers are so good normally.

Saftey car really pissed me off, its going to an american style system now almost far to many laps behind the saftey car when there was no need as Kazuki had crashed out. Odd than he AND piquet crashed out? for me these are the two weakest drivers in F1.

Hamilton, great great drive. Yes a high rate of attrition benefited him loads, but what of Alonso? he started 6 places ahead of Lewis and Lewis beat him - so I certainly wouldnt dismiss his race as lucky. Lewis made some great passes and I think a year in a piss poor car can only make him stronger. Fernando though was really poor, I fancied him for a title pop but he almost cant be arsed as he doesnt have a good car again! His attitude and personallity are his achillies heel! Out of all last years leading drivers, Leiws must bes the last person from that group anyone would have predicted to come away with the most successful weekend, so pleased for him.

Ferrari... well.... what do you say to that? Cars were very light in quali trim, Massa's strategy was wrong and Raikkonen binned it. Both cars retired due to mechanical failures (yes, Raikkonen officially retired with a mechanical defect with 2 laps to go, not as a result of the crash) which seems a common occurence down under. I wouldnt say it will be a feature of their season. Lack of speed may be, just like McLaren but with less ground to make up really.

I thought it was a great weekend, bring on malaysia!!!

[lee303]

ferrari went light as they wanted to use the softs first, to get them out of the way, there would have been no point given that strategy going longer, as the tyres didnt make it even as far as they wanted them too, with kimi and massa stopping 4 laps before schedule
kimi's car would have made the race distance, but after the off and the safety car there seemed little point as they did have doubts about the diff, i do agree they need more raw speed though, but, as ever, australia has little bearing on pace in a 'normal' track, which makes malaysia even more interesting!
but i'm not sure i like having the bigger gap between the tyre compounds, if it continues to leave the teams with a tyre they cant make work, then it needs to be changed imo, or everyone will just do a three stopper with a really short last stint at all the tracks

agree on piquet though, clearly hasnt the head for F1, he failed to get his tyres or brakes even slightly near to hot before the restart, then tried to brake as if they were at the first corner, less so for nakajima imo, i reckon he'll do alright this year

[Brett]

I forgot Ferrari got the softs out of the way early, actually thought that was good thinking on their part Im sure we will see it at more tracks where the saftey car normally happens!! Theyl'll be a damn site closer to the pace than McLaren and probably Renault, like I say I dont think they'll break down to much either so they're not to badly placed. I'd rather McLaren were in their shoes put it lke that! Australia throws up as many questions as it does answers in general as always, thats how I sum that weekend up!

Malaysia is going to be equally fascintating, Australia always is an unpredictable one. For me I'm rooting for Jenson, I would be even happier to see him as world champ than I was to see lewis do it I think... always liked him as a driver no matter how bad it got, better attitude than Lewis too. Pleased for him already really, title is a long way off but hes got a really good shot I think. Plus its actually really refreshing at last being able to enjoy it when Ross Brawn has won something!!

[Rick Draper]

agree on piquet though, clearly hasnt the head for F1, he failed to get his tyres or brakes even slightly near to hot before the restart, then tried to brake as if they were at the first corner

Yup he ran out of talent in quite a big way. Then when they interviewed him and he just said "the brakes went crazy"lmao

[lee303]

Brawn has done bloody well, kinda annoys me all the people putting it down solely to the 16 months developing the car, whitmarshs' press release in particular riled me when he said 'we were doing other things like winning world championships' (err, just the one mart, and its wasn't the constructors) makes him sound quite bitter imo, especially when he then bangs on about hondas 4 wind tunnels etc http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74092
sure it has had a positive effect, but a few weeks ago they weren't even on the grid, and they had to make the car work with the merc powerplant at short notice too, i was very impressed with their apparent reliability, be interesting to see how they handle it in the super hot malaysai though


and yeah, piquets post crash analysis wasnt great, ' i had a problem behind the safety car too' yeah, so did everyone, its just they dealt with it rather betterlmao

i reckon its about time they had a DTM car or similar for a pace car though, as much as its fun for us seeing the teams slip and slide about on tyres that arent working at all, its hardly befitting of the premier motor racing series!

[Brett]

I read the whitmarsh article and thought the same, there was a dig about Ferrari and the other teams appealing the diffuser I think too, he said something like 'we havent appealed, we prefer to spend the time developing our own car'.

Merc pacecar sounded awesome though didnt it!!

Piquet wasnt just poor for the crash, he was really slow all weekend I thought.

[lee303]

yeah the merc sunded nice, but imagine how good a proper DTM car would sound!
i think whitmarsh is just gutted that for his first year in charge, the car has started the season being rubbish so he's got sour grapes syndrome, especially as the Brawn car has the same engine!lmao
i can see flavio binning piquet before spain tbh

[Brett]

Piquet wont have long unless he really bucks his ideas up I totally agree! sad to see but would be good to have another rookie.

How I'd laugh at the irony even as a McLaren fan if the Brawn wins merc a constructors title this yearlmao

[lee303]

lol, yeah, flavio will already know who he wantslmao and you know i'm no mclaren fan, so would very much like to see Brawn beat them, and finish a close second to ferrari can almost hear the Honda board commiting hari kari as i typelmao

[Brett]

I was saying to a mate ealier this evening how pig sick Honda must feel!

I think if Jenson wasnt in the hunt then I'd be more gutted about McLaren this year. I really do see the positive side for Hamilton though, could really toughen him up this year!!

[Fenix]

I'd love to know why so many brits are against McLaren as a team and Hamilton as a driver. Choosing to go with a corrupt bunch of italians instead. Its wierd. If i had sh*tloads of money i'd have more ferrari's in my garage than any other car, I love the manufacturer and their road cars but can't stand the F1 team at all. Bitching and moaning because Brawn came up with an idea they didn't. Mclaren are big enough to admit they've missed something and rather than try to get it banned they just get on with developing their own, although somehow people have managed to twist that round to Mclaren having a dig.

As for Buttons better attitude are you forgetting his loyalty issues over his switch a few years back? Face it though, all race drivers have to be single minded and egotistical it goes with the territory. If you don't believe you're number one then you're Nelson Piquet Jr lmao

[Brett]

Im a massive McLaren fan mate, just cba to go down the route where we all end up arguing the toss over whos the bigger shower of bastards!!

I thought Whitmarshes comments about Ferrari had an element of LOL in them, Ferrari always seem to protest so much more than other teams but they aint alone on this one. Williams actually made a protest about the ferrari car but then withdrew it saying it was in the interest of the sport and they shouldnt moan because they didnt spot something in the rules other did. It goes on every year people working round the rules, I think its a shame its greeted like this just because they gain more than other little ones they all do. Time to keep up and copy I think.

Im also no Hamilton hater, but sometimes he does stuff thar irks me. Jenson is the under dog, the guy I followed from his F3 year before Williams brought him into F1. Ive always admired him.

I just try to be balanced as I can these days. Not always possible, it was war on here in these threads after belgium lasy yearlmao F1 threads dont work on here if we dont all play fair!

[lee303]

Mclaren are big enough to admit they've missed something and rather than try to get it banned they just get on with developing their own, although somehow people have managed to twist that round to Mclaren having a dig.

have you read the press release by whitmarsh i linked earlier? he's the only one bitching and moaning about brawn, ferarri, red bull and williams are just trying to find out if the thing is legal before they go to the expense of making their own, i for one would wager mclaren would have protested it if it wasnt for the fact that their car is the easiest to adapt to the double deck diffuser, as they already have the shape in the rear end, just not the hole, oh and who was it that protested ferraris floor year before last athe australia i wonder?? its almost the done thing in the sport, and thats that unfortunately

i'm not a mclaren fan because of how they come across, same thing with lewis, they have an air of arrogance about them, which comes from the top down imo, and i would never really support someone just because of their nationality where nations arent actually competeing against each other as nations

[chip]

i'm not a mclaren fan because of how they come across, same thing with lewis, they have an air of arrogance about them,

And being into ferraris a mere "air" of arrogance isnt enough, it has to be full blown arrogance to satisfy you?
you must have loved schumacher then

[lee303]

thing is with schumacher, he was arrogant to a point, but he was also probably the most complete driver the sport has seen, who has proven his talents time and again, 7 titles would lead most to think that he deserves to be a bit arrogant imo

[Fenix]

have you read the press release by whitmarsh i linked earlier? he's the only one bitching and moaning about brawn

I think the "bitching" is just plain fact. Brawn, BMW,Toyota and Red Bull gave up on last years car very early in the season to concentrate on this years car. Ferrari, Renault and McLaren had to develop their cars all the way through the season in an effort to chase down the championship leaving them less time to develop new cars and the speed of the relative teams shows this.

I'm sure every team is jealous of the Brawn car at the moment. The same way all the drivers were upset that Hamilton started his career in one of the best teams and how everyone hated that schumacher was the best driver and had a miles better car than the rest of the field. Success breeds contempt. If Brawn and Button walk it to the championship with no competition they will soon go from being the new darlings of F1 to the team everyone loves to hate. Thats the british mentality for you in every form of sport.

[lee303]

i agree with all that except that schuey always had a car miles better than the rest, sure he did in some years, but not all of them, especially in the benetton and early ferrari days
the reason i picked up on whitmarsh statement is the way he puts it, especially his reference to 'we were busy doing other things' just smacks of sour grapes more then the rest of the teams comments on Brawn, especially when he makes no reference to the fact they had to get the engine in a chassis not designed for it in record time

[Fenix]

i agree with all that except that schuey always had a car miles better than the rest, sure he did in some years, but not all of them, especially in the benetton and early ferrari days
the reason i picked up on whitmarsh statement is the way he puts it, especially his reference to 'we were busy doing other things' just smacks of sour grapes more then the rest of the teams comments on Brawn, especially when he makes no reference to the fact they had to get the engine in a chassis not designed for it in record time

Everybodys gonna be sour. Brawn have come out of nowhere and blitzed them all lmao

I'd just prefer it if the teams lamented their misfortune at misinterpreting the rules and not having enough time rather than appeals that mean we won't know the real results of the Australian or Malaysian grand prix's until way after they've finished. It just ruins the sport and yeah i know mclaren did it a few years ago with the barge boards i just thought that maybe we'd be done with this kind of cr*p this year.

[Brett]

I have to say I picked up some sour beans in Whitmarshes statement although it should be noted it pails into insignificance when compared to Briatore's bitter rant from Saturday. That was utterly bizarrelmaolmao

I also think theres an element of sour beans in Ferrari et alls protest. The FIA have already said they belive its legal, so have stewards. So its hardly a question of establishing uncertaintly IMHO. Its more a case of trying to change the bodys mind to suite them as opposed to Williams, Brawn and Toyota. Its not good for the sport and Im glad McLarens name isnt there for whatever reasons.

[alistairolsen]

The FIA should scrutineer the cars in secret long before the start of the season. Im sure some thrive on all the controversy but tbh, which everway this goes will rule one set of cars uncompetitive over the seas as however hard you try you cannot retrospectively adjust the race to be as it should have been if the playing field was level.

[chip]

thing is with schumacher, he was arrogant to a point, but he was also probably the most complete driver the sport has seen, who has proven his talents time and again, 7 titles would lead most to think that he deserves to be a bit arrogant imo

I saw no change in him getting any more arrogant as time went on particuarly (not that I exactly go drinking with him or anything all any of us can go on is press coverage)

So at the beginning of his career when he only had 1 world title, he was similar in attitude to Hamilton is after only 1 world title.

I dont see how you can be as good as either of those drivers and not risk coming across as arrogant, to be that good takes an enormous amount of self belief, anyone confident in their convictions risks being accused of arrogance by weaker men IMHO


I see so evidence of a significant difference in either talent or arrogancy levels between shumacher in his early days and Hamilton now, I dont see how anyone can like one of them and not the other, I have a tremendous amount of respect for them both personally.

[sbd16vastra]

lol lee do you recall the circumstances that shumacher won his first F1 title under

[GDN16v]

do you recall the circumstances that shumacher won his first F1 title under

Crashing into Hill after he slammed his Benetton into the wall! Top driver lmao lmao lmao

Brawn did a brilliant job for the first race and will no doubt be at the front in Malaysia! But its been said already, the other teams will now be changing their cars to try and get some advantage back all due to different interpretation of the rules from the start, it happens nearly every year!

In the Whitmarsh comment above imo i think he's being quite nice about Brawn GP and singing their praise Telling people not to class them as underdogs and all the hard work theyve done etc etc!

It is a fact that they stopped developing the car as did BMW to get started on the 2009 spec cars earlier as they knew they couldnt go for either of the championships, which shows in the apparent lack of pace from Ferrari, Mclaren and Renault who were going for race wins right till the end!