F1 istanbul.....SPOILER!!! don't open if you haven't watched

bell · bell's Garage

wow what a great race, kudos to massa for his first pole/victory.
ferrari didn't seem too affected by stacking it's 2 drivers in the pits during the safety car, but schuey's little off in turn 8 is what cost him second place.
alot of passing, kubicas performance is a pleasant suprise, when is kimi going to get a break, and bring on monza........
i think the drivers championship is going to be decided in brazil....

is ferrari going to lose points from their rear wheel inserts? i think so, especially after schueys chicane incident in hungary. your thoughts?

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

Big picture:
Alonso gets P2. Schuey P3. The gap widens...

trj911 · trj911's Garage

It was a good race. I'm glad to see Massa not have to give up anything to Schuey. I was afraid he would build a lead while Michael blocked and then Michael run hot laps and grab the lead whild Massa pitted. It was an entertaining race all around.

Rodeo · 08-27-2006, 08:27 AM

Two good races in a row!

I guess Ferrari had no choice but to stack their cars to get in an out before the safety car parade came around, but that was the race right there. Maybe MS could have passed FA without his 4 second bobble, but the Spainard is as cool as they come with pressure from behind.

Nice to have some drama in F1 ON the track ... down to the wire!

David · David's Garage

Great passing. I'm surprised they didn't have Massa drive around and let MS pit first.

Rodeo · 08-27-2006, 08:34 AM

That would have put Massa in last place, no?

David · David's Garage

Maybe. I'm not saying it's good idea, but knowing how MS treats the #2 driver, I'm surprised they didn't.

Jims5543 · 08-27-2006, 10:53 AM

Anyone catch FA's Friday antics again?

Good race, lots of passing everywhere.

Great to see Massa pole and then take 1st, great weekend for him.

Once FA got between MS and Massa that pretty much locked the race down for Massa he was good to go.

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

MS almost got FA coming out of the last turn when FA lost traction. If the finish had been further down the straight...

Steve PH · 08-27-2006, 11:34 AM

Caught the last ten minuts of this race, great stuff! Wish I had started watching from the off. Anyone know what the Ferrari rear wheel inserts are about? Aerodynamic aid? Or are they trying to reinvent the spinner?!

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

Ferrari first introduced these at Imola, to help extract the heat generated by the rear brakes. The lip of the shield separates the hot airflow from the rim walls, helping to stabilise tyre pressure by limiting the effect of the brake heat. In Turkey the concept is pushed further, with a wider lip section reducing the size of the central air vent. This improves air extraction still further by decreasing turbulence generated by airflow close to the wheel. It also slightly improves aerodynamic efficiency in this area.

Steve PH · 08-27-2006, 12:50 PM

Cool, thanks for that! Seems like such an obvious solution, mind you so did mass dampers (now banned).

W Scott Shores · 08-27-2006, 01:06 PM

Are those wheel inserts the same concept that Porsche racers used back in the 70s and 80s?

livi · 08-27-2006, 01:11 PM

Good on Alonso. The Finnish Iceman must be furious by now though. Mr bad luck himself. I was surprised he did not start kicking the car when he stepped out of it. Poor chap.

imcarthur · imcarthur's Garage

A great race and a great track. I wish all F1 races had this kind of drama. Massa did the job well.

Ian

Doug E · 08-27-2006, 02:31 PM

Agreed ... another great race and this time with no rain. What is F1 coming to with 2 great races in a row ????

Although I'm not a big Massa fan kudos to him for a great weekend. He beat MS straight up in qualifying to grab the pole and then drove a terrific race.

FA and MS put on a great show. IF MS could ever have gotten by him before T8 I'm guessing he would have pulled away. His 1st and 3rd sector times were what kept him close to FA and allowed him to make up what he lost in the 2nd sector.

As for poor Kimi I don't think he could even buy any luck at this point.

Lots of other good stuff from today but did anybody else catch Vitonio's move at the start ? He picked up something like 7 places by T2 !!!!

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

Webber had a great start too.

You have to wonder though...luck is luck, but at some point is it something else? Webber has had mechanicals almost every race. Is it the car, or the way he drives it? Same with Kimi. It will be interesting to see them both in different rides...

jeffgrant · 03:13 PM

Fantastic race, lots of passing, and was very enjoyable to watch. Well worth getting up at pre-dawn for.

I was even pleasantly surprised to see how Michael was so congratulatory to Massa in the post-race interview, commending him on his first pole and win before talking about anything else. Nice bit of class that sometimes seems to be missing from him.

It was pretty touching watching Massa getting all teary and emotional while explaining his "lifelong dream to win a race with Ferrari".

It was nice to see Michael grinning like he was when he got out of the car at the end of the race... like he really enjoyed dicing it up with Alonso.

It was quite interesting to see the effect of Charlie Whiting's "we have a championship brewing" speech to the drivers... all the slow cars got WELL out of they way when they saw FA or Schumi coming up on them... they pulled well off and slowed well down until they had both gone by. It wasn't just a case of giving them a bit of room... they practically pulled over and parked.

I also think it'll be interesting to see what happens with Ferrari's "brake ducts" (I call them wheel fans).

Matchet had some very interesting comments on them, saying that they were NOT allowed to be part of the wheel, as the wheels had to be one solid piece, and nothing could be bolted on to them. Ferrari is saying that they are, in fact, brake ducting, but in that case, Matchet says that they are NOT allowed to change them during the race, which they are in fact doing when they change tires/wheels.

He also made a point that protests like that are usually raised AFTER the race so that it maximizes the potential of penalties, not allowing Ferrari to change things before the race to stay legal. Better to complain about it after the race so that sanctions (loss of points?) are assigned after the fact.

It'll be interesting to see what they have to say about it over the next couple of days.

All in all, I'll be up and watching the next race!

Exciting stuff.

PS: The only thing that I didn't like was the fact that Masa was SOOO far ahead that you never got to see him on any of the coverage! You didn't even get to see him cross the finish line, if I remember correctly, as they were all focused on the FA/MS race for 2nd.

imcarthur · imcarthur's Garage

I also thought it was good sportsmanship for the lapped cars to 'jump' out of the way. Maybe they can bring the 'gentlemen' bit back to F1. MS has never adhered to this though.

And you're right. Where was Massa's finish? If that had been MS the camera would have been glued to him. Oh, yeah . . . it was . . .

Ian

jeffgrant · 08-27-2006, 03:25 PM

Well, I guess you can't blame them for sticking to the FA/MS battle as they did, as it had WAY more "importance" than Massa winning his first race... but still, even a quick 3 second take over to Massa as he won would have been nice!