Musings on Formula 1

[herr_oberst]

• Monaco will always be fun to watch, especially the in-car, and the shots coming out of the tunnel, but man, what a procession. Jean Todt, please do something. The most exciting thing these days is qualifying and the start of the race.

• Schumacher should retire. The ruling should stand. The appeal should be thrown out. And I am (was?) a fan of his. Strike two at Monaco.
F1 News > Schumacher Penalised, Mercedes Appeals

• Vettel is his own manager/agent. How is this even possible with the kinds of salaries out there today?

• What is up with Lewis Hamilton arguing on the radio with his team? Not a fan of his, and less so now...

• Anybody see Rubinho throw the steering wheel? Ooh, repercussions!

18 inch wheels for F1 cars. (just in the negotiation stage now, but they are talking about doing it.) Boy, that will change everything. (and why they didn't ditch the 13's years ago is beyond me.)

(here is a quick photoshop of what the current Ferrari might look like with 18's)

[450knotOffice]

Why should Schumacher retire?

[cashflyer]

How will the Ferrari look with 24's?
They got to get with the times!


Perelli tires next season?
In November, they said No.
Now they say, Sure - as long as we are "sole source".
Or has FIA forgiven Michelin for the 2005 USGP?
And Cooper/Avon is out of the running.


Hambone always struck me as a primadonna. Or actually, a spoiled kid.

Rubinho will pay for that mistake.

Isn't Webber's agent his girlfriend?
Not a smart move, IMO.

[s_morrison57]

I wonder how much that sterring wheel cost?

[Joeaksa]

How about Button a couple of races ago radioing the pits complaining that someone would not move from in front of him? Wanker, pass the guy or shut up!

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by s_morrison57

I wonder how much that sterring wheel cost?

From what I've read, between $30-$50,000.

[MattKellett]

Mark Webber has made me serve myself a dish of cow!

I told my friends many many times he would NEVER win a GP, not because he didn't have the skill, but because he's so damn unlucky. In the same vein as Chris Amon, during his time in F1, Andretti said of him "if he became an undertaker, people would stop dying"

One other observation - with the internet, there's too damn much dissection of the whole sport. I'm sick and tired of hearing of off track issues, who got the biggest ego etc etc, what ever happened to just watching the race and discussing the on track action, but oh no, everything now is taken to the minute detail, driver's interviews are spun in one direction or another or taken totally out of context.

And one more thing - I don't give a damn about team radio communications, all they seem to add is something for everyone to get riled up about! In the heat of the battle I'm sure any of us would say some of the ridiculous things we hear.

p.s..... Joe, Button's not a wanker! He's a tosser

[Porschephile944]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

....Isn't Webber's agent his girlfriend?
Not a smart move, IMO.

Didn't Webbers agent used to be the older dude from Renault who was bonking Heidi Klum(could have been some other super model) a few years ago, but is now banned from F1 because of 'crashgate'?

I would like to see the multi-year driver contracts go away, go to a race to race deal so that the best cars attract the current best drivers. There also needs to be in season testing. It is absolutely ridiculous to try to develop a car without it, even on a limited basis, 4 scheduled days during the season would suffice imo.

On Schumacher; Ross brawn is making a fool of himself imo. We all know that he is in love with Micheal, but Nico is doing far far better then Micheal with the short wheelbase car. I believe Nico was second in the championship before Monaco. Ross should be using Michael to develop the car for next year while allowing Nico to run for the championship this year, which he has some chance at winning with the short wheelbase car. Micheal has also proven himself to be an excellent development driver.

Whats happened to Vettle in the last few races? He was dominating at the beginning of the year but kept DNFing because of mechanical problems. Now he can't seem to put together a decent run for pole or for the win.

[sammyg2]

The rule states that IF a race is completed under the yellow, the safety car will exit the course and the positions will stand.

But suppose they decided to pull the safety car in and go green and let them race the final lap?
the safety car would exit the track, the green flags would come out, and over the radio the drivers would hear safety car clear, green flag. Then the drivers would nail it and race to the flag.
That is exactly what happened.

Schumi got the green flag, he was notified green flag, safety car clear over the radio, and he started racing again.
See kiddies, green means go to us grown-ups
If they wanted to play pretend they could have just pulled in the safety car and not given the drivers a green flag. They could have NOT given the drivers the all clear, green flag notification. Wouldn't that have been a little less confusing?

It's a stupid rule made by stupid people. F1 doesn't want to admit they finished a race under a yellow for PR reasons so they invented a stupid rule. They wanted to pretend it was green, but they wanted the drivers to pretend it was still yellow. Completely BS penalty on a BS rule.

Oh, BTW. The tard that ruled a 20 second penalty instead of putting Schumi back one spot? An old nemesis of Shumi's, who's thunder and spotlight Michael stole years ago. Paybacks are forever beotch!

[sammyg2]

And hambone is showing that how much class and brains he has (or doesn't have).
The wheels will come off soon enough and he will crash hard, and I'm not talking about a race car.

[nostatic]

It is an odd course - the safety car pulls of right before start finish so it likely depends on what they mean by the safety car being "in." Typical logic would be that the lap is yellow until the leader hits start finish, then they'd go green. But in this case that is the end of the race. I assumed when I was watching that they'd just finish the race on full course yellow and/or behind the safety car. Weird...

[911Freak]

The "man hole cover" yellow reminded me of a NASCAR faux "yellow for debris" to bunch the field.. anyone else find that a little convenient? Nothing really came of it from what I could tell, but who knows what might have happened.. A push for more action as it was a yawner at that point...

[helenk579]

Thank you so much for your post.

[oldE]

I was pleased to watch Alonso get out of shape on the last corner on the final restart so Michael got by, then less so when I heard the ruling and remember: under a normal restart, the safety car pulls off at the pit lane and the leader becomes the safety car until the Start/Finish line. No passing before that. Fair ruling. (I just don't care for Alonso.)

The steering wheel. Big mistake for Reubens. He tossed that thing onto the track into the path of another car. He should indeed pay for that one.

There were comments during the race regarding possibly dropping the blue flags for back-markers. If the leaders want to get by, let 'em figure a way. Should create some additional passing opportunities as groups of leading cars encounter traffic.

If I were Hamilton's agent, I would lobby for a black-out on his radio transmissions. He is usually heard whining about his engineer's instructions. Grow up son.

Nico's strategy nearly worked. He was banging out some great laps before his stop, but Webber got back onto the track in front of him, slowing Nico down for a couple of laps. After his stop, he came out behind a three car gaggle. A few more laps at the pace he had been doing would have seen him in 4th or 5th.

I agree the processional races are disappointing. Perhaps they should randomly soak the track, or assign grid positions by lottery. I understand why they race at Monace, but the track is quite unsuited to F1 cars.

Les

[Lothar]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Schumi got the green flag, he was notified green flag, safety car clear over the radio, and he started racing again.
See kiddies, green means go to us grown-ups
If they wanted to play pretend they could have just pulled in the safety car and not given the drivers a green flag. They could have NOT given the drivers the all clear, green flag notification. Wouldn't that have been a little less confusing?

SO maybe MSC's team is to blame for not advising him of the rule, which I heard was modified just before this season. That said, I think the FIA works hard to make the sporting regs as complicated as possible to keep racing attorneys busy.

[cashflyer]

Mercedes has conceded.
BBC Sport - F1 - Mercedes rule out appeal against Schumacher penalty

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

The tard that ruled a 20 second penalty instead of putting Schumi back one spot? An old nemesis of Shumi's, who's thunder and spotlight Michael stole years ago. Paybacks are forever beotch!

You mean Damon Hill, who's actually a decent guy, not a tard, regardless of how shcumi crashed into him in OZ years ago.... Well, just to get the facts straight he's just the ex-driver "advisor" to the stewards. He does not make the decision on the penalty, and even if he somehow convinced the other stewards Schumi deserved a penalty, they are in enough number to overrule him... He said so himself, and actually complained about this... Said that he was an ex driver, there to rule on "driving incidents", not qualified to be interpreting the FIA rule book... So blame the FIA ;-) Maybe it was a stupid rule.

And no, Briatore is no longer Webber's manager, since he lost Webber as a client when the FIA ruled he could not work in F1 anymore... his girlfriend is. Why not...

Agreed on Hamilton, it's pretty funny actually. Pre-season Button was given 0% odds of outshining Hamilton, yet he is acting classy even when the team effed up and blocked his cooling vent at Monaco, causing his retirement. Contrast this with Hamilton *****ing about a warning his brakes were going away... Nice study in character. I'm really happy Button (partially) lucked into 2 victories to Hamilton's zero.. . Now we can see Hammy cracking a little...