Eventfull F1 race in Valencia SPOILER

[jyl]

Looked to me like the Lotus held his line, then moved to driver's left (toward outside of turn) and began braking, if Heikki was trying to block seems he'd have moved to driver's right (toward inside of turn) and/or stayed off the brakes. Instead of moving to driver's right (diving inside of the Lotus), Webber followed to the left. Webber's actions didn't make a lot of sense, to my eyes the accident was primarily his own doing.

[URY914]

Heikki had no reason to block him. If Lotus wanted to release the data they could prove he did or did not brake early. Webber ran up his azz and he wants to blame the other guy.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

The Heikki/Webber accident was just a racing incident, the main cause was the difference in speed between one of the fastest cars and one of the slowest cars on the grid.

It's easy sat in the comfort of your own home to come up with conclusions on who was at fault but unless anyone has first hand experience of driving an F1 car then just an opinion not fact!

I'm sure if there is anyone to blame the FIA will investigate as they have access to every cars telemetry.

For me the most amazing part of the whole incident is how well Webbers car stood up to what was a huge impact.

[nostatic]

Pretty much any incident has blame with both parties - just a question of the ratio. Watching the video Kovaleinen did make a move (not clear if it was to let Webber pass or was defensive), then Webber ran up his tailpipe. In this case Kovaleinen should have either really gotten out of the way (and that does not include early braking) or maintained his line. Instead he sorta moved left then held. Webber though should have judged his closing speed better but having been in similar situations if a driver ahead of you gets out of the throttle when you're not expecting it, bad things can happen. You're expecting certain behavior from your fellow racer. When they deviate from that, then things go south.

[herr_oberst]

I agree with David Hobbs, I think HK was trying to help Webber.
Probably both of them misjudged the closing speed.
I'm really glad no one was hurt.
The 107% rule can't be implemented soon enough, although, ironically, it's the Lotus that's making the greatest performance improvements out of all the new teams.

[legion]

I think the 107% rule will kill the sport.

New teams will be driven away because they can't compete fast enough to keep their sponsors happy with the testing ban.

[Henry Schmidt]

Lift the testing ban for new teams or teams that fail to meet the 107 rule.
F1 needs new blood but that new blood needs to compete not impede.

I predict that first level teams will enlist second level teams to test new technologies.
Try the new bits on a junior team and in essence you are testing within the rules.

Seeing any new bits on the Toro Rosso?

[Red Baron]

Hamilton checked up to try and get the Ferraris stuck behind the SC,.

It looks more like he checked up because the SC almost crossed the line before the merge line

[Neilk]

Heiki qualified well within the 107% rule, so that won't affect any of the current team, I think.
As the safety car, they need to change the rules a bit. Currently it's a crap shoot based on where you are on the track. Although, Alonso was a total crybaby about it.

[emcon5]

Originally Posted by legion

I think the 107% rule will kill the sport.

New teams will be driven away because they can't compete fast enough to keep their sponsors happy with the testing ban.

Looking at the Qualifying times, all the teams were well within the 107% rule.

[nostatic]

Actually I think the bigger problem is no refueling. You have the engineers now needing to build a "compromise" car that can go fast in qualifying (light) and also perform about 300lbs heavier at the beginning of the race. If I'm a new team with limited budget, I'm going to try for the best qualifying car and then hope for the best during the race.

You bring back refueling, not only do you get more interesting racing, you've got cars that are more consistent performers during the entire race as opposed to pigs in the beginning and rabbits at the end.

[jyl]

The no fuel rule has made the tire aspect more interesting. But, all in all, I preferred the races with refueling.

I don't think the slowness of the new teams is a problem. Other forms of racing deal with much greater speed differentials, multiple classes. The top cars rarely have a problem passing the real sluggards, they get 'em on the straights.

I do think the new teams should be allowed to test more.

Also, could we please allow the two cars in a team to be painted differently enough that a guy with indifferent eyes and a SD TV can tell them apart?

I will be honest and say that I fell asleep before the penalties for safety car violations were handed out. That was a dull race. I like street courses but that one is not great. Let's have a GP in Paris! F1 cars rounding the Etoile and doing 200 mph to Place de L'Opera, that would be cool.

[Henry Schmidt]

It troubles me that we may never see F1 cars racing wheel to wheel on low fuel and fresh tires.

The best drivers in the world driving the most advanced technology, managing fuel and tyres.

Bring back ground effects, limit rpm, bring back refueling and reduce aero.

[Zeke]

I could agree with Henry but I think a really good format would be to have 2 heats like motorcycles. Get your fuel and tires at the half way point and line 'em up again.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Henry Schmidt

The best drivers in the world driving the most advanced technology, managing fuel and tyres.

Bring back ground effects, limit rpm, bring back refueling and reduce aero.

As well as manual shifting, throw away the "standard V-8 engine" (I really miss the V-12 engines!) and get the damm front wings out of the way so that they keep getting knocked off.

Agree with Todds idea as well. This "one stop race" is BS and only an idiot like Bernie could mandate something like this.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

This "one stop race" is BS and only an idiot like Bernie could mandate something like this.

and his pal "Spanky" Mosley.