Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Ah yes, but that wasn't really him making a brave call, rather him being a child and ignoring his teams rules and compromising the teams performance out of arrogance or ignorence, or both.

Poor team play by Massa today, that will come back to hurt him later on in the season. Alonso was clearly faster and potentially good enough to take Kubica. Massa doesn't want to be creating any tension between himself and Alonso, because Ferrari won't be getting rid of Alonso if they are forced to make a choice between the two, especially if they can land Kubica in his place.

EDIT: @ Jertje, Button cried on the radio last year saying how terrible his car was on more than one occasion.

but he wasn't criticising the team...
he was just saying the car was terrible on those set of tyres, which it was.
And he was probably trying to see if the team can find something to advice him on how to make the situation better...

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Which one was that? I remember the incident where he got stuck in the worlds smallest gravel trap after staying out on rubbish tyres too long, but I don't know if that was his call or not. Either way if the driver is not willing to make his own call at the time then they can't complain if the teams decision doesn't play out.

the infamous Hungary 2007 qualifying...

Lewis need to learn (and he's still learning and is willing to learn, no doubt about it) that it's always easier to think better on hindsights, than a heart pumping split second decision on strategy.

I think after this weekend, Button has a pretty good shot of trying to get the team behind him.

Got this quote from Martin Whitmarsh about having more overtaking:

"If you have a bunch of hooligans, put them in the cars making mistakes, you'll have a bit of a spectacle, but it's more like World Wrestling Federation"

Good point, but I thought they've long change their name to World Wrestling Entertainment~?

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Hamilton thrashed his car for the entire race, he rarely had more than 5 or 6 laps free to run his own line. Everyone knows following other cars and overtaking works your tyres much harder. But I think part of the problem is Hamilton doesn't seem to make calls based on what he thinks is best, if he didn't want to change tyres then he should say so, the same way Button called his pitstop when he wanted it. I thought he would have learnt that by now, F1 is not all about strategists in dark rooms looking at numbers on a monitor, the person behind the wheel has the most information.

the last time Lewis did his own thing, he got grilled by everyone too... lol

Quote from amp88 :

One of the most interesting things I took from today's race was the difference in reaction between Vettel and Hamilton. Vettel had a car failure and this is what he said:



When McLaren arguably got the strategy wrong (but we don't know if Hamilton could have made it to the end considering we all know he's hard on tyres) this is what he said:



The difference in reaction tells you all you need to know about these drivers. One's a team player and the other's arrogant, selfish, immature and petty.

a kid is a kid... I don't blame him for being angry, but he didn't need to say that in public... I bet a few hours later Hamilton would be "amending" that statement through, after having the chance being taught by the PR people...

Button did a very good job at the press conference brushing off the questions regarding the strategies too, and then thanking the teams and stuff like that~

Quote from Intrepid :

Major fail from McLaren with Hamilton. What in Christ's name were they thinking? lol

When they saw the fastest lap from Schumacher so they got worried~?

McLaren weren't known for having good strategies in these conditions over the years...

Quote from DoC_uk :

Was amused by lewis thinking dirty air was tire graining

following a car in the dirty air does make you work the tyres harder too, and that probably grained his tyres a bit~?

But he gotta learn that hindsight is a wonderful thing, instead of complaining it in the car during the race. On hindsight it was his stupidity that lost him the 07 title too...

Quote from DoC_uk :

ok , maybe just maybe racing incident .. if im honest i dont like the guy and im a brit ... what ya gonna do ?

big hand to Kubica also

I don't like Schumacher nor Alonso, so yeah IT'S THEIR FAULT~!

Lewis was crying on the radio saying it's a terrible idea to pit (before the crash), and I think he'd be saying something much worse than that now~

Quote from DoC_uk :

Maybe not turned in on button while he was 3/4 over lapped ..?

Michael Schumacher was on the outside turning in already...

And it's not like any of the three could've braked any harder at that point, everyone was committed, it didn't work out, and that's it.

(same applies to LFS, if someone is on their max braking capabilities and tap the back of someone, there're nothing they could've done to avoid it once they're commmitted.)

if that's LFS, everyone would be pressing 1 to ban Webber~! lol

shame on Red Bull, fastest car by a country miles, just 2 points in the end...

and he will not have a good time at V8s neither...

Alex Yoong tried it and failed pretty badly, and he was only in the junior categories of the V8s too...

Button went to the dry tyres, that's STUPID~!

oh wait... he's setting pink setors time once he got it up to temperature...

Quote from Boris Lozac :

I thought i knew english pretty well, but once in a while, new word pops up.. "impounded".. i'm guessing, they took his car?

Anyway, Vetell is just crazy fast, love watching him from the cockpit camera, i hope they don't have anything ilegall on the car, or at least not something that will have them dominate like Brawn last year.. I want even fields among top 4 teams this year..
Haven't sleep yesterday for qualies, so i guess i'll have to do it for the race too 2 coffies on work, and then some energy drink when i get home..

yeah they took "his" Merc away for 28 days or something. Havn't updated myself on the law in Oz cos I wouldn't have a car capable of doing anything like that anyway...

the irony in that was, he was making the fans happy, and he got grilled for doing it... lol

Quote from J@tko :

Probably yet another "ZOMG they've got something that makes them faster that we haven't thought of and we can't put on till Spain - lets get it banned!".

Unless it really is "active ride height", but I can't see Newey doing that - they would be found out pretty soon and lose so many points. It must at least be semi-legal.

Red Bull sounded pretty confident they ain't using any device similar to the type described in the press.

But then think back to winter testing, teams were only complaining about the McLaren rear wings, we didn't hear anything about the F-duct until Bahrain. So lets give the press or the teams another week or two to fully understand what's going on in that Red Bull car...

Quote from Furiously-Fast :

Sigh, Austrailia seems to be Lewis's bad luck country. But the police there are just too harsh. C'mon, he is a racing driver, sheesh. That officer that booked him was probably bullied in school and has a sour life now.

well unfortunately the laws for us people down under is that police do have the power to impound whatever/whoever vehicle it's that'd been seen smoking their tyres or speeding by over a certain km/h or having boy racers behaviour or something like that~ XD

Harsh, but something they'll have to obey to. And that's tough luck for Lewis "giving something to the fans"... lol

Would be nice to see what they do to the WRC cars when (and if) they head down under through... those bastards were doing over 150km/h on the motorway in their WRC cars the last time I tried following one, but it was a few years ago already... lol

Quote from DoC_uk :

Yup its possible i guess ..

I was wrong about who was asking questions , its Ross Brawn and Martin Whitmarsh who has asked the FIA to clarify .. the following is a quote from autosport

Red Bull Racing in particular may be using a clever mechanical system - perhaps based around a ratchet - that will allow the team to run a low ride height in qualifying yet can adjust itself to be well suited for the heavier fuel loads needed in the race.

Is it really possible to generate that much more downforce given the stringent peramiters the teams have to adhere to ?

An advantage is an advantage, doesn't matter how big or small~

Quote from DevilDare :

If it is then it will be quite funny and ironical, because, and correct me if I'm wrong, Red Bull were the first ones to complain about Mclarens F-Duct thing, no?

they were the first one to sort of openly talked about it with the press...

but who else other than Ferrari that'd made a bigger fuss of it to the FIA~?

Quote from KartRacer :

@JTCK: Not that far off this season. More than 1/2 (54%) are street or road courses. What they do need is some more permanent road courses, to replace just a couple of the ovals. Get rid of Iowa and Kentucky and substitute Road America and Laguna Seca.

Street Courses(6) 35%
Streets of Sao Paulo
Streets of Saint Petersburg
Barber Motorsports Park
Streets of Long Beach
Streets of Toronto
Edmonton City Centre Airport

Road Courses(3) 18%
Watkins Glen International
Mid-Ohio Sports car Course
Infineon Raceway

Ovals(8) 47%
Kansas Speedway
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Texas Motor Speedway
Iowa Speedway
Chicagoland Speedway
Kentucky Speedway
Twin Ring Motegi
Homestead-Miami Speedway

and I hope they could head down to Surfers again~

Looking at the list of oval, they should only keep Indy, Texas, Motegi (because of Honda, but they could always use the road course there instead), and Miami, and perhaps Chicagoland. The rest isn't really a must-have. And yeah, Road America and Laguna Seca is a much better option than some of these ovals. Although racing at Laguna Seca gets pretty boring at times because it ain't easy to pass there...

Quote from lizardfolk :

I disagree, I think they should get rid of kansas and kentucky and replace them with Rockingham and Eurospeedway. The races there are usually fantastic especially CART at Lausitzring.

I dont know about you but I think Edmonton is kinda boring. Laguna Seca is a much better place. So...I say...keep the number of oval races (they have JUST enough) and replace some street courses with permanent road courses (Laguna Seca, Brands Hatch).

Personally tho, I think Indycar has a but too little oval races but I'm not complaining. If they continue to slash the number of oval races then I'll be fairly angry. But for now it's a pretty decent schedule.

the problem is, no it won't work at Eurospeedway and Rockinham because no one would go there, so no one would want to be the organiser and lose a bucketload of money...

So Sato finally got back to racing again... and he continues his tradition of Sato-ing someone at the very first corner and cause a big mess behind~ XD

if the IRL can go to around 40% road course, 30% streets, and 30% ovals, then I think it'd be a pretty good mix. I don't like too many ovals races...

now that American open wheels are united again, and Tony George got kicked out as well, hopfully it can go back to its full strength during the CART days...

there's another site out there... but since my old computer is dead I couldn't find the link to that place again...

Quote from amp88 :

Hamilton race under threat. I've got to say I'm not heart-broken about this news. The Hamilton track was massively hyped just like Sydney and Abu Dhabi, but in the end they haven't been very good. Would love to see the V8s go back to Pukekohe (even just on the old track, but even better with an extension that I believe has been talked about in the past) or Hampton Downs. Would also like to see Eastern Creek back on the calendar, a real permanent track replacement for Oran Park and some major reworking done on Barbagallo.

Hamilton stole the V8s and WRC from Auckland, about time they give it back to us~! lol

The last time I heard anything about Pukekohe is that it's pretty dead as a race track for major events, so Hampton Downs seems like the much better option~!

Quote from Intrepid :

It's not the fuel that's the problem. It's the tyre option regulations. Having to use two separate compounds forces everyone onto the same tyre saving strategy.

Also engine and gearbox saving is another issue as well as well as the aero factor.

I wonder how much the OWG were paid ?

I think what dictated the strategy was when they saw the pace of Kubica after he pitted for a brand new set of prime. Everyone was in the 2'02 and Kubica suddenly did a 2'01 on the lap after his out lap. Then Lewis came in pretty much immediately after they saw that, and everyone else has to respond to that in order not to lose the positions... (But that one lap with new tyres was enough for Lewis to jump Nico, and for Button to jump Webber)

What I think will happen in future races are that the top 4 teams will pit whenever they opened enough of a gap to enable them to come out with plenty of free air, and everyone will pit within a lap or two of each other. There are no points not pitting if your brand sparkling new set of prime is worth a sec a lap, and will last for the whole race anyway...

and I guess the OWG is paid a lot by the FIA. After all, that extra $100m from McLaren is a pretty handsome amount of money to share some of it to Max's mates...

Quote from samjh :

Perhaps mandatory tyre stops should be introduced. Martin Whitmarsh suggested it after the race, and although he suggested banning the DDD as well, it's too late for the latter. It's not too late for compulsory two or three tyre stops though. We might actually see drivers really pushing then.

Ban the DDD and introduce limited ground-effect next year, please.

but with such a rule change mid-season is usually quite hard...

but getting Bridgestone to mess around the tyre compound is relatively easy and no one could do anything about it, as long as they keep it to the specification/size required in the regulation~

Quote from Mustafur :

Agree on the compounds rule, if that goes racing will be much better, however, with less pit stops its more boring because the cars will never overtake so atleast with the fuel stops there was a variation in the field.

and with fuel stops at least you got a mechanism of some sort to attempt to pass someone...

In this race, the top teams pitted pretty early, and all did so within a couple of laps, and then everyone just cruise home for the remaining 3/5 or 2/3 of the race. If you couldn't pass someone during that one and only early pit stop, you're pretty much screwed. (Eg. Button and Webber held up behind big Schu...)