Ever stop to think that there front wing assembly may require them to turn the Camera pods to get it off, if you look closely he turns the pods, then presses something underneath the nose and it comes off.

If there is Camera pod flex I don't think that would matter though because that's not exactly their design.

Quote from IsaacPrice :

Well, you can tell by watching someone drive generally whether they are getting the absolute maximum out of it or not. If someone misses 3/4 apex's in a lap, or has a huge moment and loses .3 in that 1 sector then you can tell that they aren't getting the most out of it. And if you see someone clearly on the limit, hitting the apexes nicely and yet they lose .3 in 1 sector you can see they most likely haven't got the downforce to compete. So it's hardly pointless, its actually quite fun and its surely what all the top teams have to do to get the best drivers in their car. But the main problem Kimi has in terms of "reputation" is that he struggled against Massa in qualifying(more than in races, a similar trend to Grosjean), who Alonso is now destroying in qualifying. That could be car specific so I'll admit that isn't definitive, but he hasn't really had the upper hand in qualifying against Grosjean either especially before the updates. You don't get points in qualifying, but you're making your life a lot harder starting outside the top 10 because you don't get your lap right when it matters, so I'm not saying Grosjean is better - but I don't think hes such a god in races that he can throw away 5-6 seconds at the start of a grand prix in traffic and still have a claim to be the best 1.

For a team like Lotus, he's great. If you count F1 in divisions, with Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton in the top division, Kimi has a definite claim to be best of the rest in the division below them and thats probably the best they could hope for. What Kimi did in Abu Dhabi, is what you would expect of Alonso. But yet a lot of people are like "See, Kimi is awesome." when actually, you're judged a lot more for when you make a mistake and throw away points than when you do a really good performance and get a couple more points. The thing which was amazing about Alonso's season was that he was getting those couple of extra points fairly consistently, without having any races where he was just nowhere or got it wrong(which admittedly he did at Suzuka, but when you're midpack at the start every race then I guess its inevitable that happens once, both Vettel and Hamilton have made more mistakes racing wheel to wheel this season, and they've done less of it). Thats why I'd say Vettel was lucky, because he made 2 mistakes which both could have cost him significant time, and luck was involved so it didnt.

I wanted to make it not an essay but I wanted to try and make it as balanced as I could as an Alonso fan. I guess something will always come through though

That implies Massa is as good as was as Kimis team mate now, which i don't think is the case, also Hamilton Destroyed Alonso in Qualfiying in his Rookie year, what about that?

Qualifying isn't everything, drivers like Kimi show that time and time again.

Quote from aroX123 :

,

I don't get it?

Hats off to Kobayashi Getting 6th after having a KERS failure early in the race, someone surely will sign him for next year.

I like how whenever vettel talks the cameras all point to Helmet Marko.

Quote from DevilDare :

Really wish McLaren re-signed Kimi instead of getting Perez. Wonder if there were even any talks.

I don't think Kimi could go to Mclaren again, too much of driver control freaks, other then Lotus i could only see him going to Redbull.

Quote from aroX123 :

Have you been watching the race at all or are you that dumb? Hes been the luckiest driver yet in F1 history.

Yet if anyone else does the same it means they are epic, please don't throw this crap its sad.

awesome finish to an awesome race.

Vettels 3rd, does that mean he is a great yet?

or does he have to win every single race in a season starting from last now?

Quote from Dennis93 :

@Mustafur, how much action has there been in the pits today?

No real pit battles, too many crashes offsetting everything.

Last edited by Mustafur, Sun 4 Nov 2012, 14:44.

Alonso catching hmm.

Quote from GianniC :

Why don't they make a tyre which can last a whole race? Race on, all flat out. It's such bullshit to have such gaps in times between tyres.

Because there will be no action at all, just because Vettel has tyre advantage doesn't warrant a tyre change rule.

Kimi oh you..

Bone head moves central here.

Massa spinning himself, grosjean going for gaps that don't exist, webber cutting Maldonado and thats not even the half of it, is this F1 or BTCC?

Holy crap, Grosjean career ender right there

Surely Vettel must pit he is going to hit the cliff within laps otherwise.

Happy to See kimi out front, vettel is going to be a sitting duck now i think.

Last edited by Mustafur, Sun 4 Nov 2012, 14:13.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I think it's a bit sad some of the criticism that Vettel gets. Remember his win at Monza for Toro Rosso.

I'm torn this season. I don't want Vettel to win three championships in a row, and I like Alonso, but I don't want to see Ferrari win anything ever again. I suppose one of them has to win, unless Lotus manage to nuke them both in every remaining race with a secret laser machine and also give Kimi extra tyre glue.

People are just butthurt.

Quote from Töki (HUN) :

Exactly. Time to show he deserves the title, winning from pole is piss easy anyway. Let's see how he can fight up to the front, just like Alonso did last race, or MSC in the old times.
I would like to see him battling for once...

Alonso last race wasn't really a battle to the front, it was mainly helped by the fact Ferrari had much more speed on the soft compound then Mclaren and supreme Top speed.

Quote from Intrepid :

What vid? Can't see anyone linked on here?

Anyway just in case - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqG-U2XeWgo

Davidson's point at the end is rather telling, especially for someone who's good friends with Button.

I can imagine the shareholders at McLaren asking some serious questions!

On a slight side note can't help thinking Hamilton and Alonso are doing good job of psyching Vettel out. Alonso doesn't refer to Vettel much, rather than 'the car' or flat out says Newey is the real genius. Hamilton came out with saying he doesn't consider Vettel in the same league as Alonso. Seemed to show a tad today with vettel over-driving. Despite penalty the championship is still going his way.

Considering RedBull do not look the fastest here, it will be a real test for Vettels driving Ability to get comfortably in the points, im assuming Redbull are modifying their car for a more speed set up, otherwise he will be stuck behind Force Indias and Saubers the whole race, whether he will hit someone though is the biggest question mark if he can score points or not.

Quote from TexasLTU :

Some say RB and Vettel will choose to start from pits, so they "could change gear ratios"...

Please enlighten me, if you start from pits, you can obey parc ferme rule?

Parc ferme rules only apply to those that did Qualifying, since Vettel got disqualified it doesn't apply.

Quote from Funnybear :

Red Bull win, because Red Bull effectivly cheat. Lotus has the fastest 'effective' car within the scope of the rules. And even they arn't allowed to use 'legal' updates because they've been old that even a .5 advantage will see that 'legal' advance banned.

Red Bull use soft options that can't be officially brought to book, because there can be no definative proof.

Look at the timing values race after race. Free practice times invariable go to Mclaren, Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes. They are your benchmark and when you look at their lap times it's only a few hundreths between them on any given sunday. Whilst Red Bull will continuously post sunday times .5 and above of a second faster than the competition.

They are known in the industry to cheat, the governing body knows they cheat. Lotus is arguable the first 'honest' team out there in the standings, and they are not allowed to become competative by honest means.

F1 is dying. F1 is rigged. Roll on V8 Supercars. At least they are actually racing, even if the politics is the same.

Triple 8 will be known as Red Bull next year, good luck with that.

Quote from Cornys :

I don't see the Indy 500 disappearing though, and the series would remain together around that regardless of the number of races I beleive.

What body would take over that race should Indy fold? None that exists right now. That's why Indy couldn't fold all together. Maybe they will continue on a minimized number of races, but not fold. F1 runs the Indy 500 in 2015 (kidding)

On a serious note though, how can a series shoot its self in the foot so many times an so often? I never knew it was possible.. It's sad to see. I really thought that Randy was doing a great job with the series. Much better than I've seen in the series in past years by miles..

We may still have the 500 but that alone can't pay for the rest of the series, one race year is basically dead.

Its sad to think Indy had bernie worried about its success back in the early 90s before Tony George made a change to that, with Him back in charge I would give indy 2 more years tops before it has to fold all together.

The problem is TG is a big fan of indy which wouldn.t be a problem if he had a clue about business, he couldn't even make vision racing work.

Indy needs a dictator who in turn owns the series but they need to have a clue what they are doing, giving it to a guy who has had everything handed to him in life with zero business skills is not going to end well ever.