Garry McCoy has left FB Corse now... coincidence?

When McCoy was making monkeys of the best riders in the world in 2000 (albeit largely due to his genius switch to 16" wheels) he was riding a Red Bull Yamaha.

Colin's contractual commitments could be worked around, as could the rules that block Spies' move up. Toseland would be a retrograde step. Crutchlow? Maybe in Tech 3 if Colin moved.

There's one guy who's free that can still rip the track up; former MotoGP winner and WSB champ - Mr T. Bayliss. That would be mega.

Webber's move is something I used to do a lot in LFS when I drove and it usually worked, mainly because it put people in an unusual and uncomfortable position on track. Some people back off, some people do a Vettel (with not the same consequences in a game of course) and some people go for it anyway.

I even had one of the FM team hotlappers deliberately crash me on their server as revenge because when he overtook me I "wasn't supposed to be in to be in the middle of the track" so he got spooked and ran off the road.

One car width plus one inch - that's all you should expect. If you don't think it's enough room then back off. Lesson learned for Seb and a statement that Webber had to make. If he had just given the corner to Vettel that would have been a psychological blow he maybe could not recover from. This is Webber's one chance to win the WDC and everyone knows he's ready to mix it if he has to.

Quote from Boris Lozac :

Well they want us and Mercedes to respect that rule about not being legal to race if the SC car started the last lap.

The rule says nothing about if the safety car starts the last lap. It is about if the race is to finish under SC conditions. Slightly different.

It seems Charlie Whiting has cocked up the finishing procedure. Finishing under the Safety Car would, it would seem, involve the SC driving into the pit and no requirement for messages from Race Control. How can the race finish under the SC if Race Control state it is coming in. That, along with the green flags, would suggest that 40.13 would not apply.

What should have happened:

• No instruction on the SC from Race Control
  
• SC drives into pitlane
  
• Yellow flags remain
  
• Everyone tootles over the line
  

As it didn't, it seems a tad unfair that Schumacher gets punished. Alonso was clearly also racing at that point, whatever Domenicali said afterwards.

Well done Mark Webber! Seb's really on the back foot psychologically now. Wonder how he will react to being trounced twice in a week?

It's a shame they've sanitised the track in recent years, especially turn 1, the swimming pool section and La Rascasse.

Would be fantastic if they could get rid of the chicane so they could run through the tunnel and flat along the seafront to Tabac - might get to overtake then.

In the early 90s, yes he did. Mansell and Prost won championships in Newey Williams.

Don't know - haven't got work to book any flights yet. Could also go from Birmingham. Didn't realise you just wanted a driver so you could get hammered

The roof half open like that should provide some handy extra downforce.

Quote from felplacerad :

Yes. The flight tickets have been booked already.

Yeah, but does the car have to be dropped off at Stansted, or would Gatwick be okay?

I'm on business in Southampton on Thursday then was planning to get the train to Wales. It wouldn't be too much of a pain to get the train to Stansted on Friday and help you out but only if I could drop the Fiat off at Gatwick on Sunday.

Does it have to be Stansted?

Waiting for the date.

Quote from samjh :

I have a feeling that tomorrow, Webber might regret his choice of inters. If there is heavy rain during the race start, it could spell trouble for him.

#

That rule (25.4 d) only applies to dry qual and a dry race start.

Quote from JCTK :

if I remembered correctly, it would have been Toyota and BAR, which were both disastrous...

and they both have plenty of money and much more time to prepare for their first season compared to the poor folks this year, but still pretty much came last anyway...

BAR was previously Tyrell.

Toyota had limitless amounts of money and a sportscar programme to test components and systems. They actually did okay in their first season and under the current system would have been regular scorers.

AS3R would be good. Nice wide track but short enough to get lots of lappery action. Reverse makes the chicane much more interesting and the last turn is marvellous.

Yeah - usually fighting you!

Seems an appropriate event for a one-off appearance. Depending on the schedule (and track!) I'm in.

Quote from TiJay :

Thanks for the help! When the ABS comes on it doesn't seem to be stopping any quicker, I'd assume it'd be a hard, sudden stop but it slows at a "normal braking" pace.

ABS isn't really about stopping quicker, it's about stopping in a more controlled manner. Lock all four wheels and Isaac Newton's doing the steering for you. With ABS you can still steer the car.

The arguing stops in March when they hit the track in the same car.

You can't compare seasons by the points totals anyway. In seasons past we had top 6 with 9 points for the win, dropped scores, 11 race seasons, 16 race seasons, 19 race seasons. Better reliability also inflates the scores of the modern front runner.

I do prefer lower points totals though. NASCAR, for which drivers rack up thousands of points (and then have them reset) and even IRL with 50 for the win is too much. The more points on offer the more meaningless it looks on the table.

He won't be the same, but providing he recognises and embraces the changes he will still be able to perform at the highest level. Ryan Giggs is a good example. In his youth he was a fleet footed pacey winger - the type that England have desperately needed for his entire career. As he has aged he has developed into a more rounded attacking midfielder and won Footballer of the Year recently.

The new no refuelling rule change will benefit Schumi in this respect. For the past years a Grand Prix has actually been 2, 3 or 4 sprints glued together by pitstops. Not any more. A more considered approach to tyre management, like we had in the early 80s, will be to his advantage.

Also, although not as old, Lauda took a lengthy break, came back and was competitive.

You can't really copare an old boxer to an old F1 driver, however as with any sport there are always examples of golden oldies - Bernard Hopkins for example.

I don't see why a fired up 41 year old can't be better than a tired and jaded 38 year old.

Schumacher has never had a contract stating he is the number one driver and others must fall in behind him. Irvine said it himself - he made himself number one by driving faster than his team mates. Occasionally they then had to put the team before themselves but it's not like Rubens moved over every race for Schumi - 95% of the time he was behind because he was slower.

It's a great benchmark for Nico. He's blown away team mates so far but now he has one that can provide a decent measure of the young German's true ability.

It's not my fault you miss the point.

Most people haven't driven a Bentley Continental GT, so saying "a GT is like a Bentley Continental GT" isn't really a criteria. It's a bit like describing the colour blue to someone with monochromatic vision as "you know, bluey".

That's what I'm getting at - it fits that fella's three criteria for a GT so the question is, "what else?"