Quote from mr grady :

what???

he can have 3 heads as far as im concerned.

he has shown what a great RACING driver he is.

what a credit to the Mclaren team and his country he is.

Well is there anything really to be that surprised about, really?

Hamilton is a very good driver, there is no doubting that but he is at this level because of the support he has had for the majority of his career.

Where the majority of drivers he was competing against are struggling to raise the budget to compete he has been able to focus 100% on the driving knowing Ron would pay for it.

I can't understand why people keep calling him a rookie as if it was his first ever year racing when he has raced most of his life. GP2 also seems to be a better feeder series to F1.

His confidence into T1 was exceptional once again. Especially around the outside of Massa who just seemed to be driving like a pensioner in comparison.

Lewis' race craft was pretty good to. Taking Massa deep into T4 and then doing it again but this time making Massa brake far too late. The thing I questioned before the season was has Massa calmed down under pressure and the answer seems to be no. His race craft was poor trying to pass Lewis and to get caught out on the brakes twice at the same corner was very amateurish.

Can Hamilton win this year? He sure can and even Alonso has openly said so. McLaren have got two very strong drivers and as long as the car keeps going like this I can see them at least taking the constructors this year. Massa is the weak point in the chain for Ferrari IMO. He can be mighty quick but he lacks the ability to deal with pressure.

A pitty to see Nico retire from such a strong drive and disapointing that Kubica had so many problems. That guy really impressed me last year but doesn't seem to be having much luck so far. Good job by Rubens considering he started from pitlane. He seems to have Jenson on his back foot at the moment.

Roll on another McLaren VS Ferrari battle next week!

Roll on another McLaren VS Ferrari battle next week!



^^ True that one man.. lol

Do we have a section similiar to this in LFS?


The section of corners 7 and 8...
It is such a great flowing corner, especially drives great with an F1 car.. but now that it think of it, i don't know if we have such a section in LFS.. Do we?

No we really don't have any double (or triple, like in Turkey) apex corners that flow nicely.

Only thing similar is seen at Kyoto GP, but its not quite the same.

Hamilton does have luck on his side. Mclaren somehow stopped breaking down AND are quick. Kovolainen has bad luck, Renault isn't half as drivable and a lot slower as a result. It could've been the other way round. Considering the circumstances, its 'easier' to do well in a Mclaren than it is to do so in a Renault.

Lewis seems to do well, absolutely, but its deffo a lot of good fortune regarding the car this year.

Quote from Boris Lozac :

Do we have a section similiar to this in LFS?


The section of corners 7 and 8...
It is such a great flowing corner, especially drives great with an F1 car.. but now that it think of it, i don't know if we have such a section in LFS.. Do we?

The closest to that we have is at fern bay. The corners at kyoto are too small.

the first sequence of corner on KY long rev is quite like that, although at much slower speed

I'd be more interested to get these into LFS.

Imho Tilke has made very good tracks with nice corners, wouldn't mind seeing some of them in LFS

Regarding hamilton, i do get a bit miffed when folks say he is "lucky" because the car is fast and reliable.
thats what every F1 driver requires to win.
as far as lewis being brought into F1 because ron dennis paid for his racing, i say fair play.
ron must have seen something he liked in lewis many years ago. it could have backfired and ron could have had a "Zanardi situation" like williams did a few seasons ago.
i believe that in F1, the yardstick a driver must use to gauge himself against is his teammate. lewis is in the position of measuring himslf against alonso, the double world champion who beat schumacher into retirement.......and i think he is doing a bloody good job so far, for a F1 ROOKIE (not racing rookie)

comments?

Quote from Hyperactive :

I'd be more interested to get these into LFS.

Imho Tilke has made very good tracks with nice corners, wouldn't mind seeing some of them in LFS

nooo, the braking zone into 14 is the devil's corner. nearly impossible. if it was in LFS, about 2 cars would finish the race


I agree with grady, although he did get a very decent car on his first year, he has the raw pace and driving ability that seperates him from every new driver who comes into F1, crashes a few people and remains a test driver the rest of their lives. Remember his GP2 drive at turkey? that was in the same car as everyone else and he completely blitzed everybody.

Quote from mr grady :

comments?

TBH Hamilton has done more than well in his 2 first races. But I'd like to wait few months before making any strong opinions about him. Same with Mclaren. I'm sure they will face the reliability issues later on this season. Renault will get better, Honda should improve A LOT but as a whole the first two races have had some exciting bits already. Super Aguri's speed is imho the biggest surprise. And Sato has so far had only one incident

Quote from Niels Heusinkveld :

Kovolainen

just say "that other Finn with annoying surname" if you can't spell it

Great race. McLaren are surprising reliable (as it seems), and quite fast but I do believe that Ferrari will jump back to the front in Bahrain. Raikkonen drove the wheels off the Ferrari in that last stint when he made up about 12 seconds in 10 laps. That simply was astounding.

I have to say though, I think the controlled tyres make for more competitive racing.

Can't wait for Bahrain! :checkered

Quote from DeKo :

Remember his GP2 drive at turkey? that was in the same car as everyone else and he completely blitzed everybody.

Whilst it was a good drive, those cars aren't exactly the same. Whilst GP2 is a one make series, money still wins.

The team with the biggest budget will be able to afford the expense of immense preparation and making sure that every part on that car is the best it can be within the regulations.

Has the same team not won the title two years running now?

Quote from OneCrazyDiamond :

Great race. McLaren are surprising reliable (as it seems), and quite fast but I do believe that Ferrari will jump back to the front in Bahrain. Raikkonen drove the wheels off the Ferrari in that last stint when he made up about 12 seconds in 10 laps. That simply was astounding.

I have to say though, I think the controlled tyres make for more competitive racing.

Can't wait for Bahrain! :checkered

But then those laps Kimi were pounding in towards the end were only matching Alonso on pace who I doubt was right on the ragged edge.

I'll be interested to see how Lewis goes at Bahrain, he seemed to be on his back foot in Maylisia considering how much mileage he put in around there in testing over Alonso's 0.

Quote from OneCrazyDiamond :

Raikkonen drove the wheels off the Ferrari in that last stint when he made up about 12 seconds in 10 laps. That simply was astounding.

I'd say that the harder compound both Räikkönen and Hamilton had on the last stint just didn't work that well on the McLaren it worked on the Ferrari. It was exciting to watch, but like few times before there wasn't enough laps.

this race bought up a remark we made at work after first gp this year.

whilst kimi was supreme in front at first race, massa stagnated as he came behind cars with closer performance to the ferrari in first race

in this race massa struggled to pass hamilton and eventually made a mess of it, he then was unable to get past the BMW.

kimi was either unable or unwilling to make a pass attempt on hamilton in the run up to the first pit despite being all over massa. though he maybe was having engine issues.

now the comment made was that maybe the ferrari has an aero setup which doesnt react well to other cars in front of it.

any thoughts ?

Quote from Davo :

The closest to that we have is at fern bay. The corners at kyoto are too small.

That looks close enough, i gotta chek those since i barely ever drive on Fern Bay...

BTW, i love your iritating avatars!

Quote from tinvek :

this race bought up a remark we made at work after first gp this year.

whilst kimi was supreme in front at first race, massa stagnated as he came behind cars with closer performance to the ferrari in first race

in this race massa struggled to pass hamilton and eventually made a mess of it, he then was unable to get past the BMW.

kimi was either unable or unwilling to make a pass attempt on hamilton in the run up to the first pit despite being all over massa. though he maybe was having engine issues.

now the comment made was that maybe the ferrari has an aero setup which doesnt react well to other cars in front of it.

any thoughts ?

Find an F1 team that doesn't have problems. Thats why Alonso and Hamilton were in such a rush to get past the Ferraris in the first two corners. Get into that half second to a second zone behind another car and unless you have a significant pace advantage your going to struggle to get close enough. Massa was on the tail of that McLaren a few times, off the last corner especially. F1 has been like this for years, and made worse in 2005 by the FIAs regulation changes.

Massa had a few places where better race craft he'd have pulled off a move. He had Lewis no problem into T4 but obviously Hamilton took him into the corner too hot. Stupid mistake to make twice IMO.

I think Kimi is being smart and driving with his head. It's only the second race and he knows that Ferrari is quick enough to win. Whats the point in risking losing a possible 10 points to Alonso? 2 points down is nothing compared to the 10 he could have had he clashed with Lewis.

Watch how Alonso won the title in 06, he may have not had the fastest car but he was consistently picking up handfuls of points.

Quote from aoun :

Yep, and i never thought id see a championship winning team go down the drain so fast these days..

How about Ferrari in 2005? Ferrari won all but three races in 2004 and took their 5th consecutive championship, then didn't win a single race in 2005 (unless you want to count the US GP, where only three teams started....).

Quote from Hyperactive :

I'd be more interested to get these into LFS.

Imho Tilke has made very good tracks with nice corners, wouldn't mind seeing some of them in LFS

One of the corners, the first 3 are actually in LFS now at FernBay although slightly different.. (see attachment) I think it is a shame that this little section does not get used in any of the layouts, I think FeBlack and FeGreen could easily use them, it would add a small change to the tracks and the first sector on FeGreen would be made more interesting and challenging. Running FeGreen in reverse with the highlighted section would be even nicer as you would be heading down hill and braking whilst having to turn right which would be quite a challenge.. I hope it will get added at some point in the future

mad

Quote from Blackout :

I'd say that the harder compound both Räikkönen and Hamilton had on the last stint just didn't work that well on the McLaren it worked on the Ferrari.

I was wondering if the Ferrari is just faster on the harder tyre while the McLaren is only competitive on the soft. In Melbourne where the hard tyre was the better tyre, Ferrari walked away with it, whereas at Sepang McLaren looked on the pace until they had to use the hard tyre.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I was wondering if the Ferrari is just faster on the harder tyre while the McLaren is only competitive on the soft. In Melbourne where the hard tyre was the better tyre, Ferrari walked away with it, whereas at Sepang McLaren looked on the pace until they had to use the hard tyre.

Not so, i think McLaren isn't as quick on the harder tyre but they are competitive as Alonso was reasonably competitive throughout the whole race.
With Hamilton he is obviously a good driver, we know this from his gp2 driving and he has shown he can take alot of pressure. The one thing im not sure if he has that 'spark', for lack of a better word, to be a world champion instead of just a good driver.

whats with the white lines on the softs lol, i know people didnt like the dots on the sides but guys, the white lines are a bit overkill haha

http://www.f1matrix.it/gp_2007_eng/02/pc.html

When you consider Alonso wasn't having to push the car to the ragged edge like Kimi it seems McLaren still have the pace on the harder tyres. Only 13 of Kimi's laps were faster than Alonso during the whole race and there was nothing significant about them either. Half a second at the most (excluding the last two laps where cruise control was on for Alonso) .

Anyway I think it will vary from track to track. You could set your car up to work on the soft tyres so they last the whole stint without too much degradation but then the harder compound will struggle to build up heat.

I doubt either team will have an advantage on a specific tyre, more a better compromise and strategic set-up decision.

Quote from keiran :

When you consider Alonso wasn't having to push the car to the ragged edge like Kimi it seems McLaren still have the pace on the harder tyres. Only 13 of Kimi's laps were faster than Alonso during the whole race and there was nothing significant about them either. Half a second at the most (excluding the last two laps where cruise control was on for Alonso) .

But Kimi wasn't able to push the Ferrari the whole race either - he had a dicky engine. So neither Alonso nor Kimi were using the full capability of the car.

It just seemed that Hamilton was comfortably keeping Raikkonen at bay when they were running on the softs, but got reeled in pretty quickly towards the end when both of them were on the hard tyre.