I'm a much bigger fan of Michael Schumacher than I am a critic of Alonso (I can't think of a better antonym for fan). However, I can't remember a time in Michael Schumacher's career when I was more animated at his success than I was at Alonso's failure to win pole position today. Yes, that's a terribly spiteful thing to say, but that's how I feel. As we found out in Hamilton's interview Alonso is lighter on fuel than him, obviously in an attempt to steal the pole position. I found it hilarious when he didn't take the pole, shook my fist and started shouting at the TV. Who says F1 isn't exciting?
The end of the quali was fun. was following the sector times on my laptop, and it's funny to see that the sector times differed so much between ferrari and mclaren, so that will be fun for tomorrow.
I have to say one thing though.. That chicane is gay
Agreed. Hopefully though the McLarens can make the Ferraris look silly into T1 again and Hamilton can get a few more places up. Mebbe a win??? though i doubt it. For the championships sake though i think that the most interesting finishing position would be:
Not much between Räikkönen and Massa, interesting to see if Kimi had more fuel or not. I hope the Ferrari gets a better start than previous times.
The chicane is a bit gay yeah, but overtaking on the turn after the straight has been a problem because the high speed last corners. The chicane could actually make overtaking possible and that would be great!
Overtaking would be great but from my experience of F1 it seems to be more of a systemic problem with the cars. There is no other form of motorsport that requires a circut to have a certain profile to allow overtaking (although of course some are more condusive than others). We need less dependency on areodynamic downforce for grip in F1!!! :chair:
Watched the GP2 racing this afternoon and the mechanical grip those cars have seem to allow for closer racing, at least some overtaking. With F1 cars all, if not most, of the grip comes from the aerodynamics of the car rather to mechanical grip and as such at slower corners they cant run to close.
I personally would rather see the cars of 1994-1998 than of the cars of today, please bear in mind that was when I could really understand F1, any earlier and all I was saying was "ooh fast cars"
Reason the GP2 cars can follow so closely is they are using the floor to great effect. F1 teams are very restricted on what they can do under the car to create `ground effect.`
Very close at the top, I doubt there is going to be much difference in fuel between the team mates. People always make a big deal of it yet it always ends up being no more than 2 or so laps. Alonso put a stunning time in on used hard tyres and a race load of fuel (8 seconds semingly, although no one knows for sure).
Very happy for Hamilton. Hes the youngest championship leader ever. I think if Heidfeld's pit crew didnt mess up he could have beat Alonso for third.
Also happy for Sato who came 8th in the Super Aguri and beat a Renault.
Due to all the electronics possibly being fried anything could have happened to Massa. Why wasn't he black and oranged If it was any other team, it probably would have happened.
Not impressed by Hamilton, still don't understand what's all the fuzz about. I mean, fast "rookies" have always been there, but they hardly ever get a seat in a fast top team. Usually drivers have to work their way up. He is quick though, or Alonso is just utterly crap...or both.
The race, well. Too bad Kimi had tecnical issues, electronics apparently. Renault were doing better than previously but they had some issues with the fueling so both had to do a extra stop. Super Aguri was great, Sato took their first point! Honda is still struggling with their silly Earth and they even managed to collide with each other. Overall nothing too spectacular I think, well apart from the cool flames with Massa.
edit. Oh come on duke_toaster. That is total bullshit, the car wasn't on fire, just some vapor burning.
Massa and Hamilton must be the first drivers on their respectives teams, and Alonso and Kimi the seconds and help them to win the championship, like Fisichella helped Alonso past year.
It doesn't make sense at all that they will make a double world champion the support driver of a rookie. And Mclaren has always adopt equal no.1 policies whenever the drivers are close in ability.
This is the reason that Alonso is the first driver in McLaren, but I am sure Hamilton will demonstrate (he did a big jump today) that he is better.
I will not be surprised if Ron Dennis get rid of Alonso when he start saying that the team doesn´t help him, the car is a shit and other things he said when was in Renault
You can't disqualify a car when there is no reason to... All that caught fire on Massa's car was the fuel. Once the fuel burnt out that was it, those cars are well shieldied against heat and such a brief fire wouldn't have done much.
Not really, we are only 4 races into the season. McLaren have always allowed their drivers to have equal status until it comes to a point where one of them isn't in contention. Sure Hamilton has beaten Alonso the last two races but there is still a long long way to go. Alonso seriously out classed Hamilton in Malysia by nearly 20secs.
You have to remember Hamilton has a lot more mileage in the McLaren over Alonso.
Either way when it comes down to it the pace of the Ferrari and McLaren team mates are all pretty equal. It's just Kimi and Alonso seem to be struggling to transfer that over to their race setups.
Me thinks you fall too much for the medias way of blowing things out of proportion I just laughed at how people reacted to something (can't remember exactly what it was about now) that Alonso said in a press conference (which can be found on f1.com) that the media took totally out of context, but never mind .
You don't become WDC by chance and you certainly don't do it twice if your not good enough. Ron has Alonso not only for his driving ability but for his ability to help guide the team in the right direction.
Not find it odd that Renault dropped right off the pace this year and McLaren seemed to find themselves at the sharp end?
The Rd Bull is beginning to get quick and should be looking to challenge for 5/6 places as soon as they can sort out those reliability issues.
Hamilton again out raced Alonso, but then Alonso kinda helped by being to over eager at the first corner.
However, once again all the excitement really came from the pits or incidents in the race, the chicane did not work (surprise surprise) and Massa looks like the character Andy Kaufman played in Taxi.
Why oh why did they build that chicane before the fast turn onto the straight, they put it in the wrong bloody place! If the chicane was on the very last turn it would have done the trick with overtaking, but once again they leave the overtaking to the pit crews.
Alonso was unlucky in the first turn, he did the right thing trying to take Massa but Massa didn't back down and fought off Alonso. I expect it would have been a Ferrari 1, 2 finish if the car didn't fail for the Iceman.
I'm going to put £10 on Hamilton winning at Monaco, he has never lost there and if he has the car to do it then he will win. DC drive of the day, if Red Bull let him go I think it would be a big mistake, he can lead the team in their developement and he still has the race pace and fitness.
GP2 champion 2006.
European Formula 3 champion 2005.
Masters of Formula 3 winner 2005.
Bahrain F3 Superprix winner 2004.
British Formula Renault 2000 champion 2003.
Third in Formula Renault 2000 UK 2002.
Karting career — highlights
European champion Formula A 2000.
World Cup Formula A champion 2000.
Runner up in European Championship ICA Junior 1999.
British champion in Cadet class 1995.
I do for one think he has worked his way up I count 6 championships since 1995
RECENT HISTORY
2007
Formula 1
Current position: 1 (30 points)
4 races. 0 wins. 0 pole positions. 4 podiums.
Team: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Car: McLaren MP4-22 (Mercedes)
2006
Formula 1 - Test driver
Team: McLaren Mercedes
GP2 Series
Championship position: 1 (114 points)
21 races. 5 wins. 1 pole position. 14 podiums.
Team: ART
Car: Dallara (Renault)
2005
Formula 3 Euroseries
Championship position: 1 (161 points)
20 races. 15 wins. 13 pole positions. 17 podiums.
Team: ASM
Car: Dallara F305 (Mercedes)
Click to edit driver information
Masters of Formula 3
Race position: 1. Started from pole position.
Team: ASM F3
Car: Dallara (Mercedes)
Look at the races above 46 races in total and 36 Podiums (21 Wins) in the last 2 and a bit years now thats the sign of a good driver
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And Mclaren has always adopt equal no.1 policies whenever the drivers are close in ability.
I just laughed at how people reacted to something (can't remember exactly what it was about now) that Alonso said in a press conference (which can be found on f1.com) that the media took totally out of context, but never mind 
I count 6 championships since 1995