With the annual 35 million € (or whatever) paycheck I still wonder why he can't afford some kind of "how to behave infront of media" or "verbal communication" training course.
I'm not wanting to get involved with this argument as it's getting a little bit silly but I do want to point out the sort of karts these guys are talking about couldn't be more different from your lawn more powered hire kart, that tops out at 40mph and weigh more than a racing shifter kart . Not to mention they are built ready for a petrol version of dodgems.
If you want to see proper karting, youtube/google/motors TV etc all have coverage and you'll see what these guys are saying. I want to make it clear that no one itentially forces the person on the outside off the track because the person on the outside realises he has lost the corner so doesn't leave himself in that position. Otherwise you'll end up losing 3 places, easily and in the mix of things you'll end up either hitting the 4th kart in the train while you try get back in line or drive yourself off the road. In this situation Nick knew he had a tarmac run off area, had that been grass or a wall he'd have backed out before the first apex. The biggest difference is in a competitive field of drivers, you can often have 4 or 5 karts in one train nose to tail. Even if you just miss one apex, 2 karts will nip past, or at least try. It's just the nature of having so much mechanical grip that it really does take very good race craft to do well.
Too many people make the mistake of comparing 4 stroke hire lawn mores to proper 2 stroke karts which aren't built to withstand hitting walls. What ever you want to believe people are just as cautious in overtaking in a kart as they are in single seaters. I've only raced one guy who was rather stupid and lets just say he got what was coming to him and became a lot more cautious after the scare.
Contact in a kart can result in a very heavy accident, real karts don't have near the same amount of plastic as hire karts. I've seen countless karts go end over end, and some where the driver has got trapped under them. The most spectacular being when a kart went barrel rolling end over end, more than I could count. The driver was luckily thrown clean out and was just a little shaken.
I've just kissed the rear tyre of a kart in front of me and it sent the front end of my kart up in the air, the majority of my vision very briefly was of the sky. I've had karts go over the top of me and hit my arm, hand etc.
There is still a lot of danger in contact and your a lot more exposed than a single seater, so I'd say you are more at risk of getting hurt.
In the end, the way I see it is if a driver has clearly got an overlap into the corner, there is very little point going the long way. If I go the long way in LFS and run out of road because of the guy on the inside I don't blame them, I'll blame my self for running my self off the road.
I just can't quite see what's so hard to understand that it sparks such a debate... The same thing happens in every single race series in the world, it's racing...
the risks in kart are very high, and I had to bare witness to someone being killed so comments like
couldn't be further from the truth.
and those karts you drove.... a Cadet Kart designed for 8 year olds will lap around 5 seconds faster than one of those at my local circuit..... so your analysis of karting couldn't be FURTHER from the truth.....
This is too funny - Tristan "my Dad bought me an F3 so now I'm an expert" Cliffe vs. Will "rental kart legend" Dendy and Alan "I wrote a webpage about overtaking!" Whateverhislastnameis.
It's like the LFSForum special olympics!
Whichever retard comes across as the most self-important, arrogant, pompous tosser, wins!
I don't know what MORE Alonso should have done, he left room at the entry to the second curb. Heidfeld didn't have any overlap at that point and Alonso closed the line.
Heidfeld and Alonso are the only two with the cajones to put on some entertaining racing.
I thought Alonso's move was fine, he claimed the first apex, it was up to Heidfeld to find a safe way through the second apex ... which he did by inventing a new racing line, he also had the option of braking earlier and tucking in behind Alonso but he elected not to/didnt see it until too late. Either way, it was a bold but exceptional overtaking move.
In a class of motor sport where overtaking is nigh on impossible you do sometimes have to invent passing opportunities, i've watched F1 racing for over 20 years and i've seen a fair few passes in unconventional places - some with different endings.
I think Heidfeld drove brilliantly yesterday, and I think Alonso tried to drive brilliantly in a difficult race for him in a season that is not going well for him, it was one of his better performances this year - although he's still a bit of a shadow of his former self.
There was nothing wrong with the move, whether karting or otherwise. Sure if you'd done it in LFS or against Takumo Sato then both drivers would have had a trip to the medical centre, but then if Alonso had been passing Sato maybe he would not have attempted it (or rather, maybe Sato would have been passing him again? In which case he'd have gone for it without question, whilst screaming "Banzai, the divine wind carries me".).
I also have to agree on the karting issue. Please remember that karts are a formula that does not have seat belts because of their lack of a roll cage ... in cases of a flip they are designed so that the driver falls out of the vehicle entirely. Unlike your rental kart, most race karts travel near to or over 100mph, they are also an open wheel formula.
This means that karters do, at some point in their carear, travel with an upside down kart at over 100mph with the express desire to be somewhere else - a desire which is usually quickly granted owing to gravity.
The joke is Sato, not Japan. I'm only stereotyping every formula 1 driver called Takuma Sato as a rash crashaholic who plummets for the inside like a falling comet without first checking the likely outcome.
But when he locked up and dived inside he made sure he left room on the outside (unlike Will in the other thread) for Rene to go to.
"Firing off" - two words which mean you are either a chav or don't know what you're talking about
Of course you can overtake without being unfair. Okay, so you are taking a place, which a low IQ person might assume is unfair and rude, but it's the manner in which you do it.
Fortunately in the battle between Alonso and Heidfeld there was one brain, and it was used to avert a huge accident. It wasn't in the McLaren.
And finally Kieran - you used to be sensible. But now you are only seeing 'The Rules'. Driver on the outside is wrong? No rights to corner? You cannot judge racing by the black and white application of rules. In this instance (going into a ~140mph(?) chicane already offline with another car poking his nose up the inside) he had just as much right.
Besides, I've never seen a single rule saying "The driver on the inside is allowed to run drivers off the road".
Intrepid (I guess you must be Alan, but being a weedy little ****** you're too scared to admit it in case you tag along to an LFS karting meet again) - perhaps you should spend more time learning to kart properly yourself so you don't spend your life getting grubby at TKM meets halfway or worse down the grids. It's all very well 'teaching' people how to pass, but until you're in an established formula series earning money I'd concentrate on yourself!
With occasional quotes from Sam "I'm too poor/untalented to race myself, so I try to belittle all the real-life racers in an attempt to divert attention from my real life ability" 1600.
Owning, using or seeing an F3 car has not changed my perceptions of what is fair on track or off. The only thing that has changed is my respect for Formula drivers in the wet - truly amazing! But I'm trying to learn FROM F1, not using my false sensibilities to judge F1. I just hope that moves like Alonso's don't become too commonplace.
By the way, all Australians are convicts; only fit for the noose.
i aint half way down the grid, im racin in the national champiosnhips and am on target to go to the autosport awards and pick up a prize and a seeded champiosnhip number.
the other thread, i did leave room and it seems u cant see that i would have made it round the corner.
if the move was ok by brundle, alonso, heidfeld and all real racers what makes you think you know best when all you do is play a sim and race against a load of gentlemen racers in a car older than me?
I look forward to seeing you at the Autosport Awards then. But for the ~3 years I've known you you've barely raced, and when you have you've not exactly been at the front of the grids.
You didn't leave room
If Nazi Germany was okay by lots of people, then what makes us English people who don't believe in certain things know best? If the government tell us that Wind Farms are good, then what makes lots of people think they know better without that status? I am perfectly entitled to disagree with Brundle, Alonso and Heidfeld. It's my personal belief that no decent champion should run people off the road like that. Just because Senna, Schumi and now Alonso have done it, or that people in the sport think it's acceptable doesn't mean that I have to think it's acceptable. I'm of the opinion that a REAL racing driver has no need for such dirty tricks.
And the quick guys in my championship are the same age or slightly younger than me. The age of the car is not important really. Besides, I'm doing mine for fun, and I'd rather drive a 19 year old F3 car that 'race' with a lot of hooligans in karting. And I spend a hell of a lot less money going a hell of a lot faster. Suits me.
yea i bought a new kart and rent engines (mine is 0.4 seconds slow) and recently i was 3rd fastest in the super 1 final at whilton and 2nd fastest at buckmore park S1 final last weekend
thats a fair point, and i used to think the same too, but someone who overtakes agressivly but cleanly and isnt concerned for the other driver will often beat a sensible driver. so if you cant beat em join em!
Sam, if I wanted to be racist and deride/stereotype all Japanese I wouldn't highlight Takuma Sato as being ocassionally a little rash, i'd actually point out their olive skinned people where baked just right nursery rhyme, the all-decisions-are-made-by-those-not-expulsed-from-the-homeland corporate mentality, or their elitist social structure, or...