Official 2006 F1 Season Discussion

[Fourjays Veteran]

Well I didn't see it (damn football), but I watched the live timings. Alonso's lap was very impressive looking at the times. Fisichella did good too. I think the top 4 were quite a bit faster than the rest...

[Shibby]

Canada was in my view strange.

Montoya god know how he is still driving because i thought he caused SOOOOO many problems, i'm glad he went off. He had a right go at roseberg, in which roseberg crashed. After that looking at montoya i wasn't to sure if roseberg caused it because montoya is just a bad driver.

And what the hell was ralf doing? toyota said his car had no back control. yet he was going pretty slow and it was causing problems as well.

Villeneuve was coming around a bend where there was tons of marbles (bits of rubber) and as the race was going on you had to get tighter in the bend.

Anyway ralf on the exit stayed to the far right, Villeneuve on exit as well went more to the left to over take. but he just caught the marbles and went off and crashed. it was ralf fault because normally you would of probley kept tight and overtake on the straight, but since ralf was going to slow he had to overtake at the exit.

Then poor kimi had problems again, caught the marbles which he lost control abit, and the engine stalled in the pits.

I do hope kimi goes changes to ferrari because he hasn't had much luck with mclaren

[geek_rohit]

Alonso's superb run continues. But at least the Ferrari are on his back. I expect a much closer contest in the next round. This year's race was indeed the more difficult Canadian Grand Prix in recent years. The track surface was quite bad, lots of drivers slipped.

[Martyn]

Canada was in my view strange.

Montoya god know how he is still driving because i thought he caused SOOOOO many problems, i'm glad he went off. He had a right go at roseberg, in which roseberg crashed. After that looking at montoya i wasn't to sure if roseberg caused it because montoya is just a bad driver.

And what the hell was ralf doing? toyota said his car had no back control. yet he was going pretty slow and it was causing problems as well.

Villeneuve was coming around a bend where there was tons of marbles (bits of rubber) and as the race was going on you had to get tighter in the bend.

Anyway ralf on the exit stayed to the far right, Villeneuve on exit as well went more to the left to over take. but he just caught the marbles and went off and crashed. it was ralf fault because normally you would of probley kept tight and overtake on the straight, but since ralf was going to slow he had to overtake at the exit.

Then poor kimi had problems again, caught the marbles which he lost control abit, and the engine stalled in the pits.

I do hope kimi goes changes to ferrari because he hasn't had much luck with mclaren

How can you say Montoya is a bad driver? You are forgetting that every driver in Formula 1 is a world class driver, you have to be to control a car going 180mph+ around a narrow track. Juan Pablo is a good driver who is just a bit eccentric at times, but he is the type of character we need in Formula 1. Besides that accident was Nico Rosberg's fault.

It was a shame about Villeneuve though, I quite like him and it would of been nice for him to get in the points in his home Grand Prix which is also named after his father.

[Martyn]

Indy this weekend. Let's just hope last year's event's do not occur again.

[Brodel]

for gods sake, when is button ever going to get a trouble free run!?

[Shibby]

I know, I think most of button problems come from the honda team itself, he's getting alot bundled on him while they have got problems.

But what about 12 cars left now?

[satishsays.com]

Ferrari clean up in US Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher spearheaded a Ferrari 1-2 at Indianapolis this afternoon, as the red cars ran away and hid from their opposition.

As Schumacher clawed back six valuable points of the 25-point deficit to Fernando Alonso, he became the only man to win five big races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Legends such as A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Snr and Rick Mears were four-time winners of the famed 500 mile race, while Jeff Gordon has won four Brickyard 400 NASCAR races here too. Schumacher won the inaugural grand prix here in 2000, gifted the 2002 race to Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello on the finish line in 2002, and took the 2003, 2004 and 2005 races too.

A huge crowd did not have to wait long for drama to unfold after the start. As Felipe Massa outdragged Schumacher into the lead going down to Turn 1, mayhem ensued in the midfield. The first of two incidents was triggered when Juan Pablo Montoya hit the back of McLaren team mate Kimi Raikkonen. The Colombian’s MP4-21 then made contact with Jenson Button’s Honda, which in turn hit Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber and sent the German into a horrifying series of rolls into a gravel bed. At the same time, Mark Webber, Scott Speed, Christian Klien and Franck Montagny got together, with the result that the track looked like the venue for a demolition derby. Particularly painful for the fans was that Speed, the first American to start a US Grand Prix since Eddie Cheever in Phoenix in 1989, went only a few hundred yards.

The safety car was deployed and stayed out until lap six. By that time Button had also joined the retirees with damage to the Honda. In 2005 only six cars started the race; already the field this time round was down to 14. That soon became 12 when Takuma Sato’s attempt to pass Midland’s Tiago Monteiro in the first corner on lap seven took himself and Super Aguri out of the equation and led to Monteiro’s subsequent demise a few laps later with bodywork damage.

Massa held the lead until his pit stop on lap 30. Schumacher stopped a lap later and resumed before Massa reached the pit-lane exit, and thereafter they settled down to an easy run to the flag. On this day Bridgestone had a small but crucial advantage. Giancarlo Fisichella was clearly quicker than Fernando Alonso and breezed past him into Turn 1 on lap 15. He soon pulled away, but though the Michelin-shod Renault wasn’t that much slower on lap time, the Italian couldn’t close the 8-second gap to the red cars.

Alonso had a miserable time, falling behind the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher (the Italian starting from the pit lane after suspension repairs were necessary on his TF106B after qualifying), and only made fifth place after Schumacher Jnr retired in the pits on the 63rd lap.

Rubens Barrichello pushed hard early on, on a lighter fuel load than Alonso, and eventually brought his Honda RA106 home sixth ahead of the battling David Coulthard and Tonio Liuzzi. Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso monstered the faster Red Bull car all the way through to his fuel stop on the 39th lap, but Coulthard went even longer, not stopping until the 47th. That proved crucial, and the Scot was well clear for seventh by the flag. Liuzzi fought strongly to catch and pass Nico Rosberg’s Williams going into Turn 1 on the 47th lap, and Schumacher Jnr’s retirement promoted him to his first point of the season and Toro Rosso’s first. Rosberg, in ninth, was the final finisher.

The other retirements were Jacques Villeneuve, who was fighting with Barrichello and Schumacher Jnr for fifth place initially right behind Alonso, and Christijan Albers. Villeneuve’s BMW Sauber suffered an engine failure, while Albers made a series of pit stops before quitting with a mechanical problem.

Now Alonso leads the series with 88 points to Schumacher’s 69, and as Formula One racing prepares to return to Europe, Ferrari do so with greater confidence.

“We can only hope to keep some of the edge we had this weekend and transform it into the European season,” Schumacher said. “There are eight races and 80 points to come. 19 points behind is not a lot and it is not impossible at all to fight for the title. I think we can do it.”

Source

Edited July 3, 2006 by devilhead_satish

[geek_rohit]

Fantastic!!! First 1-2 of the season :D

Superb show from the Scuderia Ferrari. Massa, he continues to impress me. At last...yes!!! A 1-2 :D Now the team just needs to maintain and up the pressure on Renault. If they do and perform like they did over the Indy weekend, i'm sure the championship will get more interesting. :D

An incident packed race. Big accidents on the first lap itself. (Why oh why didn't the Renaults crash!!! :angry: )

[speed3okie]

Juan Pablo goes NASCAR

NASCAR.com Statement

[Martyn]

Juan Pablo goes NASCAR

NASCAR.com Statement

Maybe this thread and this thread should be merged to keep the discussion central?

[Crazysah]

The new BMW looks awsome I must say and they did well with it!

[Galley]

The new BMW looks awsome I must say and they did well with it!

Yeah, it sure would be nice to see my man Jacques on the podium again! :D

[Shibby]

Was pretty good today.

Pretty happy that the likes of Roseberg and Coulthad had a top 10 starting postion.

De La Rosa also did pretty good i think, i really hope mclaren do well tomorrow

[Crazysah]

Did anybody see Qualifying and the way Schumi and Alonso battled it out? Aswsome!

[Shibby]

I missed the race today! i was to busy asleep i thought it was in the evening time, but instead it was afternoon.

Honda geez someone should just shoot the people running that team. I think next season there will be some major changes going on there.

[bayrider]

Did anybody see Qualifying and the way Schumi and Alonso battled it out? Aswsome!

I like the new qualifying round rules. It was fun to watch Schumi and Alonso battle it out in the 3rd Q. I got sick of the drivers taking slow laps for the first 10mins to unload the weight from the gas.

[Shibby]

Didn't get to see much of today, i only saw the last 39 laps.

It was ok but was pretty bored with the ferrari leading the way. Renault seemed abit off, i heard the peeps say something about a damper which was taken off, but will be allowed back on. Kimi was doing pretty well, people questioned the 3 stop strategy but it did seem to pay off. It just shows he is a good driver, he was like stuck in the pits for about 9 seconds when in fifth so he made it up.

Webber i thought yeahhh but the engine went and nearly on fire.

Overall an ok race

[MurrayF1]

Forza Ferrari Forza Schumi

[geek_rohit]

Fantastic race for Ferrari. A 1-2 is always the best a team can have. Nice to see McLaren having a good race. And Renault's lack of form means the championship is going to get interesting. Trulli was "truly" amazing. From last on the grid he managed to finish in points in seventh. Another podium snatched away from Webber due to mechanical failure. This is really very sad to see such things happen to him. Good that Williams will have the Toyota power next season, Toyota engines have good performance, so hope that will change some fortunes for Williams.

[Crazysah]

Yeah I agree. Ferrari just zoomed away and won comfortably. As for 3,4,5,6,7,8 those positions were concerned it was a good race. Raikonned looked awsome till his first pit stop and then came back strongly at the end. Button also looked strong but then I dunno what happned. Renault and Toyot were all out of place in this race. Shame for Pedro to have to quit. Rosberg quit again in the in the first lap!

[Shibby]

WOW.

Willams have droped mark webber. Which i think is f'ing strange.

He is a god driver it's just been unlucky. But he may go to renault! which will probley be better for him

[Fourjays Veteran]

I'm pretty certain Mark will go to Renault now. I think (assuming Renault perform well next year too) he could easily win races, if not a championship.

[Martyn]

Hmm...I think this will be next year's grid in term's of drivers for the top teams:

Ferrari:

Schumacher,

Raikkonen,

McLaren:

Alonso,

Hamilton,

Renault:

Fisichella,

Webber,

I dont want Kimi to go to Ferrari though :/

[deuz]

hpoefully Webber changes teams....his potential is going to waste.....touhgh williams is changing to toyota engines....that could make em more reliable..