F1 World Championship 2008 Thread

[h00nta]

A good race spoiled by stewards playing god - shame on them. :pinch:

[brentaal]

@Coulthard's radio: "David, we got some good news and some bad news. The good news is you're in front of R?ikk?nen and Hamilton. The bad news is you're P13.&quot:rofl:l:

[Fourjays Veteran]

Fun qualifying, congrats to Vettel. Should be an interesting race.

[brentaal]

A couple of interesting things about S. Vettel

• youngest ever Formula One driver to drive at a Grand Prix meeting
  
• youngest driver to lead a race in Formula One history
  
• quickest driver to get a fine in F1, being fined $1,000 nine seconds into his career, after speeding in the pitlane
  
• youngest driver to score points in a Grand Prix and lead a Grand Prix
  
• youngest ever Formula One driver to win pole position
  

Will he also be the youngest F1 driver to win a race? :whistle: (that'll be tough with Kovalainen right behind him)

[.KICK]

Didn't watch the qualifying but those results certainly surprising, tomorrow sounds to be a good fight on the road!

[Antaris Veteran]

Come on Hammilton!

[.mcman]

Vettel!! Unbelievable!!! Interesting race.

[Antaris Veteran]

Race over, Vettel comes out on top. I think Hammilton did well to get to where he was, he just never had the pace to climb any further. Massa was awesome too, but what the hell happened to Raikonnen?

[digitalsoft]

Extremely interesting race! Vettel deserved the win for sure!, Shame lewis couldnt have at least gained a place over massa though.

[Fourjays Veteran]

Excellent race from Vettel. I expected Kovalainen to be closer, but even with a far better car he didn't seem to do much.

Hamilton was great in the wet. Odd that he seemed to lose all pace when he got behind Massa. I wonder if McLaren decided to turn the engine down and wait to see if Massa made a mess of trying to pass Heidfeld, rather than risk a move on Massa..

[Crazysah]

I think Raikonnen did not push that hard knowing that he has kept his seat till 2010 and is the highest paid driver.

Raikonnen though, drove exceptionally well when his car was going well. When his car isin't going well... he fades away..

Vettel though! First ever pole position for the team (STR and Minardi in around 375 races), first race win for the team, youngest driver to be on pole and youngest driver to win a race! Go Vettel!

Thanks to Vettel, STR is now ahead of Red Bull Racing in the constructers championship!

[sundayx Veteran]

Wow congrads to Vettel. The Hamilton/Massa race for the top is closer than ever.

[Fourjays Veteran]

Raikkonen seems to have spent the first 3/4 of a few races sleeping or something this year. With 10 laps to go he suddenly wakes up and starts pumping in the fastest laps of the race... :blink:

[Shibby]

I'm pretty please that lewis showed that he could race on the circuit. I think he was happy with just sitting behind Masa. Why go banzi when the rear breaks weren't that great and the tryes were driven pretty hard?

Vettel did a good race, but once you get pole, good start and no mistakes in the race, you are pretty much going to be the winner.

Loved it, it was pure racing, cars fighting and then sliding all over the place.

[Antaris Veteran]

^ Lewis was dogging all the way into the first 10, what happened to Kimi though?

[Unimatrix Xero]

the race turned out better than i was expecting

[bayrider]

I think it's obvious Ferrari's putting everything on Masa now.

Not sure why Kimmi's driving the way he is. It's either in his head or it's his car. I believe it's a bit of both.

[simonlang]

the gap between hami and felipe is nearly closed now. :D great to see.

i said it months ago that massa will win this years championship. now it seems more realistic than ever before. :)

[sundayx Veteran]

Singapore GP Preview!

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/19/video-s...ore-gp-preview/

[SojIrOu]

i can't wait for the singapore GP :D too bad i'm not in singapore right now if not i would definitely go to see it. i think i've physically been to every part of the circuit (without the circuit laid out yet) in person.

[bayrider]

Are practice and qualifying sessions at night as well?

[.mcman]

Are practice and qualifying sessions at night as well?

yes...

FRI Practice 1 19:00

FRI Practice 2 21:30

SAT Practice 19:00

SAT Qualifying 22:00

SUN Race 20:00

[Fourjays Veteran]

Email raises concerns about FIA's integrity

The disputed truthfulness and accuracy of an email sent by the FIA's legal department last Friday to everyone involved in McLaren's appeal hearing in Paris has once again raised fresh questions about the organisation's credibility and integrity.

The correspondence claimed that Tony Scott Andrews, a man held in high regard in F1 circles, admitted to making "an inadvertent error" while he was chief steward at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix.

Scott Andrews, it was claimed, conceded that he wrongly imposed a time penalty on Italian driver Tonio Liuzzi for overtaking Adrian Sutil under yellow flags and Toro Rosso were allowed to appeal. The FIA email added that Scott Andrews had confirmed this in a phone conversation with F1 Race Director Charlie Whiting.

Were this to have been the case then the FIA would have been in a stronger position to rule the McLaren appeal against the stop-and-go penalty Lewis Hamilton suffered in Belgium as inadmissible. According to McLaren, the fact that Toro Rosso were granted the right to appeal means a precedent has been set that enables them to dispute the stewards' judgement in Spa.

"Having checked with the permanent chief of stewards who signed the Decision in Japan, we wish to inform you that there is an error on the face of the Decision document," the FIA told McLaren. The precedent would not hold, the mail declared, because Liuzzi's punishment was meted out under a different article of the rules.

It is a telling insight into McLaren's faith in the integrity of the governing body that, having received the email on Friday, they then sent a delegation of team officials to travel to Brands-Hatch on Sunday, where Scott Andrews was overseeing a race event, to check the truthfulness of the FIA's claim. His reaction to being informed of the FIA email is reported to have been one of 'outrage'.

Scott Andrews told the court in Paris: "I have seen the email and I'm extremely surprised by its content. In short, it is grossly inaccurate and misleading."

He continued by stating that Whiting had never asked him if he had made an error in Japan and added: "Had he done so, the answer would have been 'no'."

In his closing speech, McLaren's lawyer Mark Phillips QC called the email an "unfortunate exchange" and added: "I ask you to reflect on that when you come to consider the way in which certain members of the FIA conducted themselves. I won't say any more than that."

Source

[Mosqutus]

Lewis Hamilton has failed in his bid to have his Belgian Grand Prix victory restored after the FIA judges declared that McLaren's appeal against his penalty was 'inadmissible'.

Much of yesterday's hearing in Paris had been devoted to arguments over whether the appeal was actually valid, with the court taking the unusual decision to hear all the evidence in the case before the judges debated whether the regulations even allowed for such an appeal to be considered.

Hamilton had 25s added to his race time in Belgium after the race stewards declared that he had not sufficiently conceded the advantage he gained when he cut across the Bus Stop chicane during a spectacular battle with Kimi Raikkonen.

McLaren's contention was that Hamilton backed off and allowed the Ferrari to move completely ahead before re-passing it under braking for the next corner, but the officials felt he had still been in an advantageous position due to his short-cut.

The stewards gave Hamilton a drivethrough penalty, but as the incident occurred in the final five laps of the race, this was applied in the form of a 25s time addition.

Under F1 rules, drivethrough penalties cannot be appealed, so McLaren's lawyers had attempted to argue that it should be regarded differently because Hamilton never took to the pit lane and the actual penalty applied was a time addition.

But after a day of deliberation, the FIA has announced that there were no grounds to appeal the decision and that the penalty stands.

"Having heard the explanations of the parties the Court has concluded that the appeal is inadmissible," said an FIA statement released this afternoon.

The verdict means that Felipe Massa retains his inherited Spa win, and that Hamilton goes into the final four races of the season just one point ahead of the Brazilian in the championship.

Hamilton had passionately argued his position in court yesterday, engaging in heated exchanges with Ferrari's QC Nigel Tozzi before flying out to Singapore for this weekend's GP.

Another key part of McLaren's argument had been that the team had checked with FIA race director Charlie Whiting to see if Hamilton had driven correctly, and been told that the move was 'okay' in Whiting's opinion – with the judges hearing the relevant radio conversation in court yesterday.

There was a further controversy during the hearing when former FIA steward Tony Scott-Andrews claimed that the governing body had misrepresented his views in an email sent to all parties in the case last week.

McLaren's legal team had been using Scott-Andrews' decision to impose a time penalty on Vitantonio Liuzzi in last year's Japanese GP as a precedent for such judgements being appealed, but the FIA email indicated that Scott-Andrews had subsequently suggested he was wrong to apply such a penalty – a claim that Scott-Andrews vehemently disputed in a written submission to the appeal court.

The FIA court insisted that the Fuji case was not relevant on this occasion.

"None of the parties concerned had raised the inadmissibility of the appeal in that case, the FIA for its part leaving the matter to the sovereign appreciation of the Court," said the FIA's judgement.

"Therefore, the Court was able, in the conclusion of its decision, to declare the appeal admissible, but it did not give reasons for its decision on the issue, as the question was not debated.

"Consequently that judgment does not present itself as settled law with respect to this question and does not bind the Court in the present case."

McLaren has also been ordered to pay the appeal costs.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44040

[Skiver Veteran]

I think its such a shame that the FIA took this decision, part of me expected this but i thought just once mclaren may get the decision they want.

I can kinda see why this penatly was given, and half of me agree's however alot of this is based on What If's

What if lewis hadn't cut the chicane would he have been so close, i personally don't think you should base this on a what if.

what if hamilton had of tucked in behind him, accelerated alow quicker and went into the back of Kimi and took them both out. There are a million different combinations of what "could" have happened if something was done differently but the fact is what did happen.

Alot of people are now talking about the new interpretation of the rule that you should wait till after the next corner before trying again, when asked around the paddock it was obvious a majority were not aware of this rule.

also the fact that in Monza when massa made a similar move he was immediatly told to give it back, why wasnt hamilton? instead he was given an opinion and a wrong one at that.

I can deal with the penalty as a big mclaren/hamilton fan but i can't deal with the FIA's inconsistancy. something needs to be done by next season or i bet we will see something similar over and over!

anyway... bring on Singapore :p