F1 World Championship 2008 Thread

[Fourjays]

The fact that the FIA sent emails full of fiction as "evidence" is enough, regardless of the rest. Far from inconsistancy, just blatant corruption.

[bmdixon]

What i don't get is why it's taken so long for them to turn round and say: "Sorry you can't appeal against that decision"! Why couldn't they have said this straight away and saved McLaren a lot of money in costs for lawyers and everything??? More proof of a vendetta against McLaren?

[Shibby]

No more proof that FIA do not have a clue when rules are concerned. When you have to have a session dedicated just for this, shows the rules aren fool proof and leave room for interpretation.

[.mcman]

Qualifying

Pos. Driver Team Time

1 F. Massa Ferrari 1:44.801

2 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:45.465

3 K. R?ikk?nen Ferrari 1:45.617

4 R. Kubica BMW 1:45.779

5 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:45.873

6 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:45.964

7 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:46.244

8 T. Glock Toyota 1:46.328

9 N. Rosberg Williams 1:46.611

10 K. Nakajima Williams 1:47.547

11 J. Trulli Toyota 1:45.038

12 J. Button Honda 1:45.133

13 M. Webber Red Bull 1:45.212

14 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:45.298

15 F. Alonso Renault no time

16 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:46.037

17 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:46.389

18 R. Barrichello Honda 1:46.583

19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:47.940

20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 no time

I think the race will be boring tomorrow. There is just no place to overtake. I like the idea of a night race though. It looks beautiful. I wish they would make Australian GP at night too. Too bad it didn't worked out.

[Fourjays]

Not so sure it will be boring. Despite the lack of overtaking possibilities, there appear to be a few elements that may cause some problems for some in the race - pit entrance/exit, bumps at various turns, much narrower track than Valencia, the turn with the dodgy chicane... not to mention the >50% chance of a sudden downpour.

I think overtaking wise it will be difficult, although that applies to so many tracks these days (thanks to the FIA and their dumb aero regs). Hopefully 2009 will make things much better.

I doubt it will be the yawn-fest that Valencia was, whatever happens.

[simonlang]

say what you want but massas quali lap today has been the most impressive seen this year. i consider him now as the clear favourite to win the championship, also because hamilton seems to screw things up in the last races, just like last year.

i like the track. good that f1 has a night-race now.

[.mcman]

^^ yea, pit exit is crazy. I don't understand why they didn't make it like in Monaco.

say what you want but massas quali lap today has been the most impressive seen this year.

I have to wait till tomorrow and see when he'll make his first stop to agree with you. :)

[Unimatrix Xero]

rofl as Massa!!!!! i couldnt stop laughing

[HawkMan]

rofl as Massa!!!!! i couldnt stop laughing

Not his fault.

[Neil]

No but Ferrari have had problems again and again in the pits.

[Mike]

Not his fault.

his fault he was released early? no, his fault he didnt notice? yes.

[darren89]

his fault he was released early? no, his fault he didnt notice? yes.

nope... i don't think its his fault..

[Mike]

nope... i don't think its his fault..

why not? he should be aware of his surroundings in the pit lane. Same thing for coulthard, he noticed it though and stopped.

[Unimatrix Xero]

3rd for Hammie, thats a decent result

[sundayx]

Where can I see the final results? Can anyone post it here.

[.mcman]

Pos. Driver Team Time

1 F. Alonso Renault 1:57:16.304

2 N. Rosberg Williams + 2.957

3 L. Hamilton McLaren + 5.917

4 T. Glock Toyota + 8.155

5 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 10.268

6 N. Heidfeld BMW + 11.101

7 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 16.387

8 K. Nakajima Williams + 18.489

9 J. Button Honda + 19.885

10 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 26.902

11 R. Kubica BMW + 27.975

12 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 29.432

13 F. Massa Ferrari + 35.170

14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 43.571

Did not finish

15 K. R?ikk?nen Ferrari + 4 laps

16 J. Trulli Toyota + 11 laps

17 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 12 laps

18 M. Webber Red Bull + 32 laps

19 R. Barrichello Honda + 46 laps

20 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 47 laps

[Fourjays]

Ferrari's pit problems are one of two things: those traffic lights (I don't remember any problems before those, and other teams are having very few pit problems in comparison) or the loss of the likes of Ross Brawn (they have lost the team organisation that MS, Ross Brawn and Jean Todt brought to the team).

FIA demonstrated their ineptness again, this time against a Ferrari. Why a penalty for this dangerous pit release, but only a ?10,000 fine at Valencia? Also, why did it take them so long to penalise Kubica and Rosberg? By the time they penalised Rosberg, he'd made up enough time for the penalty to mean nothing.

Apart from that, a fun race as I expected. Good to see Alonso get up there after his problems yesterday, and Hamilton has got his lead back up:D:D

[Mike]

Ferrari's pit problems are one of two things: those traffic lights (I don't remember any problems before those, and other teams are having very few pit problems in comparison) or the loss of the likes of Ross Brawn (they have lost the team organisation that MS, Ross Brawn and Jean Todt brought to the team).

the traffic lights shouldn't be a problem, afaik, the fuelling guy has to press a button before it'll go green so the problems either are the guy is accidentally pressing it while trying to pull the hose off, or something else

FIA demonstrated their ineptness again, this time against a Ferrari. Why a penalty for this dangerous pit release, but only a €10,000 fine at Valencia? Also, why did it take them so long to penalise Kubica and Rosberg? By the time they penalised Rosberg, he'd made up enough time for the penalty to mean nothing.

i'm surprised they gave him a penalty based on what they did in valencia, maybe him driving with a fuel hose down the pit lane added to it and made it into a penalty? good to see a ferrari penalty for once though (Y)

[sn00pie]

Nice to see Hamilton showing maturity and not trying to risk his championship and try to finish 2nd. It was a great race to watch and as much as I dislike Ferrari, I felt bad for Massa because that was really just bad luck. He was running a great race and luck was against him.

Hamilton FTW! :D

[Fourjays]

the traffic lights shouldn't be a problem, afaik, the fuelling guy has to press a button before it'll go green so the problems either are the guy is accidentally pressing it while trying to pull the hose off, or something else

They shouldn't be, but they are the obvious difference between Ferrari and other teams in the pit lane. Ferrari apparently switched to the lollipop for the rest of the race after Massa's incident.

i'm surprised they gave him a penalty based on what they did in valencia, maybe him driving with a fuel hose down the pit lane added to it and made it into a penalty? good to see a ferrari penalty for once though (Y)

Maybe, but then what else was he to do? By the time he would have known he had the fuel line attached, he would have been in front of someone else's garage. At that point he has no choice but to go all the way to the other end, else he'd end up blocking the pit lane for someone.

[Shibby]

Bit of a bummer for Massa, but the systems needs to be overhauled to remove the humans as much as possible. Sensors to detect when the wheels are fully on and no fueling rig attached which disable the clutch or use of accelerator, then the driver can take off.

It they have to do is work out how to release cars in the pits so they don't hit anyone.

[Unimatrix Xero]

Bit of a bummer for Massa, but the systems needs to be overhauled to remove the humans as much as possible. Sensors to detect when the wheels are fully on and no fueling rig attached which disable the clutch or use of accelerator, then the driver can take off.

It they have to do is work out how to release cars in the pits so they don't hit anyone.

cool idea more things to go wrong, im all for that, forgive me now but whats wrong with a bloke and a stick?

[Shibby]

Whats wrong with a bloke and a stick? He can still get run over even if his stick is down. I'm sure yesterday someone wobbled the stick and nearly took off. If you take away the use of the engine while in the pit, then pretty much no one gets hurt. The reliability of such a system should be more than enough for an F1 car. It's not a complicated system!

[lt8480]

If the green light was on for Massa it is 100% not his fault.. but someone else in the team or a fault. It is not his job to check (that would defeat the pupose of the lights entirely), the reason they use the lights is because when it runs smoothly you get a faster pit stop out of it... when it doesnt work you are out of the race. Personally I think the risk against benefit doesnt justirfy it. Using the sticks still seems the best system over several races and also appears to be the safest still.

[Fourjays]

There was a good comparison of stick vs computer at Singapore.

Massa stopped and watched the red light. The split second it turned green, his attention focused on the track again. With the speed the car accelerates and the position of the light, when it went red again it wouldn't have been noticed by him easily. By the time he realised he was taking the rig with him, he was in front of the next teams garage. Furthermore, there is nothing to tell him if it went red for him - with Raikkonen behind, it could have been going red in preparation for Raikkonen.

Compare this to DC's stop. He stopped with the lollipop down. The lollipop went up, he floored it, but the lollipop was put down, right in front of his view. He can't see the track and hits the brakes. He moved half a metre forward at most.

Sure, lollipop men have been knocked over, but the majority of the time they just get up and continue. In both incidents, the Ferrari mechanics were pulled right across the back wheel of the car and seriously injured.

Ferrari are gaining about 2 tenths with their system. Not worth it, when compared to the number of points lost in the races to it's failings and the increased danger for the mechanics.