F1 World Championship 2009 Thread

[san.W10]

Why anti Microsoft in a Formula one thread?

Michael Schumacher :p

his crash

http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/...motorbike-crash

[san.W10]

Mercedes to confirm Schumacher return

Michael Schumacher's return to Formula 1 is set to be confirmed later today in a press conference hosted by Mercedes-Benz.

Speculation has been mounting for days that Schumacher has agreed a deal to join Mercedes GP, with reports suggesting that he flew to Britain earlier this week to sign a contract.

Mercedes GP has now confirmed that the identity of its second driver will be announced later this morning - with the team having confirmed several weeks ago that Nico Rosberg will be racing for it in 2010.

Schumacher's F1 return comes after three years on the sidelines, having originally decided to retire from grand prix racing at the end of 2006.

However, last season he came close to a sensational mid-season comeback when he was asked to fill-in for the injured Felipe Massa at Ferrari.

Those plans had to be aborted, however, with Schumacher still suffering from a neck injury that he had picked up in a motorcycle crash earlier in the year.

Schumacher was deeply disappointed at the time, and it may have been the excitement he felt about returning to F1 then that helped motivate him to conclude the deal with Mercedes GP.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80650

:D

[Martyn]

Schumi, Alonso and Hamilton all for the title for this season.

Then we have the likes of Massa, Rosberg, Button and Vettel who should also be challenging.

CAN'T WAIT :D

[Subject Delta]

If you're correcting someone, at least do it right.

He edited his post after I posted my correction

[simonlang]

I just can't see it happening in all honesty. Apart from the fact that he is likely to pen an advisory deal for Ferrari, I just don't think he has anything left to prove, when some of the other greats like Mansell made returns it turned into a damp squib, and although Michael is in far better shape than Mansell was when he made his return, I don't think it would be as glorious as his fans may hope.

told you so. :p

but even i am a bit surprised. i was sure it will be only for 1 year. now this crazy guy wants to drive for 3 years. amazing.

[Subject Delta]

Yep, obviously I was wrong, I am surprised he has taken this risk, he will either win another title or his reputation will go downhill somewhat. Personally i'd laugh if Rosberg beat him, although I am sure Brawn won't allow that to happen.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

It's going to be Team Germany (Mercedes GP) vs Team England (McLaren).

My money is on the former.

[what]

Latter. Rosberg is rubbish. Schumacher might be better than both Hamilton and Button, and I do hope he thrashes them, but (as long as the cars are good) he won't be able to win it for Mercedes by himself.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Latter. Rosberg is rubbish. Schumacher might be better than both Hamilton and Button, and I do hope he thrashes them, but (as long as the cars are good) he won't be able to win it for Mercedes by himself.

Don't underestimate Rosberg. He's a pretty good driver who for the past years had to deal with sub-optimal cars.

Assuming that the Mercedes GP car isn't utter crap he's going to give the McLaren duo as well as his team mate a run for their money.

[acnpt]

How well do you guys think Schumacher will do at the start of the season? I reckon it will take a couple races for him to get back in the groove, although I guess he will have had training/testing in the car?

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

How well do you guys think Schumacher will do at the start of the season? I reckon it will take a couple races for him to get back in the groove, although I guess he will have had training/testing in the car?

One of Schumacher's talents is being very quick to adapt to a new car or new race track.

He'll be up to speed after the first free practice for the Bahrain GP.

[Subject Delta]

Latter. Rosberg is rubbish. Schumacher might be better than both Hamilton and Button, and I do hope he thrashes them, but (as long as the cars are good) he won't be able to win it for Mercedes by himself.

I am agreed on that. McLaren's form picked up drastically towards the end of the season, whereas Brawn's tailed off. I believe McLaren have overall 2 of the 4 best drivers in the sport, and they have the momentum from their end of season development push as well.

Personally though, I hope Hamilton shows him up

[simonlang]

i think it will be very even between mclaren and mercedes.

if mclaren gets it perfect and is allowed to use same engine hami should be the fastest out of the 4 imho.

schumi will be close 2nd but its his first year after 3 years of absence and he might still need some time to adapt.

between button and rosberg. hm i really dont know. both kinda suck imho, i give button the edge in races and rosberg in qualifyings.

the problem will be that rosberg is very crash-prone.

my opinion: given equal-decent cars -> slightly advantage for mclaren

[Subject Delta]

Former Renault Formula 1 team boss Flavio Briatore has had his lifetime ban from motorsport overturned.

The Italian was banned by the sport's governing body, the FIA, for his part in Nelson Piquet Jr's deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

The French high court overturned the ban and awarded Briatore ?13,500 in compensation. The judge said: "The court ruled the sanction was illegal."

BBC Sport understands the FIA will launch an appeal against the decision.

The new FIA president, Jean Todt, has also talked about setting up a new disciplinary process to deal with similar incidents

Briatore's lawyers had argued at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris that procedures adopted during the investigation were against the FIA's international sporting code.

"We have the feeling that some justice has been reinstated," Briatore's lawyer Philippe Ouakrat said after the verdict.

"I'm certain that the court was quite shocked by the way that the decision was made against Mr. Briatore.

"We are in a situation in which Mr. Briatore is reinstated in all his capacities to act in Formula 1 or motorsports.

"The reputation of Flavio was tarnished but now he can recover his dignity."

A return to his role at Renault was ruled out for Briatore as the French team announced Eric Boullier as their new team principal earlier on Tuesday.

Renault's former director of engineering, Pat Symonds, also had his five-year suspension quashed by the French court.

Both Briatore and Symonds left Renault in the wake of the "crash-gate" scandal which shocked Formula 1 last summer.

Following Piquet Jr's dismissal by the team, the Brazilian revealed he had been asked to deliberately crash to help his team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race.

Renault were subsequently given a two-year suspended ban for their role in the race-fixing scandal at an FIA hearing in September, while Briatore and Symonds were handed longer punishments.

Briatore launched his legal case in October, claiming his right to a free and fair defence to the charges was flouted.

The Italian had also been seeking 1m euros in compensation but was awarded damages of 20,000 euros (?13,500) with Symonds given 5,000 euros (?4,500).

The court's decision also benefits Briatore as a co-owner of QPR Football Club as he is no longer in danger of breaching the Football League's fit and proper person test.

Source: BBC News

Kinda got mixed feelings on this one, whilst the evidence does indicate that Flavio was guilty of this offence, I never did believe that he got a fair trial, however I feel the impact of this will be very limited as I still really cannot imagine any motorsport team hiring him again anyway.

[Mike]

Quick summary of it is that they didn't hold an FIA license (no need for them to do so) and so the FIA can't ban them. AFAIK there is nothing to stop the FIA from refusing a license to a driver/team that either are involved in so they can effectively ban them. They can also introduce licenses for top members of staff of teams and then refuse the pair a license thus banning them.

[Subject Delta]

They aren't overly likely to ban his drivers, that would draw serious protests from the teams that they drive for.