Hahaha - I don't know whether anybody saw qualifying this afternoon, but Schumacher "accidentally" managed to run wide at Rascasse on his last lap, missed the wall, "accidentally" rolled backwards into the middle of the track and "accidentally" stalled his engine, thereby screwing up everyone else's flying lap. Thankfully, the Monagesque stewards saw right through the dirty little cheat and banished him to the back of the grid :thumbsup:

I don't know whether I'll watch the race or not - Monaco is always decided by pitstops because it's impossible to overtake. Hopefully Raikkonen can get the jump on Webber off the grid, otherwise Alonso will bugger off into the distance and even the pitstops will be meaningless.

I saw that yeah.

And I actually did a little happy dance when I heard the news of his penalty this morning :ph43r:

I'll watch certainly, if nothing else the onboard shots at Monaco are exciting as they go so ball clenchingly close to the barriers.

My F1 watching is usually limited to the start these days and until there's a lot more 'racing' it probably remain that way.

Though if Schumacher's at the back it could be a bit more interesting.

I heard about his 'Car problem' stuffing up Alonso and leaving him on pole last night and thought the cheating little :silence: has got away with it again.......

So I was somewhat amused to see the stewards actually standing up to him and sending him to the back...... :thumbsup:

Might actually break the habit of two years now and actually watch this one......but then again I might just see when the Bikes are on instead....... :)

i heard about the "incident" and the consequence (a good laugh at that)

schumi is not senna, he can't play the officials (and only end up with a warning) :p

Shame the safety car ruined the race :( It looked like Raikkonen had the fastest car out there, and he would have taken Alonso at the second round of pitstops, but once again the McLaren reliability fucked him over. It's weird how bad reliability only seems to affect one person in a team - it always happened to Rubens when he was at Ferrari and it's always Raikkonen at McLaren.

A lot of it is down to the drivers style though......Raikkonen was thrashing the nuts off that Mclaren keeping up with Alonso....whereas Montoya eased off a bit to conserve his tyres............

I think Raik may have turned the engine map right up for maximum revs to keep with Alonso in the hope of leapfrogging him at the pitstop.....so he was risking the engine going kablooey at any time......the safety car merely made certain of it with the lack of air going through the rads..... :shrug:

Didnt DC look a pillock in the red cape....... :lol:

Wow. The first blown Ferrari engine for 5 years and it happened yesterday. How great was that? :thumbsup:

I'm very glad Schumacher isn't going to win the drivers championship again. Even though he's done well to haul back Alonso's 25 point lead, he was helped by the scandalous decision to handicap Renault through the FIA removing their mass damper system. Renault have had the best car and Alonso has been the best driver so imo it's only fitting they should win. I hope McLaren manage to fix their reliability issues next year though.

It is rumoured that Schumacher didnt actually intend retiring this year. Seems relations between Schuey and Ferrari bosses had become increasingly strained recently, culminating in the choice.......accept equal status/equipment with Raikkonen or leave......he chose to leave.....His face at the press conferance to announce his retirement was not that of a man happy with his descision......(even then Ferrari stole his thunder by leaking the announcement early)

I'm sure his falling out with Ferrari had nothing to do with his normally bullet proof car going wrong twice in two races....... :shifty:


Well done Alonso....... :thumbsup:

Well with the new season almost apon us, lets look at whats changed for this year.........

Out goes Jaques Villenueve, JP Montoya, Michael Schumacher, Ross brawn, Michelin, and Alonso's mullett.....

In comes a whole host of new drivers, and several drivers changing teams....several teams having to switch to Bridgestone rubber, and some changing engine supplier........

Team by team..........

Vodafone Mercedes McLaren.
Fernando Alonso
Lewis Hamilton
Have brought two superfast drivers to the team but may suffer through lack of continuity, and having to switch to Bridgestones.....
will they miss Adrian Newey.........
What is that large bulge in the engine cover hiding....?

ING Renault.
Giancarlo Fisichella
Heikki Kovalainen
Another team having to get used to new rubber....how much will they miss Alonso?

Scudaria Ferrari.
Kimi Raikkonen
Felipe Massa
Will the loss of Schuey and Ross Brawn (who arguably won more GP for Ferrari than Schuey did with his race strategies) hurt Ferrari?
Now Massa doesnt have to play second fiddle to Schuey will he raise his game?
McLaren criticised Raikkonens commitment....will Ferrari get more out of him?
Whats the reason for the longer wheelbase?

Honda.
Jenson Button.
Rubens Barrichello
Another team switching to Bridgestone
Same driver line up as last year but lots of changes behind the scenes.
Engine lacks power, so car suffers in outright speed.
Whats with that paint-job?

BMW Sauber Petronas.
Nick Heidfeld.
Robert Kubica.
Another team switching rubber.
Kubica impressed when he replaced JV mid season, can he keep the momentum?

Panasonic Toyota.
Jarno Trulli.
Ralf Schumacher.
Same old driver line up......same old problems with the car.....!
Huge ammounts of money thrown at team, but new car slower than Spyker in practice due to serious handling problems......

Red Bull Renault.
David Coulthard.
Mark Webber.
The addition of Webber strengthens driver line up.....
First RBR car designed and built by Adrian Newey.....
New engine supplier and rubber, and Neweys trademark complexity will cause reliability issues early in the season.....

RBS Williams Toyota.
Nico Rosberg.
Alex Wurz.
Strong driver line up
Lack of manufacturer backing now causing real problems for Williams.
Can they make more of the Toyota engine than Toyota...?

Scudaria Torro Rosso Ferrari.
Antonia Liuzzi.
Scott Speed.
Another team changing rubber.
The other car designed by Adrian Newey...but around a different engine!
Unlike RBR wont have 'hands-on' tech support from Newey during season.

Spyker Ferrari.
Christijan Albers.
Adrian Sutil.
Pretty good team and driver line up.......
That with the Ferrari engine....could suprise later in season.

Super Aguri Honda.
Takuma Sato.
Anthony Davidson.
Sato's driving would have come in for more criticism last year if Ide's hadnt been even worse...!
Car basically last years Honda, but on Bridgestone rubber!
Honda engine not the best......


All in all, the season looks like it could be interesting.....I only hope the advantage Ferrari has shown in the last few weeks doesnt become total dominance again.... :ermm:


Yes, I was on a night shift......and bored....... :p

Really looking forward to the new season. Potentially the most open for years.

I think it'll be a straight fight between Raikkonen and Alonso. Alonso has been carrying Renault for the past 2 years and, providing the new McLaren doesn't break down, is favourite for the title. Raikkonen has always been fast but was hampered by a lack of reliability, now he's gone to the kings of reliability he should show exactly how fast he is.

The interesting thing for me is whether Hamilton will turn out to be as fast as everyone thinks he is. I think he's the only potential challenger to the top 2 as none of the other cars are going to be fast enough to compete.

I wouldnt rule out Massa....he was on par with Michael towards the end of last season in a slightly less developed car........I think he could suprise people....not least Kimi....... :ponder:

As for Hamilton......last year he was making his car do things that shouldnt have been physically possible, often braking several car lengths later than everyone else and still making the corner.......ok, so how much of that was him, and how much was the team setting his car up better than anyone elses is anybodies guess....but it does seem that if he is confident in the car he can make it do things it really shouldnt be able to do (bit like some German driver used to ;) )

The only question marks are.......last year, his reputation was such that a lot of the other drivers expected him to get past them easily and so didnt put up much of a fight when he lunged for the inside at a corner.....I cant see the F1 drivers giving him that much respect.....

Also, he did have a habit of pushing his car past its limits.....though his recovery drives from almost last, after a spin, to first were impressive, not spinning it in the first place would have been easier........
Think we may see him throwing his car at the scenery a few times early in the season........ :ponder:

So....my predictions........
A three way tussle between Alonso, Massa, and Raikkonen.......with new boys Hamilton and Kovalainen snapping at their heels after a few races..... :)

Beeb Clicky :)

Who needs Schumacher......?

Seems Ferrari do not......... :rolleyes:


Well done Lewis.........podium on his debute in F1......... :thumbsup:

Another second place for Lewis......and now leading the championship too..... :o

Good result for Coulthard......the Red bull car is looking much improved...if still a little fragile........ :)

A mechanical failure for Ferrari.... :o ...any bets yet as to who the Ferrari top brass favour....? ;)

Even though he's from (near) Stevenage, well done to Lewis on his first win today :thumbsup:

I was surprised that leaving the pit lane under a red light is a black flag offence, I would have thought that a stop-go penalty would have sufficed. Still, it helped out Lewis (and Alonso to get more points for McLaren) so I shan't complain too much :)

Great drive by Hamilton........ :thumbsup: building up a lead several times only to have it wiped out by the safety car.....surely he cant win the title in his rookie year....can he.....?

Must admit, after all the hype from the British press, I was expecting Hamilton to stick it in the wall.....He seems to have a driving style very like Schumi and likes his car set up to be very loose......a combination that has introduced Michael to the wall more than once....... :rolleyes:

I too was suprised by the severity of the penalty for jumping the red light at the end of the pitlane.......but I guess they see it as a safety issue....the red light meaning its not safe to exit the pitlane......

What also suprised me was Martin Brundle not knowing you cant take a stop/go penalty when the safety car is out......

Seven races seven podiums........ :o How long cant it last....?

Back to back wins on circuits he had never driven before......

....and now he's back on circuits he knows well for the next few races......

Eight races - eight podiums........! :o


There must be questions over McLarens strategy.....the only reason I could see for putting Hamilton on a 3 stopper, when everyone else was 2 stopping, was to get Alonso past him......but that was scuppered by Alonso's inability to deal with the BMW's and Renault..... :rolleyes:

Those Ferrari's looked fast again..... :ermm:

Guess it had to end eventually.......although if he hadnt gone onto dry tyres when he did I reckon he would have been easily third....possibly higher.

The moment of the whole thing for me was Michael Schumacher presenting the winning team trophy to McLarens Ron Dennis....Dont know what Ron said as he handed him the trophy but the look on Michaels face was hilarious......made even better by Ron standing behind him on the podium pointing at him and mouthing 'look at his face' to other members of the McLaren team...... :lol:

Damn I wish I'd seen that :D

I usually stay tuned for the podium but yesterday didn't for some reason :rolleyes:

After Lewis Hamiltons car was hoisted on a tractor and put back on the track at the Nurburgring, the FIA has passed a ruling that if a car cannot return to the track under its own power and is deemed to be stopped in an unsafe position it must be recovered to a position of safety off of the circuit and cannot rejoin the race.

There was a great quote from Mark Webber on this........

"You can't have guys getting stuck in gravel traps and tractors popping them back on the track - it's not a bloody PlayStation game!" :lol:

Bloody FIA

Right, let me get this straight. Because Vettel didn't look where he was going and crashed into Mark Webber, they both try to pin the blame on Hamilton and get him disqualified! It's unbelievable! Nobody else managed to have a crash behind the safety car, just because one person lost concentration for a second, don't try and blame it on some other guy who was completely innocent in the whole thing.

Funy thing is....to start with Webber was blaming Vettel......then suddenly its all Hamiltons fault......... :ponder:
I'm sure it had nothing to do with Red Bull's links with a certain Italian team....who supply the engines for STR....... <_<

and there was talk of not only losing the points for that race but a 10 place grid penalty for the next race too........F1 is drowning in politics....... :no:

Oh well :( I guess Lewis didn't help himself by running wide at turn 4 when he didn't need to challenge Alonso, but his car would still have cut out so it just wasn't meant to be :(

Not that the FIA would have allowed him to keep the championship had he won it, I'm sure they'd have found some technicality to disqualify him on <_<

It was a fascinating race. Typical. The one time we want a dull as dishwater, lead from start to finish by Hamilton and we have all this excitement and drama!

I think inexperience, and probably nerves were evident in the first few turns. Once passed by Alonso he should just have tucked in behind him for a few laps until the field had stretched out a little.

Disappointing, but he'll have another crack next year.

Felt a bit sorry for Nakajima's pit crew. Might have been his first grand prix, but there's no need to mow down your crew! :lol:

Trick is to mow down someone elses........ ;)


Well at least one Brit still knows how to win something..........Well done to Andy Priaulx for winning the 'World touring car championship' for the third year running..... :thumbsup:

I guess it makes a change from 'You will never guess who I had in my cab the other day'.......... :rolleyes:

Schumi

i don't think there is as much cameras in germany than in the UK (also probably different law about speeding) but if he has been caught, schumi might in trouble :unsure: :lol:

Lewis Hamilton banned from driving after speeding at 40mph above legal limit

article

:ph43r: :rolleyes:

First race of the 2008 season...and what a race....... :o loads of crashes.....only 6 classified finishers.....Bourdais (on his debute) and Raikkonen getting points despite not actually finishing........ :rolleyes:

Two thoughts......

Dont know who Ferrari had driving their cars today.......but if they dont get the real Massa and Raikkonen back for Malaysia they will need Ecclestones help again to win the championship....... ;)

Could Honda have made more of a balls-up of Barrichello's pitstop? I know they were caught out by the safety car and had to pit......but they entered the pitroad when it was closed, released him with the refuelling rig still attatched....then he left the pitlane when the red light was on........He had been running higher than a Honda has for ages.....but that little lot earned him a 10second stop/go for entering the pits when they were closed......and a DQ for passing the red light :rolleyes:

Great Race - all these cars sliding about is what F1 is supposed to be about, where drivers have to drive rather than push a couple of buttons and put their feet up for the rest of the afternoon.

At least the first part of Ruben's predicament was unavoidable - he had to come in when he did as another lap out on the circuit would have led to him running out of juice anyway, as for the rest :rolleyes:

:lmao: at Coulthards comment to Louise about Massa following their accident -

"I'll kick all kinds of shit out of the bastard" - May have been strategically edited out of the afternoon re-run :whistling:

why no finisher got points anyway? that's not really clear :ponder: (still a good first race for bourdais, too bad his car broke down so near the end :rolleyes: )

still a good first race for this season

As points are awarded down to eigth place, if not enough cars take the chequered flag the rest of the points are awarded on a basis of distance traveled before retirement.

what happen then when only six cars actually race (ie: 2005 US race) ? :unsure: :lol: :rolleyes:

The F1 rules state that any car that has taken the start and completed more than 90% of the total race distance is eligible for points, even if they are not running at the finish....... :)

So in 2005 only 6 cars would have been eligible to score points, and then only if they completed 90% race distance.


Just a thought........

Just think of the odds you could have got last week against, in the manufacturers standings after race 1......

Williams Toyota would be above Toyota.

Torro-Rosso Ferrari would be above Ferrari (and RBR). :o

F1 back on the beeb from next year :thumbsup:

Thank God for that!

Can't remember if it was the race in China or Australia last year, but in one of them Hamilton was leading when they went to a break. By the time they came back, he'd had a technical problem and was slipping down the field rapidly. Before break, first, after break, ninth. Did they cut back because something exciting was happening? Of course not.

Well done to the Beeb, a five year deal, hopefully that'll be the end of ITV coverage for a good few years.

Great race........ :thumbsup:

I see Massa found a great way to give his sponsors value for money........show the fans both sides of the car at every corner....... :lol:

He must have been dizzy by the end though...... :wacko:

Well done Lewis :thumbsup: