F1 - Comments

[mgmark]

Seems that the latest debacle has been resolved properly - no penalty, according to the telly news.   I do wish that the whinging git teams would just shut up and get on with racing.  Mind you, I suppose if your team has just lost a potential points finish to qualify for a share of the FOCA revenue for travel (worth about 10m), you might just try and find any vestiuge of an excuse to blame someone else.....

MG Mark

[termietermite]

Good lord, the bickering's the only interesting bit of F1 isn't it?

[Paddy_NL]

Well, I guess Bernie got his remote control out to get the championship down to the wire

[Fran]

Although the lovely Lewis was very careful not to say it himself, the bloke from McLaren admitted it was their decision to keep him out there too long.  What a shame.   

F

P.S.  Was it just my imagination, or was the champagne spraying on the podium rather subdued?

[Bob U]

Did you notice that the 2 Ferrari's didn't have the white stripe on their left front tyres? Given that the stripe is in the groove and there seemed to be quite a bit of tread left it seemed strange that no white at all  was visible. Brundell was saying, that due to the nature of the track, left front tyres degrade a lot faster that the right.
 I didn't notice it when they first changed to dry tyres and only picked up on it from a later in car shot.

Were Ferrari running with 2 different rubber compounds to counteract the wear on the left?
If they were is it legal?

Must check it out on the rerun.

[Andy]

Was Jean Todt a bit paranoid about identity theft?

His fingers and thumb tips were taped up

Another race with overtaking happening on the track, what ever is F1 coming to?

[Ade]

Was Jean Todt a bit paranoid about identity theft?

His fingers and thumb tips were taped up

Apparently it's to stopping him biting his fingernails, worry or excitement?

ade

[Piglet]

Did you notice that the 2 Ferrari's didn't have the white stripe on their left front tyres? Given that the stripe is in the groove and there seemed to be quite a bit of tread left it seemed strange that no white at all  was visible. Brundell was saying, that due to the nature of the track, left front tyres degrade a lot faster that the right.
 I didn't notice it when they first changed to dry tyres and only picked up on it from a later in car shot.

Were Ferrari running with 2 different rubber compounds to counteract the wear on the left?
If they were is it legal?

Must check it out on the rerun.

This was discussed on Pistonheads at the time as they had three blank tyres and one with a grove - the opinion of others (who were more awake than I !) was that they definately put on four white striped tyres.  I meant to watch the re-run but then found something better to watch! 

Being an anorak I've read the regs and they must run the same specification tyre on all four wheels.   I don't really want KR to loose points though as it would put FA further up!

[smokie]

Apologies if I've missed earlier comment on this - but I'm sure they mentioned the Spyker team is being sold to an Indian businessman. Rather a short lived life in F1 wasn't it...

[Lazy B'stard]

Apologies if I've missed earlier comment on this - but I'm sure they mentioned the Spyker team is being sold to an Indian businessman. Rather a short lived life in F1 wasn't it...

It would explain the sudden surge of interest in F1 that the chap who owns the corner shop has shown- i knew he was up to something

[Paddy_NL]

Yep. The F1-adventure costed Spyker Cars about €30M. They won't do that again

It seems they are reorganising a bit, and concentrate on building cars and race LMS and Le Mans with new cars.  Apparently they are also working on getting the Spyders into the ALMS

[nopanic - neil]

From the BBC web site, what a strange the world the F1 goes round in!

Hamilton 'may be negative for F1'  
 
Hamilton has been a phenomenon in his first season in F1
Motorsport boss Max Mosley has said Lewis Hamilton could have a negative effect on Formula One if he is as successful next year as he was in 2007.
"If he does the same thing next season as he's done this season, it will certainly have a big effect," he said.

"It will start to be negative because we'll get the Schumacher effect where people start writing to me saying can't you do something to slow him down."

Mosley added that Hamilton's role in revitalising F1 had been exaggerated.

 606: DEBATE
What do you think of Mosley's remarks? 
"He has certainly helped enormously in the UK," said Mosley, the president of governing body the FIA, in an interview with the BBC's Hardtalk programme.

"He's also got a lot of interest worldwide because he's come manifestly not from a rich background. He's just made it.

"There is always somebody new. If it wasn't him it would be either [Nico] Rosberg or [Robert] Kubica or one of the other new stars, a [Sebastian] Vettel, would suddenly be the big one.

 
It would be surprising if Hamilton didn't know something of what was going on [in spy-gate], but I've got absolutely no evidence that he had

Max Mosley (above)
"So I think there is a tendency to exaggerate the importance of Lewis Hamilton."

Mosley added that it was "very unlikely" that Hamilton would be installed as champion following a hearing next month into the results of the season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix.

McLaren have appealed against the decision not to punish the Williams and BMW Sauber teams for having fuel that was too cold.

If McLaren are successful in having their three points-scoring drivers excluded, Hamilton could be moved up in the results to fourth, giving him enough points to displace Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen as world champion.

But Mosley said: "It could happen, absolutely, because this will go to a court of appeal.

"It consists of very senior lawyers who are not connected with any of the countries involved in the events, so not Britain, not Italy and so on. It's an independent court. It can decide.

"That said, it's very unlikely, because even if they excluded those cars they are not obliged to reclassify Hamilton. There's absolutely no need, if they don't wish to, to change the position that Hamilton was in."

Mosley described the 2007 season as "very positive, on the whole", despite the controversies that plagued the sport, because "although the behind-the-scenes stuff was annoying for us and the people concerned, for the public it really adds to the general interest".

 
There was a thrilling three-way title climax this season
One of those controversies was the "spy-gate" saga, when Hamilton's McLaren team were fined $100m (£49.2m) and thrown out of the constructors' championship after being found guilty of possessing confidential Ferrari technical information.

Mosley said McLaren's 2008 car would be closely scrutinised by the FIA to ensure the team had not included any Ferrari ideas on it.

"That [Ferrari data] was in the hands of the chief designer at precisely the moment he was designing the 2008 McLaren," Mosley said.

"The difficulty we have is that you're not going to find on the McLaren a part that was designed by Ferrari.

"What you may find are ideas and at this level of technology at this level of motorsport, if the idea is given to the chief designer he will make a component utilising that idea which bears no relation at all to the component perhaps being used by the other car.

"So we will be looking for the ideas. The investigation will be thorough, it will use outside experts and we will do everything we possibly can to make sure that either of the McLarens has no element of Ferrari intellectual property in it or if it does we will then have to consider taking some sort of action.

"That would not necessarily be preventing them from running. It would be more likely that they would be given a negative point allocation.

"Finding something will not be easy. On the other hand, there are sources we are going to deploy who will give us as good a chance as its possible to have to find it."

Asked if he thought Hamilton had known more about the Ferrari information being in McLaren's possession than has come out in public, Mosley said: "He's not a known quantity to me.

"It would be surprising if he didn't know something of what was going on, but I've got absolutely no evidence that he had. On that basis it would be wrong of me to suggest that he had."

 

[Paddy_NL]

Motorsport boss Max Mosley has said Lewis Hamilton could have a negative effect on Formula One if he is as successful next year as he was in 2007.
"If he does the same thing next season as he's done this season, it will certainly have a big effect," he said.

"It will start to be negative because we'll get the Schumacher effect where people start writing to me saying can't you do something to slow him down."

"He's also got a lot of interest worldwide because he's come manifestly not from a rich background. He's just made it.

"There is always somebody new. If it wasn't him it would be either [Nico] Rosberg or [Robert] Kubica or one of the other new stars, a [Sebastian] Vettel, would suddenly be the big one.

Is it me, or is Mosely talking out of a different exit of his body? There will always be two or three drivers that stand away from the crowds, just like two or three teams which will do the same. If Hammy is not from a rich background, he's living proof that top-goals can still be achieved. He was the right man at the right place at the right time. Live with it, Mosely. If the $100M fine can't slow down McLaren in '08, you'll have to figure out something else to do to slow them down.
"The Schumacher effect"? The F1-championship hasn't been this close for years. Go figure.

[JDS]

The main bad thing for F1 (IMHO) is Mosely's continued reign at the head of the FIA .....

[Paddy_NL]

He isn't as bad as Balestre was though, the French pr*ck