Official F1/Motorsport thread

[charlesr]

£30 for a weekend pass.... Value tastic.

[ezee ryder]

Pretty uneventful US GP really. Alonso seemed to have thrown his dummy out of his pram after (deciding he didn't want to race or something) he couldn't get past Hamilton or did McLaren bosses tell him to call off the hunt?

[Rossco]

Still thought that was a great race.

Hamilton really stepping his game up now. I thought Alonso was gonna take him on the straight with 10-15 laps to go I think but he held him off nicely on the inside, when you thought he could bottle it. Well done again!



And Alonso has nothing to moan about if he even tries to after the race, McLaren in another 1-2 finish, why should they treat him better than Hamilton, I think the team are treating them equally and not giving any preference to anyone which is the way it should be, just because he's current champion doesnt mean he should get preferential treatment over a team mate.

[Alastair]

Does anyone else get the feeling that LH wont be making the appearance at Goodwood that he's supposed to? Him and his Dad didn't seem at all keen.

Alright race, nothing special.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Can't help but think Ron had a swift word with Alonso on the radio after the race to stop him complaining in the press conference. I'm sure that will all be done behind closed doors, but he has no case for complaint. He is clearly not used to a teammate pushing him as hard as Hamilton has done this season, which it seems is starting to bring out the emotion.

[Richard.John]

I think we can make two observations about the race...

The first is that it's important to get pole especially for the Macca boys as they are so even on pace, it can be very difficult to win if in P2. Nando tried but in the end couldn't do it though I think he had the slight edge in overall race pace today. Congrats to Lewis though as it's paper thin between them and he kept a cool head so won.

Secondly, if Ferrari cannot win in their backyard as such, then they cannot win full stop. It's not looking good for Massa and Raikkonen. They need a massive development to get them back to the top otherwise they can kiss this years WCC and WDC goodbye.

Rossco,

I think FA has been making a point that LH uses his telemetry from Fri and Sat. This may be annoying him to some degree as we are seeing a pattern of FA being fastest in all sessions until Q3 on Sat. Credit to LH of course if he is able to exploit that and get P1, as a lot of drivers would be unable to, but still it must get on FA nerves.

I really feel for JB as he must be gutted to see another British driver take his crown as ITV-F1 poster boy. Of course this poster boy can deliver and has already done more than enough to have his place in the record books. As Nigel Roebuck recently said, 'JB is wasting the best years of his career', in a dog of car and a team I might add.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I don't harbour much sympathy for Jenson as it's his own (or his advisors possibly) fault that he's at Honda.

Whilst he was unlucky to be ousted from two seats earlier in his career at Williams and Renault just as they were about to become more successful, the whole Honda-Williams contract debacle showed that he seemed to be getting desperate for a drive.

It doesn't look like there will be any openings at Ferrari, Mclaren or BMW for him, so the best he can probably hope for is maybe Renault. Considering that Flavio has already disposed of him once I can't see that being much of a likelyhood. So he is then left with Toyota (Ralf has been bad enough this year that he surely will not get an extension), Williams (ditto Wurz) or spending another year at Honda waiting for a Red Bull drive to come up.

He was never WDC material to start with, but it does look pretty bleak for him to ever again be in a car that is capable of challenging for victories.

[Alastair]

Lewis' kart as they were mentioning on ITV.

Currently at over £20k!

[Duddyroar]

On the subject of Button - I think people still seem to view him as a 'young' driver with plenty of promise, but you have to remember that he's been in the sport for six/seven years now, many F1 drivers don't have careers that last that long.

After the early promise, I think Button has shown himself to be a pretty average driver. Yes the car and team are a problem, but there's been little in the way of driving magic from the guy.

[dcmk]

Lewis' kart as they were mentioning on ITV.

Currently at over ?20k!

By the end of the season and has won a WDC. How much would that be worth

[Charlie]

Can't help but think Ron had a swift word with Alonso on the radio after the race to stop him complaining in the press conference. I'm sure that will all be done behind closed doors, but he has no case for complaint. He is clearly not used to a teammate pushing him as hard as Hamilton has done this season, which it seems is starting to bring out the emotion.

I think that's probably what happened too but, honestly, Alonso has no reason to moan as it's pretty evident both drivers are treated equally by McLaren who, perhaps more than any other team, have a history of letting it's drivers race eachother. It's not surprising Alonso's upset though, he doesn't take coming second best very well and, thinking back to the last couple of years, was often heard over the radio asking the Renault team to get Fisichella to let him through.

[Simmy]

It's not surprising Alonso's upset though, he doesn't take coming second best very well and, thinking back to the last couple of years, was often heard over the radio asking the Renault team to get Fisichella to let him through.

That's the problem I've always had with Alonso, yes he's a great driver but the guy just bitches far to much when things don't go his way ! The guy was always asking for Fisi to be moved out of the way, never seemed to occur to him to just pass the guy !

Blown away like everyone else by Hamiltons start to the season, with to me his greatest triumph so far being the way he has mentally crushed his more experienced extremely successfull team mate. Being an F1 fan of old though, I would like to see him tested slightly more, a tremendous recovery from the back of the grid unassisted by the travesty that is the blue flag, a great duel with a member of another team for 20 laps, a win on a wet/dry wet/dry track etc. Certainly don't want to take anything away from what the guy has achieved already, but a bit more of a challanging victory/podium finish would cement how skill full he is for me !

When was the last wet race by the way ? Have they been scheduled out of the season ?

[Alastair]

When was the last wet race by the way ? Have they been scheduled out of the season ?

Can't remember, Hungary last year?

Being an F1 fan of old though, I would like to see him tested slightly more, a tremendous recovery from the back of the grid unassisted by the travesty that is the blue flag, a great duel with a member of another team for 20 laps, a win on a wet/dry wet/dry track etc. Certainly don't want to take anything away from what the guy has achieved already, but a bit more of a challanging victory/podium finish would cement how skill full he is for me !

I agree with that, he's very good for sure but we need to see what he does in tougher situations before we can proclaim him 'great'. I actually do think he is great by the way, just want him to earn it a little more!

[On The Edge of Insanity]

They seem to have moved the races around to try and avoid rain, Brazil being a case in point. Normally I'd hope for it to rain at Spa, but I'm going this year, so I'd rather be able to see what was going than just stare at a load of mist.

[adam_the_browndog]

I feel so so sorry for Alonso.

This is even worse when he cried about that michael schumacher battle last year.