Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Soong]

Yeah but I mean surely it's equal? They'd be pushing hard to catch up, thinking "new tyres, new tyres". Whilst the guy in front is pushing hard to keep away, thining "new tyres, new tyres".

Now they guys chasing, thinking, "easy tyres, easy..". Whilst the guy in front is trying to keep his distance, thinking "easy tyres, easy..".


With qualifying, what I'd do is *prepares to be laughed out of the arena*, is.. take the results from the previous race and just reverse them. Winner at the back, first out starts in pole Ok I didn't put much thought into that but it still would be nice to see.

[Alastair]

Pushing hard kinda contradicts "easy tyres" though doesn't it.

I like the qualifying suggestion though, I'll let Max Mosely know, he needs all the help he can get

[VR46]

The team radio is delayed by about 5 seconds apparently (due to driver swearing possibility I guess )

[mid]

Schuey was absolutely "in the right" as far as the rules go; Heidfeld didn't get close enough to his back for that to be anything other than defending your line.

Where he was wrong was that it was bloody stupid. Leaving Heidfeld nowhere to go other than the grass, when he was already braking hard for the corner and so couldn't back off, guaranteed a shunt. With the "no new tyres" rule, even if you don't get serious damage to your car a trip sideways over tarmac, grass and gravel is going to leave you stuffed anyway.

Meanwhile, it's pretty obvious what kept Coultard off the podium; (a) Jacques Villeneuve's inability to comprehend the way lapping works, and (b) his AG-Systems craft had left the tyres on

[Shez]

Don't know about anyone else, but I expected tyre wear to be more of a problem than it was - I don't think one person complained about tyre wear, which makes me wonder if the guys where driving well within themselves. It would explain Schumacher and Raikkonens slow pace early on.

Considering Fisichella and Alonso popped their fastest laps in very very late in the race - I think it's safe to say that the tyres held up very well. Hopefully the drivers will start pushing more over the course of the next few races.

The qualifying is a mess, and it was amusing reading my local paper giving the final qualifying result's when there was still one run to go - It is a bit confusing for the casual viewer.

[mid]

With qualifying, what I'd do is *prepares to be laughed out of the arena*, is.. take the results from the previous race and just reverse them. Winner at the back, first out starts in pole Ok I didn't put much thought into that but it still would be nice to see.

In order to make that work, though, you're going to have to award points for every single place in the race. Otherwise, as soon as you know you're not going to make the top 8, you won't just be conveniently blowing an engine in order to get another for the next race, but competing to be last, in order to get a good grid position next time.

[Mr_Sands]

In order to make that work, though, you're going to have to award points for every single place in the race. Otherwise, as soon as you know you're not going to make the top 8, you won't just be conveniently blowing an engine in order to get another for the next race, but competing to be last, in order to get a good grid position next time.

That would be great to what though I think that should do that

[gtskater]

Where can I download large high-res pictures of F1 or WRC. I'd love some good pictures for desktop backgrounds.

[Alastair]

Try the official team sites. They will prob be best for up to date ones.

Or put formula 1 wallpaper, or something like that, into this image search: http://images.devilfinder.com/

I get a lot of blocked images using that so be aware if you're at work.

Here for some more:

http://www.planet-f1.com/downloads/wallpapers/

There are a few at crash too:

http://www.crash.net/uk/en/services/wallpaper.asp

Hope that helps a little

[Alastair]

There is already speculation that JV is on his way out! Must try harder. Possibly very good news for Davidson though

Also, the engine rule regarding not 'finishing' has been tightened up. Looks like BAR will get away with doing it in Melbourne but no-one will be able to do it again. Makes sense but I don't see why they didn't enforce it in the first place as it was obvious teams would be doing this. M Schu is allowed a new engine though of course, no questions asked, why did he retire again? there really didn't seem to be any visible problems with his car other than he was driving it slowly. Maybe the rule should be that the engine can only be changed if that was the cause of the retirement.

[mid]

My only concern there is exactly how nasty a retirement on the last lap are they going to accept? Is Sato expected to fling his car at the tirewall deliberately in order to get a 'free' new engine next time?

[Alastair]

That's what I mean also, if the engine is still intact, no new engine for you. No-one will smash up a chassis to get a new engine. Only the boys in red could afford that!

[Kieran76]

A race of two halves today, first half dull, second half a lot better. To be honest I am not a massive fan of either Melbourne or Sepang. The sooner F1 gets to Europe the better, thats where the best circuits are, and Japan of course.

However, another good day for my boy DC. Those Renaults still look fast and you have to feel for both BAR lads, esp Davidson. I will be suprised if Villenueve is at the next race.
I will also be buying my tickets for the Hungarian GP this week.

GO DC!

[Del Boy]

Lets be fair now, the new rules have got the drivers tip toeing round to preserve tyres.

Meaning hardly any over taking.

The good action lasted a total of 1min 30 sec, and in a full race that sucks.

Maybe its due to poor courses, i can only hope so.

[Kieran76]

I don't think the director helped much today though, we never seemed to be watching the best bits. He kept flicking about all the time. I was not sure who was where for the first 15 laps.