Official F1/Motorsport thread

[VR46]

It is good to see four people fighting for the championship yes.

Hamilton is starting to remind me of Amir Khan, very cocky and at times needs knocking down a notch or two. Not read anything written in the press since the weekend.

No ones mentioned the Moto GP have they, and primarily a 15 year old British winner in the 125 race.

[rickt]

Good weekend of motorcycling coming up:

Saturday -
Dutch Moto GP - Eurosport, BBC2 & i for 125 & 250
Speedway world Campionship UK round (cardiff), sky sports

Sunday -
World Superbike - Misano, Eurosport
British Superbike - Mallory Park, Eurosport

[Alastair]

So, yesterday I went to Silverstone (130 miles away from Brighton) for the F1 Testing. On the drive up it started to rain, I was spending a fortune in petrol and was thinking to myself “it better be worth it”. It was, it really was.

Spectators were limited to the outside of the track and from Club round to Luffield was open, that’s about 1/3 of the outside of the lap that we could get to. Views were great as numbers were limited to 5000, still felt a little cramped in places but not too bad and we could get wherever we wanted to be.

I thought in the morning session that Massa just made everyone else look daft, the Ferrari seems so effortless to drive compared to the others, even though Kovy was fastest all day. Jenson looked slow, poor sod, can't be nice to have to drive such a dog of a car. Shame Fisi sent it into the wall, have to check if he injured himself as last I heard he was off to the medical centre for a wrist x-ray and then Piquet hit the wall too, saw that coming all day long though, he looked so ragged.

I don’t think you can say you know anything about F1 cars until you’ve stood at Bridge corner while they go through it at around 180mph fully loaded about 40 feet from you, sublime and certainly an education.

Anyway, some pictures, I took loads but was struggling as they were so much faster than any other motorsport I’ve shot, these are 4 of the better ones:

Button @ Abbey


Massa with Button in background @ Club


Kubica @ Luffield


Fisi well loaded through Bridge, compared with the other shots of other cars through here I have his cars attitude looks so wrong

[Malc]

Wish I could go down to see the F1. I'm jealous!

Is the British GP this weekend? As I thought it was next week.

[Alastair]

Next w/e, this was 'just' a test session. Normal procedures for next w/e including practice 1 & 2 on the Friday.

[Alastair]

You guys seen that next years calendar has been announced?

Provisional calendar:
29 March - Australia (Melbourne)
5 April - Malaysia (Sepang)
19 April - Bahrain (Manama)
10 May - Spain (Barcelona)
24 May - Monaco
7 June - Canada (Montreal)
21 June - Britain (Silverstone)
28 June - France (Magny-Cours)
12 July - Germany (Nuerburgring)
26 July - Hungary (Budapest)
9 August - Turkey (Istanbul)
23 August - Europe (Valencia)
6 September - Italy (Monza)
13 September - Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
27 September - Singapore
11 October - Japan (Suzuka)
18 October - China (Shanghai)
1 November - Brazil (Interlagos)
15 November - Abu Dhabi

Japan back at Suzuka

Abu Dhabi getting the finalé on a street circuit and the season going on until 15 November. It does also start 2 weeks later though.

[Rossco]

And the bore fest that is Magny Cours is back!

[Malc]

I like the idea of finishing off the season with a street course. That could be really interesting if theres a few competing for the championship, and they have to prevail on a tight and demanding track.

[Roddie]

Great photos, Alastair; thanks for sharing

[Richard.John]

Alastair,

So is the Ferrari red metallic now or has it changed back to the plain type? I do prefer it to the almost dayglo Schu days. Great pics by the way.

[Alastair]

Couldn't get anywhere near to them so no idea if it's metallic or not, it's certainly a nice shiny deep red now rather than that obtuse bright almost orange they used to run.

The orange on the McL's though, now that's bright. Really garish. There were loads of spectators walking around in McL gear and the ones in the orange tops looked especially stupid!

[Dazzyman]

So does anyone know if Hamiltons m8 phoned him back and said he was a big L for not going thru the pack then ?

Not really followed the press regarding his backlash Im just suprised its taken em so long, I thought he was an arrogant little sod after 2 races and instead of rooting for a new Schumey went for Alonso instead. Shumey started down that trail when he joined F1 with the arrogance (not the wild parties though) but luckily he settled down Hamilton needs to do the same, he gets paid a big load of cash so it would be nice for him to go to and back drivers safety meetings instead of being the only one intrested in clubbing it instead. Im suprised theirs enough room for his body and ego in the car at moment. He aint "young" either hes just arrogant and needs to shut his gob and get on with actually racing, Im just sick of it being the Hamilton show on ITV their even showing him before and after adverts now, Id rather have Coutlhard on anyday.

Masa for title or Kubica

[Richard.John]

He seemingly believes his own hype, that's the problem. It will come crashing down though at some point, it always does. Button had the same problem so a ****ty year in the midfield could do him good actually.

[Alastair]

MotoGp on the BBC:

Saturday 28 June

125cc & 250cc races
0945-1215, BBCi and BBC Sport website

Race live
1245-1400, BBC TWO and BBC Sport website


Just in case you didn't get it the first time around, that's tomorrow NOT Sunday!

[charlaph]

Just watched the MotoGP qualifying, great stuff as always. 'mon Stoner!