Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Richard.John]

Yes, Gerhard on the podium brought a smile no doubt. If he gives Bruno Senna the seat next year and he wins, the headlines can read Senna and Berger on the top step once again. Beautiful.

[VR46]

Shouldn't be long 'til we hear if Hamilton's appeal is successful, or if not, and he loses more points for appealing in the first place.

[Bort]

... http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70778

[Richard.John]

The wing is a bit odd but why the nose bridge bit? I thought they were going too.

[Roddie]

I was surprised to see that as well, but TBH I don't mind that style of front wing. Probably quite unpopular, but I really like the shark fin engine covers that most of teams have now, I guess they'll be gone next year too.

[Richard.John]

Maybe it was just the rear wing being tested as the tyres are not slicks anyway so not the full '09 spec.

[Alastair]

It was 2009 spec rear end bolted to a 2008 car. Just a test of the rear wing basically and the rear aero rules I guess.

I don't mind the smallness of the rear wing if it aids overtaking. I'm actually pretty excited to see what the cars look like in full '09 spec with slicks and bigger, lower front wings.

[VR46]

Those small rear wings are really going to reduce downforce greatly, be interesting to see how it affects high speed cornering etc - though suppose full slicks will balalnce that out so lap times will still be on a part with those of this year.

[Alastair]

That's the whole aim of the new regs yes, stay close to current levels of grip by reducing aero downforce but increasing mechanical grip (slicks). With less reliance on aero for grip then the cars 'should' be able to overtake more frequently as the mechanical grip isn't altered when following close to another car in it's wake.

In all honesty it may take a few years to get the balance right and I'd expect it still to be a bit hard in the first year at least for all this magic overtaking but hopefully it will come.

[Richard.John]

Perceptions change. The Mclaren Hondas I saw, photographed, recently looked huge with massive, full size Goodyear slicks and wide rear and front wings. The lack of body work sculpting was a pleasant throwback too.

[VR46]

Hamilton has lost his appeal.

[Richard.John]

What a surprise. If they dock him more points, he should consider himself lucky. MS was banned for daring to challenge the powers that be.

[VR46]

There is no mention of more points being docked.

[Duddyroar]

Well we all kinda knew that the appeal would be rejected but I think people got their hopes up because Hamilton had an excellent case. Apparently they even played back the reaction of the race steward in court, and he basically said (when asked by McLaren's staff at the time) that he believed the move was legit. Of course by the time the court case arrived he had changed his mind, but in my eyes that shouldn't make any difference - McLaren were honest enough to ask him AS SOON AS THE EVENT HAD HAPPENED and I'm sure if he had any doubts at the time, McLaren would have ordered Lewis to back off.

Basically the FIA doesn't have to defend itself here, it's fallen back on the rulebook - these kinds of penalities cannot be overturned or appealed against. HOWEVER - this sorry saga has shown that the FIA can make terrible mistakes so someone really needs to shake up the system. Ok, so they've now clairified the rules and they say that you have to give back the place AND stay behind for the next corner when you cut the corner and gain an advantage, but why didn't they just let Hamilton have the win and clarify the rules as a result, rather than acting like everyone should know what the rules are in this regard (when they clearly don't as other drivers saw it as a fair move).

Of course, had this entire incident been about a Ferrari driver, we wouldn't be having this debate now as the win would have stood...sorry to play the whole conspiracy angle, but it's pretty obvious that one team seems to be benefitting from the kindness of the FIA, and it certainly isn't McLaren.

[jim g]

Slightly off topic.

So I was at T3 at Heathrow last waiting for my weekly flight to Sweden to board and was browsing books in the Borders book store. Stood right beside me is Ross Brawn!!

Rang my son (a 25 year old Ferrari fanatic) who wanted me to get photos etc., but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Quite often see 'celebs' on my travels, but this was my first F1 celeb since meeting the great Ayrton Senna in April 1994.