Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Richard.John]

Te key to he WDC as far as Ferrari is concerned is Massa. Even if MS racks up seven wins in a row, as long as FA keeps up the second places, he will do it.

Its very unlikely that MS will win the next seven races so barring a couple of DNFs or injury, I think Fernando has got it.

Fingers crossed anyway.

[Alastair]

Now that Martin Whitmarsh has said that McLaren will be recruiting 'from within' for their 2nd race seat along side Fernando next season, who's your money on and why?

All the media seems to be about Garry Paffet and Lewis Hamilton at the moment and surely Pedro is a bit past it at 35. Is there anyone else that could be in with a chance?

I think the best choice could well be Paffet from an experience point of view but I have a feeling that Hamilton will get it due to the mighty amount of praise and attention he's getting from the media (especially James bloody Allen).

Would be nice to see them both getting a race this season to 'prove' themselves, or maybe a televised 2 car race round silverstone to decide in a winner takes all style!

[VR46]

Neither will be in contention for the championship so prehaps Ron would give them both a few races early on next season and decide from there, wonder if as things stand De La Rosa will even be able to hold onto the seat for the rest of this season.

Sponsorship is such a big pull also and feel that Hamilton may generate more money purely down to public awareness.

Looks like Antony Davidson's chance of a decent drive anywhere ever has passed

[adam_the_browndog]

it was good to see pedro de la rosa racing again, i remember him back in the arrows days.

Ive heard this hamilton is doing very well. I think it'd be great for mclaren to have a young team.

They need something special the mclaren boys, or toyota i think will snatch 3rd as Honda's car is looking very off pace and un-reliable and soon will overtake them in the constructors.

[Alastair]

Heads will roll if they can't give Alonso a decent ride next season, if they don't I'm sure there will be some sort of performance clause in his contract that would see him on his way out again very quickly.

I'm not sure that Hamilton is the right guy to help develop the car enough for that but as Holliss said, sponsors may see to it that he gets the seat.

Saying that I'm pretty sure McL will be back up there soon enough as they'll already be a long way into developing the '07 car and knowing that they're losing Kimi but gaining Alonso they'll be pulling out all the stops to be competitive again.

Toyota are MILES ahead of Honda already car and performance wise, like you say, it wont be long at all till they are ahead of Honda if they continue their good form.

[adam_the_browndog]

Ferrari i hope will keep their current line up.

People always bad mouthing massa, but if you look at his results they have been pretty strong. Recently he has shown what he can do, Be able to get podium finishes. I think it'll be nice if he could get a win, but with all this heat between alonso and M Schumacher, They'll probably be the only two drivers winning the rest of the races.

As for toyota, Ralf finally scored again. As toyota said they are aiming for a win, well Trulli is the man but what a shame him pulling out of france GP on sunday

[Richard.John]

I am sure the marketing gurus at Macca will ensure that PDLR doesn't get the second seat as it makes no sense to have two drivers from the same country in your team, and FA already has Spain and the Spanish speaking market sewn up.

The pressue may be on Macca to give a seat to LH but I still think he would be better off doing a year in a B team as history shows that rated drivers from other formulae don't always make the leap to greatness in F1. Martin Brundle, Takuma Sato and Jan Magnussen spring to mind.

[VR46]

seems Kimi hasn't signed on the dotted line for Ferrari in 2007 (yet)

McLaren driver Raikkonen has been widely tipped to move to Ferrari, but Renault F1 president Alain Dassas said his team were also talking to the Finn.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/5194692.stm

[Alastair]

I always had the feeling he'd end up at Renault actually. Knew it wasn't certain he'd be at Ferrari anyway and is most improbable if MSC stays anyway, he'd never play the 2nd driver role would he and wouldn't be allowed to fight against Schu as the lead driver. If Schu leaves expect him in a red car, but that isn't going to happen is it!

Would be a great move to go to either, he should be the title favourite next season I think.

[Richard.John]

He could go to Renault for two years and then replace The Schu at Ferrari.

[Alastair]

Heard about BAR trying to set the fastest ever F1 car speed? Well, they've been successful. It was all about a race legal setup of the car.

Really surprises me that a road car (Veyron) can go faster straight out of the box than an F1 car as the BAR 'only' hit 220mph. They are still trying for the 'magic' 400kph (250mph) though.

Says something about the power the Bugatti puts out

[VR46]

was trying to find some info on the Brabus TKR for you Agent L, 435kmh (270mph) worlds fastest production car, seven litre engine blah blah ?380,000 to your sir, came accross this though while searching http://www.brabus.de/news/news66e.htm
(Brabus Rocket 362kmh)

[Richard.John]

Sure the Buggati can go faster in a straight line but how long does it take to get there and how much road does it need to brake from that speed?

F1 cars are not designed to be the fastest in ultimate speed but the fastest around a track. The combination of incredible acceleration and braking allied with on rails handling makes them the quickest things on four wheels.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlOAI...ren%20mercedes

[Alastair]

Seen that vid before yeah, can't really compare a family/executive saloon with an F1 car though can you, no matter how 'tuned' it is. Also, I wasn't belittling F1 cars or their ability, I realise they are built for a very specific purpose at which they excel, was just commenting on the fact that it's an amazing achievement that car manufacturers can now produce cars in the region of the machinery considered as the pinnacle of motorsport.

Here's an interesting quote about the Veyron

"One really good thing, and I simply never expected this, is that it does change direction. It hardly feels its weight. Driving it on a circuit I expected a sack of cement, but you can really throw it at tight chicanes" He also declared in the article that: "The braking is phenomenal," "The primary ride and body control are good too" and "It's a huge achievement."

And some stats (but I can't comment on their accuracy):
0-100km/h - 2.5s (62mph)
0-200km/h - 7.3s (124mph)
0-300km/h - 16.7s (186mph)
0-200 mph time is quicker than the (road car) McLaren F1's 120-200 mph time

That's not far off the realms of F1 at all acceleration wise but obviously circuit times and braking times would be totally different.

Would be interested to hear more about the Brabus David mentioned though.

Just to clarify this post, I'm not even a fan of the Veyron really. At Goodwood it bored me compared to almost all the other cars there, especially the F1's which were AMAZING!

[Richard.John]

Agent L

You are right, it's amazing what they have achieved with the Veyron. I recall Clarkson on TG lamenting over the fact that he will never be able to afford the 'Concorde' of the automoblie industry.