Official F1/Motorsport thread

[MonkeyWrench]

Good race, plenty of overtaking. Three cheers for Kubica too, I think it's a safe bet he's one to look out for in the future. Not arsed about Schumacher retiring, his partnership with Ferrari was part of the reason why F1 became so dull a few years back, and furthermore I think he's an unsporting tosser!

[VR46]

Was out most of yesterday so only saw the race last night, wasn't Alonso's weekend, think FIA could really punish him and the team for their comments if they are not careful - they have to forget about this weekend and get the job done if they are to win the title(s).

I for one am sad to see Schumacher go, you either love him or hate him I guess, personally thought he'd stay around for another year.

I did crack a wry smile at biggest cheer of the day coming from the Tifosi when Alonso's blew up big style

[Alastair]

Don't really know what my opinion of Schu retiring is. Guess it will be down to whether or not there is close, exciting racing next year if I miss him or not. I absolutely despised the man when it was his one man show for a few years and I still don't exactly find him very personable but I can't deny he is a genius in the car.

The worst kept secret in F1 came as no surprise (kimi) seeing as we'd all more or less known for months.

Race was pretty decent, seems to me that Alonso was a little angry and shouldn't have been ragging it so much, he could def have got a 4th if not 3rd had he calmed it a bit on the revs. Does look like he and Flav could be in the **** a bit for implying (and Flav just outright saying) that the season has been fixed to give it to Ferrari and Schu, bringing the sport into disrepute anyone??

Martins slippery as a salty otter cracked me up

Also, those ear muffs Schu was wearing under his helmet were new to me, he's not had them before has he? Would need to have a different lining in the helmet for them so a whole new setup, anyone know what they were for? Radio comms and noise deadening is my guess but I guess they could have been for listening to Classic FM!

[MonkeyWrench]

I think they were just noise dampeners, either that or he was listening to Queen's We Are the Champions

But yeah Alonso's and Flav's comments were pretty strong. I don't think they will get in trouble, I think most people feel that it was an unfair decision of the stewards, but don't believe there was any motive behind it. I tell you what though! I love to give Max Mosley a slap around the chops, that guy is part of the reason why F1 has been so bloody **** for the last 10 years, the sooner he goes the better. I don't think Brundell has much love for him either.

[Richard.John]

Wwhat did Brundle say? Obviously I can't watch ITV so did he grill him over the FA decision or something?

[Alastair]

Yeah basically, caught him on the grid walk and told him straight that he didn't agree with the decision and that it was a bit of a joke. Didn't have a fight or anything!

He ended it with something like "so next time a driver doesn't pull over when a faster car is behind them and I'm commentating I'll expect them to get a penalty"

Max said yes so long as the slower car was on an in or out lap and the faster car was on a fast lap that is what would happen as the slower car 'should always' move out of the way regardless, this is what Nando should have done so it's his teams fault for not getting him out of the pits in time to get his slow lap in.

[VR46]

Alot of the "justification" behind the penalty seems to be based on the technical data supplied by Ferrari, obviously it shows how Massa had to back off the throttle, at a time where he would normally have the peddle to the floor.

Least Alonso didn't get done for cutting the chicane during the race, think that would have sent him over the edge

Can't wait for the next race

[Paulos G]

Least Alonso didn't get done for cutting the chicane during the race

Feh! Just another example of blatant FIA Renault/Alonso favouritism.

I'm sorry that MS is retiring as I've enjoyed following his career since he came into F1. However, I am glad he's leaving when he's still clearly performing at an exceptional level. Wouldn't have liked to see him "do a Damon".

[Alastair]

Personally (and somewhat controversially), I agree with what the FIA did, if Fernando is so arrogant that he thinks no-one could possibly be faster than him (when he has a damaged car and Ferrari have been faster than him for the last few races) and he decided he would be way ahead of Massa then he should be penalised. Everyone outside F1 knows that the cars are ****e at following in the wake at the moment (especially round fast corners) so it probably is true that he affected Massa (or Massa was clever enough to back off to get FA a penalty - whole nother story there).

It probably was the teams doing that he could have been out of the pits faster but what does he expect? He had a puncture, suck it up and deal with it.

Cutting the chicane was a bit dubious, he should have really just pulled up and let Heidfeld (was him wasn't it?) through then done him on the next straight, wouldn't have been hard as he was so slow at that stage. I think he should have been penalised for that too really.

There is definitely a politics problem in F1 at the moment, maybe it's all a PR effort though to get the hype up? It is more of a business to most involved than a sport.

Will def be interesting to see what happens next year though without the big man to stir things up, maybe Ferrari will turn honest, maybe KR will turn nasty, maybe Nando will have to get used to losing a bit more

[Richard.John]

I think the problem was the harshness of the penalty as the FIA itself admitted that there was no malice on FA's part. A warning or fine should've been enough.

Pat Symonds suggested that Massa would've recieved a boost in the form of a tow along the back straight. It does point to poor sportmanship from Ferrari in the sense that they will resort to any cheap trick to cripple Renault.

The mass dampers saga is an example of possible bias as, logically, if they were illegal in the mid part of the season they must've been illegal at the beginning too, yet the FIA's own scrutineers passed them off. And in which case they were also illegal last year as well so maybe Renault should be stripped of their WDC and WCC titles?

[Paulos G]

I think the problem was the harshness of the penalty as the FIA itself admitted that there was no malice on FA's part. A warning or fine should've been enough.

Except that intention doesn't play a part in whether or not the rule was broken.

The mass dampers saga is an example of possible bias as, logically, if they were illegal in the mid part of the season they must've been illegal at the beginning too, yet the FIA's own scrutineers passed them off. And in which case they were also illegal last year as well so maybe Renault should be stripped of their WDC and WCC titles?

Ferrari and a number of other teams (five I think) also used mass dampers.

[VR46]

True, but Renault were the only team to build a car around the mass-dampers, other teams incorporated the mass-dampers only after the car was designed/built.

So FIA knew Renault would lose more performance wise than anyone else.

[Alastair]

Why are Ferrari allowed those wheel cover things? Surely they are movable aerodynamic devices? And that is the reason that the mass dampers were banned is it not.

[Paulos G]

It's also why Ferrari's rear wing was declared illegal earlier in the season, wasn't it?

Not sure about the wheel covers. Does anyone have more info on those?

[Richard.John]

And of course who brought the issue to the attention of Charlie Whiting in the first place? If Ferrari were prepared to lose the system in order to cripple Renault, it's obvious that the latter had perfected it to such a degree that it was worth the potential performance drop off in order to gain the upper hand on track.