Official F1/Motorsport thread

[JohnMcL7]

As I said 99% the same. That's an exaggeration of course but you get the idea. What I mean is they spend a ton on designing a new car that might be just a bit faster than the old. To the uninformed, why build a new car if last season's was good enough to win the championship? If they all agreed to freeze development, they wouldn't need to. It's more complicated of course, just my two pence worth.

Little of your comment makes any sense, nothing is 'binned' and while the cars may not look that much different they are constantly evolving and improving. Quite often the 'new' car is basically just the old one and typically those teams will suffer for the first few races until they manage to release their next chassis for finally make their planned improvements.

Freezing the current chassis is just daft, while I'm sure McLaren and Ferrari would like this it's pretty unfair on the rest of the teams who currently have weaker cars and are always trying to narrow the gap to the two main teams. Unlike some other racing series there is nothing to equalise the cars in the race which would mean a freeze would put the other manufacturers at a permanent disadvantage.

There's also the fact that the goal posts are always changing, the F1 cars currently run on V8 engines, non-slick tyres and no traction control all differing from a few years ago. The manufacturers have overcome all of these and still produce faster cars despite visually not much difference.

Personally I think the car development adds an interesting aspect to the series as you don't know what's coming race to race, one manufacturer may make significant improvements at the start of the season while others change more during the season. I'd hate to see F1 going the way WTCC seems to be at the moment with restrictions being placed to restrict improvements made to the cars.

John

[Richard.John]

I am looking at it from the casuals point of view. I know they don't bin the cars as such, just constantly improve them which costs money. F1 is the apex and quite rightly so but it exists to make money ultimately. I'ts broken to some degree as the constant regulation changes indicate and its not immune from the problems of the wider world. It's still the best sport in the world though, and that wont change in a hurry.

On the subject of the casual viewer, I want to point out that I am not one of them.

[Richard.John]

Glad to see Mr Aggressive getting a taste of his own...

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Oh dear, a bit of a bad start for lewis....

At least Kubica has a good start!

[Richard.John]

It's his style though and it doesn't work in every situation.

EDIT:though it does seem that Massa barged him a bit so not sure.

[Senna]

Yep, glad to see Hamilton's race ruined. He screwed up Raikkonen's good start and effectively caused himself to be there around the Massa incident.

Massa deserved his penalty as well, so the stewards have done a good job so far.

This is why Hamilton isn't thought to be as well liked as others amongst the drivers, he is just too agressive.

What chance for an Alonso double win? Would be great if Kubica could get a second win.....

[Richard.John]

Go Fernando. Honestly, Ferrari need him. We the fans need him in red.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Yep, glad to see Hamilton's race ruined.

Would be great if Kubica could get a second win.....

I'm with you on both counts there. Kubica doesn't get nearly enough recognition, while Hamilton seems to have the whole of the UK media with their heads shoved so far up his arse that he's all they can see.

[Richard.John]

The return of the King. That's what legends are made of, Lewis.

[Paulos G]

Well done Alonso. Good result for Kubica. Nice to see Massa sneak a point.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Kubica only 12 points off the lead. Lets hope Hamilton & Massa both retire in the last two races!!!

[Senna]

Fantastic drive from Alonso and Kubica.

Massa's move on Webber was interesting. He didn't need to move all the way to the far right of the track, he could have just taken the racing line as Webber isn't allowed to move across twice. Strong possibility he'll get another penalty after the race for going into the pitlane.

I thought Martin Brundle made an excellent point, it seems that the last two seasons in particular have seen many more stewards decisions than before, to the point that you'd be scared of doing anything in case you get penalised. Maybe there's a link between Hamilton joining F1 and this increase in steward's decisions

Looking at that Hamilton start again, he almost also took out his team-mate as well. Stupid.

Anyway, yes, Alonso in a Ferrari ASAP please.

[Richard.John]

Massa was mad to go so far right. He crossed the into the red zone but I guess after today he was seeing red, the poor sap.

[Senna]

Plus, Hamilton just said in an interview that at least his move (compared to Massa's) didn't take anyone out.

THAT'S BECAUSE RAIKKONEN HAD TO AVOID TURNING INTO YOU FOR THE FIRST CORNER.

Massa for the title please.

[TheForce]

fantastic resuly for Alonso !! IMO he really deserved it again, when the top guys make the mistakes it's Alonso that gets the job done !

Hamilton and Massa both messed up big time, I can't understand Hamilton, with only a few races to go he is taking such big risc, Masse was still behind him so if he was smart he would just have to fight with Raikkonen in the rest of the race.
And the move from Massa on Hamilton was really stupid, he was just taking out Hamilton there... both not really worldchampion worthy this race....

Yeah, I remember Albers. He cocked up really badly one time on a pitstop didn't he?

I still remember Christijan Albers! I watch him in the DTM, which is a series he used to be good at, until he left for F1, failed miserably at it, and now has come back to the German Touring Cars, but with a 2 year old car.

yep, that's him ..... it was fun to see him fail though !

Speaking of Suzi Perry, what happened to her as a presenter on the MotoGP? Haven't seen her in a while (maybe it's not been as long as I think, but don't remember her at last 2 races at least)

as I heard she stopped being on TV because she got some dirty fan mail by some guy calling himself M.Slayer .........