Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Richard.John]

Max has spoken. Take a look.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=24935


EDIT: It's working now.

[Darwock]

Getting an error on that page, but I assume it's this:

[MartyG Edit - Copy Paste removed due to Copyright Pitpass]

I hope pitpass haven't added their own colourful, biased comments to it in the same way ITV have.

Marty - that was an FIA press release, it's on the FIA site, and ITV, Pitpass have no copyright on it.

[Richard.John]

It's normal though isn't it, to thumb your nose at authority. The FIA & Ferrari are the devil 's spawn and the Michelin teams are innocent. That seems to be the view from the British press, but it is predictable given the fact that France, Italy and Germany, in the form of Schu, are involved.

[Darwock]

How's about this then??

http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=General&PO_ID=33232

A taster:

Toyota are the only team to have come out of the US GP fiasco well.

They knew the tyre situation was terminal and knew they couldn?t race.

They qualified with three laps worth of fuel in the tank and grabbed the only good publicity going by putting Jarno Trulli on pole.

[Alastair]

Another good read giving us more insight.

Button got some good news out of the w/e at least.

"Rumour has it that Jenson actually cleaned up with a fairly sizeable bet on a Monteiro podium."

[Darwock]

Yeah, it seems a significant number of people were pretty confident there would be no Michelin runners in the race.

And then you've got a bunch of politically motivated team principals making an unworkable suggestion (while refusing all alternatives) and taking to the grid anyway.. in my view, if they knew they wouldn't race, they were clearly trying to use the situation to generate this kind of uproar and get all fingers pointed at the FIA.

[Richard.John]

It has been suggested that the reason they formed up was because they had to do one lap as part of their contractual obligations. If true, it was a real slap in the face for the fans. Either way, the blame game is set to go on and on.

[MartyG]

I've managed to watched the race from Sat, and more specifically the interviews with some of the teams. Many declared that Michelin told them that there had to be a chicane, and we now learn that Michelin said nothing of the sort.

Having read the interview with Max, I must say I'm in agreement with his responses. The teams wanted the chicane simply so they'd be more competitive with the Bridgestone runners due to Michelin not having a tyre good enough to do the job it was designed to do. Frankly I think that's tough. Bring the right equipment for the right circuit or pay the consequences.

If I'd have bought tickets to see that race, I'd have been livid tbh. The teams could have raced, and slowed down for turn 13, instead it was a case of well our tyres aren't as good as Bridgestone, so we're taking our toys home. There may have been some safety issues, but that could have been overcome by slowing down for that corner. There could have been blow ups or mistakes that would have led to M runners winning points despite the handicap.

I understand that many of the drivers wanted to race but the teams wouldn't let them. Then should have gone bugger you, I'm racing anyway. Instead they made themselves look stupid.

Long live MotoGP tbh. I can't imagine the riders there going, hmm, tyre isn't quite so good, I'll pull into the pits. Especially Rossi, those guys take no notice of the doctors telling them they shouldn't race on broken ankles, wrists, thumbs, whatever. In fact, I can't imagine the teams even asking them to. It really shows F1 for the farce it is.

[Darwock]

Marty - that was an FIA press release, it's on the FIA site, and ITV, and various places - Pitpass have no copyright on it.

[MartyG]

Ok - that wasn't clear from the Pitpass article nor from your post, hence I had to remove it due to potential legal reasons. It's still better to post links rather than copy/paste for this reason.

Edit just to make things a bit clearer. Press releases are fine across any of the forums to copy/paste, but make sure if you do make it clear that it's a press release and make sure a link is still posted. Preferably, just link to the article. Stuff that is clearly copyrighted, or stuff that is unclear of copyright status has to be removed for the protection of the site from legal action. I think maybe this might be worth making clearer in the ToS and forum rules.

[Richard.John]

Slightly off topic, but take a look at the vid on this site of some early '90s F1 cars or possibly F3000 (yes, the first is a Reynard F3000) running what I assume was some kind of hill climb in France. If you have ever doubted the true performance of Formula One style, open wheel racing, then this will turn you into a believer. Astonishing video.

EDIT:OMG, take a look at the radio controlled F14 fighter at the bottom of the page. That is the coolest toy ever.

http://videos.streetfire.net/Player....3-761051EFD4B3

[Bassman]

The potential for accidents for would be huge if the race had gone ahead with some runners slowing for that turn and possibly overtaking slower runners with Bridgestone cars bearing down on them considerably faster.

[MartyG]

They'd have gone off line, that turn is huge, it'd have been little different than a back marker. They also had the option of going through the pits.

[Bassman]

I suspect they may have been going too fast for the pits. I am not sure what speed Michelin recommended for that turn.

[MartyG]

The pits entry is before the turn, it'd of been the same as pulling in for a normal pit stop.

These are F1 drivers we're talking about - they're suppose to be the best of the best. It's not like they're out for a Sunday drive to the shops.