Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Richard.John]

It will be easy to spot then when it gets lapped by Nando!!!

[adam_the_browndog]

what!?! pure orange. .. spyker last year looked nice enough

[Alastair]

Wow:

http://p10.hostingprod.com/@hdsportslive.com/f1misc1

Wow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2LaFtq_KHA&NR

And when I say "Wow" I mean what a stupid pointless thing to bother doing.

[Paulos G]

I seem to recall McLaren did something similar in the not too distant past.

Speaking of tyres, I saw something on Teletext the other day about teams having to run different compounds during the same race. Or did I? Anyone know anything about that?

[Alastair]

Do you mean the red wall tyres like they do in NASCAR (I think?!?). That was a rumour a while ago but I think it's been ruled out completely now (not that I can find any articles about it now).

[Alastair]

Hold on a minute, I've found the regs for 2007 (here) and they say this about tyres:

77) Use of tyres
a) Each team will be allocated eight sets of dry-weather tyres, four of each specification, for use during P1 and P2. These are the only dry-weather tyres which may be used during these sessions and must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of P3.

b) Each driver will be allocated ten further sets of dry-weather tyres, five of each specification, for use during the remainder of the Event. However, one set of each specification must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of the qualifying practice session and may not be used during the remainder of the Event.

c) Prior to the start of the qualifying practice session wet and extreme-weather tyres may only be used after the track has been declared wet by the race director, following which extreme, wet or dry weather tyres may be used for the remainder of the session.

d) Unless he has used wet or extreme-weather tyres during the race, ,each driver must use at least one set of each specification of dry-weather tyres during the race.

That bold bit in section d seems to indicate to me that at least one set of each compound must be used during the race (unless wets are required at some stage). It appears the red tyre scenario is in force, I doubt there will be any colour difference to the sidewalls though, would be good if there was as we would all know what was going on a bit more clearly.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Yeah, Mike Gascoigne was mentioning it on his autosport interview, he thinks everyone will just run soft tires in the first and second runs and change to hard for the final stint, although it may give rise to some good ends to races if someone gambles and is on soft tyres for the last stint, allowing them to make a charge for the lead against their hard tyre shot competitors.

[Richard.John]

I wish they would stop f%&*ing around with the regs.

[adam_the_browndog]

I'll bet anyone £20 in this 2007 season.

That James allen or the other one.

Will mistake the spykers at some point with the Ferrari's & the Ferrari's with the Sypkers.

Anybody? no?

[Richard.John]

Bring back Muddly Talker!!

[adam_the_browndog]

finally torro rosso will announce their drivers.
next week

[Alastair]

It's going to be the same line up, I'm sure I saw a Berger comment saying as much the other day.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Monster Montoya Back In The USA

Just a little something I posted on my Facebook, just thought I'd put it up here as well for any motorsport fans.

Monster Montoya Back In The USA

Tomorrow evening the man known as 'The Monster', Juan Pablo Montoya kicks off his first full season in the NASCAR Nextel Cup at the Daytona 500 (00:10 - 03:00 Sunday Night/Monday morning on Channel Five for fellow sado-masicists with work on Monday). Bored with F1, he's back in the USA, scene of previous successes in Indycar, including an Indy 500 victory and the CART title, to rediscover his passion for racing, something that it seems he lost somewhen during his year and a half with Mclaren.

F1's loss is definitely Nascar's gain, because for three years, no-one took the fight to Michael Schumacher in quite the way that Montoya did. From the moment he barged past the German for the lead in Brazil 2001 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ7fa3SYR94) it was clear that here was a driver who was not afraid to challenge the authority in F1 and was just out to race as hard as he could. They would go on to have many battles in those next three years, Montoya performing one of the best moves ever on Schumacher at Spa in 2004 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giZu7-A2yS0), causing the American crowd to roar (or as Murray puts it rooooarrrr!) at the US GP 2001 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgPULZ5aP8U), and constantly disputing with the German in press conferences (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOW-jngVoT4). Had it not been for Montoya's teammate Ralf Schumacher being so shy to pass his brother in Canada and a ridiculous drive-thru penalty given to Montoya for an incident with Barrichello at the US Grand Prix it is conceivable that Juan Pablo could have won the championship in 2003.

One more season with Williams in 2004, including a victory in his last race for the team in Brazil, then led into a move to Mclaren for the 2005 season. In truth Montoya never really fitted in with the more regimental style at Mclaren, a situation probably not helped by his 'tennis accident' which caused him to miss a few GPs near the start of the season. Various mistakes which cost the team points also didn't help, but he ended 2005 with a better last quarter of the season than his teammate Raikonnen and things looked promising going into 2006. However, the Mclaren was well off the pace of the Ferrari and Renault and the poor performance of the car seemed to de-motivate Montoya who despite qualifying well, was losing out to teammate Raikonnen in the races. After an incident with Nico Rosberg in Canada, the final straw was in the US GP, where he took out Raikonnen (and himself) going into the first corner. A week or so later it was announced that he was joining Nascar to team up with Chip Ganassi, his team owner from the Indycar days and that Mclaren were replacing him until the end of the season.

Some promising showings in the few Busch series' races he entered last year, along with a victory at the Daytona 24hrs sportscar event a couple of weeks ago have setup Montoya well for a good crack at the Nextel Cup this year, starting with the Daytona 500 on Sunday. I for one am looking forward to seeing how he fares this year, and whilst I am not a great fan of Nascar in general, any series' which sees Montoya back to his fighting best is good with me and I think may well lead to many Monday mornings involving sleeping at my desk this year. So good luck 'Monster', it will be good to see you back to your best.

PS - just a couple extra little videos;

Here's Montoya having his head 'broken' by a cameraman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvev5NaWdj4)
And a great battle with Andretti for the victory in an Indycar race in 2000
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCYTSxMHTg4)

PS2 - I was also rather disappointed to learn that the Daytona circuit doesn't actually have a rock face with Sonic's face on it on the last turn!

[Richard.John]

NASCAR can keep him as far as I am concerned, but that's just my opinion. An entertainer but he lacked the discipline required for an F1 WDC and he was a meat head at times. Ｉ recall a 'brake test' going into casino corner at Monaco that led to a pile up.

2003 was his best year and his string of podiums nearly landed him the greatest prize in motorsport, but in the end it wasn't meant to be. I think it was the teams failure to get the title that led to BMW's decision to ultimately go it alone.

[Alastair]

And didn't he do well coming home 19th

Maybe you could merge this to the motorsport thread Holliss?