F1

[blobrana]

Watch out for Alonso...
amazingly, the car is wizzing around the track...

(i seem to recall him waving his fist at another driver whilst he was crashing last year...)

[Vincent]

Two bits of news on the Beeb today:

Sunday qualifying to be axed:

Formula One's Sunday qualifying is likely to be discontinued after this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix in favour of a single Saturday session.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said the 10 teams had unanimously agreed to change qualifying procedure.

The proposal is for a single qualifying session on Saturday afternoon with drivers each having a single timed lap.

and...

Eddie Irvine buying Jordan?:

Former Jordan owner Eddie Jordan has welcomed the possibility of Eddie Irvine buying into the struggling team.

Irvine reportedly heads a consortium keen on investing in the team owned by Russian billionaire Alex Schnaider.

"Formula One is in a situation where it needs characters of the ilk of Eddie Irvine," Jordan told BBC Five Live.

"It is devoid of the kind of style and parties and lifestyle that F1 has been associated with. Eddie is exactly the kind of guy who can deliver that."

Irvine's at Monaco this weekend on a "fact-finding mission" apparently.

Should be interesting to see what's said before the race tomorrow :-)

[blobrana]

Hum,
 not a great day for  Ralf Schumacher either.
Ralf, started out the qualy one with a half-second penalty after a tyre problem,  only to lose his Toyota after getting too close to the barriers at Tabac.



A simple misjudged left turn, clipped the wheel against the crash barrier, which bent the wheel and propelled him straight into the barriers on the opposite side of the track, destroying the Toyota and spilling water and oil onto the track.
Thankfully,  it was only a slow corner and he was able to climb from his car unhurt.

[Doobrey]

blobrana wrote:
 

Is it a severe lack of sleep , or has Red Bull replaced Coulthard's pit crew with 10 yr old kids ?

I just hope that when they were doing the windtunnel tests, no one shouted out "May the downforce be with you"  :-)

[blobrana]

He got shunted on the backside.


Ferrari weren’t so incredible this time...

[Bezzen]

I can't remember ever seeing that much passing going on in Monaco. A great race.  :-)

And it's time for the European GP this weekend. :-D

[blobrana]

>>European GP

Would you pit, 2 laps from the end, if you were in the lead?

[Vincent]

Difficult choice, but better getting 6 points than none.

[Abou27]

No, I would have pitted sooner!  Huge vibration through suspension for loads of laps; I reckon he was lucky to last as long as he did.  Surely they could have convinced the FIA that the tyre was dangerous?  Don't know why he was pushing so hard earlier on, though!

Another race where I wasn't sure if there was as much action as there seemed to be!  Anyway, it was good to watch and that's the main thing :-)

[blobrana]

Hum,
That `one set of tyres` rule just adds to the danger imho.

And the quicker they change it, the safer the driver will be.

[Doobrey]

blobrana wrote:
That `one set of tyres` rule just adds to the danger imho.

 And all in the name of cost cutting forced on them by the powers that be !
 How much does a set of F1 tyres cost? bugger all compared to the   money the teams spend keeping their guests happy in the hospitality suites.

 Although there is another side of this 1 set rule...
Remember what used to happen after a pit stop and the new set weren't as good as the old ones (or vice versa), and you'd suddenly see a difference in the cars lap times?
 Now imagine being stuck with a bad set on race day and no chance to change them after 20 laps :-x

 Ah well, at least it was a good race to watch.
Poor Kimi, he deserved to win. I can't believe he could actually race with that tyre,shame it shook the suspension to pieces (my last British made car had the same problem  :lol: ).. guess the bloke's got balls the size of melons.

[blobrana]

[Vincent]

blobrana wrote:
A bit of a farce.

Just a bit?

Another solution would've been using the new tyres Michelin were to fly over, but the teams would've incurred "penalties" for changing the tyres.   Nobody has said what penalties they would've been.

I can't believe I just sat and watched that "race"...

[Doobrey]

I feel sorry for everyone that spent money on going to see it.
IMHO, the Michelin teams made the right choice in not racing, why should they have gone out on the new tyres and get penalised for something that isn't their fault?

And as for the FIAs suggestion to use the dangerous tyres but just go slower on the banking ?? The whole point of the 107% qualifying rule was to eliminate cars that'd be too slow and get in the way on the grounds of safety.

There were a couple of solutions to have a proper race, but the Max and Bernie show had their heads stuck so far up each others arses that they couldn't see them.

[Vincent]

Doobrey wrote:
IMHO, the Michelin teams made the right choice in not racing, why should they have gone out on the new tyres and get penalised for something that isn't their fault?

I'm not too sure about that.  Michelin have admitted that there is a design fault in the tyrewall.  It's only evident when the tyres are banking at 9degrees or more.  The diamond cut track made it more obvious.

As the track is not one of the test places no one knew until the Friday, by then it wasn't really avoidable either.  The teams pick their tyres on the Wednesday.

Oh, and Ferrari wanted no part in the discussions for a while, so even if there was a compromise that the FIA were happy about it would never have gone ahead because they need all 10 teams to agree.

I'm beginning to hate Ferrari...

[blobrana]

Hum,
Yeah,
Very short sightedness on the part of Ferrari.

Ok, they had the right to race, and thought, `why should they compromise through no fault of their own`. It was Michelins fault, and they had to win the race – and pick up valueless points and lose the hearts of the ppl there.

The `spirit of racing` just got runover by corporate FIA & ferrari