I can speak for myself about Montoya, I consider him to be one of the top 5 drivers. He might have bad days or good days but staticly he has done a decent job the last few years.

Last year he won 3 races and finished second a couple of times as well. Definately he is a guy that you can't never rule out, he has skills.

My question goes for guys like Barrichelo, Coulhart and Jaquesville, these guys are even more veteran than Shummy but still alway finished between 5 and 15, some of then have even been world champion at one point.

I would assume any of the 3 guys I mentioned above should be compiting more agressively, I still find difficult to see them even once in the podium or pole....

Carlos

 

Know what you mean... Barrichello I rate highly - not champion material, but at least top eight. Drives like Jenson, very smooth, too smooth sometimes it's actually slow. He brakes with his right foot so a little disadvantaged.
Coulthard is just really on-off like I said. He's been around perhaps too long and been nearly-there for way too long. Probably lost real motivation.
JV - I'm going to say it right out - is over paid, over rated and yes, when he won the Championship, he was better than he is today and even than that Williams pratically drove itself.

Back to Montoya, I truly hope he gets to stay at MaLaren for a few more years. It looks the best place for him out of any team. Hope he doesn't join a newbie team and spend the next 5 years trying to win in a car seconds slower than the field...

 

Well... I watched the race this morning and I was shocked to see what I saw. The Ferraris were dominant from beginning to end but also on the qualifying.


I truly thought Fernando left with a full tank of gas but what a surprise when Massa and Shummy stopped in the pits almost followed by Fissichella and Alonso. That gave me the first indication that Alonso wasn't running too fast, it would make perfectly sense that Alonso was running much slower due to be running more gas but in reality he wasn't.

Then I saw Fisichella overtaking Alonso in the straight as if Alonso was driving a medieval horse carriage.

Alonso couldn't even follow his team mate at all. I can only think 2 things:
1) Alonso did not perform as expected
2) Alonsos car was not too strong which showed on the qualifying

One thing it called my attention, Alonsos' car was being catch up even by other lesser cars on the straight. Later on I found that Alonso was one of the ones that did not change the engine.

Another thing that sank Alonso even more was his second pit stop.. Alonso , you don't need almost 9 seconds of gas for 22 laps boy!! He only needed 4-5 secs but regardless of the gas the race was very clear to me, Ferrai dominated from beginning to end.

Whatever it was Shummy ran exceptional, Massa also but I give them 50% credit as I think their cars were mechanically superior.

As per Raikonnen, I feel bad, after this inccident I think he has very very small chances to fight for the championship. His car wasn't the fastest on the qualifying either..

Carlos

 

you are absolutely right...and it's the biggest BS aspect of the sport. If this was not the case, then Sebastien Bourdais would be in F1. He is a far superior driver to more than half of the field, but for various political reasons, will never be an F1 driver. I'm getting very bored with F1 myself. I actually find the GP2 races more exciting to watch, with the cars being on a more even playing field. the technological and engineering disparity in F1 is a bit dissapointing. there are some cars than CANNOT win. If you were to put Jenson button in a Ferrari or Renault, it might be a different story than it is now. I know it's part of racing, but it is killing the interest. I hate Nascar, but I have to admit, they give their fans a lot more in the sense that it is not such a technologically determined series, and that on any given day, several cars can win, and overtaking is possible, indeed frequent. I find myself gravitating more and more to watching sportscar racing,such as grand am, ALMS, BTCC and DTM.





TE=racerjon1]One thing to remember about the test drivers on Friday... They odn't follow the two-race engine rule, and they get to turn the revs up and such. The teams use some kind of correction factor, and they can tell if they would be faster or slower than the primary drivers.

Sometimes if you listen to interviews you can hear a test driver say, "that time would have put us xx behind Mr Main Driver.. etc even though they were "faster"

As far as Paying.. it's supply and demand. More people wanting to drive than seats available, and it happens in each and every form and level of motorsport on earth. It becomes a business for the teams to make $ on selling seats. (Pro roadracing teams are 95% this way.)

Jon K[/QUOTE]

 

Aside the very technical aspest of getting higher speed by altering gear ratios, wing downforce and what not the Ferraris were today unargueably the fastest Formula one cars on the track.

USA GP and China GP they do both have one of the longest straights and it was absolutely clear to me that not just the speeds on the curves was the advantage to the Ferraris but also on the straight line they pulled away from Renault.

If Ferrari keeps its engine superiority like that and Shummy maintains his already great driving skills it sounds to me like Alonso might have to drive perfectly and not make any mistake as Shummy is steping on his toes.

Shall we say Mclaren team is not competive this year, or is it too soon to tell?

Carlos

 

Both Ferrari (Brawn) and Renault (Biratore) are both saying it's likely a temporary situation.

The facts:
1.) All cars concerned are the same package as in Canada (excluding engine)
2.) The tyres are from the same compound range as in Canada

There is a suspicion that Michelin have gone ultra conservative with their tyres. I don't think anyone's going to forgive them if they cause another problem. I suspect that a feature in the Michelin that cause the terrible excuse of a US GP last year is an integral part of their tyres and that feature is still present. As to what this feature this is, I don't know but it's probably something to do with the sidewalls.

Now Michelin are saying they were going for Durability (DC did 47 laps on the same set!!) but I don't think that means much. I mean, if you stick on road tyres then you can probably do the whole season on one set.

Anyway, since Fisi was so much quicker than Alonso, it seems litke Fernando was in a sulk or something. Perhaps he was told about the tyres and wasn't too happy about it? I have a lot of time for Fisichella, but he's not _that_ much quicker than Alonso, rev restriction or no.

Needless to say, Michelin and Renault will probably be seconds ahead of the field in a couple of weeks at Magny Cours.

p.s. Kimi IMO deserves unluckiest guy of the year award. He should leave McLaren, just to see if the bad luck goes away.

 

I see you are from Bangkok.....I love Thailand. I just returned from a 3 week trip, most of it in Chiang Mai, which is amazing....I know that this is off topic

 

It's pretty cool here most of the time. Not so good long term though... evo's are expensive... at least I don't have to watch F1 a crazy hours, I guess...

 

I very much enjoyed the race, as well the spectacle that goes along with both F1 and the incredibly spacious Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I strongly encourage any who has an opportunity to go next year (assuming there is a U.S. GP next year) to go.

 

Damn, I wish I would have seen this thread earlier. I was there on Sunday as well. Would have been cool to hook up - especially considering that my wife and I had to rot in the parking lot for over an hour before we got out, grr.

This was the first F1 race that I've had the opportunity to watch, we ended up sitting in the corner 10 terrace, which turned out to be a great choice, IMO.

Some things I noticed:
- The Ferraris seemed to have better gearing coming out of the slow turn. In the short straight in front of our stands, the Ferraris only shifted once before hitting the next turn. All other cars shifted two or three times
- The cars sounds INCREDIBLE!!!
- Some of the cars towards the back of the pack sounded 'awful' for lack of a better word. Sounded like the engine was breaking up at WOT.

Here's some pics as well. I've got tons more. Let me know if anyone wants me to post more of them.

l8r)

 

The cars at the back of the pack, got a "group buy" on some Magnacore wires!

Yes Ludi, POST MORE!

 

The view from my seat:

 

The breakfast of (F1) champions:

 

Mclaren has not been in it at all bud. too little too late!

 

at least the seats had a back rest