- Formula 1 - Season 2009 -

[raptor21]

@beglar_begi

We dont get TSN in US. i hope you get it in HD. i tried getting speed HD but its not available on Comcast as yet. Damn my cable.

Well i am not sure for tonight i am waiting for my brother who is flying from Arizona so not sure what time he is gonna come. i am up for now but i think i might catch the rerun tomorrow afternoon.

[beglar_begi]

Awesome stuff from Vettel and webber and redbull... great race. I've always said vettel had sea legs... but damn!

Overall a pretty good race... tough cookies for massa. Kimi and his braking... sigh... I thought button and rubens did alright considering the circumstances...

heiki must be chuffed to have finished ahead of hamilton...

[psyb0rg]

Any details on what happened to Massa's car?

[genius83]

@beglar

No kidding its real I also noticed that in the Q2 when Kimi came to take a new set of tyres and I was like what they were thinking bringing a fail system back to life.

@raptor21

Kimi certainly do well in the Ferrari before becoming the WDC but you have to agree on this with me that that F2007 was the last really best Ferrari they came up with. In 2008 without Traction Control he lost it in just half season while Massa was lucky enough because of some bizzarre things happening in the front to be able to go to the last race with a chance of becoming a WDC which almost come to reality before another bizzarre happening throw it away.

'McLaren mechanics furious with Hamilton'

Life at McLaren is not all smooth sailing for Lewis Hamilton with reports coming from China claiming that his McLaren mechanics are furious with the Brit.

Horner: Anything possible after victory

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner says the 'sky is the limit' for his squad this season after it took its maiden victory with a dominant one-two in China.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were substantially faster than their rivals in the wet today, with third-placed Jenson Button's Brawn 40 seconds adrift at the end.

[UncleKracker]

Ahem.... 27 years since Ferrari had a start like this to the season, and if they perform the same next weekend it will be the first time ever that Ferrari has failed to score a point after four rounds. Massa drove very well, i thought. Putting to rest the ghosts of Silverstone last year but, unlucky to retire with what looked like an electrical problem.

Brawns had problems getting heat in the tires and as a result were not match for Red Bull who were furious after the Malaysian GP because Webber thought he could have won there. Faultless race by Vettel, and won't be long before Ferrari are queuing up outside his door to get his services. Whether he will go to Ferrari remains to be seen.

Renault threw away a good opportunity to score points by pitting behind safety car. How Rosberg and Raikkonen finished behind Alonso, i don't know. The driver of the race for me would have been Sutil, if only he had not thrown it away towards the end. He is driving a car which has no business running up in what was sixth place at the time i think. The other Sebastien also drove very well just as he qualified well yesterday.

@genius83

What are you saying man! The Ferrari of 2008 was the class of the field. Raikkonen didn't make it work which is a different thing, but doesn't change the fact that it was the best car. Massa drove very well last year, give him credit.

[genius83]

@UK

Sir, F2008 a class of it's own I have no doubt about that even after Kimi gave up mid season his title chances Massa have been lucky to go in final race with in reach of title, have 2 engine blowouts only joker engine rule saves them have stupid decision throughout the season with the topings in the Singapore GP. And please take into my previous and this post in the account of Ferrari as a team and not as a car. I would say if they are scoring points with this car people are not saying that they are going down or worst start in the season because during preseason testing they are fast just before the arrival of Brawn's cars on the track in early march.

[nightsurfer]

The race was a good one to watch. Hamilton and all those mistakes.

Ferrari's lack of everything is killing me now.

[raptor21]

I think i will be the last one posting abt the race and yes i missed the live show. i think all of you know why.

Wow, Vettel had an amazing race. Flawless. No matter how good a car you are in it takes a lot of skills to drive that way. Very well deserved indeed. Webber scoring second was a bit of a surprise. But i think he got some motivation seeing his fellow driver race the way he did. i enjoyed the series of passes between him and Button.

I was disspaointed with Hamilton. He screwed up so many times. i hate him for ruining my points on the fantasy league. i seriously thought he would finish much higher. he should have atleast gone past Heiki for one.

Buemi had a good race. He seems to be blossoming into a very good driver. I think rain ruined it the most for Alonso. I seriously thought two thirds of the way into the race that Alonso is gonna come out with inters to give it a shot but wasn't to be.

Ferrari's breaking down with mechanical issues has become a very normal sighting. Kimmi looked very uninterested as usual. it seemed he just wanted to finish the race. On the other hand Maasa looked quite good for a while until his car broke down.

Sutil is one unlucky guy. i remeber it happened last year as well, i think it was Monaco. His team needed these points. And imagine this, had he finished with points on the board, Ferrari would have been the only team with no points at all. Dont worry its still possible, keeping fingers crossed we might see some history being made in Bahrain who knows.

[raptor21]

@ genius83

Midway last season it was Raikonen who lost his will to win. There was nothing wrong with car. This year its not just him, its the car and whole lot other management issues as well. This F60 has been a disaster so far. Sixty years of development and they have manged to put the worst car on the grid. They couldn't go any lower than this.

[genius83]

@raptor21

You are missing the whole point I have raised it's not the car we are talking about it's the team we are talking and when I say F2008 it's the whole package including driver, team and car. Even Massa was not good at it he is lucky to be contesting for the title in the last race. Why F2005 never ever been mentioned as a bad car even they only win one race where they are the only top team present. Did you even think about it. The reason is simple if you pullout the one tyre per race rule from that season I could say that Schumacher had won the title just after 2/3 of the season was completed. They never had make such blunders in that season like they have make in 2008 and still been able to won the constructor title last year while in 2005 they were third best team.

We all know F60 is worst but the reason for it continuing to be performing so low is because both the drivers present in the team are not good at giving feedbacks after practice sessions or preseason testing and thats where this season testing ban is also playing a big part if this type of performance continues I will not be amazed if they drop this season's development and start 2010 car development. Here is the proof of what I am saying

Spain upgrade is make-or-break for Ferrari

Ferrari have confirmed they would consider writing off the 2009 season if their upgrades for the Spanish GP fail to trigger an instant and vast improvement.

Ferrari not ruling out writing off '09

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says the Italian team may switch its development focus onto the 2010 car as early as next month if its fortunes do not improve dramatically in the next few races.

[genius83]

Now something for laugh, After been overtake by Hamilton 3 times Raikkonen has call to pit on radio although that call did not aired on live but what he asked was so hilarious that the whole pit starting to laugh, he asked is it just me or Mclaren have entered 3 cars.

Seriously, the behaviour difference between Kimi and Michal is the whole thing to understand. Michal during his first 4 years was involved in the team so much that he even gave up his holidays in the early years to give his feedback on the new developments for the cars and the result he win 5 titles in a row and almost came to win the title in his retiring year. While Kimi's behaviour could be seen in Malaysia when everyone was on the track waiting for the restart he is in the pit garage having a magnum and coke in his both hands and smile on his face. And this behaviour is been criticised in different forms all over the world the best is when webber was asking about the conditions of the track the joke came up he is not asking about the track condition he is asking what flavour do you want so I could ask Kimi to bring that for you.

[raptor21]

@ genius83

I agree with you on the fact that Massa was lucky to have come close to winning last year thanks to Hamilton being a choker. He choked in 2007 and almost did it again in 2008. i really wanted Massa to win last year because of his attitude. i admired his courage. he saw an oppertunity and grabbed it with both hands and i give him full credit for that. Hadn't it been for Glock on the last turn we all know Massa would have been the champion right now.

I am not surprised on hearing Kimmi's new found affection with ice cream and soda. it seems everything attracts him more these days than driving his Ferrari. They need to get rid of him for Ferrari's sake.

[genius83]

McLaren: Brawn should get TV money

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes it would be 'hypocritical' of his rivals to try and block Brawn GP's television rights money for 2009.

Briatore buoyant over Renault form

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore was upbeat about his team's form at the Chinese Grand Prix despite leaving Shanghai with no points.

Kimi: It's not for a lack of motivation [/url]

Kimi Raikkonen's motivation is once again in question, although this time he's not being accused of lacking but rather is being asked how he can find it during this difficult period for Ferrari.

So any of you knows what Vettels's car name is if not read the below given news piece.

[url=http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5212960,00.html"Kate's Dirty Sister']Vettel hails 'Kate's Dirty Sister'

Sebastian Vettel is singing the praises of Kate's Dirty Sister after she helped him win Sunday's rather wet Chinese GP.

[genius83]

FIA publishes full diffuser decision

The FIA has released the full reasons behind its verdict in the appeal against Brawn, Toyota and Williams's diffuser designs.

[UncleKracker]

This will become a long drawn out discussion. Firstly, the one tire rule was not Ferrari specific. Anyone watching F1 for some time would agree that there has always been a Ferrari bias in FIA or at least that has been the impression. There are numerous examples of that over the years where FIA has intervened conveniently in one way or another to help matters shall we say. There was a reason why Ferrari struggled because of the one tire rule. For sometime, Bridgestone had become almost exclusive tire suppliers for Ferrari, even though they were supplying tires to some other teams as well, but the tires were designed to suit Ferrari. As a result of that most teams that harboured any designs of winning something in F1 left Bridgestone and moved to Michelin. That left only Ferrari as the only big name on Bridgestone, and whilst they had a lot of success on Bridgestones, it came back to haunt them when the one set of tires per race rule was introduced. There were many big teams on Michelin who did a lot of testing while at Bridgestone only Ferrari was a team with resources to test, but they obviously could not test as much as the other big teams combined, and as a result suffered that year. If Ferrari had not pushed Bridgestone to become Ferrari exclusive the other teams would not have switched from Bridgestone. That disaster was of their own making.

As for '08, i don't know where Massa was particularly lucky. The rules are the same for everyone, be it the joker engine rule or something else. You make your own luck, and over the course of a season or career it balances out. Massa saw an opportunity and as raptor21 said, he grabbed it with both hands. Just like in'07 when Mclaren lost the drivers title, Ferrari did the same in'08. They had the best car, and they should have won both titles easy. Agree with genius83, the Ferrari drivers in general and Raikkonen is particular is found wanting on the technical side. Their input is not sound and in the previous years they would have the experienced test drivers carrying out work for them. Now that there is a ban on in season testing, they don't have that luxury, and might well fall behind even more.

It's not fair to expect the current Ferrari drivers to have the same worth ethic as Michael Schumacher. Not many have the dedication that Schumacher had, and not many have the team that Schumacher had at Ferrari. Similarly it's a little unfair to expect Ferrari to produce nothing but championship winning cars especially when Italians are at the helm of affairs. What Ferrari need to worry about is not falling so far behind that it becomes unattractive for some of the top drivers.

[genius83]

@UK

In most part of your post I agree with you and I have a feeling that if Kimi has not won the title in the very first year of joining the team may be we could see some really fired up kimi the next season. As for Massa the oppurtunity he grabs is what is been said all over the world as the lucky charm for him(I am talking about Spa incident) while the last 1/3 part of previous season should been described as a real turn around then the justice may be done. In the last 6 races we have 4 winners and thatswhy the title is being decided in the last race otherwise the championship could be over in about 2 or 3 races early.

You are right one should notcompare todays drivers from the Ferrari with the likes of Michal because Michal joins a team when Ferrari was a midfield team and he was coming from the top level team having 2 championships under his belt. I think even Alonso which nowadays regarded as the best driver on the grid could not take such a gamble. But when you are replacing someone who have great achievements then people expect that you are also on that level thatswhy you are replacing him. I for once really hope that Ferrari should go down to that level where top drivers don't like to be a part of it, and thats where we could see another Schumacher in the making.

[raptor21]

Hahaha! "Kate's dirty sister". she sure was dirty, and Kate wasnt too nice either for what she did to Kubica's car. i bet she is gonna be meaner next time.

Man talk about motivation, what a sexy name. maybe Kimi can be helped this way.

Did you guys check out the new nose change trolley introduced by Toyota? That was pretty nifty. I think others would be following soon.

[raptor21]

@ genius83

"I for once really hope that Ferrari should go down to that level where top drivers don't like to be a part of it, and thats where we could see another Schumacher in the making".

I think your wish might just come true. But the question is who would like to gamble their spot to go to Ferrari in such a situation?

I think they have made an appropriate decission to wait till Spain before writing this season off and start working for next year and they should begin by looking for a new driver during this season.

[genius83]

@raptor21

I was about to post about that Toyota's nose trolley thing but you got it first. Although it is KESC who got me first by doing their usual work. Yes it is a good innovation and also a simple one too but still it needs jacks to pull the car up. This certainly save time as the nose changes before the fuel rig pull off.

Sebastian have a good sense of humour here is another example:

Exclusive Sebastian Vettel Q&A: ....

Q
: Is there a clause in your contract that says if you don’t score a certain amount of points then the team will release you so you can look for other options?

SV
: I think you will have to ask this question to my manager… but unfortunately I don’t have a manager, so now I have to answer this question myself! And as my manager, I would say I don’t talk about contracts...

We have seen his humour in Sepang where he answered to a question how great he looked in press conference after qualifying compared to the other 2 drivers to which he replied "of course, I'm still young."

I am adding all of his best quotes so here is one more

According to the Guardian the German was asked by former Red Bull driver David Coulthard why he gave his car a girl's name, saying: "It's important to have a close relationship with a car. Anyway, you are the man when it comes to women."

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5212960,00.html

About your question who I want to see in Ferrari at that time. My answer is simple Sebastian Vettel.

[raptor21]

@ genius83

Sebastian Vettel? sounds good when you think abt it, i also thought of him as an ideal candidate. but the problem is he is already working with a team who would do anything to keep him. And i already see him transforming this team into a huge success, why would he leave it all in the middle and leave for another team?

i think Ferrari needs Alonso (provided Alonso agrees) or someone young and talented like Buemi, someone with a fire in their belly. what do you guys think?

On a side note, how bad is the loadshedding these days by KESC? i am planning on visiting next month.