Budapest, Hungary 5 August 2007

[si|verfish]

That's just assuming that F1 drivers drive purely for money, which I personally doubt.

Not really. Just assuming its a great motivating factor. Besides, that's how F1 and racing in general used to be. You win a prize money for winning a race. That's why its called a Grand Prix. Its in the very essence of racing.

I believe the idea will encourage better racing most certainly.

 

[si|verfish]

There's a lot of blame being thrown about after Hungary but if you want a pretty balanced view of the whole thing, the commentators from GrandPrix.com can usually be relied on to give an objective view of the situation. They wrote a sensibly impartial and analytical article below about Hungary which I suggest you read.....and then make up your mind

F1 - Grandprix.com > Features > Globetrotter > This whole business

McLaren has also stated that they a policy whereby each driver alternate on who will get the preferred strategy on each race. Hamilton got his at Nurburgring and at Hungary it was Alonso's turn. It happened in the first lap or two of Q3. Since burning fuel is all-important to a fast Q3 time, it is important to run as hard as possible for as long as possible. This means getting to the front of pit-out as soon as the car is capable of doing so, which means sitting there while the light is red, with the engine on, for up to 4 minutes. McLaren has stated that they send each car to pit-out before Q3 as soon as the car reaches a certain temperature. In this case Hamilton's car reached the temperature first.

McLaren has also stated that they have a strategy whereby they alternate which driver gets to be in front during Q3 (not who gets pole, just who is first on the track). The assumption is that this is irrespective of who manages to get their car to the front of pit-out first, since being at the front of pit-out is a competition between teams, and whether Hamilton or Alonso is the front McLaren during Q3 is a competition within McLaren.

There is a significant chance that the driver in front will get an extra lap of fuel credit in Q3, since it is possible he crosses the finish line slightly before the checkered flag while the driver in back crosses after the checkered. Since the 110% rule was abolished this year, and thus drivers can receive fuel credit for a qual lap completed in any time, this lets the driver in front run an additional slow lap that is credited and thus receive almost an entire lap's worth of fuel for the race that was not actually weight on the car in qual.

Alternating preferred strategies between drivers on alternate races probably meant that Alonso had never really been comfortable with this because it meant he did not have complete freedom to choose the optimum strategy for every race, but by and large he honored the understanding as part of the Team. You should therefore take this into account as it was Hamilton who openly admitted that he disobeyed this understanding and went against repeated team orders telling him to let Alonso pass during qualifying. It's likely that Alonso retaliated and the result was that he and McLaren got penalized.

Make up your own mind. Personally I don't believe Hamilton is the squeaky clean character that people think he is.

I for one never thought he was. Racing drivers and especially good ones, should be ultra competitive, selfish, egotistical mother fuckers with a slight nasty streak. Check out Senna and Schumacher. When with their racing heads on at least.

 

[FVel]

I for one never thought he was. Racing drivers and especially good ones, should be ultra competitive, selfish, egotistical mother fuckers with a slight nasty streak. Check out Senna and Schumacher. When with their racing heads on at least.

Indeed.

The reason I posted that reply and the link to those articles is because I think a lot of people, by default, blamed Alonso without looking further into the events that led to the pit-block. Things are not as straightforward as people like to believe.

People need to realize that Hamilton disobeyed team orders possibly knowing that this might wind-up Alonso (which it did) who retaliated in kind at the pits. Then Hamilton had a foul mouthed argument with his boss and mentor Ron Dennis over the radio regarding the pit incident, which he later admitted and which was also confirmed by Alonso. After qualifying, Hamilton's dad and Hamilton himself talked to FIA officials which ultimately resulted in an investigation that got Alonso and McLaren penalized. What a way to rat out your own team. He attempted to do something similar at Monaco when he sounded out about 'team orders' after he came second to Alonso...that also prompted the FIA to look into things but in that instance nothing much happend in way of punitive decisions.

Now Alonso is no angel himself. He stopped being nice and became quite the drama queen in 2006 when Schumi was closing the Championship gap.

But as you rightly said most folks know and understand (and even condone) the kind of self-centred ruthless mentality needed to succeed in F1. It's just that many people still think Hamilton is some wide-eyed, innocent, goody two shoes, squeaky clean gentlemen...which he is most definitely not. But I'll give him credit for rplaying a very polished PR game with the media and certainly the more naive general public is just lapping it all up. He certainly knows how to make some of the most nauseating self-serving horsesh*t speeches after his victory in Hungary....oh...all for the team, blah blah blah and such. Did you see Ron Dennis when Hamilton crossed the line ? He was so pissed off he didn't even smiled. LOL

Personally I do not support either driver (Hamilton or Alonso). Admittedly 2007 is turning out to be one of the most exciting F1 seasons for some time and more so for the off-track antics as the on-track events.

 

[si|verfish]

He certainly knows how to make some of the most nauseating self-serving horsesh*t speeches after his victory in Hungary....oh...all for the team, blah blah blah and such. Did you see Ron Dennis when Hamilton crossed the line? He was so pissed off he didn't even smiled. LOL

I LOLed at that.

Personally I do not support either driver (Hamilton or Alonso). Admittedly 2007 is turning out to be one of the most exciting F1 seasons for some time and more so for the off-track antics as the on-track events.

Yeah. Same here. Its especially tough for me because I've been supporting McLaren since the days of Senna. So now I've got nobody to support really. I do want to see Kimi win at least one WDC though. I think he's quite deserving of one.

 

[FVel]

Yeah. Same here. Its especially tough for me because I've been supporting McLaren since the days of Senna. So now I've got nobody to support really. I do want to see Kimi win at least one WDC though. I think he's quite deserving of one.

Kimi and Massa had a lot of bad luck and reliability problems with the ' 07 Ferrari and that is unfortunate because what started out as a 4-way fight for the WDC and 2-team Contructor's battle had begun to look like McLaren will run away with the Championship if things remain consistent. But that's racing. Still 6 more events to go, so hopefully we get some late charge from Ferrari like what happened with Schumi last season.

Come to think of it Kimi have had nothing but bad luck since '05. He's arguably the fastest driver in F1 and McLaren was phenomenally quick in '05 but very unreliable. When it worked well, Kimi and Montoya were simply unbeatable in '05 but it never worked well when it mattered. '06 was a virtual non-starter for McLaren. And so he switches to Ferrari in '07 and look what happens...McLaren dominant in '07. LOL. Talk about backing the wrong horse.

All in all though, the '07 season is very exciting...maybe even more so than Schumi's late charge of 2006. 07 is also unprecedented because of Hamilton and his achievements. The guy has been phenomenal so far this season. Expect to see some great things from this young man, even if his sportmanship is a big question mark.

 

[si|verfish]

Quite right, this has been the most interesting season for awhile. Although now it begins to looks like McLaren will run away with it, as you have said. Still, there is hope because the coming Grand Prixs favour the Ferraris better than the McLarens. So here's hoping they don't blow up, get it right and make this an exciting 4 way photo finish.