Are there any people who are finding it hard to enjoy this F1 season?

Go Harvey Go

Crikey.

Just when it seemed that off-track troubles for this season were behind us, up comes this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8239001.stm

But why would Renault have wanted to fix last year's Singapore GP in their favour?

If it turns out, though, that this really is what they did, then the issue will certainly be at least on a par with Spygate two years ago - and the Renault team's reputation will be more or less destroyed. It won't reflect well on Alonso and Briatore, either.

Gulli

It was no classic for the first 7 with Brawn running away with it but its shaped up nicely the last few races.

That said the cars still look as ugly as all hell. Worse then a cross between a dying mongoose and a picture of Trent Lott in Drag.

thebman

I don't think there is much going on there except an ex-employee trying to get Renault in trouble.

Throw enough crap and maybe some of it will stick.

frostie500

thebman wrote: »

I don't think there is much going on there except an ex-employee trying to get Renault in trouble.

Throw enough crap and maybe some of it will stick.

Cant see much coming out of it either, Renault wouldn't have made a radio transmission to Piquet saying "Crash now!" so even if they had a preplanned trigger word it will only be Piquet's word as a disgruntled employee against the team which wouldn't really mean too much

vectra

So,
Has it been confirmed that it was NPj that started all of this?

thebman

vectra wrote: »

So,
Has it been confirmed that it was NPj that started all of this?

No but when he gets fired and a couple of weeks later, new information is disclosed in an incident involving him, its not hard to put two and two together.

vectra

thebman wrote: »

No but when he gets fired and a couple of weeks later, new information is disclosed in an incident involving him, its not hard to put two and two together.

So,
Because he gets fire it is ok for People to point the finger at him?
Have you not thought that had he done that he would be incriminating himself also?

You do know this investigation has been ongoing ?
From what I understand it has been going on even when NPj was still driving for Renault.
Dont get me wrong.
I am not saying he did not do it.
But there is a possability.;)

Go Harvey Go

Brawn back on top at Monza...

There's absolutely no question that pit stop strategies were a huge factor in their 1-2 finish, and even if Hamilton hadn't crashed on the final lap - which I'm sure delighted Lewis haters everywhere - more than likely he still wouldn't have caught Button.

And, with Red Bull having another bad race, I think it's fair to say it's now a question of when, rather than if, Brawn will win the championships...

amacachi

Yeah this isn't enjoyable at all, I mean it was really ****ing obvious who was going to win this ****ing race. FFS any of the top 5 could've won depending on the start and Heikki should've been in the best position of anyone, so that's 6 cars who could've won. Red Bull will be back at the top for the next GP and once again there'll be 4-6 cars in with a chance of winning. Boo ****ing hoo it's so boring and ****ing predictable.

Slutmonkey57b

People said exactly the same "Brawn are unbeatable" thing after Turkey. Two races later they said Button had thrown it all away and was a nobody. No keeping some people happy.

thebman

Yeah and Monza should have been a KERS race really I think if it was going to be predetermined IMO. Should have been a Ferrari race. I know its Fisi's first race so I wouldn't expect him to win obviously.

Go Harvey Go

Crumbs, Briatore and Pat Symonds have walked out of Renault as a result of Crashgate:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8258987.stm

Eddie Jordan believes that this, plus the team's decision not to contest the charges against them, is effectively an admission of guilt.

I don't see why this doesn't threaten to overshadow the rest of the season, in a similar way to the breakaway threat a while back...

Running Bing

Are there any aero changes coming into force next season?


Thing is with the current package and similar fuel for everybody we could be in for some very boring races......quali will be the race day and the pole sitters will just lead from start to finish.

At least with strategy it can throw up a few surprises and give a few varying results but with identical fuel loads and no over taking 1 o'clock on a Sunday will become nap time.

rua1972

The way i see it is that this year the top 10 is more or less formed on the fuel loads, the lightest car on pole and the heavier on pos 10. Give or take some surprises. And that's usually the way they stay until the first pitstops. With only the KERS cars able to change positions.
Next year qauli will be on a light fuel load, so the fastest car will be on pole and they start the race with a full luel load which will change the handling so it might give for some more interesting racing. During the pitstops they only stop for tyres, that takes about 4 secs. So one could come out in front when you have say 15 to 20 sec advantage over the driver behind you. But only time will tell. If the races will get boring the FIA, or Bernie, will come up with something i guess

Go Harvey Go

So, Renault have been handed a two-year suspended ban, and Briatore's been banned from FIA-sanctioned events indefinitely.

Max Mosley says this is the right decision, while Eddie Jordan claims that Renault have got off lightly.

I think it's fair to say that this is turning out to be one of the most bitter F1 seasons in a very long time...

Iron Hide

Aye roll on 2010, new teams, new driver lineups and hopefully better looking cars!!!

Go Harvey Go

Red Storm wrote: »

Aye roll on 2010, new teams, new driver lineups and hopefully better looking cars!!!

And surely a lot, LOT less trouble away from the track...

Go Harvey Go

An easy win for Hamilton under the lights at Singapore, leading from start to finish except for the pit stops, but it was a pretty dull race.

Glock's drive to an otherwise excellent second place was quiet - as was Alonso's tour to third, which is still quite a result for Renault after what has happened to them this last week.

Button was fortunate to finish fifth ahead of Barrichello, following Rosberg's pit exit blunder and Webber's brake failure which takes him out of the running for the drivers' championship, and since Button himself had brake issues in the last few laps.

So, we head to Suzuka next weekend with Brawn closing in on the championships, and Button with a chance of wrapping up the drivers' crown...

Slutmonkey57b

From a mathematical perspective it might be boring, but since Silverstone it's been impossible to predict from one race to the next who's going to be a winner. You can't ask more from an F1 season than that surely? It's only close to a foregone conclusion because Button did such a great job in the early part of the season.

hi_sir

the most exiciting thing of the weekend was the bbc guy getting thore to shreds by bernie

vincenzolorenzo

hi_sir wrote: »

the most exiciting thing of the weekend was the bbc guy getting thore to shreds by bernie

Missed that bit. Who was it? What happened??

hi_sir

it was a interveiw on saturday before qualifying with Jake Humphrey and EJ with bernie and hes was been grilled about the renault saga when humphrey asked berine berine snaped and told humphrey to go away and get his facts right before he he asks questions EJ tried to smooth it over but humphry felt like a fool

vincenzolorenzo

Feck it, ragin i missed that one! Bernie is actually a legend

hi_sir

the bbc lads taught they had him boxed in a corner and were going to get answers but bernie is a cute auld fox he made fools of them and coulthard went missing for the interveiw which jordan referred to id say DC knew the outcome of the whole thing

Slutmonkey57b

Jordan was laughing his arse off at Jake afterwards, it was brilliant. As he said "bernie loved every second of that, I've never seen anyone like him." Jake had a good insight into what got Bernie where he is right there.

vincenzolorenzo

Is there anywhere on the web i could see that interview???

Slutmonkey57b

Proxy and the BBC website.

IM0

This has been the best season of F1 for about..................5 years?
last year was good, but this year has blown it o0ut of the water!
First off 'team Lazarus' (also known as Brawn) shows up and spanks the usual suspects (McL, Fer, BMW) down the grid, and Red Bull FINALLY come through with a cracking car from Newey. Ive listened the last few years to JA go on about "if they ever hook that car up propperly it'll go like a rocketship!" and finally this year it did

Then theres KERS to mix things up at the start of races.
the sudden emergence of Force India to the top of the grid :eek:
the delight in seeing hamilton having a crap car and actually having to work hard for a victory rather than being parachuted into a 'golden car' like his debut year.

The turning of the tables as the season goes on, Brawn being reeled back in and Fer and McL joining in the podium celebrations, but Ferrari stopping work on this years car :eek: fools!!!! - the development will count for next years car! - strange decision, and can kiss the Constructors battle with McL goodbye then.

A 4 way title fight..between 2 teams...who are actually ALLOWED
to tear strips of each other, and a rollercoaster ride for all 4 of them makes (ok 3 now!) the last few races still very interesting to see who fecks it up and not.

And that isnt saying anything about all the scandal and schennagins going on, need I say more?

smooch71

me@ucd wrote: »

This has been the best season of F1 for about..................5 years?
last year was good, but this year has blown it o0ut of the water!
First off 'team Lazarus' (also known as Brawn) shows up and spanks the usual suspects (McL, Fer, BMW) down the grid, and Red Bull FINALLY come through with a cracking car from Newey. Ive listened the last few years to JA go on about "if they ever hook that car up propperly it'll go like a rocketship!" and finally this year it did

Then theres KERS to mix things up at the start of races.
the sudden emergence of Force India to the top of the grid :eek:
the delight in seeing hamilton having a crap car and actually having to work hard for a victory rather than being parachuted into a 'golden car' like his debut year.

The turning of the tables as the season goes on, Brawn being reeled back in and Fer and McL joining in the podium celebrations, but Ferrari stopping work on this years car :eek: fools!!!! - the development will count for next years car! - strange decision, and can kiss the Constructors battle with McL goodbye then.

A 4 way title fight..between 2 teams...who are actually ALLOWED
to tear strips of each other, and a rollercoaster ride for all 4 of them makes (ok 3 now!) the last few races still very interesting to see who fecks it up and not.

And that isnt saying anything about all the scandal and schennagins going on, need I say more?

These are all very good valid points.

Especially the one about Hamilton! Too bad McLaren are getting their act together now.

What's wrong with this season is that we're not really seeing a championship battle on the track between the title rivals. Button and Barrichello rarely seem to be actually racing each other wheel to wheel and Button hasn't really looked competitive for months. Red Bull seemed to have been a flash in the pan.

There's a fair chance that neither Brawns will win a race for the rest of the year but one of them is going to win the championship. It has the makings of a bit of an anti-climax.

I suspect next year will be business as usual with Ferrari and McLaren back on top.

vincenzolorenzo

All valid points [EMAIL="me@ucd"]me@ucd[/EMAIL] but for me this season is still a poor relation to last year. Don;t get me wrong, there have been lots of high points this year and its great to see a new team challenge the status quo but the battle between hamilton and massa last year was titanic and took many twists and turns. Couldn't have finished any closer, so for me 2008 was the best F1 season I've seen, by a long chalk.

Go Harvey Go

But it is difficult to disagree that the troubles away from the track have clouded this season, since there's been enough of them - the attempt to change the format of the Drivers' Championship, the rear diffuser issue, the breakway threat, Renault getting banned for race-fixing - and they've mostly received at least as much attention as the racing.

Mind you, it's not the first time that an F1 season has been shadowed by such off-track problems, however exciting and interesting the action on the track has been - the early 1980s were blighted by the big dispute between FISA (the governing body of F1 at the time) and the Formula One Constructors' Association (run by Bernie and also involving Max). The 1981 season was full of drama on the track - Carlos Reutemann disobeyed Williams team orders to beat Alan Jones in Brazil, Gilles Villeneuve won in Spain despite having four cars on his tail for most of the race, then Reutemann blew a 17 point lead and messed up in the final race to enable Nelson Piquet Snr to snatch the Championship - but it was as much remembered for the aforementioned dispute as it was for this drama.

Oblomov

Got to be better than having F1 dominated by one driver? By one team..?

Got lots going for this season... more winners, the potential champion just frittering away a substantial lead. .... The chase to develop the 'right' aerodynamics' all aprt of the rich game called F1

Go Harvey Go

Pretty boring at Suzuka today, with Vettel leading throughout and never looking worried, and the top three in the race also being the top three in qualifying.

The only moments of any interest were Kovalainen's needless tangle with Sutil, which gifted Button eighth place, and Alguersuari's crash near the end which wrote off an advertising board.

Button still holds a great advantage as we head to Interlagos in two weeks' time - all he has to do to be champion is finish third or better, and/or ahead of Barrichello and Vettel. Eddie Jordan, however, said on the BBC's coverage that to win the drivers' championship having won six of the first seven races and then none of the remainder is not terribly good, and I kind of have to agree with him.

And I still say this has been a very bitter season...

Oblomov

Interesting article in The Independent:http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/button-will-never-be-a-great-driver-1797380.html

Titled Button will never be a great driver..... worth a read.

lord lucan

Oblomov wrote: »

Interesting article in The Independent:http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/button-will-never-be-a-great-driver-1797380.html

Titled Button will never be a great driver..... worth a read.

That journo sure doesn't like Schumacher!! Lol.

clap-for-trap

robinph wrote: »

Well Ferrari and McLaren will come back at Brawn/ Red Bull/ Toyota before the season is done.

definitely agree

Go Harvey Go

So that is that - Button and Brawn are world champions.

I actually can't disagree that Button put in a great drive today - he showed his determination at the right times, his overtaking moves were sublime, and he kept away from trouble right throughout, even when debutant Kobayashi was holding him up.

But, being the cynic that I am, I can't help but say that luck was once again on his side. Would we have seen those overtaking moves if Sutil and Trulli hadn't collided, thus bunching the others up behind the safety car? Also Raikkonen and Rosberg could have been potential spanners in the works if they hadn't suffered front wing damage and gearbox failure respectively, and of course Barrichello's already bad afternoon (fortune just cannot favour him in his home race, can it?) was made much worse by his puncture, which dropped him behind his team-mate.

Naturally, Button's success overshadows Webber's brilliant victory, which seals his fourth place in the Drivers' Championship, and similarly impressive performances from Kubica, Hamilton and Vettel. Sebastien Buemi also drove well to pick up seventh in the Toro Rosso.

I don't feel that Button is not deserving of the championship, but it is one of those where one cannot say that luck has not been a significant factor. After all, winning six of the first seven races and nothing since then, and Barrichello and Vettel not quite providing all the goods to overhaul him, while Ferrari and McLaren don't come good until around halfway through the season...

And speaking of the season, I still say that it has been a bitter one.

EvilMonkey

I think its been a great season, but I cant wait for next year and hopefully some stability off the track.

thebman

Barichello did provide the goods though just got unlucky again in Brazil.

He was released into traffic after pit stop and then got a puncture when trying to defend from cars with lighter fuel loads behind.

I thought he was doing great, leading from the front and pulled out the gap he needed to in order to beat webber in the pit stops. The strategy was just poor.

amacachi

I'd love if all the cars were allowed no development til next season.

Slutmonkey57b

This season has been a damn sight better than all the Shcumacher era snorefests where he was 40 seconds up after 5 laps, and cheating to win races he was going to win anyway. The championship went down to the second last race! The Driver's champion came back from an impossible positon after everyone finally wrote him off as a bottler to storm through and make up 9 places! Cars were trailing bits down the pitlane! Mad finns were sauntering down the pitlane on fire! Drivers fighting at the side of the track! Local hero gets cursed with bad luck and loses 7 places! A seasons starting with one driver utterly dominant, followed by a mad scramble as teams swap places from one week to the next, never knowing who's going to do well and who won't, no idea what's going to happen from one week to the next!

What the **** more do you want from a season????

Half an hour with that hot blond chick who kissed Eddie Jordan in the Brawn garage!

amacachi

Not to mention the fact that the top 8 on the grid today were 8 different constructors, and I think at the end of the race no-one was more than a 1.2 second a lap average off of Webber after ~65 laps of racing.

Also on the Schumacher thing, surely that shows how ruthless he was etc. etc.? And the fact that Button has never done that shows he isn't a worthy champion?:pac:

Also it's 10 races since the same person won 2 races in a row. Brilliant stuff.

Happy Monday

As a lapsed FI fan I was pleasantly surprised that at 10-20-30 laps the top 10 cars were within 20 seconds of each other.

Racing is about racing after all!

I know people will look back on Senna-Prost-Mansell-Piquet days with rose tinted glasses but how many close races were there in reality?

Ghost Train

amacachi wrote: »

I'd love if all the cars were allowed no development til next season.

Yep, I think the level the teams are now is pretty close, 5 different winners the last 5 races. But I am looking forward to the re-shuffle of drivers and the chance for the teams to make some real steps forward. Hopefully the smaller teams can stay in touch and more drivers can make an impact with competitive cars. Hope lack of refueling doesn't take the edge off the sport, bit worried about that aspect

amacachi

Happy Monday wrote: »

As a lapsed FI fan I was pleasantly surprised that at 10-20-30 laps the top 10 cars were within 20 seconds of each other.

Racing is about racing after all!

I know people will look back on Senna-Prost-Mansell-Piquet days with rose tinted glasses but how many close races were there in reality?

I've said it before in other threads, when watching some of the Classic GP on BBC there were entire races with barely any overtaking, and these were the best they could find.


I can see the lack of refuelling next year ruining things unless Bridgestone make silly tyres that won't last more than 15 laps.

Mike Litoris

To the OP I get where you are coming from even though I've really enjoyed this season. Brawn walking the first few races was kinda refreshing, kers was/is good value imo creating overtaking, the BBC coverage is outstanding...

For me not having, for use of a better term, a hate figure battling it out at the front does take away from the excitement. I cant stand Massa so I cant wait till he's back. The media did it's best with Barrichello and Button and created a fair bit of tension but compered to last years finale, it didn't have a patch on it.

Iron Hide

amacachi wrote: »

I've said it before in other threads, when watching some of the Classic GP on BBC there were entire races with barely any overtaking, and these were the best they could find.


I can see the lack of refuelling next year ruining things unless Bridgestone make silly tyres that won't last more than 15 laps.

Ross Brawn would tell you they've already done that with this years super soft ones...

EvilMonkey

Red Storm wrote: »

Ross Brawn would tell you they've already done that with this years super soft ones...

They work for Ferrari though

Usually

Iron Hide

EvilMonkey wrote: »

They work for Ferrari though

Usually

Not for Fisi though...... :P

EvilMonkey

Red Storm wrote: »

Not for Fisi though...... :P

No I don't know what would work for him, I thought he would do better in the Ferrari after a few races at least get into the top 10. The sooner Massa is back the better.