The Beyond 2007 F1 Season Thread

[scenic121]

Good work Rage2. Cheers

[rage2]

My qualifying review and race preview is up:

http://rage2.westsideblogs.com/2007/...unday-preview/

Hey iceburns, what happened with the Ferraris?

[iceburns288]

What can I say about Raikkonen, he ran into a wall.

Massa is only 0.05s behind Massa, big f'in deal.

The picture of Kimi and Massa parked in Shumacher's turn was really funny though

[habsfan]

Originally posted by iceburns288

Massa is only 0.05s behind Massa, big f'in deal.

those massa's are everywhere!

[scenic121]

Both the McLarens have a field day - good for them!! At least one them will get the crown.

[rage2]

Originally posted by iceburns288
Massa is only 0.05s behind Massa, big f'in deal.

Yea... big deal that Massa is so close behind Hamilton... until you realize...

Massa
I am happy as I did a good lap, without traffic and I am in a good position for tomorrow’s race.

Hamilton
My last flying lap was affected by traffic in Turn 4 and I lost a lot of time but that is just the challenge of this place.

The sector where he got blocked, he lost 0.6s. So with a shitty lap, he was still faster than Massa, who has a clean lap. That's a huge gap .

Originally posted by iceburns288
The picture of Kimi and Massa parked in Shumacher's turn was really funny though

See attached image lol.

[Team_Mclaren]

early on almost feels like LH is driving really careful and Alonso is getting away further and further..

[rage2]

LH wasn't happy with the balance, he's changed his rear pressures on the tires for stint #2 and is now catching up a few tenths a lap on FA.

Massa's losing 1-2 sec a lap on the supersofts.

[redline]

McLaren are under investigation by Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, over a possible breach of F1’s sporting code in Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=39420

[rage2]

Pretty stupid investigation if you ask me. There were no team orders, there was race strategy determined before the start of the race. The 2 were told they were allowed to race each other until the pitstops. In such a tight championship, if the team boss and were to tell their 2 drivers, who are dominating the weekend at the easiest track to DNF when pushing hard to go ahead and fight for position, it'd be downright irresponsible.

If Alonso was told to move over and let Hamilton pass, then yes, I can see an investigation. Holding positions is perfectly OK, and have been done by Ferrari routinely, and is accepted as strategy to get maximum points for WCC.

[redline]

But FIArari can what ever they want, it is when other teams do the same thing that there is problems.

But it is going to be hard for them to proven, when you look at Alonso and LH were trading fastest lapt times through out the race.

[rage2]

haha FIArari lol.

Apparently, this investigation is to please the british media, they're all pissed that Lewis didn't win and he made some rookie mistakes saying some dumb things during the press conference to british press digging for stories, making it sound like Uncle Ron wasn't on his side and he had to come in early to stay #2.

[Team_Mclaren]

lol, thats the biggest bs call ever. Looks like the cry babies at ferrari cried to their mom again.

[rage2]

I know it's easy to drop Ferrari jokes at this point, and believe me, I wanna burn iceburns lol, but Ferrari has nothing to do with this. This is purely 100% british media.

[Team_Mclaren]

British media is fucked up too, They praised Button so much but he ended up noth... (even tho its more or less Honda's fault to have a slowass car)

[iceburns288]

Yeah I don't see why Ferrari would possibly complain about this, of all things, after Austria '03. And even more so, why would they care who got P1 or P2, I think they care more about the fact that both positions were filled by McLarens and that Kimi can't f'ing pass BUTTON for 30 laps.

EDIT I have to add I think the investigation is stupid as well.

[cloud7]

Investigation is done and FIA didn't see anything wrong with their race strategy.

Yes, I agree the investigation was stupid too.

[rage2]

haha ya, Bernie made some hilarious comments before the outcome. He suggested McLaren should be excluded from the championship if found guilty.

Ferrari fan? haha.

I wrote up a review of the whole situation here:

http://rage2.westsideblogs.com/2007/...-drama-ensues/

[cloud7]

nice writeup... I thought Lewis' comments at the post-race press conference was fair.... (although I did not read the entire transcript). He is a pretty humble and down to earth guy and chooses his words carefully most of the time... much more so than Alonso who is not afraid to step on other's tail.

The British press is fully at fault here trying to sensationalize everything. At the end of the day, they are only interested in selling papers and magazines... not the most reliable source of F1 news.

[rage2]

I dunno man, to sound so disappointed, and to say that he's the #2 driver and he's dealing with it, that started a chain reaction as to what we saw with the UK press, investigation, etc. He's definately still a rookie when it comes to PR.

No wonder Ron Dennis coaches him as much as he can for interviews, and denies as much interviews as possible. F1 is a media circus, and *anything* can be taken out of context.

Good example, someone in the pits, nobody that was important, was overheard talking about Hamilton being pissed and joining Ferrari, so the press has been covering that as a story, saying LH can move from 500,000 a year salary to 40m lol. They forgot to mention that McLaren has him locked till 2011 or something. Silly season has officially begun.

edit - here's one of many articles on the hamilton --> ferrari rumor.

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlin...30095236.shtml

IMO, LH is going to be a McLaren career driver. McLaren bankrolled his entire racing career after jr karts, and as upset as he is right now, he will remain loyal. Ron Dennis is like his second father.