Author Topic: Official Racing Thread (Read 189678 times)

amuse · « **Reply #340 on:** October 05, 2006, 02:41:48 AM »

Alonso is being a cry baby again...

Quote

Reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso has widened his attack on the Renault team after losing his championship lead in China.

The 25-year-old, who in the Spanish press this week accused his team colleagues of abandoning the quest for his drivers' title, has now been quoted as criticising team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella's tactics on the Shanghai circuit.

While Ferrari boss Jean Todt hinted this week that Fisichella's precision driving on the straights was tantamount to illegal blocking, Alonso attacked his Roman cohort for overtaking him.

Alonso reportedly told Sport-Informations-Dienst: "In the same situation I don't believe that (Ferrari's) Massa would have driven past Schumacher.
"

A Renault spokesman, however, insisted that 33-year-old Fisichella 'drove purely for the team' in the Chinese Grand Prix.

And he said of Spaniard Alonso: "There is no problem at all with the relations between him and the team."

Tomorrow we expect Alonso to hit out at global warming, which must also be responsible for the loss of the championship lead.

http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/061004104643.shtml

Even the person who wrote the article for F1-Live thinks the same

. If you look back at the last 2 seasons, Alonso has always blamed somebody or something for not winning a race, but takes all the credit for his wins.

orion · « **Reply #341 on:** October 05, 2006, 06:57:37 AM »

Quote from: JFC

Alonso wasn't around in 94/95, perhaps you mean 2004/2005?

Yeah, it was good to see Webber score some points. Poor guy seems to be the hard-luck story this year. It'll be interesting to see how he does next year after he leaves Williams.

back in 94/95 schumacher crashed into damon on purpose so that hill couldnt win the championship from him. so i hope that he doesnt do it to alonso these days. back when schue first started driving he was a bit unsportsman...

edit: heres what is on wikipedia, look at the year 1994

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Hill#1993.E2.80.931996:_Williams

JFC · « **Reply #342 on:** October 05, 2006, 07:19:26 AM »

^ Oh you were talking about the collision with Hill (I thought you were talking about a different collision with Alonso

). Yeah I remember that one (it was around the time I started watching F1). I was a pretty big Williams fan back then, and I nearly lost it when Schumi ran into Hill.

amoskoh · « **Reply #343 on:** October 05, 2006, 05:46:15 PM »

i just found out why all F1 drivers have thick necks...

BX_LeMans · « **Reply #344 on:** October 08, 2006, 02:10:05 AM »

Alonso is just getting nervous. Hes a good driver, but not more. He got arrogant because of winning and now he gets the bill. He will never reach on a man like Schumacher!

ferrar1 · « **Reply #345 on:** October 08, 2006, 04:27:43 AM »

F1 Suzuka is starting soon guys, get ready. I'm foreseeing some big crashes today

JFC · « **Reply #346 on:** October 08, 2006, 06:13:14 AM »

Due to the time difference, I gotta wait until the replay to watch it (as I'll be sleeping when the race actually happens).

ferrar1 · « **Reply #347 on:** October 08, 2006, 06:46:51 AM »

Quote from: JFC

Due to the time difference, I gotta wait until the replay to watch it (as I'll be sleeping when the race actually happens).

that happens to me as well if the race is on the other side of the world. :evil:

JFC · « **Reply #348 on:** October 08, 2006, 09:12:15 PM »

OM FUCKIN' G THE FERRARI BLEW!!!

It's been a while since Ferrari had an engine failure. Alonso better be thanking fate for this turn of event, as he had this race victory handed to him. He also now has the championship pretty much won. It's still mathematically possible for Schumi to win the championship in the final race in Brazil, but he has to win it and Alonso has to finish out of the points for that to happen (they'll still be tied for points but Schumi would win because he'd have more victories).

Tough luck as well for Albers and Webber. Poor Albers' rear section just blew apart when that half-axle came undone. As for Webber, looks like he just lost control and ran into the wall.

EDIT: As the race was ending, the coverage I was watching showed Schumi going around in the pits, shaking hands and thanking his crew for all the effort that they gave today. Now THAT is a class act. That's how a champ conducts himself. Schumi works with his team, he knows that he's just a cog in the machine and that it's mostly the team's efforts, and not just his, that enable him to win races. Even if he doesn't win the driver's championship this year, Schumi's still a champ.

orion · « **Reply #349 on:** October 09, 2006, 01:21:32 AM »

i think it was a bit of a disappointing race, it was good until schue blew up. there wasnt a whole lot of passing in the race, for about 30 laps there were very few position changes, mainly just barrichello overtaking the end people. The albers mechanical failure was pretty cool though, the back right just sort of blew off the car, his drive shaft could be seen lying in the middle of the track. For once this was a race where it was in the daytime for me, instead of being early in the morning as usual.

ferrar1 · « **Reply #350 on:** October 09, 2006, 03:39:06 AM »

I expected some drama to come up yesterday, and it really did, unfortunately it hit Schumi's ferrari and that was so disappointing. Nonetheless they did a good job reeling in the Renaults from a huge deficit early on that i cant bear to blame the mechanics slogging their ass for the team. BUT this is F1, if there's somebody that can create miracle, its Michael.

JFC · « **Reply #351 on:** October 21, 2006, 08:58:18 PM »

Well, definitely an up-and-down day today for Ferrari in the qualifying session at Interlagos (Brazil). On one hand, Massa (a native Brazilian) snagged the pole for the race with amazing qualifying times. He was the only person today who managed to do a 70 second lap. He'l be starting tomorrow with Raikkonen, his future Ferrari teammate, right beside him on Row 1. On the downside, Shumi started off really strong, but then had gearbox troubles during the final qualifying run and was unable to get a lap time. Considering it's the last qualifying session ever that Schumi's going to participate in, definitely a disappointment.

So now he's going to start tomorrow's race in 10th position on the grid.

ferrar1 · « **Reply #352 on:** October 22, 2006, 06:09:05 AM »

Quote

Alonso expects a fair race

Fernando Alonso insists he expects every driver to play fair in Brazil this weekend as he prepares to defend his championship title at Interlagos

seems to me a man who is still afraid that people will sabotage him on the last race despite having 10 points advantage. Im sure he will weasel his way to 1 point just to make sure he wins the championship

Quote

To be honest for me the important thing is the Drivers’ championship, not only for me, for everybody,” he said.
“We see all the publicity on the motorways, everywhere from China onwards. I think we only see Michael’s and Alonso’s face on the pictures. You don’t see the logo of Ferrari and Renault. I think the people remember which driver is the champion and which car he drove. I don’t think anyone remembers ten years ago who was the Constructors’ champion,” he explained.

No respect from me, nuff said. He never thinks why he's good enough to win races. Well its good he's leaving renault, i'll see what he can do next year.

JFC · « **Reply #353 on:** October 22, 2006, 07:30:49 PM »

Damn, it's just not Schumi's day today. Within the first few laps, contact with Fisichella (at least I think it was Fisichella) caused him to get a flat tire, which cost him at least a minute as he had to slowly make his way back around the track to get to pit lane.

Then again, Interlagos isn't a favourite track of many drivers to begin with. At least 5 cars were taken out (including both Williams cars colliding with each other) within the first 15 laps.

EDITS: Spoilers (for now, will be returned to readable colour in a day or two so others who haven't seen the race yet can make comments)
Lap 31 - Schumi's worked his way back up to 12th from last place.

Lap 38 - Schumi's in 8th place, back in the points.

Lap 47 - Schumi makes (likely) his final ever pit-stop in F1.

Lap 58 - Now in 6th

Lap 64 - Holy crap he's in 5th! And there's a yellow flag! WHERE???

Lap 68 - AMAZING PASS to take 4th place from Raikkonen! They were literally INCHES from each other!

Finish - He finishes 4th. Despite not winning, still a killer race for Schumi. Starting from 10th, then the flat, and fighting his way back up to 4th. Love him or hate him, Schumi ALWAYS gives his full effort and races to win! He never gives up, pushing his car as much as possible for as long as possible. He's not just a man who drives race cars for a living, he's a "race car driver."

Oh, and congrats to Massa for winning his home race, and big congrats to Button for getting 3rd after starting from 14th place on the grid. Congrats to Alonso for the driver's championship (I thought it was hilarious that so much more attention was on Ferrari and on Schumi, considering what Alonso said about the driver's championship being what people remember).

orion · « **Reply #354 on:** October 23, 2006, 09:11:20 AM »

firstly i have to say what a great race, i though it was one of the better ones of the year despite not that many lead changes, there wasa some good competitive driving and from 2nd place to 6th place there was only 10 seconds in it for about half the race. button and schue had damn fine races, and despite what some people may find disappointing or a shame (like the flat tyre) i though that it was good because we could really see how good schue was to get back into a good position. he never really had a good shot going into the race to win the championship. i never really liked schue that much but i sure admire him, especially after todays race!

ferrar1 · « **Reply #355 on:** October 25, 2006, 03:33:36 AM »

Schumi Vs Raikonnen was definetely the highlight of the day. Michael was inches apart from the wall and the mclaren but he never gave up and pushed his way through. When will we see those type of move again except on the great drivers.

BUT i believe that raikonnen is the best choice for ferrari to replace schumi, he drives aggresively and he has that fighting spirit which would make the most out of the ferrari cars. One more thing would be that he's good at passing people, and he's young.

john_hung · « **Reply #356 on:** October 25, 2006, 04:20:15 AM »

don't forget that not only is michael leaving ferrari, but alot of the engineers and behind-the-scene guys are gonna be leaving as well, so ferrari could very well be in shambles next season...

JFC · « **Reply #357 on:** October 25, 2006, 05:17:48 AM »

That's true. Before Schumi came on Ferrari was a mediocre/average team at best. It was Schumi who brought in his hand-picked engineers and crew and convinced guys like Ross Braun to come aboard that helped Ferrari become so dominant. With Schumi gone, a lot of these guys will be leaving too. Ferrari's future success will definitely be based in large part to who they pick to replace whoever leaves.

ferrar1 · « **Reply #358 on:** October 25, 2006, 06:05:27 AM »

Guys guys, Schumi is leaving as a driver but i thought he was returning as an adviser or something?

I'm sure even if schumi was the 1 who brought in the engineers, they must have grown attached to ferrari and wont leave them just like that?! Ross brawn and Jean todt aint leaving either right? or are they?

JFC · « **Reply #359 on:** October 25, 2006, 06:10:33 AM »

Quote from: ferrar1

Guys guys, Schumi is leaving as a driver but i thought he was returning as an adviser or something?

I'm sure even if schumi was the 1 who brought in the engineers, they must have grown attached to ferrari and wont leave them just like that?! Ross brawn and Jean todt aint leaving either right? or are they?

I believe Todt HAS confirmed that he's "taking a sabbatical". Question is, will it be a permanent one (speculation says that it will be). As for Brawn/Braun, he came to work with Schumi. With Schumi gone, there's no reason for him to stay. Raikkonen will have his own people that he trusts and that he'll want to bring on board. Braun never worked directly with Massa (as far as I know), so yeah, expect him to be gone.