Team Ferrari 3rd and 5th in Malaysia

Ah well, it's only the start of the season.

You've got to be impressed with Lewis Hamilton though.....

3rd in Oz, 2nd in Malaysia.....his first and second ever Grad Prix races......

Did everybody else see Ron Dennis blank Kimi, before they went out to the podium......don't suppose he cares anymore with his guys coming first and second!!

Poor old Kimi looked like he hadn't a friend in the world up on the podium, even the Mclaren drivers didn't acknowledge him.

Trevor

Undoubtably a great performance from Hamilton ....I can sense the hype building now for the British GP in July!

...But spare a thought for Jenson stuck with a mother of a car, ....would he have got a similar result in Malaysia if he'd had a Mclaren? or is there more to it than that?

..Just wondered! .....

i think ferrari had to modify their car - they were kind of lame cmopared to the 1st GP.

i think F1 is a lot more boring this year (compard to last year's season).

and what's the matter with massa??

regards,bf.

Boring this year? Well, wait til next year.... traction control has been banned for 2008 onwards. Who knows, they might even ban flappy-paddle gear changes.........

Tony

quote:

Originally posted by Tony Lockhart:
Boring this year? Well, wait til next year.... traction control has been banned for 2008 onwards. Who knows, they might even ban flappy-paddle gear changes.........

Yeah, Formula One is too easy these days. Anybody could do it....

quote:

Originally posted by Deane F:

quote:

Originally posted by Tony Lockhart:
Boring this year? Well, wait til next year.... traction control has been banned for 2008 onwards. Who knows, they might even ban flappy-paddle gear changes.........

Yeah, Formula One is too easy these days. Anybody could do it....

Not at all, obviously. But most of us want to be able to see and hear the differences between the master drivers and the also rans. At the moment, standing by a tricky, damp section of track on a test day all you'll hear is a series of pathetic fart noises as the t/c kicks in. No skill there, just 'Playstation' the throttle and steering and hope for the best.... (Not quite, but you get my erm, drift)
I don't imagine for one second we'll end up with a field of drifting F1 heroes sliding their cars and ruining their tyres for our amusement, but to have Lewis side by side with Kimi at a wet race with no driver aids might be just a little bit more exciting than a pathetic fart on a Sunday afternoon.

Tony

Massa seems to be going backwards a bit compared to last year.
Hope he can pick it up because it will be boring seeing the same three guys on the podium all year.

quote:

Hope he can pick it up because it will be boring seeing the same three guys on the podium all year.

Unlike previous years then?

Howard

True enough.

In my view, Formula 1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of speed around a track. There should be a formula to ensure competition is maintained, but at the same time I expect the speeds to increase, not decrease. There are lower formulae which have less driver aids. After all, you wouldn't want to buy a car nowadays that didn't have ASR, ABS, etc., so why shouldn't the really fast boys get them? It's crazy.

I would not expect a pilot to be able to fly a modern fighter plane without all the pilot aids at his disposal, and thanks to all those pilot aids his performance and capabilities are that much more spectacular. Given the speeds attainable with just elementary minor aids in Formula 1, I think the choice is either to slow down or give it its head.

So far, the slow-down tactic has been vaguely disappointing. There doesn't seem to be as much interest and there are a lot of people who complain about the sport being boring thanks to the same old trio finishing in the high places. So, they should give it its head and develop the cars for a bit more safety in the process. Allow speeds to increase (say, 250mph, same as Le Mans), allow moving parts on the car (wind assisted aids such as motorised spoilers), bring back skirts, allow drivers to have pilot-style suits to save their necks.

It'll never happen.

Trouble is Frank, the circuits will then have to be changed to allow the cars to race safely. The fans are already too far back from the track, and then behind close-knit wire fencing. If a car was to have a biggie at the end of the Hangar Straight just before braking.... it would stand a chance of clearing the current fencing and the banking too!
I say remove all those hideous aero-devices and bring back manual gear-changing via mechanical linkages. Bring back wide tyres, but issue standard front and rear wings with limited adjustment. Allow free engine development, after all, the manufacturers are meant to be showing off something!

Tony

A good race, I think. The first laps was like something out of a F3 race, we don't get to see that often in F1!

Then it was the Kimi catching Hamilton in the last stint.

Could develop into quite a good season if they continues like this.

JohanR

I was a bit disappointed in the race - apart from the first few laps, there was no overtaking at the front...

Looking forward to removal of traction control next year. Would also like to see number/size of wings reduced so that the air behind cars is cleaned up, making overtaking more approachable. At the moment, it's almost impossible, even with a faster car.

I understand the point about technical supremacy of F1 - but giving that too much weight promotes the constructors' championship beyond the drivers' championship. Many of the viewers want to see more involvement of the drivers - eg, not hear traction control stopping the (relatively) hamfisted from falling off

F1 is supposed to be the top Motor sport NOT top computer game.You are going to get the gadgets on your car whether you want or need them.(most you don't). Fighter pilots needing computer assistance is a red herring it's very important for him to have all available help(his job is NOT a SPORT).
Motor sport should be the top drivers fighting a championship and the best one winning. Best being the one who can control and drive his car the best and it is demonstrated best by HIM having FULL manual control of his car.All the moving aero devices etc have proved to be dangerous in the past and are unlikely to be any better in the future.
Bring back real racing and hopefully real drivers.

Howard

Honda's F1 operation to go back to basics Click

Howard,

But who's to say that a car has to have gears, wings, and not skid control or fancy electronics to decide things that are too fast for a human to manage? "Bring back real racing and hopefully real drivers" is just nostalgic claptrap - the genie is out of the bottle. That was a different age when real drivers died at the rate of 1 driver in 4 races. If we can develop faster machines that will stay on the track (that's the challenge) perhaps we'd have more racing. Also, although with a fighter pilot, it's his JOB, so is it for a F1 racing driver. And I don't see racing drivers winning races by running along the track - it takes a racing team to do this - the driver is but one important part of the team preparation. Just look at the disparity in results between team mates to see how important the driver is, but also take note of how the team fares overall to see how important it is that the team works too.

After all, the car is simply an invention of ours. I don't see why 4-wheel drive or multi-valve engines (i.e >4valves/cyl) aren't allowed in F1 (well, I know why, but I think it holds back the sport), or diesel or electric motors instead of petrol. If an elextric car did even vaguely well in a F1 Grand Prix it might make people think again about whether it's a viable technology.

Most of the gadgets we see nowadays in ordinary cars were pioneered in racing circles because they offered a competitive advantage. If the Formula allowed more freedom, we could benefit from a whole host of things that get developed purely for that advantage. One simple example: active suspension was a technology which was looking certain to make it into roadgoing vehicles. It would have made them far more comfortable and far safer to drive in the long term. As soon as F1 outlawed it, all interest in the technology died, to the detriment of the public at large.

Let's not kid ourselves: everyone in F1 is in it for the money or for the commercial exposure (which is the same thing really).

What little spin off there is from F1 into road car technology is purely coincidental and often poorly executed - flappy paddle gear shift anyone?