The 2012 F1 Championship thread.

Another GP another different winner the 7th so far. Well done Lewis and McLaren, the better tactics win again.

A double Brit win this weekend, with Justin Wilson winning the Indy car race in Texas, his first win on an oval.

What about Jensen's problems???

Its one thing not making the podium,  but not getting close to scoring points when your team mate wins is one hard rub of salt in the wound. 

He is so far off the pace its difficult to imagine what could be so wrong,  missing Q3 is not good at his & the teams level,  he only made it this weekend because of Pastor's kiss with the wall.

Nice to see he still has his happy face on tho'.  

Button could just as easily clean up the next race.

7 races 7 winners seems exciting, but what we are seeing is more random variation than true competition. Car set up and strategy are overwhelmingly more important than the drivers just now, and the teams are struggling to manage the dreadful drop-off with the tyres which is not even predictable sometimes. The best drivers should be able to 'work around' weaknesses in their car etc but not this year, if it is not right (or the tyres have gone off the cliff) you are history.

F1 has got it wrong this year, and I think people know it.

Not just my view either, but that of people within the sport too.

But despite all that it's no surprise that the 3 best drivers in the sport are heading the championship and seem to be managing with the problems with the tyres. Alonso has been immense with a so far inferior car, Hamilton would be further ahead but for some operational problems and Vettel is responding well to a much stronger performance from his team mate. 

Can't keep making excuses for Button.

Antony Davidson (Sky F1 team member), survived a huge crash a Le Mans.

Just as well ACO changed (in 2010)  the cars to prevent this, so thats 2 last year and 1 this.

http://t.co/1ypgiISf

He has a broken back.

It is fairly difficult to change the cars so the drivers can't run into each other. Perhaps have them run one at a time?

AD's car wasn't launched over another car, it took off from the flat.

Well yes, but the reason it took off was that it was going sideways after the Ferrari clipped it. 

Nascars have that roof-flap that opens when they are going in reverse to prevent them taking off if they get spun. I don't know if they would consider something like that for LMPs. I remember Webber going for two "flights", one soon after the other, on one of the straights one year.

Le Mans is a dangerous place indeed. In 1999 when Mark Webber had his incident there where also others like this:

Peter Dumbreck's massive accident

Although all kind of measures have been taken to prevent these accidents still unfortunately happen - part of motor racing.

According to Davidson's own Tweet, he has a broken back. 

"Well that was a big one! Lying in a French hospital with a broken back wasn't what I had in mind at this stage in the race..."

So Tom Kristensen did not get his ninth after all - 21 hours it looked good.

A bit of a whoopsie by McNish, robbed them of victory. Every Audi hit a wall at least once but they still finished 1,2,3,5.

Howard,

I hope Peter and Tom got some good pictures this year?

Stu.

There will be a few Le Mans cars at the Goodwood FOS , so I'll try and take some as well.

First practice session on now.

On the BBC Red button.

I hate this circuit though.

Stu.

Second practice session starts at 12.35 on the BBC  Red Button.

Stu.

Live on Sky. 

As is the GP2 , GP3 and Porsche S/Cup.

Its live on the red button.

Bloody boring F1 ? A combination of good racing and dumb driving.

Good to see Red Bull so gracious in defeat?

http://t.co/WDaasbsu

I was thereyesterday Tony and I thought they coped pretty well under the circumstances. We were due to go to the Badminton horse trial earlier this year and the whole event was cancelled so at least they are managing to keep the event going.Agreed more should be done for thspectators but I do seeimprovements every time I go. I like to think that if circuits didn't have to pay so much to FOM they would invest evenmore.

Cheers

Scott

I agree, they seem to spend more each year. However, each time they have seemed to rob the circuit of more character. Perhaps my love of a variety of circuits throughout the year is old fashioned, but the Silverstone circuit of the 80s was a true gladiatorial place of extreme speed. How would anyone describe it now?

I'm so glad Brands is only an hour from me.

Tony

I've spent more time than really necessary stuck in  Brands carparks in years gone by, I'll be willing to bet it ain't got any better.

Stopped going to Silverstone years ago, even when I had free tickets, fortunately the GPs alternated with Brands.

I haven't been stuck in a car park at Brands since the 86 GP, but it might be a problem still I suppose. The exit from this year's DTM meeting took about five minutes from engine start to descending Death Hill, so no complaints from me. At least I feel good leaving Brands after a good day's spectating, mooching around the paddock, wandering over to the back of the circuit where there's no tannoy......

Tony

Oh shock horror Red Bull caught cheating, AGAIN?????