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Posted (edited)
img_0229-300x225.jpg
And would you look at that view!!! :indeed:

...lame!!

 

Actually I was gonna say, unless that's the sea on the right!... but then I realised there's NO WAY you'd put an F1 car doing 180mph next to coastal winds!!

Edited by Retro_Link
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Posted
Oh great a technical cicuit :( Maybe it'd be good for MotoGP but for F1? Jeez. For a great track we just need some long straights, a couple of very heavy breaking areas, some fast sweeping corners and a couple of chicanes, both fast and slow. Mmmhmmm perfect :)

 

So basically you want Spa :yay:

Posted

Yeah Spa is just amazing; along with Suzuka, Montreal, Interlagos and Monza it's one of the best tracks on the calander. They need to scrap China, Turkey, Valencia, Spain and Bahrain asap.

Posted

A quote from Ted Kravitz's Belgian column...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/f1mole/2009/09/ted-kravitz-view-from-the-belg.html

 

Ted Kravitz - the Belgian GP from the pit lane

 

McLaren

 

The prospect of Kimi Raikkonen returning to McLaren seems to be one of the more plausible outcomes of the driver market.

 

Many people at McLaren still love Raikkonen; in many ways he's the perfect McLaren driver.

For a team that grounds their engineering in pure mathematics and physics, to have an unemotional, repetitive - almost robotic - driver in the car is much easier than having a man who is inconsistent and variable.

 

You'll never be able to prove anything with an inconsistent driver, because you'll never know if what you're changing on the car is working.

 

McLaren engineers still talk with wonder about Raikkonen's consistent lap times. He was so good, they say, because he would come back to the pits, say what was wrong, they would fix it and he would go out and go faster. Simple.

 

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who values his engineers' opinions highly, wouldn't rule out employing Raikkonen again when asked on Saturday afternoon.

 

He also said the team wanted to employ the two best drivers they could, despite the problems they had with Hamilton and Alonso two years ago.

 

Raikkonen only left McLaren because his relationship with then-team boss Ron Dennis deteriorated when he signed Fernando Alonso. Is history repeating itself at Ferrari?

 

How Lewis Hamilton would feel about having Raikkonen in the other McLaren is another matter.

 

As a matter of interest, in the McLaren post-race press release, every quote - with the exception of Hamilton's - praises Kimi for his win.

 

Given that most McLaren people would rather undergo root canal surgery than publicly praise Ferrari, one can't help thinking there's a bit of 'preparing the ground' going on here.

Posted

He should go to Mclaren. Ferrari's lead driver has to be someone Schumacher-esque; you're representing the whole of the tifosi for a start and need to be quite a prominent figure for them.

 

Kimi just wants to get in the car and go fast. Infact, he's become my favourite f1 driver this season, i love how he's just a racer.

Posted

Yeah he should do well enough for Ferrari and help them secure 3rd in the WCC.

He's gonna be with them for the rest of the season, and I also heard somewhere that he may become their reserve driver for next year (and maybe the rest of his F1 career), because as of yet he's been unable to secure a drive for next year.

Posted

Threads dropped a little bit so with Monza coming up this weekend I thought i'd start a good convo topic; who will drive where next season?

 

Ferrari seem keen to get rid of Kimi; I wouldn't be surprised if they got rid of him and he heads off back to Mclaren who, from various interviews with mechanics, clearly consider him one of the fastest drivers they've ever had. It looks like Satander are breaking their deal with Mclaren and are joining Ferrari next year which clearly means one thing; Fernando. When they first became Mclaren's sponsers it was in '07 when Alonso joined so it looks like we could be seeing the same.

 

But what about the likes of Rosberg and Heikki? Where will they end up? And Villeneuve wants a F1 drive too....interesting.

Posted (edited)

So far, things are looking generally good for some of my earlier predictions. Off the top of my head: Toyota and Trulli are at loggerheads, Hulkenberg looks good for Williams with Rosberg hinting heavily towards McLaren. Heaven only knows though where Kubica and Heidfeld could end up, and Raikkonnen if he does indeed leave with a big payoff but chooses to stay in F1 (which he seems to be hinting is his goal). All three could end up anywhere on the grid from Brawn to the new boys.

 

Nakajima could be gone too with Willaims splitting from Toyota. Heikki could end up back at Renault (assuming they're still here next year after this whole Singapore wing-ding.) I think it's 50-50 if Barrichello will be here next year - Brawn seem favorable to keeping him but if they end up with someone like Kubica kicking around their lobby...

 

Also my bet is Sauber will survive in some form, there seem to be people with a lot of money sniffing around.

Edited by gaggle64
Posted

Gonna be an interesting race today but looks to me as if it's gonna be Brawn driver taking the title as the Red Bulls were off the pace today and I can't see them being any good at Singapore :/

 

The top 3 are all 2 stopping today so they need to be about 1 second a lap quicker than the guys behind. It's gonna depend on how Rubens and Button fare behind the heavier Kovi and possibly Alonso too if he gets a good run.

 

Can't wait :)

Posted (edited)

Contender for race of the season in my view, another great win for Barrichello and second for Button.

 

Is the championsip Jensons now Red bull have lost major points. I mean had Rubens not had those anti stall problems i think it'd be really close between them.

Edited by Emerald Emblem
Posted

Lotus confirmed as the 13th team with BMW given a preliminary 14th place now. Quite interesting news and I'm very happy to see the Lotus name back in the sport. Hopefully they get some good drivers in and manage to get some half decent results next year.

Posted

So this means Piquet wasn't lying, while he was clearly bonkers the paddock will be a worse place without flavio imo. Still he's free to manage QPR full time now, I await some hilariously mental decisions from them.

Posted

I rather liked Flav, imo the sport needs over the top characters like that as part of the show. It often seems in danger of becoming rather emotionless.

 

I wonder if we'll see him and Symonds show up at one of the new teams?

Posted
I rather liked Flav' date=' imo the sport needs over the top characters like that as part of the show. It often seems in danger of becoming rather emotionless.

 

I wonder if we'll see him and Symonds show up at one of the new teams?[/quote']

 

Wouldn't be surprised if they got banned from F1 tbh; pretty serious what they did. Flavio is saying he left F1 to 'save' Renault and I actually believe him on that but I think it's too little too late; there were rumours Renault would quit F1 at the end of this year due to declining car sales and obviously they can't keep Alonso forever and with all the negative press the ING Renault F1 team are getting I think renault are as good as gone.

 

As for the 14 teams on the grid next season, YES please! Would be great though far more backmarkers could be a problem on the shorter tracks (Monaco for example). THat said, Toyota aren't announcing their F1 budget til November (they could easily leave), Renault will probably go and 2 of the 3 new teams (not USF1, the other 2) signed up to Formula 1 on the condition that there would be a budget cap....I wouldn't be surprised if a few names dropped out unfortunately.

 

Onto the title chase, I'm definately supporting Rubens. Realistically both Button and Rubens are nowhere near that elite group of drivers (Alonso, Kimi and Lewis, with Massa behind them imo) and neither of them will get a better chance at the WDC, however since Silverstone he's been on FIRE! 2 Wins and some good podiums too, i fancy him to take 14 points from Jenson.

 

Oh. Retro link, start posting again you tit!

Posted (edited)
Oh. Retro link, start posting again you tit!
haha, sorry... I've been missing this thread!! We've moved house and I'm without internet atm. Just logged on to a library computer to check on news. I'll be back up and running sometime next week.

 

Monza was bloody fantastic! Loved it!!

 

And as for Piquet and Flavio!! Wow!! That's taking race fixing to one hel of an extreme and no doubt come Singapore next week Eddie Jordan will proclaim it 'A very dark day for Formula 1'.

 

Also, Alonso coincidence?... That's 2 F1 teams sensationally found out for cheating in recent years and he's been with both! He was one of the few people exchanging emails at McLaren, and you can't help but feel he was probably getting mighty pissed off at Renaults '08 form, and probably as a result of throwing a few hissy fits, Flavio maybe felt compelled to fix his 'son' a win! [/controversial]

 

Also, I'd also be happy with 14 teams!!

but I'm not keen on Ferrari's 3 car team proposal... which I don't think the FIA are either, hence why we're seemingly geting new teams instead. Much better!

 

As for the championship... Rubens FTW!!

Red Bull are now out of it, I actually wonder how much they were ever in it... it just seems atm that maybe a group of tracks in the middle of the season really suited their car, because lately (and at the beginning of the season) they're not even featuring.

 

Kimi's also doing a bloody fantastic job; especially as they stopped developing the car at Hungary! Legend!

Edited by Retro_Link
Posted

I think Renault have been very lucky here and the current financial situation has helped them a lot.

The FIA woudnt want to risk loosing another manufacturer after BMW and Honda. Very very lucky. The bassically got away with it.

Posted

Yeah it seems a very light penalty. Basically they aren't being punished for it because they got rid of Briatore and Symonds. Also Piquet gets immunity for reporting it, but it's gotta have done damage to his reputation and I don't see him getting a drive in F1 again. No doubt he'll move to America and do Indycar or something.

 

Also, apparently Briatore has to sell his share in QPR now, because Football League rules say that an owner can't be banned by the governing body of any other sport.


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