Did anyone else see the big fat Spanish guy in the crowd wearing the Renault colors stand up and start yelling right after they announced Fred was done? Funny as Hell! He was pissed!

 

Wouldn't you be if you spent 2 or 3 hundred Euros, and your man gets nailed in the first 3 minutes?

I think Ferrari had better rethink their space-age pit gadget. Or rather, rethink driving training. At least if there's a lolly-pop man he's more likely to keep from running him down (although it's been done).

 

I dunno. The team screwed that pooch. Not Massa. No way the driver can see who's coming out of the pits in back or along side.

 

If they had pulled off Massa's release, everyone would have been saying "Wow !" that was calculated to the ridiculous degree

Kimi really blew it, the Ferrari equivalent of a "redlight" start, the hangover must wear off halfway through the race and then he's revvin' to go

As for Alonso fans, strange they would have so much devotion to a guy who seems to hate being bothered by his fans at home.

 

Hmmm.

Understand Spanish fans. As far as Alonso goes, they're Tifosi. In Spain, he's all four of the Beatles rolled into one. Who want's to deal with that?

If there was another Italian WDC someday, I doubt very much he'd spend a lot of time in Italy.

 

From the post race interview:

Q: Talk us through the last pit stop and what happened with Adrian Sutil.
FM: Yeah, I think it wasn’t very clever from his side as even if he went out in front of me he needed to let me by. It was a shame to fight with him in the pit lane as we were very close and I needed to back off and I lost a lot of time but fortunately the gap was enough.

Q: How did that situation arise?
FM: Well, because I stopped behind him in the pit stop and we leave together. When he was passing me by I was leaving the garage, so we were side-by-side. But I was the leader and he was lapping. It was quite narrow and the wall was getting narrower and narrower, so I didn’t want to take the risk.

Talk about arrogance. Was Sutil supposed to wait for Massa?

 

Maybe Massa thinks there should be a guy standing in the pit lane waving a blue flag.

To paraphrase Steve Matchette's explanation of Ferrari's electronic stop/go lollipop replacement board, the "GO" light is not under human control. The green light is triggered by a proximity sensor from the fueling rig -- when the tip of the rig is pulled away from the car, the green light is lit. If true, the guy who is supposed to control departure based on pit lane traffic, etc, is completely out of the loop.

 

So they need a lollypop man afterall. So much for trying to cut costs by eliminating one pit crewmember.

 

They claim it saves 0.3 seconds per pit stop if GO is triggered electronically rather than waiting for someone to decide to move the lollipop and then physically get it out of the way. They also claim the proximity switch eliminates the issue of the lollipop man giving the GO before the fueling tip is clear of the car -- that part I like.

 

I love Nakajima's quote from this article at SpeedTV.com:

“I could see it was Fernando, and I thought whoops, it’s no good for him and the Spanish fans. It’s a shame for everybody, and me as well. I will say sorry to the fans. Maybe I need a bodyguard now!”

 

I think that the above encapsulates Massa's mindset. This is the same mentality at work on the track when the leaders come upon the backmarkers during a race, not to mention that it is also a rule that a lapped car cannot block the leaders... Hence the blue flag.

Unfortunately when contesting a corner the lapped car can't just vaporize and dissapear... The driver is commited to the turn (happens quite often in sportscar racing i.e. ALMS) and can't just move over!

Now mind you, this is taking place in the pitlane. Felipe just needs to cool his jets and shelve his prima donna attitude for just a bit till he is able to exit the pits and rejoin the race.

He will get over it in time...

 

I think Phil was still full of adrenalin, and when he sees the video replay, he'll probably apologize to Sutil, and scream at the pit manager.

 

Hopefully he will use some tact rather than scream.....

The thing is Sutil is racing for his position, even if it is dead last, his boss wants to do well too, so just because the Ferrari is coming out shouldn't mean he should slam on the brakes and bow to the leader. Had he done so with cold brakes could he not have possibly hit him ?

It seems that exiting the pit is a balance of aggression, common sense and getting the car back up to speed in race configuration, all wrapped up in a split second decision.

The whole episode just seems to be unfortunate timing, did Massa really lose that much time ? Sutil did move right on over and allow Massa through. Sometimes when you react like Massa did, you will eat your words down the road someday

 

BMW fastest at Monza testing today - 8 days til Spa!

eau rouge flat outz!

 

Just when you thought it was safe to return to the track! Hobbs will have fun now:

Sato to test for Toro Rosso seat


Sato has 90 Grand Prix starts under his belt.

Japan's Takuma Sato will test for Toro Rosso this month as he targets a return to Formula One next season.

Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel is moving to the main Red Bull team, and they could also replace Sebastien Bourdais.

Sato, 31, spent six seasons with Honda, BAR and Super Aguri, and Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost said: "He has proved worthy of a place in F1.

"He would be a good fit with the Red Bull spirit, while his experience would be undoubtedly valuable to our team."

Sato will test for the Ferrari-powered outfit at Jerez on 18 September, the day after Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi, 19.

Buemi , who is currently racing in the GP2 feeder series is Red Bull Racing's test and reserve driver.

Tost added: "The test will give us an opportunity to evaluate Buemi and Sato at the same time, as they are both possible candidates for a 2009 seat."

Senna and Buemi have been the only half-decent drivers in GP2 this year - GordonMurray.

Gerhard Berger, co-owner along with the Red Bull energy drink billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, said last week that he would ideally pair a young driver with an experienced one.

The Austrian has also warned Frenchman Bourdais, the four times Champ Car champion who made his F1 debut this year, that he still had to prove his worth.

Sato has been out of F1 since his Super Aguri team folded in May.

"It will be especially interesting working with a team that has made so much progress over the course of the year," he said.

Toro Rosso have also been linked to Brazilian Bruno Senna, whose late uncle Ayrton was a triple world champion and team-mate of Berger at McLaren.

He is currently second in the GP2 standings. "

 

Yeah, I guess it's officially the start of Silly Season.

 

They can look for new drivers all they want, but unless something changed it's not yet certain there'll still be an STR around to drive for next year.....or did I miss an announcement that Red Bull found a buyer?

 

You enjoy a strange combination of vehicles!!!

 

Bad news.....potentially.....imo

Major changes planned at Spa?

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns20711.html

 

Hey, kurv, I never noticed if you were always a Mod or not. Is this a new thing? If so, congrats! If not.....back to scheduled topic!

 

Thanks, and good eye - I've only been a mod for a few days. The subject came up when I mentioned my interest in long-term maintenance of an MC (non-S) exhaust reference thread. It's a work in progress <check it out here>.

 

Fred fastest in second practice...........

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

If the weather continues this way, Alonso has a chance... and Massa might be spinning round and round.

 

WOWZER!!!!!
What a final 3 laps

 

Pretty amazing!!! Someone was going to get burned, and someone was going to come out ahead, in that fray!