No, that includes the disqualification.

 

No, the six doesn't include Barrichello.

 

Doh! That's right. I remembered the scenes after Nakajima and Kubica's "incident" and forget that while Kubica retired, Nakajima managed to continue on and finished the race.....in 6th position (after Rubens' DQ).

 

Hmm... I wonder where I can get the best odds on a Hamilton title this year...

 

I still can't believe I missed the race. Ended up in the only hotel that didn't have speed channel.

 

That'd be great!! Although I will say that BMW is one freaky lookin' car up front!!!!

Thinking back on it, it was amazing Kimi was able to get back out on the track after his two offs...that took some skill. Also how he made it up the pack so far on that first lap. Weird how Coulthard's car self-distructed (kinda). Great to see Bourdais have such a great day (till his engine gave out).

So how did Reubens miss that red light at pit exit...given the extreme drama with his crew, was he just hopelessly distracted (he must have wondered what the heck was going on at the back end of his car as he went down pit lane).

 

I'll bet he never knew. After all, those things are LOUD, and he would have been concentrating on getting out there.

 

Now that F1 has at least one mandatory pit stop in each race (to use both types of tires), why not ban refueling again?

Since everybody would have to start on a full tank, you could go back to Q3 having the fastest drivers on near-empty tanks driving all out for pole, rather than having Q3 essentially be the first part of the race for the top 10 drivers. And you wouldn't have anyone in Q3 not running because they'd rather conserve fuel, which appeared to happen in Australia.

 

I don't know--seems that you'd have someone, or alot of cars running out of fuel. The burn rate varies so much, depending on track conditions, safety cars, passing, terrain, etc.

Can you imagine doing that at Spa, for example? After all, the tank capacity doesn't change with each track.

Now what you might do would be to require everyone to start, or at least qualify, with a full tank, and let them refill at will.

 

You'd have to redesign the car to accomodate a much larger fuel tank, and turning them into four-wheeled bombs again.

 

F1 has banned refueling in the past, and I don't recall there being many issues with cars running out of fuel. The actual amount required may go down due to rain or safety cars, but I'd bet the teams would know within a quart the amount of fuel that would be burned over the course of an incident-free race.

If I remember correctly, refueling was brought back fairly recently (prior to Michelin starting a tire war) in order to make the cars pit rather than have races decided in the first corner. Back then, there was only one tire manufacturer (probably Goodyear). There was no tire war to press development so the tires were built to withstand a full race distance. With no refueling, and no need for tires, the field would just get more and more strung out as the race went on with no battles for position. Now that stopping for tires is mandatory, refueling isn't needed to "improve the show."

(If someone has a more exact memory than I do, please fill in the gaps. I can't find a good resource online for this.)

 

If they end up doing that for whatever reason, I want a turbo or 2 back on the cars. Massa last year and Bari over the weekend showed how much pit lane drama there can be. If they take away pit lane excitement, they should a little more onto the track.

 

Ok, I'll try. You can still have whatever size fuel tank you want and you can change the tank config/size/etc any time you want (i.e., no standardized fuel loads) until the start of Q1, but you have to top it off before Q1 starts and you can't add any more fuel until the race starts and you've done at least one full lap under green.

Keep the 3-session knock-out quali and the requirement to use two different spec tires.

 

You make 2 good points. First, there IS quite a bit of excitement in the pit lane, and making pit stops also involves lots of strategy--sometimes nail biting for team and viewers alike; look at Hamilton's tire incident last year!

Second, the ridiculous freeze on development for years goes against everything racing aims for--the best of the best. And so many street car improvements come from the track!

 

IMHO, I've never cared too much for the inclusion of pit stops in F1. I guess it probably comes down to my introduction to the sport, but on the other hand I don't think my view of the past is totally romantic.

I also doubt that pit stops were introduced to appease any given manufacturer. My recollection is that this was one of the first changes made in an effort to draw more interest in the sport in the U.S.

I much prefer the forgotten ideal of Grand Prix racing being a sprint to the finish.

My preferred vision of F1 would not do very well financially, and certainly would not sell in the U.S.

As much as I admire today's pilots, they're starting to look more and more like professional golfers. I don't know if anyone noticed this in the post race press conference, but the McLaren sponsor jackets are even more ridiculous than last year. Hami looked like some kid at an amusement park who'd stuck his chin into the neck stirrup of a painted flat. Heikki looked like some character in a Terry Gilliam movie.

'nuff said.

 

Someone call Roger Penske! FAST!

Toro Rosso team put up for sale.

Toro Rosso are expected to be sold by the end of 2009.
The Toro Rosso Formula One team has been put up for sale, team founder Dietrich Mateschitz has confirmed.
Rule changes in 2010 mean Red Bull will no longer be able to provide Toro Rosso with custom cars and so Matechitz says there is no need to run two teams.

"It is not a big secret that we've put Toro Rosso on the market," Mateschitz told Motorsport Aktuell magazine.

"I see the necessity that we continue with one team only for 2010 but we will not sell Toro Rosso during 2008."

Mateschitz and co-owner Gerhard Berger want to have a buyer in place by the end of next season.

"We will only sell the team if it is put into safe hands," added Austrian Mateschitz. "But it will be before 2010."

Toro Rosso's cars are designed and constructed by Red Bull's team in Milton Keynes but under the new Concord Agreement teams will no longer be able to make cars for one another.

The Toro Rosso team came into existence in 2006 one year after Red Bull when Mateschitz bought the Minardi outfit from Paul Stoddart.

This season the team signed up four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais to race alongside German Sebastian Vettel.

The Frenchman earned two points for the team on his debut at the dramatic Australian Grand Prix.

 

Getting to be a weird season already!

Todt steps down as Ferrari boss

Todt has been with Ferrari since 1993
Ferrari have named Amedeo Felisa as the Formula One team's chief executive after the resignation of Jean Todt.
Todt, 62, who was a key figure in turning the Italian team into one of F1's most successful teams, will stay on in a senior executive role.

Felisa, also aged 62, joined Ferrari in 1990 and has been the team's general manager since 2006.

Todt joined Ferrari in 1993 and guided the team to six straight constructors' titles between 1999 and 2004.

With chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo back at Ferrari after a stint as chairman of Italy's employers body, Todt said he could "dedicate more time to myself and the things I'm interested in".

Montezemolo is known to be an admirer of Renault driver Fernando Alonso.

The switch marks the culmination of a generational shift within Ferrari, with the replacement of the previous foreign leaders with a new set, chiefly Italian.

The team's success in the late 1990s and first half of this decade was based on Michael Schumacher's arrival at the team in 1996, by which time Frenchman Todt had already been in charge for three years.

Schumacher retired at the end of 2006 to be replaced by Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who won the world title last season.

Todt will remain a board member as well as chairman of Ferrari Asia Pacific and Ferrari West Europe.

He will also be charged by Montezemolo to carry out special assignments for Ferrari's racing operations.

 

I really miss the trio--Michael, Jean, and Ross. I supposed they're happy doing their own "thing" now, but they sure made the team hum! Massa's the only one left after Barichello left. Now the latter's not doing squat, and how much of it is due to an inferior car is hard to tell. I don't think Massa's got much chance at the championship with Lewis showing everyone up, although he's a really good driver...

 

^I would like to have seen Brawn's face after Barichello almost ran over his refueler and blew the red light leaving the pit. He must have been pulling his hair out. Either that, or that hair became a little more grey.

 

True--and I don't remember him doing such stupid things in Ferrari red.!

If Jean Todt is going to be a consultant, do you think he'll tape his fingers for at least one visit to the races?

 

Like this?

 

Well, leaving the pit with the hose attached was entirely the "lollipop" holder's fault. The driver is on a hair trigger to go when that sign is removed. All I can think of as far as the red light goes, is he was distracted by what he felt when the hose pulled out on it's own, or he knew it was red and was told to get out anyway.

 

He claims he didn't even see the light. He said it's so poorly placed, not bright enough -- whatever -- that by the time you see the light it's too late to do anything about it anyway, and they should replace the light with a guy with a flag. I think a guy waving a red flag might have caught his attention but he was paying too much attention to the trouble behind him (understandably) to notice a light he wasn't expecting and therefore wasn't looking for. There probably wasn't anyone on the crew paying attention to the pit exit light at that point either.....

 

In all fairness, I would imagine that Rubens was just a bit pre-occupied with what had just occurred in his pit box.

It is not exactly as if the lights allowing re-entry to the circuit are unique to Melbourne. Granted, they may be harder to see than at other circuits, but this sounds like a lot of dancing around the simple fact that he had greater concerns on his mind.

That said, the penalty remains to further demonstrate one of the sloppiest Grands Prix run in recent times.

 

That's exactly what I meant, though it wasn't so clear. I figure he was concerned and therefore distracted (completely understandable), and I believe it when he said he didn't even see the light. Pit lane is often chaotic and I'm sure he's not the only driver who thinks there's room to improve on the signaling there.