True--it's rather surprising that they did so well at Monaco, where the speeds are so much lower. I'll bet Ferrari wishes Ross hadn't taken that sabbatical, then come back with a new employer. It's even worse now that it's HIS company. Oh, for 2004 again!

 

The season aint over yet....at least I hope not.

I remember Alonso got a pretty good lead in 2005 and 2006 and at the end of the season, he for sure, didn't have the fastest car. And the championship in those years was pretty close.

I hope someone closes the gap and makes it more interesting.

 

I guess we have a conditional answer to your question. FOTA says everyone is in.....but "noted several conditions under which entrants will be competing."

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/...-2010-entries/

I do like the term "technological competition" used in their statement. Most of us talk about the need to keep F1 at the cutting edge, pushing technology, etc, but I guess I've not noticed those two words stuck together before and that term says it all for me. "Creating a mechanism to preserve the technological competition and the sporting challenge." What a concise but complete summary -- I like it!

 

Apparently, FOTA was unable to grow a pair successfully.

 

Amen. And I wonder how the teams will be able to take those "significant actions" to control costs if they now have to redesign the cars for no refueling. Is this still on the docket?

 

I don't think Mosley is going to change a thing. He smells blood in the water after Williams defecting and lodging their entry against the FOTA's wishes.

 

I ran the starting weight through my spreadsheet again (using 2.6kg/lap). This the laps worth of fuel everyone has:

1. Sebastian Vettel 17
2. Jenson Button 19
3. Rubens Barrichello 18
4. Mark Webber 20
5. Jarno Trulli 18
6. Kimi Raikkonen 20
7. Felipe Massa 19
8. Fernando Alonso 15
9. Nico Rosberg 21
10. Robert Kubica 23
11. Nick Heidfeld 29
12. Kazuki Nakajima 29
13. Timo Glock 32
14. Heikki Kovalainen 23
15. Adrian Sutil 24
16. Lewis Hamilton 35
17. Nelson Piquet 33
18. Sebastien Buemi 31
19. Giancarlo Fisichella 32
20. Sebastien Bourdais 37

The race is 58 laps, so with 29 or more you could do a 1 stopper.

 

Anyone here watch Law & Order? A portion of the season finale' was inspired by everyone's favorite F1 personality, Max Mosley.

Pretty good race today. Some very good moments.

 

I didn't see it, but I finally remembered who Bernie reminds me of:



It's Marshall Applewhite, founder of the Heaven's Gate cult. Maybe he didn't really commit suicide with the others? (You young 'uns, look it up.)

 

F1 on Fox - 3 Laps, 3 Commercials.

Why can't we get a high def feed in the US? Might as well be 3rd world when it comes to F1 coverage.

 

BTW, if Button wins the next 3 races, under Bernie's proposed medal rule he would have won the championship with 7 races left.

 

I wonder how much that will affect his efforts. I remember when Michael won the championship with more (how many?) races to go. People asked that question, but he kept the pace up.

BTW, I can't help thinking of the change in qualifying rules proposed last year--that the best qualifiers would start at the back of the pack. I'll bet Ferrari and McLaren wish that had been adopted!

 

I remember after MS had the championship sewn up, Ferrari wanted to focus the rest of their efforts on getting....I think it was Eddie Irvine, 2nd in the championship. Maybe Brawn would do that for RB.

This surprised me. Kind of a land grab.
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...08195413.shtml
I don't follow MotoGP nearly as closely as F1, so I have no idea if there's any kind of unrest for those guys like there is for the F1 guys.

 

There is no unrest in MotoGP, but they have the same money issue as F1. Kawasaki quit at the end of last year because of cost. And World Superbike is gaining teams and viewers. Teams cause the cost is less - bikes have to be production based. Viewers cause the racing is close and this year MV Augusta and BMW have joined.

Alan

 

Well, if all this FOTA vs. FIA stuff blows up into the FOTA leaving. Hopefully they consider just going to Le Mans, rather than making their own series from scratch. I love the 24hr of Le Mans race and wish the series had better coverage. The Speed coverage isn't bad, it's just not what it is in Europe.

Di Montezemolo even said that could be a possibility for the red team.

I'm about sick of this FOTA vs. FIA crap.

 

Amen. I've been saying for years how great Le Mans racing is. When the USGP left I said good riddance, more money for me to go to the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, where they actually really like having fans in attendance. At the USGP I always felt like they would rather the fans stayed home and watched on TV. They sure did everything they possibly could to keep the fans and teams segregated.

I would love to see Ferrari do a LMP1 program. Maybe that will light the fire under Porsche's butt to do the same. Even Audi is taunting Ferrari with their commercial driving a red Audi R8 through the streets of Maranello. ALMS and LMS is great stuff.

 

I love that Audi R8 commercial. I'm not fond of the R8 (in Ferrari red or any color) but that's one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time!

Back to F1, here's an interesting tidbit:

Mobile F1 tracking application launched

Too bad it's not one of the free iPhone/iPod Touch apps, but still very interesting.

 

Sorry, if they go to LeManns, I'm out. And I can't get into sports car racing, either.

 

That really is where the big auto manufacturers belong. The days of the Championship of Makes was some of the most exciting racing on the planet. Ford vs Ferrari vs Porsche was an incredible time.

F1 was SOOOO much better in the days of small teams like Tyrrell, Hesketh, Wolf, Shadow, March, Arrows, etc.

 

I've never been to ay of the LeMans races but I really enjoyed the pit walks on the Thursday before the USGP.

 

Look up "lame" in the dictionary and it says, see "USGP Pit Walk"

At the ALMS races, the paddock is always open and very user friendly and inviting. I run into drivers and have ad hoc conversations with them all the time. Joey Hand recognizes us now and waves every time we stroll by. Missy gets welcoming hugs from Tom Milner (PTG principal) all the time. I have a 16x20 photo I took of Allan McNish at Road America. He personalized it for me at Road Atlanta. Hell, you could probably pick up a wrench and help out if you wanted, it's so accessible.

The USGP Pit Walk is like F1 putting down the middle finger of the left hand to show you the middle finger of the right hand.

Sarcasm aside, the USGP pit walk is marginally better than a big nothing. F1 needs to do a much better job to make fans feel welcome. In 5 seasons going to the USGP. Any contact you see between fans and participants on TV is for VIPs, not regular ticket holders. Only Speed TV ever came close by having their televised live preview at the track on Thursday afternoon. If the USGP returns I may not bother going if it means sacrificing a trip to ALMS.

 

Whoa. I don't know if I can push that much sarcasm aside. Sheeesh.

 

Let's just say I find the fan experience at the USGP disappointing.

When I go to ALMS races, one of the highlights of the series of how much the fans and participants mingle, and the stuff the series does for fans (tech talks, club parade laps on track, team meet and greets in the paddock, autograph sessions, etc). Mrs. RaceTripper and I even got a hot lap driven by race drivers during Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. She in a Audi R8 V10 (the consumer coupe) and me in a 996 GT3.

 

... not to mention, USGP 2005 still pisses me off. That was middle finger of both hands at once to the fans.

 

Hot off the press:

F1 teams set to form breakaway series