She did not win anything during her career in Atlantics. She may have gotten a pole or two but she never won. IIRC AJ Allmendinger was in the series at the time and he cleaned up. A shame he's not in open wheelers anymore.

 

Continuing with the new driver line of thought, here's an option that bothers me:

Villeneuve close to USF1 deal

Sorry, I know he has fans who would love to see this happen, but I was glad to see him leave. I'm looking forward to USF1 (USGPE) and hope they do well.....this would put a real damper on my enthusiasm.

 

I don't think JV is going to USF1. Thank God.

I think there are 2 to 3 new teams next year that may want him.

 

Yeah, he left rather weirdly, didn't he? I don't think he'd do well if he came back to F1.

 

He's a has-been that came in to the sport in a Newey car. It couldn't have been more fortuitous for him.

I am looking forward to who Windsor chooses.

 

Does anybody care that Bourdais is out? Haven't seen anyone complain about it yet so I figure he's not missed. I love this from Paul Tracy when he heard about it.....

 

I thought he was about the least friendly driver I've ever met when I saw him at Sebring this year. I wasn't a fan of his before that either.

Would love to see PT in a F1 car.

 

Hmmm, Paul Tracy in F1. Could be entertaining.....I'd love to see him get a test at least. Not gonna happen though.

 

Wow, quali was interesting. A bizarre accident for Massa in Q2 and then chaos at the end when timing and scoring went away just as everyone was pushing their hottest laps through.

Massa is now confirmed as out for the rest of the race weekend. A suspension spring came off the back of Barrichello's car and bounced along and up just where and when it needed to be for Massa to drive right into it, helmet first! He was dazed and drove straight on into a tire barrier. Apparently he was so agitated he had to be sedated before they pulled him out of the car and eventually airlifted him to hospital. The replays showing the spring dropping off the back of Rubens' car and its approach from Massa's onboard camera were excellent.

Timing and scoring disappeared before the fastest laps were recorded in Q3 so the announcers couldn't tell who landed where. Then all nine drivers (minus Massa) wandered around at the end asking each other who had what time based on their cars' telemetry. Took a few minutes for things to get straightened out with Alonso on the pole!

Suffice to say, if you didn't see it, you should check your listings for a repeat.

 

It was a very exciting Qualifying session.

Predictions: Alonso is light, but should net some decent points. Hamilton will get a decent start this time and should be in the top five. Heikki will falter. I'd say that it's Red Bull's race to lose. What's happened to the Brawns?

The Million Dollar Question: Is Ferrari going to be able to put someone in the race in Massa's car? I believe according to the rules, the stewards have to approve them letting someone else drive his car. I'd assume though, that he'd have to be at the back of the grid. If so, would it be Marc Gene? Luca Badoer? They're both kind of old, it's been a while since they've raced at this level, and as I recall they weren't that competitive when they did race. I wonder if they wouldn't give a reserve driver from one of the other teams a chance. Kind of like when BMW allowed Vettel to race for STR. I'm sure getting Liuzzi in the cockpit would put a smile on the Tifosi's collective face. Or maybe Ferrari would get some other free agent, like they did with Mika Salo when MS broke his legs at Silverstone. Georgio Pantano is looking for work. ha!

Thoughts?

 

They haven't released the starting weights yet, so that can't be confirmed. They're slow, along with all the other drama, the weights are usually out by now.

 

They are out now. Alonso is light.

 

He said he was light as well as Flav saying he was on a 3-stop, but the weights are out now here. Yep, he's definitely light.....lightest on the grid by quite a bit.

 

Alonso is light. Using 2kg/lap that gives the laps of fuel as:

1. Fernando Alonso 16
2. Sebastian Vettel 25
3. Mark Webber 24
4. Lewis Hamilton 23
5. Nico Rosberg 25
6. Heikki Kovalainen 25
7. Kimi Raikkonen 23
8. Jenson Button 30
9. Kazuki Nakajima 27
10. Sebastien Buemi 33
11. Jarno Trulli 33
12. Rubens Barrichello 42
13. Timo Glock 37
14. Nelson Piquet 31
15. Nick Heidfeld 27
16. Giancarlo Fisichella 38
17. Adrian Sutil 39
18. Robert Kubica 31
19. Jaime Alguersuari 35

The race is 70 laps.

 

I figure the Brawns are just not developing as quickly as the others. They've lost their dominance but as to their performance this particular weekend it's hard to say where they are. Rubens was out shortly before Q2 ended because pieces fell off his car. Might he have been able to do a better final lap and made it through to Q3? We'll never know. Button sat in the garage during Q3 while they worked on his car (presumably trying to avoid whatever happened to Rubens). By the time he finally got out on the track again there were less than 3.5 minutes left and he ran his fastest lap on quite a bit more fuel than they intended. Could he have made it further up the order if he'd been able to burn off fuel as planned? Probably, but we'll never know how far up he might have gone.

I've been wondering how this works now as well, but the provisional grid lists I've seen show everyone else moving up one position and 19 cars to start.

 

I sure hope Massa's okay. He's had a skull surgery ("bone" is what they're saying). This is the sort of thing that killed Senna, and sometimes all of an brain/skull injury is not evident at first. For sure it rang his clock. And this was just reported:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/250720...e-surgery.html

Is anyone else having problems reading information posted at the top of the screen, like the lap counter and P1 driver name? It was a little bit of a problem last year, and has gotten worse over this years race's. I can no longer see the lap counter at all.

 

It's perfectly aligned with the top of my screen.

 

Suggestions? We have no other trouble with the set, nor is it on other channels, that I know of.

 

Are you watching Speed or SpeedHD?

 

A little more information about Massa's condition here.

WARNING: Some may consider the photo too graphic.

 

There's a lot of discussion in the blogosphere and twittersphere about confusion on Massa's condition. Ferrari mostly says he'll be OK. The hospital doctors said it was more serious in a press conference, but then back-pedaled. I wonder if they did that from pressure by Ferrari. It's not unlike Ferrari to spin situations to their liking.

 

Well, from what I've read Massa could be out for the rest of the season. He had a skull fracture and a brain bleed. That's some serious stuff. All in all, Massa's dinner tonight probably tastes pretty darn good. When you look at the gash on the helmet, that spring (800 grams or about 1.75lbs) could have gone through his face shield. That almost certainly would have killed him. 800 grams at 200kph, truly a lucky guy.

Hopefully, this isn't the sort of thing that ends his career. He's just started to be exciting to watch race....in the good way.

 

Skull fracture and surgery, brain bleed and he's in an induced coma.....I don't expect him back in the seat for quite a while. I agree Ben, I hope it doesn't end his career.

Just to lighten the mood and stir the water a bit, there's a column on SpeedTV.com speculating as to who might take Massa's seat from Valencia on.....and suggesting one M. Schumacher as a likely candidate.

Will Schumacher be in Massa's Ferrari at Valencia?

 

Speed, on DISH. Hasn't been different on Fox, though. We're going to see if it appears on our other three televisions during the race--two different boxes--as that might give us some info.

 

I was thinking about who might be a good substitute. I don't think MS will get put in the car. Everyone says it won't happen. I think there's some sort of rift between him and Montezemolo.

Bourdais is looking for a ride, but I don't know if Ferrari would be willing to put up with his crap. Piquet is probably going to be without a seat pretty soon, but I just don't think he's good enough.

Alonso might be able to drive for them in Valencia, lol! For those who haven't seen, Renault is suspended for the next race for sending Alonso's car out in an unsafe condition. http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...26194313.shtml They're apealing the decision. I don't know why they would penalize the whole team. Why not just keep Renault from scoring points? No sense in penalizing the drivers too.

I was thinking Valentino Rossi would be a stand-in. But he's only 25 points ahead of Lorenzo.

Bruno Senna is waiting in the wings. That'd probably make the Brazilian folks happy. But Ferrari aren't usually ones to throw someone in the car that doesn't have F1 racing experience. And if he was the stand-in and did a crappy job, that'd probably be the end of his F1 career.

Georigio Pantano is out there. He was the GP2 champion last year. An Italian in an Italian team? Is he just too over-ripe?

Ferrari could probably get just about anyone they wanted and not have to pay them much, because they'd be getting such an opportunity as a driver.