Ha! Actually, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Massa doesn't make things easy for Kimi. I think they're pretty close on talent and Massa seems to be the more hard-working of the two.

The McLaren seems to be a very good car and maybe turning the revs down has helped Mercedes.

Yeah, I'm glad to see him doing so well and it appears to be a good car, too.

Honda's a mess, isn't it? They're trying to get Ross Brawn over there to help straighten things out. Get beaten by last-year's Honda isn't very impressive.

I don't really detect any sort of change in Alonso, aside from the haircut, but then I've always thought he was really good. Winning two world championships at such a young age, with a team that has a considerably lower budget than some was quite an achievement. Always seemed like a pretty nice guy, too.

Now, Kimi, there's a PR person's dream!

Mark

 

Hey thanks, I appreciate that....... but I of course have seen the highlights on Speed and Bahrain is very near. 9 hours and I'll be watching pratice...

 

Massa and Ferrari are P1 in Bahrain. BMW gets both cars in row 3. Will be a good race tomorrow between Ferrari and McLaren, I think.

 

One more interesting first corner coming up! Let's see if Massa's been practicing his starts during the past week, or if the McLarens will get the jump on him again. Then, of course, you've got the BMWs that started so well in Australia sitting back on row 3. Should be fun!

(Personally, in the Pick Six Challenge I have Hamilton getting his first win this week. We shall see.)

 

The first four position on the grid differ from Malaysia in that Fred and Louie are reversed. Katie bar the door, there's gonna be a hot time tomorrow!

 

Good results for Ferrari............Too bad Kimi couldn't mount a charge at LH at the end though. It seems we will have quite a WDC battle this year at this rate.

Will Speed ever finish a race?

 

Three way tie for first in the WDC.

YOWZAA!

 

Wow the WDC is going to be awesome this year

And its Hamilton and Massa getting it done versus their "faster" teammates

Since I am a Ferrari guy, I going with Massa this year. Sure he has some problems but he has been really fast in all three races so far when his head is in the game

Lewis Hamilton is way overhyped and is deserving of it A lot of other drivers were put in this position (Irvine, Barichello, Fisi) but they could not beat their teammates consistently if at all. Hamilton is doing a fantastic job

 

For my money the pass of the day was Heidfeld's attack on Alonso for 4th.

Kimi either could not nor chose not to maintain pace with Massa and Hamilton. Three races into the new season and he appears to be confounding his critics. Dare I suggest that Kimi, the McLaren destroyer, actually opted to bring his Ferrari home a safe third, especially once he knew Alonso was safely tucked behind Nick? Blasphemy!

Hamilton's reminding me of Senna's first races for Lotus . . . sans the fireworks. Cheers to his father . . . who appears to be enjoying this the most.

I think the wind was definitely and invisible factor today. Some suffered it's wrath more than others . . . a total crap shoot.

Finally, nice to see Coulthard's inspired drive . . . while it lasted.

 

An exciting race to be sure. It was great to see Nick Heidfeld and what Ron Dennis calls BMW's unraceable strategy pass and finish ahead of Alonso. Take that McLaren!

Ferrari definitely won the pit-stop strategy contest, as they were able to pass Alonso in the pits before Nick passed him on the track (if I remember that right).

I'd like to see at least one team try a new tire strategy soon. The field has been nearly unanimous in running long first and second stints with the preferred tires, and then running a shorter stint with the other tires. The theory being that at the end of the race you can defend your position on bad tires, and by that point you aren't trying to improve your position.

Well, what if you ran a short 2nd stint with the bad tires in order to set yourself up for a longer 3rd stint on good tires while everyone else is handicapped with the other tires. Obviously much would depend on your track position coming into the 2nd stint, but I imagine there are times when going out of sequence on tires would allow you to improve your position.

 

this one wasn't really his fault. . .

 

I would like to see that as well just to see what would happen, but I don't think it will occur. If a driver can pass someone in a short fuel second stint, it would be on the softer tyre to get the lap times to pass or build a gap. Then they can hold off people while on the harder tyre and more fuel later on.

What would be interesting is when the harder tyre is preferred like at the first race. I think they all ran the softer tyre in the last stint. Why not short fuel the second stint with the softer tyre?

 

Umm. He's finished MOST of his races.

 

OK, I'll admit it I'm jumping on the bandwagon. I'm a Lewis Hamilton fan. Talk about lucky, a young driver getting a good car. Not having to spend years driving a Red Bull, Minardi or Spyker before you get something that could actually win. Top that off by making the most of it. He's very impressive. Plus a pure rookie being tied for the championship after three races is truly amazing.

Coming into his season I thought it would be Felipe vs. Fernando with the question mark being would Kimi show us something other than a broken car? Now we have a true 4 way race with the cars more than the match for each other than we've seen in years. Couple that with the return to form for Williams means this will be a great year for me. I'll be in front of the tube for each one.

 

I assume you mean BMW's return to form, not Williams'. Or maybe BMW's return to Williams' past form. I understand the confusion. During the race I was trying to remember which drivers were on which team.

I don't think it's fair to say Hamilton is lucky, in that he certainly has the skill to make the most of his great opportunity. He is lucky, on the one hand, in that Ron Dennis chose him out of many drivers as the one he would mentor and bring into his F1 team. That being said, good drivers tend to make their own luck.

 

Yeah LH is doing a great job...........why wouldn't he in one of the best cars? The credit he deserves is that he's doing it by beating or being real close to Fred. His car alone puts him on par with Ferrari since you're not in F1 if your not a good talent. Remember when Salo was sub-ing for Schumacher back in '97/98? I believe he would have won a race if they didn't make him come second to Irvine....

 

An interesting race. Hated to see Scott Speed knocked out on that first corner. I had always been a Ferrari fan when Michael was there, but it's gotten easier to root for the underdogs. Go BMW! Just wish I didn't have to get up so early to watch it all.

 

Consider getting a video cassette recorder. It seems like some sort of witchcraft, but it's really not.

I'd love for Scott Speed to get some decent results, but he just doesn't seem up to it. Say what you will about being handicapped by an underperforming car, the kid can't out-qualify his teammate. If Liuzzi makes it to Q2 and Speed doesn't, that doesn't look good. Worst of all, with Adrian Newey around, Red Bull could be headed toward some decent seasons and I'm afraid Scott isn't going to be there to benefit. But hey, even if he only lasts 2 seasons, that's 2 seasons driving an F1 car. Not much to complain about there.

 

Wow - looks like F1 took too long of a break between races. Am I the only one who watched the Spanish GP today?

The race was uneventful, other than Massa putting on a rather MSchu-style whipping on the field (with MSchu in the Ferrari garage, perhaps providing a little extra motivation). That being said, the top-8 had some surprises:

1. Felipe Massa (dominant win)

2. Lewis Hamilton (now leading the championship standings!)

3. Fernando Alonso (unsuccessful attempt to pass Massa in first corner cost him)

4. Robert Kubica (a good result at last after being shown up by Heidfeld)

5. David Coulthard (points at last for DC!)

6. Nico Rosberg (getting 3 for that other team with the white and blue cars)

7. Heikki Kovalainen (Renault continues to struggle, but good for the rookie to score while Fisi came in 9th)

8. Takuma Sato (the first point ever for Super Aguri!)

The real controversy lies ahead as soon as teams protest McLaren's new front wing that was clearly flexing during the on-board camera shots.

 

Definitely not the best race of the year. I'm becoming less and less a fan of that circuit. They've really taken the last tooth out it with the new chicane.

Oh well . . . a disappointing Grand Prix still beats the heck outuva no Grand Prix

 

Yeah, what happend in Spain? Kimi goes out way early, Speed's tire goes boom, Massa puts the heat on his crewmembers as he leaves the pits, Heidfelt nearly looses a tire, all kinds of craziness made for a good race after a month off, IMO. Oh yeah, I woke up Friday morning and checked to see if I was missing any good shows before I went to work. I put on the Speed Channel and I hear: It has been 4 long weeks since we have the siren sound of 19,000 RPM as we bring you round 2 of Friday morning practice from Spain. Crap, gotta record it before I leave.

 

Oh, and I picked up the newest F1 GP mag at my local Border's. Really good this month, great Science article of tires, traction and downforce. It gets into friction coefficient and how downforce makes a tire heavier without increasing mass. Also, a side by side comparo of the F2007 to the 248 of last year. Defintely recommend.

 

Scott went ffrom last to 14th on the first lap, then had the bloody rear tire explode. That just sucked.

Bernie is beginning to nudge F1 into an open wheel NA$CAR. Another bloody street race on the schedule, and at night no less.

 

My brother works at Border's, and told me they were stocking a new, total-nerd race magazine: Racecar Engineering. I checked it out, and it is quite good. The issue I read had an in-depth discussion of weight balance and how Ferrari's "long wheelbase" F2007 made sense given the nature of Bridgestone tires. There was a 2nd article about how they might handle regenerative braking. Total nerd stuff, I know, but I liked it a lot!

Here's their web site: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/

Here's a summary of the regenerative braking (from their site http://www.racecar-engineering.com/c...ature_02.htm):

 

That KERS thing reminds me a little of something else...oh yeah, Push to Pass. If they use it, it might make things really interesting. Also, they tried to slow down F1 in the past with less power and treaded tires. Look where we are now. Faster and quicker with less power and treaded tires than they were with an extra 400 hp and slicks. They should give up trying to make them slower and let them use turbo's.