Formula 1 - 2008 Season

[Kaotik]

I think he'll stay at Renault unless something weird happens wrt. to Räikkönen at Ferrari (they fire him because he's been sucking a bit lately in race conditions) or Honda somehow manages to convince Alonso that they are awesome next season (and they give him huge wads of cash or something).

If they had any intentions on firing him, I doubt they would have made a new 2 year contract with him 2 races ago [wink]

 

[Bludd]

But that may just have been the activation of a clause in his contract (number of points scored or something).

 

[Bludd]

Regarding the 2009 Canadian GP, seems like you guys were correct after all. It's mostly about cash owed to Bernie (FOM).

Canada's federal minister of international trade Michael Fortier (...) Quebec's economic development minister and Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay (...) Fortier and Tremblay both confirmed that a multi-million dollar debt to Formula One Management is at the heart of the dispute.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Well, cant blame them than right? If your boss didnt pay you for the past 3 months you wouldnt go there anymore either.

 

[Bludd]

Yeah, but I suspect if the Canadian government gets involved, they will get that debt paid and the GP may come back on the calendar. I think this was a strong-arm move by Bernie to get the cash.

 

[_xxx_]

If I was in the canadian gov, I'd just give him a big "fwck you".

 

[Bludd]

But the event brings a lot of revenue to the local community.

 

[_xxx_]

So what? The community also makes the event possible, so it goes both ways. Still doesn't mean you'll let a bunch of greedy arseholes rip you off that blatantly. And since the local community is the side which truly invested and built the whole thing and work for the event, it's pretty obvious who should get a proper share. But the proportions are simply wrong as is.

 

[infinity4]

After all, F1 is driven by money for money. What do you expect?

 

[Davros]

sometimes its also driven by highly skilled drivers like nick heifield

http://www.videosift.com/video/How-to-not-show-off-in-an-F1-car

 

[Bludd]

Haha, doh! Seems all the smoke threw him off. Slightly expensive.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

So,

Hamilton, Kimi, Kovaleinen, Alonso and Massa are the Top 5 for tomorrow GP.


Japanese GP - *Qualifiyng
Update in 11"Update now

Saturday October 11, 2008 | Started
Qualifying live standing

P.	Driver			Team		Time
1	Lewis Hamilton		McLaren		1:18.404	
2	Kimi Räikkönen		Ferrari		0:00.457	
3	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren		0:00.173	
4	Fernando Alonso		Renault		0:00.665	
5	Felipe Massa		Ferrari		0:00.687	
6	Robert Kubica		BMW		0:01.792	
7	Jarno Trulli		Toyota		0:00.839	
8	Timo Glock		Toyota		0:00.931	
9	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso	0:01.451	
10	Sebastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso	0:01.980	
11	David Coulthard		Red Bull	0:00.000	
12	Nelson Piquet		Renault		0:00.087	
13	Mark Webber		Red Bull	0:00.167	
14	Kazuki Nakajima		Williams	0:00.407	
15	Nico Rosberg		Williams	0:00.485	
16	Nick Heidfeld		BMW		0:00.648	
17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda		0:00.695	
18	Jenson Button		Honda		0:00.913	
19	Adrian Sutil		Force India	0:00.976	
20	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India	0:01.723

Japanese GP Live MatchCast - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

US

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Alonso Wins

Japanese GP - *The Race (67 Laps)

Sunday October 12, 2008 | Started
Race live standing

P. 	Driver 			Team
1 	Fernando Alonso 	Renault 	
2 	Kimi Räikkönen 		Ferrari 	
3 	Robert Kubica 		BMW 	
4 	Nelson Piquet 		Renault 	
5 	Jarno Trulli 		Toyota 	
6 	Sebastien Bourdais 	Toro Rosso 	
7 	Sebastian Vettel 	Toro Rosso 	
8 	Felipe Massa 		Ferrari 	
9 	Mark Webber 		Red Bull 	
10 	Nick Heidfeld 		BMW 	
11 	Rubens Barrichello 	Honda 	
12 	Nico Rosberg 		Williams 	
13 	Jenson Button 		Honda 	
14 	Lewis Hamilton 		McLaren 	
15 	Kazuki Nakajima 	Williams 	
16 	Giancarlo Fisichella 	Force India 	
17 	Heikki Kovalainen 	McLaren 	
18 	Adrian Sutil 		Force India 	
19 	Timo Glock 		Toyota 	
20 	David Coulthard 	Red Bull

News Source: Japanese GP Live MatchCast - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

 

[chavvdarrr]

looked like Hamilton tried to crash into Kimi and Massa on first turn.

I think Ferrari should pay with same card - Kimi pushing him out of the track seems reasonable tactics

PS
Bourdais was penalized for contact with Massa?!
Anyone who has video of that contact? My initial impression was that he had already exited the pitstop, so Massa was the one guilty for the contact, because he was a bit behindand from the outer part of the turn

 

[Rys]

All the excitement was to be had in the first 10 mins. Nice race, but truly inevitable after the first laps had shaken out.

I wouldn't say Hamilton tried to crash into Kimi and Felipe, but I would say he was a bit stupid.

 

[pocketmoon66]

Here we go again I wonder if I watched the same race as the stewards.

It was Kovalainen who 'forced' Räikkönen off track at turn one, not Hamilton. And surely you'd have to hand out a dozen drive throughs if you start looking at those sorts of "turn 1" incidents.

The Masa/Hamilton incident was fairly clear cut.

But Masa/Bourdais ?!! I sure most viewer out there were waiting to see if Masa was to be penalised again.

F1 need to get an team of independent stewards who can apply a consistent and reasonable level of penalties throughout the whole season.

But cock-up for Hamilton though. Silly boy.

 

[chavvdarrr]

It was Kovalainen who 'forced' Räikkönen off track at turn one, not Hamilton.

huh?!
Both Hamilton and Kovalainen were unable to turn in time due to too late braking - after the race Kimi stated that his machine was hit from them both

 

[Dave Baumann]

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/081012100412.shtml

Bourdais has been penalised by the race stewards for an incident late in the 67-lap Japanese Grand Prix when he defended his position from Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. Exiting the pits, Bourdais kept to the right hand side of the circuit heading to turn one while Felipe Massa moved to the left to try and pass around the outside.

Massa turned into the corner and contact was inevitable but it is stunning that the stewards have penalised Bourdais (as he was on the inside and defending his position) and not Massa. Bourdais clearly did nothing wrong at all and once again the stewards make a mockery of the sport.

Wow!

After seeing the incident I had expected to wake up and see Massa be placed with a penalty, not Massa gaining an extra point!

 

[thehulk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H5KReYtyew

 

[Bludd]

Alonso! TOMA! Haha, second in a row.

Hamilton lost his head. Maybe he just doesn't have the cool to win a championship ... Kimi destroyed him off the line and he tried to make up for it by flat-spotting his tires to hell and back. Penalty for that was OK, but Massa's was well deserved; he went totally off the track and hit Lewis. Bourdais should not have been penalised. Period. He was on the racing line, fighting for position. Unfair for Bourdais who did well today.

Piquet may have saved his Renault (and F1 career) today. Great drive even though he made a mistake at the end, but it didn't cost him anything.

BMW stopped developing their 2008 car, Renault didn't. It pays off, because Kubica could have been a much stronger contender for the championship. If the next races end like this, Kubica will win.