Gav80 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Well since I made a MotoGP thread, I had to have an F1 thread as well!! So, first race of the new season next weekend (Sunday 18th March) in Melbourne. My pretty red Ferrari team will be driving without Herr Schumacher for the first time in 11 years, Renault (I nearly called them "the blue team", but they're not really blue any more!) will be driving without their world champion Senor Alonso, and McLaren have lost both their drivers from last year... How will it all turn out? Renault are the defending champions, but looked slower than both Ferrari and McLaren in winter testing; Ferrari have poached the highly-rated Kimi Raikkonen from McLaren, but McLaren have poached Vodafone to be their title sponsor from Ferrari and have the world champion driving one of their cars... but a rookie driving the other. And Raikkonen, despite being widely tipped to win the title has found himself generally looking slower than Felipe Massa in the off-season, with Massa breaking the lap record in the Bahrain test last week... I really have no idea who I expect to win!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommandoCrazy Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 Looks like we'll see an interesting race tomorrow. My guess would be Raikkonen 1st and Alonso 2nd ... CC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metal_Jacket Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 (edited) It’s a perfect day for a race today, 25c, you couldn’t ask for anything better, the F1 carnival started on Thursday, where I’m working it overlooks part of the track, and I must say that it’s certainly spectacular. I’m hoping for the pouncing horse to come 1st and 2nd, but, who knows, anything can happen in F1. In Melbourne we also have a little Italy, like most parts of the world, the main street through little Italy is called Lygon st, the street was blocked from normal traffic so that a F1 Ferrari can go for a little drive, absolutely magnificent. Vid of Ferrari at Lygon st. Edited March 18, 2007 by Metal_Jacket Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav80 Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 (edited) Well, you could ask for something better - a qualifying session for Ferrari without a gearbox problem, perhaps?? Lol Good race though, and at least one of the red cars was busy humiliating the McLarens, even if the other one had to run from the back of the grid. A Ferrari fastest lap over a second quicker than anything anyone else could manage will have a few people worried... I just hope they hold onto that pace all season - especially since I'm going to Silverstone this year to watch them. Good start to the F1 career of Lewis Hamilton - I thought he looked really good for a rookie today. Shame the same can't be said of Heikki Kovaleinen. And David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella? Well, they just looked like they should be rookies! Edited March 18, 2007 by Gav80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rookie Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Interesting start into the new season. But I want to wait a few more races before I can finally have an opinion on all the teams. So far I have the feeling Kimi does what he can best with a top-quality car - drive the hell out of it. McLaren looks like they delivered a car that finally works, but isn't dominating with the top-speeds like last season when the car was fast but blew to pieces every second race. Renault with it's self-confidence seems to have lost the only driver that knows his job and now is left with nothing much. The fact that Nick Heidfeld also managed to end up 4th gives me hope the german F1-Fans will see more of his driving skills this season. One thing I noticed about Alonso in an interview, he really seems to have a more professional attitude with the McLaren team and isn't walking around and talking "I'm the man"-style. Looks like it had been the influence by Renault. I'm looking forward to this season and finally want to see Kimi winning what he deservers - the championship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZJJ Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Well, you could ask for something better - a qualifying session for Ferrari without a gearbox problem, perhaps?? Lol Good race though, and at least one of the red cars was busy humiliating the McLarens, even if the other one had to run from the back of the grid. A Ferrari fastest lap over a second quicker than anything anyone else could manage will have a few people worried... I just hope they hold onto that pace all season - especially since I'm going to Silverstone this year to watch them. Good start to the F1 career of Lewis Hamilton - I thought he looked really good for a rookie today. Shame the same can't be said of Heikki Kovaleinen. And David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella? Well, they just looked like they should be rookies! Where are the stats? Where is my indepth, play-by-play reviews? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav80 Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 One thing I noticed about Alonso in an interview, he really seems to have a more professional attitude with the McLaren team and isn't walking around and talking "I'm the man"-style. Looks like it had been the influence by Renault. Ir's not so much that Renault presented him that way as much as McLaren don't want him to be that way and so have "tidied him up". Ron Dennis likes everything about his team to be "just so", hence the new hair cut etc for his star driver... Where are the stats? Where is my indepth, play-by-play reviews? I haven't seen you to tell you about it, and I'm sure that people here really aren't that bothered about a full race report every fortnight. And if you were that bothered I'm sure you can find out what happened all on your own anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZJJ Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 Where are the stats? Where is my indepth, play-by-play reviews? I haven't seen you to tell you about it, and I'm sure that people here really aren't that bothered about a full race report every fortnight. And if you were that bothered I'm sure you can find out what happened all on your own anyway... I don't have time to find out on my own, which is why I have you around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metal_Jacket Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 There is also talk of having a F1 night race in Melbourne as early as next year , the whole idea of a night race is so that the people on the other side of the world can actually see the race live, if for some reason a night race gets canceled in Melbourne , Singapore has placed a bid to host F1 and the very first night race , it's all very exciting so we would just have to wait and see . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommandoCrazy Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 A night race? where the heck do they want to put the headlights on the cars? CC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav80 Posted March 19, 2007 Author Share Posted March 19, 2007 (edited) There is also talk of having a F1 night race in Melbourne as early as next year, the whole idea of a night race is so that the people on the other side of the world can actually see the race live The people on the other side of the world can actually see the race live already - I've managed it every year for at least the last 15 years or so, despite being 11 timezones away from Melbourne (and therefore being just about as far round onto the other side of the world as it's possible to be before starting to come back round the other side and getting closer again). Same story for the other Asian races (Malaysia, China, Japan). And if you don't want to get up (or stay up) to watch it live, you can always watch the full re-run that's on on Sunday afternoon... So why does it need to be held at night? It's just a publicity gimmick to grab a few headlines. I don't think they'll ever go with the night-race idea for F1. I know they have it in other race series, but that's always on cars that have headlights fitted. For F1, they're talking about floodlighting the entire track (rather than fit headlights onto the cars), but to light an entire 5-odd km track sufficiently well to allow cars to race at 200mph without compromising safety (eg they need to be able to clearly pick out not just other cars, but also debris on the track etc) is just not practical, IMO. That's before you get to the increasingly popular issue of the environmental considerations (light pollution, all the electrical power needed to run the floodlights etc), and the issue of local residents complaining about the noise. F1 cars are not quiet, and several circuits already have problems with complaints from locals - imagine how many more they'd get if the noise was in the middle of the night (and on a Sunday night too, when people will be trying to sleep so that they can get up for work the following morning) rather than early afternoon! Edited March 19, 2007 by Gav80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metal_Jacket Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 In reality I believe that it’s more of a gimmick to make more money, Bernie Ecclestone pushed this proposal to Australian G. P. Chief Ron Walker, Ecclestone says that a night G.P. is essential to boost TV audience, he claims that a night G. P. will increase the TV viewing audience by 1 billion people by simply moving it to an appropriate viewing time . (I guess what all that means is that if more people watch it, more you can charge for TV rights, more money you make) He also claims that there are several countries that are biding for the right to host a G. P., by holding a night race in Melbourne will place them in good stead for when the time comes to extend Melbourne’s contract at 2010. (is that an ultimatum) The proposal is to place between 150 and 200 light towers around the track, the light towers will be self sufficient; they will have their own generators. (What these light towers look like or how many lights each tower has, I don’t know, but what I do know is that it will cost millions) He also says that it will be appropriate to have the night G. P. on a public holiday weekend. ( in Australia during the month of march there is one public holiday, Labor Day ) Alonso says that he doesn’t like the idea of a night race, Massa says he will try as long as safety’s insured. I suppose at the end of the day, driver safety is paramount, there can be no compromise, it will be up to the drivers and the team bosses to express their concerns and make sure that greed doesn’t take the place of a life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metal_Jacket Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 1979 French GP, this as amazing footage. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e7a_1176154264&p=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav80 Posted April 12, 2007 Author Share Posted April 12, 2007 Yeah, that's what you call a close fight. Villeneuve (in the Ferrari) would have done himself a lot more favours if he hadn't kept having those massive lock-ups under braking for the first turn (unusual to lock the front-outside wheel, actually - normally it's the inside wheel that locks because there's a lot less load on it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav80 Posted October 22, 2007 Author Share Posted October 22, 2007 Well, it's all over... F1 2007 reaches its end - but with the top three drivers separated by a single point, it was certainly a close one as Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen picked up his sixth win of the season to pip the two McLaren drivers to the title. Final world championship standings: Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 110 points Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - 109 points Fernando Alonso (McLaren) - 109 points Although Hamilton and Alonso share an equal number of points, the "count-back" system ranks Hamilton ahead - they both won four races each, but Lewis gets in front on account of having more second places than Fernando. Kimi also won the Fastest Lap trophy - presented to the driver with the most race fastest laps over the course of the season. His six fastest laps (including one yesterday in the final race) put him equal with Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa, and they were also equal on second-fastest laps, but Raikkonen edged it on third-fastest laps. Roll on F1 2008... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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