posted Jul 22, 2008

Villeneuve:
Excellent article.

F1Freak: "Alonso- ... He is brilliant in qualifying but come race day and his pace is off and his 2xwdc spirit is non existent"

The above can be explained in that Renault has good traction when half-empty to empty. With a full load of fuel, the traction is non existent and the car is very nervous after the apex.

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posted Jul 22, 2008

Superb article villeneuve.

Most of the people who have already posted have covered most of my thoughts.

Couple of things though:

Really, really, really, really disappointed with HK and KR. The latter I am a big fan, but since hes left MM, the spark seems to be slowly fading away. I didn’t think KR would walk it last year, thought he would this year. Don’t really think it’s a case of luck, more he just hasn’t delivered. He seems a completely different person to the man who went hell for leather every single race, especially 2005. how many car failures did he have? A lot more than his entire Ferrari career, that’s for damn sure. Still managed to stay in the championship, and blow away a highly rated team mate. I think he has slowly, yet surely, been going down hill since then. His drives just don’t seem to have the sense of urgency in his racing these days.

HK just disappoints constantly. I think he has a very good team mate in LH, a hard man to beat, but the amount of times hes been off the pace is appalling. I remember back in the 2005-2006 seasons, poor GF always used to get a radio transmission aired from his team telling him theirs no way he should be that much slower than FA. HK really just doesn’t seem to bother particularly. I don’t think hes that much slower than LH, but im running out of excuses for him.

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posted Jul 23, 2008

Very much agree with what's being said. I would say a word in favour of Kovy - he took a superb pole at Silverstone so he has pace, and it's very tough having a teammate who is a legend in the making of Schumacher/Senna stature. I think he can play Berger to Hamilton's Senna - he is starting to take points off Ferrari and BMW, and he is bringing the car home consistently. I think Kovy's own fans do him a disservice by over-analysing his practice times and suggesting McLaren favouritism is the only thing preventing him beating Hamilton.

Most of the drivers on the grid have made their mark - including the much derided Piquet, who is suddenly giving Alonso a headache. I think Alonso's big problem is his desire to qualify well - he's always in the top six or thereabouts, then loses out in the race. The 'lucky' seconds and thirds always fall to cars on one-stop schedules who've qualified well down the grid. Alonso's strategy suits an incident-free race, where he's never going to do better than 5th or sixth, as being incident-free, the faster cars will still be running.

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posted Jul 23, 2008

Am I allowed to post a comment that's less than 5,000 words long?

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posted Jul 23, 2008

you just did!

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posted Jul 23, 2008

Agree with most comments. Would love to see Alonso get Massa's seat next year, since I think KR would come back with a bit more competition. KR v Nando v Lewis would be a hell of a battle

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posted Jul 24, 2008

Having rated Kimi as one of the fastest drivers around I am now having doubts about his overall ability. He's had too many races where the only thing he's done has been fastest lap (often the final one).

At Hockenheim he just did not seem to be on the speed at all from 10 o'clock on Friday morning. I think that Ferrari are going to need him to do something better in the remainder of the season.

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posted Jul 24, 2008

Good article. The two biggest disappointments for me this year have been Kovalinen and Bourdais. Before the season started I was looking forward to watching Vettel and Bourdais fighting each other, but no danger of that it would appear. What happens to drivers who come over from the States? Only JV seems to have really been able to adapt from US racing to F1. As for Kovi, he must be wondering who will be in his seat next year. As for Glock, he has been almost invisible while Trulli seems to be re-energised. Final point, Massa, the most inconsistent person on the grid. Fast one minute and the next a Keystone Kop.

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posted Jul 25, 2008

'Superb Article'?

For stating the obvious??

McLaren and Hamilton should walk it if they just keep their nerve..and don't take their finger off the development button.

Something that has seldom been mentioned is how Ferrari will deal with their drivers if both remain in contention for the world title towards the end of the year. Will team orders come into play?

Look at McLaren last year; it eventually cost them to have both drivers fighting for the world title. Boot on the other foot this year? It's looking that way.

And at least the McLaren team had the car underneath them for a dual title challenge in 2007. At the moment, Ferrari doesn’t even have that!!

Some big and important decisions need to be taken if the next couple of races are anything less than satisfactory.

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posted Jul 25, 2008

Good point(s) Claude. I am not a Ferrari fan but only down to the fact that they seem to use politics rather than driving to dominate the sport. KR thoroughly deserved his WDC last year, but this year where is he? How can Ferrari use team orders when they have two inconsistent drivers? Your point about the Ferrari car not being up to the standard this year seems to fly in the face of what all the experts were saying just 2 races ago. Is it the car or the drivers?

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