posted Aug 29, 2008

" hope I'm wrong because when he's really on his game, he is an exciting driver. " Kimi and exciting in the same sentence.. excuse me i need a dark room....

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posted Aug 29, 2008

remember the drive in france, he would have won barring a faulty exhaust, he will be strong in spa

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posted Aug 29, 2008

LordProsp,
Cheers for that. The article is certainly full of humour but it's very black and white.

Kimi has run lighter than Massa this season and he was out qualified. The article reads as though it's never been tried. Some of the strategies Kimi has used have been spot on but he failed to deliver in qualifying.

Ferrari know the sweet spot for the Bridgestones in qualifying and it's upto Kimi to expolit the car on a single lap like Massa does. Anything else Kimi tries won't be quicker, that's why they haven't bothered.

Not sure about the driving styles either, sounds like absolute nonsense to me. I would lean towards Kimi going for a knife edge car setup to suit his style as being the real problem, coupled with the fact that Kimi has made driving errors in qualifying (which he has admitted too) and these could easily have cost him a front row position or two. It's a fine line. It's all very well dialing the car in by lap 57 and setting the fastest lap but that doesn't win races. It's not Ferrari's fault if Massa is more adaptable either. They had no obligation to design a car around Kimi, he hardly screams No.1 driver and team leader (which he isn't).

The reality is, with less unforced errors, a bit more luck and some better snap decisions from Ferrari he could have been leading the WDC. Six of one half a dozen of the other. To suggest that the team and the car are soley to blame is a bit short sighted.

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posted Aug 30, 2008

(Fictional ans simplistic, but...)Boy, I've had a bad couple of weeks at work. Last year I was top Salesman in the whole Company. Over the last couple of months its been more challenging. Does that make me worthy of being sacked?

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posted Aug 30, 2008

Interesting comment by Canadiancharles, I think he's quite right about the Honda and Ferrari teams. In fact the best designers, engineers, teams and team managers are British, just look at the teams, there must be more Brits in F1 than any other nationality.
Our performance in the Olympics, mainly due to our brilliant sailors, swimmers and cyclists is wonderful, but when are we going to start getting excited about our motor sports people, after all, motor sport is one of the few sports we are really good at internationally. I can't understand why we get so excited about our hopeless cricket teams, over hyped football teams and others. British motor sport is our shop window and shows the rest of the world that we are the best.

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posted Aug 30, 2008

Agree. Renault car is built in Enstone, England.
But when it comes to Champagne, there is one and only one. The one made in France.

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posted Aug 30, 2008

What a lot of people fail to understand is that the Ferrari is perfect for Massa. Don't forget he was out performing Schumacher before he retired, so it should not come as that big a shock. Turkey gives us a perfect example of why the Ferrai and Massa are a perfect combination. Unlike many drivers, Massa is happy to have drift on the front end in cornering, a lot of others are not, but that circuit always favours Massa's set up and style. Massa's style has it's pluses and minuses as demonstrated in wet conditions, as at Silverstone. Having two drivers with contrasting driving styles will always pay dividends for Ferrari overall, but the set up they have at present looks overall the best, but gives Raikkonen a problem in qualifying at certain tracks or conditions. To me Ferrari have got their car spot on and if it was not for reliability, both cars would be leading the drivers standings and miles clear in the constructors. The other thing to remember is that Hamilton is an exceptional talent and with any other mere mortal, there would be no discussion. Very happy to see that Ferrari want nothing to do with Alonso, more trouble than what it's worth.

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posted Aug 30, 2008

oopositelock

you british are also the humblest.

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posted Aug 31, 2008

He's still young, not even thirty yet, and should have seven or eight years in him.

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posted Aug 31, 2008

hmm,I quite like the comments over Alonso and Ferrari being critical over him not getting a top 10 finish at Valencia - he CRASHED out FFS in the first lap by being hit from behind. Not really much his fault either, so not sure how we was meant to be top 10 after that

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