F1 2008 Season Thread

Discussion in 'Automotive' started by Raul-7, Jan 10, 2008.

  1. IvanIV

    IvanIV King of all He purveys

    Apr 8, 2006
    TN
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1. Pos No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
      1 22 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.572 1:25.187 1:26.714 14
      2 4 Robert Kubica BMW 1:26.103 1:25.315 1:26.869 15
      3 23 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.664 1:25.452 1:27.079 13
      4 2 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:25.994 1:25.691 1:27.178 12
      5 3 Nick Heidfeld BMW 1:25.960 1:25.518 1:27.236 16
      6 11 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:26.427 1:26.101 1:28.527 17
      7 7 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:26.295 1:26.059 1:28.687 21
      8 9 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:26.381 1:26.063 1:29.041 18

      **9 12 Timo Glock Toyota 1:26.919 1:26.164 1:29.593 17
      10 15 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari 1:26.702 1:25.842 No time 18
      11 17 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:26.369 1:26.173 13
      12 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:26.907 1:26.188 10
      13 16 Jenson Button Honda 1:26.712 1:26.259 13
      14 8 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:26.891 1:26.413 13
      15 10 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:26.914 No time 8
      16 1 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:26.140 3
      17 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:27.207 9
      18 14 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 1:27.446 10
      19 20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:27.859 9
      20 18 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:28.208 9
      21 6 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:28.330 6
      22 19 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:29.059 9

      ** = glock will start 19th...

     
  2. Nanbawan

    Nanbawan Member

    Jun 11, 2004
    Haute Bretagne
    Club:
    Stade Rennais FC
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    What's been interesting so far this WE is the fact that during the third free practice and the second phase of the qualy, the times were pretty close between many teams.

    Other than that, it's very difficult to make prediction based on Melbourne alone except the fact that Ferrari and Mc Laren are quick and Super Aguri not so...In terms of competitive gap, we'll have to wait a little more. That said, the OzGP is always tricky for newcomers (remember Heikki last year) and the ban on traction control may not help especially on this track where stability under braking - which was managed by an appropriate use of TCS in deceleration - and traction are important given the 'stop and go' nature of the course.

    So, after Australia, people will have a good idea of how their car brakes and reaccelerates ; that's already something. Concerning aero grip, we'll know after Sepang. After that, teams will work like crazy to tidy up things that did not work before hitting Europe.
     
  3. Nanbawan

    Nanbawan Member

    Jun 11, 2004
    Haute Bretagne
    Club:
    Stade Rennais FC
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    BTW, it may please certain people but I have to admit that BMWs are impressive so far. Let's see what they can do in the race.;)

    The new Super Aguri

    [​IMG]

    the Honda

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Nanbawan

    Nanbawan Member

    Jun 11, 2004
    Haute Bretagne
    Club:
    Stade Rennais FC
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    Since I have a bit of time to participate....

    Nobody posted anything on Alonso's Renault. Well, they had a difficult start, didn't they ? After all the rumors about some kind of 'verbal sandbagging' prior to this season, it seems that their declarations were not completely wrong despite Alonso displaying some kind of potential in the third free practice. He always told he'd have a hard time on a one lap performance and his 12th place on the grid vouched for that.

    The Renault itself has an interesting front wing. The way it is attached to the nose somewhat reminds of F1s in the early 90's before the current high nose trend. Yet, we can notice the presence of the spoon shaped profile which is uncommonly located on a part that has 'split' from the main profile.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Max Cady

    Max Cady New Member

    Mar 10, 2008
    Club:
    Fenerbahce SK
    Why isn't this in the other sports section. Surely F1 is a pure form of sport :confused:
     
  6. IvanIV

    IvanIV King of all He purveys

    Apr 8, 2006
    TN
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    no idea...
     
  7. Max Cady

    Max Cady New Member

    Mar 10, 2008
    Club:
    Fenerbahce SK
    So who wants Kubica to win today?

    Surely this is BMW's year to start winning some races.
     
  8. IvanIV

    IvanIV King of all He purveys

    Apr 8, 2006
    TN
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    that'd be cool. i'd prefer trulli or quick nick or nico..
     
  9. Max Cady

    Max Cady New Member

    Mar 10, 2008
    Club:
    Fenerbahce SK
    shenanigans I say.
     
  10. Max Cady

    Max Cady New Member

    Mar 10, 2008
    Club:
    Fenerbahce SK
    I'd prefer Quick Nick too or Massa. But anything to make McLaren look bad is fine with me.

    Hopefully this year can be a 3 team race, I doubt it, but sure would make it more entertaining.

    Also the TC gone is going to be great, I mean in the Qualifying yesterday people were sliding all over the place.
     
  11. IvanIV

    IvanIV King of all He purveys

    Apr 8, 2006
    TN
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    if i can stay awake i am monitoring online... and u?
     
  12. Max Cady

    Max Cady New Member

    Mar 10, 2008
    Club:
    Fenerbahce SK
    What now?

    Nice race, very entertaining. Hope all the races this year can be a shadow of this.

    HAHA at Heiki against Alonso. I wished they showed Ron Dennis' face when Alonso passed.
     
  13. IvanIV

    IvanIV King of all He purveys

    Apr 8, 2006
    TN
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1 Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes 10
    2 Nick Heidfeld German BMW 8
    3 Nico Rosberg German Williams-Toyota 6
    4 Fernando Alonso Spanish Renault 5
    5 Heikki Kovalainen Finnish McLaren-Mercedes 4
    6 Kazuki Nakajima Japanese Williams-Toyota 3
    7 Sebastien Bourdais French STR-Ferrari 2
    8 Kimi Räikkönen Finnish Ferrari 1


    2/3 's of my guys did well...jarno looked like a point scorer for a bit...poor little jarno... :( nick and nico did very well! :cool:
     
  14. soccernutter

    soccernutter Moderator
    Staff Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    Aug 22, 2001
    Near the mountains.
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    We decided that it would better here. We did have a discussion a couple of years ago about this, and I went with the majority (I'm the Other Sports mod). IMO, it is better suited here as this is where NASCAR, ChampCar, etc are discussed.

    Either way, I'm gonna be involved.

    With that out of way...Yesterday/last night was interesting. Caught the opening 15 10+ laps and then the warm down. By the time I turned it off, there were only 15 cars still running. Yikes! A few of questing about what I missed:
    1)What happened to Kubica to drop him to 9th(?)?
    2)Why would Rubens be DQed?
    3)How did the Ferraris look in qualifying and the race - they didn't get much play from when I saw other than Kimi's shot up 8 places on the opening lap.
     
  15. Devil500

    Devil500 New Member

    Mar 7, 2006
    Section 101
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Pathetic Nakajima Kubica had a shot at a podium at least Nick got us a top 2....Silly race and too many saftey cars wouldn't expect more than 10 cars to end each race this year..
     
  16. Pathogen

    Pathogen Member

    Jul 19, 2004
    Like you care.
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Lots of problems in the pits. This is only my second year following F1, but is this typical for the first race of the season?

    Alonso's car didn't seem that stable and I thought it'd take a bit of luck for him to maintain his position against Heike. I'd love to know what happened when he was able to gain his position back. I'm thinking Kovelainen (sp?) missed a gear or something. I can't see him thinking the race was over because he hadn't passed the finish line on the main drag.

    Either way, happy with Alonso's finish. But I'm not giving him much hope for the season. Renault looks like they have a lot of work to do with that car. I loved seeing Ferrari's troubles. But it was a bummer to see Hamilton off to another stellar start.

    I'm exited to see the drivers adjusting to the loss of traction control. Racing should be about the drivers as much as possible. The more control you give them, the better. This will act as more of an equalizer. But these other teams need to figure out how/why McClaren, Ferrari, and BMW are making their cars so damn fast.
     
  17. Max Cady

    Max Cady New Member

    Mar 10, 2008
    Club:
    Fenerbahce SK
    Rubens left the pit area when there was a red light and the safety car was going around.

    Ferrari were doing alright, but a little worrying that it took Kimi so long to pass Rubens. I am sure it was because of Kimi's fuel on board, but I guess Honda has more speed this year. That being said it is pretty even for the mid grid teams.
     
  18. Nanbawan

    Nanbawan Member

    Jun 11, 2004
    Haute Bretagne
    Club:
    Stade Rennais FC
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    Shame for Bourdais. He did well to represent the Champcar nation in that race ; with Heikki Kovalainen and Alonso battling behind him, he would surely had retained the 4th spot. Well, his engine decided something else. No Ferrari engine to cross the line BTW...

    Nevetheless, I think Toro Rosso can be satisfied by the points, their drivers display on the WE and the amount of exposure they had during the race...

    SeaBass will likely suffer on sheer pace compared to Vettel for the first part of the season yet I think he proved a lot of people today that he deserved his place in F1. In a way, he also represents the 'lost generation' of French drivers who could not make it to F1 for strange reputation reasons. He clinched a last gasp opportunity at the Red Bull Inn so I hope he can make the best of it this season. Of cpourse, they won't have the same luck every day but by the looks of it the attrition ratio might be going up this year...
     
  19. Nanbawan

    Nanbawan Member

    Jun 11, 2004
    Haute Bretagne
    Club:
    Stade Rennais FC
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    The F1 Circus is usually quite shaky at Melbourne...And the course being quite tricky, there are often blunders on the track. As far as the pits are concerned, well some teams might need more trying in race condition (it's true it's completely stupid to take those risks when one tenth of second -at best- is at stake).

    Concerning Alonso, wow ! The guy is moody, not always pleasant, but what a fighter, what a racer ! Renault are certainly lagging but like he said, he needs something like a 3 tenth gap with the top contenders to try and fight for wins. I hope Renault will be able to deliver that. His lap times were correct though and he lost a lot of ground when the team mismanaged his pit stop during the safety car (they should have waited a bit more during 'green flag', the question being : could they ?).

    Hamilton...Well, like in the Schumi days, I don't support him but let's admit that he's very talented...The UK press (understanbly, but still) annoyingly drooling all over the guy won't help his cause for me :p

    He really reminds me of Schumi, ie he does not commit errors when not pressured and well, the best place to avoid the fuss is to retain the top spot from start to finish...

    Nice result for Rosberg and Williams. Nice to see.
     
  20. IvanIV

    IvanIV King of all He purveys

    Apr 8, 2006
    TN
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    ;).
     
  21. Pathogen

    Pathogen Member

    Jul 19, 2004
    Like you care.
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Doh! :O
     
  22. Juan Carlos II

    Jan 14, 2004
    Lytham St Annes
    Club:
    Bolton Wanderers FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    If Ferrari/Kimi don't get there act together this year I can't see anyone challenging Hamilton for the title.... Go on Lewis, it's about time we had another British champion. :p to all you McLaren haters.
     
  23. IvanIV

    IvanIV King of all He purveys

    Apr 8, 2006
    TN
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    i'd love to see lewie win the title.
     
  24. kronic160

    kronic160 Member

    Apr 21, 2005
    Mars
    Kimi will battle Massa for most of the season but Hamilton will have no competition from his lacky... Ferrari will have to put all their marbles in Kimi if they want to challenge.

    I would like to see BMW win a couple of races. After watching honda and toyota waste millions on nothing hope BMW plays their cards right.

    Glad to see Bourdais take 2 points should of been more but I'm glad he got his feet wet.

    Good to see Alonso fighting for positions. Qualifying is going to be tough in tracks that have limited passing. So Renault better get their qualifying in order.
     
  25. Nanbawan

    Nanbawan Member

    Jun 11, 2004
    Haute Bretagne
    Club:
    Stade Rennais FC
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    Highlights of a very eventful race down under (there are some footage from the practice sessions I think).

    [youtube]_BU0eKDNM2w[/youtube]

    I stumbled upon another video that I won't post because it's entirely a French language post race interview of Seb Bourdais ; those are interesting given the fact that the Frenchman is a newcomer to GP racing but not exactly your usual rookie, he has some experience as far as single seater racing is concerned.

    So, on the video he states that many driver bemoan the fact that F1s are still running with those grooved tyres while traction control has gone because that makes the car almost uncontrollable when following several opponents. They just wish 2009 to be there already !

    It's pretty coherent with what he said in other interviews when asked to compare an F1 ride with a ChampCar challenger. Basically, an F1 is very tricky because of the incredible difference between the huge amount of aero grip and the behavior of the grooved tyres that make the mechanical grip very twitchy. So, when you follow other cars, you lose the aerodynamic downforce and find yourself with tyres that are already strange when coping with tight and slow corners...

    As far as his adaptation is concerned, he's been insisting on the fact that he was struggling with what he called a 'disconnection' between the way the car reacts in slow and fast corners. The fact that F1s are lighter, more efficient, brake harder, etc are a given. The other problem for him is that the power steering of the Toro Rosso is too strong and hampers his feed back, he has issues getting a good feeling of what's going on...So, his performance was not too bad and the power steering thing should be fixed with the new car. Anyway, if F1 cars get big fat slick tyres, less downforce and no TCS next year, that could be reaaaaaally interesting from a racing POV. But let's enjoy this one first even if teams won't find it cheaper at all if the trend that we saw this week end is confirmed ! :eek:

    Related : Mateschitz says Toro Rosso is for sale

    Somewhat related : Todt leaves Ferrari post

    Come back to Peugeot Jean ! The irony being that it was the French marque reluctance to embark themselves with their own team in F1 in the early 90's that convinced Todt to join Ferrari in 93...It's really strange the way the Schumi/Todt/Brawn era is ending at the Scuderia.
     

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