Anyone any idea why Ferrari did not have their Tobacco sponsors livery on show but the other drivers did?
Just curious, thats all!
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BG,
Reason -
www.f1i.com/articles/ARTICLE_567025.html
Basically, Indiana state law permits 1 tobacco brand to promote during 1 event per year, Penske had already used Marlboro so Ferrari couldn't.
Chad.
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That sounds as complecated as the reason why Juan Pablo Montoya weas disqualified, looks like they changed race start time to (an unusual for F1) midday so wouldn't clash with Euro 2004 aswell.
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Interesting race though wasn't it?
M.S. showed his pure class by out thinking everyone else, and Sato showed some maturity as well as pace.
The Montoya farce was quite ridiculous, to remove a competitive driver from the race at three quarter distance for a silly minor infringement carried out at the start! Absurd.
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Shu Junior is going to ache for a few days. Watching him sit motionless in the car just after that impact with the wall brought back memories of Senna ten years ago.
F1 gets a lot of critisism on here for being boring, but the sheer speed of the cars always makes interesting viewing. In comparison Touring Cars seem like overweight slugs wallowing around the track. I can never watch what seems like glorified banger racing for more than a few minutes.
Apologies to fans and particpants of both those classes.
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I don't think that the safety rule is absurd. It stops drivers, mechanics or marshalls dithering about at the start. If you break the rule you get disqualified, tough but fair, everyone knows the rules.
I am sure the delay was not intentional, probably due to people being rather busy with the other major incident.
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What did surprise me was the VERY long delay before assistance arrived at Ralph Shumacher's car. It would have been disastrous had the car caught fire, for instance, as he was clearly in no state to leave the car.
I thought the "Worldwide Home of Motor Sport" would have a much more speedy response than that which we saw yesterday.
Roger in Spain
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Being honest, I only watch Formula 1 for accidents etc. No, I am not wishing harm on anyone but lets face it, very rarely do you see anty overtaking so what other excitement is there? Someone taking 2 secs longer in the pit?
If I wanted to watch a procession of cars I have always got my Scalextric!!
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"Being honest, I only watch Formula 1 for accidents etc."
Nascar was created just for you.
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Thank you BobbyG. Normally on Sunday eves in my local drinker an eclectic group of expats is glued to the Lingerie Show on FashionTV Ch. 99, but instead we had to listen to two gabbling commentators on Star Sports Channel desperately trying to talk up a procession of fast lookalike cars in an orderly line into a motor race. It failed.
So I went home, pulled up Ch 99 and watched a more interesting procession of young woman down a catwalk in Beijing.
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I think that the reason the marshalls took so long was due to the position of the car - they had to make sure that cars coming round the corner knew of the accident. If there had been a problem, there were plenty of marshalls meters away behind the safety of the pitwall, and would have been there in seconds if needed. I think one of the reasons Ralf stayed in the car (apart from being dazed and confused!) was for the same reason - its better to be hit when in a car, than as a pedestrian!
I agree though, that the medical car should have been there a lot quicker. In Indy, recovery usually starts before the car has even stopped doesn't it! I suppose Indy drivers are more used to it!
I enjoyed the race - but I would - I'm a life long Ferrari fan - not just since Schumi arrived - I suffered many years of dispair aswell!!
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i guess the delay was intentional; to allow the u.s. fans of montoya (when he raced there) to see him drive.
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I watched for a bit, but it looked like a shambles to me. Indy must be one of the few GP circuits left that allows drivers to go straight into a wall! Watching the procession tiptoe through Ralf Schumacher’s debris was torture, not to mention the length of time they left him there! When the safety car left, I’m pretty sure that MS had his nose in front of Barrichello over the start line, too…
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i had the live timing feed up from the track on the web and there was no gap 0.00 but barrichellos transponder came on first and counted him first across the line - very tight
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"Indy must be one of the few GP circuits left that allow drivers to go straight into a wall"
Funny attitude to safety, the Americans. They sue each other because the coffee is too hot and batteries come with warnings not to eat or drink the contents, but their racing circuits look lethal. Leguna Seca is another with concrete walls round the perimeter. Watching the Superbikes come through the corkscrew, sharp left then steeply downhill and round a negative camber right looks terrifying. Hardly any run off between the track and the wall.
No wonder Foggy hated the place.
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"Funny attitude to safety, the Americans. "
They say the same thing about you lot whenever the TT is broadcast there. 8-)
I think Foggy just hated America in general, I have never seen a more miserable looking individual in the Daytona Speedway paddock.
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Must admit from the pictures I thought Schui was slightly ahead... Just imagine the controversy had Rubens just lifted a tiny little bit...
Mind you, even if it was just a demonstration few laps the day before, I'd love to see an F1 machine actually do the oval and see how close it could get to the Indy times.
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i had the live timing feed up from the track on the web
facinating! post a link?
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Hmmm....
You've got Michael Schumacher at your side. You're just about to cross the start/finish line to restart race conditions. You know Michael will probable beat you into the first corner. If Michael passes the line first, he'll get a drive-through/stop-go penalty and you'll have practically won the race! Shame it didn't occur to Barichello to brake at the critical moment!
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....snore....
What time's the Rugger on?
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"Shame it didn't occur to Barichello to brake at the critical moment!"
It probably did, right before it occured to him that doing so would anger his bosses and would not be forgotten come contract renewal time 8-).
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Used to love Formula 1, even more so when Murray Walker was spouting 19 to the dozen (his autobiography is a great read by the way - amazing how many things that man has done in his life).
Today I just watch the start and finish - the British Touring Car Championship has more action in one or two laps than most Formula 1 races.
If I want to watch a procession I can go to the Rose Queen's parade before one of the annual garden fetes.
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Confirm The murray walker book is a good read, could have been a bit longer given the amount of of Motor sport he has packed into his life. I have a signed copy. While in the Q the lad in front got his signed, Murray said "Nice shirt son - good team chelsea" "Its a Brentford shirt Murray" replies the boy.
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I may well be in a minority here, but I was not sorry when Murray hung up his microphone.
I got tired of what was clearly misinformation coming from his over-excited commentary and formed the opinion that, highly knowledgeable though he was, his mouth had parted company from his brain too often.
Although, having said that, perhaps it did provide some viewer stimulus to an ever increasingly tedious event.
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Oh come on...:-)
Murray was a ray of sunshine in a drab, boring world populated by the politically correct, dogmatic Far Lefties determined not to allow anyone to enjoy themselves.
That also applies to New Labour as well by the way - leopards never change their spots.
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I may well be in a minority here, but I was not sorry when Murray hung up his microphone.
He certainly added to the experience, but Martin Brundle came along at just the right time to replace him perfectly. Murray was gradually getting worse - the enthusiasm was still there but the accuracy was slipping. Must admit though I still miss the likes of James Hunt or Jonathon Palmer as the other part of the double-act.
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I liked Murray but Brundle is the mutts nuts for a tech insight into what's really going on. He's about the only thing that keeps me watching F1.
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Brundle // He's about the onlything that keeps me watching F1.
agreed... like Palmer and Hunt who preceded him, he actually does know what he is talking about, unlike the others in particular Tony Jardine? who knows what he's there for..? and Louise Goodman? she looks like she's presenting an episode of the clothes show! James Allen? tries very hard but he's not a natural commentator. In all the ITV mob is poor compared to the BBC lot from ten years ago and beyond,,and there was no adverts! happy days>>>>
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8< Snip 8<
Comments removed. DD.
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Regarding last weeks race...what really amazed me was the fact that no one thought to tell the Safety car that leading everyone through the debris caused by Ralfs altercation with a brick wall was probably not the best thing to do (I think the commEntators were slightly bemused by this too).
Wasn\'t it Murray Walker who had the \'Kiss of Death\' during races? I seem to remember him saying several laps before the end of some races \"Mansell/Hill/Sennas won it now...nothing can possibly get passed them with that lead\" This was followed minutes later by a puff of black smoke as said \'winners\' car lost a wheel/engine/gear box.
--
If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished
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Wasn't it Murray Walker who had the 'Kiss of Death' during races? I seem to remember him saying several laps before the end of some races "Mansell/Hill/Sennas won it now...nothing can possibly get passed them with that lead" This was followed minutes later by a puff of black smoke as said 'winners' car lost a wheel/engine/gear box.
If I remember rightly his most glorious eposiode was during Damon Hills first season, three races in a row Murray said 'He's won it now', and three races in a row something went wrong (engine failures I think). The fourth race he refused to comment, and Damon won.
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Actually, it is quite likely that there is some rule that if the other driver does back off then it counts as a legit pass. Mind you, it does show how intelligent Schui is if he can make the choice to sacrifice speed around the infield to allow him to pass on the straight.
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I?m really, really sorry to kick off another of those Formula 1, yawn, boring threads, but after watching the British GP today I feel I must.
Another day, another Schumacher win. Surprise surprise.
Win as usual down to ability, both of driver and team. Of the driver to go quickly to make the most of the potential of the car, and of the team?s ability to strategically determine the most opportune time and frequency of pit stops. Again the race was won not by the cut and thrust on the track, but in the pits. Not one real overtaking move by the leaders.
I would never wish to take anything away from Michaels? ability ? he is merely exploiting the opportunities presented to him ? as anyone would in his position.
I?m really sad however that F1 has got itself into this position. I?ve been following the ?sport? for the last 25 years ? from Prost, Piquet, Lauda and Berger, through Senna, Mansell and Hill, to todays? campaigners and new stars. Many great, dramatic and tragic moments to remember ? but how many from the last 11 races? I challenge you.
I feel especially sorry for the commentators who are obliged to talk up these races, making every incident a ?life or death? situation. The commercial realities of today?s coverage is that they must put a positive spin on the events, and ensure viewers remain tuned in to satisfy the sponsors. Even the admittedly spectacular crash of Trulli and the ensuing Safety Car did little to raise the spectacle, or influence the outcome. Indeed rain, the great leveller and the only hope for many teams, stayed away.
The question is therefore ? what is to be done?
I have some thoughts ? but over to you first ?
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Spot on Steveb. Although I have to say the presentation from ITV was pretty crummy. The ad. breaks all seemed to come at the worst moments, i.e. when Button dived in to the pits after Trulli's moment, not that it made any difference to the outcome of the "race".
The question is what is to be done?
Very little, except wait for Schumacher to retire. You cannot knock his achievements at all. He is a far more mature driver than the one that denied Hill his title in '94 and tried to do the same to Villeneuve in '97. The professionalism of the whole Ferrari team is to be admired and the contribution of Ross Brawn must be a vital factor. Once the latter two leave Ferrari then we may be able to hope for a more entertaining Sunday.
Otherwise watch and hope.
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I suspect we'll see Schui for another year at least - he's so close to the 100 now he's almost got to carry on - indeed the way he's driving at the moment it's almost as if he's trying to get there as soon as he can.
However, even taking in to account the fact he can out-drive anyone else on the track and Ross Brawn can make up for any other factors, the simple truth is something still needs to be done. Very little overtaking took place on the track so even without Schui we'd have had a pretty boring race.
A lot of people talk about doing away with wings but I don't think that will solve much - they have wings in other series without it harming the entertainment. Maybe change the rules so they don't affect cars behind as much, but I feel there are other areas where things can be spiced up:
Go back to iron brakes - longer braking distances, more chance to get things wrong or pull off a blinder.
Re-think the engine rules. How about either a screaming little 2.0 V10 or a lump of a 4.0 V6 or even a V4. Force them away from the ideal configuration.
Longer races and smaller fuel tanks - a lot of GPs are over in little over an hour these days - extend the distance to give more chance for things to happen and smaller fuel tanks forces more stops and the chance of different strategies. (Similar to oval racing like Indy)
Force Schui to do one race in a Minardi just to prove how classy a driver he is and what he can wring out of it.... :)
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I suspect we'll see Schui for another year at least -
Well as his contract with Ferrari doesn't run out until 2006, it's highly likely he'll be around for at least another year ;o)
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Not necessarily - there has been talk of him leaving before his contract expires. Seems basically as long as he still wants to he will have a drive, the moment he gets sick of it he can and will walk away.
Personally, I'm half tempted to say the longer the better as it may just get the rest of the field to raise their game.
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"Force Schui to ... race in a Minardi"
Effectively what Valentino Rossi (champion GP biker) is doing, having left the all-conquering Honda team to join Yamaha. And he's still winning...
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I know it's tedious, but in the overall scheme of things, it's just a blip. There are often dominant teams (McLaren, Williams, Lotus - how far back do you want to go?) and it's not that long since Ferrari seemed unable to finish a race, let alone win it. I'd hate to see the sport emasculated just because one team keeps winning. The others will catch up - indeed, Raikkonen only lost today through bad luck (or possibly timing)...
The front-runners must be pretty evenly matched if they have such difficulty overtaking, which is what diminishes the excitement, IMHO. I'd like to see less regulation, with perhaps just a fuel quota...
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All forms or racing go through fazes where the dominance of one participant makes the outcome inevitable. Doohan done the same in Bikes for five years, cruising round half a lap in front of everyone who had no hope of catching him. The Tour de France is often effectively over before the half way stage and middle distance running must have been pretty tedious for non-Brits when Coe and Ovette were in their pomp.
We must learn to admire the skill of the elite while they are at their peak, it never lasts for long in the great scheme of things and it won't be too long before we are reminiscing about the great days when Schumaker was in his prime, just like we do now with Steve Davis and Bjoin Borg.
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SteveH has a very good point here.
Whenever the 'boring F1' subject comes up, we always go back to Shumi and the lack of competition for him, but while that isn't ideal, it's not the reason the sport as a whole is lacking.
Even ignoring Schumi, where was the exciting action in today's race?
Thought needs to be put into ways to increase the chances to overtake.
The calls for Iron brakes and less aerodynamical downforce (so it's possible to drive less than a second behind someone without being all over the road) make a lot of sense to me.
The other thing I would call for is manual gears, opening up the chance of an error that others can take advantage of.
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Regarding non-carbon brakes, I recall Williams doing a test not so long ago where they found that the braking distances weren't so different between carbon/steel brakes.
The biggest problem is aerodynamics. Get rid of the wings (and all those ugly appendages along the sidepods, on the airbox and the awful raised noses etc) and concentrate on mechanical grip. Nice wide slicks too please Bernie. That way there will be no "dirty air" while following the car in front.
I agree about manual gearboxes too. Whilst I appreciate that the paddle shift/electronics arrangement prevents drivers blowing engines, just how good is it to hear old in-car clips from Monaco when they were changing manually?
Everyone can say what they like about Schuey, but F1 isn't boring. I've followed it since my Grandad sat me down in front of the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix (and incidentally, the JPS Lotus team were my favourites - I didn't start smoking as a result) when I was four years old. I've seen Lotus, Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Benetton dominate over the years and hey, a Brit might not be driving for the team currently doing the business at the time, but it's possible to applaud a team effort isn't it?
Don't blame Ferrari - blame the opposition for not being good enough. After this weekend, McLaren look like they've woken up and smelled the coffee with one of their drivers at least...
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Are the Beeb privy to something that escaped everybody else?
Their reporter, Olly something, attributed Trulli's crash to 'a moments inattention'.
Seemed like anything but to me.
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Look its very simple,
1/ MS is by far the best driver around in every repect.
2/ Ross Braun is a superb tactian and planner
3/ Ferrari are the best organised and managed team around
All the above means that if you made the rules state that 4 pram wheels, two planks, a coach bolt and a bit of string were all you were allowed to use, they would still win. Easily
Until one or more of the three factors above breaks or gives up this will continue.
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Quite possibly true RF, but MS always winnign doesn't have to make the whole race into a procession.
The law changes suggested here are to improve the overtaking possibilities overall, not to stop MS winning.
I was reading a newspaper article this morning, the writer had somehow counted every overtake throughout the whole race (~60-70 laps?) presumably using timing data.
There were 25. That is utterly terrible. Where's the spectacle in that?
You get nearly that many per lap in BTCC!!
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But Raikonnen wasn\'t really that close to Schumi. Remember he had another pit stop to make before the end. Without the safety car he\'d have finished 30 seconds behind the Ferrari.
Schumacher\'s Ferrari always seems to be capable of lapping around 2 seconds faster than everyone else but Schumi just drives it as fast as he needs to. Should anyone bust a gut and get close he just digs in to his reserve and maintans the gap.
I reckon he only lets himself qualify lower down the grid to provide some entertainment and the false hope that there might be a race, but really the Ferrari team know they will just play the \"wait until they\'ve gone into the pits\" game and cruise through to win.
If he was to drive to the full potential he\'d start every race from pole then lap everyone up to and including Barrichello and even he knows that\'s taking the urine.
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Look its very simple, 1/ MS is by far the best driver around in every repect. 2/ Ross Braun is a superb tactian and planner 3/ Ferrari are the best organised and managed team around All the above means that if you made the rules state that 4 pram wheels, two planks, a coach bolt and a bit of string were all you were allowed to use, they would still win. Easily Until one or more of the three factors above breaks or gives up this will continue.
Interesting take on this at
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/38...m
Maybe there is more to it than simply "MS is better than the others" argument?
Chad
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Interesting take on this at news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/38...m Maybe there is more to it than simply "MS is better than the others" argument? Chad
Certainly some or all of that may be true but it doesn't mention the bullit proof reliability of the Red machines either and that is also a factor.
regardless of anything you can't win a race you don't finish and how often has a Macca retired this season? Or a Williams? Or a Renault? Or A BAR?
And how many times has a Ferraris DNF'd, this season? last season?
Truth is the cars are a package no one part of the package is more important than the other.
If it were all tyres then each race would be Ferrari, Ferrari, Suaber, Sauber ( basically last years championship winning ferrari, the same ferrari the other couldn't beat last year), The rest of the field.
JaB
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