Suzuka

[bhall]

Albers accident was spectular (in the sense that all those parts exploded), but why not yellow flag?

Not even a local yellow! I really feel for that poor guy who had to run out and pick up that half shaft with cars coming blindly out of 130R at full speed.

I'll be livid though if it comes out that a piece of Albers' car got sucked into Shu's engine causing the failure. I mean, I doubt that's what happened. But it's a possibility. Those carbon shards did cause a slow leak one of Massa's rear tires.

Someone needs to look into why the track marshals didn't do anything about that. That was a serious safety issue (and maybe an underlying reason why Suzuka is no more).

[allan]

back to michael's engine failure again..
i remembered back at the begining of the season, ferrari changed massa's engine in the malysain GP, and before the race, they changed michael's as well, as they were afraid that it might fail during the race..
but ridiculously, the engine was fitted to Badoer's car in fiorano and crossed about 350KMs!!!!
Why didn't they do the same in this situation?? the new spec engine proved to lack the reliability the last engine had... they could have changed the engine for michael and cause him to drop to 12 or something, and gain some points, to keep his hope in the championship, right?????

[DaveKillens]

Hindsight is 20/20 allen, but I guess at the time keeping that engine seemd the correct choice. Remember, Ferrari has has an unbelievable record in engines. Sad it had to happen at such an important time.

[manchild]

Someone needs to look into why the track marshals didn't do anything about that. That was a serious safety issue (and maybe an underlying reason why Suzuka is no more).

I agree that it was serious safety issue that required not just yellow flag but SC so that track can be cleaned from pile of pieces of CF... BUT Schuey was in the lead that could be reset to 0 if SC went out.

The guy responsible for SC is Charlie Whiting (race director among other functions) so when you think about safety and wonder about Massa's tyre that's the guy for that question. Having in mind his decisions in 2006 he's biased to same team as Max Mussolini.

[Mikey_s]

... just to be clear on what's acceptable and not acceptable from reading various threads about Schumachers past... What if Massa were to announce BEFORE the race that he was going to take Alonso out at the first corner (a la Senna/Prost)... would that be a nice solution to the problem? (after all, it seems that the ongoing issue with Schum is that his dirty moves in the past were 'heat of the moment' rather than premeditated). From the views expressed over time Senna's actions were perfectly acceptable and Massa has gone on record to say that he will help Michael to win the championship!)

...just kidding by the way

I am pleased for Renault, and from my own (red tinted) perspective it was starting to look like the impossible was suddenly possible after the huge gap mid-season. I'm just disappointed that the championship is (most probably) decided by failure rather than victory.

[boban-mk]

back to michael's engine failure again..
i remembered back at the begining of the season, ferrari changed massa's engine in the malysain GP, and before the race, they changed michael's as well, as they were afraid that it might fail during the race..
but ridiculously, the engine was fitted to Badoer's car in fiorano and crossed about 350KMs!!!!
Why didn't they do the same in this situation?? the new spec engine proved to lack the reliability the last engine had... they could have changed the engine for michael and cause him to drop to 12 or something, and gain some points, to keep his hope in the championship, right?????

Now we can talk about many what if's. Probably the rule about the engine for next season caused this disaster. All engine makers try to have better specification for end of season. Renault, Honda, Ferrari. I sence during the race that MS is not pushing to the limit, but i tought it were tyres.
For manchild, i can say that if you look back trough the season you will see that MS has suffer more from FIA decisions and Race Directors decision, then Alonso.

Good work from Renault. Two championships in a row.

[pRo]

MS has suffer more from FIA decisions and Race Directors decision, then Alonso.

He has?

I'm sure you can list his sufferings then.

[boban-mk]

I'm sure you can list his sufferings then.

Manchild had a comment about Suzuka race that there was no Safety car. MS had just small advantage, it was at begining of the race, Massa suffer tyre puncture from that incident. I didn't see that he did comment why there was a safety car in Monaco when there was no reason for that "Or it was Kimi behind Alonso reason with fuel for 5 laps more". For others i don't want to comment any more.

[manchild]

MS had just small advantage

Enough to enable him to win.

I don't remember suspicious SC in Monaco, can you please remind us?

[boban-mk]

MS had just small advantage

Enough to enable him to win.

I don't remember suspicious SC in Monaco, can you please remind us?

You should watch races more carefully and maybe with more realistic view, and then you will see more things. By the way, advantage of MS was small but even there was safety car, Alonso was not behind him so still he will need some time to pass cars in front. Did you think of possibility that if there was a safety car, then maybe Alonso will not use advantage of more fuel from Ralf, that he used in first pit stop. Probably not, but for sure, if there was a safety car.

[FLC]

Everyone knew that Ferrari would suffer from the deployment of the SC in Turkey and still, Mr. Charlie Whiting didnt seem to favour them and prevent that from happening. I guess he just forgot he was pro-MS at that time. Maybe the atmosphere there confused him.

In China Kimi's right mirror tore off the car. It laid there on the track, and could be seen causing damage to cars, mostly that of Button. They could stop the session, I dont think any team would have suffered from that, but still they didnt.

This shows you that the problem isnt a certin track, but a consistent pattern. I dont see how they favoured MS, or anyone else, for this matter.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

Sawtooth-Spike Said:

Schumi's Changed

Well he didn't try to hit alonso no, but if you wanted to be REALLY over the top cynical about it you could argue that Schumi did his best to stay on the racing line through both degner curves in order to lay as much oil on the racing line which Alonso might slip on.

But like I said that would be a VERY CYNICAL thing to say.

In all seriousness now though: Great race to watch, and end of the day it kind of equals out things. We all complained about Alonso's unjust penalty at Monza and how it may have lead to an engine blow up, well now schumi's had an engine blow up too, and Alonso won the race...it negates what happened at Monza. Now Schumi & Alonso have both had a bit of bad luck (okay a bit of VERY bad luck) so we cannot complain about Monza.

But it really isn't over untill its over.

With regards Ginancarlo Fisichella, apparently his best friend died on the Thursday before the GP weekend, he dedecated the 3rd place to his friend in the post-race press confrence, and also while he was on the podium he didn't spray his champange, and the Renault Mechanics wre shouting "Viva [Tonio]" (I think Fisi's friends name was Toni, from what I could hear...maybe I'm wrong.) but basically they where chanting "Long Live Fisi's Late Best-Friend" in Italian. Nice little sentiment eh?

[bhall]

The guy responsible for SC is Charlie Whiting (race director among other functions) so when you think about safety and wonder about Massa's tyre that's the guy for that question. Having in mind his decisions in 2006 he's biased to same team as Max Mussolini.

If Whiting really wanted Ferrari to win, he would've put out a SC so as to eliminate anything that might get in the way of that result. Schu's lead was only 5 seconds.

I just don't think he saw a need to do anything since the local marshals who could actually see that area of the track in-person didn't think enough of it to put out a local yellow.

[manchild]

You should watch races more carefully and maybe with more realistic view, and then you will see more things.

I simply adore "you should" kind of posts. When you lack arguments and explanations than switch to personal level. That means that nothing happened in Monaco since you didn't explain it and you obviously had the time since you've told me what I should do.

[manchild]

If Whiting really wanted Ferrari to win, he would've put out a SC so as to eliminate anything that might get in the way of that result. Schu's lead was only 5 seconds.

Enough to win, Alonso would never catch him if his engine didn't blow.

I just don't think he saw a need to do anything since the local marshals who could actually see that area of the track in-person didn't think enough of it to put out a local yellow.

That's why I find it suspicious too. Marshalls from that same post went on track to pick up pieces of Alber's car and there was no yellow flag on that same marshalls post during that operation. That is simply unimaginable and completely against all safety procedures just as it was having huge pieces of CF on track and not warn drivers with yellow flag about it.