2008 Italian GP - Race 14/18

[JRS]

Bending!!! Since when has bypassing an air restrictor been bending??

Meh. Compared with what Smokey Yunick used to get up to in NASCAR and Trans Am, bypassing an air restrictor is a pretty minor affair.

NASCAR had always mandated that any car used must be the same shape as the road car it was based on. No huge outlandish wings or spoilers, no heavy re-shaping of panels. Smokey took a Chevrolet Chevelle to the track that had the tech inspectors tearing their hair out. It was much too fast - they thought it must be down to aerodynamics, but the car looked utterly correct.....right up until it was parked next to another Chevelle. It turned out that Smokey had built himself a 7/8ths scale replica of a Chevelle, so not only was it producing less drag it was also much lighter....

Another time, he built a car with coiled fuel lines that could contain a few gallons to get around the maximum fuel tank size allowance. The tech inspectors had gone through the car (missing this but finding fault elsewhere), and informed Smokey that he had to fix 17 rule violations on the car. Smokey said "make it 18", and drove it away. The tech inspectors had removed the gas tank - I have this mental image of them staring after the car wondering what the hell he'd done

 

[Murf]

Interesting stuff.

That sounds awesome.

 

[sunama]

Button is only paid so well because of the money he had to pay to get out of his deal with Williams. Honda didn't want to be seen as breaking contracts so the buy out was left to Button who then has it paid back via a larger salary than he would have got.

Honda basically bought out the contract for him but officially Honda didn't steal a driver.

Ah ha. So that now makes sense. In effect, Honda are paying Button back, after Button bought himself out of his own contract.

However, how many more years of being one of the highest paid F1 drivers, by Honda, will it take to pay back what is owed?

ROFL @ Ralfs pay-out - he must have been a magician to get that...

Dont forget that he was at Toyota. Toyota have the biggest budget in F1 and spend money likes its going out fashion. Apart from Kimi Raikonnen's wage bill, Toyota have the highest combined wage bill for their drivers. It is very likely that while they are in F1, this trend will continue. So, if you want to sell out for money, get signed up by Toyota. If you are Alonso or Hamilton, they might actually make you the first F1 driver to receive a salary of more than US$100M in a single year!

 

[Dogbreath]

A bit. Can you help me out some more?

I don't want to give it away, you need to put some work in to get the answer

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

I don't want to give it away, you need to put some work in to get the answer

I think he will have to take it by the horns!!

 

[JRS]

That sounds awesome.

In a similar vein to the coiled fuel line, he stuck a basketball in a fuel tank once. Inflated, it made the capacity right for the rules. Deflated, he could get more gas in

He also claimed to have run a supercharged car at one point - no-one is quite certain if he was joking or not. You'd think a supercharger would be a bit blatant, but when a guy can go to the effort of building a 7/8ths scale car I suppose hiding a supercharger would be simple!

I don't want to give it away, you need to put some work in to get the answer

Awwww

 

[rpstewart]

Meh. Compared with what Smokey Yunick used to get up to in NASCAR and Trans Am, bypassing an air restrictor is a pretty minor affair.

Well would you trust a bunch of former moonshine smugglers

Mind you all that makes water cooled brakes, lead shot in the fuel and all the other 80s F1 tricks seem kind of tame and crude.

 

[spoonz]

secret shot of Mclaren preparing for Singapore

 

[JUMPURS]

People said the same about Alonso vs hamilton and Kimi vs Massa. In equal cars in DIFFERENT teams i do think Alonso would beat Massa, but at Ferrari i could see Alonso bottling it and complaining the car is designed for Massa and that ferrari are supporting Massa as Schumacher is his mentor etc etc.

Alonso done well to finish where he did last year considering for the last 6 races his team where not talking to him, to the point he ended up going to the Renault motor home on race days.

Alonso isn't a bottler, the biggest bottler on the F1 grid is Hamilton. It's funny to hear him talk about having the balls to do things, when he bottled out winning the championship last year.

 

[Memphis]

Alonso done well to finish where he did last year considering for the last 6 races his team where not talking to him, to the point he ended up going to the Renault motor home on race days.

Alonso isn't a bottler, the biggest bottler on the F1 grid is Hamilton. It's funny to hear him talk about having the balls to do things, when he bottled out winning the championship last year.

Good god you actually believe that tripe?

 

[JUMPURS]

Good god you actually believe that tripe?

What? That Alonso was frozen out after Hungary?? Well yeah, it was given even more credibility when DC talked of his time at McLaren at the weekend.

 

[JRS]

Well would you trust a bunch of former moonshine smugglers

In a race? Trust 'em with my life. With my drink? Of course.

Would I ask one to help whip up a light omelette, or set up a Linux install? Possibly not.

Mind you all that makes water cooled brakes, lead shot in the fuel and all the other 80s F1 tricks seem kind of tame and crude.

I still love the Jeff Gordon/Hendrick Motorsports one from NASCAR a few years ago. They pitched up at Charlotte (now Lowes Motor Speedway in this glorious sponsor-driven era....*sigh*) with a car that was dubbed T-Rex - it wasn't designed and built outside the rules per se.....but every single grey area had been pushed right to the absolute edge. NASCAR, being a sensible governing body whose president doesn't engage in sadomasochistic orgies with prostitutes that may or may not have Nazi connotations, let the car tear up the field and win, and then told them that if they ever saw this car again they could rest assured that the rulebook would actually exclude it. Hendrick never brought the car back in that form - it was rebuilt to fit the reworked rules - but I'd be willing to bet that they've found at least as many tricks in all areas since. They just didn't apply them all to the same car ever again

Good god you actually believe that tripe?

Indeed. Hamilton didn't lose that championship - McLaren did. They should have brought him in for tyres at China when he started going backwards (Christ, he couldn't even lap Trulli without wobbling halfway off the road and letting him back by). They should have built a car that didn't have a dicky gearbox in Brazil. They should never have let the Alonso-Hamilton relationship get so out of hand that it completely destabilised the team by the time the Hungary weekend was done with.

I'm far from being a Hamilton cheerleader, but to suggest that he was responsible for it all going wrong at the end....balls. That one is all on McLaren.

 

[JUMPURS]

Indeed. Hamilton didn't lose that championship - McLaren did. They should have brought him in for tyres at China when he started going backwards (Christ, he couldn't even lap Trulli without wobbling halfway off the road and letting him back by). They should have built a car that didn't have a dicky gearbox in Brazil. They should never have let the Alonso-Hamilton relationship get so out of hand that it completely destabilised the team by the time the Hungary weekend was done with.

I'm far from being a Hamilton cheerleader, but to suggest that he was responsible for it all going wrong at the end....balls. That one is all on McLaren.

I am sure this has all been covered before so wont get into a long debate about it. But did McLaren make Hamilton make a stupid mistake when trying to pass his 'team mate' (yes the same one the team where not talking) and cause him to leave the track and rejoin 8th?

 

[JRS]

I am sure this has all been covered before so wont get into a long debate about it. But did McLaren make Hamilton make a stupid mistake when trying to pass his 'team mate' (yes the same one the team where not talking) and cause him to leave the track and rejoin 8th?

Well, he'd have taken the title in China if McLaren hadn't lost their minds....or at the very least, not needed such a high placing in Brazil. Yes, he shouldn't have gone skating off the road trying to pass Alonso when he really didn't need to. But that didn't lose him the title, and you know it.

 

[Owenb]

What? That Alonso was frozen out after Hungary?? Well yeah, it was given even more credibility when DC talked of his time at McLaren at the weekend.

What DC said has been said before. He also said he got the same equipment but that mika was closer to dennis.
After hungary i have no doubt that it was difficult at Mclaren for Alonso, but a lot of it was his own doing. Not only did Alonso blackmail his team but he was complaining after the spanish GP- 4 races in! Also in 5 of those last 6 GP's Alonso beat hamilton. If he had spent less time in the gravel and spinning during the spanish, canadian and french GP he would have easily won the WDC, but lets blame it on the fact that Ron Dennis, a man that i despise btw, sat closer to hamilton in the team meetings!

 

[Cavallino]

You all fail.

FEAR THE AIR OF INVINCIBILITY.

 

[Dup]

Well, according to Metro, Hamilton will be before a Paris court for the appeal hearing today. Could be some interesting F1 news today.

 

[JUMPURS]

The result wont be out until tomorrow.

 

[Duke]

We all know what the result will be anyway.

 

[sunama]

Yep.

My gut feeling is that McLaren also know that they have no chance. However, they want to show to the public, just how far the FIA are willing to go to manipulate the championship, to make it more competitive (by preventing McLaren/Hamilton) from gaining too much of a championship lead).