2007 US GP - Race 7/17

rpstewart

rpstewart

rpstewart

Man of Honour
Joined
11 Mar 2003
Posts
10,706
Location
Greenock, Scotland
North American double header the sequel. After the unpredictability of last weekend I have a feeling Indy could turn out to be more Police Academy 2 rather than Godfather 2...


Friday practice : 1500 - 1630 & 1900 - 2030
Saturday practice : 1500 - 1600
Saturday Qualifying : 1800 - 1900 ITV4 from 17.30
Sunday Race : 1800 - 2000 ITV from 1700, Highlights 2345 (ITV) & Monday 1800 (ITV4)

Currently the scores on the doors are:

Drivers
Code: 
Pos Driver           Nationality   Team           Points 
 
1  Lewis Hamilton       British    McLaren-Mercedes  48 
2  Fernando Alonso      Spanish    McLaren-Mercedes  40 
3  Felipe Massa         Brazilian  Ferrari           33
4  Kimi Räikkönen       Finnish    Ferrari           27 
5  Nick Heidfeld        German     BMW               26  
6  Giancarlo Fisichella Italian    Renault           13 
7  Robert Kubica        Polish     BMW               12
8  Alexander Wurz       Austrian   Williams-Toyota    8
9  Heikki Kovelainen    Finnish    Renault            8
10 Nico Rosberg         German     Williams-Toyota    5
11 David Coulthard      British    Red Bull-Renault   4
12 Takuma Sato          Japanese   Super Aguri-Honda  4 
13 Jarno Trulli         Italian    Toyota             4 
14 Ralf Schumacher      German     Toyota             2

Constructors
Code: 
1  McLaren-Mercedes  88 
2  Ferrari           60 
3  BMW               38 
4  Renault           21 
5  Williams-Toyota   13  
6  Toyota             6
7  Red Bull-Renault   4 
8  Super Aguri-Honda  4 
9  Honda              0 
10 STR-Ferrari        0 
11 Spyker-Ferrari     0

If you're interested in seeing what the tracks look like I've updated my Google Earth links and flyovers. Monza is now in high-res following this week's data update (must remember to remove the overlay from the .kmz), I think Shanghai is now a more up to date building site but Fuji is still low res. To play the flyovers select the flyover folder and press the play button at the bottom of the Places pane.

Some links for Indianapolis

Official GP Site
Wikipedia
Circuit details on the official F1 page
 
Speculation about Ralf's future continues, Tadashi Yamashina (Toyota vice chairman and soon to be team boss) has admitted that the team are considering a younger driver to replace Ralf and that a new contract for the German will only be forthcoming if his performances improve.

Despite Toyota potentially joining the trend of plumping for young talent three of F1s older names look set to be offered new deals - Barichello, Fisichella and Coulthard are all rumoured to be staying where they are for at least 2008.
 
rpstewart said:
Speculation about Ralf's future continues, Tadashi Yamashina (Toyota vice chairman and soon to be team boss) has admitted that the team are considering a younger driver to replace Ralf and that a new contract for the German will only be forthcoming if his performances improve.

Despite Toyota potentially joining the trend of plumping for young talent three of F1s older names look set to be offered new deals - Barichello, Fisichella and Coulthard are all rumoured to be staying where they are for at least 2008.
Click to expand...

Toyota need new drivers desperately, and if that isn't the solution, then they need to reconsider their future in F1 in my opinion. The whole team seems to be drifting from race to race and Ralf and Trulli don't have the desire to 'push it' anymore, and Toyota really need that. With regards to Renault, I suppose they need to keep Fisi in place for a bit longer as Heikki is not quite there yet, and Coulthard is doing the business at the Red Bull.

I wonder if/where Bruno Senna and Nelson Piquet Jr. will fit in to 2008? And will Heidfeld keep his seat at BMW? He really should.
 
rpstewart said:
Speculation about Ralf's future continues, Tadashi Yamashina (Toyota vice chairman and soon to be team boss) has admitted that the team are considering a younger driver to replace Ralf and that a new contract for the German will only be forthcoming if his performances improve.
Click to expand...

Question - which one of the Toyota drivers had the brainless moment leaving the pits and ended up in the tyre barrier?

Hint - it wasn't the German one.

That said, Toyota seem to have forgiven Trulli's brainfade moment as "understandable"....yeah. Sure. They reckon that it was okay as his mind was on the accident that befell Kubica. Christ, Hawthorn won the '55 Le Mans 24 Hours after being involved in the crash that killed 82 spectators and one driver! If you switch off on the off-chance that you might possibly perhaps have caused an accident then it's time to get off the grid....

I still say that Toyota need to build them both a proper car before deciding which one to get rid of!
 
Lunatic Dreyfus said:
I wonder if/where Bruno Senna and Nelson Piquet Jr. will fit in to 2008? And will Heidfeld keep his seat at BMW? He really should.
Click to expand...

If BMW were to drop Heidfeld now then more fool them tbh, he's always been fast, just never in a car that was quite fast enough. I get the feeling that this years BMW could pull something out the bag in the right situations.
 
Lunatic Dreyfus said:
I wonder if/where Bruno Senna and Nelson Piquet Jr. will fit in to 2008? And will Heidfeld keep his seat at BMW? He really should.
Click to expand...
If Heidfeld doesn't keep the BMW seat then Mario Thiessen needs his head examined. If, however the bespectacled Dr T does have a brain fade then Nick will be at Toyota.

Piquet Jr is probably waiting on Fisi's seat at Renault but I dare say that an offer of a race seat for 2008 will see team loyalty going out the window because he's getting left behind by his classmates (Hamilton, Rosberg, Hiekki K).

Senna's not exactly setting the world alight in GP2, despite a win in Barcelona he's lying a fairly distant third to series leader Timo Glock. He also has no clear link with any of the F1 teams or manufacturers so while he's not waiting on a seat freeing up there aren't many teams who don't have young drivers in the wings already.
 
Cheers for the replies. :)

Considering my love of F1 I don't keep a particularly close eye on GP2 so had no idea B. Senna was off the pace.

I should have put two and two together myself with Heidfeld and Toyota, but I do hope BMW see sense, as I've grown to like them a lot this year (mainly due to Beardy Man's performances). It would be slap in the face for him if Toyota was his only option for '08.

JRS said:
Question - which one of the Toyota drivers had the brainless moment leaving the pits and ended up in the tyre barrier?
*snip*
I still say that Toyota need to build them both a proper car before deciding which one to get rid of!
Click to expand...

We may be waiting a long time...

And that whole '55 Le Mans business still astonishes me today. Hawthorn was definitely of the 'old skool'. Which links me back to the Toyota driver line-up. They certainly have skill and experience, but are they tough enough mentally? I've never considered either to have the ruthless streak or the inspirational touch, which is something a mid-field/tail end team needs.
 
sad to say Toyota seem to care more about the marketing than winning. I really dont understand what Honda and Toyota are up to unless as marketing goes its cheap even if you're no good at it.
 
rpstewart said:
{snip}Senna's not exactly setting the world alight in GP2, despite a win in Barcelona he's lying a fairly distant third to series leader Timo Glock. He also has no clear link with any of the F1 teams or manufacturers so while he's not waiting on a seat freeing up there aren't many teams who don't have young drivers in the wings already.
Click to expand...
Not even Williams?
 
Senna doesn't appear to have a link to any of the F1 teams (although he does run Red Bull branding in GP2) and as far as I can see he hasn't even tested an F1 car to date.

Williams won't want another youngster alongside Nico for a couple of years yet although there's nothing to say that Nico's a permanent fixture. The most likely guy to step into the Williams is Saturo Nakajima's boy who's currently their test driver courtesy of the Toyota deal
 
JRS said:
Question - which one of the Toyota drivers had the brainless moment leaving the pits and ended up in the tyre barrier?

Hint - it wasn't the German one.
Click to expand...

Trulli has out qualified Ralf in nearly every race and finished higher than him in nearly every race this year. If it wasn't for 10 cars going out he would still only have one point this year. Ralf needs to go.
 
Ferrari have to shine this weekend to keep the door open to Mclaren. If the trend continues, I can see BMW fighting Ferrari for 2nd place for the manufacturers championship.

Ralf and Jarno need to go imo.
 
That's quite a big ask though, the Ferrari looks like a skittish little blighter so the Indy infield is going to be tricky if they wind the wing off in search of straight line speed. The McLaren on the other hand seems to be far more planted and predictable if you don't rip up the floor on lap 1.

As far as Toyota are concerned Trulli is possibly a bigger problem than Ralf. At least Ralf's contract is up at the end of the year, Jarno has 3 years left to buy out!
 
rpstewart said:
That's quite a big ask though, the Ferrari looks like a skittish little blighter so the Indy infield is going to be tricky if they wind the wing off in search of straight line speed.
Click to expand...
Exactly what i was thinking. I can see a lot of head scratching going on at Maranello on Monday after another dissapointing show. It's not hard to see Massa/Kimi being beaten again by Heidfeld, possibly even Kubica if he's racing.

Also, the Renaults proved there's nothing wrong with their engine after the awesome speed trap times they set in Canada. With all the slow corners negating the need for complete aero efficiency, i can see Fisi and Heiki (providing he can keep his concentration) giving the Ferraris a good run too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom