2008 Belgian GP - Race 13/18
- Thread starter rpstewart
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yeah all that dirty tarmac was just ideal in the rain never mind he spun 10 seconds later
huge advantage lol
I think you are expecting far too much from Hamilton, immediately. Give him time.
For me, he is the fastest driver in F1 right now, though at this point, I would put money on Alonso outscoring him, in a neutral team.
He just needs to calm himself down a little, when he is in the pit lane and around Alonso - something that I feel he has already done.
Providing McLaren can give him a good car next year, I think Hamilton will win the title by a considerable margin next year. He will have had 2 years of schooling in F1, by then and there wont be any (rookie) excuses.
Soldato
One thing that will stop Hamilton winning the title next year is if Alonso goes to Ferrari. I wouldn't rule Hamilton out this year, unless his bottle smashes again. But if Alonso goes to Ferrari i think that'll be it tbh.
Alonso would have won the championship last year had him and Hamilton not had that spat in Hungry. Again though, it shows some daft decisions that McLaren make tbh. They wanted to go for the rookie driver wins WDC, rather than just going for the WDC and letting the rookie learn as a second driver. Anyone who says LH had the measure of Alonso last year is often forgetting Alonso's own team where barely talking to him for the last 5/6 races of the season.
Everyone is waiting on 2 things this year, to find out if Kimi will retire (i think he has spoke about it before) and where Alonso will go. Both are heavily linked with each other.
Personally i'd love to see Alonso in the Ferrari, as i think it would make a great championship with him against Hamilton.
Alonso would have won the championship last year had him and Hamilton not had that spat in Hungry. Again though, it shows some daft decisions that McLaren make tbh. They wanted to go for the rookie driver wins WDC, rather than just going for the WDC and letting the rookie learn as a second driver. Anyone who says LH had the measure of Alonso last year is often forgetting Alonso's own team where barely talking to him for the last 5/6 races of the season.
Everyone is waiting on 2 things this year, to find out if Kimi will retire (i think he has spoke about it before) and where Alonso will go. Both are heavily linked with each other.
Personally i'd love to see Alonso in the Ferrari, as i think it would make a great championship with him against Hamilton.
Soldato
So not to Honda then??
Going to BMW wont actually be bad, i think he will bring a lot of time to them (like he did McLaren) and make them serious contenders.
Who will they release? Heidfield?
WOW. Now THAT is news!!!
Personally, I would much rather he manouvred his way into Ferrari. Next year, Alonso VS Hamilton wouldve been spectacular.
yeah looking forward to monday to see if thats true
i would hope he is coming to ferrari as well because kimi looks done to me
Neither Heidfeld or Kubica have been signed up for 2009 although there are strong rumours over the last fortnight or so that Kubica has signed a 1 year extension. BMW, however, have said they will announce the 2009 line-up only once both drivers are signed up.
If one of the current drivers is to leave then Heidfeld is the obvious choice given the comments which have been flying about regarding his performance this year. On the other hand Autosport have been speculating for weeks that Kubica could well go to Ferrari if Kimi leaves.
They have not admitted it. So it could all turn out to be the usual driver rumour mill but here is the info anyway.
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080910094500.shtml
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080910094500.shtml
Mate, possibly just about the most hypocritical post of the thread so far.
Who exactly is it Hamilton overtook in the chicane incident and was supposed to gain an advantage over?
If Raikonnon's advantage is totally worthless because he spun off, surely Hamilton's supposed advantage is too?
Soldato
im wondering if the driveability of the ferrari engine is rather poor having been totally designed around TC, so its has a harsh power curve? Both Ferrari drivers suffer in changable conditions, and i wouldnt put it down to them being bad drivers... Do the other Ferrari engined teams suffer badly?
I mean look at Silverstone, massa was on the slowest engine map possible, yet he STILL couldnt get the power down at all, the RPM slowly picked up then boom, power came in and he goes backwards out of the corner lol.
edit: also throttle maps, it seems, at least by the onscreen display thingy we get on ITV that the throttle on Massa's car goes 25%, 50% 75% 100%, where as most other drivers have a smooth increase.
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Just ignore him mate. Pointless arguing as he'll never take on board you're point of view.
...and if he didn't spin off...?
Soldato
Why do the stewards take so long to decide a penalty, they should give the penalty within one lap of it happening so that the drivers can take the penalty and move on, now there is no way for LH to react to the drive thru. Maybe he would have made up so much in 2 laps that he would still be a place higher in the end had he taken the drive thru or given back the place to KR.
You don't see a penalty being handed out after a soccer match so why is F1 always so slow in giving penalties.
Re: the Ferrari throttle, it looks a lot like a turbo engine in the way that they feather the throttle and suddenly there is a burst of speed, the rear tyres lose grip and they spin
You don't see a penalty being handed out after a soccer match so why is F1 always so slow in giving penalties.
Re: the Ferrari throttle, it looks a lot like a turbo engine in the way that they feather the throttle and suddenly there is a burst of speed, the rear tyres lose grip and they spin
and Renault is such an biased team (internally) with Briatore always being the personal manager of at least one of his drivers (ie its in Briatore's personal interest to see his driver do better than the one he doesnt manage)
That is a huge conflict of interest imo
I think Button had a huge penalty he was liable for when he didnt go back to Williams - so his paypacket from Honda isnt really that great considering
I really hope the 2009 Honda is at least regularly challenging in the top of the mid-grid pack regularly - although they have a lot to work on if thats going to happen
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Well hello there everybody.
Just got back from my trip to Europe to see the Belgium GP and I see this thred has reached monster size.
The race weekend was great. Some dam good racing from the support classes and a good F1 race with some tension and a highly exciting finish! I spent the weekend sat (in full waterproofs) on the bank at Pouhon, a great spot.
There was however, only 1 problem.... THE ******* FIA!
I havent read all this thread (its 60 pages!!) but the lack of consistency and the damage to racing this weekend that was done by the FIA was shocking.
First off, in the GP2 Feature Race, Bruno Senna was handed a drive through penalty for an "unsafe release from the pits". If you painted his car red and the other guys white orange and gold, it was an exact copy of the Massa incident at Valencia.... And we all know what (didnt) happen there...
And then the stewards decisions during the F1. the only 2 risky overtakes were penalised, kovalainens and Hamiltons (unsurprisingly both McLarens). They can tweak the rules all they like to try to 'improve overtaking and the spectacle to the fans', but it wont make a blind bit of difference as no one will want to risk overtaking as doing so just gets you penalised. After what was a great race with some good action, It is definately not in the fans interest to decide results in the stewards office, after what would have been a lot of hard work from the drivers. How would you feel if youd had to wrestle an F1 car around one of the toughest tracks on the calendar on slick tyres in the pouring rain, only to find your hard work meant nothing as the result would be decided by some men in suits in a nice warm office...
This is highly damaging to the sport. There have been 3 penalties for overtaking, and the podium meaning nothing. How far are we from a room of stweards sitting down at the begining of each season and just randomly deciding who should be world champion. It would certainly reduce the costs of the sport if nobody actually raced, because it appears that actually 'racing' someone in F1 isnt allowed anymore.
Ok, im done.
Just got back from my trip to Europe to see the Belgium GP and I see this thred has reached monster size.
The race weekend was great. Some dam good racing from the support classes and a good F1 race with some tension and a highly exciting finish! I spent the weekend sat (in full waterproofs) on the bank at Pouhon, a great spot.
There was however, only 1 problem.... THE ******* FIA!
I havent read all this thread (its 60 pages!!) but the lack of consistency and the damage to racing this weekend that was done by the FIA was shocking.
First off, in the GP2 Feature Race, Bruno Senna was handed a drive through penalty for an "unsafe release from the pits". If you painted his car red and the other guys white orange and gold, it was an exact copy of the Massa incident at Valencia.... And we all know what (didnt) happen there...
And then the stewards decisions during the F1. the only 2 risky overtakes were penalised, kovalainens and Hamiltons (unsurprisingly both McLarens). They can tweak the rules all they like to try to 'improve overtaking and the spectacle to the fans', but it wont make a blind bit of difference as no one will want to risk overtaking as doing so just gets you penalised. After what was a great race with some good action, It is definately not in the fans interest to decide results in the stewards office, after what would have been a lot of hard work from the drivers. How would you feel if youd had to wrestle an F1 car around one of the toughest tracks on the calendar on slick tyres in the pouring rain, only to find your hard work meant nothing as the result would be decided by some men in suits in a nice warm office...
This is highly damaging to the sport. There have been 3 penalties for overtaking, and the podium meaning nothing. How far are we from a room of stweards sitting down at the begining of each season and just randomly deciding who should be world champion. It would certainly reduce the costs of the sport if nobody actually raced, because it appears that actually 'racing' someone in F1 isnt allowed anymore.
Ok, im done.
The racing, the track, the randomness of the campsite, the ability for every type of nationality and supporter to get allong, the wine and been in germany, the trip to the Ring, all epic.
Spending a week in a motorhome with my family..... not so epic
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