European Grand Prix 2011, Valencia Street Circuit - Race 8/19

Friday practice - selected team and driver quotes
It may have been business as usual on Friday morning in Valencia, with Red Bull’s Mark Webber leading the pack, but by the afternoon session the advantage had shifted to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. The drivers and senior team personnel report on the opening day of the European round…

FIA Friday press conference - Europe
Team representatives - Ross Brawn (Mercedes), Mike Gascoyne (Team Lotus), James Key (Sauber), Geoff Willis (HRT), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso).

FIA post-qualifying press conference - Europe
Drivers: 1 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 2 - Mark Webber (Red Bull), 3 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)

Qualifying - selected team and driver quotes
Lotus’s Jarno Trulli on spinning on his last lap during Q1 and finishing 20th on the grid; Williams’ Pastor Maldonado on why he brought out the red flags; Force India’s Adrian Sutil on making it through to the top-ten shootout; and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber on locking out the front row. All the drivers and leading team personnel report back on Saturday in Valencia…
 
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sunama said:
Well Todge, you and I shall have to disagree on this point.

IMO, F1 is supposed to be dangerous. The idea that if you push hard, you will go faster and get the glory; and that if you push too hard, you will go off and possibly have a huge accident. This is the whole point of F1 - only the brave, courageous and skill-full should succeed.

If F1 becomes too safety concious, there won't be a punishment (ie. possible injury) when a driver gets it wrong.

The idea of a death occurring is not nice, but this is a very real possibility in F1. IMO there must always be a possibility of a death in F1...that's what makes it exciting. Drivers entering F1 must know that F1 can kill. This is the very reason why F1 drivers are paid so much (as much as for their skill), as they put their lives on the line.

The danger factor is also what made gladiator fights so exciting. It is also what makes (pro) boxing so exciting and amateur boxing so boring. Would you rather see 2 men fighting with (pro) or without (amateur) protective head gear?

But anyway, my way of thinking is disappearing. Your way of thinking is modern and is the direction that things are heading in.
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Your way of thinking is what got so many greats killed as everyone thought as you do that death was an acceptable consequence of a mistake. Not winning the race is the acceptable consequence for getting a tyre on the wet white line or having a mechanical failure for which the driver is completely not responsible.

As I said, open wheel racing is never going to be safe, there will always be accidents and I'm sure at some point someone else will die. Massa was very lucky with his accident that the spring didn't hit him in the middle of his visor. That it was a freak accident doesn't negate the fact that it is STILL dangerous to go out there as they do.

I'd love to get rid of the car parks at so many circuits that allow a car to get back into the race so easily after a mistake. That doesn't mean they should be replaced with walls to make it more dangerous.

Gladiatorial fights were not popular because of the chance of death, they were popular because people like to see people or animals get ripped limb from limb. Fortunately we have moved on a little in the last few centuries.

I don't often disagree or agree with you entirely, but on this I have no problem with us being on completely opposite sides.
 
Prediction for today: Red Bull (Vettel) victory, double DRS creating embarrassing overtakes.

Backup prediction: Alonso victory. I'm not sure how this would happen but... It might...
 
Sunama, you are aware this 2011 and not 1970, right?

Your view that F1 must have the possibility of death to be exciting is quite frankly, worrying. Lot of people went to great lengths to remove that mentality from F1 decades ago, while lots of people were loosing their lives. I find you comments disturbing and frankly insulting to those who have lost their lives, and those who have worked hard to stop that happeneing.

I have absolutely no interest in watching a sport that actively wants the keep the possibility of death. I watch racing for the racing.

You have proved that your opinions on F1 are outdated, and rather sick. I imagine myself and a lot of others will be taking your opinion with a pinch of salt from now on, or simply ignoring it. I don't think you could hold a sensible discussion with someone who thinks that if an F1 driver gets it wrong they should die.
 
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Skeeter said:
Your view that F1 must have the possibility of death to be exciting is quite frankly, worrying. Lot of people went to great lengths to remove that mentality from F1 decades ago.
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Indeed, it does make me wonder, if all other aspects of F1 were the absolute pinnacle of thrills and excitement but it was 100% guaranteed that no driver could die - he seems to be saying he'd find it boring, simply because no one might die? :confused:
 
Kenai said:
Indeed, it does make me wonder, if all other aspects of F1 were the absolute pinnacle of thrills and excitement but it was 100% guaranteed that no driver could die - he seems to be saying he'd find it boring, simply because no one might die? :confused:
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No, what he's saying is without the risk, then the cars are to slow, not enough racing and all the other elements would have to be very far from the pinnacle of racing for that to happen.
 
Kenai said:
Indeed, it does make me wonder, if all other aspects of F1 were the absolute pinnacle of thrills and excitement but it was 100% guaranteed that no driver could die - he seems to be saying he'd find it boring, simply because no one might die? :confused:
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As this is 'The Internet', I cant tell whether he is having this opinion because it causes some controversy on the forums and it makes him feel special, or whether this is his actual opinion.

Either situation is incredibly worrying.
 
AcidHell2 said:
No, what he's saying is without the risk, then the cars are to slow, not enough racing and all the other elements would have to be very far from the pinnacle of racing for that to happen.
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?

How have you come to the conclusion that the pinnacle of motorsport is the chance of death if you make a mistake?

Death is a horrible thing, and death during sport is a tragic loss. Are you actually suggesting we design a sport that encorages death as a penalty for making a mistake? F1 is a sport where the champion is the guy with the most points, not the only one left alive at the end!

You and surnama should take your disturbing opinions with you and **** off back to the 1970's. I actually find it shocking that anyone still has this opinion!

Would you hold this opinion if you had a friend who was an F1 driver? (I can guarantee they will now both say they would, yet we all know they are talking rubbish)
 
I'm off to my folks to watch the race so won't be with you all on here!

My hope is
Hamilton
Button
Kobayashi

lol

I reckon it'll be very tight between the RBR and Mclaren.
 
Skeeter said:
?

How have you come to the conclusion that the pinnacle of motorsport is the chance of death if you make a mistake?
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It's not the death. It's the risk. If you remove all the risk. Then the cars aren't going fast enough, there's to many run offs, they can't be racing wheel to wheel, side by side round a corner so on and so forth. You can't remove the risks totally without killing the sport.
What should be happening is ever increasing car safety and tests and ever increasing barrier development and of course every other area.
Not having full throttle round corners, run offs bigger than a football field and everything else.

Would rather see closed cockpit racing, then this ever decreasing bhp and ever increasing UN offs, ever increasing penalties for "avoidable accidents" just look at the two Audi crashes in lemans 24 for how safe the cars can be made, without rediculuse rulings.
 
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Just watched Button watching the race again, and was :D all over again.

Please anything but a RBR romp off into the distance today!
 
AcidHell2 said:
No, what he's saying is without the risk, then the cars are to slow, not enough racing and all the other elements would have to be very far from the pinnacle of racing for that to happen.
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Well no, what he said was, that unless people might die, it's not exciting.

I just don't see it, there is plenty of excitement to be had without risking death at every race.

EDIT - in fact, we've obviously just discovered how to make F1 ultra exciting - line all the tyre walls with metal spikes and fill the run off areas with land mines. Much more chance of death = way more exciting. Let's get it done.
 
Stop trying to backtrack on your own argument. The risk of something is only there if the chance of it is.

I would really enjoy watching F1 if drivers could push hard, crash, and we could guarantee nobody would ever die.

What you are saying is you wish that F1 drivers were dying when they made mistakes. Tbh, if you need people to die to make a sport exciting for you, then there is something seriously wrong with you, and its an opinion I do not welcome in this day and age, or indeed, this forum.
 
Kenai said:
Well no, what he said was, that unless people might die, it's not exciting.

I just don't see it, there is plenty of excitement to be had without risking death at every race.
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Then please tell me how you have racing with no risk of death?
You guys are. Over reacting and aren't thinking about what you are saying.
Racing will always have risk and as such the chance of death. Remove all those risks and you do not have racing.
 
Skeeter said:
Stop trying to backtrack on your own argument. The risk of something is only there if the chance of it is.

I
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:rolleyes:
Backtrack, I haven't backtracked at all, perhaps try reading. Rather than jumping to conclusions.

And where have I said I would like to see drivers, or wait I haven't.
Even in the first post I said safety should be improving. Oh wait but you've jumped on a bandwagon without thinking.
 
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