The Official 2008 F1 Series Thread

[TDE30]

I don't expect Heikki to do better, but I do agree Lewis has been making a lot of mistakes that have cost him. Lewis may still win but I think it will be because of Ferrari having reliability issue or BMW messing up their consistency strategy. I think the main problem for McLaren is that they don't have a racer that can give good feedback on what is wrong with the car in testing other than Pedro De La Rosa, and what may be good for him may not be what Lewis and Heikki like.

Last year they had Alonso, and love him or hate him he can drive a car and give good feedback to the engineers. Hamilton tried to use his own setup's last year and thats when things started to go down hill for him in the WDC. McLaren hasn't won since the days of Mika Hakkinen despite having great talent and I think it is because you have to couple that talent with experience and a great car which includes setup in order to win the WDC.

IIRC, they also have Gary Paffett (who was quite impressive in his DTM days,) but I think their success in the Hakkinen/Coulthard days was attributed Adrian Newey's design of every car from the MP4/12 to the MP4-21. Pat Fry's design of the MP4-22 seemed to lack where the F2007 exceled.

Regarding Alonso though, I hate him dearly, but he can drive a car very well and diagnose any problems that he is having amongst his engineers.

[E30Kaiser]

IIRC, they also have Gary Paffett (who was quite impressive in his DTM days,) but I think their success in the Hakkinen/Coulthard days was attributed Adrian Newey's design of every car from the MP4/12 to the MP4-21. Pat Fry's design of the MP4-22 seemed to lack where the F2007 exceled.

Regarding Alonso though, I hate him dearly, but he can drive a car very well and diagnose any problems that he is having amongst his engineers.

I have yet to meet anyone that likes Alonso, so I am guessing only the Spanish and maybe the French like him.

[z31maniac]

I didn't like Alonso because last year was the first year I had paid attention in quite a long time. However, I'm beginning to think that LH is a spoiled, arrogant little twat who doesn't have half the development skills of Alonso.

Ever noticed that now he isn't with McMerc you don't here all these stories of what a shitty teammate he is?

[E30Kaiser]

I am beginning to like Alonso in the way that you like the evil genius in a comic book. Everything he does has a purpose, and it always ends badly for somebody. Lately it has just been back firing on him though. I though Felipe was going to punch him last year though when he got cut off in one of the last turns of one of the races. Fernando was just throwing thumbs up to the camera and everything behind Felipe's back lol.

Alonso? I love him and I hate him heh. Hamilton I think is a bit of a brat at the moment too, but hopefully he will grow out of that. Vettel's still my favorite young driver. I mean the kid cried after he hit Webber last year, in wet conditions and because Hamilton was driving erratically. Hamilton hits Kimi doing road speeds in the pit when Kimi is obeying a stop light, and Hamilton doesn't seem to feel bad about it at all.

[Jparkr]

I love Alonso, he one of my all time favorite drivers! I defended him a lot last year because I knew that Hamilton was a little bitch; and all the controversy was due to Mclaren not giving a 2x world champion the support he needed. Instead they pushed the "next great driver in F1." Give me a fucking break.

Alonso > Hamilton... Always

[Jon325i]

Bonjour ya cheese eatin' surrender monkeys :-P

Ferrari front row for tomorrow. Hamilton finished 3rd but gets docked 10 grid spots for his pitlane brain fart back in Canada - so he's 13th. I bet he's going to be running light and perhaps McLaren may try a 4-stop strategy that worked so well for Michael Schumacher a couple years ago.

BMW looks a little disappointing. Kubica is 7th while not-so-quick Nick is starting 12th. The Speed commentators (Matchett in particular) stated that the BMW-Sauber is ideally a low downforce car, which is why tracks like Canada suit it so well. Question is, why would a team invest millions into a good low downforce car when only 3 races of the entire season require a low downforce setup to be competitive? :?

Jon

[E30Kaiser]

lol, thats a good point. Alonso did good today, as he will start 3rd I believe which is a good turn around in his fortunes. Tomorrow should be a very exciting race especially if rain sets in.

EDIT: I doubt a 4 stop strategy will work terribly well for Hamilton as he has to get by a lot of people and he isn't to terribly great of an overtaker. Perhaps he will have such a speed advantage though he can take people down the straight away for his strategy to work.

As for why would a team invest millions into a good low downforce car? Probably because in the long term its better as they can it apply more to next years car which will run much less downforce than this years.

[TDE30]

BMW looks a little disappointing. Kubica is 7th while not-so-quick Nick is starting 12th. The Speed commentators (Matchett in particular) stated that the BMW-Sauber is ideally a low downforce car, which is why tracks like Canada suit it so well. Question is, why would a team invest millions into a good low downforce car when only 3 races of the entire season require a low downforce setup to be competitive? :?

Couldn't have said it better myself. Their F1 program has certainly come on in the last few years, it seems very reckless of their chief aero designer Willem Toet to design a car that excels only at low-downforce circuits. Just like Peter Windsor and Steve Matchett were discussing during Q2, this doesn't seem like something that a very experienced aero designer (like Adrian Newey) would have had an issue with. That said though, Toet has been with the team since 2006, and coincidentially that is when BMW-Sauber really started to pick up their pace and land podium finishes. The guy has aided in BMW-Sauber's success, but he needs to realize that when over 83% of the circuits are mid- to high-downforce circuits, there is absolutely NO reason to focus in on doing well at the remaining three races.

All that aside, Heidfeld needs to get his shit together and start driving like Kubi. Two times within three races that he fails to make it out of Q2, wtf.

[Dave]

Last year I grew to hate Alonso. But he has gained some respect from me this year.

I think I'd like to see him running with Kubica next year. Nick can go drive a Toro Rosso or something as far as I am concerned.

[Jean]

About to watch it now, damn spoilers lol.

[z31maniac]

As for why would a team invest millions into a good low downforce car? Probably because in the long term its better as they can it apply more to next years car which will run much less downforce than this years.

This sounds like a reasonable explanation.

Can't wait to see how they do at the Italian GP this year.

[YAN-3]

..... :down::sad:

[TDE30]

^ Yup. Heidfeld is keeping it real in P12 or P13 and Kubi is in fifth. The Canadian GP was fun and it built up some hype, but I guess things are back to normal... except for Trulli at least, :D.

[Hick]

time for Massa to run for points. the title is in his hands now

[E30Kaiser]

Frankly I hate how people give Heidfeld so much crap for sucking. I mean Kubica is a great driver, but last year their situation was reversed. Heidfeld is just as responsible for BMW doing so well this season as Kubica. I can't think of a better combo for bringing home points than Heidfeld and Kubica, except for maybe Kimi and Felipe, or Micheal and Felipe.
Alonso and Kubica would most likely be a disaster.