The Official 2008 F1 Series Thread

[Erick]

Wow, Massa came in stone dead last. That is ridiculous.

[e30pwr]

As expected BMW would benefit from the rain,.......but not from the driver that just got 2nd!!!! I missed the Kubica spin:hitler:

[sennafan]

When Massa if off his game he is off his game

[Lair]

When Massa if off his game he is off his game

It's a shame he can't handle rain like the last really fast Brazilian could.

[E30Kaiser]

hahah that was a great race, if lewis had just hit kimi my joke may have come true! Wish Coulthard hadn't have taken out Vettel, if that is indeed what happened though. Good race all the same though, props to Lewis. I still hate you though.

[Maluco]

I can't wait for Bruno to come over...

[TDE30]

Another exciting, rain-soaked race. Kubica's off, or what little I saw of it, seemed to be a result of him carrying waaaaay too much spped into the corner. Such a shame, because he was doing very well. I'm glad to hear that Heidfeld remained calm amidst all of the chaos that ensued as a result of the intermediate tires that everyone, except for Rubens, was on. DC continues to show that he has no business in a Formula One car, Massa shows that he's a shitty driver and even worse in the rain, and Barrichello showed everyone that the full wet tires were the optimum choice. The Driver's Championship is now a three way tie between the idiot, Ron Jr., and Kimi. I was really hoping to see Heikki take the fight to Hamilton, or for Webber to trounce both of them, but I guess that will have to be for another wet race. Nonetheless, Red Bull continues to show that they are the best of the rest along with Toyota.

Did anyone ever figure out the tire situation with Alonso and Räikkönen? Surely either team wouldn't have sent their star driver out with the old tires, it must be Bernie's continuously terrible television feed.

[Erick]

Raikonnen not changing the tires seemed to be a gamble against McLaren. Since Kimi and Lewis pit on the same instance, I am assuming they wanted to come out ahead of Hamilton by sparing a tire change (horrible mistake).

In the end Lewis still came out front WITH new tires.

[sennafan]

It's a shame he can't handle rain like the last really fast Brazilian could.

Amen

[TDE30]

Raikonnen not changing the tires seemed to be a gamble against McLaren. Since Kimi and Lewis pit on the same instance, I am assuming they wanted to come out ahead of Hamilton by sparing a tire change (horrible mistake).

In the end Lewis still came out front WITH new tires.

Yeah, if Ferrari did in fact send Räikkönen out on his old tires, then that was a stupid and thoughtless move that saved no time at all. I can see Renault being bold and experimenting with the idea with FA, but Ferrari is smart and leaves that sort of experimentation for the practice and/or quali sessions.

Steve Matchett said it was the television feed showing FA's first pit (which was a refuel and no tire change,) but I find it a little hard to believe. Regardless, it's hard to say that either teams unique pit strategies paid off in the end.

[maniacmatt]

The announcers on the coverage I watched explained the strategy for not changing the tires.

Apparently the reasoning for sending them out on the worn intermediates was that the track was drying out and they were hoping for no more rain. As the intermediates wear, the channels for diverting water wear. This allows for more rubber to contact the track. So in theory the worn intermediates would run faster on a dry track than fresh intermediates.

Still a very dumb move when everybody else seemed to realize there was more rain coming.

[Hick]

Ferrari dropped the ball on this one. Kimi was catching Hamilton in the closing stages of the first stint. Had they both gone on new inters i may of ended up a bit different.

Kubica lost is passing Heiki, BTW. So its understandable that he went off.

Massa... i dont know what to say. When he has bad days, they are awful.

[Dave]

Ferrari needs to fire their weatherman - this is not the first time they screwed things up when they were guessing.

[z31maniac]

WTF Rubens?

Can't believe he was lapping 7-9 seconds a lap quicker on the Extreme's and the other teams didn't change. The 23-25 second loss for the pit stop would have more than been made up.

Didn't Ruben unlap himself on his way to the podium?

[Dave]

I believe he did unlap himself.

Could it be that the "elites" at Ferrari, McMerc, and BMW have gotten so used to ignoring Honda that they just were not really watching his progress until it was too late and they had all made their stops and put on more inters?