Formula 1

[Nathan Adams]

i know you're a huge fan like me Rob

what are your thoughts on this disgrace?

[infoxicated]

The sport is disappearing up its own ass. And good riddance to it!

It's been going on for years, this kind of thing, Schumacher will never allow another driver to touch him in the same team. We've all seen how he cracks under pressure when he's threatened by someone in another team, so I absolutely fail to believe that Schumacher had nothing to do with what happened.

Apparently Rubens' previous contract stated that he may be required by the team to pull over for MS if he was in a points scoring position, but not if he was in the lead of a race. His new contract states that he maybe asked to pull over for MS regardless of his position.

I would put money on the fact that Schumacher's contract has no such stipulation. I would put even more money on the stipulations in Rubens' contract having something to do with Schumacher or his agent.

To be honest I watched the race with the volume turned down until that last corner, due to Dull and Duller (James Allan and Mark Blundell). I only turned it up to hear the reaction of the crowd.

To me, I don't really give a smeg about F1 any more - it's a **** form of racing - Bernie has one eye on his cheque book and the other on how many yachts he can own. He doesn't give a crap whether we get a decent race or not. Australia was case in point - beautiful race track - cracking place to have a race - ruined by the failure to stop the race after the first corner. Somehow, somebody forgot that this is a show - a circus for the fans and a convenient way to advertise to a captivated audience. Somewhere along the line the advertising and money took priority over the word sport. It's hardly a test bed for technology any more either - most production cars have traction control and almost none of them have carbon brakes!

I went to a CART race last year and it was awesome - the race lead changed three times on the last lap and was decided on the final corner at 215 miles an hour, right in front of me. And that was the weekend after Alex Zanardi lost his legs and only two weeks after the WTC attacks - all the drivers wanted to do was get home to the USA, but still they put on a show for the fans.

I made a decision at the start of the year that I was going to give F1 a rest. I've watched only two races this season and they've been a total bore - yesterdays was a little more exciting, but when crashes are what makes it exciting you're better off with NASCAR.

Ross Braun made things worse - he should really have shut his mouth - "The whole race was a farce anyway - we told them not to race each other, so Rubens was never really leading."

WTF!?

I think I'll give the rest of the season a miss - next up is Monaco (yawn-a-rama), so it's not as if I'm missing anything there.

I'll make a deal with Bernie - bring back steel brakes and I might watch another race. :-?

[Nathan Adams]

wow :o harsher than i expected!!!

I'm still going to continue to watch
granted the politics of the sport is just getting rediculous - but i still believe there are drivers there that genuinelly do it for the race.
I've long given up watching the action in the top4 - same as always. middle order is where you actually have a race.

of course it was part of rubens new contract
they (ferrari) obviously know that given the order - he would do it, and that's probably why ferrari wanted to keep him. not many other drivers would be contempt being schumachers #2

bernie is indeed doing more bad than good for the sport. he's many a time let schumacher go, all for the sake of 'exciting racing' - which is an absolute bull. the only way a front order change happens these days is a) mechanical problems, or b) in the pits
bring back the days of turbocharged engines i say - ah... the glory days.

I'm going to continue to ignore the results of ferrari - and concentrate on my BAR, Jordon, Renault, Sauber, Toyota, et al. Thankgod for Villeneuve on the weekend who showed us what racing was.

[infoxicated]

Yeah - we need JV back in a good car - talk about wasting the best part of his F1 career in that BAR chasis. :(

I think Ron Dennis should maybe walk about 25-30 yards away, turn, aim and take a running kick at David Coulthards ass! Then he should stick a decent driver in there, such as JV, but yet again I imagine politics would get in the way of that one because they have a few issues with each other.

There is no quick fix for F1, as far as I can see.

To date the quick fixes have included planks of wood on the bottoms of the cars, grooved tyres (bwahahahaha!), slots cut in the air boxes, narrower cars, smaller engines, controlled fuel, and in the coming years it's single engines for a weekend.

The lunatics are in control of the asylum, and if it were a loony bin it would be a load more interesting to watch.

I'll maybe tune in again if BAR can pull the finger out, but other than that I have no real need to see captain arrogant engineer another championship - he's the worst example of sportsmanship in living memory and his virus has infected Ferrari to the core.

You know, I'm almost ashamed to admit that when Sato was taken out, I was thinking "Hmmm - wonder if Eddie will get Jean Alessi back in the car - that would be cool for Monaco!" - My reasoning was just a desire to see some cool racing that only dudes like Alessi, JV and Mansell have provided over the last ten years.

[Nathan Adams]

Yeah - all true
one thing I have noticed too is that the richer, better performing teams are the ones that act real shady, and as they get progressively poorer and down the table - the teams get a lot more honest. One only has to look at the contrast between Ferrari and Minardi to see that (I have alot of admiration for Minardi now - fantastic team. Not just because Webber is a aussie - nor Paul Stoddart either...hehe. But because they play fair, and just give it an old fashioned go of it. [example of this is when they had the problems of the rear wing flying off, and Stoddart made the applaudable decision to pull the team for the race]
I think it shows at least not everything in F1 is dissintergrating.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismis Sato. When I was in Japan, it was obviously the warm-up to the F1 season, and he was one of two sportsmen constantly being covered (the other is their baseballer playing for the mariners - forget his name but he's frigtenly good) - there were 2hr specials on him on TV, newspaper and magazine coverage like you wouldn't believe - and with good reason - the guy is one hell of a driver. This is a guy who turned down racing F3 in Japan (to which he was INVITED to compete), so he could compete in F3000 - as that was a better road into F1. Of course he won the championship. He's probably one of the most dedicated, [and definately the fittest] drivers in the championshop. Put him in a decent car and he will definately shine.

But I know what you mean - drivers seemed to have alot more "flair" back then - it added personality, excitement. Berger was also always a delight to watch (the only man to compete in every Adelaide GP :wink: )

[infoxicated]

Really? - I didn't know that about berger... I suppose it does kind of make sense, though - no-one else from that era lasted/lived long enough to do them all and make it to Melbourne.

I loved the old Adelaide - it was so much better a course than some of the purpose made bollocks out there... not mentioning any.. *COUGH* Hungaroring *COUGH*!

I didn't mean to dismiss Sato in my post above - I reckon he's one of the few shining lights in the dull, featureless carpet of F1 drivers.

Who have we got in there that I'd pay to see race?

Raikkonen... dunno about that one yet... JV - every time!... Montoya... yep!... Webber - still to make an impact, but someone who probably grew up watching V8's hurtling down Conrod at Bathurst will surely put on a good show in the right car ;)

I'm struggling here... help me out, man - who would you pay to see race? I don't mean paying to attend an event which is carefully orchestrated like Ross Braun says F1 is... I mean a good and proper, last of the late brakers, slingshots round the outside (JV at portugal a few years back - wahey!), type of racing?

[Nathan Adams]

yeah, Adelaide was always my fav (haha - bias!). Melbourne just doesn't compare :(

JV - of course!
Montoya
Sato
Button
possibly Heidfeld
Webber (hell - he did get points in a minardi! plus he's got AJ's glowing seal of approval)
Fissichella
Frentzen
and....Yoong - just for some added flavour!!

im not sure if webber was ever a v8 guy.... he started in karts and went through to formula ford i believe before going overseas - among which driving for lemans - then a test driver for benneton for 2 years.... i dont think he'd ever had the time to watch v8's!!! LOL
(oh, did you know the adelaide track is still used for V8's - and obviously - we win best even each year....heh heh)

[infoxicated]

I didn't know they still used the track... thought the grandstands were sold to Melbourne!? :D

Hey, I didn't even get to watch V8's when I was little and I still want to be a racing driver when I grow up!

Mid last year I went karting in London, it had been my first time in about six months and when I turned up they were freakin' electric! *gasp*

WT double F?!

I mean, I raced around and all that, but if there isn't an engine on the back of it then I'm fairly disgusted with the way things are at that point in time!

I got GP3 recently, to whet my appetite for F1 2002/ GP4, and the first thing I done was got on the net for some updates and for some of the classic tracks to replace Hungary with. :)

[Thruster2097]

I realise I`m going to put a spanner in the whole nathan/foxy/nathan/foxy thing here, but after that race, it makes me think of the whole reasoning of formula 1, which is to create a racing car, test both human and mechanical endurance, laurels to the winner, and a pat on the back to the others who made it through alive, yada yada.... Once upon a time, there was a racing league called Formula Unlimited. And it was exactly that - unlimited! I believe it was shunned by nearly every governing body available, and I certainly havent seen any TV coverage of it, but it`s certainly what we need to see now. This whole grooved-tyres,dimension restricted, traction control era of F1 is making its own reputation or being boring, due to the fact that the cars are all totally identical, and the governing bodies are only concerned about money, and more to the point, how much of it they will be keeping for their super-early retirement packages. Disgusting.
The future lies in JGTC , DTM and Australian Supercar

[jmoid]

there's a show on ch4 in the uk called GT on 4 which is pretty cool - UK GT racing (TVR, Porsche, that kind of thing) really exciting stuff, lots overtaking etc... worth a look, but it's on at wierd times (7am on Saturdays at the moment).

nathan we'll just have to send you some videos of it :)

[Lance]

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electric go karts?!!!! no fukqqken way!!!! that's a disgrace, a crime.

the most successful F1 teams are probably that way beCAUSE they were cheaters to start with, and once they get successful, they are in an even better position to cheat by manipulation of the rules. and cozying up to bloody ecclestone. the corporate mentality rules F1; that happens to anything that becomes sufficiently popular to get lots of media coverage and isn't run by someone with either the wisdom or integrity to give the fans fair value. come to think of it, some forms of racing give in totally to sponsors but somehow continue to have interesting races. nascar's rules keep everybody bunched together so that damn near anything can happen. too bad it's so roundyround simple
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[Lance]

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smeg! that smeggin censor program smegged even my smegged-up spelling of smegged!
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[infoxicated]

Erm... yeah - I figured it was kind of a weird word coming from you.

Perhaps I should change that. *sigh*

Anyhow, did you see that Schumacher won the world sportsman award!

Ha ha ha ha haaaaa ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa ha ha haaaa!

Geeeez - Isn't that just the icing on the cake, man - one of the least sporting men on the planet wins an award for sportsmanship! Fantastic!

That's like Bin Laden winning the Nobel Peace Prize!

Like a cat winning best of breed at Crufts!

Like WipeoutZone winning an award for design and content....... *ahem*

Lets talk about F1 again... crap - innit?

[Spaceboy Gajo]

Lets talk about F1 again... crap - innit?

Well I may be a little late to this post, but I will give it a go.

Just recently on "60 Minues II" Charlie Rose interviewed Michael. When Charlie asked Schumi, about racing Indy 500, Schumi replied "Never." When asked why, "Schumi" replied that he wasn't challenged by it and that it was too dangerous.

I can understand challenging because that's what all oval racing like NASCAR and some Indy tracks are not, and that's challenging.

As for F1, I think it's very prestigous and that's what they are playing off of.

I think Jacques Villeneuve is great for the sport and always enjoy weeing if he has worked some sort of miracle in his BAR Honda. I even had high hopes for it this year because of the success they were getting out of last season.

I've rooted for him for him since his days in CART. He's a damn good driver and when he won Indy 500 he raced a cabbie in the streets of New York on the "Late Show with David Letterman." We Canadians root for one another. Over here we get to find you placed, first second, third and then the Jacque Villenueve watch.

Infoxicated, does he still write a column for an English paper? He did so a few years back.

Any ways, isn't the single engine supposed to even the competition now?

[Nathan Adams]

schumacher for sportsmanship.................. for crying out loud!!!
even neglecting this latest incident, he'd be one of the last people i'd give it to

anybody else see that Ferrari is going to float on the stock exchange? am I the only one who thinks 'thats some f**cking bad timing!' ?

[Lance]

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Ferrari going public!?!

what a sad fate for a company that was founded and run by a true individual! an individual with a big flaw or two, but a real human. this really sucks.
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[Lance]

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i watched bits of the coverage of final qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 yesterday, and they briefly discussed the Schumacher/Ferrari/Austrian GP incident. while they were talking, i remembered that Ferrari used to do this sort of thing all the time even back in the 1950's. there were two championship awards, the driver's championship, and the team championship. to Enzo Ferrari, the team championship meant everything, because HE was the team, it was his. but in order to achieve greater glory, it was desired to win everything possible, so to gain the driver's championship as well, the number one driver was handed the victory if the situation allowed. same old world today, at least at Ferrari
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