Formula 1 stinks.

[shanker]

This morning I saw in a Spanish newspaper that Fernando Alonso hopes that Massa wins the world championship (F1). He then said that he would ''help'' the Brazilian in any way he could. Surely this is against the rules? What would happen in football if the chairman of Wigan or Bolton said they would try to stop Liverpool or Manchester United winning the league by ''helping''?

 

[andycap]

For me F1 has imploded this year , i have followed it all my adult life , been to the gp's subscribed to the mags, but over the last few years it has got more boring year on year. Indy car knocks F1 into a cocked hat for wheel to wheel racing with 20+ overtaking moves commonplace
although ovals and full course yellows are the main gripes for some.
Sadly i think this years title is going to be decided by the stewards.

 

[NotQuiteTiger]

All the stewading decisions do seem to favour ferrari massivly

 

[haplesshacker]

Regardless of Alonso's personal dislike of Lewis, I have to admit that he has driven well in the last couple of races.

Personaly I'd like to see Massa win. He's done his time in F1. Was a good number 2 for Schmacher, and was willing to learn from him. I think it's his time.

However I would agree that the stewards are more 'ist' in favour of Ferrai. Though the championship has to 'stay open' up until the last race. That's how Berni would want it.

Lewis screwed up Fuji for himself, no-one else did.

The guy has obvious talent, and his time will come.

Mind you if Massa wins because Alonso took out Lewis, I'd like to see Lewis go and whack Alonso, and Ron give one to Flavio!!

 

[NotQuiteTiger]

Formula 1 turns into the dogems for a day

 

[thomas1981]

Heard they're making changes next season to improve over taking opportunities,new slick tyres for example. Sometimes when they go into the first corner its like dodgems,first lap is always the best. Hope hamilton wins just because of the way all the stewards decisions are going.

 

[viscount17]

Personaly I'd like to see Massa win. He's done his time in F1. Was a good number 2 for Schmacher, and was willing to learn from him. I think it's his time.

that's no reason to win, because you've done the time, on that basis Coulthard should be the champion.

to get more overtaking and better races they'll need to redesign most of the tracks and scrap the Monaco bore. then reduce the down force, use skinny wheels, get rid of automatic gearboxes, and the remote engine management. are there enough of Colin Chapman's Lotus to go round?

 

[haplesshacker]

Personaly I'd like to see Massa win. He's done his time in F1. Was a good number 2 for Schmacher, and was willing to learn from him. I think it's his time.

that's no reason to win, because you've done the time, on that basis Coulthard should be the champion.

That's not quite what I meant. Bad literacy on my part I'm afraid.

In order to be wc in F1, you've firstly got to be in the right car at the right time. Which Massa is. I also believe that he would be a better wc than that flaky, can't do interviews very well, and incosistant Fin in Kimi.

Is Massa as good a driver as Alonso or Hamilton, I really don't know. For all I know Kubica is a better driver than them all, but is in the wrong car. I just don't know.

Who would be winning if they were all in the same car? Probably the same guys in all honesty, as the margins in qualifying are getting so small, is it down to the car or the driver?

To get a reality check on how close it all is in qualifying perhaps the TV companies should show the current first placed car as a 'ghost car' on the track. Similar to Gran Turismo on the Playstation when trying to crack lap times in lap time mode or the track tests on Fifth Gear. Folks would then see what 1/100th of a second is in distence terms. Which means more to the 'average joe'. Just an idea.

Sure going to be an interesting Wednesday

 

[medwayjon]

I would like Massa to win.

Hamilton may be a world champion one day, but he will never be a great champion.

As Mark Blundell said, if he wants to bump ram and barge his way around he should go and race touring cars.

The other drivers are sick of him baulking his way around, even his chum kubica has turned on him over his driving.

To me he is a petulent and spoilt little s***, he has had everything laid on a plate for him since boyhood by Ron Dennis and storming away from the circuit sunday qualifies my point.

Alonso has a point in my eyes, there he was a double world champion and he was being treated as 2nd best by Ron Dennis. This isnt the 1st time at McLaren either, Coulthard was treated shabbily by Dennis, apparently in briefings, Him and his engineer were referred to as "they" by dennis whereas Mika Hakkinenn was "Us".

 

[viscount17]

MacLaren aren't the first and won't be the last to treat their drivers shabbily. Williams were past masters at it.

 

[haplesshacker]

I'm sure that the likes of Ron etc, treat their drivers as just another component to the car, and ultimately the one component that they cannot control in test lab ways. So, the team boses have their 'favourites', but it's no different to bosses and employees in any place of work. We all have employees that we know will get the job done, and are pleasant to work with as well. We also have employees that cannot be told what to do, and are little pre-madonna know it alls. I'm sure that it's no different in F1.

Kimi is obviously fast, but is so on / off with his pace, Lewis is still a tempetuious youngster, Coulthard never got the break he need to be wc, as with Rubins.

Lewis will be wc one day, yes, style of driving is agressive, but some of the comebacks that he's done has made some very good viewing. Anyway Schmacher was far worse, at least Lewis has a sense of fairness and gamesmanship. He is a very focused competitor. Okay so he 'stormed' off on Sunday, but look at our body language when we have a bad round of golf; and we're ametuers who don't get paid for our sport.

 

[USER1999]

Is hamilton any more spoilt brattish than many of the greats of F1, Bootmender, Prost, Senna to name just a few. All of these had moments which were less than grand (both in and out of the car), and all played politics with their teams, and I don't see Hamilton as any different. Jaques Villeneuve suffered the same criticism from his fellow drivers that he drove too aggresively (Bootmenders comment after being passed on the outside of a corner), but so what, it isn't a popularity contest.

No, I don't care about the drivers personnalities, I just want to see some proper racing, and the guy who wins on the track pick up the trophy, not some lawyer in a court 3 weeks after the event.

Oh, and I like touring cars.

 

[toonarmy]

Lewis screwed up Fuji for himself, no-one else did.

Rubbish. Yes, he got a poor start but to get a penalty for doing something that has been done at the start of F1 races for years was ridiculous and for that to be equated to Massa deliberately shunting him and forcing him to the back of the grid highlighted everything wrong in the organisational context of the FIA.

For Massa to then be promoted a place at Bourdais' expense for driving into him just shows that they either want it to go to the last race again or just for Massa to win it.

I am a total neutral on F1 and looking at the decisions this year indicates to me that McLaren/Hamilton are at the very rough end of them and Ferrari/Massa are at the smooth end.

Quite why certain people despise Hamilton is beyond me when you compare him to the likes of Schumacher, Villeneuve, Prost, Senna etc.

Simply put, if every incident involving Hamilton and Massa had been flipped (e.g. Hamilton hitting Massa, Massa forcing at the start) this season do we honestly think the decisions would have stayed the same? Answer: no.

How else do you explain the failure to penalise the two teams last year for using illegal fuel which meant McLaren didn't get points when they should have?

FIA stinks, Ferrari are clearly offered preferential treatment and too many people have too much control over all the factors. This, coupled with nonsense like team rules preventing race results, prevents F1 from being a proper sport in my eyes.

Shame, as despite all that, it can still be quite interesting. I can't think of any sport where the playing is as uneven as it is here though. We huff and moan at some of the decisions that Woods gets (or Man Utd/Brazil/All Blacks...) and they pale into insignficance against F1. It would be the equivalent of stewards awarding him a tournament win when he finishes 5 shots back the next day because the winner farted at the top of Woods' backswing once during the round.

Cue Ferrari fanboys and their anti-Hamilton/McLaren rants about how it's so unfair and he's a nasty little rich boy who gets all his toys and he smells too...

 

[USER1999]

It is also interesting that when McLaren get caught with the 'how to design a Ferrari' book, they get fined the GDP of a small country, and yet Ferrari had the 'how to design a Renault' book, and they got a slap on the wrist. Now I know you wouldn't want to design a Renault, but it would give you some pointers as to what is a bad design.

The powers that be in F1 have always favoured the red cars, and it makes for a rubbish sport.

I actually don't mind the team orders bit. It has always been part of racing, even back when you could change drivers. There are many team events such as cycling, where the teams job is to get one rider to win, so why should F1 be different.

Might be interesting if Mosley gets his way and the engines are more evenly matched. Need to do something about the aerodynamics though, because as long as there is this pocket of dirty air behind the car, there will never be any overtaking.

Why did they build a new track for Singapore, with no overtaking areas? Pointless.

 

[Imurg]

Alonso will be in deep fertiliser if he does take Lewis out in the next race - accident or not. To go on record and say that you will do everything to favour one person over another opens yourself up to scrutiny of the highest order. If he merely blocks Lewis for a moment he could find himself being dq'd.

They may be able to drive fast but there's proof that they're not all the sharpest tools in the box.

F1 has got too high an opinion of itself. They make out that its the best sport, the best racing, the best this, the best that. For the most part I find it extremely tedious to watch. There's not enough overtaking and when there is some everyone holds their breath for the Stewards Inquiry. The shunt between Bourdais and Massa shows that the FIA is a joke. To me it looked like either Bourdais was in front and got taken out or that is was a racing coming together where if anything Massa was at fault.

I don't really care who wins as long as its won on the track. Something tells me the lawyers are going to get richer.

 

[shanker]

Spain's top sports newspaper ''Marca'' has the story again today. Alonso will help Massa if he can. I know next to nothing about F1 but this sounds very dodgy. Surely the sport's governing body should be looking into this. If young Lewis wins the champonship, he will really be a worthy champ.

 

[SS2]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, if they made rain mandatory at every race the whole thing would become much more interesting. Either that or spill oil on the track or allow each car to fire bombs or banana skins at opponents (Mario Kart style !) or anything just to stop it becoming a procession whilst James Allan reaching new heights of apoplexy whilst watching nothing happening. He really needs to get out more.

 

[NotQuiteTiger]

How cool would that be, F1 Mario Kart!

 

[toonarmy]

So what you're proposing is F1 combined with 'It's A Knockout'?

Where do I sign the vote? Stuart Hall would certainly make the commentary more interesting

 

[Cernunnos]

So what you're proposing is F1 combined with 'It's A Knockout'?

Where do I sign the vote? Stuart Hall would certainly make the commentary more interesting

its an up-an-under