Formula 1 2004 (1 Viewer)

[CharlesD]

I have to wonder "Fred" Alonso and Michael Schumacher were thinking with their tunnel antics (not to mention the "marketing genius" who thought it was a good idea to put a $250,000 diamond on the nose cone of a Jag F1 car.)

 

[Keith Mickunas]

That was quite a race. Very exciting for Monaco. It's a shame BAR didn't do something about Sato and caused two other people to leave the race. That is one dangerous track to have an engine go out on.

I wouldn't put Michael's incident in the same category as Alonso's. Alonso was just stupid. He accuses Ralf of running him wide, yet there was a good gap between them. He could have waited until they were out of the tunnel to pass without trouble. JPM on the other hand has made clear his maturity, or lack there of, this year, it may have been his fault, yet so far I haven't heard of Michael saying anything to inflammatory. Michael was preparing his car for the restart, and the person behind him should give him space. Still it's hard to say what happened there, it could have been debris on the track from Alonso that caused him to lock up like that.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Haven't seen the incident myself, but a friend suggested that MS was brake-testing JPM, overdid it and locked. Also, apparently MS wryly commented that "the leader was taken out by a back-marker". Hmmmm, all very interesting.

But it is interesting to see, of all people, now Renault providing a challenge to Ferrari domination. All this pre-season talk about Williams and McLaren, but it's Renault and BAR providing the competition.

Which also suggests to me, all this bleating about Ferrari domination is crap. Changing rules etc isn't going to wipe out Ferrari's advantage per se, if anything I'd guess the way Ferrari is run now, they'd adapt faster than anyone else and build an even bigger advantage.

 

[Rob Willey]

Has anybody heard whether Michael had any kind of mechanical malfunction to cause that lockup? It seems unlikely that he was heating up the brakes for the restart since the safety car still had its lights on.

Rob

 

[CharlesD]

Schumacher said he was just warming his brakes & there was no mechanical malfunction. First let me say that I've been a Ferrari fan for the past 20+ years and am no Schumacher basher but I don't understand why everyone is dumping on Montoya for this incident! It seems to me that it was a rare screw up by MS. JPM did everything he could to avoid MS but MS just drove into him. The cars were all bunched up behind JPM at the moment the collision happened so if JPM had braked any harder than he did there would have been a much bigger incident.

Schumacher didn't leave sufficient room to do what he did and paid the price for it, its as simple as that as far I can see.

 

[Mike_Ch]

Excellent race, think its the first one I've seen where only half the grid finished. I don't think Ferarri's dominance is all down to their car, Schumancher drove some incredible laps before he crashed, even breaking the lap record. Barrichello has the same car, but has yet to win this season. Feel sorry for Webber (and Sato too), if only their cars were more reliable!

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Keith Mickunas]

From what I've seen, it seems like opinions are split or favoring JPM over this incident. But keep in mind JPM has it out for Michael. He keeps claiming Michael isn't judged like the other drivers, yet JPM hit Michael this time, that can't be denied, and the stewards aren't coming down on him, so I hope he quits his whining. I'd say whatever caused Michael to lock up was the problem, debris, bad brake balance, Michael's left foot, something, but it's hard to determine with so litte footage.

 

[CharlesD]

From what MS & Ferrari have said it was Schumacher's left foot that caused the lock up

I was just watching part of the race again (its still in my TiVo) and it was MS that hit JPM... MS does his brake check, JPM swerves to the right to avoid hitting MS in the rear, but MS moves to the right & JPM has no where to go and they touch.

I hear what you're saying about JPM's whining. When he got the race seat at Williams I had high hopes for him. He had demonstrated tremendous car control skills in CART and I had him pegged as a potential World Champion, but it seems that he may have the skills but not the mental discipline to make it to the very top of Formula One.

 

[Rob Willey]

I think that's open to interpretation. Drivers have an obligation to stay behind the car in front of them under the safety car. Michael moved to the right because that is the line through the tunnel at Monaco.

That said, Michael picked a lousy point to lock up the brakes if he did it intentionally. It's dark in the tunnel and you're just about to head out into direct sunlight again. Makes it a lot harder for the guy behind you to stay behind you.

All in all, I call it a wash -- equal negligence for both drivers.

Rob

 

[CharlesD]

From today's Press Conference for the European GP (don't forget there is another race this weekend!)

Q. What about your own incident in the tunnel, to keep the tyres warm, the brakes warm and everything else must be difficult particularly when you've got the entire field behind you and they're relying on what you're doing?

MS: Yeah, but this is the point because the guys behind rely on what the guy in front is doing, and that's what you have to watch for and I certainly wasn't watching my mirrors behind because I believed that everybody knows how to accelerate and brake and so it was a bit of a surprise for me. Seeing the pictures, if I had maybe watched in the mirrors then maybe I could have not gone on the normal line but I wasn't expecting him to be there.

...

Q. So, just coming back to Monaco again, can you give us your version of your incident with Michael?

JPM: We were warming up the tyres, he went up the gears, I went up the gears, he braked hard to try to warm up the brakes, I braked as hard as I could to try to avoid him, I moved to the right to avoid him and I think he was following the safety car, trying not to pick up any debris from Alonso's incident with Ralf, and I was beside him. I was against the wall and I think he wasn't expecting that I would be there trying to avoid him. His back wheel went over my front wheel and that was it.

 

[Sami Kallio]

Rumours have it that Hakkinen might return in 2005. Williams has been courting him to come back. Reported by Michael Schmidt (Auto Motor und Sport). That would be great news!

 

[JeremySt]

Villenueve is confirmed to test for williams, and now Mika Hakkinenhas been added to the rumor mill. Two former world champs at williams in 05? I can live with that.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

JPM needs to learn how to brake properly. That's a real shame for Ralf to be knocked out like that. That's just going to add to the tension on that team. Sato was pretty stupid for going inside Ruebens like that, in a way he got what he deserved. It's always nice to see someone's career taking off, but he's made some pretty significant mistakes. That's not a good sign for the future.

It's amazing to see another Ferrari 1-2 finish. I wonder how many more there will be this year.

 

[Chris Derby]

Well, as far as Sato goes, I'm not sure I would have had the patience to wait it out, either...

I do have to say I was quite suprised that Barrichello admitted that Sato "would have passed him anyway" if he had just waited.

 

[Rob Willey]

Loved the bit on Speed during the opening when the three announcers were playing with the toy cars and we could hear what they were thinking. And I gotta get me one of those Ferraris!

Rob

 

[Marque D]

I know it is to quick to say but might this be the last year F1 is at Indy. Hope everything works out for Ralf. It's unreal how long it took to get someone to him. :frowning:

 

[Marque D]

I know it is to quick to say but might this be the last year F1 is at Indy. Hope everything works out for Ralf. It's unreal how long it took to get someone to him. :frowning:

 

[Keith Mickunas]

They'll probably make some changes next year, but I doubt they'll stop coming here. There's a lot of potential for them to make money over here. It was quite startling to see a race in the US with such poor safety procedures. I figured being at Indy they would have had some of the Indy safety crew people involved. I can't see any reason for not having medical personnel stationed at various points around the track, that response time was just horrific.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

They'll probably make some changes next year, but I doubt they'll stop coming here. There's a lot of potential for them to make money over here. It was quite startling to see a race in the US with such poor safety procedures. I figured being at Indy they would have had some of the Indy safety crew people involved. I can't see any reason for not having medical personnel stationed at various points around the track, that response time was just horrific.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Um, they just agreed on at least 2 more years the other day, so why would you say this might be the last one? The story was reported at least in the Indy Star.

It's the biggest venue on the circuit and makes an excellent combo with Canada for non-NAs to travel for a double-dip.

The course is getting resurfaced this year, the race and facillities get nothing but praise from the teams, and generally they love coming here. By most accounts the whole thing has been a home run unless you were really counting on instantly winning over the NA crowd.


I haven't seen the TIVO version yet, but the time it took to get Ralf out (and what was with the freaking ambulance parade lap???) was a joke compared to the 500, especially since he wasn't even really hurt. You think they took that long with Stan Fox or even Mario just during testing? Hell no.


Another boring race in terms of competition although down in our seats across from the first few turns (Indy turn 4) the crowd stood and gasped when Rubens and Michael almost touched, they were ready to see someone beat Mike.

This was by far the worst USGP for cars going out, especially via wrecks. I think with Ralf it might have been more a case of freaking out over wrecking at speed, something Indy drivers do on a regular basis (meaning 200+ even though Ralf wasn't that fast yet) but rarely happens in F1. Of course any type of wreck can come out bad, but generally you see few injuries per "hard" wreck during the month of May (practice, qually, or race).

I think the Alonso wreck was just as nasty taking a near speed direct left into the wall thanks to the flat.

By the end of the day it looked like a used car lot down by us with 6 cars off the circuit there, which included us getting a nice close up of Webber pulling his rolling fireball down to the safety crew in front of us..."I say, could I trouble you gents for a spot of water".


And how about Panis and Sato on the "back straight", they and Trulli all were going at it pretty hard and each came close to wrecking their way out of it. Trulli was off circuit several times as I recall.