Formula 1 2004 (1 Viewer)

It looks a bit like 2002 all over again. Except that Renault is strong and McLaren is not. It's good to see BAR coming alive, it'd be nice to have some more competition.

The whole thing with JPB already signing with McLaren for next year seems bad to me. I just don't see how this can be good for a team.

Not so fast Ferrari. Ferrari has always done well at the australian. I think this year schumi will be dethroned, by a Renault!!! Renault is strong this year IMO, and with the confidence Alonso has following last year's unexpected performance, I think he will push the envelope more this year and give schumi a run for his money.
Of course, I am biased towards Renault. You may remember they dominated in the early 90's, right before ferrari took over.

Im sure you may have realized this but.....You mean Renault.

Renault is awsome, they helped Williams clean up in the early 90's with Hill and Prost. Benneton was powered by Ford back then.

I have high hopes for my Williams team, looks like they have their work cut out for them. Good to see Renault and BAR have apparently come on strong this season. I hope McLaren continues to suck. Juan WAS my guy, until he announced his defection to the dark side. I hope Williams can secure Mark Webber's skills for next year.

Check this out. Who will Williams have next year? Truli or Alonso perhaps?

Is M. Schumacher the highest paid athlete (inc. endorsements) in the world?

He was a few years ago, I don't know if that still holds though.

I think Mike is #2 to Tiger Woods. Ralf going to Renault. Here's hoping again that they pick up Mark Webber.

Ironic. Right now Williams probably have the second-best car (behind Ferrari), yet both their drivers are leaving. What odds DC, if he does well this season, moving to Williams? But on the Aussie performance it doesn't look like he will...

Whilst Renault have a nice package, for sheer speed and power they won't be able to challenge the Big 3 consistently. Or should I say Big 2? I was surprised at how poorly McLaren did, after all the hype about their MP4-19 car and its extended development period after the 18 was "scrapped".

Also, with the new rule of one engine per weekend, a huge premium will be placed on reliability. On this score, the Ferraris are clearly the leaders, and should ensure their dominance. The real question IMHO is how close are the others going to run them. And for that matter, will Rubens ever be allowed to win? Perhaps if/when Schumi retires, Rubens gets one year as #1 driver (as a "loyalty" bonus), with maybe Alonso as his #2, and the following season they're equal and may the best man win?

I heard during the broadcast that Montoya was leaving Williams at the end of the year... where's he going?

Brian

Montoya is going to McLaren. I think the deal was signed last year around the end of the season. It seems to me it's been public knowledge for a while now. Ralf was having trouble with the team last year. I don't think he liked being considered the #2 driver, plus he wasn't performing that well early on. However he started picking it up big time towards the latter part of the season. It's foolish for them to continue pushing him away when they're losing Juan already. I don't see how they could sustain good team morale with this kind of stuff going on. Ralf and Juan are going to be racing only for themselves now.


I believe that's the most recent thing I've heard also. Schumie was #1 for a while, $80 million a year or something like that, then Tiger's contracts with Buick, Nike and some others got bigger and he took over the number one spot. Perhaps Forbes or SI has the list?

This is what Eurosport says about Ralph and Renault

Ralf going to Renault turned out to be a rumor. Flavio Briatore says nothing has been discussed.

Tiger is the highest paid athlete but Schumi has the highest salaried athlete. He make $35 million/year from Ferrari, win or lose.

Now the latest rumor is Toyota for Ralf.

Hard to be a Williams fan this year, knowing that BOTH drivers are on their way out. I'll still go for them, but It wouldnt hurt my feelings if Franks sent both of of his drivers packing, and used his test drivers for the rest of the season.

Apparently, Williams has given Ralf until the next race in Bahrain to decide on their counter-offer.

After Malaysia, I have to ask: Can anyone touch Michael and Ferrari this year? Montoya seems to have the best challenge for him, but even he isn't getting that close. McClaren can't seem to put together a fast car that will actually finish a race. Renault is strong but not in Ferrari's or even Williams' class yet.

Still, way to go Jenson Button! Nice to see a new face on the podium!

And Mark Webber? Which voodoo witch doctor did you piss off? Man, no one's luck is that bad...

That was quite a race this morning. It's hard sometimes to decide if it's the car/team or the driver that is responsible for winning or losing, but man Shumi can just drive like no one else. Has he made a single mistake in either of the two races this year? Have his wheels ever left the track or has he bumped anyone else? I don't believe they've shown any footage of that happening yet. It's like he's using the practice sessions and first qualifying session to figure out the track and make any mistakes he's going to make, and once he goes out for final qualifying he runs perfectly. Amazing stuff. This makes me wonder about Ruebens, is he just not as good, or have there really been issues with his car? In the first race he blamed his brakes, but what about this race?

Webber really screwed up. He made all his own problems this time. He really blew the start. I hope he starts performing better. While there are quite a few drivers like Webber that look like they may be able to make the championship more exciting, they just don't have the consistency it takes. Button has had a 6th and 3rd this year, but how well we'll he keep that up?

Well it looks like Bridgestone has it's tire problems sorted out. Last year didn't look good, but they performed well in Australia and now in Malaysia. I don't think Ferrari was the favorite for this race before the weekend started mainly because of tires. It may be only 2 races into the season, but I think unless Michael gets injured and misses a few races he's got an easy shot at another championship.

I have to agree about Schumie. Most people either like him or hate him. I have mixed emotions. I truly admire his dedication, but think he takes it too far at times (recklessly nearly pushing other cars off the track, taking out Damon Hill in 1994, for example). It's amazing how consistent he is and how few mistakes he makes while piloting a machine that is unforgiving of the slightest error. Good drivers often don't get to prove themselves because they are stuck in inferior cars, but Schumacher is one of the main reasons his car is so good. He is largely responsible for it being the car it is. He is tops at everything-- learning about his car through endless practice laps, being able to convey how the car is handling to the engineers, tops at qualifying, tops at racing, tops at driving in the rain, tops at physical conditioning, tops at maintaining mental concentration and almost always making the right choices. Schumie's biggest problem is that he doesn't have another great driver to compete against to prove just how good he is. Senna had Prost, Clark had Hill and Brabham, but Schumacher may never get to show to everyone just how good he is because he lacks the equally memorable opponent against which he can be measured for posterity.

I view Schumacher/Ferrari in F1 about the same way that I viewed Doohan/Honda in 500GP.

Just as Doohan developed the NSR500 into the world championship winning machine that it was (7 total, 5 under Doohan), Michael has developed the Ferrari into what he needs to win in any situation.

I'm still amazed by his skill and consistancy that he shows year after year, bit damn does it make for boring races. I Do still root for him, though. I mean, you figure that the FIA keeps changing the rules to "even the field" and he still wins in spite of that.

Michael shows us how good he is every race weekend, but no driver can consistantly go wheel to wheel with him.

Unfortunatly, we probably won't get to see a FULL season of amazing races until Shumi gets bored and retires.

(As a side note, did anybody else catch Coulthard talking about preparing for Malaysia by racing carts w/ Doohan?)