[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by BUSA

I dont get the point!! Why would he want to impress Ron Dennis!!??

well i guess thats simple to answer..lot of people think mika took a sabatical but the real truth was ron dennis forced him into retirement as he saw the challenge coming from ferrari and wanted mika to end on a high note and also ron wanted new blood into mclaren(thats kimi ofcourse)..he couldnt chuck coulthard as his contract had already been singned and david wasnt intereted in leaving..if ron can do that to mika one of the all time greats then i guess montoya will fare no better..looking at his tremendous potential at williams ron signed JPM but he has not been upto the expected results remember he was the chosen one to beat michael for the championship..so right now his place might be up for stake even though he has his contract signed..bcoz in formula 1 its not talent alone that gets u a seat(look at poor villeneuve) its the point scoring finishes and in this case podium finishes consistently which JPM is lacking..i bet aseem will differ with my views(juss kidding!!!)

[mclaren1885]

coming to think of it aseem u maybe right JPM,might move over to kimi if the need arises to keep sure he doesnt upset ron dennis..

[aseem]

This is my take on the race providing no reliability or accident issues occur. JPM although stating/suggesting passively that he will do all to help Kimi will try to drive the wheels of his Mc Laren in the first 20 laps when Kimi is stuck in traffic. Alonso wont be able to keep pace with him. At that stage it would be stupid for Mc Laren to ask Montoya to back off, as Kimi will be far off and they are also gunning for the contrustors championship and would want to have some insurance in case Kimi has reliability issues.
On lap 20 Montoya pits, Kimi continues for another 10. He would move up to 1st or 3rd position before he makes his pit stops based on how much traffic he has had in his first stint, and how fast Montoya and Alonso have pushed. Rest assured unlike Montoya, Fisi is playing only supportive role in this race for Alonso, and if Kimi doesnt overtake Fisi in the first corner, he would be delayed by Fisi deliberately. After his first stop Kimi will probably be in 4th position behind Button, ahead of the Ferraris. Button will pit early and Kimi will be able to again set the pace around 1 second quicker than Alonso.
All will depend on the second and final pit stop. If Kimi manages to pass Alonso by his last pit stop than Montoya would have to yeild. Even whether he has a big margin or small. So Montoya's race victory depends solely on how Alonso performs. However he should drive as fast as possible so that he can humiliate Kimi by gifting him race victory in final few laps when he had a 30 second advantage. This is not what I want though, but this is quite possible. I am seriouly hoping that no team orders happen as the best man should win!

[mclaren1885]

i truely agree with u aseem..may the best man win..rightly pointed out there that giancarlo will surely be a thorn in kimis race strategy..so the best for kimi would be to make some places at the dissappearence of the 5 lights(mclarens launch control is second best to renault)..and a few more into turn 1 without any incidents..and woila then its a race to watch out for..

ps:aseem need ur inputs on this,dont u think JPM would have fared much better in williams only,i mean the high revving williams really suited his driving style while i dont see him as confident in the mclaren(maybe bcoz of the teams inclination towards kimi as u say)..not going by the performances of williams since last year but if williams could produce the performance they had(on a regular basis) when JPM joined them giving michael a run for his money,i think the williams team and JPM would have been a great combination!!!!btw have decided on my stereo setup,so just post ur views..thanks!!!

[aseem]

There are plenty of factors that should be taken in to account. Montoya should have theoritically won 3 races instead of one this year. He had to gift Kimi one race due to pit strategies that favored Kimi while safety car was out. He also got on with an accident which meant he had to stay out for a while and came back with a lot of shoulder pain. On top till US Grand Prix when there were no team orders, he was not able to maximize his chances. Practically anything that could have gone wrong went WRONG. He still has 40 points and compare this to Fisi and you will know JPM is no Fisi. I agree that Montoya and Williams combination was ideal as Montoya got a car similar to his Indy 500 cars he was used too. Frank Williams was a great manager and he knew when to talk tough to Montoya. He was initially not favored as Ralf and that cost him the championship, thats when he decided it was time for him to move on to Mc Laren. Last year season finalle, he beat Kimi fare and square in his williams.
I feel Montoya is trying too hard to out do Kimi in his Mc Laren and thats leading him to make too many silly mistakes. He wants to prove a point, but like I said strategy and experience favors Kimi. Kimi knows how to get max of the Mc Laren. Remember Ralph used to always out qualify JPM and than towards the end Montoya totally out classed him. For anyone to perform, one needs self belief. Montoya is lacking that right now. He is trying too hard and it shows. I have to acknowledge Kimi is the faster driver of the two in the Mc Laren and he can do it consistantly for a long period of time. While JPM is a more sensational driver. He is like the dark horse that amazes you with its glory. Some of the overtaking manouveres that JPM has done have shocked even Michael Schumacher. I like the one which he overtakes ppl using the outside of the kerb!
That being said, just as JPM got to grips with qualifying and later outdid Ralph, I feel he will get the 2 tenths he has been lagging from Kimi very quickly. He just needs some good results and its amazing what winning can do to bolster your confidence and performance. Kimi is more like Rahul Dravid and Montoya is Sehwag. Its pitty Sehwag is not in form right now. However he is always a treat to watch no matter how accurate Rahul's technique is.

[mclaren1885]

thats really well put aseem,hats off!!! ya JPM is like sehwag and kimis like rahul(ooppss is that me now) solid and consistent..JPM is fun to watch when is all pumped up and the 5 consecutive polls he achieved sometime back describes it all..and boy o boy u hit the nail right on the target regarding the fearless overtaking manouvers of JPM..remember interlagos where he pulled out a blinding manouver over michael a couple of years back sadly he hit michael a little later and was thrown out of the race..that 1 move must have shocked the entire f1 fraternity but comes naturally to JPM from the champcar series i guess..but its really sad to watch that he aint stamping tht authority on the championship that everyone expected off him..is this his destiny or bad luck just got to wait and watch..but i sincerely hope he gets his bearings right and comes out with a bang next season as he is so sensational to watch(not at this moment though)..

ps:aseem u pointed out earlier that JPM didnt push to the limit during qualifying,but i think he did as he wouldnt have known what time would alonso be setting..im sure he wanted to beat the hell out of alonso,so he must have pushed the car to its limit contrary to ur statement..bcoz knowing JPM and the possibilty of team orders not only JPM but the entire mclaren team would want JPM to qualify ahead of the renaults!!!

[aseem]

I think Mc Laren if you read Montoya's post qualifying interviews you will yourself realize that he didnt push as HARD as he could. He wanted to put in a decent lap, as he knew that even with a decent tight lap he will be ahead of the under powered Renault. Anyways its not such a big deal, he was just 0.176 seconds off, and that distance is mere academic. Whats interesting to see is that who will set the fastest lap of the race tommorow, JPM or Kimi? Rest I do not believe in destiny or luck. Somtimes things go wrong, but if you have talent, sooner or later you will be on top. Montoya is no Fisi, as Fisi has no pace even when there are no problems. He is in a different league and so is Kimi.
I hope the rumors about Kimi going to Ferrari are true, as that way Mc Laren will start focusing on Montoya

[mclaren1885]

ya i was about to get to that point aseem as u rightly mentioned that JPM moved out of williams as he wasnt the centre of focus of the team,but the same is hapening here too at mclaren..so do u see JPM wanting to move out of mclaren to be a num 1 driver elsewhere..i personally feel kimi moving to scuderia ferrari is absolute rubbish,he has the best car on the road(not reliability wise though) and im sure he wont make the mistake of moving into schumachers shoes..considering this what would JPM do??quit and join the newly acquired bmw team(or any other team maybe even ferrari with a newcomer massa he will be the numero uno) coming in next year or be second fiddle to kimi at mclaren only..this is getting into a heated discussion here but all in good spirits i guess,hope we had more inputs from the other members too,but na its 3 in the morning and not all are as f1 crazy as u and me..right aseem!!!

[aseem]

See you guys in Delhi, bye bye Bangalore. Wish me safe journey. Rest like I stated yesterday Mc Laren, Montoya will overcome and improve just as he later outdid RS he will be able to outdo Kimi. They have different driving styles and Montoya would be able to adapt to the car sooner or later. Mc Laren and Williams are more interested in wins, than in which driver gets them the wins. So if he can show his true potential, they will back him up!

[mclaren1885]

***!! u were in bangalore aseem the whole time..gosh we could have met aseem..btw when are u leaving to delhi and how..still can do something about meeting up if feasible..

[sridhar24]

Originally Posted by merve_extreme

forget Kimi and that ugly alonso.i want Michael Schumacher to win.Let there be rain.

But it would be better if Kimi takes the Championship than Alonso.i just hate that Flavio and Alonso(in short the whole renault team).

I guess you are a fan of MS as myself, but then why do you hate Flavio. He is a great talent hunter, he was the person who spotted talent in MS and brought him to Benetton and then he became the champion. Now he has done the same with Alonso by seeing talent in him bringing him from Minardi to Renault and has repeated the same.
He gives the drivers good motivation and is a good talent hunter, for that I like him very much.

[mclaren1885]

man if u got to pick one driver of the lot to give the title the "jinxed one" then ones got to hand it over to kimi..boy whats he got to do to wallop alonso..a superb strategy there by mclaren to put kimi on a 1 stop strategy but to no avail,many a thanks to the left tyre failure on the finns car..a storming race for him sadly ended due to a spin with 8 laps to go..boy o boy but the driver of the race for me has to be kimi,a superb effort with all the obstacles that lay ahead of him..well done kimi!!! but surely mclaren has got to find out in detail the reason for the tyre failure on both their cars..
all in all well done kimi and mclaren..

[aseem]

See Mc Laren, whatever we discussed today happened. I was in Bangi for the whole last month.... I guess I never thought you would want to meet. In any case today was a perfect example of what I said. Team orders to ask Montoya to back off were not put in place, however Kimi was put on a one stop strategy on the last minute. So in this case if he wouldnt have had tyre troubles he would have come first easily. As Montoya would have been told no need to push, you are comfortably ahead of Alonso, and behind the lines they would have asked Kimi to push as hard as possible and being on one stop he would have been easily first as Montoya wouldnt have a large enough margin to keep Kimi behind. However what happened was that Kimi had tyre troubles. And he pitted, and this made him under pressure and made him to make an unforced error that almost ended his race in the gravel. So like Montoya, Kimi too is human. If someone tries too hard they have more chances to screw up. When Mc Laren had deliberately spoiled Montoya's race by calling him in pits after Kimi due to safety car, that made it TOO CLEAR that Mc Laren were giving Kimi an advantage even when Montoya was leading. Montoya has made too many unforced errors this year due to not being favored as Kimi by the team and thus trying too hard and ending in trouble. When things wrong today, Kimi did the same. So it just shows that if there is no bias they are both equal drivers.
Now I think its safe to say that Kimi's championship hopes are over. And Mc Laren realize that, now they wont gain anything by taking two points away from Montoya in the future, so next races onwards the competition between Montoya and Kimi will be quite equal as none would be heavily favored.
Wait and watch.... And he guys, at least acknowledge the fact that I was first to tell everyone that Montoya will win even before Kimi's blown engine :d

[mclaren1885]

well aseem all might say kimi was unfortunate but lady lucks with JPM today..anything could have happened to him,he too could have gone into the pits or still worse might have gone out of the race if the tyre had totally given up..then he would have missed the win let alone a place on the podium..all in all lucky u(for the prediction) and lucky JPM i must say..
coming to the championship i dont think its over yet..well this is this game is the mother of all uncertainities..we all thought kimi might storm to a win after the 1st pitstop but were proved wrong..lady luck could potentially go against alonso too..so not sure if mclaren will consider both the drivers equal as of yet..but hope it happens and only then will we know whose the better of the two at mclaren..

[gr8guzzler]

Nice one Aseem, you were spot on in your prediction.

Really enjoyed the race, it was one of those cliff hangers and really kept you rooted to the TV screen.

Great drive by Montoya...had a gr8 race except for that tyre scare during the last few laps.

Raik was awesome, unfortunate to not have a podium finish, but atleast got some points to keep his hunt for the championship alive....

Looking forward to the next race....

Cheers!!!