[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by GTO

What an exciting race! THIS is what Formula 1 is all about.

Disappointments galore with Raikonnen - He should either retire or Ferrari ought to kick him out. What an absolutely lacklustre performance. For someone who has built a reputation as an emerging rain master, Hamilton made too many mistakes. Alonso's drive was only above average as well (partially let down by a 10 lap fuel strategy at the start).

A little harsh dont you think?

Right after the safety car pulled in Kimi complained about an issue with his engine.

His pace in the first stint was not bad at all, even after his pit stop he was lapping consistently in 1:57:xxx and was rapidly catching Rosberg and thats where he remained for some unknown reasons. Read it on autosport.com that he was having massive grip issues and his engine was losing performance if he got close to the spray from the car ahead of him.

In a race where the other Ferrari DNF'd I am quite happy to see him finish.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by amitoj

But i have a bone to pick with Star Sports. What a terrible coverage! Most of the overtakes were shown only in replays because either they took a commercial break at that time or they were showing the pitwall!! Its almost as if the camera had a knack of NOT being where the action was!

I agree with the advertisement part of your comment, but not about showing the replays. Its not star sports who is controlling that. Every race has a TV director present at the track, whose job is to decide what action goes live as it happens. You will be seeing the same action whatever TV channel you tune to. Star, Sky, Earth whatever. So don't blame star sports if some action was not shown live.

Originally Posted by GTO

IMHO, the current season is the first test of Ferrari after the departure of the big guns (Schumy, Todt, Brawn etc.). Massive disappointment. I say get Fonso & Vettel onboard next year!

How is that going to help? Its not the drivers who are not performing. If the guys who are in the decision making team screw up every time, drivers can't do much. IMHO, Stefano is not good enough to lead the team at the moment.

[anachronix]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

How is that going to help? Its not the drivers who are not performing. If the guys who are in the decision making team screw up every time, drivers can't do much. IMHO, Stefano is not good enough to lead the team at the moment.

I wud agree with you by every bit.

The F60 & the management is showing up to be a lousy match. The F60 struggling with reliability and the team struggling in making good decisions through a race. The Ferrari really needs someone like Todt to keep things working. Stephano is struggling a lot and thats showing up big time.

If you look at the ChineseGP, during the initial stint Kimi & Massa were doing well. Over the 2nd stint when Kimi was brimmed to finish, the car just lost its ground. He was all over the place and was struggling to keep it on the track without any grip. The F60 needs to be fixed first, hopefully by Spain as the team says when they come up with the Holy Diffuser and new floor.

The Holy Diffuser makes a huge difference, if you look at the slower Renault & Mclaren of Malaysia & OZ, who were running a prototype of the diffuser gained lot of speed in China. Ferrari can still fight if the car works well from Spain with the updates else they can shift focus to next season like they did in 2005.

[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by anachronix

I wud agree with you by every bit.

The F60 & the management is showing up to be a lousy match. The F60 struggling with reliability and the team struggling in making good decisions through a race. The Ferrari really needs someone like Todt to keep things working. Stephano is struggling a lot and thats showing up big time.

If you look at the ChineseGP, during the initial stint Kimi & Massa were doing well. Over the 2nd stint when Kimi was brimmed to finish, the car just lost its ground. He was all over the place and was struggling to keep it on the track without any grip. The F60 needs to be fixed first, hopefully by Spain as the team says when they come up with the Holy Diffuser and new floor.

The Holy Diffuser makes a huge difference, if you look at the slower Renault & Mclaren of Malaysia & OZ, who were running a prototype of the diffuser gained lot of speed in China. Ferrari can still fight if the car works well from Spain with the updates else they can shift focus to next season like they did in 2005.

Yep, as of now its the Ferrari pitwall and reliability thats a problem, not the drivers.

Agreed Kimi made a mistake in Australia (not conclusive) but its Ferrari's reliability thats letting them down big time.

I do hope the new floor and diffusor gets them the 0.5-0.6 sec that they are lagging. Till the new floor and diffusor are ready I hope that Red Bull is faster than the Brawn and take some points away from them.

Mebbe

Cheers

[GTO]

Does anyone else think Fonso's 2nd place in qualifying was overhyped? I mean, you hear the commentators going gaga over how he drove, but he was running on fumes and was the first to take a pitstop. I'd say that second place was down to carrying only 10 laps of fuel.

Originally Posted by hiren.mistry

A little harsh dont you think?

Let me put it this way : Kimi has an on-off switch. Unfortunately, over the last 2 seasons, the switch has seen the off position more than on. Agreed, he does have his brilliant days but they are becoming a rarity these days. One only needs to look at the '08 season!

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

So don't blame star sports if some action was not shown live.

Problem is : They are taking too many of 'em damn commercial breaks!

[anachronix]

Originally Posted by GTO

Let me put it this way : Kimi has an on-off switch. Unfortunately, over the last 2 seasons, the switch has seen the off position more than on. Agreed, he does have his brilliant days but they are becoming a rarity these days. One only needs to look at the '08 season!

I wouldnt agree here!

It always looks like this man lacks motivation and has lost his racing spirit. Right from his early days with Sauber he is not a person who comes out in public to give unreal statements. He is not famous for showing his emotions or motivation to the public. During his Mclaren days, everytime his Mclaren car let him down in his championship fight for 2003 & 2005, he always retires and gets out of a broken car without showing any emotions & frustration. But he got branded to be a Car Breaker, the media is powerful enough in F1 to tarnish his image on that. Now its lacking motivation talks!

He is not a good car developer like Michael/Alonso but he has the natural speed which got him into F1. In 2007 he fought back really well after a bad mid season! His drive in France, Silverstone, Aussie, China, Spa were brilliant.

In 2008 he got the best start in the season winning 2/3 races off the start. A few upgrades were done to the F2008 when the team left for Canada which suited Felipe more than Kimi. They reverted the F2008 to the launch spec by Spa where he found the sudden speed in his car to fight and lead the race starting from 4th on the grid, but then it ended badly to put him mathematically out of the 2008 championship.

This season he has scored better positions than Massa in Qualifying and he couldnt really show his motivation since Malaysia & ChineseGP were a lot of commotion on the rain and its a lot to do with the car than to do with the driver. The 2008 season's rain master Hamilton was spinning his car around 4 times in China and that says. Kimi kept his car on the track throughout the race (for scoring nothing though).

We will see the better of Kimi once the F60 gets up to fight for wins when Ferrari gets the upgrades on!

[dkhatau]

Kimi is a natural racer, he is not the kind who works his brains out to win races and sometimes natural racers have such lean periods but this time it has extended too long, hope he gets back to his winning ways after the upgrades in spain.

[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by anachronix

I wouldnt agree here!

It always looks like this man lacks motivation and has lost his racing spirit. Right from his early days with Sauber he is not a person who comes out in public to give unreal statements. He is not famous for showing his emotions or motivation to the public. During his Mclaren days, everytime his Mclaren car let him down in his championship fight for 2003 & 2005, he always retires and gets out of a broken car without showing any emotions & frustration. But he got branded to be a Car Breaker, the media is powerful enough in F1 to tarnish his image on that. Now its lacking motivation talks!

He is not a good car developer like Michael/Alonso but he has the natural speed which got him into F1. In 2007 he fought back really well after a bad mid season! His drive in France, Silverstone, Aussie, China, Spa were brilliant.

In 2008 he got the best start in the season winning 2/3 races off the start. A few upgrades were done to the F2008 when the team left for Canada which suited Felipe more than Kimi. They reverted the F2008 to the launch spec by Spa where he found the sudden speed in his car to fight and lead the race starting from 4th on the grid, but then it ended badly to put him mathematically out of the 2008 championship.

This season he has scored better positions than Massa in Qualifying and he couldnt really show his motivation since Malaysia & ChineseGP were a lot of commotion on the rain and its a lot to do with the car than to do with the driver. The 2008 season's rain master Hamilton was spinning his car around 4 times in China and that says. Kimi kept his car on the track throughout the race (for scoring nothing though).

We will see the better of Kimi once the F60 gets up to fight for wins when Ferrari gets the upgrades on!

Couldn't agree more.

Indeed the path Ferrari chose for the car development in 2008 suited more to Massa's driving characteristics than Kimi's. I don't know whether he is a car developer in the mould of Schumi but then hardly anyone is In 2002 and 2004 McLaren started off with poor cars and by mid/end-season they were race winners so it says a lot for Kimi's development skills.

This weekend hopefully the we can see a normal race at a purpose built race track. Ferrari having tested here during the winter should help them find a good set up, so hopefully we can Kimi and Massa finish in the points.