Bahrain Grand Prix 15th April *Spoilers* "ON-TOPIC"

True.

i'm no fan of lewis or anything, but at least the guy has something to say, most of drivers in f1 are just "let's wait and see", but when asked if he feels a championship contender he answered honestly what he tought, right or wrong he said something

and about the start of the race...he moved like 5 times, stewarts need to look closely on this cuz it could get out of hand, and he said that massa could be dangerous at the start, but the only dangerous maneuver i saw was from him, i'm sure fernando kept his mouth shut to the media, but he must've said something to mclaren

Muks_C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> why do they make the fuel flaps open in that
> direction, where they cause drag if stuck open?
> why don't they make the hinge at the front edge,
> so it opens from the rearwards side, so if it
> stays stuck open, simply driving at high speed
> will cause it to close again? it baffles me.

Tbh, in either case, the hinges are probably too strong to be closed in either direction. The best answer would be to shut the fuel flap once the fuel rig comes out.

Why make it automated anyway?

I remember people saying that I was mad thinking Hamilton will win a race this season when I posted here last year. A lot of replies suggested he should be pleased with top six in his first few races. When we hit the European tracks that he has raced on before I think we will see a true reflection of his ability. I have watchted F1 since the early 80's and no-one has impressed me more. He has a great belief in himself.

might as well get rid of wheel tethers and fire extinguishers in the cars then...

You know thats not how I meant it, so dont be silly :p

---

"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

"I have watchted F1 since the early 80's and no-one has impressed me more. He has a great belief in himself"

I've been watching F1 for as long too but whilst i'm also mega impressed with Lewis he has been given the second if not the equal best car on the grid and has the full backing of the Mclaren organisation who haved groomed him for many years for his seat.
Neither Prost, Senna or Schumacher were given such support or fantastic equipment when they started in F1.

I already said it before. You gotta remember Hamilton has the entire McLaren team working very hard for him to do well. His strategy on the previous two races were completely spot-on. Not even Alonso had such good strategy. Sure, Lewis is a great driver, but I don't think his results so far represent his true ability.

mcdo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>...no second half of the season McLaren for Kimi...

Oh man...you have no idea how it hurts to hear that. The mp4/20 was the most impressive F1 car I've seen to date in terms of both speed and looks. Do you remember JPM at Monza?? 372Km/h on the main straight. *sigh* I still can't get over the fact that McLaren and Mercedes screwed up that season so bad for Kimi. I really want Kimi to win this championship and shove it in their faces.

*edit* Woot!! Lucky day...finally found this pic of Kimi winning the Japanese GP in 1280x1024. Been looking for it for a long time



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2007 08:12PM by Joe_Satriani.

Diax F1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Muks_C Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > why do they make the fuel flaps open in that
> > direction, where they cause drag if stuck open?
> > why don't they make the hinge at the front
> edge,
> > so it opens from the rearwards side, so if it
> > stays stuck open, simply driving at high speed
> > will cause it to close again? it baffles me.
>
> Tbh, in either case, the hinges are probably too
> strong to be closed in either direction. The best
> answer would be to shut the fuel flap once the
> fuel rig comes out.
>
> Why make it automated anyway?


i reckon i don't know very much about this, but how many tenths you really loose because of this??, the problem was on webber's and kubica's car, who imo used this as an excuse for being out performed by their respective teammates, can you really loose so much because of that? i really doubt it, otherwise, why don't all f-1 cars look the same?

and about the way it opens, it has to be a regulation for safety or something because like mucks says, out of all 11 teams, no one has come up with a different design of it

NickR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>I have watchted F1
> since the early 80's and no-one has impressed me
> more. He has a great belief in himself.

?
I have been also watching F1 since then aprox. and there has been a lot of races of people that impressed me more than his first three races.

Monaco 1984 (Senna), A1-Ring 1997 (Trulli), Brasil 1994 & spa 1995(Schumacher), Japan 2005 (Kimi), Hungaroring & Montmeló 2003 (Alonso)... these are just a few I can remember so far.

If you qualify in first two rows and finish in the podium having one of the four best cars (with significant difference) and reliable, it's fine. But it's better if you start from the 15th spot and gets a podium or a win, even having a fantastic car. I'm waiting to see that of Hamilton to convince myself.

Muks_C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> why do they make the fuel flaps open in that
> direction, where they cause drag if stuck open?
> why don't they make the hinge at the front edge,
> so it opens from the rearwards side, so if it
> stays stuck open, simply driving at high speed
> will cause it to close again? it baffles me.

As what ever device they use to open it probably locks in that position. If it stuck open the other way it would affect the aerodynamics even more and maybe even break what ever holds it open which would make pit stops rather difficult.

When you consider the amount of man hours that goes into building the car and doing some pretty amazing things, something so basic as a fuel flap can go wrong :s


vMax.Keiran
Velocity Maximum Simulation Racing
www.vMaxSR.com
www.liveforspeed.net LFS Status:

Stars of the race: DC and Heidfeld. DC had a fantastic drive going until that fluke mechanical failure. It was good to see him moving through the field with ease, and some of his passes were fantastic! The ease with which he passed Fisi was incredible! He made Fisi look really bad on that one.

Webber on the other hand continues to be unimpressive. My worst fears about him have been validated. It wasn't a case of a good driver in a bad car in the past, simply a case of Webber always being decent in quali and pathetic in the race.

Heidfeld passing Alonzo was the move of the race, and BMW Sauber looks to be a real challenger this year. I bet Fernando is already tired of McLaren. Seeing him in a Ferrari one day would be unreal.

The stewards and marshals need to look hard at Hamilton's penchant for weaving all over the track to keep others at bay. I would love to see someone punt him off the track next time he does it....



"There are some pikeys there at Turn 10 putting tarmac down - what do you think of that?" - Martin Brundle



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2007 06:33AM by Jagdpanzer.

@ Keiran, yeah it must have some sort of locking thing, but you'd think there would be a better way around the problem of it sticking open. i remember a few years ago someones got stuck closed, so a mechanic levered it open with a screwdriver at the pitstop, then taped it down after the fuel rig was removed.

---

RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Jagdpanzer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Webber on the other hand continues to be
> unimpressive. My worst fears about him have been
> validated. It wasn't a case of a good driver in a
> bad car in the past, simply a case of Webber
> always being decent in quali and pathetic in the
> race.
>


I would say that Webber is awesome in quali ,I don't know many better ones if any... and he is also decent in race not pathetic.

yep, David is one of those drivers that can still overtake easily on track if the car it's up to it.. on the fisi move, the beauty of it was that he went on the inside exactly at the time that fisi took his eyes off the mirror it was almost like if dave was not looking at the track but at fisi's mirros waiting for him to take his eyes of it, pure class

about hamilton i have to agree with you, i don't know how the marshalls didn't notice it, it was ridiculous, but i'm sure fernando and kimi did

webber has the same thing as trulli.

Great over 1 lap they get the car higher up the grid than where it should be, problem is the car does not have the race pace so then they look bad.

Webber was going ok until the fuel flap got stuck open and bits were falling off the car

howcome the car doesn`t have the race pace, if DC, who started last, overtook Webber before the half of the race. Webber is crap, now since he is at RB, he is just proven crap. He never did anything spectacular his 5th place in Melbourne in 2002 was only due to way too much of luck. And he is still praised because of that.. Pathetic..

Ive never been too fond of Webber, he has awsome 1-lap ability, but nothing more imo. But 2005 showed that against Nick.

Nick was his equal and more, and it is arguable, Nick has improved alot in 2006, and now.

But its about time DC had a decent race.

---

"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

i think what marcl meant is that, when webber places his car in 7th position to start a race for example, everybody thinks he can do better, but the truth is that the car is not good enough for the race to be 7th, so it ends the race 12 or 13, close to where any regular driver would've put it in qualy

about race trim.. David is one of the best in race pace, when he was kimi's teammate, he used to qualify like 4 places behind and sometimes he ended up right behind him, he is very consistent in race, but is no secret to naybody that Webbo is not, but i don't think he is as bad as a lot of people think (over race distances)

Yes thats what I meant.

I think webber is over rated as well but he was doing ok until the 1st pit stop prob.