Monza GP *****Spoilers*****

Early I know but I can bareley contain my excitement...

[www.autosport.com]

This is great news!!! Only downside I see is that with 6 cars 100% using KERS this weekend are we going to see some eager first corner first lap dives? On a single lap these raised curbs are perfect, on a race start we could see a few front wings come flying. Also because the curbs have been quite low, its been very easy to dive up the inside and pretty much plant the car 100% off track and on the green stuff, to either defend or attack. I have a slight worry this may discourage ambitious moves... but most likley not!

Weather reports about the net are consistant up to Sunday, they predict Sunny, a little cloudy conditions with temperatures in mid to high 20's. For Sunday, some are predicting showers, some are not but as the weekend draws closer we will know! Personally I hope if it is wet, then just changeable conditions rather than full wet. (since Button is a more changeable guy than full wet, plus im scared of Vettel in the wet .... and Glock!)

Either way, dry, wet or monsoon I predict a major Lewis domination all weekend. Pole, fastest lap and win, by a long long long way. I think in qualifying where the KERS advantage will be most evident we could see Brawn/RedBull maybe running light to ensure decent starting posistion. In a race where RedBull should have come away with at least a double podium they failed, this weekend Brawn are the ones expected to perform but can they beat the KERS of Mclaren, Ferrari, and Renault? No way to know yet! I think the other question which we all want to know is, how quick will BMW and Force India be?

Anyway, after a classic last weekend, we at least have a good track to provide good racing once again. Doubt the result will be as supprising but Monza + the most competitve grid since, well ever = a whole lot of fun/overtaking?

If its not a Button/Rubens win, I hope for either Lewis or Giancarlo. Anything else will disapoint me !

edit -



Look pretty mean!

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



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2009 01:18PM by mortal.

For the first corner, fair enough. No problem, it's a routine, relatively boring slow corner.

The 2nd chicane was fantastic though! Cars leaping through the air, crashing down again. It was one of the best chicanes still in F1.

What is it with Monza? For such a historic track with a tradition of keeping a great track great in light of 50 years of continual safety changes, all they've done in the past decade is spoilt 2 of the best low-speed chicanes in racing.

M'mmm, those kerbs look nice. About time they put something in those chicanes that punishes you if you run over it. Maybe they've read the Belgian GP thread on here!


gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is it with Monza? For such a historic track
> with a tradition of keeping a great track great in
> light of 50 years of continual safety changes, all
> they've done in the past decade is spoilt 2 of the
> best low-speed chicanes in racing.

You have a point there. We've seen a different "solution" every year on those chicanes since 1994, it seems. The biggest failure of the lot must be the piles of tyres in '96.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2009 09:19PM by EC83.

gav schreef:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For the first corner, fair enough. No problem,
> it's a routine, relatively boring slow corner.
>
> The 2nd chicane was fantastic though! Cars leaping
> through the air, crashing down again. It was one
> of the best chicanes still in F1.
>
> What is it with Monza? For such a historic track
> with a tradition of keeping a great track great in
> light of 50 years of continual safety changes, all
> they've done in the past decade is spoilt 2 of the
> best low-speed chicanes in racing.


I hated how they cut those curbs. The chicanes weren't corners anymore, just slightly bent straights.

They were challenging though - drivers could make mistakes more often. Now they'll just have drive around them as with every other corner around.

Would you prefer to drive at Monza with the Roggia as it was in 2008, or would prefer to drive at Monza where the Roggia has been turned into a less tight version of the chicane at Barcelona?

They were challenging though - drivers could make mistakes more often.

And simply cut the corner. I want mistakes to go punished. Get that corner right or you'll be in trouble. That's what I call challenging. The bumping and flying you describe was nothing more than a routine. I can't recall cars having spun because of that (well one, Piquet, but that doesn't really count, does it? :P).

I think you'll still see plenty of flying cars. Apparently, the kerbs are as high as those in the Veedol chicane and I remember quite some cars bouncing about in that one!

Yeah, but it's routine now. It's just like any other chicane. Stick those blocks a few feet from the apex, and it'll still be the same challenge - they might well have done so, but I just hope it's nothing like they've done to the 1st chicane, where it's hugging the kerb, a foot or less from the track itself.

'Get it right or you'll be in trouble' isn't what any of this series is about any more. No-one wants to see a driver clouting that and just being overtaken - they want to see him suffer as the guy behind gets a run on him (such as Montoya and Schumacher at that point few years back as I remember). There's little interest in a driver just getting it wrong and just being overtaken with no drama.

It punishes the less spectacular drivers. Give some incentive to stay within the confines of the race-track, sure, but don't completely change the corner as a result. Make those who dig deep the ones who gain an advantage (like Alonso) rather than those who just stay within the safety margins (like Badoer... normally).

Here's a youtube vid of an onboard Monza lap



I think the drivers now lose the green part of the kerb. So they lose half of it.

I think that the second chicane will now be at the speed of the first chicane in the video. Still pretty good to me. I don't think they'll be driving around the kerb or something.

The first chicane will be that of around the Veedol chicane. Also pretty good.

They'll still be challenging chicanes I think, with plenty of overtaking. I wonder if you can also drive a bit over the inner bit of the kerb. That would certainly make it more challenging. If you can do that, I expect more flying around than we do now. I guess time will tell.

EDIT: Here's the answer: Yes, you can :D





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2009 09:59PM by Nickv.

See, I don't see what was wrong with the chicane in the Massa lap you posted. Perhaps build up the green bit a touch more to make it less appealing or less advantageous, but it's not exactly cutting the corner. Yeah, they're inside the white line on the left-hand part, and presumably some on the right, but it's not as if they're missing the corner or anything.

What I dont get is why now? Why not when they altered the first corner layout? Since its been changed to the version we now know drivers have always cut it. The rule being 4 wheels off lap after lap and its a penalty.

I still think its good news, but perhaps pointless.

That front wing flex is crazy! I hope we get more slow-mo's of the first two chicanes.

Your right about the 2nd chicane gav, it was insane.

Whats the betting Lewis will still eat as much out of them as he physically can, without braking the car or himself!!!

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

That's the thing, they're inside the white line. IMO four wheels on the kerbs is just too much. They do it too at the final chicane in Canada. IMO that one was better when they had the high kerbs, more challenging. Drivers made more mistakes thanks to the higher kerbs while trying and pushing how far they could get up the kerb without losing the back end. In Monza you don't have that because the kerbs were so low.

I don't have a problem with being over the white line if everyone does it. The problem comes when you're actually cutting the corner - gaining an advantage by actually cutting the track. I don't mean straight-lining a chicane, I mean missing it. Getting as high up a kerb as possible is an art in car design and driver performance itself. It also happens to be interesting and different.

Where's the point in just reverting to type?

It's why we all hate the Tilke tracks. To a point, they're all exactly the same, just with the same challenges in a a different order. You want the likes of Monza and Spa to be immune to just doing that.

Now though, we've got a 9,000,000 metre wide grid at Spa, needless grasscrete on the exit of La Source and they've dug up the Bus Stop and given us 2 silly chicanes, of 2nd of which the only thing of interest is the camber on exit.

Monaco we've lost St. Devote (it's just another corner now) and they've ruined the Swimming Pool (though the first part is still challenging, the 2nd is hopeless) and La Rascasse.



Why fix something that wasn't broken?

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't have a problem with being over the white
> line if everyone does it. The problem comes when
> you're actually cutting the corner - gaining an
> advantage by actually cutting the track. I don't
> mean straight-lining a chicane, I mean missing it.
> Getting as high up a kerb as possible is an art in
> car design and driver performance itself. It also
> happens to be interesting and different.
>
> Where's the point in just reverting to type?
>
> It's why we all hate the Tilke tracks. To a point,
> they're all exactly the same, just with the same
> challenges in a a different order. You want the
> likes of Monza and Spa to be immune to just doing
> that.
>
> Now though, we've got a 9,000,000 metre wide grid
> at Spa, needless grasscrete on the exit of La
> Source and they've dug up the Bus Stop and given
> us 2 silly chicanes, of 2nd of which the only
> thing of interest is the camber on exit.
>
> Monaco we've lost St. Devote (it's just another
> corner now) and they've ruined the Swimming Pool
> (though the first part is still challenging, the
> 2nd is hopeless) and La Rascasse.
>
>
>
> Why fix something that wasn't broken?


Agreed!!!!

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gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't have a problem with being over the white
> line if everyone does it. The problem comes when
> you're actually cutting the corner - gaining an
> advantage by actually cutting the track. I don't
> mean straight-lining a chicane, I mean missing it.
> Getting as high up a kerb as possible is an art in
> car design and driver performance itself. It also
> happens to be interesting and different.
>
> Where's the point in just reverting to type?
>
> It's why we all hate the Tilke tracks. To a point,
> they're all exactly the same, just with the same
> challenges in a a different order. You want the
> likes of Monza and Spa to be immune to just doing
> that.
>
> Now though, we've got a 9,000,000 metre wide grid
> at Spa, needless grasscrete on the exit of La
> Source and they've dug up the Bus Stop and given
> us 2 silly chicanes, of 2nd of which the only
> thing of interest is the camber on exit.
>
> Monaco we've lost St. Devote (it's just another
> corner now) and they've ruined the Swimming Pool
> (though the first part is still challenging, the
> 2nd is hopeless) and La Rascasse.
>
>
>
> Why fix something that wasn't broken?


Here here!

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why fix something that wasn't broken?

Because then it wouldnt F1 silly !

Thanks for the edit mortal too!

---

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

Said I'd post this here rather than create a new topic or anything, interesting interview with Felipe Massa, a more "human side" to the story if you will. :P

If I don’t drive I am not the same person’

EXCLUSIVE - FELIPE MASSA INTERVIEW: In his first exclusive interview since the accident that left him in a coma, the Ferrari driver tells Donald McRae he will return more determined than ever to win a world title

FELIPE MASSA traces the skin around the stitched but still dented wound over his left eye as he smiles gently at a question about the nature of fate. He might feel like one of the luckiest men alive, at home in his glittering apartment in Sao Paulo on a rainy September afternoon. Yet high in the sky, close to the ominous clouds that shroud this vast and sprawling city, Massa could brood equally over the extreme misfortune that saw a flying spring smash into his head at 170mph six weeks ago during a practice lap at the Hungarian grand prix.

“You need to think about luck in different ways,” Massa suggests before pausing. “I was actually very unlucky with the spring in my face,” he says. “But I was very lucky as well. Every doctor said the same. If the spring had gone one millimetre to the right I would have lost my sight. One millimetre to the left and who knows? I could have been brain damaged. So I was very lucky. And this is more important because it is my life.”

His gaze, nearly blinded in Hungary, sweeps from the imposing skyline to the trophies and helmets placed alongside his wife’s huge books on fashion and the modern art lining the pristine white walls. Knowing that this apartment will soon be filled with the cries and gurgles of their first child, Massa flashes one of his most engaging grins. He might be talking of an old rival against whom he no longer holds any grudge rather than the hurtling metal that snapped off Rubens Barrichello’s car and almost killed him on July 25th. Weighing the same as a small bag of sugar, but careering into his helmet with deadening force, the spring knocked Massa cold at the wheel of his speeding Ferrari. It led to an induced coma with Hungarian surgeons warning that his condition was “critical” and “life-threatening”.

In contrast to those bleak diagnoses his cheerful mood is obvious as his wife, Rafaela, drifts past. It is an almost giddy experience to hear Massa talking so vividly, to see him looking so strong just days before he re-enters hospital in Sao Paulo. He now faces another operation to implant a titanium infused plate in his head so that, next season, he will be ready to race again for Ferrari.

Yet it is also hard to shake the feeling that Massa remains dangerously consumed by racing. The great drivers, addicted to speed and seemingly inured to fear and risk, are not ordinary men but surely an accident this serious has affected him psychologically? Has he detected even a small change in himself? “No,” he says defiantly, before laughing. “Not at all. I remember in hospital when I woke up in the beginning. I had an oxygen mask to help me breathe. All the time I was lifting the mask and putting it here . . .”

Massa points to his head, making a gesture that suggests he turned his oxygen mask into a clown’s hat. He shakes his head, as if he cannot believe how blackly comic the scene must have appeared in that hushed hospital room in Budapest. “And then my wife would come and put the mask back over my face. But, straightaway, I would lift it on to my head. I had some friends with us and they were laughing because she kept trying to put it back over my face. And the third time I did it I looked at her and said, ‘What a pain in the ass!’ Rafaela looked at our friends and said, ‘No, he’s the same! He’s the same’!”

He might be blasé about his own instinctive reaction to being taken to hospital but Massa reveals how he and Rafaela had been troubled by the death of the British driver Henry Surtees at Brands Hatch, six days before his own accident. It was, again, grimly freakish as a tyre flew off a rival Formula Two car and struck the head of the 18-year-old Surtees.

Massa shudders for the first time. “I was very touched by his death. And I told my wife straightaway about the accident of Henry. I said to her, ‘Listen, this is what you need to be worried about. This is something you have no control over. It is not like a normal accident.’ And then a week after that . . . [he claps his hands and laughs] . . . it happened to me. She remembered straightaway what I had said. When I first told her about Henry she was a bit scared. She said, ‘It’s unbelievable – how did this wheel come away like this?’ I said, ‘Listen, this is like if you have an accident on the road – if somebody hits you when you least expect it. Like they jump the red light and then hit you.’ There’s nothing you can do.”

Massa sent the Surtees family a heartfelt message on the Monday after Henry’s death. He smiles ruefully at the irony. “They sent a thank you after my message – but then they sent me a very nice message after my accident.” Surtees was tragically unlucky; Massa was more fortunate but he believes the coincidence of two outlandish accidents is a warning. “We need to look for improvements. I’m not saying we need to cover (the cockpit) completely. But maybe there are some other things we can do to the car to stop a wheel hitting your head. When I come back this is something I want to discuss with Charlie Whiting [Formula One’s race director], the FIA and the drivers – because we all need to work together.”

Massa is even more thoughtful when describing the terrible ordeal endured by his family. “It was much more difficult for them than me. When my wife saw the accident on television the first thing she did was put the volume down, completely, because she didn’t want to hear anything. She was already calling my secretary to organise the flight – because she knew it was bad. Rafaela knows if I stay in the car after an accident it is strange. I always try to show some sign. She was very scared but, organising the flight, her adrenaline was so high. When she got to the airport, and heard I was in surgery, she was crying like crazy then. She couldn’t stop.”

Rafaela was joined by Massa’s parents and, alongside his Brazilian doctor, Dino Altman, they flew to Budapest. Despite his astonishingly rapid recovery his family are besieged by anxiety as he prepares to return next year to the grid. Massa, in contrast, burns with conviction. “Of course,” he smiles. “It is my life. For me, the worst thing that happened was not being able to race. If you can’t drive that’s terrible. But my wife has already asked me, at least 10 times: ‘Are you sure you don’t feel any doubts or worries?’ Always, I say: ‘No – because this is what I like to do.’ If I don’t drive then I am not the same person. Ever since I was a small boy this is my life. This is what I like to do. So I really hope, and expect, nothing will change inside of me when I go back into the car and start pushing myself to the maximum again.”

Has there not been a single day, even an hour, in which he has hesitated? “No. For my family it was very difficult because they followed everything and went through a lot. But for me it was less than that. As soon as it happened I was unconscious and three days later I woke up. In hospital I saw nothing of the accident. It was just Hungarian television channels. I only heard what they said happened to me. And for me this was strange – can a spring from another car really do this to a bone in my head?

“I first saw it when I got home on television – just like you. But I had other accidents that disturbed me a lot more. When I lost the brakes in Monaco in 2002 it was a huge crash. And I crashed twice in Barcelona because I had a problem with my suspension – and that was an accident that made me think. But this accident in Hungary is like something I never even saw. So my wife was only asking gentle questions, like: ‘You don’t think maybe . . . ?’ And I say: ‘No, I am racing again.’ My mother also knows me a lot. Sometimes she is looking at me and thinking but she knows not to ask.”

The extent to which Massa has missed competing is illustrated by his reaction to the first race after the Hungarian grand prix – when he yearned to drive at Valencia. “It was very difficult. I watched it here on TV with my computer on my lap so that I could check the lap times. There is a five-hour time difference so I wake at five in the morning to watch the practise on Friday.”

Even Massa looks briefly stunned by his own fervour so soon after the coma. “Unbelievable,” he murmurs. If it was down to him, rather than his doctors, Massa would make his return in this season’s penultimate race – at his home grand prix in Brazil, at Interlagos, not far from where he lives. There are three races before then, with the next grand prix on Sunday at Monza. Massa dutifully welcomes the arrival of Giancarlo Fisichella as his latest temporary replacement and suggests the Italian can help Ferrari in pursuit of third place in the constructors’ championship.

“But it will be much worse when I have to watch the race in Brazil. That was the race I wanted to come back in but it’s difficult to say if it would’ve been possible.”

Will he be at Interlagos, despite his pain at missing a race he won last year – only to lose the drivers' championship by a single point when Lewis Hamilton secured fifth place on the very last corner of the season? “It will be difficult to watch it,” he concedes, “but I will be there.”

Last week Massa returned from a battery of neurological tests in Miami – that provided absolute confirmation that he is almost ready to resume his career. “Actually, I am okay. The only problem is I need surgery to close a bone in my head that they had taken away because it was completely damaged. A normal guy can live like this without any problem. But for a driver, if you have an accident and you have this problem, the recovery is more difficult. That’s why I need this surgery to close the bone. I will have it soon because that’s the only reason they won’t allow me to race now. Otherwise I feel the same as before. I’m going to Europe to use the simulator and drive some go-karts and then I will know very well if I’m 100 per cent."

Massa appears without doubt that a seemingly routine operation will clear his last remaining obstacle. His competitive instincts, meanwhile, remain razor-sharp. Asked to reflect on the battle for the drivers’ title, with Jenson Button being chased by his team-mate, Barrichello, and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, Massa is scathing in assessing the British driver’s slump – that has seen Button’s lead appear increasingly shaky. Even though his rivals have failed to capitalise, and he remains 16 points ahead, Button seems fretful.

Does he believe Barrichello can overtake Button? “Look at me – I came to Brazil six points behind (Hamilton), and I almost won the championship. That was one race. Rubens has five races to close 16 points. It’s a big possibility. But it depends on Jenson. If Jenson carries on in this bad way it will help Rubens a lot. In my opinion, Jenson has gone down because of the pressure. It’s the only reason.

“At the start of the season everything was nice, everything was easy. He was in a new team winning six out of the first seven races. That’s different to fighting hard for the championship. Now he has a different kind of pressure. In the earlier races he was almost half a second quicker than some teams. You win the race easy and there is not so much pressure. But now we have races where things are more difficult. So for me the pressure has had a big impact on his mind – and he needs to deal with it better. If he does not cope with the pressure he will not win the championship.”

Does he feel that Button has buckled so badly he will be unable to regain his lost momentum? Massa shrugs. “It’s difficult to talk about another driver. I know Jenson but I don’t know him so well. But I’m hoping for Rubens, of course. He’s Brazilian – and he is my friend.”

This has been a strange season for Formula One; but for Massa it has been a year like no other. Beyond his crash, the 28-year-old is preparing to become a father. “I am very excited. The baby is due just after the middle of November – and we know it is a boy. We will call him Felipe. I don’t think I will ever forget 2009 because of this crash and, more importantly, becoming a father. Positive things come out of even the most difficult times.”

Does he believe he will eventually become world champion to cap his remarkable recovery? “Always,” he smiles. “Even more now. I have to believe it. I have always believed my whole life I will become a champion in whatever field I am racing. Formula One is the same. I will try very hard.”

On the drive back downtown Massa’s voice echoed again. Asked one last time why he will race on, he had laughed softly. “This is my life,” Massa reiterated when we said goodbye. “This is me.”



[www.irishtimes.com]

tldnr

Hope F60 will suit to fisichella with low down force yeah!

That was long!!

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

Iceman-Kimi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Alonso signs for Ferrari!


Nice trick!... nah i end process it already, too old!