The Official 2009 Singapore Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

I do think though after the Australia Lewis let his head go which did effect him, once he sorted that out he was back on it. I agree that when the car got better so did Lewis but they gap between them at the moment is rather large in terms of race pace.

Which to me shows Lewis is getting more out the car.

Mid season it was Webber getting more out the car than Vettel, things change all the time.

Right now Rubens is getting more out the car than Button, and if he did not keep messing up the starts the championship would be looking very different.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2009 05:07PM by marcl.

gav Wrote:
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> If it came from a neutral, then fair
> enough, but I just think the neutrals are loving
> it. I know I am!

I guess I'm mainly neutral these days(I never used to be), the only favourites I have are Rubens(a big one) and Kimi. The others have all dropped out of F1. I don't have any favourite teams just now.
I'm loving everything else about the current F1, it's just that the Championship battle this year seems pretty... flat. Meh, I guess we've just been spoiled in recent years.

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gav Wrote:
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> I'd agree to an extent. He only came alive at
> Monaco when the car was clearly better, or he made
> it better. Prior to that he looked very, very
> lacking, and again when the faster circuits came
> along and the McLaren was poor. Heikki generally
> had the equal of him, whereas now he's now miles
> off of course.


Talk about equality & Favouritism inside on mclaren..

Kovy actually had the better chance at Monza. He started ahead of the Brawns and had the same fuel load, so please tell me why he was so far back.

He seemed very down after this race, but again simply did not have the pace in the race. He said he destroys the rear tyres if he tries to go any faster, same problem he had last year. Maybe he is just not good with no TC who knows, but I find it hard to understand that you have lewis who slides the car around and is not doing the tyres and Kovy is.

People keep going on that Mclaren just favour Lewis, so why did they give Kovy the better race sratergy in Monza? He has had chances, he is in the same car and just does not keep up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2009 06:05PM by marcl.

Kovy's drive at Monza was just pants. He had a great chance to win and just let it slip. It was the same kind of lacklustre drive we've seen previously from Fisi at Renault, for example.

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Vettel broke the speed limit by 1.4kmh that all. Seems a bit hard to give a penalty for that really.

Heikki's real problem is his indecision when overtaking or being overtaken. At Monza it hit him hard. Whenever he attacks or is being attacked, he never just loses one position. I was fully expecting Button to overtake him in Singapore when Heikki had a go at Rubens, and that says it all.

He's quick, and his race pace isn't as bad results indicate... he just constantly ends up behind people slower as he doesn't have the balls or instinct of most of the other drivers. It's something he needs to sort out.

When was the last time Heikki actually overtook someone other than a back marker? I'm struggling.

Same when I think of Vettel, I can not remember the last person he over took.

marcl schreef:
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> Vettel broke the speed limit by 1.4kmh that all.
> Seems a bit hard to give a penalty for that
> really.


1.4kmh is 38.88889 centimeters gain per second. A drive through the pitlane is about 18 seconds, which is a total gain of 7 meters, more than a car length. It could get you in front of someone if he stopped together with someone else. Now, he didn't go in the pitlane with someone else, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't punish.

He went over the line 1.4 over the speed limit but was then ok, it was not all the way down. Rules are rules though.

I think this is more of a safety issue than gaining advantage. Little slips like this can send the wrong message if not punished. Same thing for the white line stuff...the white line is there for a reason: To make sure that cars entering and exiting the pitlane have a safe route to it. So if you go over it, you are putting yourself and other in danger.

gav Wrote:
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> Karan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Oh yeah, absolutely. And its not even close. I
> > guess its great for some people to have all
> these
> > different winners, to claim F1 isn't one sided.
> > But to me thats utterly boring. These
> meaningless
> > wins do nothing for me.
>
> See, from a Ferrari/McLaren fanboy, that's rather
> hollow. If it came from a neutral, then fair
> enough, but I just think the neutrals are loving
> it. I know I am!
>
> I'm quite nervous that Ferrari and McLaren might
> have it go their own way for most of 2010. I'd
> hate to see those teams who have made the best
> cars suddenly fall backwards as the 'big' teams
> stop making a mess. I don't want F1 to turn into
> something like a football league, where the same
> top teams (the so called 'big 4' in England and
> Celtic and Ranger in Scotland for example) are the
> only ones challenging for the title year after
> year, and other teams very rarely getting in among
> them.
>
> I'm loving F1 at the moment, with an entire grid
> separated by 1.5 seconds or something, and 6
> genuine different winners, all of who could fail
> to make it into Q2 with relative ease the
> following race.
>
> It's like F1 back in the 60s, 70s and early-mid
> 80s.

Just to clarify gav (and for chet as well) I might be a Ferrari fan but I gave Ferrari vs. McLaren an example since it was the most recent one. I also had in mind Ferrari vs. Renault, McLaren vs. Renault, from the recent years. So its not a case of one team, or two teams dominating the standings year after year by any means.

What does bug me is this "spreading the wealth" as, in my opinion, it just deters from the tension of a championship battle. I don't want to see non-consequential players taking away wins and points from championship contenders, and thereby taking away the entertainment value. Its all nice and dandy that these unexpected winners turn up no where, but it has no meaning on the champioship at the end of the day.

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Karan Wrote:
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> What does bug me is this "spreading the wealth"
> as, in my opinion, it just deters from the tension
> of a championship battle. I don't want to see
> non-consequential players taking away wins and
> points from championship contenders, and thereby
> taking away the entertainment value. Its all nice
> and dandy that these unexpected winners turn up no
> where, but it has no meaning on the champioship at
> the end of the day.

So Kimi and Hamilton's wins have taken the focus away from the title battle?

Nickv Wrote:
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> marcl schreef:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Vettel broke the speed limit by 1.4kmh that all.
>
> > Seems a bit hard to give a penalty for that
> > really.
>
>
> 1.4kmh is 38.88889 centimeters gain per second. A
> drive through the pitlane is about 18 seconds,
> which is a total gain of 7 meters, more than a car
> length. It could get you in front of someone if he
> stopped together with someone else. Now, he didn't
> go in the pitlane with someone else, but that
> doesn't mean you shouldn't punish.

Doesn't work like that. He braked a little late and was 1.4km/h over the limit when he crossed the pit entry line. Almost immediately he was under the speed limit. You can't be 1.4 over for the entire length of the pit lane because the speed limiter won't let you do that.

I still agree a penalty was required (when the limiters are electronic and not manual like in NASCAR you should have a zero tolerance policy), but he certainly did not gain an advantage.

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I thought the FIA allowed a little leeway of 5% when dealing with pit lane speed limits, or was that a fair few years ago?

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Karan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What does bug me is this "spreading the wealth"
> > as, in my opinion, it just deters from the
> tension
> > of a championship battle. I don't want to see
> > non-consequential players taking away wins and
> > points from championship contenders, and
> thereby
> > taking away the entertainment value. Its all
> nice
> > and dandy that these unexpected winners turn up
> no
> > where, but it has no meaning on the champioship
> at
> > the end of the day.
>
> So Kimi and Hamilton's wins have taken the focus
> away from the title battle?

Absolutely. For me, anyway.
I might be a Ferrari fan but Kimi can @#$%& off and rather have drivers like Vettel/Barrichello win and give us a juicy championship battle.

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