morkusyambo

Don't forget about Alonso. He's earning championship points in a car that should be no better than 9th every race.

BlueRenesis82

Well, it was a pretty amazing exit to watch.

RA-Eight

iTrader: (6)

^^^Yeah no doubt...2 weeks in a row. Strike 3, and you're out!

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Tough Crowd, I'm sure he didn't get to where he is today with TC. I'll bet most of the cars he's raced didn't have it and he won with those. He just needs to get used to the fact that it doesn't exist anymore. At least he is still fast.

morkusyambo

Of course he's a good driver. As to how he made it where he is today, its a well known fact that most of these Brazilian drivers buy their way into racing whether its F1 or some other venue. Piquet and Massa's families actually purchased entire racing teams to help the boys along the way. The same thing occurs here with young Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti, allthough I must admit that Marco has definately got grandpa's skills.

For Massa to have that comfortable of a lead and just beach the car is inexcuseable to me. Like others have said, he is fast. But only when he's not trying to catch someone, or worried about cars behind him. I think he would be the perfect test driver.

IB Tim

Spot on he has never raced without TC

RA-Eight

iTrader: (6)

Unfortunately for Massa, Ferrari's a tougher crowd. We'll see what happens.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66073

By Jonathan Noble and Michele Lostia Monday, March 24th 2008, 11:16 GMT

Felipe Massa spins out of the Malaysian GPFerrari insist they are not concerned about Felipe Massa's disastrous start to the season, despite the Brazilian throwing away second place in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Massa ran wide at Turn 6 halfway through the race at Sepang.

When he clouted a kerb it stalled the car's aerodynamics and caused him to lose control of the rear at the following turn - pitching him off the track and into a gravel trap.

Following on from his retirement in Australia, where he spun at the first corner before an engine failure put him out, Massa has failed to score any points so far this year.

But Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has said there is no panic about Massa, and he is confident the Brazilian can bounce back in Bahrain.

"It's true that it's two no scores that are important in both the drivers' and the constructors' championships," said Domenicali.

"But on the other hand we must not over-dramatize: the points table is close after two Grands Prix. I'm convinced that from Felipe's and our point of view, a response won't go amiss in Bahrain."

Domenicali also made it clear that he did not think Massa was suffering from the pressure put on him by Kimi Raikkonen.

"I don't want to talk about this matter because Felipe did an extraordinary qualifying lap in Malaysia. Having seen on what lap he pitted compared to the others, you can work out that his lap was really unique.

"So Felipe has all the qualities and the capabilities to do well. The championship is long and the team are united, so I see no worries from this aspect."

Domenicali said the team will make sure the spin was not caused by a mechanical failure.

"We'll analyze that. At the moment we have to look at all the data. I think the car has just come back from parc ferme, so we'll have a look. But it's clear that the thing that characterized that excursion was the fact that he went over the kerb."

............................................

By tough crowd, I meant the people here.

RWatters

iTrader: (5)

It's still VERY early in the season so I think Massa will bounce back and do fine. Ferrari did a good job at rebounding and getting back on top in Malaysia, but their customer cars are doing terrible and definitely need the engines looked at.

I'm glad to see BMW doing as good as they are as I really like Kubica and Heidfeld. I think they're both good drivers so it's nice to see good cars underneath them! Heidfeld had an awesome 3-way pass against Alonso and (I believe) Coulthard as well.

Lastly I'm happy to see Alonso take points again (even if it's a single point). That Renault is pretty shitty and it's obvious when you see him making corner-by-corner adjustments in the car each and every lap.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

There is also an article, this morning, about the Ferrari customer engines.
http://formula-1.updatesport.com/new...ines/view.html

If Massa had finished, Alonso wouldn't have gotten that one point. It seems he has been reduced to hoping that someone else has a problem before he can profit.

RWatters

iTrader: (5)

LMAO that's a very good (and true) point!

morkusyambo

Of course Ferrari is going to say publicly they are not concerned about Massa's driving, nor worried about the championship. It wouldn't benefit them at all to say how they feel and what is really on their mind, nor Massa.

I'll make a prediction here. If Massa fails to finish top 4 in drivers points at the end of the season, Ferrari will give him the boot.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Ferrari's primary goal is to win the Manufactures Championship. This should be an easy task. If Massa fails to help make this runaway happen, yes they will be looking for a new driver to make this happen.

T.T.

So...who has a better chance of taking Massa's seat: Alonso or Vettel? Both of them have been linked to it already. As much as I would like to see what Vettel could do with a Ferrari, constant Raikkonen-Alonso duels is too good to pass up.

alfy28

im not a ferrai F1 fan so its nice to see this happen. but didnt kimi crashed about 2-3times last session?

i have a strong feelign this year Mclaren is going to take the constructors champ this year. They would of won it last year but we all knwo why they didnt (scandals) . WIth both hamilton and hekki doing so well, it shouldnt be hard for them.

also i would like to see BMW do well this year, kubica is an awesome underated driver (like webber) who needs to be known. and this is coming from a hamilton fan.

morkusyambo

I think Ferrari wants a #2 who will do what they're told (no matter what they or the FIA say in public). If I had to guess between Alonso and Vettel, i'd place my bets on Vettel. Not only was he hand-picked my Schumi, but Torro Rosso is up for sale.

IB Tim

NO Ferrari....wants Alonso.....IMO he has already signed.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

The spy scandal and the penalty incurred caused them to be out of the constructors championship for 2 years. They won't be eligible this year. This championship is Ferarri's to loose.
Alonso wants to be a clear #1 driver. He wouldn't fit in a Ferrari organization. I would say Vettel, but it won't be next year. Ferrari will want him to mature another year before bringing him on.

morkusyambo

I didn't know they were penalized two years!! Can you send me the link to that info because this is the first i've heard of this?

I Agree with you about Alonso. That is the main reason they would take somone like Vettel over him.

PerSmitt

I am pretty certain that it was only for one year McLaren were penalized. I mean why else would they be included in the standings for the constructor championship?

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/standings/index2008.shtml

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

I remembered the penalty wrong.
Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Fo...ge_controversy
Thursday, September 13

• The second hearing commences. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton is called as a witness.
• Following the hearing it is announced that McLaren is to be fined $100m, have their points stripped from the 2007 Constructor's Championship, and be required to submit their 2008 car designs to the FIA by December 2007, pending exclusion from the 2008 championship if they are found to contain Ferrari's intellectual property. McLaren's drivers are not directly affected.[30]

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Fernando Alonso has said he can leave Renault at the end of this season. The double champion, who returned to the team after a stormy year with McLaren, has had a disappointing start to the season in an uncompetitive car.
"I'm at Renault because I wanted to get back to winning, like in 2005 and 2006, if not this year then next year," Alonso told Spanish newspaper As.
"But I have an option to leave so I can be in the best possible car, and it is clear Ferrari is one of the best."
When Alonso signed for Renault last winter, there was widespread speculation that he would only stay for one year before joining world champions Ferrari for 2009.
And his comments seem to confirm suspicions that the Spaniard does indeed have a break clause in his contract that would allow him to leave after just one year.
We knew that finishing in the top eight was going to be difficult - that's the reality - Fernando Alonso
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is known to regard Alonso highly. But the Italian team already have world champion Kimi Raikkonen and team-mate Felipe Massa under contract for 2009.
Signing Alonso would involve finding a way to curtail Massa's contract, which runs until the end of 2010.
But Alonso cooled speculation linking him to Ferrari, saying it was inevitable following a poor start to the season by Massa, who has retired from both races following driver errors.
"It's early to talk about moves and rumours, but Massa has had two bad races with mistakes and that has kicked off speculation," Alonso said.
"It's logical, but it's too early."

The 26-year-old has admitted after Renault's poor start to the season that he has no chance of battling with McLaren and Ferrari.
Alonso, who ended last season just a point behind Raikkonen, finished as the last points scorer in eighth place in Malaysia on Sunday.
"It was more or less as we expected," said Alonso, who was fourth in the chaotic season opener in Australia.
"We knew that finishing in the top eight was going to be difficult and if it hadn't been for Massa's retirement we wouldn't have made it.
"That's the reality and that's what the situation is like, it was no surprise. In a normal race, with no retirements, we were ninth in qualifying and eighth in the race.
"Before Barcelona [for the Spanish Grand Prix on April 27] we will have some improvements for the car, [but] the same ones all teams will make, so the championship is going to stay more or less the same.
"We saw it last year and we see it every year. The cars that win the first two or three races stay on top. We are not going to see big surprises during the year."

Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/spo...ne/7312280.stm

morkusyambo

Looks like he should have taken the 55mil that Toyota was offering him. He'd be making more money and driving a more competitive car.

alfy28

are you sure about that? i mean they have mclaren on the constructors list as being number one. oh well i thought it was just one year.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

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