2007 Spanish Grand Prix

[kikie]

It seems like the turn between "10" and 11" (La Caixa) has been changed as well.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

It seems like the turn between "10" and 11" (La Caixa) has been changed as well.

Yes, that was changed a few years back.

 

[jammyozzy]

Whoa, what? McLaren now look like they've bolted even more stuff to the nose of the car. The wing over the nose they're using now looks much bigger than the photos from a couple of weeks ago.

Also, for anyone in the UK watching ITV's coverage: Does Louise Goodman drive you absolutely nuts, or is it just me?

 

[KSaiyu]

Great GP2 races, especially the first (you can probably guess why ). Race should be interesting, if not only for the first few laps.

 

[Metar]

Should start in a few seconds. LiveTiming only for me

 

[livemusic]

Massa is doing fine, but thanks to the Pope I'll have to wait an extra hour to see the ending. 👎

 

[<_Spike_>]

That result certainly makes it interesting going in to Monaco, especially with Hamilton having never lost their...will his success carry on to F1?

 

[Roo]

Also, for anyone in the UK watching ITV's coverage: Does Louise Goodman drive you absolutely nuts, or is it just me?

Nope, just you. Don't see what's wrong with her myself - better than James Allen, although he seems to be less annoying than he was.

Nice to see a Super Aguri get a point. First Honda to do so this season. 7 different manufactuers in the top 8, although that's mainly due to odd retirements. Well done to Coulthard, nursing the car home despite missing 3rd gear. Good race for Rosberg, Kovalainen and Kubica too. Alonso seemed distinctly average, and Massa - or, rather, Ferrari - was in a different league. That Hamilton chappy seems to be doing quite well...

 

[Bram Turismo]

Meh, this race sucked 👎

It already began when Trulli's engine cut off + that fuel pressure problem made him retire, too bad for him as he was doing really good 👍

And about Raikkonen? He had bad luck at Mclaren, it seems to strike him again at Ferrari...

For me, Hamilton proved he can be faster than Alonso if he really wants, alonso drove a rather anonymous race for me...

Great race for the BMW's, though Heidfeld could've been so much higher up if his mechanic told the wheel wasn't fastened already, a 4th & 5th for BMW would definitly be possible...

And what about Coulthard, he showed me once again, that no matter his age at the moment, he's still one of the faster, most experienced driver out there, great race! 👍

And SA? A point! In yo face Honda!

 

[Metar]

Watching the race on LiveTiming, I got the opportunity to satisfy my lust for numbers (actually seeing the cars will have to wait for YouTube). Alonso was consistently faster on S1 and S2, but lost an average 0.5 on Massa at S3 - and that was consistently, lap after lap. On some laps, we was 0.2 faster on S2 and S1 - but still finished the lap 0.4 behind Massa.

Aguri got a point - which is the coolest thing in this race. Coulthard managing to keep his position despite missing a gear was a great feat, too. The Renaults fought well, too, though if it wasn't for the third short pit by that other Renault, Sato wouldn't have finished with a point

The front was extremely boring. The first two laps were interesting to watch, but then it lost the "thing" - after Alonso being pushed off, and Raikkonen retiring, the podium was pretty obvious. Soft tyres or not, Alonso couldn't get rid of the 3rd sector, and Massa didn't give the Macs a chance. Up to the first stop, Alonso seemed okay-ish, but only 'ish'. After the stop he started loosing ground at a much faster pace...
The middle of the pack was much more interesting. Two battles, several misfortunes (Trulli's retirement, Webber/Schumacher contact...), but a very interesting race there.

 

[<_Spike_>]

To be honest, as much of a McLaren fan I am, Alonso got probably the most he deserved...a move like that was stupid when he knew that if he stayed close he'd have had better less risky chances during the early stages, especially with the fact he nearly took out Hamilton and Kimi when he found the track again

 

[m7ammed]

Shame about BMW they could of got a 4th and 5th ..... oh well at least they are still teh 3rd fastest team this season .

When I saw Webber retire , a thought came through my head " You deserve it Webber for what you said about williams before the start of the season" .....

 

[<_Spike_>]

I think Webber's been hit with the biggest ever case of irony this year, having a poor season and being beaten pretty easily by the team he criticised so much

 

[Robin]

Actually turned out to be quite an eventful race, quite afew scraps between cars, various failures and retirements plus FIRE! Not a bad race in the end, looking forward to Monaco.

Way hey! 1 point for super aguri!

 

[NeverKnowsBest]

I am beside myself, Super Aguri got a point!

Half the field may have been out and Fisi had to do that splash and dash for fuel but hell Takuma Sato...in a Super Aguri....gets a point. Im ecstatic!

I also just won a steak dinner and bottle of black label yay impossible odds!

I always enjoy when Massa wins he is always appreciative of it. Great job to him and Hamilton (he continues to amaze). Alonso got hella lucky on that first corner too.

But seriously SUPER AGURI +1

 

[MustangSVT]

Alonso's move was one of the most arrogant moves I've seen in recent times. He just totally closed the door, thinking that Massa will naturally let go. Thankfully, Massa didn't and Alonso got what he deserved.

 

[Lee]

Ah it was an average race really, I'm just Super Happy for Super Aguri!

 

[darkfinal]

Alonso did a very stupid move, but there's a reason why both Hamilton and Massa were faster than him - After he touched Massa, his bottom left deflector (dunno how's it called in english) was broken, and depending on De La Rosa (who was commentating the race in the spanish TV) that slowed him down about 3-4 tenths per lap. Sooo... If they hadn't touched, Alonso would have probably been the fastest one.

Anyway, I don't think Massa deserves to win - He's an insanely fast driver, yes, but put him in the crowd and see what happens (Malaysia). I'm happy to see Hamilton first in the driver's championship, despite I'm an Alonso fan

PS: And shame for Honda. Or how to be beaten by your own one-year-old disciple.

 

[Metar]

Of course the crash slowed him down. Hamilton may be good, but even he can't put a consistent 0.5 on Alonso in an identical car... Espeically when Alonso is angry and raging, with crowd-support.

 

[<_Spike_>]

Honestly, I don't really think having home support does anything, when you're out there for 60 laps or there about, barely able to hear anything other than your own engine and engineer and concentrating on the track not the stands, it's not going to do much.

Either way, if Hamilton can't...explain Bahrain...Hamilton 2nd, Alonso 5th, no home crowd, no stupid manoeuvres he made to p*ss himself off...

 

[Metar]

Didn't he have Gearbox or steering problems back then?

I'm not trying to defend him - for some reason, I'm never cheering for the guys actually winning. It's odd - I couldn't stand Schumacher, now I can't stand Massa and Alonso...

 

[Boundary Layer]

Did anyone else notice the strange air duct sitting on the top of the Ferrari's nose?
Maybe I just wasn't being all that observant in the prior GP's, but I don't recall seeing it before, and I'm wondering what it's for. First thought was that it was to cool the cockpit a little... but if it wasn't a priority in Malaysia and Bahrain, I don't imagine it'd suddenly become a necessity in Barcelona. Perhaps it's for cooling some new electronic implementation? I've noticed a lot of new bodywork on the Ferrari over and around the sidepods to enhance their cooling, so it wouldn't suprise me if this inlet came along with that redesign.

edit: Nevermind. The duct was there in the car's unveiling. It was just me. I am still interested in knowing what it's function is, though.


A big well done to SA. Customer car or not, what they've been able to do on a limited budget with relatively few personnel is truly amazing. 👍 Good job to Coultard and Red Bull as well - I hope to see them at the front much more often with the Newey design. 👍
And Hamilton... what can you say. I'm still waiting to see a rookie mistake, and he keeps dissapointing in that regard. Instead it's been Alonso making the poor choices. I guess we'll see down the stretch whether he can keep his cool head as the pressure continues to mounts if he's fighting with more experienced drivers for the championship. My guess is still no, but he's been doing nothing but surprising me so far...

 

[Blake]

The duct on the Ferrari nose is for cooling the driver. Most other teams put it on the tip of he nose.

The race was okay.

Alonso was an idiot in the first corner and continues to blame everything but himself for his results. The excuses he&#8217;s given so far?

• I was in 4th after the second turn so couldn&#8217;t go as quickly as my fuel load allowed.
• Felipe Massa damaged my car.
• The tyres weren&#8217;t working.

I&#8217;m just waiting for him to say that McLaren want Lewis to win the championship, not him.

Felipe did a good job. Held his ground at the start and had masses of pace throughout the race.

Lewis also did well. Really well. A very quiet race, but a solid second place and he (deservedly) moves into the championship lead. It&#8217;s still anyone&#8217;s game, though&#8212;the top 4 are separated by just 8 points and are all capable of winning the title.

I have to say, it felt a little (a lot) like 2005 when Kimi retired. Disappointing result, really. At least he has a good record at Monaco, so there&#8217;s a good chance he&#8217;ll be able to get a much needed 10 points.

Kubica did a good job for BMW, but it was an unfortunate day for Nick.

DC did a great job without 3rd gear. Not to mention the great job he did of avoiding Liuzzi in the pits. It&#8217;s good to see the Red Bull with some really good pace. Unfortunate weekend for Webber, but he too tends to pull out the magic for Monaco so we&#8217;ll see what happens (retire from 3rd, anyone?)&#8230;

Nico is having a really solid season so far, and 6th place is a pretty good reward for his efforts. Though, having bean beaten pretty badly by Webber last year, I have to wonder if he&#8217;s getting the most out of the car. Wurz was just unfortunate. Wrong place. Wrong time. Not much he could do.

Renault were pretty disappointing. Heikki did okay to make the most of a bad situation.

Sato scored a point. Woo.

Everyone else was useless and I&#8217;m not going to bother mentioning them.

 

[Appie]

Like everyone else already said, SA got a point

 

[JohnBM01]

Congratulations to Felipe Massa. Also, great job to Lewis Hamilton for becoming the youngest points leader in F1 history. He's like what... 22? I got respect for Hamilton. Just hope he can finish P1 someday. I'm sure he will. He may have a shot at the Grand Prix of Monaco in two weeks. The issue of Hamilton being a champion without having won a race at this point is sort of like the (I hate brining up NASCAR in an F1 discussion) deal with Matt Kenseth when he won very few races and still won the crown. I think there's a 90% chance Hamilton will win at least one race between Monte Carlo and Interlagos. I also want to honor Super Aguri for getting a point. I usually say the toughest thing to do is to win a race or score a point in F1. All I have to say is that Honda has to get their game together. Good news for the boys who call Tochigi, Japan home (or are their F1 operations based elsewhere?) is that there are still 13 races left in which to make some noise before the season comes to an end. Only thing great about Honda this season has been their wonderful blue/green/black paintscheme.

Let me offer some side notes now. * I never really noted Catalunya as being in a beautiful surrounding, but it really is. Some of the camera angles shown a beautiful view of Catalunya's surroundings. * I saw how the new chicane looks by watching this coverage of the GP2 racing action at Catalunya. Someone said that it's a bit like going through a car park. And in a way, it does. It doesn't look terribly ugly. I can actually believe if this chicane was added as a service for F1 drivers (and other racing series) to better make pit lane than make some crucial error. Take Suzuka for example. I think it's pretty tough to remember where the entrance to pit road is after clearing the dreaded Casio Triangle. I probably couldn't remember where to enter pit road at Suzuka if I were an F1 racer. So I can very much imagine the purpose of having this chicane. I don't think it's a travesty like, say, Hockenheim in post-Tilke form. * Next round of the F1 Grand Prix will be on the streets of Monaco. But next year, Monaco won't be the only street course in F1. I've been hearing of Valencia, Spain and the city-state of Singapore hosting street course events. Then, there's supposed to be Abu Dhabi (I accidentally typed "Abu Dubai") hosting some street action in two years. I think it's nice to see F1 visiting a few more countries and coming off with race events. Also nice to see F1 try to market themselves in some Middle Eastern nations. Outside of the Middle East, I'd be interested in some F1 action in India or maybe even Thailand.

That's all from me.

 

[Sureboss]

Alonso did a very stupid move, but there's a reason why both Hamilton and Massa were faster than him - After he touched Massa, his bottom left deflector (dunno how's it called in english) was broken......

Wing Mirror is it's name in English.

 

[DQuaN]

I don't think that's what he is talking about as I think it was Hamiltons mirror that was missing.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Congratulations to Felipe Massa. Also, great job to Lewis Hamilton for becoming the youngest points leader in F1 history. He's like what... 22? I got respect for Hamilton. Just hope he can finish P1 someday. I'm sure he will. He may have a shot at the Grand Prix of Monaco in two weeks. The issue of Hamilton being a champion without having won a race at this point is sort of like the (I hate brining up NASCAR in an F1 discussion) deal with Matt Kenseth when he won very few races and still won the crown. I think there's a 90% chance Hamilton will win at least one race between Monte Carlo and Interlagos. I also want to honor Super Aguri for getting a point. I usually say the toughest thing to do is to win a race or score a point in F1. All I have to say is that Honda has to get their game together. Good news for the boys who call Tochigi, Japan home (or are their F1 operations based elsewhere?) is that there are still 13 races left in which to make some noise before the season comes to an end. Only thing great about Honda this season has been their wonderful blue/green/black paintscheme.

I think the only reason Honda's prospects for the season are looking up is because they're currently flat on their back. About the only thing they really got right this weekend was that their aero developments didn't lead to them pedalling backwards. Again. They'll have a B-spec RA107 out by "Canada" (though Nick Fry rpeviously said it would be ready for Spain). They probably won't be competing for anything major except maybe to be on the good side of the 13-Line for next year (that's what I call teams that run with the numbers 1 through 12; anything under the never-used number 13 means you've got a lot of work to do)

Let me offer some side notes now.
* I saw how the new chicane looks by watching this coverage of the GP2 racing action at Catalunya. Someone said that it's a bit like going through a car park. And in a way, it does. It doesn't look terribly ugly. I can actually believe if this chicane was added as a service for F1 drivers (and other racing series) to better make pit lane than make some crucial error. Take Suzuka for example. I think it's pretty tough to remember where the entrance to pit road is after clearing the dreaded Casio Triangle. I probably couldn't remember where to enter pit road at Suzuka if I were an F1 racer. So I can very much imagine the purpose of having this chicane. I don't think it's a travesty like, say, Hockenheim in post-Tilke form.
* Next round of the F1 Grand Prix will be on the streets of Monaco. But next year, Monaco won't be the only street course in F1. I've been hearing of Valencia, Spain and the city-state of Singapore hosting street course events. Then, there's supposed to be Abu Dhabi (I accidentally typed "Abu Dubai") hosting some street action in two years. I think it's nice to see F1 visiting a few more countries and coming off with race events. Also nice to see F1 try to market themselves in some Middle Eastern nations. Outside of the Middle East, I'd be interested in some F1 action in India or maybe even Thailand.

That's all from me.

In order of the points as you raised them:
- I can see what they were trying to do with the chicane, but I think it could be done better. I only said it looked like racing though a car park because the run-off areas are tarmac, and while it might be safer than the kitty litter, it just looks awful; look at Bahrain and Fuji for examples ...
- Both Valencia and Singapore are confirmed (there's dedicated threads), as is Abu Dhabi (but you probably already knew that). South Korea is also set to get a race in South Cholla province by 2010 which will be half-racing circuit, half-street circuit (much like Abu Dhabi). However, I can't see what's going to take them so long to build it, especially when the Abu Dhabi circuit will be finished before South Korea, but they need to build the island Abu Dhabi will be held on first ...

 

[XGT Taipan]

Utterly boring race.

The new chicane created less overtaking chances. At least the old circuit allowed you to tuck up behind the car in front through the final 2 turns and give you maximum slipstream. If the intention was to make overtaking into the chicane then I fear they got that wrong too as there isn't a long enough 100% throttle area before the chicane.

Alonso deserves everything he was dished out. If only Kimi didn't retire so he could've also made a mockery of Alonso.

Well done to Lewis, it's a pity he's such a devoted McLaren player, as it would be good to have someone so consistant back at Ferrari now that MS is gone.

And finally well done to Felipe. He held his ground and drove out of his skin from lights to flag in true Schumacher esk Ferrari style. It's great to see he is finally getting his head in gear and getting the job done. I wouldn't be suprised to see the title go down to between Lewis and Felipe.

 

[daan]

At least the old circuit allowed you to tuck up behind the car in front through the final 2 turns and give you maximum slipstream.

No, it didn't. Cars couldn't follow another car close enough through the last 2 corners due to loss of aerodymic downforce. By slowing them down through the chicane, the hope was that cars would now be able to follow closely enough to get a tow down the straight.

It still didn't work though.