2008 Bahrain Grand Prix [April 6th]

[Kylehnat]

BTW, did anybody notice that Fisichella is actually doing pretty well at Force India?

I have been very impressed with Giancarlo this year. He's absolutely destroying Sutil, which shows that he is indeed a great driver, and that Force India has some potential.

Sounds like rubbish to me, personally - while the front wing certainly could've fallen off, the result wouldn't have been a "sudden acceleration". At least not forward - perhaps upwards when the underbody hits the wing, which would've left him with more than enough time to react to it.

I would think that losing any part of the front wing would effectively make the car less nimble, and perhaps not swerve as quickly as it normally would.

It still doesn't detract from the fact that Hamilton seems to lose his head when he falls out of the top 5.

That does seem to be an emerging pattern.

 

[kjb]

I have been very impressed with Giancarlo this year. He's absolutely destroying Sutil, which shows that he is indeed a great driver, and that Force India has some potential.

I would think that losing any part of the front wing would effectively make the car less nimble, and perhaps not swerve as quickly as it normally would.

That does seem to be an emerging pattern.

That's interesting thought. I think they said on Speed that in all of his previous races that he finished Hamilton was always in the top ten. I think he tries to push it a little too hard when he falls behind. What I'm surprised nobody has mentioned was his awful start did he fall asleep at the wheel or something?

 

[<_Spike_>]

I've heard it somewhere else too, although I can't find the source... It sounds like the nth attempt from McLaren to make it look like it was their fault, and not perfect Hamilton's.

I find it really funny that when Hamilton is involved and McLaren come up with a reason as to why it happened, it's always an excuse to save face on Hamilton. Yet if it happens with another driver and a failure on their car that causes an accident, where's the talk of excuses? There rarely is. But it's ok, your an Alonso fan, I'd expect that. (Kidding )

That's interesting thought. I think they said on Speed that in all of his previous races that he finished Hamilton was always in the top ten. I think he tries to push it a little too hard when he falls behind. What I'm surprised nobody has mentioned was his awful start did he fall asleep at the wheel or something?

Maybe Kimi had been talking to him before the start, put him half asleep...sabotage I say lol

 

[mipuumal]

I find it really funny that when Hamilton is involved and McLaren come up with a reason as to why it happened, it's always an excuse to save face on Hamilton. Yet if it happens with another driver and a failure on their car that causes an accident, where's the talk of excuses? There rarely is. But it's ok, your an Alonso fan, I'd expect that. (Kidding )

Well it's quite a coincidence that his frontwing "broke" two seconds before hitting Alonso, and even if it did we all know that two seconds in F1 is a lifetime, he should've still avoided the incident. You people keep giving him more pressure by not letting him admit his faults.

 

[Blake]

I don’t believe that his front wing broke for a second. It was just a mistake. They happen…

What I'm surprised nobody has mentioned was his awful start did he fall asleep at the wheel or something?

He didn’t put the car into launch mode, so when he tried to get off the line the anti-stall kicked in and he went nowhere.

 

[daan]

Do they still have a launch mode? I wouldn't think that would be included on the standard ECU now that traction control has gone.

 

[mustang245]

Do they still have a launch mode? I wouldn't think that would be included on the standard ECU now that traction control has gone.

No, don't think so... plenty of engine 'modes', though.

 

[Metar]

Do they still have a launch mode? I wouldn't think that would be included on the standard ECU now that traction control has gone.

Niki Lauda explained that system for quite a while at Melbourne on the German broadcast. Didn't ITV do one as well?

In essence, the drivers have some extra paddles at the back of the steering-wheel which control throttle-response at the launch. Once activated, the first 50% of the throttle are "finer-tuned" (means the same amount of pressure on the pedal amounts to less of it actually registered) than the last 50%, so the driver has more control over his engine-speed at launch - and if I'm not mistaken, the engines are also supposed to make slightly less power at the same time. Drivers can then change the response using the pedals at the back of the steering-wheel, until the system shuts off - it stays on for the next 60 seconds, to ensure a safe start for everyone.

They also use it during pit-stops, only without the 60 seconds.

 

[Blake]

Do they still have a launch mode? I wouldn't think that would be included on the standard ECU now that traction control has gone.

They have plenty of engine maps to play with still, so of course every team has made their own tricky little launch mode which doesn’t control traction per se but will control things such as power delivery, fuel mix, and the torque curve.

Also not only was he not in launch mode, I believe he was still in the mode used for the warm-up lap…

 

[Metar]

That would kinda explain why folks accused McLaren of not telling him to stay off the line at Sepang

 

[LouTs337]

@Rocket Punch: Whahahahaah brilliant photoshop or is it?

Dont get all the people finding it boring seen crashes, seen overtaking and there was tension

 

[Roo]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66487

Hamilton wing was broken on first lap

By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, April 8th 2008, 11:17 GMT

Lewis Hamilton's front wing was broken early in the first lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix, photographs of his car prove, as mystery surrounds suggestions that his second-lap collision with Fernando Alonso was down to an unexpected mechanical failure.

McLaren told autosport.com today that they stand by their explanation that the upper front wing of Hamilton's car broke two seconds before he ran into the back of Alonso on lap two at Bahrain.

They claim the breakage led to a sudden loss of downforce, which sucked Hamilton into Alonso's slipstream much quicker that he was likely anticipating.

The team suspect that the wing breakage was caused as the result of a collision Hamilton made with another car, believed to be Alonso, at Turn Four on the opening lap.

The team's F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh said in a statement issued by the team: "It was only when I went into the engineers' room and started looking at the details that I realised Lewis's upper front wing had disappeared about two seconds before the accident, so he suddenly lost downforce."

However, onboard footage of Hamilton's car suggests that the bridge wing had broken, and parts of it flew off, as he exited Turn Four on the opening lap.

The damage has also been confirmed in photographs of Hamilton's car on the opening lap, clearly showing that the bridge wing was damaged early on.

Hamilton has already put the accident with Alonso down to a simple racing incident, and it is possible that the already broken wing could have affected his car's handling and drag levels.

With Alonso appearing to have a messy exit from Turn Two on the second lap, it is possible that Hamilton closed in on his rival much quicker than he expected, and was caught out as he tried to move around his rival.

Speaking after the race about what happened in the Alonso crash, Hamilton said: "I was behind him I went to move to the right and he went to move to the right as well and I ended up on the back somehow. It's racing."

 

[Bram Turismo]

The lead for now, to be exact 👍

Exactly what I meant

BMW doesn't seem to be able to fully challenge Ferrari, just yet...But they have been so consistent already this soon in the season, I think quite a bunch of people will be surprised about the amount of points BMW is about to score this season 👍

 

[prisonermonkeys]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66487

*Sigh* There's always a reason, isn't there?

 

[KSaiyu]

@Rocket Punch: Whahahahaah brilliant photoshop or is it?

Dont get all the people finding it boring seen crashes, seen overtaking and there was tension

It was a bit in my opinion, although I did fall asleep for the last 15-20 laps so I might have missed something. Doubt it though.

 

[Blake]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66487

I still don’t believe it contributed to the accident at all.

A flat section of bridge wing an inch long missing from the car does not equal a better corner exit, let alone a 10–20 kph advantage in a straight line less than 300m from the corner exit.

Lewis himself admitted it was a mistake. Why does the British media have to try and absolve any and all blame? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of his, but I’m getting sick of serious media outlets like autosport handing this crap out and expecting people to believe that he did nothing wrong. 👎

He made a mistake, he’ll deal with it. Leave it at that.

 

[Roo]

Re-read the article. It's saying McLaren's explanation of the accident - that the bridge bit flew off 2 seconds before Hamilton hit Alonso - is absolute tosh, because there's photographic proof that it had gone way before. It doesn't make any excuses for Hamilton; it actually disproves the excuse McLaren made for him.

Just because Autosport is a British site/magazine doesn't mean their heads are up Lewis' backside.

 

[KSaiyu]

We'll never know!

 

[Omnis]

And when we did, he beat up his team manager.

+1 for SPEED. They don't show any clear favorites, and the more senile David Hobbs goes, the funnier he gets.

Yeah, Steve Matchett sort of took over his spot and now he's like a comic relief version of his previous role.

 

[darkfinal]

Okay, I've found some evidence of what really happened to Hamilton's frong wing in the formula1.com website: Go to www.formula1.com, Video Edits (click the play button), Bahrain, choose an adequate video quality, and then...

It shows the first time Hamilton 'touched' Alonso during the first lap after blocking the front right wheel (somewhere after the 2/5th of the video), damaging a small bit of the nose, which literally flew away a couple seconds after, but NOT two seconds before the 2nd impact.

Use the 'Filmspeed' bar, it shows oh so much slow-mo detail on this.

 

[Blake]

Re-read the article.

My mistake, I kinda hashed over the last few paragraphs.

Meanwhile it’s still just as bad that McLaren are trying to sell this rubbish.

 

[Metar]

Awesome new section for me to spend my time

That and the HondaTV take the cake as best video-stuff I found so far.