European Grand Prix

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blake
  • 98 comments
  • 3,383 views
here is a clip of micheal shumacker winning today: Click here to watch

it was a good race today. i missed he middle part of the race, but the bits i did watch were very exiting
 
It appears neither Alonso nor Schumi will just walk away with the title this year. We saw the old MS today; fast in-laps and careful monitoring of the fuel supply. I wonder if he ran the car down to fumes to permit a pit stop that was 2 seconds faster than Fernando? In any case, a great tactical and skillful win by Michael Schumacher; this is why he's a 7-time champion.

I watched the GP2 race this morning (I've been awake for a while, incidently :)), and it was quite fun to see, although I couldn't understand why these guys didn't take extra 7-10 seconds to make front-tire stops.
 
Good race overall. And congrats to Massa for his first podium. 👍
 
Bee's +'s and -'s.

+++MS - He drove an very relaxed race, didn't look to be under any pressure at all and made no mistakes all weekend, great drive. 👍

++Barrichello - 5th place shows he's starting to finally get control of the car, he kept up with Button's pace, now he just needs to work on the starts a little.

++Massa - He kept up with the leading 2 for much of the race, resulting in his first f1 podium, if retirements goes his way, I can see him taking a win.

++Rosberg - From 22nd to 7th is something we would expect from Raikkonen, great way to get his season back on track.

+Alonso - First half of the race he done well to keep the lead and extend it but after the second pit stop he fell way back and into the clutches of both Massa and Raikkonen.

-Fisichella - Suprised he wasn't able to get past JV on the track, had to overtake him via pit stops, also didn't manage to get past Barrichello in the slower Honda, lucky JPM and RS retired.

--Hiedfeld - Dissapointing race considering this time last year he was on the podium.

---Williams Hydrualic System - 3rd retirement for Webber, Williams have to sort it out, and quick.

It was a nice race towards the end, took a while to kick in, but certainally better than San Marino. 👍
 
Looking at Rosberg and where he finished one has to wonder what Webber could have done. He was ahead of Rosberg by quite a bit before his race ended, he was faster and he was on a 1 stop strategy. He could have made it to the podium.
 
Slick Rick
Its weird i enjoyed watching Schumacher win today. A couple of years ago it was the other way round.
Click to expand...

Not me.

I still don't like MS, Ferrari, the Montezemolo's EUR 300.000 suit and Acephalic Tifosi.
 
Dimitrov
Not me.

I still don't like MS, Ferrari, the Montezemolo's EUR 300.000 suit and Acephalic Tifosi.
Click to expand...
Me neither. That whole team just bugs me. And the hideously long Italian national anthem that we have to sit through (it's on right now as I'm watching the replay).
 
I would rather listen to the Italian national anthem than to the French national anthem. The French national anthem just annoys me.

But I will say I only watched about half of the race, as I pretty much skipped the entire middle part of the race. This "Nurburgring" just bores me. It's like Niki Lauda said, "Today's tracks are much more safe and sterile". The track just doesn't do anything for me at all. Schumacher at the end was just very, very good driving. To stay out and keep putting down fast lap after fast lap, good stuff. 👍 Other than that, good job by Nico to move up so far in the race and thats about all I remember really catching.
 
Just saw the replay on speed.

Damn, this year dont look very good for mclaren. :guilty:
 
McLaren just does not have the engine power when compared to Renault and Ferrari. I know in another thread someone had said, it may have been Blake, the Mercedes engine was probably running the lowest amount of revs in the V8s and also probably the least amount of power.
 
And yet, Kimi managed to bring home 4th with it. 👍

Great, great drive for Michael. Ferrari is definately back in the game, and Renault had best watch out. That said, though, Fernando's home race is next, and I strongly suspect he's going to give 110% in Barcelona.

I was really surprised at Scott Speed's staying power in this one. His was the only Red Bull car that didn't go down. :scared: He needs to up his pace, but at least he's fairly safe.

Fisichella got sweet, sweet vengeance on JV. XD Word has it somebody stuck a photo of Jacques on Fisi's steering wheel at one point.
 
Well I think Kimi is going to be able to make the most of the McLaren this year, though I don't think we will be seeing the jumps up the grid with him like we did last year. But I do think there is one observation to be made about the McLaren, the aero and chassis are working extremely well on the car and the engine, not so much.

The next race at Barcelona oughta see a whole lot of Renault blue and yellow. There are going to be a ton of Fernando supporters. The race should be a really good one if Ferrari can continue with the pace they have shown in this race and at Imola.

I think just getting race finishes is good enough for Scott Speed right now, especially considering he is in the STR. The STR isn't quite the car the Red Bulls are and Speed has done a pretty good job so far in it. Hopefully he will be able to score some points throughout the rest of the year.
 
Blake
Blow up? That’s a little harsh—and we have rules about saying you want a driver to be killed or injured. :p
Click to expand...

...i meant his car. :lol:

well, he didn't. and kimi finished 4th. :ouch:
 
Bubble Bunny
Just saw the replay on speed.

Damn, this year dont look very good for mclaren. :guilty:
Click to expand...

yea, but remember what happened with williams a while back - had a really poor start to the season then hit straps post-monte carlo...
 
Yes but today was with a new 'upgraded' engine, I think all they have done is made themselves edge ahead of Honda.

If their upgrades are going to be like that all year, Kimi might aswell sign the damn Ferrari contract now. Wonder what Alonso is feeling right now too..
 
Edging ahead of Honda isn't exactly a big accomplishment at this moment, as Honda doesn't exactly have the best reliability at the moment. The Mercedes engine is definitely down on power and is yet again letting Kimi down. So definitely go ahead and sign with Ferrari, as I don't think it can get much worse than the Mercedes engine problems.

You know Alonso is definitely worried. How could he not be? Especially seeing the success the Renault team is having and the lack of success the McLaren team is having.
 
VashTheStampede
Edging ahead of Honda isn't exactly a big accomplishment at this moment, as Honda doesn't exactly have the best reliability at the moment.
Click to expand...

That's exactley my point.. :lol:
 
Yeah, I totally messed that one up. :dunce:
 
Bee
Yes but today was with a new 'upgraded' engine, I think all they have done is made themselves edge ahead of Honda.

If their upgrades are going to be like that all year, Kimi might aswell sign the damn Ferrari contract now. Wonder what Alonso is feeling right now too..
Click to expand...

that's true to a degree - but remember kimi only finished what, <10 seconds behind michael? something in that order, i wasn't paying attention to the times at the end; and nurburgring's a pretty fast, open track. nothing to say that mclaren won't be right on the money for most of the remainder of the season. i can see problems at silverstone and indianapolis for the straight-line issues, but aside from that...
 
Dropout.
that's true to a degree - but remember kimi only finished what, <10 seconds behind michael?
Click to expand...

I think that was Kimi getting much more out of the McLaren that what was on paper, also MS was coasting by the end of the GP.

They went for more reliabilty over speed it seems after last year... I truly don't see them winning a race, they Ferrari and Renault are just too dominent.
 
I definitely think Kimi is getting pretty close to everything he can out of the car right now. But I do think McLaren can win a race this year, though it will be difficult.
 
I also think McLaren can get at least one win. They'll have to play the pit game right, and push like hell without overdoing it, but it's not outside the realm of possibility in any way.
 
Small_Fryz
It all depends what Ferrari are doing. Its definetly possible MS could hang with alonso all race and pass him in the pits.
Click to expand...

What a smart guy!👍 💡

I seriously belive michael pitted earlier than he was suppose to for his 1st pitstop, just to mimic alonso and appear to have less fuel onboard than he did.

He drove a wonderful race! 👍, Go MS!!!
 
Quoted yourself . . . getting a little big headed are we? :lol: Good point nonetheless though.
 
lol sorry for this post being so pointless but that is just too funny
 
Am I the only one getting mighty tired of seeing drivers save their engine for the next race? That, or looking at cars burning fuel for 18 minutes in the last qualification session...

Other than that, great race (even if not very exciting) from MS, Alonso, Massa and Rosberg. 👍
 
You aren't the only one tired of seeing drivers not always pushing their cars to the limit at all times. It really defeats the purpose of racing, when everyone isn't trying their fullest. Its much like last year with the no tire change rule, it just hurts the overall point of racing.

Why cannot the FIA just get rid of the rule on however much fuel you qualify with is how much you have to run in the race at the beginning? I would rather see qualifying without having to guess how much fuel each team is running, but instead on the basis of how good the drivers actually are.
 
i'd like to point out that kimi's fastest lap was only .4 of a second off the fastest lap in the race, and it came at the same point in time as the other the drivers' best - ie, when the fuel was low.

i think kimi just got the shaft end of the stick at a few points during the race; i think (hope :ouch: ) that he's capable of winning races this year
 
It really isn't surprising that Kimi is still quick, as he is a very good driver and can make up for the lack of power coming from the Mercedes engine. The McLaren has great aero and mechanical grip, so that definitely helps. It just really stinks that the Mercedes engine is such downer for McLaren and Kimi. Having said that, I still think Kimi will multiple races this year, though it will be difficult.
 
What do you think his chances are in Spain? I'm personally thinking not that great, as it's got that long front straight and you mentioned that the McLaren's down on raw power.
 
Back