pigapumbu

Glad someone brought that up.

Why take a few rare occasions when barry was quicker and try to make it sound like he was equal in driver skill and speed to MS? If anything, he was consistenly SLOWER!. I would say by 0.5secs. The only one team-mate closer in my view was massa while Eddie was by far having the biggest gap.

YOu mention that you lost faith with ferrari and MS because of this? Did you forget the times when Michael who was right at the top leading the race, pull over to let Eddie build his points for the year? MS is a team player and its about the team and not himself. I never saw Michael as a selfish racer when it came to the team.

Its obvious some chose to forget that so here is a refresher for the memory.. Linky..
"When the McLaren driver finally made his second stop after 47 laps, there was only one thing between Irvine and his victory: Schumacher. With just a few laps to go, the German for the second time clearly dropped his pace to let Irvine take the win. " <-- A stark difference from selfish Barry who did it right at the very end. Without MS, barry would be no where. Even if the rest were given bullacarts and barry in an M5, that guy would still struggle to win anything. Period!!

Here is the brutal truth and anyone who doesn't accept it is denying the facts. Ferrari or any team out there are putting millions into the sport to win. Not to drive around for show. When the team boss sees of his two drivers one has the chance of winning the title and is always faster, do you really think for the title chase they aren't going to use the slower driver to help the faster guy when needed? Come one,... its natural.

Barry instead of bitching about it he should have gone and learnt how to be as fast as Michael and fight for the race points and judging how Massa and Kimi were left to race each other and lose the title last year, I respect Ferrari for doing whats right. Massa/kimi are very close and no one can say which way its going to go. Michael/eddie or Michael/barry the gap was always there.

If any team that cheats to allow one driver to win, look no further than Mclaren. Remember how Prost used to have a slower car compared to senna? After many years the japanese engineers themselves owned up to always giving Senna a honda engine with just a few more horses. What about the senna/ andretti? Didn't senna himself supposedly ask the team to give his team mate a proper car to race with?

Ralf Schumacher/damon Hill partnership. Remember the team boss asking Ralf to LET Crap Damon win at spa? So come one guys, stop looking at Michael/ferrari with wool over the eyes. By far they gave us or me at least, the best racing I have ever seen. I have yet to see any driver/team today that can put down qualifying laps over and over between pit stops to claw back the deficit of the car and an extra pitstop and go on to win the race or come in second. Hell, ron dennis and Lewis tried it but failed in spectacular fashion. Try and recall the race where Ron mid race has to change stratergy for lewis after the driver lost his cool at the beginning of brazil 2007. Did it work for lewis? NO... infact he just could not drive like a bat on fire. I was laughing to see the extra pitstop just took more time from him.

Fact is,... Barry and Eddie could never come close to how fast MS was and that was stated by Eddie Irwine himself. At least he had the common sense and decency to speak the truth. If anyone is interested to read what Eddie thought about his team mate, use the linky below. Note what he says about Barry too.
Linky..

"Irvine believes that it is Schumacher's undoubted status as the best driver in the world that has helped Ferrari to a double success in the drivers' and constructors' titles for the first time since 1979.

He says it is Schumacher brilliance behind the wheel that gives Ferrari the tactical options that have often made it look as if Brawn has out-thought championship rival McLaren in the pits. "

cheers

littlemouse

It looks like Lola are 'pondering' a return to F1 next year... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/8013385.stm

This would be nice to see

CWS530

+1 Think of the money they could make selling old-school merchandise!

CWS530

To say that MS was an amazing driver is a fact. To say that Rubens was not asked to step down by Ferrari via team orders is preposterous.

pigapumbu

Didn't say Barry was not asked to let Schumi pass. I was justifying why it was acceptable to give MS the advantage. No doubt on hindsight it was not needed but one thing F1 is consistent about is, its never won till the line is crossed. Just look at how massa lost the title last year. Thats why I always advocate, every point is vital and it all adds up to the championship title. IMO, ferrari were playing safe.

Say there is an important job to be done in a company,.. would the boss give it to the best man that can achieve the company goals or give it to some else who isn't up to it?

cheers

ps: what ever happen to that David Richards (prodrive group) plans to come into F1? Perhaps seeing the success Ross Brawn is having might tempt david richards to give F1 a shot.

JetBlack5OC

I read this today. Good news. The more cars on the grid, the better the racing will be.

BetterMakeWay

:thumbsdown:

CWS530

P -We're just not going to agree here, and that's fine. To me, the guy who's ahead should win the race. He is, to use your metaphor, the best man for the job--he's proven he is "up to it" by being in the lead. How much motivation would you expect at a company where the saleman who sells the most is not recognized because the runner-up that week is more popular? Cheers. -Calvin

pigapumbu

Guys, just got off watching the Bahrain qualifying and I am futher convinced of two points.
1) KERS needs to be junked
2) Qualifying is horrible these days.

Let me explain a bit more cause I would love to know what you all think about it especially point 2.

KERS well as I have mentioned before its a waste of valuable money which FIA claim they are trying to cut down. Bringing in KERS only distracts from car develpment, the race, our viewing. Wont go much further in it since I am more interested in the other point.

Comparing what qualifying used to be in the 80s and early 90s, I recall it used to be very exciting. I could never tell who would be on pole and the suspense lasted till the flag dropped. THe drame came with everyone on track right at the end but more importantly when pole was set and done, we the viewer could roughly know which car was best. Which driver brought his car up in position due to driving skill and which team seem to be good on strategy.

nowadays I can't tell any of the above plus and this is a major problem, there hardly is any excitement to cause me to nearly fall off my seat. Its similar to watching a few guys playing on a playstation at home. This lead me to think what would make qual exciting these days. Here are my thoughts. Anyone out there have a similar idea or better? Please share..!

Bring back a ONE TYPE qualifying tyre. <-- Forget all the soft, extra soft, medium, hard tyre hocus-pocus crap. All use one type of qualifying rubber which the tyre company will provide for the given track. It can either be hard or soft for that track but all will use one of it.

Engine rule stays the same. <-- See no issue with this. In the past they used to have special qualifying engines which to me was a waste of money and unfair on some teams with less resources.

No rubbish about carrying fuel in the last Q3 will be carried forward to the race day. <-- This is totally lousy for me cause it just complicates everything. Now we have to wait till late evening to know who was carrying what AND it takes away some of the suspense on race day as to what each driver had up their sleeves.

They have a limited number of laps overall to post the best times. <-- If someone gets blocked, they still can try again.

Qual1 goes on for 40 mins. It then stops and all best times are taken into account. Only top 10 cars go on to next and last session. Below first 10 places are then all knocked off. <-- gives everyone a chance if they are blocked. Take Webbers case today. He got blocked in Q1, and then could not go to remaining Qualifying sessions. Even if he complained, what good will that do for him. Perhpas Sutil will get some penalty for the next race but that carries the penalty to the next race which isn't that fair.
note: any driver deemed to block or brake test another driver will be given an instant 10 minute sit out in the pits. Won't be allowed on track.

Qual2 with only 10 cars and with a remaining time to do it in 15mins of open pit time. <-- Now with less cars and the slower ones out,.. the top players can go about to set the best time and have less chances of being blocked. It also makes sure that the best car/driver will have to come out again and anything can happen. If he crashes,... well thats the nature of the game.

Cars can go out and back for fuel so all will be trying to go for pole with the least weight. For race day they are allowed to take any fuel amounts for race day conditions and strategy. <-- I love to see drivers without any excuse go out and fight for pole. these days the answer they give post qualifying is, ... well we have to see what fuels the other teams were carrying. By allowing them to fuel for race day, it will make logical sense to fight for qualifying with the least fuel onboard. We then know who is the king of pole setting which in the past, the title holder used to be Senna.

Pole setter gets 1 championship point. <-- and why not. They worked hard enough for it.

so what do you guys think? Workable for more excitement of has F1 now beyond repair with all of FIAs fiddling in the rules?

Cheers

note: Vettle had the fastest lap time today but only qualified third. It should not be the case in my books. fastest man and machine ought to be at the top of the starting grid. Instead we have two toyotas who may or may not be driving on fumes. Come race day, if they were driving on fumes, it places an unfair situation on vettel as he tries to pass the (maybe) slower cars ahead. Its just a crap F1 system these days. makes me want to just switch off and start watching MotoGP or Touring cars. Heck, even the V8 racing series down under has more excitement.

hafnia

I say bring back the old qualifying format - 1 hour on low fuel, fastest lap takes pole!!