Japanese GP **spoiler**

Tony that's fair enough but you are speaking for yourself. Impy made his feelings quite clear. I feel the same way about F1, except I don't even make it ten laps. Qualifying can be a bit exciting. Come race time, after the inevitable first turn pile up in F1 it becomes as many have already mentioned, a series of parade laps albeit with great skill. Parade laps with all the excitement of quoting baseball statistics while wishing for actual excitement.

Why do people defending F1 always fall back on comparing it to NASCAR? That's just insecurity. Fact is I'd rather watch DTM cars on a road course than F1. The reason? Passing. I prefer almost any other form of road course racing to F1 because the cars do what the sport actually implies which is race, which involves passing somewhere other than on pit lane.

 

wrong on all three counts.....senna and monaco ring a bell ?

 

I think Michael will be recorded as possibly the most complete F1 driver of all time. Michael is not only still one of the top drivers in the field, but is also a team principal.

There have been other great drivers: Fangio, Senna, etc. How many were also team principals? Stewart? Enzo was a great team leader but a mediocre driver. How many men can lay claim to being a great driver and bringing a team back from obscurity to championship status at the same time?


Today's race replay did provide a moment for reflection for me.

I've never signed off on the F1 champ as "greatest driver"; because, for pure car control, it's hard to beat rallye. WRC drivers make cars dance end-to-end for over a dozen stages in a three day session, not just for a couple of hours. The antics a rally driver can pull with a car is unprecedented in any other form of motor racing.

If drag racing is just going fast in a straight line, and nascar (no longer even the pretense of "stock car racing") is just circles, and F1 is right and lefts on pavement, none can compare to the slides, jumps, and handbrake turns of rallye.

So, are rally drivers the "greatest drivers"?

But today, I remember Kubica getting onto the grass, and having the car flail off into the kitty litter. I thought he was going to bring it back. F1 cars may be the greatest technology on pavement, but they suck stale lizard eggs on grass. Rally drivers do more car control because they have the hardware that supports it.

F1 cars are automotive technology taken to its illogical extreme: It takes a dozen engineers to start one, the engines defy angular momentum, they change direction like cartoons. Just keeping an F1 car between the lines can't be as easy as it looks. NASCAR probably isn't as easy as it looks, either. But as few people have tried passing on a 200 MPH curve, an inch from a wall, it's a bit hard to appreciate the skills.

So all those "Race of Champions" type venues could be far more than just publicity stunts.

Jeff Gordon did surprisinglly well in rally cars in RoC/Nation's Cup. Nascrap bores me to sleep, but that doesn't mean that any old redneck can be a pro driver. I just don't "get" the thrill of pushing around in circles -- even in d*mn fast circles. In oval racing, I suspect the crashes are a higher percentage of the entertainment. There might be a thrill in pushing your luck and getting away with it again for the drivers, but for the fans ...

Heck, how many F1 fans really appreciate the overtaking maneuvers? The "pass" replays tend to show the cars side by side: the overtaking is already over by then.

The frequent comments about "racing is passing" would discount rally completely. I guess it depends on your experience. I've done drag racing, autocross, and rally. (I've even done ovals -- once only.) For me, "racing is car control". Your mileage may vary. I find ALS boring, because while there are lots of cars going past each other, it means about as much as passing a lamp post -- or a tree. But if your experience is trying to get through gridlock, which car's nose is ahead may mean more. (Damn, that sounds condescending.) Passing is a combination of both drivers -- remember how close Fisi came to nerfing Schumi off in China? Car control is something the driver can control. Passing is a combination of drivers and traffic. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that your appreciation of racing may depend on how much you "project" to the driver's seat versus watching the action from outside.


Okay, I'm rambling. I'm depressed. I was really looking forward to the on-track battle through the last two races.

For Ferrari's monster-comeback of the decade, for down-to-the-wire excitement, this will go into the books as one of the most entertaining seasons in F1 history. This season couldn't have been much more entertaining if it had been scripted.

But it feel like the season just abruptly ended too early. Like showing up at Indy only to have the Michelin runners withdraw. Like waiting for the fourth "quarter" in Stanley Cup. Like loading up with Viagra to be told, "not tonight, I have a headache".

The comment that sums it all up: "Not like this." This is no way for Schumi's last season to be decided.

After such a great season, to have it come to an end like this: arrrgh!!

I feel so used! I have to take a cold shower.

 

I do not know why F1 and NASCAR get compared. They are not in competition with each other I love to watch MotoGP, it has very close racing with lots of passing (most of the time). I love F1 for the strategy. Figuring out which tires (hard/soft), fuel loads, the aerodynamic, timing the pit stops, the team work or lack thereof, etc...

A good question to ask is "If Ferrari was not in F1 would I still care about F1?" I still would

 

MS might be a great driver, but IMO, far from the greatest of all time. The only reason as far as I'm concerned that he gives money, is for the hype, just like the Hollywood types...percentage of income wise, he probaby gives less a lot of us.....plus, he is FAR from being an ethical driver....he has run people off the track many times. No, I don't think Alonso is the driver that MS was, but he is pretty close, IMO, to the driver MS IS today. I am a Ferrari and NOT a Renault fan, but this "Ferrari is everything" attitude is absurd; it's as crazy as believing George Bush! For 2007 I think it will be more than just Ferrari and Renault that will be in the hunt....

 

Michael has 7 world championships. The day someone gets 8 championships he will be the greatest. When that day comes I will be willing to accept Michael is no longer the greatest racer ever.

My thoughts about driving round and round and round and round are clear!

Driving in an oval cannot compare to
DTM
V8 Super cars in australia
A1 GP
GT
WTCC

Even karting takes more skill than racing in an oval!

I respect the people in oval racing. I think they maybe good racers, good engineers and good mechanics. I just think they should race on tracks and not in a circle.

I know every single drop of fuel, every single piece of raw mateiral and every single bit of time that is being wasted on driving in a circle amounts to nothing!

So I would rather have those good racers, good engineers and good mechnics working on track racing where there skills can be used to maximum potential!

Michael has 7 world championships Senna has 3. Last time I checked 7 > 3!

If Senna can come back and win 5 more, Senna will be the greatest!

 

This is more of a personal attack, I do not want to defend MS since I do not know him or his motives, but to question his motives for his acts of chartity is just wrong. We can discuss his race track ethics, his record, our feelings regarding his driving, his place in history ,etc...

 

"I know every single drop of fuel, every single piece of raw mateiral and every single bit of time that is being wasted on driving in a circle amounts to nothing!"


Imp, Circle track and drag racing, I'd guess, account for most of the US racing industry - loads of jobs, expertise, and fans. Without circle and drag racing, I'm not sure auto racing would have much of a pulse in the US. I'm a road racer, and a road racing fan, and I'll take your disparaging statements as nothing more than internet bluster, but IMO in the US auto racing needs every bit of passion it can find.

 

Why do you care what he does with his money? It's his money, he doesn't have to donate any of it. Frankly, I couldn't care less if Bill Gates and Warren Buffet didn't donate a cent. They're not obliged and it shouldn't be expected. Get off their cases.

 

This was a joke post, right?

 

I do not know why anyone in their right mind has to defend F1. I do not know why anyone in their right mind compares F1 to oval track racing/NASCAR. So different, they each have their own difficulties, so to put down one or the other makes no sense. Impy obviously is not a true race fan.

 

Boy, we all get snippy when things go bad -- worse than Alonso

Ever since lap 37, what's been running through my head is the song "In The End" by Linkin Park:

I kept everything inside and even though I tried / it all fell apart
What it meant to me / will eventually / be a memory / of a time when
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter

(This is Pou's 2001 WRC review video but just listen to the lyrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grRRhmey-ho
(Or go here to read the lyrics)
http://lyrics.rare-lyrics.com/L/Linkin-Park/In-The-End.html

 

Scanning this thread summarily...I still can't believe that some of you are actually trying to reason or debate with Impy.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Sorry, but I think Linkin Park SUCKS! The Mars Volta all the way!

 

I only heard of this song from the WRC video, but I thought the lyrics fit the moment.

Now you're just messin' with me.

 

Reason or debate only ? How about defend !
Ferrari 1-2

 

This is inexpensive therapy for recovering F1SchumacherFerrariholics

 

You don't like them? Their new album is really good imo. Only thing I've been listening to this entire week.

 

I'm the " ferrari til I'm dead guy " & until ms came along ferrari was an ok team. when you get ms you get the total package. there's a reason why the whole beneton crew followed ms to ferrari. they new he was special & was a motivator. now take alonso's attitute the past 2 races ( blaming the team, telling everyone there not 100% behind him ) thats a cry baby attitude & mercedes & ron dennis will not accept that one bit. on the flip side what happened today after ms engine blew ( my god be punished for that action ) he thanked & huged all his crew in pits & garage, even tho he was pissed on the inside..... take it with a grain of salt but I LOVED SENNA & I LOVE MS BUT SHUMI IS THE GREATED DRIVER & HE WILL DEEPLY BE MISSED HERE !!!!!

FORZA FERRARI

 

I was so disgusted seeing Alonoso win, I almost turned the TV off before watching his podium/interview. I do think he is a classless little man. The odds are heavily in his favor, but I'm praying for a DNF, that would be the greatest end to probably the greatest F1 season I've witnessed during my lifetime.

 

I'm sure this was discussed before but was that "rear disc-ring" that was located on the outer part of the outside rear wheels of both Ferrari's? Is that for aerodynamics? There wasnt' one located on the front wheels.....

 

Come on TurboFreak650, enough with everyone's personal attacks on Alonso!
Calling him a little man is not justified.

Alonso was very contrite during the interview, he did not cheat for the win. I am not an AF fan, and I am still heart broken Schumi's car broke. There still is one more race to go!

 

so many great thought....

 

I hope MS wins the title without FA DNFing. I hope that we have the following finishing order:

MS
FM
KR
RB
RS
JB
YT
SS
GF
FA