Can the Iceman drive without traction control? (Aus *SPOILERS* )

(Aus *SPOILERS* )
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As chaos ensued at the Aus GP, Hamilton plowed forward, and I was reminded of last year's GP at the 'Ring. Made me think of an action movie, where the hero walks toward the camera in slow motion, while everything explodes behind him..

Anyway, I noticed that Kimi was scrambling up the ranks without pit-stoppin' and came thisclose to possibly winning a podium... but one of the mistakes he made, was around a curve where his rear tires went over the grass, and he spun out of control.

Based on the commentary I heard (on Speed Channel), they were talking about the new season's absence of traction control, and Kimi's ability to drive without it... so, do you think he can drive well this season without traction control? Was the Aus GP just a fluke? All Ferrari-bias aside, do you truly believe Kimi will once again capture the WDC this season?

Kimi is still one of my favorite drivers, and I wish him all the best!

~shahedc
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The Ferrari appears to be a handfull at the moment so it is hard to say..IMO he will come good he is a aggressive driver however he may need to learn to ease up on the gas.

 

Based on Kimi's performance in the first half of the race, I think he is adjusting to the loss of TC as well as anyone else in the race. I am not as concerned with the errors he made as I am with the ones made by Massa.

Kimi is still one of the top two or three drivers in F1 and I remain confident that he will retain his title this season.

 

your not concerned? the Iceman spun twice...

 

The mistakes he made would have had the same effect even with the TC on...

hey guys, drivers used to make mistakes and spun even last year !

 

thats my point. when Kimi makes a mistake, hardly anyone admits it. but when Massa makes a mistake, the world will end..

 

once

 

X2

 

Kimmi did his share of silly things...massa did some stupid stuff too...the team was completely furious about the first failure, I saw Baldissieri picking it with some guy in the pits, maybe from the fuel delivery given he had a nomex mask...he was RAGING about something but the guy showed him some checklist...and the the camera looked away...

Ferrari as a WHOLE did had a pretty embarrasing race. From HEAD TO TOES...picking it on Massa?, oh well I guess Kovalainen had a laugh at Kimmi as he braked late and went straight into the gravel...I have to admit I have no Idea how he missed the wall...

Lets move ON...Malasya is around the corner an WE NEED SOME SERIOUS FOCUS...

I bet you all failures were due to failing gas pumps, but like last years shocks, Ferrari wont come forward to tell the truth about ANY FAILURE...even worst if ALL FUEL PUMPS failed at some point.

WE NEED TO PUT THIS TOGETHER AND WIN IT BIG TIME IN MALASYA...

FORZA FERRARI...damn what a pain to watch that race.

 

my bad. i meant 1 spin, and one trip to the gravel..

 

"Kimi is still one of the top two or three drivers in F1 and I remain confident that he will retain his title this season"

+1

but......

If Hamilton maintains the momentum, wins races and continues to drive like he did yesterday then Kimi isnt going to be WDC in '08

 

Well let's see when Kimi can access Q3 if Hamilton still makes the pole

 

that trip to the gravel was preceded by [what looked like] a gutsy pass.... but alas, victory slipped from his fingers as he ran right into the gravel.

The spin, however, seemed to be caused his own mistake when he ran his rear tires over the grass...

~shahedc
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All I am going to say is keep Kimi and kick Massa out!!!
Bring Vettel in...or better yet--bring Schumacher back ( I do realize that the last one is me dreaming).....

 

Actually, it slipped from his fingers when he braked 40 meters too late during that attempted pass on Kovalainen... that's why he ran into the gravel! At least Kimi knew that he had to get ahead of the other car to make a pass, not just poke the nose inside the other car's rear wheels. Massa was definitely starring in amateur hour in the race.

I'm sure Kimi just had a bad day, he's definitely one of the top three drivers. Massa showed once again that while he can do the job when he can lead from the front, he's not much good at working his way through the pack, and he also showed that he is indeed struggling with the loss of traction control.

Note also that Ferrari didn't lose two engines during the race - they lost three. Bourdais, in the Torro Rosso Ferrari, also had an engine failure, 3 laps from the end. Ferrari might have suffered 4 engine failures in the race if Vettel had not crashed early on!

 

I would really like to see Rosberg at Ferrari next year.

 

Abs. BS


>I'm sure Kimi just had a bad day,

comical.

>he's definitely one of the top three drivers. Massa showed once again that while he >can do the job when he can lead >from the front, he's not much good at working his way through the pack, and he also >showed that he is indeed >struggling with the loss of traction control.

So is ur hero + everyone else.

 

Since Schumi is helping Ferrari with their testing, his name is actually listed as a "test driver" in Wikipedia... so I guess he's an official test driver now?

Does that mean that he can actually drive if Kimi and/or Massa can't drive for some reason?

(like Winkelhock and Vettel last year)

~shahedc
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Kimi had an unfortunate race, but his recovery from his two serious errors was very impressive. I didn't see anyone else recover from anything close to what Kimi did. Also, Kimi was pushing his car a lot more than anyone else was. Also, when he was on it, the car was clearly the fastest one on the track. Kimi will have an exceptional year. Massa was dissapointing to watch in qualifying, and in the race. He's not the worst on the grid by any means. He's a good driver, and he's a great teammate to Kimi, but I don't see him as WDC material.

 

Yes, Kimi can.

 

Of course Kimi can drive without TC. His first few laps WITH A HUGE AMOUNT OF FUEL ON BOARD were nothing short of phenomenal, until Ruben decided to park his Honda in front of Kimi. His spin was purely because of his rear wheel touching the grass, and he can surely improve on that. His little excursion into the gravel seems like a mistake he doesn't regularly make, and I'll be surprised if we see him do that again in Malaysia. On the other hand, Massa might have some trouble at Sepang, just like he did at the first turn in Melbourne (spun by himself) and in the race Malaysian race last year. Either way, Ferrari need to make some adjustments before this weekend.

 

Kimi's mistakes are easily fixable, simply by telling him "Wake the F*** up Kimi". Massa's mistakes on the other hand can only be fixed if Ferrari decide to go back in time and teach him how to drive.

I'm not worried about Kimi, just Felipe.

 

true, but remember how Massa got flamed last year for his attempt on Hammi at Sepang? but when kimi did it, it was 'at least he tried'....hmmmm...

 

Brian. IMO, I think it's because Massa's istakes are almost always the ones a driver should be making durring his beginning karting days. Kimi's mistakes are hardly ever rookie type and are much fewer. However, Kimi did make a mistake by accidently placing his wheel slightly too much on the grass while at the same time using the breaks causing a spin (something that would almost asuradly would have happened with TC). The pass on HK was due to a bit too much optimism with no rubber left on the tires (passing for nd from 15th). I acknowledge Kimi's mistakes on Sunday. Kimi's mistakes just don't bother me as much as Massa's due to the infrequency and reasons behind Kimi's. If anyone is questioning wheather or not the Ferrari drivers can drive without TC, they should be carefully looking at Massa not Kimi.

 

I have to agree, sadly.

Lately this forum has become Massachat. Nobody talks about Kimi´s errors, reliability problems, lack of speed over a single lap and strategic errors. That´s more worrying for me. The drivers can mess one race, but I doubt that the team can solve the reliability problems till they are back in Europe. That´s 3 races.

And I have to say that I´m fed up with all the Massachat. Why don´t you all Massa lovers/haters make one BIG thread about the issue and discuss it there, instead of messing around the whole forum.