Monaco GP ***SPOILERS***

To be fair, Raikkonen deserves a penalty. Giancarlo got penalized 5 positions for running into the back of another car a race or two ago, and that wasn't half as stupid as Kimi's brainfade. That incident was not intentional, also a "racing incident". But when you are paid an average of $8-10 mill/year, I think a driver should be expected to be a bit more careful. I think if you had a mandatory clause in contracts that stated that for any damage you do to the car that is not the fault of the team, you pay for it, you would see much fewer incidents such as Kimi's today.

I am losing respect for F1 by the minute. No team, not even the team I support should get away with not being penalized for stupidity.

 

I'm thinking that Concorde ain't the only agreement in F1.

I've noticed that, even in the years that Ferrari wasn't very competitive, they still did well at the USGP, where Ferrari has a large sales market (and Renault doesn't).

Others have commented on FIA's "bias" towards Ferrari on rulings.

Maybe Monaco is the price Ferrari pays for that.

Ferrari didn't win Monaco even in '04, when nobody could touch them. Schumi won 12 of the first 13 races in '04 -- the exception being Monaco -- where Schumi took himself out during the SC by brake checking JPM.

Okay, so maybe it's just like computer games:

"Gee, what an amazing coincidence ..... again"

All of physics is just statistics. Since the molecules in a room temperature desk are in motion, there's a theoretical probability that they might all move aside and let your coffee cup fall into your lap.

 

+1

 

it's really amazing how when Massa lost it in Malaysia, and he said he took too much of kerb, most people were telling that he's blaming the kerb and not himself.

well, Kimi just looses it, and now everyone's blaming the road? haha..a friggin Force India car could handle the same road Kimi was using, and yet when Kimi looses it, suddenly, something's wrong with the road?

face it, Kimi was pretty ****ty the moment the lights went out. Massa did helluva job till the team and the radio screwed up for him.

 

no, Massa had his stuff up as well but got away with it, LH got VERY lucky ................................. and Sutil got Kimi

 

i agree that Massa did screw up, John. but so did all the top drivers. Kimi actually went off the same place as Massa, and ripped he's front wing. Massa OTOH, performed well, apart from that moment in Ste Devote.

 

I have to agree with Brian, Massa did a very good job, and you got that backwards, Raikkonen got Sutil. I know you were kidding.

 

People hoping for rain wanted an "interesting" race.
Remember the old curse about "may you live in interesting times"?

The only drivers who didn't have a "moment" were the ones that weren't really pushing the limits.

Massa was running away from the pack -- other than Kubica -- when driving 110% caught up with him.
Felipe certainly made up for his "moment", though, running some amazing lap times before his first stop -- shades of Schumi's pre-pit runs.

Massa managed to get back ahead of Kubica in the pit rotation, despite being stationary for a full 3 sec longer than Kubica.

(I think Massa also pushes pit-in/out harder, too: the clock showed him stationary for 11.7 (to Robert's 8.7), but FIA's pit summary (which includes in/out) showed Phil only losing a sec and a half to Kubi in that stop.)

I can't imagine what Ferrari might have been thinking, loading Felipe up with that much fuel. Even if it had rained again, inters would have been pretty useless in the wet after 45 laps under a heavy car. (Even Schumi had trouble stretching inters too far.) In changeable conditions, you have to expect tire stops, so there's no point loading up with that much fuel. All it did was add a weight penalty to Massa's car, for no good reason.

With the lap times Felipe was pulling, I suspect it would have been close for the win, if Ferrari had left Felipe's strategy alone. That fuel load cost Phil the chance for a win, and the slow second stop (8.8 sec just for tires without fuel???) cost him 2nd.

Between the fiasco with Kimi's car on the grid and the excessively slow stops the team inflicted on Massa, I have to wonder if Ferrari was even trying to win this one.

 

no question about it, Massa drove very well, so did LH and Rubik's Cube

very brave men all of them, those speeds would be scaring the hell out of me with everything so close and standing water just waiting to catch you out

don't recall Kubica making a mistake but the cameras weren't on him al lthe time

 

I think he meant that Sutil got Kimied.

 

Both drivers really f-ed up. I mean for God's sake we had the entire first row on the grid AT MONACO of all places and yet somehow we only end up with a 3rd and 9th place. Raikkonen gets a bad start, Massa spins in the lead, Raikkonen gets that stupid @$$ tire rule stop go, Kimi screws up his front wing early and has a long pitstop, Massa didn't have a radio for 20 laps, Raikkonen with a little help from the road spins it and destroys Sutil, and then both drivers have to come in at the end.

Honestly, we may have scored less points in Australia but this is one of the worst Ferrari races I've seen in a while. Almost like we offered the win to Robert and Lewis and they gladly accepted.

 

yes

the wiggling was reminiscent of Johnny Herbert many years ago at Monaco when his rear suspension broke and he was fighting to get it under control ... .the ITV morons said it was bad luck but old Johnny had clipped the walls to weaken the suspension

I swear I'll shoot James Allen if I ever see him ... surprised his wife or Brundle (are they the same person ??) hasn't already done so

 

Poor show from Kimi. Massa outshines him once again.

 

Massa didn't mess up all that badly, and made up for it on the pit rotation. It was the team that cost Ferrari this race. The strategy inflicted on Felipe was an utter disaster. Kimi seems to have lost concentration after his drive-thru -- I think it bothered him that the team messed up his race right on the grid.

Maybe it's the venue. I wonder if half the Ferrari garage comes to the Monaco GP hung over.
(Or worse -- if it was Amsterdam, that might explain that pit "strategy". )

 

This race was heartbreaking. Lewis is one very lucky guy. Oh well, start focusing on Canada.

P.S. Let's not start bashing Kimi or anyone else. It was just a bad race plain and simple. Ferrari will bouce back in Canada.

 

I'm pissed, my DVR stopped recording with 3 minutes to go because of all the delays. It wasn't Ferraris best race, I couldn't have been more impressed with Sutil's performance before kimi took him out.

 

+1 i am getting quite sick on how they commentated last night Hamilton this Hamilton that Hamilton Hamilton Hamilton. would they ever shut up about him.

 

and Webber got bugger all mentions while that buffoon Button kept getting promoted by these idiots

 

The ITV feed is ******* ridiculous. Allen should just proclaim his man-love for Hamilton already.

As was mentioned already. Webber drove a great race (as usual this season) and got mentioned ~3 times.

 

both? besides that moment, Massa drove a fantastic race in those kinda conditions. not bad for a driver that can't drive in wet conditions and no TC. the team screwed him up big time, no doubt about that.

well, about the Kimster, like someone said, he Kimied Sutil

 

finally finished watching that GP and I'm glad it's over. Congrats to LH he drove a good race and got really lucky with that accident early on. Kimi just plain sucked (hey it happens to the best of us) and Massa did a good job but Ferrari really screwed up with their strategy. Let's face it the Ferrari's are still the class of the field in the dry, but we learned today that in the wet Mclaren and BMW have an edge. No big deal if you ask me most of the races are in the dry so we'll see how well Ferrari bounces back.

 

We ought to add that to the dictionary:

"Kimied" (adj.,p.t.): to have been the victim of sudden and devastating bad luck. (From Kimi's experiences at MacLaren.)
See "Stymied".

There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the cars. But Mac and Beemer certainly have the edge in wet *strategy* over Ferrari.

Between this race, Fuji last year, and the unbalanced tires they gave Phil at Nurburgring, it looks like it's the team that's getting it wrong in the wet. If you look at the tire selections at Hungary '06 -- the source of much of the "can't drive in the wet" claims about Massa -- it does seem that the team strategy has more wet issues than Felipe's driving.

I'm really starting to think that Schumi and Rubens did their own wet race strategy, and now that the team is trying to make decisions for Kimi and Phil, they just don't have the experience -- especially with Todt and Brawn gone.

 

+1

Schumi was there yesterday, they should have asked him what to do...

 

We have all learned that you should always record the following show when recording any race. DVR 101...

 

I think you are promoting your "boy" Massa a bit more than deserved. He is quite fast, but inconsistent. Also, note that the season is far from over Many had already counted Kimi out before he took it home last year anyway, but he's always been a fighter. And your boy's numerous mistakes last year meant he had almost no chance of winning, at least Kimi had built up enough of a season to make it possible.

F1 seasons and careers aren't judged by 2-3 races, although you wouldn't know it by reading the threads here...........