Button tops the charts in Barcelona

My sentiments exactly.

 

??

Wow.

 

Not sure whom you mean by rats. And anybody giving up on Hambone and the McLaren would be dillusional.

If this was in reference to my post: All I'm saying is that the McLaren won't be fast out of the block at Melbourne and develop towards a front runner as the season progresses (which is another way of saying that I would put my money on the Ferraris) and that we can expect a pleasant surprise from the Brawn GP team. By pleasant surprise I mean a podium finish at best. However eventually I see them going backwards.

The real goal of Brawn GP for this season is to survive and find sponsors and/or a buyer. Anything beyond that is a miracle.

 

Hell I missed that one, I hope it's not me he is referring to...got to laugh at Jim's train of thought though..rats LOL..

I'am just soooo glad, JB and RB have got a drive and there is another team on the grid and they are looking good, from picking up the piece's from the remains of Honda, it's just great news.

BTW I also like a David and Goliath story..

 

Ferrari/Massa lost 2008 by underperforming in the first races. Hopefully they'll grab their chance now with McLaren obviously not being very fast and build up a gap early instead of throwing the races away.

 

That's not quite fair - I understand what you're getting at, and I'd love to see Ferrari sweep at least the first few races. But, if we wanted to "nail" FM's "loss" of the championship to one thing I'd have to point at trying to take the refueling rig with him in Singapore. [Not his fault as we know.]

Cheers,
Ian

 

Agree! Howevery, like in 2007 too, McLaren was able to snatch away valuable points in the first part of the season for a various number of reasons. That must not happen again!

 

I think I'm getting Florian's point: By loosing out in the beginning of the season, the pressure mounted to the point that the team got so nervous that they would do such a blunder as the fuel rig.

Which is why I always hate it, when teams who come back with little points from the first few races to the first European race, state that NOW the season really begins. Schumacher made that stupid comment in one year. Of course that is nonsense because every race gives the same amount of points and what you waste in the first race is just as valuable as what you waste in the last race.

 

Precisely, Andreas can you throw any light on the point system has it changed, as the FOTA proposed..?

Ah never mind I just read this: The only opportunity for this to happen is the meeting scheduled for March 17, less than ten days before the beginning of official action at the Melbourne season opener.

"If the points system is to be changed for this season, the Council must approve it on this day," FIA spokesman Richard Woods is quoted as saying by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

 

I hope they will adopt the new points system as it gives the winner some extra points (as it should), thereby making Bernie with his medal idea happy AND it still pays points down to 8th place, which keeps the midfield teams happy. Would be good all around.

The only negative will be the statistic idiots who will now count the points at full value and make sensational claims like "he became WDC with the most points ever in F1 history" and the like.

PS: Somebody (with too much time on their hands) should write a F1 points converter where you can select the points system of your choice and it recalculates all the races back to the beginning for that points system. I almost wrote it myself one day (as an Excel sheet) when I realized that the problem is more complex than just bare points: There were the seasons where you could only score so many points per half season etc.

 

Hmmm.....

Given the overwhelming evidence about "illegal" testing configurations I was hoping (nee, expecting) an apology to the readers here from Jim.

No need for name calling, asking for "resumes" etc, just a simple "I was mistaken, and apologize to those I called out" comment would suffice.

Cheers,
Ian
[Except, I guess I'm also on his ignore list for having the balls to question his wisdom ]