Grand Prix de Monaco - QUALIFYING - **SPOILER**

I just saw the footage from the qualifying, and the technicians didn't look like they all had smirks on their faces, maybe one or two. And it looked as tho MS was very concerned that he had stopped on the track and was trying to have someone get him out of the way.

 

MS may be a great driver, but he is also the most self-absorbed driver in the history of F1. He has run people off the track any number of times. I'm glad he has finally gotten a penalty for his actions.

 

I disagree with you 100%. Self absorbed is not his reputation on his own team, and frankly, what anyone else thinks is biased anyway.

 

I didn't see qualifying this morning but just caught it on speed. While I damn well know he did it on purpose I don't have enough information to determine if what the FIA did was just.

The only way I could see them being able to hand down this decision is if they got his telemetry and that there was conclusive evidence after reviewing that telemetry.

For those of you who think he didn't do it on purpose after watching all the TV reviews, you're blinded by RED !!!!!!

He's as guilty as all the past champions including my hero Senna. They're all human !

 

You make no more sense than you did before. Like I said, some of you need to be on more suitable web sites. Try www.jibberish.com

 

press conference transcript...some biting questions for MS at the end....

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/27052006/13/post-qualifying-press-conference.html

 

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So has Ayrton Senna!!! I don't recall anyone trying to crucify HIM.

What about the Villeneuve-Arnoux duel?

 

Except the President of the FIA (FOCA) who tried to have his Superlicense revoked.

 

u know, in an f1 car, drivers only get about 40% view of the circuit. now, to make things worse, it's monaco of all the place. things like this happen. how sure of u all that he;s cheating by just looking at footages? and listening to other teams whining? the fact here, fernando didn;t complete the lap to be so sure that he could have gotten pole. he was faster than MS in the 1st sector, but can he carry out through the whole lap? no one knows... and, what can schumi gain by cheating? even if he starts on pole, everyone here knows the rocket starts those renaults have. now that could be cheating, would it? why would schumi do something so silly like that? worse come to worse, he'll be 2nd on the grid, not 22nd. i seriously think this is just a normal racing incident. i mean, JPM can be considered a cheat few years back by slamming into MS in whats supposed to be the most safest time on the track, behind a safety car. yet, that was just dismissed as a racing incident. how sure can anyone be that he didn;t receive any instructions to take schumi out? how come he didn;t get any penalty in the next race? because it's classified as a racing incident. what about this? why isn't this considered a racing incident? i think the whole quali format should be changed to avoid all this last minute rush and prevent this thing from happening again. common, if schumi really wanted to cheat, he could have done this every other circuit. i think the FIA heard the other team's whining and took that into consideration for punishing schumi. would the FIA take the same actions, steps if it happened to anyone else? imo, rivals like renault manipulated the whole situation. they are afraid of schumi and Ferrari, thats why they did this. if they are so confident with their package, they'll let their drivers and strategies do the talking on the track. this whole scenario is just a pure joke. if i were Ferrari, pack up and leave. boycott this crap. the whole race is as good as over...

 

Given the current qualifying rules, Msc was only qualifying against 10 other cars at the time. If the incedent had not occurred, msc would have likely been P2. The most he could have balked if the move was intentional was nine other cars. If there was conclusive evidence of his intention to balk his fellow nine drivers, he should be placed 10th on the grid. To move him to the back is an over reaction to the bluster of Flavio. Stewards got the penalty wrong.

 

Fernando couldn't go to track out because MS was there, that cost him considerable time and he still only lost out by 0.06 of a second. He'd have easily gotten pole. He was leading in the third sector before that corner.

You ever raced? Why would MS lock up PAST the apex. Braking is done before the apex at that corner and his steering inputs where way to slow to get the car to rotate. Then his half hearted attempt to correct looked lame.

No question in my mind what occured. Ferrari was looking at the sector times and the overall gap and Alonso was ahead.

 

If I'm Todt, I'd do one lap and bring them both in. No reason to risk any damage to the cars, etc. This place is just too hard to pass....

Whoever wins tomorrow will have a tainted victory.....

 

I saw Qualifying this afternoon, but wasn't home afterwards to engage in this debate. For those who don't think what Michael did was intentional, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I, however, think it was blatantly obvious after watching all the footage several times over on my TiVO that what Michael did was not an accident. The sad thing was, he didn't even do a good job of making it look like an accident in my opinion - highlighted even further by the in car footage where he can be seen yanking the wheel to the right, then straightening it, and finally coasting to a stop by the wall the last 10 feet or so. Unlike others I would not even expect Ide to make a mistake that looked that dumb, but MS, forget it. He's the best there is - in an equal car with equal tires I don't even think Fernando could beat him now.

There was still a tiny shadow of doubt in my mind still after watching the TV footage several times - but my suspicions were confirmed by the post race interview where Michael could barely keep a straight face while answering Windsor's questions knowing that his "accident" appeared a bit more staged then he/they had hoped/planned and it seemed he knew very well he was being called on it. He looked to me to be a very guilty man in the interview room IMO, and I consider myself a pretty good judge of that.

I can't say I agree with him being pushed all the way to the back of the grid as a penalty (10th would have been fine), but I certainly agree with the decision to strip him of his pole position. This incident like others in the past with Michael/Ferrari have soured my love for the team and love for the sport. Once again, I'm really disappointed by their tactics and his actions.

Before you accuse me of being a Schumacher hater or whatever, let me just say I've been a Schumacher fan since he came to Ferrari. I first started watching F1 regularly in 1995. I definitely consider myself a Tifosi, but I am certainly not blinded by red. I used to wear my F310B t-shirt on every race day till I wore it out, the only 1/43rd scale F1 car I own is Shumi's F399, and one of the few things hanging on my bedroom wall is this flag which I've had since 1996. If Ferrari pulls their cars from the race in protest over this, I think the flag will have to come down.

>8^)
ER
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Yes, I've raced. (2wd rally, where "drifting" was just the fast way around a corner). Have you ever tossed a car into understeer on purpose? Somewhere like Monaco? Without hitting anything?
(Intentional oversteer is just pushing the limits, and can be controlled. Understeer is scary.)

If you watch the whole qualifying session, you'll see the back end get loose under braking approaching the first apex. (It wasn't as extreme as Massa's swerve, but it definitely didn't track right.) The front got loose between the apexes, and stayed loose through the run off. But they don't show the start of all that in the replay. (Just as they rarely show the setup prior to passes. The camera crews haven't done much racing.)

Again, from outside, it looks like he could have just driven off. Even from the periscope camera, it looked like he had room. But from the lower perspective camera (about where the driver's head is) the wheel closest the armco disappeared into shadow, and it didn't look like it would clear the wall.

Dropping him to P9 (since he was ahead of Fisi who also got penalized for blocking) would have been a decision to penalize him for blocking.

Dropping MS to P22 is saying that FIA has guaranteed the French manufacturer another championship. (FIA is practically kissing Renault's butt to get them back in WRC, after PSA pulled Citroen and Peugeot.)

This isn't the first time the FIA has overslammed a competitor for a borderline issue. When BAR/Honda was competing with Renault, they got a three race suspension for a very subjective infraction.

FIA might as well announce the results before going through the motions of having a race season.

And what happened to the reports that the stewards had found "no foul" earlier? (Note: same as BAR had been cleared before the FIA slammed them.) If FIA is going to use trump lightning bolts to micromanage the results, we might as well watch the boring Indy cars going around in circles -- and pray for the break-away series.


Since he's been punished for it already, maybe Michael ought to go out tomorrow for one lap, and then park the Ferrari ...

... at Rascasse.

 

I've seen ten or so people talk about parking the Ferraris tomorrow.

This race is about TV time for those little stickers pasted all over the cars. (You know, the guys that pay all the bills)

Does anyone have the numbers? I heard Honda lost $35 million last year for having to sit out this race? Because, this is the one race all year long... where deals get signed, big money is watching, and budgets get inked.

Sorry but Sunday is about more than the race, driver, or win

 

No way Hose ! I just watched it three times at 1/16th speed and he was opening up the wheel BEFORE he even got to the apex. Watch it yourself if you have it on tape or Tivo. Look at the Vodafone banner on the inside corner. If you look at other in car shots he's apexing near the "V" in "Vodafone" but in this shot he's already uncranking the wheel in what is a blind corner at the "n" in "Vodaphone". Don't you think it's odd that the car is drastically understeering before the lock up at the slow speed.

In my opinion had this been real understeer he would have yanked the wheel back past the 12 o'clock position with a lot more force to gain back grip and it would have been done once not three times.

The initial correction followed by the other two half hearted attempts at that low a speed don't make much sense at all.

 

I feel that the FIA stewards were right in finding him guilty but the punishment does not suit the crime. They could have taken his three best times away from him to be fair. Alonso has it easy tomorrow unless Kimi can do something about it.

 

Then all the Michelin teams should have driven slowly around Indy last year instead of pulling out. Their tires were fine at lower speeds and all their sponsers would have gotten tv time......

FIA believes that MS did it to block FA on a fast lap. Fine. Award FA the pole and allow MS to start second. Great racing and ratings. Now nobody cares; victory will be hollow, just as Shumi's was at Indy last year....FIA really f*&k#d this up....Championships should be decided on the track....

 

Again, you're only looking at the front of the car at the second apex. It went sour before that.

 

Indy? No big money deals in F1 get done at Indy. The big players won't even spend the night in a Indiana hotel.

Monaco is where millions of dollars in deals come to play, do business, watch the race, and been seen. This is the most important race of the year for VIP's and 100's millions of dollars in budgets.

( not that Ferrari has to worry ) but its the hardest race of the year to pull your car off the track.... and away from the cameras, after one lap.

 

I am not even concerned with what's going on at the front of the car. I understand what you are saying in regards to the rear, especially if there was rear lock up or if the rear got loose for some strange reason.

What baffles me is his hand movements. They just aren't consistent with turn in understeer before the apex in a very slow speed corner. Even if he blew his braking point of turn in point you would have expected him to brake harder (more lock up) and yank ("open up") the wheel back past 12 o'clock.

It doesn't even look like a good acting job. It looks like he was undecided with how to make it look like an accident. Michael doesn't brake in straight line and also left foot brakes which makes it even stranger that he had to make three corrections at low speed.

Michael's main strenght is adjusting his line at the apex as opposed to Alonso who adjusts his line BEFORE the apex. Nothing about the in car makes much sense to me.

 

I disagree. There was a full overhead shot shown on TV - I have watched it at least 20 times now in slow motion (I'll wear out the TiVO soon) and the attitude of the car is not out of shape prior to Michael locking up in the turn before stopping at the wall.

>8^)
ER

 

lol, nicely said. well, if u asked me imho, there's no point arguing about it anymore. whats done already done. just have to wait for the race in a few hours time. well, somehow rather, if there's a huge screw up at the front, MS could just benefit from it anyhow...whatever happened during is a huge shame, imo. fine, say SUPPOSED ms did do it on purpose, i think the whole situation was handled badly. FIA and stewards were under huge pressure from rival teams to punish ms, and they did punish him too much if u asked me. a ten grid penalty could have been proper, has ms did it on purpose. but P22? the punishement don;t fit the crime

 

They're playing to the audience, like all pro wrestling promoters.

"The chair! Give 'im the chair!"