I was sitting at turn three today.

I've only seen it once (no replay given) but Heidfeld was already on the inside for that corner (albeit behind Michael) when Michael decided to block Heidfeld. Nick had no where to go but in the grass and this forced a lockup that caused him to slide into MS.

In my opinion that was a very stupid move on Michael's part since he was on cold tires and Heidfeld had already pitted 7 lap ago.

Michael had every right to close the door but that wasn't a good place to do it with Heidfeld getting a run on MS.

Even more perplexing is Michael's statement that he didn't know Nick was there. That's baloney he blocked Nick by slamming the door shut.

MS:

"I saw him behind me just as I came out of the pits and I made it clear that I was defending my position. At one point I lost sight of him in my mirrors and I went into the corner when I felt I had been hit.

"I have seen the incident on film. He was on the grass and he was not in full control of his car. I can't blame him for trying to overtake me but my car was slightly damaged and there was no point in carrying on."

Get real !

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
www.flatoutracing.net

 

Totally agree.

I'm starting to wonder about Michael's motivation. If he starts out on front, he is impossible to catch, no question there. But look what happened in the last few races, where he had to start from the back: Shanghai, Interlagos and now Melbourne

All lackluster performances combined with driver errors.

Time to start a race from the front again.

 

agree 100%
Bad move by MS.

 

Agree.

Pete

 

Hang on here guys.

The onus is always on the driver that is attempting to pass to do so cleanly. It was a pretty ambitious move on Heidfeld's part to stuff the car up the inside ... especially from so far back. That sort of move is never going to work without some co-operation from the driver being passed.

Having said that, Michael should probably have left him a little more track space, but even with traction Heidfeld was coming in pretty hot in a bit of a kamikaze move .... I'm not sure the result would have been much different.

I'd class it as a racing incident with an overly ambitious overtaking attempt with an driver unwilling to give away track position unnecessarily. Some blame on both sides, onus to pass cleanly on overtaking driver but not helped by legitimate protection of line, both lose out, move on and get over it.

Steve

 

Jon, judging by the replay, did it look to you like Michael's line was overly shallow, even for defending the corner? The in-car camera made it look like he drifted towards the apex pretty early which would have forced Nick onto the grass. Definitely not a good line to set up his exit.

 

There was no reason for MS to push him to the grass at all. There is no way to assume how much room NH needed to get to the inside of that corner. Yes, it was a racing incident, but I think its 70% MS driving and 30% MS ego.

 

The international press pretty much called it Michael's fault. He only got Ross Brawn to defend him, what a surprise.

 

Were in a bit of a gray area here, but Heidfeld had already moved out for the pass. In most forms of racing, a direction change (or changing to a defensive line) must be taken prior to the overtaker making his passing move.

Going on memory I seem to recall MS reacting to Nick's move which forced Nick into the grass. Again MS can simply say he shut the door but I think Heidfeld could argue that MS slammed the door shut after Nick had already commited to attempting a pass (or making MS think he was doing so). Had MS simply taken the inside (defensive line) prior to Heidfeld's move then Nick would have been 100% in the wrong.

Again some may view it as a racing incident, but MS saw Nick pull to the inside and took the away and racing space for Nick to occupy.

At the very least it was a totally stupid move from a 7 time world champion. I simply don't know why MS seems to have these brain fade moments when stuck in traffic. Remember him hitting one of the Jaguars last year and the year before he hit one of the Toyota's in the season ending race.

Jack,

I seem to recall the same thing, however MS can take any line through a corner he wants and in most cases you can totally screw up the other guys line by altering your line.

Regards,

Jon

 

I was sitting at turn 9, and when MS crashed out, the crowd roared!!!!

I got to see the excellent move by MW on DC to that corner.....One of the highlights of the race for me!

 

Never discount Michael, Remember 2003!!!

He will be victorious.

 

Details please Mike ... TV sort of half missed it. All I saw was MW on the grass after DC hit the back of a Minardi ... looked like a real heart rate raising incident.

I assume that is the move you are talking about ... if you are talking about one where MW actually passed DC, then I missed it, and would love to hear (read) the details.

Pete

 

Yeah, i heard that the TV coverage did not pick it up. They were more concerned with the MS/NH bingle....

Yeah, MW overtook DC into turn 9. I was there. I saw it. It was awesome.
There was no backmarker traffic, and it was a clean outbraking move. MW struggled on the exit, but because the track curves around to the left, even is he was half on the ripple strip, he still had the ideal line onto the straight, provided he didnt lose speed. Which he didnt

This is straight after the MS/NH incident. Just before the 2nd round of stops i think. MW was actually 3rd for a few laps, but lost that with his poor stop.

I couldnt follow the race that good, because the cars are WAY TOO LOUD to hear the commentary that was paired with the huge displays. But my wife taped the race, so i will refer back to that soon.

All in all, the race was a good one. I was hoping for a weather change, and it did look possible, but that did not eventuate. ALOT of people shunned the Ferrari Merchandise at the GP. Being on average 50% more expensive might have been a good reason for that....

Besides, i view all the Ferrari F1 merchandise to be "fad" anyways...
(This is why i bought about $600 of Williams Merchandise!)

 

Awesome stuff, vintage passing move ... and it is bloody hard to pass at Melbourne.

In the end you just have to be a racer like MW. And considering that DC was pacing along good ... I'm impressed.

Now Williams just need to practise pitstops and learn to be more clever with strategy and we have a race winner on our hands (er, TV ).

Pete

 

As always, Jon K's got the right answer. I initially thought Schumi's the wiggle under braking wasn't intentional and was innocent, but in retrospect, I'm not so sure. Wouldn't put it outof the question that MS was trying to get Heidfeld nervous, trying to get him to overbrake the corner and net Schumi some ground on corner exit. Turns out Heidfeld braked a little too long.

 

Just like when Schumi and JPM crashed going into the tunnel last year durring a caution lap?

Maybe MS likes to try little wiggles to get people off his back?....I've seen it back-fire twice with MS out of the race both times for the same type of move?

 

I don't know if it's funny, sad or both that every time there's an incident as a result of an over-taking manouver it requires so much analysis and speculation. If they can get F1 to the point where most fans seem to want it, we'll just cheer the action and move on since passing will become a staple of the sport.

 

Passing and incidents should be seen as the norm ... instead we are shocked that somebody actually try to pass!. Obviously not listening to Bernie and Max ... how dare they try and race on the track, they should have just waited until the next (artificial) pitstop

Pete

 

Totally agree.

Remember a few years ago when Ralfi got airborne on Rubens at Melbourne and a race later there was another (Rubens?) incident in Interlagos? The FIA put the hammer down and told the drivers to have no more incidents at the start of the race or else...Totally the wrong way to bring racing and excitement back. The drivers behaved like sheep in the following races.

Obviously a deliberate bumping (a la NASCAR) ought to be punished and banned, but some more or less aggressive/defensive driving should be A-OK. Passing is hard enough as it is. Let's not further intimidate the drivers with draconian penalties.