i agree that Ralf has been a bit lackluster lately and all of the accidents he's been involved in uptil now have been caused by himself. but it's hard to tell if he was the only one responsable for Alonso's accident. he did not deliberately slow down in the middle of the tunnel, he had a gearbox problem so it was impossible for him to go any faster than he did. i just wonder why he didn't let Alonso pass before the tunnel, as he knew the Spaniard was fighting for the lead. Ralf says Alonso was still over a second behind, but his car was a lot faster, so it was only logical he'd catch up in the tunnel.

as for Alonso, i understand he wanted to pass Ralph as soon as possible to be able to stay close to his teammate, but it has to be said he should have known it is impossible to overtake in the tunnel, especially round the outside. There is a lot of dirt out there and at the speed he was going he was destined to end up in the barriers.

as far as i am concerned, both drivers were in fault.

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Originally texted by Jakhira Out with the dog at the moment. Chicks love him, and I love chicks... The world is in harmony

Ralf is always Ralf, he never cares what he does. He is by far the most dangerous driver out there at the moment. I agree with tor that both drivers were in fault of the incident. But i still disagree on the JPM & MS issue. Fact is that michael braked heavily, the speed of montoya's car was very fast. When behind a safety car you should keep your distance with the car in front and behind. Even though michael braked at the last second montoya shouldve had enough room to slow down if he had the correct space.

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1934, 1938, 1982, 2006

If anybody was wondering about the stewards enquiries...

The incident between JPM & MS was decided to have been just a racing incident and no action has been taken. JP said this:

quote:

“If he was braking that hard he should have done it in a different place – not in the middle of the tunnel. It’s very hard to judge. I moved offline to try not to hit him and he came over exactly to where I was. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. “It was so unpredictable. He just stood on the brakes and you could see the left-front locked for quite a while. As soon as I saw the smoke, I straightaway tried to avoid him but there was nowhere to go. “I’m not going to blame him and I’m pretty happy I didn’t do anything on purpose. I would put it down to a racing incident. If he wants to say anything else, I don’t care really. My mind is pretty clear. “We had a similar problem in Austria last year on the parade lap and I couldn’t keep up with him because of the way he did it. And look at what happened with Jenson in 2000 at Monza. Jenson had to throw it off the track to avoid him. “So it’s not the first time it’s happened – it’s just the first time he’s been affected by it.”

I don't know about the Ralf/Anlonso incident but Ralf's had this to say:

quote:

“Mirabeau and Loews is a bit tight and I wasn’t in his way anyway. I just wanted to let him by in the tunnel. “Even if I had gone on the throttle I had only fourth gear and I couldn’t do anything,” “I just went to the side, went off the throttle and waited for him to pass me. Anyone who looks at the video will see that I went to the inside and stayed there. “There was one-and-a-half cars between us and so I don’t see how I pushed him anywhere. Especially in fourth gear. “He was going pretty fast and was pretty far to the outside, so I don’t know what he’s complaining about. He should just calm down. If he took more care then he wouldn’t end up in the barrier. It’s not my f***ing fault! “He was just too late when he decided to pass me. I don’t know what he did and I don’t know what he was thinking, honestly. Obviously he is frustrated and tries to blame someone instead of admitting to himself that it is his f***-up.”

Bonza

Klien’s Monaco accident proves extremely costly


When Christian Klien crashed out of the Monaco Grand Prix and into the barriers before the Loews hairpin, he lost more than just the chance of scoring his first points for Jaguar Racing.

Embedded in the R5 nosecone was a flawless Steinmetz diamond worth in the region of £140,000. After the Austrian’s shunt, it vanished into thin air.

“That will be the most expensive drive I’ll ever take around Monte Carlo,” said Klien afterwards.

The diamond, roughly the size of a shirt button, was set into a steel ring on the nose of both cars as part of an exclusive Steinmetz sponsorship deal publicising the forthcoming Ocean’s 12 movie. Only one, however, returned to the pits.

There was speculation a fan or light fingered marshal may have pocketed the stone.

“Someone here has walked away with more than a motor racing souvenir,” commented Nav Sidhu, Jaguar Racing’s head of Formula One communications.

Both Steinmetz and Jaguar Racing were saddened by the loss of a unique piece of Grand Prix memorabilia that was destined to be auctioned for charity at a later date.



Ooooops!

They should've know better than to stick on on the front of Klien's jag.

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Originally posted by IRRITANT They should've know better than to stick on on the front of Klien's jag.

Diamonds are NOT forever

got this from the ITV F1 website

quote:

Formula 1 is revising its qualifying format as of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 11. Replacing the existing single car sessions will be a one hour period split into two 20 minute sessions, with combined times from both forming the grid spot. Each car must complete six laps in each of the timed periods with the fastest time from each aggregated to produce the overall grid time. Both sessions will be run with free fuel levels, meaning a return to flat out qualifying with cars in their optimum specification. The parc ferme rules will continue but teams will then fuel the cars after qualifying in preparation for the race. Many of the teams are believed to have pushed for the second session to be run with race fuel levels but Ferrari's Jean Todt pointed out that if fuel conservation was a factor, drivers would then crawl round on their in-laps having set their quick time, leading to potentially hazardous situations.

finally we'll have some entertaining qualifying sessions again!

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Originally texted by Jakhira Out with the dog at the moment. Chicks love him, and I love chicks... The world is in harmony

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Originally posted by TOR got this from the ITV F1 website finally we'll have some entertaining qualifying sessions again!

Gotta disagree, I'm a big fan of single-lap qualifying (especially qualifying on race fuel as the it's made strategy even more difficult to get right).

I'm all for making F1 more about racing but lets not forget that what sets F1 apart from everything else (in my opinion) is the technology in these machines. Sure we've got some of the best drivers in the world what's going to attract tomorrows stars to the sport?

Even though the one flying lap rule shows how much skill a driver has, i'd really like to see the old qualifying back, which gives more chances to the less fortunate drivers.

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1934, 1938, 1982, 2006

^ plus it's more entertaining to watch as well.

the 20-20 system that's due to come in at Silverstone is far from perfect, but at least we'll have some action on the track. yesterday's qualifying session was extremely boring, because a few drivers did not take to the track because of a mechanical failure. we had to wait a couple of minutes before the next man was out on track.

with the new system, there will be much more action. and adding up the times from both sessions will be interesting as well. although it doesn't quite make sense, as the cars will not be fueled up for the race. it would have been better if the second session consisted off a single qualifying lap with race fuel on board. the grid would then be an accurate translation of the true performance of the cars and the drivers, as the first session would show how quick the cars are with low fuel, and the second session with race fuel.

but it's definitely going to be interesting.

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Originally texted by Jakhira Out with the dog at the moment. Chicks love him, and I love chicks... The world is in harmony

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Originally posted by TOR the grid would then be an accurate translation of the true performance of the cars and the drivers, as the first session would show how quick the cars are with low fuel, and the second session with race fuel. but it's definitely going to be interesting.

That's the problem, I thought the whole point of changing to single lap qualifying in the first place was to make the grid more interesting for race day. So the likes of Schumacher could make a small mistake and put themselves four or five places further back on the grid than they should be and have to fight their way to the front on Sunday. Or one of the smaller teams could get lucky with the weather and end up starting up front.

The more chances they get to put in a perfect lap, the more we're going to see the cars finishing the race on Sunday in the same place they qualified, since they'll be on the the grid in order of performance.

Basically I'm saying that I'd rather see the action on race day than in qualifying.

Last edited by Spad on May-30-2004 at 12:53