Ferrari vs McLaren again, and in the midst Brawn might run away (at least I am hoping to ). Felipe did say that Brawn may wrap up the title by June . Making things interesting...

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thanks guys!

Last season i think it's a well known fact that the McClaren wasn't the best car. It was very good, but the Ferrari was allround a better machine. Despite that, and despite numerous penalties, Lewis still won. And where was his team-mate?

Still, there will always be the detractors trying to suggest that it was down to the car and not the driver. That's why i think this season will be good. McClaren patently do not have the best car - far from it. However, i think that like all great drivers, he'll squeeze some great performances out of the car, a la Alonso, Schumacher etc. Putting all the controversy aside, Melbourne was a perfect example - to race from the very back of the grid to 4th.

As for the likes of Kubica and Vettel - they might be great drivers too but they have to prove this by winning. Until then it's just speculation. Playing the game of "if such and such had a good car, such and such would be better than him" is pointless hypothesizing.

No one is saying it's only the best car that will win and I'm certainly not knocking Hamilton but if your car is not competative you are simply going to struggle and lets face it Hamilton did pass people but his position was greatly enhanced by the accidents that took place.
Please tell me of one car that has been a front runner other than the likes of Ferrari, Maclaren, BMW, Williams etc, the under funded teams will only get a podium finish if there is a catastrophe to the usual front runners, and yes Vettel won his first F1 race last season.

True but the fact that he wasn't himself involved in an accident didn't happen by magic you know. Keeping the car on the track, not over-driving and avoiding collision is all part of the skill of being a racing driver - it's not all about just going fast. You have to be there at the chequered flag - and he was.

I dont disagree with what your saying and he was there at the finish, but starting from the back of the grid helped him no end after the carnage at the first corner and contrary to rixalex opinion that I'm a detractor of Hamiltons performance is crap, I'm pointing out that all drivers need a certain amount of luck and in Australia it was Hamiltons turn , not a problem, I don't like the way he and the team lied about Trulli.

Agreed, especially the bit underlined.

It's no excuse, but i can understand how a young driver could place his trust in a senior team member and simply follow his advice.

Anyway, he's learnt a lesson and hopefully in the future he will think and speak for himself.

Hopefully he will, he's too talented to have to stoop to the kind of tricks that Shumacher got up to, especially that b------t when he parked his car on the corner to prevent anyone beating his practice time at Monaco not to mention Damien Hill and Villenueve?. winning is important just don't sell your own integrity and self respect to achieve it.

100% agree! Schumacher fell short of being a great in my eyes because of his tactics. Yes he was a great driver, perhaps the greatest, but he wasn't a sportsman - he wanted to win and didn't care what the cost. Lewis has to be very careful he doesn't make the same mistake. Some things are more important than winning, like being able to hold your head high. I think now his head is held very low. Even as a fan, i won't be upset if he gets further punishment. There's no room in the sport for cheating.

Yes, that's how I see it having read the latest news (posted earlier). So this bloke Dave Ryan lied and put Hamilton in the position of either telling the truth and getting Ryan into trouble, or backing Ryan. And being a good "team player" he chose to back Ryan, forgetting that the radio transmissions would catch them both out.

So I reckon 90% blame to Ryan and 10% to Hamilton - it must have been a very awkward time for Hamilton. I, too, hope he has learnt his lesson.

As to the car vs driver. Frank Williams once said of his car when Mansell and the team were at their best. "A monkey could win driving this car", or words to that effect.

Same shit, different day, Billy Smarts Circus continues, Ferrari didnt get a point so they had a moan, how sad, oh well, its interesting viewing, but the real podium will never be known till 3 days later, Perhaps in 3 months time, Button will be de-pointed because he dosent like red itailen wine?

Speaking of Ferrari, what on earth was going on with Massa in qualifying? Talk about over-confident; to not even have him in the car and ready in case he dropped down the order. Weird.

So ESPN Slater at his best again - Raikkonen changes to wets on a dry track, Slater -this is a brilliant strategy by Ferrari ,Chandhok this is crazy he will lose more time in 2 laps than a pitstop, 30 seconds later Slater -this is a brillint strategy by Ferrari . Then later Slater- Webber is dicing with Button, in a McLaren at which time the director decided on a commercial break obviously to facilatate a battery change or a slap!.

Raikkonen middle of a GP, Tshirt,shorts and choc ice - brilliant!

WHAT A TOTAL FIASCO

Greed for TV ratings screws a potentially classic race

His KERS broke down, at least it was not beer this time

My favourite today was when the cameraman went and filmed right up close to Webber chatting on the grid to Alonso about the weather.

Slater: "boy, would i love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation"

Yes, it was shaping up to be another good one wasn't it. As much as i hate the look of the cars, i have to say these first two races have been very promising in terms of over-taking action. May it continue...


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LOL - just goes to show that all the talk last year about him losing his appetite was nonsense!

That idiot Bernie obviously hasn't heard of a monsoon season. What a waste of time.

Perhaps he didn't realise it starts to get dark in the evenings too

Just like the old days with dear old Murry Walker, we loved him and he was the voice of F1 since year dot, but he was always getting it mixed and muddled up

This post has been edited by ignis: 2009-04-06 09:07:15

That was usually Murray getting over excited. Once when James Hunt was his co presenter, and Murray was really wound up for the race. He made a comment about a driver could put his foot down and get past. James Hunt just said "I think you'll find this is the warm up lap Murray"
Do any of the Brits remeber "The Golden Shot" and the catch phrase "Bernie, the bolt"? Now we have Bernie the dolt.

Again, there's no need to watch the unbearable coverage on ESPNStar, you have internet, I can point you in the right direction...

This weekend I've watched Free Practice 1,2 & 3(from the BBC's interactive coverage) from beginning to end(approx, 90 minutes per program), this is excellent coverage with a cycle of presenters including Anthony Davidson who is whitty, insightful & experienced and who has also worked with Jenson Button quite closely so he knows what's going on in the BrawnGP team.

I watched a 2 hour program of qualifying(also from the BBC's coverage)

I then watched a 3 hour program of the actual race plus build-up and apart from Eddie Jordan being a bit of a twat(he'll be removed soon I think) the rest of the BBC team is spot on, David Coulthard is pretty well suited to commentary for his experience & technical knowledge, Jake Humphreys appears to have been doing this job for years despite only doing it for 2 races!, Martin Brundle is class, totally enjoyable to listen to with his dry Suffolk tones, the rest of the team is pretty good too(Tabloid Ted Kravitz is a bit of a dirt digger but still better than anything on ESPNStar!)

Following the race in Australia there was a BBC forum on BBC Interactive which I thought was going to be a fan based program with lots of silly questions(a la ESPNStar) but it wasn't at all, it was another hour of quality questions & explanations actually showing us everything we wanted to see after the race has finished, as opposed to ESPNStar coverage(and ITV's old coverage too!) where the program is ended moments after the podium ceremony.

So in a nutshell, there's no need to watch that shameful amateur coverage, it's all available elsewhere...

10 hours and 30 mins of proper coverage, if you want that much, if you ignore the news then all of that coverage can last a good few days viewing - if you've got nothing better to do...

P.S. Mosha, Murray Walker getting confused is funny, a bit like your grandfather saying the wrong thing, which is sweet. BUT Slater making a mistake is like a geeky 2nd uncle who has no friends saying something innapropriate Possibly the most irritating person on TV.

Murray's depth of knowledge was amazing, no matter which motor sport he was talking about. He never sat down during a race, doing all the commentating on his feet.