wackysleet

b19bry, on 2012-04-05 20:27:10, said:

Drivers taking their frustrations out on marshalls isn't anything new and Alonso is far from being the only one to have done so, but it is never excusable.Had Luca di Montezemolo or Stefano Domenicali been standing outside his car offering to help him, would he have acted to petulantly? Of course not.

Drivers who take out their frustrations on marshalls do so because i believe they perceive them as nobodies. Not cool.

At the very least, as wackysleet says, a public apology should have been made. And then a line is drawn under it. All the time no apology is made, and all the time you have people arguing that this is acceptable behaviour, feelings will remain.

I think the marshall was advising(telling) Alonso to put the steering wheel back on, which as Alonso knows the regs is what pissed him off, if it had been a now deaceased champion from another era the marshall may well have ended up sporting the dearest teeth brace on earth.

kartman, on 2012-04-04 16:23:15, said:

kartman, on 2012-04-04 16:23:15, said:

The marshall probably wasn't a long time Ozzy. A true Ozzy would have kicked him in the nuts,

wackysleet, on 2012-03-20 10:40:18, said:

Hi David,

Good to see you back on the forum and hope you and family are well.

Great post above and what i have always respected about you is your honesty about your feelings - ie you don't care much for Hamilton, and you do support Alonso - but despite these feelings, you still remain able to see and acknowledge the good and the bad in both those drivers. Although my position is somewhat the reverse of yours, i hope i too manage a reasonable amount of balance in my opinion, as well as honesty. Others will no doubt judge me on that, even if they fail to make an honest judgement about themselves on that score.

Regarding comments about Australia, what i didn't find particularly balanced or honest was those who, having led us to believe their primary interest is in the racing, not in the personalities, to have been almost squealing with pleasure because Hamilton finished third (the disgrace of it!) and was visibly not impressed with his performance. And as if the fact that he showed disappointment in himself, somehow reaffirms their belief in him being an ass-hole. I really don't get it. The chap can do no right.

And these same people, who were so quick to jump on the fact that he didn't look pleased as being some terrible character failing, offered no opinion whatsoever on Alonso's hissy-fit with the marshall. Too busy scrambling for superlatives at what a wonderful job he did in an under performing car on race day. Quite how they know it is under performing i don't really know. Massa is useless these days so we have no idea from him on how the car is, and Alonso's qualifying was so short lived thanks to the mistake he made - something that also, funnily enough, warranted no comment - that makes data on the Ferrari very limited. And I would actually say, judging by how fast the car went on Sunday, and even taking into account Alonso's undoubted skills at ringing the neck out of cars, it is pretty close to the top. Time will tell of course. In the meantime, i think Ferrari need to seriously consider giving Alonso a number two who is at least a little bit more worthy of the seat. Massa in a Ferrari is a waste for the sport.

Button drove an awesome race. I agree he is a great overall package and he now drives with a maturity that is worth an extra point one of a second per lap. Hamilton i believe can still beat him for pace, and Hamilton still has that audacious ability to do things that only really special drivers can do, but there are many other factors in what makes a Champion, and Button has a lot of them, and right now, he is getting the better of his team mate. How long will it last? Well, whilst i accept it is always possible that Hamilton will find the stress of being the one having to fight to get ahead, too much for him, and lead him in to mistakes, as we saw last year, i happen to think it more likely that it will spur him on to drive better. He's still pretty young of course, and this is all great experience for him, that will ultimately make him a better driver and a better person.

Anyway, like you, i am British, and i happen to be one of the few these days seemingly still proud of that fact. As such, having two very different but both very good drivers up there fighting it out is a dream scenario for me, and i shall be happy for either of them should they succeed.

That's not however to say i begrudge drivers who aren't British winning. Vettel has been great and he is a real class act. He has deserved his success.

That's also not to say i support drivers simply because they are British. I was never keen on Damon Hill and were it not for the fact that Schumi robbed him a title, i wouldn't have been at all happy to see such an average driver win it, as he did.

Anyway, i'm wandering a bit here. Looking forward to the next race. Bring it on...

When Williams and Mansell were the top dogs, didn't Frank say something like "You could put a monkey in this car and it would still win.' ?

Had a funny experience today. Ordered som somtam, gai yang and sticky rice in Thai today and  a young Thai guy said to his wife: look farang have to learn our language because Thai people are not clever enough to learn English. He said it very politely and everyone in the shop laughed at his comments.

"The most common type of mental illness suffered by 70 percent of Thais with a mental disorder is Schizophrenia."  Is that 70% of the poulation? If so it seems a bit on the low side!

Why give an amnesty - if you overstay then you have broken the law. You do not do it accidentally you set out to do it so take the punishment. I am all for the law being applied fairly and firmly. A period in the slammer would at least go some way to making sure these people do not do it again but I think it should be a day for day punishment overstay 50 days then 50 days inside. Blacklisting is pointless as it only ensures that the passport does not return to the kingdom it does nothing to stop the person getting a new passport and re-entering under a new name etc etc.

As soon as Thailand does something positriver everyone thinks they do it for money - well I can asure you that most countries have strict immigration laws and they apply them - Thailand tolerates foreigners and we should never forget we are mere visitors in the kingdom and should act accordingly.

Put them in the slammer day for day.

Which rule did Alonso break? Please clarify, perhaps quote the FIA rule. He saw the car in front of him slowing down and overtook, what's wrong with that? Remember he did not hear the radio between Massa and the pits. Drivers make mistakes, cars have problems ...

It was not the Ferrari team that wanted Massa to slow down. It did not matter to them in the slightest whether Massa or Alonso came first. It was Alonso whining to the pit lane to TELL Massa to move over as he could not overtake him legally that makes him responsible for breaking the rules. I listened to Alonso try to say that it was the teams decision to make him move over WTF Just more lies from someone who has form for this type of behaviour. Yes team orders do happen but most teams do not do it so obviously as Ferrari did. They tend to do it in the pit lane where one driver needs to come in for a splash and dash etc. I think that the FULL conversations between the two drivers and the team should be made available so we can see once and for all just where the blame lies.
As said. Ferrari have been fined as a team and the reversing of positions would serve as a penalty for Alonso. Then lets just get on with the seasons racing, where the emphasis is on RACING and not FIXING!!!!

dominique355, on 2010-08-24 16:35:06, said:

Since when have laws against bribery, prostitution and drug abuse been able to be enforced completely successfully? Never. Does that mean we should do away with them?

dominique355, on 2010-08-24 16:35:06, said:

Because he broke the rule perhaps? We can argue on the merits of the rule, but we can't disagree that it exists and that everyone was aware of it before the race begun, can we?

dominique355, on 2010-08-24 16:35:06, said:

In this case, simply by listening to the pit to car radio.

dominique355, on 2010-08-24 16:35:06, said:

Letting drivers race is precisely what this rule is all about.