keba 0 Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 McLaren 2-3??? Looks like they have their car put together better this year... last season they would have been happy just to see both cars finish the race Maybe Alonso will do OK after all. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Alonso obviously has talent (you know, winning the champs and all). Poor old Button seems to be down in the dumps a bit with his "Green" car. Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 I know this is a controversial viewpoint (and probably a bit harsh too) but winning championships is not the test of talent. Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, and others (dare I say Alan Jones) are all good drivers (and all F1 drivers are good drivers) who have won championships with strong teams, only to be left behind when they get traded to the smaller teams. A driver like Michael Schumacher should get less credit for winning 5 in a row with Ferrari than the two Champs he had with Benetton, when he clearly was not driving the fastest car on the track. Sure, if Ayrton hadn't died, the '94, and possibly several more championships to come would have been his, but even he had trouble taking races from Alain Prost, who was driving a slower car than Senna's Williams. That, I think is the real test of talent, winning races and championships with an inferior car. Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 I think Alonso has the talent all right. I don't think the Renault consistently had much advantage over the McLaren and Ferarri. Fisichella didn't drive as if he had a car advantage... Mansell had the ability to win in an inferior car. He did Senna in Mexico, going around the outside of him on a right hander, at about 180mph. He pulled an absolute blinder out of the bag to do him again in Hungary a couple of years later, and go on for the win. Rosberg won a championship in a normally aspirated Williams when everyone who mattered was using turbos. Hamilton is the real deal. He's going to win lots of races. Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 I'll give you Mansell, he had a big ticker. Rosberg, well he was before my time... I'm not well versed on Hamilton's early career, so I can't speak for his talent, but he's certainly found himself in a good car (at least as good as Alonso's, taking pit strategy out of the equation). He well might win lots of races, but would he in a BMW or Toyota? Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 Hamilton has been winning championships since he was 10. He has racecraft as well as speed. Were he at Toyota or BMW, he would be consistently outqualifying his team mate, and progressing further through the field during the race. Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 The way he started in Melbourne certainly showed he wasn't overly respectful of Alonso's "senior" place in the team. He wants to win, but will McLaren let it happen? Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 Oh yes. McLaren had Prost and Senna, remember. No team orders there. OK, maybe "don't drive into each other". Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 Oh yes, those guys had little respect for each other. If someone can slow Raikkonen down, we will have a championship this year. I was always a fan of MS, but I thought last years championship was the best in a long time, even though he didn't win. Just that one slip of judgement in Monaco in qualifying... Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 When I was a very small boy, this was the car that most impressed me. It's Moss in 28 and Gurney in No2. Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 That car looks incredible. Quote: Just that one slip of judgement He had quite a lot of them didn't he. Almost as if he meant to do those things..... Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Almost, yes. For most other drivers, you could cite inexperience or simple driver error, but we seem to hold MS in greater reverence, as if he was somehow incapable of error, and view with suspicion any action that left him with an advantage at the expense of other drivers... Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Yeah really funny how all his "mistakes" just happened to either take out / nearly take out / disadvantage his main opponent in the championship with amazingly good timing. It must be coincidence..... Quote: but we seem to hold MS in greater reverence Not me mate. Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Yet he always got away with it... maybe it was the race stewards that held him in highest reverence. Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 Ron Dennis should be wearing a satisfied smile tonight This time last year he had Raikkonen and Montoya. Now he has Alonso and Hamilton. Alonso is the complete driver, and Hamilton has now passed the best drivers at the sharp end of the grid, and made it stick. Fantastic. I find this rather lovely. It`s a 1954 Kieft at Monaco. Never raced in period because Coventry Climax wouldn`t deliver the engine. Link to post Share on other sites
minus 1 Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 Excellent shae that one though I think I prefer the more lying down position cars than that one. He's almost sitting in that one Drive in a race car is one of the things I really want to try experience. Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 Ron Dennis will be wearing a satisfied smile because McLaren now have a car that can finish races. Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 Ron gets a lot of stick for being a bit slow and dull. He rescued McLaren from the doldrums in the early 80s, and has kept them competitive ever since. He also had the guts to put Prost and Senna (and now Alonso and Hamilton) together in his cars and let them race each other. That tells me much more about the man and his sporting instincts than all the half-arsed criticism. That driving position was typical of the period. That's why we have lots of great photos of masters like Fangio and Moss delicately working the wheel as they drifted the cars at 130+mph. It's also why 1-2 GP drivers died every season up until the introduction of carbon fibre tubs. By McLaren, of course, the MP4/4. Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 No doubt that McLaren have been competitive, but in recent years the cars have frustrated the drivers with reliability issues... I wasn't criticising Ron Dennis, he is obviously a very effective strategist and team principal. Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 That's a general defence of Ron and McLaren, I didn't take it as a criticism. I agree about the reliability issues, but it's always easier to make a fast car reliable than a (slow) reliable car fast. I've actually been more of a Williams than a McLaren fan over the years. This season should be a cracker, with two competitive teams and four competitive drivers. I hope Ferarri allow their drivers to race each other all season too. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 Oh my how out of touch I am. I totally didn't know there was an F1 race over the weekend. I like the pics of the old cars, they are all really cool. How fast could those things go? Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 Ferrari will favour Raikkonen, unless there's been a change in culture there since MS retired. They have developed a habit of using the second car to run interference, rather than having it as a competitor, for the No 1 driver. If only the BMW's were a bit faster... what a championship it would be. Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 And don't you think the McLaren pit stop strategy in Melbourne favoured Alonso? On the track racing is one thing, but if they nobble their No 2 in the pits, what chance will he have? Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 OK big boy. The 1939 Auto Union D Type had a 3 litre supercharged V12. Running on alcohol it made about 420 bhp. The cars weighed about 850kg and were good for over 200mph. The tyres were 5" wide. That would have been fairly tricky on wet cobbles. The earlier C Type had a 6 litre V16 and put out 520bhp. For those who've never driven a swing axle car (I have) they are prone to snap oversteer under power, and on lift off. Basically, the camber changes cause the tyre to roll from the centre of the tread to edges, as can be seen below. Rosemeyer was killed in one of these when it lifted off the road at over 270 mph. Link to post Share on other sites
snowbender 3 Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Quote: The birthday treat would have been Formula Ford. Kent engine, no wings and treaded tyres. Probably the closest thing to an early sixties GP car. Yes, I think that was it. Really want to have a go. Were the races so far this year exciting? Link to post Share on other sites
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