F1 2008

[JA2340 16]

 Originally Posted By: soubriquet

TV revenue goes to Bernie, so the costs have to be found from gate receipts.

Which quite nicely explains why BE is pushing so bl00dy hard for the Oz GP to be a night race - he gets daytime TV in Europe! and therefore a great wad more cash!

On a brighter note, there is, at least a small, glimmer of hope for Melbourne. The twilight meet seems to have been a roaring success, even though there was a huge rate of attrition. (7 finishers only!)

The removal of traction control meant that the drivers actually had to drive (OMG! fancy that!) and some of them cannot hack it without the computer controlled technology. Bring back the days of zero telemetry, pit boards and drivers who actually controlled everything in the vehicle, from gear selection to braking. That was REAL driving!

[soubriquet 0]

It seems Max has been caught with his pants down. Spanking 5 prostitutes in a fascist bsdm session.

 

http://uk.reuters.com/article/UK_MOTORSPORT/idUKL0173826120080401?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

 

The son should not be blamed for the sins of his father (Oswald Mosley), but the young chip did choose to represent his father as his political agent.

 

What consenting adults do to each other in the bedroom is up to themselves, but I think this shows bad judgement from the leader of an international sporting organisation. I wonder how many politicians will want to shake his hand. I wonder how welcome he will be in the boardroom at Mercedes or BMW?

[muikabochi 208]

 

Almost couldn't make it up....

[scouser 4]

I saw that on Sunday. What a fool.

 

"Spanking 5 prostitutes in a fascist bsdm session". Is that fun I wonder?!

[thursday 1]

why 5?

[SerreChe 2]

kind of remind me of the question: 'why do dogs lick their #### ?'

You know the answer to that one.

[HoTRoD 2]

4 is obviously not enough.

[thursday 1]

there are always 5 poach ninjas in the photographs, so is this really a coincidence?

[best skier in hakuba 5]

It's interesting what seems to happen to lots of people when they get madly rich and famous..

[soubriquet 0]

Here's the joint statement by BMW and Mercedes.

 

http://www.autosport.com/

 

"The content of the publications is disgraceful. As a company, we strongly distance ourselves from it.

 

This incident concerns Max Mosley both personally and as President of the FIA, the global umbrella organisation for motoring clubs. Its consequences therefore extend far beyond the motor sport industry. We await a response from the relevant FIA bodies."

 

And Max's response.

 

"Given the history of BMW and Mercedes Benz, particularly before and during the Second World War, I fully understand why they would wish to strongly distance themselves from what they rightly describe as the disgraceful content of these publications.

 

Unfortunately, they did not contact me before putting out their statement to ask whether the content was in fact true.

 

No doubt the FIA will respond to them in due course as I am about to respond to the newspaper in question."

 

Nice one Max, especially for bringing up WWII. The German car companies aren't too impressed that he requires them to clear press statements with him either.

 

Mario Theissen (BMW) stands by its statement - and claimed that the controversy spreads well beyond just Formula One.

 

"We had no intention nor have we announced that we will back down from anything," said Theissen when asked about rumours that BMW was poised to retract the statement in light of Mosley's response.

 

"We have put out a statement this morning. We have asked for a reaction of the relevant FIA bodies and we have the answer from Max Mosley that we will get a reaction from the FIA. We will not make any further comments until we have this reaction."

 

He added: "I am a bit surprised that this whole thing is mainly seen as a Formula One issue. In my view, it is not. The FIA is the governing body, or the umbrella body, of the worldwide motoring clubs so it is not even the auto industry that is affected, it is the clubs. That is why we expect a reaction from the FIA first."

 

When asked why neither BMW nor Mercedes-Benz communicated with Mosley before issuing their statement, Theissen said: "For two reasons. First we haven't had an explanation from Max or the FIA.

 

"He has sent a letter to the FIA but not to the auto manufacturers, and that also shows that the FIA is affected in the first instance, and not us. We haven't had an explanation.

 

"And secondly we have not commented on the substance and the question of whether it is true or not. We have commented on the public perception of the situation. And that doesn't need any discussion or explanation. The purpose of our statement is to make clear where our company stands."

 

Theissen believes, however, that it would take some time to judge whether or not the affair has damaged F1's reputation.

 

"I think it is too early to say," he said. "We have to see what happens in the coming weeks."

 

Theissen said he was not surprised that Mosley has bucked all calls to resign and fully intends to remain in his role as FIA president.

 

"Having been in F1 for nine years now, I am not surprised about anything any more," said Theissen. "But let me add one other thing.

 

"This entire issue is in focus now, but what shouldn't be neglected is it certainly looks like a trap. And that is something which in our view is not acceptable either."

 

Honda and Toyota are also extremely pished off. The FIA is leaking like a sieve. His days are numbered. You couldn't script this, it's far more entertaining than the racing

[frannyo 2]

You're right soubs, it is quite entertaining.

 

I think there's a race this weekend. Perhaps we could have a 15 minute Mosley spot at the beginning of each race to give us an update.

[pie-eater 207]

Mosley

 

 Quote:

"Had I been caught driving excessively fast on a public road or over the alcohol limit (even in, say, Sweden where it is very low) I should have resigned the same day. As it is, a scandal paper obtained by illegal means pictures of something I did in private which, although unacceptable to some people, was harmless and completely legal," the letter said.

 

"Many people do things in their bedrooms or have personal habits which others find repugnant. But as long as they keep them private, nobody objects. The offence seems to be not what I did but the fact that it became public. But I played no role in this, indeed I did my utmost to ensure it remained private. I was the victim of a disgusting conspiracy.

 

"It goes without saying that the so-called Nazi element is pure fabrication. This will become crystal clear when the matter comes to trial. The newspaper invented this in order to spice up their story and introduce my family background. In short, I think I have done nothing wrong and that the wrong was done by the newspaper. That is why I am suing them.

[soubriquet 0]

As I wrote above, what he gets up to in a brothel with five other consenting adults is entirely his affair. I find it distasteful, but that's just my opinion. It's not illegal in the UK (but it is illegal in Sweden).

 

As the President of the FIA he represents a sport where some very serious companies are spending some very serious money developing their brands and image. The stakeholders have the right to expect Max to behave with dignity. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the invasion of his privacy, Max is mortally wounded.

 

Leaving aside his parentage and youthful indiscretions, Max is also carrying a lot of F1 baggage. When he ran March, there was some very sharp practice. The FIA sold the marketing rights to Bernie for a mess of pottage. Last year he described Jackie Stewart as "a certified halfwit", and sued Martin Brundle for defamation for criticism of the the FIA's pursuit of McLaren. He is an authoritarian who has no hesitation about using his wealth and position to silence opposition. He has no friends, and a lot of very powerful enemies. I'm enjoying this.

[soubriquet 0]

There's a race this weekend. The grid:

 

1. Kubica BMW Sauber

2. Massa Ferrari

3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes

4. Raikkonen Ferrari

5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes

6. Heidfeld BMW Sauber

7. Trulli Toyota

8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota

9. Button Honda

10. Alonso Renault

 

My guess is Kubica is short fuelled. Massa needs points or he will be de facto Ferrari No2 for the rest of the season. Toyota and Honda finally making progress. Alonso nowhere in the Renault. Rumour has him replacing Massa at Ferrari next season, but I doubt he'd want Raikkonen as a team mate.

[nzlegend 1]

I just watched a torrent of qualifying this morning, Massa was blindingly fast all day except in Q3, he blamed traffic, excuses excuses, that's called choking.

He was 2 full seconds slower than his Q2 time! Q2 is always quicker, but not 2 secs quicker, he threw away pole to a Pole!

[pie-eater 207]

Not having it his way this year Hammy-chan is he? I didn't see the race, but how was his shunt up Alonso's bottom?

[frannyo 2]

Grid for Spain.

 

Hamilton - is his star fading already or just a blip?

 

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1 min 21.813 secs

2. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:21.904

3. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:22.058

4. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:22.065

5. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren - Mercedes 1:22.096

6. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren - Mercedes 1:22.231

7. Mark Webber (Aus) RedBull - Renault 1:22.429

8. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:22.529

9. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:22.542

10. Nelsinho Piquet (Brz) Renault 1:22.699

11. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:21.049

12. Kazuki Nakajima (Jap) Williams - Toyota 1:21.117

13. Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:21.211

14. Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:21.230

15. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams - Toyota 1:21.349

16. Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:21.724

17. David Coulthard (GB) RedBull - Renault 1:21.810

18. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:22.108

19. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India - Ferrari 1:22.516

20. Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India - Ferrari 1:23.224

21. Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri - Honda 1:23.318

22. Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri - Honda 1:23.496

[nzlegend 1]

The 2008 McLaren isn't the best car on the grid, its not even second at the moment. its a blip. Hamilton is an amazingly talented driver.

At the very moment the best car is Ferrari > BMW Sauber > McLaren.

 

Alonso fluked the second on the grid (read - he was on light fuel load, so look for him to be the first to pit for fuel in the race). He has been struggling all season in a woeful car. Alonso is undeniably a great driver, as too Hamilton, yet if they don't have a fast car they cant do much. Massa isn't in the top 5 drivers, maybe lucky to be in the top 10 for skill and talent, but he is in fast car and it makes him look good. Most of the drivers on the grid would excel in the Ferrari Massa is lucky to find himself in.

[fukdane 2]

Amazingly talented driver he might be suseptible to

 

[frannyo 2]

 

He's sure not getting it all his way this year. It will be (a bit) interesting.

[nzlegend 1]

How about Kovy's stack? spearing into the tire wall at 240kph (at 26 G's)and he was unhurt, no broken bones only a slight concussion. Amazingly tough the driver cacoon of the modern F1 car. Kubica's horror satck last year and then Sunday's massive prang and both drivers all but walked away from them.

 

"For him to come out of it, then it's just another great example of what has happened with safety over the years," Sir Jackie Stewart said. "If it had been in my day he wouldn't have walked away from that. Not a hope in hell. Watching it and seeing how deeply it was buried was just atrocious. It's a miracle really because there was no deceleration at all. The car just went straight."

 

[soubriquet 0]

JYS was very unpopular in his day due to his outspoken criticism of track safety. He was instrumental at the start of the process of getting improvements made so the F1 death rates have fallen from 1-2 dead per year to one every decade. His team-mate, Francois Cevert was literally cut in half when he hit the barrier at Watkins Glen.

 

The two elements to safety are the tracks and the cars. JYS fixed the former. Alain Prost nailed it when he praised the McLaren MP4-1 as a quantum leap in driver safety. McLaren pioneered the switch from aluminium honeycomb to carbon fibre construction. If you watch video of Villeneuve's fatal accident, you can see him being thrown across the track still belted in to his seat and the Ferrari's rear bulkhead. The car broke up around him. Carbon fibre tubs don't do that.

[nzlegend 1]

indeed I read all about Stewart's safety crusade, that Villeneuve crash was evil, you could see him get literally crucified on the netting fence at the end of the accident.

 

Track safety used to be so slack. Roger Williamson at Zandvort (crap marshals), Tom Pryce at Kyalami (even crappier marshals). Jochen Rindt (crap safety barriers) leading to their deaths.

The safety precautions taken now are light years ahead of 25+ years ago

[soubriquet 0]

Martin Brundle driving a 1958 TecMec (NOT a 250F!).

 

Just look at those slip angles. He's stoked, but the inside front wheel never picked up in period. That's a very modern setup.

 

http://www.itv-f1.com/VideoWorldwide.aspx

[pie-eater 207]

I watched some of the race. I got really bored. To think, used to be really into F1.