F1 2007 French Grand Prix

[Bartek S.]

Well done Ferrari, BMW. Very happy with Kubica's solid run. I see BMW is closing a gap to McLaren, hopefully soon going to bit them. Hamilton very aggressive and disappointing race.

 

[go0gle]

Ferrari did very well today I am very happy for them! Silverstone shouldn't suit Ferrari so much but I expect a good competitive race anyway.

Kimi
Masa very bad OUTLAP on that last pitstop
Hamilton
Alonso good fight!
Kubica to comeback from that monster crash in Canada
Hidfeld nice battle with Alonso
Fisico held up a faster car with Alonso in it

Ferrari Their race pace was awesome!
BMW consistent during the race and a very good result!
McLaren bad strategy today!
Honda and Button for that 1st point

 

[Centurion]

Good race. It's nice to finally see Kimi standing up tall and fighting at the top, I was starting to loose faith in him, but it's good to see that he's back. Massa did a teriffic race off course even though he didn't win.
Mclaren had a bad week but I'm glad Hamilton still managed to snag a few point. I'm looking forward to Silverstone next week and hope that Hamilton will be victorious.

 

[450SEL6.9]

It's a Ferrari 1-2.
It seems to me that Ferrari gifted the race to Raikkonen.
I can't understand why all pit stops saw Massa losing his lead on Raikkonen, you definitely don't go into a pit stop and have you returned by the team into traffic when it is for the race lead.

I don't understand how that happened either. Ferrari would have been better off with Massa winning and taking the gap to Hamilton down to 15. If Ferrari let Kimi win to save face, they are stupid. I think 22 pts is too far back for Kimi. No one has ever come back from a 20+ deficit to win a title! Both Massa and Kimi need Hamilton DNFs, which don't look likely.

Now what is Mclaren going to do with Alonso? Will Mclaren put their emphasis on Hamilton and not allow Alonso to beat him? How will Alonso respond? As many people in F1 have suggested, his good name is wrecked if Hamilton takes the title from him in his first season.

Anyway, I am relieved about the race, chonkoa. However, I am still not optimistic about Ferrari winning either titles this year. Hamilton keeps finishing on the podium and the new points system means that even Ferrari 1-2s will only cost him a few points. The black flag really wrecked Massa, like Schu's grid penalty at Monaco last year.

 

[Imhotep Evil]

Now what is Mclaren going to do with Alonso?

1. Work to give him a car without gearbox problems.
2. Work to give him a better strategy.
3. Put him in the super simulator to learn the tires.

 

[450SEL6.9]

I think they've lost faith in Alonso and he has lost faith in himself. I feel bad for him because I think he is getting the sh*t end of the stick. As you've said, IE, Mclaren won't be nearly as fast and reliable if they did not get Alonso to join the team. Fittipaldi calls it the "Alonso Effect", but I don't know if anyone in the team seriously acknowledges it, instead preferring to focus on the rookie phenomenon. All in all, I think Alonso deserves more credit for Mclaren's resurgence.

 

[Imhotep Evil]

But Hamilton won't be able to properly set up the car and develop it.
Not that he's lazy or something, but he doesn't have the experience.

This year's car is an evolution/optimisation of last years. And despite the tire change witch helped, the fact than now they got Alonso besides de la Rosa to work on the development of the car plays a big.

With just one test driver (Paffett = DTM rookie, Hamilton = GP2 rookie) you can't properly develop a car (just look at McMerc in 2006, when their main tester Wurz left).


I wouldn't count Alonso out.
Still when you think about it, only one man won 3 consecutive titles with 2 different teams, Juan Manuel Fangio.

 

[chonkoa]

I don't understand how that happened either. Ferrari would have been better off with Massa winning and taking the gap to Hamilton down to 15. If Ferrari let Kimi win to save face, they are stupid. I think 22 pts is too far back for Kimi. No one has ever come back from a 20+ deficit to win a title! Both Massa and Kimi need Hamilton DNFs, which don't look likely.

With Ferrari - you never know what they are up to especially Luca di Montezemolo. I won't be surprised if he had anything to do with it considering the role he played in pushing Schumi out for Kimi.

Anyway, I am relieved about the race, chonkoa. However, I am still not optimistic about Ferrari winning either titles this year. Hamilton keeps finishing on the podium and the new points system means that even Ferrari 1-2s will only cost him a few points. The black flag really wrecked Massa, like Schu's grid penalty at Monaco last year.

I am glad it was 1-2, and I am hoping for repeat next with in Silverstone, this time with the right driver winning the race of course.

 

[wltsm]

Not a very exciting race, but the two BMW drivers did well, Heidfeld did very well keeping Alonso behind him most of the time. I'm glad it was a Ferrari 1-2, will make the end of the season more interesting if Ferraris in the mix to win the championship. Hamilton has done well as always, shame he lost out to kimi on the start.

 

[ALI]

Well im happy to see that now the compettition somehow is a little more serious , Hamilton had a terrible strategy as he pitted 3 times , so we cannot consider to say Ferrari is back with the best package , as Mclaren had a tough week with both Hamilton and alonso technical problems ... But Kudos to Hamilton for managing to maintain 3rd place even though he pitted 3 times ....

 

[ALI]

Well done Ferrari, BMW. Very happy with Kubica's solid run. I see BMW is closing a gap to McLaren, hopefully soon going to bit them. Hamilton very aggressive and disappointing race.

Oh yeah , and u see the order in that pic Bartek ?? Thats how it will stay and allways be , Benz a step ahead of Bimmer ....

 

[450SEL6.9]

But Hamilton won't be able to properly set up the car and develop it.
Not that he's lazy or something, but he doesn't have the experience.

This year's car is an evolution/optimisation of last years. And despite the tire change witch helped, the fact than now they got Alonso besides de la Rosa to work on the development of the car plays a big.

With just one test driver (Paffett = DTM rookie, Hamilton = GP2 rookie) you can't properly develop a car (just look at McMerc in 2006, when their main tester Wurz left).


I wouldn't count Alonso out.
Still when you think about it, only one man won 3 consecutive titles with 2 different teams, Juan Manuel Fangio.

I generally agree with that. I also think that Alonso's work in developing the car has been overshadowed and perhaps even downplayed. If the team will ask him to step aside and not take points from Hamy, he could respond by stopping testing/developing for them, since he hasn't been getting the results on race days, for whatever reason. He had been quite adamant that he does the setup work on the car during Friday practice and then the data is shared. It's probably a similar scenario with actual testing. I don't think him packing up and going home early would be totally inconsistent with his nature.

I am having a harder time imagining Alonso in a Mclaren next year. I would like to see him go to BMW and advance the development of the package so they can compete with Macca and Ferrari, but Kubica is probably too fast of a teammate for him to have. He could go back to Renault.

 

[Remy Zero]

a great race by the Scuderia. they really blew both Macs away! Forza Ferrari! Hey Zonda..u owe me a beer now

 

[MoSs]

ALI dont be surprised if one of the upcoming years BMW will beat mercedes , it happenned in 2002 i think.

 

[Bartek S.]

Oh yeah , and u see the order in that pic Bartek ?? Thats how it will stay and allways be , Benz a step ahead of Bimmer ....[/quote ALI]
As you see Ali on that pic the gap is shrinking and ... zoom

 

[Zonda]

a great race by the Scuderia. they really blew both Macs away! Forza Ferrari! Hey Zonda..u owe me a beer now

I don't remeber that deal?

Good to see Kimi on top. But he was lucky the strategy benefitted him and that Massa ran into traffic. Hope to see him on top in Silverstone as well.

 

[Imhotep Evil]

I generally agree with that. I also think that Alonso's work in developing the car has been overshadowed and perhaps even downplayed. If the team will ask him to step aside and not take points from Hamy, he could respond by stopping testing/developing for them, since he hasn't been getting the results on race days, for whatever reason. He had been quite adamant that he does the setup work on the car during Friday practice and then the data is shared. It's probably a similar scenario with actual testing. I don't think him packing up and going home early would be totally inconsistent with his nature.

I am having a harder time imagining Alonso in a Mclaren next year. I would like to see him go to BMW and advance the development of the package so they can compete with Macca and Ferrari, but Kubica is probably too fast of a teammate for him to have. He could go back to Renault.

At BMW the main tester/developer is Heidfeld. And BMW have gone leaps and bounds from 2005 (with Williams) and also 2006, and Heidfeld's work played/plays a big part in this. However, I don't know if Heidfeld is WDC material.

With both Heidfeld and Alonso, and maybe also Wurz as a test driver, whoa, that would fantastic, a BMW fan's wet dream.

Still I'm used to see Alonso in a Renault. So yes, I couldn't be happier to see him back there.

 

[Centurion]

With both Heidfeld and Alonso, and maybe also Wurz as a test driver, whoa, that would fantastic, a BMW fan's wet dream.

Indeed. BMW has improved a lot over the years and I know they have what it takes to battle with the big boys for the constructors championships. IMO Alonso could be the messiah to usher BMW to such heights. Then again I doubt that Mclaren would let him go after one season since it is crucial to have two top driver in order to win a constructors championship.