MS's engine blew up!!!
Best case scenerio. All FA has to do is place 7th at Brazil and he will be the champ!!!:smile:
Best case scenerio. All FA has to do is place 7th at Brazil and he will be the champ!!!:smile:
MS Retired!!!
- Thread starter BD
- Start date
Spoiler Warning Please
Vance...
How about a *** spoiler warning *** in the title for those who are not watching and have recorded it to watch it later!!!
PLEASE!
Vance...
How about a *** spoiler warning *** in the title for those who are not watching and have recorded it to watch it later!!!
PLEASE!
Maybe FA can learn something about how to handle adversity from MS.
Michael Schumacher: "We are a great team. Our guys are the best and I have a great affection for everyone at Ferrari and am always more than satisfied in the way we work. Incidents like today's can happen and they are part of racing. You win together but you also lose together. Today we did our best, I was leading the race and then my engine broke. That's the simplest way to sum it up. That is Formula 1. We can be proud of what we have achieved since Canada: we were twenty five points behind and no one could have thought we would be back in the fight for the championship, but we did it. Now we are nine points behind in the Constructors' classification and we will do all we can to win this title in Brazil. As for the Drivers,' it is lost. I don't want to head off for a race, hoping that my rival has to retire. That is not the way in which I want to win the title."
That's one reason why Ferrari works so hard for MS. Always gives credit to his team, not blame.
Michael Schumacher: "We are a great team. Our guys are the best and I have a great affection for everyone at Ferrari and am always more than satisfied in the way we work. Incidents like today's can happen and they are part of racing. You win together but you also lose together. Today we did our best, I was leading the race and then my engine broke. That's the simplest way to sum it up. That is Formula 1. We can be proud of what we have achieved since Canada: we were twenty five points behind and no one could have thought we would be back in the fight for the championship, but we did it. Now we are nine points behind in the Constructors' classification and we will do all we can to win this title in Brazil. As for the Drivers,' it is lost. I don't want to head off for a race, hoping that my rival has to retire. That is not the way in which I want to win the title."
That's one reason why Ferrari works so hard for MS. Always gives credit to his team, not blame.
SoCalDude said:
There is not a team out there will not work hard for their driver. That is why people spend millions racing in F1. The press had a field day with FA's statement, which is what they do best.
The truth is, Renault dropped the ball when they had mechanical failure, which is not acceptable by any standard when fighting for the championship.
If FA learned anything from MS, it is not to cheat, not to run people off the road, etc. It will be awesome if FA run MS off the road at the season finale. Offer MS a piece of his own history!
From Planet F1
Japanese GP: Winners and Losers
Sunday October 08 2006
Winners
Star of the Race
Fernando Alonso, Renault, 1st[/B]
Alonso finished almost half a minute in front of his team-mate on a track where Fisichella is no slouch. There is no question that the pressure from Alonso made the Ferrari team run Michael Schumacher's engine beyond the tolerances they were happy with..
Alonso's lap times were consistent throughout the race, and even when Schumacher exited on Lap 37 he was the fastest man on track. It was a justifiable reward for all the pressure he has applied this season and the paltry support has got from his team-mate.
Overtaking Move Of The Race
Fernando Alonso, Lap 13, on Ralf Schumacher into Turn 1.
Even though Alonso will have been aware that Ralf Schumacher was about to pit in one or two laps' time, such was his urgency that he decided not to wait.
The move was yet another clanger dropped by the TV producer covering the race who seemed obsessed with finding out whether Takuma Sato had clinched that all-important 18th place rather than seeking out any on-track action.
Everything else significant happened in the advertising breaks.(This is when you need to switch over to Radio 5 Live)
Thanks to Alonso's pass of Schumacher, he was able to get in front of Massa at the pit-stops, and then pressure Schumacher after that. And so it brought its own reward.
Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 2nd
Massa did precious little wrong in the race, though he was guilty of a bit of gamesmanship in Session 3 of qualifying. There was little reason to hold up Alonso on Saturday and as Ross Brawn had already said there should be no games playing by team-mates it was hard to understand what he was doing.
Flavio Briatore came out with a great quote about Massa afterwards. "He is a kid, he is a little kid. Little in every sense."
There are those who have witnessed Massa's teensy prima donna act throughout his F1 career (even at Sauber) that would perhaps agree.
However in the race he drove well.
Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, 3rd
Fisichella's tears on the podium and his general glumness after last weekend's Chinese GP are the final expression of a struggle going on within the Renault team.
Now it becomes clearer what Fernando was alluding to in an interview with a Spanish journalist right after the Shanghai race. When Alonso said he was getting "no support from his team," he was referring to Fisichella.
Throughout the season Fisi's been unable to take points off Schumacher while Massa's been able to get himself ahead of Alonso quite a few times.
At the Chinese GP Renault made a poor tyre choice (with Alonso's input) at the first pit-stop and Fisichella, with Schumacher in tow started to catch him at a rate of four seconds a lap in the middle stint.
This season Ferrari have used Massa as a brake, to hold up Alonso and let Schumacher increase his lead over the Spaniard. What Alonso expected Renault to do was tell Fisichella to do the same. He needed a few more laps for his tyres to wear down and scrub in and then he could fend for himself. They didn't.
Instead Fisichella romped up to the back of Alonso with a grateful Michael Schumacher hardly believing his luck. Alonso clearly didn't want Fisichella to overtake him and when he did, he fought back.
What Ferrari thought was a co-ordinated attempt to keep Michael behind was actually a very public Renault spat.
Perhaps Fisichella was going for the win so that he could dedicate it as a suitable gesture it to his dying friend. It didn't happen. As we all saw, he messed up on dry tyres, let Michael past and had to settle for third place. A big (but not unexpected) balls up from Fisi could well have been the reason for his dismal demeanour on the podium in China.
Today he kept in touch and didn't get too far adrift even though the evidence is clear that the gap between Schumi and Massa, or Ralf and Jarno, or Heidfeld and Kubica isn't nearly as big as between Alonso and himself.
Jenson Button, Honda, 4th
Button had a solid race after an unusually good start, getting ahead of Fisichella on the opening lap. At Suzuka's final race it was good for the track's owner, Honda, to get a victory over the "auld enemy" Toyota.
Kimi Raikkonen, Mclaren, 5th
Kimi took advantage of Toyota's intra-team struggle to take 5th place from 11th on the grid. Much better than he woud have expected.
Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, BMW-Sauber 8th and 9th
The most cheering moment of the race was when Robert Kubica's engineer got on the radio to him in the closing stages of the race and yelled, "Go and pass Heidfeld! You are allowed!"
Kubica had fought his way back after an off-track excursion around the grass at the back of Degnas 1 and 2 which was almost as long as a World Rally Championship stage. Yet still he was able to close up on Heidfeld.
Respect to Dr.Mario Theissen.
Takuma Sato, Honda, 15th
Taku san continued his run of form at Suzuka by coming home in 15th. Never has a 15th placed driver received such love from a crowd or such TV coverage. He managed to stay in front of Scott Speed and Tiago Monteiro in a car put together in Scrapheap Challenge, which is no mean feat.
2007 will be better.
Losers
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, DNF
Ultimately, this is one of the reasons we watch F1 right till the end of the races. One of Murray Walker's classic quotes is: "In F1, anything can happen...and it usually does."
And today it happened to Michael.
With only one engine failure in six years he could hardly complain that Ferrari have been a bit casual with their quality control, but it would have to happen at the penultimate race of his career. Because it leaves him and the team with no time to react at all.
It would be interesting to know if the time that both Massa and Schumacher spent with their engine temperatures soaring at the end of the pitlane at the beginning of Qualifying Session 3 was a contributing factor. The team wanted to get a psychological advantage and virtually parked their cars in front of the Renault garage for over a minute.
Ferrari of course will never 'fess up to a mistake like that, even if it did prove to be a contributary factor.
Certainly there was something up with Massa's engine as well, because at a time when you expected him to try and exert pressure on Alonso, he went slower.
Ross Brawn, Ferrari TD
Ross Brawn is rumoured to be taking a sabbatical - a year away from Ferrari in 2007 The Planet-F1 team sincerely hopes it's not illness-related because Brawn seems to grow more and more ashen from race to race.
Even in victory last week there was little colour to his cheeks and he has clearly lost weight. However he still came out with a laughable comment about "team orders" in the FIA Friday press conference.
It was a bit like the poacher telling the gamekeeper he couldn't shoot at the birds.
Toyotas, 6th and 7th
The team had flattered to deceive in last year's Japanese GP qualifying and though they were much more competitive in 2006, their second pit-stops on Laps 29 and 30 left them with enormous fuel loads.
Ralf Schumacher, who's been driving round Suzuka in Formula Nippon and F1 for 12 years was clearly quicker but Trulli wouldn't move over.
As a result, Fisichella, Button and Raikkonen were all able to get past them. By the end of the race Trulli had pulled out a small gap, but Ralf may have given up by that time - 8th placed Heidfeld was a long way behind.
Perhaps Jarno was making a point to his team bosses - "let the overpaid one get past me if he is SO good" etc (Ralf is rumoured to earn almost double what Trulli earns)
Red Bull
A very forgettable race for Red Bull, distinguished only by DC's pop at his team's professionalism after qualifying - "...we have to ask the question, do we have the right people?"
David - call me Mr.Motivator - Coulthard
Perhaps Christian Horner is asking himself the same thing too after such a public dig...
Mark - git orf me barra, I'm a big fat cheeky cockney geezer wot sits in ve studio now - Blundell
Mark's just a bit too comfortable in theTV studio. We need him by the motorhomes to get the full Blundell gaffe magic. However this race he had a bit of competition from Louise.
Louise Goodman to Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali: "Stefano, tyres are going to be important, who's got it right - Bridgerlin?"
However we did have evidence that Mark's quest for deep historical and philosophical truths is ongoing.
"China - I fink a lot of us are left finking - what really happened there?"
Plus the gratifyingly Blundell-esque:
"I fink he pulled everything out of the bag that was underneath him."
With one race left, we're hoping for a big finale in Brazil...Steve.
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True but MS always praises the team. I don't remember him saying they dropped the ball even if they did. Team effort, team credit. No blame or whining at your team or team mate, at least publicly.Vancehu said:
At the end of this season, FA and Renault/Michelin will have done just a slightly better job than MS and Ferrari/Bridgestone. Unless something drastic happens in Brazil.:wink:
SoCalDude said:
When the team help you cheat, or keep their mouth shut while you drive unethically, what else can you say to the team members?
Good that he retire. I don't hate Ferrari just that one driver only. One other thing is people here in my country lots of them are for Ferrari. Me, I don't become a die hard fan of something that I cannot own. So for the mean time I am a fan for Honda. :smile:
