Agree, breaking the seal on Massa's perfectly fine gearbox, whilst within the rules was not in the spirit of the sport! With regards to the race comments, I should have been clearer, I was referring to a scenario where the race isn’t started at all, no issues if we get to a point where the race turns out to be similar to what happened in Malaysia in 2009..
I have to agree with what's being said about Massa's 'faulty' gearbox. What a poor show from the poncing horse. However, anyone who does [not] expect such behaviour from the biggest manipulators of rules F1 has ever seen, should really know better by now.
Autosport driver ratings time 1. Sebastian Vettel 8/10 2. Mark Webber 6/10 3. Jenson Button 8/10 4. Lewis Hamilton 10/10 5. Fernando Alonso 8/10 6. Felipe Massa 10/10 7. Michael Schumacher 7/10 8. Nico Rosberg 7/10 9. Kimi Raikkonen 8/10 10. Romain Grosjean 6/10 11. Paul di Resta 4/10 12. Nico Hulkenberg 8/10 14. Kamui Kobayashi 5/10 15. Sergio Perez 6/10 16. Daniel Ricciardo 6/10 17. Jean-Eric Vergne 7/10 18. Pastor Maldonado 8/10 19. Bruno Senna 7/10 20. Heikki Kovalainen 5/10 21. Vitaly Petrov 7/10 22. Pedro de la Rosa 6/10 23. Narain Karthikeyan 6/10 24. Timo Glock 7/10 25. Charles Pic 6/10
It was the smart and necessary thing to do, and had I been in their shoes and had to make a decision (presuming I'd think of such a thing), I probably would have done the same. But you are right it was completely the unethical thing to do, despite being legal and I think it shows what a great character Felipe is to give his consent.
Didn't stop them at Silverstone though, crowd on the lines of 110,000 on Saturday was stopped in a split second the first decent amount of the rain that came and we were left with nothing for about 2 hours (Rain stopped after 1:15 worth of rain, the other 45-50 were spent waiting for it to dry up, by that time another rain cloud was coming.). If weather reports are accurate for Sunday this wont let up for 3-4 hours solid during the time the GP is meant to start, then you have to wait for the track to dry up which could take another 1-2 hours, so that's 4-6 "possible" hours wasted already because of the rain even before the GP was able to start. The Sun would of already set and the rules would only allow the race automatically abandoned under safety rules. 75% Distance or half points only, the race might not even get that far...
If Alonso did win this GP and if Seb did DNF, but only at -75% race distance he would only get 12.5 points, Seb wins WDC by 0.5 point lol! How cruel would that be?
Ferrari... erm, sorry the FIA are already drafting said rule change! Bit like the NFL we'll soon be having MNF1!!!
Who said Lewis and Vettel don't get along?, found this from the press conference Q. (David Estrada - Port Arthur News) Lewis, welcome to the United States; you had celebration champagne. Are you going to have a celebration barbecue tonight? LH: I had a few burgers last night so I was nice and heavy today! I tell you what, I'm so happy to be here. We've had such a great weekend. I actually don't really drink. I had a little bit of champagne, it doesn't really taste that good. Fernando said it was 7-Up or Sprite at the last race, it wasn't the same this time. Tonight, hopefully I can get together with the team tonight. We already did last night but I'm sure we will celebrate tonight. SV: He said earlier he... and I saw him exchanging phone numbers with the girls on the podium. He said earlier we'll have a good time tonight! LH: I think it was the other way around actually! He stayed behind. That's why we were late here. SV: He was first, you know, not just in the race but also picking up the girls. Must admit Vettel's got a sharp comedy mind.
Trying to ****-stir trouble for Lewis and Nicole, more like. Wait 'til the Daily Mail gets hold of this!
Ouch: McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh suggested that Ferrari's tactic was exactly the kind of policy that his outfit's reluctance to get involved had displeased Alonso during their ill-fated 2007 partnership. However, he refused to criticise Ferrari for the decision. "Teams and team principals can decide how they run their programmes," he said. "It was tough but it is very clear that they are very focused on Fernando. "It worked, as it worked for Fernando, and unless we forget Fernando was with us - and it was not doing those things that meant that Fernando left us."
In most part, agree with the rankings but agree, Ricciardo 6/10.. harsh, easy 7/10 if not better, unless this rating is for the "weekend" and not just the race. My bug bear is that unless you're perfect throughout the weekend, Pole, Race Win, Fastest Laps, you don't deserve 10/10, with that in mind, I'd have given Hamilton, Massa, Vettel 9/10 Button, Alonso, 8/10, the rest 7/10 (don't see how Webber only got 6/10, not his fault the Alternator packed in!) Karthikeyan gets -pi/10, "He's not an F1 driver, get him out of there!!!"
I couldn't understand Ricciardo's mark either but then I remembered he qualified poorly. As for the Mercedes drivers, are they sympathy votes? On the other hand, the 4 for dire Resta is fully deserved.
Why does Seb get an 8/10 for not putting a foot wrong all weekend... sorry I admit I push it sometimes with ratings for Seb but wtf? He did nothing wrong, traffic played it's part for losing him the place not Seb's driving... Alonso gets an 8/10 for struggling all through practice, gets out qualified by Massa by over 3 tenths, needs Massa to take the fall to get him on the clean side and overtook nobody noteworthy who was on the clean side and inherited 3rd place because Mark suffered an alternator failure. 6/10 at best more like... considering how far back he was in the end... As Jenson said early in the season: "A lot of arse kissing going on...."
You would have loved the BBC coverage, it was a 2 hour Alonso love-fest. Was even starting to bug me towards the end.
