Hey guys, I took the car to a local garage. Explained everything and left it there most of the day for what felt like an extended sqeaky bum time. I then got a call and went to see the Mekkas, they had a good look and noticed the ecu was a bit wet as water came up from the bottom of the car (so he just dried it) and the spark plugs needed sprucing up. They also added some waterproof grease around them. They noticed the car shuddering at low revs before they tackled it, so I wasn't hearing things. After taking it up and down the road for a bit they said that it buzzed like a bee. I tried myself and no remnants of yesterdays nightmare. I am so happy, they only wanted 20 quid which I can't complain. I'd rather that than them falsly pointing out things may need changing when they don't. So yeah it was purring like a kitten and hopefully it lasts. Thanks for all your help and i'll avoid large puddles from now one. I am driving a fiesta not a Land Rover.
and in news that will make di Fredsta and other members of the Max Verstappen fan club happy http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122146 a overtake of the year award, for his Blanchimont effort on Nasr. I know you like that one Fred
– And totally deserved. A quite outrageous, but legitimate move. Congratulations, MV. P.S. Is there an awards thread for the last race? I couldn't find one, so if mine is a duplicate, please delete it. Can't help feeling things are getting abit slack around here. How about EMSC for moderator before this place dies? He's around more, and contributes more than most others with 'the power'! His diligence might just save this place.
They might look similar, Fred. However… Can you find Verstappen's on-board footage too? My memory is that there is a significant difference. Although it might be argued Verstappen's running wide before the overtake may have contributed to finally getting past later (braking into the chicane, as I remember), I do not think he had all four wheels off track at any point, as is the case with your example. As is the case with your post in the Awards thread, I'm saying this from memory but would be very happy to be reminded!
This is the best I can find of it. It's not the easiest thing to see, but you can see him go over the white line with all four tyres.
That looked fine to me, and to be honest if you ban everything that "might" give a driver an advantage we'll end up with no overtaking at all.
....which probably goes to highlight why the stewards have a horrible job, there's so much room for interpretation.
Yes, he does go four wheels over doesn't he. Thanks Fred and Smithers, I am corrected. However, there is still a significant difference which underlines Happyal's and DHC's point about stewarding: after Verstappen runs wide, he backs off a fraction and remains behind; he then makes the pass on entry to the chicane. It might be argued that after regaining the track, MV was better placed to get past under braking but the two couner-arguments I've outlined will probably have won the day with the stewards. As highlighted by Happyal, overtaking is preferable than not and is clearly mandated by the public. Although both examples are at the same place, these subtle differences are important.
Hopefully the stewards are taking the view that 'just' over the white line does not make a significant advantage so long as it is not so blatent that someone has completely ignored the confines on the race track to get an advantage. In MV's case, it was more of a drift over the kerbs rather than an attempt to shortcut or completely take the radius out of the corner so as to ensure he had a higher exit speed. I can see Fred's point when comparing it to his clip, but that was 3 years ago and rules and clarifications are almost constantly evolving to find the balance between allowing good racing on the track without the mess of unnecessary penalties for minor infringements (hence the new 5s added time penalties). The stewards got it right on the day from a racing perspective and the majority of the forum would agree (I think!).
Also what I don't understand is why people say he overtook around the outside of Blanchimont when it was really up the inside of the chicane, just before Nasr was going to pit on the slower tyres. There wasn't many overtakes this season which weren't caused by DRS, but is an overtake on the much faster tyres, in a much faster car really worthy of "best overtake" of any racing series? Sure, he's better than I expected him to be, but he's still very very overrated.
I suppose the question is by exceeding the track limits, was he then afforded the opportunity to rejoin with a inside line for the next corner without losing momentum? If the Sauber closed of his return to defend would that be considered "crowding" ? If there was gravel on the outside of that kerb, he would have been in hospital and not recieving an accolade for the best overtake. I probably come across as being anti stewards, but whilst I view them as being inconsistent I still hold firm that vagueness of the rules and differing interpretations is the cause. Simplify it and let the drivers sort it out like men - not by the stewards. There were similarities in the Button - Max incident with the Kimi - Bottas incident. Both were a flip flop set of corners, Kimi turns in and receives a penalty, Max avoids the inevitable contact and receives a penalty. Like I have said before the issue isn't where the contact is occurring, it's what the drivers are doing (or not doing) leading up to the corner entry.
Yeah this, he failed with his attempted pass round the outside. He'd have been just as well served to follow Nasr through, if his tyres weren't so much fresher he'd have lost a lot of time there.
According to this link, TV audiences are down, Ecclestone says, teams are struggling to survive. Something needs to be done. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/35037357 Well, what do you expect if you move F1 from free to view TV to pay TV? People will watch if the product is good enough, but to be honest, as a life long F1 fan, in the last few years I've started to fall out of love with F1. These days I certainly won't go out of my way to watch F1, so if a once passionate F1 support won't go out of their way to watch F1, what hope do they have to catch casual fans? My solution would be to leave it well alone for a while, history has shown time and time again that after major rule changes 1 team hits the sweet spot and dominates for at least a couple of years. But after a few years everyone chances up and we end up with really close racing. Also put it back on free to view TV, you might take a hit in TV revenues but in the long term it will be better for teams to attract sponsors, especially the smaller teams.
The TV debate is so relevant and hugely overlooked in my opinion. I think Sky's coverage at times is horrific. I know I harp on but Crofty is a torrid commentator. He is miles too weak to be the lead commentator and to be frank, though I love Martin Brundle, he is dragging Him down too. All too often it feels like they're just having a chin wag about the race rather than delivering coverage to us. Crofty would be 10x a better presenter than commentator and dull as dishwater Lazenby is lucky to still be there IMO, as is Damon Hill- an idol of mine but boring. If you had Sky's millions, who would you employ, and how would your show look?
I don't have an issue with Pay TV per say, but acknowledge that limited subscribers means lower viewing figures and lower ROI for sponsors and teams. Maybe the solution is that live coverage is Pay TV and a decent FREE highlights show would be enough for the causal viewer? I agree on rules being kept for a decent period of time to allow the inevitable catch up.
There is the fundamental problem. The promoter of the 'sport' is just interested in their income, the teams can mainly get sponsorship based on tv coverage. So the teams will continue to have difficulty attracting sponsors if the tv viewing figures keep dropping. The venues for some reason, that I can't fathom, signed contracts that will destroy their income (CVC gets to sell track advertising space and I believe a % of food) , they just sell tickets and pay all maintenance and staff costs and pay CVC...... The promoter (CVC) need to realise that F1 isn't a cash cow at the moment and take a longer term view. Without teams and venues they have nothing!
To have a major sponsor impact, sport should be watched live. How many people decided not to watch the BBC highlights when the results came through that it was another HAM/ROS 1-2? If people stop watching, the sponsors will leave or demand that they pay less. F1 has more than an image crisis at the moment.