Comments on: German Grand Prix – The key decisions

By: Not a McLaren Fan

Not a McLaren Fan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:53:40 +0000

Hello dimitris,

I can not reply to you properly because of the reply nesting in the site. Just two things:

1. I thik the decision was based more on risking the cars (fight between Massa and Alonso added to Vettel comming and cars with lost lap in a narrow circuit, this is enough for me!) than in mathematical possibilities of title.

2. Massa taking the lead you can see it in a very epic way or in a more fact based way. He was slower than Fernando all weekend (more than 4 tenths in Q3 is a lot for professional drivers in normal conditions). He was 3rd and Vettel almost hits Alonso, so he can not progress. Then Massa is 1st. All the other facts are the same that during the rest of the year: slower than Alonso, problems with hard tyres. In F1 every detail counts, if he has problems and can’t take 100% of the car is normal he is not leading the team. Don’t see him surpassing his limits and so, but nobody knows that I guess

I agree he is a very good driver and deserves better results but reality is tough

By: David Newsome

David Newsome — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:59:59 +0000

That’s exactly the point. Massa’s performance relative to Alonso is not what you would expect from a GP winner and a Championship runner up.

By: Stephan Roux

Stephan Roux — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:46:12 +0000

There’s only on solution to the team orders issue, allow teams to ask drivers to “hold station” and disallow any driver who can still mathmatically win the championship from relinquishing his position at the bequest of the team.

Therefore the team can avoid team mates running into each other and have 2 car support when one driver is eventually going for the championship.

This would avoid scenes of drivers lifting to let team mates past until it makes total logical sense

By: Thomas in Australia

Thomas in Australia — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:22:51 +0000

Can’t help but think that the fans are being forgotten about here.

I don’t mean the hardcore fans who read blogs, autosport etc, i mean the casual fans who make up the majority of the F1 audience.

This incident, justified or not, would have turned off a lot of casual F1 fans, i’m sure of it.

Removing all of the political and financial garbage, at the end of the day the race result was fixed.

By: Emma

Emma — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:56:45 +0000

Alonso fans do recognise that he wouldn’t move over, but they say that it is because of his supreme motivation and determination to the pursuit of driving excellence. Not because he is a selfish little child.

In denial.

By: Mathew

Mathew — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:22:17 +0000

That’s because Petrov is a rookie and has never won a GP and did not come 2nd in the 2008 WDC.

By: Mathew

Mathew — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:07:23 +0000

But did McLaren tell Kovalainen to move over for Hamilton or did he decide to do so himself… that is the difference. Perhaps Kov knew that he was expected to do so but Ron Dennis did not come out and tell him to do so.

By: Mathew

Mathew — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:05:00 +0000

Galapago555 said “And it is also obvious that Fernando would not have yielded to Massa – because he is the #1 driver (do you have any doubt???)”

But Fernando is not the number 1 driver in the team. Stefano Domenicalli said that Ferrari have no number 1 driver and that both drivers are equal. I can not believe that he would lie.

By: Rodrigo

Rodrigo — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:26:44 +0000

Maybe you were asleep, but I was closely following the laptime battle between Massa and Alonso, and found that very exciting, as well as the question marks on wether Massa would do well with the hard tyre, and also the move Alonso tried just after the pitstop.

By: Nesto

Nesto — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:17:21 +0000

The fans shouldn’t have much, if any, input into how the sport is run. Why? Because as they’ve shown, they are far too emotional. I’m passionate about this sport too and while I have ideas, I’m in no position to run it or tweak things.

Certain regulations need work and frankly, I think they just need to be made less complex. The safety car issue, for example, is ridiculous and is easily rectified but its too damn confusing. It should not be a lottery IMO and no one should lose or gain position because of it.

That is F1 for you tho, nothing is ever simple. Knee-jerk reactions, however, are not the answer in anything but thats what you get when you start to react and/or think like the general public. I’ve said it before, we are merely spectators in this grand sport but we are not financially invested and actively work in the sport so why should we have a say in anything?

F1 always has drama and these last few years have been close, did we NEED a new points system that is essentially the same and ruins future comparisons and records ?? It’s because of the outrage and mindset of the fans that we have this idiotic team orders ban. If theres ever a barrier for teams, they will find a way around it.