Formula 1 Thread

#376
#376
Stepneygate, 8/1 Edition:

Ferrari's board of directors has given CEO Jean Todt full authority to pursue legal action in the espionage and sabotage affairs affecting the Italian squad.

The board met at Maranello on Tuesday to analyse the latest legal actions taken against their former engineer Nigel Stepney and McLaren's suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan.

The Italian squad insisted they will press on with their current legal action and initiate additional if necessary.
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autosport.com - F1 News: Ferrari board presses on with legal action

McLaren today released a lengthy, public letter addressed to the Italian motorsport authority who requested the case be sent to the Court of Appeal. Basically gives their full account of all of the events surrounding the case/Stepneygate.

McLaren have publicly accused Ferrari of winning the Australian Grand Prix earlier this year with an illegal car and claim the Italian team are now deliberately providing the media with misleading information aimed at tarnishing McLaren's reputation.

For the first time since the spying scandal began last month, McLaren have disclosed in public their detailed version of the events in the affair that is currently being contested between the Woking-based outfit and their rivals Ferrari.

In a lengthy letter made public by McLaren and addressed to the president of the Italian motorsport authority ACI-CSAI Luigi Macaluso, McLaren CEO Ron Dennis heavily criticises Ferrari for spreading what he says is misleading information that is aimed at damaging McLaren's reputation.
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autosport.com - F1 News: McLaren hit out at Ferrari
 
#377
#377
Vettel is confirmed to drive for Toro Rosso in 2008. No word yet on their second driver...

However, judging by this, I can't imagine Liuzzi will last much longer either:

Tost, however, has said that Speed was replaced because of his performances.

"The progress of his performance wasn't done in the way we expected," said Tost in Hungary when asked why Speed wasn't racing in Hungary.

Berger added: "I don't want to spend one more second talking about Scott Speed. That's history. He didn't perform and that's why he isn't here anymore.
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High praise for Vettel from Michael Schumacher...

I've known about Vettel for a very long time. Michael Schumacher once told me to look out for this guy called Vettel in go karts. 'He's very, very good,' said Michael. Sebastian was 12 years old at the time.
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autosport.com - F1 News: Vettel to race for Toro Rosso in 2008
autosport.com - F1 News: Tost: Speed replaced over performance
autosport.com - F1 News: Q & A with Tost and Berger
 
#378
#378
Stepneygate, 8/2

Macaluso responds to Dennis:

In a letter responding to McLaren CEO Ron Dennis, Macaluso emphasised he is not in a position to address Dennis's claims.

Instead, the Italian reiterated his view that the World Motor Sport Council's verdict last week - which found McLaren in breach of the sporting regulations but at the same would not penalise the team - was insufficient.

"McLaren was found in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, but nevertheless escaped any penalty," Macaluso wrote.

"It is clearly in the interest of the sport that the appropriate precedent for dealing with events such as these is set."
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autosport.com - F1 News: Macaluso responds to Dennis
 
#380
#380
Kimi knows how to spend an off weekend. :lol:

As if there were not enough monkey business already in Formula One with all the accusations of spying and sabotage, Kimi Raikkonen was questioned today about dressing up as a gorilla.

Finnish reporters at the Hungarian Grand Prix said Ferrari's free-spirited driver and two friends took part in a powerboat race last week in the Finnish harbour city of Hanko while wearing gorilla suits.
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autosport.com - the Daily Grapevine: F1: Raikkonen in monkey business
 
#382
#382
Wasn't that during the Monaco GP in 2006 after he retired from the race? Just hopped the fence and got on a friend's boat? :lol:
 
#384
#384
tidwell said:
Friday Practice Results from Hungary:

autosport.com - F1 News: Kubica quickest in practice 1 - Hungary
autosport.com - F1 News: Alonso fastest in practice 2 - Hungary

Look how much slower Yamamoto is than Sutil. Winkelhock was closer to him than that... :wacko:
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Yamamota, being the poster boy for horrible pay drivers, does not belong in F1. He is slow, makes a lot of very stupid mistakes, and is quite dangerous on the track. There were quite a few incidents with him last year where he caused accidents. Shame on Spyker for selling out at this extreme, just to get a few bucks injected into the team.
 
#386
#386
Downsides of being at work at 4:45AM: Being in such a rush to get out the door, you forget to pop a tape in the VCR to record F1 practice and qualifying the last two mornings. :banghead2:

And quite a bit happened in qualifying today!

First, the results: autosport.com - F1 News: Alonso leads all-McLaren front row

But...

World Champion Fernando Alonso has lost his pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix and will start tomorrow's race in sixth place.

The race stewards at the Hungaroring have decided to demote the McLaren driver after reviewing evidence from today's qualifying session, where the Spaniard held up teammate Lewis Hamilton in the pits, causing the Briton to miss out on a final flying lap and possible pole.
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And...
The stewards of the Hungarian Grand Prix have also penalised the McLaren team, saying the outfit will not be awarded any constructors points in tomorrow's race.

The stewards said they did not accept the team's explanations nor Alonso's for the incident in today's qualifying, which saw the Spaniard hold up his teammate Lewis Hamilton, causing the Briton to lose the opportunity to run another flying lap.
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autosport.com - F1 News: Alonso demoted to sixth in Hungary
autosport.com - F1 News: McLaren stripped of potential points

Ferrari also had a less than perfect day. Massa was short on fuel in Q2 and didn't get a clean lap in once he did get back out there, so he'll start 14th.

Just made this GP a lot more interesting, given that it's apparently harder than usual to pass here.

Need anymore proof that it's just Hamilton's year? :wacko:
 
#387
#387
Ron Dennis' account of McLaren's qualifying debacle:

"There are some procedural issues there on qualifying. One of the things that you'll have seen several times over the course of this season is long periods of time where the car has gone down to the end of pitlane and sat for a long time.

"In this situation, we are timed to when we can dispatch the car based on when the car reaches a given temperature, and then we know how long we can hold it at the pitlane.

"The cars are dispatched as soon as possible. In this instance, Lewis's car got up to that temperature first, so we sent Lewis, then we sent Fernando, and the fuel burn characteristics [mean that] there is a small advantage which we play from driver to driver according to the nature of the circuit.

"In this instance, it was Fernando's time to get the advantage of the longer fuel burn. The arrangement was, OK, we're down at the end of the pitlane, we reverse positions in the first lap.

"That didn't occur as arranged. That was somewhat disappointing and caused some tensions on the pitwall.

"We were, from that moment on, out of sequence because the cars were in the wrong place on the circuit and that unfolded into the pitstops.

"It complicated the situation into the result, which was Lewis not getting his final timed lap. So this really started from that position, and from our drivers not swapping position to get the right fuel burn in order to arrive at the point where we cut the end result to the end.
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autosport.com - F1 News: Dennis: Hamilton triggered incident
 
#388
#388
:realmad:
tidwell said:
Downsides of being at work at 4:45AM: Being in such a rush to get out the door, you forget to pop a tape in the VCR to record F1 practice and qualifying the last two mornings. :banghead2:

And quite a bit happened in qualifying today!

First, the results: autosport.com - F1 News: Alonso leads all-McLaren front row

But...

And...
autosport.com - F1 News: Alonso demoted to sixth in Hungary
autosport.com - F1 News: McLaren stripped of potential points

Ferrari also had a less than perfect day. Massa was short on fuel in Q2 and didn't get a clean lap in once he did get back out there, so he'll start 14th.

Just made this GP a lot more interesting, given that it's apparently harder than usual to pass here.

Need anymore proof that it's just Hamilton's year? :wacko:
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Yeah, it was a rather ugly incident. I don't understand the stewards' decision to penalize McLaren's constructor points tomorrow. Well, at least Ferrari can quit whining so much about McLaren not getting punished. This will help them out immensely.
 
#389
#389
autosport.com - F1 News: The full decision by the race stewards

...and here's the kicker:

Alonso was asked why he waited for some 10 seconds before leaving the pits after being given the signal to leave. His response was that he was enquiring as to whether the correct set of tyres had been fitted to his car. When asked why this conversation did not take place during the 20 second period when his car sat stationary all work on it having been completed, it was stated that it was not possible to communicate by radio because of the countdown being given to him.

Reference to the circuit map shows that at the time Alonso was told he would be held for 20 seconds there were but 4 cars on the circuit, his own and those of Fisichella, Hamilton and Raikkonen. All but Raikkonen entered the pits such that there can have been no necessity to keep Alonso in the pits for 20 seconds waiting for a convenient gap in traffic in which to leave.
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The actions of the team in the final minutes of Qualifying are considered prejudicial to the interests of the competition and to the interests of motor sport generally. The penalty to be applied is that such points (if any) in the 2007 Formula One Constructors Championship as accrue to the team as a result of their participation in the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix wilt be withdrawn.
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#393
#393
The FIA lays down the hammer on McLaren.

The council ruled that McLaren will be excluded from the 2007 constructors' championship points standing, but the drivers retain their points scored so far and will not be affected in the drivers' championship.

Furthermore, McLaren have been awarded a fine of $100 million USD - by far the largest fine ever imposed in motor racing.
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autosport.com - F1 News: McLaren lose 2007 points, fined $100m
 
#395
#395
I saw that on SportsCenter yesterday evening. That's amazing at how much money they were fined, simply incredible.
 
#398
#398
doozer said:
good.

i have been keeping up less since you quit keeping me updated.
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Eh, some were bitching about it... plus I'm not here as much anymore.

Haven't been reading as much about F1 lately anyway, been paying more attention to the Vols. Still watch the races, though.
 
#400
#400
tidwell said:
Eh, some were bitching about it... plus I'm not here as much anymore.

Haven't been reading as much about F1 lately anyway, been paying more attention to the Vols. Still watch the races, though.
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who was bitching about ONE Formula One thread amongst a sea of Nascar threads? :)
 
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