F1 2008

[woodstock]

I am a Raikonnen fan and hoped he would win but all in all Hamilton probably deserved the title. Saying that it's Ferrari that lost it rather than Lewis won it. Without the pit stop blunders and reliability issues either Kimi or Massa should've won it.

Next year should be exciting, less aero seems good for me. Not sure about KERS or adjustable wings.

[Jersey Tom]

Tough break for Massa. I would have liked to have seen him win, but Ferrari did get a lot of things go their way earlier.

I do not see Vettel going to Massa's position at Ferrari. Massa developed a lot and is clearly very fast, and is already familiar with the system. Kimi likewise is a former WDC. Had an off year, but would be silly to throw him out.

Vettel is very talented in the wet, maybe still has to prove himself some more in the dry. Will be interested to see what Alonso does.

[DART-CG]

It was so sad for Massa, all in all he was the fastest top-driver of the season, even faster as Hamilton, except some few races. Ferrari stole him an impressive victory in Hungary and Singapore. 20 points, compared to the few points Hamilton lost in a discussable maneuvre.
In my opinion, he would have deserved the title more.

As for the future, Vettel will defintely be the man to beat, not Hamilton, trust me
Remember in which car he sits, an ex-Minardi. He made a staggering impression this season. And his teamate: I don't understand why everybody complains about Bourdais. He also did his job brilliant, not too far away from Sebastian. And he's a multiple Indycar Champion, having whiped the floor with the asses of some seriously fast guys.

I must admit that I feel some local patriotism for Sebastian. We (and Timo Glock, too) grew up in the same region, I even had the pleasure to drive against him in a fun event for a few laps in karting some many many years ago.

But the most memorable thing concering F1 in my Formula Student time was when our team bought a racing kart to train our drivers. Every Wednesday we were joined by Timo Glock who trained his reflexes during the races for iSport in his GP2 times with a specially modified 60hp 6-speed shifter kart with the GP2 shifting system. That thing was insane! One day he even broke the overall track record. Although our kart wasn't that slow we didn't even manage to stay with him for more than 3 corners

[ben]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DART-CG:

Remember in which car he sits, an ex-Minardi. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Er, no. He sits in an Adrian Newey designed chassis developed and built by a large, well-resourced UK-based F1 operation called Red Bull. It also has a factory supported Ferrari engine.

The cars happen to be run by some nice people that used to run mediocre cars developed by a small Italian manufacturer with bugger-all budget.

Torro Rosso is nothing to do with Minardi, and is disingenuous to pretend otherwise.

That said, I agree that Vettel is exceptional, but don't overstate the situation by pretending the car's terrible.

Ben

[DART-CG]

Hmm, you're right, it was a bit exaggerated The only thing that remained from Minardi are the mechanics and a the former engineering staff.

On the other hand I don't believe that a Torro Rosso has the same standard of technology as a Red Bull car has.
For sure the B-team will get updates but with a certain delay and an other amount compared to the A-team.

My opinion: Redbull: better car. Torro Rosso: better drivers.

Look at how Vettel performed in those days after Monza in a REdbull test at Jerez. I think it will be a quite frustrating season for Webber in 2009

[Zac]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by PatClarke:
VFR and Brett,
The late Carroll Smith reckoned FSAE should be held on watered tracks =] Do away with the need for wet and dry tyres.

Pat </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If teams are interested we could potentially do this on the Goodyear VDA next year.

[ben]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DART-CG:
Hmm, you're right, it was a bit exaggerated The only thing that remained from Minardi are the mechanics and a the former engineering staff.

On the other hand I don't believe that a Torro Rosso has the same standard of technology as a Red Bull car has.
For sure the B-team will get updates but with a certain delay and an other amount compared to the A-team.

My opinion: Redbull: better car. Torro Rosso: better drivers.

Look at how Vettel performed in those days after Monza in a REdbull test at Jerez. I think it will be a quite frustrating season for Webber in 2009 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The chassis' are identical, the engines are another matter :-)

I think Vettel's clearly the best of the four Red Bull drivers, I think Bourdais and Webber are similar and Coulthud made the right decision.

Ben

[DART-CG]

Hmm, the chassis are identical compared to the first race of 2008. From then on, both teams had to advance the cars themselves. Only major or critical non-aerodynamic updates are received by both teams with a certain delay.
Comparable to satellite-teams like Pramac Ducati or Jir Scot Honda in MotoGP.

I believe that this won't make a big difference at all. Look at Super Aguri when they drove with the 2001 Arrows chassis last year. OK, tey were 3-4 sec slower but I expected a far bigger deficit.