bobafett

Inmy mind this was the worst race yet in modern F1 history. This was an absolute ATROCITY.

First off, the idiotic move by MS in the first lap should have had him DQed.

Secondly, his "move" for retaining P1 is pure BS. How is that possibly legal? Archane FIA BS is how...

Thirdly, RB's pit stop took WAY too long. No team orders? MY A$$. We'll just hold him there for an extra 2s w/o reason.

Fourthly, the marshalls were a disgrace. Not only did it take them EONS to get to RS, but on top of that they did not red flag the race (making the cars run TEN LAPS through the wreckage), nor did they get a sweeper onto the field (more debris and crap causing possible further accidents). The simple move would have been to run the formation THROUGH the pits. This is a prime example of why no ptting should be allowed during yellow / SC periods.

And then what about that CRAP ruling regarding JPM. They let him run SIXTY laps and then decide that his move is illegal? It is such bull**** I don't know where to begin. JPM made the right move and shouldn't have been penalized, let alone 60 goddamn laps later. The FIA should have DQed MS just as well then for his totally illegal move in L1.

All in all, Indy is a goddamn disgrace to F1. What a crock. This is exactly why they need to move it to a real circuit.

--Dan

FIXEDupW209

amen! i couldn't agree with you more. My favorite circuit by far is monaco. I wish they'd do sometihng similar here. Maybe in long beach

Micah

JPM got disqualified because he changed cars right before the cars rolled off, not because of something he did during the race.

That was a terrible race, especially when there were only 8 cars running at the end. How much of a race can there be with 8 cars and endless stints behind the safety car? Plus, all the debris caused numerous punctures which caused cars to drop out of the running early on.

Any American that doesn't ordinarily watch F1 who happened to tune in to that race will be left with a bad impression, as that race was not very representative of F1, with the exception of the overrated spoiled brat who gets to do anything he wants and is still allowed to win the race.

hellcat

Monaco is a horrible track, there is nowhere to overtake unless someone crashes or pits. Sure there were bad wrecks but what is wrong with the Indy track? Should every race be held on tiny streets where there can be no action whatsoever?

Micah

Yeah, I don't have a problem with the Indianapolis road course. I like that we have such a unique feature with that 23-second WOT run. The in-car footage of that never gets old. Plus, if your engine is not 100% reliable, that oval section will kill it in a hurry. It surprised me that both Ilmors survived that.

I would like to see F1 come to Road Atlanta, though.

hellcat

I got lucky. I'm in Cincinnati for the summer so I got to go up to Indy and watch. If you've never seen F1 racing live you have to go. It is incredible. See the video link in my signature, I took that with a terrible digital camera but it came out well, the sound is amazing.

trench

The problems bobafett pointed out just shows how much F1 needs a team of race officials that travel to every race and are capable of making consistent judgements. With the current system they just use local track officials, leading to wildly variant decision making. Considering all of the money involved what would it cost them to fly a half-dozen more people around the world (I'd still use locals as track-side marshalls, as they should know the ins-and-outs of their particular track.

Also, anymore, I almost consider F1 to be more like an air-show than "racing." It's a great demonstration/showcase for high-tech vehicles, but really hasn't been much of a competiton for the past few years. Sure, it looked like KR came close last year, but if they hadn't monkeyed around with the points-scoring system MS would have won by a mile. I hate to punish any particular team for simply doing a better job than the rest (Ferrari in this case); but at least in the past when one team was dominant it was still interesting becuase at least there was some inter-team rivarly going on (think Senna and Prost/Hill and Villeneuve), something that we'll never have with Ferrari as long as MS is around. I'm hoping that he'll retire at the end of this season after breaking Senna's pole record (the only F1 record he doesn't own, and which he should break this year). Maybe it'll be interesting then.

PS: I'm sure Bernie's crapping his pants at the thought of the ever-decreasing number of TVs that will be watching F1 as the rest of this boring "Formula Yawn" season plays out.

bobafett

I don't think MS is after records, nor do I think he will retire.

I don't think penalizing him is such a great idea either. After all, how quickly we forget (well, I hear of, as I'm 22) the days of McLaren-Honda. Of course, even back then others were winning races, but nevertheless - one day we'll all look back on this time and regale tales of how we were there, we saw the great Michael Schumacher dominate.

It's cyclical in nature. I don't fault Ferrari, nor do I applaud of the rule changes designed to cap them. F1, as you put it Trench, has been about technological showcase just as much as it has been about racing. It is, simply put, the penultimate.

To make it like CART or Indy may appease the short term, but I think it will mark the beginning of the end for F1.

--Dan

dmatre

There was an F1 race in Long Beach . . . poor attendence doomed it.

It does make for a poor 'race' when a team like Ferrari continually finishes 1-2, but is it really the organizer's fault? The rules?

The other teams (many of whom are VERY well-funded) are simply not up to the level of perfection that Ferrari has shown.

If you were watching the race, you know that the BARs were on pace with the Ferraris, but lost any possibility of a win when the (inexplicably) failed to pit under the safety car period. From where we were sitting, Takuma, Jenson, Michael and Rubens were all consistantly turning 1:11's through the race. It was simply the lost track position due to poor strategy that spoiled the chance for 2 BARs on the podium.

To change the rules to make the cars more similar is NOT the answer. There are already several open-wheel series like this: IRL, CART, Formula BMW, Formula Mazda, Formula Ford, etc.

While the cars are evenly matched, these races are also snoozers, which draw almost no crowd in the stands, and poor ratings on TV. (Last year, Trans-Am had a greater TV audience than IRL or CART, yet had only a handful of races broadcast live).

It is a shame when only 8 cars finish, but this is also a little bit of the excitement. Zsolt's point for Minardi was a national event in Hungary!

What I'd like to see done is to allow each chassis manufacturer to sell chassis/engines to a single 'non-factory' team. (Resulting in something similar to DTM/British Touring Car - where there are 'factory' teams and 'privateers'). This would reduce the costs of racing; as factory teams could spread development costs over the 'sale' chassis, and privateer teams could purchase a complete package with minimal R&D investment. This would also serve to provide a larger grid, a larger number of cars finishing the race, and in general; more excitement in the middle of the pack. The top team will always walk off and leave the rest, but racing isn't only about number 1.

For those of you who only long to see action in the corners, maybe a little wheel-to-wheel bumping, and adrenalin for the full period of the race; I strongly recommend going to Eldora to watch the Sprints and Midgets race! This, my friends, is a show!

Norm C32

The Indy contract just got extended 2 more years. Some of them are scratching their heads right now! :-/ I've been to all the F1 races there mostly just to meet up with buddies as the race track is terrible. There are better tracks on this side of the Mississippi but it will probably go Westward. Which I would not mind attending.

Norm
Bordeau/Merlot

ATS

Yeah the Montoya thing was ridiculous and downright unfair.