Comments on: Japanese GP: thoughts on the start

By: F1Fan

F1Fan — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:29:33 +0000

I think IDR may have it right w/ the fuel loads, especially in that Massa may be really heavy. I am not buying that he all of a sudden lost grip in Q3, couldn’t make the tires work, etc. It’s the same car in Q2 amd Q3, same set-up and Massa has driven very well in Q3 this year. He may have indeed made a mistake and lost a bit of time, but most of his slowness in Q3 is due to a very heavy fuel load. I think IDR is right. If Massa can overtake Alonso before turn 1, he’s got a chance.

By: Snoopy

Snoopy — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:59:14 +0000

Unfortunatelly Kimi is too honest person and are not able to do “Schumacher”. For ferrari and for Massa kimi should turn his car toward Lewis and forced him out from race.
Nothing against lewis but that is what Schumi would do lol.
Mercedes boss has said allready that Kimi is not that kind of person…at least he hope so.

Knowing Kimi a little bit i think he will drive his own race and let Massa taking care about his own. Kimi will not destroy his own race for Massa. fair enought i would say. If Massa can not win WDC then Kimi can allways rolling his eyes and say that it was ferraris choice to make car for Massa.

Am i getting nasty? well…nope. What i hope is that Kimi force Lewis out from race, win race himself and Massa will score more points than Lewis.

so it will be
Kimi
Heikki
Massa

By: Gusto

Gusto — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:16:42 +0000

Good point, but perhaps they saw something in the replacement( have they had a look at it ?) that they didn`t like, in todays climate what could be worse than a Monday morning Engine.

By: Wesley

Wesley — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:05:04 +0000

Could be Gusto but,it just seems to me that McLaren have a habit of overlooking some of the obvious when they should be doing everything to help Hamilton,Look at the tire incedent last year,that was avoidable and made them look bad.My point is surely a fresh engine would be better if he has to push to catch up,why waste that option?He will still have a new engine for Interlagos for the final race.

By: Gusto

Gusto — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:55:56 +0000

Perhaps the Mech`s are so pleased with the engine there saying `leave it be`.

By: Wesley

Wesley — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:48:04 +0000

“the fact is the joker can’t be used at Interlagos because of an FIA rule, so he can’t have new engines for both China and Brazil. Hence, if he uses the joker now he’ll have fresh ones for 2 of 3 races, otherwise he’ll have only one new engine (at Shangai)!”

This is what I was talking about in my post #11.You can’t use your joker engine in the last race.

qazuhb brought it to attention in a post yesterday.

By: Peter Boyle

Peter Boyle — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:22:55 +0000

I think Raikkonen/Massa were short/long fueled
with the intention of of putting Raikkonen
ahead of the Mclaren’s with the intention
of holding up the race pace enabling Massa to (easily)
pass in the pits.

Such cooperative strategy would have left Massa very secure for safety cars, and is an even better version of the mechanism that has recently got Piquet and Alonso anomolously high.

Of course, it required that Raikkonen actually get the
pole and hold up the cars that were lighter than Massa,
and this may not have worked out.

By: qazuhb

qazuhb — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:24:04 +0000

Graham, the fact is the joker can’t be used at Interlagos because of an FIA rule, so he can’t have new engines for both China and Brazil. Hence, if he uses the joker now he’ll have fresh ones for 2 of 3 races, otherwise he’ll have only one new engine (at Shangai)!

By: graham228221

graham228221 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:41:16 +0000

regarding hamilton using the same engine, i’m not sure that using the “joker” change for this race would have been the best option.

they can now give lewis a fresh powerplant for interlagos, rather than him having to run the same engine over the last two races.

mclarens thinking at the start of the weekend *may* have been that even if the worst should happen and hamilton picks up a DNF, at worst massa would win but he’d still only be 3 points behind with two races to go. he’d have a new powerplant for each of those races and be confident that he’d be unlikely to pick up another mechanical DNF and he could really push the engine for both races if he needs to.

on the otherhand, if he’d used it here and massa had still gained the lead in the championship or even just caught up considerably then he’d have to run those last two race on the same engine, potentially running a higher risk of malfunction and/or not pushing to hard all the way through shangai next weekend.

just seems they are going for the option that gives them the smoothest run in to the end of the season.

any idea whether massa has a new engine for this race? is there an easy way to find out, i’m always losing track!

oh, regarding the race tomorrow i’m going to state the obvious and say that turn one on the first lap is going to be very exciting!

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:59:51 +0000

Carlitos – i thought Shashi had lost it when he/she said Massa will shred his tyres b4 having him 2nd in his/her prediction at the end – but he/she probably meant Heikki who i agree wiv every1 isn’t a good starter. He’ll need to do his job for Lewis and help out the championship, he cant let Alonso get ahead of him.

Wud be gr8 for Toyota on their home patch to score some points. Glock i feel will nab ahead of Trulli going into turn 1. Watch out for the STR’s behind. Vettel i think’ll get away fine, Bourdais might drop a place or 2. But id love to be proven wrong as id like Bourdais to get a top10 finish here to cement his place for next year.

Would be good for Honda if they can get some air time on the race as its about time they did something this season which effectivly ended bar the odd result after Ruben’s terrific rain strategy race at Silverstone.

Ideally id like Lewis to win this race, but id settle for him finishing 2nd ahead of Massa.