[Keith Collantine]

The Minardi press office sends out a release from former team principal Gian Carlo Minardi after each race. Although I tend not to use them on the site they’re usually quite amusing so I’ll post them here from now on.

Here he is on the German Grand Prix including some rather harsh words on Vettel:

The Gp in Hockenheim was really amazing, so was Fernando Alonso, who made a masterpiece, especially on the last 20 laps.

His lap time was constantly under 1’20” and his way of driving was very aggressive. The Ferrari is getting more and more competitive and shows it can run a very quick race on every weather condition, narrowing the gap with Red Bull. Three world champions fought for a win on the edge of tenths and the time gap between them was only 2.6 seconds. This means that this season is so hard-won and competitive. They must stay focused until the end for not giving anything to rivals. Each grant will be paid off. Car development will be very important and Ferrari team is proving to be good in this area. They feel also easy at pit stops and the work on different areas begins to pay off.

This is a Ferrari vs Red Bull struggle and Fernando Alonso is fighting alone against Vettel and Webber. Massa had to pay for a negative qualifying result. When a driver starts from a middle row, the risk of clashing is so high, especially in a circuit like this, where a L-shaped corner follows a long straight stretch. Button performances now are as good as the ones at the beginning of the season, this is because he’s behind the wheel of a restored McLaren. Unfortunately Hamilton was very unlucky. Sebastian Vettel was very nervous, this was reflected by a risky overtaking at the expense of Button. I think officials decision was right because the Englishman was in trouble so he could have waited. The carelessness he committed was not worthy of a world champion. In this way he made an important gift to Fernando.

We’re just in the middle of the race season, so many races still have to be run and many scores have to be won, but fights between drivers and outsiders can be an ace for Fernando’s benefit; the Spaniard’s advantage over Webber is 34 points. As shown by his overtaking on Vettel, Hamilton won’t give up…. Lotus itself could accidentally be a weapon for the Spaniard’s benefit, but next Sunday race is unpredictable. Kimi performances were not so constant and he was in trouble with hard tyres. Despite everything, including Grosjean mistakes, they’ve just one point less than McLaren.

Awesome race for Sauber. The car performances are getting better and better as shown by a good 5th and 6th place, got up to 4th thanks to Vettel penalty.

In a week drivers will run again in Hungary, where the track is medium-slow, so qualifying and strategy will be crucial. After the summer break Gp will be at Spa and Monza circuits. Those tracks are so important for the final part of the Championship.

[Olivier42]

The carelessness he committed was not worthy of a world champion.

That’s wrong. Was it careless? Yes. Was it stupid? Yes. Does it make him any less worthy of a world champion? No way. Every world champion has made mistakes and was penalized for them. Mistakes are part of the sport.
“a world champion shouldn’t make mistakes like that” – Show me mistakes that are worthy of a world champion? The world champion is often the one that makes the least mistakes. No mistakes are worthy of a world champion.

[alexf1man]

@KeithCollantine I hate to be picky but didn’t @Olivier42 jut break one of the posting rules?

And I agree with what Giancarlo Minardi has to say – Alonso has really dragged that car beyond its limits (which lie somewhere in the middle of their drivers’ performances), whereas Massa has been quite a way off for most of the season so far. He needs to get his Monaco setup on for Hungary and then work out a low downforce one for the following two races before anything else happens.

[Anonymous]

Why do a non-existant entity still have a press office? I thought Minardi had disappeared in all forms, GianCarlo, Stoddart, or otherwise.

[F1Yankee]

Why do a non-existant entity still have a press office? I thought Minardi had disappeared in all forms, GianCarlo, Stoddart, or otherwise.

g-g-g-ghosts???

[Keith Collantine]

Here he is on Hungary – he didn’t like Pastor Maldonado’s penalty:

For the first time from the beginning of the season the Gp we saw in Budapest wasn’t as exciting as the other ones. Everything was so predictable, only two or three overtakings were really dominant, just like the one handled by Alonso on Raikkonen at the beginning of the race, which probably denied the Finn to score a win and the one handled by Maldonado, which cost him a penalty. I think we’re going too far! We want drivers to overtake but even after a slight clash, they are penalised. I think FIA is exaggerating.

Everybody knows that it would have been a difficult weekend for Ferrari and I think that Sunday results represent the current strength of the teams. Once again the Spaniard set his fastest lap at the end of the race, showing a great determination in defending a 5th place, getting the gap down over his direct rivals.

So he can go on vacation after scoring 40 points which are a great success both to him and the Ferrari. But they won’t have to rest on their laurels and there is still much to do. The “family” fight between Red Bull drivers could be a weapon to his benefit, just like Lotus competitiveness and the return of the McLaren. In Budapest we saw an amazing Lotus. If it handles good qualification, it will point straight to victory. We saw also a very good Raikkonen who is constantly in the score zone. Unfortunately they paid off the lack of experience of the pit wall and Grosjean. Spa and Monza will be really decisive, so the second part of the season is expected to be hot and full of suspense.

In the constructors’ World Championship Red Bull is still the group leader, but it hasn’t been flawless. Their performance level was lower than the one of McLaren and Lotus. Webber himself didn’t manage to attack a superb Bruno Senna. Maybe the technical development bordering on the regulations, is having a bad influence on the development itself. The amendments made for the German GP gave a turn to McLaren and Lewis Hamilton, even if the zero points scored keep him far away from the lead. If the English team maintains top positions, it would be a great help to Ferrari, who is still missing Massa’s contribution.

The Williams’ Brazilian driver Senna handled a very good race and was competitive throughout the week-end. The Hungaroring’s layout brought out his handling of the car and his clean driving style. He was good and handled a good race till the end. In comparison with seven days ago, the two Saubers didn’t handle a good race, this was just because of an extreme strategy which didn’t pay off. Mercedes hadn’t a good week-end as well. Thanks to Rosberg the team scored one point but unfortunately it can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel with Schumacher.

During this month off teams have the opportunity to set the last improvements. On a technical and fast track like the one in Spa, Lotus is a favorite car because it can make a difference in fast corners.

[Author]

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