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+--- Thread: F1 and Moto GP Championships are coming down to the wire! (/showthread.php?tid=4858)
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F1 and Moto GP Championships are coming down to the wire! - G.Irish - 09-29-2006
I can't remember when the last was that both Formula 1 and GP motorcycle racing championships have come down to the wire like they have this year. It has to have at least been a decade since we've had such a title chase in both series.
F O R M U L A 1
In Formula 1 Renault's Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher are separated by a mere 2 points with three races in the championship left to go. This weekend's China GP at Shanghai, next weekend's Japanese GP at Suzuka which Mikey and I will be attending, and the season finale at Brazil's Interlagos circuit.
A few weeks ago after his win at Monza, 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher announced his retirement from Formula 1. These are the last three races of his career and everyone is waiting with baited breath to see if he can unseat current champion Fernando Alonso for his 8th driver's title.
Of course, just about every time you talk about Ferrari there is some sort of controversy and here we are, talking 'bout some controversy. The first big issue was that the FIA outlawed Renault's mass damper system, ruling that it constituted a movable aerodynamic device. The mass damper was a suspended weight in the nose of the Renault that controlled the pitch of the nose and thus the angle of attack of the front wing. Renault had been using the system for quite some time when out of the blue the FIA decided to make it illegal.
The next major scandal was a qualifying penalty given to Fernando Alonso for "blocking" Felipe Massa's qualifying run. Here is a video of the incident:
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The penalty dropped Alonso from 5th to 10th on the grid. Many saw this as the FIA trying to hand Michael Schumacher some extra help in winning the championship and indeed the penalty did seem farcical. However the FIA metted out a similar penalty to Jacques Villeneuve for "blocking" Giancarlo Fisichella (Alonso's teammate) in qualifying. It was a questionable penalty then, but you didn't see anyone at Renault protesting the unfairness of the penalty at that time. My interpretation is that it was a BS penalty in both cases, it just so happens that it went against Renault instead of for Renault this time.
So here we are, its down to crunch time and the championship is close. Renault has sort of been on their back foot ever since losing the mass damper and I'm willing to bet that Ferrari will be very strong at Suzuka since Japan is where their tire supplier Bridgestone is based. One has to wonder if it comes down to the last race for the title and Schumacher is leading will he try to take out Alonso the way he deliberately took out Damon Hill back in 1994 (and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997)? Schumacher has proven on many occasions that he is not only among the best of all time (if not the best) but also among the most ruthless.
Whatever the outcome, these last few races are not to be missed. Will Schumacher retire as an 8 time champion or will Alonso be celebrating a back-to-back?
- Hunter - 10-01-2006
Schumacher's win was incredible today, he was down by something like 30 seconds to alonso and made it all back. He may have had a little help from a lug that didnt want to go on alonso's car.
- G.Irish - 10-01-2006
That was a pretty fun race. Got boring for a little while in there but both of Schumacher's passes on the Renaults were badass. Especially the 2 wheels in the grass pass he made on Fisichella for the lead! I hope that shows up on youtube or something.
Now Alonso and Schumacher are tied in the points with 2 races to go!
- Feersty - 10-01-2006
Sadly I pay no attention to these series when football is in season. Don't have time to keep track
- Mike - 10-01-2006
suzuka! 7 days!
- .RJ - 10-01-2006
Feersty Wrote:Don't have time to keep track
<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.crash.net">www.crash.net</a><!-- w -->, and sign up for the daily email newsletters.
- G.Irish - 10-02-2006
Last lap battle for 4th place. 4 cars on the lead lap rolling up on two lappers. Button (Honda) was trying to pass Nick Heidfeld (BMW) for 4th and...
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Oof, I yelled when I saw this the first time but watching it again Schumacher fucking blew by Fisichella when he was coming out of the pits. Fisi had just put slicks on and the track was still damp so he was trying to pussy foot the car around the track until the tires got up to temp. Schumacher had just put slicks on a lap earlier so his tires were already up to temp and just walked right by Fisi but ended up going two in the grass to get by him.
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- G.Irish - 10-02-2006
***** M O T O G P *****
With 50 points up for grabs 5 riders have a mathematical chance at winning the title but for all intents and purposes its down to two men. Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi.
Nicky Hayden - 236
Valentino Rossi - 224
Marco Melandri - 209
Loris Capirossi - 205
Dani Pedrosa - 202
Rossi
Rossi started out the season by getting caught up in a first lap crash at Jerez that left him in dead last. He was only able to claw his way back to 14th. Rossi has struggled mightily this year with 3 DNF's, all due to some sort of mechanical failure with his bike (2 engines grenading and one tire chunking).
Hayden
Nicky has led the championship since the second race of the season by riding consistent and staying out of trouble. Nicky is the only rider in the top 10 who has not crashed once all season. Not in a race, not in qualifying, not in practice.
Nicky might have all but locked up the title if he hadn't been having major issues with the clutch on his Evo RC211V. HRC relocated his clutch to near the center of the engine to further centralize the mass in the bike to make it more maneurverable. But of course that exposes the clutch to more heat over the course of the race so HRC has apparently been trying to compensate with different pressure plates, clutch discs, and clutch materials to give Nicky the right balance of a clutch that works well on the start and works well throughout the race.
Unfortunately his clutch problems have persisted and Nicky has been dropping points to Rossi since his win at Laguna Seca. Now Nicky holds a 12 point lead over Valentino Rossi. As long as Nicky either finishes one position behind Rossi or beats him he will win the title.
It definitely won't be easy as both Ducati's Loris Capirossi and Fortuna Honda's Marco Melandri have found their stride as of late. Those two guys and even Casey Stoner, Sete Gibernau, or Colin Edwards could spoil the title fight for either Rossi or Hayden. Most people think that Dani Pedrosa will try to help Nicky's title hopes now that he [Dani] doesn't have a good shot at winning it anymore.
Freshman Class of 06
The 5 foot and change 110 lb Dani Pedrosa has pretty much lived up to his billing as the next big time talent in Moto GP by scoring 2 wins in his rookie season and to wit he has locked up rookie of the year. He was second in the championship with a realistic shot at the title until the rain soaked Philip Island race where it became abundantly clear that Dani is AWFUL in the rain, getting lapped by the lead riders. He didn't do well at Motegi either and went from 2nd to 5th in the championship.
Still, I expect that he'll come straight out and challenge for the title next season.
Casey Stoner who finished 2nd to Pedrosa in the 250cc championship last year has shown flashes of blinding speed, usually preceding a crash. Most of Stoner's crashes (and Dani's too) have been due to him losing the front of his RC211V by trail braking too much into the turns. I figure once he gets that sorted out he'll be a more consistent challenge to the throne.
Chris Vermeulen on the second Suzuki GSV-R has quietly done well in his rookie GP season. He came over after finishing second in the WSBK championship in 05. Chris has gotten a few pole positions and finished 2nd at his home race at Philip Island Australia which also was the first podium for Suzuki this year. He also led the USGP at Laguna Seca until he started having mechanical problems. Hopefully the 800cc 2007 Suzuki will help both he and John Hopkins get a little closer to the top.
- .RJ - 10-02-2006
G.Irish Wrote:Last lap battle for 4th place. 4 cars on the lead lap rolling up on two lappers. Button (Honda) was trying to pass Nick Heidfeld (BMW) for 4th and...
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-LiICijP5w">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-LiICijP5w</a><!-- m -->
Sato was DQ'd after that mess.
- Evan - 10-02-2006
why is it that F1 drivers cant help from hitting each other when they are actually close together. what a mess
- Eclipsor - 10-03-2006
Evan Wrote:why is it that F1 drivers cant help from hitting each other when they are actually close together. what a messHave you watched any Star Mazda races lately?
Hunter Wrote:He may have had a little help from a lug that didnt want to go on alonso's car.That did help a bit (about ten seconds), but the main culprit that slowed Alonso's pace was the choice to put a new set of intermediate front tires on his car. Almost everyone else, including Schumacher, chose to leave the worn down set of inter's on the car. As the tread wears off the intermediate tires, they start to closely resemble slicks, which was highly advantageous as a dry line started to form on the track at Shanghai. The loss of performance due to the tire swap on Alonso's car was so apparent that his times instantly dropped into the 1:47.xx range and his 20+ second lead quickly evaporated. The announcers were baffled and David Hobbs was convinced that the Renault had lost a gear.
- G.Irish - 10-03-2006
Evan Wrote:why is it that F1 drivers cant help from hitting each other when they are actually close together. what a messWell, Sato was involved so...
- .RJ - 10-03-2006
Eclipsor Wrote:Have you watched any Star Mazda races lately?
I have. Close, clean racing without people running into each other all over the track. The race at road atlanta last year was pretty damn good, lots of late braking passes into Turn 10.
- Eclipsor - 10-03-2006
Heh, what about the 16 car pileup at Montreal, everyone's antics at Trois-Rivieres, and the incident with Potekhen at Road America?
Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of the drivers in Star Mazda are very talented. Even the announcers have said multiple times, though, that the drivers in SM have more to prove since it's a development series. That factor, along with a few others, makes for more risky racing and more incidents.
- .RJ - 10-03-2006
Eclipsor Wrote:Heh, what about the 16 car pileup at Montreal, everyone's antics at Trois-Rivieres, and the incident with Potekhen at Road America?
Its still a lot better than most series I've seen, and probably one of the best of the "lots of money to throw around" series (i.e. GrandAm, WC, etc).
Eclipsor Wrote:the drivers in SM have more to prove since it's a development series
Gotta prove you can get that $2 trophy right?
I'm not sure who you would consider it a development series for.... because most SM drivers are just club racers. Even at the national level SCCA, its often just a checkbook race, with $10,000 engines, for club racing. Some people are moving on from pro SM to other series (like Speed WC) but not with a full ride - i.e. bring your own $$ or sponsorship.
SM is a great place to play for the club racaers, but i wouldnt shell out a bunch of $$ for an SM ride in hopes of getting sponsored into a paid ride further up the sportscar racing food chain.
- Eclipsor - 10-03-2006
Not that this is going to change your mind, but it's the first sentence of the mission statement: "The objective of Formula Mazda is to develop new race driving talent."
Yes, it's pretty much the lowest level development series as it leads to more development series such as GP2 or Champ Car Atlantic, but it's still a development series.
- Evan - 10-03-2006
.RJ Wrote:he means StarMazda.Eclipsor Wrote:the drivers in SM have more to prove since it's a development series
Gotta prove you can get that $2 trophy right?
I'm not sure who you would consider it a development series for.... because most SM drivers are just club racers.
to the rest of the road racing world, SM means SpecMiata
- Eclipsor - 10-03-2006
Evan Wrote:to the rest of the road racing world, SM means SpecMiataTo the rest of the world that doesn't read the previous sentence...
We were talking about Star Mazda in previous posts. I believe Ryan knew what I was talking about when I abbreviated it.
- Evan - 10-03-2006
Eclipsor Wrote:I disagree, his post clearly referred to spec miata.Evan Wrote:to the rest of the road racing world, SM means SpecMiataTo the rest of the world that doesn't read the previous sentence...
We were talking about Star Mazda in previous posts. I believe Ryan knew what I was talking about when I abbreviated it.
regardless, who gives a shit? The open wheel road racing "ladder" in the US is a complete joke. If you dont think so, you havent been paying attention. It still comes down to money before talent and it always has.
How you compare this to F1 I havent a clue.
Yes, I expect F1 caliber drivers to not run in to each other when they get within 3 feet of one another.
any of the various FormulaCheckbookÔäó series drivers, all bets are off.
- Eclipsor - 10-03-2006
Evan Wrote:I disagree, his post clearly referred to spec miata.Well, I have no idea why.
Evan Wrote:regardless, who gives a shit? The open wheel road racing "ladder" in the US is a complete joke. If you dont think so, you havent been paying attention. It still comes down to money before talent and it always has.Haha, welcome to motorsports.
Evan Wrote:How you compare this to F1 I havent a clue.If you take that attitude, there really isn't any other form of racing to which F1 can be compared. After all, it really has no equal... especially if we're nitpicking.
Evan Wrote:Yes, I expect F1 caliber drivers to not run in to each other when they get within 3 feet of one another.They do, all the time.