The 2007 Chinese Grand Prix

[gkaytaz]

I'd rather see Alonso or Raikkonen walk away with the title... I tend to dislike Hamilton passionately, especially after the SC deal at Fuji.

[jacfan]

I'd rather see Alonso or Raikkonen walk away with the title... I tend to dislike Hamilton passionately, especially after the SC deal at Fuji.

I agree totally.

[Jupiter]

Its good to see other people in the 'anyone but Hamilton' brigade, but given the after-race quote of Ron Dennis, the self-proclaimed pillar of equality, that they 'were racing (against) Fernando' , it will be an uphill struggle in Sao Paolo!

My DOTD goes to Vettel for a faultless and composed performance after a difficult week.

[RE30B#16]

Why all the Hamilton haters?

Aside from off-track BS (which I believe is mostly made up by the hack who report it), I have seen no suspect driving during races. I don't count qualifying because there is always that element of intimidation during qualifying. This has been a great championship with 4 guys with a serious chance to win the WDC. This could easily be 5 or 6 if the BMW-Sauber was a bit faster.

All in all, I think race fans are to namby-pamby!! Who cares who likes or dislikes who? Even with these unbelievable salaries, these guys still aren't paid enough to "like" anyone else. Think what you like about Ron Dennis, but he has never played favorites once a season begins. Likewise, I'm glad Ferrari is back to being a two car team.

Why can't everybody appreciate that in the wake of Michael Schumacher's retirement, Formula 1 has a healthy talent pool with Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Massa, Heidfeld, Kubica, Vettel, Rosberg, and the rest. Even David Coulthard and Jenson Button showed up for this race despite their positions in the championship.

[gkaytaz]

I enjoy and support healthy competition. There are quite a few talents out there which makes us all happy. Hamilton is one them. To me he's:

Hamilton: talent, yes; personality, no!

Why you ask?

Hamilton cursing during the quali when Alonso blocked him was of real bad taste. Then his antics behind the SC (no penalty! Makes one wonder if it were Alonso in that situation)... His off-track remarks. Him being protected by the FIA and favored by Ron...

All in all, he's got talent to be good, but lacks the personality to be great. I was indifferent toward him at the beginning, now I dislike him very much. And I am not even paid to do so

[Bundy]

I enjoy and support healthy competition. There are quite a few talents out there which makes us all happy. Hamilton is one them. To me he's:

Hamilton: talent, yes; personality, no!

Why you ask?

Hamilton cursing during the quali when Alonso blocked him was of real bad taste. Then his antics behind the SC (no penalty! Makes one wonder if it were Alonso in that situation)... His off-track remarks. Him being protected by the FIA and favored by Ron...

All in all, he's got talent to be good, but lacks the personality to be great. I was indifferent toward him at the beginning, now I dislike him very much. And I am not even paid to do so

Me too

[Snowy]

I enjoy and support healthy competition. There are quite a few talents out there which makes us all happy. Hamilton is one them. To me he's:

Hamilton: talent, yes; personality, no!

Why you ask?

Hamilton cursing during the quali when Alonso blocked him was of real bad taste. Then his antics behind the SC (no penalty! Makes one wonder if it were Alonso in that situation)... His off-track remarks. Him being protected by the FIA and favored by Ron...

All in all, he's got talent to be good, but lacks the personality to be great. I was indifferent toward him at the beginning, now I dislike him very much. And I am not even paid to do so

Lewis did not curse or swear during Hungary qualify, there was a spoof audio released by a quite well known and regular spoof internet sport newscast. It was picked up by many British newspapers and the transcript printed and attributed to Lewis. You shouldn't believe everything you read.

[jacfan]

Never read or heard about that.

[GhoGho]

It would seem that F1 fans around the world have found themselves a substitute for Michael Schumacher!
Poor Lewis!
It seems that people love to hate a winner.

Lets see, so far:
he has been called spineless, (I don't know why)
lacks personality (Mika Hakkinen lacked personality!)
unsporting (but exiting the pits taking the door with you is ok)
gets flamed by the fans for reckless and erratic driving (but cleared of any wrong doing by the FIA)

Love him or hate him, I think we will be seeing a lot more of Lewis for a long time to come.

[jacfan]

It would seem that F1 fans around the world have found themselves a substitute for Michael Schumacher!
Poor Lewis!
It seems that people love to hate a winner.

Lets see, so far:
he has been called spineless, (I don't know why)
lacks personality (Mika Hakkinen lacked personality!)
unsporting (but exiting the pits taking the door with you is ok)
gets flamed by the fans for reckless and erratic driving (but cleared of any wrong doing by the FIA)

Love him or hate him, I think we will be seeing a lot more of Lewis for a long time to come.

I think we all know that he is here to stay. We all dislike others for a variety of reasons. You have said you can't stand Mark Webber though for the life of me I can't see what he has done that makes you have that opinion. I disagree with you totally but you are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mine. After all this is supposedly a democracy.

[GhoGho]

You have said you can't stand Mark Webber though for the life of me I can't see what he has done that makes you have that opinion.

OK, This is surprising!

Sure, I admit I have said (and still believe) that he is not WDC material. He is good, but not WDC good.
I believe he is good in the wet, but there are others who I believe are better.
I have also said I think he is too tall for F1, especially when teamed up with a much shorter driver (as has been the case in the past) making life for him extremely uncomfortable. His height also makes the designers job difficult, as borne out with the problems he had fitting into the current Red Bull car at the start of the season.
I also think when he stuffs up, he tends to make excuses instead of fessing up.
Sometimes his opinions seem perfectly logical, and I admire that.

I could be wrong about all of the above, but so far IMHO, I don't believe he has proved me wrong.

I may have said many things about him, but please let me know where I ever said I cant stand MW??

[GhoGho]

Ed, JM, Jacfan, anyone?

Rules?

I know that dry weather tyres have to show visible sign of tread/groove at the end of a stint. this was introduced for safety reasons and anyone not complying would be classified DSQ.

Does the same rule apply for wet / extreme wet tires? and if not, why not?

Looking at this picture, I would think Lewis should have recieved a DSQ for the rather short sighted Mclarren race engineers part in his DNF.

http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/photos/img ... 071007.jpg

[jacfan]

Sorry GhoGho for misquoting you. You didn't put your opinion quite so harshly and I should check my memory before making rash statements.

[Snowy]

My eczema is back

Is it all right to make such a rash statement?

As far as I am aware Lewis hasn't deliberately shunted another driver off the track in order to secure a race win let alone a championship. I had nothing but a keen sense of Michael Schumacher's abilities and determination up until Adelaide '94. I think one should at least earn others dislike on merit. Lewis' only crimes appear to be a huge amount of talent, good looks, being British and being mixed race. I also have all of these attributes so I won't be surprised when everyone attacks me for stating my opinion.

[JayVee]

First my opinion of the race, loved it but wished Alonso could do more and get Raikkonen but it didn't rain again so things got even!
Alonso must be kicking himself for that spin in Japan. He would have been leading now!!

Anyway, he is 4 points behind Hamilton heading to Brazil. He likes that track and I think he won his 2 championships there so why not his 3rd!
I know I have been more optimistic in the past but I am not too optimistic now and this is simply because of the problems he is having with McLaren.

If he is leading, a simple pit stop bungle could ruin his chances
If he isn't given the right fuel load then it could ruin his chances. Obviously in China Hamilton had the preference and was 2 or 3 laps lighter.
Alonso could also turn nasty and hand the championship to Raikkonen by taking Hamilton out. This is something I wouldn't support just like his actions in Hungary but things in that team are very bad and when the environment isn't healthy very bad things can happen.

As for Hamilton, well I didn't mind him but since I heard him speak I got that feeling that this guy tries to fool the media and the fans into appearing as a nice person. On his attacks on Alonso, he certainly isn't nice. His actions behind the safety car erraticly driving was annoying and even I noticed that and wondered why is he doing that, it was completely irresponsible, anyway all the drivers and not just Alonso but all the drivers weren't happy with his actions. What really made me not stand him is when he drew comparison to Senna. That was it for me. He can go on and win as many races as he can but even his closest fans will get sick of his big head and 'I am great' slogans.

And after I read the appeal by Hamilton's lawyer at the FIA hearing, I really wouldn't want Hamilton to win.

"We respectfully invite you to leave the World Championship alone. Where Lewis Hamilton is concerned, let him get back to the track, to become the first rookie world champion in Formula 1 history"

Very confident!