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Jim Watt wrote:Snowy wrote:

I thought Ferrari showed signs of closing the gap! The lap times of Felipe were just a tenth or two off Fernando's at the beginning of the first stint. Kimi set the fastest lap of the race and judging from the Live Timing Lewis and Fernando were driving flat out when they set their fastests laps, Lewis trying to pullout a gap before pitting and Fernando trying to keep in touch. I may be mistaken but I think Ferrari have closed the gap to McLaren and are inching away from BMW.

I hope you're right, Snowy!! But it looked to me like the Ferarri's were just unstable in their set ups. I suspect that Kimi's fast lap was made possible by his carrying just the right fuel load and having his tires just dialed in. I paid close attention (being a sort of American Tifosi) to the red cars all race long and I have to say that their braking at the end of the long straight and recovering through turns 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 (all of which I could clearly follow) were uneven. Felipe sometimes even sounded funny (raising hopes in me breast that Kimi would be able to get him). More importantly, for a very long time in the early going Kimi simply could NOT make any headway on Kovaleinin and the Renault. He couldn't, that is, even get close enough to threaten his fellow Finn. Meanwhile, the McLarens were motoring away from Felipe. Game over.

I would love to be a fly on the wall at Maranello. I wonder whether there is anything Michael can DO for this car and its drivers? I think not. Until they can feel confident that they HAVE the pace to challenge McLaren, both will just have to resign themselves to another season where the WDC fades inexorably into the distance. Hopefully, Ferarri is working VERY HARD on next year's car.

But leaving all that aside, Lewis Hamilton is obviously the most important change in F1 this year --and for years to come.

It looks like Ron Dennis has COMPLETELY out-foxed his red car rivals. Now all he has to worry about is keeping the peace in his garage between a two consecutive year WDC, and a WDC for the ages.

Someone, on that subject, should have a word with Fernando. I heard at the track that he was complaining that the English mechanics were favoring his teammate over himself.

Ha! My answer to that would be to offer him some SPANISH mechanics.

ciao, Jim Watt

Julian Mayo wrote:
Jim,
I believe Frrari's problems of late are two-fold.
1/. They run only one wind tunnel, there is a rumour that about 6 weeks ago the rolling road surface let go at 180mph.Being a steel belt, there was some shrapnel damage.
2/. With the restructuring, there appears to be some dissatisfaction within, mainly with non-Italian design team members, some of whom have found greener grass

gkaytaz wrote:

Julian Mayo wrote:
Jim,
I believe Frrari's problems of late are two-fold.
1/. They run only one wind tunnel, there is a rumour that about 6 weeks ago the rolling road surface let go at 180mph.Being a steel belt, there was some shrapnel damage.
2/. With the restructuring, there appears to be some dissatisfaction within, mainly with non-Italian design team members, some of whom have found greener grass

3. McLarens got reliable

• Hi all . Since I'm a Ferrari fan , this seems like a good place for a first post .

• The amount of changes at Ferrari , Brawn , Byrne , now Stepney and not to mention Schumacher leaving is enough to put any team in the dumps for a while .

• But , I'd say , all in all it's not so bad of a result . After all , if it wasn't for those pesky Mclarens , the Red team would be looking a lot better right now .

Dzu-Fast wrote:

• Hi all . Since I'm a Ferrari fan , this seems like a good place for a first post .

• The amount of changes at Ferrari , Brawn , Byrne , now Stepney and not to mention Schumacher leaving is enough to put any team in the dumps for a while .

• But , I'd say , all in all it's not so bad of a result . After all , if it wasn't for those pesky Mclarens , the Red team would be looking a lot better right now .

Dzu-Fast wrote:

• Hi all . Since I'm a Ferrari fan , this seems like a good place for a first post .

• The amount of changes at Ferrari , Brawn , Byrne , now Stepney and not to mention Schumacher leaving is enough to put any team in the dumps for a while .

• But , I'd say , all in all it's not so bad of a result . After all , if it wasn't for those pesky Mclarens , the Red team would be looking a lot better right now .

jacfan wrote:

Dzu-Fast wrote:

• Hi all . Since I'm a Ferrari fan , this seems like a good place for a first post .

• The amount of changes at Ferrari , Brawn , Byrne , now Stepney and not to mention Schumacher leaving is enough to put any team in the dumps for a while .

• But , I'd say , all in all it's not so bad of a result . After all , if it wasn't for those pesky Mclarens , the Red team would be looking a lot better right now .

Dzu-Fast wrote:

• Hi all . Since I'm a Ferrari fan , this seems like a good place for a first post .

• The amount of changes at Ferrari , Brawn , Byrne , now Stepney and not to mention Schumacher leaving is enough to put any team in the dumps for a while .

• But , I'd say , all in all it's not so bad of a result . After all , if it wasn't for those pesky Mclarens , the Red team would be looking a lot better right now .

GhoGho wrote:

gkaytaz wrote:

Julian Mayo wrote:
Jim,
I believe Frrari's problems of late are two-fold.
1/. They run only one wind tunnel, there is a rumour that about 6 weeks ago the rolling road surface let go at 180mph.Being a steel belt, there was some shrapnel damage.
2/. With the restructuring, there appears to be some dissatisfaction within, mainly with non-Italian design team members, some of whom have found greener grass

3. McLarens got reliable

4. Ross Brawn went on vacation

<T-K> wrote:

GhoGho wrote:

gkaytaz wrote:
3. McLarens got reliable

4. Ross Brawn went on vacation

5....... They decided to sign Kimi over me....

• Sooo... How 'bout that Red team . Are there any other tifosi here ?

• My luck , I suppose the rest of you are hoping they crash .

• Anyway , I think these charges against Stepney will really help the atmosphere in the paddock .

• All in all , it's still been less stressful than last year .

Dzu-Fast wrote:

• Sooo... How 'bout that Red team . Are there any other tifosi here ?

• My luck , I suppose the rest of you are hoping they crash .

• 

• Anyway , I think these charges against Stepney will really help the atmosphere in the paddock .

• All in all , it's still been less stressful than last year .

gkaytaz wrote:

Dzu-Fast wrote:

• Sooo... How 'bout that Red team . Are there any other tifosi here ?

• My luck , I suppose the rest of you are hoping they crash .

• 

• Anyway , I think these charges against Stepney will really help the atmosphere in the paddock .

• All in all , it's still been less stressful than last year .

If memory serves there was a user in this forum using the nickname tifosi a while ago. He (or was that a she?) vanished into thin air...

I am not really a Ferrari fan but now that Renault is out of the picture and BMW just not fast enough I hope they remain competitive for the sake of competition and exciting races.

• Oh well . No big deal . I'm tifosi with a "small t " actually . It's just they were all I knew about F-1 when I first started watching , so I always leaned towards then .

• I like all the teams , nothing against any of them . Though I do also favor Williams and BMW .

• And I don't see how anyone could not like Flav . I was hoping we would have a Massa / Fisi WDC battle at this point . That would have been priceless , though I am thoroughly enjoying seeing Hamilton confounding Alonso and the rest .

Dzu-Fast wrote:

• Sooo... How 'bout that Red team . Are there any other tifosi here ?

Ed wrote:

Dzu-Fast wrote:

• Sooo... How 'bout that Red team . Are there any other tifosi here ?

There are many of them!

Check out the posts by Jim Watt!