F1 2010

[David Morton]

Hi Pete - I remember there are a couple of places where it becomes "The Shallows " and unless they have improved the run off, it wouldn't matter what tyres you use, you would be just a passenger en route to the accident.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Hamilton to drop five places on Suzuka grid


<!-- ArticleBodyStart -->Lewis Hamilton will drop five places on the grid for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix after McLaren decided they needed to replace his car's gearbox. Qualifying for the Suzuka race will take place on Sunday morning, after heavy rain on Saturday forced the FIA stewards to postpone it.

McLaren noticed abnormal oil pressure in Hamilton's gearbox during Saturday’s rain-hit Practice Three. The British team believed they had solved the issue, but when they fired up the car in the afternoon, the problem had worsened and they opted to change the gearbox.

The penalty is another blow for the British driver, who has completed only a handful of laps at Suzuka this weekend after crashing out of first practice on Friday. He is currently third in the driver standings, 20 points behind leader Mark Webber

 

[Terry Oxandale]

Ironic post Pete, considering Hamilton's race today!

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Post race press conference Formula 1

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Korea, a new circuit to all drivers, said by some to favour Red Bull.
Who do you think will win?
I think Hamilton has the balls and all attitude to learn the track quickly and I'm
leaning towards him and Alonso.

 

[tom pritchett]

It's hard to believe that the asphalt will be set up enough for a race. Especially one that has cars carrying near 5 g's. I was told recently by a track owner that his new asphalt will take a full month to cure before any cars will be allowed on it. My question is, will the asphalt start to come apart or shread the tires prematurely?

 

[Mesa]

Not saying this has any direct correlation - A fella built his own racetrack outside Reno and although it is a GREAT layout with much elevation change and tons of course options, they did not wait long enough before putting cars on track. As a result most of the track is all washboard. Sad really.

BTW: Pete, I think Vettle will win.

 

[Ian Anderson]

If the surface breaks up Button - he is easier on his tyres than the rest.

If not one of the Red Bulls I'd like to think webber but Vittel is very fast at present - until team orders come into force

Ian

 

[Graham]

There are two very long straights on the circuit, so it may help the McLarens with their F-Duct. Most of the rest of the circuit looks to be slow/medium speed corners which will favour the Red Bulls.

I hope it's a close one!

Cheers,

Graham.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

I'd be interested in your comments on this, particularly the Brits as it is allegedly Lotus and Virgin pushing this barrow.
autosport.com - F1 News: Branson backs call to remove blue flags
Fair enough if you are fighting for position, but if you have already been lapped three times GTF out of the way. :furious:

 

[Keith]

I think Branson is waay up there in his balloon still...:uneasy:

 

[Malcolm]

F1 is a purists sport so blue flags fit in with that. Go down the food chain and you don't get blue flags at club events. If removed (unlikely to happen) then it would cause some more random events which could throw a spanner in the works up the pointy end of the grid. What the back marker teams are actually saying is that the blue flags are shown too early so slowing them down even more. This is one of those rules that you know is impossible to please all the people all the time. Of course if the flag was one with a big prancing horse in it and only was applied to cars that the Ferrari's were lapping then you know that the FIA would ratify the decision as fair and reasonable.....

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

I'm surprised at that, we certainly show all the flags at club events in Oz,
or do you mean track days?

 

[tom pritchett]

Even for our track days, we use the blue flag. What's wrong with "heads up, you got a fast car comming up on you"?

 

[Jack]

The Blue flag is appropriate (and really needed) when running in mixed classes. IMO, of course.

 

[tom pritchett]

I know this is a thread drift, but at one of our track days, we needed to black flag one of the drivers. He would not heed or acknowledge the black flag. Lap after lap, he just went on his business. Luckily, it was close to the end of the session. I pulled him in for a discussion. I asked him if he had seen the black flag. His response was "YES and each and every time, I let someone by!"

 

[Jack]

Simply another moron Tom!

 

[Neal]

Maybe he was color blind...

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Vettel on pole and Webber has the slippery dirty part of the track, the first corner could be mayhem.

 

[tom pritchett]

The track looks to be losing it's integrity in the braking zones. The drivers have a lot more lock up and you can see the ripples because of the rubber being laid down. It'll be interesting.