Who will win the Spanish GP?

[Guido]

It's nearly saturday noon and no-one bothered starting a thread about Spain What is wrong with you guys?

OK, here we go.

Since MS came out on top during friday quali in the new F2003GA I think he might have a chance - IF his new weapon won't let him down of course. But to be fair and honest with myself, I think DC will take it on Sunday. McLaren knows the track very well since they test there a lot.

[freakray]

And I am the one who voted the last option.....

....all the BS about why Ferrari hasn't been winning and all the whinging from the fans of the red has left me with no interest in F1......

[RallyRaider]

Here's hoping Kimi can win from the back of the grid. Is it all part of some grand McLaren strategy?

Actually it will be interesting when he catches up to the Saubers. For the last few years they have been very difficult to pass in anything other than a Ferrari. But, with a wiff of a privateer Mercedes engine deal in the air for next year, that may be about to change.

[ales]

Not a bad race at all!!! Although things seem to ba changint - a Renault on the same pace roughly as the new Ferrari and beats one of them!! Great drive by Alonso, I enjoyed it. Toyota faster than Williams (and I don't mean the stricken Ralf's car, DaMatta was posting consistently faster laptimes than both Williams's. Kimi made a mistake IMO, the second big mistake in 2 days and paid for it. As did DC - he left Button no room whatsoever. And a good drive by Ralf, actually! During his battle with Alonso, just before he went off, his car seemed to suddenly jerk in the middle of the corner. Or am I imagining things? We'll see what Patrick/Frank say about this.

And thumbs down to the coverage. What a difference one race makes (comparing to Imola). I understand that Alonso is Spanish, but it was getting ridiculous sometimes. We were not shown some good battles!

I was expecting more from the GA. And was it me (again :o), or was the Shell logo on the left side of Schumacher's car a bit damaged? That could explain why Rubens finished 3rd (although he did get the fastest lap ... go figure). Then again, F2002 had a run for its money in Brazil last year.

So has Renault suddenly made a huge leap? Or was it the superiority of Michelins (seems that way) or the genius of Fernando coupled with this being his home event? IMHO Bridgestone need to up their game, they have not been making the best tyres of the two so farthis year.

Alex

P.S. Michael did win it!

[Veyron]

Please tell me it was one of those freak races for Renault, like when Damon placed second at the Hongaroring in the Arrows. If not, Rubens and the 2003 GA need to go away, that just isn't acceptable. McLaren who? Williams who?

[nornicle]

I just watched it.. excellent.. I didnt like how pizzonias launch control didnt work which screwed up raikkonen, even though raikkonen did stuff up qualifying..

great race by michael even though the new car looks abit.. less.. ermm pacey than the 2002.. its very good looking.. its the first time i've seen it.. barichello looked like he was fighting the car half the time (same with ralf though)

I think I must have been blind but I thought ralf crashed out? how did he so suddenly come back onto the track???

GREAT WORK from da matta and WEBBER! (GO AUSSIES!!! FINALLY ACTUALLY GETTING TO FINISH AND NOT TOO SHABBILY!!!! WOO WOO WOO)...

anyway good work to Alonso as well.. very well raced, he deserved to come second..

pity about coulthard, villi, trulli and pizzonia ;( hahha

oh and very nice pit times from renault!!! they owned ferrari by a second in one of the pit stops.. nice!!!

p.s did Michael whiten his teeth? im either blind or they were particularly blinding tonight!

[Guido]

Originally posted by ales
Not a bad race at all!!! Although things seem to ba changint - a Renault on the same pace roughly as the new Ferrari and beats one of them!! Great drive by Alonso, I enjoyed it.

If that was the performance of the new and long awaited so calles (Fiorano) record-breaking F2003GA? I think Ferrari has a lot of development work to do. But still MS managed it and took the win for a maiden of a race car, which is always an accomplishment. But is was not an "walk-over" as so many Ferrari-lovers predicted that it was going to be. So there is still some hope for the championship

Barichello once more proved that he is never going to be a world champion. After been beaten by KR in Malaysia and now by FA... there's no hope for Rubinho, except to shine here an there...

[Guido]

Originally posted by ales
Kimi made a mistake IMO, the second big mistake in 2 days and paid for it.

There was no way that Kimi could have avoided Pizzonia. So the only thing one could blame him for was screwing up qualifying.
When the hurdle gets loose, you go and when a Minardi in front of you pulls to the middle and therefor aims for the outside line, you go for the inside line and out of the blue is a car standing still in front of you? You blame him for that? I think you actually never raced a vehicle then...

[Guido]

Originally posted by ales
As did DC - he left Button no room whatsoever.

Oh DC too he. Well you forget to mention Trulli who fukced up DC's fourth place after turn 2... You easily could argue that Button was diving in a gap, which wasn't there. Classifies under race accidents IMO, so no is to blame.

It was just a weekend of bad luck for McLaren. Anyway, their main target was to get as many points as possible before MP4/18 is being used and even with this BS weekend, they're still on track

[Guido]

Originally posted by ales
Toyota faster than Williams (and I don't mean the stricken Ralf's car, DaMatta was posting consistently faster laptimes than both Williams's..... And a good drive by Ralf, actually! During his battle with Alonso, just before he went off, his car seemed to suddenly jerk in the middle of the corner. Or am I imagining things? We'll see what Patrick/Frank say about this.

Ralf a good drive? He was under such a pressure all the time, smoking his tires up along the way. First MS, then JPM and I think DaMatta didn't push towards the end really hard, cause they needed to give way to MS and Alonzo. I was certainly not impressed. The Williamses were invisible, as were the Saubers

[Guido]

Originally posted by ales
And thumbs down to the coverage. What a difference one race makes (comparing to Imola). I understand that Alonso is Spanish, but it was getting ridiculous sometimes. We were not shown some good battles!

We must have seen a different coverage, although mine is public TV as well. I've seen a lot of good mid-field action. Sure Alonso was in the picture a lot but I watched the whole race, even after DC crashed out. So I thought it was good.

[Guido]

Originally posted by ales


I was expecting more from the GA. And was it me (again :o), or was the Shell logo on the left side of Schumacher's car a bit damaged? That could explain why Rubens finished 3rd (although he did get the fastest lap ... go figure). Then again, F2002 had a run for its money in Brazil last year.

There is a difference between the left hand side and the right hand side of the car. In the left hand side, there is only a water radiator and in the right hand side, there is another water radiator and the oil cooler, which explains the cooling ribs present on the rigth and not the left of the car.

[Guido]

Originally posted by ales

So has Renault suddenly made a huge leap? Or was it the superiority of Michelins (seems that way) or the genius of Fernando coupled with this being his home event? IMHO Bridgestone need to up their game, they have not been making the best tyres of the two so farthis year.

Renault is making the most out of their test-session-day on friday. They don't do private testing, but they test as much as they want on friday, which gives them an awfull lot of track-data, which allows them to set-up and fine-tune their cars so much better.

As far as Michelin is concerned, I think they're doing a great jbo so far this year. To bad, DC's run was destroyed at the second corner. Otherwise we could have seen how his Michelins were doing. Now it's a bit of a guess, I think

[Guido]

Originally posted by ales

P.S. Michael did win it!

ps. Kimi and McLaren are still leading the Championship









Question is: For how long...

[ales]

I have to disagree about Kimi. While the collision could be classified as unavoidable (Wilson had other ideas though), but he should have taken it easier when starting from the back of the grid. There's always a chance that there'll be a stalled car, and there almost always is! So His mistake was not thinking about that beforehand. My opinion.

As is my opinion about DC/Button. I have no doubt it was DC's fault, Button was almost alongside him, as for Trulli, then yes, he was to blame, IMO, for the 2nd corner cometogether with DC.

And I meand the Shell logo on Schumacher's car, and what I was trying to say is that I think that there was some contact between Schumi's sidepod and RB's rear wheel at the first corner.