[storminateacup]

Scuderia, on 19 September 2009 - 01:36 PM, said:

I love F1, big fan of Brawn and Mclaren.

I went to Belgium a few weeks ago for the Spa GP, great experience, even if i did only ever see Button and Hamilton on the formation lap.

You went to Spa? I am so jealous. I couldn't believe that pile-up right at the start! Was just glad neither of my boys were involved.

Personally I support Red Bull, I do hope we're not completely out of the running this year.

[Scuderia]

Yeah the pileup happened 2 corners before where we were sat, and we had no idea what happened until that night.

It isn't looking good for Red Bull is it? They need to really get their act together for the last few races.

Singapore is next which should be good, was an interesting race last year.

[storminateacup]

Scuderia, on 19 September 2009 - 02:13 PM, said:

Yeah the pileup happened 2 corners before where we were sat, and we had no idea what happened until that night.

It isn't looking good for Red Bull is it? They need to really get their act together for the last few races.

Singapore is next which should be good, was an interesting race last year.

That must've been disappointing.

The gap between RB and Brawn is just getting wider and wider. Red Bull have already come out and blamed Renault for their problems, which was interesting. Hopefully we can get some points in Singapore, we only got 1 at Monza!

Singapore 08-- interesting race? To say the least. Have you been following the crashgate scandal?

[Scuderia]

Yea, but that only became interesting in the last few weeks really, the Massa incident was brilliant

Anyway, have you ever been to a race? I'll probably get a few mates together and camp at Donnington when it moves there, but i'd love to do a European one again.

Here's a photo i took at Spa a few weeks ago, managed to get all the drivers

http://img242.images...94/imgp1568.jpg

This post has been edited by Scuderia: 20 September 2009 - 06:14 PM

[kkjva]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the UM Forums and was browsing and came across this topic. Yes, I'm a fan of Formula 1; have been since about 1967. I try to watch, or attend, whenever I can, but living in the Pacific time zone of the US means most of the European races are at 4:30 AM, a bit early. Fortunately, Japan is at 10:00 PM tonight so I'll watch it. Got to watch the carnage that was qualifying last night. Vettel did a great job managing his resources and fast laps!

I lived most of my life in the state of Michigan in the US and was able to attend the Grand Prixs in Detroit in the '80s and did several Canadian GPs as well. Want to get back to Europe and see some GPs there.

Be good,

Keith

[storminateacup]

kkjva, on 04 October 2009 - 02:48 AM, said:

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the UM Forums and was browsing and came across this topic. Yes, I'm a fan of Formula 1; have been since about 1967. I try to watch, or attend, whenever I can, but living in the Pacific time zone of the US means most of the European races are at 4:30 AM, a bit early. Fortunately, Japan is at 10:00 PM tonight so I'll watch it. Got to watch the carnage that was qualifying last night. Vettel did a great job managing his resources and fast laps!

I lived most of my life in the state of Michigan in the US and was able to attend the Grand Prixs in Detroit in the '80s and did several Canadian GPs as well. Want to get back to Europe and see some GPs there.

Be good,

Keith

Welcome to UM!

I'm watching Japan right now and it's 6:40AM Qualifying was an utter mess, frankly, but it's good entertainment!

Man you're lucky to have gone to the races!

[Alex01]

Almost pole man Hamilton! Oh well, you were having some problems on the car, it's forgivable. And the mess on the track is enough to distract anybody. Except Vettel, he was pure lightning.

With Halmilton till the end here....he's a good pilot, too bad his car doesn't always run as good as he is, but it's been running great these last few races.

[storminateacup]

Alex01, on 04 October 2009 - 09:41 AM, said:

Almost pole man Hamilton! Oh well, you were having some problems on the car, it's forgivable. And the mess on the track is enough to distract anybody. Except Vettel, he was pure lightning.

With Halmilton till the end here....he's a good pilot, too bad his car doesn't always run as good as he is, but it's been running great these last few races.

Vettel's one of ma' boys! So proud of him today

I'll have to agree to disagree with you about Hamiliton, he's not my favourite person in the world. Too overrated, imho.
But seriously, where has he come from in the later parts of this season! Now he's got his car problems sorted out (mostly, KERS is still giving him trouble) he's flying. Kudos to him there, even if it he did make me smile at Monza

[storminateacup]

Well, that wraps it up... Jenson Button World Driver's Champion 2009.

Meh.

[Scuderia]

Brilliant result!

[kkjva]

Hello Everyone,

It has been equally rainy here in the American Northwest as it has been in Brazil. Watching the wet qualifying yesterday was arduous; fortunately I was dry. Watching today's race, for me, was a little like watching last years in that I would be happy with whatever result. So, I raise a glass to Mr. Button! Good job! And look forward to next season with more competitive teams to fill the grid ( I hope! ).

What TV feed do you watch? I ( USA ) get SpeedTV's coverage with Bob Varsha, Steve Matchett, and David Hobbs.

Be good,

Keith

[Scuderia]

British coverage is done by Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard, Eddie Jordan and Martin Brundle (there's also another completely useless commentator i won't mention.)

Looking forward to next year, more teams is always good, and the Alonso - Massa vs Hamilton - Raikkonen should be great!

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Scuderia, on 19 September 2009 - 01:36 PM, said:

I went to Belgium a few weeks ago for the Spa GP, great experience, even if i did only ever see Button and Hamilton on the formation lap.

The first Grand Prix I ever attended was at Spa in 1992. It was the first every victory for some German guy called Michael Schumacher. I wonder what became of him

_Libby, on 04 October 2009 - 01:13 PM, said:

Hamiliton, he's not my favourite person in the world. Too overrated, imho.

It amazes me the number of people that say that. In my opinion the facts simply do not back up that conclusion. The 2 best drivers of the modern era were undoubtedly Senna and Schumacher. The best all round driver currently racing is said to be Alonso. It took Senna 4 seasons to win his 1st world championship, it took Alonso 5 seasons (4 if you exclude 2002 in which he was only a test driver). The great Michael Schumacher took 3 seasons to win the 1st of his seven world championships. Hamilton did it in 2 seasons and very nearly did it as a rookie. When he was in an identical car to Fernando Alonso he beat him in the championship. None of this suggests an over rated driver. Don't forget that he has still not completed his 3rd season.

Hamilton is very Senna like in the aggressive manner in which he drives, and in his single minded attitude to winning. This will not necessarily make him popular, however it was exactly those qualities which lead Senna to be rated by many as the best racing driver of all time. It was also those qualities that caused Senna to have a lot of accidents in his career, he was uncompromising and would never accept second if he thought the win was achievable. Hamilton is the same. He will spin and crash more than many of the other drivers, but he will win more races than most of the other drivers. He is still young and he is still learning but he has the potential to be one of the all time greats.

[storminateacup]

Waspie_Dwarf, on 25 October 2009 - 02:44 AM, said:

It amazes me the number of people that say that. In my opinion the facts simply do not back up that conclusion. The 2 best drivers of the modern era were undoubtedly Senna and Schumacher. The best all round driver currently racing is said to be Alonso. It took Senna 4 seasons to win his 1st world championship, it took Alonso 5 seasons (4 if you exclude 2002 in which he was only a test driver). The great Michael Schumacher took 3 seasons to win the 1st of his seven world championships. Hamilton did it in 2 seasons and very nearly did it as a rookie. When he was in an identical car to Fernando Alonso he beat him in the championship. None of this suggests an over rated driver. Don't forget that he has still not completed his 3rd season.

Hamilton is very Senna like in the aggressive manner in which he drives, and in his single minded attitude to winning. This will not necessarily make him popular, however it was exactly those qualities which lead Senna to be rated by many as the best racing driver of all time. It was also those qualities that caused Senna to have a lot of accidents in his career, he was uncompromising and would never accept second if he thought the win was achievable. Hamilton is the same. He will spin and crash more than many of the other drivers, but he will win more races than most of the other drivers. He is still young and he is still learning but he has the potential to be one of the all time greats.

Hamilton is undoubtedly a brilliant driver, he has done very well for himself and it's amazing how quickly he got to the top.
It's all the hype which gets to me, making me say he's overrated. Fair enough, when he wins he wins, media coverage well deserved. But it's generally a lot more coverage than when someone else wins, or it's "Hamilton just missed out on 1st" when it actually should be "Raikkonen (or whoever) takes 1st". And now, he could pull a good move and take 3rd, and the commentators will be all "just look at that amazing move from Hamilton! Such skills!" Yet if another driver did the same, it would quite possibly just be "and Alonso takes 3rd from Barrichello". Not that there's a great lot of overtaking in F1 to start with.

Maybe I just don't like the guy, but he certainly is a talent and he will go far.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

_Libby, on 25 October 2009 - 11:07 AM, said:

It's all the hype which gets to me, making me say he's overrated.

That's fair comment but I don't think it makes him overrated. He isn't responsible for most of the hype and, in fact, has moved away from the UK partly to avoid the press.

_Libby, on 25 October 2009 - 11:07 AM, said:

But it's generally a lot more coverage than when someone else wins, or it's "Hamilton just missed out on 1st" when it actually should be "Raikkonen (or whoever) takes 1st".

I know what your saying. I'm not sure I 100% agree with you, but remember he was the defending champion and so gets a lot more attention. Button will have some of the same next year.

Having said that there are far worse cases of what you describe. The Official FIA video of the 1993 season is called "Senna fights back". The front cover talks of Senna's 5 wins. It has 2 photo's of Senna and one of Damon Hill. There is no mention of Prost's 7 wins or the fact that he was World Champion. The Official Video of the 1991 Season is called, "Nearly Mansell". It has a large photo of Mansell on the front. No mention is made of the fact that Senna was champion that year. If the face fits you get the attention. It is also down to style of driving. The aggressive "win it or bin it" drivers such as Hamilton, Mansell and Senna will always get more attention than the more steady, cerebral drivers such as Prost, Raikkonen or Button.

_Libby, on 25 October 2009 - 11:07 AM, said:

Maybe I just don't like the guy, but he certainly is a talent and he will go far.

I don't dislike the guy, but he does have one of those personalities that you either like or loath. He is very driven (pardon the pun) and focused and it doesn't always endear him to people, so I do understand what you are saying. During their careers people felt the same way about Senna and Schumacher. If people are still mentioning Hamilton in the same breath as Senna and Schumacher after his career is over then he will have been something very special indeed.

One thing I suspect we can both agree on, Hamilton is not boring to watch.