Canadian GP

[wayno]

Oooooooh Caaaaanadaaaaaaa! Well, it's nearly time for another F1 GP and I was just wondering what people's thoughts were about the coming race.
Last year was interesting to say the least. The race is always very hard on brakes so it will be interesting to see how the cars cope with this. I'm sure Williams and BAR have checked and double checked to make sure their braking systems will pass scrutineering this year! Ferrari didn't qualify well, but their two stop strategy worked out for them in a big way.
I think Kimi will have the pace again, but I'm expecting the rest of the cars to be a lot closer to the McLaren here. I really think the podium could be a flip of the coin job, but I'm hoping for big things from Williams.
Mark Webber will have a hard time I feel as going out first in final qualifying will not help him at all. It will be interesting to see what his fuel strategy will be - will they run him light to try and get him up front or run him longer and hope the race will come to him? Will be interesting to see.
I'll pump for Kimi, Alonso and Schumacher.

[toad]

Canada is a good circuit for grunt and braking.

The Macca's will be strong. So could Toyota and Williams.

I rarely pick the winners but raikonnen and Heidfeld do seem on a roll.

All my fingers and toes will be crossed for Webber.

[ferrari fan]

Maybe the fact that a few are out of sink with engines, due to failing to finnish/breakdown will muddle the outcome.
Alonso seems to be able to somehow miss out on bad luck and in this sort of envoirment that is a big plus.
Going for Ferrari is my choice.
Borrachello even got to 3th place with his limited talent, never mind what Michael could have done.
Monty is, again, the wild card with an accident prone - and see saw performance.

[toad]

I wonder is Villinervous will remain a mobile chicane in front of his home crowd?

And perhaps Mr Sauber will dump him immediately afterwards?

[Andrew]

Originally posted by toad
I wonder is Villinervous will remain a mobile chicane in front of his home crowd?

And perhaps Mr Sauber will dump him immediately afterwards?

Hmmm, well Peter Sauber has publicly stated in the lastest round of F1 news reports that he acknowledges Villeneuve is too slow for F1.

You might be on to something Steve.

[toad]

Jacques will bring a lot of PR for Sauber in Canada and US. After that I think he could be toast

[Elvis]

Originally posted by toad
Jacques will bring a lot of PR for Sauber in Canada and US. After that I think he could be toast

I think Jacques should go back to USA openwheelers-Champcar or IRL........Hes never going to do anything in a field filler Sauber,Jordan,Minardi etc.
I cant blame him for not being motivated.


*Who could replace him at Sauber??

[wayno]

Originally posted by toad
I wonder is Villinervous will remain a mobile chicane in front of his home crowd?

And perhaps Mr Sauber will dump him immediately afterwards?

Agree wholeheartedly. I floated this idea in April here and got howled down.

http://forums.biante.com.au/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6074&highlight=villeneuve

I still think it's really a chance.

[inter]

Originally posted by Elvis
I think Jacques should go back to USA openwheelers-Champcar or IRL........Hes never going to do anything in a field filler Sauber,Jordan,Minardi etc.
I cant blame him for not being motivated.


*Who could replace him at Sauber??



Barrichello


inter

[xtreem2001]

Originally posted by Elvis
........Hes never going to do anything in a field filler Sauber,Jordan,Minardi etc.

Curious comment. Have noticed others refer to these teams in a similar way on other posts. Wonder if Coulthard thought the same
of the old Jaguar team when he was left without a drive last year.
Maybe an incentive scheme similar to the Coulthard/points won system RBR introduced would entice other drivers to lift their game.

Dropping Villey doesnt fix the problem. As stated in previous posts
the Sauber team are looking to go forward and do a deal with BMW. There is a suggestion that is why Villey was given the drive
in the first place. Maybe there is more to this whole deal than meets the eye. Villey was involved in setting up BAR and his lack
lustre driving performances may be tolerated purely due to his skill in other areas.

[wayno]

The big question is who is free for the rest of the season? I think one of the Red Bull guys would be a good fit. Scott Speed is doing third driver duties for Sauber on the next swing of the tour, so they have a spare driver.
Mr Red Bull floated the idea of lending one of his boys out to Sauber MONTHS ago!

[toad]

Klein could be an option for Sauber for the rest of the season considering he is sharing his drives at Redbull.

[MarkHM]

Can't wait for the GP, although our coverage here in the Shaky Isles is ruined by some clown called Bob McMurray (not the one from my 3 sons), an ex-McLaren honcho who considers himself the font of F1 knowledge. His "Ask Bob" question time is infuriating and my time should not be wasted with answering stupid questions like "Why are there no Hankook tyres used"!!

I'm cold and in a bad mood today!

[wayno]

Seems there is a little bit of bad blood in f1 at the moment. Williams have come out attacking BMW as being unprofessional in the maedia over their dealings with the team. Frank Williams went first and then Patrick Head had this to say;

Asked by Italy's Sport Auto Moto if Williams were talking to other engine suppliers Head said: "Obviously yes."

Explaining why he said it was because BMW had decided to "talk publicly about their dissatisfaction in their relationship with the Williams team."

And that is something Head "personally consider to be extremely unprofessional. "

"I haven't been very well impressed by this attitude, which is when a constructor pretends that every problem comes from the car and not from the engine."

"When the car always starts (races) badly, in my opinion it's more likely that it depends on the engine's control systems rather than the car's."

He added: "Unfortunately our partner chose to tell people they are perfect while accusing us. This is honestly something which, besides being very unprofessional, shows very little character."

“So, with this situation ... I admit that yes, we have spoken to a certain number of people."

Heads comments come just days after team boss Sir Frank Williams told British publication Autosport magazine that Williams "partnerships in the past with Renault and Honda have been more successful and co-operative."

"You never had this constant finger-pointing."

"We do not constantly ask why BMW had some 150 engine failures in 2000 alone."

Jaques Villeneuve has also come out to defend himself over comments made by Peter Sauber earlier this week.

Jacques Villeneuve has hit out at Sauber, saying if the team believes he’s "slow" they should look at themselves for somewhere to place the blame and not at him.
Peter Sauber told the German earlier this week that "Jacques is certainly too slow – we’ve all become aware of it, himself and us."

Not exactly the sort of comment Villeneuve wanted to hear on the eve of his home grand prix. "I don't want to react," he told the media in Montreal on Wednesday.

"It's the kind of comment that can get you really angry and really have a negative effect on the way you drive, so I'd rather not pay any attention to it and just take it as humour."

"As little as possible that gets in public the better it is. Anything of that kind that gets into the public shows a weakness in the team, and makes the rest of the team weaker. It's not constructive to performance."

And especially because the right package, JV believes he would "definitely" be one of the quickest drivers in the world because if not he "wouldn't have come back to race if I didn't believe I could do it."

However, at present with the way Sauber is performing, the 1997 World Champion doesn’t feel he’s going to have the chance to prove that. "Of course I'm not satisfied. There was Imola which was good and Monaco we were competitive but other than that we're the slowest Michelin car right now so that's definitely not a good position to be in."

"Apart from changing springs and anti-roll bars there's very little we are doing on the car so from that aspect from the way I enjoy working that's not very satisfying, but that's just the way it is so I have to make the best of it."

But despite the problems, JV does “enjoy working with the team even if you're not at the front, as long as you are going forward, so it depends on what we plan for next year. If the team wants to progress and make leaps forward then I will be very happy to keep working on the project.�

The Canadian was also asked if he felt the media had been too hard on him since he made his return at the start of the season with Sauber.

"No, it's okay, I can take it," JV responded. "The media's only been harsh because more is expected. If I hadn't won in the past, then there would be no criticism now."

"I'll take criticism any day if it's because I've won in the past. You don't get anything for nothing. There's always a price to pay."

From Planet F1.

Will be very interesting to see what happens after the race. I thought JV was pretty diplomatic considering the comments made. The Williams BMW relationship seems to be getting uglier by the minute though.

[brchi17]

Arh, don’t you just love F1.

Good to see that there’s not static politically correct mutual appreciation society comments here. I also love the fact that we’ve got a public holiday on Monday so that we can enjoy watching the race live early Monday and not have to worry about work afterwards.

I’m now just trying to find an excuse for the America GP the following Monday.

cheers. :)

[wayno]

I'm the opposite. Have my five days off next week end for America and am working this Monday. :mad:
I start at 7am Monday morning, but will still be getting up to watch from Canada. It's just too hard to go a whole day without hearing the results!

[Dingo]

Originally posted by brchi17
I’m now just trying to find an excuse for the America GP the following Monday.
"Feast of Maximum Occupancy" :D

[brchi17]

Originally posted by wayno
I'm the opposite. Have my five days off next week end for America and am working this Monday. :mad:
I start at 7am Monday morning, but will still be getting up to watch from Canada. It's just too hard to go a whole day without hearing the results!

Well you'd better make sure you're not late to work then Wayne, I mean the last thing we need is a snap strike on a public holiday :p

cheers.

[wayno]

First day over and done with and the times are as follows;

Fastest times from Friday practice at the Canadian Grand Prix:

1 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa)* McLaren-Mercedes one minute 14.662 seconds
2 Ricardo Zonta (Brz)* Toyota 1:14.858
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:15.376
4 Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.625
5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.679
6 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:15.846
7 Jenson Button (Britain) BAR-Honda 1:16.190
8 Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR-Honda 1:16.313
9 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:16.364
10 Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Ferrari 1:16.459
11 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:16.638
12 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams-BMW 1:16.661
13 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber-Petronas 1:16.718
14 Felipe Massa (Brz) Sauber-Petronas 1:16.727
15 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams-BMW 1:16.826
16 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:16.872
17 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull 1:17.299
18 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 1:17.922
19. Patrick Friesacher (Austria) Minardi 1:18.115
20 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 1:18.234
21 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi 1:18.463
22 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan 1:19.186
23 Scott Speed (USA)* Red Bull 1:19.270

Pretty uneventfull day from all reports. Scott Speed was faster than both Coulthard and Klein in the first session of the day but ended the second session early after spinning the car at turn four.
Schumacher a long way down. He'll have to work hard if he wants win number eight in Canada!

[brchi17]

Wayne, did you have a read of the driver comments (http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3142/739.html) ??? There are some interesting comments there and it seems that for Ferrari fan's Canada not be the happy hunting ground that it's been in the past.

Interesting to note that most teams did some long runs and it appears the 3 car operators all used their 3rd car to focus on qualifying setups if you look at the time sheets.

I suppose the only real clue to qualifying could come from Kimi where one could suggest he may choose to run a little lighter to get the front row, but then again these guys are experts in the smoke screen game.

F1 has certainly become more interesting this year, without the Ferrari dominance, but now i only wished they were competitive. I wonder if their dramatic loss of pace can be attributed to heading in the wrong direction (design wise) or the fact that the majority of the field is no longer on Bridgestone’s ???

cheers. :)

[wayno]

Probably a mixture of the two Brad. I'm also wondering how much time and effort Ferrari are spending on their car for this year.
The season is pretty much beyond salvaging for them and with new regulations for next year I think the Maranello boys might soon be getting more interested in their V8 for next year.
I still think they'll win a GP this year though.

[wayno]

Ok. Bet no-one predicted a grid that looked like this!

Canadian GP qualifying positions:
1 J Button (BAR) 1:15.217
2 M Schumacher (Ferrari) 1:15.475
3 F Alonso (Renault) 1:15.561
4 G Fisichella (Renault) 1:15.577
5 J Montoya (McLaren) 1:15.669
6 T Sato (BAR) 1:15.729
7 K Raikkonen (McLaren) 1:15.923
8 J Villeneuve (Sauber) 1:16.116
9 J Trulli (Toyota) 1:16.201
10 R Schumacher (Toyota) 1:16.362
11 F Massa (Sauber) 1:16.661
12 D Coulthard (Red Bull) 1:16.890
13 N Heidfeld (Williams) 1:17.081
14 M Webber (Williams) 1:17.749
15 C Albers (Minardi) 1:18.214
16 C Klien (Red Bull) 1:18.249
17 N Karthikeyan (Jordan) 1:18.664
18 T Monteiro (Jordan) 1:19.034
19 P Friesacher (Minardi) 1:19.574
20 R Barrichello (Ferrari) no time

There is obviously a hell of a difference in fuel strategies going on here. I'm banking on Alonso, Raikkonen and the Williams cars being more fully fuelled than the others.
Should be a pretty interesting race with the order shuffled up like that though!
:cool:

[toad]

There is also a big handicap for those who went out and qualified early on the dirty track. It may explain why JPM is quicker than Kimi, Webber so far down the grid. Button is definitely a surprise.

[brchi17]

Originally posted by wayno
Ok. Bet no-one predicted a grid that looked like this!

Canadian GP qualifying positions:
1 J Button (BAR) 1:15.217
2 M Schumacher (Ferrari) 1:15.475
3 F Alonso (Renault) 1:15.561........

Oh boy, how good is this :D !!!

Finally Michael has been able to get his car sorted out and I hope he's able to force his way into the lead come turn 1. I know his hopes of getting the championship this years are still mathematically possibly, but unlikely, so I hope perhaps this is the start of the Ferrari revival !!! – I know they’ve had more than their fair share of luck etc in the past, but this Schumacher fan would love to see him winning again

I just hope his position isn't artificial due to a light fuel load.

I guess all those Webber bashers will be out in force in tomorrow’s newspapers because for the first time this year he's not in the top 5 on the grid.

It’s interesting to read Mark's comments and how he believes he's got a better race package than qualifying and considering it's usually the other way, perhaps we might see him use a different strategy to get back towards the pointy end by race's end ???

This is certainly a grand prix worth getting up for, roll on 3am

cheers. :)

[wayno]

I think Alonso is looking good here. He was fastest apart from the Friday drivers on day one and I think he'll be carrying a bit more fuel than the guys in front of him. Fisichella is a lot closer to Fernando which makes me wonder if he'll be stopping more than his team mate.
Turn one is going to be awesome. Schumi and Jenson will be desperate to get into the lead and they'll have two quick starting Renault's on them by the time they get there!
Plan today - go home, watch V8's, get sleep, miss Moto GP (:( ), get up, watch awesome gp and then start work at 7am!
Glad it's a public holiday and there are hardly any trains around! ;)

[wayno]

Plan worked and boy am I glad I got up! Reliability has been pretty good in f1 this year but didn't that go out the window last night! Marks fifth place was flattering I thought as the car was nowhere near competitive. At least it looks like Williams managed to pass post race scrutineering this year!
Kimi must be ruing stuffing up last race. Take that and the race at Imola into account where his driveshaft failed and he's be right on Fernando's tail. I still think the championship is far from over, and Kimi will be encouraged to see that Fernando is human and makes mistakes like everyone else!
James Allen mentioned on the telecast that Williams are really looking forward to France as they have a major new aero package to be introduced. Hopefully it will do the trick and get the cars back to the front.
Good for the sport to see Ferrari back up front, but Michael challenging for the win was more down to him than the car.
Must also say I was impressed with the drive from Massa. At various stages during the race he was under enormous pressure and he didn't flinch. It would have to be one of the best drives of his career.

[brchi17]

Originally posted by wayno
.......Good for the sport to see Ferrari back up front, but Michael challenging for the win was more down to him than the car........

Agreed, but it was good to see that he had some tread on his tyres at the end of a race for once this year.:D I wonder if the same will be said next week at indy ???

I must admit I cryed out laughing when iTV were singing the praises of Button and the next minute Shumi forces him into a mistake causing him to hit's the wall, a real classic.

I wonder if JPM is colour blind :D and will he be racing next weekend ???

Today I think the pace car certaintly played a big part in helping Rubens to get to 3rd, but perhaps we're starting to see a change in fortunes.

Remember there are still 10 rounds to go and even Michael, dare I say, is still not out of the points race yet. I'd almost be bold enought to say that given a few more performance like this, he could be right back in the chase for title #8.

cheers.

[wayno]

I think JPM was suffering from the red mist after pitting late under the safety car. That was a real strange one.
Does anyone wonder if McLaren were trying to use the pitstops to get Raikkonen back in front with Alonso out?
Team orders are banned, so positioning cars via pit stops would be the perfect solution. I will not believe that McLaren didn't want Kimi to get the full 10 points when the championship leader was guaranteed zero.
Then JPM has gone blasting back into the race in a foul mood and missed the big red cherry at the end of pit lane! Noticed when he got out of the car he looked very sheepish. I expected him to show some latin temperament!

[brchi17]

Originally posted by wayno
.....Does anyone wonder if McLaren were trying to use the pitstops to get Raikkonen back in front with Alonso out?....

The thought certaintly crossed my mind and I also wonder if perhaps JPM has fallen out of favour with the team after his tennis and Monaco insidents ???

cheers. :)

[ferrari fan]

Exelent race, but there are 2 issues,
1: The brush with the wall that got rid of Alonso's chances.
2: The near incident with Kimmy and David.
Both these incidents were NOT shown on the telecast that I watched, twice, from Channel 10:mad:
The incident with Kimmy and David could have been an infrincement that warranted a drive through!
Also there was no footage of the wild man of F1 going through a red light.
It was a very interesting GP and was great entertainment from start till finnish, but these important parts of the race are nice to see.
Martin Brundle is exelent value as a comentator, and makes the other one look like the hopeless idiot he is.

[GSXR1]

I'm wondering if someone might be able to help me out with a VHS (or DVD) copy of the race if possible please.

I had to make a quick trip to Melbourne at short notice over the weekend and, according to the most up-to-date TV guide I had available before I left, the race was scheduled to be shown at about 2.45am Monday morning Perth time (after the MotoGP), so that's when I set the video for (2.30am actually just to be safe).

Channel 10 then decided to bring it forward to I guess about 12.30am to correspond with the telecast in the Eastern States, then show the MotoGP 125 & 250 afterwards, so all I've ended up with is the last couple of laps and the podium/interviews and bugger all of the F1 race...:mad:

I can either send a blank replacement tape/dvd, or return the original, and will pay all postage costs.

PM me if you can help please

Cheers

[wayno]

Chris, I have it on VHS short play stereo at the moment and would be happy to run you off a copy (payback for Daytona). Work is pretty hectic for the next week or so, but after that I'll get right on it if you don't get a better offer.

[GSXR1]

Thanks wayno, but ferrari fan just PM'd me to say he had a copy that I can borrow as well, but thanks for offering anyway - I appreciate it

[brchi17]

Originally posted by GSXR1
Thanks wayno, but ferrari fan just PM'd me to say he had a copy that I can borrow as well, but thanks for offering anyway - I appreciate it

Well then Chris I won't bother offering my copy of the race either then :p :D

cheers.

[BB]

Whats the deal with the new mirrors on the Ferrari's. There has been no mention any where that I have seen on why they have gone for the higher version. Obviously it's to improve the rear view and possibly areo's but I reckon they spoil the look of the car. I prefered it the way it was.
Also did any one else pick up on the comment about the new aero package for the Williams cars due for the French GP.

[wayno]

It has been mentioned earlier in this thread. Don't know any details of what's planned yet but will be interesting to see if it can make a difference.