The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix Thread

[Ed]

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for winning the Drivers' Championship and to Ferrari for winning the Constructors Championship

This was a great finish to a great season. We would like to thank everyone for their support and we look foward to seeing you during the off season

[Snowy]

Well done Ed. You put in a championship winning effort this season too.

[F1greyhound]

Fantastic action, the Brazilian GP must be worth millions to Bernie, hope it stays the final GP of the season for many years to come, simply THE place for drama....unbelievable stuff for the last 3 years....

LEWIS deserves the title just like FELIPE would have deserved it. This GP proves it is not easier to finish 5th than to win......after all it was just that LEWIS got 5th since he lost it to SEBASTIAN for the same reason as he won it back from TIMO...

My driver of the day goes to SEBASTIAN (just ahead of FELIPE). Im sure he is high up on the list of the Scuderia after this amazing season...

Great credit also for FERNANDO who made a remarkable recovery of RENAULT pace possible. Where will he be next year?

[abertrand]

First of all, I´d like to congratulate Hamilton for his well deserved title. A championship is won at every race and all in all Ferrari and Felipe failed at least four times (Malaysia, England, Hungary and Singapure) and Hamilton had only a bad moment at Canada.

Nevertheless for the second year in a row Lewis has shown he is a hell of a driver. Well done!

I´ve been to the race earlier today and I´m proud of what Felipe has done. Another hat trick in Brazil which could have been the third in a row. I think Felipe made Hamilton's title even more valuable and for me he is the driver of the day.

Vettel is a star and Alonso will shine next year at Renault.

[jacfan]

DotD for me is Massa. Brilliant drive with the hopes and dreams of Brazil on his shoulders. Unfortunately the WDC was not his this year but he has proven himself to be a worthy contender.
Congrats to Lewis and the McLaren camp.
Great drive by Alonso!!! Looking forward to the next season.

[GhoGho]

dotd must go to Massa who did everything he had to do to try to win the title. Pole, fastest lap, and the win, you cant ask for more than that. A dominating performance.

Well done to Lewis for somehow not throwing it away and winning the title.

Honorable mention and well done to Alonso for another outstanding drive, its a pity that it took Renault most of the season to give him a car to contend with.

Lastly, Shame on you Ferrari for throwing away the drivers title.

[Jim Watt]

It'll take me some time to figure out a response to this season. At the very least it shows how allowing the sport to be directed by a single person (or group of oligarchs) is leading to its decline.

We now have a WDC who is, no doubt, one of the best drivers in the field and a worthy candidate for WDC --and congratulations to Lewis Hamilton --

BUT the WDC won fewer races in 2008 than the runner up. I don't know about you, but for me that means something is screwy in the points department.

In my mind and in my heart, the 2008 WDC is Felipe Massa.

And how did we come to this pretty pass? Well, once upon a time we had a WDC (M. Schumacher) and a team (Scuderia Ferrari) who were routinely wrapping up the Championship by the thirteenth or fourteenth race of the season. Nothing wrong with that --the other teams were just not good enough.

But the odious Mr. E., because he was losing money (or because he THOUGHT he was losing money owing to a loss of fan interest in the closing races of the season) decided unilaterally, to CHANGE THE AWARDING OF POINTS to try to 'slow down' the Schumacher effect.

Now if we had a board that gave EQUAL voting status to Drivers, Team Principals and Manufacturers charged with making decisions about the awarding of points no such farcical scale would ever be allowed. Winning a GP is NOT worth only two points more than finishing second. Period.

So. Now. BOTH Lewis Hamilton AND Felipe Massa are made to suffer for the cheesy and self-serving decision of Bernard Ecclestone, may he rot in you know where.

All next season we'll be hearing about how being a championship driver means 'consistency' and 'points hoarding' MORE than it means WINNING.

And if you believe that, I'd like to sell you some real estate.

A beautiful season was ruined not, as Gho Gho suggested by the stupid errors of the Ferrari team (although they certainly made too many stupid errors to be honored) and not, as Snowy suggested by the stupid errors of Ron Dennis and the McLaren team (although they certainly made too many stupid errors to be honored) but by the STUPID FIDDLING OF A GREEDY @#$%^& person who needs to be welded to his venal cousin Max and tossed into quicksand.

So. having ventilated I feel so much better. I end the year thrilled with the quality of Fernando and Felipe and Lewis and Robert K.'s brilliant driving, PUZZLED and CONFUSED by the strangely UN-exciting & ordinary performance of Kimi Raikkonen , (someone I have supported and cheered for from his first race), and EXCITED ALMOST BEYOND MEASURE by the brilliance of Sebastian Vettel.

If only Max & Bernie can be restrained and F1 is allowed to get on with racing the best cars with the best drivers in the world AND DAMN THE EXPENSES!!, then next year can only be better!

Who's the best on the circuit? That's easy, isn't it? It has to be the Spaniard, Fernando Alonso... may he come back next year and contend for his THIRD WDC!

Cheers Mates and thanks for another year of fun reading and reacting to you!
Jim Watt

[GhoGho]

Well said Jim, I couldn't have said it nearly as well as you, even if I sat all day trying to get it right.

Jim, I have been a Ferrari fan since I went to watch my first ever Grand Prix at Kayalami way back in '72, and that includes the 19 lean years between Jodi Sheckter and Micheal Shumacher. With that in mind, you may inderstand that my comment about Ferrari was not directed at the season as a whole, merely at Ferrari for the sins they committed this season. Those sort of avoidable errors never happened while Michael was there, and it cost them dearly this season.

:

A beautiful season was ruined not, as Gho Gho suggested by the stupid errors of the Ferrari team (although they certainly made too many stupid errors to be honored) and not, as Snowy suggested by the stupid errors of Ron Dennis and the McLaren team (although they certainly made too many stupid errors to be honored) but by the STUPID FIDDLING OF A GREEDY @#$%^& person who needs to be welded to his venal cousin Max and tossed into quicksand.

As for ruining the season as a whole, and F1 racing for some time now, I couldn't agree with your comment more! Mr E and Co. trying all sorts of ways to make "the show" better have actually achieved the opposite!
If they want to find a way to make it more exciting and have more overtaking then I would suggest giving the drivers more incentive. like the points system in the past, or maybe even a bigger spread of the rewards.
How about a points system with the following spread:
1st = 15
2nd = 10
3rd = 7
4th = 5
5th = 3
6th = 1

There is the incentive, no more settling for second or third (or even seventh or eighth) hoping to make it up at the next race, because that just won't cut it.

Maybe there will be an early victor, but the rest will surely be trying.

Cheers

[Jim Watt]

Gho Gho: thanks for the kind words. The points you suggested were actually proposed by one of the commentators I've read in the past few weeks, but I can't remember where. I agree completely with you that the current 'spread' actually diminishes incentive to race on the part of teams and drivers.

When I was a lad (and used to get all my information on F1 races from Road & Track magazine) back in the fifties, I was a Fangio and Moss fan and so was properly awed by the Silver Beasts from Mercedes. But Mike Hawthorne was THE most glamorous and the Red cars then hadn't yet switched to their Marlboro 'Orange' hue. And I remember, too, the green BRMs and the blue (were they really blue?) Lancias.

I'm like you, a complete Tifosi. And one who's never been to Italy! (Except, of course, in my dreams.)

Have a good off season. Hope they can find some KERS at Maranello.

Jim

[RE30B#16]

A big thanks to Ed for the stellar job posting the races and aftermath all season.

Cheers, mate!!



A hearty congrats to Lewis Hamilton for a well earned WDC. I see him as "confident" rather than "arrogant" as some describe him. Every driver out there should believe he can win. Remember, the worst guy in a formula 1 race is still one of the best drivers on planet Earth.



A big sporting thumbs up to my favorite current F1 driver Fernando Alonso for showing class in being the first to congratulate Hambone.



I am in agreement with those of you who are disgruntled with the F1 powers-that-be who think they need to "improve the show." These crass attempts at gaining the viewership of non-fans or casual fans usually end up damaging the existing fan-base. NASCAR comes immediately to mind. Sports are sports, not reality shows. If I want drama, I can watch Flavor Of Love on VH1!! In sports, the drama is in the competition.



To comment on the remark by Jim Watt abot the WC winning fewer races than some of the others, I recall 1982 WDC. Keke Rosberg won the WDC with 1 victory. That was one of the best seasons ever (that is if you can erase the loss of Gilles Villeneuve and the career ending crash of his teammate Didier Pironi).

Enjoy the offseason, everyone!!!

[Jim Watt]

RE30B#16 says my complaint about Mr. H. winning the Championship but not winning the most races is B.S. To prove his point he returns to Keke Rosberg's incredible feat of managing just that in 1982, one of the best seasons of F1 ever.
I agree completely that '82 was a FANTASTIC season and I admit that Keke managed to win the WDC with only one win (in Switzerland) whereas 'the professor' Alain Prost (Renault) and Niki Lauda (McLaren Ford) and Didier Pironi (Ferrari) and Rene Arnoux (Renault) each won two races.
But this WAS a fantastic season precisely because the drivers were encouraged to RACE. There were 16 races and 12 winners! Prost - 2 (S. Africa & Brazil); Lauda - 2 (USA West & Grt. Britain); Pironi - 2 (San Marino & the Netherlands); Rene Arnoux (France & Italy); John Watson (Spa); Ricardo Patrese (Monaco); Nelson Piquet (Canada); Patrick Tambay (Germany); Elio de Angelis (Austria); Keke Rosberg (Switzerland) and Michele Alboreto (Las Vegas).
Now leaving aside the obvious reason Americans loved this season (we got THREE races ), I think what MADE the season great was the fact that the point spread was limited to the top SIX finishers and the winner took NINE (9) points to 6 for second place, 4 for third, 3 for fourth, 2 for fifth & the last lonely point went to the sixth place finisher.
This means that there is terrific incentive for both drivers AND teams to push for each position and to contest FIERCELY for the win.
Would I love to see next year's seventeen or eighteen races (we can't tell from week to week with Mr. E!) have fifteen or sixteen winners? Duh! It would be F1 again as we all know and love it!
But given the 'corporate $' we know we'll never see it again

Still, the season was a good one. No doubt that Lewis is a great driver and deserving the WDC. But so is Felipe. And so is Fernando. And so, I think, is Sebastien V.! And so, I still say, is Kimi. I hope they all have more than one win each next year and I hope the championship goes down to the last race and I hope the WINNER of that race is the WDC!

Oh and thank you, RE30B#16, for reminding me of Keke's WDC and also for congratulating Ed for giving us so much last year.

Jim Watt

[RE30B#16]

RE30B#16 says my complaint about Mr. H. winning the Championship but not winning the most races is B.S. ...

Jim Watt

Jim, I usually place my approving or disapproving emoticon directly after the remark it is related to when I'm posting. B.E.'s obsession with improving the show is what I think is BS not the comment I made about your post. Sorry for the confusion.



However, I agree with everything in your 2nd post. The only thing that makes me not fell totally irked by the current point system is that more teams share in the travel fund which is tied to championship points scored. A solution would be to equitably sure this revenue to help all teams participating in all championship races as per IndyCar/CART. Wouldn't that make the show better if teams had less to worry about other than making competitive cars for their drivers?