The 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix

[jido]

Kimi gets my driver of the day vote just ahead of Hamilton and Heidfeld.

Thanks Southernman, I was concerned to see Kimi with less votes than either Lewis or Fernando

[Lloyd]

I give Ralph a point for keeping someone behind him for so long. Got to give him some credit even if it was the Hungaroring.
You may have heard elsewhere but its news to me that Lewis may have been the one to complain to the stewards about Fernandos stalling.
Alonso told Spanish radio Cadena SER that he was astonished not only by his team-mate's outburst on the radio with Ron Dennis on Saturday but at how Hamilton actually instigated the complaint to the stewards about the delayed qualifying pit stop.

Alonso said: "We went to complain about ourselves. We were one and two in qualifying but it was one of the most surreal moments I have experienced in F1.
"

Hamilton, however, denied asking the stewards to investigate the matter, despite members of the press finding him in conversation with one of the FIA representatives after qualifying.

"I was downstairs and one of the stewards was there but we didn't really discuss it," he said.

Source GMM
CAPSIS International

[sousan21]

dont agree about hamilton.... this never happened before in formula 1... hamilton has talent and i must say for his age his doing very good but not in an honest and right way... i think he is taking advantage of his country being britian and doing things the wrong way....
i cant belive this guy, 1st his furious about the qualifing having a fit, then when he wins the race his like lets make peace, that to me is low!!!!!

[McLarenLvr]

Had Kimi stayed with McLaren, he would outdrive Alo et al.......

[jacfan]

We'll see but I am now starting to beleive that Alonso will not stay at McLaren for much longer. They can enjoy their Hamilton

Talks about Alonso going back to Renault.

If Alo goes back to Renault, Ron Dennis should retire, give his share of the company to his oldest employees and go to NASCAR to cause trouble.

What have you got against RD?

[McLarenLvr]

Talks about Alonso going back to Renault.

If Alo goes back to Renault, Ron Dennis should retire, give his share of the company to his oldest employees and go to NASCAR to cause trouble.

What have you got against RD?

Certainly, you jest.

[jacfan]

If Alo goes back to Renault, Ron Dennis should retire, give his share of the company to his oldest employees and go to NASCAR to cause trouble.

What have you got against RD?

Certainly, you jest.

Actually I don't jest.

[jacfan]

Poor you.... guess it's a good thind you're nt a F1 driver.....

Unlike you hey?

[McLarenLvr]

IMNSHO Ron Dennis is a man whose attention and indulgence with Hamilton will not stand McLaren well in the long run. His bias toward his upstart newcomer is alienating a lot of people on his own team. McLaren is a lot more then Ron Dennis and his ego. He ought get a grip before it's too late.

[jacfan]

I don't think Ron was looking too pleased with Lewis following the crap that went down over the weekend.

[Julian Mayo]

I guess Hambone won't stick out his hand for his pay cheque this month, having disobeyed team instructions.
Seriously, every team owner and manager will file his antics away in the old memory banks....Hambone has done himself some serious harm, IMHO.

[McLarenLvr]

Poor you.... guess it's a good thind you're nt a F1 driver.....

Unlike you hey?

I'd never want to drive an F1 car..... I just adore watching them race.

[McLarenLvr]

One can always hope.

[mlittle]

One can always hope.

There's always Indianapolis and 500 miles of central Indiana blacktop crowned with a yard of bricks........

[Jim Watt]

I guess I'm sort of puzzled at the vitriol flying here. I am perfectly willing to consider it probable that a racer will do what he thinks he has to do to win, no matter what sort of "orders" are being issued. Remember when Kimi refused to pit for tyres in Germany because he was racing to win?

Everyone admired him for being a racer, indeed for putting his LIFE at risk in his effort to win. Because that's what RACING is! And I hardly think the fact that he crashed out and so lost McLaren points in that race led to Ron Dennis sacking him! Indeed most of us would have been really chuffing if Ron Dennis dared to suggest that his Racing Team's precious Manufacturers points were more important than his drivers trying to WIN!

And it wasn't for trying to win that his many detractors blamed Michael. He was detested by many because he arranged for his team to support him off the circuit as well as on. In fact, Michael's example of managing his team is pretty much understood to be the reason for F1's recent harping on the "No Team Orders" theme. And for a very good reason: F1 needs to disabuse the public of the notion that it's all decided by money. In fact, it must BE money and money only that keeps Monaco and Hungary on the calendar. I didn't think this year's races on these twisty hard to overtake circuits were so bad. But they certainly CAN be boring, especially if the bosses decide (via "team orders") the winner on Saturday in qualifications.

Now funnily enough, McLaren has been blamed by so called realist critics in the past for being so adamant about letting their drivers compete. For, in other words, NOT issuing team orders (beyond refusing to tolerate their drivers taking each other out in a race).

So it sounds ironic to me to hear so many complaining here about Lewis ignoring "team orders." Well suppose he did? How does that justify what Fernando did? And for doing it so blatantly? Everyone with a pair of eyes could see? And how could the stewards NOT react? Never mind whether they were prompted by Lewis! (Certainly they were prompted by Ron Dennis at Rascasse!! Formally. Publically. And much to everyone's satisfaction (except for Michael).

In the real world, Lewis's little sins (if in fact he committed them. this is the kind of inside chatter that I tend to dismiss because it can't be verified.) his sins, which I'm perfectly willing to allow you, didn't cost him or McLaren a single point. All Fernando had to do was beat him for the pole. Or overtake him in the race (Which would have made for some genuine excitement, tho' I doubt he'd have been any more likely to do it than Kimi. Still it would have been F1 at its best to see Kimi hounding Fernando hounding Lewis!

Instead, Fernando pulled a Michael. And it cost a bundle!! Now Fernando is supposed to be a brilliantly strategic driver (like Michael). You all heard Webbo (or was it Davy C?) say so before the race.

Alas, it appears he is a little TOO like Michael! Because he schemed himself into a most embarrassing spot --and one that has Zero to do with racing or talent. Only with, dare I say it, "cheating"?

Now if, for instance, Ron Dennis didn't like being ignored by Lewis, all he had to do was order his car pushed into the garage. Maybe he didn't do so because Lewis was consistently faster over the week than his estimable team mate. Or maybe he didn't do it because he "favors" Lewis over the Spaniard. Whatever.

But when a racing driver sits in his car (like Michael did at Rasscasse and Fernando in the pits) to prevent a potentially faster driver from taking his pole, I think the stewards HAVE TO ACT. Because it is embarrassing for the whole sport. It's obvious and it's clearly "un-sporting." Duh. Like putting sugar in the tank or cutting tyres.

I don't know, again, what kind of steps a team manager has to take when his orders are ignored, but I do know that Fernando's actions took Ron Dennis's options right out of his hands and resulted in the loss of a perfect opportunity for McLaren to absolutely BURY Ferarri!

Fernando's (or his fans') claiming that he had no choice because little Lewis was not obeying team orders is Extremely weak. And the whole affair reminds me, in a sort of photo negative way, of What Michael said at Rasscasse-gate: something like, "those who hate me will continue to hate me no matter what I do."

Ironically, Fernando could say, on the basis of some of what I read in this thread, "and those who love me will continue to love me no matter what I do."

But, of course, in the case of Rasscasse, it wasn't about whether we loved or hated Michael; it was about our disappointment that a champion acted like a chump.

Oh well, even the great Senna wasn't perfect. I suppose there must be someone, somewhere with stories about Fangio. Now that I think about it, I must have acted as badly more than once in my own humble life.

But, in the end, chaps, it's racing that matters. And we're getting the best racing this year we have seen in a very long time. And I, for one, am perfectly happy to see it continue. It doesn't matter that Ferarri are out of contention for the title; it doesn't matter that Kimi can't possibly make up enough ground to really threaten for WDC. He'll be on the circuit in their bloody mirrors like a hungry lion after a gazelle and WDC or no, I wouldn't count him out yet. Not in the only thing that REALLY matters: how often you win.

WIN. Finish First. Leave the others eating your dust

Thank you All for caring about racing and making it fun for me to read my email!!

Somehow we'll get through this three weeks in the desert

Jim Watt