The Belgian Grand Prix Thread (Raikkonen wins!)

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:59 am

Second placed Fernando Alonso said:

It was a hard race for everybody this afternoon, with really difficult conditions, but we knew we had a competitive car and that we didn't need to take any big risks. Sometimes, these races can bring some big surprises, so I am pleased to come away with a normal result, which was exactly what I needed. The rear end of the car was moving about a lot in the high speed corners, which made it hard to attack a lot in the quick parts of the circuit, so I just backed off quite early and made sure I would take home plenty of points. I didn't make any mistakes, and P3 was going to be perfect for me, then I saw Montoya's accident ? so P2 is even better, and it was nice to have some more help from McLaren. We were debating all the way through the race, and especially in the last laps, whether or not we should take the dry tyres, but I think we did the right thing: we didn't need to take the gamble, and played it safe. I want to say a big thank you to Michelin as well: we started the race in wet conditions, and finished with the track nearly dry, but the tyres they gave us were extremely quick all the way through. They have done a really fantastic job

Full Renault team and driver quotes

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:11 am

The incident between Montoya and Pizzonia.

Montoya said:

It's always tough to retire from a race but when it's caused by matters out of your or the team's control it's even harder. As I said in the pole position press conference yesterday I drive for my team. So my disappointment is even greater because as a team we were doing a great job. I now know that Pizzonia was trying to unlap himself on dry tyres and then hit me from behind whilst trying to do so. This was a disappointing end to what could have been the perfect weekend

Pizzonia said:

I was on dry tyres, and lapping quicker than him. He was quite slow maybe because his tyres were not good anymore or maybe he was just cruising to the end of the race. I thought he saw me and when he braked really early I thought he was trying to let me by. I put my car next to him but obviously he hadn't seen me because he turned into his normal line and I couldn't avoid the crash. I am sorry for him because I am not here to destroy anyone's race. I destroyed my race too.

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:32 am

Third placed Jenson Button said:

It's fantastic to be back on the podium and I have to thank the team for their incredibly hard work to get us back into the game here. The first stint of the race wasn't easy. I had such bad oversteer I barely had to turn into the corners! At the first stop we adjusted the front wing which made things better but we were a little too optimistic in switching to drys so we had to come in again and change back to wets. Double stinting the tyres really made all the difference for us though. I have to thank the entire team and Michelin for making this result possible. The pitstops were great and the Honda engine was faultless all weekend. We have some new developments for the next few races so I'm feeling really positive. Let's hope we have a few more days like today before the end of the season.

Full BAR Honda team and driver quotes

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:34 am

Takuma Sato will drop 10 places on the grid in Brazil as a result of his crash into Michael Schumacher in Belgium.

danilen1 · Post by **danilen1** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:10 am

woo, monterio in the points..

i think i posted somewhere on this site about a jordan scoring points, hope some of u used that excellent betting tip

loved that race, cant believe it didnt rain thou!! f@#$ itv footage, the most exciting incidents all being lost! - fisi accident, monty and pizzaface - they didnt even have a shot of that by the end of the race! and half of the overtaking at the start of the race was off camera too

some times i wish f1 was back at bbc.. althou i think its got more chance of going to sky, which would be terrible as i dont have it lol

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:07 am

Ed wrote:Takuma Sato will drop 10 places on the grid in Brazil as a result of his crash into Michael Schumacher in Belgium.

Schuey will drop him 10 times if he gets the chance

cmlean · Post by **cmlean** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:18 am

rah wrote:Just out of interest, is there anyone who still thinks Pizza man is better than Webber?

I think that MW is trying too hard to prove that he is better than his teammates by taking excessive risks on the start. Keep his nose clean on the first lap and he will finish in the points.

JayVee · Post by **JayVee** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:16 pm

Fully agree with cmlean here. Webber needs to keep it clean at the start then he'll start getting results.

There is no point comparing Pizzonia and Webber. Had Frank given Pizzonia the job then we could compare but sadly he didn't and perhaps he is regretting it now. (with all the Heidfeld - BMW stuff).
Remember that Frank is the one who gave Pizzonia a chance in the first place and Frank has that little bit of ability at choosing drivers

Jim Watt · Post by **Jim Watt** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:25 am

danilen1 wrote:woo, monterio in the points.. i think i posted somewhere on this site about a jordan scoring points, hope some of u used that excellent betting tip
loved that race, cant believe it didnt rain thou!! f@#$ itv footage, the most exciting incidents all being lost! - fisi accident, monty and pizzaface - they didnt even have a shot of that by the end of the race! and half of the overtaking at the start of the race was off camera too
some times i wish f1 was back at bbc.. althou i think its got more chance of going to sky, which would be terrible as i dont have it lol

Couldn't agree more, danilen1, about the coverage; maybe they were looking for a Belgian driver

Of course the reason F1 coverage is so terrible has SOMETHING to do with Bernie's flaming Digital Disaster

--a scheme whereby he planned to put even more coins in his family's deep, deep, deep pockets. It ended up bankrupting his shell company, although his own money appears safe enough.

Anyway the state of the coverage is just a reflection of the state of the sport in general. If FIA and F1 were about racing you'd never have seen (or should I say NOT seen) the Indy disaster. And us fans, who love F1 almost as much as the drivers and car builders, clearly don't matter enough or the coverage and the racing WOULD be better.

It's terribly ironic that the very thing that makes it possible for us to follow F1, television and satellite feeds, is responsible for making it harder and harder for us to care about it!

There's so much money in Television and advert revenues, that Bernie and his pals could care less about the fans on site. Indeed I expect in the coming years to see "virtual fans" placed by digital special effects people in the increasingly empty grandstands. For, as near as I can tell, that's about all the supremos think we're good for: we're disposable "extras" for their super productions.

Maybe we should go back to the good old days; I remember, for instance, waiting for the next issue of Road & Track to find out who had won a G.P. that took place weeks, sometimes as much as a month!, ago. I would read the entire account of the race two or three times and then update the statistics in my own "championship" file.

In some ways reading the threads in the forums and going through the team reports on line after the race are as much fun, really, as watching it on t.v. Of course nothing, and I mean nothing, can take the place of sitting on the grass and watching the cars brake hard into a slow turn, accelerate through some esses and disappear in the distance! I've only ever got to see F1 here at Indy, though I hope to get to Montreal one day, and Mexico City, if they get one. For the lucky folks in Europe, who can get to Silverstone and Spa and Monza and the Nurburgring, and the ones who have the cash to find a viewing point in Monaco I have nothing but incurable envy!

So there I go, contradicting myself again. Fans should vote with their feet and abandon the races until they get some respect --but who would pass up the chance to BE there? No one on this forum I'll bet!

Spa was a good race in fact and in my mind. On t.v. it was a yawn.

cheers, Jim Watt

mlittle · Post by **mlittle** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 4:00 am

All-in-all, Sunday's race at Spa was a pretty interesting race, for three reasons....

1}How much more bad luck can McLaren have this year? They were all set for a 1-2 finish and the lead in the WCC when...you guessed it, more bad luck, when Montoya gets shunted by Pizzonia with a few laps left. It seems as though every race the team has something happen. Either Juan Pablo or Kimi has an engine or mech. failure, or they go off-course during qual. or the race, etc.; something just seems to happen to prevent both of them from finishing high in the pts. Somewhere, Alonso must be laughing at them, for with three races, Alonso'd have to have three non-pts. finishes for Raikkonen to win. With Renault's consistancy, that ain't happening.

2}A Jordan in the points? Not counting the 6-car fiasco that was the USGP, Tiago Montiero's 8th-place finish at Spa had to be one big surprise. There's just one problem....it was another consistant finish from him(16 in a row this yr.) for him and finally, that consistantcy paid off. Yeah, its' only 1 pt., but its' still more than some of the top-runners got at the end of the day. That's why I picked him as driver of the day at the Belgian GP...to take a Jordan-Toyota which usually is found at the back of the field contending with the two Minardis and seeing it finish in the points is a surprise in and of itself. Then again, this is Spa we're talking about, so anything is possible.

3}Speed Channel's coverage wasn't good(again). Forget the three talking heads who did a halfway decent job announcing the race(Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett)....the television half was, as usual, below par. If you saw the Speed TV coverage, you missed seeing Fisichella's shunt, along with what sent Pizzonia and Montoya sliding out of the race at the end. They did show Schuey giving Sato some words to live by after Takuma rammed in at La Source. It's a shame that the FIA doesn't allow independent feeds of its' F1 TV broadcasts(they could've at least had several more camera angles than what they have).

stiffpaper · Post by **stiffpaper** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:16 pm

Ed wrote:Takuma Sato will drop 10 places on the grid in Brazil as a result of his crash into Michael Schumacher in Belgium.

i guess he deserves it...

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 4:35 pm

JayVee wrote:Fully agree with cmlean here. Webber needs to keep it clean at the start then he'll start getting results.

There is no point comparing Pizzonia and Webber. Had Frank given Pizzonia the job then we could compare but sadly he didn't and perhaps he is regretting it now. (with all the Heidfeld - BMW stuff).
Remember that Frank is the one who gave Pizzonia a chance in the first place and Frank has that little bit of ability at choosing drivers

an article in Motorsport News states that Fisi hit somone who nudged DC into Webbers path.

JayVee · Post by **JayVee** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 6:17 pm

Julian Mayo wrote:
JayVee wrote:Fully agree with cmlean here. Webber needs to keep it clean at the start then he'll start getting results.

There is no point comparing Pizzonia and Webber. Had Frank given Pizzonia the job then we could compare but sadly he didn't and perhaps he is regretting it now. (with all the Heidfeld - BMW stuff).
Remember that Frank is the one who gave Pizzonia a chance in the first place and Frank has that little bit of ability at choosing drivers
an article in Motorsport News states that Fisi hit somone who nudged DC into Webbers path.

Classic Julian. Anything, anyone to blame but Webber!

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:53 am

JayVee wrote:
Julian Mayo wrote:
JayVee wrote:Fully agree with cmlean here. Webber needs to keep it clean at the start then he'll start getting results.

There is no point comparing Pizzonia and Webber. Had Frank given Pizzonia the job then we could compare but sadly he didn't and perhaps he is regretting it now. (with all the Heidfeld - BMW stuff).
Remember that Frank is the one who gave Pizzonia a chance in the first place and Frank has that little bit of ability at choosing drivers
an article in Motorsport News states that Fisi hit somone who nudged DC into Webbers path.
Classic Julian. Anything, anyone to blame but Webber!

particularly if its a renault. Rainbow Warrior will not be forgotten!!!!!!

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:55 am

JayVee wrote:Fully agree with cmlean here. Webber needs to keep it clean at the start then he'll start getting results.

There is no point comparing Pizzonia and Webber. Had Frank given Pizzonia the job then we could compare but sadly he didn't and perhaps he is regretting it now. (with all the Heidfeld - BMW stuff).
Remember that Frank is the one who gave Pizzonia a chance in the first place and Frank has that little bit of ability at choosing drivers

I totally concur

. Thats why he chose Webber

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