F1 GP Canada: Your predictions

[Craig.]

[quote]Am I the only one who thinks it was crazy to throw the red light in the middle of pit stops?

[Craig.]

Its being reported that Lewis and Nico will get 10 place grid drops for their pit lane whoopsies.

[C]

All I can say is whoops. Messrs Hamilton and Rosberg were at fault and deserve their penalties.

Now, some thoughts:

1) Why on earth was there a safety car for the first Force India incident, and not the second, which was arguably more dangerous, or are the drivers not responsible enough to be trusted to slow down to a sensible speed for waved yellow flags.

2) Pit lane discipline needs to be sorted out. Kubica was out of his box and coming down the pitlane. The Ferrari lolly-pop man should not have released a car that leads to the situation of having two cars paralleling each other in the pitlane. In this case it could be seen as a mitigating circumstance as it appears to have confused LH and NR both moving to the left to follow the red car (Ferrari) which has pulled to the left to pass the stationary BMW?

Either way, the safety car is becoming too much of a player. As Mark Webber (IIRC) said. It's time to make the drivers take some responsibility for keeping their eyes open (at all times Lewis ). Charlie Whiting's decided too many races in the recent past.

Well done Kubica though. Well chuffed to see him on the top step.

[MWISimmer]

Nice to see a new winner..and a new loser (Lewis..what were you doing?)

And you have to feel for Kimi, he stuck to the rules and was put out of the race for his "sins".

Results will be up tomorrow, I've had a very long day and need sleep  :P  ;D

[C]

And you have to feel for Kimi, he stuck to the rules and was put out of the race for his "sins".

It was all a Force India plan. Sutil stops at the side of the track, and as he gets out pushes a button on the steering wheel linked to a gas lighter in the left front brake unit, forcing a fire marshal onto the track, and also the devil (aka the safety car). Meanwhile agent X and agent Y, employees of Force India take Mike Gascoyne and Vijay Mallya's gold plated plant pruners, and which the wheels are being changed, cunningly (in the fashion of a very cunning secret operative) cut the brake lines in the the McLaren and the Williams, forcing Lewis (and as a back up Nico) into the back of a helpless Kimi...

Revenge is sweet for Force India!

[Craig.]

Just watched the whole situation again,
Kimi was released just after Kubica, Kubica's front wheels had just passed the rear tyre guys just as Kimi had cleared his front tyre guys. With the extra run Kubica was up to speed a bit quicker but Kimi was slightly ahead the whole way down the pitlane once they were up to pit limit. I can see there being a problem on release timing, and to be fair BMW released Kubica with Massa just coming into his pit. As you say charlie, pit lane discipline needs looking at though.
Lewis was being cocky all weekend, yesterday especially, when you see the reverse angle camera the light is clearly in view and Lewis just wasn't paying attention. Maybe in future he'll shut his mouth and just do the job on the track.

[cspyro21]

It was all a Force India plan. Sutil stops at the side of the track, and as he gets out pushes a button on the steering wheel linked to a gas lighter in the left front brake unit, forcing a fire marshal onto the track, and also the devil (aka the safety car). Meanwhile agent X and agent Y, employees of Force India take Mike Gascoyne and Vijay Mallya's gold plated plant pruners, and which the wheels are being changed, cunningly (in the fashion of a very cunning secret operative) cut the brake lines in the the McLaren and the Williams, forcing Lewis (and as a back up Nico) into the back of a helpless Kimi...

Revenge is sweet for Force India!

Hmm, do I sense some foul play from Force India?

Indeed Craig, Hamilton wasn't paying any attention at all, but surely he must have noticed that the two cars in front of him were stationary....how could he miss them?  :-?

[expat]

Just watched the whole situation again,
Kimi was released just after Kubica, Kubica's front wheels had just passed the rear tyre guys just as Kimi had cleared his front tyre guys. With the extra run Kubica was up to speed a bit quicker but Kimi was slightly ahead the whole way down the pitlane once they were up to pit limit. I can see there being a problem on release timing, and to be fair BMW released Kubica with Massa just coming into his pit. As you say charlie, pit lane discipline needs looking at though.
Lewis was being cocky all weekend, yesterday especially, when you see the reverse angle camera the light is clearly in view and Lewis just wasn't paying attention. Maybe in future he'll shut his mouth and just do the job on the track.

Craig, go to Youtube and enter Schumacher crash, enough to keep you  occupied until the next race
He made a mistake, just like every F1 driver that has ever driven.............however, had that happened in the Hunt/Lauda era Kimi would most prrobably have landed one on him :-?

Matt

[Craig.]

Ah but Matt,
Schumi never made a "mistake" like that  ;)
In general his collisions were out on track at speed and he didn't really try to hide what he did Ala 97. in that case he was stripped of the title quite rightly, the monaco one cost him the title almost certainly, so he got what he deserved.

In this case Lewis cant even stand up and say it was his fault and accept the blame, best he can do is "oh, well i'm sorry if I ruined Kimi's race"
What do you mean IF, of course you did, and even then he was being arrogent, "oh we were cruising to an easy win" No you weren't Kimi was closing down Kubica at a huge rate per lap, would have jumped him in the stops and at the pace he was going would have had Lewis in the second stops.
And just to top it off to show how big of a prat he is, his comments in his talk to Ryder before the race discussing his dads car accident, "i cant undertstand how someone can crash a car at 30mph"  ;D Bet he does now.
Yes every one has accidents, most will hold their hands up say they made a mistake and move on. However this is the second time in less than a year that Lewis has blown it in the pits because he was under a bit of pressure. China last year, there was no need to rush, all he needed was to pick up points, so what if he lost the race, those points even back in 6th would have won him the title. But "mr head strong" blew it. And now this, again he got passed in the pits, but if he was so sure and so confident that it was a cruise to victory then being in 3rd after all that shouldn't have mattered. But nope, lets hurry on down without paying attention. Even though ron had told him the light was red.
This years title is going to be won on consistency, not out and out wins. And from the way this season is going so far, Robert Kubica or Felipe Massa are the ones who come the end of the season could be fighting it out for the championship.

And a final one, Bravo as always to the ITV team on a stellar job, We could start with Martin badgering Bernie on the grid, thats going to help your chances next year, he's got the circuit owner standing 3 feet away from him, do you honestly think Bernie will bad mouth it.
Then that useful pitlane reporter Louise, great question for Lewis, "at least it is some consolation, that if nothing else you took your main title rival out with you"
Yet Schumi parks it at monaco and they hound him the rest of the year claiming he should have been banned from the championship. But they are encouraging that
Nice job by Ted I think it was, winding up an already obviously upset Alonso into swearing on live TV.
And then we come to James Allen, I think a whole new topic is needed on this idiot.
How many times did he manage to put Robert Kubica down this race.
"coming back to a place where many thought he should have been killed in his accident last year" Sure he appreciates the constant reminder
"well he's not quite brad pitt" As Kubica is standing there on the podium

from his colum
He was focused on the flow of cars moving towards the exit and didn

[todayshorse]

Hmmmm. Silly mistake from Hamilton, i like his driving, his cocky attitude and everything else, and his first laps were great to watch. I cant defend him over that incident however. I got the impression he thought Kimi had stopped for some reason and Kubica was going round him, then realised that they both indeed were coming to a halt.....to late though, and his explanation didnt really cut it did it.

Maybe when hes calmed down a bit he might tell us quite what he was focusing on as he left the pits!

However, its shook the title battle up - regardless of this incident it wasnt becoming the ferrari steamroller that many had predicted but this has made it rather interesting!

Hiedy Nickfield DID NOT look amused however, nor happy, nor glad BMW had won.

However, i dont think Hamilton did it deliberatley - i will say that.

And James Allens 'hes not Brad Pitt..' crap really made me laugh! 'Triangle Head' might not be Brad Pitt but have you looked in the mirror lately Mr Allen? Your whimsical hair, high pitched emotion lacking voice and silly face are not 'Brad Pitt' either.....if you were close to being a 'Martin Brundle' it might help somewhat

And the constant 'nearly killed him...' stuff - it was a massive shunt - but it didnt 'nearly kill him' nor 'almost kill him', 'might have killed him' or anything else for that matter.  As far as i recall bar some sort of ankle/foot injury he was absolutley fine. Thats a long way from being killed....

Massa will come to regret this race though i think, he should and could have won with two of the four not scoring - he needed maximum points. If anything just to swing ferrari in his direction rather than kimi's. Move of the race goes to him though, great stuff at the hairpin!

Also Hamilton - it may come to bite him not scoring here later in the season - he needed it.

Good win for BMW though - its been coming.

[Craig.]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68181

Wonder when his brain will kick in and tell him its a good idea to keep your mouth shut when you've just screwed up.

[expat]

Am I the only one who thinks it was crazy to throw the red light in the middle of pit stops?  Could the pace car not slow down or speed up?

No and no.
this has always happend with the safety car. While the train of cars, and the safety car is within the area of the pits the pit light will remain red.  Once the safety car and the remaining cars on track have cleared the area ( i believe in canada that means just as the safety car arrives at the first chicane) the light will return to green.
This is what happend to massa and fisi last year. The safety car and race cars were long clear but the light remained red. They went out and were disqualified. In this case the safety car was just passing the pit lane exit and so the light was rightly red.
I'm seriously annoyed as it's made the championship battle a 4 way thing for no reason what so ever. Lewis was so worked up about losing a couple of places in the pits that he wasn't focused on the race itself. Sucks for Kimi but I guess what comes around, as they say, although this is a differant situation entirely, at least sutil can claim justice.

Just an idea, but what about binning the red light at the exit and letting cars continue out onto the track however, they haver to stay at the side of the track and on the pit lane limiter until the safety car and train  of other drivers has passed. Once all cars have passed a marshal could wave a particular flag to indicate that all was now clear??

Matt

[Celtman]

From that autosport article:

"Personally I think the rule is silly. We are in the race, how can you see a red light at the end of the pitlane? But that's the rule and I accept it."

Well everyone else did . He needs to learn to admit he is wrong sometimes

[Craig.]

Because if a driver can't see a red light what makes you think they'll see a car that might be coming up onto the side of them. It's okay to say stay on the side of the track but how do you define where that ends, and what if the accident is right at the exit to the pit lane? I like the idea but it's just to complicated to implement if drivers struggle with a red light. It's the exact same argument with the pit lane being closed and running out of fuel. They had to do it because drivers like Alonso in brazil, were rushing back through an accident zone and risking lives. So now to assure it doesn't happen the pit lane is closed until they all are in line.
Racing drivers just cant be trusted

[expat]

Because if a driver can't see a red light what makes you think they'll see a car that might be coming up onto the side of them. It's okay to say stay on the side of the track but how do you define where that ends, and what if the accident is right at the exit to the pit lane? I like the idea but it's just to complicated to implement if drivers struggle with a red light. It's the exact same argument with the pit lane being closed and running out of fuel. They had to do it because drivers like Alonso in brazil, were rushing back through an accident zone and risking lives. So now to assure it doesn't happen the pit lane is closed until they all are in line.
Racing drivers just cant be trusted

Maybe a marshal with a big red lollipop in a clown outfit would stand out for them  It works for the pit crews (except the clown outfit)

Matt