Comments on 'Thoughts on the Japanese GP 2009' on F1 Insight

Comment by verasaki

05/10/2009 18:14:04

I confess, I did nod off in the last 30 minutes. Apparently I didn't miss much. What I've been wondering about are those penalties. I missed qualifying but during the pre race they showed a replay of Button( I think,it may hve been another driver) plowing through that debris field like there wasn't a yellow flag waiving at all. Was the caution that difficult to see in that corner? It's jsut a little hard to fathom anyone wanting to slalom through carbon fibre bits and pieces at speed.

Comment by michael

05/10/2009 20:11:18

It took me two days to find my rhythm again having gotten up early to watch Suzuka GP. Then i nodded off and when i remembered why i was sat in my arm chair i got up and made my wife breakfast. So Clive I must be in one your aforementioned slumps and fallen completely out of love with F1. Clive you mentioned Hamilton made a mistake but I read that McLaren had a KERS-issue - what did Ham do this time? I watched the Singapore GP on my PC again and must say stunning atmosphere absolutely stunning all-be-it the racing was boring too. The last really exciting race I saw was back when Ham was on a three-stop strategy and lapping like a metronome against the Ferrari's in Turkey I think that was. Awesome yet ages ago. He came close to winning that was cool.

Comment by Peter

05/10/2009 21:25:56

Ham stuck it neutral coming out the pits. Not clear *he* did it, but the car went out of gear. It must have smelled brazil coming and be getting ready. :) I watched the 2005 race online at BBC as my warm up for the race. Wish I had stopped at that... Peter

Comment by Clive

05/10/2009 21:27:29

Vera: I don't know what went through Button's head as he arrived at the scene of the accident but, judging by the speed at which he was going, I'd say he had indeed not noticed any yellow flags before the corner. Guessing again, he may have decided that it was too late to stand on the brakes (a dangerous maneuver anyway) and that he should just power on through and hope for the best. Both Brawns went through in the same manner and, apparently a few others as well. It looks to me as though the marshals did not get the flags out quickly enough and the "offending" drivers were presented with a split second choice point when they arrived at the debris field. And it seems they all chose to stay on the gas, there being a pretty clear path through the trash. We need to appreciate the fact that the drivers are just as aware of the rules as we are and only a fool would deliberately opt to ignore waved yellows - the penalty is well known and ensures the driver's race is ruined. One doesn't deliberately risk anything with stewards as unpredictable as F1's!

Comment by Clive

05/10/2009 21:32:07

Michael: Peter's explanation of Hamilton's mistake may be correct - I have seen it described as more of a hesitation in the car as he left the pit. He reckons he lost a second through that, the team says 1.7 secs, both of which would have been enough to allow him to at least contest the first corner with Trulli. But it is tiny time slices like that which can make the difference between winning and losing.

Comment by Clive

05/10/2009 21:35:59

Peter: Actually, I'm glad that most rate the race as poor - I was afraid my view of it was affected by expecting too much of it. All very well for the Vettel groupies (why is it boring when Button wins unchallenged but not when der Wunderkind does it?) but I found it stupendously characterless.

Comment by Nick Goodspeed

06/10/2009 03:20:31

I didn't watch. I refuse to watch races that are tampered with before the fact. That the penalties play into the bean counters hands, tightening up the season finish in the same way this sort of thing has for (at least) the last three seasons is too much to chalk up to coincidence. It seems to me Vettel was running crucially low on engines but I've read nothing about this.

Comment by k2San

06/10/2009 15:45:08

On Hamilton's KERS.. It's the second race that it had a problem. Somehow I do not see any reflection on this in the media. For me the highlight of the reace and I really enjoyed that one was Kov's passing on Fisch .

Comment by verasaki

06/10/2009 17:40:13

That's what I thought. I can see it happening maybe for the first driver coming through as the flag is coming out, but it was just bizarre that they all got caught out. I wondered if any of them (besides Alonso) had remarked on the visibility or positioning of the marshall.

Comment by Peter Boyle

07/10/2009 02:47:45

Hamilton: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8289290.stm Coming out of the pitlane I got up to the limiter and then all of a sudden it went into neutral. I didn't actually realise that for a couple of seconds so I lost a little bit of time on exit from the pits, which probably lost me the time that ended up with Jarno coming past me.

Comment by Gusto

07/10/2009 04:29:57

Once maybe, twice Hmmm, three times coincidence, four times now your taking the piss.

Comment by Nick Goodspeed

18/10/2009 18:47:44

Good show. Jenson champ!!!

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