Quote:
Originally Posted by sperry
At 5 minutes before grid, teams were planning on rain at about 3 laps in. No one in their right mind would put inters on for a dry start. They might as well start from the pit lane... which is what the only car that did start on inters did.
And the teams *don't* have spotters. The crew is just at the pit wall watching the TV screens. There is no way for the drivers to know that at the end of that straight there was a swimming pool until it's too late to slow for it, which is why there was a pile of 6 cars off course there.
My point is that, while it looked like a bunch of people comically making the same mistake, it's really more like a bunch of teams getting caught out by a situation that was almost unavoidable. The same thing's happened at Spa a bunch of times over the years, and more recently 2 or 3 seasons ago, there was the same deal in Brazil (IIRC). This is just what happens in F1 when there's a sudden downpour.
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I disagree. You do if it is going to pour during the first lap!!! The cars that wrecked (according to
this and
this) were in grid spots 17,18,19 and 21. The leaders managed to make it through without dumping their cars, so it was clearly drivable. Yes, Button was up behind Massa and Alonso, but they managed to make the corner when he didn't. And cars from the other grid positions in between and after made it as well... So the cars are not undriveable, or the whole field would be piled up against the tires.
22 of the supposed best drivers in the world in the best equipment in the world should be able to make it through at least the first damn lap without colliding or crashing, wet or dry, but they just don't appear to be able to. I'm not positive, but I don't recall an F1 race I've seen this year where every car has completed lap one unscathed. That is just plain stupid, and the stewards and teams/owners shouldn't put up with it.
43 or so "bumpkins" in multiple series can often manage to go 3-4 wide on an oval and 2 wide on road course through the first lap and sometimes many more without destroying any cars.
And why don't they know what the track conditions are? What, nobody on the team can get in the Ferrari red $50,000 golf cart and go look or call a buddy with a cell phone in F1? Or is it that they don't know how to tune one of the 57 LCD displays they have to the F'ing weather channel or better yet, the race broadcast?
And what the hell good is a V8 turning 19000 RPM at 4MPG. How is that state of the art. That sounds dumber than a race series still running push rod V-8s with carburetors. I know they are talking about taking F1 "green", but they should have been leading the way, not bowing to environmental pressure.
Where is the 2000lb lithium-air battery or fuel cell powered F1 car capable of 4-500WHP and 60 laps without "refueling". Now that would be technologically advanced.
And single nut wheels were used because it was the only reasonable way to mount a spoked wheel. That is how they did it on the Conestoga wagons, it must still be good enough for F1.
Why not invent some cool 5 pin cam lock thingy and heaven forbid a way to monitor if the damn thing is loose???
ALMS is more advanced than F1 and the technology is much more likely to make it into street cars.
F1 is not racing, it is 22 companies with to much money and not enough common sense and drivers to match.
F1 is a joke.
Again, thank you for participating in Dean's F1 rant thread...
