Discussion of Formula One racing

November 30, 2009

US Grand – a perfect result

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 6:22 pm

The only blemish was that they didn’t give Coulthard his stop go penalty
until AFTER he was passed by Schumacher. David CLEARLY jumped the start and
I don’t it should have taken them several laps to determine this. Drivers in
the past have been notified at the end of the first lap that they have
received stop-go penalties for less obvious incidents.

Dare I say that the stewards in order to spice up the proceedings for the US
market waited for David to bring Michael back to Mika to prevent Michael
from running away at the start? A dangerous situation as Coulthard had
nothing to lose now that he is no longer in championship contention.
Therefore any incident between him and Michael would benefit Mika. Hence
Michael’s comment’s at the post race interview about Coulthard’s
unnecessarily aggressive tactics to keep him behind. A dangerous situation
considering Coulthard has a problem with Schumacher and is something Michael
should never had been subjected to.

Other than that a great result for Formula 1.

FF

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3 Comments »

  1. Falcon Freak <Falcon_Fr…@bigpond.com> wrote:
    >The only blemish was that they didn’t give Coulthard his stop go penalty
    >until AFTER he was passed by Schumacher. David CLEARLY jumped the start and
    >I don’t it should have taken them several laps to determine this. Drivers in
    >the past have been notified at the end of the first lap that they have
    >received stop-go penalties for less obvious incidents.

    Would it really have made that much difference?

    The Stewards know that they have a certain amount of time within which
    they have to make their decision as long as they are within that time
    then there isn’t a problem.

    If they had called him in earlier then we would have missed one of the
    best fights of the whole race!


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    Comment by admin — November 30, 2009 @ 6:22 pm

  2. "Falcon Freak" wrote

    > The only blemish was that they didn’t give Coulthard his stop go
    > penalty until AFTER he was passed by Schumacher.

    I’d hardly call it a blemish. One of the more exciting parts of the
    race, I would have thought.

    > David CLEARLY jumped the start and

    David clearly had a dragging clutch, as was obvious in one of his pit
    stops.

    > I don’t it should have taken them several laps to determine this.
    > Drivers in the past have been notified at the end of the first
    > lap that they have received stop-go penalties for less
    > obvious incidents.

    I have no problem with the Stewards double-checking the telemetry from
    the start-line computer. What harm can it do.

    > Dare I say that the stewards in order to spice up the proceedings
    > for the US market waited for David to bring Michael back to
    > Mika to prevent Michael from running away at the start?

    I doubt anybody has that convoluted a mind, or was paying that much
    attention to the race situation. They would have been looking at the
    telemetry print out and deciding whether it was punishable. DC did,
    after all, clearly make an attempt to stop the car creeping before
    finally blasting off. Then the team has to be informed within 20
    minutes. Then the team has three laps to call the driver in, so the
    stewards were hardly the only factor.

    > A dangerous situation as Coulthard had
    > nothing to lose now that he is no longer in championship contention.

    And yet there is no reason to assume that he would do anything
    unsporting. He hasn’t in the past.

    > Therefore any incident between him and Michael would benefit Mika.
    > Hence Michael’s comment’s at the post race interview about
    > Coulthard’s unnecessarily aggressive tactics to keep him
    > behind.

    Michael’s post-race comments should be taken with a pinch of salt. DC
    drove comfortably within what is regarded as acceptable practice when
    blocking these days and made considerable effort to avoid taking MS
    out when Michael gave him an easy opportunity to do so. In fact,
    Martin Brundle commented on the amount of trust Schumacher was putting
    in Coulthard when he pulled the overtake.

    > A dangerous situation
    > considering Coulthard has a problem with Schumacher and is something
    >Michael should never had been subjected to.

    Coulthard has a problem with Schumacher? Not sure I understand that.

    > Other than that a great result for Formula 1.

    Well, who won was relatively immaterial, wasn’t it. The fact is that
    it was a great event…lots of close racing throughout the field;
    plenty of overtaking; plenty of incident, but no accident; no safety
    car; a podium place in doubt up to the line.

    The only thing which would have made it better would have been if
    Mika’s car had survived. Then we would have seen the two relatively
    evenly-matched best drivers in the world in two relatively
    evenly-matched cars go head-to-head on a circuit where overtaking is
    possible. Now that would have given the US audience something to get
    excited about, whoever won.

    Incidentally, I have a sneaking feeling it might have been Mika (or
    even DC but for the clutch problem). I think the McLarens might have
    had the edge in race trim once the track dried.

    Funny to see Michael making one of his trademark errors when not under
    pressure. He really should have eliminated those from his repertoire
    by now ;-) .


    David Betts (dav…@motorsport.org.uk)

    "In the end it’s always a matter of more accelerator and less brake" –
    Frank Gardner

    The Ferrari Gallery:
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    Comment by admin — November 30, 2009 @ 6:22 pm

  3. On Mon, 25 Sep 2000 04:32:38 CST, Emma <E…@excalvehs.demon.co.uk>
    wrote:

    >Falcon Freak <Falcon_Fr…@bigpond.com> wrote:
    >>The only blemish was that they didn’t give Coulthard his stop go penalty
    >>until AFTER he was passed by Schumacher. David CLEARLY jumped the start and
    >>I don’t it should have taken them several laps to determine this. Drivers in
    >>the past have been notified at the end of the first lap that they have
    >>received stop-go penalties for less obvious incidents.

    >Would it really have made that much difference?

    >The Stewards know that they have a certain amount of time within which
    >they have to make their decision as long as they are within that time
    >then there isn’t a problem.

    >If they had called him in earlier then we would have missed one of the
    >best fights of the whole race!

    After the team is notified of a stop go penalty they have three laps
    to bring in the driver … What happened was the Coultard was told he
    would have to come in so he should slow down and jerk Schumacher
    around to allow Hakinen to catch up or (hopefully) pass.

    It was a good fight and although i hate to give Schumacher credit for
    anything good he did very well to pass Coultard when he was trying so
    hard to jam him up….

    Comment by admin — November 30, 2009 @ 6:22 pm

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