French GP

cashmni1

Can anyone explain what happened to Kimi's exhaust system yesterday? How come he slowed and then regained his speed? If the exhaust had "broken" how did he re-gain speed after the pit stop?
I had to suffer the ITV commentary, which was, as usual, disgusting and vile in relation to the pro Hamilton camp.

dsmythy

Maybe the problem fixed itself after a while. He was still slower all the way to the end. He said himself that if there was a few more laps he wouldn't of finished up second.

Hamilton is continuing to show that he isn't feeling the pressure by constantly talking about that pressure and how he isn't going to let it get to him. The more he brings it up the more i think it is getting to him. He was clearly wrong to keep that place that got him the drive through. All he had to do was give the place back and take it again on the next lap and he would of got up to 5th or 6th.

Maybe if instead of appearing in plays flying through the air, he gets stuck into his work on track, like he has promised to do following the last two GP's, he can have a good race.

I'll be avoiding ITV like the plague for the British Grand Prix. I expect a full on orgy for Lewis.

FrostyJack

My god how can ITV still have the rights. It is a joke now, they finished the program 7 minutes early for no good reason and didn't show the post race press conference because golden boy wasn't there.
90% of the discussion was about him despite 2 drivers having the race of their career. Even brundle has been lost now, how for a second did he think he didn't gain an advantage cutting the chicane?

Why do they even bother interviewing ron dennis? We all know what he's going to say. If hamilton was to run over bernie on live tv he'd still blame the fia /ferrari/kubrica/everyone else.

Sabre0001

Hamilton cracks when things don't go his way - was very easy when McClaren were at the top of their game (but look at the end of the Season when things started to go awry!). Makes a ton of mistakes once there is some pressure on, often goes overly aggressive to his detriment!

Ghost Train

I don't think kimi regained any speed after the pit stop. He had a big gap to trulli that he had built up at the start of the race, so was able to still finish in second even with a damaged and slightly under powered car.
As for Hamilton, I think the team should have instructed him to give the place back if they thought it was needed... I don't really think it deserved the penalty as he was well passed the redbull when he cut over the corner, seemed like he was just avoiding an accident, wasnt like he cut the corner and overtook... but would need to see some more footage of it.
Great race from trulli to get third, was amazed to hear that it was their first top three finish since 2006

ODD-JOB

Hamilton goes on like a spoilt brat sometimes.
God help him when the bubble bursts ,
did anybody see the interview before the GP , where Lewis was saying " the media build you up and then tear you down ,..... well the media CANT break me down " !!!!!

What a nerd.

On the Kimi Exhaust issue , apparently the exhaust is accountable for 20% of the cars power performance.
The exhaust pipes may have been a significant obstruction to the air-flow whilst attached , but as soon as it flew off , the power was back , but the chassis was burning

rua1972

I guess Kimi had to feel the car for a few laps. The broken exhaust made him lose some horses, coming out of the slow corners. Later there was some light drops of rain. In which case you don't suffer to much from a loss of HP, esspecially without TC. He was still a sec of the pace of Massa, they were lucky to have such a big gap to the rest.
Lewis is trying to hard when he is at the back of the grid and makes these mistakes. Could it be the pressure?

RayM

Hamilton's biggest problem is that he's started his career in a top team. Senna, Mansell, Prost, Schumacher, Hill, Hakkinen, Alonso and Raikkonen all started out in the relatively hype-free obscurity of smaller mid-field teams (or perennial backmarkers, in Senna, Hill and Alonso's cases). They were able to make all their silly mistakes without having them analysed and replayed for the whole world to see. Their formative years were also vital in character-building. There's something about Hamilton that, every time he speaks, makes me cringe. It's like a weird mixture of arrogance and naivety - He's so obnoxiously conscious of being 'the next big thing', continually making reference to the likes of Senna in interviews. In an ideal world, he would have started his career with Spyker/Force India or Torro Rosso. I have a horrible feeling that, far from being the next Senna, he's going to be the next Button.

Frank Bullitt

i get that same feeling, he has skill no doubt, but the problem is that he is expecting to run away with things already. I can see Kubica winning a WDC before him as well. You could see that he was trying to pass as many cars on the first lap as possible and thats what hurt him, he needs to pace himself at that early stage but he tried to overtake where there isnt really an opportunity to do it.

Cant see him him being in contention for long if he carries on like this for the next few races.

Ghost Train

RayM wrote: »

...There's something about Hamilton that, every time he speaks, makes me cringe..

yeah I get that too... it always sounds like hes just spitting out the same lines and doesn't sound sincere... i think its his age too, he's trying to say what he thinks is the right to say for the media and doesn't sound natural

Woden

Was happy with the result for kovalainen after the recent issues he has had. Hoping he'll continue to pick up solid results for the rest of the season.

philliecullen

Heh it was funny how in qualifying, they were happy to poke at Raikkonen for going four wheels off the road and went on saying that he would need to do another run in case he lost the time.
But then when Hamilton goes off track to maintain a position, it's suddenly a 'dodgy' decision. Even to go on and say he was giving a lenient penalty because it was marginal is baffling. Raikkonen got a drive-through penalty at Monaco as well for not having tires fitted. Barrichello got one at Sepang if I recall as well. The days of a 10-second stop and go are a thing of the past now.

DannyBuoy

I was watching the race on Setanta last weekend, normally dont have Setanta and watch it on the Hamilton F1 channel, sorry I meant ITV, it was a welcome relief from hearing his name every second word.
I think he did deserve the penalty, there was no way he was going to take the corner with the speed he carried after passing, if he didn't get a penalty does it mean that everybody can straight line a corner if they're passing?
No question he is a good driver, but he still needs experience. To be fair the red cars dominated the weekend, they were quicker, end of.