Belgian GP 2011 - Spa-Francorchamps

[raymondu999]

Anyone know what on earth this was about? :s

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuBvgEtMj84[/youtube]

[wesley123]

I thought it was just the light into the cockpit, but i'm not sure

[komninosm]

Does anyone have Kobayashi's in-car video? Cause I've been only able to find external camera and Hamilton in-car for the incident. I don't want to discuss blame, I just want to have the video (it was not shown on TV).

[raymondu999]

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/08/28/h ... shi-crash/

[donskar]

Great drive by Button. And again he shows his teammate that a successful driver is smart as well as fast. And another pathetic performance by Massa.

[raymondu999]

Interesting though that Button is back up in the standings (ahead of Lewis).They seem much more evenly matched this year than last; I wonder... could Button actually pull it off and beat Hamilton in the standings?

[vall]

watching the race replay on Swedish TV. Fred was amazing on the soft tire (until the LH crash), but then Vettel took over, he was very fast. I realize Fred had no chance even without the medium tire problems.

[raymondu999]

Absolutely. Seb was absolutely on fire today

[komninosm]

So was the Safety Car really needed? Some say there was foam on track from the broken stuff, but I think it was all in the side/escape road and not the real track. Am I wrong?
I think it was just worry that Hamilton was hurt or something that brought it out initially and then it was too late to take it back.

[raymondu999]

I was actually very worried after his shunt. It could be just me being overly paranoid, but I don't think I saw him moving (for about half a minute) after he bounced off the red tyre barriers. My heart just stopped. The marshall seemed to nudge him but Lewis didn't budge. Then he slowly took out the steering wheel and I breathed a sigh of relief.

[fenix4life]

I was actually very worried after his shunt. It could be just me being overly paranoid, but I don't think I saw him moving (for about half a minute) after he bounced off the red tyre barriers. My heart just stopped. The marshall seemed to nudge him but Lewis didn't budge. Then he slowly took out the steering wheel and I breathed a sigh of relief.

It was indeed rather stressing to see. THis was accentuated by the fact that we could not see his hands from the camera view so we also did not had any feedback from those.

[wesley123]

Great drive by Button. And again he shows his teammate that a successful driver is smart as well as fast. And another pathetic performance by Massa.

To say pathetic is a bit over the top, I think he is severely compimised by strategy since Alonso is the first guy within the team. On the start and first stint I must say he was there, as he seems to be all the time, but he just seems to lose consistency over the race.

[raymondu999]

I remember he once crashed in Nurburgring 2007 or something and after his crash, you couldn't see his hands, but he was wiggling his feet vigorously. It was... weird, but it showed he was alright. But we couldn't see anything just now! :S

[horse]

Remember the saftey car had a lot to do with Button's fortune.
Without it, he may have been scrapping with the Mercedes.

He came out from the pit stop behind Schumacher, with both of them on brand new options. So I guess he did scrap with the Mercedes? I don't think he had the pace of the RB today though, but he might have been in contention if he hadn't had to make the first stop for the new wing.

Did you see Senna's front wing take out Button's wing mirror? It was a war zone on that first lap!

It could be just me being overly paranoid, but I don't think I saw him moving (for about half a minute) after he bounced off the red tyre barriers.

I was worried too, but I thought I saw him trying to steer the car back onto the circuit after the accident, so I thought it was a bit weird if he'd been knocked out. They said he was a little winded by it.

The whole accident reminded me of the Button/Hamilton Canada incident, accept Hamilton came off worse while being both behind and in front.

[andartop]

To say pathetic is a bit over the top, I think he is severely compimised by strategy since Alonso is the first guy within the team. On the start and first stint I must say he was there, as he seems to be all the time, but he just seems to lose consistency over the race.

Alonso consistenly drives his ass off, largely outqualifies Massa and fights for podiums, whereas he makes very few mistakes out of which he usually recovers.
Massa consistenly qualifies poorly, and in the races -provided he manages not to spin- he drifts away after being unable to overtake Rosberg and ends up always struggling to finish in the points for one reason or the other, which we also saw today even before the puncture.
Surely it doesn't take a Ross Brawn to tell you which of the two should have priority within the team strategy wise.
If I was Massa, I would go for a completely different strategy to Alonso: since he can't beat him on track might as well try to gamble.
If I was Ferrari, I would thank Massa very much for everything he has offered to the team and wish him the best of luck for the future.
I honestly think a move to Sauber would be best for all parties involved.