French GP 2007

[jddh1]

Nick Heidfeld has really been a chicken today...

Well, Heidfeld is suffering from a back injury, where one of his ribs rubs painfully on his spine. I was surprised they let him race anyway. I'm sure he'll be looking for some treatment during the upcoming 3 week break. Don't expect to see him in testing.

[abarth850]

r u kidding me? if he does, i'll climb my building's stairs (34 floors!) wearing nothing but my underwear

time to check for skidmarks

[allan]

r u kidding me? if he does, i'll climb my building's stairs (34 floors!) wearing nothing but my underwear

time to check for skidmarks

i thought nobody would remember that
i'll do it first thing in the morning, and post some pics here

[ds.raikkonen]

Well done Kimi, now every critic can shut the f@#* up

[vyselegend]

I'm glad Kimi won, now it means every 2007 winners are even with two wins each!
It's a rare thing, and it proves the championship is still open.

Obviously I'm very disapointed by Renault's performance. They were claiming they had overtaken BMW, but their pace was more comparable to Toyotas or Hondas.
Also, I'm full of respect for Trulli, but what a rookie mistake he made on the poor Kovalainen! What was he thinking seriously...? It was really a debacle for the losange on their first home race, I really hope the second one will be better next week.

Globaly a boring race, appart for Alonso's overtaking moves, and the awakening of Raikonen...

[dumrick]

Globaly a boring race, appart for Alonso's overtaking moves, and the awakening of Raikonen...

Don't forget Albers' ever more frequent "clowny" moments...!

[checkered]

I'm sure Trulli didn't

score any more "points" with Briatore, but all in all, it was just a misjudged and a (hugely) optimistic move. A "racing incident" category event. Jarno should've just realized that even if there seemed to be an opening as seen from afar, in the first lap there was bound to be someone ahead who would close the the inside line on him. It just happened to be Kovy, who really had nowhere else to go and certainly had to be a bit surprised to find a Toyota and not a BMW coming at him with a vengeance.

I was surprised with the McLarens four stint strategy ... sure, Alonso had to play it different but what, exactly, Hammy had to gain from this? The pit lane at Magny is short for sure, but it's very pessimistic to change tactics and not trust the backmarkers being able to do the right thing. Maybe they just miscalculated, but it sure enough seemed that they didn't even want to be close. Perhaps they weren't too keen to tip their hand as to their potential weaknesses; a one-stopper might've been out of the question (Jense didn't do too badly) for some reason ... they also revved only to ~18.700 at the most, so perhaps their engine is compromized more in its second race that the competition's. Fern provided entertainment with his aggression, but I couldn't help thinking that by easing off somewhat behind the likes of Nick, let them lap at their peak speed and not engage in prolonged fights, he could've taken one or two points more from France.

On a cautiously positive note, Ferrari let their drivers battle it out pretty convincingly - especially compared to past showings. Sure, they had almost certainly been warned off challenging each other too forcefully on the track and Kimi's fuel load pretty much pre-empted that anyway, but inside the team they had clearly been on the level about their fuel loads (and perhaps even had a say on their preferred fuel strategy) and both very clearly knew almost to the tenth what it would take to beat the teammate. As a result both pushed to the limit at times to gain the upper hand. Partly it came down to traffic, but in the absence of major mistakes by either driver the rest was mathematics. If Kimi is set to return to his competitive heavy qualifying ways, it will provide a nice tactical curveball for Baldisseri to confound the opposition.

Once again there was this quite large oscillation between the performance of the top teams. It is seemingly down to different reasons each time, but still, there it is. Maybe that's one aspect of this season that stands out in retrospect.

[pRo]

Obviously I'm very disapointed by Renault's performance. They were claiming they had overtaken BMW, but their pace was more comparable to Toyotas or Hondas.

Actually their performance seemed pretty good.

Considering Heikki's power steering failed in the qualifying and Trulli made him spin in the start, which broke his tyre.

After that Heikki was very fast on free track, at times the fastest car on the track and constantly matching the top 3 cars laptimes. I'm sure he would've been ahead of the BMW's without the issues. But we just have to wait and see what happens on the next race.


Fisi was just slow.

[pRo]

I was just watching a replay of the race and noticed that Alonso had a black cloth around his hand. Has someone close to him died recently or what was the reason for that?

[Steven]

I was just watching a replay of the race and noticed that Alonso had a black cloth around his hand. Has someone close to him died recently or what was the reason for that?

http://www.f1technical.net/news/6277

[manchild]

ERROR

[vyselegend]

Obviously I'm very disapointed by Renault's performance. They were claiming they had overtaken BMW, but their pace was more comparable to Toyotas or Hondas.

Actually their performance seemed pretty good.

Considering Heikki's power steering failed in the qualifying and Trulli made him spin in the start, which broke his tyre.

After that Heikki was very fast on free track, at times the fastest car on the track and constantly matching the top 3 cars laptimes. I'm sure he would've been ahead of the BMW's without the issues. But we just have to wait and see what happens on the next race.


Fisi was just slow.

Their perf in qualy isn't as good as it seems, as Giancarlo was on a shorter first stint than Heidfeld and similar to Kubica, Heikki was actually planned to stop even before, and his position behind Fisi is the result of the steering problem indeed.

Fisi was slow in the second stint because of severe tyre graining. There was little he could do with more than 30 laps of fuel and degradated tyres. I believe Alonso suffered the exact same trouble on his very long last stint, hence why he couldn't pass the ( sorry to insist ) disapointingly slow R27.

Only positive note is Fisi's 5th fastest lap overall, fastest than BMWs, but it means little considering he was escaping Alonso, while both BMWs probably slowed down for a safe end already.
This article from autosport seems to confirm BMW's -better than expected- form:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60430

[pRo]

Anyone have the times for Massa's and Kimi's 2nd pitstops? Massa is nagging that he thinks his 2nd stop took longer than it should've.

[Tom]

Interesting thought, obviously wouldn't work at Magny because the finish line is the entrance to the pits but there are some circuits where the first few cars pit boxes are ahead of the finish line. Are the teams alowed to use the optimum tyre all race, stop once for fuel and then once more on the last lap at which point they change to the 2nd mandatory tyre and drive the 5m to the finish line on it without loosing 15 secs travelling down the pit lane?

[vyselegend]

No I think it is forbidden to cross the chekered flag in the pit lane. Not sure though...
Or maybe it is simply just forbidden to pit on the last lap, which in the end means the same.