June 11, 2007

Montreal Thoughts

Some thoughts looking back at Montreal...

1) Lewis Hamilton had to win his first race five times over. First at the actual start when he beat back the assault of his teammate and Felipe Massa's Ferrari, then four more times after the safety cars came out. Despite cold tires each time, he never bobbled, never put a wheel wrong... and deserved the win.

2) Fernando Alonso is running scared. I think he's realized his main competetor for the Driver's Championship isn't in a red car, it's in the other 'glare with wheels' on the track. His graceless comment, "(Hamilton's win was) good, but lucky" isn't tactful, but it is telling. In fact, one could easily point out that 'Nando is fortunate to be only 8 points behind his teammate, as he's really been outdriven by Hamilton four time out of the six races.

3) Montreal Marmot Massacre. I wish I had waited until the driver press conferences were finished to post the F1 UPDATE!. How could I have missed out on Ant Davidson's story?

“It is such a shame about the beaver. It had it in for me for sure! I was running in third place at the time, behind the safety car. I was on a clear, one stop strategy and it damaged the front wing. I couldn’t even see it at high speed and I could not understand why suddenly I locked up the front tyres and so I had to come in to the pitlane. The guys were taken by surprise in the garage when I came in, but they were really on it with the race strategy after that, telling me to overtake the safety car to get my lap back and it was a really enjoyable race at the end.”

Yes, that odd shot of a car sitting in the pitlane with his pitcrew nowhere nearby was Davidson's SuperAguri... his unscheduled stop was because he ran over a 'beaver.' By all reports, his car was rather messy when it pulled in...

4) Robert Kubica Update. From 'dead' to 'broken leg' to 'sprained ankle', he's obviously quite lucky... and now, he might very well be running in the USGP! The decision will be made on Thursday, but he's likely to be cleared to race, medically. Mentally, though...? I dunno, I'd be cautious, and it's not like BMW is in danger of being caught for 3rd in the Constructor's Championship anytime soon. Robert, take the race off.

5) Interesting Statistic. Which car had the highest speed through the speed traps on Sunday? (hint: it wasn't McLaren or Ferrari) Answer below... Would you believe the Renaults? This might be an interesting USGP...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:41 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 446 words, total size 3 kb.

1 How in the heck can BMW have a car ready in time for the USGP? The one Kubica piled up has to be a total loss.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 11, 2007 05:48 PM (+rSRq)

2 Indeed, during the North American leg teams are not supplied by factories between races (well, except what FedEx can ship on short notice). But they always have a T-car. At worst, BMW will run without a spare, with 2 cars only.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at June 11, 2007 06:01 PM (9imyF)

3 The T-Car is a spare car, used in the event of something like this, Steven. Basically if a car is damaged beyond fast repair, a team would roll out the T-car for qualifying or the race. If I'm not mistaken, Honda had to use a T-car earlier this year, when... um... Rubens Barrichello, I think it was, had some sort of major bollixing (complete driveshaft failure or something like that) just before Quals. He complained that it wasn't set up the way he liked it, too.

Or, if they wanted to, they could theoretically fly a chassis over from Germany, then fit it with the engine, etc, from their 'spare parts' box once it arrives. I'm sure they have two or three cars ready to go in Europe, since typically the teams ship the cars for the North American leg of the season over before the prior race (Monaco, in this case) is run, and leave the European leg cars home. That allows them to make modifications back at the factory while the other races are being run.

Now, if this happened to, say, SuperAguri, that might not be the case. I don't think they have the resources to have five or six chassis on hand (or maybe they do, thanks to Honda being their parent company)... I know Minardi certainly didn't (unless you count their two-seat cars).

So, no, they won't have a problem having two cars on the track on Sunday. Heck, they may very well be able to salvage part of the wrecked car, like the form-fitting, custom-made driver's seat, and plop that into whatever chassis they run.

Posted by: Wonderduck at June 11, 2007 06:22 PM (2nDll)

4 They might be able to salvage the seat, but they're not going to find his seat cushion anytime soon.

Watching the video you posted, it's amazing Kubica survived, let alone as lightly injured as he was. You mentioned the head-restraint device in an earlier post; how long have they been using those?

And thanks for the F1 Updates. Please keep them coming!

Posted by: Tyler at June 12, 2007 04:56 AM (FcJ6h)

5 There's a discussion of Super Aguri's logistics here:
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=256700&FS=F1
Notice:
- Lots of spares taken
- Three cars, not two
- Sea freight, in addition to air

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at June 12, 2007 06:31 AM (9imyF)

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