Upcoming Monza event

[FVel]

I think Ferrari should do well this weekend.

Traditionally they have always been strong at Monza as they tend to favor the fast sweeping tracks. If I'm not wrong, the last time McLaren won here was Montoya in 2005, but 2005 was a particularly disastrous year for Ferrari in terms of car development. The change in rules hurt them pretty badly in 05.

Latest reports at Monza practice show an early McLaren dominance, but we won't really know the situation for certain until qualifying. Practice times are often indicative but can frequently be misleading come the race weekend.

Prancing horse for the win ??

 

[si|verfish]

Providing they don't shoot themselves in the foot, Ferrari should edge this one.

 

[drag_addict]

well...
i guess this round i'll put my money on the scarlet reds particularly Kimi..
he started on pole in '06 but loses to Schumi....
Alonso starts from 10th but retired due to engine failure...

 

[- D i a b l o -]

lets see how it goes tonite. i really hope Kimi and Massa do some italian magic. tifosi in monza arent used of losing at home.

 

[si|verfish]

LoL...the Scuderia just got pwned.

McLaren really upped their performance on high speed tracks.

On a side note, Hamilton pulled off a brave but foolish maneuver on Raikonnen. If Raikonnen didn't give way, it would have certainly ended in tears.

 

[prodigy]

Yeah, i was surprised by Mclaren's speed, though for a moment i thought Kimi would nick it this time. His single pitstop got me worried for Mclaren's as at one point he was only 15+ seconds behind and had he kept that gap for more laps, he would have easily come out ahead of Alonso and Ham.

As for the overtaking on Kimi, i thought it was a brilliant piece of move. Both drivers showed maturity in not overcooking their overtaking and of coz defensive manouvres. Ham saw the opportunity pretty late and he dived in real late into the inside of the corner. Kimi probably was caught unaware and he tried to brake later but ended up locking up his brakes while Ham slid thru, drifted the car a little, gave it a lil opposite lock and got the position cleanly. Kimi probably felt a little gutted as i also think at that point he was starting to take care of the car. Maybe he felt something was going wrong and wanted to make sure the team gets some point, instead of none.

It looks increasingly likely that either 1 Mclaren drivers will win the WDC unless Mclaren screw up bigtime and retire the next 4 races. Mclaren should just aim for reliability from now on as even if they finish 2nd or 3rd, they should still comfortably win the title. But then with Alonso and Hamilton both not exactly the best team mates, its hard to say if one will help another. I just hope both of them act maturely and win Mclaren their first title in 8 years.

 

[FVel]

Well so much for my predictions of Ferrari competitiveness at Monza. They got slaughtered by McLaren.

I think it is reasonably safe to say that both titles is in the bag for McLaren if they continue their current form. At this stage, barring a catastrophic turn of events, I cannot see Ferrari making up the points with so few races left.

The move by Hamilton was quite brilliant and he has shown his skills repeatedly at GP2 and now at F1. The last brilliant overtake he did before this one was against Fischela at Nurburgring 2007. I think the young chap is phenomenal talent although I am not impressed by his lack of sportmanship (at this year's Monaco and Hungary).

 

[prodigy]

Honestly, i think Alonso has got more of a sportmanship problem, rather than Hammy. Alonso is a 2 times WDC and he has to act like one, rather than fight like kids with his debutant team mate. I have a feeling he over reacted over this team mate rivalry thingy and now he's bringing it to the team. What else can he ask for more, he's won the Italian GP and he's ignored those pitwall crews when he crossed the line and then ignored Ron and his race engineer on the radio. Also, he's been bad mouthing the team for siding Hammy and stuff like that. He should just move back to Renault and see if he can still win like in Mclaren.