Gotta take exception with that David. I'm certainly not a Michael fan but I think this "rules" stuff about swerves is getting ridiculous. There isn't a rule. There is some sort of agreement about excessive dangerous movements but there is no rule.
Deliberately ramming someone off the track (Schuey/Jacques at Jerez or Schuey/Hill in Australia) is out of order but protecting your position is part of the sport. It's up to the man behind to find his way around in such a way as the passed guy can't do anything about it. The great racing moments... Senna/Mansell, Villeneuve/Arnoux, Mansell/Piquet all involve moves to protect the position. Don't want to rule those out do we?

What a great GP on Sunday ..

Shame it had to be started behind the safety car but it was an eventfull race ... what a great overtaking stunt Mika pulled, has to be one of the best this season ... surprised Shumie anyway ... which can't be a bad thing, I certainly want one of those "go faster" buttons Mika has installed on my car .... certainly does the trick ..

K

Yeah, as a long term Schumacher fan I was very impressed when Hakinen out Shumi'd Schumi.

Mika did lose it early on though, which still makes me doubt his all round ability.

Andrew

I think if he feels he has no chance he stops trying and just cruises home, but if he thinks he has a small glimmer of hope he goes into "hyper mode" and there is no stopping him .... great to watch but it must be annoying for Ron Dennis to see he can push harder ...

I'm not a Schumi fan at all and it's great to see someone out race him on the track on not in the pit lane .. for a change !!

K

Schumacher's gone off the road a few times himself, but it doesn't make me doubt his ability, and I'm not one of his fans. Senna, Prost and most of the other great drivers have made "unforced" errors during their careers.

Nice move by Mika, especially as Schumacher stretched the rules to the limit once again with his block on the previous lap.

<B>F1 in Shock Overtaking Action Scandal</B>

Nice to see a bit of racing for a change, rather than just pit tatics winning.

McLaren managed to screw up DC's chances by getting the pit stop entry wrong again though. He must get fed up with being hung out to dry.

Just thought though, are there any pit line rules that say you can't have two cars in at the same time?

Martin Brundle pointed out it takes time to get the next set of tyres out, but even that would have been less than another lap of Spa.

Chris.


[This message has been edited by ChrisB (edited 29 August 2000).]

They can't service 2 cars at once. Having a queue is fine though.

Am I in a rules mood today or what ? ;-)

It all depends on what you consider a fair manouevre. Defending your line for a corner is one thing, swerving aross the track on the straight is another. Shumacher's move on Sunday was IMHO borderline within the agreement, he got away with the 2nd change of direction (back to the left of the track) because he was approaching a corner.

The point is that the (about-to-be) passed car can <I>always</I> do something about it, simply by swerving across the nose of the car behind. Most of the classic "sold him a dummy" overtaking moves work because the car in front moves one way, the car behind goes the other and the driver in front holds his line. Are you saying it's ok (let alone good viewing) if the car in front then chops back again?

The "agreement" is necessary in F1 because the cars are quite wide in relation to most circuits, making blocking a relatively trivial task. Blocking isn't nearly as much of an issue in bike racing.

I do agree with your sentiment about getting more great racing moments. Trouble is, that won't happen until they go back to proper slicks with steel brakes and take about 50cm off the front & rear wings. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif


[This message has been edited by DavidRB (edited 29 August 2000).]

Chris ..

Too right, nice to see overtaking done on a circuit and not in a pit lane ( DC the exception at this GP ). I'm with you on this one, they did make a real mess of the 1st (forced ?) stop, a lap or possible two laps late to start with and I'm sure DC could of backed-off just a tad on the "in" lap and got in on the same lap into a partially ready crew and out again quicker than doing a 2 minute lap or whatever they were on at that point .... still it's history now and he has it all to do to keep up with the two at the top.

It's a shame really as I thought DC was on his way to his 1st world championship this year as he was out-driving his team mate .... untill the last two gp's that is ....

K

No I can't say I think it's ok to keep chopping back and forth. It was nice to have have a pass that built up over several laps and involved a fight for a change. Twice in one year... we are being spoilt !

I'm with you on the slicks and wings for sure.

Glad we agree! http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

As for DC, he has speed, but has lacked concentration & the ability to set his car up. This season, he seemed to up his game a level, his concentration was higher and his aggression was more channelled.

Sadly, he still seems to struggle with setting up his car. How many times have we heard Martin Brundle say "DC's really been struggling to get the front/back of the car to work this weekend" when Mika has no problem?

[This message has been edited by DavidRB (edited 29 August 2000).]

I think Murray should retire gracefully now - it's getting quite embarrassing. With all this technology in F1 we still don't know whether its Heidfeld or Alesi!