The F1 season 2004

Hi Stuart,

Panis was a very good test driver at BAR. But it was the analytical work that we coducted back at the factory backed up by some testing over the past 18 months that has got us to where we are now!

Ian

 

hi Ian,

an ellipse, I'm sure you're aware, is the literary technique of leaving something out. What someone doesn't say can be more interesting/illuminating than what they do say.

 

So I see that Enrique Bernoldi is going to test for BAR in September . I hope he's not being considered as a Button replacement, that would be a bad move.

Michael.

 

Hi Markus,

"What someone doesn't say can be more interesting/illuminating than what they do say."

As usual you are spot on in understanding what I have said or not said!

Hi Michael,

We will get a good idea how fast Bernoldi is soon, and so will Bernoldi!

Ian

 

From formula1.com:

"Trulli, Schumacher, Alonso, Coulthard, Fisichella, Barrichello, Webber, Massa, Panis, Raikkonen - it should be a good race."

Indeed it should. If Schumacher finishes, he is all but assured of the champioship, so he could play it safe, but I think he'll try his best to win the race.

Too bad about Button and Sato, both of which started out reasonably well but lost it in the 2nd and 3rd sector. Renauld should pull further ahead again in the constructors championship, but luckily for BAR Williams didn't do too good a job of qualifying either. Maybe both these teams and McLaren gambled on better weather tomorrow and set up their cars accordingly.

 

Coulthard to BAR

Noticed this in the AtlasF1 grapevine. When asked about his driver lineup for next year, Richards (inadvertantly it appears) stated he was happy with his current line up of Coulthard and Sato. Curious.

Coulthard appears to have a similarly smooth driving style as does Button, just not sure he ultimately has the speed to win these days but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

 

I'd say that DC has had enough chances to win the WDC in what was frequently the best car on the grid and not taken them. Still, I'd be interested to see what he could do at BAR as (presumably) a No.1 driver and no Finns around .

Congrats to MS on a 7th title . Will he retire at the end of this year? Somehow I doubt it. Cracking race aswell allthough spoilt by the SC. MS would clearly have won had it not been for the SC and the rather bad effect the tyre cooling had on the Bridgestones. Charlie Whiting has to think harder about how to clean up the track properly after an incident as there were just way to many punctures in that race.

Michael.

 

Ian, congrats for moving up to 2nd in the constructors. Alltogether a superb race and what a comeback by Schumacher . Nice for Ferrari to celebrate both titles with a 1-2 on home turf and also for Barichello to get his first win of the season, what's more, a win that wasn't gifted to him.

Michael.

 

I don't know about that Michael. I think Shumi could have taken him, if they weren't both driving those red cars.

But I echo your other views, who'd have predicted second place for BAR at the start of the season? Well done.

 

A great race. Maybe all the rule changes Mosley needs to introduce is to make MSC always start from the back of the field. Only on those tracks where overtaking is possible, of course.

Congrats indeed to BAR for a superb race. For a moment there it looked like button could get his first victory, but 3 and 4 is great.

Alonso continues to badmouth just about anybody. Recently, it was RSC, this race it was the marshals for not pushing him out of the gravel. Pleasant sort, isn't he?

 

I realise it would've been a dangerous thing to do considering where he ended up and the fact that he was pointing the wrong way but perhaps the marshals should have pushed Alonso out of the gravel, the marshalls would have positively enjoyed dis-qualifying him for getting the push. Would have been sweet revenge

Sorry, is this a bit wicked?

 

The regulations state that you can get a push from marshalls and not be DQ'd if your car was "in a dangerous position" and getting a push would be the quickest way out of it. I don't think that applied in this case, whereas it did when Schumacher went off at Nurburgring last year and got a push.

That hasn't stopped the Schumacher haters on Atlasf1.com forums from crying foul and talking of double standards . They all reckon that had it been Schumacher beached instead of Alonso he would have got the push. I'm not so sure.

Also, I'm not so sure that MS would have been able to overtake RB for the win had they both been trying. It would have required a mistake from RB.

Michael.

 

So Trulli's out, Villeneuve is in. This should be interesting: JV will push very, very hard to secure himself a cockpit for next season. If Alonso can't beat him much more convincingly than he beat Trulli, Alonso's status as a coming champion will be in trouble.

What should further liven things up is there are now two drivers on the grid with a well-rehearsed propensity for taking out Michael S., JV and JPM. I predict a few more tire failures because of carbon splinters on the track ...

Ralf S. seems to have lost none of his speed. I'm really interested to see how well he and Toyota will do next season.

 

I can say that at BAR we are very pleased to be second1 We just have to hold onto it now.

The race was very interesting from a technical viewpoint and I am sure from a racing viewpoint. Monza is often a procession becuase of the type of circuit. But the weather messed that up and made it exciting.

Whilst MSC was lapping at around our pace after passing WEB we thought the win was still on. Then he lapped 1.5 secs faster than us and we knew that a Ferrari was going to win.

Thanks for all the positive comments.

Ian

 

Ian or anyone else ,

If it's not too much trouble, would it possible to post a brief summary of the rule changes for 2005?, or a link to a site which lists them? The F1.com site and ITV.com only mention bits n bobs such as improved driver protection, possibly harder tyres, engines having to last 2 races etc. I realise I may be asking a lot.

 

Have you worked out what happened there? I don't think it was Ferrari playing cat and mouse, more likely a question of tires. Bridgestone seem to have overcome last season's performance handicap.

 

Blimey, things are happening fast: JV will go to Sauber next season while Fisichella goes to Renault.

Coulthard at BAR looks ever more likely. He wouldn't have been my choice for sure.

 

My sad suspicion from an outsider's point of view is that what we saw was the first time this season that Ferrari have had to show their hand so to speak.

Quite frightening really the pace they both showed whilst playing catch up.

 

I don't think so merlin. At least Barrichello would have had ample opportunity to show off the Ferrari's superiority in earlier races.

That said, Monza is high speed like the Hungaroring where Ferrari was superb, too. A Bridgestone team member is quoted saying that the Ferrari has more chassis-generated downward force than the other cars and is thus easier on the tires (not sure how that works out; I would think it doesn't matter where the down force is generated?).

 

Dev, go to www.atlasf1.com and buy a subscription. It's easily the best F1 news/magazine site there is. They also have a forum (no subscription required) but that's usually just flame wars between pro/anti Schumacher/Ferrari supporters

Michael.