1999 CART Series champion in his rookie year. 7 wins, 7 poles, youngest ever CART champion.
2000 Indy 500 winner on his first attempt.
2001 F1 rookie. 3 poles, one win, 6th in driver's championship

And he just took his 3rd consecutive pole in Europe. Now if only BMW can make his motor last the race . . .

OK, I'm done

Originally posted by Phantom
Now if only BMW can make his motor last the race . . .



Details Details...

I liked watching qualifing when R. Schumacher took the pole and was sitting back in the PIT watching JP Montoya do his warm up lap... then answer back by steeling the pole from RSchumacher by only .009 of a second.

RSchumacher took it with a small german smirk... his wife on the other hand was left with her jaw dropped in amazement.

Bad luck strikes again. I'm tired of the Ferrari parade.

Originally posted by Phantom
Bad luck strikes again. I'm tired of the Ferrari parade.

Yeah.... me too.

And why is it that Montoya's motors always grenade but Ralf seems to finish nearly all the races? Aren't the engines supposed to be identical?

In Canada they said they adjusted Montoya's car to do more engine braking since their brake package wasn't working as well as they'd hoped. Ralf adjusted his engine braking higher too but not as high as JPM.
That's their official excuse for blowing both engines in Canada anyway.

I have no problem with Ferrari dominating the sport for a few years. I'd much rather have a situation like this, where one team dominates because they simply have the best cars and the best drivers, rather than the fuggin' weekly rule changes seen in NASCAR. It pisses me off to no end when you have a team in NASCAR (hello Dodge) that complains loud and hard to the officials that they aren't competitive. So instead of just saying 'tough shit, make your cars faster' they cave in and allow them to run a smaller spoiler or some other crap. This happened at Daytona, and the decision was made either Saturday or Sunday morning (the race weekend, anyway) to allow the spoiler change. Bullsh*t

Kudo's to F1 for allowing a team to dominate. It makes everyone else better.

Chris

Originally posted by Cannon
I have no problem with Ferrari dominating the sport for a few years.

Well supposedly from what I heard on the Discover channel... Ferrari spends 300million a year (every year) on their racing budget. Their wind tunner is running 365 days a year. :eek2:

Most companies only spend that in excess when they are developing a whole new car/engine for the upcoming year, then it trails down as they reuse different parts here and there...

300 MILLION?! :eek: Dang...

Well, I am tired of hearing about Ferrari winning every week. I mean, it's just not as exciting as it used to be anymore, to me at least. I find myself less inclined to sit through a whole race anymore...I wish Williams would have decent race days.

I don't fault FIA at all for "allowing" one team to dominate. They haven't "allowed" anything, actually.

Ferrari has built a superior team. I commend Ferrari for taking several painstaking years to build a dominant team. Good on them.

However, I'm not a fan of the Ferrari team for several reasons.

The team fields two cars per race, but their efforts are geared totally toward making one driver the champion, M. Schumacher. Barrichello is a designated Number 2 driver; says so in his contract. This, to me, goes against the spirit of true competition. True competitors (F1 drivers especially) naturally strive to be the best. To sign up as a designated Number 2 goes against the true spirit of being number one.

Put another way, Ferrari has made Barrichello their whore, paid for his timely, dutiful, skilled services, but he is "allowed" to win only if it doesn't threaten M. Schumacher's chances. So, Ferrari and M.S. get to shoot their wad, and they send Rubens home with blueballs. This to me is total B.S.

I don't fault Rubens for signing with the number one team. He gets to drive the best cars on the grid, and he draws a decent paycheck. He's a supporting member of a World Champion team. And perhaps he's biding his time in the hopes of eventually emerging from M. Schumacher's shadow, to one day be his own champion. But his future is determined not by his performance, but by factors beyond his control.

Reference this points chart for the following paragraphs (http://jsp.formula1.com/f1archives/index.jsp?l=1&x=7&s=1&o=0&y=2002)

Just look at Austria a few weeks ago. What a goat-rope. And it wasn't like M.S. was in a tight race for points. Earning 10 points vs 6 points; 54 points versus 50; the next closest was JPM with 27 points! If M.S. wants the points so badly, let's see him DRIVE and EARN them.

Oh, and what a pitiful attempt to save face after the fact. Only when greeted by jeers and boos after climbing from his car in false victory did the emotionally immature MS truly grasp the gravity of how team orders had spoiled the spirit of competition. Sure as sh!t, MS was fully prepared to stand on the top of the podium, accept the trophy, and gloat in victory, oblivious that his victory was at the expense of RB, the sport, and the fans.

And what if, for some reason, M.S. wasn't able to race after Austria? Then where would Ferrari be? RB would have just 12 points (16 if the team had allowed him to keep his much-deserved first place in Austria). BMW-Williams would be sitting pretty, having encouraged BOTH their drivers to compete for the championship; RAlf with 23 points, JPM with 27.

And today, it could be a tight 4-way battle between:

Ralf 30 points
JPM 27 points
DC 27 points
RB 26 points

with some more points thrown in accounting for the absence of MS:

Ralf 33
DC 31
RB 28
JPM 27

How exciting!! This point truly illustrates my opinion of how MS has detracted from the sport.

And I have trouble respecting M. Schumacher. The guy will never be known for good sportsmanship. Witness his attempts to purposefully crash in to Villenueve and end Jacque's chances for the championship several seasons ago.

How about his habit of slicing across the track to cut off other drivers? I witnessed firsthand his attempt to cut off JPM at the start in Malaysia this year. I was ecstatic when JPM just drove AROUND MS, on the OUTSIDE of Turn 1. MS had the F1 community so blinded that the stewards penalized JPM when MS "understeered" into him. After that JPM DROVE his ass to a commendable second place from the back of the grid.

And that's anther quality MS lacks. JPM DRIVES for every win. He applies his skill to EARN results. Schumi prefers to get pole, then block, or cut off, those behind him.

Among other things, M. Schumacher's notorious habit of blocking demonstrates his uncaring for true competition, disregard for fellow drivers, and, worst of all, his willingness to bastardize the honor of the sport.

MS was an emotional infant in the aftermath of Sept 11 last season. He debated sitting out the next race (bet the thought wouldn't have crossed his mind if he hadn't already had the championship mathematically sewn up, eh?) He even tried to convince the other drivers to "take it easy" going into the first corner of Monza. I loved Eddie Irvine's retort, "I'm paid to race, and that's exactly what I'm going to do." And the fans want to see a race, not a bunch of p*ssyfooting into the first turn just because the reigning World Champion is feeling emotionally insecure at the moment.