Nice end to the season, wasn't it? Such a dominant win for Schumacher. I like it.

And judging by the points table there were two leagues this season: MS and all the rest. Hope this is repeated next year :)

hahaha.....you couldnt wait to post that up to rub everyones nose in it !!!!!

Well done MS.

As you said Alex, there was really only one driver in it this year .

Originally posted by ales
Nice end to the season, wasn't it? Such a dominant win for Schumacher. I like it.

And judging by the points table there were two leagues this season: MS and all the rest. Hope this is repeated next year :)


Yes 1 more year of total domination and no compitition how Fun to watch:rolleyes:

I don't think the season was a complete domination from Ferrari or MS. I mean, yes, the table shows that at the end, but, hey, there were 5 diferent winners this year (MS, MH, RS, JPM, DC), besides, JPM did a few interesting passes to the big Schumy, that was big time fun to see. Even Rubens drove like a man on some races.

Yes, Ferrari won Drivers and Manufacturers champions almost doubling the points of the second places, but apart from the first 2 races, there was always a challenge. Races always finish with a battle at the end, in the middle or at the begining. The problem was reliability from the other teams, but always there was someone fighting with Schuey.

I hope MS win next year again. But I KNOW, there will be a lot more fights next season. Just think, Montoya and Ralp, Raikonnen on a Mclaren and DC on the other car (like to see Jaques on that seat), the surprises we can get from the now dissapear benneton (renault from now on), as David Hobbs will say, "boy o boy" 2002 will be fun to watch.

By the way, MS will had clasified 1st, 2nd and 3er on the Japanesse GP, he did the 3 best times on the session. That was great. That was domintation.

:) When talking about a dominant win I was referring to the Japanese GP, but now that I think about it, it can be applied to the whole season as well. You are right, someone was always fighting MS, but they were always fighting MS! Every season since 1994 there is someone fighting MS! That's what I like. That's what makes him so great in my mind.

As for JPM's win, well, if Michael had put his heart to the Monza race, he would have won. Come on, Rubens finished 5 seconds behind the winner, and when was the previous time that Rubens had finished closer than 5 seconds behind Michael? See? :)

i dunno i guess i just cant get into this kind of racing, i rather watch nascar, they are always neck and neck

but anyway back to the topic, Congrats Michal

Originally posted by vettemaan
i rather watch nascar, they are always neck and neck



It's to boring for me to watch...they just go around and around :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ...i like to see a good touring car race on a circuit like Monza etc.

I would love to have that opportunity to see.:(

Well, the only thing more boring than a nascar race, are the races of those little cars with the baseball cap on top, I think they call it midget. I heard nascar took out the Watkins glen race, so they only turn left now. Getting worse every day.

Best racing series I have seen: British Touring Car Championship, the years between 1996 and 2000.

Originally posted by RCer

Best racing series I have seen: British Touring Car Championship, the years between 1996 and 2000.

Originally posted by vettemaan
i dunno i guess i just cant get into this kind of racing, i rather watch nascar, they are always neck and neck


Make that redneck and neck. :D

Only 10 laps matter in Nastycar.....

The first 5 and the last 5.

Originally posted by P10DET


Make that redneck and neck. :D

Only 10 laps matter in Nastycar.....

The first 5 and the last 5.

Thats about right too.

I want to have Schumie's love child.

Originally posted by johnny
I want to have Schumie's love child.

:eek: :confused: :bloated: :eek: :confused: :bloated:

Originally posted by johnny
I want to have Schumie's love child.

Huh???:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

I really like F1, but domination is dull. I think MS is a great driver and Ferrari a wonderful company, but the same team winning again and again is dull. Mercedes, Williams, Jaguar, and others need to be in the hunt at every race. F1 should quit trying to slow the cars down and let the teams focus on making the best damn cars possible. May 2002 see 6 drivers fighting for the championship right through to the last race.

Originally posted by vectorclub
...may 2002 see 6 drivers fighting for the championship right through to the last race...

... and Michael take the title... :):):):):)

Originally posted by ales


... and Michael take the title... :):):):):)

AGAIN :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

:finger: :finger: :finger:

... and again...



... AND AGAIN ... :):):)

If MS won every year no would watch. Look at Heavy Wieght Boxing during the Tyson era. After the 5th 1st round knockout people gave up watching. If you really love F1 you will hope for real competition with many different winners. I just hope Speedvision gets the F1 American broadcast contract for 2002. I would hate to see F1 become another victim of PAY PER VIEW.

Originally posted by vectorclub
I just hope Speedvision gets the F1 American broadcast contract for 2002. I would hate to see F1 become another victim of PAY PER VIEW.

I'm more scare of ABC getting the rights to do the shitty transmision they did with the USA GP. I can't imagine the whole season of that BS.

Regarding the "Ferrari Domination", I personally don't think things will be easy for MS next year. Montoya seems very strong at the end of the season, and i have a lot of hope for Raikkonnen doing a good job in mclaren.

Anyway, I hope MS wins 3 more championships before retiring.:devil:

I really like F1, but domination is dull. I think MS is a great driver and Ferrari a wonderful company, but the same team winning again and again is dull. Mercedes, Williams, Jaguar, and others need to be in the hunt at every race. F1 should quit trying to slow the cars down and let the teams focus on making the best damn cars possible. May 2002 see 6 drivers fighting for the championship right through to the last race.

if the FIA does stop trying to slow the cars down, im sure you'll find that it will be impossible for the smaller teams to compete with BMW, Ferrari, mcLaren etc as these teams would build the most incredibly technologically advanced and innovative cars, and no one would be able to catch them... so effectively it would be worse for competition if all restrictions were removed. Teams like Minardi, Arrows and Prost simply wouldnt be competitive, i doubt that they would even qualify within the required 107% limit of pole setter to be allowed to race... right now the situation isnt ideal, but speeding the cars up isnt the way to do it...
besides, you have to remember that the faster the cars go, the more dangerous they are... we have already seen terrible accidents take lives in motor racing this year, I'm sure the no one, especially the FIA wants this number to grow..
cheers
jay

To say slwoing the cars down makes it cheaper I think is wrong. These teams spend tens of millions regardless. What I think happend when they change the rules is to hurt the research efforts alrady done. Small teams can't afford to shift their focus every time the FIA comes up a new rule. Motorsports is a dangerous business. In the early days of auto racing death was common. Safety improved as teams learned how to make a better car. Some saftey measures cause more harm then good. NASCAR has shown how slowing cars down can hurt safety more then help. When the groove tire rule came into place it made the F1 cars more lose. These cars should be allowed to have maxium down force. The best way to slow cars down would be fuel restrictions. That is the one form of slowing cars down I would agree with. Using and developing cutting edge technolgy to create better fuel economy is something that could benefit the world. Otherwise let the teams push the level performance to the max.

F1 is about the technology. Small teams are dying under this "safety" effort. F1 is just a very costly sport. It is becoming the battle ground for giants in the auto industry. I see no evidence of how slowing cars down is saving the small teams. Tracks and cars need to improve. Tracks should make sure those who are watching the race are not in harms way. The teams should be required to make the safest cockpit area possible for the driver. Taking away down force, using weaker tires, and other methods of slowing cars down is rubish. I would love to see a day when F1 cars do 300 miles per hour down a straight. The speed restriction should only come into play when the G forces are to much for a human to handle.

Besides what vector said, the efforts for slowing cars are null. This year time were 2 and 3 seconds faster that previous year. Almost all laps records were reset. So, wake up Max, you are not doing your job!!!!:devil:

I agree with the fuel restriccions, besides, the mayor danger in the pit stops right now, is refuelling.

The differences between the big and the small teams would never be equalled by any rule. They simply have to find enought money to do research, or stay at the back end of the grid. That's the cruel reality. So what's the future for Minardi, some day, some big group, like Audi (VW) will be interested in getting in F1, and they buy it or join them with their engine. Otherwise, no hope for Stoddart.

vectorclub>
These teams spend tens of millions regardless
True. But with no restrictions? The sky's the limit on how much the top top teams would spend! At least restrictions leave everyone with the same tasks to work on. With higher budgets, the top teams can have a group of people researching this, another developing this, another one inventing that. While I dont like the fact that creativity is being stifled, it does let the smaller teams stay in the picture. Of course, people will say that just because Arrows and Minardi are smaller it doesn't mean they can't innovate and create something revolutionary. This is true, but only in theory. In practice, they just don't have the money. Simple as that. And money is the reason they'll be down there for quite some time.
Small teams can't afford to shift their focus every time the FIA comes up a new rule
Of course they couldn't, but it's not like the FIA change their plans overnight. Teams are always well and truly informed and prepared for what is to change in the rule book. They have more impact than you'd think.
Some safety measures cause more harm then good
This may have been the case in some of your racing organisations, but certainly not in F1. Luciano Burti would have probably died from his crash at Spa if it had taken place a few years ago (maybe even one). The cars have gotten quicker and quicker, but much much safer. F1 is known to dedicate itself to researching safety more than any other racing association in the world. All safety measures are excatly that. Safe.
These cars should be allowed to have maxium down force
If they did, they wouldn't reach your 300mph mark! :D Anyway, they would be too easy to drive. In the time of Nigel Mansell's WDC winning season, it was mostly about who could brake the latest. That's not racing. Grooved tyres were controversial, but we have seen some pretty awesome racing since and no more "offs" than before. Drivers are always pushing to find the limit, and once in a while they go over it, whether the car is designed to have maximum downforce or not. Tyre grip has gone down, but mechanical grip has more than compensated for it.
Using and developing cutting edge technolgy to create better fuel economy is something that could benefit the world
F1 has, and continues to develop so many safety gizmos, inventions, whatever you want to call them. What's more important to you? Your fuel economy or your health? The basic safety of cars didnt change from the 70s until the early 90's, when Senna's death saw the FIA conduct a lot of research on car safety. As a result, cars are now infinitely safer than they were just a few years ago.
Small teams are dying under this "safety" effort
Would you rather see a driver die because his "small team" didn't build a safe car? No, neither would I.
I would love to see a day when F1 cars do 300 miles per hour down a straight
I would hate to see the day when an F1 car is doing 300 miles an hour down a straight, blows a tyre, flies into and over a wall, kills 10 spectators in an inferno.. you get the point... Why 300mph? Isn't 200 enough? Every single driver says the straights are boring, so why don't we just enjoy the overtaking on turns, chicanes, etc...
F1 is just a very costly sport. It is becoming the battle ground for giants in the auto industry
True. If you really study it, it could be no other way. As you said, F1 is about technology. Investing in this takes a lot of financial clout, which the auto giants have. Besides, they have more to gain from F1 it than anyone else, so they're more desperate to get in. Eddie Jordan was lucky to start his team a decade ago. The simple truth is that it can no longer be done (AND be successful at the same time)
Tracks and cars need to improve. Tracks should make sure those who are watching the race are not in harms way. The teams should be required to make the safest cockpit area possible for the driver
Tracks and cars are improving. But like you said, motorsport is dangerous, and the fans want to be as close as possible to the action. It's not wise to p*ss them off, as they ARE F1!! So the organisers take this into account and try to put them in a safe place. 99.99% of the time, they are successful. What I have a problem with is the marshalls. These guys are just standing around with cars flying past them. I think they should have safer areas to stand in, I'm sure it wouldn't take much to achieve.
The speed restriction should only come into play when the G forces are to much for a human to handle
And how would we find this out? Different people can take different amounts of G-force. What happens when a driver blacks out on the exit of a turn? I don't even want to imagine.

cheers
jay

the efforts for slowing cars are null. This year time were 2 and 3 seconds faster that previous year. Almost all laps records were reset
They're not null at all. Far from it. It's not the cars that are being slowed down, it's the rate they're adavancing at. Just how much faster would the cars be without the current restrictions? The FIA is responsible for the drivers; they don't want things to get out of control, it's very understandable that they want to limit the performance-increase of cars.
They are more moral than the team manager who is (more) ready to risk his driver's life.
If F1 was left in the hands of F1 team bosses, the emphasis on safety would soon switch to performance. The cars would get quicker and safety wouldn't keep up.

And so what if we have Audi competing with Ferrari, BMW, Merc, and Porsche?? It would take away some of the charm of the sport, but it'd be more competitive, thats for sure!

cheers
jay

I really hope hakkinen comes back, seeing Raikkonen and him on a team would be great :)

F1 slowing cars down hurts development of faster safe cars. If the cars were allowed to run at higher speeds then teams would spend time developing tires, bodies, engines and so on that could handle the higher speeds safely. Keeping them under speed restrictions via "safety" rules slows down the development of cars that could handle extremely high speeds and be safe.

Teams should be allowed to use as much down force as they desire and any kind of technology that will speed the cars up. The only rules I would impose is fuel restrictions and cockpit safety requirements to help protect drivers. F1 might require teams prove the safety of new developemnts by doing testing at tracks under FIA supervision.

If you look at the history of racing you will say people thought 60 miles per hour was unsafe. No one thought 100 miles per hour could ever be done in a safe manner. The restrictions are slowing the progress.

F1 needs this progess. It is the almost mythical levels of technology that gets people excited about F1. To say it is the racing is a hard sell. In 90% of the races after the first 10 laps the race gets dull. One or two cars run way ahead of the pack. Viewers can only hope for a mistake on the track or in the pits and a possible mechanical failure.

There are many racing series in America, Asia, and Europe that have tight racing. F1 races start to look like high speed parades.

Those who think cars should be loser so that it is "drivers" event I feel are wrong. Modern F1 is about technolgoy. If you want drivers in loose cars watch rally racings, dirt track racing, or another series. If you want a real drivers series then stick them all in the same type car like Porsche Cup. F1 should show the world how fast the combination of technology and driver can make a car go. To tone down or restrict the technology hurts the very thing that makes modern F1 racing.

The high G forces issue is the onlty thing that bring in questions of speed. Drivers should be required to meet physical tests before each race. I am sure if there is a risk of a driver blacking out that technolgoy can be developed to montior a driver and disable a car if a driver passes out. I know the technolgoy could be developed. At the moment that is not an issue.

To say passing under deep braking is not a good racing, is not true. I like to see passes in many ways, but showing off great braking abilties by going deeper into turn is fun to see.

In time F1 may find itself being passed in terms of technology and speed if the continue to focus on slowing the cars down. Thsoe who fear tire blow outs at the race track should look to tire makers. FIA should forcing safer tires to be made. The combination of better tires and unrestricted down force should help cars be safer at higher speeds. Other measures could be taken to help keep the cars grounded in the event of a spin. This is one thing NASCAR has shown with the roof flaps. F1 might be able to create a device that keeps a car grounded regardless if spins or not.

FIA may warn teams a year in advance about rule changes, but that does not help them off set the costs of developing something totally new to meet FIA rules. It is cheaper to keep developing one package then to have to start over to meet FIA rules.

If FIA sticks to cockpit safety, tire saftey, and track safety then health will be protected. A rule that requires better fuel economy will push technology for higher performance withless gas which would benefit the world.

My point the samll teams dyingunder the saftey rules go back to earlier posting where people said small times need the restrictions to survive. These teams are going to die off due to the nature of modern F1 regardless. Only if FIA wants to become like the IRL woudl small teams live. It would be sad day if the FIA would follow the lead of the IRL. The FIA can provide driver saftey without speed retsrictions.

History has shown teams can develop safter cars and tracks can become safer to meet the higher speed of the cars. I value life, but death is part of the sport.

For the sake of F1 let us hope MS does not win the champoionship in 2002. This season was dull over all. I really like MS and Ferrai, but the same old driver winning gets old. Why watch the race if you already know who will win.

I'm sure you'll find that if teams were allowed to run faster engines they would devote more of their time and limited resources to making more powerful engines and more aerodynamically efficient bodies, leaving safety as an after-thought.. the simple fact is that the FIA is doing what its doing to make sure that this extremely dangerous business is as safe as possible for the drivers.. after seeing what happened to alex zanardi why would anyone start complaining that a form of motorsport is not quick enough instead of not safe enough?
so the cars can handle more speed?? after luciano burti's crash, do you still think the cars are THAT safe? 5-10 mph on top of his speed at impact and he would be dead..
if you look at the history of motorsport you will see that many many drivers perished... this has greatly slowed down, so surely something's right??!!
if you think F1 is boring with all the current restrictions, i would dread to think how you would find it without... the top 3 teams would run away with the championship year after year after year... fun? no.
You talk of some pretty exciting yet risky innovations.. testing drivers' physical conditions to see the max they can take.. you dont think they d be tempted to go slightly above the limit?? thats how accidents happen...

Death has been a part of the sport, but not any more... theres no reason to go back...

cheers
jay

I did say previously that the FIA should keep driver safety rules in place. The key is FIA should focus on cockpit and structure, not taking away downforce and grip. Drivers will die regardless of the rules. There are just times when things go wrong no one could have predicted. If teams where allowed to make faster cars I think FIA could focus on making sure the cockpit and safety gear is up to the task of crash at 200mph or higher.

Since when did 2 or 3 top teams not run away with the championship? For most of the 1980s Renault and Honda kicked everyone around. Honda would continue in the early 1990s to crush other teams with Ford squeezing out one championship. We see today the Mercedes and Ferrari are on top with BMW knocking on their door. Watch for Toyota to make their way to the front in the next few years. There has been few races or no championships where 4 teams were really in it to the last lap or last race. The races have been watch for someone to break and the championships have been bewteen two teams. All the rule changes have done nothing to bring teams closer together. Let them make the fastest cars possible with the FIA making sure drivers are safe via cockpit and safety retstraints.

Racing is a dangerous business and that is a fact that will never change. Drivers will push themselves beyond their limits. I know a solution could be developed to keep drivers from passing out. The reasons cars have become safer is technology became better. If cars ran 300 miles per hour I know they would develop technology to protect drivers at those speeds. Tracks would also take measures to protect viewers. History has shown this to be the pattern. Will someone die to force a safety improvement, maybe. I have seen in the last decade safety being made better before someone dies. Safety awarness is much better these days.

Small teams are going fade from F1 over the next ten to fifteen years. It will become the exclusive battle ground for the auto giants. If the FIA keeps slowing the cars down F1 will become more like the IRL. Open wheel racing will struggle for viewers as full bodied racing cars become faster and more high tech. F1 may lose its position as a technolgoy leader and the most watched racing series.

I doubt Schumi will do it next year. Next season is DC's season if any! Think about how close he was this year before his car kept breaking. Next year Mclaren will have a better more powerful engine from Mercedes to boot!

IMO, if there is one driver who will *never* win the title it's DC.

a) He sucks (something I've been saying about him ever since Spa '98 but I don't want to argue about that)
b) his mouth is too big, and he never manages to deliver... During every off-season lately it's been: "this is gonna be my year!" No one takes him seriously...

I think if any threat does come from Woking, it will be from Kimi.

In 2002 you might find the BMW boys taking that title. DC does seem to have a problem getting the title. There is something about skill and luck that makes a champ. DC seems to be lacking luck and the skill might be just slightly off. He is still a great driver, but it is a exceptional driver who takes the title home. I just pray for 6 way battle for the title all the way to the end of the season. Domination makes for some dull viewing. I like MS, but if he keeps winning all of the time then F1 will go in the dumps. Look at what happened to professional boxing when Mike Tyson was knocking people out everytime. People quit watching becuase the fight was short and the winner was always the same. Thankfully Mike Tyson could not handle his personal life and he fell apart.

Originally posted by vectorclub
Domination makes for some dull viewing. I like MS, but if he keeps winning all of the time then F1 will go in the dumps.
I agree...ferrari is owning the entire F1. I don't like Schumacher though, ever since his actions to Villeneuve in 98...ramming his car, damn

My prediction is Schumacher, Montoya, or Raikonnen.
DC has no chance imo

I'm still going to root for Villeneuve:)