Shanghai weekend thread - Page 3

Kebab · 2 Apr 2006, 12:47 (Ref:1567824)

Darren was overtaken 4/5 times in the Feature race (including Austria and South Africa), although he did well to hold off Mexico in the Sprint. He was down to 5th before the penalty - losing one of the places in the pitstop.

Mexico and USA who were also given drive-thru penalties finished 7 and 5 places in front of GB respectively.

The GB car clearly is still not on the pace with the Dams cars or even Malaysia/Czech - especially if Darren is as good as people say he is here. This puts Kerr's performance in context IMO.

I hope we do better next year, whoever they chose to drive!

**FIRE** · 2 Apr 2006, 15:29 (Ref:1568017)

Have to say Yoong has surprised me this season.

Knowlesy · 2 Apr 2006, 15:46 (Ref:1568042)

Same here FIRE.

Turns out he's a very solid and fairly quick performer.

Goes to show how F1 can distort the view of a driver.

Jukebox · 2 Apr 2006, 16:27 (Ref:1568098)

Odd Yoong didn't use the power boost button in the feature race....maybe that's the reason why he can't catch up Enge

Kebab · 2 Apr 2006, 16:28 (Ref:1568099)

Perfect way to end the first year to have 2 new countries winning!

madmed · 2 Apr 2006, 17:16 (Ref:1568143)

i cant find the official site of shanghai circuit
this kind of circuit must have one

SALEEN S7R · 2 Apr 2006, 18:15 (Ref:1568212)

Quote:

Originally Posted by knowlesy

Same here FIRE.

Turns out he's a very solid and fairly quick performer.

Goes to show how F1 can distort the view of a driver.

I too have been suprised by Yoong this season, as you say a poor season in Formula One can make you think that a driver isnt any good, where in fact the driver actually is. Anyone who gets into a F1 race seat is a very fast peddler and would probably do very well in any other series other than F1, like Yoong is proving in A1 GP.

Knowlesy · 2 Apr 2006, 20:38 (Ref:1568422)

What price an Israeli entry with Chanoch Nissany steamrolling the field sometime in the future?

Err, actually, no...

luke · 2 Apr 2006, 20:42 (Ref:1568434)

Well done to Enge on the win, nice to see him do well in ages.

Rizweed · 3 Apr 2006, 06:22 (Ref:1568738)

manning for me did really well... first trime in the car and came in second for teh sprint race. just unfortunate for the feature race. do you think he will be a drive for next seasom??

pakistan to finish 5th in the feature race uis a brilliant result. great drive to adam

what was up with indonesia... was he injected with adrenalin??? though he drove very well, he scared even me (watching from the tele). it was inevitable that he would be involved in an incident. and that crash witrh ireland was totally his fault!!!

poor lebanon...no pts. next seaosn there soudl be a few. teh team seem to be workign on improving for next season.

congrats to malaysia...great weekend for them. enge also did well to come tops in the feature.

season is now over... looking fwd to next yr.

play mate · 3 Apr 2006, 09:44 (Ref:1568837)

I think the main problem people seem to have with Kerr is that he has a poor ability to speak on camera, which can translate as being a little amature, unconfident or even rude.
But i as a motorsport fan would much rather watch a driver like robbie on the race track rather than a driver such as Manning. I was almost embarressed for Manning in the feature when he was being overtaken by cars such as Simpson, surely he should have fought better for his position? ...Kerr is resilient when it comes to defending his position E.g. defending his lead from France in Dubai?..awesome!

Kerr has all dedication, passion and determination needed inside a race car, I'm pleased/proud he represents us!..Even Lappierre acknowledged Robbies talent in his interview with Georgie!

I'd rather see a driver do his talking on the race track... not being a motor-mouth!

After all isn't this motor racing?

liamoohay · 3 Apr 2006, 10:38 (Ref:1568883)

play mate said:

Quote:

But i as a motorsport fan would much rather watch a driver like robbie on the race track rather than a driver such as Manning. I was almost embarressed for Manning in the feature when he was being overtaken by cars such as Simpson, surely he should have fought better for his position? ...Kerr is resilient when it comes to defending his position E.g. defending his lead from France in Dubai?..awesome!

i'm from malaysia and i don't know manning but with due respect to him, i think the a1 car can suddenly deteriorate into bad balance state with some very minor set-up adjustments to consider saving tyres for a longer race or for full fuel load oversteer anticipated for the early part of the longer feature race.

so even with kerr driving the same car as manning had in china's feature race, kerr might be in the same position of not being able to defend as what manning experienced.

alex's car apparently (according to his published quotes) was tweaked slightly differently for the feature race and he sufferred a drop of 4-tenths in performcance compared with the sprint race at the optimum low fuel state.

i think manning seemed like a very capable racer (from his track record) and he is indeed a better public face compared to kerr.

strider · 3 Apr 2006, 11:50 (Ref:1568944)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nev

quote of the day " i dont think it was the drivers problem for jumping the sart, it was due to the lights not going off quick enough" John Watson

You may mock, but he was right - and probably knows a little more about the subject even than you!

They held the cars on the grid for far too long before switching the red lights on. I was beginning to think they had failed. I think the problem was that the guy at the back of the grid had not run across the track with the green flag to confirm everyone was in place.

It was inevitable that one or two cars would start to creep, but I don't think anyone gained an advantage.

Two storming drives from Duran, btw, and the fastest lap on the very last lap!

nev · 3 Apr 2006, 13:12 (Ref:1569016)

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxy mole

You may mock, but he was right - and probably knows a little more about the subject even than you!

They held the cars on the grid for far too long before switching the red lights on. I was beginning to think they had failed. I think the problem was that the guy at the back of the grid had not run across the track with the green flag to confirm everyone was in place.

It was inevitable that one or two cars would start to creep, but I don't think anyone gained an advantage.

Two storming drives from Duran, btw, and the fastest lap on the very last lap!

You would think he would know more than me wouldn't you !!

No matter how long the lights were on for, the ruling is you dont go untill the lights are all out. So if the lights dont go on what do you do !! just go anyway - dont think so. I understand that drivers want to get the best start possible but jump starts can be decided on a driver anticipating the change of lights not actually going before the lights change. There is a certain tolerance with reaction time from when the lights go out and if this is breached it is deemed a false start. There is also a specified time limit in which the start procedure has to take place, if it doesn't for any reason the start is aborted. did this happen -- no.

One think im suprised no one mentioned was the extra padding in the cockpit, can you alter the padding without safety approval, it may not seem a big thing but when i saw that other car role i thought what effect the extra padding could have had on the drivers helmet position when rolling

girl r4cer · 3 Apr 2006, 13:23 (Ref:1569031)

Why did manning need padding? I thought top level drivers were supposed to be pretty fit? Are A1 cars heavy on G-forces? Or is Manning a bit of a girl?

strider · 3 Apr 2006, 13:42 (Ref:1569053)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nev

No matter how long the lights were on for, the ruling is you dont go untill the lights are all out. So if the lights dont go on what do you do !! just go anyway - dont think so. I understand that drivers want to get the best start possible but jump starts can be decided on a driver anticipating the change of lights not actually going before the lights change. There is a certain tolerance with reaction time from when the lights go out and if this is breached it is deemed a false start. There is also a specified time limit in which the start procedure has to take place, if it doesn't for any reason the start is aborted. did this happen -- no.

One think im suprised no one mentioned was the extra padding in the cockpit, can you alter the padding without safety approval, it may not seem a big thing but when i saw that other car role i thought what effect the extra padding could have had on the drivers helmet position when rolling

As I said before, the problem was not that the red lights were on for too long, but rather that it took too long to switch them on in the first place. It seemed like forever to me, and I was only sitting watching the telly! Goodness knows how it must have felt for the drivers.

Normally I would agree with you about the penalties. In F1 it's cut and dried, because there are sensors that record if the cars have moved even an inch. Here in the UK there's an unofficial rule of thumb that the driver doesn't get penalised if he hasn't gained an advantage.

The problem highlighted by what happened in Shanghai highlights is what gets done about it if the officials screw up?

On the extra padding, there is an FIA rule for some categories that if you add extra padding you have to use the same material as the original padding, which is very hard - if you punched it, you'd hurt your hand! The padding in Darren Manning's car didn't look like that, so maybe it isn't the same in A1GP. I haven't seen the Regulations.

Kebab · 3 Apr 2006, 15:43 (Ref:1569155)

Wasn't the problem that the lights didn't even go ON for ages? I.e. the person with the green flag (which confused one of the commentators) was very slow to approve the grid.

Don’t forget poor Darren was 5th before the penalty anyway so the drive-through didn’t make much difference except allowing cars with supposedly inferior drivers/teams to pass him!

Perhaps he'd just given up, must be very hard to keep pushing when you're nowhere! Just look at what Jos did!

Not 100% sure but I seem to remember a G-Force meter showing these cars can pull over 2G in lateral forces ...? A good road-car can do 1.1G, I think.

Kiwi3 · 4 Apr 2006, 17:00 (Ref:1570659)

Funnily enough watching from above the pits I didn't notice the long starting procedure.

Two new race winners was a great way to finish a great season - is it just me or is anyone else already experiencing withdrawl symptoms? Roll on October 1st!

Being lucky enough to be in the paddock over the weekend I could really sense a carnival atmosphere, I thoroughly enjoyed the occasion and the season as a whole. I guess there will not be a season review made - because there would be too many highlights to fit in!

I have posted my favourite images of the weekend if anyone is interested.

http://photos.yahoo.com/steve_gprix

Cheers,

SC3

Knowlesy · 4 Apr 2006, 21:42 (Ref:1570914)

Good stuff Kiwi!

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