MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
[url] http://planetf1.com/photo-gallery/6013750/The-Snazzy-2010-Safety-Car [/url]
Retrotastic. Cant wait for Sunday.
wow, hadn't seen that! can't wait for the weekend for so many reasons 🙂
Not so keen. Hate Merc styling in general.
Safety car looks great but I'm less impressed with the new Ferrari – I think Alonso will struggle for points this year unless the stick some tight single track in
[img] 
[/img]
Alonso is a great big baby.
I hope they paint a rattle on the side of his car.
[i]Alonso is a great big baby.[/i]
True. But he's also the best driver on the grid!
[i]True. But he's also the best driver on the grid!
[/i]
cough!
splutter!
[mops-up cup of tea!]
😀
😉
Im just waiting for the perennial "MotoGP is better" reply.
Hamilton by far the best!! Bring on the new season, can't wait!! Not sure about the new safety car, bit too 'old school'
Best sounding car at a Grand Prix weekend. It sounds like a spitfire
Im just waiting for the perennial "MotoGP is better" reply.
No point....it would be like saying the sea is wet. It's just a given 😉
Very nice looking safety brum brum tho.
Is that the stirling moss car? It's not too ridiculous in price (compared to astons and lambos) either.
Anyone up for a STW fantasy league?
Free to do - I've already got a team set up - but we can set up our own league within the overall results.
Just for fun like!
That merc is the only interesting thing about F1, bring on motoGP- thats racing!
Runs away to hide 😀
I'll take last years pace car off them if they don't need it any more. The sound that made really was beyond awesome.
MotoGP isn't better, it's waaaaaaayyyyyy better.
Had a quick look at the safety car pics...........it mings! 😆
Don't really like new mercs but old ones are nice and i like that!
original 300 SL gullwing is one of the prettiest cars of all time
and the new version ain't too bad at all, as retro reworks go, it's a keeper
[img] 
[/img]
As others have said above - the original was better.
I'd still love one of the new ones though!
its about 1.5 seconds quicker per km than the old one it replaces
Is that good?
It sounds like a spitfire
Don't you mean a Messerschmitt?
You started it!!
rusty, that pic has made my day, what a beauty!
There's just something about it that doesn't sit right. I'm not sure if its the Nissan headlights if the mishmash grill/spoiler - too many grills. The Whole car looks dated to me already.
IMHO of course. 😉
almost TVR styling on the shape of the top / front of the bonnet - bet its good fun on a track 🙂
its about 1.5 seconds quicker per km than the old one it replaces
Is that good?
It is indeed good - F1 is so mind-bendingly fast and pure that F1 cars cannot go as slowly as the (in any other world fire-breathingly mental) safety car.
J0N - the whole car looks intentionally dated! It is supposed to evoke the original gull-wing car above.
__
Alonso is by some margin still the best driver on the grid, imo. To characterise him as a rattle-thrower on the basis of a few events in one season, the details of which we will never know, is absurd. Without the political nonsense and cashing-in on Hamilton's Golden Boy/Tiger Woods of F1 image he would be 3XWDC at least by now.
The "political nonsense" was partially of his making, insisting that he get number 1 status despite the fact McLaren are well publicised as not playing favourites even if it costs them points/titles (see Senna/Prost). Then after his hissy-fit (played out in public I should add), he decided he was going to take himself back to Renault where he enjoyed guaranteed #1 billing.
Irrespective of whether Hamilton was the shining boy, Alonso could have represented himself a lot better by being stoic than being a whiny bitch about the situation he KNEW he was getting himself into.
McLaren have a reputation for [i]claiming[/i] they give equal status, but actually doing the opposite. Coulthard has described how Ron Dennis described his side of the garage as "them" and Mikka's as "us". Senna had special engines from Honda and Prost's ire was partially due to not getting a fair crack. McLaren are controlling and secrative - I can only hope the culture is better now that RD has gone, for Jenson Button's sake.
Aonso did go there expecting No 1 status, quite rightly. Had he been treated with the respect he deserved it would have all been a massive success. He would have gotten the Championship and Lewis would still have had the best rookie year ever.
but moto gp isnt as good as world, (or potentially even british) superbikes.
oh yeh i did...
To characterise him as a rattle-thrower on the basis of a few events in one season, the details of which we will never know, is absurd
But it wasnt just one season. Before he moved to McLaren he whined that the Renualt team and Fischella in particular were not doing enough to support him.
Whined? He dragged Renault up and got them two Championships. If did what he needed to do in order to achieve that, then that is a good thing, not a bad one. Massive quantities of self-belief and focus are needed just to survive in F1, let alone rise to the top and stay there. McLaren were mad to fail to embrace this high level of focus that he brought with him, because it is the difference between winner and runner up. In fact, they did obviously acknowledge that quality, but they decided that Hamilton had enough of it himself and had other plusses too - such as being home-grown and (probably) long-term loyal.
[i]Had he been treated with the respect he deserved it would have all been a massive success. [/i]
Had he comprehensively blown away his team mate he might have got this treatment - but he didn't, he was matched and often bettered by a rookie.
It sounds like a spitfire
Don't you mean a Messerschmitt?
That would be more like it. MBs normally have that distinctive supercharger whine.
In terms of dullness stakes...
F1 > MotoGP > IoM TT
Agree he should have done better against a rookie. LH got a great start - several other drivers admitted that they went a bit too easy on him because it took them by surprise. FA was on the back foot a little bit from the word go, and then his status in the team began to wane and his performance suffered a bit (which should not happen to someone like him, but did). Monaco was the start of the proper rot - there is a circuit where the team absolutely must be tough and clear with their orders because the slightest error costs everything. I think just at the point where Alonso needed the team to reassert their support of their number one driver they actually started to throw their support behind Lewis because they could see that the most amazing dream could possibly come true. Alonso failed to lift his black mood and went on to make several very bad mistakes (Canada was terrible).
I don't think the above is a particularly biased recalling of events, and it certainly doesn't add up to Alonso being a whinger or rattle-thrower. Anyhow, he is a couple of days away from starting to pick up the pieces and get his title back.
Muffin man
let me know the league details, im in
We just need to think of a league name!
How about Singletrackroad F1
...I'm not very good at witty names so suggestions welcome!
Best sounding car at a Grand Prix weekend.
Damn straight, awesome sound!
aye or
gearedforf1
or
stwf1possee
forget the last one 🙂
sweet car. the original gull wing would be my money no object dream car. i wouldn't throw the new one out of bed for farting though.
Oh and Moto GP for me.
first year in ages that i'm interested in watching it - should be a good battle. We were shooting schumacher and rosberg down at rockingham last friday for a client. He couldn't get more german if he tried 😉
German team, British team, Latin team, plus (the difficult to pigeon hole in that way) Red Bull, plus potential for big surprises…
Bring it on!
Sub 3 second pit stops is just [i]so[/i] F1.
OK - gone for gearedforf1
Password is...
chipps
I'm on F1 league... or at least I will be when I finish sorting out a team... I am pour & cant afford waht I want 🙁
Ha ha, the-muffin-man & I are tied for the lead 🙂
right ive signed up, bloody hard picking teams when you can only spend 100 million
Where's Bernie? I want to complain, I only had $90million .... or have you gone for a Ferrari?
Nope went for merc
Team Name: red moo racing
Team Manager: enduro-aid
Driver1: Felipe Massa
Driver2: Nico Hulkenberg
Car: Mercedes
Engine: Cosworth
[i] It sounds like a spitfire
Don't you mean a Messerschmitt?
That would be more like it. MBs normally have that distinctive supercharger whine.[/i]
The Merlin engine in the Spitfire is supercharged no?
The SLS is a pig from any angle, and the thing I hate most about it is the doors. Or more specifically the fact the car has been designed to invoke history by having them, ignoring the fact that the original had them because it had to - the structure wouldn't allow for normal doors. It's just a cynical marketing exercise to create a USP from everything else. Massive wasted opportunity to create something different for the right reasons after the McLaren split.
Senna had special engines from Honda and Prost's ire was partially due to not getting a fair crack.
Well that's bollox. Prost alleged that, so Honda put all the engines in front of him and let him choose whichever one he wanted. IIRRC Prost had to make an apology for that one.
indeed thats as it happened boriselbrus. Prost got better fuel economy than Senna which he could have attributed to Senna having a more powerful engine, but this was down to Senna's unique driving style in that he blipped the throttle throughout the corner, balancing the rear of the car.
Honda had nothing to gain from favouring one driver.
As is mentioned on the BBC F1 site this week, the "greats" have such inner belief that they will rationalise a faster driver in equal machinery by beleiving they have some unfair advantage. Prost did it, Alonso does it. (IMO) to put it down to "just" sour grapes is to fail to comprehend how these drivers operate in their own minds.