Did Lewis really make the wrong tyre choice? My feeling is that he could be sandbagging, knowing that the option tyre does not last well, my guess he has gone for a heavy fuel load and hard tyres. If so, this could give him a huge advantage over the cars in front.
I keep thinking back to 1978, when a good friend of mine, Ronnie Peterson joined Lotus and was forced to play #2 to Mario Andretti. He was under strict orders not to pass Mario. There were many occasions when he got really frustrated having to sit behind him.
McLaren apologized because the FIA investigation showed that more McLaren staff had access to Ferrari data than their original investigation revealed. - Read the full report. "Lewis Hamilton's 2007 achievements are worth nothing because the Mclaren race car was not legitimate. Mclaren have acppected this and apologized about this to everyone."
The 2007 McLaren passed scrutineering at every race, therefore it was a legitimate F1 car. @Paul All F1 drivers have big egos, otherwise they would not be amongst the best drivers in the world.
@Red Dragon When the FIA inspectors examined the designs for the 2008 McLaren, they found that there were some aspects that "COULD" be of Ferrari origin, which is why they scheduled a WMSC meeting for February to clarify the matter. - The inspectors report is available on the FIA website.
A further point, Bernie has acknowledged that spying is nothing new and teams have copied others designs for years. If McLaren are guilty of using another teams ideas, they are no more guilty than Torro Rosso and Super Aguri.
You may be an "armchair driver", but I am not. I am sure any contest Between Schumi, LH, FA, Kimi, Kovalainen and a few others in equal cars would be a very close fought battle.
@ Red Dragon "Lewis Hamilton's 2007 achievements are worth nothing because the Mclaren race car was not legitimate. Mclaren have acppected this and apologized about this to everyone."
Both McLaren cars past scutineering for every race, therefore they were "legitimate" irrespective of whether or not they had elements of Ferrari in them.
For the first 3 races of 2007 Ferrari had an illegal floor design which the FIA "quietly" told them to stop using. From race 2 through to race 6 they had an illegal element to their front wing. (the top section moved in a lateral plane as spped increased) The FIA "quietly" told Ferrari to change it.
Any top class driver worth their salt thinks they are capable of beating any other driver. - If not, they are in the wrong job.
I never got to drive F1, but I had quite a few years in other formulae, and always relished driving against a proven winner.
In any type of competition you can only develop and improve by competing against someone better.
LH has already proved his skill in GP2, and by anyones standards, has put in some great performances in F1. Sure he made mistakes. Take your rose tinted specs off and look at the number of mistakes Schumi has made over the ye****
Quoting from the FIA website: "In the light of McLaren's public apology and undertakings, the FIA President has asked the members of the World Motor Sport Council for their consent to cancel the hearing scheduled for 14 February 2008 and, in the interests of the sport, to consider this matter closed."
It would appear that this could finally bring this to an end, and hopefully we can have 2008 decided on the track!
Everyone is talking about FA going to Ferrari in 2009, but, have they all forgotten that he has already burned his bridges with Ferrari. Whan at Minardi, FA signed to drive for Maranello, but then went to Renault instead.
To my mind, his only choice is Renault, and that all hinges on the WMSC hearing next week.
What I find interesting about all this, is that Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan jointly had talks with Nick Fry of Honda (whether any documents were shown is open to conjecture) Nigel Stepney was Ross Brawn's blue eyed boy, and now Brawn has gone to Honda. Spygate 3 anyone?
Looking closely at the video, it is clear to see Lewis taking a wide line round the corner, Webber takes a tight line, as he is not in Lewis's spray and has a clear view, he would be able to see Lewis to hir right and also a clear view of the safety car.
As we now know that it was Torro Rosso that sent the video to the FIA, it would be logical to assume that Ferrari as their engine supplier had a hand in this. Jean (Napoleon) Todt. is up to his tricks again!
Anyone who saw the post race press conference, will know that Lewis said he was repeatedly on the radio to get his team to tell Webber not to get too close, as he thought it could cause an accident.
The other thing to remember is, that the type of brakes that McLaren use can glaze very easily if used lightly when the discs are cold, which would explain why Lwis was braking hard.
Politics have always played a big role in F1, Mansell/Piquet is a prime example. In fact Williams lost Honda engines because Mansell wouldn't play second fiddle. Then Prost/Senna at McLaren. Alonso knew before he signed for McLaren that they had an equal driver policy. What he didn't realise is, that a young rookie would be capable of beating him. Now the Prima Dona is complaining.
As a side issue, the events in Hungary apparently started after Lewis ignored a "team order" to slow down and let Alonso pass. I thought that since the debacle when Barrichello was ordered to slow down and let Micheal Schumacher win, the the FIA banned team orders.
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