2007 Bahrain GP, Bahrain International Circuit

[evo3]

yep...kimi's face really bad on the podium. Look like someone own him a lot of money. hehehe.... that Finnish for you.

 

[Daniel Lee]

Lewis Hamilton was flying during the last stint although he was using harder tyres that time.
The two McLarens were the only ones performed better on harder tyres.
Wonder why?
Nick Heidfeld drove a good race too.
Manage to overtake the world champion from the outside of the racing line.
Mario Theissen was very happy yesterday.
He might wanna consider extending Heidfeld's contract.
I'm happy to see that there are 3 drivers topping the drivers' championship list now at 22 points.

 

[Edward Chew]

yep...kimi's face really bad on the podium. Look like someone own him a lot of money. hehehe.... that Finnish for you.

Haha. He is well famous with that attitude. hahaha... He only smiles when he gets 1st place. Maybe is because he had a lot of disappoinment in McLaren last time. :(

Lewis Hamilton was flying during the last stint although he was using harder tyres that time.
The two McLarens were the only ones performed better on harder tyres.
Wonder why?
Nick Heidfeld drove a good race too.
Manage to overtake the world champion from the outside of the racing line.
Mario Theissen was very happy yesterday.
He might wanna consider extending Heidfeld's contract.
I'm happy to see that there are 3 drivers topping the drivers' championship list now at 22 points.

Yap. F1 boss is certainly very happy to see that as he is trying his best to reduce the gap between the teams which determined by who has more money in the pocket. hehe

 

[BlackSamurai]

We were told that Renault had very good launch system at 2005 and 2006 season, which we thought it explain why Alonso easily gain position after the 5 red lights goes off.
But today at McLaren, I think Alonso proof that he is very good at launching the car at start.

Australian GP
Qualifying : P2
Highest Position within first lap: P2

Malaysian GP
Qualifying : P2
Highest Position within first lap: P1

Bahrain GP
Qualifying : P4
Highest Position within first lap: P3

 

[Daniel Lee]

Too bad Alonso performed badly on the second stint...

 

[David_1211]

No doubt he is good when launching...too bad we couldnt know the reaction time of their lauching...or else there will be another interesting thing to compare with. Alonso n Lewis too good in tackling front car when heading to first corner...which we have seen in alll three races.

when talking about launch, im remembering Schumacher again, he is cool on grid.
when 5light went out, yellow light lite due to yellow flag on the grid...most of the front runner picking speed up, while schumy jst stay there...static..waiting for restart.

 

[si|verfish]

When you talk about launching, you need to talk about Mika Hakkinen. Get's of the line so damn smoothly you'd swear there was a barrage of computers doing it instead.

 

[prodigy]

No doubt he is good when launching...too bad we couldnt know the reaction time of their lauching...or else there will be another interesting thing to compare with. Alonso n Lewis too good in tackling front car when heading to first corner...which we have seen in alll three races.

when talking about launch, im remembering Schumacher again, he is cool on grid.
when 5light went out, yellow light lite due to yellow flag on the grid...most of the front runner picking speed up, while schumy jst stay there...static..waiting for restart.

I must say i'm impressed with both the Mclaren's start. I think its largely due to their launch control.

As for Schumi being cool on the grid, it must be remembered that each time he started, he more or less starts at the first/second row of the grid and its the closest to the traffic light and he gets the best view.

Got to agree with silverfish on Mika, my all time hero. He's probably the best driver when it comes to launch. Back then there's no such thing as launch control. Its all about clutch control and response time. So smoking tires are real common during launch.

 

[Daniel Lee]

Mika was one of the best during the end of the 90's seasons...

 

[prodigy]

The thing about Mika is that he's very much like Kimi. He needs a good car to perform to his potential. On a good day with reliable machine, he's almost unbeatable even by the great Michael Schumacher. He's just blindingly fast and he'll normally dominate races, like finishing 1 minute ahead of the nearest rival. Thats the reason why he's a 2 times World Champion but his brilliance was punctuated by an even better driver in Michael. Michael is a different driver altogether. He's a great team personnel off the track, a great leader in the camp and a very consistent performer. No matter what the car and track throws to him, he's able to come out with something special and somehow produces result that defies odds. Take 2005 season for example when Ferrari were struggling with the under performing tyres. Michael almost single handedly shouldered Ferrari's challenge and at times you see him slipping and sliding around corners and were making errors and people were saying Michael is getting old and losing his touch. Little did they realise how bad Ferrari's performance was and Michael was actually over driving the car to challenge the front runners. Ferrari's actual performance was reflected by Rubens Barrichello car that was constantly finishing 5th or 6th or somewhere far behind. On the other hand, Mclaren gave Mika a real shitty car in year 2001 and he was constantly underperforming with some 3rd or 4th place and was nowhere challenging Michael. So more or less you can say that Mika/Kimi needs a good car to be fast. Michael practically and drive any car and still look fast.

 

[David_1211]

agree bout Michael...

 

[Daniel Lee]

The car McLaren gave Mika in the year 2001 was really sucks.
The car kept stalling on the grid everytime the lights turned green.
The most bitter moment was when Mika's engine blew up on the final lap with 5 more turnings to the chequred flag for the 2001 Spanish GP.
He was leading Michael for more than 40 seconds at that time.
The circuit de Catalunya is one of Mika's favourite circuit.

 

[prodigy]

Mika did stall his car in Brazil and another track i can't remember during his final season. It might have been driver error and also car's fault as David Coulthard did stall his car after qualifying first in Monaco.

And yes, possibly one of Mika's saddest moment is when his car let go in the last lap of Spanish GP. He was far and away from Michael until his engine smoked towards the last few corners. I remember being bitterly dissapointed after the race. Mika won in Spain 3 years consecutively prior to that race. But 2 years ago, Kimi also went off in the last lap of a GP, can't remember which one is that. His tyres were shredding into pieces and he chose to continue running despite being able to pit and still finish in 2nd place. He took a gamble and it didn't pay off. He went off heavily after the tyres blew. All i know is that he went off in the first corner.

 

[Daniel Lee]

I was really dissappointed when Mika's engine blew up for the '01 Spanish GP.
He performance on the track was always superb.
Even Michael can't beat Mika on the Catalunya circuit.
Fellow countryman Kimi did experienced what Mika experienced too.
It was at the Nurburgring for the European GP that Kimi front right tyre blew and shredded into pieces.
However, Kimi was not as near to the chequered flag compared to Mika.
Mika's dissappointment at that time was much greater than that experienced by Kimi.

 

[zan]

in my opinion, if Mika was really a good driver, he could have won many more championships instead of only 2. alonso won 2. michael schumacher won F1 title 7 times.

if Mika was really good, some other teams would have grabbed him from McLaren. too old maybe?

 

[prodigy]

Mika Hakkinen is that good a driver. Great drivers are not always measured by the number of titles they won. I won't disagree that Michael is perhaps the best among all but lets not take anything away from Mika.

You got to admit that Mika is a really quick driver. On a good day when his car is working well, nobody else comes close enough to challenge him, not even Michael. We've seen him dominate races like nobody's business. He pulls away like 1 second a lap and somewhere 3/4 of the race, he more or less eases on his throttle and yet he still finishes 40 seconds ahead of anyone else. He's a really quick driver, no doubt about it. However, he's not as complete as Michael is. I've said it many times that Michael is a quick driver and has a good driving brain too. He knows when to attack hard, when to push, when to slow down and most importantly, off the track he's a damn good motivator and leader. I suppose Mika lacks that and thats probably why when Mclaren failed to deliver him a good car, he's nothing more than 'another Mclaren driver'. Michael on the other hand worked real hard to motivate the team, at times over drive the car and indirectly telling the mechanics they need to work harder. I mean you may not see it but these are the sort of motivation Michael gives to his team, leadership by example.

 

[zan]

i do agree if Mika ranks higher than average F1 drivers. just my humble opinion.

too bad Mika didnt win many championships. but he was lucky McLaren has the best cars in 98-99 while others were struglling with reliability and consistency.

Benetton suffered same after Schumi left in yr 95.

Williams suffered too after Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in 96 and 97

Ferrari suffered after a 5 yrs winning streak but i believe it is more due to tyre problems (remember 1 set tyre per race? huge disadvantage to Bridgestones..)

 

[prodigy]

I agree that Mclaren had the better car during the 98 and 99 season and to some extent the 2000 season whereby Mika came closest to securing his 3rd title. Unfortunately, it was the brilliance of Michael that won Ferrari their 1st title in 21 years. No doubt Mclaren had the better car that year but that year's battle was one of the best ever with both Mclaren and Ferrari racing neck to neck. It was down to the last race of the season at Suzuka where Michael pipped Mika at the pitstop and won the title. Also, Michael didn't really had much challenge as he won the 4th,5th and 6th title when Mclaren produced a shitty car and Mika left the season after. Its only the emergence of Kimi and Alonso that made the race interesting again.

 

[Daniel Lee]

McLaren's poor reliability during the 2001 season had lead Mika to retired from F1 the following season.
With the poor reliability of McLaren and the absent of Mika, it makes races easier for Michael.