Celebrating Five Glorious Years of Heikki Kovalainen: Formula 1 in 2012

btw I don't "get" everyone getting butthurt about The Ros...oh no wait I get Alonso being butthurt because he's the Spanish Mansell.

Couple things I would say about that (confusion re success/failure):
Everyone is really close this year. It doesn't take very much at all to fall five places back in quali, and conversely it doesn't take much to get on the front row - tenths or hundredths of a second are the difference.
There have been unpredictable events that set people way back - Schumi in Bahrain, the McLaren pit stops.
Biggest factor, again - tires. Lotus and Sauber seem to have perfect car balance that evens wear, whereas McLaren seem to be really heavy on the rear tires, especially if the track is cooler.

At this point Red Bull are sorting themselves out by giving Vettel a config that he can drive well. I wouldn't expect him to completely own the rest of the season, but I would bet he'll pick up a number of wins.

Aye, otm about tyres...it's obvious on one level but not apparent on the surface. The FIA's backstage shenanigans with Pirelli is highly underrated when you think about, the crazy variability at different temperatures amongst the teams is a somewhat genius...but it's not as visible as DRS ZONES!!!!

Yeah the tires really create a tenterhook of randomness ... but isn't that kind of the point to em?

I wonder if anybody does a game featuring tracks that don't exist/aren't used like Detroit, that would be a blast

waht is a "Williams", guys

this is fantastic. bring it home pastor!

COME ON PASTOR, BEAT EL MANSELLO!!

VENEZUELA REPRESENT

What a fun race. One of the best from an often boring track.

This is only the most incredible result in ever. I mean, a Venezuelan dude winning in a Williams?

For a driver oft-derided as a "pay to play" competitor I'm very happy for Maldonado.

that was really impressive when alonso was putting the pressure on - didn't flinch once.

loving this stuff with the tyres. i always thought they should've been engineered to brutally drop off like that from the point they went with a single supplier.

seemed doubly worse this weekend. how often do they jump a tyre grade (i.e. soft to hard)?

Is it me or does this thing look impossible to overtake on?

Who is Michael Schumacher? Is this a new guy or something?

LIKE MONZA 1971 UP IN THIS AREA

no actually like that time with gilles villeneuve at jarama

Put your hands up for Mark Webber, he's got the widest car on the track.

What a beautiful parade with announcers hoping desperately for some rain-soaked drama.

"The McLaren garage says it'll be raining in FIVE minutes!"
"Well, from here, I can see a really dark cloud..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seqYJ9azUbw

Good race! Hamilton deserved it. Good for Grosjean and Perez.

Liked Mercedes' high tech attempts to fix the DRS problem.

when all else fails...

Everyone's tyres falling off a cliff makes for interesting finishes but it is no way to determine who is the best driver or who has the best car.

Didn't watch this live (lol 3am), so I tormented the Sky Sports coverage thinking this will be great...and then they had Jacques Villeneuve co-hosting.

Anyway, lol at Alonso's tyres.

Vettel was on David Letterman last night, having done a promo event for the NJ track earlier. Apparently that's a thing that's actually happening.

Supposedly for next season. Austin looks possible for this fall, but it doesn't seem close to finished. Either would be better than racing at Indy ever again.

Letterman was really repping for Indy and Vettel was just saying "yeah yeah".

Austin better be finished, i just bought tickets.

24 hours of Le Mans this weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJDGaiAZm6M

I want tickets but need some things to align first. Sure aren't cheap.

EZ, do you live in Austin?

Dallas.

ah ok

will revive an Austin thread when the time comes

cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWa2ZSZcUq8

Apparently that's a thing that's actually happening.

Not until the millions have been processed into the account of Bernie Ecclestone, Esq.

Letterman was really repping for Indy and Vettel was just saying "yeah yeah".

ahahahahaha

Speaking of Indy and IndyCar, THEY HAD TO DELAY THE BELLE ISLE RACE FOR TWO HOURS WHILE THEY FIXED UP THE TRACK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE.

I'm looking forward to Le Mans because this reject IndyCar chassis the car of the future is racing!

http://www.motorward.com/wp-content/images/2012/03/Nissan-DeltaWing-1.jpg

We probably should mention Anthony Davidson's broken back, because some random Euro dudes in an Audi hybrid won Le Mans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsG0LUMrNsk

Alonso doesn't make Q2 (at Valencia!) because both Force India cars are in the Top Ten.

Good times.

Shout out to Luca di Montezemolo: you might be Italian but this isn't the 1970s, dude.

lol

Fun qualifying. Wacky season.

2 tenths of a second between pole and first.

uggggghhhhh alonso

hahahahahahahaha Vettel.

c'mon Kimi.

^^ overtaking under yellow flags, wtf go back to rallying

COME ON GROSJEAN

It looked to me like Kimi made the move prior to entering the local yellow zone. Definitely didin't complete it until they were under the yellow though.

OH COME ON