Singapore Night GP 2008

[bar555]

Ferrari switched from pit stop lights to lollilop man for Massa's second pit stop

[timbo]

The Ferrari pit lights system has proven being a failure, and quite a dangerous one. They should reverse to the old school lolipop trick ASAP! Note that there is still a "lolipop man with the lights system, but the difference is the a loolipop raised too early can (and has been in several occasions) be put down again quickly to stop the driver, but as we seen with Massa, his concentration got away of the lights as soon as he spotted the green. And even if he had seen the light quickly got back to red, he logically would have thought it was for Raikonen.

This is not as easy in my mind. There can be a solution like another set of warning lights a bit behind. I think that right now we are facing teething problems that any progressive system has. Question is a benifit for having such systems. However, I think FIA may come into play and forbid such system as unsafe.
IMO today's glich was fuel rig sensor misfire.

[Conceptual]

WOW! What a clusterf*ck of a race!

Good thing that it did not rain.

Congrats to Fernando, great drive.

WTF is going on at Ferrari? As someone said earlier, McLaren are not winning as much as ferrari are losing.

Who wants to bet Jean Todt will be back in control in 2009 after all of this garbage?

I honestly love the IDEA of the night races, but man, the Singapore track could seriously benefit from the Diamond Track Grinder that Indy uses to smooth the surface.

Good to see new people on the podium, but who would have guessed with 5 races to go in the season, that we would see the top 2 teams finishing behind mid-packers?

Anyways, good race, but luck was much more in charge of the outcome than any work the teams did.

[fenix4life]

What a unfair race of Rosberg.
He should never have been second if he had pitted fair and square like the rest.

Why should the stewards wait that long to give him and Kubica a penalty. Massa which fault was done after Rosberg and Kubica received his penalty before those two.

Rosberg and Kubica should have received their penalty immediately after that the safety car has come in. He would never had had a large gap before him and would never have finished second.

[chasefreak]

, but man, the Singapore track could seriously benefit from the Diamond Track Grinder that Indy uses to smooth the surface.

Good to see new people on the podium, but who would have guessed with 5 races to go in the season, that we would see the top 2 teams finishing behind mid-packers?

geeze i just know abt 3 races left as this race is over
where did u get the No. five from

[WhiteBlue]

the Williams aero sucks when they turn the wheels. this kills the downforce in fast corners. on point and squirt circuits they do not feel the problem because there are no really fast corners. Williams aero is subterranean for many years now. already with BMW it was the lousy aero that always let them down. remember that walrus nose? they do not deserve a driver of Nico's caliber.

[crbassassin]

Finally Ferrari get a penalty for unsafe pit release!

=D>

Just a phony penalty to showcase that they are fair. Massa would've finished out of the points regardless of the penalty

[woohoo]

Finally Ferrari get a penalty for unsafe pit release!

=D>

Just a phony penalty to showcase that they are fair. Massa would've finished out of the points regardless of the penalty

Oh, I see, the fair thing to do, would be NOT to give him a penalty

[WhiteBlue]

Another safety car - Massa nearly collecting another Force India!!

Actually Sutil almost hit him. Get your facts straight.

Here we go again - the way I saw it Massa pulled out where Sutil would have been on track, causing Sutil to turn off the track. However if replays show Sutil was already having an accident and Massa pulled out of his way then I shall apologise.

Just watched it again, and although the camera angle doesn't let you see what was happening with Sutil into the corner it shows clearly that if Sutil hadn't have crashed into the wall he would have hit Massa. So I think that he must have taken avoiding action. But a better camera angle would be needed to clarify.

IMHO no driver was at fault. Trulli had an hydraulic failure and cruised around which got Massa out of shape and spin and then Sutil found his way blocked and had nowhere to go.

[ben_watkins]

The thing one must ask is why did Massa get a drive through penalty here, having had the incident adjudged during the race, when in Valencia, in exactly the same circumstances [except the fuel hose] was the penalty investigated after the race and a €10000 fine imposed?

[-X

What the sport needs and what the fans need to see is consistently applied penalties to rules broken/infringed.. It's not a lot to ask from the "pinnacle of motor-sport" is it?

[boci]

LH once again cruised to the finish line and got the points by doing nothing special other than being lucky.

Nothing like Massa winning in Spa right?

[vyselegend]

the Williams aero sucks when they turn the wheels. this kills the downforce in fast corners. on point and squirt circuits they do not feel the problem because there are no really fast corners. Williams aero is subterranean for many years now. already with BMW it was the lousy aero that always let them down. remember that walrus nose? they do not deserve a driver of Nico's caliber.

You may be right about the bad effect of steering on the car's aero; I hadn't think about that...

However, don't take it as an offense, but I think you're in quite a nationalistic mood these days WB (which is your right of course), and I feel some of your comments are just biased by that. You're so much Germany whohoo here, BMW woohoo there that in the end you're just putting the blame on others with no proof (This is NOT a comment aimed at flamming you, but an expression of what I think of some statements in your recent posts ) In the Williams/BMW days, both parties expressed unsatisfaction toward the other, and in the end what prevailed is that a team in disagreement with his engine manufacturer comes to nothing good (though there were some good results also during this era).

But, fair enough, Williams is lacking efficiency on the aero front these last three years especially IMO (which means the post BMW period). I think hiring Loic Bigois as a designer for the FW28 was the fist wrong call, and the team is now among the numerous "Bridgestone destroyed our pace" Teams, and it hurts especially since they're not very well funded compared to their opponents. Like the other teams in this position, they cannot close the gap to others as long as the rules stay stable, and have to wait for the 2009 set of changes to take their bets again.

I honestly love the IDEA of the night races, but man, the Singapore track could seriously benefit from the Diamond Track Grinder that Indy uses to smooth the surface.

+1!

What a unfair race of Rosberg.
He should never have been second if he had pitted fair and square like the rest.

Why should the stewards wait that long to give him and Kubica a penalty. Massa which fault was done after Rosberg and Kubica received his penalty before those two.

Rosberg and Kubica should have received their penalty immediately after that the safety car has come in. He would never had had a large gap before him and would never have finished second.

err, wait a minute... So he should have been penalised for lacking fuel at a moment which no one could predict as being the "wrong" one. I find it unfair. But still, you should be happy because he got the penalty, and a severe one on top of that: 10 sec stop & go (+ obviously the time lost in the pit lane, so we're talking about a 35/40 sec loss!)

Other drivers having commited the same infrigement recieved the same penalty, which calls for no scandal.

Massa's penalty had nothing to do with a suposed advantage taken of the SC, but with a dangerous release of his car (remember he escaped penalty for the same thing at Valancia, can't always have that luck!). I do not blame Massa, it's not his fault, but this penalty concerned a safety danger, which is priority to other aspects, hence why it was dealt with faster IMO.

This is not as easy in my mind. There can be a solution like another set of warning lights a bit behind. I think that right now we are facing teething problems that any progressive system has. Question is a benifit for having such systems. However, I think FIA may come into play and forbid such system as unsafe.
IMO today's glich was fuel rig sensor misfire.

You get a point. One cannot condamn a design for his early failures (though it has been tested a lot in both Races Free Practises and private tests.) I think like you that the FIA is going to put their nose in it anyway. They usualy don't go against Ferari, but forbiding this would only help Ferari to stop hurting themselves, so...

[fenix4life]

But still, you should be happy because he got the penalty, and a severe one on top of that: 10 sec stop & go (+ obviously the time lost in the pit lane, so we're talking about a 35/40 sec loss!)

If they gave him directly after the safety car went in the penalty he would never have finished second. Everbody knew he would have the penalty. Why wait that long.

The safety issue with Massa does not change a thing. There is at least five minutes between Rosberg comitting his fawl and Massa commiting his stupidity. Long enough to give him his penalty.

The real issue is not the penalty but the given time. If given directly he would never have any points or at least no podium. If he had a lack of fuel he wouldn't even finished.
This farce costs Hamilton again two points.

[West]

This might have been one of the most interesting races for the year... and I missed it...

Good for Renault and Williams; especially for the latter since they've pretty much fallen off the map.

I could not get the interview w/ LH because apparently the person decided to drop it... he was going to do it for a hotel down there. He is not a fan of F1.

[andartop]

LH once again cruised to the finish line and got the points by doing nothing special other than being lucky.

Nothing like Massa winning in Spa right?

If you read my post you will see what I thought of Massa's (and Kimi's and the Ferrari team's) performance today. What happened is Spa has absolutely nothing to do with the Singapore GP, which is the subject of this thread, but if you want my opinion on that LH was again cruising to get second place in Spa until the rain came a few laps before the end of the race, doing nothing special other than waiting to get lucky!