Nick86

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F2005 and the F2004 revised for this year's rules.

Nick86

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And this is a prime example of why I don't like Ferrari:

Ferrari Denies Minardi

Written by: Cassio Cortes Melbourne, Australia – 3/2/2005



A winter-long struggle between Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart and world champion squad Ferrari reached its peak in Australia today, as the Scuderia’s principal, Jean Todt, refused to grand permission for Minardi to race its 2004-spec racers in this weekend’s Melbourne F1 season opener.

The Faenza-based outfit now finds itself in a dramatic situation, with the GP’s Thursday technical scrutineering less than 24 hours away. As of now, Minardi’s cars are set to fail that inspection, and thus be barred from competing at the squad’s “home” race - Stoddart is a Melbourne native.

Claiming to be behind schedule to build a full 2005 car thanks to the uncertainty regarding engine supplier Cosworth in the offseason, Stoddart needed the approval of his nine rival team bosses to get a waiver to compete in Australia with last year's cars. Ferrari is the only team to refuse support to Minardi’s move, likely in retaliation for Stoddart’s position as spokesman for radical cost-cutting initiatives not desired by Maranello.

"As of now, the situation is that Minardi will not be competing in Sunday's race because (Jean) Todt has refused to agree to our request,” Stoddart revealed at the Albert Park circuit.

"I spoke to him at 3.00am, and he said he won't agree to it, stating that it is an FIA matter. But it's not, and he knows that. The FIA needs to satisfy itself that cars are safe, and the nine teams need to agree that we can compete outside the technical regulations. They are totally separate issues with separate procedures."




A FIA spokesman endorsed Stoddart’s view: "Two things are required: 1) all cars have to be scrutineered and passed for compliance by the FIA, and 2) all competitors need to agree to allow cars not complying with the technical regulations take the start. The sequence is unimportant, subject to both points being complied with before the cars go out on the track.”

Stoddart claims his PS04Bs have been updated when it comes to the FIA’s new safety requirements, and confirmed that all other teams have complied to his request.

"That is eight teams for and one against,” he said. “I personally can't think of a bigger PR disaster than banning the underdog from what is effectively our home race."

Complicating matters further, Todt is not even in Melbourne yet, and, also according to Stoddart, refuses to delegate the matter to somebody else at Ferrari: "Todt told me he will not be in Melbourne until Friday morning, and that he is not interested in our problem. The sad thing is that this is not a sporting matter, but a political one," fumed the Australian.

Minardi’s team boss proceeded by justifying his underfunded outfit’s reasons for requesting to be exempted for the first races of the year - the squad plans on introducing an all-new PS05 by the San Marino GP.

"We received notice that Ford was withdrawing from Formula 1 and putting its operations up for sale in September last year, and so we put off building our new car," he explained. "As a small team we can't afford the risk of investing money unless we are sure of our situation.

"Because of Cosworth and regulations which were signed off late, we cannot be ready before Imola. The lead-time on our bell housings alone is 16 weeks. That's four months."

In the buildup for the Australian showdown, Stoddart threatened several times to take legal action to ensure his cars would race under appeal. But now he suggests that this option will not be taken before the event.

"Our advice indicates that we have a case, but it would mean disrupting the tenth anniversary of the Grand Prix I love above all others,” he revealed. “I refuse to do that. But I am not ruling out later legal action."

eViLRotor

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Agreed. Pretty pathetic on JT's part. Petty behaviour like this is not befitting a world class outfit like Ferrari. But, it does sound like political payback like the writer said.

Hey, it would be kind of cool to see a true 2004 car race against the 2005 cars with all the aero changes...go Minardi!!!

Snrub

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Rules are there to ensure that things are just for all. F1 is clearly not just for Minardi, it's not simply a matter of "try harder you wuss," there is no solution for them but to try to change the costs of F1 participation. The rules are not fulfilling their purpose so I see no reason that they cannot be overrided when it makes sense to do so.

I really hope Ferrari pull the rabit out of the hat and finish 1-2. Remember how uncomfortable MS looked when he gave RB the top spot of the podium due to pressure? I think it would be quiet funny if the crowd booed MS and Todt and pelted them with tomatos. I'm not anti-Ferrari, but thier refusal to let Minardi race makes me mad.

There are gratious competitors and there are spoiled brats. The question now has to be asked, who are the true racers, Ferrari or Minardi?

Evilrotor, in light of Ferrari shutting out Minardi I would like to request that you change your avatar text. MS holds enough sway at Ferrari that he could tell Todt that he wants to Minardi to race.

Now that the rules have been changed fairly substantially for 2005, it gives the other teams a better chance to beat Ferrari. While we don't know how the F2005 will perform, wouldn't it be wonderfull to see JPM, Kimi, Fisi and Alonso shutout MS?

eViLRotor

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Nick86

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LOL!


Free Paul Stoddart!

eViLRotor

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BTW, any Ottawa Peeps (or people that wanna drive) should come to Will's place on Saturday. We are having a little F1 Season Opener party. Race starts at 9.

Nick86

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Dammit - I'll be in Montreal for our annual "First F1 Race of the year Gathering".

We should get together for a pre-season meet soon too! Maybe some food or karting?

eViLRotor

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Only if you organize it, f00. So that we know you can make it

Nick86

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Touché

Snrub

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Very nice Evilrotor.

Apparently MS has argued in a press conference that it would be unfair to let Minardi have special rules just because they're slow. He compared it to letting extra players on the field for a poor soccer team. I think it's time MS raced in a Minardi.

Snrub

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The newest news is that Minardi somehow passed the FIA technical regulations. I'm confused now, if they past those, Minardi should be in the clear, right?

Read this: http://www.f1racing.net/en/news.php?newsID=78452

I've also hear that Red Bull has said they have not signed anything and that Minardi's agreement was signed last fall by Jaguar. Red Bull have said that they don't want Minardi to race a 2004 car. I don't have a big problem with Red Bull objecting because Minardi could potentially take points from them.

Nick86

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Yeah, I read that too and was somewhat confused as well.

From what I can piece together, Minardi has some aero pieces that they can bolt on to the car to pass the preliminary technical inspection. The problem is that these pieces have not been load tested, or even mounted on the car until now. Stoddart doesn't believe that it is safe to send two cars out on track with front and rear wings that are untested and unknown (And he's right). That said, I am unsure that even with these aero bits, the car will conform to the final tech inspections.

I too can see where RBR is coming from, as they are direct competitors of Minardi - but there are Legal issues with that contract. When RBR took over Jag, I believe that they had to honour contracts made by Jag. That said, there are ways around this. What I don't get is that F1 IS all of these guys livelihood. Beyond all else they should be conserving the sport as a whole. What with all the power struggles and qualifying snafus, you'd think that they'd realize that this could be potentially be damaging to F1 and it's image - to say nothing of Ferrari's! Let them race and deal with the results after the race. Even if it means that they are not eligable to score points. At least they'd get their sponsors on TV!

The First Practice is on SPEED tonight at 10pm. We'll have to wait and see what happens!

eViLRotor

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Wow.

That is one of the smarter things I've heard JV say in a long time. Can't wait for the practice tonight!!!! Pysched!!!!

edv

My TV Guide says SPEED TV is blacked-out for tonite's telecast. But TSN is showing something else, so maybe SPEED will air for us. IIRC the SPEED feed has almost always been available for the entire weekend.
TSN just inked a deal for 5 more seasons using the same basic format as they have in the past. Plus they now have the Cdn GP.

Nick86

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SPEED shows all of the practices and race all over Canada - except Quebec. Quebec can only see the Replays of the race on SPEED.

From the SPEED site:

BLACKOUT INFORMATION

Formula One Blackout Information

All F1 events will be blacked out in Mexico, Latin America and the province of Quebec, Canada. The Canadian Formula One Grand Prix (June 7-8) will be blacked out across ALL of Canada (Canadian viewers can tune to RDS, TSN or the local broadcast outlet for coverage). Re-airs of all F1 Qualifying and Races on the Speed Channel will be shown as scheduled in all countries (including Canada) with NO blackout restrictions.


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edv

Now that I think about it, the only time I recall SPEED being blacked out (aside from the CDN GP) was when they were showing some of the F1-Decade shows. I was so pissed off. I think it was the 1993 British GP or some other classic race that I can't recall now. Why the hell would they have done that, yet show Live F1? All the other F1-Decade shows were not blacked out.

Snrub

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It was interesting watching practive, a number of the cars appeared to have unequal tire wear, with the left side being worn down more.

Also interesting to see how the time was used, although in the future it wouldn't be too interesting. At the end they started working on qualifying setups, so even though it means nothing, it was interesting to see everyone taking their time going around and then suddenly trying to put in smoking laps. I'm not sure that I like the fact that no one will lock up their tires for fear of flatspotting them.

eViLRotor

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The cars are almost as fast as last year.
Then again, not surprising, knowing what F1 engineers are capable of, and engine abuse will really only factor during the next race.

Surpised only McLaren used a 3rd driver.
Go Kimi! I think he can beat JPM.

What is up with Massa 10 places better than JV?

I just think this whole tire saving **** is going to hurt the racing even more. We'll see...

Nick86

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Me Too. I think there is going to be some other consequences that they hadn't thought of. By watching the practice, it was apparant that near the end of the run the cars were sliding around a lot more - especially when they were pushing. This will lead to a lot of slow lazy "Harmless" spins. Problem is that in F1, if the car stalls or gets high centred in the gravel/grass - that's it. You are out of the race, see ya next time. I think we may just see a lot of perfectly good cars out by the end of each race because of this. How does less cars on the track improve the racing? The need to institute the same "Push Start" rules that ChampCar has, so if a competitor does spin off without damaging the car, then he'll be able to get back in it. If he has to stop, that won't improve the show.

I wouldn't read too much into the speeds of the drivers from that session. Not everyone is pushing for qualifying setup. It wont be until tonight and tomorrow's qualifying that we'll have a better guage of outright speed.

BTW - I think this sunday morning qualifying is retarded.

eViLRotor

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So much of this new stuff is ridiculous. But right now, just seeing some F1 action has negated my cynicism somewhat

Snrub

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McLaren is the best team to be allowed to have 3rd drivers. Liuzzi (Red Bull), Zonta (Toyota), Doornbos (Midland-Jordan) were on track in addition to De La Rosa (McLaren). Liuzzi and De La Rosa appear to have put in a lot of laps, which makes sense, why wouldn't you run a lot of laps in your 3rd car? The only teams not to have 3rd cars out who were allowed to have 3rd cars out are Sauber because they can't afford it and Minardi because they weren't running. I'm not sure if they have anyone lined up to test for them or not. I know they have some 40 year old guy doing other testing for them.

There's no reason that all OW cars shouldn't have on board starters like in street cars. It makes them look stupid if they stall out. Weight regs for F1 are 1320lbs. The F2001 was in the 900s before balast, why shouldn't they have starters?

These times are practice, so it doesn't mean a heck of a lot. JV being seconds behind Massa doesn't mean much, but it will definately be interesting to see how he does.

JPM has said himself he expects Kimi to be faster for the first few races due to familiarity with the team, etc. JPM can roast anyone out there if it's just down to driving (recall how amaturish he made Kimi look in Brazil last year on cold tires?), but unfortunately technical aspects, etc. are a big part. I have a feeling McLaren are going to do very well this year. They appear to have some of their old form back, they've got a great driver lineup and the 3rd car will make a big difference. I say that without any bias, until now I've predicted they'd go down hill each year since Mika's first WDC and indeed they have.

eViLRotor

iTrader: (2)

What a crazy first qualifying. Certainly, with the combined time qualifying setup the field is going to be pretty jumbled for tonight. MS is going to be lucky to be in the top 10.

Could be a great race.

Feds

Was definitely a better race than usual. 1 battle for position > 0 battles for position. And JV got lots of TV time for sure. And I'm glad they haven't figured out the set up yet, it's nice to see a formula car slide around a little. Stops me from thinking I would have a chance of driving one.

eViLRotor

iTrader: (2)

Interesting you should say that. We had a little F1 party at Will's and the only people not put to sleep by that 'race' where myself and Stacey. The only time their slumber got interrupted was the Schumacher ramming episode, and that was only to gloat

I doubt F1 will be any more or less exciting than its been.