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Petroltorque

Well a cigarette paper between Macca and TOIT. My money's on Massa to make a mistake and gift Nando the win.
As for the chasing pack, plus ca change, plus la meme chose. RBR have found pace, but so have Toyo and Renault. Trulli's lap was a thing of beauty. Red Bull look like they have decided to set the car up in the hope of getting into quali 3, but on race fuel they don't look quick.
Ralf remains a passenger. I'd kick him out the bus and would not bother slowing down before doing it!

JumpeySpyder

Originally posted by Petroltorque
Well a cigarette paper between Macca and TOIT. My money's on Massa to make a mistake and gift Nando the win.!

I think Massa has qualified light on fuel. But TOIT havn't been too quick off the line - I'd wouldn't be surprised if Alonso gets him in the first corner.

Petroltorque Ralf remains a passenger. I'd kick him out the bus and would not bother slowing down before doing it!

:D Agreed :D

Telstar

I think your right Jumpey about Alonso at the first corner, I also think Hamilton will have a good start and split the two TOITs.

Jello_Biafra

Watch out for Heidfeld. :cool:

viges

Two Minardi boys on the podium: Alonso and Costa ... lovely.

Ferdy was a little optimistic in turn one but what the Hell.

Great for Aguri and, dare I say, DC ...

Oh, and Lewis leads the Formula One World Championship. Marvellous.

Telstar

Was a rather boring race, probably would have been a little better has Alonso not made that mistake at turn one.

Petroltorque

I was dissapointed. Alonso does a Massa. Clearly having Hamilton as a team mate has unsettled him. Raikkonen could find life at TOIT uncomfortable if Massa gets the team around him. Clearly Massa's not afraid to work on that.
The Fourth fastsest car debate remains to be settled. Both Toyo and Renault had problems. Roll on Monte Carlo!

salvo

I'm really glad for Sato and Super Aguri. We alla know round here how great it feels to get in the points when you're a small team

Jello_Biafra

Freaking Sauber looked like chickens with no heads when they cocked up Heidfeld's stop. :(

Petroltorque

Sauber don't have a computer problem to deal with a missing wheel nut.
Super Aguri's point has put a cat among the pigeons. Customer car scores first point. Spyker are improving but Gascoigne has said they need to find 1s a lap to be on par with the group ahead. Surely that can't come from aero improvements. A sizeable improvement could be gained if they could run a seamless shift. But that's not cheap. I wonder how smart they feel a TOIT engine deal was now. Surely a deal with Cossie would have left enough money in the kitty to develop the gearbox. Afterall engine development is frozen so teams just spend the budget elsewhwere now.

MinardiP1

Originally posted by Petroltorque
I wonder how smart they feel a TOIT engine deal was now. Surely a deal with Cossie would have left enough money in the kitty to develop the gearbox. Afterall engine development is frozen so teams just spend the budget elsewhwere now.

I don't agree with you often, but the above I wholeheartedly do. Spyker appear no more serious about F1 than Midland were - they were too interested in a *hopeful* technical linkup with Ferrari and subsequent road car sales rather than looking at the Cossie for what it was (and still is) - a golden opportunity to link with a company that would have bent over backwards to support them.

Ferrari likely just see them as an annoying distraction.

viges

Aldo Costa would disagree. I spoke with him last week.

He was at Minardi when he was supplied with a truly awful engine from Maranello so he's been on both sides. I could write a book ...

Selespeed

you should!

Petroltorque

Viges, I'm not doubting the quailty of the engine Maranello supplies. My question is the price. I doubt its cheaper than any deal that Cosworth would supply. Bear in mind that Cosworth did all their development in 2006.

Jello_Biafra

Problem is, as you've pointed out... who the fack is Cosworth? ;)

forzaminardi

cosworth can't give the engine away for free either, they have no corporate backers to finance their r&d bill and would still need to run a large department of well paid engineers!

MinardiP1

How much R&D would be involved with the engine freeze? Not much methinks. In simple terms they just need a team of engine builders, electronics guys, and track engineers.

I think Cosworth publicly indicated late last year they could provide an engine programme for 10 million pounds a year.

[Edited on 15-5-07 by MinardiP1]

Petroltorque

No-onw is suggesting they should.But Cosworth already laid off 200 engineers after engine r and d was frozen.

Jello_Biafra

Exactly, the engine bills would be much smaller without the R&D. Only small updates to solve reliability problems would be needed. In fact by the time everyone had snubbed Cosworth, they'd already had an engine designed!