ITV are pissed still obvisously. 

True that. BBC coverage is a good portion better though, so they should be pissed. 

theyve got the theme tune back!!!! 

I wasn't able to get up to watch the live race last weekend, and it appears that I missed out on all sorts of goodies by watching the re-run. Not too sure how happy about that I am. However, the re-run show was still markedly better than the ITV live show used to be. 

And no ad breaks! That pissed me off so much with ITV, normally I can handle ad breaks, but during a sporting event which is still going on is unacceptable. 

What I never understood, was how they could justify a break every 20 minutes, yet we would get 50 minute of undisturbed football! Oh well ... something we never need to worry about again! Hurrah! Only decent decision Ecclestone has made in years. 

I see him quite regularly in the pub.

He is a funny looking little fucker. 

Do his daughters drink there too? 

Seen one of them there once. 

DID YOU SLIP IT IN? 

whoops...didnt mean to shout that. 

McClaren's Dave Ryan suspended 

all is not right at mclaren...

which is great news really. 

That makes the whole thing make a bit more sense now. Not knowing what was in the radio communications made it hard to comment before, but that's really quite bad if they've both gone in and said there was no instruction to let Trulli past. 

Man. One race in, and this season is already bizarre. 

retalivity, care to explain your hatred for mclaren? 

i just never liked them....grew up a ferrari man. 

....plus, i couldn't stand david coulthard back when he was driving for them. 

fair enough.

see that kimi gets fastest lap in practice 1 in malaysia. WHERE ARE YOU NOW, BRAWN GP!?!? hehehe ... 

i wouldnt call it a hatred....plus i wouldn't exclusively follow ferrari.
I like rosberg & vettel, & also like to see the smaller teams coming up,
like brawn. 

I like McClaren just because they are clearly total assholes who consistently act like passive aggressive insane women. I think that's kinda endearing. This disregard for sportsmanship is ugly at first, but after a while, it's just like they keep hitting the cheatcodes and laughing away.

It's a hint of NASCAR is a sport of professionals. 

As we all know, Ferrari are a squeaky clean bunch too. 

Button is still favourite for Malaysia. 

The nearest thing would be when Schumacher parked his car in Monaco, but when he said that it wasn't intentional the judgement had already been passed.

The difference in this one is that both the driver and the team rep have appealed against another driver and then lied so that their case is upheld. 

dawg, fair point... but cheating is sort of inherent to racing. It is clear that for McClaren, however, racing is inherent to their cheating. I am not complaining or anything... I think they are great fun. 

midge mckay said:

The nearest thing would be when Schumacher parked his car in Monaco, but when he said that it wasn't intentional the judgement had already been passed.

The difference in this one is that both the driver and the team rep have appealed against another driver and then lied so that their case is upheld.

Hey midge .. here we are again :)

Did you know that Toyota withdrew their appeal 2 days before the FIA made a judgement against Hamilton and McLaren? In this case, the judgement had already been passed, and the appeal had been dropped. This is another case, my friend, of double standards :) 

Cheating on the racetrack is one thing.

Lying in a hearing is different.

It's the difference between a footballer diving and acting like it was the most terrible tackle in order to win a free kick, and a footballer going to the police after a game and having the defender arrested. 

Old Juicy said:

dawg, fair point... but cheating is sort of inherent to racing. It is clear that for McClaren, however, racing is inherent to their cheating. I am not complaining or anything... I think they are great fun.

Of course you're right. Teams have been "bending the rules" in motorsports for many years, and will for many more. However, it's absolutely undeniable that McLaren are being called out for everything, and nobody else is. I don't believe that McLaren are the biggest cheats in the industry, but it just seems like they are taking all the shit at the minute. And we all know why that is, don't we? 

DAWG UK said:

Hey midge .. here we are again :)

Did you know that Toyota withdrew their appeal 2 days before the FIA made a judgement against Hamilton and McLaren? In this case, the judgement had already been passed, and the appeal had been dropped. This is another case, my friend, of double standards :)

Lol, I'm never one to hide my obvious bias in these things!

But the issue is now nothing to do with what happened in the race - it's not driving misconduct anymore, it's professional misconduct. 

midge mckay said:

Cheating on the racetrack is one thing.

Lying in a hearing is different.

It's the difference between a footballer diving and acting like it was the most terrible tackle in order to win a free kick, and a footballer going to the police after a game and having the defender arrested.

Midgy midgy midge ... let's not lose context here. What it's really like is this:

It's the difference between a footballer diving and acting like it was the most terrible tackle in order to win a free kick, and a footballer going to FIFA, and saying that he was told by his manager to dive.

Let's not make comparisons with common law, and the breaking thereof, as there is no direct comparison to be made. 

DAWG UK said:

And we all know why that is, don't we?

Glueshooter said:

McLaren are shit at breaking the rules.

 

Tsk. No, it's because of the history that McLaren have with the FIA. It's because the FIA waited for McLaren to fall out of favour with their rivals, and then lay it on thick, because of the pre-condord agreement attempt to form a break-away group, which was headed by McLaren. And oddly, which Ferrari also agreed with, until payed-off by the FIA. And now they are making them pay. And the truth will out, when people are finally dead and buried. Let's hope that doesn't take too long. 

Dawg, I realize McClaren is getting hammered... and have been for a h-while, but I don't think I am aware of the subtext you're referring to. I thought it was just because they have been kinda ridiculous, and people are just calling them on their almost shtick-like lack of ethics.

I don't see F1 as fair anyway... it's hilarious, or it's going to piss me off... I choose to view F1 as performance art comedy.

But anyway, please let me know what you were talking about. It sounds interesting. 

You already answered my question. that's actually very plausible. 

Trulli was docked by 25 seconds, putting him from 3rd place to zero points. That's a pretty big thing. When they had the hearing, both Hamilton and Dave Ryan went in and said that Hamilton wasn't told to slow down. Then Hamilton said in an interview that he was told that, then the radio chatter confirmed it.

So two professionals have gone into a hearing and lied (or not been forthcoming) about what really happened. 

it's like, pre-emptive answers maaan. spoooky. 

There are few things I like more than F1 chat :p 

Have you read the latest midge? Hamilton says in pretty plain English, that he was mislead by Dave Ryan, and that he effectively told him to lie.

Now put yourself in his shoes. If you were going into a meeting, and your boss said "when asked about x, don't mention y". What would you do? Would you follow it through, and keep your job? Or would you oust your boss, and risk losing everything? In my opinion, Hamilton was put in a no-win situation by Dave Ryan. 

Just been reading it and listening to the radio chatter.

Yep, he says Ryan asked him to withhold information. There's a very good analogy with what I do. If my work had an audit, and my senior engineer asked me to lie about something that would have a significant impact (and potentially cost me my job if it was discovered that I was lying), then I would go to the person above him and ask for advice. Hamilton should have been on the phone to Whitmarsh. Maybe he was convinced by Ryan that it was the right thing to do, but it was still the wrong thing to do and against the rules, so ultimately the team must be penalised, and unfortunately it has been seen as serious enough that a fine for McLaren just won't be enough.

They all surely know that lies lead to more lies, and eventually you get caught out. 

has ron dennis retired? 

Retired from his post but is still a shareholder. He's maybe in some sort of board role? 

People are even saying they might get bant from racing this season. highly unlikely. 

I have no problem with McLaren as a team but Hamlieton has acted like a petulant child consistently over the past couple of years and shown pretty much no good sportsmanship over that time. With the possibility that he might be suspended or excluded for the whole season, of course he's going to say he was just following orders and of course McLaren are going to suspend the bad man who told him to lie...sheesh.

F1 was so much better before the money became so big and the stakes so high. Hell, there was a time before gambling on races became more important than the constructors championship and team orders were an integral part of the sport. Now it's considered cheating.

These days I just watch F1 to see what new and interesting way Webber will manage to find in order to not finish a race... 

Some reports suggest that McLaren could get bant, AND Hamilton could get kicked out of the championship. That would be harsh... 

Shut up you ugly, hate filled ... something else. 

I do like the passion of the supporters though. The LFS boards are a riot come F1 season. :)

You still playing Midge? I seem to recall seeing you mention you did somewhere in a post here. 

These days I just watch F1 to see what new and interesting way Webber will manage to find in order to not finish a race...

haha great 

Never really been a passionate supporter of any one team or car or brand (except maybe Lotus back in the JPS days) so it's fun to watch the Ferrari/McLaren sniping.

A couple of years ago every tifosi claimed that F1 hated Ferrari and now it's McLaren's turn.

Honestly though, the whole thing's just a way for Ecclestone and his croneys to feather their nests and you find a hundred times better racing in the lower classes. The F1 cars are just too fast for the circuits they race on so you never see overtaking and what's racing without overtaking?

Ah well, at least it gives me a reason to be hate-filled :) 

PerryMason said:

I do like the passion of the supporters though. The LFS boards are a riot come F1 season. :)

You still playing Midge? I seem to recall seeing you mention you did somewhere in a post here.

Not as much as I'd like :p LFS is the only game I have consistenly played since first installing it. In fact, I'm going to play it tonight :D 

The best racing on telly is found in the British Touring Car Championships. Absolutely fantastic.