I can't believe they did that to Barrichello!!

 

*WHAT* a disgrace.....

 

I was happy to see Michael acknowledge Reubens though. It was definitely not a popular decision between the two drivers. Stuff like this can't help F1's popularity (especially in the U.S.)

 

Why does Schumacher have 50 odd wins? Because he's never had a team mate. His "team mate" is just the test driver for his backup car. .

He's a good driver, but he's no Prost, Senna, Stewart or Fangio. They get a lot more respect in my book.

 

Well, sadly it goes into the record books in the finishing order with no "asterisk". Look at Schumacher's Austrian GP record before today.

 

I am happy for Ferrari, but very disappointed at the same time. Rubens is sooooo underrated and that was his race. I can understand Ferrari's reasoning for doing this, but it is still hard to take. I was also very happy to see MS really acknowledging RB. Hopefully MS will return the gift later in the season or better yet, RB will win outright, I believe he has the talent to do that as he just proved.

Personally if I was in charge of Ferrari (good wish), I would have given the race to RB, MS would still be 23 points ahead and Ferrari would still score maximum points, but decisions like this are why Di Montezemello is head of Ferrari, someone has to make the hard and unpopular calls for the team.

RB has only had to do this twice out of the 50 odd wins...MS is a great driver imo.

 

Ferrari's decision was shortsighted and arrogant. It will do them far more harm than any possible help it could ever provide.

Forget about loosing a large number of fans, that is certain. I'm talking money, Ferrari is about to release an IPO to generate some very much needed income for Fiat. This horrid PR situation is the last thing they need. Ferrari stock is boutique, in that people would primarily purchase it because they love Ferrari, not for investment purposes. But when people are disgusted with your company, they don't buy your stock.

Today Ferrari's management made a shortsighted, poor PR decision and even poorer business decision. And at the same time they managed to tarnish the entire sport. Look for this sort of practice to be banned within weeks. (and sales of Schumacher caps to plummet)

 

why did you not put [spoiler] in the subject line? hmmm, now I can make use of the ignore list.

 

 

So the question occurs to me now: Why watch F1 anymore?

It's certainly not for the racing. It's either incredibly boring, like the last race, or fixed, like this one. Hockey and other sports have specific rules to govern sandbagging like this. The rules involve fines and suspensions. Because its bad for the sport. (Unless you're the WWF. F1 = WWF? Go figure.)

I happen to also think it's unethical.

I had been thinking of going to the US Grand Prix, but now I have no interest. Not even to watch. I'll stick with Grand-Am, Speedvision Challenge, ALMS, Superbike and the like.