Formula One - 2012 Season

[Kes]

Yeah, I know.

But maybe the penalties should be harsher, when someone who's not going to come close to winning the championship, can have so much effect on it, and in such a dangerous manner. Travelling at a speed of about 100mph, Grosjean's rear wheel missed Alonso's head by less than 12 inches. We could so easily have had a championship leader having his head being stitched back on for a funeral, because of this bloke's carelessness.

It's a difficult one I guess. I've lost count of the number of times I've thought a penalty in F1 was inappropriate for the transgression, be it too severe or not harsh enough, but at the end of the day, it's not my decision.

[WeeMann]

If you were watching the BBC on Sunday you may have seen Eddie Jordan getting a nugget of info from Bernie about Schumacher retiring at the end of the season. Jordan reckons it opens the gap for Hamilton to move to Mercedes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19489930

Italian GP Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren 1:19.41.221

2. Sergio Perez - Sauber +00.04.356

3. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari +00.20.594

4. Felipe Massa - Ferrari +00.29.667

5. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus +00.30.881

6. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes +00.31.259

7. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes +00.33.550

8. Paul Di Resta - Force India +00.41.057

9. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber +00.43.898

10. Bruno Senna - Williams +00.48.144

News is coming in that Prof. Sid Watkins has died. He saved the lives of numerous F1 drivers over the years including Gerhard Berger, Martin Donnelly, Érik Comas, Mika Häkkinen and Karl Wendlinger when they had near-fatal crashes and attended to the care of many others. Of course he was also on the scenes of Gilles Villeneuve, Riccardo Paletti, Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna's fatal crashes and tried to save them too, sadly in vain.

[WeeMann]

"What else do you need to do? You have been world champion three times, you are obviously the quickest driver. Give it up and let's go fishing."

Prof Sid to Senna, 24 hrs before he died.

RIP Sid.

that race should have never happened after the austrian driver Ratzenberger had died. It was totally disrespectful to him, and then Senna died just one day after.

Bollocks

[WeeMann]

He's doing it - Hamilton's moving to Mercedes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19755236

Good luck to him. I can see it's getting mixed reactions to say the least.

Personally, I'm not a massive fan of his, but I certainly don't hate him and he's got enormous talent and I wish him the best. But I tend to support him because he's a Brit rather than because I like him as a person. I'll be far more interested to see what Button can do now that Hamilton's moved out. I'll be keeping an eye on Perez too, he seems like a nice guy.

[WeeMann]

Not sure this is the most sporting way of keeping alonso in the running, but it would certainly keep things exciting for a bit longer:

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/new ... or-U.S.-GP

That's ridiculous. Surely if they're freely admitting that's what they're doing they should dump him at the back.

[WeeMann]

They've done it!!!

Done what? The gearbox change or demoted him? (Nothing too spoilerous please, I don't have Sky and I'm working early in the morning so I won't be watching until tomorrow night!)

[WeeMann]

They broke the seal on Massa's gearbox. 5 place grid penalty.

Mind you, as has been pointed out on Twitter, this is no worse than RBR breaking Parc Ferme last race in order to alter the gear ratios and give Vettel a better chance at racing through the field.

I'll make sure not to post about the race until tomorrow!