Barcelona 2003

[GaySchumi 0]

It's official !! Renault's sandbagging ! Either that, or they've installed some sort of turbo in their car ! No way could Alonso have managed to keep almost on pace with MS with an engine as vastly inferior as they claim theirs is !!

Of course with their lower COG, they could go faster through corners ... hmmm ... I hope they put out Sector, and Highest Speed figures out soon, we ought to be able to get a better picture from that.

Besides that, DC, the man keeps showing why his sqaure-jaw ought to be replaced by Nick or any other driver out there, maybe Wurz, or better yet - Pedro

Raikkonen, poor chap, simply plowed into a standstill Antonio, and Wilson, those great first few laps from him again ... wonder what he'd do in A MAC

all said and done, I pity poor Panis, he seemed set to open Totyota's account, but Damatta took the honours ...

And so much more, Webber, Firman, Montoya's passes, , it wasn't bad, wasn't bad at all

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

It was a straightforward yet interesting race. Alonso was amazing, no doubt, but the Renault was losing a lot on the straights if you looked. THey were fastest through sectors two and three though, as that chassis is proving itself more and more worthy by the minute!

Shame for Kimi, he had no place to go. Had he gone left he would have hit Wilson (who is fantastic off starts, simply amazing!), and when he went right there was Pizzonia. I think its bye bye Antonio, hello Wurz! Shame for Kimi, but at least he and Mclaren still lead the championship and I think Austria will be better for them, they always run well there, especially Kimi shone there in 2001 and and 2002 until his Merc blew...

[nichosnz 0]

Martin Brundle and James Allen kept on commenting on the difficulty Ralf was having with his car. What about Firman his car was twiching all over the place every time we saw it, I am impressed he brought home points in those circumstances.

I was however dissapointed in the Renault, if only there was more stright-line speed Alonso would have dealt to Ralf immediatly and that (IMO) would have won him the race!

[Sato 0]

hahahahaha alonso is a lot better then MS , he was keeping with him in a car that has 30 - 50 less hp, in spain which has some fast straights.......poor poor kimi had nothing he could do.....but DC well i say its time to go...when has he ever been good?....he is never gonna go anywhere he truley sucks.....im glad weber finally got some points...and im inpressed by firman, his car was all over the place and he overtook fisi

and stopped button from getting overtaking

[GaySchumi 0]

I've been doing some reading, I know it's a bad habit , anyways, Renault's still using their radical engine with a much wider angle, which results in a lower center of gravity. A lower center of gravity results in greater maneuverability , and consequently a lower need for downforce through corners. It can also reduce drag, thereby improving fuel economy.

I dunno how a alower center of gravity would affect tire wear, can't say if the Renault's maintaining the tires was due to superior aero+low COG, or due to that revolutionary suspension they're supposed to be using .... I guess Renault's here to stay ! Let's hope the MP4-18's as good as they say it is ....

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

Definitely the Renault is a beast of a chassis, but it was evident that they were losing out on the straights. When their engines step up, they will become a consistant force to be reckoned with, no doubt. Mclaren have produced a beast of an MP4-18, it may be testing this week, reportedly all drivers will be present at the test and this can mean only one thing - car launch. Mclaren said it would be lowkey with not much prior announcement to hype it up, so we'll see...

[nichosnz 0]

I do hope Renault can improve reliability, in time for next years 1 engine rule. Must say it is quite close to that now, 0 engine failures in 10 starts, very good for Reggie. And if they can close the power gap to the top three (don't laugh given development it is possible), with such a low COG and the drivability that come with it, Renault and Alonso would be unstoppable. Remember Renault pioneered the Turbo and the V10, among other things, maybe the wide-V is just the next in a growing list.

[Thor 0]

It seems Ralf is his brother lap dog like Barrichello

he let his brother pass and did it well,and rigth after that he did blocking Alonso,why didn't they penalized him?

[daz 0]

Thor, I definitely wouldn't say that Ralf let Michael through. Michael was stuck behind Ralf for a couple of laps before Ralf finally made a mistake that let him through. You also can't penalise a driver when they are racing for position.

As for my thoughts on the race - I have to admit that Alonso seriously impressed yesterday and has gone right up in my estimations. The Renault is definitely a bit down on HP but I would say its closer to maybe 20 or 30hp difference. I'll be very interested to see how they do at a track like Monaco where its all about the chassis and not power.

My gut feel on the new Ferrari is that they've still got a lot to learn on it to extract maximum performance but the potential is definitely there. Michael drove a steady race and as long as the car got the the end the victory was always going to be his I feel. Watching the race I also can't help but wonder if Ferrari didn't de-tune the car slightly or not push it as hard as possible to try and ensure reliability. I think we'll see a bit more of a dominant performance in two or three races time. As for Mclaren, well what can you say other than they had a bad day at the office. DC was his usual idiotic self, and Raikkonen just wasn't on track long enough to give any indication of what strategy he would have used. Quite a pity actually as I was looking forward to seeing how he would do starting from the back.

[nichosnz 0]

I was quite looking foward to Raikkonen's display as well, top 3 was probably out of the question starting form the back, in this race at least. 4th however could well have been on the cards. His lead would then have been 9 rather than 4.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

R