They have been cast as aloof gentlemen drivers. But the cover has been blown at Honda Racing. That can happen when a driver calls his car #### like Jenson Button reportedly did last weekend according to SPEED TV broadcasters. But wait! There's more. Button added that team members have begun "shouting at each other".
And check this from Rubens Barichello. "It (the car) acts like a parachute on the straights.
Ouch! Not very nice Rubens. But I hear your frustration. And as a fan I feel your pain.
"Sometimes you just need to voice off some truths," said the Brazilian, who described the Brackley based team's error of not having his car adequately set up when he needed to use it at Sepang to qualify as "amateurish". After two weeks of this "####" Rubens is indubitably pissed. "In qualifying in Melbourne, the car was hitting the ground like never before. The car is bad. What can I do? I'm like a passenger."
"Everyone needs to calm down, go back to Europe, sit down and check things out. We have tried a lot of things but not one thing seems to be working. We need to use the human side to sort things out. We can't do anything about the car."
Rubens isn't throwing in the towel. What he is saying is that for this week at least the team is stuck with this car and its inherent design flaws. The question is what can human ingenuity do in a creative group problem solving environment to make lemonade from an obvious lemon. I imagine those meetings were held yesterday. At least I damn well hope so!
Too bad Sterling Marlin doesn't just come out and tell it like it is these days. I miss hearing him say, "The car just won't go good."
Kimi Raikkonen became the first Ferrari driver since Nigel Mansell in 1989 to win on his debut with the legendary Italian team on Sunday, barely putting a wheel wrong in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. His only problems were one minor off when he lost concentration on lap 46, and the lack of a radio throughout the race.
“The weekend has been very good, but today the race was not that easy,” he reported. “Maybe it looked like it but I didn’t have the radio as it stopped working before the start, so it was quite complicated. But we had our plan so I knew what had to do even if it was not the ideal situation.”
As the Finn sped into the distance, setting a string of fastest laps, the focus of attention fell on and his sensational debut for McLaren. Beaten off the line by Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber, the 22 year-old Briton simply drove round the outside of the Pole - and team mate Fernando Alonso who found himself trapped behind Nick Heidfeld in the other BMW - and held a confident second place ahead of the double world champion until the final pit stops. He even led the race for a couple of laps when Raikkonen made his first pit call.
After being blocked by Takuma Sato just prior to his second refuelling stop on lap 43, Hamilton lost second to Alonso when the Spaniard rejoined from his own stop on lap 45. Thereafter he dutifully followed his team leader home to finish an excellent third on his debut. He did a terrific job.
“It’s been fantastic, to lead in the race in my first Grand Prix,” a remarkably fresh-looking Hamilton said, “but it was extremely tough having the two-time world champion right behind you! The team have done a fantastic job here and back at the factory. “I got a pretty decent start but the BMWs were very quick off grid and Robert got past me. There was no way to stay on the inside so I thought I would dive back to the outside, and there I managed to out-brake nearly everyone. Obviously leading Fernando was then extremely intense, and for sure I made a couple of mistakes, but it’s been another new experience and I am ecstatic be here on the podium in my first race.”.
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