IB Tim

I am not sure I completely agree with that…look at our beloved F1 there have been countless drivers.......over the ages that could not drive out of their own way…very lame…ALL motor sports are the same at that, I am not a hater nor lover of Danica…however she is in my view just anther driver that must prove herself….

BlueRenesis82

Oh I agree, but I wish everyone would stop talking about how great she is. If it takes her ~4 years to get her first with with competitive equipment, its not the car, its her lack of enough skill.

IB Tim

Do you really think she has been in a competitive car all along....IMO only now is she in one.

BlueRenesis82

Matter of opinion

IB Tim

Or the realization... of the performance .....of the cars... her last cars where **** poor..tough to arguer that

nu2rx8

Totally agree. His front set-up is definitely super stiff, if not overweighted. At Malaysia his car was really lifting the inside front wheel in turn 2. We may see that 3 wheel motion again at Monaco on the run from Mirabeau down to Portier.

BTW... Anyone with pics for Monaco qualy?
Mine =
P1 Alonso
P2 Hammy
P3 Kimi
P4 Kubica
P5 Massa

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Monaco is a low speed track. You may see some of the lesser teams, with a poor aero package, do better there. STR qualified quite well last year.

Bootleg

http://www.weather.com/outlook/trave...opnav_business

it could get very interesting.....

alfy28

mine is similar to yours but i think ALonso will be further down the list. maybe like 5th or 6th. but that is just predicting. last year he did well due to being in a mclaren , but i am not sure bout this year (even though i ldo like renault alot)

morkusyambo

P1=Kimi
P2=Kovaleinin
P3=Lewis
P4=Kubica
P5=Massa
P6=Heidfield
P7=Alonso
P8=Truili
P9=Coulthard
P10=Rosberg

How's that??

T.T.

2008 Monaco qualifying grid. You saw it here first:

1. Hamilton
2. Kovalainen
3. Raikkonen
4. Kubica
5. Massa
6. Webber
7. Alonso
8. Heidfeld
9. Rosberg
10. Trulli

alfy28

sounds about right to me.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Massa & Kubica will crash out and not finish.

SHOWOFF

1. Kovalainen
2. Hamilton
3. Alonso
4. Raikkonen
5. Heidfeld

morkusyambo

I can agree with Massa possibly having a DNF, but so could Hamilton based on his performance since the end of last season.

For those of you picking Alonso to qualify anywhere above 5th, I think you're giving him WAY too much credit.

Don't get me wrong, because I like Alonso as a driver; I just think the excitement of Monoco is getting folks a little "high" around here.

ATL-GP

#1....Showoff...that is a cool *** avitar and pic at the bottom of your post.

my picks for Quali are:

1. Kimi
2. Ham
3. Mass
4. Koval
5. Kubika
6. Alonso
7. Heidfield
8. Webber.....yeah, I'm thinking the RB will do well

Bootleg

and you're basing that one what, the fact that Kubica has such a long record of crashing out? the only race he's crashed out of that was of his own doing was Canada last year, and that's arguable. Massa maybe. not Kubica.

1. Kubica
2. Kimi
3. Alonso
4. Hamilton
5. Massa
6. Heidfeld
7. Heikki
8. Rosburg
9. Trulli
10. Vettle

i expect things to shake up in the principality. the BMW has a ton of mechanical grip and the McLaren is lacking in that area. Lewis will have a fair weekend but not a great one. i really think this is a great chance for BMW to ****** victory from Ferrari. i would have placed Heidfeld higher but he's been having trouble getting heat in his tire on short runs. hence the poor qualifying results to this point.

IB Tim

I am sure of one thing Thursday practice will show how it will be...rainy ....and Sat "Q" will be very interesting....becasue of the rain.....Race will be dry and turn everything upside down...

ATL-GP

Hell, that would be awesome. Imagine having the Force India and STR on the first and second row...with SF, Mc, and BMW in the back. Talk about a pass fest or rather a wreck fest!!

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Don't try to read my mind. My wife tries to do that and it causes trouble. I mentioned those two because I expect them to reach too far for a fast lap at somepoint. There will definitely be others. Monaco, being a street circuit, leave no room for error. With the driver aids gone, we could see quite a thinning of the field.

Bootleg

not that i disagree with you about the circumstances but you have the driver all wrong. Kubica is not the type to push too hard and screw up. Massa, Hamilton, and Alonso on the other hand.....

ATL-GP

.........will wrap their cars around the armco for a few tenths

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Yes, I know it's Monaco weekend, but this is too interesting.

............................
http://www.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/10836196/2
May 21, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Although Marco Andretti would jump at the chance to race in Formula One if the right team came calling, his eyes are wide open to the sport's dark side of politics and backstabbing.

And the third-generation member of one of racing's most famous families doesn't have to look far to find an example of F1's ruthless nature: His father, Michael, drove in the elite international series in 1993 and came away looking like a failure.

But Marco said the team his father drove for, McLaren, went out of its way to make sure he didn't get a fair shake.

"If you ask me, it was sabotage," Andretti told The Associated Press on Wednesday, as he prepared for Sunday's Indianapolis 500. "It was."

According to conventional racing wisdom, Michael Andretti didn't succeed in his lone F1 season because he wasn't committed enough, wasn't properly prepared or simply didn't measure up.

But Marco said people don't know "the real story" behind his father's poor performance that year, insisting the team tried to make his dad look bad so they could get rid of him and make room for a promising young driver - Mika Hakkinen, who would go on to win two world championships.

"They wanted him to fail," Andretti said. "I don't know, it was a very bad deal. The reality of it was, they had Mika Hakkinen ready to come in for a lot less than what my dad was getting paid, and that's all it was. Right then and there, they had to make him look (bad)."

Andretti said McLaren's efforts to sabotage his father's career went beyond simply giving better cars and engines to his teammate, Ayrton Senna - something that might be expected, given Senna's status as a three-time world champion. Andretti insists the team intentionally made his father's cars more difficult to drive.

"They would make the car do weird things in the corner electronically, stuff out of his control," Marco Andretti said.

The situation only improved, Andretti said, when Senna stepped in.

"And I think my dad's biggest supporter over there was Ayrton Senna," Andretti said. "Because he was one of the few who knew what was really happening in the team, and I think he believed in my father. It was Monza that he really said, 'Give him my car. Give him exactly what I had."'

Michael Andretti finished third in the 1993 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, his only top-three finish of the season. It didn't matter, as Andretti was replaced by Hakkinen in the final three races of the season and returned to race in the U.S.

A McLaren team official did not immediately answer a request for a response to Andretti's comments. Senna died in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994.

ichael Andretti didn't want to go into detail about the '93 season, but didn't deny his son's version of the story.

"I'm not going to go into all of it," Michael Andretti said. "Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience. It was a time where I think I was sort of caught in a political battle of auto racing, and because of that wasn't a very good experience."

But Michael said he understood why Marco would speak out, saying he probably would do the same thing if something similar happened to his father, racing legend Mario Andretti.

"If my dad went through that, I would obviously probably approach it a different way and tell that story," Michael Andretti said. "But it sounds like sour grapes coming from me."

So given all that baggage, why would Marco Andretti want to try F1?

"Because I want to tackle it, you know what I mean?," he said.

Marco Andretti tested a Honda F1 car in 2006, but he isn't willing to make the jump unless it is with a team that can win. He believes the F1 establishment wants him to fail, too.

"I don't have any other mentality other than to go over there and win," Andretti said. "Because I think it's a bigger story if I go over there and fail, really. It really is. Because that's what people are waiting for, to be honest, over there."

Andretti, 21, enjoys IndyCar racing and says he could foresee spending the rest of his career in the series. But he concedes that IndyCar, which races mostly on oval tracks, isn't the best place to attract attention from F1 teams that race on road courses.

"The reason it's tough right now is, if I go win Kentucky, Ferrari's not going to come say, 'Hey, we want you,"' he said. "But maybe (winning) a series championship and the Indy 500, that could help."

Michael believes his son has the potential to race in F1, but also thinks he might find happiness by staying in IndyCar.

"He's one of the bright young stars here in America, and open-wheel racing I think now is about ready to rocket (in popularity)," Michael Andretti said. "I think there's something to that, for him to look at that, to think, 'Maybe I can help take IndyCar racing to the top.' I'm sure that's in the top of his mind."

morkusyambo

Marco Andretti is 21 years old. If he truly wanted a shot at F1 he would allready be making plans to compete in the feeder series. Whether the stuff about his dad is true or not, the fact that he would mention it in public sounds like a pre-emptive excuse for not competing in F1.

As far as staying in IndyCar, I agree that he would be more popular in the US if he did that. More Brazilians watched the last grand prix of last year, than americans watched the entire F1 season. No matter how much we wish it to be so, NASCAR will allways reign supreme here. IndyCar has a great opportunity to obtain second place.

T.T.

Well I was kind of close. I really expected McLaren to excel at this track. I really didn't expect Massa to be on pole. I got Alonso right. +1 for me.