The race in Argentina raised again worries about safety in Formula 1. Three accidents could have had worse consequences...
The Badoer accident and Marques all most flying over Brundle makes us ask one more time, until when will FIA make a decision to avoid that kind of problems.
After Verstappen and Irvine, now Diniz's gets burned. The major part of team owners and car engineers is against refueling. Is a new tragedy essential to move the FIA towards an new atitude?
Marko Petek
petek@voyager.com.br
Brazil
In response to the comment by Mr. Petek, the only way to stop one racecar from flying over the other, as did Marques over Brundle, would be to end the open wheel format. The accident was a result of Marques failing to be careful after being overtaken by Brundle, and not braking hard enough. Personally, I think if we were to remove the open wheel format, the series would be little different than the WSC division of IMSA. The open wheel format forces driver's to be more careful when overtaking, for the cost of failure is quite a nasty accident. They can not simply bump into or push the other car out of the way, a la NASCAR. As for the fire problem, perhaps a change to methanol, much like INDYCAR? I like the necessity for strategy that refueling requires, but the fire issue does need to be addressed.
Unsigned
The most incredible situation took place here in Canada last Sunday regarding the television broadcast of the F1 race from Argentina. Neither TSN or CBC, the two major English speaking networks, broadcast the event live! Why? We may never know but they did show them later in the evening. What a slap in the face for one of Canadas most formidable athletes of this decade...after Wayne Gretzky of course! But what did save the day was RDS, Canada's French Sports network who have shown each and every F1 race so far this year. Thanks RDS.
Ronan Kennedy
rkennedy@seascape.com
Canada
I would just like to express my worry about Mr. Doolittle's article on the Falklands. I hope your journal is about Motorsport, not World Politics.
Michael Braham
mtbr@cyberlab.ch
Switzerland
Great race it was, the Argentine GP. Damon Hill did it again (I hope that will not be the case in EVERY race this season) and the Williams team is looking good indeed. I guess Villeneuve was lucky having the safety car slowing down everyone in front of him. I was very dissapointed with Alesi. If anyone had any chance to challenge Hill in Argentine it would be him, but Jean stalled the engine.
Too bad Bergers suspension failed, he made an excellent race otherwise. Once again Schumacher showed what a great driver he is. If the Ferrari had last to the end we would have seen an exciting battle between him and Alesi. Another great driver was Jos Verstappen who finished in 6th place in a Footwork Hart! Further dissapointments by McLaren-Mercedes..no comments.
Stelios Grigoriadis
ehsstgs@ehs.ericsson.se
Sweden
With regards to Stelios Grigoriadis' comment that Jacques Villeneuve was lucky to have the safety car come on the track, I agree, but he was no luckier than Hill was in Australia when Jacques' oil leak became terminal. Hill drove a great race, but in all fairness, I think we should agree that Villeneuve did equally well to regain five places within ten laps when none of the top four could do anything about passing each other.
And to Ronan Kennedy's comment on the abismal Canadian broadcasting of the last two GP's, I agree wholeheartedly. In Brazil, the problem was a NASCAR race (which we all know appeals to the uninformed North American masses more than sophisticated racing like F1) and I didn't bother to check what was broadcast instead of the Argentine GP. I guess we can only count on live GP broadcasts when they fall in the early morning (Canadian time) as fortunately most of the upcoming ones will.
Jason Cooke
jcooke@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
The Jacques Villeneuve InfoSite
Canada
What do we have to do to get better use of the in car cameras in F1? I think that it is time where the FISA should provide the host coverage at each GP and take the time to do a lap at speed (or more if the race is less than exiting) in the cars. Contacting ESPN will do no good, as they merely send what they get.
Lou Masciarelli
loumash@tiac.net
U.S.A.
A few words on Ferrari. It seems to me that Williams should start to worry. Ferrari's performance at the Argentine G.P., when considering that the V-10 is still young and that the car is sporting last season's gear box and rear suspension, was very impressive. The next race should be very exciting with the Ferrari composed of an improved chassis enabling them to take back some of the lost horsepower. Oh, and by the way, many of Ferrari's championship cars handled poorly, which seems to be the price to pay for performance and a winning car. It just takes a talented driver such as Schumacher to bring home the victories.
Franco Boriero
fborie@PO-Box.McGill.CA
Canada
Although Damon has dominated Jacques the past two outings, it was Jacques who dominated the opening week-end. Thus it is premature to concede total victory to Damon -- he has raced at Brasil and Argentina in the past, thus in equal machinery he should out-perform Jacques. With the passage of time, Jacques should be able to close the gap.
As this current season progresses it is a welcome change to see drivers and constructors who, in the past, at best finish mid-field, getting a crack at the top six on merit not attrition.
Last, MacLaren -- the team who managed to keep ahead of the fray during the 1980's and early 1990's, is looking alot like Ferrari of recent past -- numerous changes, same sad results!
R. Jez
RJEZ@MECHANICAL.Watstar.UWaterloo.CA
Canada
Too bad ESPN has pushed Formula One off on their stepchild, ESPN2. Most cable systems do not carry ESPN2 for competition reasons. I guess I'll just have to read about the races or watch a time-edited version a week or two later. Maybe they can find a slot between beach volleyball and Southern arm wrestling.
Jason Daniel
z_danieljn@TITAN.SFASU.EDU
U.S.A.
I read mr. Galvin's analysis of the race and my friends and I, would like to point out a fact missing from his article and various other analysis and comments from this season F1 races: The fact that Jacques Villeneuve has a tremendous handicap over Damon Hill (and other drivers) in this seasons racing.
Jacques is racing in most of these tracks for the first time while Hill has raced multiple times before in these tracks and is more familiar with them. It is unfair to say that "it is clear Jacques Villeneuve cannot keep up with Hill in racing conditions" when Villeneuve has only 2 days to learn the tracks. If you make a fair comparison look at Australia where the track was new to all racers Jacques was clearly faster than Hill and would have won the race if he didn't have engine problems...
I am looking forward to the results and commentary of the Estoril-Portugal race (since J.V. did thousands of miles of testing on this track!) Please lets be fair here. I know that Damon Hill is a fast driver and England should proud to have him but in final analysis all aspects should be looked at and mentioned.
John Dourekas
jdourekas@attmail.com
U.S.A.
It seens everybody forgot that Brundle did the same with Barrichello last year at Silverstone. He is the kind of driver with no reason to be driving. Jordan should give his seat to another good driver.
Hugo Dittrich
h.dittrich@unetsul.com.br
Brazil
Mr. Michael Braham, from Switzerland, found Mr. Doolittle's comment about the Argentinian Grand Prix "off track", too much concerned with politics than sport. I disagree. We have many commentators who only write about the sport itself, the chronos, the techniques, the drivers and the statistics. Sometimes, I like commentators who can look beyond this wonderful narrow race track and tell us about the atmosphere and history of the cities and countries that Formula One is visiting each year.
Formula One is more than racing; it's about the world. There is not a lot of truly international sports and Formula One is certainly one of the best, if not the best. Some racing purists are annoyed by all the fuss about Formula One's jet set, big money, big companies, far away countries and awkward politics. But that's part of what makes Formula One what it is. And as long as it doesn't steal the real show - the one that is happening on the race track - I enjoy reading about the background of Formula One, as Mr. Doolittle is doing for us at every Grand Prix. And his last column about racing, politics and culture in Latin America was especially interesting.
Ugo Marsolais
ugo@odyssee.net
Quebec
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