What a d#%k head!!!!! Everything always ends up being about colour!!!
Printable View
What a d#%k head!!!!! Everything always ends up being about colour!!!
Rubens Barrichello has admitted he might not secure a contract to remain in Formula One beyond this season.
The 36-year-old Brazilian, who is the most experienced Grand Prix driver of all time, has had a difficult year with Honda but insists he has never considered voluntarily retiring.
"I've made it clear that if someone offers me a good contract for the next three years, I'll sign it," he said ahead of his team's home race in Japan.
"I see my future in a F1 car, but if it doesn't happen, it's not the end of the world."
Barrichello admits he is not sure what Honda's plans are for 2009, although he confirmed that talks seem to be taking place with his young countryman Bruno Senna.
"There is a lot of silence at Honda right now and I think this is tiresome," he said.
"I've never been in a situation like this, without a contract for next year this late in the season."
Barrichello advises Senna, the 24-year-old nephew of his idol and former mentor Ayrton Senna, not to come to Honda.
"Not because of my situation, but because I think that with his lack of experience, he may waste an opportunity," he said.
"You shouldn't enter F1 just because you want to and burn everything in a year knowing that you have the capacity to be world champion. It's a big mistake."
After the novelties of the Singapore night race, it was back to the usual timetable today in Japan and the 180 minutes of free practice were all run in dry and fine conditions, although a few drops of rain fell immediately after the afternoon session. Both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen had a trouble-free day, completing a very high mileage, thus acquiring plenty of data, all the more useful given that so much time at the Fuji track last year was spent running in the wet.
The Ferrari duo actually completed a total of 134 laps, double the distance they will have to cover in Sunday afternoon's race and ended the day with the fourth and fifth fastest times respectively.
Felipe Massa
"I am pleased with this first day in Japan. The balance of the car is very good, both on the first timed lap and over a distance. The times are very close and maybe I could have been a bit further up the order in the afternoon session if I had not encountered traffic on my last run on the soft tyres. These seem to be very quick, which is no surprise, but also very consistent. I really want to do well this weekend and we will try and win and bring home the best result possible for the two Championships."
Kimi Raikkonen
"It seems very finely balanced with the lap times all very close. This means it will be very important to have a good qualifying otherwise you run the risk of being a long way back on the grid.I think our car is going well on this track and even if there is still some work to do to improve the handling, I am reasonably satisfied. The harder tyres are very consistent, while the softer ones seem to lose a bit of performance over a distance. They're not bad on the first lap and it's a shame that on my last run, I locked the wheel and was unable to do a good time. My weekend? I will try to do the best I can for myself and for the team."
Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal
"I realise this might sound boring, but today was a usual Friday. Generally, it was quite good: we got through a lot of work without any problems whatsoever, which is important. It's difficult to say what the real pecking order is as the times are very close and we don't know how much fuel the drivers had on their various runs. We expected to be competitive at this track and I think we will be, as indeed will be our closest competitors. We have a very simple objective for this weekend which is to put the two red cars in front of everyone else. It will be difficult, it will require us to do everything perfectly and we will do our utmost to achieve that."
Shame that...
I like Barrichello.
Fuji Qualifying Results:
L.Hamilton
K.Raikkonen
H.Kovalainen
F.Alonso
F.Massa
Final result of Japanese Grand Prix:
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault one hour 30 minutes 21.892 seconds
2 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 5.2 seconds behind
3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari at 6.4secs
4 Nelson Piquet (Brz) Renault at 20.570secs
5 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota at 23.767secs
6 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari at 39.207secs
7 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari at 46.200secs
8 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault at 50.811secs
9 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber at 54.120secs
10 Sebastien Bourdais* (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari at 59.000secs
11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota at 1:02.096
12 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes at 1:18.900secs
13. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda one lap behind
14. Jenson Button (GB) Honda at one lap
15. Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota at 1 lap
R Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari 22 laps
R Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 16 laps
R Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 8 laps
R Timo Glock (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 6 laps
R David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 0 laps
poor Bourdais:( but it is good for massa :wow:
It was a good race. My guy finished on the podium at least...
I nearly cried with joy when Hamilton was penalized!! :D Idiot.
The last two races has to be Ferrari one -two, and then Massa can be Champion.
:laugh: :laugh: Hamilton is such an idiot! It was BRILLIANT when he went spinning, when he went for his drive through and when he finished 12th. :laugh: :laugh:
and YEAH :clap: :clap: for Kimi being on the podium!!!! :)
This is really sad :( :( :( But next year is his again!!
Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix hammered the final nail into the coffin of reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen's title defence.
The Finn's third place finish was his first podium appearance since June's Magny Cours round, but he nonetheless slipped an insurmountable 21 points behind the championship leader with just two races to go.
Also officially out of the running are BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and leader Lewis Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.
Singapore and Fuji winner Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, could go on to win the last two races of the season while Hamilton fails to finish, but would still fall 16 points short of a third drivers' title.
Joining Hamilton and Felipe Massa in with a mathematical chance of the title, however, is BMW's Robert Kubica, who collected eight points at Fuji while his championship rivals faltered.
"We are still in the fight, so let's try," said the Pole, who openly acknowledges that his car is not a match for the two top teams despite his mere 12 point deficit to Hamilton.
"I think Kimi showed last year that everything is possible and I hope we can find a few tenths which will help me in the battle," the 23-year-old added.