Controversial Austrian GP win...

[Preppy]

Well, I just got done reading this article, and to be quite frank, I think that what happened was unnecessary...I feel bad for Rubens Barrichello

Yet another way for Ferrari to create controversy :

http://sports.yahoo.com/m/sm/news/re...acingprix.html

[JasonJ75]

Sucks in a major way...

I've become a Barrichello fan because all of the @#$ the guy has to swallow w/ a superstar in the family....Its like Steve Young playing 2nd fiddle to Joe Montana for so long when he could have gone to almost any team and started.

Guess that is Rubens plan...Wait till Schumi is outta the way, then he is riding shot gun of "for now" the best team out there...

[blubimmer]

that was the biggest load of bullsh!t ever. R.B. was kicking ass all day. I cannot believe he just resigned with Ferrari and he has to put up with that crap.
F1 is a farce on the level of WWF with that bullsh!t.
I LOVED seeing all the fans giving the 'thumbs down' at the end of the race.
That really struck a nerve with me.

[Preppy]

Let's put it this way.....if the roles were reversed and Rubens was in the points lead and he was in second and had never won at Austria....I doubt they would have had Shumi pull off to the side to let Rubens win :

I hope Shumi retires REAL soon or two years from now Rubens moves to a team that appreciates his driving ability :

[blubimmer]

damn. i was just reading the text from the press conferences after the race. It's even RB's wife's birthday that ferrari did this to him. cold.

Q: So what do you have to do to win a race for Ferrari?

RB: It's obviously be there at the right time, at the right moment. I don't wish, I promise you, from the bottom of my heart, I don't Michael is out of the race for me to win the race but I just have to keep on doing my good work and I feel very close to the guys. Obviously I wish they hadn't said anything today but I've got the trophy which I will to wife whose birthday it is today, and to my mother as well because it's mother's day. I'm a happy guy. I think the way the race went, as everybody saw it was probably one of the best races of my life, so that's it. (Applause)


RB is a great sport
http://www.grandprix.com/cr/crracenotes.html

[TiAg ///M3/4]

I've been cheering for Rubino this year too, for the same reasons, and was
completely pissed as well. After such a fantastic weekend ... ugh. The saving grace for Michael was his insistence that Rubens take the top podium spot and receive the trophy. (Ah, looks like he's in the middle at the press conference too.) The right thing to do.

And Barrichello really proved to be a class act as well.

Team strategies are sometimes an unfortunate necessity in sport, though, right? They take away from the individual races (argh!) but after all, it's a championship season ... I just wish it wasn't seen as necessary this time. (I'm betting that it will be proven unneeded at the end of the season.)

Sato / Heidfeld ... miraculous seems to be an appropriate word ... how lucky is JPM?! I must have watched that bit ten times ... just astonishing.

At the least we got an emotional race ...

[TheBestCow]

OMG! I just finished watching the Austrian GP on SpeedChannel.. the replay... OMG... you have to be kidding me!

Poor Barrichello.. that is the most rediculous thing to take that from that man... leading the ENTIRE race and have to give it up meters from the finish for a measely 4 points when they have a 20+ point lead... that makes me hurt for RB...

I too hope he finds a team that appreciates his driving ability, he earned every bit of the win that was taken from him this weekend.

: :

Edit: Also makes me hope Williams gets their act together and finds a way to beat Ferrari the second half of the season.. I'd love it if Montoya comes back and still beats Michael at the end of the season... poor RB

[BMLRacer]

I don't feel bad for Rubens at all. He resigned a contract with Ferrari to be THE NUMBER 2 DRIVER. If JPM had a big lead in the championship and they were looking to cushion the lead, you betcha that Ralf would be asked to pull over. And, for the sake of his job, he would do it. Team orders have existed in motorsport from day one. DC pulled over for Mika at McLaren, Heinz Harold pulled over for JV at Williams, and Reubens pulls over for Michael at Ferrari. It's not the first and won't be the last time it happens. But, one thing is for sure, Michael is a class act. I remember JV jumping around like mad on the podium after HHF pulled over for him a few years back and then dissing him at the press conference. At least Michael lets RB know that he knows it was his win.

Brian

[kaiservon]

That seriously urked me. Its not like Rubens wins all of the time like MS. He truly deserved it all. And Bernie kisses Ferrari's arse soo much that nothing will be done of it. Even if there is a backlash for such blatant "fixing". BML is right: RB resigned knowing he is second fiddle and team orders have occurred forever. Regardless this was a disgusting and shameful showing of politics, business, and entertainment of racing in its darkest. The crowd let them know it too.

[DanVictor]

As a Brasilianmyself I think it was BS that they played the Italian National Anthem

[OPTIMO]

R.B. was kicking ass all day.

Rubens was kicking ass all weekend. Ferrari's management is a bunch of chumps.

Williams needs to get on the ball as well, because that engine is kick ass, but they still can't top Ferrari. JPM has yet to have a break through performance this year...hopefully soon.

[JLee]

i think one of the announcers called it a "faux pas", i mean the advertisers can't be too happy when the crowd and all the viewers are booing the car they endorsed.

jeff

[pikachu]

<font size=5>Jean Todt is a brave man!</font>
IMO, Ferrari made the right move by putting all their eggs into Michael's basket as he probably will get another championship. while many argue that Ferrari still gets the points regardless of who wins, it really is the Driver's championship that is the most lucrative as it receives the most coverage... after all, how many people remember that Ferrari won the constructors title in 1999 since it was Mclaren that won the driver's title? Therefore, Todt made a wise calculated move that most other team bosses would be too afraid to make. As for Reubens, he signed up for the #2 support role. If he's not happy, he can find another team and fight with the others for a measily 3rd place.

[Ian]

I think with the position they are in this year they really should have allowed Barrichello to finish what he started and deserved.

I feel sorry for Rubens but almost feel more sorry for Schumacher.
I mean, they are already tarnishing his amazing fifth championship attempt in the press, and yeah he was gifted this race this time, but what about all of the other races where he deservedly won? The sad fact is that people will remember this more than they will need to. And he was obviously remorseful and handled it the only way he really could after the fact.

Rubens gets the trophy, everyone knew he really won, and he gets paid MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO DRIVE A FERRARI in the pinnacle of motorsport! I can't feel too sorry for the guy.

This may be a lame comparison, but how about all of the blockers in (American) football that hardly get recognition or big contracts but a lot of the time it is because of them that the superstars get the touchdowns? Or the domestiques in cycling? There are a lot of analogies in team sports and unfortunately this one is just more obvious.

Journalists are calling the sport dead after yesterday! I think it will cause even more people to tune in to see what happens next.
At least it was not a "boring" seires of solo shots of Schumacher driving to a minute-long win.

[BMLRacer]

Originally posted by DanVictor
As a Brasilianmyself I think it was BS that they played the Italian National Anthem

Who would they play the Italian anthem for? Schumacher is German, Rubens in Brazilian. The team is Italian, but the constructor doesn't get an anthem.

[Preppy]

Originally posted by BMLRacer


Who would they play the Italian anthem for? Schumacher is German, Rubens in Brazilian. The team is Italian, but the constructor doesn't get an anthem.

Good point Brian, I didn't get that one myself...maybe he meant German...:

[OPTIMO]

You know you love, "Inno di Mameli." Where's your Italian pride?

[Kos-motate139]

I think the whole thing means one thing --

Ferrari's afraid of Williams & JP. If they weren't, they'd have let Rubens keep the extra points. Michael would have still been ahead, but just not by as much.

If I was in the same position as Rubens, I'd have pulled over. Sure, doesn't make quite as good a story, but that's what he's paid to do.

[PECivil]

but it still sucks for RB

if MS had any class and balls and character

he would have said FOff and let his teammate win as he deserved

MS is a pussy for doing that......he showed his true colors

hes the ONLY guy who could have said NO

but instead he takes a very hollow victory, make the fans and press vilify him and look like.......a pussy

[Ian]

Really? I thought MS showed his true colors when he didn't celebrate, stared at the ground, thanked Rubens, gave him the trophy, made him stand on the middle podium, and made him sit in the center of the interviewer's press conference table, then publicly denounced his own actions as directed by the pits.

And played a large part in getting Ferrari not only their first world championship in 21 years, but successive title and constructor wins, countless Ferrari-related items sold, and dominance in the most technologiacally advanced sport in the world against the biggest names in the auto industry.

Maybe the real issue is, why isn't anyone really challenging them for the top spot and allowing him to just cruise by on the last lap?
But yeah, I guess he's just a big ol' pussy. :

[fredo]

Originally posted by BMLRacer

The team is Italian, but the constructor doesn't get an anthem.

i thought they always played two national anthems at the end, one for the driver who won and one for the constructor... thus we are always hearing the german and italian nation anthems....

anyways, i think what happened to rb really sucked....

[kaiservon]

Here's what MS supposedly told the French "Le Monde" newspaper website after the race:

"It was a bad decision." "I think it was a bad decision." "If I could have prevented it, I would have." "I am not happy about this." "I would have preferred that the order not have been given." "I would have liked for us to finish the race in the order that we were on the track." "I pushed until the end because one never knows what might happen, but Rubens was faster all weekend and he deserved the victory."

Regardless, I still think MS has a strong presence in the decision making process. Didn't "the Toad" and Brawn come over from Benetton, because of Shumi? At any rate Shumi will get the public image blunt of this. Especially if the points race is very close at the end of the year and he wins the championship. People won't forget it and this has pushed many people over the edge of support.

[pikachu]

there will be no close points race at the end of the year because michael will always get more points than his teammate compared to the other teams, where their two drivers will get an equal share of the points. this is another reason why ferrari is superior because of wise planning! if williams would also pool everything to one driver, the title would be a closer match..

regardless, there's only one thing that michael did wrong, and that was his stating that he doesn't agree with what his team did. this is very bad as one should always speak on behalf of the team showing support for each other.

[Don Stevens]

and everyone, including Michael, knows that. But racing is a business and Ferrari is committed to winning the championship. Therefore from a business standpoint, it was the right decision. It is like the Yankees pulling Roger Clemmons to save his arm or an NFL team not playing the star players the last game of the season to save them for the playoffs. What a happens if Schumacher has an accident or a clutch failure on the start line and Montoya wins the race? That is a 10 point spread and it only takes a couple of those to have a very tight championship race once again.

I agree Michael showed some class by playing it down and he is one of the few champions in recent years to acknowledge his teammate and competitors. Many people loved Senna and Prost but both were jerks when it came to respect for their fellow racers. Michael is a true cahampion, Ferrari are the best there is right now, and I am thrilled to be watching this history in the making.

Don

[OPTIMO]

regardless, there's only one thing that michael did wrong, and that was his stating that he doesn't agree with what his team did. this is very bad as one should always speak on behalf of the team showing support for each other.

"Don't ever let anyone outside the family know what you're thinking ever again."

Or something like that. Don Corleone to Sonny.

I don't like Michael, Rubens is ok, but I'm not a Ferrari fan. I just don't like big time favorites.

Michael/Rubens both obeyed orders. Yeah, it was somewhat of a pussy move, but you know what? They are just protecting Schumi and it was a smart move, even if it wasn't a fan favorite. Considering they've lost a couple seasons during the last weekend, they are just getting every point they can.

It's obvious that JPM is the only driver with the balls and skill to make moves on Michael. They just have to get that Williams car at the front of the back for the WHOLE race.