F1 rebels sign up for 2008 series

[DerChef]

Looks like there will be a right cart load of F1 has beens rearing their ugly heads again in F1 2008, wobbling around in the middle of the road 3 laps down.

I am with Toyota on this one

 

[iGav]

but not everyone think that he deserved the title with only one victory.

He lucked in with that title that's for sure, with the death of Villeneuve and the horrific career ending accident of Pironi at Hockenheim. Had those 2 events not happened then he wouldn't have won the championship, '82 was a dark year.

That said, a similar argument is aimed at Schumacher for his '94 title from his detractors, they say had Senna not have been killed at Imola, then Schumacher wouldn't have won the championship that year. A similar argument is also levelled at Mika for 1999 and that his championship is devalued because his main competitor was sidelined after an accident.

It's nonsense of course, at the end of the day who ever wins the championship is usually deserving as such for whatever reason, and that they did the best under the circumstances over the course of a season.

And also Kimi was close to get the 2003 title with only one victory, and he would have won it too, had the Nurburgring officials not pushed Schumi back to the race (which was a stunt that many thought would have been judged to be against the rules if it was anyone else but Schumi).

We've discussed this many times before and I know we disagree on the subject I'm more of the opinion that 2003 was artificially close because of the changes in the points system.

You cannot blame Kimi's loss of the championship that year on what happened at the Nurburgring without also acknowledging Kimi's mistakes throughout the season, Barcelona for example.

Correction: McLaren got beaten by Ferrari. Mika only had superior car in 1998, but after that, Ferrari was superior.

Did you see the first races of the 1999 season? the McLaren was in the region of 1.3 seconds faster than the Ferrari in Australia, over a 1 second in the following race in Brazil and only began getting closer after Imola.. and then... only in the hands of Schumacher.

In the hands of Irvine, the debate that the Ferrari was the better car is misguided in my opinion.

In 1999 even the 2nd driver Irvine was close to take the title

That's because of Mika stacking it in the wall at Imola, and cracking under the pressure at Monza. 1999 was far from a vintage season from Hakkinen, and he knew it, hence his frustrations in the woods at Monza.

and losing to Schumi in 2000 when Ferrari was even better than the last year, I'd say Mika can be proud of the 2000 defeat.

I agree he should be very proud, many see 2000 as a vintage season, and probably the closest (most equal) season in F1 since 1990, when we saw the 2 best drivers of their era in as equal machinery as could be expected, at it tooth and nail over the whole season... both drivers were incredible that year.

Japan 2000 was quite simply one of the greatest races ever, and you can include qualifying in that too.