- 09 Jul 08, 14:21#54392
http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3 ... 57,00.html
Ferrari urged the British GP race director to deploy the Safety Car during Sunday's event, it has been revealed.
According to ITV reporter Ted Kravitz, 'When it was very wet, at around three-quarters distance, a few teams, including Ferrari, were asking race director Charlie Whiting whether it was appropriate to bring out the Safety Car.'
The request was quite rightly rejected, not least because only two cars, the Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, were using the extreme wet tyres. Ferrari were instead undermined by their decision not to change Kimi Raikkonen's intermediate tyres at his first pit-stop - a decision that was made, according to Kravitz, by 'Kimi, Chris Dyer and Luca Baldisseri.' The Finn's involvement may explain why he refused to blame the team for the blunder after the race.
Meanwhile, perhaps the most interesting aspect of Kravitz's blog is his fury at Silverstone's race organisers after his car was towed away on Saturday afternoon.
'We'd parked where the security guards told us to park, but halfway through the day the parking control people from Silverstone Circuit changed the rules, and rather than knock on the ITV truck and tell us, they towed us,' he complains. 'So my personal experience of Silverstone's organisation this year was of an incompetent, shambolic, confused mess, which only got anywhere near sorting itself out by Sunday morning.'
Nor was Kravitz's opinion of the circuit enhanced by events on Sunday night when the vast majority of race-goers became stuck in a gridlocked traffic jam.
'It took me an hour to get out of the circuit gates - the longest ever at Silverstone. There's a reason Silverstone becomes the world's busiest heliport on race day: No other circuit manages to mess up the parking and access like Silverstone does.'
Ferrari urged the British GP race director to deploy the Safety Car during Sunday's event, it has been revealed.
According to ITV reporter Ted Kravitz, 'When it was very wet, at around three-quarters distance, a few teams, including Ferrari, were asking race director Charlie Whiting whether it was appropriate to bring out the Safety Car.'
The request was quite rightly rejected, not least because only two cars, the Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, were using the extreme wet tyres. Ferrari were instead undermined by their decision not to change Kimi Raikkonen's intermediate tyres at his first pit-stop - a decision that was made, according to Kravitz, by 'Kimi, Chris Dyer and Luca Baldisseri.' The Finn's involvement may explain why he refused to blame the team for the blunder after the race.
Meanwhile, perhaps the most interesting aspect of Kravitz's blog is his fury at Silverstone's race organisers after his car was towed away on Saturday afternoon.
'We'd parked where the security guards told us to park, but halfway through the day the parking control people from Silverstone Circuit changed the rules, and rather than knock on the ITV truck and tell us, they towed us,' he complains. 'So my personal experience of Silverstone's organisation this year was of an incompetent, shambolic, confused mess, which only got anywhere near sorting itself out by Sunday morning.'
Nor was Kravitz's opinion of the circuit enhanced by events on Sunday night when the vast majority of race-goers became stuck in a gridlocked traffic jam.
'It took me an hour to get out of the circuit gates - the longest ever at Silverstone. There's a reason Silverstone becomes the world's busiest heliport on race day: No other circuit manages to mess up the parking and access like Silverstone does.'
Forumula One: The World's Greatest Sport
Maybe that little convenient excuse is not all it's cracked up to be 
