Quotes of the Week
“If there is a pitlane speed limit and two cars are stopped and you hit them, it is stupid. I saw the red light and chose to stop. Unfortunately, someone [Lewis Hamilton] saw a red light and chose not to." Kimi Raikkonen, reigning F1 World Champion, Ferrari, commenting on the pitlane incident at the Canadian Grand Prix
"Obviously I am not happy but they can throw what they want at me, I will come back stronger. I was trying to be cautious. I looked at the red light and I looked back and they'd stopped. There were two cars side by side. If they'd been in a line I would have seen it a bit faster. It is a lot different if you crash into the wall and are angry, it is not like that. I apologize to Kimi if I cost him the race, but these sort of things happen." Lewis Hamilton, F1 driver, McLaren-Mercedes, commenting on his ten position grid penalty at the French Grand Prix in two weeks
06/08/08 "It is fantastic, I am overwhelmed. It is difficult to find the right words. Today just everything worked well. We hoped for another podium here in Montreal, but would not have dreamed to get a one-two victory. Congratulations to Robert and Nick and to the entire team at home in Munich and Hinwil. Today we achieved a milestone. Both drivers worked with no errors and the strategies paid off. I think we will have to celebrate a lot today." Mario Theissen, Motorsport Director and Team Principal, BMW Sauber
"I'm very happy at having won the first race for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. I'm also happy for Poland and all my fans. It was a very difficult race for me. I started on the dirty side of the track and Kimi Raikkonen was nearly able to pass me, but I just managed to keep him behind. The timing of the Safety Car was unlucky for me, because I wanted to pit, but then the yellow light went on just about three seconds too early, so I had to continue. When the pitlane was open, almost everybody pitted together. I stopped at the exit because the light was still red. Kimi stopped beside me, and then I heard the noise when Hamilton crashed into his car. I have to be grateful to Lewis as he chose Kimi and not myself. After this pit stop I was stuck behind the one-stoppers and lost a lot of time. Timo Glock was the last one of them to stop, and only then could I push. I had just eight laps to increase the gap to 21 seconds, which was a huge challenge. I finally managed to get a 24 second lead, which meant I was able to stay ahead of Nick. From this moment on I took it a bit easier, but even then it's very easy to make a mistake, particularly because of the tarmac that was destroyed in some places. But it all worked out and I'm just happy." Robert Kubica, F1 driver, BMW Sauber
"It's just been a bad weekend all round. The race went much as I expected it, because of the really bad track conditions from the mid point on or even earlier. In these conditions, some guys did really well, like Sebastian [Vettel], but I could not do anything with the car. I went slightly off the line and got the gravel. If this happens once or twice you are concerned it can happen again which is not good, especially when you're running last. It was a complete disaster for me so I just forgot about the possibility of trying to drive fast, just trying to bring the car home…and even doing this was a challenge. This was the worst race ever for me, the worst weekend of my entire career. I have never experienced anything like it. I'm looking forward now to the next race, my home race and at a circuit where the track doesn't break up!" Sebastien Bourdais, F1 driver, Toro Rosso Ferrari
"IndyCar officials have to understand that it will take 80 percent ovals to truly succeed. Otherwise, this is nothing more than a niche sport. If they're comfortable with that, fine, but I don't think they are. The Indy 500 and high-speed ovals like TMS are why the IRL won this war. Along with all the good this merger brings, the IRL also had to absorb some bad from Champ Car. They had to take on some baggage with the transition. But the American public has made it very clear they will not accept European-style road racing. It's not even an arguable point. It's a fact. I'm telling you that would be a big mistake. The truth is it's not for them to decide. They lost this fight. I hope that's not something the IRL is struggling with, and I don't think they are. But they need to look back and see that model [Champ Car] is failed history. There's a littered battlefield left behind them from USAC to CART to Champ Car. You have to learn from that." Eddie Gossage, President, Texas Motor Speedway
"If that's the way he feels, then we shouldn't race here [Texas Motor Speedway]. It amazes me that he said that. If somebody who has such good vision and can organize a race as good as this thinks we should be racing on 80 percent ovals, [then he] isn't looking out for the series' best interests. He's looking out for his own interests. We don't need those people around if that's the way they think." Tony Kanaan, IRL driver, Andretti Green Racing
"Having Ganassi focus full time on his IRL operations would also help put the pieces of that Humpty Dumpty of a series [IndyCar] back together again. And I doubt Ganassi would care for more than ten minutes about what people will say when and if he does pack it up from NASCAR and head where the getting is good." Bob Margolis, Yahoo! Sports
"The problem is, if he [Max Mosley] stays until 2009, he will run again. I am 100 per cent certain about that; no, one million per cent certain. Max doesn't care – he's not commercial – he hasn't got one single dollar invested, so he doesn't give a stuff." Another quote: "There were many people who didn't want to speak to him before. I can't think they will want to speak to him now as a result of what has happened. Nothing has changed in that respect. Just because he gets a few clubs from Africa voting for him will not make the king of Spain want to shake his hand." Bernie Ecclestone, President and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Association
"I think that he [Max Mosley] should realize that sometimes it is necessary to say to yourself I have to leave for reasons of credibility." Ferrari's president later back-paddled on his reported call for embattled FIA president Max Mosley to step down over the sex scandal when Ferrari issued this clarification: "I am happy that Max Mosley has been re-elected president of the FIA. He has done excellent work for formula one in recent years. With regard to the future, it will be entirely up to him to decide if and when he should take a step back." Luca di Montezemolo, President, Ferrari
"The relevant bodies of the FIA have passed a vote of confidence in Max Mosley, which means he will see out his term of office as President of the FIA, ending in October 2009. We respect this decision, which was made by the delegates in full knowledge of the facts. It is important now for everyone concerned to turn their undivided attention back to the sport." Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director
"This is a sad day for motorsport because this is the beginning of the end of the FIA. The damage done is irreparable and we will now see the demise of the FIA." Paul Stoddart, former Formula 1 team owner, Minardi
[The BRDC needs] "an organization like the FIA to help us protect our position so that we can have reasonable terms with the commercial rights holders. It's very difficult, though, when you have a president who is as controversial as Max is, to go to governments and argue the case for formula one." Damon Hill, 1996 Champion, and President of the circuit-owning club BRDC.
"My hope is he will think about the damage. There are a lot of countries where F1 goes and lots of the rulers of those countries don't want to deal with him. That is clearly not acceptable. My hope is that he will listen to the comments and then go. I'm quite certain he will stand down before the end of the year. As much as I like Max for what he did for safety, unfortunately this is no longer a private affair. It has become public and I think he will now stand down on his own terms. I'm not surprised that he has won, Max is a very clever man and he would not have called this meeting if he thought he couldn't win, but I'm surprised that there was so much opposition to him. He will be very disappointed by that." Eddie Jordan, former F1 team owner, Jordan Grand Prix
"For Europe's largest motoring club, this is a reason to put down all its functions and the involvement of the global organization of motoring clubs with immediate effect." German Auto Club
Management Today magazine likened Mosley's clinging to power as "taking self-preservation to the Max." Management Today