Winning weekend for Leclerc and Maldonado’s relatives

15 comments on “Winning weekend for Leclerc and Maldonado’s relatives”

1. 

   FlatSix (@)
   2nd April 2018, 21:15

   Hot topic seems to be Flick Haigh became the first outright female driver to win a GT3 race in British GT. Real shame the British GT twitter account had to lower itself to the below tweet:

   Dear @CarmenJorda
   Today @flickhaigh raced against 24 men in one of the world’s toughest GT championships.
   She won. After starting on pole.
   Regards,
   #BritishGT

   And sure she was part of the two driver line-up that won the race, and granted she took pole, but surely this win belongs much more to Jonny Adam who actually fended off the Barwell Lamborghini.

   One does have to admire the optimism in the tweets following. I’d watch my back already if I was Hamilton.
   1. 

      anon
      2nd April 2018, 21:36

      @flatsix, I would say that Haigh is deserving of credit in her own right given she was the one responsible for building up enough of a lead during the first stint (3.5s) over that same Barwell entry that, despite a slightly slow pit stop, Adam was able to come out in the lead to begin with.
      1. 

         FlatSix (@)
         3rd April 2018, 7:22

         Well, both Bentley cars had zero pace in the rain, where as all Aston Martins did, and the Lamborghini even more so. Before the Barwell Lamborghini was in second to fight her the pitstops had already happened and Jonny Adam took over. So again, yes she took pole, and won the race and therefore she is the first female race winner. I’m simply pointing out that if you want to take a victory to symbolize women can do everything men can do this one is the least showing as her impact on the overall result can be basically minimized to her good pole lap.
         1. 

            Iosif (@afonic)
            3rd April 2018, 9:49

            I don’t get it. She took pole and lead the half race, didn’t she? What more could she have done?
            1. 

               nase
               3rd April 2018, 11:29

               Grow testicles, apparently.
            2. 

               FlatSix (@)
               3rd April 2018, 12:27

               @afonic Good question, and the answer to that would be nothing. Which exactly proves what I’m saying, it was a forgettable race on her part, she didn’t have to do anything special to win this race in the same way Vettel was criticized for his ‘luck’ win in Australia, they both had to do their laps, at least Vettel had to fend off Hamilton in the same fashion Adam had to fend off the Lamborghini. Therefore I find it extremely unfortunate this race is to represent ‘female drivers as equals to male drivers’ in GT racing.

               @nase Thanks for your pointless contribution which is not only completely besides the point but also shows your own inability to read another comment and understand the discussion.
            3. 

               nase
               4th April 2018, 0:01

               @flatsix
               Oh, my ability to read and understand is all right, thank you very much. It’s your complete lack of introspection I find disconcerting. Well, that and the fact that you keep trying to find reasons why her performance was insignificant. The word ‘reason’ doesn’t even fit the job description that well, considering that your reasoning basically is “yeah well, she took pole and led every single lap of her stint while pulling away from the field, but that doesn’t prove she’s equal to male drivers, because her team mate had a much harder time in the second part of the race”. That’s where it becomes oh so painfully obvious that you simply don’t want her performance to be considered as strong as anyone’s in that field, so you piece together mostly meaningless justifications without any logical connection to the conclusion you’re trying to reach, but you think you’ll get away with it because they exceed the length of what you think is a typical attention span, so no one will notice. And then you slur on my cognitive abilities and accuse me of missing the point with my comment when it’s really spot on.
               If you want to dismiss me with an ad hominem comment, at least try and come up with something that remotely makes sense.
               Also, using ‘thank you’ when it’s entirely clear ‘f you’ is what you really wanted to say, is unimaginative at best.
            4. 

               FlatSix (@)
               4th April 2018, 10:43

               yeah well, she took pole and led every single lap of her stint while pulling away from the field, but that doesn’t prove she’s equal to male drivers, because her team mate had a much harder time in the second part of the race

               @nase So again, read my comment. I never even insinuated she isn’t equal. My exact point is female drivers can be but this race is a bad example to symbolize that as in my opinion her total contribution to the win isn’t what particularly showed her skills as a driver.

               I’ll ignore the rest of your again nonsense comment.
            5. 

               nase
               4th April 2018, 12:10

               @flatsix
               You’re using the word ‘nonsense’ a lot, I’m starting to take it as a compliment.

               I’ve read and understood your comment, but I’m definitely not the only one who isn’t convinced by your argumentation. You keep insisting that the fact that her team mate had more of a difficult time in his stint somehow means that the fact that she took pole AND led every single lap AND pulled a gap over her closest competitors isn’t a good example for her being a skilled driver.
               So, in essence you’re saying: “I’m not insinuating she isn’t equal, but [argument that doesn’t have anything to do with her performance]”. And it is precisely this insistence on a point that all other commenters thus far have found illogical that lends itself to the interpretation that you are insinuating something else.

               So, maybe you should give a better explanation than ‘read my comment’. Or maybe your point simply doesn’t stand, no matter how you try to word it. In that case, you could try to use introspection to find out why you came forward with an opinion that intuitively feels right to you, even though your argument for it is extremely weak at best.
            6. 

               FlatSix (@)
               4th April 2018, 16:07

               All you’ve done so far is insinuate I think she’s a lesser driver because she’s a woman which is simply not true, and the very fact I find it a shame this race isn’t a good example of ‘female drivers being equal to male drivers’ tells just that story. On top at all times did I present it as my opinion, and not a fact. It was your immediate assumption I’m a ‘female driver hater’ that really prompted my reply.

               As I already said, after her good pole lap for which she deserves all the credit she merely had to use the Astons pace to drive away from the struggling Bentleys. Once that gap was made in only a couple of laps, and once the Lamborghini had passed both, the latter was closing the gap at a very quick rate. Surely also because the Lamborghini had better pace in the rain than the Aston, but out in traffic and without spray she already wasn’t the fastest Aston on track.

               Once the Lamborghini was ready to start a fight it was time for the pitstops and Jonny Adam took over. So yes she won the race, but it wasn’t the hard-fought battle some like to pretend it was, and therefore I find it a shame this race is the ‘absolute showing’ of female drivers being equal to male drivers. I’ve seen better drives that didn’t result in a win by female drivers in several series, but because this is a win it gets all the attention.

               TL:DR It was never about the female driver winning, it was how I find this not the best of examples of how females are equal drivers to males that several media channels like to portray it as.
         2. 

            BasCB (@bascb)
            3rd April 2018, 15:07

            I think they might just have oppertunistically sent Jorda a tweet to get some welcome “screentime” for their efforts @flatsix. Although the point still stands – a women can clearly race as an equal to all her male team mates and competitors.

            Your description shows that endurance racing is always a team effort!
   2. 

      FlyingLobster27
      3rd April 2018, 13:16

      I find your comment disappointing too, @flatsix. It takes two to win a GT race, and both contributed to the win in equal measure, regardless of how exciting you thought Flick Haigh’s half was or wasn’t. She led, she led well in treacherous conditions, and the advantage she handed to her team-mate also helped him hang on to the lead.
      In the end, Jonny Adam didn’t so much “fend off” the Barwell Lamborghini as Phil Keen literally hit traffic while trying to stay with him. Had Haigh not maintained her lead over John Minshaw so “unimpressively” (although arguably it was Minshaw who had the best car for the wet! you cleverly omitted HIS car’s superiority in your assessment!), perhaps Keen would have passed Adam sooner and not taken that risk. I’m not going into more “what-ifs”: Jonny Adam and Flick Haigh drove their respective halves brilliantly and won together.

      Now, you can call out the dig at Carmen Jorda as needless. But this is the same Twitter account that jokingly announced three date changes “in case Fernando fancies a go”, so they do tend to rub it in.
      1. 

         FlatSix (@)
         3rd April 2018, 13:47

         Well, it was quite clearly the Ginetta that hit him, and not the other way around, and it wasn’t so much Haigh who had to maintain a lead as much as the Lamborghini had to come back from behind, there’s no doubt he was easily faster, the gap was almost there from lap 1, so unconvincing were the Bentleys. And you very much again highlight what I’m saying, I didn’t find it so spectacular of a race from her (which is a completely subjective statement), a good one sure, but not spectacular. That pretty much is all I’m saying, and that in if we want to use this race as a symbol of everything a woman can do in a car it’s merely an unfortunate example as it didn’t show that much of the abilities she surely has. I’m simply stating had she for example been in the Lamborghini in the second stint, and overtook the leading Aston, it would’ve been a fine example of a female driver winning in GT3.
         1. 

            BasCB (@bascb)
            3rd April 2018, 15:16

            Let me highlight this @flatsix,

            That pretty much is all I’m saying, and that in if we want to use this race as a symbol of everything a woman can do in a car it’s merely an unfortunate example as it didn’t show that much of the abilities she surely has.

            So the fact that she “just did her part” as equal teammate to the other (male) driver in the pairing, in a field of otherwise male competitors does somehow not show that, contrary to what Jorda has claimed in the recent past, women can race just as well as males? The point is, that gender of the driver is not the thing that makes the difference for a win

            The point is not in trying to prove that Haigh is somehow exceptional or a superwoman. Rather the contrary. She is a good racer, just like all the others. And she was part of the winning driver pairing, despite not having had the fastest car in the race. As always in endurance races, some drivers are best at night, some in the rain, some excell in qualifying, some are great at making up time, some you want to be in there when defending a tight lead, etc. It needs all those skills together to win (and a good car, and often a dose of luck too).
2. 

   Iosif (@afonic)
   3rd April 2018, 12:32

   @flatsix sorry but your comment makes no sense. A won race is a won race, it very often comes without doing something “special”. What does even “special” means, driving in a wet race without mistakes and opening a gap to second place is certainly not easy.

   Take most of Hamilton’s wins between 2014 and 2016, he “just” got pole and won the race. No overtaking, no defending, optimal strategy comparing to Rosberg. Would you say that they don’t represent that “Hamilton is equal good as the rest of the F1 drivers” ?

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