de Matta's pit lane get together

[djb]

Going from the shots that I saw, (and I imagine we all saw the same coverage) it appeared to me that the mistake was by his own pit guy who waved him out when he should have waited just that extra second or so. Now I realize that I do not have a clear idea of if de Matta was slightly slow getting away, or if the his crew member perhaps didn't realize that the incoming car was going to pull in right away, and I couldn't tell if there were a whole line of cars coming up and so he wanted him out fast.

All i could think of was that the poor guy had been dominating so well, and because of perhaps the impatience or misjudgement by the crew, he certainly looked like he could have continued pulling away from everyone.

Anyway, just some thoughts, was a very entertaining race, full of heartbreaks and surprises (Andretti and Papis getting ahead of poor old Vasser for example) and as someone already mentioned, it made up for the 8 am procession earlier.

Can't wait to see them here in Montreal-four long months away.

djb

[Knottsfreak]

Da Matta's crew should of held him for a few seconds. IT was TERRORFYING to watch it, since I was listening to his crew on the radio and looking at his crew furiously work on his car with my binoculors, and to see him pull out and get hit by Fernandez, I said ohhh ****. One of Nakano's tire changers got hit by a tire, but was OK, he got up and changed a tire, and Da Matta, well, lets just say he was furious on the radio. In all, this had to be the best Long Beach Grand Prix that I have been too. It was a great weekend!!

[djb]

Amusement park guy, as you were watching it, were there a line of cars behind Fernandez, causing the crew member to shoo him out so quickly?

[Speedworx]

That ruined my vrace score

[touring fan]

Can somebody describe what happened? Haven't had any coverage of it yet, all I've heard is that there "was a coming together" between them.

[John0087]

From my point of view (Directly acreoss the Newman Hass Pits) DaMatta was "casually" exiting the pits. What I mean by this is that he did not move out to the pit lanes as quickly as he would have is the pits were full of cars. Fernandez's pit box was 2 spots away and when Fernandex turned in, he hit DaMatta. As for fault of the incednet, I would say that Fernandez should have slowed sooner, however, that is no excuss for DaMatta. Overall, I think that it was his responcibility to be careful in the pits. He didn't beed the extra .5 sec he would have gained with a quick pit stop. He should have been more careful. BTW, I have been a Damatta fan since his rookie year with PPI. Loved his first win at Chicago, and I hope he grabs the Championship.

Just my $.02

John

[djb]

thanks for your eye-witness account. If so, it comes down to the pit guy's decision to wave him out, as the drivers themselves really do not decide when, but follow the lead from the wave out crew member.
To err is human, but daMatta must have been more than a bit ****ed off with the whole thing.
Bottom line is that the fellow who got knocked over wasn't hurt badly, as for the rest, well it threw another variable in for us fans watching and the guys right behind him.

[Muzza]

I read interviews with da Matta in the Brazilian press ("O Estado de Sao Paulo" and "Jornal da Tarde" newspapers, Monday edition) and he said that no blame should be put in Fernandez. Cristiano was very rational and mature explaining the whole thing, which he called a "racing accident". He pointed out that he and his team did not coordinate their actions well and it was up to them to have avoid what happened.

So, I have to bow to Cristiano's account, and retreat from my jingoistic complains about Adrian Fernandez pitlane antics...

(*) I kindly ask some fellow Ten Tenths members to properly spell Cristiano's name. The correct spelling is "da Matta", with a low case "d" on the word "da". Also, "da" and "Matta" are separate words - prepositions and nouns are not to be agglutinated in Portuguese names.

Several important media channels and some Ten Tenths media members are using the spelling forms "daMatta" or "DaMatta", which are not correct. I guess this is result of the stronger famililiarity with the "Mc..." and "O'..." Scottish and Irish names, which are rather common in the United States.

Finally, for those who are curious, "da Matta" means "(from the) Grove" or "(of the) Grove". The current Portuguese word for grove is actually "mata" with only one "t". However, many Portuguese family names retain ancient, old spelling forms, or spelling arrangements which have been created by the modification of simple nowns through the addition of a differentiating consonant ("Matta" versus "mata", "Senna" versus "sena", and so forth).

Cheers,

Muzza

[Laagri]

Originally posted by Muzza

Finally, for those who are curious, "da Matta" means "(from the) Grove" or "(of the) Grove". The current Portuguese word for grove is actually "mata" with only one "t". However, many Portuguese family names retain ancient, old spelling forms, or spelling arrangements which have been created by the modification of simple nowns through the addition of a differentiating consonant ("Matta" versus "mata", "Senna" versus "sena", and so forth).

Somehow, Cristiano da Matta sounds soooo much better than Chris O'Grove.

[djb]

Somehow, Cristiano da Matta sounds soooo much better than Chris O'Grove.

Obrigado Muzza for the interview accounts, and I'll try to remember to spell it da Matta from now on. It's always nice to read a no-baloney, gracious response to an incident of this sort.

bon dia

[Muzza]

My pleasure, fellow Canader! (I like that, it has more "personality" than the word Canadian...)

I had had the chance of talking to Toninho da Matta (Cristiano's father) in the 1980s in Brazil, and he was a very nice guy - and an amazingly talented driver, beating cars with two times more horsepower than his Refricentro-sponsored VW Passat, with which he would do incredible things...

Saturday was though the first time I ever talked to Cristiano, and it happened twice. At the Chevron autograph session I was the second guy in line, having waited there forever to get a good spot. Cristiano was extremely friendly with everybody (kind of Max Papis/Jimmy Vasser/Helio Castroneves personality) - oh, boy, how do I miss this in F-1! It was funny because the first guy in line had brought an issue of the (now deceased) Champ Car magazine with Cristiano on the cover, and he seemed to be one of his die-hard fans. So Cristiano asked him "Hey, how are you doing? Having fun in Long Beach?", and the guy just stood there, mesmerized and mouth-opened, not even walking towards the autograph table... We almost need to shove him. That was quite funny.

The second one was at the official CART autograph session (as I said in another posting, excellently organized) and he was equally kind with everybody (again, I just cannot imagine guys like Coulthard and others doing the same...)

By the way, all drivers were keen to be approached, and to exchange two or three sentences with the fans - even Michael Andretti, who I was told can be a little temperamental sometimes (he was very friendly when I talked to him, so I have a different opinion).

The only one which was sort of distant was Mario Andretti, who was at the Chevron booth on Friday. He was basically signing autographs on a rather mechanical way (or maybe he was just sick of crazy fans like me, oh well). I noticed that and I tried to making him talk by speaking Italian, but he was indifferent to that.

So the "Long Beach Orange Trophy" is a tie between Cristiano da Matta and Tony Kanaan (who literally forced Max Papis to give me a second autograph...), and the "Lemon" one goes to Mario Andretti!

Cheers,

Muzza