2014 F1 General Discussion Thread.

[gadgetman]

Rain tomorrow though, so Lewis can claw back to the podium

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

I know, he must have been a right **** in another life. 

[hatchy]

I know I said in my last post in here (5th July) that Hamilton seemed to have lost the plot a bit recently in qualifying but christ almighty he's had some bad luck in the last 2 races. The racing gods seem to love the bloody germans though, Schumacher, Vettel and now Rosberg.

[Jabozuma]

Well if Hamilton wins the world championship this year, it won't be down to luck. How much more bad luck can he get this year?

What "bad luck"? Somebody fooked up in the factory when they were building the car, easy to do on those insanely complicated machines hence his comments that "we need to do better" and he's right.

[Jabozuma]

Rain on Hungaroring, yummy! Pity I will not be able to enjoy it fully as bl00dy Virgin still has not fixed my cable TV - they've been trying for a week now...

[moley]

What "bad luck"? Somebody fooked up in the factory when they were building the car, easy to do on those insanely complicated machines hence his comments that "we need to do better" and he's right.

It was Hamilton's bad luck that the fault was on his car and not his team mates, the same as last week when the exploding front brake was on his car and not his team mates. 

That's motor racing, the only plus point, if there is one is that these problems occurred in qualifying and not in the race, so Hamilton has a chance to pick up points where as if these problems were in the rave it would be a DNF. 

[Jabozuma]

Well, you can call it bad luck I call it failure of Hamilton's side of the garage. Peopel responsible for brakes and fuel system did not do their jobs properly. Bad luck is when say he picks up a puncture or somebody rams him from behind, not car failures. Mechanical things break down, fact, we all know that from our experience . F1 is different, they bend over backwards doing things like x-ray scanning of elements to dtect material faults otherwise undetectable and run destructive testing to know the limits of all subsystems. With all the new tech I am rather pleasantly susrprised the failure rate is not higher. But then again look at Lotus, getting rather embarassing lately...

[gadgetman]

Heavy thunderstorms heading towards the circuit I've just seen on @fergieweather @andrewbensonf1

[jlwah]

The benefit of rain for Lewis is that it means that Rosberg is more likely to be involved in a racing incident and get punted off / sustain damage / get puncture, etc. so although it could also happen to Lewis as he makes his way through, with Vettel alongside Rosberg on the grid at the start of a wet race, the pressure may well be more on Rosberg.

 

Vettel knows if he can get ahead into the first corner, the win may well be his and Bottas lining up behind Rosberg might fancy his chances too.

 

Could be an exciting race if it rains or a very dull one if it doesn't - I'm doing a rain dance!     

[MartynVRS]

Well, you can call it bad luck I call it failure of Hamilton's side of the garage. Peopel responsible for brakes and fuel system did not do their jobs properly. Bad luck is when say he picks up a puncture or somebody rams him from behind, not car failures. Mechanical things break down, fact, we all know that from our experience . F1 is different, they bend over backwards doing things like x-ray scanning of elements to dtect material faults otherwise undetectable and run destructive testing to know the limits of all subsystems. With all the new tech I am rather pleasantly susrprised the failure rate is not higher. But then again look at Lotus, getting rather embarassing lately...

Or it's a conspiracy.....

Parts can be extensively tested but can still fail. That's how motor racing goes sometimes.

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

What a mental race! On the edge of my seat the whole time fantastic.

Hamilton from pit lane to 3rd, Alonso done a great job and I think my driver of the day has to be Ricciardo, just massively impressive and fantastic wheel to wheel racer, I think he's a future champ for sure.

[Paul007]

I did like Lewis's comment about Rosberg "I'll let him past when he catches me".  Sums it up really. Shame he got punted down to third.

[normanLinux]

 

 

Ricciardo, just massively impressive and fantastic wheel to wheel racer, I think he's a future champ for sure. 

Absolutely

 

I also agree with Paul's note on Lewis's comments.  I know that the team radio we hear is delayed a little, but how can you let someone past when they are more than a second behind?  On the straight (which is short in Hungary) that equates to 75 or 80 yards.  Lewis would have almost needed to park up!  It would certainly have cost him 3 seconds or so - just let Nico increase his lead in the championship.  At that point Lewis had more chance of catching/overtaking Alonso.  What cost Nico more was not being able to pass Vergne for so long.  There he was close enough but couldn't pass the slower car for ages.

[Paul007]

It does seem more evenly matched this season. Just like BTCC which is now on a level playing field with all the teams using the same kit.

[Ootohere]

I know a Team is a Team and there can be many reasons for Team Orders,  win a Championship, Manufacturers Championship etc

but i though they had it all sorted out what was acceptable.

 

Todays types of Team Orders by Mercedes is just out right cheating,

& if it happened in Horse Racing or Boxing or other Betting Sports it is Cheating without a doubt, holding back a horse or not fighting for a win.

 

F1 really is just a Joke, and i thought Ferrari were the greatest cheats in the Sport, but Mercedes seem to be up there with them.

 

george

[alex_e3]

Great job by Lewis today. I've been growing more and more frustrated with his run of bad luck lately.

 

The after race interviews summed up the mood for me - Lewis was happy and Nico was miserable and throwing his toys out of the pram slightly. I'm afraid that wheel to wheel Lewis is just the better racer - he proved that in Bahrain by holding Nico off even though he was on the worse tyre! I always used to thing Nico was ok, but after his shenanigans at Monaco and a few comments he's made post race this season, I'm afraid he's far from liked by me now.

[normanLinux]

To be fair to Mercedes the instructions originally given to Lewis were not to hold Nico up.  Which he clearly didn't since Nico never got closer than about 7 tenths and was mostly more than a second behind.  They did then tell him to let Nico past on the next straight which was silly but, I suspect, so that they could tell Nico that they had asked Lewis.  At least Ron Denis understood that it would have been pointless asking Lewis to slow down and stop beating his team mate as he was asked in the 2007 season.

[tweenster]

Todays types of Team Orders by Mercedes is just out right cheating,

& if it happened in Horse Racing or Boxing or other Betting Sports it is Cheating without a doubt, holding back a horse or not fighting for a win.

 

F1 really is just a Joke, and i thought Ferrari were the greatest cheats in the Sport, but Mercedes seem to be up there with them.

 

George

 

I've been an F1 fan since the early 70s and unfortunately I have no idea what you mean by these comments; can you explain? How were Mercedes "just outright cheating"??? To maximise Rosberg's race time he needed to clear Hamilton asap; unfortunately this would compromise Hamilton's finishing position. Hamilton chose to hold Rosberg off and therefore finish in front of him. Looks like proper racing to me.

[Ootohere]

You summed it up well,

there was proper racing because Lewis chose to ignore the Team Instruction which would have possibly meant him coming in behind Rosberg and getting less points and Rosberg getting more.

 

F1 Grand Prix with Teams of 2 Drivers & the drivers allowed to go for wins & podums, not just act as a support team or 'blocker' for the other driver in the team.

 

george

[tweenster]

 

F1 Grand Prix with Teams of 2 Drivers & the drivers allowed to go for wins & podums, not just act as a support team or 'blocker' for the other driver in the team.

 

Ah, the Schumacher years; possibly the worst era of F1 I can remember and why (IMHO) Schumacher can never be considered as one of the greatest drivers of all time.

[Ootohere]

The Red Bull winning era more recently.

 

I am not racist and do not mean it as against any Nationality,

but it does seem to be the Germanic Way, Teams or Drivers, Investers, More money invested, less scruples.  

Win at all cost, bend stretch or break the rules.

 

george

[MartynVRS]

Ricciardo is making Vettel look silly. Got two wins already this year and is consistently beating him. He's the dark hore no one is watching and could win the Championship. If Merc have more reliability issues, RBR historically do get stronger after Summer breaks and double points in the last race. It's a long shot but when Vettel won his first title in 2010, at no point did he lead the WDC until the race he won it.

[gadgetman]

The Red Bull winning era more recently.

I am not racist and do not mean it as against any Nationality,

but it does seem to be the Germanic Way, Teams or Drivers, Investers, More money invested, less scruples.

Win at all cost, bend stretch or break the rules.

george

F1 has always been and always will be about bending, stretching and pushing rules to the limit chasing 1/10ths & 1/100ths of a second. It's been like that well before Schumacher, Vettel and the rest and will carry on after they're gone.

[Ootohere]

We know, Technical details, advancement through racing, Motor Sport, Business, Money.

Until the likes of Bernie & Lauda go it will continue.

 but then there is the new Generation of if you can not beat them Buy them.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toto_Wolff

[Dr Zoidberg]

Yep, a big part of the "Game" is finding the loopholes in the regulations to get an advantage.

It is a team sport though, and they are perfectly entitled to ask their drivers to let each other past or hold station and not overtake if they think that will get them the best results. That's not cheating at all.