F1 Chat

[sonofsanta]

I've read a couple of articles pointing out that Mercedes cocked Lewis' strategy up - when he pitted midway, he should have gone onto softs not mediums and made a second stop later. He'd have made more time up in that middle stint from the better tyre, Nico would never have caught him and there'd have been no need for any orders, and he'd have had a better chance of the victory. Nico had caught up to that lead group on two soft stints, after all, and he was further down the field than Lewis; if Hamilton had been on two sets of softs he'd likely have won, and potentially been within a point of Rosberg in the championship.

[XiJ]

I think that's probably true - but at the time they thought the medium would last and be okay at the end of the race - hence the call to let rosberg past.

 

I think sky / people will hype it up but most of it is with hindsight.

 

I saw all this as a huge Lewis fan.

Edited July 29, 2014 by XiJ

[Gibbo]

Imagine if he hadn't had all the "bad luck" that has come his way all season. Car failure in Australia, brake disc failure, engine fire etc etc

 

He was starting to remind me of Whining Webber. But Hamilton overcomes these obstacles

[synaesthesia]

Anyone understand the Caterham issue?

 

From what I can understand, they have hired Apple's lawyers to make sure they are as sh**ty as they can possibly be.

In a nutshell:

 

"They" sacked a load of employees for whatever reason (can't remember that bit, probably cost saving). Employees claiming unfair dismissal, started legal proceedings (suing Caterham).

Caterham are suing them back because Caterham don't actually employ them. But those they do employ were fully paid, when the ex-non-employees said they were not. So because they were not employed by their employers, but by a 3rd party of some description that just happens to hold the F1 licence, they have the means to sue them in return.

 

Or something like that - it makes absolutely no sense and Caterham, a team I've actually looked up to for a long time (and even now STILL say they have more right to the Lotus name than "Lotus" ever will) will lose a LOT of respect for this!

[XiJ]

Yep, already lost some respect. Don't really understand it but legal action against individuals like that isn't going to win them much support (or sponsors).

 

I'm pro marussia right now - can't see Caterham beating them to 10th anyway. In fact I think marussia will beat sauber

[synaesthesia]

Marussia aren't doing bad at all. I rate them, as a team, higher than Ferrari. Marussia have a limited budget, limited testing and a lot of borrowed facilities. Ferrari have a budget higher than their host country's GDP and are utter rubbish, being propped up by one of it's drivers. It's clear to me who is doing a better job!

[mthomas08]

Knew the rule changes wouldn't do anything to F1 and that goes double for the noise.

 

We still get epic races, epic overtaking, strategy dependant results, crashes, mistakes, tantrums and Massa never taking blame for his mistakes.

 

All those who threw their toys out of the pram about the whole noise fiasco probably have gone just as quiet.

[sonofsanta]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but... won't Maldonado's ten-place-grid penalty (for the 6th engine) be carried over to a third race now? He could only drop 5 places in Japan, could only drop 1 place in Russia, so he still has 4 places to drop in Austin... oh well, nevermind

[teejay]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but... won't Maldonado's ten-place-grid penalty (for the 6th engine) be carried over to a third race now? He could only drop 5 places in Japan, could only drop 1 place in Russia, so he still has 4 places to drop in Austin... oh well, nevermind

 

They only get carried over for one race (was mentioned in the Sky commentary after they checked the rule book), which is one too many in my opinion as it only affect the teams lower down the order who have enough problems as it is.

[sonofsanta]

They only get carried over for one race (was mentioned in the Sky commentary after they checked the rule book), which is one too many in my opinion as it only affect the teams lower down the order who have enough problems as it is.

 

Eh, that makes sense, else the Marussias and Caterhams would never work it off. Still, I wouldn't mind if they carried on enforcing it in Maldonado's case. Back of the grid is the safest place for him, out of everyone else's way.

 

Also post-Russia: never thought I'd say it, but I'm glad Pirelli bring tyres that degrade, because that race was dull after the first half a dozen laps. Also Rosberg's ability to get back to 2nd from that early pit stop has somewhat scuppered me in the Fantasy F1 league.

[JRowley]

Found the race to be a bit dull personally, the tyre's were the main problem in my view, a Sauber managed 40 laps on the Soft tyre which says it all really. The circuit itself wasn't very spectacular either (Turn 3 being the only real highlight), similar to Valencia. Unfortunately given the amount of money they are paying for this race we are going to have to endure it for a long time to come.

[LincolnE]

I must admit that, yeah. I know Pirelli had issues with getting to the track before hand for the analysis, but it's disappointing to see that someone can go into the pits after the first lap and still be competitive enough to get back up the field. There just didn't seem to be any drop off or degradation to get some excitement into the race.

[foofighterjim]

Perelli were in a no win situation. If they had brought the super soft and the soft tyres and they could only do 10 laps then everyone would have been in uproar. Like they do with all new tracks they went conservative to avoid controversy, they will definitely take the softer compounds next year. I like the track and there are good overtaking opportunities but the field spread was massive with few cars close enough to actually be considered as racing each other. The DRS zones will also have to be reviewed. My predictions went well got the top 4 spot on. Edited October 13, 2014 by foofighterjim

[teejay]

I actually rather enjoyed the race, yes I'm weird ;-) I did like having the harder tyres as they produced hardly any marbling, which is why cars were able to take different racing lines so you got them going side by side round turn 3 which would've been impossible after a few laps with the softer tyres. There were two main problems that caused cars not to be pushing, the first was the reduction in pit lane speed from 80km/h down to 60 km/h due to the stupidly designed pit entry which is very narrow and has a very sharp corner which made a two stop strategy out of the equation, the second is that all teams are on conservation mode which their engines and power train due to the limit of 5 engines per season with the resulting grid penalties, with just about everyone on their fifth engine. Edited October 13, 2014 by teejay

[JRowley]

Perelli were in a no win situation. If they had brought the super soft and the soft tyres and they could only do 10 laps then everyone would have been in uproar. Like they do with all new tracks they went conservative to avoid controversy, they will definitely take the softer compounds next year. I like the track and there are good overtaking opportunities but the field spread was massive with few cars close enough to actually be considered as racing each other. The DRS zones will also have to be reviewed. My predictions went well got the top 4 spot on.

 

It's by no means Pirelli's fault, they have to decide the tyre choice in advance and they hadn't finished the track surface by that time, so they had to make a decision and used the data from COTA's first year as an indicator.

 

I think they will have to widen the pit entry too, I think it's pretty bad design that they couldn't spare 1/2 meters of track to make the pit entry more sensible.

[Gibbo]

Very boring race. The only interesting things were the pre-race changes - drivers lining up for the anthem and meeting dignitaries. Co-incidence that this just happened to be at the Russian GP, where Putin was very active, or just because it was a new track, or will we see it at every subsequent race?

[JRowley]

Very boring race. The only interesting things were the pre-race changes - drivers lining up for the anthem and meeting dignitaries. Co-incidence that this just happened to be at the Russian GP, where Putin was very active, or just because it was a new track, or will we see it at every subsequent race?

 

It's supposed to be at every race from now on, was a bit of a waste doing it specifically for Putin, he didn't arrive until lap 30/40.

[sonofsanta]

Marussia have gone bust

 

BBC Sport - Marussia F1 team fold after crisis talks

 

Surprises me - I thought they were the more likely team to be rescued, given their points in the bank this year. Caterham's administrators, on the other hand, reckon they'll be in Abu Dhabi.

[JRowley]

It surprised me too, they had begun to make progress this year with 2 points but no one wished to save them, a real shame.

[mthomas08]

Doesn't surprise me at all, sad to say but talk of this team on financial situations have been on/off not long after they started.

 

The specials that have been on the BBC/Sky have also been good, showing that they really had to be careful of every £ they spent. Sometimes they didn't even have the budget for replacement parts or two parts of new upgrades.

 

To enter F1 you really need a massive financial backing, even RBR started low but Red Bull being a global company not just a "drinks company" as Lewis said some time ago

 

Hard state of F1 though...

[sonofsanta]

lolwut now

Caterham launch crowdsourcing project to fund team's return for the Abu Dhabi GP | Sky Sports

Caterham are launching an ambitious crowdfunding project in an attempt to help rescue the team, which is currently in administration.

 

A target of £2.35 million has been set by the deadline of November 14, with fans able to get involved using the hashtag #RefuelCaterhamF1.

[mthomas08]

lolwut now

Caterham launch crowdsourcing project to fund team's return for the Abu Dhabi GP | Sky Sports

 

Been watching it and they have raised some money already.

[sonofsanta]

So what do we reckon Bernie's game is? I'd like to say "cor, he's off his rocker, he's gone cuckoo, it's all gone wrong in 'is head!" but I know full well that all the conflicting messages and daft ideas are part of a larger plan, and appearances of insanity are deliberate.

 

He's going to save the smaller teams, he's not going to save the smaller teams, we want all the teams on the grid, no-one cares about the smaller teams on the grid, maybe we can have super gp2 cars on the circuit because even though I said the smaller teams are pointless lets have an even more pointless clump of traffic on the circuit yeah great idea, big teams could run third cars that score half points, small teams could run customer cars that score half points for them and half points for the manufacturer...

 

I don't get what problem he has with the status quo. Smaller teams are essential for young drivers and engineers to come through, they have the chance to score points for themselves which is a massive achievement (Marrusia at Monaco), it gives you battles all up and down the grid and not just at the front - which is really handy when Vettel is off driving by himself, again, for the fourth year in a row - and it really shouldn't be that difficult to fund 11 teams from >$1 billion of income.

 

Does anyone here actually want three cars?

[sonofsanta]

Jenson Button is racing at MacLaren next year. Thank heavens for that, would have been a travesty otherwise.

 

McLaren announcement - Live! | Sky Sports

[JRowley]

Probably the most short sighted decision Mclaren have made in a long time. Very disappointed in them doing this again.