Red Bull now looks a leech, only gorging on the sport in the good times.
It looks an own goal on their caffeinated sugary water brand, Well, at least I know where there are coming from.
All this talk of the smoking gun with Alonso's crash in Barcelona , why is there no Video of the actual crash easily available to view or to be played on Sky TV F1 programmes
Could be an honest mistake from Rosberg. I wonder whether him asking a question about dry lines and 'forgetting' they couldn't answer was deliberate, meant to show his mind wasn't quite 100% today in order to deflect any criticism for getting in Hamilton's way.
I'm not one to give Rosberg the benefit of the doubt, but I'd definitely lean towards incompetence in this case. There are some bits that don't make any sense - like moving out of the way for a car you know has aborted a hot lap so you're going to be in their spray etc.
Given Rosberg's overall performance in quali, I'd say he was just not on the ball at all. The conditions had him unsettled, so much so he defaulted to habit and was asking for driving advice. So he fluffed getting out of the way of another car - good job it was his team mate, otherwise, he's be looking at an official complaint and a grid penalty.
Early days but it was interesting to finally see how Alonso stacks up against Button.
So, we've had Hamilton and Alonso in the same team with Hamilton coming out just ahead.
Alonso and Raikonnen in the same team with Alonso coming out way ahead.
Vettel and Raikonnen with Vettel just ahead.
Hamilton and Button with Hamilton just ahead.
Alonso and Button with Button just ahead (so far, anyway).
So what does that tell us?
Seems to suggest that Vettel is on a par with Kimi, who was trounced by Alonso and who was, in turn, barely beaten by Hamilton.
And the fact that Button and Alonso are fairly close would also seem to tie-in with the results we saw when Button and Hamilton were team-mates.
So, seems like Hamilton, Alonso and Button are the cream of the crop, ahead of Kimi and Vettel.
Course, to reiterate, it is still early days so it'll be interesting to see how the various battles turn out as drivers settle into new teams.
It seems that you are making conclusions at a very early stage of the season.
I mean: It's the first race of Alonso after his accident and he said he was only at 80%
physically, and that he didn't expect very much of this race. Besides, Button has driven more laps with the car, including a full race, so the big difference between them is only 0,1 seconds......
I think Button is a good driver, but considering what I said before, don't you think you are making conclusions very fast? Let's wait and see what happens in the next races.
You shouldn't judge a driver in one qualy, should you?
And I do think Jenson is a good driver but I still think that Alonso is better. Time will tell us...
It wasn't as bad as Australia but the Honda engine is no world beater out of the blocks. Reports indicate the car itself isn't the problem but the engine which it is not developing full power due to problems with the energy recovery system. Hopefully they can sort that out as otherwise they are in for a very poor season.
Was kinda funny the way Button got on the radio to complain that the car had no turn-in and that he couldn't get heat into the tyres.
Don't forget, Jenson, you're supposed to be blaming it all on the engine and not the chassis. ;-)
Quite amusing Lewis saying he couldn't remember the incident when Rosberg blocked him on his flying lap in Q3. Clearly Mercedes PR got to him beforehand.
I thought it was good the way his engineer got on the radio, straight away, to tell him it was his first lap (of the final run) that got him pole.
Translation: "Chill out. Your first lap was still better than anybody else's, even though Rosberg got in the way, so you don't need to make a big deal about it".
....so he defaulted to habit and was asking for driving advice.
He really can't help himself, can he?
I said, during Oz, that his first radio message of the first session of the first race was "I'm struggling with the engine management so you need to tell me what I need to do".
I dunno whether it's a sign that he doesn't have a huge ego and knows it's smart to ask for help when you need it, whether he just sees advice from the pits as another potential advantage to be exploited or whether he just "panics" when he knows things are slipping away from him.
A deserved win by Ferrari there. It had more to do with the SC period, strategy and the tires being a bit too soft for the temperatures, but you have to be in it to win it. And they displayed a master class in strategy calls there.
Excellent race. I am glad that last year's master class by Mercedes may not be repeated this year, ie there should be a real fight for the championship. Pity that the Honda power unit is struggling to complete a race distance at the moment, hopefully it will kick out a bit more power during the European phase of the championship.
And I really don't know where things will end up if Renault decide to pull the plug on their F1 presence. Could end up with a Red Bull-Ferrari, or even a Ferrari-powered Mercedes. Vettel's Ferrari lapped both of the Red Bulls.
Very good race by Vettel.
Regardless of anything else, he managed to take advantage of something when nobody else did.
More than anything, though, I think it showed Merc' were asleep at the wheel a bit.
I just don't think it occurred to anybody in the team that their drivers would be fighting with anybody except each other so they fixate on being "fair" to Rosberg & Hamilton rather than bothering to consider doing anything with ultimate performance in mind.
Toto's interview said a lot; "With hindsight, there are many things that could have been optimised".
Really? "Many" things?
So, erm, why weren't those things optimised?
Kind of interesting the way Merc' were marginal on tyres too.
We all know that the Merc' used to eat it's tyres and people seem to assume that they've "solved" that issue but I suspect that the truth is simply that their engine was so much more powerful that they could afford to run more downforce, still have sufficient speed and negate their tyre issues.
Now that Ferrari have the speed, Merc' don't have that safety-net, they're being forced to run a more marginal amount of downforce, and the pre-existing weakness in the car has revealed itself again.
What a brilliant race. Got to say I was worried after Australia but this race has calmed my worries. Lots of overtaking and proper racing, very exciting.
Really good race. Don't think anyone here, least of all me, saw that sort of race performance from Ferrari coming. Mercedes certainly didn't. They must be fuming over their profligacy in qualifying leaving Lewis short of the optimum race tyre. As good as Vettel's win was, with the right tyres Lewis would have comfortably caught and probably passed him - just look how much quicker Rosberg was than Lewis in the final stint on the right tyres.
Toto's interview said a lot; "With hindsight, there are many things that could have been optimised".
Really? "Many" things?
So, erm, why weren't those things optimised?
Bearing in mind that it is not his native language I will give him the benefit of the doubt and he meant that they chose a relatively risk averse strategy which they thought still gave them enough in hand to win the race.
I am surprised no-one on the coverage or on this thread has made anything of Hamilton's much reduced amount of running during free practise due to one problem or another. This would explain why they would want to play safe.
Bearing in mind that it is not his native language I will give him the benefit of the doubt and he meant that they chose a relatively risk averse strategy which they thought still gave them enough in hand to win the race.
I am surprised no-one on the coverage or on this thread has made anything of Hamilton's much reduced amount of running during free practise due to one problem or another. This would explain why they would want to play safe.
Well, maybe kinda related but I thought it was a bit arrogant the way that, after his car died in FP1 and it still wasn't in good shape during FP2 (no telemetry and gearbox problems), Merc' still decided that the best use of their time was to send Hamilton out on a "banzai" lap, just to put him on the top of the timing table for the session.
As I already said, I dunno if it was Hamilton who insisted on doing that, or whether it was Merc' who didn't want to see Ferrari topping the time-sheets, but it really does look a bit like Merc' (or their drivers) had started to become so confident that they just weren't paying attention to what other teams are doing.
I'm guessing this will be a bit of a wake-up call for everybody in the team.
And, on a related note, it'll be interesting to see what happens now that the Merc' drivers have to compete with somebody from a different team.
I mean, while it's been Hamilton vs Rosberg, they've always know what the competition is going to do.
Neither Hamilton or Rosberg has had to try and 2nd-guess the competition to decide what strategy or set-up to use.
Will the other guy be doing 2 stops or 3? Is the car optimised for the straights or for the corners?
They've always been in the position where they know what the other guy is going to do so they never have to risk doing something wacky.
They can just adopt a similar strategy but attempt to do it a bit better than the other guy.
Now that it's starting to look like Ferrari are getting near Merc', I wonder if we're going to see the Merc' drivers getting their set-up badly wrong, as they attempt to adopt strategies intended to get the better of Ferrari?
Also, if Ferrari are getting close to Merc', I guess Merc' might need to have a think about how/when they're going to adopt some kind of strategy to avoid having either championship stolen from them, as happened to McLaren in 2007.
Really good race. Don't think anyone here, least of all me, saw that sort of race performance from Ferrari coming. Mercedes certainly didn't. They must be fuming over their profligacy in qualifying leaving Lewis short of the optimum race tyre. As good as Vettel's win was, with the right tyres Lewis would have comfortably caught and probably passed him - just look how much quicker Rosberg was than Lewis in the final stint on the right tyres.
Probably not. Vettel had a gap of around 13 or so seconds after Hamilton's final stop and had the pace all through the race to see off any potential late half challenge from Hamilton. Even if Hamilton had caught Vettel, he'd have found it difficult to pass. Above anything (including tyre strategy), Vettel simply drove better all weekend than either of the Mercedes drivers.
Probably not. Vettel had a gap of around 13 or so seconds after Hamilton's final stop and had the pace all through the race to see off any potential late half challenge from Hamilton. Even if Hamilton had caught Vettel, he'd have found it difficult to pass. Above anything (including tyre strategy), Vettel simply drove better all weekend than either of the Mercedes drivers.
The merc had the pace, they pitted one more than Vettel, went through traffic after the safety car and still only finished 10 seconds behind. The Ferrari pace was flattered by the Merc pitting one extra.
Quote from another forum " I think the Merc strategists are still in 2014 mode where they can basically dick around and still win", and he's spot on
The merc had the pace, they pitted one more than Vettel, went through traffic after the safety car and still only finished 10 seconds behind. The Ferrari pace was flattered by the Merc pitting one extra.
Quote from another forum " I think the Merc strategists are still in 2014 mode where they can basically dick around and still win", and he's spot on
That's the way I saw it too.
Hamilton spent most of the race going around half a second faster than Vettel but he had 25 seconds to recover... on the slow tyre.
Said a lot that, at the end, that they were telling him "we're still racing for the win but you'll have to overtake Vettel on-track".
Erm, yeah.
Kinda reminds me of Singapore (?) last year, where there was a SC at about 2/3rds distance and Hamilton still had to pit after it when nobody else did.
He ended up winning because the Merc' just trounced everybody else (and Rosberg had already retired) but it was a shitty strategy call and they only dodged the bullet because they were so much faster than the opposition.
If they allow anything like that to happen this year, it's going to bite them on the arse.
Puts it in perspective when Hamilton managed to recover an entire pitstop of time within about 20 laps last year whereas, this year, he couldn't recover a pitstop of time over an entire race distance.
Comments
Red Bull now looks a leech, only gorging on the sport in the good times.
It looks an own goal on their caffeinated sugary water brand, Well, at least I know where there are coming from.
Or, perhaps, the weather with all that lightning an all!
They appear to have missed the actual qualifying that they screened live this morning.
I'm not one to give Rosberg the benefit of the doubt, but I'd definitely lean towards incompetence in this case. There are some bits that don't make any sense - like moving out of the way for a car you know has aborted a hot lap so you're going to be in their spray etc.
Given Rosberg's overall performance in quali, I'd say he was just not on the ball at all. The conditions had him unsettled, so much so he defaulted to habit and was asking for driving advice. So he fluffed getting out of the way of another car - good job it was his team mate, otherwise, he's be looking at an official complaint and a grid penalty.
It seems that you are making conclusions at a very early stage of the season.
I mean: It's the first race of Alonso after his accident and he said he was only at 80%
physically, and that he didn't expect very much of this race. Besides, Button has driven more laps with the car, including a full race, so the big difference between them is only 0,1 seconds......
I think Button is a good driver, but considering what I said before, don't you think you are making conclusions very fast? Let's wait and see what happens in the next races.
You shouldn't judge a driver in one qualy, should you?
And I do think Jenson is a good driver but I still think that Alonso is better. Time will tell us...
Was kinda funny the way Button got on the radio to complain that the car had no turn-in and that he couldn't get heat into the tyres.
Don't forget, Jenson, you're supposed to be blaming it all on the engine and not the chassis. ;-)
I thought it was good the way his engineer got on the radio, straight away, to tell him it was his first lap (of the final run) that got him pole.
Translation: "Chill out. Your first lap was still better than anybody else's, even though Rosberg got in the way, so you don't need to make a big deal about it".
He really can't help himself, can he?
I said, during Oz, that his first radio message of the first session of the first race was "I'm struggling with the engine management so you need to tell me what I need to do".
I dunno whether it's a sign that he doesn't have a huge ego and knows it's smart to ask for help when you need it, whether he just sees advice from the pits as another potential advantage to be exploited or whether he just "panics" when he knows things are slipping away from him.
And I really don't know where things will end up if Renault decide to pull the plug on their F1 presence. Could end up with a Red Bull-Ferrari, or even a Ferrari-powered Mercedes. Vettel's Ferrari lapped both of the Red Bulls.
Regardless of anything else, he managed to take advantage of something when nobody else did.
More than anything, though, I think it showed Merc' were asleep at the wheel a bit.
I just don't think it occurred to anybody in the team that their drivers would be fighting with anybody except each other so they fixate on being "fair" to Rosberg & Hamilton rather than bothering to consider doing anything with ultimate performance in mind.
Toto's interview said a lot; "With hindsight, there are many things that could have been optimised".
Really? "Many" things?
So, erm, why weren't those things optimised?
Kind of interesting the way Merc' were marginal on tyres too.
We all know that the Merc' used to eat it's tyres and people seem to assume that they've "solved" that issue but I suspect that the truth is simply that their engine was so much more powerful that they could afford to run more downforce, still have sufficient speed and negate their tyre issues.
Now that Ferrari have the speed, Merc' don't have that safety-net, they're being forced to run a more marginal amount of downforce, and the pre-existing weakness in the car has revealed itself again.
I am surprised no-one on the coverage or on this thread has made anything of Hamilton's much reduced amount of running during free practise due to one problem or another. This would explain why they would want to play safe.
Well, maybe kinda related but I thought it was a bit arrogant the way that, after his car died in FP1 and it still wasn't in good shape during FP2 (no telemetry and gearbox problems), Merc' still decided that the best use of their time was to send Hamilton out on a "banzai" lap, just to put him on the top of the timing table for the session.
As I already said, I dunno if it was Hamilton who insisted on doing that, or whether it was Merc' who didn't want to see Ferrari topping the time-sheets, but it really does look a bit like Merc' (or their drivers) had started to become so confident that they just weren't paying attention to what other teams are doing.
I'm guessing this will be a bit of a wake-up call for everybody in the team.
And, on a related note, it'll be interesting to see what happens now that the Merc' drivers have to compete with somebody from a different team.
I mean, while it's been Hamilton vs Rosberg, they've always know what the competition is going to do.
Neither Hamilton or Rosberg has had to try and 2nd-guess the competition to decide what strategy or set-up to use.
Will the other guy be doing 2 stops or 3? Is the car optimised for the straights or for the corners?
They've always been in the position where they know what the other guy is going to do so they never have to risk doing something wacky.
They can just adopt a similar strategy but attempt to do it a bit better than the other guy.
Now that it's starting to look like Ferrari are getting near Merc', I wonder if we're going to see the Merc' drivers getting their set-up badly wrong, as they attempt to adopt strategies intended to get the better of Ferrari?
Also, if Ferrari are getting close to Merc', I guess Merc' might need to have a think about how/when they're going to adopt some kind of strategy to avoid having either championship stolen from them, as happened to McLaren in 2007.
Probably not. Vettel had a gap of around 13 or so seconds after Hamilton's final stop and had the pace all through the race to see off any potential late half challenge from Hamilton. Even if Hamilton had caught Vettel, he'd have found it difficult to pass. Above anything (including tyre strategy), Vettel simply drove better all weekend than either of the Mercedes drivers.
The merc had the pace, they pitted one more than Vettel, went through traffic after the safety car and still only finished 10 seconds behind. The Ferrari pace was flattered by the Merc pitting one extra.
Quote from another forum " I think the Merc strategists are still in 2014 mode where they can basically dick around and still win", and he's spot on
That's the way I saw it too.
Hamilton spent most of the race going around half a second faster than Vettel but he had 25 seconds to recover... on the slow tyre.
Said a lot that, at the end, that they were telling him "we're still racing for the win but you'll have to overtake Vettel on-track".
Erm, yeah.
Kinda reminds me of Singapore (?) last year, where there was a SC at about 2/3rds distance and Hamilton still had to pit after it when nobody else did.
He ended up winning because the Merc' just trounced everybody else (and Rosberg had already retired) but it was a shitty strategy call and they only dodged the bullet because they were so much faster than the opposition.
If they allow anything like that to happen this year, it's going to bite them on the arse.
Puts it in perspective when Hamilton managed to recover an entire pitstop of time within about 20 laps last year whereas, this year, he couldn't recover a pitstop of time over an entire race distance.