That's what I was thinking too.

As I said before, it seems like Ferrari have, in recent years, been going all-out to win the drivers title but it seems like next year they'll be shooting for the constructors rather than, necessarily, the drivers title.

I think most people would agree that the drivers title has more prestige (to the general public, at least) than the constructors' but I guess Ferrari have gotten to the point where they'd just rather win something rather than nothing.

It really all depends on how good (and reliable) the new engines are next year...

Another thought is that it might be time to go back to giving a point for fastest lap

Do you think Red Bull have got up people's noses because they are a [relatively] new team who have quickly become front runners? If they did a Minardi or Forti (blimey the Yellow Banana Special ) they would probably be more liked. But even Frank Williams and Bernie Ecclestone were upstarts on the F1 grid once...

Red Bull in F1 though, are first and foremost a racing team - they aren't a drinks company, that's their remit outside of the sport. And yes, they don't have the heritage or tradition that gives Ferrari/Mclaren the kind of identity that you'd gravitate to - it's why my favourite F1 team is Ferrari. However in this sport, tradition when it comes to what really matters (results) means nothing. For all for their history, and experience RB have beaten Ferrari and Mclaren at their own game, and Mclaren in particular last year at times showed extraordinary ineptitude for a team of their calibre. Then there's Ferrari, and their embarrassing wind tunnel problem. It's up to the other teams to up their game. And all teams, no matter their backgrounds have always started off with no history.

Don't Ferrari get a big cut of the revenue BEFORE the allocation of funds from the constructors pie is sliced up?
A figure equal to (or greater than) the winning constructors share?

No wonder they don't need to fight for the constructors revenue share if they're guaranteed the funding anyway.

Oh, I doubt it's financial reward they're after.

They're probably just looking for something impressive to put on their sales brochures which isn't starting to look rather out-of-date.

Did anyone watch the Niki Lauda/James Hunt documentary last night.

Shows how different everything is!

If Hamilton drove for Red Bull the everybody would love them. In fact it would be mentioned at every GP that as they are based in the UK and have Adrian Newey drawing the cars they are basically a British team.

The words fat and chance come to mind. Oh for some excitement, some breathtaking passes, some real racing,
But no, just pussyfooting and faffing over bloody tyres. :yawn:

BTW the highlights on BBC were appalling. It was impossible to follow what was happening in the race. I think it was condensed down into about 45 minutes.

What highlights, apart from the start. They did well with 45 minutes. They would have been best just not showing it, and putting something else on it's place.

Steady on now. Can't be having that sort of thing!

If they attempt to fight for position now they just get told to give it back, even if the driver in question was ahead to begin with.

Actually, the Hulk'/Perez incident sets a rather disturbing precedent.
In future all a driver has to do is have a fair stab at an overtake around the outside and the team can claim that the leading car ran them out of road and should be forced to yield the position.

It's not really a precedent though, Perez did exactly the same thing several times at Monaco. One time Alonzo was forced to give the place back, another time he tried it with Kimi and crashed.

It seems to me that it is his overtaking policy on these tight street circuits and (as you say) the fact that he has already been allowed to profit from it at two different races suggests that he isn't likely to stop any time soon.

Mclaren set that precedent at Monaco.

Monaco wasn't the same situation really.

At least, at Monaco, Perez was actually having a go at overtaking (albeit rather clumsily) by going up the inside on the corner entry and the other car chose to run across the chicane to avoid a collision while, at the same time, also avoiding losing position.

What happened at Singapore was that Perez tried to go around the outside, which was never likely to actually be successful, and when Hulk' took the racing line the stewards decided that he'd forced Perez off the road.

Yeah pretty similar just get along side never actually pass and then get the stewards to wave you through.

FIA set to make up more rules stop drivers doing anything fun on slow down lap. Drivers to be fully briefed before the next GP.

Not really.

It's far less likely that a manoevre around the outside of another car is ever likely to be successful.

Don't get me wrong, I think Perez thoroughly deserved a penalty in Monaco, simply for his reckless driving.

Having said that, though, I think creating a precedent where any driver who makes a dive up the outside of another car before falling off the road should then, subsequently, be waved-through is far sillier.

Occurs to me, actually, that on the same basis, Vettel should really have been forced to yield to Rosberg after he passed Vettel at the start.

Autosport's headlines page seems to conceding the title fight to Red Bull now

"Ferrari 'should forget' 2014 title hopes" says Alan Permane
"Red Bull: no qualms over dominance"
"Mercedes fears Vettel can win all races"
"Ferrari: Vettel trouble our main hope"

Might as well go to the pub for sunday afternoons rather than watch the rest of the F1 season. When Vettel does finally win it, it will be on the sunday evening news.

Have we found out why Hamilton was forced to relinquish his place to Alonso yet?

Because he short cutted going off track were the track bends to the right I think.

But he didn't gain anything from it. Besides, he was forced off the track by Alonso.

Apologies if that's a joke or a crafty dig but I'm afraid most of the race was a bit of a blur for me.

I thought Hamilton just steadily worked his way up to about 4th or 5th, never really saw anything of Alonso, and then both him and Rosberg suffered horribly when the team made the decision not to pit them under the s/c and then pit them afterwards instead.

He was ordered to give back fifth place to Massa (sorry, not Alonso ) on Lap 1.

it's a sad day when I'm more interested in watching GP2/3/BTCC than I am in watching F1, but that's what's been happening this season :sleep:

Hamilton got the run on him enabling him to pass by going wide off track at the previous corner carrying more exit speed than normal. A fair call to yield the place back IMHO.

But, he had no choice, because Massa forced him off the track.