How? He comes from a hardworking poor Dad. Nico comes from money/comfort.

Lewis always came across as stroppy/childish as the rare shots were mclaren linked of a small, young boy not a man.

@aracer, as I said Hamilton made a similar mistake to throw away a potential championship before he won his first

Go on then, I’ll bite, where and when was that?

Though presumably in any case you’re suggesting that Nico in his 9th year of F1 aged 29 is no more mature than Lewis was in his rookie season aged 22.

so to all Lewis fans who think merc are trying to nobble him and prefer Rosberg this should put that to bed, as they could easily have had an issue at his put stop. ..
Did rosberg serve his punishment today with an “off” at the best part of the track without losing any time to others, only time will tell, when drivers are out of contact….
But despite my Lewis hate he drove a great race, and for us as fans great for title

what’s this I hear about Honda running the mclaren package before 2015? Could we see them at the last few races?

I don’t buy any of the F1 inter team conspiracies, but I do find it odd that both times rosberg missed the chicane he didn’t even lock up. Drivers locking up into the 1st chicane isn’t uncommon, and most of them still manage to make the corner. Rosberg didn’t even attempt to make the corner…..I find it an odd way to miss a corner

I thought he had locked up the second time. Didn’t the reverse-view camera show smoke from his right rear tyre?

Oh, perhaps he did. Defo no tyre smoke on the 1st one!!!

I find it an odd way to miss a corner

He did lock up

….but anyway
You’re leading the world championship and all you probably have to do is keep it clean and finish behind Hamilton. He’s coming after you and he’s faster than you.
Going straight at the first chicane if you think you won’t make it, is the safe thing to do there. The sausage kerbs mid chicane are a serious risk for the underside of the car and a DNF.
He didn’t need to defend hard, so he didn’t – end of.

He also locked up the first time he missed it – front left was on the white line – it was only a little one but that’s all it takes.

back2basics

What’s this I hear about Honda running the mclaren package before 2015? Could we see them at the last few races?

Very doubtful, the PU (engine, regen package and batteries) haven’t been homologated so would not pass scrutineering. Guarantee there’s a slave car hammering round somewhere (probably Twin Ring Motegi), they’re quiet enough to pass off as road car testing at a closed facility.

Great race to watch, loads of overtaking. Great drive from Hamilton, after a technical issue from the start.

I see the tin foil hats have taken over F1 now.

Great race and a superb drive from Lewis. I can’t believe that some people are suggesting that Nico had to yield to Lewis! Don’t be daft.
Ricciardo was great too, well done, think we will seeing a lot of him.in the future.

thekingisdead – Member

I don’t buy any of the F1 inter team conspiracies, but I do find it odd that both times rosberg missed the chicane he didn’t even lock up. Drivers locking up into the 1st chicane isn’t uncommon, and most of them still manage to make the corner. Rosberg didn’t even attempt to make the corner…..I find it an odd way to miss a corner

thekingisdead – Member

Oh, perhaps he did. Defo no tyre smoke on the 1st one!!!

Probably knew he was going into the corner too hot and didn’t want to risk a flat spot.

There isn’t any secret deal that was done to let Hamilton pass – Rosberg cracks under pressure and has done before. Hamilton is an amazing driver and all the drivers know it, he does appear to have a way of making other drivers panic and lose focus when he hunting them down. It’s nice when he’s ahead of course, that makes it easier for him, but he does love the chase and the others know that. Thankfully he can now manage his car better than before and keep it running fast until the end without shredding the tyres – maybe this is what the Mercedes car is allowing him to do now.

Riccardio was fantastic, wasn’t he? The way he was saying “yeah that was fun” cracked me up during his interview! He’s making Vettel look a little amateurish now, isn’t he? I can see him being world champ one day and I hope he manages it.

Bottas – is he actually even calmer and chilled than Raikonnen? He did a great job yesterday.

Was nice to see Massa getting a podium. Always liked him and think he could have been a world champ contender if he hadn’t gone to Ferrari. Hopefully he has enough time to make it still – he looked very happy which never was the case with Ferrari.

Great to see Williams doing well too.

….but anyway
You’re leading the world championship and all you probably have to do is keep it clean and finish behind Hamilton. He’s coming after you and he’s faster than you.
Going straight at the first chicane if you think you won’t make it, is the safe thing to do there. The sausage kerbs mid chicane are a serious risk for the underside of the car and a DNF.
He didn’t need to defend hard, so he didn’t – end of.

+1

You only had to see what those kerbs did to Max Chiltons car to see why they want to avoid them!

Well the hot rumour going around this morning is there will only be 8 teams next team, but that they will be running 3 cars each!

Some more ideas being considered by ol’ Bernie

Courtesy of this guy… https://twitter.com/TechnicallyRon

Riccardio was fantastic, wasn’t he? The way he was saying “yeah that was fun” cracked me up during his interview! He’s making Vettel look a little amateurish now, isn’t he? I can see him being world champ one day and I hope he manages it.

Was nice to see Massa getting a podium. Always liked him and think he could have been a world champ contender if he hadn’t gone to Ferrari. Hopefully he has enough time to make it still – he looked very happy which never was the case with Ferrari.

+1 to that – both of them are very easy to like.

If Merc had wanted a Lewis win then there would be far less risky ways of achieving this than ‘making’ Rosberg fluff the chicance – a ‘messy’ pit stop for example.

LH is fast, very very fast. Rosberg is more calculating and is very good at controlling a race and taking maximum points when there is nothing to distract him but he is not an out and out wheel to wheel racer as has been proven many times this season.

It was telling in the radio comms that NR asked not to be told what the gap was. I read it as ‘I don’t want to know as I don’t want to panic’.

Agree as well, Ricciardo is another out and out racer and credit to Bottas too.

Massa getting third is the highlight for me though. Been through so much and a thoroughly deserved podium.

What is it about German drivers? 😈

Great race, my sky box had a wobbly so I watched the BBC coverage on iPlayer instead.

The coverage isn’t as polished as Sky’s but overall very good. Eddie Jordan’s grid walk though 😯

Is it always like that? Either it was meant as some sort of performance art – a stream of concsiousness spoken word poem perhaps? Or Eddie Jordan is just a rambling fool who has no clue what he is doing

🙂

Or Eddie Jordan is just a rambling fool who has no clue what he is doing

This 🙂

As to the lack of lockup from Nico, I reckon Mark Hughes knows a bit about F1.

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/reports/2014-italian-gp-report/

It’s desperately important not to lock-up as the resultant flat-spot at that speed will be massive and will effectively consign you to that much slower two-stop strategy. Braking that late with his more forward bias, he immediately felt he wasn’t going to make the turn without locking up – and so took the safe option of the escape road and its coned slalom course. He emerged still leading – but only by a couple of seconds.

Rosberg’s front brake temperatures were now rising beyond their optimum. In trying to conserve his rear tyres by moving the braking bias forwards, he was beginning to compromise the brakes instead. Hamilton’s pace was placing an impossible set of demands upon Rosberg and the particular limitations he faced here.

At the end of lap 28 the two Mercs flashed past the line just 0.7s apart, and Hamilton’s DRS flap was open. Rosberg stood on the brakes and… it happened again, the Merc prone to locking its fronts at that brake setting and without FRICS to help stabilise the loads. “Lewis was coming so quick that I needed to up my pace and I just made a mistake as a result,” he said.

Why do us Brits never support our sports stars properly?

Lewis is known. KNOWN to be a take-no-prisoners-type when it comes to overtaking someone. Not a blunder-through but very robust. He also knows when its time to give up a space (something Alonso is also good at- the mark of a good racer IMO).

That picture is not near Brackley. No wonder there are all sorts conspiracy theories.

Why do us Brits never support our sports stars properly?

I’d like to think because we like fair play and give support as it’s earned.

I may be overly optimistic of course 🙂

Lewis is known. KNOWN to be a take-no-prisoners-type when it comes to overtaking someone. Not a blunder-through but very robust.

All of the World Champs on the grid share this trait IMO – the ability to race hard, fair and clean (ok, they’re all going to make the odd mistake but we’ve seen some fantastic battles in recent years with proper side by side racing without contact, set against the demolition derby that happens further down the grid). In fact, I’d suggest that it’s a great measure to see who may have the potential to be a future (or at least potential given the criticality of being in the right car at the right time) World Champ – DR being a great current example.

Controversial…. but.

Whats to say the Redbull is actually a very good car and Vettel really is tired/lacking old focus and DR is a good driver who is making capital on a good car (still). If Webber was in DR’s seat and Vettels maybe lacking focus would Webber now be lauded?

Because things don’t change that fast, and Vettel has gone from being easily the best driver on his team to being nowhere near. Though there is an argument that previously his driving style suited the RB better (and that naturally it was engineered to suit his driving style).

Whats to say the Redbull is actually a very good car and Vettel really is tired/lacking old focus and DR is a good driver who is making capital on a good car (still). If Webber was in DR’s seat and Vettels maybe lacking focus would Webber now be lauded?

There’s a simpler explanation is why – the RB with its EBD required a very counter intuitive driving style – eg boot it just when you should be taking it easy on the throttle. Vettel adapted to this much better than Webber (old dog!) and hence was way better than him when the EBD was working effectively (eg mid way through last year) or at tracks that it was more of an advantage on.

The argument (which IMO is an oversimplification) is that Vettel is a very good driver but with the ability to drive in that odd way which provided a massive advantage. Take away the EBD advantage and he’s back to ‘just’ being a very good driver. Not to mention that he’s now got used to the EBD style and is now finding it hard to adapt back to the old style.

Vettel has gone from being easily the best driver on his team to being nowhere near

Because he no longer has a weak teammate? Instead of outshining a workmanlike old stager, he now has a rising star and it’s reflecting badly on him.

The car is no longer the best and Vettel can’t wring the extra performance out of it like a really, really good driver can. Senna, Alonso, even LH

Mind you, the team did for him yesterday, what a bizarre strategy that was.

I’m going to have to watch the race again. Too much red wine last night 🙂

I honestly can’t remember enjoying a season as much as this one. Amazing!

This is one of the reasons i really dont like how the FIA “apply” rules throughout the season :
“The messages to be banned include: sector time detail of a competitor and where a competitor is faster or slower; adjustment of power unit settings; adjustment of gearbox settings; information on differential settings; information on fuel flow settings and level of fuel saving needed and information on brake balance.

On the formation lap ahead of a race there can be no information on clutch maps or settings, for example the bite point, or burn outs.

Teams can no longer answer a direct question from a driver, such as ‘Am I using the right torque map?’, nor can there be any coded messages.

From the Japanese Grand Prix onwards early next month teams will also be banned from informing drivers about tyre pressures or temperatures, and warnings as to brake wear or temperatures.

For the avoidance of doubt, the FIA has ratified what messages can be relayed, and these include: acknowledgement a driver message has been heard; lap or sector time detail; lap time detail of a competitor; gaps to a competitor during a practice session or race.

With regard to tyres drivers will be informed as to punctures, tyre choice at an upcoming pit stop, number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tyres during a race and tyre specification of a competitor.

Messages such as “push hard”, “push now”, “you will be racing so and so” or similar are fine, whilst teams can also help by warning of traffic during a practice session or race.

Information relating to gaps between cars in qualifying so as to better position a car for a clear lap is also permissible.

Drivers can also be told of a potential problem with a competitor’s car during a race, and of a competitor’s likely race strategy.

Finally, warnings with regard to yellow flags, blue flags, safety car deployments or other cautions, are also allowed.”

Why not just ban all radio communication apart from safety/flags situation and only allow whats on a pit board as now.

no – cos that would require balls!

instead we’ll get conspiracy theories abound about what messages meant and if it was a code.
…and probably random penalties issued out with a cry of “FIA fixing the championship” from the fans…

Why not just ban all radio communication apart from safety/flags situation and only allow whats on a pit board as now.

Because they haven’t banned any of the ones that people like hearing – eg SV and FA bitching about eachother 😆

I agree with the sentiment – drivers should be able to drive the car without assistance and if they’re too complex to do that properly right now (eg the start issues, and so on) then they’ll just need to design them differently in future.

I think they are missing a very simple solution to this problem… steering wheels!

Make them a hell of a lot simpler and restrict what the drivers can adjust.

Just have two buttons – ‘Start Mode’ and ‘Race Mode’. And a brake balance adjuster.

But there’s a difficult balance there – the cars have to at least look difficult to drive and high tech. Lots of knobs on the wheels (and behind them 🙂 ) helps convey that, doesn’t it?

http://sniffpetrol.com/2014/09/11/f1-teams-react-to-fia-radio-ruling/

What’s ‘Fernando is faster than you’ in code?

Give Maldonado one of these – plenty of buttons but he won’t be able to cause much damage…