ah edit the above... The impending bpycott threat and negative usa publicity could be motivating factor for bernies change of mind..
Of all the things that piss me off about Bernie, I can't deny he is a master of saying exactly what is needed to get people to do what is needed/what he wants...
I'm sure he'll be saying to them, either 3 car teams or restructure the prize money.
Cant see many teams wanting to run 3 cars.
Bit dull this race isn't it.
No!!!
Well, it certainly picked up a minute after I typed that!!!
Ricciardo looking very racy again
arrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhh
if he says "doesn't he just" one more time !
Hamilton proving he is simply the better driver once again
If LH loses this championship on the double points it'll be an absolute travesty.
No doubt who the better Merc driver is on a Sunday in a straight fight.
Edit: beneath that 'Mohawk' is LH going a bit thin on top!? 😯
A 2nd & a 3rd will do it now for Hamilton - I think
If LH loses this championship on the double points it'll be an absolute travesty.
No doubt who the better Merc driver is on a Sunday in a straight fight.
+1
+2
he was toying with nico over the last 15 laps and that double point on the last race is such a bad idea.
Did Nico Rosberg just say
"yadda yadda yadda i lost, typical crowd pleasing stuff, yadda yadda, thanks"?
You have to feel for Nico, he is getting a proper beating - Butoon did say a while back that Lewis will come good, he has.
Ricciardo is a very special driver, love to see him and Lewis together one day.
Best race for a while that I thought.
I had my eyes shut when JEV pulled his move on Jenson and Maldonado into turn one, can't imagine what he felt!
5 in a row for Hamilton
Its a lot to ask for him to have 2 more clean races
If he loses it because of the double points on the final race it'll be terrible
Does anyone know how many engines/power supplies Rosbery & Hamilton have used so far?
If he loses it because of the double points on the final race it'll be terrible
Thinking about it, it's fortunate that the final race is in Abu Dhabi as Brazil has a history of serving up unpredictable conditions & racing, so you're only battling against reliability, not a wet circuit & sketchy back markers.
Once again Hamilton went and took the race win off Rosberg, petulance aside, I'm yet to see Rosberg do the same to Hamilton.
so, even a lewis hater like myself thinks he deserves the championship now,
it would be terrible to lose it on reliability in the last race or something like that,
this year despite a few mistakes, he has earned the title for sure!
blimey b2b - you feeling ok? 😉
I think it's clear that Ham can take Rosberg in a straight fight; he just doesn't have an answer to Lewis in a race.
Lewis deserves to win the title. No question.
So what happened? I watched it twice but Chianti messed with my head 🙂
Once again Hamilton went and took the race win off Rosberg, petulance aside, I'm yet to see Rosberg do the same to Hamilton.
Rosberg hasn't overtaken Hamilton in a racing conditions since Bahrain.
The title "fight" is looking really one sided
[quote=richmtb ]Rosberg hasn't overtaken Hamilton in a racing conditions since Bahrain.
I'm not sure that counts, as he didn't make it stick. He's only even managed to finish ahead 3 times if you exclude the races where LH's car has failed (or been knackered by Rosberg running into him), and of those, in Germany LH recovered from starting 20th due to a failure in qualifying, one was Monaco, so it's only really Austria where he had the better of his teammate over a race weekend.
Perhaps not the most exciting race of the season but always great to see LH take a win! 🙂
Lewis has definitely now proved himself and is the worthy champion for 2014 .... But I just have this nagging doubt that he has this unlucky streak and could lose out on car reliability to Tossberg who wins it on stupid double points malarkey at the last round . truly hope this doesn't happen..... It would be gutting
double points on the last race has turned f1 in the motor racing equivalent of quidditch !
Well it's all a bit Playstation anyway with the 'boost' button, 'go faster' button etc. Just no 'reset' button when Perez or Maldonado come calling.... 🙂
+1 for the double points is farcical and probably going to screw up hamilton.
Looks like Button is out of F1 unless he can find another drive. 🙁
Shame as he showed again this weekend why F1 needs drivers like him.
I used to love F1 but the farce of it now is beyond a joke. Glad it's on Sky most of the time, so I don't fall for watching another dire race. DRS is a awful, way to weighted towards the driver behind. Again double points at the last race is an terrible idea. As for the complete disintegration of the field, well that's been on the cards for ages as the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull keep spending obscene amounts. Then there are all the incredibly dull race tracks with 2 men and a dog watching.
I don't know what the answer is, but it sure as hell is going to take a lot to sort out the sorry mess F1 is in now. Reminds of me of what's happened to Rally car, no one watches it anymore.
I bet Bernie doesn't even give a sh*t.
Lewis has definitely now proved himself and is the worthy champion for 2014 .... But I just have this nagging doubt that he has this unlucky streak and could lose out on car reliability to Tossberg who wins it on stupid double points malarkey at the last round . truly hope this doesn't happen..... It would be gutting
Hopefully Merc can also see this and will arrange a problem with the Blonde-trolls car.
I remember a wheel coming off a certain racing drivers car which benefited Damon Hill 😀
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Japanese_Grand_Prix
Double points is unquestionably stupid.
DRS is IMO a good idea but recently they seem to have set the opening points too early on straights which makes overtakes on some tracks too easy.
That all said, we've had some great races this year and great overtaking in some situations where it's only because the DRS is there that they've been possible.
They do need to avoid three car teams as IMO that'll lead to the decline of F1 as manufacturers start to drop out - who's going to pour money in to be the worst car on the track? The small teams prevent that.
Another one here agreeing with the double points sham - fortunately for Hamilton he only needs to finish second in both races to win the title now so can take it easier and not push the car into a breakdown. Unfortunately for hamilton he doesn't know how to hold back – I bet he will be desperate to win the final two races now.
Trouble is that the breakdowns/problems they've had haven't been through pushing too hard, have they - they're one off/silly problems rather than failed gearboxes or engines (sorry, PUs)
True.
IMHO F1 has been in a steady decline for a number of years. Recently it's as if the rulemakers are throwing gimmicky solutions into the mix out of desperation like DRS, KERS etc. They've even been looking at fitting skid plates to the underside of cars to bring back the sparking undertrays and have tested trumpet exhausts to try and enhance the croaking amphibian noise of the new cars, which smacks of utter desperation to me.
Then there's Bernie and his obsession with money, making everything look "just so" (to the point of dictating how teams should park their motorhomes and support vehicles) and courting the glamorous few over the multitude of fans who save for their tickets. The drivers are as well versed with PR as they are handling a racing car, they all seem to polished, anodyne and boring...F1 has disappeared up it's own fundament. I'm quite depressed at the state of it all now.
People say that but do the viewing figures actually match that?
F1 has unquestionably been very poor at using social or even just modern media to promote itself. Bernie apparently can't understand how they'd make money from it so isn't interested.
People say that but do the viewing figures actually match that?
Whether they do or not, I'm past caring. Given the choice of watching Button, Hamilton and Alonso battling it out on track or heading out for a ride around my local loop, I take the latter every time.
Well yes but it's not usually a straight choice of one or the other for most people...
The Abu Dhabi GP, for me, sums up everything that is wrong with F1 because
1. They are only in it because they could pay more than one of the classic tracks to be on the calendar, rather than any racing (or indeed any kind whatsoever) heritage or associaion with the sport. Much like qatar for the footie WC.
2. They paid a bit more still to be the last race of the year, so more likely to have the title decided there.
But, in the last few years the title has been sorted long before the last race, so....
3. I'm guessing here, but I reckon they paid a lot more still to some people to get double points for their race, to virtually guarantee that it was decided there, without saying 'Bugger the rest of the season, whoever wins here is world champion.
the funny hing is despite all the hate..... it is still watched.
The switch back to titanium skid blocks isn't to add sparks to the show but to prevent the teams running the cars scraping the floor and just bolting on a wear-resistant skid block to comply with the rules.
Should make Singapore look spectacular next year though!!
No, it's to make sparks 🙂
The plank is there to stop cars scraping on the ground. That teams may have worked out ways to reduce how much it wears is incidental.