[Closed] The F1 Thread...

Looks good to me, they see me rollin' etc...

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Way more relevant to pirellis target road market, but they'd need to tweak something to fill the gaps between brakes and rims. Must've been pretty bumpy to drive too with current suspension set ups.

Ok heres my prediction (seeing as Im wrong once, who knows I might be right on my next prediction)..

Alonso in a Merc for 2015

Vettel in a Merc for 2015 or sabbatical

Hamo in a McLaren for 2015

I see the FIA have said that FRIC suspension systems have now developed so much that they could now be deemed outside of the technical regulations.
If the teams agree to ban them from the start of next year [not going to happen] then the FIA will let it slide for this year. If they don't, they are open to being investigated at all and any races.

I believe Mr Horner is currently sharpening his pencil 🙂

I see the FIA have said that FRIC suspension systems have now developed so much that they could now be deemed outside of the technical regulations.

I believe Mr Horner is currently sharpening his pencil

I do hope so as having one team completely dominate a season is not good for the sport; so given the dominance of Mercedes I see FIA banning FRIC from Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps) after the summer break

Interestingly Marussia Max Chilton driver told Sky Sports News: “I hear the Mercedes system is very complicated so it could affect them more.”

Box of tissues for boo hoo anyone (?)

EDIT: I do like the 18" alloys

The Merc has so much speed advantage that I don't think they'd lose too much lap time over the other big teams, tyre wear is going to be where there could be some issues for them.

Scarbs doesn't reckon banning FRIC will upset the top end order much I'm afraid. Guess we'll see.

Hora - IMHO i dont think there will be any driver changes for 2015.

There is no way Alonso and Vettel will drive for the same team.

Hamilton would be silly to go back to McLaren, Williams would be a better but but a big risk. Redbull a possibility if Vettel leaves, which I doubt. They are having a bad year, they will be back. McLaren possibly not back to form until 2016.

Alonso will only jump ship if he has a guaranteed best car to go to. Mercedes is a possibility if the new suspension rules don't mess them up but I can't see it happening with Hamilton there.

18" wheels are silly. 18" wheels on road cars are silly too.

That said there are technical advantages to tyre makers from a lower profile tyre and it does mean they can fit bigger brake discs. I can see them using the move to allow them to ban carbon brakes though and go back to larger steel discs which will affect the weight a lot so I hope not. We could see more reliable brakes though which will be a good thing.

I do wonder if a 16" wheel would be a better compromise and not look so chavvy.

Hamilton will finish his contract with Mercedes next year and drive for Ferrari in 2016. Vettel will replace him in Mercedes for an all German line-up.

Alonso will either win his third with Ferrari next year or leave mid-season next year after having a big bust-up, there will be no more waiting. He will end up at Le Mans in 2016.

Williams to start being contenders with Bottas next year.

I was wondering about Button going to Williams. I could see Alonso heading there though if Bottas starts spanking him regularly.

I'm not an Alonso fan but until the radio whining about Vettel he was doing a cracking job on sunday.

I think Button will be out of F1 at the end of this year. Lotus may be an option if Pasties money dries up (due to politics in Venezuela) - but other than that I can't see where he'd go. His only saving grace could be if Honda see him as an experienced development driver.

Top teams - all will remain the same IMO.

I was wondering about Button going to Williams.

Now my take on the Button situation is he'll stay at Mcl
He's big in Japan [very big] and with Honda coming onboard, they may prefer him? - I dunno

as an aside, do Williams still own any of JBs contract?

yeah that is my other thought.

He could quite easily be classed along with Ricardo Patrese, David Couthard, Webber, Massa etc - ie good drivers but either overshadowed when on form by a team number one or just not good enough. But unlike those he does have a world championship to his name.

He should be doing better and I hope he stays as he's a nice guy to have in F1. He just needs to get some 1st places quickly and stop being, admittedly near the top, of the 'also rans'.

The problem at McLaren - apart from the so so car - is they haven't got a talented charger [like Bottas] to go with Button's methodical approach.
No doubt they hoped MAG would fill that role, he may still but he's either being held back - possibly by team pressure not to bin it etc. - or he hasn't got it. He has loads of speed just lacks other stuff.

If McL were to announce Button and Vandoorne for 2015, I wouldn't be suprised.

I do wonder if a 16" wheel would be a better compromise and not look so chavvy

16" wheels could be the answer and become the 650B of F1

Now there's an idea we could have 3 different wheel sizes, 13", 16" and 18" and two tyre manufactures 😯 with regulations to run both tubes and tubless

Jenson-san will be staying firmly put at Mclaren for 2015.

I don't think we will see any driver moves for 2015 either.

Alonso has too good a thing going at Ferrari, he almost runs the team. He isn't going to give that up unless he knows he is getting a quicker car. that means Mercedes and Hamilton and Rosberg aren't going anywhere.

Same situation with Vettel.

I'm sure Mclaren would like to tempt one of the top drivers into the car but with the 2015 Honda engine being an unknown quantity (i'm sure it will be awesome) I don't think we will see any moves in the top teams until 2016

I know it's early days, but it looks like the FRICs ban has affected Mercedes more than the other teams (as people predicted). Ricciardo only a tenth down in second practice.

[url] http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115005 [/url]

And a great effort from Susie Wolff this morning to be only 2 tenths off Massa's time.

I wonder if Christian Horner will have to eat a large dose of Renault humble pie in coming weeks!?

After all his whinging and moaning at Renault, it's looking like it was the Mercedes FRICs system that was it's main advantage and not the Mercedes engine alone.

well if quali is anything to go by... off the pace by a second, not 10ths. It is this race where the FRICs rule change starts isn't it?

Ouch at that spack in to the tyre wall in Q1.

The bulls were about 0.07/km faster Vs Merc than they were at Silverstone

As you were then, nothing changed at the top of the pecking order

It's rare that one change to something widely used affects the order that much eg. All the flexi wing stuff with rb was a red herring. Tyres last year were a bit of an exception and then there are things like mass dampers and dual chassis that were only really developed by one team.

Lewis will probably be sneaking a bit of sugar into Nico's gearbox oil again...

Looks like Hamilton will have to start from the pit lane unless Merc can persuade the FIA that they need to change to CI discs purely as a safety measure.
TBH starting from the pit lane is probably better than mid pack in amongst the desperate and crazy in damp conditions

Odd that Hamilton has a disproportionate amount of mechanicals than the german fella at the german team.

Odd that Hamilton has a disproportionate amount of mechanicals than the german fella at the german team.

Odd that Nico suffered a strange failure whilst in the lead at the British GP, with British driver Lewis Hamilton behind him, in a British based team car... 😉

This is a very exciting race, lots of overtaking makes all the difference. 🙂

Not sure whether to stick with the GP or flick over to the TdF...

stoffel I like the cut of your Jib

Lewis bemoans his luck, how soon he forgets British gp, what an arse...
He should be over the moon he has such a superior car to the make up for his continuous mistakes all this year, qualy, not nursing car when he should,out breaking himself, he would be so many points in front, nico would be the one under pressure and he could afford a few car issues...
the team must think what the hell does this guy need to not make him so miserable, put his frikin pet Chiwawa as a teammate!!!
nico just smiles, shrugs his shoulders and gets on with it on the track

Mistakes? His DNFs have been machanical yes? Not driver error.

Lewis bemoans his luck, how soon he forgets British gp, what an arse...
He should be over the moon he has such a superior car to the make up for his continuous mistakes all this year, qualy, not nursing car when he should,out breaking himself, he would be so many points in front, nico would be the one under pressure and he could afford a few car issues...
the team must think what the hell does this guy need to not make him so miserable, put his frikin pet Chiwawa as a teammate!!!
nico just smiles, shrugs his shoulders and gets on with it on the track

What races have you been watching? Granted he has made some mistakes but all his DNF's have been technical issues with the car and not his fault.

Also, I'm pretty sure Nico's face was tripping him when Lewis went on his winning spree

What a race! Shame we didn't get a safety car or it might have been a different result.

I can see Hamilton leaving for another team ..... I can't see him beating Rosberg this year

Keke Rosberg won!

Well done to Keke. 😆

A lot of people, Lewis included, believed he would be significantly better than Nico,and that Lewis would be no 1. Nico has proven to be a lot better than people gave him credit for, and is up there on merit. If it were not for bad luck in the British GP, he'd be even forther infront. As mentioned; Lewis moans, while Nico just gets on with thngs. Maybe Leiws, for all his speed and ability, just isn't as good as he thinks he is.

I remember people also saying that Kimi would be better than Fernando. In fact, you couldbuy t-shirts proclaiming 'Fernando; Kimi is quicker than you'. How foolish they must feel now; qualis 9-2, races 11-0 to Fernando. 😆 It's h=just a shame He and Vettel are in such relatively poor cars this year, hopefully next year will be a lot more even. At least we have two very evenly matched drivers at Mercedes to offer a respte to the procession.

One of Lewis's dnf was because he didn't drop back and cool his brakes after the team told him to, nico had exact same problem and he finished,
how many more examples of this do we need to see to show Lewis is just not as a complete driver as he thinks he is and he thinks he should be treated as
mentally he is going to be crushed if nico takes this title
he will not let himself comprehend that he is being beaten and so blames 'luck' and team issues and strategy rather than his mistakes on qualifying , race strategy
so he will head off again running away to another team hoping they will pander to him and male him no.1 with no questions.

stoffel - Member
I remember people also saying that Kimi would be better than Fernando. In fact, you couldbuy t-shirts proclaiming 'Fernando; Kimi is quicker than you'.

I prefer Kimi for they way he makes me laugh in typical Finnish style. i.e. leave me alone I can deal with it ...

Just like my Finnish housemate long time ago ...

😆

stoffel - Member
A lot of people, Lewis included, believed he would be significantly better than Nico,and that Lewis would be no 1. Nico has proven to be a lot better than people gave him credit for, and is up there on merit. If it were not for bad luck in the British GP, he'd be even forther infront. As mentioned; Lewis moans, while Nico just gets on with thngs. Maybe Leiws, for all his speed and ability, just isn't as good as he thinks he is.

Having raced with Nico since they were 14 years old, I'm sure he knows exactly how good he is 😉

As for the bad luck in the British, how about Lewis' bad luck at Australia, Canada and today in Germany?

Exclude the races where one or other has DNF or and the results are:

Malaysia - Lewis
Bahrain - Lewis
China - Lewis
Spain - Lewis
Monaco - Rosberg (Nico's qualy 'mishap' which prevented Ham setting a time - but he should have gone out earlier)
Austria - Rosberg (Hami mistake in qualy, started from 9th and was gaining on Nico but ran out of laps)

Lewis has the edge, without the DNFs personally I think he'd have a clear lead in the DC.

fixed for you

Bahrain - Lewis (Rosberg let Lewis win after Lewis made outrageous and dangerous overtaking and defending moves against his team mate with the potential of taking them both out of the GP)

China - Lewis - you dont count losing telemetry and radio/data issues on Nico's car causing a bad start and strategy pit stop problems as bad luck then?

Spanish GP - Lewis (Rosberg was gaining on Lewis but ran out of 1 lap)
Austria - Rosberg (Nico managed the gap to lewis without stressing the car for the following raceS)

Good race yesterday.

No one storms through a field like Lewis Hamilton, impressive stuff.

The slightly odd decision not to deploy a safety car after Sutil left his Sauber stranded in the middle of the pit straight denied us all a much closer battle for the podium places though.

Danny Ricciardo continues to impress too. That was a very impressive recovery drive in a car with really poor straight line speed

That race was like a video game!

Car rolling over on the first corner, lots of minor contact during ballsy overtaking, exciting wheel to wheel racing and 3 cars going into a hairpin at the same time.

Excellent 🙂

No matter what you say about Hamiltons attitude you can't deny he drove his ass off yesterday and pretty much no one was going to be able to keep him behind them for long. Just a shame he didn't use a bit more restraint when passing button.

I bet when he stopped at the end, Lewis's wheels were literally hanging off the car.

Good drive by bottas, hamilton and magnussen and ricardo. It goes to show how much the mercs have in pocket as when they run at full tilt on fresh tyres they can make it up from the back.
Its the same with bottas at silverstone from 16th to 2nd although with less tagging of other cars along the way.

The interesting battles ( alonso v everyone else) seem pretty clean and not as gung ho as hamiltons charge.
If hamilton is light on fuel in the race would it be a disadvantage carrying excess fuel at the end?

It becomes noticeable after the last round of pitstops where the cars run to the wear and fuel limitations which is a bit of a shame. I'm rooting for williams and its good to see brains over brawn 😉

I dont know how or why sutil gets a drive? Please get wolff in his seat.

back2basics - Member

fixed for you

Bahrain - Lewis (Rosberg let Lewis win after Lewis made outrageous and dangerous overtaking and defending moves against his team mate with the potential of taking them both out of the GP)

China - Lewis - you dont count losing telemetry and radio/data issues on Nico's car causing a bad start and strategy pit stop problems as bad luck then?

Spanish GP - Lewis (Rosberg was gaining on Lewis but ran out of 1 lap)
Austria - Rosberg (Nico managed the gap to lewis without stressing the car for the following raceS)

Disagree on Bahrain. Hamilton made the key move by overtaking Rosberg at the start and the battle between them was tough but fair.

In China, I had forgotten about the tele causing a bad start for N, but didn't he spin in Q3 and start further back anyway?

Your comment on Rosberg not stressing the car in Austria is also puzzling since his gearbox went pop the following race.

The slightly odd decision not to deploy a safety car after Sutil left his Sauber stranded in the middle of the pit straight denied us all a much closer battle for the podium places though.

Yeah that was an odd decision! 😯

retro83,
Don't bother. Some people here just don't like LH, regardless of the evidence.

The interesting battles ( alonso v everyone else) seem pretty clean and not as gung ho as hamiltons charge.

I don't see Alonso making lots of overtakes in races of late (last year at least). Yes hes had a memorable couple and you could argue his car isn't the best but I wonder how many overtakes he was involved in? No I don't mean him battling to stop being overtaken.

I've always said this- Lewis has the most talent in raw speed terms. He just doesn't have the head that some others have.

Seemed to have a calm head yesterday. Drove to a target, and adjusted for compromised car, and drove to new target. No getting irate behind cars for 6-8 laps at a time.

drove into button

[quote=back2basics ]One of Lewis's dnf was because he didn't drop back and cool his brakes after the team told him to, nico had exact same problem and he finished

[quote=Toto Wolff]Both of them complied exactly to what they had been told to do. It was very marginal though.

When Lewis entered into the pits, with a stationary car, the temperatures rose and when he went out the pedal just went soft and fell down completely. On Nico's car he was lucky not to have that.

Haterz gonna hate

@aracer
Lewis said so himself that his brakes were higher temperatures because he was following Nico.

So

decision,

not follow so close and finish
follow so close try and beat him - DNF

loverz gonna love

But it is a race not a follow the leader thing.

and to win the championship it is over 19 races

Lewis will still win it at the end.

Lewis will still win it at the end.

I'm a fan but I (sadly) think he'll be the hilight/standout driver of this season but not the winner.

I also think Merc would prefer a Blonde white bloke to lift their title.

[quote=back2basics ]Lewis said so himself that his brakes were higher temperatures because he was following Nico.

Though you claimed he didn't follow instructions, which is contradicted by Tito's statement, and I'm fairly sure his comment about higher temperatures due to following is with the benefit of hindsight. From the information he had he did nothing wrong.

As you were haterz

When Lewis won his title I sprayed mrshora's champagne all up the living room wall, the dog and her.

In Canada when both Mercs had simultaneous MGU-K failures Hamilton would not have been following in the hot/turbulent air of the sister Merc if Nico had been penalised for busting through the chicane and then flooring it...

So all those people saying Nico managed the problem better I do understand the argument but he should have been penalised putting Hamilton into cool air and who knows maybe Nico would have DNF's and Hamilton finished. All in my humble opinion of course!

I thought Lewis had a superb race on Sunday. Yes, he has the fastest car (along with Nico) but he still had to deliver the drive. It is always a bit of a gamble when you are at the back of the grid and he could so easily have been caught up in the Massa incident. Bottas drove a great race and overall it was a great grand prix to watch. I thought there was no malice in the Button / Hamilton overtake as it looked very much as though Button was leaving the door open plus Hamilton came from a long way back. He did apologise to him in the race later on when passing him again.

Most top sports people have a flaw or two. Some are more obvious than others. Hamilton generally comes across as a bit fragile and at those times ends up looking like a bit of a tit. However, he is without doubt one of the best drivers on the circuit. He is consistently quick and yet he is also one of the lightest on fuel consumption. Nico has a touch of the sour grapes at times but is doing a bit better at the being magnanimous these past few weeks. Most refreshing at the moment is Ricciardo. Genuinely likeable guy who is driving fantastically well this season. Dealing very well with adversity (losing his "win" in Australia). Lot of respect for him whereas his team mate is losing credibility and respect with every race. Not so easy when you no longer have the fastest car on the grid and no one can touch you is it Seb? 🙂

A telling statistic from BBC website...

Pastor Maldonado, who signed a deal to stay at Lotus next season, has only scored one point in the last 30 Grands Prix, a 10th place in last year's Hungarian GP. He won the 2010 GP2 feature race at the Hungaroring on his way to the title.

...hmmm - I wonder why he still has an F1 seat?

yet another issue with Hamiltons car !

WTF

well Nico has had a lot of luck or Hamilton a lot of bad luck with the same car.....one for the conspiracists I would say

I would assume most observers would consider Hamilton to be marginally faster but there is not much in it

Really bad luck for Hamilton. His only hope tomorrow is some well timed safety car laps. If not, assuming Rosberg wins, his championship chances will be all but over.

unless they swap cars for the next few races 😉

There's a weak link in Lewis garage can you guess what it is yet ??

Rolf Harris?

His car has a soul and can no longer cope with his whining?

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Now even I think that's a run of bag luck for lewis, see im not an or and pour hater! Would be better for f1 to seea battle up front, might still get one of weather can play a part...
everyone at bbc thinking people would be close to mercs and BAM almost half a second quicker
bottas v vettel v riccardo should I hope give us some action on track too.

Looking forward to seeing him come through the field tomorrow

He's going to be in a car that has hardly turned a wheel
They'll get a couple of installation laps when the pit lane opens but reliability is going to be a constant concern today.

If it all holds together, I reckon he can get top 5 with some imaginative pit stop strategy

don`t think merc give Lewis 100% like they do Nico.
am sure they would prefer german driver of german car winning.
in Pit stops lewis being Handicapped by 1 sec per stop and getting really unreliable cars

Yup, Merc set fire to one of their cars to give Nico an advantage 😛

The pit stops are slower in part due to the way Lewis enters the pit box, apparently Nico somehow gives the crew a bit more confidence.

seriously. ...seriously. ....SERIOUSLY . lewis hamilton fans really beggar belief with the excuses of his luck/mistakes/issues

yeah the lads rubbish he's only up to 7th.

Lewis heading for the podium again?
It would be quite an achievement if he does, even with all the safety car incidents.

lewis into second !

how lucky was vettel

I guess he's got some radio issues too 🙂

That was the best race I've seen for ages.

Great race

We saw the best 3 racers get on the podium today
All had a bit of luck and made the most of their opportunities.
It was only the state of the tyres at the end that decided the winner, any of them would have been worthy of the top spot.

Rosberg should have won but he lost out because he was far too timid, he may well be a very fast driver but the 3 in front of him are better racers.