The F1 2015 thread…

Didn’t watch this last race/ procession, however, can anyone tell me what lap Alonso got the third fastest lap time please? Only 2 and a bit tenths slower than Hamiltons lap time and 2 tenths slower than Vettel.

I didn’t know that he had. Where did you read that?

He put super sticky tyres on a few laps from the end. Combined with very low fuel probably did it.

Commentators said he was just having fun but maybe he was showing others that he is still fast given a good car.

Not much time for any real work between them so it’ll be run what u brung

And here lies F1’s problem – as it stands whoever gets it right at the start of the season wins everything.

slackalice – Member
…can anyone tell me what lap Alonso got the third fastest lap time please?
twonks – Member
He put super sticky tyres on a few laps from the end.

Lap 52 of 55

Selected quote from f1fanatic.co.uk:

McLaren allowed Fernando Alonso to turn his engine up to “full deployment” as he made a late bid to claim the fastest lap of the race in Abu Dhabi.

Alonso also switched to super-soft tyres for his run at the end of the race which left him 0.279 seconds off the quickest time…

“The results were more than somewhat encouraging. He carved his fastest lap on the race’s 52nd tour – 1’44.796s – and only two drivers bettered that: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.”

Alonso close to fastest lap with “full deployment”

Good comment at the bottom of the page:

“So an F1 car going as fast as it possibly can has become so much of a rarity that it has it’s own news story.”

“I don’t know the big picture and ultimately you have to rely on the engineers to give you the optimum strategy,” he told reporters after the race.”

………..Lewis……… – you gotta laugh – if you want to rely on the race engineers then stop bitchin at them on team radio that they are doing it wrong and blaming them after the race, get faster, get pole.

@legend = review show

the beeb will put on the full ar*e lick of hamilton as he writes for them on the bbc website anyway, and will probably feature “exclusive” interview with him on the “review show” with his usual “pretending to be humble” talk from his monte carlo mansion while showing off his newly repaired supercar. 😉

What gets me is Hamilton’s complete lack of humility when he doesn’t win, his body language yesterday was like that of a spoilt child. I don’t like people like that (and I know he couldn’t care less what I think) but it’s a shame that I have to root for his team mate each GP.

Hope that Mclaren bounce back next year with a better power plant from Honda, the Alonso lap showed a glimmer of hope and the chassis is recognized as being very good so fingers crossed, would be nice to see Button and Alonso challenging the Mercs and Ferraris

I wouldn’t pin too much hope on McL beyond hopefully being there if Merc and maybe Ferrari cock up until 2017. Not to mention that with Ferrari’s wings clipped in terms of having Haas do a load of extra development for them they’ll find it harder to close the gap.

Still, now Hamilton’s won his three which I think he deserves, it’d be good if NR could take the race to him next season though I’m not really holding my breath – it sounds like LH has been partying non-stop since winning and I expect that things will be back to normal next season.

That said the cars do seem to be getting worse for overtaking so maybe if NR can keep up the good qualifying, he could keep ahead of LH more consistently. And also if Ferrari can’t mix it up which I think would hand the advantage to LH.

Been out all day, so thanks for the replies re my earlier question of Alonso’s quick lap. I haven’t read anything else as yet, so how does it compare to Hamilton and Vettel in terms of what tyres they were using and which lap they set their quick laps on?

After all, if they set their quickest laps earlier in the race and on the harder compound tyres, then Alonso’s time becomes academic and possibly sabbatical inducing.

Hamilton’s fastest must have been the prime tyre, nearish to the end, when there was “Strat 6” and “Strat 10” tit-for-tat (or being told how to drive?) going on in the Mercs?
Vettel’s fastest would have been supersoft near the end?

Sounds more like a PR exercise to get sponsors in. Reality slower than the Merc & Ferrari and on faster tyres, so hard to see much improvement other than the PU actually lasted 6 laps!!!

That said the cars do seem to be getting worse for overtaking

Yes, Max Verstappen in particular seems to find it hard.

Lucky that he addressed exactly that point at the last race then…

My predictions for the 2016 season:

– Hamilton will come back with hair plugs
– Rosberg will come back with a shaved head and punch him in the mouth
– Kimi will stop drinking and start winning races
– One of Eddie Jordan’s predictions will actually come true, prompting David Coulthard to pull off the mask and reveal an astonished Bernie Ecclestone. Who will then shake a fist and angrily mutter something about ‘you pesky kids’.
– Grosjean will come from out of nowhere to bag a podium and/or a win
– Suzi Perry will ask a question by following a meaningless outburst with the qualifying-but-now-displaced preamble (for example: ‘Engines! Er..so…are you going to have any for next year Christian?’)
– David Coulthard will use the following words and phrases:
‘Dirty air’
‘New boots on’
‘Tankslapper’
‘Well, two into one won’t go’
‘Almighty lock up on the brakes’
– Vettel will finally have that finger taken off by a very (very!) well paid sniper

You forgot
“Over-rotation”
“Under-rotation”

So true!

‘on this day in history…’

– Verstappen will put the car in the barriers almost every race as other drivers get wise and his beginners luck runs out.

‘Engines! Er..so…are you going to have any for next year Christian?’

No, they’ll either be pedalling like on a kindergarten trike, or walk along like in flintsones.
They will still beat McHonda.

ohhhhh i love trolling – i mean predictions…

Nico will win 2016 title
With no Lauda to sing his praises – and Merc favouring Nico, it will be Lewis’ last season with Merc as he just cannot handle getting beat and will have to blame the team.
will be Kimi’s last season at ferrari
will be Horners last season at RBR
will be Dennis lasts year at McLaren
will be alonso’s first season in the WEC 🙂
will be a bbc pure highlights package – no suzi or eddie (yay!!!)
FIA and Bernie will crumble under pressure from teams to drop the “cheap engine” despite getting an external contract with a supplier who will then attempt to sue them.

Where’s Lauda going?

Horner to McLaren in 2017

That would be an interesting move. And Brawn to Red Bull?

I’ve already said too much

My prediction, Alonso will take a sabbatical in 2016 – no point having a driver on £40m running around at the back of the grid, better to use the money for development.

Alonso sit at home and not get paid – you do know who is manager is don’t you!?

He may sit at home, but you can be certain he’d be getting paid.

He’ll quit altogether and do WEC or stay IMO.

He’ll quit altogether and do WEC or stay IMO.

Unlikely that he’ll get a drive in WEC, Porsche and Audi are full (and only running 2 cars at Le Mans), Toyota cant afford him, and the Nissan is a death trap (Marc Genes words…)

Yeah I do, and yes I agree, but I reckon Ron has a plan or will pay him less not to stay at home. Ideally I’d like to see theMcHonda near the front with JB and Alonso in them both.

…..of course he might still be driving a Honda powered engine, just not in F1 …..

…..of course he might still be driving a Honda powered engine, just not in F1 …..

Where else?

If he quits I’d put money on him setting up the cycling team he tried a year or 2 back. No way he’d give up turning right.

shermer75 – Member
…..of course he might still be driving a Honda powered engine, just not in F1 …..
Where else?

BTCC obviously!

Of course!! 😀

Finally! Lotus is no more.

Autosport links

red bull secures new renault deal

So all we’re waiting for is Force India to become Aston Martin and to see what becomes of Manor.

Nice timing of Bernie to announce what Fom and thr fia are proposing at the end of Jan too, just when F1 news is getting a bit thin on the ground

‘red bull secures new renault deal’

I wonder how they’ll stack up against the 2015 Ferrari engine in the Torro Rossos

so could be no German GP and no US GP next year

funny Merc are giving out warnings about “getting along” to thier drivers – i suspect a lot more issues internally than we ever saw on a sunday afternoon in the post-race-press conference.

…and rumours about the CVC sell off of F1 – could a consortium of Manufacturers about to put in 8bn to buy it out and run themselves (considering how much CVC make each year from F1 its not a bad investment , they then get almost ALL the F1 money)

ooops…my pen drive slipped[/url]

I’d strongly doubt Ferrari had any knowledge of this but it does have a certain resemblance to a previous case…no photocopier this time though!

In this day and age I’d suspect there’s a lot of data leaving the building in the months and weeks prior to an employee handing in their notice…

oops..my pen drive slipped

ooops, your ctrl-v slipped – your link doesn’t go anywhere… 🙂 got the link you could re-post?