Formula One - 2016

alfadriver wrote:

Hal wrote:

alfadriver wrote:

Hal wrote:

alfadriver wrote: And, while we don't get to see him qualify (other than being within 107%,

Will he do that or will he go all out just to mess with other driver's minds?

One pretty slow timed lap was what he did.

Now the question is: Start at the back of the grid or from pit road? Commentators were making a good case for pit road.

Lewis has plenty of speed to catch up, and the odds of a first corner incident is quite high.

That was their rationale.

In reply to Hal:

So you are suggesting that I'm as smart as Mercedes' team?

That was an eventful start.

And, darn it, Mercedes have me not being as smart. They started on the grid.

FIA made them start on the grid, from what I've heard.

Don't feel like that could have gone any better for Lewis.

The guy on the rear jack could have set his car down when the tires were done, and not five seconds later. That could have gone better for Hamilton.

Gotta love Seb diving into Kimi and blaming it on him. He's the biggest whinner by far. He needs a race off to clear his head. As does Max. How many multiple blocks will he be allowed. Total BS.

markwemple wrote: Gotta love Seb diving into Kimi and blaming it on him. He's the biggest whinner by far. He needs a race off to clear his head. As does Max. How many multiple blocks will he be allowed. Total BS.

Completely agree,hearing Seb bitch every time someone is close or is "in the way" is getting pretty old.

Max is amazing and a douch at the same time,drivers in all forms of racing look to these guys for examples on how the very best in the world conduct themselves on and off the track....how many blocks,contacts and running other drivers off the circuit did he pull off today?,I lost track.

It seems like McHonda has finally found something at least close to the right direction. Glad to see it- It would be nice to see Alonso and Button get some reward for their development and patience.

MrLittle wrote: Don't feel like that could have gone any better for Lewis.

Luck of the race, absolutely. To get an actual SC when he made up a lot of space was really great. Had it not been red flagged, could have been better.

Which leads me to the strategy issue that I disagreed with- instead of a set of soft tires in that middle stint, IMHO, he should have gone with a fresh set of medium tires. (assuming he had one, which I don't know) Seems to me that would have given him a more realistic shot at second, as the Mercedes is faster than the Red Bull, and he could have gotten Ricciardo. Coulda, woulda, etc... may not have worked, but when RBR put mediums on, he wasn't going to pit again, and that meant Lewis would have had to gap him by 18 or so seconds...

Still- given where he started, it was a great result.

Streetwiseguy wrote: It seems like McHonda has finally found something at least close to the right direction. Glad to see it- It would be nice to see Alonso and Button get some reward for their development and patience.

Sure was great to see that!

alfadriver wrote: Luck of the race, absolutely. To get an actual SC when he made up a lot of space was really great. Had it not been red flagged, could have been better.

Actually, I think the safety car followed by red flag was really the key. The safety car triggered everyone except him to pit (thus moving him up to 5th), then they threw the red flag enough laps later that they didn't undo those passes, thus equalizing the tire differences.

As for tire choice, it does seem like they'd have done better to either have gone 1 stop after the red flag, or to have stuck with the faster tires all the way through. I suspect it may simply have been that Ricciardo was too far up the road for any strategy to catch him, so they went with the one that was safest given the unknowns on the tires.

Oh, as for the multi-engine penalty, they're in a bit of a difficult spot. A few years ago, penalties used to carry over from race to race, and we had situations where some of the back marker were getting 20-spot penalties which moved them from 17th to 22nd for 4 successive races. This was kind of ridiculous, so they changed the rules to the current ones, in which Mercedes has just demonstrated the opposite problem. I don't know what the alternative is, you either need to institute a rule that says a max of 1 engine change per race (thus causing someone who blows 2 engines in practice to miss the race entirely), or put the FIA in the position of second-guessing the team about whether or not a particular engine change is actually warranted.

I was questioning Lewis' tire choices too, but he was running in traffic, so putting more stress on stuff. Obviously, the mediums worked well on Nico, so I questioned whether he shouldn't have gone to the mediums and hoped Ricciardos tires went off late.

He seemed pretty happy with the end result. Could have been an awful lot worse.

codrus wrote:

alfadriver wrote: Luck of the race, absolutely. To get an actual SC when he made up a lot of space was really great. Had it not been red flagged, could have been better.

Actually, I think the safety car followed by red flag was really the key. The safety car triggered everyone except him to pit (thus moving him up to 5th), then they threw the red flag enough laps later that they didn't undo those passes, thus equalizing the tire differences. As for tire choice, it does seem like they'd have done better to either have gone 1 stop after the red flag, or to have stuck with the faster tires all the way through. I suspect it may simply have been that Ricciardo was too far up the road for any strategy to catch him, so they went with the one that was safest given the unknowns on the tires.

Trying to predict the false past- it seems to me, given the tires of the leaders- if the race was able to continue after the SC- Alonso and Hamilton were in the best spots- as they had tires that wore much more favorably than all the guys in front of them. Then they could have matched stops for stops and kept the advantage. Huge part of the race- the SC. The red flag messed everything up, as it muted that tire advantage since everyone changed tires.

But it's Hamilton's next to last stop that is curious, given how it did play out. Had he stuck with the medium tires, it meant he finished 3rd, at worst. But he also could have challenged Ricciardo without the need of gapping him 17 or so seconds for one more stop. Again, that may be revisionist history- as I don't know if he had a fresh set of medium tires available.

And none of that takes away from the fact that he started 22nd to finish 3rd. Amazing.

Nice race, I love Spa.

So I actually thought of some team doing this engine swapping back when they announced the rule change to alleviate the never ending penalties for Honda. I actually thought RedBull was going to do it last year at a track where they might be unlikely to do well at all. Swap in an extra two engines so you can run them harder. I think the rule should just stay how it is. Without the turn 1 crash and red flag, Hamilton may not have been on the podium. Maybe if you replace two engines then you have to start from your pitbox.

Hamilton was very cautious through this race. It was good to see him exercise patience, except for the mistake of letting his tires spin before being dropped off the jacks. Not sure why but I understand that they can't drop the car with the tires spinning otherwise the jack can get stuck to the car and hurt someone.

Rosberg had a tough time with tires that they didn't talk about a lot but he and Hamilton seemed to not have the setup for the tires this race. Running through graining periods that were worse than the other teams. Hamilton should have run the Mediums until a final run on Softs. This year seems to be odd in that the harder tire has often been just as fast or faster than the softer tire. It may be the higher pressures and thus smaller contact patch with higher localized temperatures negates the value of softness and favors durability.

Ricciardo did a quiet great job avoiding his teammate dangerous multiple offs on Lap 1. Odd that the stewards didn't see babyMax's refusal to slow down with a damaged car as an issue. (Same for Sainz) It was basically up to everyone else on the track to avoid Babymax's nonsense. Ricciardo just may be world champion next year if Newey is really excited about the 2017 rules.

Button, sigh just never ending bad luck. Hope he gets some weird wild race win this year, his final year most likely.

FORCE INDIA!!! Not bad, not bad at all.

In reply to alfadriver:

I believe on the last tire change Lewis was given a set of "used" mediums which I assume means he didn't have any fresh mediums remaining. Maybe not enough life left on the mediums he had to finish the race so they figured run the softs for hopefully quicker laps then finish out on the used mediums.

"used" could mean scuffed. They sometime work better than "stickers".

Monza! I guess we can see Hamilton racing while not trying to save an engine.

I wonder if redbull will surprise again and be right next to the MB guys at the start. I have a feeling that turn 1 will be a problem.

Advan046 wrote: Monza! I guess we can see Hamilton racing while not trying to save an engine. I wonder if redbull will surprise again and be right next to the MB guys at the start. I have a feeling that turn 1 will be a problem.

I doubt it. Monza is all about engine power, and the TAG-badged Renault is still nowhere close to the Mercedes unit. Red Bull has an aero edge (Newey is back, after all), which helps make up for that at Spa, but that's much less important at Monza.

I expect Ferrari to have the edge over Red Bull at Monza.

[edit] I also expect that if Ferrari doesn't have an edge over Red Bull, heads will be rolling next week...

In reply to codrus:

On the other hand about Red Bull- their progress with that engine appears to be a LOT better than the group that makes it. Quite interesting. Seems as if the current motor known as TAG is much better than most expect. Nice to see.

The front jack was already down. The rear jack-man made a mistake (or maybe did what he was supposed to).

Massa is going to retire: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/massa-announces-retirement-from-formula-1-813320/

Tom_Spangler wrote: Massa is going to retire: This is how you link-e-dink

Button to Williams? I'd rather see him stay at McHonda now they seem to be coming good and Williams are fading, but it's been a strong rumor all summer. Full circle I suppose as he started there. Also Williams gave Massa a good couple of final years to finish on. He certainly held up against Bottas who was being touted as the new hot E36 M3 until Massa arrived. It will be interesting to see Button Vs Bottas if it happens.

P.S. fixed your lame ass link

Adrian_Thompson wrote: P.S. fixed your lame ass link

Must... not.... criticize.... forum..... software.... again....