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Formula 1 2018


Oldddudders
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Hamilton’s diversion from pitlane back to track gained him no advantage, was not dangerous, and was the result of a team pitwall cockup, not a driver ruse. He will have lost at least a couple of seconds. What was there to punish?

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The cynic me wonders how having lewis’s Tyres in the lane and screaming “in in in in” down the radio was a pit wall cock up....but it was a good result keeping the championship in contention and the season interesting so I won’t...

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They called him in, which was fine.  As he was coming in he pointed out that Kimi was coming in ahead of him and their immediate response was to tell him to stay out.  A fraction of a second later they changed their minds again, which was when the "in in in" screaming started.  Lewis had already started to act on their advice to stay out and, quite sensibly IMO, made the decision to stick with the plan immediately in hand.  It's almost impossible to do something properly if you're not sure whether or not you're actually supposed to be doing it.  In a high-performance, close to the limit sport like F1 swithering and indecision are recipes for failure.  Lewis took back control when the team seemed to be losing it.  The ability to make decisive choices under pressure is one of the things F1 drivers get paid for.

 

Most teams, AFAIAA, run the tyre strategy from the pit.  Mercedes almost give the impression that they are so disorganised that the drivers have to do it themselves.  A decently organised team would have a plan to deal with the risk that a close opponent might turn out to be pitting at the same time as your driver, not descend in to chaos as Mercedes gave every impression of doing.

 

(I still reckon that the sooner that Liberty Media and the FIA together find a way to do away with strategic tyre stops the better it will be.  Looking at the detail in the tyre specifications reported in this article, in particular the performance degradation rates, makes the game seem so artificial IMO.  They might as well specify how often the cars have to break down, or how many times in a season each driver has to drive in to another car.  It almost makes Bernie's idea of track sprinklers seem sensible...)

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Lewis was also in danger of hitting the dividing wall between the Pits and the Track had he not reacted quick enough.

 

As Ian, quite rightly says; No danger to other drivers and time lost, plus dirt on the tyres of course.

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I expect consistency of stewarding. 

 

Why/ There are many examples of inconsistencies in F1 (including those favouring Ferrari). Were SB's and KR's recent time penalties consistent?

 

Should SB have been reprimanded for his swearing over the radio when he crashed at the German GP, for bringing the sport into disrepute? There are those who say no (and I would agree) but then readily go on to criticise LH for his displays of emotion.

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You hit the nail on the head with the penalties. Why did Vettel get 5 secs for bottas but kimi got 10 for Hamilton?

It's that sort of thing that makes fans of other teams see different rules being used with regards to your man.

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You hit the nail on the head with the penalties. Why did Vettel get 5 secs for bottas but kimi got 10 for Hamilton?

It's that sort of thing that makes fans of other teams see different rules being used with regards to your man.

 

You could read it as Vettel only got five seconds for his misdemeanor, where as the Number Two Ferrari driver got ten. So it could be seen that "your man" got special treatment.

 

Whenever you put the stewarding decisions in the hands of different people (one steward is from the local sporting association for each GP), then there will be some variation in the application of the sporting regulations whether we like it or not.

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You hit the nail on the head with the penalties. Why did Vettel get 5 secs for bottas but kimi got 10 for Hamilton?

It's that sort of thing that makes fans of other teams see different rules being used with regards to your man.

 

That will always happen in sport.

Any supporter will defend his own team/person and criticise the decisions for/against.

 

Take football for example - when have we cried "foul" when it's one of our team that is chopped down, yet "never a foul ref" when it's the other way round?

 

(And that's not a cue to go OT about footballers being soft...…..)

 

Cheers,

Mick

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Agreed, there will always be subjectivity, so unless they DQ every driver for any potential infraction, or do nothing at all and let chaos reign supreme then there will always be subjectivity and some people won't like the outcomes.

 

I thought the first half of the race was pretty dull, but once the rain started it was superb, some insane strategy choices (full wets, what?!), and I can't believe Vettel stuffed it into the wall, great result for Hamilton, and well driven in clearly tough conditions. The few corners in the middle of the lap where you had Raikkonen/Bottas/Hamilton/Ocon/Grosjean all sliding around and spinning was brilliant - like something out of Whacky Races!

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If I were him I'd be having some very serious conversations with the team management about their pit/tyre strategies and tactics...

 It clearly is a weakness at Mercedes. But let's face it, teams get good at doing things well by really needing to do them well and working on it as a result.

 

Merc have had five years where the only factors that truly mattered were keeping the engine running (tongue in cheek for keeping the whole car in good mechanical order) and having at least one driver who can consistently do the business. Now that the Ferrari is beginning to be competitive, Merc have to up their game slightly on pit stop and tyre strategy. I think we saw yesterday just how much performance advantage Merc still have to call on. They have been very effective at concealing just how far ahead that car is...

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The knockabout joys of F1. The German has a brainstorm,the mad Finn has another tantrum, the calm Finn shows über professional cool and the very unhappy Englishman wins a race he really had no chance of winning and goes all hippy dippy on us... You could not make it up!

The best entertainment I have had in ages - period...

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There was talk late last night on C4 that Kimi might retain his seat again, due to the New Management.

 

Certainly Seb wants him there.

I know Bottas was also totally submissive when James Vowels asked him to back off, but I liked Kimi's radio message; "what do you want me to do? If you want me to let him go just say so". To the point, no messing about, just say what you want me to do.

That's a great quality in a team mate, and Kimi's consistency's been great this year. The fans seem to like him (I certainly do), he keeps his nose clean (generally) and gets on with it. I'm not sure, in Vettel's position, I'd want a young up-start like Leclerc on the charge and trying to prove himself.

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Hamilton’s diversion from pitlane back to track gained him no advantage, was not dangerous, and was the result of a team pitwall cockup, not a driver ruse. He will have lost at least a couple of seconds. What was there to punish?

Wasn't Kimi punished for doing the exact same thing in Baku a few years ago?

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With a 17 point deficit and 10 races to go, I think Vettel is already in the position of requiring at least one more non-points finish from Hamilton to close the gap.

 

When they are both on the track and racing well they tend to finish close enough to each other, and with either in front of the other, they normally only take small margins out of each others lead and then the other finishes ahead and so the gap opens out again.

 

If Hamilton finishes the remaining races of the year in the points each time, the championship is his.

 

Yes, I'm calling it this early :-)

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Wasn't Kimi punished for doing the exact same thing in Baku a few years ago?

No, Raikkonen was penalised in Baku for using the pit lane as an extension of the race track - he had all 4 wheels in the pit entry, but didn't pit, as he was in the slipstream of another driver, I forget who. He received a 5 second penalty.

 

Hamilton lost a significant amount of time doing what he did. Not remotely the same thing.

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 I am still laughing every time I recall the sight of SV banging his hands on the steering wheel and swearing away in the cockpit of his beached Ferrari. Probably my fave moment of the season right there....

 

Wasn't Kimi punished for doing the exact same thing in Baku a few years ago?

 You would have to review the two incidents to verify the 'exact same thing'; pound to a penny it wasn't exactly the same = justification for different decision.

 

I’ll be surprised if Mercedes have close competition over the whole season, and the championship is Lewis’s to lose...

...If Hamilton finishes the remaining races of the year in the points each time, the championship is his.

 

Yes, I'm calling it this early :-)

 EddieB definitely has prior claim on the early call!

 

I was hoping at that stage that Ferrari and Red Bull would be properly competitive. Nothing would delight me more than Ferrari missing out on both championships by a single point to any other team, That's what we want, on a knife edge all the way through, and the pantomime villain doesn't quite win. Gold sprinkles on top if they clearly had the better car and still didn't make it pay off.

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