F1 2015

wbjones wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: "Lewis to Ferrari mid season!!!"

doubt that he'll give up his new $150,000,000 contract

and Mercedes is still the fastest car no matter what... Lewis would be an idiot to move... and he knows that....

BUT... change the "formula", and he might fly..........

From the transcript it seems that Hamilton thought Rosberg and Vettel had pitted at the start of the safety car. Thus he felt he had time and reason to pit as well.

Nonsense. Just a bad idea all around.

I can really respect the level of self control it took to finish that race. I pull for him and was stunned when they brought him in.

This just might have been his 2007 China beach moment. If he doesn't win the championship this year this will be the pivot point so far.

wbjones wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: How did you guys see any post-race? As soon as Hamilton got out of the car, it was all soccer, all the time on NBC. I can't blame him for taking a bit of time on track to chill out before getting out of the car, I'd probably want a bit of alone time before the idiot questions started as well.

on any of the 4 or 5 NBC channels … nothing but soccer

As soon as the NBC coverage switched to sportball, I fired up the NBC Live Extra app and rejoined the live main cam coverage. No commentators for that, but the raw audio of the podium interview played.

I found a Spanish language channel that carried the race, and while I don't speak Spanish, they had the translator talking over Lewis but you could still hear him. I could not have been that calm after that fiasco, work your butt off all weekend to get where you need to be and have the team pull the rug out. He looked like he just wanted to stay away from everyone once he got out of the car

wbjones wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: How did you guys see any post-race? As soon as Hamilton got out of the car, it was all soccer, all the time on NBC. I can't blame him for taking a bit of time on track to chill out before getting out of the car, I'd probably want a bit of alone time before the idiot questions started as well.

on any of the 4 or 5 NBC channels … nothing but soccer

Seriously. They've been showing podium interviews and doing a post-race show all season, and THIS is the race where they decide not to????? Bad call, NBC. Very bad call. Not as bad as the one Mercedes made, but still pretty bad.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Least deserving three in a row winner ever

yes, no, maybe …. but it wasn't his fault that he's the "least deserving three in a row winner ever" … 20 yrs from now, very few will remember HOW he won his third

wae wrote:

wbjones wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: How did you guys see any post-race? As soon as Hamilton got out of the car, it was all soccer, all the time on NBC. I can't blame him for taking a bit of time on track to chill out before getting out of the car, I'd probably want a bit of alone time before the idiot questions started as well.

on any of the 4 or 5 NBC channels … nothing but soccer

As soon as the NBC coverage switched to sportball, I fired up the NBC Live Extra app and rejoined the live main cam coverage. No commentators for that, but the raw audio of the podium interview played.

F1 Extra will air on NBCSN at 5pm

Nico sez:

Well said, IMO. It's not his fault the team screwed Hamilton.

I think everyone's handling it well, actually. Lewis took the time to get his head together before getting out of the car, the team has taken responsibility and Nico is admitting that he knows he lucked out. Rotten luck for Lewis - at any other track, he would have ended up at least second if not on top of the podium. It'll just give him more hunger for Canada.

Now, Verstappen. Was that his fault or Grosjean's? I'm going with Verstappen's error, but wow was that a terrifying crash to watch.

It looks like Grosjean slammed on the brakes way too early. Mad Max never had a chance.

My initial reaction was that Grosjean brake checked Max, but there's not enough evidence to support that. Jeez, that was a hard impact for two cars going in the same direction.

I hated to see Verstappen crash out. He was having a great race until that point.

Lewis looked like a brat when he brought the car in and hit the 3rd place sign. Looked like he gathered his thoughts before getting out of the car.

Grojean was on old Soft tires while Verstappen was on new supersofts. Grojean indicated his defense of the corner all the way down the pit straight. Verstappen just had target fixation to go inside no matter what. He didn't compensate for Grojean having to brake earlier on older less grippy tires. So he just rammed Grojean. Showed all of his rookie faults in one move. So what? He is a rookie and as Grojean can attest, in F1, anyone can make a mistake. Luckily every one lived to learn.

The hitting the #3 board is getting a lot of hype. Many many times drivers have run over those boards, seems almost normal to me. In the past I wondered if it was some mental training to hit the front jack during pits coming out. So it has been happening for years now.

never seen it before

I went googling for the one race where Sebastian Vettel won the race and knocked the #1 board into that grey haired guy who is always trying to usher them to the weigh scales and podium ceremonies. It looked like it hurt. It went around the internet as a video clip for a short time. Can't find it anymore.

I thought he would have known to never be in front of a parking F1 car. Too unpredictable.

He would have had really, really cold brakes after that stop at the side of the road and the world's longest cool down lap, it could have been as simple as that.

Speaking of hitting the jack...

I think this team failure by MB is harder to take than a blown motor or forgotten wheel nut. This one just feels a different kind or level of mess up. Like putting the wrong tires on the car. Soo easy to prevent this error. Plus it feels like they lost confidence in Hamilton defending on lesser tires. I just don't know what risk Hamilton had from anyone behind.

Beyond MB I was happy to see McHonda get some points, Raikkonen needs to win to keep his job. All that complaining can only be tolerated from a winner. Poor Williams just not able to hold it together.

Verstappen needs his balloon of hype burst, I hope they are doing it now. Like Grojean a few years ago, he needs his head straightened out.

If you read the JA on F1 article about the gaps, etc, then the mistaken is understandable. Still obviously a mistake, but the team is human and mistakes happen. Basically the pit stop went from a no brainer sure thing to being very risky in the space of 20-30 seconds and they didn't figure it out in time.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/05/talking-point-how-will-mercedes-make-it-up-to-hamilton-for-lost-monaco-victory/

Autoweek has some good analysis that explains how the decision was reached: http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/analysis-what-happened-lewis-hamilton-f1-monaco-grand-prix

Some of those down the order did indeed pit. Meanwhile, watching one of the big TV screens, Hamilton thought he saw activity in the Mercedes pit, which would mean Rosberg had some in. Believing that perhaps Vettel and other quick cars had stopped for fresh rubber, he feared that he would be a sitting duck at the restart, when everyone would have been given the chance to catch up. Concerned about falling tire pressure, he had a conversation with the pits to that effect. The team didn't realize that Hamilton thought the others had pitted. There was no need for him to take on new rubber, but given that the team's strategy, computers showed that he had sufficient margin to in effect make a free stop and emerge still in front, they called him in.

sounds to me like he got a little panicky … who cares if Rosberg came in and got tires … that would have put him at best 3rd in line, probably even farther back

and he seemed to forget that YOU DON'T PASS AT MONACO …. which he proved after the SC pulled off ..

he was on tire warmer heated new supersofts … Seb was on "cold" 15+ lap old softs and he couldn't make the pass for second in a faster car …

again … I ask … what was he worried about ?

My takeaway was that it wasn't 100% a team decision, Lewis was part of it, too. The team still let him down by not giving him the correct information, though.

TO reiterate....

WHY WOULD YOU PIT? What good would come out of it? I don't care if you have a 1 minute lead... Bad stuff can happen in the pits. Everybody knows you can't pass at Monaco. Nobody behind Hammy was gonna pull a dumb move and take themselves out. Weird.

Oh yea, Monaco is the most boring dumb race of the year. I fell asleep 4 times.

There is no passing and only minor strategy in this race (someone should tell Mercedes this last one).

Yup, thanks for the links people posted. yup looks like it was a group decision.

Everyone is handling it very well all things considered.

Back to the rest of the race. Thoughts on the good the bad and the ugly.

the good.

I really have to commend PErez, Sainz and Mad MAx for seriously impressive drives.

Perez dragged a 2014 Spec Force India way farther up the results than it deserves to be. that was a great drive. Perez has always gone well at Monaco, but this year he's really impressing me all round. Just a couple of years ago Hulkenberg was the next hot property, yet this year Perez is really doing a good job. I've even forgiven him for getting DiResta's seat at McLaren back in 2013.

After a rookie mistake missing being weighed in Quali Sainz Jr dragged the pinko bull from the pit lane up into the points. That was a really good run and I'm sad he doesn't seem to be getting more credit for it. He's doing at least as good a job as Mad Max this year with more consistency.

Which brings us up to Mad Max Verstappen. For get the 17 year old bit. The kid is doing some seriously impressive stuff in the car. I'm disappointed he got a 5 place penalty for the next race. I'm not 100% sure hitting Grosjean was all his fault. I'd love to see the braking points over hte last few laps before it happened. Regardless, everyone makes mistakes, especialy when new and young. It way have been a low % pass and ultimately cost Lewis the win, but damn was he driving well, I loved it when he was using Vettel to snipe passes on people.

Other honorable mentions have to go to Kvyat for a fine drive. Also Jenson and Honda McLaren. At last they have some points on the board. I hope this is another year like 2010 when people think his new team mate is going to wipe the floor with him, but he ends up outscoring his supposedly 'better' team mate.

The not so good stuff I'm affraid has to go to Kimi and Williams. I like Kimi, and in some respects his Mojo is back, but I'm sick of hearing him whine over the radio calling for blue flags when he's still miles back from the car he wants to pass. Get you balls in gear man and get up close. WTF is it with this afraid to run in the dirty air? Everyone has to do it to pass, it's part of racing these days. Williams, man did they berkeley up this weekend. Did they flat out not have a Monaco aero kit, they were simply miles off the pace.