F1 2015

Just watched the end of Monaco...I was too busy this weekend having fun to turn on the TV, but thanks to Tivo I had it to watch. That was a surprising ending and as someone who doesn't like Hamilton it was funny to watch. A younger Hamilton would've probably taken himself and Vettel out in an attempt to get by, but somehow he managed to keep his cool enough to finish the race. The last few laps were the only time in my life I found myself rooting for a Ferrari car or driver. I actually do feel for Lewis since it was such a monumental screw up, but it was entertaining to watch.

Vettel was driving the widest Ferrari in the world for those last laps. And one of the slowest as well.

Keith Tanner wrote: Vettel was driving the widest Ferrari in the world for those last laps. And one of the slowest as well.

That's the way to do it. If you're sure your competitor will slow himself down too much by going off line, and you aren't in a rhythm, take it nice and slow so you can be sure you won't make any mistake and you can hog the line.

Also, pretty sure that wasn't one of the slowest Ferraris in the world, even in those last laps.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

BBC and some other outlets have said that Grojean was on the brakes 5 meters later than prior laps. So wonderboy V smashed him despite Grojean braking later than prior laps.

Seems to be a lot of effort trying to sugar coat this screw up. Dumb move poorly executed. He deserves the 5 spot penalty and the points on his super license.

Didn't see enough replays to have a feeling about Alonso's penalty. Looked like he was alongside Hulk. IDK

Advan046 wrote: Didn't see enough replays to have a feeling about Alonso's penalty. Looked like he was alongside Hulk. IDK

It looked to me like Alonso's car oversteered and punted Hulkenberg in the side pod with one of the rear wheels.

Agree. The Alonso penalty was BS too

Montreal today!

Usually great races.

Hamilton will dominate unless caught up in collision or team error.

Verstappen will crash out three cars in T1 L1. One will be a McLaren.

We're now far enough into the season to see the cream rise to the top. Mclaren Honda baffles me. How in the world can you still be so far off and having DNFs? Jeez, noone had this much trouble at the start of last season. Ferrari has finally designed and built a good car for the first time in years, but where one team improves another team has to fall behind. Red Bull has fallen a long way off the pace and become mid pack runners. From 2014 to 2015 the middle of the pack has been shuffled pretty darn good. It looks like the only thing that will slow down Hamilton this year is to shoot out his tires.

Watched the parade at Montreal that was called a race.

The Indycar race last night was more interesting.

In reply to iceracer: There was an Indy car race last night?

(which is a bigger problem than the number of wings)

I knew they were qualifying for some race in Texas, but had no idea when the race actually was.

iceracer wrote: Watched the parade at Montreal that was called a race. The Indycar race last night was more interesting.

So vettel and massa each passing 10+ cars on their way from the back of the pack is now a parade?

I understand that the Mercedes just march off the front and they are not that interesting but the battle for 3rd with the different strategies was interesting. (Until Kimi spun it all by himself).

I thought it was a pretty good race!

All races are parades I guess for some people.

I liked the race. I could see the effort of Hamilton and Rosberg to win. At one point Hamilton let Rosberg within 1 second to make sure he was behind a lapped car as well so he could get the DRS too instead of passing the car and watching Rosberg sail by on the final DRS zone straights.

I was very surprised Hulk wasn't black flagged for driving against direction of the track. It looked terrible. May have been the best choice but the stewards will decide.

Raikkonen needs to call his house keeper and get quotes on increased cleaning and cooking service as he may be home sitting on his couch watching F1 soon. I am a Raikkonen fan, but he needs to adapt to this new era of F1 or leave.

Bottas interview sounded like he has his eyes on another team.

I thought it was a pretty good race marred by the usual atrocious NBC coverage. I caught a glimpse of some REALLY close racing between Erikkson and Hulkenberg (I think) during one of the commercial breaks. I thought there was going to be a big rubber donut mark on the sidepod of the Sauber. And there were some great multi-car battles for position.

And yes, Mercedes controlled the race just they way they wanted to. Anyone else notice how close they came on fuel usage? About 0.5% left at the finish.

Hulkenberg didn't have any choice that I could see. He was stopped in a bad place, and took the option that would get him clear ASAP. I'm not sure if Vettel gave him enough room on that corner or not.

Good lord is that NBC coverage bad. I now have a pavlovian reflex to yell at the TV every time that bass guitar riff starts to swell in the background.

ncjay wrote: We're now far enough into the season to see the cream rise to the top. Mclaren Honda baffles me. How in the world can you still be so far off and having DNFs? Jeez, noone had this much trouble at the start of last season. Ferrari has finally designed and built a good car for the first time in years, but where one team improves another team has to fall behind. Red Bull has fallen a long way off the pace and become mid pack runners. From 2014 to 2015 the middle of the pack has been shuffled pretty darn good. It looks like the only thing that will slow down Hamilton this year is to shoot out his tires.

Don't give Bernie any ideas.

Did you notice that Verstappen got a penalty for installing his fifth engine of the year? They're only allowed four - and he's out of engines already. No wonder Toro Rosso Red Bull is so cheesed at Renault.

Kimi is saying that his spin was caused by the wrong throttle map after the stop. Sounds suspect to say the least to me. I think he needs to transition to a job as a commentator rather than a driver!

ncjay wrote: We're now far enough into the season to see the cream rise to the top. Mclaren Honda baffles me. How in the world can you still be so far off and having DNFs? Jeez, noone had this much trouble at the start of last season. Ferrari has finally designed and built a good car for the first time in years, but where one team improves another team has to fall behind. Red Bull has fallen a long way off the pace and become mid pack runners. From 2014 to 2015 the middle of the pack has been shuffled pretty darn good. It looks like the only thing that will slow down Hamilton this year is to shoot out his tires.

the ban on mid (all) season testing, and this "tokens" BS keeps any team that misses the setup for the start of the season, from EVER catching up … what little testing is allowed is done by all teams, so even if you can correct something, everyone that was ahead of you, does the same thing … consider all the hype about Ferrari and their "improvements" that were going to move them closer to MB … nothing changed … MB had their list of things to improve also

now I realize that unlimited testing would pretty much shut out the little/underfunded teams… but they're pretty much shut out anyway

Keith Tanner wrote: I'm not sure if Vettel gave him enough room on that corner or not.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

The Honda thing is baffling me. On the BBC 5 Live podcast they made reference to the fact that Honda went radical with their design and it’s not paying off. Does anyone know what is so radical about their design? It's really turning into an embarrassment going on this long without making progress. Alonso’s toys are teetering on the edge of his pram right now, although as you’d expect from a gentleman Button is still putting forward the team face. I’m beginning to wonder if this will be another one and done at McLaren for the brow. If I could figure out where he’d go I’d say yes for sure, but the only possible seat is Ferrari and he’s burned all his bridges there.

Also on the 5 Live post-race wrap up they made mention that Hulkenburg is being linked with the Hass seat as he supposedly already had a Ferrari Contract a couple of years ago, but that Kimi got it. Ferrari are looking at Hass to be their junior team and I’m seeing Bottas to replace Kimi and Hulkenburge to Hass along with a newcomer. I really feel it’s time for Kimi to permanently swap his helmet for a gorilla suit at the end of the year.

I was really surprised to see that Hammy was using more gas then Brittany, but Brittany was cooking the brakes faster than Hammy which is a role reversal to the normal way of things. Apparently very strong head wind on the main straight meant that Hammy was using more gas and Brittany was in the hole in the air for much of the race so didn’t use as much gas, but was cooking his brakes.

Stunning drives by Bottas, Vettel and, for a change, Massa. Serious WTF moment from Grosjean, maybe having Crashanardo as a team mate means he’s reverting to his old ways. I’m still not 100% on the where to place the blame with Vettel and Hulkenburg. I’d love to see a direct overhead shot. I’m leaning towards calling out Vettel, but I seem to be in the minority and not convinced myself.

OK, not much action at the front, but I really enjoyed the racing through the field.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Haas as the Jr Ferrari Team? I thought Sauber was that. Guess not so much.

Grosean is a moron. To hit Stevens, and then blame him, come on. IMHO the 5 second penalty should have been a drive through. It's not as if the Manor was going THAT fast.

Vettel-Hulk- I never saw a good view showing that they actually did contact. Until I see that, I'm going to just put the whole thing to hitting the curb. And I don't like Vettel, so would generally go against him.

That being said- that incident was a good illustration why tracks need to be designed like that. There were a lot of passes going into that corner, and it's nice to see the cars dicing like that. If cars end up getting close- then the drivers have to work harder to miss each other. We found new respect for the track this weekend. And started planning on going. Ines really enjoyed the race.

One more thing- IIRC, Manor was sponsored by Airbnb- so if you are travelling- book them, and tell them you saw them on the Manor F1 car. They need all the help they can get.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: The Honda thing is baffling me. On the BBC 5 Live podcast they made reference to the fact that Honda went radical with their design and it’s not paying off. Does anyone know what is so radical about their design?

Axial flow turbo compressor (think: jet engine) placed between the cylinder banks. From what I understand, it is good for spool / engine response, but it lacks top end power. I imagine they were likely did that with the current fuel flow restrictions in mind.

Scarbs discusses it further here: https://youtu.be/jx4g_upH5dQ

I think their problems have more to do with the MGU-H/K system than the ICE though.

I have to watch the replay but I thought Hamilton was showing lower fuel usage than Rosberg even when they were calling out to him to save fuel.

I am probably mistaken.

Yeah I hope HAAS makes if for at least 5 years or so. I can see them getting Ferrari to force, I mean "ASK" one of there Ferrari connected drivers with experience to go over to HAAS. Then toss in a Carlos Sainz or Jos Notstoppen and get the best test driver you can. Maybe they have a chance.

Why would HAAS come in next year when the word is a TOTALLY different formula for 2017??? One year and then a change sounds rather expensive.......

As to Vettel's pass... No contact... no foul... and if it had been Alonso... there wouldn't be any discussion

oldeskewltoy wrote: Why would HAAS come in next year when the word is a TOTALLY different formula for 2017??? One year and then a change sounds rather expensive.......

I guarantee that the rules will be very derivative of the current. Still V6 turbo's, they've already said no to refueling. The basic tub and package will carry forward without issue if they need.

oldeskewltoy wrote: Why would HAAS come in next year when the word is a TOTALLY different formula for 2017??? One year and then a change sounds rather expensive....... As to Vettel's pass... No contact... no foul... and if it had been Alonso... there wouldn't be any discussion

If he didn't leave Hulk enough room to negotiate the corner without climbing the (very tall) curb, that's a foul. I'm sure there are 40 pages of the FIA rules that govern passing and I'm not familiar with them, but in my simple world if you have to force the other guy off the track to get past him then it's not a clean pass. Given Vettel's knowledge of the rules, I'll bet it met the letter of the law.

Hulk may have simply cut in too close of his own accord, in which case whoops.