Formula One - 2016

Nico can sleep again.

Thought the furor over Lewis backing Nico up was funny. Of course he did.

I defended Lewis for his complaints about reliability that cost him the season. I lost a championship to a boneheaded move by a backmarker a decade ago. It still irks me.

Very nice strategy, and drive, by both Seb and Max. Maxes one stopper worked out better than anybody (including the Red Bull strategists) figured, I'd say.

F1 is supposed to be the tip top of racing so let it be. To heck with price caps and let's let them innovate again. This dumbing down sucks.

Congratulations to Nico, a well earned and well deserved championship!

carguy123 wrote: F1 is supposed to be the tip top of racing so let it be. To heck with price caps and let's let them innovate again. This dumbing down sucks.

Are you talking dumbing down for the price caps or that the current car is dumbed down?

These cars are MASSIVELY high tech vs the old ones- the old cars only spun really quickly. Now they are as fast as previous cars, and use much less fuel doing it. Seems like the degree of tech was way over the top for most fans.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: To me, it says that McLaren is going to be the next Lotus. McLaren in name only, and not nearly the performance that it had in the day. Oh, well.

Fun fact. A friend of mine who's been working at Mercedes High Performance Engines (ie, the F1 team) for a few years is moving to McLaren next year. He's an ERS magician.

It's about time that Vettel had a decent drive, this season really hasn't been very good, especially his qualifying. I was rooting for Nico, as I hate seeing consecutive championships. Well done to him, not only did he win the championship, but more importantly beat Hamilton, which is a achievement in itself. Hopefully the new rules open up others to win races and have close racing.

Seb did have a pretty good drive, but I bet it wouldn't have looked quite as impressive if Lewis had stood on the loud pedal as hard as he could.

A small part of me wouldn't be surprised to see Vettel leave Ferrari during the off season. He hasn't impressed and has pissed off most of the higher management. He certainly isn't worth his paycheck.

trigun7469 wrote: It's about time that Vettel had a decent drive, this season really hasn't been very good, especially his qualifying. I was rooting for Nico, as I hate seeing consecutive championships. Well done to him, not only did he win the championship, but more importantly beat Hamilton, which is a achievement in itself. Hopefully the new rules open up others to win races and have close racing.

Have you forgotten about the dominance at Red Bull already?? Seb's had his time in the sun, now it's time for his paycheck. Or him trying to be Mike2.

In reply to Streetwiseguy: I like that "loud pedal" reference. Isn't that Henry Manney? Are you a real old guy,too?

Streetwiseguy wrote: Seb did have a pretty good drive, but I bet it wouldn't have looked quite as impressive if Lewis had stood on the loud pedal as hard as he could.

Yes they went on and on about just how slow Hammy was driving but it took FOREVER for the others to actually get close and then when they did they didn't seem all that interested in mixing it up anyways.

So now it seems that mercedes wants to reprimand Lewis,not sure why as he wouldn't have let Seb pass him anyways as he needed the win.I still think merc wanted Nico to be the german driver to win in the german car end of discussion.

kevlarcorolla wrote: Yes they went on and on about just how slow Hammy was driving but it took FOREVER for the others to actually get close and then when they did they didn't seem all that interested in mixing it up anyways. So now it seems that mercedes wants to reprimand Lewis,not sure why as he wouldn't have let Seb pass him anyways as he needed the win.I still think merc wanted Nico to be the german driver to win in the german car end of discussion.

I think Vettel figured out what Hamilton was trying to do (duh) and decided he wasn't really interested in getting involved.

There's no need to see a conspiracy here -- Mercedes wanted to avoid Rosberg trying a pass on Hamilton due to pressure from Vettel and the two Mercedes cars winding up in the gravel trap like in Spain. Sure, they still win both championships, but it looks bad in the newspapers and as a manufacturer F1 is all about image for them.

Realistically, Hamilton lost the championship in Malaysia when his engine failed while he was in the lead. It came down to the luck of the draw in mechanical failures.

I don't think they intentional caused Lewis to have problems or any of that grassy knoll stuff but Lewis was never in danger of losing that race regardless of his tactics.

Besides if he was so slow Nico could've showed all his championship winning skills and simply passed him right??

Oh yeah he hasn't been able to do that in 3 yrs without crashing so ya good idea to just follow and beg the team to ask him speed up pretty please.

kevlarcorolla wrote: I don't think they intentional caused Lewis to have problems or any of that grassy knoll stuff but Lewis was never in danger of losing that race regardless of his tactics. Besides if he was so slow Nico could've showed all his championship winning skills and simply passed him right?? Oh yeah he hasn't been able to do that in 3 yrs without crashing so ya good idea to just follow and beg the team to ask him speed up pretty please.

Really, you're going to go there? Lewis blew his starts and wrecked Nico. This season, Nico out thought Lewis. Hamilton will always drive like an impetuous brat. If he would focus on skills and improve, say 10%, he could be what he thinks he is. He needs more patience and less attitude.

Points don't show it, but I think Kimi out drove Vettel this year. I hope Kimi hangs around for a couple more years. He brings flavor.

In reply to markwemple:

Yep I'll go there,Nico is fast all by himself but rarely shows real talent in traffic.

I find the current F1 technology utterly mind blowing. I used to package rack mount computers and it took lots and lots and lots of thinking time and money to manage airflow/heat through a stationary little box- perhaps that gives me a little perspective. This stuff is bleeding edge with the density and complexity approaching that of a real live mammal.

carguy123 wrote: F1 is supposed to be the tip top of racing so let it be. To heck with price caps and let's let them innovate again. This dumbing down sucks.

markwemple wrote: Hamilton will always drive like an impetuous brat. If he would focus on skills and improve, say 10%, he could be what he thinks he is. He needs more patience and less attitude.

What he thinks he is, like a three time champion? He's always driven with the long game in mind, including wanting to retire from a race when he's out of the points in order to save the drivetrain for future races. It's fun to pretend he's a brat because he's got a personality out of the cockpit, but he doesn't show that on track.

markwemple wrote:

kevlarcorolla wrote: I don't think they intentional caused Lewis to have problems or any of that grassy knoll stuff but Lewis was never in danger of losing that race regardless of his tactics. Besides if he was so slow Nico could've showed all his championship winning skills and simply passed him right?? Oh yeah he hasn't been able to do that in 3 yrs without crashing so ya good idea to just follow and beg the team to ask him speed up pretty please.

Really, you're going to go there? Lewis blew his starts and wrecked Nico. This season, Nico out thought Lewis. Hamilton will always drive like an impetuous brat. If he would focus on skills and improve, say 10%, he could be what he thinks he is. He needs more patience and less attitude.

What? How many mechanicals did Hamilton have and he was STILL that close to Nico in the points?

Someone just dislikes Hamilton it appears.

I missed the race (no way to watch it right now) but followed it on F1Live lap by lap. Big well done to Nico, no doubt he deserved it no matter what Lewis's reliability was. Over the last four years they've been together I think Nico has had the worse overall luck, so one season going his way isn't an unfair advantage that should throw his WDC into question.

I'm a massive Lewis fan, but I'm really glad that Nico did it it. I don't think the same person winning every year is good for the sport no matter how good the down grid action is. I also like Seb but didn't want him to get four in a row. I hated Schumacher and stopped watching in the Ferrari Internation Assistance days.

I think even Nico would agree that on sheer outright pace Lewis may have him by >< much, but he's worked really really hard and upped his game this year. He's had bad luck as well but just kept his head down and worked worked worked at it. He's treated every weekend as a stand alone event and earned his championship.

Lewis fought hard all year, but had moments when he just wasn't on par like Baku. Yes his engine went bang in Malaysia, but if he'd been stronger all year he would still have done it. Good on Nico.

I'm not going to complain about him trying to back Nico into Vettle either. He wouldn't be a three time champ if he didn't do everythign he can to stack the odds in his favour. Nico would have done the same if the situations were reversed. So would Max, the honey badger, Seb etc.

A good fight and well done to all.

Let's also not forget Hass finishing 8th with 29 points in their first year. what about Force India, best ever result of 4th. Mad Max who despite being an annoying little brat is without doubt a future champ. Ricciardo who finished 3rd despite the Max hoopla. Kimi had some really strong performances this year. Honda engines are getting better. Yup, I'd say it was a really good year with lots of good stuff in store for next year.

Keith Tanner wrote:

markwemple wrote: Hamilton will always drive like an impetuous brat. If he would focus on skills and improve, say 10%, he could be what he thinks he is. He needs more patience and less attitude.

What he thinks he is, like a three time champion? He's always driven with the long game in mind, including wanting to retire from a race when he's out of the points in order to save the drivetrain for future races. It's fun to pretend he's a brat because he's got a personality out of the cockpit, but he doesn't show that on track.

His on track conversations may not be as interesting as Vettel's but he's regularly complained to his team and blamed others early on. He is not good at getting his head down and dealing with the situation. He should spend some time watching more Senna tapes to see how he handled adversity.

Sad to think that over the last 20 years, only 3 drivers have won in inferior or equal cars: Hakkinen, Alonso and Raikonnen.

markwemple wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote:

markwemple wrote: Hamilton will always drive like an impetuous brat. If he would focus on skills and improve, say 10%, he could be what he thinks he is. He needs more patience and less attitude.

What he thinks he is, like a three time champion? He's always driven with the long game in mind, including wanting to retire from a race when he's out of the points in order to save the drivetrain for future races. It's fun to pretend he's a brat because he's got a personality out of the cockpit, but he doesn't show that on track.

His on track conversations may not be as interesting as Vettel's but he's regularly complained to his team and blamed others early on. He is not good at getting his head down and dealing with the situation. He should spend some time watching more Senna tapes to see how he handled adversity.

In the Senna era, did we have access to the team radio? So Lewis made some comments that you were predisposed not to like, that doesn't mean he doesn't have skills and ability. Nico bitches over the radio as well, especially when he's held up in traffic.

Also, if Nico was watching Senna tapes, the last race of the season would have ended on the first corner.

markwemple wrote: Sad to think that over the last 20 years, only 3 drivers have won in inferior or equal cars: Hakkinen, Alonso and Raikonnen.

It's always the same. The best car normally wins, but people didn't used to complain about it. Note that Nico's dad only won one race in 82 and most certainly he wasn't in the best car with a very out of date and down on power Cosworth engine compared to all the turbos. He won his championship after Villeneuve was killed, Pironi was permanently injured, Watson's McLaren let him down many many times, the FISA/FOCA war with missed races etc and people don't question his WDC

2016 is marks the third time that Lewis lost the championship in the last race of the season. As a rookie in 2007 he made a series of bone-headed mistakes at the end of the season and lost to Kimi by 1 point. He was also in contention for the championship down to the last race in 2010. It's got to be massively disappointing to be so close, yet so far--but the three titles he did win must make that an easier pill to swallow.

Keith Tanner wrote: ...if Nico was watching Senna tapes, the last race of the season would have ended on the first corner.

Rimshot!