2012 US GP - Circuit of the Americas

[Chazmando]

VETTEL ON POLE

HAMILTON 2ND

WEBBER 3RD

[beelsebob]

Is pole on the clean side here (right), or the left ?

Pole is on the clean side. Right, which is the racing line towards t1. Drivers are talking the left side is maybe worse for 2 car lentghs in terms of traction.

We should see Hamilton and Webber get away roughly the same then

[NathanOlder]

Oh come on guys. This is a technical forum for crying out loud.It's not a personality contest nor is it a discussion of showbiz. No driver - be it Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Button, whoever else - doesn't deserve such slamming because he "makes it boring."

Sure, from a TV spectator point of view it might be boring at the front - but why blame Vettel? He's just doing his best to give himself the best chance for a race win. Hamilton was on a dominant pole several times this year - and no one complained then of "oh dear we're going to have a boring race. I hope Hamilton's car blows up." Button was on a dominant pole in Spa - no one cried "boring race" then either. Or Rosberg in China. So on and so forth.

I put this down to.... Meaning Vettel is back in the pack, and struggles and complains and waves his hand around making the world laugh at him, so thats why we dont complain.

[beelsebob]

VETTEL ON POLE

HAMILTON 2ND

WEBBER 3RD

You know, I think you might be a *little* late to the party.

[GrizzleBoy]

Oh come on guys. This is a technical forum for crying out loud.It's not a personality contest nor is it a discussion of showbiz. No driver - be it Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Button, whoever else - doesn't deserve such slamming because he "makes it boring."

Sure, from a TV spectator point of view it might be boring at the front - but why blame Vettel? He's just doing his best to give himself the best chance for a race win. Hamilton was on a dominant pole several times this year - and no one complained then of "oh dear we're going to have a boring race. I hope Hamilton's car blows up." Button was on a dominant pole in Spa - no one cried "boring race" then either. Or Rosberg in China. So on and so forth.

Lewis was qualifying well, but McLaren were ruining his races anyway and their race pace was sketchy too.

Since Singapore, Vettel has been qualifying at the front and running away with the races (with basically nobody but Hamilton even providing a challenge on either Saturday or Sunday), which is what everyone got completely bored with last year.

The championship was open before, but its absolutely not anymore and I'm almost livid with McLaren. They have in my opinion literally ruined the championship battle.

Now FOM have to worry about making Alonso somehow look like a "challenge" in a car that can't actually challenge when its quite obvious what the outcome is going to be.

[beelsebob]

Oh come on guys. This is a technical forum for crying out loud.It's not a personality contest nor is it a discussion of showbiz. No driver - be it Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Button, whoever else - doesn't deserve such slamming because he "makes it boring."

Sure, from a TV spectator point of view it might be boring at the front - but why blame Vettel? He's just doing his best to give himself the best chance for a race win. Hamilton was on a dominant pole several times this year - and no one complained then of "oh dear we're going to have a boring race. I hope Hamilton's car blows up." Button was on a dominant pole in Spa - no one cried "boring race" then either. Or Rosberg in China. So on and so forth.

Lewis was qualifying well, but McLaren were ruining his races anyway and their race pace was sketchy too.

Since Singapore, Vettel has been qualifying at the front and running away with the races (with basically nobody but Hamilton even providing a challenge on either Saturday or Sunday), which is what everyone got completely bored with last year.

The championship was open before, but its absolutely not anymore and I'm almost livid with McLaren. They have in my opinion literally ruined the championship battle.

To be fair, if they hadn't --- up so much, Hamilton would have been about 150 points clear at the top of the standings, and I'm not sure I prefer that scenario

[McMrocks]

Another Question:
Wouldn't it be stupid if the team with a such good car wouldn't win the Championship?

[donskar]

Easy to predict Vettel will run off and disappear in this race: excellent driver in a car superior to all others on the grid. Vettel, and RedBull, and Newey have earned the WDC and WCC. (Alonso is my Driver of the Year, but has been let down by his team.)

My concern is the effect such a potential runaway will have on F1 in the USA. We Americans equate auto racing with actual passing, with the lead cars in very close proximity. The race that well could happen tomorrow will be condemned as a high speed parade by many Americans.

[siskue2005]

To be fair, if they hadn't --- up so much, Hamilton would have been about 150 points clear at the top of the standings, and I'm not sure I prefer that scenario

exactly without the failures from Mclaren and their cockups, Lewis would have been crowned WDC by Abudabhi

[komninosm]

With such a smooth tarmac then how many laps will the harder and softer tyres last in the race?

A comfortable one stop I'd reckon

Yeah, but can they pull off most of the laps on the softer tire? I'm assuming no one in Q3 used the harder tire, but can Senna or Button from 11-12 start on hard tires and full fuel load for like 1/3rd of the race and then go to softer tire for the remaining 2/3rds? (I'm assuming starting on soft with full load won't allow the others(10-first) to do the first 2/3rds of the race)
Or will the hard tire seem the better race choice anyway as we've seen in many races...

[Forza]

Webber is under FIA investigation for for missing a weight check in qualifying (Q1,12:19 local time).

[siskue2005]

Easy to predict Vettel will run off and disappear in this race: excellent driver in a car superior to all others on the grid. Vettel, and RedBull, and Newey have earned the WDC and WCC. (Alonso is my Driver of the Year, but has been let down by his team.)

My concern is the effect such a potential runaway will have on F1 in the USA. We Americans equate auto racing with actual passing, with the lead cars in very close proximity. The race that well could happen tomorrow will be condemned as a high speed parade by many Americans.

frankly speaking when has F1 been about 'actual' passing for lead and lead cars in very close proximity??

[raymondu999]

Another Question:
Wouldn't it be stupid if the team with a such good car wouldn't win the Championship?

Good way of putting it, I guess. People were criticising Red Bull and their drivers in 2010 because they kept squandering a good car. Which they did, mostly. Now that they're not squandering the car, they're getting criticism again!

[Juzh]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson ... enson.html

This had to be the most biased and even factually incorrect article I have ever read.

[GrizzleBoy]

Oh come on guys. This is a technical forum for crying out loud.It's not a personality contest nor is it a discussion of showbiz. No driver - be it Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Button, whoever else - doesn't deserve such slamming because he "makes it boring."

Sure, from a TV spectator point of view it might be boring at the front - but why blame Vettel? He's just doing his best to give himself the best chance for a race win. Hamilton was on a dominant pole several times this year - and no one complained then of "oh dear we're going to have a boring race. I hope Hamilton's car blows up." Button was on a dominant pole in Spa - no one cried "boring race" then either. Or Rosberg in China. So on and so forth.

Lewis was qualifying well, but McLaren were ruining his races anyway and their race pace was sketchy too.

Since Singapore, Vettel has been qualifying at the front and running away with the races (with basically nobody but Hamilton even providing a challenge on either Saturday or Sunday), which is what everyone got completely bored with last year.

The championship was open before, but its absolutely not anymore and I'm almost livid with McLaren. They have in my opinion literally ruined the championship battle.

To be fair, if they hadn't --- up so much, Hamilton would have been about 150 points clear at the top of the standings, and I'm not sure I prefer that scenario

True, but thats assuming the perfect scenario every time in terms of their reliability.

Their problem is that the reliability far overstepped the threshold of mistakes and fluffs you can realistically expect to make while still maintaining a challenge for the championship.