"Thinking" racers

[Giblet]

But what the topic had to do with racer "thinking" through a race, not "thinking" how the car setup was. And I didn't say Senna didn't/couldn't do that, but that your example wasn't really about the same thing.

Good reason to be a dismissive weenie then?

Senna was one of the first drivers to use the screen around the track to see what other drivers were up to and adjust his race accordingly.

Senna was a thinking driver, regardless of what example satisfies you.

[ringo]

he clearly asked the pit if the primes really were faster..and they said yes ...but it proved not to be the case.
some things you need your pit to judge..and they gave the wrong information .

Weren't they faster?
The outlap would be slower becuase of tyre temps not up to optimal. They were faster after that.
Alonso and Massa all had the same issue as well, so it cancels out for everyone.

[raymondu999]

Not quite. It's the overlap that counts in terms of track position. Alonso came 1 lap later, so his laptimes for the inlap vs Button's outlap would've been the defining factor in terms of track position. For example in Vettel's case, the 20 or so laps between Rosberg/Webber/Kubica's pitstops would've made the difference.

[ringo]

Yes this is true, but the issue i am focusing on is the matter of the hards being slower or faster. Even if alonso came out ahead, he would still have to struggle on his out lap with the tyres not up to temperature to fend of should be faster Button.

Button did not strike at that time.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wzkmrY35zw[/youtube]

check 2:27 into the video, Alonso had a better exit on what was supposed to be colder tyres, Button was sliding around on already warm tyres. So there are a lot of little factors that cost him the race, it wasn't the teams fault.
They all had a slower hard tyre on the outlap, that got faster on the lap after that.
As Massa said in the post race conference, he had the same problems as Button on the outlap.

Taking into account the fact that Button had to save fuel, losing even more time to Alonso, no amount of thinking from him could save him the race on such a straight forward track and with constant weather. In this case speed trumps thinking or scheming. Run as fast as you can and come in when the team calls you.

[strad]

Dan the Man Gurney...hands down ..sometimes he was accused of overthinking things...alway tinkering

[lolzi]

But what the topic had to do with racer "thinking" through a race, not "thinking" how the car setup was. And I didn't say Senna didn't/couldn't do that, but that your example wasn't really about the same thing.

Good reason to be a dismissive weenie then?

Senna was one of the first drivers to use the screen around the track to see what other drivers were up to and adjust his race accordingly.

Senna was a thinking driver, regardless of what example satisfies you.

I'm sorry if you felt I insulted you, I wasn't trying to - I honestly thought you didn't perceive(if that's the right word?) the topic in the same way as I did.
And I'm not old enough to have seen Senna's races, only the ones I've been able to find online, so I wouldn't know if he was a "thinking" racer. But from what I've heard and seen, he was better in just about every way compared to his rivals, so why not in this as well? But I don't think he would compare to some of the drivers of today, who seem to not actually need to concentrate of driving at all.