2016 Grand Prix of Mexico - Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, 28-30 October

[basti313]

Really??? We can see Britney and the other girl "driving around with his feet up on the monocoque, cocktail in one hand and lazily waving to the crowd with the other" since three years in every race as one is leading and the other one has no chance to overtake. Especially if Britney is behind. Now you state, we would have excitement if Rosber DNFs??? In which world are you living?

It rather looks to me a bit poor as the ones who are praying the whole season for Ros to get crushed now hope for a DNF to make the championship exciting.

Are you really saying that it's more interesting watching a meaningless race where final places are irrelevant than watching a championship battle? Because that's specifically what you are saying.

No, I am saying there is no battle, no matter who DNFs. Even less with a DNF.

since three years in every race as one is leading and the other one has no chance to overtake

I'm sure that you are 100% correct but I've a nagging feeling that a Merc has probably overtaken another Merc at some point in the last three years, no? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong?

Maybe one or two, but really...I will not check 60 races, if there was one or two good overtakes. All I can remember is dirty first corner pushing, cold/worn tires and crashing.

But I like the optimism, that with a DNF in Brazil (where overtaking was not possible for Lewis last year) we will see an interesting battle on a track where we have not seen an overtake on the lead car in the last decade. =D>

[hollus]

Regarding Hamilton's turn 1 "non move", I'd argue that there are un-mitigating circumstances. Stewards allow lots of cutting /extending corners in the first turn because cars arrive there crowded and virtually all of them must react to what the other cars are doing. Skipping a corner is often the only viable option. But Hamilton had a solid lead, so his corner wasn't influenced from anyone else's actions. How was his first corner different from any first corner after a pit stop? Yet after a pit stop, this would not be allowed.
The advantage gained is clear: No risk of being passed, no risk of collision and a much milder tire issue than otherwise expectable. And he looked "unchallenged" only because Max and Nico tangled, in a normal start, Nico would have benefited from any abnormal line from Lewis.

So what I really don't understand: why didn't the Stewards resort to the most obvious penalty available to them: a 5-sec penalty? This would be served at the next pit stop, by which time it would, most likely, mean rejoining in 1st or 2nd position. This is hardly a world ending event that would force the Stewards to think twice, IMO. This also avoids the "how many positions should he give back" question, which has no logical answer.

So possible reasons, the way I see it, not to do this:
a) There is a non-public directive allowing all drivers a free hand in turn 1.
b) Politics, handling a lead to Nico would have made the championship end less interesting (Nico would win the WDC with a 2nd in Brasil).
c) Maybe nobody challenged? Isn't it so that in a non-dangerous situation the Stewards will only look at incidents when another team complains?

I still think that the a-sec penalty was well earned there.

[ChrisDanger]

This deserves to be seen.

I think this thread needs a bit of joy too.

[basti313]

So what I really don't understand: why didn't the Stewards resort to the most obvious penalty available to them: a 5-sec penalty? This would be served at the next pit stop, by which time it would, most likely, mean rejoining in 1st or 2nd position.

Well, that is the problem with amateurish stewards. In Football no one would send an amateur referee to the worldcup. He would make a fault in the first 5 min and, thus, spoil the whole match as he would not have any chance to get a consistent line in penalties. Every experienced referee knows that he needs to get the first minutes perfect.
In F1 the amateur stewards do it exactly the other way round...give away the first minutes, the first incidents without any need. I totally agree, that 5sec would have been earned and as far as I remember, they would not have changed anything.

As usual they did not give the penalty. Now we have Bulls (correctly) complaining about the penalty for Ves. The same accounts for the dirty moves by Ves under breaking. They let it go several times, now we have an unneeded "clarification" and stupid penalties due to this. Another thing is the pushing off track or the team radio. They let it run for several seasons and now it is completely arbitrary, who gets a penalty and wo does not.

[nokivasara]

It's the same thing after every race, who got a penalty and who didn't. Who should have etc etc.

There is only one thing to do, bring back the gravel traps.
With the run off areas there is too little to lose by taking great risks so some moves are too dirty, it's inevitable really.

But since we also want the safety that the run offs offer there is another way of doing away with dive bombs and forcing people off the track and it's very easy to implement:
- drive through penalty

No steward decisions after race nonsense, just plain drive-through when someone breaks the rules.

[hemichromis]

Need gravel traps but also safe run off areas around those gravel traps. We want people to be able to skip the corner with an overspeed but continue as long as they lose time.

[TAG]

Nico has been doing a great job, being fast but taking care of his car. It was like that in 2010, 2011 and so on. Its not a coincidence that he has always been the best in the team in terms of reliability.

So you're saying that Nico is a better driver because he's managed to have more reliability than Hamilton? In what planet does this even begin to make sense? On the one hand we have the claims and statements to calm down reliability issues happen, it's just bad luck, there's nothing sinister going on... and now you're claiming that Nico is a more consistent driver hence his engines don't blow up?

Makes me want to laugh out loud if it wasn't such an baseless assertion to make. You're not Lewis' biggest fan, we know, but at least have some link back to reality when you're going to say something, otherwise you risk coming off looking rather foolish.

So let me entertain this foolishness and say; I'm hoping Rosberg does win a race in these last two events. It will help to soften the blow, otherwise the entirety of the season will have come down to Lewis' DNF losing 25 points for a race win and giving Rosberg a 3rd (15)instead of a 4th (12) points.

The score today would have been 355 for Lewis, 346 for Rosberg with two races to go.

Despite all of the engine issues at the beginning of the season greatly disadvantaging him, despite all of the bad start issues, the fact that it's still coming down to the events in Malaysia to determine the championship says a lot in the gulf between the two Mercedes drivers, you choose what you want to believe but in the real world facts and statistics matter.

A Nico win in the next two races will at least make it more about his driving and less about his being the poster child for the "I'd rather be lucky than good" adage.

[Edax]

This deserves to be seen.

I think this thread needs a bit of joy too.

Depends how you define joy. I think we may be glad Italy isn't a nuclear nation.

In the end. What VES did turned out brilliant for the team.

He may be abrasive in some aspects, but he is exactly doing what they got him in for; get RB in front of Ferrari. I greatly suspect that when they took him him in they gave him a clear message: forget about intern team battles, work with RIC to beat Ferrari and next year you can race each other.

[smiley]

Max is indeed doing an excellent job of getting under Sebastian's skin.

[f1316]

This deserves to be seen.

I think this thread needs a bit of joy too.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwDoCPUWcAAob06.jpg

Might as well take joy from watching Lance Armstrong win a Tour...

[Nuvolari]

This deserves to be seen.

I think this thread needs a bit of joy too.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwDoCPUWcAAob06.jpg

Might as well take joy from watching Lance Armstrong win a Tour...

Ferrari fan by any chance?

Man, I had flashes of the Red Bull Vettel when he was leading...great pace on the Softs.

Ferrari get your act together! Fire your strategist! Bringer of such bad omen...Make Vettel your strategist instead!

[dans79]

A Nico win in the next two races will at least make it more about his driving and less about his being the poster child for the "I'd rather be lucky than good" adage.

The sad thing is this definitely seems to be his mindset. Personally I find that mindset pathetic. In my younger years when I was a competitive athlete, I didn't just want to win, I wanted to crush my competitors.

[RedNEO]

I'm going to counter it strongly and hope Rosberg gets a win at the next race

Oh God save us all... RedNEO is going to strongly counter a failure to Britney and set the Mercedes paradise on fire. [-o< [-o< [-o<

I can't wait for this moment to come any sooner.

Come to think of it, Nico's championship is so fragile that one DNF can make it vapor. On the other hand, there is another driver who has weathered way more than that and still in with a shot. That says it all.

Oh save your tears the championship isn't over yet

[RedNEO]

http://email2me.home.xs4all.nl/max.gif

Brilliant!

[Fifty]

Can someone point this year when a driver has been able to catch Verstapen and pass him whitout drama happening?

And also on vettel comment it's FOM who choose to put those hard words on live feed. They need to filter and use only what is not bad for the sport... Up to now they not diffusing all radio during races but they choose only what can bring dramas. But they choose what they want for example Hamilton and Rosberg collided in spain nothing was live on how they react when touched... I dont know if someone has heard bottas or massa or button or guttierez or ocon or wherlein... They've been turning around on 71 laps whitout even on word???

Yes!

Just to add: I believe Vettel got his penalty for his words and not his actions. FIA knows MV backed him into Ric and forced this issue on top of it giving up the spot. If Vet had kept his mouth shut he would be in 3rd still.

I also find it funny that Ric supported Ver every time he made those last minute "defenses" but now that it was done on him all of a sudden it's dangerous...

And I'm a Ric fan...