2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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Inaction from FIA and lack of due diligence and authority from Ferrari allowed Leclerc to circulate spewing carbon everywhere eventually sailing a large piece of dangerous debris into a following car. Disgusting.

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RZS10
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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Gasly (33) , Hülkenberg (32) and Stroll (33) did longer stints on mediums than Hamilton would have needed (30), Grosjean did 35 laps on hards, Ricciardo did 29 laps on mediums on his first stint - neither of them hit any significant 'cliff' at the end of their stints.

Lewis could have easily finished the race with one stop.

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cooken
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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Yep, it was very clear what Merc was doing bringing Ham in for the second stop. They were confident in fastest lap and therefore WCC, and so went about clearing the path for Bot to take the win.

SmallSoldier
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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AMG.Tzan wrote:Still can't understand why there is no DRS zone down the back straight before the 130R...not only will it give more overtake opportunities but it will also make 130R a more challenging corner for today's high downforce cars!
Because there isn’t a braking zone before 130R, therefore the DRS wouldn’t close and it could be very dangerous for the cars to take that turn with DRS open.


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Manoah2u
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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This race was an absolute facade in regards to the return of FIA-RARRI.

My lord, they're a bunch of total tools. When Raikkonen made a jump start and stopped and not gained an advantage, he still got a penalty for false start. Now Vettel did exactly the same, but got out of it without anything at all, especially concidering it took them so frigging long while even nearly total blind would have seen that it ticks all the boxes for a penalty. If you give Kimi a penalty, then you must give somebody else too. Vettel should have that penalty, it doesn't matter whether he didn't gain an advantage, that went the same for Kimi.
That means Vettel should have ended up later in the field and quite frankly, the WCC should have been decided.

Let me be clear though in this regard that it doesn't take away anything from Vettel's driving, which was absolutely outstanding and quite frankly the Vettel i forgot and lost. This is what we needed to see all season long, imagine that if he didn't have that start error then i'm pretty darn sure he would have won the GP by as much of a margin or more than Bottas did. Which would have kept the WCC going. Too bad.

That said, the issue with LeClerc is absolutely mind-boggling retarded. Verstappen came round outside, left him extremely much space, and as Max said during the race, everybody knows you lose grip so there's no excuse there. Leclerc knows this and should thus have braked a bit. It was bonkers, his car was faster in the end anyway so
even if Max would have passed, LeClerc would have taken him perhaps even the same lap again. There was almost no steering input to the right from LeClerc and simply drove like Max wasn't there or that he would yield. He took out Max HARD.

Then, it took ages before even the suggestion of the FIA there will be looked into and it was initially 'no action neccesary'. BONKERS. Later on they investigated again and mention it will be investigated AFTER the race.
So go ahead LeClerc, drive scot-free, get your fastest lap, get a good points finish and then we'll either do nothing or perhaps give you a 5 sec penalty which means nothing.

But as if that wasn't enough, the absolute retardation of the stewards to not immediately call in LeClerc for dangerous driving due to the loose item was mind boggling brain damaged people sitting there. He should have been called in immediately with the black-orange flag warning. Ferrari called him in and then this arrogant piece of stays out! incredible. He was playing with people's lives there. And despite repetively ignoring team orders, the FIA did NOTHING, not even afterwards. There was the absolute danger of the entire wing coming off with all the aftermath, it's just total stupid. It's also stupid that leclerc himself said he has damage but didn't come in.

Not just that, but then the wing sparked and scraped on the floor, left damage over the track everywhere, and then finally gave way and took out Hamilton's wing, left many debris giving high risk for tire damage which can be devastating at high speed, not to mention that hamilton could have been hit hard by these debris.

Still, no action. No penalty. No dangerous driving warning, nothing.
This race was a 'go ahead Ferrari do whatever you want' bribe-suspicious race. an absolute disgrace to be honest.
Dangerous driving, taking out your opponents, and false starts are now simply rewarded. BONKERS.

That said, Mercedes really made some dubious decisions too.
Even though i'm going to be honest here and concider that Bottas deserved the win he got today, and i'm really glad though that he did, that doesn't take away that Hamilton was robbed of a win in the end.

Let's face it, Hamilton did have a point in where after the initial stint he was behind so much. Even if the team claims degredation was worse than anticipated, that's the same for all, so one might wonder whether they did a smart thing there. Now that was one thing, but then Hamilton drove brilliantly and drove in P1 with Bottas still a pretty good spot behind him. With just 10 laps to go, it was unneccesary to bring him in honestly. We all know Ferrari is blazing fast and it's not that easy to overtake behind one, so it was always gonna be a question mark whether fresher tires would be enough to overtake the Ferrari, especially concidering degredation was higher than anticipated and degredation behind a hot car will multiply, the simple solution would have been to keep Hamilton out.
Like that, there would have been a more or less guaranteed 1-2 finish, and Hamilton getting a fastest lap would not be neccesary anyway.

He would have even been arguably able to stay in front of Bottas, but we could have easily seen Hamilton move or put up no fight against Bottas so Valterri could take the win anyway.
Hamilton would have had track position, a huge advantage, and then let's face it, the Ferrari would have been in the Merc's hot air and see tire degredation fast. It would have been at most the final 5 laps when Vettel would have been close enough to risk overtaking the Mercedes, but then, we now have the same result anyway!
Atleast then Vettel would have been needing to put up the fight of overtaking and Lewis would have been able to position his car good enough to fend it off i'm sure, and the WCC would have been decided, so honestly, i don't get Mercedes, this was a mistake on their part pretty clearly. If i would have been Hamilton, i would have stayed out.
It's not like there were 15 to 20 laps to go, he had just 10 laps and because of being behind the Ferrari his soft tires were worn out worse just a bunch of laps behind the Ferrari than his original 'more during' tires were. After all those were what, 70% intact according to the stats, and after a few laps behind the Ferrari his rear tires were only 10% on the soft.

Anyway, the following is offcourse a big IF what IF and not what happened, but one still may wonder.
What if LeClerc did NOT bump into Max ? But give him some room. I'm pretty confident that in just a few corners within either the same lap or one of the coming laps, LeClerc would have overtaken Max. The Ferrari was faster than the RB so it was a no brainer that the RB could not hold up against the Ferrari. We would have seen 1Bottas 2Vettel 3Max 4Leclerc 5Hamilton and then within 2 to 5 laps tops it would have been 1Bottas 2Vettel 3LeClerc 4Max 5Hamilton. It would have been absolute sure that Hamilton would have been in a vastly different strategy and doubtfull he would have ended up P3 like today. Vettel was surpremely fast but so was LeClerc and i think with some tactics we would have seen LeClerc placed in front of Vettel and I do wonder whether LeClerc could have threatened Bottas near the end of the race. I am confident we would have had 2 Ferrari's on the podium, including Bottas.
We then would have had a battle with Max in there for 4th place too which would have been interesting as i believe the RB was capable when having track position to stay ahead of the Mercedes, and atleast use pitstops to then regain a potentially lost place again.

It's also very much worth concidering that had Vettel not made a false start, im pretty sure he would have been P1 in the first corner and in classic Vettel, he would have stayed in front and win the GP no brainer. It would also mean Bottas be P2, and both LeClerc and Max would not have had to respond to the ever so slightly stationary Ferrari and I think then Max would NOT have ended up alongside LeClerc in the corner and as such, Max would not have been taken out. It would then have been 1Vettel 2Bottas 3LeClerc 4Verstappen 5Hamilton. We would then have had a battle between Bottas and LeClerc during the race and a Battle between Max and Hamilton. It would have been a 1-2 for Ferrari with either Bottas, Verstappen or Hamilton on the podium. Though Bottas was having a great weekend, i do believe that fighting for P2 and P3 would have taken much more out of the life of his car/tires and as such it would be questionable he could have even maintained either position, so again, we could have seen Hamilton or Verstappen on that podium. Regarding Mercedes' tactics, i think that is also part to concider as to why i think RBR had a chance of the podium even though the Mercedes 'naturally' was faster than the RB.

Instead, it is really sad that Honda in it's home GP and RBR in it's then semi-home-gp got robbed of a podium or a top4 finish, which would have been surely celebrated, fully down to LeClerc.

I must say though, i honestly was surprised we didn't have more incidents during the race. Even though the bad weather had passed, i still expected atleast once a VSC. And it must be said, if that happened, it would have completely altered the race i'm sure.
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while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"

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Scorpaguy
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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djos wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 00:00
maxxer wrote:
13 Oct 2019, 23:48
what A absolute disaster from the fia , why do they even show up anymore ?
Vettel jumpstarting
Leclerc pushing a car into the gravel
Albon dive bombing

Sorry but this was the worst race ever and to remember Bianchi died because of this track you would expect the fia to be a bit better
But no they are just total ---
Really, for years everyone has been complaining that Charlie (RIP) was heavy-handed, now Michael has loosened the reins and said "have at it" there are a bunch of you having a sook! #-o

Frankly, I'm pleased the nanny state rules have been revoked as the racing this year has been the best it has been in many decades!
djos....if i did not reside on the other side of the planet from you, I would buy you a beer =D>

Vettel's jump was a far cry from Kimi's...if it was within sensor tolerances, so be it. Lec's push of Max...what goes around comes around. I am not saying it was right, but Max used it to form his rep.

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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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SmallSoldier wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 02:08
AMG.Tzan wrote:Still can't understand why there is no DRS zone down the back straight before the 130R...not only will it give more overtake opportunities but it will also make 130R a more challenging corner for today's high downforce cars!
Because there isn’t a braking zone before 130R, therefore the DRS wouldn’t close and it could be very dangerous for the cars to take that turn with DRS open.


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You don need brakes to close the drs, it can be controlled manually also....

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diffuser
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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holeindalip wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 03:31
SmallSoldier wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 02:08
AMG.Tzan wrote:Still can't understand why there is no DRS zone down the back straight before the 130R...not only will it give more overtake opportunities but it will also make 130R a more challenging corner for today's high downforce cars!
Because there isn’t a braking zone before 130R, therefore the DRS wouldn’t close and it could be very dangerous for the cars to take that turn with DRS open.


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You don need brakes to close the drs, it can be controlled manually also....
Right, or you can stay on the gas and tap the brakes to drop the DRS. So I think that reasoniong that sky put forth is wrong. Also, I think if there was a DRS in that S3 you'd have to brake for turn 15. We can take turn 15 flat out at 305 KPH but at 325 with DRS deployed?

Wynters
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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djos wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 00:00
Frankly, I'm pleased the nanny state rules have been revoked as the racing this year has been the best it has been in many decades!
They haven't been revoked though, have they? Not for Haas, or for Alfa or for most of the grid.

What we have now is a bunch of people following the rules and a bunch of people cheating. Now, to an extent that's F1, but that's always been about cheating and not getting caught. Now it's just blatant cheating. I don't care what the rules are (within reason), I care that some people are racing to a different set of rules to others and the FIA are fine with that. I don't remember F1 becoming a multi-class sport.

If I was a driver, I'd want the FIA to tell me how far out of my pit box I can go, how much of a rolling start I'm allowed and how early can I jump the lights by. Because, as of today, that's the rules that some people get to play by. Except the FIA isn't going to issue that guidance, is it. Additionally, what rules can I break and only get a black-and-white flag for? I know if I suck so badly at driving that I can't keep another car behind me than I can push the chasing car off the track, but apparently I can't go the wrong way around a bollard that's metres off-track. Or does the bollard thing only apply if my team has less than one million Twitter followers and isn't actively paid to participate in the sport? Again, I have the strange feeling that the FIA isn't going to clarify the matter.
miguelalvesreis wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 00:07
Moanlower wrote:Racing Point filed a complaint towards Renault for using some sorts of programmed brake balance. I wonder how far it goes, whether it's just a pre-programmed brake balance per corner like ECU's are programmed or if it also calculates in wind directions, tyre wear, fuel loads etc ..
Yes, seems to be an interesting system! How do they keep it in sync with the position on track. Different racing line, some run offs, pitting, all this change the running distance

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I assume they have a reset button they hit at the same point each lap and a manual override they can hit if they have to take an exceptional route for some reason.

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diffuser
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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Scorpaguy wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 03:08
djos wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 00:00
maxxer wrote:
13 Oct 2019, 23:48
what A absolute disaster from the fia , why do they even show up anymore ?
Vettel jumpstarting
Leclerc pushing a car into the gravel
Albon dive bombing

Sorry but this was the worst race ever and to remember Bianchi died because of this track you would expect the fia to be a bit better
But no they are just total ---
Really, for years everyone has been complaining that Charlie (RIP) was heavy-handed, now Michael has loosened the reins and said "have at it" there are a bunch of you having a sook! #-o

Frankly, I'm pleased the nanny state rules have been revoked as the racing this year has been the best it has been in many decades!
djos....if i did not reside on the other side of the planet from you, I would buy you a beer =D>

Vettel's jump was a far cry from Kimi's...if it was within sensor tolerances, so be it. Lec's push of Max...what goes around comes around. I am not saying it was right, but Max used it to form his rep.

Vettel - The start is black and white. You either trigger the sensor or you don't. Vettel did'nt trigger the sensor.

I hate the fact that the rules aren't clear again. Either way you look at its f8ckup. I preffer the nany rules over suicide rules. To me the rules were clear before. You always have to leave space and contact was was frowned upon. Now it seems like they're making them up as they go along. If you smack someone as you try to pass him it's ok.

I think it should be like hockey in the NHL and the stick rule. You clip someone in the face it's a 2 min penatly, you draw blood, it's 4. I would go as far as if you clip someone while passing that causes the other car to be retired you should be reired.

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djos
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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Scorpaguy wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 03:08
djos wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 00:00
Really, for years everyone has been complaining that Charlie (RIP) was heavy-handed, now Michael has loosened the reins and said "have at it" there are a bunch of you having a sook! #-o

Frankly, I'm pleased the nanny state rules have been revoked as the racing this year has been the best it has been in many decades!
djos....if i did not reside on the other side of the planet from you, I would buy you a beer =D>

Vettel's jump was a far cry from Kimi's...if it was within sensor tolerances, so be it. Lec's push of Max...what goes around comes around. I am not saying it was right, but Max used it to form his rep.
The Virtual beer is appreciated. 8)
"In downforce we trust"

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djos
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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Wynters wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 03:47
djos wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 00:00
Frankly, I'm pleased the nanny state rules have been revoked as the racing this year has been the best it has been in many decades!
They haven't been revoked though, have they? Not for Haas, or for Alfa or for most of the grid.

What we have now is a bunch of people following the rules and a bunch of people cheating. Now, to an extent that's F1, but that's always been about cheating and not getting caught. Now it's just blatant cheating. I don't care what the rules are (within reason), I care that some people are racing to a different set of rules to others and the FIA are fine with that. I don't remember F1 becoming a multi-class sport.

If I was a driver, I'd want the FIA to tell me how far out of my pit box I can go, how much of a rolling start I'm allowed and how early can I jump the lights by. Because, as of today, that's the rules that some people get to play by. Except the FIA isn't going to issue that guidance, is it. Additionally, what rules can I break and only get a black-and-white flag for? I know if I suck so badly at driving that I can't keep another car behind me than I can push the chasing car off the track, but apparently I can't go the wrong way around a bollard that's metres off-track. Or does the bollard thing only apply if my team has less than one million Twitter followers and isn't actively paid to participate in the sport? Again, I have the strange feeling that the FIA isn't going to clarify the matter.
I don't have a very high opinion of Vettel for many reasons, however, the right call was made for the following reasons:

A/ Vettel didn't trigger the sensor (the movement was within the specified FIA error budget)
B/ he didn't roll out of the box (footage is quite clear)
C/ he stuffed his own race start as a result

The Haas drivers etc are a different kettle of fish, they usually get in trouble for blatant stupidity, they both have massive track records that dwarf Vettels' own patchy record.

Even Danny Ric has been legitimately penalized this year for his off-track overtake at Paul Ricard (what a shame that once great circuit has been ruined by converting it into a fully paved test track).
"In downforce we trust"

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diffuser
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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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Manoah2u wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 02:46
This race was an absolute facade in regards to the return of FIA-RARRI.

My lord, they're a bunch of total tools. When Raikkonen made a jump start and stopped and not gained an advantage, he still got a penalty for false start. Now Vettel did exactly the same, but got out of it without anything at all, especially concidering it took them so frigging long while even nearly total blind would have seen that it ticks all the boxes for a penalty. If you give Kimi a penalty, then you must give somebody else too. Vettel should have that penalty, it doesn't matter whether he didn't gain an advantage, that went the same for Kimi.
That means Vettel should have ended up later in the field and quite frankly, the WCC should have been decided.

Let me be clear though in this regard that it doesn't take away anything from Vettel's driving, which was absolutely outstanding and quite frankly the Vettel i forgot and lost. This is what we needed to see all season long, imagine that if he didn't have that start error then i'm pretty darn sure he would have won the GP by as much of a margin or more than Bottas did. Which would have kept the WCC going. Too bad.
He Needs to cross the line to trigger the sensor which he didn't do.


Manoah2u wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 02:46
That said, the issue with LeClerc is absolutely mind-boggling retarded. Verstappen came round outside, left him extremely much space, and as Max said during the race, everybody knows you lose grip so there's no excuse there. Leclerc knows this and should thus have braked a bit. It was bonkers, his car was faster in the end anyway so
even if Max would have passed, LeClerc would have taken him perhaps even the same lap again. There was almost no steering input to the right from LeClerc and simply drove like Max wasn't there or that he would yield. He took out Max HARD.
See after Germany This is what I understood the rule. Basically if Car F is trying to pass car R, he can drive him off the road if he wants. If Car R is defending he cannot drive car F off the road. That is what Max did in Germany.


Actually after lookingat the onboard, I don't think it was LeClerc fault. You can see him loose downforce when Vettel comes across. How does he know Vettel is gonna come across?



Manoah2u wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 02:46
Then, it took ages before even the suggestion of the FIA there will be looked into and it was initially 'no action neccesary'. BONKERS. Later on they investigated again and mention it will be investigated AFTER the race.
So go ahead LeClerc, drive scot-free, get your fastest lap, get a good points finish and then we'll either do nothing or perhaps give you a 5 sec penalty which means nothing.
Agreed

Manoah2u wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 02:46

But as if that wasn't enough, the absolute retardation of the stewards to not immediately call in LeClerc for dangerous driving due to the loose item was mind boggling brain damaged people sitting there. He should have been called in immediately with the black-orange flag warning. Ferrari called him in and then this arrogant piece of stays out! incredible. He was playing with people's lives there. And despite repetively ignoring team orders, the FIA did NOTHING, not even afterwards. There was the absolute danger of the entire wing coming off with all the aftermath, it's just total stupid. It's also stupid that leclerc himself said he has damage but didn't come in.
I think the sucide rules or the make the rules as we go along are dangerous too.
Manoah2u wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 02:46

Not just that, but then the wing sparked and scraped on the floor, left damage over the track everywhere, and then finally gave way and took out Hamilton's wing, left many debris giving high risk for tire damage which can be devastating at high speed, not to mention that hamilton could have been hit hard by these debris.

Still, no action. No penalty. No dangerous driving warning, nothing.
This race was a 'go ahead Ferrari do whatever you want' bribe-suspicious race. an absolute disgrace to be honest.
Dangerous driving, taking out your opponents, and false starts are now simply rewarded. BONKERS.
Let them race! (Sarcasm)
Manoah2u wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 02:46
That said, Mercedes really made some dubious decisions too.
Even though i'm going to be honest here and concider that Bottas deserved the win he got today, and i'm really glad though that he did, that doesn't take away that Hamilton was robbed of a win in the end.

Let's face it, Hamilton did have a point in where after the initial stint he was behind so much. Even if the team claims degredation was worse than anticipated, that's the same for all, so one might wonder whether they did a smart thing there. Now that was one thing, but then Hamilton drove brilliantly and drove in P1 with Bottas still a pretty good spot behind him. With just 10 laps to go, it was unneccesary to bring him in honestly. We all know Ferrari is blazing fast and it's not that easy to overtake behind one, so it was always gonna be a question mark whether fresher tires would be enough to overtake the Ferrari, especially concidering degredation was higher than anticipated and degredation behind a hot car will multiply, the simple solution would have been to keep Hamilton out.
Like that, there would have been a more or less guaranteed 1-2 finish, and Hamilton getting a fastest lap would not be neccesary anyway.

He would have even been arguably able to stay in front of Bottas, but we could have easily seen Hamilton move or put up no fight against Bottas so Valterri could take the win anyway.
Hamilton would have had track position, a huge advantage, and then let's face it, the Ferrari would have been in the Merc's hot air and see tire degredation fast. It would have been at most the final 5 laps when Vettel would have been close enough to risk overtaking the Mercedes, but then, we now have the same result anyway!
Atleast then Vettel would have been needing to put up the fight of overtaking and Lewis would have been able to position his car good enough to fend it off i'm sure, and the WCC would have been decided, so honestly, i don't get Mercedes, this was a mistake on their part pretty clearly. If i would have been Hamilton, i would have stayed out.
It's not like there were 15 to 20 laps to go, he had just 10 laps and because of being behind the Ferrari his soft tires were worn out worse just a bunch of laps behind the Ferrari than his original 'more during' tires were. After all those were what, 70% intact according to the stats, and after a few laps behind the Ferrari his rear tires were only 10% on the soft.

Anyway, the following is offcourse a big IF what IF and not what happened, but one still may wonder.
What if LeClerc did NOT bump into Max ? But give him some room. I'm pretty confident that in just a few corners within either the same lap or one of the coming laps, LeClerc would have overtaken Max. The Ferrari was faster than the RB so it was a no brainer that the RB could not hold up against the Ferrari. We would have seen 1Bottas 2Vettel 3Max 4Leclerc 5Hamilton and then within 2 to 5 laps tops it would have been 1Bottas 2Vettel 3LeClerc 4Max 5Hamilton. It would have been absolute sure that Hamilton would have been in a vastly different strategy and doubtfull he would have ended up P3 like today. Vettel was surpremely fast but so was LeClerc and i think with some tactics we would have seen LeClerc placed in front of Vettel and I do wonder whether LeClerc could have threatened Bottas near the end of the race. I am confident we would have had 2 Ferrari's on the podium, including Bottas.
We then would have had a battle with Max in there for 4th place too which would have been interesting as i believe the RB was capable when having track position to stay ahead of the Mercedes, and atleast use pitstops to then regain a potentially lost place again.

It's also very much worth concidering that had Vettel not made a false start, im pretty sure he would have been P1 in the first corner and in classic Vettel, he would have stayed in front and win the GP no brainer. It would also mean Bottas be P2, and both LeClerc and Max would not have had to respond to the ever so slightly stationary Ferrari and I think then Max would NOT have ended up alongside LeClerc in the corner and as such, Max would not have been taken out. It would then have been 1Vettel 2Bottas 3LeClerc 4Verstappen 5Hamilton. We would then have had a battle between Bottas and LeClerc during the race and a Battle between Max and Hamilton. It would have been a 1-2 for Ferrari with either Bottas, Verstappen or Hamilton on the podium. Though Bottas was having a great weekend, i do believe that fighting for P2 and P3 would have taken much more out of the life of his car/tires and as such it would be questionable he could have even maintained either position, so again, we could have seen Hamilton or Verstappen on that podium. Regarding Mercedes' tactics, i think that is also part to concider as to why i think RBR had a chance of the podium even though the Mercedes 'naturally' was faster than the RB.

Instead, it is really sad that Honda in it's home GP and RBR in it's then semi-home-gp got robbed of a podium or a top4 finish, which would have been surely celebrated, fully down to LeClerc.

I must say though, i honestly was surprised we didn't have more incidents during the race. Even though the bad weather had passed, i still expected atleast once a VSC. And it must be said, if that happened, it would have completely altered the race i'm sure.
Especially with the rules promoting contact.
Last edited by diffuser on 14 Oct 2019, 05:05, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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gshevlin wrote:
13 Oct 2019, 15:44
falonso81 wrote:
13 Oct 2019, 15:36
Best part of this otherwise boring race was Hamilton's radio after the race.

Toto: Lewis, we have won the constructors championship.
Lewis: Congrats guys. (I don't really care)
He was definitely keeping his enthusiasm well under control.
Is that what that was...”enthusiasm”? He could have done a better job of presenting himself as a team player, regardless of what his crew did or did not do correctly.

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Re: 2019 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 11 - 13

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diffuser wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 04:02
Scorpaguy wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 03:08
djos wrote:
14 Oct 2019, 00:00


Really, for years everyone has been complaining that Charlie (RIP) was heavy-handed, now Michael has loosened the reins and said "have at it" there are a bunch of you having a sook! #-o

Frankly, I'm pleased the nanny state rules have been revoked as the racing this year has been the best it has been in many decades!
djos....if i did not reside on the other side of the planet from you, I would buy you a beer =D>

Vettel's jump was a far cry from Kimi's...if it was within sensor tolerances, so be it. Lec's push of Max...what goes around comes around. I am not saying it was right, but Max used it to form his rep.

Vettel - The start is black and white. You either trigger the sensor or you don't. Vettel did'nt trigger the sensor.

I hate the fact that the rules aren't clear again. Either way you look at its f8ckup. I preffer the nany rules over suicide rules. To me the rules were clear before. You always have to leave space and contact was was frowned upon. Now it seems like they're making them up as they go along. If you smack someone as you try to pass him it's ok.

I think it should be like hockey in the NHL and the stick rule. You clip someone in the face it's a 2 min penatly, you draw blood, it's 4. I would go as far as if you clip someone while passing that causes the other car to be retired you should be reired.
To be honest, no the start is not black and white anymore (it has been for decades and should have remained so!), because now there is a tolerance introduced because the sensor does not pick up the amount of movement Vettel showed. That can have implications where drivers will attempt a rolling start to gain an advantage.

Leclerc's case was peculiar as they probably intended to leave matters as they were. However, I think they realized things were getting too far and had to do something in order to avoid worse in later races.

I btw do not agree with the fiarrari messages here, although I most certainly understand the sentiment.
#AeroFrodo