Silverstone; British GP Round 09

[Cos]

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[rage2]

This red flag is boring lol.

BBC should've gotten Murray Walker to do commentary for this race. It's nice to hear his voice again in quali.

[Cos]

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[cloud7]

It should be an interesting race tomorrow, if it is this wet out there again.

Jenson sucks but he is admittedly getting used to it by now... he is having a worse slump than Massa's from earlier in the season.

[Kramerica]

Originally posted by cloud7
Jenson sucks but he is admittedly getting used to it by now... he is having a worse slump than Massa's from earlier in the season.

Not just Jenson but Mclaren in general seems to be in a bit of a slump for the past few races, they seem to still have no understanding of how to work the tires.

[rage2]

Slump? Didn't McLaren just win 2 races ago?

Fact is, McLaren has been fucking up pitstops and strategy non stop, and is really destroying their races for Hamilton. Button, I dunno what the issues there are, so not going to even touch that subject.

The MP4-27 suffers from 2 problems since the beginning of the season, and I'm not sure if it's a setup issue, or a car design issue.

1. Tire degradation in high temps.
2. Inability to get tire temps in cool temps (slicks or inters)

Some of the teams had problems with both cases, and have resolved them. McLaren really hasn't, and hence others have "caught up". Most of the top teams are now running close to each other in all conditions. The McLaren is fast in a small temperature window, and oddly enough, in full wet conditions. Hamilton was by far the fastest driver when it was in heavy wet conditions both this weekend, and in Malaysia. He started struggling Button style after the red flag when the track was dried up. No temps in the fronts, no grip, high wear, understeer, just basically a huge uphill battle.

I predict a struggle tomorrow for McLaren though. Even if it's full wet conditions, it'll get red flagged, and not rerun until the trac is good for inters. The race won't happen if it's in full wet conditions all race. The Pirellis just can't handle heavy rain.

[Cos]

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[rage2]

Nah, wasn't strategy. Everyone kept running faster and faster till the final laps, minus the last lap due to a yellow. If anything, having fresher inters would've gave Hamilton the advantage. Problem was, Hamilton couldn't get temps up front, no front grip limited his cornering speeds, and wham, 1-2s a lap slower than everyone else.

[rage2]

Dry start, green track, rain coming. This will be a fun one haha.

Wonder how long the tires are going to last with ZERO dry testing haha. Not that it matters, Maldonado is going to take out Hamilton at the start anyways.

edit - and with all the Maldonado bitching last week, he closes the door on Hamilton on the outside who backs out of the move, and closes the door on Kimi on the outside, who gets pushed off the track.

[rage2]

Hamilton vs Alonso battle on lap 19. :thumbsup:

[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by rage2
Hamilton vs Alonso battle on lap 19. :thumbsup:

Epic battle, dunno about this strategy of McLaren...

[rage2]

Yea, McLaren was just slow everywhere, just brutal. Everyone understands the tires enough to get them to work with no testing. McLaren is still lost. In the last 2 stints, Button was working his tires slightly better than Hamilton, so either Button has improved. or Hamilton was as lost as Button with no testing.

I swear cheering for McLaren is as frustrating as cheering for the Flames.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by rage2
I swear cheering for McLaren is as frustrating as cheering for the Flames. This is rather accurate.

[Cos]

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[DJ Lazy]

Originally posted by Cos


Maldonado is a retard. I hope they give him some shit. I feel a little bad for Alonso. I dont like him much but he drove quite well.


10,000 Euro Fine and a Reprimand.. Which I thought was ok, until I saw that Kobayashi got dealt a 25,000 Euro fine for unsafe pit stop.:nut:

[Cos]

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[cloud7]

I am guessing that the stewards saw it the same way that Martin Brundle saw it... Maldonado went into the corner way too fast and ran wider than intended and hit Perez. The key was that it was not intentional and not reckless. I don't disagree with it personally, but he should have probably get a worse penalty than he got last race. At this rate Maldonado will surpass Hamilton as the most penalized driver since 2003... LOL.

As for Kobayashi, he actually hurt someone (3 of his crew actually), so there has to be some kind of penalty. He was not even close to stopping... and with so many people allowed in an F1 stop, it could have been much worse. More people = bigger risk for more people to be hurt in a freak accident. F1 is the only racing series that allows this many people in a pit stop, and I am surprised that there hasn't been an attempt to further reduce the number of pit crews. With refuelling banned during pit stop (which reduced the number of crews already), having say a further 4 less crews during pit stop (1 less crew per corner) probably wouldn't increase the pit stop time that much either... from the sub-3s stop now to maybe 5-6s I am guessing... and it is the same for everyone.

[buh_buh]

It may not have been intentional, but it was still reckless.
If you didn't mean to drive into someone, doesn't that mean you don't have the proper skill to properly judge your braking points? Isn't that what having a superlicense is about?

[Mibz]

Exactly. Sure, drivers make mistakes every now and then, but when you're constantly pushing a little too hard in situations where the consequences are nearly guaranteed involve other drivers/cars then something needs to change. Hamilton appears to have smartened up, Maldonado needs to do the same.

As for doubling stopped time in the interest of safety. *shrug* I think there are plenty of safety measures in place and the mechanics know what they're getting in to. Kobayashi's incident will probably be a wake-up call for all drivers (except Maldonado).

[rage2]

The Hamilton incidents are quite different than the Maldonado incidents.

In Hamilton's case, he was going for tight gaps, and getting the door closed on him. Hamilton only made a mistake once, Canada last year, where he understeered lap 1 turn 1 into webber, spinning him out. Very similar to Maldonado's incident yesterday.

In Maldonado's case, he's going for gaps, then running into opponents that are giving him space. He's closing the door on people and running into them. When the door's closed on him, he runs into people. Basically, you try to pass or get passed by Maldonado, you're hooped, unless you go off track.

Lap 1 saw Maldo close the door hard on Hamilton, who backed off and slotted behind him. Maldo closed the door hard on Kimi as well, who went off track.

Can't really compare the 2 driver's incidents, as Maldo is fucking anyone over that comes close to him, even if the drivers give him room to avoid an incident. Hamilton last 2 years was really targetted by the other drivers, everyone closes the door on him, and he gets out of it most of the time, and penalized when there's contact. This year, he's just not going for gaps anymore so he's getting criticised for not passing as much as before.

[buh_buh]

who's hypocriticizing Hamilton this year for not making enough passes?

bsKy-vUE2D4

[rage2]

He was criticized in the BBC forum/red button or whatever they call their after race show prior to his Canadian GP win for not being aggressive enough and cruising to points. Then they totally turned arround and said he was too aggressive in Valencia and should've let Maldonado go because of points.

[buh_buh]

I don't think he should've let Maldonado go in Valencia, but that's imo. He had the right to defend his position. Just because Maldonado's crazy doesn't mean he should let him through. If that's the case, Maldonado should get a pile of easy passes this year.

[Alpine Autowerks]

They should let him qualify and do the formation lap....and then black flag him. Let him sit on his ass for a race.