The F1 thread

Fretwired

fretmeister said:

The sky explanation about Rosberg being in the wrong mode is interesting. Great spot by Anthony wotsit.

Toto Woolf admitted it .. the rear light on Rosberg's car was flashing .. not sure if this is trouble for Hamilton as he should have known that Rosberg was slowing down and not tried to squeeze through the gap.

Richardj

It was more of a swerve than a squeeze towards Hamilton though,  just looked a little too aggressive and it ended in tears.

Fretwired

Comment of the day "drivers of the day .. Hamilton and Rosberg who gave us a great GP" .... :-)

Fretwired

No action - racing incident between Hamilton and Rosberg.

stickyfiddle

Fretwired said:

No action - racing incident between Hamilton and Rosberg.

Right answer. Good decision

TimmyO

Rosberg seemed to be the slightly bolshier in the interviews

chillidoggy

I laughed my cock off when I saw the pair of them take each other out! And the remainder was thrilling!

gavin_axecaster

TimmyO said:

Rosberg seemed to be the slightly bolshier in the interviews

Totally - he refused to accept any responsibility. The drivers choose their engine mode at the start, so why he says "we have to find out why I was in the wrong mode" is rather disingenuous (that chappie on Sky did a rather good breakdown of showing Rosberg selecting the wrong mode, comparing to footage from Sochi). Also claiming he knew exactly what was going on and wasn't distracted is BS - from his onboard camera you can see he was changing the engine mode coming out of the corner then looks across to his mirror and then swerves right. If he hadn't been fiddling with the buttons he would have made the move sooner and closed the door on Hamilton.
Hamilton showed a more mature attitude in his interview, although I suspect he was less "company man" behind closed doors.
The real loser today was Ricciardo - I suspect he feels his race was deliberately compromised to give Verstappen the better chance of winning so Red Bull could claim a moral and strategic victory by demoting Danil.

Majorscale

TimmyO said:

Rosberg seemed to be the slightly bolshier in the interviews

Yeah agreed, Rosberg comes off as a bit of a cnut : 

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12472/10283387/merc-explain-nico-rosberg-lewis-hamiltons-spanish-gp-crash

Fretwired

Rosberg's a twat ... he basically admits he was down on power and ran Hamilton off the road .... but then he changes his mind and becomes confused. If I was Hamilton I'd have hit him ...

chillidoggy

I'd have paid to see that, and the subsequent race ban would have just put the cap on it. The guy has such an attitude problem. He hadn't got any toys in the pram, so he threw his steering wheel out instead. Real mature, Lewis. Real mature.

Garthy

chillidoggy said:

I'd have paid to see that, and the subsequent race ban would have just put the cap on it. The guy has such an attitude problem. He hadn't got any toys in the pram, so he threw his steering wheel out instead. Real mature, Lewis. Real mature.

Who was it who chucked their wheel out in Monaco only for it to get run over seconds later?

Incidentally it  was Rosberg driving both Alonso and Hamilton off the track in Bahrain 2012 that brought this particular rule about.

PC_Dave

axisus said:

Can this year get any worse for Hamilton?????

I hate Rosberg, I hate the fact that he's gonna be world chump - sorry, champ.

Why? Because he is beating Princess Hamilton?

Fretwired said:

Rosberg's a twat ... he basically admits he was down on power and ran Hamilton off the road .... but then he changes his mind and becomes confused. If I was Hamilton I'd have hit him ...

There is a MASSIVE red light on the back of the car to tell each driver if the car in front has discharged all electrical power - this was flashing before Hamilton tried the dive.... He had overspeed, Rosberg shut the door, whammy. Simples.

PC_Dave

it just goes to show that F1 can be exciting with out the two Whingers out in front. I really enjoyed the race, and I was proper on the edge of my seat when Ricciardo was trying to get past Vettel.

Although the cynic in me can't help but feel that Red Bull changed Ricciardo's strategy to let the new boy win......

chillidoggy

Garthy said:

chillidoggy said:

I'd have paid to see that, and the subsequent race ban would have just put the cap on it. The guy has such an attitude problem. He hadn't got any toys in the pram, so he threw his steering wheel out instead. Real mature, Lewis. Real mature.

Who was it who chucked their wheel out in Monaco only for it to get run over seconds later?

Incidentally it  was Rosberg driving both Alonso and Hamilton off the track in Bahrain 2012 that brought this particular rule about.

That's as may be, but it doesn't make Lewis's behaviour any better though, does it? He's a 3 time World Champion, and should be setting a better example, not acting like a spoilt brat.

stickyfiddle

I'm liking Rosberg a lot this year. It's the first time he's really shown the grit needed to beat a multi-champion, and it's what he's been missing from his last couple of seasons. 

Yesterday he demonstrated very clearly that he won't be letting Hamilton have any leeway on track and that's exactly what a Schumacher, Vettel or indeed Hamilton would do. The moment the door was closing Hamilton could've lifted and backed out of the move but his Senna-obsession would never allow that...

I saw one comment on TheJudge suggesting Nico was in the wrong strat mod on purpose to get a boost off the line but wasn't expecting the car to hit harvest mode until the following corner where overtaking is virtually impossible. Apparently the Mercs are supposed to have an agreed engine mode decided in advance for the start, but obviously set it themselves. 

Roll on Monaco!

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

I'm liking Rosberg a lot this year. It's the first time he's really shown the grit needed to beat a multi-champion, and it's what he's been missing from his last couple of seasons. 

Yesterday he demonstrated very clearly that he won't be letting Hamilton have any leeway on track and that's exactly what a Schumacher, Vettel or indeed Hamilton would do. The moment the door was closing Hamilton could've lifted and backed out of the move but his Senna-obsession would never allow that...

I saw one comment on TheJudge suggesting Nico was in the wrong strat mod on purpose to get a boost off the line but wasn't expecting the car to hit harvest mode until the following corner where overtaking is virtually impossible. Apparently the Mercs are supposed to have an agreed engine mode decided in advance for the start, but obviously set it themselves. 

Roll on Monaco!

I wondered about the mode and think you could be right.

Personally I'm not a fan of Rosberg - he's a bad sportsman, always moans, nothing is ever his fault and he can't overtake ... he only looks good as he's in a fast car. Max Verstappen will piss all over him when the Red Bull gets an engine upgrade. I'd tip Max to beat him in Monaco, a track that will suit the Red Bull.

axisus

PC_Dave said:

axisus said:

Can this year get any worse for Hamilton?????

I hate Rosberg, I hate the fact that he's gonna be world chump - sorry, champ.

Why? Because he is beating Princess Hamilton?

Actually I'm not really a fan of Hamilton, I probably like him least of all the british drivers of the past few decades (I was a big fan of James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jensen Button). I marginally prefer him on race day as he is a Brit but I have never warmed to him as a person. 

stickyfiddle

Fretwired said:

stickyfiddle said:

I'm liking Rosberg a lot this year. It's the first time he's really shown the grit needed to beat a multi-champion, and it's what he's been missing from his last couple of seasons. 

Yesterday he demonstrated very clearly that he won't be letting Hamilton have any leeway on track and that's exactly what a Schumacher, Vettel or indeed Hamilton would do. The moment the door was closing Hamilton could've lifted and backed out of the move but his Senna-obsession would never allow that...

I saw one comment on TheJudge suggesting Nico was in the wrong strat mod on purpose to get a boost off the line but wasn't expecting the car to hit harvest mode until the following corner where overtaking is virtually impossible. Apparently the Mercs are supposed to have an agreed engine mode decided in advance for the start, but obviously set it themselves. 

Roll on Monaco!

I wondered about the mode and think you could be right.

Personally I'm not a fan of Rosberg - he's a bad sportsman, always moans, nothing is ever his fault and he can't overtake ... he only looks good as he's in a fast car. Max Verstappen will piss all over him when the Red Bull gets an engine upgrade. I'd tip Max to beat him in Monaco, a track that will suit the Red Bull.

Monaco will be close, I'm sure, but Rosberg has always gone well there. Hamilton generally hasn't, for whatever reason, so I could see the Bulls at least splitting the Mercs with Rosberg in front. But we'll see. I'd love to see Max giving Nico some hassle for the duration of the race. Entirely possible we could see another Mansell/Senna type thing in either direction.

darcym

if you look back through seasons gone, you'll find Hamilton has the attitude of forcing people to leave room or crash, thus leaving him an opening that isn't there.

Having watched this a few times I think there are a number of things in play here

1.) Rosberg was in the wrong engine mode, has to take responsibility for this as it created an opportunity for Hamilton - [Rosbergs fault]

2.) Hamilton took a lunge at an opening with greater speed [Hamilton's decision]

3.) Rosberg closed the door - with a one line change as he's allowed [Rosbergs Decision]

4.) Hamilton had two options, lift as the gap was closing and attack around the outside, hang on in and try the grass [Hamiltons decision]

5.) Hamiltons front wheel does not appear to be in line with the centre marker of Rosbergs car, and not quite in line with the back wheels of Rosbergs car - racing standards say at that point "the car in front has track position" - there is a debate on this if it's front wing of Hamiltons car or front wheel of hamilton car that has to be in line with Rosbergs rear wheel. For all the years I've known it's always been front wheel, Brundle makes a comment about it being front wing, I'd guess this would have to be confirmed, Brundle is current and in the know, but thats not always been the rule

6.) Hamilton chose to leave the track area to overtake (like it or not - thats what it was, as avoiding action would have been to lift) therefore Hamilton is in the wrong, you can not use the outer boundaries of the track to execute a pass, to avoid an accident Hamilton had to lift, he tired to use the grass to keep the car / pass going. [Hamiltons fault]

The thing to remember is that the speed these things are happening at gives only a moment to decide what to do, bad decisions can happen, it looks like a series of poor choices/mistakes by both the drivers, but the bottom line is Hamiltons approach to racing / passing cars caused the accident, he has tried and succeeded in years gone by with the approach of "I"m coming through, if you don't move I'll take us both out" this time Rosberg has not moved and they have both gone out, to Nico's huge advantage, maybe this will make Hamilton re-think this approach, yes he should be aggressive as he has done in the past, but the attitude of move or we will both go out should stop, it's poor racing and not brave, it's stupid. 

Rosberg (along with others) have been weak to this attitude/approach in the past and one of the reasons Hamilton has this reputation for great overtaking, it's not great, it's dangerous and stupid, where you look at Alonso/Ricciado and to an extent Vestappen they are aggressive, bold and daring overtakers, but without the risk to others on track.

While no-one wants to see an accident happen, I'm pleased the door was shut on Hamilton as it's cost him this time rather than made his bad approach (sometimes) to overtaking (mostly when he's under pressure for a result) back fire, rather than pay off.

Mistakes happen and this all looks like a mess, but for me it sits with Hamilton as all the decisions that led to the accident are his, while the opportunity created was from Nico's mistake.

I'd love to know clarification if it is front wheel or front wing that has to be along side the real tyre of the other car.