The F1 thread

Fretwired

Heartfeltdawn said:

Vettel dull? Bollocks.

Vettel is dull .. maybe great inside F1 but has no value outside it. My wife would have no idea who he is .. she knows Lewis Hamilton but she couldn't name Vettel if her life depended on it. Hamilton hangs our with Hollywood A-list stars, rap artists models and appears on prime time TV shows in the USA.

This is what Bernie thinks ..
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119145

Heartfeltdawn

Fretwired said:

Vettel is dull .. maybe great inside F1 but has no value outside it. My wife would have no idea who he is .. she knows Lewis Hamilton but she couldn't name Vettel if her life depended on it. Hamilton hangs our with Hollywood A-list stars, rap artists models and appears on prime time TV shows in the USA.

This is what Bernie thinks ..
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119145

That link is great. Bernie talks about how Lewis is a hero in the UK and how the British love F1. And how has Bernie rewarded Britain? By regularly threatening to remove the British Grand Prix from the fucking calendar!  

Lewis hangs out with celebrities (which I find dull but clearly there's some market for that kind of stuff) and it's the same social media platforms that Bernie sees no worth in that elevated Hamilton up there on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Here's a fun quote from 2012 in an Autosport interview:

"People ask if I'd like a situation like Fernando's right now at Ferrari, with basically the whole team working around me, but, to be honest, I don't think I would. I kind of like having someone as quick as Jenson there, and having to beat the dude every time."

Not sure he's liking a quicker team mate now...

Fretwired

Heartfeltdawn said:

Not sure he's liking a quicker team mate now...

I don't think Rosberg's really any quicker. Hamilton just can't stop screwing up his starts and has had some bad luck regarding car failures. Rosberg has always been a percentages guy and in modern F1 its a great strategy if you have the car. Get pole, scoot away and then just drive for the win. I think both Hamilton and Vettel are out of sorts. If Vestappen were in a Mercedes Rosberg would be back to number 2. Rosberg's not a real racer - very few are. Vestappen's the most exciting talent in F1 right now.

57Deluxe

if only Jensen had secured a competitive ride...

Heartfeltdawn

Fretwired said:

I don't think Rosberg's really any quicker. Hamilton just can't stop screwing up his starts and has had some bad luck regarding car failures. Rosberg has always been a percentages guy and in modern F1 its a great strategy if you have the car. Get pole, scoot away and then just drive for the win. I think both Hamilton and Vettel are out of sorts. If Vestappen were in a Mercedes Rosberg would be back to number 2. Rosberg's not a real racer - very few are. Vestappen's the most exciting talent in F1 right now.

The ultimate metric of speed on track is where you finish. Yes, in terms of potential speed with no other factors influencing it then Hamilton is the quicker driver by ability alone but ultimately he's second this year and has been looking at Rosberg's rear end far too many times. If Usain Bolt fucks up a start and finishes second to Justin Gatlin, then nobody argues about who's been the quickest on the night. I'm certainly no Rosberg fan but he's had his critics and he's come back this year with the near perfect riposte. 

Not a real racer - by what factor? Alain Prost was totally different in approach to Senna or a balls out driver like Montoya but was just as much a real racer.  People claimed the same about Button when he won the Drivers Title and Vettel's had some of the same comments. 

Verstappen is indeed a huge talent. Potential there for some big things. Much like Vettel who showed he had something from that first practice session in a BMW Sauber. 

stickyfiddle

In the classic analogy, Hamilton is Senna - win or bust. Rosberg is Prost - clearly not as quick but playing the numbers game and grabbing wins when presented. 

If Rosberg stops Ham doing what he needs to to overtake him this season then he absolutely deserves the title. This is the only guy to beat Schumacher consistently, and while maybenot as quick at his best, he's done a great job against Lewis this year.

Suspect it's through hard bloody work. I can well imagine he's put more hours in learning the engine map settings and clutch control, where Lewis may well take a more "I'll do it on the night" approach.

stickyfiddle

Hulk to Renault, then.

Seems a no-brainer to me. Renault are behind FI at the moment but, as a manufacturer, have budget and in-house engines on their side, meaning there is at least an outside chance of winning something in 2-5 years time. FI are a great midfield team but you can't see them ever winning a title under any circumstances. 

K-Mag or Palmer or someone else for the other Renault seat?

Fretwired

Ron Dennis is to leave McLaren at the end of the year .. his contract hasn't been renewed. Maybe the F1 team can make some progress.

fretmeister

Lewis' distracting extra-curricula activities have taken an odd turn





Yup - he's in the new Call of Duty as a character.

Hopefully Max is in the game too...

stickyfiddle

That's a fairly huge bit of news (Ron, not Lewis!). 

Fretwired

fretmeister said:

Lewis' distracting extra-curricula activities have taken an odd turn





Yup - he's in the new Call of Duty as a character.

Hopefully Max is in the game too...

WTF ... :-)

Maybe he's aiming to frighten Rosberg ... his last hope for the championship.

Modellista

Heartfeltdawn said:

Fretwired said:

Hamilton in meltdown? He walks out of a press conference and refuses to answer questions from the press ever again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/37594558

And Vettel's had his card marked by Ferrari - he must improve both his driving and his attitude to keep his seat after the end of the 2017 season. I wonder if Vettel and Hamilton might swap places at some point?

Why would he chance it going to Ferrari for 2017, a season of many technical changes, when Ferrari have consistently shown over the last few years that they're very poor at adapting to new regulations? 

No, it would be the 2018 season, so at least he'd have a chance to see how they had adapted to the new regs.

I think Hamilton has one team change left in him, so I think moving to Ferrari is the obvious one.  He's clearly not happy with the team this year.  Yes his starts have been poor, but it's mechanical failure that's put Rosberg in front.  I can see him wanting to see if he can tame the Ferrari team as the last big challenge of his career.

As for spunking money on Kimi, I would say that's money well spent, considering he's leading his team-mate.

Fretwired

Vettel's lost the plot .. four letter word tirades over team radio and then trying to bully Verstappen who gave him the finger .. the guy's a disgrace. I've had it with F1 ..

Heartfeltdawn

modellista said:

No, it would be the 2018 season, so at least he'd have a chance to see how they had adapted to the new regs.

I think Hamilton has one team change left in him, so I think moving to Ferrari is the obvious one.  He's clearly not happy with the team this year.  Yes his starts have been poor, but it's mechanical failure that's put Rosberg in front.  I can see him wanting to see if he can tame the Ferrari team as the last big challenge of his career.

As for spunking money on Kimi, I would say that's money well spent, considering he's leading his team-mate.

Money well spent...

2014: Alonso 161 points, Kimi 55. 
2015: Vettel 278 points and three wins, Kimi 150 points and zero wins. 
2016: Vettel 192 with seven podium finishes, Kimi 178 points with four podium finishes. 

Equally if you're going to say that it's mechanical failure that has put Rosberg in front, it's mechanical failure that has helped make the Vettel-Kimi gap closer (Vettel with one DNS this year being an obvious pointer). 

It's not a case of Ferrari needing someone to tame them. It's a case that the management has been fucking rubbish for years. Alonso performed heroics getting some of those red lawnmowers as high up the grid as he did. Going from Mercedes, a team with as good a management structure as you can see in F1 right now to a prancing problematic horse... what's in it for Hammy? A big pay cheque and suffering with a dog of a car. Yummy

Heartfeltdawn

Fretwired said:

Vettel's lost the plot .. four letter word tirades over team radio and then trying to bully Verstappen who gave him the finger .. the guy's a disgrace. I've had it with F1 ..

You come to this forum and describe a former Prime Minister as a cunt and then you get all Mary Whitehouse over a driver swearing. Odd. 

Fretwired

Heartfeltdawn said:

Fretwired said:

Vettel's lost the plot .. four letter word tirades over team radio and then trying to bully Verstappen who gave him the finger .. the guy's a disgrace. I've had it with F1 ..

You come to this forum and describe a former Prime Minister as a cunt and then you get all Mary Whitehouse over a driver swearing. Odd. 

@Heartfeltdawn I'm not moaning about the swearing .. he's an ex-four time world champion .. how about shutting his mouth and driving and trying to overtake the car in front .. you can't do both at 180 mph. He's paid to drive a Ferrari .. he was trying to get Max a penalty which he succeeded in doing and getting himself on the podium. The stewards would have seen the incident .. drivers should shut up and drive.

fretmeister

Vettel has 10s penalty for moving under braking.

Ric now 3rd. Max 4th. Seb 5th.

No word on the swearing yet.

Garthy

The swearing will likely go to a WMSC hearing in Paris. I genuinely can't recall a driver telling Charlie or any other FOM/FIA official to fuck off four times over radio in any motorsport*. Even Senna didn't say that to Belestre behind closed doors (he did call him an idiot though in the clerk of the courses office at Suzuka).

*Kyle Busch flipped the bird at an official in a NASCAR race, they parked him for two laps, fined him $25k and put him on probation for the remainder of the season.

fretmeister said:

Vettel has 10s penalty for moving under braking.

Ric now 3rd. Max 4th. Seb 5th.

No word on the swearing

stickyfiddle

Just seen Ham's first corner. That was outrageous! How did he get away with that?

And @Heartfeltdawn is spot on re Ferrari. They're a mess at the top level and have been ever since Domenicalli was pushed. And it's not like his tenure was covered in glory for the most part. Any driver already in a podium team would be nuts to move there.

fretmeister

1st corner incidents are almost never punished. And he didn't save a place by going off - he was already far enough ahead.