The 2014 Formula1 Thread!

[JulesMaximus]

I was shocked by Hamilton's crash in Q2. Looked like he lost the right front brake which caused the car to swerve left and out of control.

Still, I'm happy for Rosberg. I'm kind of pulling for him this year. I'd like to see him win a championship.

 

[_Rick_]

I was shocked by Hamilton's crash in Q2. Looked like he lost the right front brake which caused the car to swerve left and out of control.

Still, I'm happy for Rosberg. I'm kind of pulling for him this year. I'd like to see him win a championship.

Rosberg does look like he's just that little bit cooler, now that he's got his starts mostly worked out. His qualifying pace is right there, his race pace is as good as Hamilton's (with slightly higher fuel consumption, usually), and he just seems to work that extra bit harder, and takes every opportunity to get ahead, without taking chances when he doesn't need to.

And in interviews, he's always pleasant - maybe because he knows he's second, because that's what he deserves, as opposed to his Hamiltonship, who believes every racetrack should come with his name on the winner's trophy.

Enjoyed today's race, lot's of action in the midfield, and I know the track relatively well, which helps in understanding the moves of the drivers out of corners.
Massa again proves, that he's the least lucky Grand Prix driver never to die in an accident. My fantasy team are also all in the top 8 or so, with Rosberg's win being the topping to the cake that I needed.

Also interesting to see that for the first time someone could beat a Mercedes under more or less regular conditions. I don't count Canada, since there the performance was apparently massively compromised, but here the disadvantages that Hamilton had weren't insurmountable. It only needed a slight strategy and driver error, and Bottas proved to be insurmountable.

Also, amazing to see the Merc reach 340 kph down to the hairpin (with DRS). That's serious top speed, I wonder what we'll see in Monza and Spa.

Also, Vettel for once had a decent race. Still not quite doing what he wants to do, but he's hanging in with Alonso, who probably needs to serve as his benchmark, besides Ricciardio. He beat the latter only for the second time, and I assume mostly on strategy, but still, this might be the start of him clawing back what he can, this season. With Massa's luck, 4th in the championship should be his goal, which is still a fair bit off.

Good to see the Hülk perform well again, keeping that car in the points, despite their eternal -1-stopping not looking that great, as they constantly get overtaken in the Force Indias

 

[tweakmonkey]

What a great action packed race. I loved seeing the scraps between Ham/Raik/Ricc and Alonso/Ric.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I couldn't believe that Sauber in the middle of the track on the front straight didn't bring out a safety car and then when 3 marshalls ran across the track to push it out of the way I was even more stunned.

Great race though.

 

[Topweasel]

I couldn't believe that Sauber in the middle of the track on the front straight didn't bring out a safety car and then when 3 marshalls ran across the track to push it out of the way I was even more stunned.

Great race though.

Lewis wins the race if that happens, so in the end I am glad that didn't happen.

 

[Topweasel]

What a great action packed race. I loved seeing the scraps between Ham/Raik/Ricc and Alonso/Ric.

If only drivers didn't take big chunks out of Kimi's car every time they tried to work past him. He is up there with Massa in terms of luck this year (well second on the list, but Massa's bad luck is unapproachable).

 

[tweakmonkey]

Yeah and Masssa's crash was unlucky - but not Magnusson's fault as Massa claimed. Massa's had an awful season. Really a bummer since the car is so good.

 

[Topweasel]

Yeah and Masssa's crash was unlucky - but not Magnusson's fault as Massa claimed. Massa's had an awful season. Really a bummer since the car is so good.

It's hard to pit blame on either one. It was Massa's line and Mags was way off line. But it would have been nearly impossible for Mags to see or account for Massa.

 

[tweakmonkey]

Here's another view from it I saw from F1 Fanatic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QkJGYvku-o#t=46

 

[LTC8K6]

Hamilton's car is burning merrily in pit lane before he finished the 1st lap of qualifying...

Last row start for him at Hungary.

 

[_Rick_]

Nice qualifying, I hope the race will be as exciting. Hamilton unlucky, but I can't complain about my league prospects

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Epic race today

 

[JulesMaximus]

Fantastic race today! I was hoping Rosberg would get Hamilton at the end there. One more lap and I'm sure he would have gotten past Hamilton.

 

[_Rick_]

Happy with the action, but not happy with the result.
To keep up with my key competitors, Alonso has to perform better than Ricciardo. That dream shattered with three laps to go.
Rosberg has to do better than Hamilton: Hamilton runs him off the track in the last lap, gets no penalty, ignores team orders that would have made Rosberg a contender for victory
And Button and Hülkenberg have to get more points than Hamilton. With the Hülk getting taken out by Perez (who caused the second safety car and plenty of woes for the other guys in my team) and Button falling prey to that horrible call of judgement on tire strategy, that didn't happen either.

So, all in all a rotten weekend, result-wise. That first safety car robbed me the important Rosberg victory, and allowed Hamilton to get into contention.
Vettel must be fuming too, but then he has no one to blame but himself for later spinning out of the final corner.

But it seems that despite the still massive advantage in pace the Mercedes have (looks like they were running pretty high downforce, judging by how Rosberg pulled away at the start, and then didn't have the straight line speed to make much happen on the start-finish-straight) which slowed their race pace. Putting Hamilton on the hard rubber was also a bad call, on softs he wouldn't have performed worse, by the looks of it.
Massa also did two stints on hards, no idea why Williams thaught that was wise. At least he scored some important points. Kimi also got into a decent position for once. Both obviously at the cost of my runners, but that takes off some of the hurt. Dropped to second in both leagues now..
Also, Hamilton's quali bad luck is only offset by his race good luck. Sure, he had those DNFs, but whenever is quali is worst, he gets race results gifted to him. I wonder why Rosberg even bothers getting into the car on a Saturday

 

[JulesMaximus]

Happy with the action, but not happy with the result.
To keep up with my key competitors, Alonso has to perform better than Ricciardo. That dream shattered with three laps to go.
Rosberg has to do better than Hamilton: Hamilton runs him off the track in the last lap, gets no penalty, ignores team orders that would have made Rosberg a contender for victory
And Button and Hülkenberg have to get more points than Hamilton. With the Hülk getting taken out by Perez (who caused the second safety car and plenty of woes for the other guys in my team) and Button falling prey to that horrible call of judgement on tire strategy, that didn't happen either.

So, all in all a rotten weekend, result-wise. That first safety car robbed me the important Rosberg victory, and allowed Hamilton to get into contention.
Vettel must be fuming too, but then he has no one to blame but himself for later spinning out of the final corner.

But it seems that despite the still massive advantage in pace the Mercedes have (looks like they were running pretty high downforce, judging by how Rosberg pulled away at the start, and then didn't have the straight line speed to make much happen on the start-finish-straight) which slowed their race pace. Putting Hamilton on the hard rubber was also a bad call, on softs he wouldn't have performed worse, by the looks of it.
Massa also did two stints on hards, no idea why Williams thaught that was wise. At least he scored some important points. Kimi also got into a decent position for once. Both obviously at the cost of my runners, but that takes off some of the hurt. Dropped to second in both leagues now..
Also, Hamilton's quali bad luck is only offset by his race good luck. Sure, he had those DNFs, but whenever is quali is worst, he gets race results gifted to him. I wonder why Rosberg even bothers getting into the car on a Saturday

I really can't fault Hamilton for ignoring the team orders. He was as much in contention for a podium or a win at that point as anyone and Rosberg really wasn't even close enough to try to pass Hamilton when he made that call to the team or really at any point plus if Hamilton backed off to let Rosberg pass he would lose time to the drivers he was chasing. I do think that Hamilton running Rosberg wide was quite dangerous though.

Rosberg needs to step up his game to compete with Hamilton IMO. I think Hamilton can get more out of the car and is probably the better driver but Rosberg is more consistent. I'm not entirely sure he can handle the pressure though. Hamilton seems to be able to take a shit sandwich and turn it into a delightful meal and he seems to shine in adversity.

 

[LTC8K6]

Fantastic race today! I was hoping Rosberg would get Hamilton at the end there. One more lap and I'm sure he would have gotten past Hamilton.

If Hamilton lets Rosberg go, Rosberg would have gotten around Alonso.

Alonso did a great job with what he had to work with.

 

[Skurge]

If Hamilton lets Rosberg go, Rosberg would have gotten around Alonso.

Alonso did a great job with what he had to work with.

Not in the same lap.

 

[Topweasel]

Not in the same lap.

Yeah that is my big issue with the let Rosberg around brigade. If Ferrari/Alonso/Kimi can't win a championship, then honestly I would like to see Rosberg win. Specially after a couple of races that Lewis practically attacked the team. That said its an fairy tale that anyone would have been able to get around Alonso and as some suggested the Red Bull (can't remember his spelling right now) in the at most two laps he would have had had Lewis moved over. He might have been able to shove his nose into Alonso's butt, but thats about it. Add onto the fact that while Rosberg is pretty good clinical driver he isn't known for his lightning quick surgical passes.

 

[LTC8K6]

Not in the same lap.

In the last straight before Hamilton pushes Rosberg wide, Hamilton could have let Rosberg by. I think Rosberg gets Alonso given a little more time.

Or Alonso has to do some very good mirror driving.

But still, Alonso must really wish for just a little more car...

 

[_Rick_]

if Hamilton backed off to let Rosberg pass he would lose time to the drivers he was chasing.

Yeah, Rosberg was quite a ways off. I'm not sure what stopped him from closing the gap. But maybe he was already running in turbulent air at that distance and simply didn't have the grip to get any closer, since at that point the tires of both cars probably had comparable performance, with Lewis' fresh hards and Rosbergs not-so-fresh softs.
From an objective standpoint, it's harder to blame Lewis. But from a scoring standpoint for my team: I hope Lewis gets sacked

 

[manimal]

Fave race of the last few years! So much good driving and seeing the cars at the edge reminded me of the good ol days where you could SEE who was really driving the wheels off the car.

I could not believe Alonso's pace and how he kept hamilton off him for so long. If he was in say the RB as it is this year he would have won 3-4 races by now. I am almost feeling sorry for Seb right now.

Ricciardo got around him so fast Hamilton must have really been having tire issues since he could have gone past there in the same spot for 2-3 laps but didnt have the tires for the subsequent turn. The Cynic in me thinks Alonso was easy on the rookie to spite MB and ingratiate himself with RB since he will likely be there at the end of the year. Alonsos remarks the last few weeks about Daniel are interesting to me.



Really an amazing run for Hamilton. From pit row to podium is insanely crazy. He made some really aggressive passes and I was not surprised a few drivers didnt put him into the sand. He was basically doing the Senna "im gonna put my car there and you either hit me or let me trough" tactic.

 

[Timorous]

To be honest Mercedes missed a trick when they put Hamilton on the Prime tyre. He could have gone to the end on the Option and he would have been much faster, probably fast enough to win if he could have nailed Alonso.

Rosberg also lost out because he made a mistake when attacking Magnussen which allowed JEV through. His inability to overtake JEV is what cost Rosberg the win rather than anything Hamilton did or did not do.

 

[RockinZ28]

To be honest Mercedes missed a trick when they put Hamilton on the Prime tyre. He could have gone to the end on the Option and he would have been much faster, probably fast enough to win if he could have nailed Alonso.

Rosberg also lost out because he made a mistake when attacking Magnussen which allowed JEV through. His inability to overtake JEV is what cost Rosberg the win rather than anything Hamilton did or did not do.

Yea I was wondering why the hell they put him on the prime. Hadn't he just done like 30+ laps with the option? Know some of those were under SC, but still car had less fuel and they'd proven the options were durable.

Almost wanted to fast forward to the end that race was so suspenseful. Something about Rosberg I just don't like, not sure what though lol. Rather see Ham win the WDC. Hopefully his quali luck improves. Hope there is more rain too, only way the rest of the field has a chance besides Merc car failures.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Fave race of the last few years! So much good driving and seeing the cars at the edge reminded me of the good ol days where you could SEE who was really driving the wheels off the car.

I could not believe Alonso's pace and how he kept hamilton off him for so long. If he was in say the RB as it is this year he would have won 3-4 races by now. I am almost feeling sorry for Seb right now.

Ricciardo got around him so fast Hamilton must have really been having tire issues since he could have gone past there in the same spot for 2-3 laps but didnt have the tires for the subsequent turn. The Cynic in me thinks Alonso was easy on the rookie to spite MB and ingratiate himself with RB since he will likely be there at the end of the year. Alonsos remarks the last few weeks about Daniel are interesting to me.



Really an amazing run for Hamilton. From pit row to podium is insanely crazy. He made some really aggressive passes and I was not surprised a few drivers didnt put him into the sand. He was basically doing the Senna "im gonna put my car there and you either hit me or let me trough" tactic.

Hamilton was starting to struggle with his tires at that point too so getting around Alonso was much harder for him than it was for Ricciardo who was on fresh options when he caught up to them and it still took him a few laps to put the moves on them. It just goes to show how difficult it is to pass at this track.

 

[_Rick_]

Well, it sure looks like the knives-out season has truly begun, with Lewis being his usually classy self.
At least in the ATG league this result got me closer to being back at the top, while in my other league every Ricciardo victory is a huge loss

Can't wait for Monza.