F1 2014

[WoShiDavid]

Sauber seriously need to update their drivers; I used to support Sutil but seeing as how both of them are pretty incompetent and crashed out during the race (Especially Gutierrez who threw away a points-scoring finish) I was forced to reluctantly change my mind about him... they need someone like Hülkenberg.

And as for Hamilton and Rosberg... I doubt Rosberg did that on purpose, he doesn't seem like the type; after all he obeyed the team to stay behind Hamilton in Sepang 2013 but nonetheless he will be labeled as a cheat by some :/ Hamilton too needs to chill out; he took that way too personally.

Also I may be the only one here but even if you don't like Vettel, I would much rather see him competing with Ricciardo when his car doesn't break apart... Ricciardo is undoubtedly doing an amazing job but Vettel's mechanical gremlins have flattered him somewhat for 2 races in a row.

 

[WoShiDavid]

Don't give up on Kamui!

Yeah unless there are some retirements, I doubt even someone like Alonso can drag that tin can of a Caterham to 9th or higher... of course, Marussia were cruelly denied of 10th place in 2012 when Petrov overtook Pic for 12th (Eventually became 11th after Di Resta crashed out) with about 10 laps remaining in Interlagos, so anything can happen but as of now Caterham is really screwed if a miracle doesn't happen.

 

[DHR-107]

And as for Hamilton and Rosberg... I doubt Rosberg did that on purpose, he doesn't seem like the type; after all he obeyed the team to stay behind Hamilton in Sepang 2013 but nonetheless he will be labeled as a cheat by some :/ Hamilton too needs to chill out; he took that way too personally.

Also I may be the only one here but even if you don't like Vettel, I would much rather see him competing with Ricciardo when his car doesn't break apart... Ricciardo is undoubtedly doing an amazing job but Vettel's mechanical gremlins have flattered him somewhat for 2 races in a row.

I sit in at least 2 F1 channels on IRC and both exploded when Rosberg "made a mistake". People from all sides saying it was cheating or not a mistake etc. I'm not so sure either way, the way he drive his pole lap compared to the lap where he made a mistake, he was acting very erratically on the steering wheel randomly sawing away at it before not really attempting to make the corner at all. I'm very much on the fence about it, Rosberg should of not looked THAT smug about getting pole though when he knew ham was .2 up over the first sector...

Ricciardo was faster than Vettel all weekend. He had a bit of a dodgy start (and got leap frogged by the ridiculous start of Kimi) but stayed together and when he got a whiff of second he hunted Hamilton down... Vettel's arrogant team radio call kinda says it all, "Come on GUYS!!!!.... *oh fuck being recorded* I'm sure youre trying everything..." That didn't look good at all to most people. I'm sure Vettel is great, but he is simply not on song yet this year.

 

[WoShiDavid]

I sit in at least 2 F1 channels on IRC and both exploded when Rosberg "made a mistake". People from all sides saying it was cheating or not a mistake etc. I'm not so sure either way, the way he drive his pole lap compared to the lap where he made a mistake, he was acting very erratically on the steering wheel randomly sawing away at it before not really attempting to make the corner at all. I'm very much on the fence about it, Rosberg should of not looked THAT smug about getting pole though when he knew ham was .2 up over the first sector...

Ricciardo was faster than Vettel all weekend. He had a bit of a dodgy start (and got leap frogged by the ridiculous start of Kimi) but stayed together and when he got a whiff of second he hunted Hamilton down... Vettel's arrogant team radio call kinda says it all, "Come on GUYS!!!!.... *oh fuck being recorded* I'm sure youre trying everything..." That didn't look good at all to most people. I'm sure Vettel is great, but he is simply not on song yet this year.

Agreed on Rosberg, if what he did was accidental then he didn't do himself any favors by that smug look... still, the stewards have access to all the telemetry and cleared him of any wrongdoing so I personally give him the benefit of the doubt... about Vettel, when your car is breaking down (again) we should be giving him some leeway for expressing frustration, even if it is easy to hate on a 4x WDC; I doubt anyone would consider it arrogant had that been Ricciardo. And actually no, Vettel was faster than Ricciardo in Q2 when his ERS was actually working :/ I'm a fan of him but I'd rather have him beaten on equal footing like Bahrain or Shanghai rather than leave a question mark on what could have been like Australia, Barcelona and Monaco (For all we know it could have been him chasing down Hamilton instead of Ricciardo since he was actually ahead until his car broke) so I hope Red Bull sorts out his issues fast.

 

[Coronis]

Nah Vettel's an arrogant spoiled brat.

 

[WoShiDavid]

Nah Vettel's an arrogant spoiled brat.

Yeah indeed... not. Otherwise so are all the other WDCs, including Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso, Räikkönen (Who is always flippant and sarcastic but yet loved, if Vettel did what he did he'd be eaten alive) and Hamilton (Who has already shot himself in the foot with those radio calls in Monaco). Easy to hate on him, but let's try to be more rational here.

 

[Coronis]

Still a brat imo.

 

[WoShiDavid]

Still a brat imo.

Well you don't have to like him, that's perfectly fine... but a bit less slime-throwing and more basic respect as a human wouldn't hurt. Unless of course, he does something like a Schumacher on Villeneuve in 1997, then yes that warrants flaming... with all due respect to him as he's now in a coma; may he recover soon :/

 

[phalanx]

Schumacher did something similar to Hill as well, but it backfired

 

[WoShiDavid]

Ah yes he did, but didn't he get away with it since the stewards cleared him of any wrongdoing? It was in 1994 if I remember correctly

 

[DHR-107]

Schumacher did something similar to Hill as well, but it backfired

Ah yes he did, but didn't he get away with it since the stewards cleared him of any wrongdoing? It was in 1994 if I remember correctly

Let's get history straight here. Schumacher got away with knocking Hill out of the race in Adelaide 1994. Schumacher has since admitted (before his terrible accident and after he retired again) that he did this on purpose. Nothing has changed, he didn't lose his title or points form that season. He was "cleared". Many fans never forgot it however.

1997, he tried the same thing with Jacques Villeneuve. It backfired, Schumacher crashed out and got thrown out of the championship, but his wins remained on his record. Both ways, he got off pretty lightly. Having since admitted the Hill thing though, I think its ridiculous no action was taken against him.

 

[WoShiDavid]

Well he did get away pretty lightly on track, but his reputation is permanently tainted... I doubt we'll be seeing anyone top those blatant acts of cheating anytime soon. I suppose drivers require a certain mean streak in order to win (I doubt we have any multiple WDC winners who haven't been involved in some form of controversy as of late), but in Schumacher's case he has sacrificed his racing integrity and ethics to do so... not worth it IMO.

 

[Coronis]

Drivers certainly weren't scrutinised as closely as they are today. I doubt we'll ever see anything to top Schumi's disgraces.

 

[mirza]

If you ain't cheatin you ain't tryin. Schumi was a killer on track. He would do ANYTHING to win. Mika was my man. I had to sit thru massive Schumacher leads and hope he would crash out so the 2 Mercedes would get the 1-2 but it rarely panned out lol.

Also, name 1 top level driver who is not arrogant? Lewis strikes me as the biggest cry baby ego maniac. It's all perception and expectations. Honestly who cares just watch the races. Guys like Maldonado are a danger and should not be in F1.

The next couple years will be exciting watching Mercedes vs Red Bull vs Ferrari vs McLaren if they ever get their shit together.

 

[Coronis]

Finally, Chilton doesn't finish!

 

[WoShiDavid]

Wow that was a total shocker of a race :O

+ A non-Mercedes car actually winning
+ Congrats to Ricciardo for maiden win
+ Great drive from both SFI drivers; they were being mobile chicanes and a huge headache for RBR... pity about that Perez-Massa collision :/
+ Great drive by Rosberg to nurse a wounded car to the end of the race and even finish P2, even if that was mostly due to Perez being a mobile chicane.
- Chilton lost the only thing going for him :P Poor Bianchi though.
- Not taking anything away from Ricciardo but what was Red Bull doing with Vettel's strategy; he was ahead of Ricciardo before the pitstops and even had 2 Williams as a buffer so he shouldn't have had emerged behind him after the pitstops... Vettel's engineer also told him not to attack Ricciardo afterwards and let him wear out his tyres chasing Perez... Bet he didn't think that Ricciardo might break through Perez and he did >_>
- Rosberg should have totally gotten a 5 second penalty for cutting that chicane, intentional or not it helped him gain an advantage over Hamilton.

 

[DHR-107]

Wow.

What an incredible race. And hats off to Ricciardo: "What does it feel like being an F1 winner?" "It feels bloody terrific!" Great quote from a really likeable young man. As soon as Hamilton's car broke I was pretty sad that Rosberg was going to waltz away with it, but then the Merc seemed to get slower and slower.... And then all of a sudden the Williams/Force Indias and Red Bulls were there! A brilliant drive from Perez cut off by a stupid blocking move into turn 1 which caught Massa out tidy... Both were looking so strong up until that point. I heard they suffered impacts of approximately 27G when they hit that barrier, which is a pretty big hit. Good to know both are ok. Perez has since been penalised for moving off line to try and block Massa.

Jenson sneaking his McLaren up into 4th between the carnage was a result better than the car is capable of, definitely got lucky with how the cards fell in terms of problems/accidents and safety cars. I thought at one point Massa was going to come through and blitz it with 6 laps to go, but he found it too difficult to pass Vettel. Ricciardo hanging on to pass Perez and then charging down and moving into the lead with 3 to go was absolutely fantastic. He has shown Red Bull what he is made of and is hopefully going to be a star of the future.

Further down the top ten, a solid result from the other FI and the other Williams, solid showing from Hulkenburg and a good solid drive from Bottas. Ferrari's were there or thereabouts too, Kimi lucky to get points in the final showing. Man, I did not expect so many retirements though. Canada is usually pretty hard on cars, but half the grid not finishing is a rare thing. I don't remember the last time that happened!

 

[Coronis]

Oh Dannyy boyyyyyyy. Was a delightful race, excitement throughout. Almost thought for a bit Rosberg could hold on. Very good drive from Perez, shame what happened with him and Massa. Button the quiet achiever in 4th while we were all focused on the battle up front. Ferrari just don't seem to have the pace.. Could really see constructors end up being Merc, Red Bull, Williams at this stage.

 

[WoShiDavid]

Williams is facing 2012 all over again... their car's raw pace means they should be ranked higher in the WCC, but these sort of racing incidents along with some bad luck means they are unable to capitalize.

 

[phalanx]

how long until Red Bull focus on 1 driver?

 

[WoShiDavid]

When the situation turns into that of Ferrari... Räikkönen is hands-down the biggest disappointment of the season so far.

 

[DHR-107]

lol Raikkonen still disappoints...

Anyway: Was an ok race this time around. Merc screwed Hamilton in the pitstops (not a conspiracy theorist, thats what happened) and he couldnt quite make up the time difference before the end of the race. Great race from Bottas and Massa though. What a sensational Pole lap Massa did. Fantastic to see him back up the front after that horrific injury in hungary.

Decent racing down the back of the field, Perez making his mark and leading the race for a good chunk of time in a pretty fast Force India. I thought he was going to gain more time back on the super softs as the other runners started slowing, but the yellow tyres held on much longer than I thought. Another poor race for McLaren though, Magnussen scoring points and Button fading down to 11th towards the end. I was pretty surprised there was no big start line smash as there has been a few times here, everyone was very well behaved into the first two corners.

 

[WoShiDavid]

Yes, indeed Hamilton was screwed over at the pitstops... I wonder if it has anything to do with the way he positions his car in the pits? I doubt the pit-crew train themselves to be 1 second slower for another driver because that's just absurd. Either way Rosberg has had better luck this season so if Hamilton wins by virtue of double points I doubt I'd be disappointed unless Rosberg gets his share of DNFs as well.

Also ironic how Red Bull probably had their worst performance of the season on their own turf... Vettel had an electronics glitch so it was already game over for him while Ricciardo... at least he passed Hülkenberg in the pits.

Anyway what's with Alonso's teammates mysteriously underperforming (Except Hamilton who was McLaren's protege anyway) the moment they start partnering him? Fisi, Trulli (Who got kicked out when he was able to challenge him in 04), Piquet, Massa and now Räikkönen? Not a conspiracy theorist but just wow.

 

[DHR-107]

I cant believe Alonso said Massa was the fastest team mate hes ever had. Bit of a kick in the teeth to both Hamilton and Raikkonen don't you think? Not that either of them will give a crap about what Alonso has to say about things like that :P

New rumours abound today about Caterham and Fernandez' future in the sport... Apparently he said something along the lines of "F1 hasn't worked" on twitter and closed his account down. Future looks very bleak for Caterham what with Marussia on the up. Even Bernie doesnt want 22 cars on the grid anymore...

 

[WoShiDavid]

Even if it's for PR, at least say something that isn't a blatant lie... everyone knows it's Hamilton for obvious reasons.