Formula 1 2013

Which driver would you want to win the WDC?

  • Sebastian Vettel

    Votes: 8 33.3%
  • Fernando Alonso

    Votes: 6 25.0%
  • Kimi Raikkonen

    Votes: 3 12.5%
  • Other

    Votes: 7 29.2%

  • Total voters
    24
Not saying he's better than Kobayashi, no way. But he possibly has potential, it was a good drive yesterday. I'd much rather have Kobayashi back though. I dunno, they look horrible atm.
I would expect some improvement from him, for starters maybe score some points. With that being said, does anyone feel a sense of deja vu with regards to the 2013 season?

2003 Ferrari = 2013 Red Bull
2003 Williams = 2013 Ferrari
2003 McLaren = 2013 Lotus
2003 Renault = 2013 Mercedes

Maybe it's just me, but there is an uncanny resemblance to their peformances... if that trend continues then we'll probably see both Raikkonen and Alonso just fall short of stopping Vettel from winning his 4th championship, the same way both Montoya and Raikkonen failed to stop Schumacher from winning his 6th championship despite pressuring him all seaaon long.
 
Monaco in 2 weeks would be a circuit where Mercedes will really be looking forward to... they are excellent in qualifying because of the way they push their tyres but that's exactly the thing that kills them on race day. With Monaco being a circuit where it's notoriously difficult to overtake we should expect them to at least end up on the podium; it doesn't matter how slow they go if no one can get past ;)
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
Well, Spain was not what I would call a classic race...

Mistakes from Mercedes in strategy there, trying to go on a Three stopper when a 4 would of been much better. Especially in Hamiltons case, he dropped like a stone after half way trying to save tyres... Was silly considering a 4 stopper was something like 7 seconds slower over the race distance, Ros/Ham would of made up that difference just by having newer tyres on for more of the race.

Great to see Massa on the podium again, it would be a miracle story if he keeps this up and maybe sneaks a surprise win somewhere. Would be a huge relief I think. Great to see Di Resta hassling Rosberg towards the end as well... Sutil once again being very unlucky and melting his brakes. I am pretty impressed with Force India's pace so far this season, I hope they can keep it up!

Good race for Guittierez too, FL and led the race for two laps. When that happened I thought Alonso/Raikkonen and co were coming up to lap the poor guy! :D Didn't even realise he was leading the race! Shame he daded back to 11th, but he was super close to scoring points and being the first of this years rookies to do so :)
 
Well, Spain was not what I would call a classic race...

Mistakes from Mercedes in strategy there, trying to go on a Three stopper when a 4 would of been much better. Especially in Hamiltons case, he dropped like a stone after half way trying to save tyres... Was silly considering a 4 stopper was something like 7 seconds slower over the race distance, Ros/Ham would of made up that difference just by having newer tyres on for more of the race.

Great to see Massa on the podium again, it would be a miracle story if he keeps this up and maybe sneaks a surprise win somewhere. Would be a huge relief I think. Great to see Di Resta hassling Rosberg towards the end as well... Sutil once again being very unlucky and melting his brakes. I am pretty impressed with Force India's pace so far this season, I hope they can keep it up!

Good race for Guittierez too, FL and led the race for two laps. When that happened I thought Alonso/Raikkonen and co were coming up to lap the poor guy! :D Didn't even realise he was leading the race! Shame he daded back to 11th, but he was super close to scoring points and being the first of this years rookies to do so :)
By rights Di Resta should have taken 6th place away from Rosberg but he managed to get a DRS boost against a backmarker he was lapping... quite witty and after that Di Resta couldn't get close enough to Rosberg. Sutil was also chasing Hamilton for 12th place but like Di Resta couldn't quite get past... and oh btw it wasn't a brake issue that costed him 30-40 seconds in the pits, it was a wheelnut issue that cross-threaded (Whatever that means but I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with Sutil's driving) and basically knocked him out of contention for the points. Even if I didn't support him I would still say he is hands down the unluckiest driver this season, he has failed to score points for 4 races in a row through no fault of his own (Bahrain is debatable but so far no one got a puncture from being forced wide except him); last season it was Hamilton who received the bane of all bad luck, now it's Sutil. Despite what the points tally would suggest Sutil is an even match for Di Resta with all due respect to the latter; Di Resta may have the upper hand in qualifying but in race day Sutil may turn the tables on him as seen in Spain where he jumped from 13th to 8th... Seeing that Di Resta was 10th earlier on in the race and finished 7th Sutil would have probably been around 5th-6th were it not for that botched pit stop but I guess it can't helped... same for Mercedes, Rosberg is far closer to Hamilton than what the points tally would imply.

With that being said Lotus & Force India seem to treat their tyres the best; in fact Sutil and Di Resta set the 3rd and 7th fastest lap of the race respectively. They may not be impressive in qualifying, but their race pace is there.

I'm quite sure Bianchi would have scored a point already if he were behind the wheel of a Sauber and not a Marussia, but eh, at least Gutierrez is showing some improvement... still not enough to convince me (And most likely almost everyone else) that he deserves the seat over Kobayashi... oh and btw, it was Bottas not Gutierrez who came close to scoring a point for the rookies, he finished 11th earlier on at Sepang.

I don't really like how tyres are such a huge factor for this season, it makes pit strategies far more significant than wheel-to-wheel racing... at the very least it has prevented a team from dominating the pack; the last time we had 3 front-running teams so evenly matched was in 2003.

Monaco is a track that would best suit Mercedes, the lack of opportunities for overtaking will work in their favour... could they possibly upset the top 3 teams?
 
The way he rear-ended Sutil at Bahrain is unacceptable even by rookie standards...
lol, but even still let's see how he develops. Obviously it's not a great start but I think it's generally accepted that they're rookies for a reason and take a bit more time, likely to expect mistakes.

Yeah, Spain was dull. I'm starting to dislike the tyre situation too (seeing Kimi pace himself is just hurtful) but at least it does spice up the races if you follow it. Spain would have been a disgustingly woeful race if not for the tyres causing so many stops.

Anyhow, nice to see Alonso and Kimi up there. My two top drivers and, with Vettel, currently on another level. I understand people might hate Alonso but oh my, he can drive. Was nice to see Felipe get a podium though. I don't think Mercedes will be as great in Monaco as being made out. Better for sure, but it's so easy to get jumped at stops now that I can't imagine it being too hard for other teams to get past.

Also can we finally realise that Webber is nowhere near as good as people make out, constantly outclassed by Vettel, and should leave at the end of this season?
 
lol, but even still let's see how he develops. Obviously it's not a great start but I think it's generally accepted that they're rookies for a reason and take a bit more time, likely to expect mistakes.

Yeah, Spain was dull. I'm starting to dislike the tyre situation too (seeing Kimi pace himself is just hurtful) but at least it does spice up the races if you follow it. Spain would have been a disgustingly woeful race if not for the tyres causing so many stops.

Anyhow, nice to see Alonso and Kimi up there. My two top drivers and, with Vettel, currently on another level. I understand people might hate Alonso but oh my, he can drive. Was nice to see Felipe get a podium though. I don't think Mercedes will be as great in Monaco as being made out. Better for sure, but it's so easy to get jumped at stops now that I can't imagine it being too hard for other teams to get past.

Also can we finally realise that Webber is nowhere near as good as people make out, constantly outclassed by Vettel, and should leave at the end of this season?
People hate Alonso? Since when? If anything people hate Vettel because in their eyes he's just cruising around in a great team without spectacular driving abilities... which we know is totally untrue. Webber was pretty decent before Red Bull became dominant, scoring pointns quite often and qualifying the car 4th-5th on a number of occasions but when Vettel joined he was just outclassed. If that wasn't enough to prove that Vettel is amazing, he did win a race in a Toro Rosso after all, and scored 35 points for them, more than any other Toro Rosso driver in a season even after taking into account the new points-scoring system the likes of Buemi and Alguesuari experienced. Not to mention the fact that he overtook a McLaren-wielding Hamilton in rainy conditions and would have deprived him of the title were it not for Glock.

The Vettel/Raikkonen/Alonso fight for the title is starting to look like the Schumacher/Raikkonen/Montoya battle in 2003... does Raikkonen feel a sense of deja vu, he's been in an almost identical situation a decade ago.

With regards to Gutierrez, being slower than Hulkenburg is perfectly alright. Running wide on a number of occasions is understandable as well. Even a failed overtake attempt that ended in a crash can be forgiven since he'a rookie. But missing your braking point and crashing into someone else? No. Perhaps I'm just biased, but the fact that we lost Kobayashi for this seriously annoys me, and crashing into one of my better-liked drivers only aggravates it.
 

Coronis

Impressively round
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
lol, but even still let's see how he develops. Obviously it's not a great start but I think it's generally accepted that they're rookies for a reason and take a bit more time, likely to expect mistakes.

Yeah, Spain was dull. I'm starting to dislike the tyre situation too (seeing Kimi pace himself is just hurtful) but at least it does spice up the races if you follow it. Spain would have been a disgustingly woeful race if not for the tyres causing so many stops.

Anyhow, nice to see Alonso and Kimi up there. My two top drivers and, with Vettel, currently on another level. I understand people might hate Alonso but oh my, he can drive. Was nice to see Felipe get a podium though. I don't think Mercedes will be as great in Monaco as being made out. Better for sure, but it's so easy to get jumped at stops now that I can't imagine it being too hard for other teams to get past.

Also can we finally realise that Webber is nowhere near as good as people make out, constantly outclassed by Vettel, and should leave at the end of this season?
Actually, Webber was faster throughout the race than Vettel, apart from his classic slow start, he matched or bettered him throughout the rest of the race. I am one of the biggest Webber fans, I do acknowledge finger **** is a better driver than him, but Webber is not "completely outclassed" by him. People always seem to forget how well Webber went early on in his career, whilst driving for minnows the entire time, outclassing every single teammate until Vettel came along. I seem to remember him putting a fucking Jaguar on the front row. 2010 was a very close championship iirc, who was the driver leading for most of the season? 2011 was just.... a complete disaster really. He proved himself again last year though, I wouldn't write him off to stick around for a few more years.
 
Actually, Webber was faster throughout the race than Vettel, apart from his classic slow start, he matched or bettered him throughout the rest of the race. I am one of the biggest Webber fans, I do acknowledge finger **** is a better driver than him, but Webber is not "completely outclassed" by him. People always seem to forget how well Webber went early on in his career, whilst driving for minnows the entire time, outclassing every single teammate until Vettel came along. I seem to remember him putting a fucking Jaguar on the front row. 2010 was a very close championship iirc, who was the driver leading for most of the season? 2011 was just.... a complete disaster really. He proved himself again last year though, I wouldn't write him off to stick around for a few more years.
Yes, there's no denying that Webber certainly has talent behind the wheel, and 2010 has proven that... then what happened in 2011 and the second half of 2012? While it's not as horrendous as Massa's dip in form ever since Alonso became his teammate you have to wonder what went wrong, and seeing that he is already in his mid-30s time is running out, or it's even too late for him to make an impact. We all saw what happened to Schumacher's comeback from 2010-2012, a 7-time world champion has been reduced to decent-at-best and Webber is unfortunately headed down that path... if he can prove me wrong then be my guest, I'd love to see him defy my expectations.

Right now he has sympathy from the F1 audience after Vettel controversially overtook him at Sepang and that should work to his favour. But really, while I do not agree with what Vettel did, what right does Webber have to complain about it? He also disobeyed the team at Silverstone 2011, only difference is that Vettel successfully defended his position but that doesn't change the fact he is no better at obeying team orders than Vettel is so it seriously annoys me that people call Vettel 'arrogant', 'spoiled brat' etc. just because is a triple WDC. Furthermore, why impose team orders so early on in the season, especially against the defending triple WDC? Vettel would need all the points he can get to defend his title; if he had obeyed the team it would be Raikkonen and not him who's leading the WDC right now, whereas Webber would only be 5th and not 6th... clearly the current situation is more favourable to the team than the alternative. As much as I dislike to reduce Webber to a #2 driver by typing what I just typed, pragmatically Vettel had done the correct thing since Webber has lost his ability to fight for WDCs like he did in 2010... but if he can prove me wrong, then be my guest.
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
I'm quite sure Bianchi would have scored a point already if he were behind the wheel of a Sauber and not a Marussia, but eh, at least Gutierrez is showing some improvement... still not enough to convince me (And most likely almost everyone else) that he deserves the seat over Kobayashi... oh and btw, it was Bottas not Gutierrez who came close to scoring a point for the rookies, he finished 11th earlier on at Sepang.
Just want to point out and say that my wording for what I said was totally correct. I never claimed no one else had gotten close. None of the Rookies have scored points yet, I was iterating the fact that Guitterez finished 11th and was pretty dam close to the car in front. You totally misunderstood my point.

People hate Alonso? Since when? If anything people hate Vettel because in their eyes he's just cruising around in a great team without spectacular driving abilities... which we know is totally untrue.
A lot of people hate Alonso. You are deluded to think otherwise. A lot of people also hate Vettel. Mainly because Alonso is just that good. I don't particularly like the way he goes racing but I begrudgingly respect his ability. The same as Raikkonen really.

I seem to remember him putting a fucking Jaguar on the front row. 2010 was a very close championship iirc, who was the driver leading for most of the season?
This def happened, I remember his stunning lap to grab second on the grid. Pretty sure it was Malaysia too... Lap was totally awesome.

In terms of Monaco, I have no idea who is going to run well there... Mercedes obviously have huge 1 lap pace, but are not great over many laps... I dont think Lotus are going to happy about Pirelli changing the tyres either, they have made an excellent car which uses those tyres very well. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/05/16/boullier-criticises-pirelli-tyre-tweaks/... Eric Boullier makes the best point possible. They designed the best car for these tyres... It's not fair they are being changed.

ALSO:

HONDAAAAAAAAAA

McLaren have signed on for Honda engines in 2015! :D This is going to be awesome!
 
A lot of people hate Alonso. You are deluded to think otherwise. A lot of people also hate Vettel. Mainly because Alonso is just that good. I don't particularly like the way he goes racing but I begrudgingly respect his ability. The same as Raikkonen really.
No don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not an Alonso fan but his cult-like following (They're lurking everywhere on Facebook and YouTube) seems to otherwise say that he is revered like some sort of deity... granted he has people who don't support him but from my perspective it's definitely far less than Vettel, whose haters btw mostly stem from Alonso's cult-like supporters (You should have just seen how they reacted when Alonso lost the WDC to Vettel last year). I share the same sentiments that you have with Alonso, I definitely do not like the way he races but like you, I have to concede that he is probably the best driver on the grid at the moment, narrowly edging out Vettel and Hamilton.

EDIT: To put it into perspective, Alonso is somewhat like The Beatles whereas Vettel is like Justin Bieber in terms of their proportion of fans/haters, if you get my point.

And I'm just being anal here but based on what you said "but he was super close to scoring points and being the first of this years rookies to do so" I'm merely pointing out that Bottas was the first rookie, not Gutierrez who got the closest to scoring a point, he finished 11th and was only 1.5 seconds behind 10th place Vergne at Sepang.

Oh about Webber, I remember the 2004 Malaysian Grand Prix, he split the Ferraris to take 2nd place... that is indeed an impressive feat. Too bad that he totally undid all his hard work in qualifying by making a woeful start and slipping to the mid-field by the first lap, a recurring trait that he carries on even until today... the only time I remember him actually making a good start was the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, apart from that it's mostly either nothing out of the ordinary or slipping down the order.

With Honda supplying McLaren with engines in 2015, is there any possibility that they will come back as a works team? I would like a 12-team grid, because personally I feel that the top 10 positions getting points out of 22 cars is rather excessive, with 24 cars it would be acceptable IMO and furthermore with Honda being a Japanese team they might give Kobayashi (!!!) a drive.

About the tyre situation... maybe I'm making the situation over-simplistic but if the tyres are more durable, how exactly will it work to Red Bull's advantage? All the teams would have the benefit of more durable tyres, then that means Lotus and Ferrari who are currently able to preserve their tyres would be able to do 1 pit stop compared to Red Bull's 2... right now it's 3 pit-stops for Lotus compared to 4 for Red Bull so I'm not exactly seeing how it would work to Red Bull's favour.

Oh btw, Alonso and Webber are getting really friendly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2--FD1g0W34)... is this their way of taunting Vettel? Granted it may just be friendly banter but really, after what Vettel did to Webber at Sepang and Alonso narrowly losing the WDC to Vettel twice you can't help but wonder if that's the reason they're getting along. For his own sake I hope Webber doesn't go out of his way to jeopardise Red Bull like what Trulli did at Renault in 2004, for Trulli it has basically killed his chances of ever landing a seat with a top team again.
 

Coronis

Impressively round
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Personally, in terms of drivers, I'd say Hamilton has the biggest fanbase, or maybe its just because almost every single British fan luvs him. Personally, in regards to the top drivers, I absolutely hate Vettel and Alonso, am fairly indifferent towards Hamilton and love Kimi :P Monaco will definitely be an interesting race, maybe Merc can take away a decent result, considering how hard it is to pass. Perhaps it will be the first one who pits though. I remember Button stuck behind Kovalainen for most of last years race. Basically, whoever amongst the leaders who pits first during the first stint could go on to win. Based on recent races, thats Webber :P
 
Personally, in terms of drivers, I'd say Hamilton has the biggest fanbase, or maybe its just because almost every single British fan luvs him. Personally, in regards to the top drivers, I absolutely hate Vettel and Alonso, am fairly indifferent towards Hamilton and love Kimi :P Monaco will definitely be an interesting race, maybe Merc can take away a decent result, considering how hard it is to pass. Perhaps it will be the first one who pits though. I remember Button stuck behind Kovalainen for most of last years race. Basically, whoever amongst the leaders who pits first during the first stint could go on to win. Based on recent races, thats Webber :P
Yes, Kovalainen dragged that Caterham all the way up to 12th place when it probably doesn't deserve more than 18th... it's really impressive so why did he underperform at McLaren? I'm still pretty baffled.

With regards to Kimi and Lewis, there's really nothing much to hate about them, I mean you don't see them having a sense of entitlement demanding #1 status in a team (Alonso) or being ruthless (Vettel). Vettel is really taking after Schumacher... which may or may not be a good thing depending on how you look at it, Schumacher has been involved in a lot of controversies but at the end of the day people still respect him as a 7-time WDC.
 
Monaco coming really soon... during online races in F1 2010/2011/2012 there will almost always be the inevitable first corner carnage for Monaco and if it's raining then good luck trying to even get your car pointed in the right direction, especially when you have other people charging down your inside, outside and basically everywhere :P

Now that I think about it Hamilton is probably the most down-to-earth WDC holder out of the current grid of drivers, there is really nothing to dislike about him in particular... I remember in 2007 when Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld had fuel irregularities in a post-race inspection and their disqualification would promote Hamilton from 7th to 4th, handing the WDC to him instead of Raikkonen. Ultimately nothing changed, and although he could have been the first rookie to win the WDC he chose not to pursue the matter further despite the protests of McLaren. Most people in his position would probably fight to the very end but he chose not to, and this shows he has a considerable amount of sportsmanship... In addition he doesn't have a sense of entitlement and treats his teammate like his equal, as evident from Sepang this year when he said that Rosberg deserved the podium more than he did... for that I respect him quite a lot, it's completely unlike Vettel's ruthless desire to win at all costs or Alonso's inflated sense of entitlement.
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
Now that I think about it Hamilton is probably the most down-to-earth WDC holder out of the current grid of drivers, there is really nothing to dislike about him in particular... I remember in 2007 when Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld had fuel irregularities in a post-race inspection and their disqualification would promote Hamilton from 7th to 4th, handing the WDC to him instead of Raikkonen. Ultimately nothing changed, and although he could have been the first rookie to win the WDC he chose not to pursue the matter further despite the protests of McLaren. Most people in his position would probably fight to the very end but he chose not to, and this shows he has a considerable amount of sportsmanship... In addition he doesn't have a sense of entitlement and treats his teammate like his equal, as evident from Sepang this year when he said that Rosberg deserved the podium more than he did... for that I respect him quite a lot, it's completely unlike Vettel's ruthless desire to win at all costs or Alonso's inflated sense of entitlement.
What the fuck are you talking about? Hamilton is the most irritating little spoilt brat the sport has ever seen. I know I am English, but jesus christ I hate the guy. I don't understand how people can like him :| He's super confident and secure and shit like that (Who wouldnt be earning 20 gajillion £ a year and banging Nicole Sherzinger) but man I don't know, something about him really gets on my nerves.

Pretty sure most humble WDC would be Button to be honest... Nicest guy out there by a mile too. He hasn't really let it get into his head, and every driver has tantrums every so often.

Still, I am looking forward to monaco this weekend. I hope one of the smaller teams can pull of a shock result and do a big upset :P I'd love to see an FI or Sauber or something really put the cat amongst the pigeons. Maybe Maldanado can do something incredible in the Williams, he always went supremely well around Monaco in GP2, and Williams is pretty good usually too.
 
What the fuck are you talking about? Hamilton is the most irritating little spoilt brat the sport has ever seen. I know I am English, but jesus christ I hate the guy. I don't understand how people can like him :| He's super confident and secure and shit like that (Who wouldnt be earning 20 gajillion £ a year and banging Nicole Sherzinger) but man I don't know, something about him really gets on my nerves.

Pretty sure most humble WDC would be Button to be honest... Nicest guy out there by a mile too. He hasn't really let it get into his head, and every driver has tantrums every so often.

Still, I am looking forward to monaco this weekend. I hope one of the smaller teams can pull of a shock result and do a big upset :P I'd love to see an FI or Sauber or something really put the cat amongst the pigeons. Maybe Maldanado can do something incredible in the Williams, he always went supremely well around Monaco in GP2, and Williams is pretty good usually too.
Well he didn't try to get Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld disqualified in 2007 despite having a legitimate reason to do so and having the backing of his team, whereas Alonso & Ferrari tried to do that with Vettel in 2012... not saying what Alonso did was wrong but the fact that Hamilton chose not to pursue the matter further shows a considerable amount of sportsmanship and respect for his rivals, especially when you take into account the fact that he would have been the first rookie champion otherwise.

In addition despite being held in much higher esteem than Rosberg he refuses to take #1 status and treats Rosberg like his equal, as seen from this year's Malaysian Grand Prix. Of course, this is only based on the Hamilton I know on-track, for his personal life I shall not comment since we don't really know what's going on... he may be dating Nicole Scherzinger and all but I'm not sure how does that get on your nerves or why you hate him ._. I mean it's understandable if you feel that Vettel or Alonso are spoilt brats when you take into account their negative traits but I fail to see anything particularly unlikable about Hamilton.

Speaking of Button... I don't know, the fact that he feels threatened by Perez knocks him down a few notches for me; it's like he wants to be the #1 driver (Justified given that he has over 10 years of extra experience compared to Perez) but the way that he was complaining over the team radio when Perez was attacking him at Bahrain makes me feel that if he wants to be the #1 driver he should earn it instead of getting it handed to him on a silver platter. About his driving skills, I wouldn't put him in the same class as Alonso/Vettel/Hamilton, the way that Hamilton comprehensively outperformed him in 2012 (The 2-point difference does not reflect that, Hamilton was by far the unluckiest driver that year; when his car doesn't break down he gets crashed out by someone else and he would have definitely challenged for the WDC otherwise unlike Button) makes me really doubt that. Not saying that he's bad - he's far from it - but I just feel that he's not on the same level as the aforementioned 3 WDCs.

With regards to Monaco, yes, I too hope for some shock results by the smaller teams... and about Maldonado, hopefully he does better this year, last year he ended-up spearing into the back of de la Rosa's car after missing his braking point... it makes me wonder if it was his twin brother driving at Barcelona that year; how does a driver who can withstand pressure from Fernando Alonso to win a race make these kind of blunders? At least he has stayed out of trouble so far, so hopefully it stays that way... or not, I would like to see some entertainment :P The tyre situation is making F1 less about wheel-to-wheel racing and thus taking some of the fun out of it.
 
Rain in Monaco qualifying... oh in F1 2012 online races that will not end well. Qualifying was pretty topsy-turvy and the shock eliminations here would be Grosjean in Q2 and Di Resta in Q1; I'm guessing the variable weather conditions caught them off-guard? It appears that Sutil's bad luck has rubbed off onto Di Resta after 4 races... van der Garde making it into Q2 was all thanks to the rain, I really hope he doesn't go higher than 13th because personally I feel that Marussia deserve 10th more than Caterham.
 
Monaco Grand Prix has just concluded and driver of the week is without a doubt Nico Rosberg, topping the timesheets for all practice sessions, pole position AND leading every lap of the race.

Other notable performances would be both Force India drivers; especially Sutil who managed to overtake 2 WDC holders at the same corner... overtaking Alonso must have been pretty cathartic considering that it was a Ferrari that harpooned into the back of him 5 years back and costed him 4th place :P His string of bad luck has finally ended. Di Resta wasn't bad either, moving from 17th to 9th.

Discuss~

P.S: Oh dear Raikkonen has broken Heidfeld's record of 33 consecutive race finishes today, he has managed 34 by finishing this race :( Heidfeld's record of 41 consecutive CLASSIFIED finishes however still holds, Raikkonen needs to finish another 8 races in a row to break that.
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
Raikkonen is also 2 races away from Schumachers points scoring record too iirc... Those last 6 laps or so from him were incredible... I little dubious as he abused the fact that he was in a lotus to confuse some of the people he overtook, but yeah great bit of driving to snatch those places back.

An interesting race all round really... Monaco is always a bit of a lucky draw when it comes to SC/Crashes/Problems etc. Hamilton goofed by not being right with Nico has the SC came out, essentially loosing him second place (And I am surprised that the Red Bulls didn't get a warning/penalty for speeding under the safety car). Nice bit of driving from both Force India's, Perez being a bit mad is about usual really. Raikkonen said in the press afterwards he "should be punched in the face" which I thought was pretty hilarious.

The incidents were many as usual at Monaco. The aforementioned Perez battling with Raikkonen, Alonso and Button was good, and the huge crash by Chilton moving across a tiny amount and flinging Maldanado into the air.... That crash could of been 100x times worse. You can actually see Maldanado slam the breaks on just before the impact because his nose dips just before he hits Chilton, a vain attempt to avoid the collision at that point, but still he tried. And then we had another big Grosjean smash hitting the back of Ricciardo coming out of the tunnel, it reminded me a lot of a GP2 Crash last year,this crash. A little different in terms of circumstances, but similar overall.

Grosjean is going to have a bloody good talking to I would assume. He is obviously extremely fast, but he is so bad in traffic... I don't know how he got to F1 with such a disposition to crashing. Lotus ran out of parts to supply Grosjean with as he crashed 4 times at Monaco over the course of the weekend, the final cracked the floor/tub of the car.

In other news: What do you guys think of this Tyre test that went on for Mercedes/Pirelli? I'm super confused as to how it was allowed by the FIA but other teams weren;t invited... It seems so wierd something like that could happen. Merc could get a 2 or 3 race ban or be kicked out of the championship like McLaren were a few years ago. It seems pretty serious. It's in Pirelli's contract that they can do a test like this with new equipment. Pirelli said they asked Red Bull/Ferrari to go, both of which are denying it vehemently... I wonder whats going to come out of all this :|
 
Raikkonen is also 2 races away from Schumachers points scoring record too iirc... Those last 6 laps or so from him were incredible... I little dubious as he abused the fact that he was in a lotus to confuse some of the people he overtook, but yeah great bit of driving to snatch those places back.

An interesting race all round really... Monaco is always a bit of a lucky draw when it comes to SC/Crashes/Problems etc. Hamilton goofed by not being right with Nico has the SC came out, essentially loosing him second place (And I am surprised that the Red Bulls didn't get a warning/penalty for speeding under the safety car). Nice bit of driving from both Force India's, Perez being a bit mad is about usual really. Raikkonen said in the press afterwards he "should be punched in the face" which I thought was pretty hilarious.

The incidents were many as usual at Monaco. The aforementioned Perez battling with Raikkonen, Alonso and Button was good, and the huge crash by Chilton moving across a tiny amount and flinging Maldanado into the air.... That crash could of been 100x times worse. You can actually see Maldanado slam the breaks on just before the impact because his nose dips just before he hits Chilton, a vain attempt to avoid the collision at that point, but still he tried. And then we had another big Grosjean smash hitting the back of Ricciardo coming out of the tunnel, it reminded me a lot of a GP2 Crash last year,this crash. A little different in terms of circumstances, but similar overall.

Grosjean is going to have a bloody good talking to I would assume. He is obviously extremely fast, but he is so bad in traffic... I don't know how he got to F1 with such a disposition to crashing. Lotus ran out of parts to supply Grosjean with as he crashed 4 times at Monaco over the course of the weekend, the final cracked the floor/tub of the car.

In other news: What do you guys think of this Tyre test that went on for Mercedes/Pirelli? I'm super confused as to how it was allowed by the FIA but other teams weren;t invited... It seems so wierd something like that could happen. Merc could get a 2 or 3 race ban or be kicked out of the championship like McLaren were a few years ago. It seems pretty serious. It's in Pirelli's contract that they can do a test like this with new equipment. Pirelli said they asked Red Bull/Ferrari to go, both of which are denying it vehemently... I wonder whats going to come out of all this :|
Yeah for once Maldonado ISN'T to blame for a collision he's involved in, that was totally Chilton's fault and the fact that he took out his own teammate in the ensuing chaos means that Marussia will not be pleased with him in the least.

With regards to Grosjean crashing, he wasn't totally at fault to be honest, Ricciardo was struggling with his tyres and he broke too early, causing an unwitting Grosjean to crash into him... of course, he should have been more cautious but the fact that people automatically start throwing rotten tomatoes at him because he's well, you know, Grosjean, is pretty biased. Even the most reliable of drivers do make these errors, take a look at what Heidfeld did to Kobayashi at 2011 Montreal; it's an almost identical collision coming from someone known for being safe and reliable. Or better yet, what Alonso did to Vettel at Sepang this year.

About the Raikkonen and Perez situation, the way that Raikkonen says that Perez should be punched in the face has made me lose quite a bit of respect for him... for starters that is not the stoic Iceman we all know and for another, it is completely unprofessional and unbecoming of such a highly rated driver. He's not exactly innocent in the incident; perhaps Perez shouldn't have pushed his luck by attempting to overtake him, but at the same time Raikkonen should not have forced him to the wall, even if he had the racing line. Perhaps this collision is karma for what he did to Sutil in 2008 at the exact same chicane? Sutil was running in 4th place at that point and could have given Force India their first points had he not been harpooned by an out-of-control Raikkonen, where he was completely blameless. Perez is being super aggressive but that is mostly because Martin Whitmarsh has urged him to do so, to the point where Button is getting seriously rattled.

With regards to the tyre testing... I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but personally I hope Mercedes will not be punished.
 

Coronis

Impressively round
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Yeah the testing thing is stupid imo. For the record, Grosjean has not been fast this year, and now is crashing into people again. Not great for him. Never ever thought I would hear people say it isn't Maldonaldo's fault lol. Great to see Sutil not have a race ruined by someone else. Force India would be much further ahead of McLaren if he hadn't been screwed over every race since Melbourne.
 
Yeah the testing thing is stupid imo. For the record, Grosjean has not been fast this year, and now is crashing into people again. Not great for him. Never ever thought I would hear people say it isn't Maldonaldo's fault lol. Great to see Sutil not have a race ruined by someone else. Force India would be much further ahead of McLaren if he hadn't been screwed over every race since Melbourne.
Without a doubt yes... keeping McLaren behind for 5th place is going to be a lot harder; if Perez did not collide with Raikkonen in Monaco Force India would be in 6th by now. Sutil would have probably been anywhere from 8th-10th at China were it not for Gutierrez, 2nd-4th at Bahrain were it not for that unfortunate puncture and 5th-6th at Barcelona were it not for that botched pitstop... that's about 20-30 points lost. Is there any chance that Force India can keep McLaren behind, they've already squandered 20-30 points and now McLaren will find it a lot easier to overtake them for 5th place... I really hope Force India can stay in 5th no matter how improbable, otherwise they're just alternating between 6th and 7th place for every season since 2010.
 
Come to think of it... would you guys like to see a press conference between Raikkonen and Perez regarding their collision at Monaco? I bet their conversation would be absolutely hilarious, like this one with Sutil and Trulli back in 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfRVctse_KQ

Raikkonen was like '...' and Alonso was like 'Let the show begin!', but this time it appears that the former will be part of the entertainment instead of a mere spectator should a press conference between him and Perez be held xD
 
What do you guys think about the Canadian Grand Prix? Not particularly a fan of Di Resta but he gets my vote as driver of the weekend; lasting 56 laps on those notorious Pirelli tyres. Sutil on the other hand... I hate to say it but spinning while attempting to overtake Bottas is the type of mistake that he should not be making... and he was closing in on Di Resta who was on the super-soft tyres in the closing stages and would have challenged him for 7th were it not for that drive-through penalty... which IMO was undeserved, neither Hamilton nor Alonso were particularly hindered and he did move out of the way at the chicane leading to the Wall of Champions (I think).

Oh yes a track marshall was killed in a freak accident... R.I.P :/

Discuss~
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top