Motors The Official bit-tech F1 2011 Thread

Without doubt Vettel is one of the top 4 or 5 drivers in F1 at the moment but you do have to ask if he'd be World Champion if he'd been driving a Ferrari or McLaren this year. Or even if he'd had someone like Button, Alonso or Hamilton as a teammate, driving the same equipment as he has.

Hopefully next season McLaren and Ferrari will be able to pull their fingers out and bring a car to the table that can convincingly challenge Red Bull at every race rather than just the odd one throughout the year.

 

I think the second option would have been more interesting. Webber, nice guy, can't fault him for that, but he's not a tip-top driver. Put Alonso, Button or Hamilton in that Red Bull and there would have been competition for the championship. However, with the car being so dominant early in the season and Webber not being able to do starts, it's all gone Vettel's way.

 

Agreed on the Vettel-Webber fight, they're not exactly evenly matched this year.

One thing that I did think today is, perhaps, with all of these incidents this year that maybe button has hamilton's number as far as being psychologically dominant. He's utterly relaxed within the team, driving at his best and picking up victories. Compared to the start of the season when button was the #2 guy at the team, and consistently being beaten it's a complete reversal at the mo.

 

I almost never watch them live. When you're at work all day on Saturday and work until the early hours of Sunday morning, you appreciate a snooze on a Sunday afternoon. That's what iPlayer is there for, besides I would never have a chance of seeing quali live and I like to see it before watching the race.

Anyway, I did get up to watch it this morning after all. I missed the pre-show but I saw the race. Very happy for both Vettel and Button, and like some of you have mentioned it was probably the best race of the year. Very enjoyable to watch I'm going to watch the pre-show this afternoon if it's on iPlayer.

 

Yeah im not saying he hasn't had to be a good racer too, and it helps that he is consistently fast when he has nothing in front of him and in qualifying, something button really lacks.

Im just annoyed at him for making such a dull title race this year!

 

I think other drivers should put truck horns on their cars, so when they see that Hamilton does something stupid again, they should notify Hamilton through horns that they are there.

Plus i think Massa will crack soon and when he does, Hamilton will not like the resulting crash.

 

I would almost agree with that lineup but if we're taking this season in as a whole, obviously excluding the races to come I would swap HAM and WEB around.

Great race for Jenson and you all know what I think of Vettel, god knows even my finger was twitching when he got out of the car

iPlayer upload seems a bit strange for me, Vettel speaking in the conference with Alonso's voice..a little disturbing if i'm honest.

 

So it wasn't just me i thought my connection had gone out of sync.

 

It was the same on the TV.

 

The race is being repeated on BBC1 at the moment if anyone is interested

 

In some ways I'm gutted that Vettel finished this race. Obviously the heat was effecting the RBR tyre usage and with Korea, India, Abu Dhabi coming up it could have been very interesting.

Vettel is, however, a deserving champion. Very different from other recent champions as he's been more of a timed lap specialist as opposed to a fighter (with a few notable exceptions of course, the Alonso pass at Spa was one of the best by anyone this year). Definitely more of a future Prost than a future Senna.

Very good points about Webber too though. Clearly he does not have the ability that he was thought to have and maybe all that bad luck in previous years wasn't just bad luck. As Krazeh said, if his seat had been held by Alonso, Hamilton or Button then I think he would have been hard pressed to take this title.

Obviously the Red Bull is a brilliant car this year but will we, the fans, ever really be able to tell whether it was mostly down to a stonking Red Bull car or great driving from Vettel? I doubt it. Let's just hope that the other teams catch up a for next year.

Still a few races left though and India looks like a fantastic track (seriously, turn 10 looks awesome!) and of course we have Brazil at the end still which is always brilliant.

 

Totally agree. Not sure if i've heard it before or it's been in the back of my head, the comparison with Prost's approach to the sport will always be there and in my opinion you couldn't give a driver a more decent compliment!

The full circle from Stewart's F1 team to Jaguar to Red Bull has been well, amusing at times, I've had models of each teams cars at one point or another which was a cool coincidence. Note that Mark was at Jaguar too.

 

Can anyone tell me why red bull were not the first garage, they seemed to be last? I thought finishing first last year meant they got the first garage?

Also Webber seemed to have had a lot of KERS issues this year, where as Vettel did not?

 

They are first, your looking at the pits from the wrong end. First garage means they get a clean exit straight from the box to the track without having to drive round any other teams box.

 

What I don't understand is if Massa feels that Hamilton is stupid, reckless and doesn't use his head why was he attempting a move on the left into a right hand corner when he could have just kept tight behind him, got a good tow and used DRS to pass on the start-finish straight.

 

But that's not been the case at other tracks, ie. when button pulled into the red bulls pitbox?

 

IIRC the championship winning team from the previous year are allowed to choose which end of the pit they get, I did think that was in general though and not track specific.

 

The winner of the last season championship can decide which end they take - and the rest is ordered towards the other end, according to their car numbers.

 

So Vettel takes WDC early.
Didn't see that coming...

That being said, I stopped watching the live timing the moment Hamilton had a puncture.
I am actually pretty happy with the outcome though.
As Button rightly implied, the title fight was over already (though he put it in other words), and it was inevitable that Vettel would win the WDC this race.

The real loser this year is (IMHO) McLaren:
They still have a WCC to play for, and won't give up on that yet.
RBR can sit back and cruise for the rest of the season (that means developing 2012 parts, and shifting focus to next season).
Ferrari have nothing to play for,r eally, and are developing the 2012 car already.

The excitement really lies in the fight for second now, which is likely to go down the line. Button, Alonso, Webber, hamilton can all still take second.

 

Up at 5am Saturday and 6am Sunday.
Live timing on one screen, the race on the other; and the rugby on the telly, muted. Who says men can't multitask?

Very good, and engrossing, race. No doubt that Vettel deserves the WDC title, and he really does come across as a really nice guy in interviews; but I'd still like to snap those bloody fingers off! I think the key difference between Vettel and Webber has been qualifying and race starts, although Vettel is a faster driver.

Webber's quali performance hasn't been great and, even when he has placed well, his starts have left him down the field. I doubt Vettel would have walked off with the WDC if he spent the season battling from rows two and three, getting swamped at the lights, and tangling wheels with the likes of Hamilton, Schumacher and Massa. So, I'm not entirely convinced about his racing form - although I was in awe of his wheels-on-the-grass 180mph overtake on Alonso, at Monza.

Still, many people argued the same way about Button in 2009, and he has more than proven his ability to race wheel to wheel and overtake; so I'm not going to let a little doubt get in the way of appreciating a very dominant display by Vettel.

Speaking of Button, he has clearly emerged as the lead driver at McLaren; and not just because he's ahead on points. Hamilton is obviously rattled - his usual stunning, aggressive, overtaking moves have resulted in awkward collisions and incidents; rather than the awe inspiring manoeuvres we were so used to seeing, just a few months ago. To me, it even seems clear, when Listening to Martin Whitmarsh, that the team see more of a future in Button than Hamilton; and this was before the announcement of Button's new contract.

Ferrari, like McLaren, have improved late in the season; and I can see the next few races being real corkers. It bodes well for a more competitive start to 2012 too.