Motors The Official bit-tech F1 2012 Thread - Post season

Yeah, right, fine, whatever.

 

Today's incident was just that, a racing incident. Perez had the move made and would have easily been well past by the next turn but Maldonado lost it under braking and could only slide into Perez. Not a lot he could do about it to be honest.

Totally different to the Valencia incident where Maldonado had lost the corner and been pushed wide but elected to drive into Hamilton instead of taking to the run off area like any sane person would have.

I think this is just Perez being annoyed at being nerfed off the track and out of the race, I wouldn't put any blame on Maldonado for this one.

That said though, his point does stand for me. In the last 12 months there has been 2 (3 if you choose to include Valencia) incidents of him deliberately driving into another driver (the second of these being against Perez so maybe that adds to his frustration today). That is, in my opinion, 1 time too many. This is open wheeled racing and the reality can easily be (and was last year don't forget) that when open wheeled cars come together, people can die. If any driver EVER steers into another car with clear and obvious intention then they should be permanently banned from open wheel racing. No excuses. Maldonado has got away with it twice now, no one was hurt. How many times will he be allowed to get away it with before someone is hurt?

 

Given Maldonado's history, I think it's conceivable that he deliberately lost control in order to nudge Perez. The stewards are of a similar opinion and have dished out a fine and reprimand.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101094

 

...and Mclaren management ruins yet another weekend. Fingers crossed for something out of the expected German GP upgrades.

 

Did anyone else catch this on the Sky coverage? Brilliant.



Btw... This was a complete ad break bought out.

 

A confusing race, to say the least.
I was solidly expecting Lewis to be competing for 4th/5th, maybe 3rd even... but alas - i think that short soft-stint there was the wrong call...I reckon a Ferrari-like strategy wouldv'e worked for him...
It's GREAT to see McLaren pulling off the fastest pitstops consistently, though. 2.8 seconds, as opposed to the next fastest of 3.2 (i seem to remember). And they did 2.8 on Button's AND Hamilton's first stops. NICE.

Well done by Webber. He did so well in the race, and the racing between him and Alonso showed maturity, grace and fairness. Again (and now I am going to youTube the Eau Rouge overtake of last year again).

The surprise driver (in a way) for me this season is Grosjean. I had high hopes for him two seasons ago, and he just wasn't ready. Now he's ready and bringing it to some very experienced and very fast drivers. Yes, he's had a lot of contact, but it's pretty much his rookie season, and he's doing GREAT!

As for Maldonado:
I think the fine comes on the back of him screwing the pooch twice in a row by trying the inside line and crashing.
edit to clarify:
While I agree that this particular incident was a racing incident, he should learn about diving up the inside. Just because you have the inside line doesn't mean that the corner "belongs" to you. For that matter, Perez had track position in this case.

On the BBC footage, one could hear Lee McKenzie (SP?) interviewing Sergio Perez, who was very very angry, and dropped the F-bomb, which made me chuckle. ("I mean F***. I was fast.")

 

Exactly the same thing that I did I also found this in a folder from last years thread



With everyone so close certain tracks are looking to be so entertaining later in the year. No one knows Austin, Spa will be damn close, Monza could be all over the place with Sauber/Williams/Toro Rosso/FIndia showing surprising straight line speed again.

It's a long way from starting to separate people out yet

 

One thing's for certain, though:
Ferrari are the TEAM to beat this year.
If Massa comes to the table, they look nigh-on unbeatable. It's just smooth sailing in the pits every time. Admirable is the right word there.

AS for the rest of the season - we're about half way through - it's WAAAAY too early to call out anyone yet...

 

That has to be one of the greatest overtakes ever, definitely one of the best since Alonso went round Schu at 130R. I can't remember many more that were more spectacular.

 

I wouldn't say Ferrari is the *team* to beat (that's Red Bull) but Alonso certainly is the driver to beat.

That said, I wouldn't complain if Webber took the trophy home this year. But it seems unlikely with the loony Vettel-love in that godforsaken team. Did anyone catch some journo asking Mark if he would back off to support Seb's championship in the post-race presscon? Daft question but Mark handled it well.

 

I dunno, @Stonedsurd.

The operations at Ferrari (Massa aside) has been flawless all season (so far).
Their pitstops are quick and consistent. Even when their car was rubbish earlier in the season, the team delivered everything they could. The same cannot be said about any other team.

 

I think the Ferrari strategy has been a bit dubious in a couple of races. Alonso could have 4 wins in the bag if correct tyre choice had been made.

But he consistantly delivers despite what is thrown at him. I really hope he wins the championship this year.

 

Red Bull?

Red Bull is probably shy of Ferrari's mark as far as operations are concerned, but their engineering package appears to be far superior. Hence overall, I would be inclined to say they are the team to beat, followed by Ferrari, then Lotus/McLaren and then Sauber/Petronas Merc.

 

Who wants to change tyres for Kobayashi next race?

 

This has made my day!

 

Alonso is seriously pissing me off this year. I don't like the guy, never have, and yet this year he's taking the car way beyond it's potential (even more so in the early rounds), driving with style and respect for the other drivers and is generally being an awesome guy. Stop it FFS, don't make me like you! Add to that that the first thing he did when he heard about Maria de Vilotta was phone the family home to offer support to her family.

He's doing a Schumacher on me, I didn't like him either and now he's one of the most likeable drivers on the track.

 

Haha, I've done exactly the same thing with Alonso. I've never liked him, probably my least favourite driver on the track for a long long time.

But this year... I don't know. He's just being a boss, and being very gracious with it too.

 

Alonso is making it REALLY hard to not be liked. He's driving incredibly well and controlled, even when the car is said to be rubbish.

Schum-Schum does this thing where he's going up in my books, and then he weaves, runs people out of track or something of that ilk, and drops 10 points again.

 

I'm gradually liking Alonso more as well - he's proving what everyone knew underneath at the moment - that he's really one of the great drivers, because he's a more complete driver than the rest of the field at the moment, and that's in a field with 5 other world champions!

 

I've never really disliked Alonso, I've just disliked Renault (Briatore) and Ferrari.