Let's see, a race driver can turn up the wick a bit because he used less fuel. Me I see nothing wrong with that, but admittedly I am not an F1 team owner. I'm wondering if Nico should learn to drive in a manner that leaves him a little bit of room to turn the go button up a bit. Nico's off in Q3, sure was convenient. :wink: This is an interesting season & will continue to be. The pot is boiling between the two Benz Boys. opcorn:
I say unless they start wrecking each other, who cares if they don't talk or get along. I think that this is the type of intensity that Ferrari was hoping for when they brought Kimi on-board. With that said, it would be interesting to see what would happen if one of the other teams was actually challenging for the lead. Would either Nico or Lewis help the other by slowing down the challenger or would they continue to race each other?
There may have been a slight indicator at Monaco. Late in the race when the team were trying to tell him about how close Ricciardo was getting Hamilton's annoyed reply was something like "I don't care about Ricciardo, how close am I to Nico?"
I think at this time beating Nico is all that matters. :arf: When push comes to shove it ain't gonna be pretty.
I’ve read a few articles on this (see article title, below) and none of them seem to take the middle of the road view. Whiting’s solution (“Why don’t we extend Qualifying by one minute when a yellow flag is shown in the last three minutes? It would give affected drivers the chance to try again.”), while imperfect, at least allows a bit of extra opportunity for those balked at the most inconvenient possible time. Most other suggested solutions I’ve seen look like knee-jerk overreactions based on the assumption Rosberg acted intentionally (I'm not taking sides here) and each have the potential to sanction someone regardless of whether his actions are purposeful. It’s as though they’ve forgotten drivers are pushing at the absolute limit of their talent and their car's ability at the end of Q3 and are therefore at greater risk of making mistakes. On the other hand, maybe there should be an automatic penalty for compromising final runs (i.e., within those final 3 min +/-) regardless of the circumstance. Maybe that’s the way to look at it. It would cause some drivers to pull back by a few % to avoid penalty, right when we expect them to be pushing their hardest, but I suppose it would cover all possibilities. Would that make it fair? Hmmm…need to think about that. At the moment, I don't even agree with the title of this one. I think the supporting assumption in the first para that it's 'unfair' applies to ALL racing incidents. Luck of the draw; some get lucky, some lose. I suppose I just don't like the way they add new restrictions, without fully considering the potential negative consequences, every time there's controversy. Changes needed to qualifying format to avoid a repeat of Monaco controversy (jamesallenonf1.com)
I couldn't care less if Nico "cheated" or not. It made for a better race than I was expecting, and the intra-team drama is fun to watch. opcorn:opcorn:
What they do in Indy car in such a situation, they pull the 2 fastest laps from the offender. I think that would work in F1 too. Not sure if Nico did that on purpose or not, but when it happened it was the end of quali for all others.
Perhaps the set time limit is to discourage racers for putting in a banker lap early, then sitting out the entire qualifying session until the absolute last second to make a final run. Those who paid big money to watch the qualifying sessions get a bunch of cars at the beginning then nothing until the last two minutes when all the cars line up to put in a final lap that ends after the checkered flag is waved. There are reasons good strategic reasons, of course. But perhaps the rules are there to promote some action throughout the entire session. What happened, in my opinion is Hamilton rolled the dice by waiting to the last second to put in a big lap and this time, he didn't win. Woulda coulda shoulda. Hamilton should stop whining (or the media should stop making it look that way) and move on. He'll get 'em the next race. A race where there are lots of yellow flags will bunch up the group and provide opportunity for the slower cars to perhaps make the race competitive. Current racing has become so safe that the fast cars are always at the front and the slowest cars always at the back (until they are lapped). The only time they should add time to a qualifying session is if they have to stop it altogether and no team has had time to put in a qualifying time.
Gene Haas to delay Formula One entry until 2016 (nbcsports.com) ( * Note: Caterham Team Owner Tony Fernandes has denied his F1 team is up for sale.....)
Why does the world assume the Rosberg lost it on purpose? None of the data shows he drove it differently than others. He doesn't have a history of doing questionable things. The assumption is that Hammy would have beat him on that lap. But maybe not. If Hammy would have had the same incident effecting Rosberg would everyone assumed he did it on purpose? I don't think so. I just get tired the preferential treatment and coverage of Hamilton.
Yes no guarantee that Hamilton would have gotten the pole had Nico not parked on course. It did take any chance away from everyone. Bet the Marussia was on flyer when that happened. Had Hamilton done that I'd wonder the same thing I do now about Nico. I'm not here to argue, but I disagree with you. Nico has in fact done questionable things. He is no different than any other driver fighting at the front.
But will it make a difference? Renault: We will be out of recovery mode in Canada (grandprix247.com) Full article here.
Did anyone else watch the F1 documentary that was on Saturday night before the Monaco GP? I just watched it and it was GREAT. Lots of old footage, input from drivers from different eras, and some great older in car video. I recommend watching it!