This is going to be very interesting tomorrow on strategy with tires. And did Red Bull let Webber down again?
It was apparently a problem with the fuel bowser, which has been quarantined. As for the tire issues, I really don't have a problem with it. This is a sport, and one thing that needs to be present in sport is some kind of challenge. Pirelli could make great tires that lasted all race if they wanted to, but that would be pretty boring to watch. The teams and the drivers have to have some kind of challenge to overcome, otherwise it'd just be precession after precession. I want to watch a race, with a story that evolves as the cars run, not a parade. Besides, so far the only team to really complain loudly and consistently about the tires is Red Bull, which makes them sound like crybabies to me. They need to work with what they have, overcome the obstacle, and do their best. Crying about how the tire doesn't suit their car or their drivers just smacks of a spoiled brat whining that he's suddenly being treated fairly. On the other hand, I think the other teams sounded like crybabies about the whole blown diffuser thing that Red Bull had. They should have stepped up and made that thing work for themselves instead of whining until the blown diffuser got outlawed. /My 2¢ - No offense intended to anyone who thinks differently about this topic. It's F1, if we weren't polarized about something in the sport, we wouldn't be good fans now, would we?
Good points all...... This will be a race of strategy, no doubt. What the heck is a fuel bowser? I've never heard that term before till Horner used it in the interview. Must be an accumulator or something? I do find it interesting how people can "hate" a driver that they've never met and have only seen on (edited) TV and other media. I speculated all last season that Mercedes was just treading water on their 2012 effort and that the 2013 car would be another "Brawn", and when Lewis jumped teams it made it seem even more likely that they would have a competetive ride for him this year. Nice to see that Lewis can fight for poles and wins this year, should be interesting to see him and Vettel duke it out. This season has all the earmarks of being a corker. Lotus is much stronger, Mercedes is in the hunt, Red Bull is in great form as usual, Ferrari is strong with both drivers, and while Big Mac seems to have lost the plot a bit, they always come on strong by the end of the season.......it's going to be fun to see what happens!
[edit] According to wikipedia, a fuel bowser is a tanker. Huh. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowser_(tanker) Too bad about the grid penalty though. It's not going to be fun munching through the back-markers to get to a mid-field finish. The times for pole were all awfully close.
Yup, a bowser is just a portable tank for liquid(s). A big one might have wheels but it usually isn't powered and needs to be towed. Fuel bowser holds fuel, water bowser holds water (potable or non-), etc. Might be a military term, that's where I learned it.
More than Red Bull are complaining about the tires. I like there to be strategies that need to be worked out in a race. But a set of tires that only last 3-6 laps is getting ridiculous. I guess that would make a strategy for a race that was a long pit in and out would be set up the car to minimize tire ware, go slower, and win when everyone else is in the pits. I'd be looking for that this year.
According to this article at Autosport, it's mostly if not only Red Bull complaining. This article was written after Malaysia, partially quoted below. Pirelli says Red Bull's Formula 1 tyre complaints are wrong - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com RACE SPOILERS FOLLOW RACE SPOILERS FOLLOW RACE SPOILERS FOLLOW It's OK to feel that having tires that wear out so quickly is bad. I get that, but Red Bull certainly seemed to figure out how to use that short life to their advantage, as Vettel's epic final stint proved. He was able to eat up a 14 second gap in 5 laps and nearly, NEARLY took third, missing by only a few hundredths of a second. Most races are really boring in the last 10 laps or so, but my heart was pounding as that run happened, and that's EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Granted most teams got 6 or 7 laps from the softs this race. Button got 26 from his mediums and most of the other teams got 20 or so, so the concern about those degrading too quickly is clearly in question. McLaren did a two stop race and finished pretty well considering their car this year. Red Bull did what I thought they should. They figured out how to best manipulate the situation to their advantage, and turned the usual end of race parade into a heart-stopper.
Well, I agree that the end of the race and Vettel's run on the Hamster was fun and thrilling to watch, but the race was already over by then, and that's what I think people have been objecting to.....a race for third place is not really the same, is it? I don't really care tho, I enjoy the races no matter what, and three different winners in three races is a good sign to me. The different tracks and temps favor different teams too, so I think in the end it balances out OK. But Alonso was strong this weekend, wasn't he?
No, it isn't, but at least it wasn't like 2011, when it was Vettel in the lead by 25 or more seconds nearly every single race, then long gaps to 3, 4, and 5, with the announcers showing us the "battle for 13th" because nothing else happened. I'd much rather watch a fight for third than for someone outside the points. Besides, the race for second was by no means a foregone conclusion. They were very close for some time. By mid season they'll have worked it all out and we'll see the teams getting more from the tires. That's what they always do. And yes, Alonso drove the bejeebus out of that car! Also, I'm kinda disappointed in Checo so far this season. I mean some of it's the car, but his driving yesterday wasn't winning any fans. Especially Kimi.
I end up disagreeing with this point at least once every year. :lol: Maybe I'm in the minority but I like good racing even if it's not for the top spot on the podium. Watching the possibilities and the racing from 2nd to 5th in China this year was fascinating and fun for me. That it looked like Alonso could cruise to the finish unassailed made no difference to me whatsoever because there was great stuff going on elsewhere. I will say it has to be action near the front of the field though. I love to watch someone relegated (for whatever reason) to the back of the field cutting his way through to get back into the points. But a close battle between the two drivers trying to avoid coming last is much less interesting...don't think I'll get too much disagreement there. I'm also apparently in the minority of F1 fans in that I like it when not even one driver has a 100% clear run at ten tenths and they and their teams all have to try to out-strategy the rest. To me, that makes for a lot more to watch and all the variables make it fascinating. It's not all about the current tire situation either. During the Michelin-Bridgestone tire war the tires needed less babying but teams still had to manage wear and develop strategy to suit. Before the big tire war the tires were less reliable and were an even bigger factor. When they had refueling, they had to watch their fuel use and sometimes drive at less than 100% to a fuel use strategy...they still do. During the decades when the cars were less reliable any random issue might cause a driver to need to back off to make whatever doohickey last until the end. Sorry, I guess I'm just a little less bothered by the artificiality of the tire wear situation than most. It's a grid-wide systemic issue so they all have to deal with it all the time, but if it isn't the tires, it's something else. When it's something else that's car or team specific, fingers are pointed back and forth within the team and then they get to work solving the problem. When it's something imposed systematically, the finger pointing is all in the same direction but no one digs in to "solve the problem." One problem is that Pirelli actually admitted that they were intentionally making tires to hit high degradation marks, so everyone who likes to look for things to complain about has a specific entity to grumble at and about. But the way I see it, if they were building the best tires they could build there would still be degradation issues monitored by the teams and included in race strategies (as always). On the other hand, I agree they've gone too far. When every car has to use at least one set of tires that may not last more than 5-6 laps, it's time to dial back a bit. Still, the fact that the high degradation tire has a lot more performance can make for some fun...watching Vettel nearly reel in the front runners as the race closed was edge of the seat racing to me and it represented something that can change the character of a race even near the end. That's fun stuff. FWIW, re the thought that Pirelli ought to back the degradation levels off a bit, there are rumors circulating that they're getting ready to do just that. Apparently when asked about it, Hembery answers with some version of "no comment."
I agree with you, I like watching someone carve thru the field too.... And I had to wonder if they'd called Vettel in one lap earlier, could he have caught and passed at least the Haminator? That was fun stuff! But the race was already over at that point, what would have really made it interesting is if Vettel would have been chasing down Alonso!
Just wait until next year. I saw the Pirelli is really going to mix it up. Red=P Zero Nero, Yellow=P Zero Rossa, White=P6 Four Season, Orange=Winter Sottozero No need for rain tires. Maybe we'll even get Bernie's sprinklers on track. Not only will tire management and strategy be important but we get to enjoy something closer to tires we understand and are directly related to real cars.
While I love watching someone come from the back of the pack, all to often if it is a member of one of the top few teams it seems as though they get a free pass from just about everyone else as they move through the field. There was some very interesting videos of Seb basically being given the pass-by by just about everyone he passed in a late season race last year (forget which one). I wonder if Bernie has had a hand in making sure the other teams know to let the "front' runners easily pass when such a situation happens to one of "his" drivers......
OK I thought of more serious tire idea. What if Pirelli brings one set of each compound to use for qualifying and the race. The teams would have to use at least 2 compounds during the race. You could see the lower teams using the super soft to try and get out of q1. Some teams would choose hards to go most of the race they slam on softs or super softs for a last couple of lap sprints.
That might be a cool idea. I was thinking about Red Bull's strategy again, and realized that they were really only able to pull it off because Seb didn't set a time in Q3, so he got to start on the longer life Mediums, and switched to fresh Softs at the time he had the least amount of fuel. If he had qualified on the Softs, it would have been a very different strategy. Now call me crazy (I won't mind) but I kind of think it now looks like it might be beneficial for the teams NOT to set Q3 times, so they can start on fresh primes and keep the options for the final push. That'd make for a pretty gross rules abuse (if they're not required to go out), but might make the end of the race more hectic. Also, tangentially, I read that Button spent much of the second stint nursing his tires on the assumption that they wouldn't last. Then he was told to start fighting for spots, and on an old set of Mediums he started improving 2 seconds a lap, and the tires held in and he got 26 laps from them. So the Mediums at least are not as bad as everyone seems to think. And finally, It appears Pirelli has re-allocated tires for Bahrain. They went from Hard/Soft to Hard/Medium - so it sounds like they are listening to the concerns. It's a hot track with sand and other abrasives on it, so it makes sense to move to a more durable setup. As long as the racing is competitive, I don't mind how it goes.
Of course Kimi's cool with the tires Lotus F1 Team - Exclusive content right from the heart of the F1 action :: Kimi Räikkönen on the Bahrain Grand Prix
I think you are just describing the difference between a North American motor race and a European one. A North American motor racing presenter says that they are in the entertainment business and that exciting close racing is what they are trying to achieve. The European perspective is much more about a straight fight between constructors and drivers, which they will let the public watch if they pay enough. If you build a dominant race car, you drive away from the front and there is never a race (think Button/Brawn a few years ago, which no-one expected). I think the mucking about with tyres is an effort to get more close racing without going down the route of a one-make formula.