Thread: Formula 1 2012

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  1. #321
    Bloodsail Admiral Coffer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    Di Resta would be a better fit for Merc in their current place IMO. Hamilton would just get more and more frustrated at Merc.
    Definitely agree with you on that though.


  2. #322
    gotta point out that Eddie Jordan was the guy that broke news of Schumacher coming back into F1, so it wouldnt surprise me if he gets this spot on again. Not to mention Hamilton and Rosberg have partnered up in younger days together (in an AMG Mercedes Team no doubt) so its all up in the air really.

    Mercedes have a decent enough car, the company just need to inject more money into it, besides. Ross Braun is full of magic beans and it wouldnt surprise me if they made another dynamite car.

    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    Di Resta would be a better fit for Merc in their current place IMO. Hamilton would just get more and more frustrated at Merc.
    Wouldnt mind seeing Di Resta at either McLaren or Mercedes tbf, i know hes got the potential.

    ---------- Post added 2012-09-06 at 02:24 PM ----------

    oooh, also just pulled this off the BBC website. (do with it what you will)

    1418:
    FORMULA ONE
    Byron Young, Daily Mirror GP reporter

    "Lewis, have you a comment to make on rumours?"

    Hamilton: "Not really".

    Do you know where you are driving next year?

    Hamilton: "No".


    I bet we will find something out by the end of the Monza GP

  3. #323
    High Overlord Farra's Avatar
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    I personally hope that Lewis stays at McLaren and DiResta goes to Mercedes. Although I wouldn't be surprised if we see Massa at Mercedes for 2013 considering his future remains unclear still.

    Another piece of info from Sky F1:

    Speaking to Sky Sports News immediately after the press conference, Hamilton then clarified: "Nothing has been signed and my management remain in discussions with McLaren. Nothing has changed."

  4. #324
    Bloodsail Admiral Coffer's Avatar
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    Thoughts after the first 2 practice sessions?

    • When combining everyone's fastest 3 sectors Massa was the fastest, with Alonso just .013s behind him.
    • In terms of pure speed Ferrari and McLaren are at the top at the moment. Ferrari, however, have a rather large top speed disadvantage compared to their rivals. Mercedes are up there too, with Schumacher being fastest in FP1 and putting in some great lap times in FP2 despite an early DRS failure, but both drivers complained about rear tyre issues so we could see them drop off.
    • Lotus are, unsurprisingly, the best at tyre conservation, with Kimi putting in a great string of laps.
    • Red Bull are, also unsurprisingly, doing badly. 4km/h slower than any other team at the speed traps, with both drivers saying after FP2 that the car simply isn't good enough this weekend (especially Vettel).


  5. #325
    Mclaren and Raikönnen and ferrari to share top 5 in Q3. A Mclaren will be on pole, 2-5 will be seperated by ~0.2 seconds. RBR may struggle to reach Q3 again.

  6. #326
    Bloodsail Admiral Coffer's Avatar
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    Massa has outqualified Alonso for the first time this season. We have a miracle on our hands, even though his Q3 time was still slower than his teammate's Q1 and Q2 times.

    I don't think Hamilton and Button are beatable though. Ferrari are still lacking in the top speed department.
    Last edited by Coffer; 2012-09-08 at 01:07 PM.


  7. #327
    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    Mclaren and Raikönnen and ferrari to share top 5 in Q3. A Mclaren will be on pole, 2-5 will be seperated by ~0.2 seconds. RBR may struggle to reach Q3 again.
    Well I was nearly right...

  8. #328
    Quote Originally Posted by Coffer View Post
    Massa has outqualified Alonso for the first time this season. We have a miracle on our hands, even though his Q3 time was still slower than his teammate's Q1 and Q2 times.

    I don't think Hamilton and Button are beatable though. Ferrari are still lacking in the top speed department.
    Please remember that Alonso's qualifying has been poor because of the failure of the rear anti-roll bar, otherwise he'd surely outpace Massa and he'd have fought for Pole Position against the McLaren.

    My hopes for Monza:

    -Vettel DNF
    -Alonso isn't destroyed by someone on the first Variante and he sets off as well as always, he's able to have a good pace and fights for podium and (maybe) win, remember Valencia.
    -McLaren offer a great race, with Ferrari (I hope Massa isn't as slow as normally) fighting and making the Tifosi have fun at their circuit.

  9. #329
    High Overlord Farra's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Limulsuis View Post

    My hopes for Monza:

    -Vettel DNF
    -Alonso isn't destroyed by someone on the first Variante and he sets off as well as always, he's able to have a good pace and fights for podium and (maybe) win, remember Valencia.
    -McLaren offer a great race, with Ferrari (I hope Massa isn't as slow as normally) fighting and making the Tifosi have fun at their circuit.
    This x10, would also love to see DiResta climb up into the top 5 after his 5 place grid penalty, he's looked on the ball this weekend!

  10. #330
    Deleted
    With regards to Hamilton and teams.

    McLaren:Would like him to stay here, but his and Buttons driving style are too different so designing a car which will be good for both could be what's causing some of the problems.
    Mercedes: Step down from McLaren, if I remember this season, their reliability isn't the best and their performance hasn't been consistent or near to the others
    Ferrari: If he moves it will be with Alonso, so one problem already. Ferrari seem to enjoy team orders, as such one will need to be a number two driver which neither would want too.
    Red Bull: I can imagine he will have the same issue as Webber had with regards to the favouritism. Also their design may not suit his style of driving.
    Lotus: If he is to move I would say this could be a good option.

    Di Resta could be the replacement for Schumacher if Hamilton doesn't go there.

  11. #331
    Bloodsail Admiral Coffer's Avatar
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    Alonso may have just won the championship with that. Sure, nothing's certain and Vettel was stupid to shove him off the track (not because it was his fault, as I strongly believe it wasn't, but because I was sure that he wasn't going to get away with it on Ferrari's home turf), but ANOTHER alternator failure? Webber's own retirement didn't help either.

    Hamilton was on top of it. Alonso did well to finish third considering Ferrari disappointed on race day (and not just because the car wasn't up to scratch. Seriously, look at Felipe - .3-.4s/lap slower than anyone other than d'Ambrosio, Kobayashi and the backmarkers in S1, only gaining .1s/lap in S2 and then losing it in S3).

    I don't think Massa is going to keep his seat after that performance. But then who should they replace him with? Perez wants to stay at Sauber, Kovalainen hasn't been great this year (6-4 in Petrov's favor, and that's without his two car failures and the double retirement in Australia), di Resta would rather go to McLaren or Mercedes...Hulk's shown quite a bit of enthusiasm, and he'd probably like to stay there for at least one year. That is, assuming the Vettel rumors are true.

    The stewards had an absolute howler today. Even as a tifosi I strongly agree with those that think that they tried to help Alonso today. Ferrari International Assistance? More likely than you think. Di Resta should not have gotten away with it by any stretch of the imagination, and his move was actually illegal, unlike Vettel's.



    The usual stuff.

    Sebastian Vettel
    Q: 8.5 | R: 8 | Average: 8.25->8 | F1R: 8
    He should not have been penalized for that push (seriously, how did Di Resta get away with it?), and the retirement wasn't his fault. He was also beating Webber prior to that, even with the penalty.

    Mark Webber
    Q: 6.5 | R: 6 | Average: 6.25->6 | F1R: 6
    The car was poor and the retirement wasn't his fault, but Vettel was beating him prior to that so I can't really excuse him much.

    Jenson Button
    Q: 9 | R: 8 | Average: 8.5->9 | F1R: 9
    Front row is always good. Retirement wasn't his fault and he was catching Lewis in the second stint. Kinda feel sorry for him.

    Lewis Hamilton
    Q: 9.5 | R: 9.5 | Average: 9.5->10 | F1R: 10
    Started to drop off in the second stint but nonetheless, a winning drive is a winning drive.

    Fernando Alonso
    Q: 9.5 | R: 9 | Average: 9.25->9 | F1R: 10
    Was doing exceptionally well before Q3 so I can't take much away from him, and he smashed Felipe before getting smashed himself by Perez through no fault of his own. Definitely a worthy championship contender, but having a good car that didn't actually fail on him was quite helpful this weekend. And before you ask about the rating, I'm not biased. Even though I'm a tifosi I really want him to lose and I strongly believe that he doesn't deserve to lead the championship, much less win it. However, he was phenomenal in qualifying prior to the rear anti-roll bar failure and he did what he could on race day with a disappointing car. Driver of the Weekend

    Felipe Massa
    Q: 10 | R: 5 | Average: 7.5->8 | F1R: 7
    Matched Fernando's Q1 and Q2 times without a tow. The race, however, was an entirely different matter - aside from Kobayashi, d'Ambrosio and the backmarkers he was the slowest in S1 by .2-.3 on average, which is unforgivable.

    Michael Schumacher
    Q: 8.5 | R: 7 | Average: 7.75->8 | F1R: 7
    Considering his DRS and KERS failures in the practice sessions, P4 was an excellent position to start in. He was, however, demolished by Perez and just beaten to the line by Raikkonen.

    Nico Rosberg
    Q: 8 | R: 7 | Average: 7.5->8 | F1R: 7
    Could've maybe done better in Q3. Kept up with Schumacher in the race.

    Kimi Raikkonen
    Q: 8 | R: 9 | Average: 8.5->9 | F1R: 9
    That Lotus just doesn't have any qualifying pace. Pipped Schuey to the line, made those tyres last for an absurd amount of time.

    Jerome d'Ambrosio
    Q: 4 | R: 4 | Average: 4 | F1R: 4
    Nowhere in qualifying, nowhere in the race. Worst Driver (though he's not 100% to be blamed)

    Paul di Resta
    Q: 10 | R: 6 | Average: 8 | F1R: 7
    These stupid gearbox penalties need to go away. Wasn't really "on it" in the race, and he should've been penalized.

    Nico Hulkenberg
    Q: N/A | R: 8 | Average: 8 | F1R: 7
    Extremely unfortunate weekend for him. Seemed to have more pace than Paul.

    Kamui Kobayashi
    Q: 8 | R: 6 | Average: 7 | F1R: 6
    Where was he in the race?

    Sergio Perez
    Q: 6 | R: 9 | Average: 7.5->8 | F1R: 9
    Strongly overrated drive. I can't help but wonder if missing Q3 gives you too large of an advantage. Yes, advantage, not disadvantage. Vettel in China, Raikkonen in Bahrain, Alonso in Europe and so on. It's getting troublesome and I'll be damned if it doesn't dampen my actual viewing experience, much more so than the DRS (which I find perfectly fine when it's tuned well, and that wasn't the case today as it seemed way too strong) or the tyres.

    Daniel Ricciardo
    Q: 7.5 | R: 7 | Average: 7.25->7 | F1R: 7
    Put up a good fight until he made that mistake.

    Jean-Eric Vergne
    Q: 7 | R: N/A | Average: 7 | F1R: 7
    Unfortunate with that car failure. Was keeping up with Daniel prior to that.

    Pastor Maldonado
    Q: 7 | R: 7 | Average: 7 | F1R: 7
    Could've qualified better. Only .5s behind Senna at the line and he kept himself out of trouble, so he gets a good rating for that.

    Bruno Senna
    Q: 6 | R: 6.5 | Average: 6.25->6 | F1R: 6
    Did well to finish in the points but on a sheer performance basis he was slower than Maldonado.

    Heikki Kovalainen
    Q: 7.5 | R: 6.5 | Average: 7 | F1R: 7
    Somewhat better this time around. Only just pipped Petrov to the line (.1s).

    Vitaly Petrov
    Q: 6 | R: 6.5 | Average: 6.25->6 | F1R: 6
    Almost caught Kovalainen at the end despite a poor quali session.

    Pedro de la Rosa
    Q: 5 | R: 7.5 | Average: 6.25->6 | F1R: 6
    Beaten by Karthikeyan in quali, but made up for it in the race by being only 12 seconds behind Glock at the end.

    Narain Karthikeyan
    Q: 8 | R: 5 | Average: 6.5->7 | F1R: 6
    First time he's outqualified his teammate since China 2005. The race, however, was an entirely different matter, as he ended over 14 seconds behind Pedro.

    Timo Glock
    Q: 7 | R: 4 | Average: 5.5->6 | F1R: 5
    Close to matching Petrov in qualifying, blown to bits by Pic in the race. 27.3s? Seriously?

    Charles Pic
    Q: 7 | R: 7 | Average: 7 | F1R: 7
    Destroyed Timo this time around.
    Last edited by Coffer; 2012-09-09 at 03:54 PM.


  12. #332
    High Overlord Farra's Avatar
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    Enjoyable race More retirements than I expected, was quite funny that Vettel had retired with the same issue as before, the Sky F1 team called that out before the race. Will be interesting to see how the Red Bull's perform in the coming races where humidity and heat will play a part.

    Perez's rush towards the end was a good watch also.

  13. #333
    Strongly overrated drive. I can't help but wonder if missing Q3 gives you too large of an advantage. Yes, advantage, not disadvantage. Vettel in China, Raikkonen in Bahrain, Alonso in Europe and so on. It's getting troublesome and I'll be damned if it doesn't dampen my actual viewing experience, much more so than the DRS (which I find perfectly fine when it's tuned well, and that wasn't the case today as it seemed way too strong) or the tyres.
    I am still of the opinion that if you do not compete in qualifying sessions, you should not be able to race. If you cannot compete in qualifying through no fault of your own, like if your suspension fails in FP3 or something like that, you could lodge an appeal with the race stewards who would be able to grant a pit-lane start. But if you choose to not take part in each qualifying session you are allowed to compete in, or fail to produce a 107% flying lap, you should get a DNQ.

  14. #334
    Bloodsail Admiral Coffer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    I am still of the opinion that if you do not compete in qualifying sessions, you should not be able to race. If you cannot compete in qualifying through no fault of your own, like if your suspension fails in FP3 or something like that, you could lodge an appeal with the race stewards who would be able to grant a pit-lane start. But if you choose to not take part in each qualifying session you are allowed to compete in, or fail to produce a 107% flying lap, you should get a DNQ.
    I don't think this really pertains to what Perez did (since he genuinely got knocked out), though it would certainly apply to those that willingly refuse to compete in, say, Q3. If it were by me I'd just remove the "top ten start on the tyres they qualified on" rule. If you're not quick enough to make it to the top ten, why should you get an advantage?


  15. #335
    Quote Originally Posted by Coffer View Post
    I don't think this really pertains to what Perez did (since he genuinely got knocked out), though it would certainly apply to those that willingly refuse to compete in, say, Q3. If it were by me I'd just remove the "top ten start on the tyres they qualified on" rule. If you're not quick enough to make it to the top ten, why should you get an advantage?
    Yeah, I think it is actually more of an advantage to be classified 11th instead of 8-10th. Either everybody starts on the tyre they qualifed on, or everybody can choose freely. If it rains in qualifying that rule is suspended anyway.

    And it was aimed at the tactical withdrawals from qualifying to be able to choose the tyre, I can remember a couple of occasions last year when nearly half the top ten didn't run in Q3.

  16. #336
    Bloodsail Admiral Coffer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    Yeah, I think it is actually more of an advantage to be classified 11th instead of 8-10th.
    Especially if those P8-P10 starters are still forced to do the same runs as usual. Alonso, for example, still pushed despite his rear anti-roll bar failure in Q3. Who knows where he might've gotten if Ferrari had decided not to have him run in Q3 after discovering the problematic part at the start of the session. I strongly believe that he would've beaten Perez if that had happened.

    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    Either everybody starts on the tyre they qualifed on, or everybody can choose freely. If it rains in qualifying that rule is suspended anyway.

    And it was aimed at the tactical withdrawals from qualifying to be able to choose the tyre, I can remember a couple of occasions last year when nearly half the top ten didn't run in Q3.
    Yeah, I side with you on that.


  17. #337
    Stood in the Fire Rivenda's Avatar
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    Lewis is back on track. What a shame what happened to Jenson.. But the champions is really open now! Monza was one of the best races this season imo. Looking forward to F1 weekend again!
    Oderint dum metuat.
    Success is dependent on effort.

  18. #338
    Bloodsail Admiral Coffer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rivenda View Post
    Lewis is back on track. What a shame what happened to Jenson.. But the champions is really open now! Monza was one of the best races this season imo. Looking forward to F1 weekend again!
    Hamilton definitely has the biggest chance of the #2-#4 guys to take this (and has been, imo, the best driver so far this season), but Alonso needs to stop lucking out in order for that to happen.


  19. #339
    Quote Originally Posted by Coffer View Post
    Hamilton definitely has the biggest chance of the #2-#4 guys to take this (and has been, imo, the best driver so far this season), but Alonso needs to stop lucking out in order for that to happen.
    Some people say you make your own luck, Alonso has done so well on merit, dragging that Ferrari around.
    Probably running on a Pentium 4

  20. #340
    Bloodsail Admiral Coffer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigbazz View Post
    Some people say you make your own luck.
    I bring you 2007 and 2010. This guy literally lives on luck. Hamilton and Raikkonen grossly outperformed him in 2007, yet he somehow only lost the title by one point. 2010 was even worse. It's not even just the fact that he had the best car (and a bulletproof one at that!) after Silverstone - he benefitted the most from Vettel/Hamilton's misfortune, and by a long shot too.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bigbazz View Post
    Alonso has done so well on merit, dragging that Ferrari around.
    Why are people still trying to excuse him by saying that the car is bad? It's not. It's the best on the grid. Even at the start of the season he had the second best car (tied with Red Bull), he just missed Q3 in Australia due to a mistake.

    He should not be leading the championship. And this is coming from a tifosi and one of the few people who actually respects him for screwing McLaren over in 2007.

    If anything Ferrari should be praised for taking the car from being strong yet difficult to drive (just look at Massa), to pretty much the strongest in every department aside from top speed (and even there they're demolishing Red Bull). And that's in the dry. We all know what happened in the rain. Newey's "genius", Renault's alternators and McLaren's pit crew accounted to Alonso's lead far more than the Spaniard's own genius. He's good, but not that good.
    Last edited by Coffer; 2012-09-11 at 12:55 AM.


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