The Official 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[TheInternet]

Allyc85 said:

Did either of you two sit through the Schumacher era? That was far, far more boring than what we have now! A race with 2 overtakes would be considered exciting!

F1 Overtakes over the years




ETA: Not saying he's entirely to blame but Jarno Trulli's F1 career lines up almost perfectly with the flat line along the bottom.

Edited by TheInternet on Friday 17th April 16:47

[suffolk009]

Just seeing tweets of paddock rumour Hamilton is off to Ferrari next year to drive with Vettel.

Wouldn't surprise me, nobody is accidentally this incompetent at negotiating a contract renewal. Also Hamilton went to Merc because of Brawn. And of course Merc then unceremoniously dumped Brawn. Of course Hamilton could put and end to it by just signing a new contract...

Silly season starting early.

[Speed Badger]

Surely any F1 driver secretly dreams of Ferrari? I know where I would rather be given the choice and potentially 4 WCD's under my belt. A nice long stay at Ferrari thank you very much indeedy, rather than boring corporate Merc with uncle Toto.

And Alonso to Mercedes of course...

[IIIRestorerIII]

17 year old Max Verstappen in FP2 just now...

"Why is it so hard to spin rear tyres in an F1 car?"

Kid's these days eh..

When he finishes in the top three he'll be wanting to handbrake turn to impress the podium girls ;-)

[confucuis]

Any chance of an upset here? Will temps have an affect on the Mercs?

[Jasandjules]

suffolk009 said:

J
Wouldn't surprise me

Really? I suppose if the ponies are catching up with the Mercs it could be a scrap but I thought the rumour was that Kimi was being signed up again for next year.

[Crafty_]

suffolk009 said:

Just seeing tweets of paddock rumour Hamilton is off to Ferrari next year to drive with Vettel.

Wouldn't surprise me, nobody is accidentally this incompetent at negotiating a contract renewal. Also Hamilton went to Merc because of Brawn. And of course Merc then unceremoniously dumped Brawn. Of course Hamilton could put and end to it by just signing a new contract...

Silly season starting early.

I think its just silly rumours because Hamilton & Vettel did an interview together for TV.

Anything to destabilise the Merc power house at the moment.

Contracts sometimes take a very long time to sort out, not unusual.

[DanielSan]

suffolk009 said:

Just seeing tweets of paddock rumour Hamilton is off to Ferrari next year to drive with Vettel.

Wouldn't surprise me, nobody is accidentally this incompetent at negotiating a contract renewal. Also Hamilton went to Merc because of Brawn. And of course Merc then unceremoniously dumped Brawn. Of course Hamilton could put and end to it by just signing a new contract...

Silly season starting early.

If he gets his 3rd title this year then going to Ferrari isn't beyond the realms of possibility. New team, new challenge and of course it's Ferrari....

[Mr_Thyroid]

confucuis said:

Any chance of an upset here? Will temps have an affect on the Mercs?

Doesn't it cool off very quickly when the sun goes down? But I think it will be close again.

I wonder if the proximity of the Ferraris will prevent Ham & Ros having a battle in the same vein as last year - a much more "managed" race.

[Mr_Thyroid]

TheInternet said:

F1 Overtakes over the years

Edited by TheInternet on Friday 17th April 16:47

Interesting graph - why the drop-off since 2011? 2011 being when they introduced DRS IIRC.

Seems to show pretty conclusively that refuelling reduced overtaking.

[BoRED S2upid]

Flipatron said:

Alonso currently 1000/1 for the world championship, I'll take those odds.

I figure the McLaren doesn't look half bad and the engine is currently turned down. I'm happy to waste a fiver on a McLaren/Honda/Alonso combo.

This year?

I honestly can't see how that could possibly happen? Even if they got the car back to Europe managed a miraculous turn around and jumped to the top spot challenging Mercedes and Ferrari Hamilton and co would be hundreds of points ahead!

It should be 10,000/1.

[davepoth]

Crafty_ said:

suffolk009 said:

Just seeing tweets of paddock rumour Hamilton is off to Ferrari next year to drive with Vettel.

Wouldn't surprise me, nobody is accidentally this incompetent at negotiating a contract renewal. Also Hamilton went to Merc because of Brawn. And of course Merc then unceremoniously dumped Brawn. Of course Hamilton could put and end to it by just signing a new contract...

Silly season starting early.

I think its just silly rumours because Hamilton & Vettel did an interview together for TV.

Anything to destabilise the Merc power house at the moment.

Contracts sometimes take a very long time to sort out, not unusual.

He'll end up at Ferrari for certain, and I reckon it's quite likely to be next year; if he's read a biography of Senna (I expect he has) he always intended to end his career at Ferrari too. The way things are going he'll be a double champion at Mercedes by the end of this year, but with Ferrari on an upswing and Kimi looking to find a quiet spot under a tree for a nap it looks like a pretty decent time to make the jump.

Added to that it puts him into the same team as Vettel. He's already proved that he could beat Alonso in an equal car, and I bet the thought of being able to prove himself to be the greatest of his generation is very appealing.

[Crafty_]

...Except Ferrari have said they are pretty keen on keeping Kimi and he's quite happy to stay.
http://adamcooperf1.com/2015/04/17/raikkonen-headi...

The Merc is still the best car (just) and he's happy there. Why move on ?

He's only 30, another 2 or 3 at Merc he can still go to Ferrari, plenty of time yet.

[London424]

davepoth said:

He'll end up at Ferrari for certain, and I reckon it's quite likely to be next year; if he's read a biography of Senna (I expect he has) he always intended to end his career at Ferrari too. The way things are going he'll be a double champion at Mercedes by the end of this year, but with Ferrari on an upswing and Kimi looking to find a quiet spot under a tree for a nap it looks like a pretty decent time to make the jump.

Added to that it puts him into the same team as Vettel. He's already proved that he could beat Alonso in an equal car, and I bet the thought of being able to prove himself to be the greatest of his generation is very appealing.

Oh come on...he will be at Merc for the next few years. Signing a multi million pound contract takes a bit more than a couple of days.

[Vaud]

London424 said:

Oh come on...he will be at Merc for the next few years. Signing a multi million pound contract takes a bit more than a couple of days.

It's being going on for months.

I wonder if there is a mega offer lurking in the wings from someone? Something ground breaking that is causing him to rethink.

[Dr Z]

Merc long runs look a bit all over the place in both FP1 and 2, did they not have a clear run? Ferrari looking good, very consistent. It might be a tortoise and hare story again.

[V8covin]

Why was Button so far behind Alonso in practice ?

[Vaud]

V8covin said:

Why was Button so far behind Alonso in practice ?

Multiple engine problems.

[anonymous-user]

No unsafe release penalty for Ferrari for releasing Vettel with a right front wheel that wasn't attached properly, which contributed to the contact with Perez.

[Crafty_]

Dr Z said:

Merc long runs look a bit all over the place in both FP1 and 2, did they not have a clear run? Ferrari looking good, very consistent. It might be a tortoise and hare story again.

Possibly. The Mercs didn't really spend too long going flat out, Rosbergs lap was okay (but could probably go a bit quicker), Lewis locked a wheel at T9 - reckoned to be 4 tenths worth. Possibly a little sandbagging, but both drviers saying Ferrari pace was rather concerning.

In general there was quite a bit of wheel locking, running wide etc at the start of FP2, not sure if it was dust on track or the temperatures making for grabby brakes.

They spent most of the session on the prime tyre, Didn't do very long runs though.
On Sky Mark Hughes reckoned that (from what we saw) the Ferrari was quicker over 7 or 8 laps (on the option tyre I think).

I think it'll be tight tomorrow but Mercs will get the front row, the race I'm not sure. I want to see what Merc do in FP3 - that will be telling as to where they think their weakness is. It could just come down to who gets more deg and how quickly.

V8covin said:

Why was Button so far behind Alonso in practice ?

FP1 he managed an entire out lap before the car decided to switch off, session over. Confirmed to be an electrical problem - dodgy connection basically. Even at the start of FP2 they were still working on it. He went out in FP2 and it did the same thing, luckily near the support pit lane, so they were able to recover the car back to the garage. He did get out again but only got to do a few laps.