The Official 2015 British Grand Prix thread **SPOILERS**

[vonuber]

Dr Z said:

As it happened, Merc knew they were faster and were happy to sit behind for the undercut.

Yup. Rosberg was unlucky with his pitstop, otherwise the two would've been away and free.

[anonymous-user]

Vaud said:

superkartracer said:

Touched a nerve ? , nothing to debate.. , the race was boring , save the start.

I've just watched the race and dipped into the thread.

Boring race - I have to disagree. 5 laps from the end I had no idea who was going to win. Have to rewatch to see how Vet got from 10 to 3 as I missed his moves/strategy calls.

All drove well (that finished).

My driver of the day - HAM, that was a class drive, and I'm not his greatest fan.

Really? You had no idea who was going to win with 5 laps to go? That says more about you than the race, IMO.

[JonRB]

superkartracer said:

Touched a nerve ?

Not at all. You're the one who chose to look at my profile, infer my profession, and then have a dig at me about it. Speaks volumes about someone that the first thing they do when someone disagrees with them is to get personal.

Anyway, no matter. This thread is going the way that pretty much all F1 threads go after the race as finished. Ahm oot.

[Hungrymc]

REALIST123 said:

Really? You had no idea who was going to win with 5 laps to go? That says more about you than the race, IMO.

Oh come on, maybe by 5 laps it was becoming clear that Lewis had it. But what about before the last pit stops, and immediately after when we didn't know if Lewis had stopped at the right time. Williams messed up their strategy else they could have avoided the under cut. There was plenty going on there.

[Norfolkit]

Jasandjules said:

Amateurish said:

As for Williams "letting" Bottas past Massa, I can't think of any racer who would willingly concede the lead of the race to his team-mate.

Uh, Felipe, Valteri is faster than you.....................

Can't quite fathom the assumption that if Massa had let Bottas by that he (Bottas) would build some sort of lead that Massa couldn't. He never really threatened Massa even though he had DRS and Massa didn't. For a "future world champion" he's hardly blowing Massa away, can't really buy the hype about Bottas.

[130R]

Just got back. I had a BRDC guest pass and watched the race from the farm grandstand. The grandstand was pretty packed at the start but when it started raining there were about 20 people left at the end!

[Dr Z]

Norfolkit said:

Jasandjules said:

Amateurish said:

As for Williams "letting" Bottas past Massa, I can't think of any racer who would willingly concede the lead of the race to his team-mate.

Uh, Felipe, Valteri is faster than you.....................

Can't quite fathom the assumption that if Massa had let Bottas by that he (Bottas) would build some sort of lead that Massa couldn't. He never really threatened Massa even though he had DRS and Massa didn't. For a "future world champion" he's hardly blowing Massa away, can't really buy the hype about Bottas.

I'm sorry, but a driver generally considered to be a great overtaker in the all conquering Merc failed to get past Bottas in the Williams and it's true that the more evenly matched the car is, the harder it is to pull a pass (Note for the casual fan: DRS is not a done deal in a car with similar performance). So, unless Bottas went for a more marginal move (which was forbidden by the team, as it is risky), there's no way he could have got past. Watch the onboard of Bottas following Massa, you'd see he was so much quicker, tighter and controlled in the dirty air whereas Massa was running wide all over the place and generally being a bit of a nuisance in clean air.

[Studio117]

Kravittz is a prize bellend.

[superkartracer]

JonRB said:

superkartracer said:

Touched a nerve ?

Not at all. You're the one who chose to look at my profile , etc

Nope , i remembered you from F1 threads , some years back ... and having the exact same disagreements dear.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Exige77 said:

So we didn't have the same driver winning over and over before then ?

In case you hadn't noticed, Mercedes/Hamilton have an all time record number of poles/wins/podiums. But why let the facts stand in the way of a good rant.

Exige77 said:

Fuel saving ? I remember when cars used to regularly run out of fuel.

Yes, but at least they ran out rather than pussying about on the circuit.

Exige77 said:

This is a thread for people who enjoy F1 and want to discuss it an not bleat on about "it was better before".

Well, let's face it, if you can enjoy watching this era of F1 you could probably get a new hobby watching paint dry and get a bigger kick out of that.

Exige77 said:

If you don't like F1, don't watch it.

Sound advice I'm sure - but the audience is already declining very rapidly. Silverstone and a couple of other aces might sell our but most grandstands are half empty through the season and the TV audience is shrinking fast.

F1 at present is dull. Very dull indeed. Get over it. I'd like to see it improved. So would many other fans.

[marshall100]

Mclaren, you have to wonder how long it's going to be before heads start to roll. They are an absolute shambles.

[Jasandjules]

Norfolkit said:

Can't quite fathom the assumption that if Massa had let Bottas by that he (Bottas) would build some sort of lead that Massa couldn't. He never really threatened Massa even though he had DRS and Massa didn't. For a "future world champion" he's hardly blowing Massa away, can't really buy the hype about Bottas.

Were you watching Bottas' onboard? He was smoother under braking even following in the dirty air. He was hitting the apex cleaner than Massa and his car seemed more planted (incredibly his tyre wear was lower despite following Massa). I suspect he was at least 0.25s a lap faster and if he'd had clean air would have pulled out of DRS range quickly.

Consider that Lewis couldn't get a massive overtake done on Bottas despite the Quali pace differential...

[Ozzie Osmond]

marshall100 said:

Mclaren, you have to wonder how long it's going to be before heads start to roll. They are an absolute shambles.

The catch for "Ron" is,

• He fell out with Mercedes
• He wouldn't go near Renault (wisely)
• Ferrari wouldn't sell him an engine if he offered double the going rate (previous spying)

so Honda is essentially the only game in town. Hmmmm....

[Vaud]

REALIST123 said:

Really? You had no idea who was going to win with 5 laps to go? That says more about you than the race, IMO.

No need for the abuse. If you feel the need to respond that way then take a long hard look at yourself and how to engage in debate.

I do not possess a crystal ball and the weather was all over the place. Hamilton has been known to suffer both car and strategy errors at key moments.

So, no, I knew who was leading. But I would not have laid money on the winner.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Jasandjules said:

Were you watching Bottas' onboard? He was smoother under braking even following in the dirty air. He was hitting the apex cleaner than Massa and his car seemed more planted (incredibly his tyre wear was lower despite following Massa). I suspect he was at least 0.25s a lap faster and if he'd had clean air would have pulled out of DRS range quickly.

I think you're right.

IMO the problem was simple. Williams hadn't made any plans for the highly unlikely event that they ended up running first and second in the race so had to make it up as they went along - and got it wrong. Massa, of whom I remain a huge fan, should have been told to release the quicker car behind him. It IMO cost Williams a podium.

[Norfolkit]

Jasandjules said:

Were you watching Bottas' onboard? He was smoother under braking even following in the dirty air. He was hitting the apex cleaner than Massa and his car seemed more planted (incredibly his tyre wear was lower despite following Massa). I suspect he was at least 0.25s a lap faster and if he'd had clean air would have pulled out of DRS range quickly.

I wouldn't disagree with your first statement but to be honest the second is speculation, might have happened, might not have done. I for one think Williams were right, you couldn't just ask Massa to surrender the lead of the race (not 2nd/3rd etc, the lead!) on the chance that Bottas could have made more of it, I'm not sure he would.

[entropy]

Ozzie Osmond said:

I think you're right.

IMO the problem was simple. Williams hadn't made any plans for the highly unlikely event that they ended up running first and second in the race so had to make it up as they went along - and got it wrong. Massa, of whom I remain a huge fan, should have been told to release the quicker car behind him. It IMO cost Williams a podium.

The car was awful in the wet. Remember that Bottas radioed the team about it. They would have been sitting ducks anyway even if it would have been nice to see if Bottas could lead second stint.

[superkartracer]

Vaud said:

superkartracer said:

Touched a nerve ? , nothing to debate.. , the race was boring , save the start.

Boring race - I have to disagree..

Maybe i was expecting too much , never missed a race for 15 years , not watched one for 18 months.. so..

Thinking back , they are mostly 90% crap aren't they

[Vaud]

superkartracer said:

Maybe i was expecting too much , never missed a race for 15 years , not watched one for 18 months.. so..

Thinking back , they are mostly 90% crap aren't they

Many are, bit over the years I have learned that I enjoy races more since I stopped following just one team and driver, and since I watch mid field battles more.

Was it the greatest ever race? Nope. Was it a good way to spend 90 mins? Yup. Sell out crowd looked pretty happy and I guess they paid a lot more than me

[dr_gn]

Williams need to take decisions when they need to. Save the sporting bullst for when they've got a second a lap on the field, like Mercedes.

Smedley was all over the place in his post race interview - they screwed up and he knows it.