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

[Oily Nails]

NRS said:

LDN said:

Niki, Toto and Vettel look genuinely happy to be having their picture taken; very sweet.

https://flic.kr/p/vnZeJv

Trying to work out which one is Max...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertgrounds/194432...

"Hallo Dave! He's my child now Daaavvee!"

[lbc]

Pooh said:

Did anybody else notice how rude Nico was to Frankie in the interviews, Frankie asked him a question and Nico completely turned his back on him and addressed his answer to the crowd.

Nico always does this, so I can't believe you only just noticed it for this race.

The host asks Nico a question, and then Nico always seems to look away and talk about something completely different to the crowd. It does look very poor, and I am surprised that Mercedes have not given Nico some media training.

[FourWheelDrift]

threespires said:

Some driver pix here, sorry about poor quality

Will Stevens is actually standing up here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertgrounds/188467...

And one for dad - https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertgrounds/188468...

[Mr_Thyroid]

threespires said:

Some driver pix here, sorry about poor quality
https://flic.kr/s/aHskfESBMa

I'm not sure your wee lad appreciates being driver bait. Some nice pics though. Can't believe they made Perez do the dishes after coming 9th.

[Mr_Thyroid]

Scuffers said:

ukaskew said:

freedman said:

A race thrown away by Williams by a complete lack of strategy to actually try and win it

Williams were never going to win that race, regardless of their strategy calls. Bottas getting ahead of Massa early on may have seen him a little further up the road for a while, but nothing more than that, especially given the rain.

They may have thrown away a 3rd place dependent on the 'track position when rain started' lottery, but that's about it in my opinion.

kind of agree... not sure they had the pace for the win, that said, 3rd was a very realistic option with a faint chance of 2nd.

Way I see it, if Bottas had been let go to run, and could have put half a sec a lap on Massa (holding up the mercs) by the time lewis stopped for tyres, he would never have been able to grab the lead from the under-cut, this would have left Bottas in the lead, all the way to the rain, at which point I suspect he would have lost out, but may not have done...

Yep their radio call early in the race made it clear their main focus was beating the Ferraris. Unfortunately they forgot to try and beat the Mercs too. Bottas was a bit quicker for a few laps but Massa also had a great chance to win (if the rain had stayed away), if they'd been focusing on the win they could've maintained track position and then in the dry, who knows.

[entropy]

lbc said:

Nico always does this, so I can't believe you only just noticed it for this race.

The host asks Nico a question, and then Nico always seems to look away and talk about something completely different to the crowd. It does look very poor, and I am surprised that Mercedes have not given Nico some media training.

It sucks when you're not on the top step of the podium.

There's no right emotion to show publicly because gonna flack of some sort. For instance Lewis hides behind his shades in the interview bullpen unless he's winning then he's all too happy to show how great it feels to win.

[Jasandjules]

threespires said:

Some driver pix here, sorry about poor quality
https://flic.kr/s/aHskfESBMa

I am quite impressed at how many of them stopped for you - lovely people.

[RichB]

entropy said:

For instance Lewis hides behind his shades in the interview...

And of course if Räikkönen does it he's the coolest dude on the grid according to som P'Headers

https://youtu.be/JbmjSHFde9Y

[Jonnny]

Jasandjules said:

threespires said:

Some driver pix here, sorry about poor quality
https://flic.kr/s/aHskfESBMa

I am quite impressed at how many of them stopped for you - lovely people.

Agreed! Very cool, and lucky.

Did I hear Ted correctly, Fillipe Nasr lives in Woking? Kind of surprised me.

[Mr_Thyroid]

entropy said:

lbc said:

Nico always does this, so I can't believe you only just noticed it for this race.

The host asks Nico a question, and then Nico always seems to look away and talk about something completely different to the crowd. It does look very poor, and I am surprised that Mercedes have not given Nico some media training.

It sucks when you're not on the top step of the podium.

There's no right emotion to show publicly because gonna flack of some sort. For instance Lewis hides behind his shades in the interview bullpen unless he's winning then he's all too happy to show how great it feels to win.

They all do it. They all answer the question they want - they all speak to the crowd. Maybe at sometimes some choose to speak a bit to the interviewer but it's usually some tosspot or a washed up old racer who's had too many bangs to the head who has a flashback to his glory days the moment he steps onto the podium and forgets how to construct sentences. Face it - if Nico addressed the interviewer you'd all be bhing about him blanking the fans.

[Allyc85]

threespires said:

Some driver pix here, sorry about poor quality
https://flic.kr/s/aHskfESBMa

Awesome

[ajprice]

Jasandjules said:

I am quite impressed at how many of them stopped for you - lovely people.

the one with Toto Wolff is great. But what was Perez doing with all those plates? They can't ALL have been for him

[IainT]

heebeegeetee said:

Aren't they great? I mean, it even looks like you can get close to the drivers, like the "good old days".

Awesome photos. Carmen...

[VladD]

IainT said:

heebeegeetee said:

Aren't they great? I mean, it even looks like you can get close to the drivers, like the "good old days".

Awesome photos. Carmen...

It's a shame the lad looks bored to death in all of them, or is he a budding karter being mentored by Kimi?

[RichB]

VladD said:

IainT said:

heebeegeetee said:

Aren't they great? I mean, it even looks like you can get close to the drivers, like the "good old days".

Awesome photos. Carmen...

It's a shame the lad looks bored to death in all of them, or is he a budding karter being mentored by Kimi?

I'm not surprised! "Stand with that man you don't know son. Now stand next to that man son, now that man over there and that man over there etc..."

[London424]

Mr_Thyroid said:

Scuffers said:

ukaskew said:

freedman said:

A race thrown away by Williams by a complete lack of strategy to actually try and win it

Williams were never going to win that race, regardless of their strategy calls. Bottas getting ahead of Massa early on may have seen him a little further up the road for a while, but nothing more than that, especially given the rain.

They may have thrown away a 3rd place dependent on the 'track position when rain started' lottery, but that's about it in my opinion.

kind of agree... not sure they had the pace for the win, that said, 3rd was a very realistic option with a faint chance of 2nd.

Way I see it, if Bottas had been let go to run, and could have put half a sec a lap on Massa (holding up the mercs) by the time lewis stopped for tyres, he would never have been able to grab the lead from the under-cut, this would have left Bottas in the lead, all the way to the rain, at which point I suspect he would have lost out, but may not have done...

Yep their radio call early in the race made it clear their main focus was beating the Ferraris. Unfortunately they forgot to try and beat the Mercs too. Bottas was a bit quicker for a few laps but Massa also had a great chance to win (if the rain had stayed away), if they'd been focusing on the win they could've maintained track position and then in the dry, who knows.

Massa couldn't win the race because Lewis jumped him in the pitstop. They were all going to run to the end on that set of tyres.

The only hope they had was let Bottas through to build a gap where Lewis wouldn't have jumped him during the pitstop. (I think there was a time in those early laps where Bottas could have gone 2-4 tenths quicker per lap.)

Then hope it didn't rain.

[VladD]

London424 said:

The only hope they had was let Bottas through to build a gap where Lewis wouldn't have jumped him during the pitstop. (I think there was a time in those early laps where Bottas could have gone 2-4 tenths quicker per lap.)

Then hope it didn't rain.

Either that or slow Bottas down and let Massa pull out a lead. I think the Williams was fast enough in a straight line for that to work.

[London424]

VladD said:

London424 said:

The only hope they had was let Bottas through to build a gap where Lewis wouldn't have jumped him during the pitstop. (I think there was a time in those early laps where Bottas could have gone 2-4 tenths quicker per lap.)

Then hope it didn't rain.

Either that or slow Bottas down and let Massa pull out a lead. I think the Williams was fast enough in a straight line for that to work.

True...though I've always thought that's a bit risky, as it's such fine margins to drive slowly, but fast enough not to be overtaken.

[Hungrymc]

London424 said:

True...though I've always thought that's a bit risky, as it's such fine margins to drive slowly, but fast enough not to be overtaken.

I think the disappointing part is that they didn't try either strategy. Just leaving the cars running so close played into the mercs hands. They should have used one car to protect the other and in not sure it mattered which car was opening a gap and which was defending (although it did look like Bottas was quicker).

[London424]

Hungrymc said:

London424 said:

True...though I've always thought that's a bit risky, as it's such fine margins to drive slowly, but fast enough not to be overtaken.

I think the disappointing part is that they didn't try either strategy. Just leaving the cars running so close played into the mercs hands. They should have used one car to protect the other and in not sure it mattered which car was opening a gap and which was defending (although it did look like Bottas was quicker).

Also true. Do you think it's just unfamiliarity of being in that position or something inherent within the team?

I guess the difficulty they have is that if they try something and it fails they'll get lots of tough questions, while also pissing off one or both of the drivers.

Taking yesterday as an example, they move Bottas past Massa. The rain comes and their car is not nearly as good in the wet, they end up coming 3rd and 4th (at best) and you've now pissed off Massa while not winning the race.