The Official 2016 Russian Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**
Discussion
Roony said:
If they do have to change Hamiltons engine I think it is wrong that they punish the driver. They should deduct points from the constructors. totally unfair penalising the driver.
It's a good point. I'm not a great fan of the penalties - they were intended to reduce the number of engines, gearboxes, etc, that teams brought to a race.This has been somewhat offset by the engine costs war... Maybe a compromise and a points penalty for both (maybe -1 for the driver, -5 for the constructor)?
As someone commented recently, it's nearly impossible of a driver to break them these days.
RB Will said:
I reckon tomorrow will go hamiltons way, probably get up to 2nd easy enough then safety car to bring in the 20 sec gap to rosberg
Yeah I can see Rosberg one-stopping, Hamilton two-stopping on faster tyres and then a safety car leaving Rosberg in front on worn- out tyres.I can also see Hamilton being mugged off the line and being collected into turn one again though- he really needs to play the start safe and use his superior car to make the difference up in the race.
All this talk of the championship being as good as Nico's are a bit OTT! One DNF with Lewis winning and he is right back in it. And there are 18? races to go.
I seem to remember Nico had a run of bad luck towards the end of one season (I can't recall if it was 2014 or 2015?) after benefiting from Hamilton's misfortune early on. The season is long enough for the luck* to balance out.
Looking at the FP long run pace it seems Williams may be competitive. After last year I'm keen to see if there is any argy bargy between the two Finns. If Lewis has no issues he can still score solid points..... given the car advantage he has who is to say he couldn't score a podium, perhaps even P2 if he can avoid incidents and cut through the traffic quickly.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this track is naff and with almost zero redeeming features. Having the wrong tyres (again) doesn't help either. If we had the ultra softs I think Ferrari would be more competitive.
I seem to remember Nico had a run of bad luck towards the end of one season (I can't recall if it was 2014 or 2015?) after benefiting from Hamilton's misfortune early on. The season is long enough for the luck* to balance out.
Looking at the FP long run pace it seems Williams may be competitive. After last year I'm keen to see if there is any argy bargy between the two Finns. If Lewis has no issues he can still score solid points..... given the car advantage he has who is to say he couldn't score a podium, perhaps even P2 if he can avoid incidents and cut through the traffic quickly.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this track is naff and with almost zero redeeming features. Having the wrong tyres (again) doesn't help either. If we had the ultra softs I think Ferrari would be more competitive.
- unless you are a conspiracy theory nutjob who thinks Merc are trying to engineer a Nico title win.
glazbagun said:
Yeah I can see Rosberg one-stopping, Hamilton two-stopping on faster tyres and then a safety car leaving Rosberg in front on worn- out tyres.
I can also see Hamilton being mugged off the line and being collected into turn one again though- he really needs to play the start safe and use his superior car to make the difference up in the race.
Given the tyre deg is so low and cars were actually improving their times after 8 or 9 laps on the softs I find it hard to believe there will be anything other than a 1 stop strategy unless there is a safety car or some other incident. Fresh tyres will not pay back the time spent in the pits. Was it last year Nico effectively no stopped after flat spotting his tyres on lap one only to do the rest of the race on one set (and stay competitive too). I can also see Hamilton being mugged off the line and being collected into turn one again though- he really needs to play the start safe and use his superior car to make the difference up in the race.
Lewis is going to be starting 10th? So that is around Verstappen, Sainz, Kvyat and with Vettel just ahead. He definitely needs to keep his eyes open in to turn one. No point taking any risk given he can breeze past them as soon as the DRS comes into action.
EnglishTony said:
I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories but Toto Wolff looked decidedly shifty when asked on German TV why Lewis' engine had lost power again.
I just can't see it happening. It's just like 2014 when the Mercs crushed everything on the occasions when they worked, but had borkage quite a lot. Vettel is also having a horrendous time but noone would suggest foul play.ClockworkCupcake said:
rscott said:
Thought the McLarens did a pretty good job today - 12 and 14, only a few 10ths off Q1.
Yes but this is McLaren. Multiple WCC winners McLaren. We shouldn't be having to say that 12 and 14 was a "good job, considering". Same goes for Williams - there was a time when if you weren't in a Williams then it was barely worth turning up. Yes, I know that fortunes wax and wane, and that is true even of Ferrari, but even so it is a sad state of affairs.
I'm surprised that Ron Dennis has not "facilitated an expedient exit on life via a self-inflicted personal injury from an edged weapon".
You have a point but it is 17 years since they won a WCC and only one in 25 years.
Past glories only last so long............
I'm not one for conspiracy theories either, especially the one when Mansell suggested that he was getting lower powered engines compared to Piquet. As everyone in the know said: he was a moaner. Typical Brum, whining instead of getting on with it.
Then he got into the spare car, set up for Piquet and knocked a considerable time off the lap time.
Then Honda said that they designed engine power output to suit the drivers, their thinking obviously that Mansell drove faster with lower power.
So a German car company, suffering a little, despite high sales, with union reps on the board, might well be getting a little restless with a black English bloke winning. He's only half black of course, but Rosberg's only half German.
That said, it is highly unlikely. The only way any team would risk this was if they had a considerable gap between themselves and the opposition. And how likely is that?
Then he got into the spare car, set up for Piquet and knocked a considerable time off the lap time.
Then Honda said that they designed engine power output to suit the drivers, their thinking obviously that Mansell drove faster with lower power.
So a German car company, suffering a little, despite high sales, with union reps on the board, might well be getting a little restless with a black English bloke winning. He's only half black of course, but Rosberg's only half German.
That said, it is highly unlikely. The only way any team would risk this was if they had a considerable gap between themselves and the opposition. And how likely is that?
My crazy stupid thinking is that the season will be boring if Lewis just goes on to win another championship fairly easily. Mercedes know this and also probably don't really care if it's Nico or Lewis.........just so long as it's one of them. They are quite a way ahead of other teams and in a straight fight Lewis has Nico covered..........perhaps Mercedes create these problems for Lewis in order to keep up some excitement?
They win either way. So in a few races time Lewis magically won't have any gremlins to contend with but will have to push in order to close the gap to Nico so that a close fight at the end of the year is possible.
Sure
Or maybe just sod's law
They win either way. So in a few races time Lewis magically won't have any gremlins to contend with but will have to push in order to close the gap to Nico so that a close fight at the end of the year is possible.
Sure
Or maybe just sod's law
If you were in charge at Mercedes and for some bizarre reason you wanted to take a risk in order to "spice up the Championship" or "give Nico a chance", would it not be more logical to wait until near the end of the season when you are already comfortably ahead. Rather than at the start where there is a risk Ferrari will suddenly get a performance jump or you have some real issues that put you behind?
Plus Lewis' problems in the first two races were largely self-inflicted, unless Mercedes also meddled with his clutch.
Plus Lewis' problems in the first two races were largely self-inflicted, unless Mercedes also meddled with his clutch.
Derek Smith said:
I'm not one for conspiracy theories....
So a German car company, suffering a little, despite high sales, with union reps on the board, might well be getting a little restless with a black English bloke winning. He's only half black of course, but Rosberg's only half German.
That said, it is highly unlikely. The only way any team would risk this was if they had a considerable gap between themselves and the opposition. And how likely is that?
wow, sad that you are reducing F1 to thisSo a German car company, suffering a little, despite high sales, with union reps on the board, might well be getting a little restless with a black English bloke winning. He's only half black of course, but Rosberg's only half German.
That said, it is highly unlikely. The only way any team would risk this was if they had a considerable gap between themselves and the opposition. And how likely is that?
I must say that this does't seem strange at all to me for a pair of guys hammering prototype hybrid-turbo V6's around a track.
Lewis has had a couple of engine faults and has managed to collect another car in his first four races, when that hasn't happened he's finished 2nd. Rosberg has, alternatively, been keeping his nose clean leading more or less from the front of the grid running three really boring conservative races and nursing his car all the way- you'd expect his car and his mind to be in better shape, but if it made it to the end within a hair of letting go, we'd never know.
It's just one of those deviation from the mean things. Everyone's going on about how suspicious it seems when people have cars which break down, but Rosberg's making it three in a row is never discounted as a lucky run of reliability, nor is it suggested that his car was deliberately borked in the championship-deciding final race of 2014. It's like the Challeger disaster- when we're used to seeing things work that becomes normal, even if it's anything but.
Comparing Hamilton's luck with Vettel, they seem about as bad as each other.
Lewis has had a couple of engine faults and has managed to collect another car in his first four races, when that hasn't happened he's finished 2nd. Rosberg has, alternatively, been keeping his nose clean leading more or less from the front of the grid running three really boring conservative races and nursing his car all the way- you'd expect his car and his mind to be in better shape, but if it made it to the end within a hair of letting go, we'd never know.
It's just one of those deviation from the mean things. Everyone's going on about how suspicious it seems when people have cars which break down, but Rosberg's making it three in a row is never discounted as a lucky run of reliability, nor is it suggested that his car was deliberately borked in the championship-deciding final race of 2014. It's like the Challeger disaster- when we're used to seeing things work that becomes normal, even if it's anything but.
Comparing Hamilton's luck with Vettel, they seem about as bad as each other.
Looks like Rosberg might be heading for the least relevant F1 title in history: All meaningful competition tied up in uncompetitive cars, the team-mate who would - all things equal - thrash him, seemingly lumbered with bad luck, and a points system that makes a comeback very difficult. All with a background of a sport in crisis and a pale shadow of what it once was.
Oh well.
Oh well.
dr_gn said:
Looks like Rosberg might be heading for the least relevant F1 title in history: All meaningful competition tied up in uncompetitive cars, the team-mate who would - all things equal - thrash him, seemingly lumbered with bad luck, and a points system that makes a comeback very difficult. All with a background of a sport in crisis and a pale shadow of what it once was.
Oh well.
One might also say, if your head is fully tinfoiled, that the home team is desperate to give the home fans something to distract them from their present woes...Oh well.
Some people on here really do come out with some utter s
t with their conspiracy theories.
Maybe it's bad luck. Maybe it's the person in the cockpit abusing the car. Maybe it's a member of pit crew making a mistake at some point. Or maybe it's a huge company deciding to publically blow a massive marketing investment to spite someone they pay an 8 digit annual salary...
Even suggesting it makes you look like an utter idiot.
t with their conspiracy theories.Maybe it's bad luck. Maybe it's the person in the cockpit abusing the car. Maybe it's a member of pit crew making a mistake at some point. Or maybe it's a huge company deciding to publically blow a massive marketing investment to spite someone they pay an 8 digit annual salary...
Even suggesting it makes you look like an utter idiot.
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