The Official 2016 Russian Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

The Official 2016 Russian Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

Author
Discussion

deadslow

7,962 posts

222 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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VolvoT5 said:
deadslow said:
I actually wish they would 'just give Nico the trophy' just to pee off these morons. hehe
Well so do I....... but it will be so much more satisfying if Nico manages to beat Lewis in a relatively straight fight from now on. I believe he can do it, he is a very fast driver and seems to have a bit more of an edge to him this year.

I think it is fair to say Nico is not far off some of the other 1 time winners like Hill, Villeneuve, Button, etc. In my view he is deserving of a WDC should he win it this year... even if he has a bit of luck on his side.
He'll never have a better opportunity, so let's see if he can grab it with both hands

Clevers

1,171 posts

200 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
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Dr Z said:
It's fun to speculate, so let's take the best laps by Hamilton as a reference point in the early part of the stint when he had fresher tyres. For Rosberg, let's take the fast laps he put in after he cleared the traffic, not forgetting that he had 4 lap fresher tyres than Hamilton for the final stint. This is what we get:




Not a chance. All Rosberg needed to do is match Hamilton in the early part of the stint to not give him a sniff and this is exactly what he was doing until he hit trouble. Even so, he recovered and started pushing. The gradient of Hamilton's final stint was not enough to realistically challenge Rosberg. IMO. smile
Really like your analysis and use of data here.

What we now know from Mercedes open letter to fans is that both cars had problems during the race that influenced the way both drivers handled the last third of the race.

Apparently, Nico had a really bad problem with his MGU-H unit after his pit stop. It was so bad, that he went onto break the lap record on the penultimate lap of the race in the engine's safety setting. Meanwhile, Lewis's kettle limped home with fk all water pressure - zero.

We need to see these same graphs produced again when Lewis gets equal equipment to Rosberg.

Based on what we have seen, who could say with any confidence that Lewis's car isn't down on power throughout the races if it isn't harvesting energy correctly.

To be clear, i am not saying that Mercedes are favouring Rosberg with better equipment, merely that his is working at the moment and Hamilton's has gremlins.

rsbmw

3,464 posts

104 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
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Nice analysis, but the graph does seem to show that it would have been pretty damn close by the end and Rosberg has a history of making errors when he's being pushed from behind. Unless I'm mistaken, Rosberg has never prevailed when they've been running that close in a straight 1-2 fight, whereas Hamilton has proved repeatedly he'll find the extra (or find some luck with a mistake after applying pressure) to get past.

I'm still waiting to see what happens in a straight fight this season, Rosberg is a solid driver but all he's proven so far this season is that he can walk home in first place in the best car on the grid when his team mate has failures, or gets hit and damaged. Once they make it out of the first few corners in 1-2 and no reliability issues, we'll see what's what! I do think Rosberg has found a little extra of late, but he still hasn't proved anything we didn't already know - that he's solid enough when unchallenged.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
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rsbmw said:
Nice analysis, but the graph does seem to show that it would have been pretty damn close by the end and Rosberg has a history of making errors when he's being pushed from behind. Unless I'm mistaken, Rosberg has never prevailed when they've been running that close in a straight 1-2 fight, whereas Hamilton has proved repeatedly he'll find the extra (or find some luck with a mistake after applying pressure) to get past.

I'm still waiting to see what happens in a straight fight this season, Rosberg is a solid driver but all he's proven so far this season is that he can walk home in first place in the best car on the grid when his team mate has failures, or gets hit and damaged. Once they make it out of the first few corners in 1-2 and no reliability issues, we'll see what's what! I do think Rosberg has found a little extra of late, but he still hasn't proved anything we didn't already know - that he's solid enough when unchallenged.
"Unless I'm mistaken, Rosberg has never prevailed when they've been running that close in a straight 1-2 fight"

You didn't see the last three races of 2015 then?

Dr Z

Original Poster:

3,396 posts

170 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
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Clevers said:
Really like your analysis and use of data here.

What we now know from Mercedes open letter to fans is that both cars had problems during the race that influenced the way both drivers handled the last third of the race.

Apparently, Nico had a really bad problem with his MGU-H unit after his pit stop. It was so bad, that he went onto break the lap record on the penultimate lap of the race in the engine's safety setting. Meanwhile, Lewis's kettle limped home with fk all water pressure - zero.

We need to see these same graphs produced again when Lewis gets equal equipment to Rosberg.

Based on what we have seen, who could say with any confidence that Lewis's car isn't down on power throughout the races if it isn't harvesting energy correctly.

To be clear, i am not saying that Mercedes are favouring Rosberg with better equipment, merely that his is working at the moment and Hamilton's has gremlins.
Whichever way you play it, Hamilton's problem manifested later in the 2nd stint than Rosberg. I take the fact that Rosberg went on to break the lap record as more of a testament to the kind of pace he had, given that there is no reason Mercedes are favouring Rosberg. I wouldn't take the fact that Rosberg was only able to match Hamilton in the early part of the 2nd stint as an indication of him not having the pace--he didn't need to go faster.

I will post some stuff up in the Spanish GP thread relating to this in the weekend--you might find it of interest. smile

I find it curious that no alarms were reported from both Hamilton and Rosberg's cars. With this whole regulations about driver autonomy, if something is that critical, the driver is immediately made aware of it by a cockpit alarm. So how come neither Hamilton or Rosberg didn't seem aware of their problems?

glazbagun

14,259 posts

196 months

Friday 6th May 2016
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Maybe Hamilton was using water cooled brakes. hehe

rsbmw

3,464 posts

104 months

Friday 6th May 2016
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REALIST123 said:
"Unless I'm mistaken, Rosberg has never prevailed when they've been running that close in a straight 1-2 fight"

You didn't see the last three races of 2015 then?
A combination of a championship already finished, and the possibility of team orders given Rosberg was still fighting for second place, makes me question how hard Hamilton was trying and thus how relevant those races were. I maintain we've still not really seen them race each other for some time, and I don't recall Rosberg coming out on top on those occasions that they did.

deadslow

7,962 posts

222 months

Friday 6th May 2016
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rsbmw said:
REALIST123 said:
"Unless I'm mistaken, Rosberg has never prevailed when they've been running that close in a straight 1-2 fight"

You didn't see the last three races of 2015 then?
A combination of a championship already finished, and the possibility of team orders given Rosberg was still fighting for second place, makes me question how hard Hamilton was trying and thus how relevant those races were. I maintain we've still not really seen them race each other for some time, and I don't recall Rosberg coming out on top on those occasions that they did.
I wish I was as crap as Rosberg. 7 on the trot. Rubbish! roflrofl

kambites

67,462 posts

220 months

Friday 6th May 2016
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We certainly haven't seen a straight fight this year but I don't remember anything last season to make me believe that Rosberg wasn't simply the faster driver for the last few races. Maybe Hamilton had backed off because he'd already won the championship, but that would have been pretty daft because it seems pretty clear that Rosberg's biggest problem has been lack of self-belief and winning the last few races of last season was always going to put him on a high at the start of this season.

Has it made a difference so far? Possibly not in terms of absolute results given how unlucky Hamilton has been but I think Rosberg having won seven races on the trot will be feeling a lot better than Rosberg having won four.

rsbmw

3,464 posts

104 months

Friday 6th May 2016
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deadslow said:
I wish I was as crap as Rosberg. 7 on the trot. Rubbish! roflrofl
Just because I don't think anything has been proven in the last 7 races doesn't mean I think Rosberg is rubbish, on the contrary my own posts say I think he's a very solid driver.

Feel free to have your little internet macho moment though, I wouldn't want to deny you that.

deadslow

7,962 posts

222 months

Friday 6th May 2016
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rsbmw said:
deadslow said:
I wish I was as crap as Rosberg. 7 on the trot. Rubbish! roflrofl
Just because I don't think anything has been proven in the last 7 races doesn't mean I think Rosberg is rubbish, on the contrary my own posts say I think he's a very solid driver.

Feel free to have your little internet macho moment though, I wouldn't want to deny you that.
lighten up, chum, its only a chat on the internet about a guy who looks like britney spiers hehehehe

rsbmw

3,464 posts

104 months

Friday 6th May 2016
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There should be more emoticons for the conveyance of tone