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

[CoolHands]

That was a bit of a yawn-fest

[Jasandjules]

Mastodon2 said:

Kvyat has proved himself to be an idiot and a total liability, blowing Vettel's race again. He needs to be severely reprimanded and reminded that he isn't a NASCAR driver.

I suspect it is two things:

1. Russian GP so a do or die move was likely to be made
2. Pressure to not give up his seat to a sub 20 year old overtaking demon

Those things combined caused him to basically mess it up....

[Derek Smith]

CoolHands said:

That was a bit of a yawn-fest

Up to half way I thought it was thrilling. There was action in the second half though, notably Perez on Sainz, but Button as well. I enjoyed it.

I unfortunately knew that LH got to 5th place and there was a pace car after the first lap crashes, but even so his second place came as a surprise, at least up to lap 27.

LH slowed towards the end, presumably to protect his engine.

As a decades long McLaren fan it is great that both cars scored points.

Impressive drive by Alonso. Excellent overtakes by LH.

It was good fun and well worth avoiding reports of the race, apart from the first lap.

[Davidonly]

glazbagun said:

I missed the start so the best thing I've seen is the cars leaning through the turns. Think I'll turn it off and do some hoovering.

Same sound as the hybrids make

[Derek Smith]

ajprice said:

Just now on Mercedes team Facebook page

"UPDATE: The team has worked tirelessly overnight and into this morning to make the best of a tough situation after yesterday’s qualifying session and give Lewis Hamilton the best possible chance of a strong result in today’s race.

We have re-fitted his original Melbourne engine, which was here as a spare. It contains a new Turbocharger and MGU-H (his third of the season), which were replaced after the failure in China. We have also replaced the Control Electronics and Energy Store to eliminate them as a potential source of the problem.

The main challenge has been in ensuring that we replaced parts with those of the same specification, as we introduced an upgrade here for all eight Mercedes-Benz Power Units but did not have spare components on site. We therefore had to fly out a fuel system on a chartered jet yesterday evening, which arriving in Sochi during the early hours.

The spare engine (not covered by Parc Fermé rules) was then kitted with these parts during the night and fitted to Lewis’ Mercedes-Benz F1 W07 Hybrid when it came out of Parc Fermé this morning. This job has now been completed and the car has fired up successfully in the garage.

Our entire approach has been guided by ensuring we did not break the Parc Fermé regulations so that Lewis would not need to start from the pit lane. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will start from P10 today.

The team has gone to great lengths to ensure we maximise Lewis’ chances of a strong result today. As the man himself says: “We win and lose together”

Now, let’s go get this done…"

Thanks for that.

Sorry if I appear a bit thick, but does that mean he hasn't 'lost' that engine?

[Derek Smith]

Just running back the recording:

Vettel slowed for the second hit. I'm not suggesting Kyvat wasn't at fault, but he had a reason, if not an excuse.

[andy_s]

Derek Smith said:

Just running back the recording:

Vettel slowed for the second hit. I'm not suggesting Kyvat wasn't at fault, but he had a reason, if not an excuse.

He said so himself too, saying he hesitated as he thought he may have a puncture.

[RichB]

Vaud said:

RichB said:

don't need to. It's blatantly obvious having listened to all the F1 armchair experts on here over the last few years to know that 4 or 5 laps at safety car speeds saves enough fuel for an any F1 car not to need to do any fuel saving later in the race. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious you did ask

I must have lost the subtlety.

Sorry 'bout that

[Derek Smith]

andy_s said:

Derek Smith said:

Just running back the recording:

Vettel slowed for the second hit. I'm not suggesting Kyvat wasn't at fault, but he had a reason, if not an excuse.

He said so himself too, saying he hesitated as he thought he may have a puncture.

Ta.

[Le Mans Visitor]

Going back to the 1st corner shunt.

Just before Vettel got shunted for the 1st time did anyone notice how he (Vettel) came up the inside 'like a mad man'

Double standards?

[Sylvaforever]

"The main challenge has been in ensuring that we replaced parts with those of the same specification "

Get over yourself princess.

[Derek Smith]

Sylvaforever said:

"The main challenge has been in ensuring that we replaced parts with those of the same specification "

Get over yourself princess.

I took that as either a dig against the tight regs or a bit of posing, saying: give it a go if you want to waste your time.

[anonymous-user]

andy_s said:

Derek Smith said:

Just running back the recording:

Vettel slowed for the second hit. I'm not suggesting Kyvat wasn't at fault, but he had a reason, if not an excuse.

He said so himself too, saying he hesitated as he thought he may have a puncture.

Perhaps Kyvat might have expected him to, having just punted him across the track?

[Flooble]

I am probably not deep thinking enough but took it to just mean that the parts on the "broken" engine were v1.1 and wouldn't work on a v1.0 engine, so they had to get v1.0 parts sent over.

No posing, just straight engineering.

[DS240]

Derek Smith said:

Sylvaforever said:

"The main challenge has been in ensuring that we replaced parts with those of the same specification "

Get over yourself princess.

I took that as either a dig against the tight regs or a bit of posing, saying: give it a go if you want to waste your time.

I took that as it is written, if the rest of the sentence was quoted. They had upgraded, but had no spares. Therefore the challenge was getting more upgrade parts to the circuit.

Not quite sure where this leads to a criticism?

[ClockworkCupcake]

Derek Smith said:

Sylvaforever said:

"The main challenge has been in ensuring that we replaced parts with those of the same specification "

Get over yourself princess.

I took that as either a dig against the tight regs or a bit of posing, saying: give it a go if you want to waste your time.

M-B's FB post that someone posted earlier on about how they flew parts overnight and started working on Lewis' engine at 2am when they arrived, and how they rigidly worked to Parc Ferme rules to ensure that Lewis started from 10th rather than the back of the grid at the pit lane speaks volumes about how stupid the rules are.

Did M-B game the system? Of course they did! Were they totally 100% justified in doing so? Damn right.

Get over yourself, Princess Sylvaforever.

[Derek Smith]

rdjohn said:

I think a far more logical answer was that because he had been pressing on so hard he needed to save fuel and low water pressure was this weekend's coded instruction for that to happen.

He has all the information he needs to monitor water pressure on his wheel, yet he still asked his engineer when he could start to push again.

Leaking fluids tend not to re-seal themselvesn

Toto talks a good game. It was interesting that he emphasised Lewis's problem but did not have a clue on Nico's mysteries when pressed in the garage afterwards. It was just another very difficult maximum points finish ,again.

Edited by rdjohn on Sunday 1st May 17:16

I think you will find that sending instructions is against the rules.

What were these mysteries of Nico's?

[Sylvaforever]

ClockworkCupcake said:

Derek Smith said:

Sylvaforever said:

"The main challenge has been in ensuring that we replaced parts with those of the same specification "

Get over yourself princess.

I took that as either a dig against the tight regs or a bit of posing, saying: give it a go if you want to waste your time.

M-B's FB post that someone posted earlier on about how they flew parts overnight and started working on Lewis' engine at 2am when they arrived, and how they rigidly worked to Parc Ferme rules to ensure that Lewis started from 10th rather than the back of the grid at the pit lane speaks volumes about how stupid the rules are.

Did M-B game the system? Of course they did! Were they totally 100% justified in doing so? Damn right.

Get over yourself, Princess Sylvaforever.

LOL Hey at least I don't pay their wages!

If the team can't manage simple configuration control over their bespoke vehicle systems OR cannot accurately track their vehicle build state then give the job to someone who could.

[rubystone]

Derek Smith said:

Just running back the recording:

Vettel slowed for the second hit. I'm not suggesting Kyvat wasn't at fault, but he had a reason, if not an excuse.

Yes. Nigel Mansell on Twitter doesn't agree though. But you can hear Vettel get out of the throttle on TV.

[rubystone]

Mastodon2 said:

Kvyat has proved himself to be an idiot and a total liability, blowing Vettel's race again. He needs to be severely reprimanded and reminded that he isn't a NASCAR driver.

Granted that he could have been more circumspect for the first impact, but Vettel lifted off the throttle significantly at the next turn which is actually an 'open' corner. That was Vettel not being fully aware of the consequences of his actions too.