The Official 2016 Monaco Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**
Discussion
I have no idea.
The last 2 oh his posts I read were about his journey to the event (in posh lounges, apparently), followed by something about him and other long term journo a somehow being worth a lot more than newer journos. It was the last straw for me - like the guy above, I was sick of the mallya rhetoric, as well as the lotus/caterham stirring before it.
Bearing in mind the history of Motorsport and moody money, to pick 1 or 2 out for a personal crusade is daft. Especially when a lot of it is speculation.
The last 2 oh his posts I read were about his journey to the event (in posh lounges, apparently), followed by something about him and other long term journo a somehow being worth a lot more than newer journos. It was the last straw for me - like the guy above, I was sick of the mallya rhetoric, as well as the lotus/caterham stirring before it.
Bearing in mind the history of Motorsport and moody money, to pick 1 or 2 out for a personal crusade is daft. Especially when a lot of it is speculation.
Dr Z said:
Vettel wasn't kidding when he says they've got pace, they do show good pace on the Super Softs and Softs.
VolvoT5 said:
Dr Z said:
Vettel wasn't kidding when he says they've got pace, they do show good pace on the Super Softs and Softs.
Saturday practice should give us some answers as to whether they have made some progress in this area. From what I could see, Vettel can switch on the tyres better than Raikkonen --perhaps due to their driving styles.
Also, I noticed both the Mercedes cars had graining of the Ultra Soft but Red Bull did not.
Vaud said:
So was RB giving the new engine to the honey badger to bring balance and show that not everything is going behind Max? Or a driver decision (new engine = risk but more power)
I'd like to think it is down to time served.I also read that the chief engineer at Mercedes said they could turn the engine mode up but they can't turn it up .6 of a second to match Redbull. If that's the case they will have to get their cars set up perfectly to out qualify RB.
Dr Z said:
Yep, that's my conclusion too. You know, I think Ferrari really struggled with controlling the tyre temps in Spain. With their problems with switching on the tyres I think they went with a setup that overheated them, hence their poor performance in qualifying.
Saturday practice should give us some answers as to whether they have made some progress in this area. From what I could see, Vettel can switch on the tyres better than Raikkonen --perhaps due to their driving styles.
Also, I noticed both the Mercedes cars had graining of the Ultra Soft but Red Bull did not.
Raikkonen seems to have had tyre warm up issues for the last 2 years really. With his so called 'low energy input' style he simply doesn't heat up the tyres quickly enough in qualifying and is often vulnerable immediately after a safety car restart as well. Saturday practice should give us some answers as to whether they have made some progress in this area. From what I could see, Vettel can switch on the tyres better than Raikkonen --perhaps due to their driving styles.
Also, I noticed both the Mercedes cars had graining of the Ultra Soft but Red Bull did not.
What I did find interesting is his pace on the yellow soft tyre was basically identical to Seb's pace on the red super soft. So perhapss there isn't a huge gap between the tyres here. Tyre deg looked pretty low as well, many drivers were still matching their best times after several hot laps.
So excluding rain or a major pile up I expect it will be a one stop race making it very hard for Ferrari to use their superior tyre wear to gain anything on strategy. There is going to be huge pressure on the drivers to somehow make the car work in qualifying tomorrow.......otherwise it is just another repeat of Spain.
I wonder how long it will be before senior heads start to roll at Ferrari.
Vaud said:
So was RB giving the new engine to the honey badger to bring balance and show that not everything is going behind Max? Or a driver decision (new engine = risk but more power)
Wasn't RIC due a new engine anyway? With only 4 units for the season, changing before the you have to is going to leave you short on mileage at the end of the season.
Vaud said:
So was RB giving the new engine to the honey badger to bring balance and show that not everything is going behind Max? Or a driver decision (new engine = risk but more power)
Ricciardo got priority on the new engine because he is ahead in the WDC standings, and also qualified ahead of Verstappen in the last race, the same reasons that Magnussen also got the new spec ahead of Palmer.Some Gump said:
Obviously the top 10 will need to be on the ss, but could p11 make med-soft work in the race?
Correct me if wrong, but it is my understanding that teams who run their non-qualifying tyre in the practice long runs are trying to simulate their 2nd/3rd stints, so naturally times will be quicker relative to the pace advantage offered by the faster tyre as they'll also reduce the fuel loads for that run.For this track, I think Soft/Super Soft would work fine. Here are some deg rates I observed from the FP2 times:
For the Ultra Soft tyre, the lap time loss was:
Button: ~1s after 8 laps
Gutierrez: ~1.5s after 10 laps
Sainz: ~1.5s after 11 laps
Verstappen: ~1.5s after 8 laps
Ricciardo: ~0.9s after 15 laps
Massa: ~1s after 10 laps
It looked like Red Bull were evaluating two different deg rates for strategy purposes with both their drivers as Ricciardo put in a very long stint on the Ultra Soft, very much hoping to run at the front controlling the pace. This is why there was such a big difference in the average lap times on the Ultra Soft between Ricciardo and Verstappen.
During Vettel's run on the Super Soft, lap time loss was 1 second after 10 laps, and in contrast Sainz lost around 2 seconds during a similar run. Kvyat's run on the Soft showed very little degradation and good pace for the longevity offered.
However, again during practice the teams are learning about the deg rates so they can make an intelligent decision on strategy, so I wouldn't take much from the fact that the TR seemed particularly hard on the Super Soft. They can always dial back the pace a bit to get more life out of them in the race.
It also looked like the Soft tyre could last forever on the Ferrari, in the hands of Raikkonen atleast. In contrast, Perez lost around 0.9s of lap time after 10 laps on the Softs.
Some Gump said:
cgt2 said:
His incredible rudeness in general and pathological obsession with Vijay Mallya undermines his credibility
His narcissism is also infuriating. I don't read his stuff at all any more.Some Gump said:
I have no idea.
The last 2 oh his posts I read were about his journey to the event (in posh lounges, apparently), followed by something about him and other long term journo a somehow being worth a lot more than newer journos. It was the last straw for me - like the guy above, I was sick of the mallya rhetoric, as well as the lotus/caterham stirring before it.
Bearing in mind the history of Motorsport and moody money, to pick 1 or 2 out for a personal crusade is daft. Especially when a lot of it is speculation.
He is obviously very experienced and was enjoyable to read many years ago. But if you witness the arrogance and rudeness of some of his replies to people who disagree with his opinions, he comes across very badly indeed. Some say he speaks his mind which is fine when talking about Bernie or the FIA fat cats, but to direct such vitriol at readers who deign to disagree with him is not very nice at all.The last 2 oh his posts I read were about his journey to the event (in posh lounges, apparently), followed by something about him and other long term journo a somehow being worth a lot more than newer journos. It was the last straw for me - like the guy above, I was sick of the mallya rhetoric, as well as the lotus/caterham stirring before it.
Bearing in mind the history of Motorsport and moody money, to pick 1 or 2 out for a personal crusade is daft. Especially when a lot of it is speculation.
I am a big fan of journos such as Nigel Roebuck and Maurice Hamilton (and of course the late great Alan Henry) and Saward is of the same generation but there simply is no reason to be so rude to your readers and then expect them to be loyal or for said readers to subscribe to your overpriced GP+ magazine.
Try Adam Cooper's blog instead. He comes across as a nice guy, more in touch with the sport and has also been around for years, yet does not have a huge ego or throw tantrums in between talking about F1..
I think Joe does a good job alround, I think he has been ripped of by many national newspapers and so now he is pretty irascible. I don't think that his and DT's forray into directorships at Caterham did come up smelling of roses, either
But at least he actually attends every GP and clearly has reliable sources for quality information, or to verify the very many rumours that float arround both the Paddock and the Internet. He does make very clear that it is HIS BLOG, so he can write whatever he believes to be true and disagree with reader's comments.
I believe his greatest weakness is his poor understanding of engineering and so tends to hold those Engineers in significant positions with too much reverence. His strengths are his fluent writing skills and his historical perspectives. I subscribe to GP+, but never read the race reports, having already blown too many hours watching TV output, but the other pieces from him, DT, Dodgeson and the photography of the Nygards is pretty special and provides an interesting perspective.
If F1 does go behind a paywall, then I guess that reading GP+ will prove insightful, much as reading Motor Sport used to 50- odd years ago, albeit a month late, rather than 5 hours after the event.
But at least he actually attends every GP and clearly has reliable sources for quality information, or to verify the very many rumours that float arround both the Paddock and the Internet. He does make very clear that it is HIS BLOG, so he can write whatever he believes to be true and disagree with reader's comments.
I believe his greatest weakness is his poor understanding of engineering and so tends to hold those Engineers in significant positions with too much reverence. His strengths are his fluent writing skills and his historical perspectives. I subscribe to GP+, but never read the race reports, having already blown too many hours watching TV output, but the other pieces from him, DT, Dodgeson and the photography of the Nygards is pretty special and provides an interesting perspective.
If F1 does go behind a paywall, then I guess that reading GP+ will prove insightful, much as reading Motor Sport used to 50- odd years ago, albeit a month late, rather than 5 hours after the event.
Impasse said:
Some Gump said:
cgt2 said:
His incredible rudeness in general and pathological obsession with Vijay Mallya undermines his credibility
His narcissism is also infuriating. I don't read his stuff at all any more.Gassing Station | Formula 1 | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff