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

[anonymous-user]

sandman77 said:

Absolutely. Drivers will soon be too afraid to make a move for fear of getting a penalty.

I don't think the Alonso/Massa move was investigated though was it?

Yes it was investigated after the race. Total joke.

Thankfully sense prevailed this time.

[RichB]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Remember Villeneve and Arnoux. They would be banned now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xASPhBrkIZM

Fantastic stuff and exactly what the fans want to see - I remember it first time round

Problem is that with all the aero these days you cannot slipstream like they were and you would be instantly out of control if you locked up as heavily and as often as Villeneuve was in that sequence. SO remove a lot of the aero and make the cars drivable again and we may see some racing. Oh and yes, make the outfield mud or soft grass or something.

[oyster]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

sandman77 said:

Absolutely. Drivers will soon be too afraid to make a move for fear of getting a penalty.

I don't think the Alonso/Massa move was investigated though was it?

Yes it was investigated after the race. Total joke.

Thankfully sense prevailed this time.

Seemed an exact replica of Rosberg on Kimi at Sepang, yet one gets a penalty and one doesn't.

[VladD]

oyster said:

ELUSIVEJIM said:

sandman77 said:

Absolutely. Drivers will soon be too afraid to make a move for fear of getting a penalty.

I don't think the Alonso/Massa move was investigated though was it?

Yes it was investigated after the race. Total joke.

Thankfully sense prevailed this time.

Seemed an exact replica of Rosberg on Kimi at Sepang, yet one gets a penalty and one doesn't.

Rosberg really clouted Kimi and did some damage to the Ferrari. Worse than just a minor banging of wheels in my opinion.

[AWRacing]

VladD said:

oyster said:

ELUSIVEJIM said:

sandman77 said:

Absolutely. Drivers will soon be too afraid to make a move for fear of getting a penalty.

I don't think the Alonso/Massa move was investigated though was it?

Yes it was investigated after the race. Total joke.

Thankfully sense prevailed this time.

Seemed an exact replica of Rosberg on Kimi at Sepang, yet one gets a penalty and one doesn't.

Rosberg really clouted Kimi and did some damage to the Ferrari. Worse than just a minor banging of wheels in my opinion.

You know Massa got a puncture from the 'minor banging of wheels' don't you??

[ClockworkCupcake]

DS240 said:

Butler struggled a little once he'd used up his one or two questions he'd thought about beforehand.

That's the fundamental difference between a presenter and an actor. For sure, some actors can ad lib and think on their feet, but it's a skill far less called for than with presenting or commentating.

[ClockworkCupcake]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Joking apart get the gravel traps back. No one would finish

That's the trouble, though. You'd get half the grid having a DNF due to being beached on gravel, and you'd have umpteen SC or VSC as each was recovered.

[Eric Mc]

Of course, they might behave themselves a bit better and not go into the gravel traps in the first place - which is kind of what used to happen.

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

Of course, they might behave themselves a bit better and not go into the gravel traps in the first place - which is kind of what used to happen.

Replacing the kerbs and white lines with a 6' deep trench may do the trick

[ClockworkCupcake]

MartG said:

Replacing the kerbs and white lines with a 6' deep trench may do the trick

With spikes. And crocodiles.

Also, we should return to cars that explode into fireballs the moment they have a bump.

[RichB]

ClockworkCupcake said:

MartG said:

Replacing the kerbs and white lines with a 6' deep trench may do the trick

With spikes. And crocodiles. Also, we should return to cars that explode into fireballs the moment they have a bump.

Indeed, and with catch-fencing to trap the drivers inside! Oh, how much better it all was back then

[PhillipM]

It's very easy, you leave the tarmac runoff area's and just add 6ft of slippy astroturf to the outside of the kerbs. Problem solved. None of this with they/won't they track limits bulls**t either.

[KevinCamaroSS]

Or even add time penalties or stop/gos. Track limits are track limits. To me you should have 2 wheels inside at all times, not even on it. Go outside the track limits and first offence is a drive through, 2nd onwards a 10 second stop/go. That would solve the issues.

[davepoth]

The easiest option IMO is just to turn off KERS for 30 seconds after the third excursion in three laps or something. The technology is all available, and it would stop them being naughty straight away.

[Dr Z]

The VSC really killed the excitement that was building in the 2nd half of the race at the front. However, it helped Alonso to mount an attack on an unthinkable 5th position, so it was good!

To be consistent with Malaysia I felt Massa had enough time to be aware that Alonso was alongside, but Alonso too ensured Massa wasn't going to come back at him by wheel banging and pushing Massa out and going completely off track... That's not on, but it seems all that the Stewards care about is for the driver in question to make it look as if he made an effort to make the corner, in order to not penalise him.

If the logic is to penalise according to the degree of damage experienced by a car in a racing incident, then I'm at a loss to explain why Alonso was not penalised, given that Rosberg was penalised in Malaysia for a very similar move. Rosberg got 2 points and 10 sec time penalty for that. I can only conclude that the Stewards are complete muppets! Showing absolute consistency in being inconsistent.

I enjoyed watching the completely wild Alonso in the last few laps though.

Sainz was defending brilliantly too.

[deadslow]

Dr Z said:

I enjoyed watching the completely wild Alonso in the last few laps though.

I do hope they give him a decent car next year

[Dr Z]

deadslow said:

Dr Z said:

I enjoyed watching the completely wild Alonso in the last few laps though.

I do hope they give him a decent car next year

Me too. Doesn't even need to be the best car or even the second best. Third best will do McLaren, please! We'll see him working then. What a competitor. I read earlier Boullier saying that he's a 'marker' for the car. Never a truer word spoken of a driver.

[scubadude]

sandman77 said:

I think that was for an unsafe release and not for rolling backwards into the pit lane exit. I'm sure Brundle said it was against the rules to use reverse gear in the pit lane so by rolling backwards downhill in neutral he escaped any penalty.

I thought (while watching) how deeply stupid many of the rules are... the pitlane was about 20mtrs wide, you could reverse a small jet airliner down it... Obviously its not "allowed" because circuits are one way roads essentially but there should be a caveat that in the event of a vehicle failure/accident or at a marshals discretion and vehicle can be moved backwards down the pitlane if safe to do so (so some similar FIA bks description) it would have added to the (otherwise slightly tedious) race had Kimi's crew been able to run up, grab his car and sort it out, ok- It could have been beyond repair but many times they aren't...

IMO the rules should be modified to maximise the possibility to keep cars on the track, ie- bring back marshal's pushing spun cars back onto the track if they are stuck (safer now we have VSC), mandatory anti-stall or restart with KERS capability so you keep running unless you wipe the car out on the wall. Yes you would have cars out of sync, coming back from behind, recovering from spins etc- that would be more real than the fake nonsense of- No your car is broken 2ft too far down the pits so we have to watch you huff off for an icecream sh*t that we had yesterday.

[hairyben]

oyster said:

ELUSIVEJIM said:

sandman77 said:

Absolutely. Drivers will soon be too afraid to make a move for fear of getting a penalty.

I don't think the Alonso/Massa move was investigated though was it?

Yes it was investigated after the race. Total joke.

Thankfully sense prevailed this time.

Seemed an exact replica of Rosberg on Kimi at Sepang, yet one gets a penalty and one doesn't.

alosno was on the apex right alongside fair and square and massa, being massa, just didnt look, a hard move I admit and probably not one you want to use on a driver like massa

rosbergs came from way back with much more speed and kimi wouldnt have known he was there until he smacked into him with somewhat a maldonardoesque inevitability.

Suprised alonso didnt get looked at for going off track carrying the speed to complete the sainz pass, looked more questionable/simple than the massa incident, in terms of what I've seen punishments for.

[deadslow]

Dr Z said:

deadslow said:

Dr Z said:

I enjoyed watching the completely wild Alonso in the last few laps though.

I do hope they give him a decent car next year

Me too. Doesn't even need to be the best car or even the second best. Third best will do McLaren, please! We'll see him working then. What a competitor. I read earlier Boullier saying that he's a 'marker' for the car. Never a truer word spoken of a driver.

Yep, I think he's maybe got one more titanic season left in him, and, as you say, he doesn't need the fastest car to win, which makes for great viewing.