Cynical or what?

[paulcundy]

So Lewis was way ahead, way faster and obviously going to win. What do the expert tacticians at McLaren do? - keep him out on threadbare tyres for at least 2 laps longer than any sensible team would have done. Why on earth do that? Surely not to close the season with a climactic "all decided on the last race"? Somehow the cynic in me feels there were more than team orders at play here.
Regards
Paul C

[gadgeroonie]

I feel for Lewis, he so nearly just became the world champion

My only guess is that they were trying to keep him out for as long as possible to fuel him for the rest of the race

it certainly makes the next race interesting !

[Adrian W]

I think they kept him out in case it rained but you have to wonder

[humpy]

Adrian W said:

I think they kept him out in case it rained

My thoughts also

[paulcundy]

humpy said:

Adrian W said:

I think they kept him out in case it rained

My thoughts also

On shot tyres?

[mikey_p]

paulcundy said:

humpy said:

Adrian W said:

I think they kept him out in case it rained

My thoughts also

On shot tyres?

I think it was just a bad call by all involved. Every big mistake/accident that has happened to Hamilton seems to have been tyre related. Tyre shredding in Turkey (not preventable), bad call made changing to dry tyres too early at some other race (can't remember the track, but it messed up his whole race), and staying out too long on destroyed tyres trying to make the fuel stop window. However I don't understand how the whole world could see Hamilton was losing time, and his tyres were shagged, and McLaren didn't.

Roll on Interlagos

[joust]

I can perhaps comment as I was there.

During the build up to the start the race control was giving "rain in x minutes" which was spookily correct.

This happened also twice during the first 20 laps or so, also correct.

Around the 30's people started to come in for dry tyres, and it seemed that the rain wasn't going to come down.

Without any warning from race control, it suddenly chucked it down. TBH the issue wasn't that he was out there on wet tires, it was he was out there on wet tyres that were now bald. If he had been on dry tyres, he could have coped, but he was on pure slicks, with it raining down.

That was the mistake. If it hadn't had rained on lap 31 then they would have got away with it, because slick wets are much much faster than dry tyres. As it was, it rained with no warning, and that caught them out.

When Hamilton came in around the corner, I've just seen it, and the car just washed out at the front and unsteered into the gravel. That mistake was nothing to do with the rears (as everyone seems to be saying), but you can see from the shots that the fronts were complete slicks.

Being over the Mclaren pit when Hamilton came back, the whole team looked gutted about it, and it looked like a genuine mistake.

Staged or just a bet that went wrong? I'd say the latter.

J

[MisterX]

McLaren have screwed up on tyres before - they failed to call Kimi in a couple of years ago and cost him the race when a Michelin disintegrated. The team were far too over-optimistic once again and Whitmarsh admitted that on ITV.

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

He slid off.

It was his mistake, and he was big enough to admit it.

End.

[Elliott_3R]

I feel cynical about it like Paul.

If everyone at home could see the tyres were shot, surely the well trained team could see it too and should have done something about it....

Just think of the viewer numbers for the last race now.....