Grand Prix thread Not606 2016 European Grand Prix Chat and Predictions

To be fair though, the wrong setting cost him 0.2 seconds per lap and I think the rest (falling away from Perez as quickly as he was) was probably down to him trying to figure out what it was. I can't imagine you're hitting the perfect lap when constantly looking at the steering wheel. Though he didn't clear the Williams particularly quick before he know about issue so the crap in traffic does still apply I just think it's a combination of all 3 issues.

 

Perez had him in his pocket long before Hamilton started moaning at his team about his engine, but put whatever spin on it you want.

they've taken away the pit wall coaching and it's hurt Lewis badly, he can't start properly (lost another 2 places before T1) and doesn't know what to do with a fault. There's a lot more to racing than accelerating, braking and steering, now he has to do those other things himself it aint going well.
Ironic that everyone thought Rosberg would be the one to struggle

 

I think we thought Rosberg would struggle as he came on the radio a fair amount asking questions (looking quite needy) before the radio ban.

But it was completely the opposite to what we thought, he was learning and absorbing the information, filing it away in his head. And now look, Rosberg knows how to solve his own issues and now Hamilton is hankering after advice. Same with Kimi at Ferrari.

Being unbothered and looking cool may be popular but as in school, its normally the swots that reap the rewards of hard work.

 

I really thought Lewis was back in the fight and Nico had rolled again. Looks like its going to go to the end.

 

I think fans in general have a habit of reading to much into a single race. It's a long season and who knows what is to come.

 

I think this goes back to the fans views (and certain press) that Nico can only win in a race on his own, and whenever Lewis has a below par race there are justifications or reasons why.

Baku for Lewis was similar to Monaco for Nico - whatever the issues they did not seem to reflect the true performance of the car.

 

Not sure we can run Hamilton down for not being able to solve complex computer issues mid race- I'm fully against driver coaching for lap time but these scenarios where it's a reliability issue should be overridden.

Where he can be criticised however is his quali- that's what truly cost him this weekend.

Ferrari are the real disappointment- they threaten to put up a fight one week and then miss out the next.

 

It wasn't a reliability problem, the engine was in the wrong mode and how do you know it was a complex issue? my washing machine has 3 knobs on it, 2 have 12 settings and one has six, there's also 4 buttons (excluding start/stop), even though it has over 50 x as many configurations, I don;t have to phone the engineer everytime I want to wash my clothes.
His also spooned every start now that his engineers can't tell him what to do to get off the line, is that reliability too?

 

It wasn't a reliability issue though was it.

It was a setting that was supposed to make the car go faster but instead made it go slower.

Hamilton started with this setting on but Rosberg didn't and only switched it on mid way for a boost but then realised that this setting was causing the problem.

There's a conspiracy in there somewhere I know it.

 

From what I understand, Rosberg was able to fix his problems because he put his car in that setting where as Hamilton's took grid already in it, so they are slightly different situations there.

 

I for one refuse to believe its all that complicated to turn a knob one way and then the other.

6 position switch... are we to believe all 6 positions were somehow affected by a setting change on engine power... maybe... unlikely but maybe

we know mr rosberg was in a different initial setting went off and won the race in the first corner and was probably tooling about at the front saving the engine. Apparently he switches into this mode.

What does this suggest?

Did rosberg need more power at any point? did he need to apss anyone? no... so perhaps this means the derating was on a couple of modes at least.

Rosberg switches back..

Hamilton has a brain fart, whines for a good while then eventually figures it out. He should know the mode his engine was in at the start. That is his job. So he can't be sure its an engine problem... ok.... so the team tell him its a setting issue.

how long was hamilton really affected for? how many laps?

Was it really only 0.2 seconds like wolff claims?

It seems to be the flashing warnings were more off putting that anything here.

I just feel hamiltion put up a right **** show Saturday from nowhere and was under pressure and started only reasonably and basically did a hamilton which is to throw the toys from the pram. He is clearly the better of the two drivers but just loses it rather than thinks through calmly.

The contrast to the prior week where everything went his way and he could talk about how great his tyre saving was is huge.

 

I just think he's exaggerated how many actual modes there are.

He should have known that 75% of available choices had little to do with the issue at hand.

just like your washing machine..

 

I do agree.

having a guy in the driver ear telling him settings constantly so he can eek out tyre life and engine life is not what we want but fixing an issue is not the same thing

On ferrari... i just felt this track exposed all the non mercedes power plants. On 90% of tracks ferrari are closer but with these straights nobody could compete at all.

The next race will be totally different but ferrari are not that close IMO.

 

Remember the Hungarian Grand Prix a while back, very similar performance by Lewis in both of these occasions. Can't knock him at the end of the day he has three world titles and Nico has none. Stats state facts, never mind what happens to engine modes. It still is Nico's title to lose again.

 

So I wasn't sure whether to post this and you are going to need your tin hats for it.

During the weekend a friend, who works in F1 simulation sent me this: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/lewis-hamilton-slams-mercedes-race-8221620 with a humorous comment and suggesting that they'd want to sabotage him if he drove for them (obviously a joke!)

Speaking to them earlier I pointed out that maybe one of the Merc engineers, had had the same feelings. After some discussion we came to the conclusion that it would be possible to have stacked the deck as

Hamilton started the weekend, by slating the Merc simulator.
The simulation department and ECU software department work closely together and as the skills are similar, likely engineers have worked in both teams
The software team would have compiled the software for both Nico and Lewis and known what modes each was going to use/start in.
A smart engineer could therefore have worked out a way to stack the deck against Hamilton and made it look like an accident.

#justsaying

 

Do we need the tinfoil hat for the tabloid article or the rest of it.

To be fair... I've always wondered what value a sim really is. It's basically a lot of guess work.

 

just saying.....

2 world titles for mercedes....

as stated above stats state facts.


Hamilton is just a guy who needs an excuse when for his ego...

 

Qué?

 

How can it be a conspiracy if Mercedes got him 2 world titles?