Grand Prix thread Not606 2016 Singapore Grand Prix Chat and Predictions

Sky coming up with excuses already "less practice time for Lewis". **** sake.

 

Hamilton needs to stop bloody moaning. He cost himself any chance of a challenge with a poor showing in qualifying.

 

Bit of excitement there at the end, just a shame Ricciardo couldn't quite pull it off.

 

Now I know Ricc was always gonna struggle to pull it off but to listen to Crofty and Brundle commentate you'd have thought that Rosberg was a minute ahead and cruising to a boring victory.

For **** sake Sky Sports, get rid of this absolute dildonic inept ****wit from the commentary box- even Brundles standards are slipping next to this rabbit in the headlights.

Imagine Murray commentating on that Ricciardo charge.

 

I'll double that.

 

I actually thought that was a half decent race. Good strategy variances and counter strategies and excellent drives from all the front runners. With Vettel and Max out of position it diluted the what could have been which was a shame, but all said and done any of the top 4 could have won it and Ricc and Nico was a flip of a coin.

 

I fell asleep for the last few laps. Will have to watch em later.

Good drive from Vettel but other than the little tussle between Kvyat and Max, I really didn't feel there was too much to get excited about.

 

I went to the seaside, looks like I didn't miss a classic race.

 

Good drives from Nico, Daniel and Sebastian today all in different circumstances.

Mercedes desperation to ensure Hamilton wins this championship, enlivened the final 15 laps or so. Whilst I'm a much bigger fan of Daniel than Nico, I'm pleased Nico was able to hold on. He needs to have some stern words with the team tonight though...

 

I thought this was a run of the mill singapore race.

There was no glaring errors later in race or issues that constricted the field.

Sadly we got a glimpse of what f1 tyres should be delivering. Rosberg found himself under cut and stayed out while ricciardo charged. Shame it petered out one lap shy...

Same for raikkonen and hamilton.... just put on a used set of ultra softs on kimis car and he could do nothing.

F1 should not be about stretching things out but hard charging for every lap.

I thought there was two or three good moments.

 

Got to hand it to Redbull, fansastic team and great driver pairing. Make the right decisions when required, the only team within touching distance of Mercedes in the turbo era.

 

Just can't help yourself can you to have a dig wherever possible. If Mercedes truly wanted him to lose they could easily do it with a botched pitstop, or screw up his tyre pressures etc.

Why not accept that Red Bull had a quick car this weekend too, but Nico had the edge on everyone? Hamilton was off the pace all weekend, had the good grace to acknowledge it on the podium that Nico had the better weekend and was quicker and deserved the win. Am sure some will manage to turn that around into something too.

Most of the anti-Hamilton nonsense is caused by people making up rubbish just because there has to be a conspiracy theory somewhere.

 

What? If you want to attack someone, don't start picking on me for no reason.

Did I say they tried to lose Nico the race? Did I say RedBull were slow? The only person making rubbish up round here is you. What your reason is, I don't know, but I'd be greatful if you'd leave me out of it.

 

"Mercedes desperation to ensure Hamilton wins this championship"

So what was the meaning/context of that then? Could easily be inferred that they were out to make Nico lose the race. If not, what else did it mean when Nico was out front and Hamilton languishing behind?

 

Did you watch the race?

In their desperation to get Hamilton 3 more points Merc put the win at risk by also opening up the possibility for Daniel to have a run at Nico. Seeing their happiness and relief at the end, it's obvious that they weren't trying to lose the race through what they did, but they'd obviously been blinded by concentrating on trying to ensure the championship goes they way they want, without thinking through the implications further ahead.

 

I've got to say that, to me, it's pretty obvious that Mercedes would prefer Hamilton to be WDC than Nico, just from their reactions to any problems and general attitude to the drivers.

Not saying it's wrong, given that Hamilton is their choice off driver, and they inherited Nico, but I do think the preference is real.

 

Was the win at risk or were they simply trying to get a 1-2? That is there ultimate goal for each race surely?

Otherwise could Hamilton not say they didn't try to help him at all and therefore favoured Nico for the win and championship lead? That argument could go both ways, but I don't see it as an argument anyway.

I think there is an element of that, but only from a marketing point of view. Like him or loathe him, he probably brings in more ££££ of return from marketing to his fan base than Nico does. In the money driven world of F1 that is important. Not saying it's right or wrong either......... would prefer it if everything was transparent and open and we actually had a proper title race of multiple teams involved.

 

If Daniel hadn't had a tougher time through traffic then he'd probably have had two laps at least to have a go at Nico with significantly fresher tyres and better brakes. He may or may not have made it, but the win would definitely have been at risk.

If they'd done nothing and Hamilton had moaned, Merc could just have said "we couldn't bring him in to try something, that would have opened up space for Daniel to take a run at Nico on fresher tyres and put the win at risk."

Like I said originally, I feel sorry for Nico that he also has to fight the intra team politics, and he needs to push back strongly on the team to try and redress that balance.

 

I honestly don't buy an ounce of this idea that Merc favour Hamilton. And I say that as someone who dislikes Hamiltons attitude (but respect his natural speed).

If you want to see examples of building a team around one driver, see Red Bull 2011-2013 and Ferrari 1996-2005.

Hamilton is more than entitled to have looked at an alternative strategy- it's a race.

 

I don't think Merc give a stuff who wins it so long as one of them do. They're here to sell cars, and that's their only priority.