2012 Gulf Air Bahrain GP Chat and Predictions Thread

[Delete Me]

One thing I liked about the sky broadcast a few races ago was the formation lap where they had some 'build up' music and interviews going on and pit radio. That was real class and got me really pumped and excited for the lights out.....But it seems they dont do that anymore =/.

I think people complained that they couldn't hear the drivers on the warm up lap for reasons like this.

"Webber your KERS are gone, you will be vulnerable at the start!" *Silverarrow sits forward in excitement*

 

[happyal]

Hello,

First of all I think some subjects should be split off from this thread, i.e. the Rosberg incidents and the tyres comments. It would be nice to refer to these threads again in the near future when Lewis does the same thing as Rosberg, without having to say page 27 of the Bahrain thread.

Anyway, back on with my points. I think Rosberg was just about OK with what he did, but I can see the argument for a penalty too. I think the problem the swards have is that in the recent past they have let this type of driving go by without anything happening, Lewis weaving in China as an example. I’m sure that Rosbergs defence was videos of recent incidents that didn’t receive any penalty. I think Alonso’s tweet gives us an insight into the minds of a driver for future races, and it’ll be interesting to see how bad it gets before something is done about it.

I’m not the biggest fan of Lewis, but even I think that he would have been very unlucky to get any type of penalty for leaving the track to make his overtake, he really didn’t have much choice, and in this case I think he did the right thing.

Onto the tyres, I think that Schmacher has a point, but at the same time these cars are so good they the driver really only have the tyres to look after. In the past they had to look after the engine, the gearbox, etc, as well as the tyres. Now the cars are so good they don’t need to think about the engine or gearbox all they have to do is take care of the tyres. If we make the tyres as good as the rest of the car, what will the drivers do during a race, you might as well have a computer simulation to tell us which car is fastest on race day.

 

[genjigonzales]

Interesting article from Mark Hughes on Sky Sports. Tyre stuff first, explaining why Raikkonen's strategy of saving tyres by settling for 11th place didn't quite pan out against Vettel's used tyres having to do less in the race - yet another example of how Pirelli's excellent solution has even further enhanced and improved both strategic and on-track racing simultaneously this season.

The main point of the article, however, is how driver equality can compromise results, with Lotus not instructing Grosjean to get out of his team mate's way as soon as Raikkonen caught him, etc.

We all knew that but what was interesting for me was the parallel Hughes draws with McLaren. We know how Hamilton's Australian GP result was compromised by McLaren giving Button the call on pit stops due to him being ahead. I didn't know (and Hughes doesn't claim to know for a fact, but he surmises) that McLaren avoided switching Button to a potentially race-winning two-stop strategy in China because Hamilton was already locked into a three-stopper and therefore "things would have got difficult inside the McLaren garage."

If that were the case then I think I'd say McLaren had taken driver equality to levels of stupidity not even witnessed in the latter stages of 2007 when they were under FIA scrutiny from the Spanish Motorsport Federation chief, Carlos Gracia.

 

[Delete Me]

Interesting article from Mark Hughes on Sky Sports. Tyre stuff first, explaining why Raikkonen's strategy of saving tyres by settling for 11th place didn't quite pan out against Vettel's used tyres having to do less in the race - yet another example of how Pirelli's excellent solution has even further enhanced and improved both strategic and on-track racing simultaneously this season.

The main point of the article, however, is how driver equality can compromise results, with Lotus not instructing Grosjean to get out of his team mate's way as soon as Raikkonen caught him, etc.

We all knew that but what was interesting for me was the parallel Hughes draws with McLaren. We know how Hamilton's Australian GP result was compromised by McLaren giving Button the call on pit stops due to him being ahead. I didn't know (and Hughes doesn't claim to know for a fact, but he surmises) that McLaren avoided switching Button to a potentially race-winning two-stop strategy in China because Hamilton was already locked into a three-stopper and therefore "things would have got difficult inside the McLaren garage."

If that were the case then I think I'd say McLaren had taken driver equality to levels of stupidity not even witnessed in the latter stages of 2007 when they were under FIA scrutiny from the Spanish Motorsport Federation chief, Carlos Gracia.

Cheers genji was a good read that.

 

[McLarenDan]

I don't think Button was ever even in mild contention for a race win... 2,3,n stops he was just painfully slow with high tire deg.

EDIT: Sorry I mis-spoke. I thought you was referring to Bahrain not China.

 

[BrightLampShade]

Autosport driver ratings

1. Sebastian Vettel 10/10
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-soft-medium)
Verdict: A brilliantly executed victory as he excelled in all of the key phases of the race.


2. Mark Webber 7/10
Started: 3rd Finished: 4th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-soft-medium)
Verdict: A pretty decent weekend's work. Has to be given the benefit of the doubt for lack of race pace.


3. Jenson Button 7/10
Started: 4th Finished: 18th
Strategy: 4 stops (soft-medium-medium-medium-soft)
Verdict: An unremarkable weekend, but stuck to his task and would have reaped the reward had his car held together.


4. Lewis Hamilton 8/10
Started: 2nd Finished: 8th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-medium-medium)
Verdict: Another good weekend performance-wise for F1's Mr Consistency, including an excellent qualifying lap and a race in which he didn't let his frustrations get the better of him.


5. Fernando Alonso 8/10
Started: 9th Finished: 7th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-medium-medium)
Verdict: Might have finished a place, perhaps even two, higher but all in all a decent weekend's work.


6. Felipe Massa 8/10
Started: 14th Finished: 9th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-soft-medium)
Verdict: In the race at least, did what he is expected to do by backing up Alonso well.


7. Michael Schumacher 8/10
Started: 22nd Finished: 10th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-soft-medium-medium)
Verdict: Unfortunate in qualifying, his combative race performance was actually far more impressive than the one he displayed in China, despite yielding only a point.


8. Nico Rosberg 7/10
Started: 5th Finished: 5th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-soft-medium-medium).
Verdict: A mixed bag of a weekend for F1's newest race winner, who underachieved in qualifying and made few friends with his race tactics.


9. Kimi Raikkonen 9/10
Started: 11th Finished: 2nd
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-soft-medium-medium)
Verdict: Overall, a great drive from Raikkonen, but is marked down for qualifying and the nagging feeling that he might have been able to make that lap-36 move stick and gone on to win the race if he'd stayed fully committed.


10. Romain Grosjean 9/10
Started: 7th Finished: 3rd
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-medium-medium)
Verdict: Great in qualifying and calm and assured in the race, even though he couldn't quite match Raikkonen for sheer pace.


11. Paul Di Resta 10/10
Started: 10th Finished: 6th
Strategy: 2 stops (soft-medium-medium)
Verdict: An exquisite drive in difficult circumstances. Showed both his outright pace and intelligence.


12. Nico Hulkenberg 5/10
Started: 13th Finished 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-soft-medium-medium)
Verdict: His mistake in qualifying cost him, but there were other factors that played against the Hulk that were beyond his control.


14. Kamui Kobayashi 5/10
Started: 12th Finished: 13th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium-medium-soft-soft)

15. Sergio Perez 7/10
Started: 8th Finished: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-soft-medium-medium)

16. Daniel Ricciardo 5/10
Started: 6th Finished: 15th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-soft-medium)

17. Jean-Eric Vergne 5/10
Started: 17th Finished: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-medium-soft)

18. Pastor Maldonado 5/10
Started: 21st Retired: Suspension damage
Strategy: 2 stops (soft-soft-medium)

19. Bruno Senna 6/10
Started: 15th Retired: Brakes
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-soft-medium-medium)

20. Heikki Kovalainen 6/10
Started: 16th Finished: 17th
Strategy: 4 stops (soft-soft-soft-medium-medium)

21. Vitaly Petrov 6/10
Started: 18th Finished: 16th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-soft-medium-medium)

22. Pedro de la Rosa 7/10
Started: 20th Finished: 20th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-medium-medium)

23. Narain Karthikeyan 7/10
Started: 24th Finished: 21st
Strategy: 4 stops (soft-medium-medium-medium-soft)

24. Timo Glock 5/10
Started: 23rd Finished: 19th
Strategy: 3 stops (soft-medium-medium-soft)

25. Charles Pic 6/10
Started: 19th Retired: Engine
Strategy: 1 stop (soft-soft)

 

[TomTom94]

I'm not entirely certain why but I have a feeling they have a grudge against Vergne. Two weeks on the trot he's beaten his team-mate in race trim and they've given him the same or a lesser rating. I also think it's somewhat ludicrous that Schumacher gets a full 8/10, I didn't see that much during the race that impressed me, had Button not retired he'd have been out of the points as well.

 

[Delete Me]

Btw Nico has been entered twice in that rating post.

 

[Julius Caesar]

I'm not entirely certain why but I have a feeling they have a grudge against Vergne. Two weeks on the trot he's beaten his team-mate in race trim and they've given him the same or a lesser rating. I also think it's somewhat ludicrous that Schumacher gets a full 8/10, I didn't see that much during the race that impressed me, had Button not retired he'd have been out of the points as well.

Well Ricciardo did qualify 6th. I think they took that into account. As for Jenson and Schumacher. Button would probably have finished 5th. You cant blame him for the puncture. While Schumi did make up 12 places even if he was anonymous. Dont think theres anything ludicrous.

 

[BrightLampShade]

Btw Nico has been entered twice in that rating post.

Thanks, not idea how I managed that

 

[u408379965]

Cheers BLS, I've made a table adding up the scores so far. Alonso leads the way, which is spot on in my opinion. Pic is doing very well, can't say I've noticed him much but only the top 5, Raikkonen, di Resta and Perez score higher. He must be something right.

You must log in or register to see images

 

[BrightLampShade]

Cheers BLS, I've made a table adding up the scores so far. Alonso leads the way, which is spot on in my opinion. Pic is doing very well, can't say I've noticed him much but only the top 5, Raikkonen, di Resta and Perez score higher. He must be something right.

You must log in or register to see images

Good idea

Nice to see Massa bringing up the rear whilst his team mate leads. At least we know its accurate.

 

[TomTom94]

Well Ricciardo did qualify 6th. I think they took that into account. As for Jenson and Schumacher. Button would probably have finished 5th. You cant blame him for the puncture. While Schumi did make up 12 places even if he was anonymous. Dont think theres anything ludicrous.

In the Mercedes, a car that is significantly faster than those around him, not even taking into account Senna, Hulkenberg and Kobayashi's poor strategising. In my opinion Schumacher getting a point is the bare minimum.
And I just feel slightly sorry for Vergne I think, it's not his fault his team-mate is more experienced and is better in qualifying at the moment, but he comes out every race and gets a result.

 

[genjigonzales]

Raikkonen vs. Grosjean battle onboard (the lost 5 minutes):

[video=dailymotion;xqem0v]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqem0v_formula-1-2012-bahrain-onboard-raikkonen-vs-grosjean_sport[/video]​

 

[EternalMSC]

In the Mercedes, a car that is significantly faster than those around him, not even taking into account Senna, Hulkenberg and Kobayashi's poor strategising. In my opinion Schumacher getting a point is the bare minimum.
And I just feel slightly sorry for Vergne I think, it's not his fault his team-mate is more experienced and is better in qualifying at the moment, but he comes out every race and gets a result.

Starting 22nd and overtaking 12 cars, without interference of collision's or team radio's, is pretty top class if any driver was in a crap-box of a Mercedes that weekend.
Rosberg got 5th by dangerous driving, yet you have not mentioned that.

 

[di Fredsta!]

Starting 22nd and overtaking 12 cars, without interference of collision's or team radio's, is pretty top class if any driver was in a crap-box of a Mercedes that weekend.
Rosberg got 5th by dangerous driving, yet you have not mentioned that.

Crapbox? Really? There are many many teams worse than it.

 

[genjigonzales]

Rosberg got 5th by dangerous driving, yet you have not mentioned that.

Maybe when Rosberg drives dangerously week in week out for twenty years, gets disqualified from championships, gets black-flagged, tries to drive his rivals into the wall or has to be told by his team manager how to drive properly then he might get a mention.

 

[EternalMSC]

Maybe when Rosberg drives dangerously week in week out for twenty years, gets disqualified from championships, gets black-flagged, tries to drive his rivals into the wall or has to be told by his team manager how to drive properly then he might get a mention.

All 20 years? Bit of an over exaggeration.
DSQ from one championship.
Not the only driver to get black flagged or get any kind of penalty/punishment.
Never crashed anyone into the wall.
Infact, it was a driver.. who amazingly drives very similarly to Michael Schumacher, that grassed him up because he was getting destroyed for 20 odd laps, in racing that was enjoyed by many across the world in Monza 2011.

A tad annoying that people rely on past events to reason, it is like a non-stopping circle of events that people sadly cannot forget.
I was talking about the present season and a totally different driver genji and your true colours shone through with that comment, not good.

 

[EternalMSC]

Crapbox? Really? There are many many teams worse than it.

And many teams that had the upper hand in Bahrain due to the temps vs. tyres.

 

[di Fredsta!]

And many teams that had the upper hand in Bahrain due to the temps vs. tyres.

There are only 2 teams who had a definite upper hand: Red Bull and Lotus. Mclaren are a maybe, but still, 4th best car, maybe even 3rd.. That's not crap.