A good stat but obviously not a fair one. Merc are obviously in much better shape and McLaren have taken themselves out of the picture (and his car has held together). In terms of Schumachers performance, how Rosberg compares to Lewis should give the final say on how good/bad he actually was. At the moment the points table looks bad but in raw pace he hasn't seemed very far off (faster at times) so i'll wait till at least mid-season to judge.
Kimi doesn't really put a stop cock on discussions, so from my point of view, he is open to any change. As long as he is in a fast car and fighting for the title. Some big changes coming. Sorry to go off topic, feel free to paste this into the F1 2014 discussions thread.
I just hope Hulkenberg gets a top drive next season. There could potentially be seats at Red Bull, Lotus and Ferrari, it would be criminal if he didn't get one of them in my opinion. I'd like to see Kimi at Red Bull too, whether Vettel's still there or at Ferrari. Something like: Red Bull: Vettel & Raikkonen Ferrari: Alonso & Hulkenberg Mercedes: Hamilton & Rosberg Lotus: Grosjean & Bianchi McLaren: Button & Perez Would be awesome in my opinion, a real mix of proven quality and raw talent in the top teams.
The problem with Hulk is that he has an awful car this season, so he's not going to be able to impress as he has done in the past. If only he'd got the McLaren drive he deserved. Could have helped carry them forward. My ideal 2014 lineups would be: RBR: Raikkonen and Ricciardo/Hulkenberg Ferrari: Vettel and Alonso Merc: Hamilton and Rosberg Lotus: Grosjean and Massa McLaren: Button and Hulkenberg
Red Bull will want to promote someone, and Da Costa won't be ready. JEV is terrible. Ricciardo is the best of a bad bunch
Really enjoyed the race but after a few beers and a bbq I'm confused. -What happened to Rosberg today, seemed to have the match of Hamilton all weekend but just went backwards. Slower than Hamilton whilst using the tyres harder -What happened to Button. I was convinced he was on for a Podium early on but once Perez finally got him he seemed to falter and run out of tyres. -What did Perez eat before this race, he was a man on fire. He was scrappy at times but all in all he was epic. -Hamilton? Went from a ruined weekend with no speed to somehow getting 5th, out of almost nowhere. -Lotus, you were supposed to be battling Ferrari for the win this weekend -Vettel, where did that come from! -Massa, stay away from the stinger strips!
Agreed, race was after Alonso's second pit stop to fix the drs issue. Still, Vettel drove a flawless race and fully deserved the win. Good to see Kimi do well (go nothing to do with having him the sweep) and hoping this the spring board to a good 2013 season for Grosjean. Thank good for the mid-field, great wheel to wheel (and at times closer!) racing! McLaren still have quite. Hoping their upgrades they plan on bringing for Spain work, want to see them in the mix. If Mercedes can sort out their tyre wear, then Hamilton will be in with a great chance, over one lap they clearly have one of the quickest cars, just need their rare to be more tyre friendly. Said in last weeks race thread, if he didn't whine all the time, I could get to like PdR, he's actually a decent racer. Sauber were no where today, Williams still have a dog of a car, Torro Rosso weren't at the races, Caterham appear to have made some progress and appear to be ahead of the Marussias. Finally Pirreli, you remit was do design tyres that degrade not explode after a handleful of laps, no doubt the delamination cost Hamilton his five spot grid pen and Massa a good chunk of points!
Does anyone think Alonso and Raikkonen would've actually challenged Vettel for the win if they'd had clean weekends? Vettel's pace was searing and he was pretty light on his tyres too. He was pulling away from Alonso before the DRS failure, I was expecting Alonso to reel him in at the end of the stint but Vettel's tyre deg was good. I think they've got on top of the tyre wear now.
I actually think Alonso would have won, the Ferrari has great race pace, and Alonso has great race management skills.
Maybe? Alonso or Kimi being closer may have lead to Vettel pushing harder and taking more out of the tyres, we know the Ferrari and Lotus get quicker towards the end of the stints so would have been a close run thing.
Yes/no. I expected it to be a Ferrari Vs Lotus race so what do I know I think Alonso would have been 2nd in the end, Vettel seemed untouchable in the race. Vettel really wanted it to by the looks of it, all over Alonso at the start.
Bahrain GP technical round-up It's only a week since China, but the F1 field still brought some intriguing Bahrain upgrades for AUTOSPORT's Craig Scarborough to investigate, with Red Bull in particular piling on the new parts DRS failure In Alonso's case the actuator pulls the wing open with a simple link, much like the Lotus solution pictured above. However the mechanism allowed the flap to open too far, the airflow caught under the flap and flipped it over-centre to prevent the flap closing as it would usually do. It was clear at the first stop that the flap easily pushed back into position, but on its first use on the out-lap the same problem occurred. Unable to change the mechanism, Alonso was left without the system for the remainder of the race. It appears that the mechanism failed to prevent the wing opening too far. This 'end stop' might either be in the linkage or the hydraulic actuator itself. Although this was a unique failure, Ferrari will need to review this problem ahead of the next race in Spain.
Team mate comparisons. please log in to view this image Shows how the various drivers looked after their tyres (Might have to right click on image and 'open in new tab' to make it readable.)
Has anyone actually seen a post-race interview with Di Resta? I'd expected him to be moaning about the team, Lotus, the tyres, the heat, etc, but I'm yet to hear a word from him.
I was thinking the same. Maybe he was so furious at not getting on the podium that he couldn't speak to anyone... I mean, he does take himself very, very seriously.
