OK so I know FP1 is not an ultimate indication of performance but good to see McHonda as 4th fastest car. Hopefully they can continue to increase their performance. Did I get this wrong or did Horner suggest that ALL radio traffic from pit to cars will be available to broadcasters! I get the feeling that FOM Broadcast will be selective about the radio traffic they give the international broadcasters. It also appears that the teams had a 'mute' button that excluded radio transmissions from being able to broadcast! Horner says that some teams 'muted' virtually all radio transmissions!
Not been a great day for the home drivers in many ways. Hulk is in the naughty books for track limits, Vettel is at his teams throat over the radio, and the crowd seems uninterested in Rosberg :/
Not strictly German GP talk but it seems Merc are considering giving Lewis two engines in one weekend to take the full penalty. http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12...ke-double-hit-of-engine-penalties-after-break I didn't realise they could do this? So would this be one engine for Practice and then another for Quali forcing him to start at the back with two fresh engines for the rest of the season? I thought he would have had to do it over two races? Seems like he would get off lightly if he could take all the penalties for two engines in one race weekend?
I have a feeling McHonda did the same 2 PU trick last year. I seem to remember a stupid penalty of something like going back 160 places from where they qualified!! I think if they could change PU quick enough they would swap a third PU between practice sessions.
Yeah, McLaren were all over this multi PU penalty idea last season. I thought they'd somehow closed the loophole for it though?
If the loophole is there it seems like it's a no brainer to change the engine as many times as possible at Spa or Monza then. He would very likely still finish 2nd with a fresh engine turned up and that's then only 7 points loss to Nico. Hardly a penalty in a Mercedes.
I don't agree with the excessive penalties but enabling a leading team to do that is gaining an advantage. It would be different if there were genuine failures.
As previously stated McHonda did it multiple times last year and I would in no way call them a leading team. Once again rules that have not bee thought out properly and were changed in a knee jerk reaction to excessive grid penalties being carried over race to race. The rules need a bit rewrite in so many ways. It's no good the FIA and Charlie fighting the fires these rules have created. They need to start from scratch with the rules and somehow get the teams to write the rules that the other teams would not be able to bend. It's a bit like UK tax rules, HMRC has limited resources to create the rules but so many companies willing to spend many times more on legal advice to skirt the rules. OK so UK Gov wont change tax laws as it would hurt too many of their friends. Somehow need to make the teams police each other on the rules. Like making a hacker the person who tests security.
What I'd give for the teams not getting the legalised backhanders to be the ones to set the rules. watch the big boys squirm! Or maybe stagger it, say Ferrari's $100m means they get no vote, Red Bull with $75m get a quarter vote. Force India get nothing so they get a whole vote
I really don't know where I stand on this one. Motorsport is kind of odd since you can lose out to mechanical failure at one event, and it then comes back to hit you later when you're penalized for a component change because you had to deal with something that already disadvantaged you. I can see why teams try to minimize the effects of the penalties as much as possible really.
Well, it's Hamilton's turn to go and see the stewards. What's the betting if they give him a 10 place grid penalty he'll take those engines now and get the penalties applied today? Would they even have time to change what they need to between Practice 3 and Quali to then change it again between quali and race? please log in to view this image
I doubt they would do the PU change as it would appear the plan is to put a new PU in for PF1, new in for FP3/Quali, and another new one in for the race. So they gain 3 new PU for just 1 back of the grid/pit lane penalty. Looks most likely to be at Spa. As for unsafe release, I have never understood why it's the driver who gets punished when it was a decision not in his control. The team should be either fined or docked constructors points. It does indeed look like an unsafe release, so lets see if Lewis gets punished, I would be surprised.
I just don't understand how it can happen in practice. In the race you're trying to be as quick as possible to get back out and maintain a gap or lead etc, but in practice? There is just no excuse for a team to release a driver in an unsafe manor.
You beat me to it by seconds! XD I didn't get the notification until after I clicked post. And I can't delete this post now either xD please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Unsafe releases have happened a fair amount of times in practice this season. I don't recall anyone getting a grid penalty for it.
