He made a lot of passes on the track too. Yes he also made places when in free air whilst others pitted, but i'd count again how many he took out on the track itself. It certainly helped him in the race. I do think he was being ultra cautious with Massa and may have tried to make it stick around the outside of turn 1 if it were another driver.
I know, he overtook a lot of cars like the HRTs, Marussias, Caterhams, Force Indias and STRs but once he got to the more elite cars (not for trying), his car couldnt challenge because he didnt have the right gear ratio. Im guessing this lower gear ratio is very effective for qualifying.
But also due to the the top 10 being very competitive and there is no outright leading car out there. Every car suffers with dirty air when following a car that is on a par with theirs. It's what has made it so great this year as it is so close no one has an outright advantage.
I dont think the DRS was quite right this time round. It doesnt work with that final chicane before the entry. But unusual for the spanish GP their was alot of overtakes without the aid of DRS. Do we take away the banner of Farce-alona now?
It probably wasn't quite right but I think it did a good drag reduction job in terms of enabling the chasing car to get up close going into turn one. I don't really want to see DRS guarantee a pass, I just want the faster car to have a fighting chance. To labour a well-laboured point, if they allowed its use all round the circuit but de-activated it for the car that's less than a second ahead of another then it would live up to its name and turn it into a tool rather than a gimmick.
Not in anyway belittling that achievement, but with Monaco being a street circuit, isn’t the tarmac there less abrasive than the tarmac used in purpose built tracks so tyre wear isn’t that bad? Also, even with the tyre’s approaching the cliff, it’s a lot harder to pass at Monaco than almost anywhere else, so as long as he kept his RB nice and wide, which he did, it was always going to be difficult for Alonso and Button to pass. Will the Super Soft’s make their debut in this year’s Monaco GP?
But surely it doesnt matter if it was a street track or not, he still lasted longer. But the fact that is was the SS's makes it a better achievement, even though it doesnt really matter who has it.
Aye, soft and super-softs for Monaco. Probably the same in Montreal as well. Love it when they have the fast tyres out.
Again, not belittling that achievement, great drive, cannot be denied. Just wanted to know by those much more knowledgeable than me if the Monaco track is more or less abrasive than other purpose built tracks.. Also, from http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/06/06/vettel-distance-monaco-pirelli/ He did 56 laps, last two or three under the safety car and they were Softs not SuperSofts. Circuit_de_Catalunya is 2.892, 31 laps = 89.7miles Monaco is 2.075, 56laps = 116.2 Yes, Vettel did more miles but one could argue that Hamilton had to overtake cars during that stint and running behind cars for that length of time would have negatively impacted his tyre’s more (dirty/hot air) whilst Vettel was out in front for most of that stint and wouldn’t have to deal with dirty/hot air coming off the cars in front impacting his tyres. Needless to say, quality drives by both.
Was it Monza where Vettel did a whole race on one set of tyres and pitted on the last (or one before) lap of the race and finished 4th where others did 2 stops?
Maybe CTA were discounting last year as the tyre compounds have changed? I'm pretty sure they're softer this year.
I thought this year's hard was roughly equivalent to last year's medium? Here's the CTA quote: Regardless (it's a pointless statistic anyway with circuit characteristics and track conditions coming into play), I think the real comparison should be between Hamilton on a two-stop yesterday and Button on a three-stop, only because Hamilton's usually compared unfavourably to Button on tyre management.
That quote is unbelievably fanboyish. I agree it's a pointless thing to compare, it's an interesting bit of trivia but it's so flawed to compare which feat is more impressive in an "I think Lewis's was better" type way, it's flawed in so many ways, different compounds, different cars, different weather, different year, different drivers, different circuits... And yeah this year's hard is roughly last year's medium, the old soft is this year's medium and the current soft is a completely new compound.
