Grand Prix thread Not606 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix Chat and Predictions

Did Verstappens overtake on Kimi before the VSC line get investigated?

 

It was all fair and dandy, there's no lines for the VSC, it just turns off at a random-ish point after a 10s warning.

 

I'm with Happy on this one. I think it's hard to justify the level of criticism he gets, but maybe that's more of a partisan thing?

• You can't say he is sh1te when he has pushed Lewis, if Lewis is the GOAT?
• Regardless of the brand it's fundamentally a British team, and whilst I don't believe there is any bias it must make things hard when the tensions are high.
• Lewis is the No1, no question.
• I believe Lewis would have got away with (and has) the things Nico has been penalised/criticised for

Having said that there is the counter argument that Lewis is just cruising under the expectancy of winning by default, or would he himself have been beaten by an Alonso, Vettel etc.

 

In my experience I'd say that it's not partisan thing, from the people I've spoken too round the world, I'd say that that people broadly think some combination of: decent driver, lucky to have found himself in a dominant team and thus to have won so many races, can't race, better qualifier than I thought, nice bloke, but lacks a champions edge...


I'm pretty certain that if Daniel, Sebastian or Fernando was sat in the other car, Hamilton wouldn't be leading the lifestyle he currently does and would have to be more solely focussed on racing. His relative competitiveness against them in that situation is a debate that could last forever...

 

For me Rosberg has always looked fast on an empty track, a fast driver but not a racing driver, luckily the merc is fast enough to qualify him where that talent can be used, as long as he doesn;t **** up the start of course.

If only McLaren had built a car like it 5 years ago, what a season that would've been

 

Darth Helmut reckons Red Bull broke Hamilton's engine.

"We clearly had the upper hand - my guess is that we very likely forced [Hamilton] into that engine failure," Marko told the official Formula 1 website.

"We permanently put pressure on him, challenging his lead, as he knew he had to create a gap.

"To go permanently full throttle was probably not the best thing for his engine."


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/126506/red-bull-pressure-forced-hamilton-failure

 

Damn, Helmut agrees with us

 

Yet this year he's bashed his way past and not folded under pressure and has had to come from the back and pass etc etc.

This year he has stepped up his game.

Massa never did and I would have expected put both on the exact same description. Good qualifiers but not racers.

Rosberg has gone off and said it's now or never and has taken no prisoners at all.

 

News from Mercedes re the cause of Hamilton's engine failure:

"Our analysis has shown that Lewis Hamilton's engine suffered a big-end bearing failure. This happened without warning after 618 km and was preceded by a loss of oil pressure in Turn 15."

 

what turn did the fire happen on?

Maybe the bearing seal went and that's where pressure loss occurred?

Suggests to me they are opening 5 new engines not yet delivered to customers and looking at the bearings.

Basically its a component failure that should not have occurred right?

I'm guess that the later note about existing engines being uses indicates they feel the bearings there have proved reliable.

This puts hamiltons new engine in the box in question doesn't it?

 

A bit more info from Autosport:

"Hamilton will revert to the engine he used in Singapore for the Japanese GP this weekend, while Rosberg will continue with the power unit he ran in Malaysia.

As a precaution, Mercedes is introducing revised running parameters for the works team, as well as customers Williams, Force India and Manor.

Those parameters will include, but are not limited to, a different and more conservative oil specification.

All Mercedes customer drivers excluding Manor's Esteban Ocon were set to take new engines this weekend as part of their planned cycle.

However, those changes have been delayed until Mercedes has conducted further analysis from stripping Hamilton's failed unit.

Those five customer team drivers will continue to use their units from the Malaysian Grand Prix."