What actually happened to Kimi yesterday, just been looking at the lap times and before stop 1 Kimi was 1s in front of Alonso. Alonso stopped first and despite Kimi's stop being 0.05s quicker he came out 5s behind Alonso. Where did that time go, he had a horrendous in and out laps. Pit times: [TABLE="width: 192"] [TR] [TD="width: 64"][/TD] [TD="width: 64, align: center"]Kimi[/TD] [TD="width: 64, align: center"]Alonso[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: center"]pit 1[/TD] [TD="align: center"]21.546[/TD] [TD="align: center"]21.619[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: center"]pit 2[/TD] [TD="align: center"]22.206[/TD] [TD="align: center"]22.068[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] please log in to view this image
With 7 laps less of fuel, driven by a double world champion. Pretty shocking. Not sure of the tyre situation though
Ouch... The clip of Alonso trying to overtake the "Renault" powered Caterham with DRS and the Caterham was pulling away towards the end of the straight.. Doesn't bode well! I don't see them making enough of a gain over the winter to bridge the gap to the likes of Redbull, Williams let alone Mercedes! They have the slowest, heaviest, most thirsty engine with an ERS system that takes a whole lap to recharge compared to the almost always available ERS of the Mercs Again, good luck Seb!
Let's hope for the sake of competition that Ferrari can sort out the ERS issue. How could they get it so wrong when Merc and Renault were fine with it? I don't think the Renault is massively down on power to the Merc, after all, RBR were a clear second in the WCC so it can't be that much of a dog of a unit.
Ironic that the championship was not decided by double points in the last race, but was decided by which Mercedes had the technical failure. Fortunately the misfortune fell so that the right driver won, but it could so easily have been the other way round.
The Red Bull had probably the best (perhaps equal to Merc) Chassis and aero though, there's no doubt they were well down on power, they ended up running less downforce to compensate. I genuinely believe the Ferrari engine/power unit is the worst one of the three. Reckon they are roughly on a par with the Renault in terms of outright power (perhaps 5-10bhp difference in eithers favour, it's hard to tell) but the Ferrari's general power delivery/ers deployment is much worse as well as the engine being thirstier. Their ers issue is massive, there was huge clipping going on all year. You just need top watch the cars carefully during the race and watch for the telltale rear light "Harvesting" warning, The Ferrari does it repeatedly almost every lap and has done all season to the point they may as well have kept it on, most other cars you see on screen only do it once or twice every few laps at the end of heavy braking zones etc.
Don't think anybody has said "he can't drive a car that moves about", only that he is one of those drivers (like Kimi, Button etc) that when the car isn't in the sweetspot is prone to becoming anonymous. (P.s Wet weather in the grippiest cars in the dry still have the most grip in the wet... the laws of aero don't change significantly the second the track gets wet, everyones car moves!) Let's be totally honest here, this years Red Bull was fundamentally a bloody good car, It finished second in the constructors ahead of teams with a vastly better engine, the only non Mercedes race winner. It wasn't quite in Sebs sweet spot and as a result, he got comprehensively done by a driver who nobody thought would trouble him when the season started. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with his car. He's moving to a team that only seems to produce flawed cars, i don't see it helping him find a sweet spot!
The mercedes contained an easter egg!!! http://www.autoblog.com/2014/11/25/mercedes-surprised-hamilton-with-this-steering-wheel-message/? I wonder what nico's had? A shut down function of the engine unit?
Perhaps not the best race we've ever seen, but I suppose it was an evens bet that this race would be either controversial or anti-climactic. Given such a choice, perhaps the result was as much as any non-partisan could hope for. Then again, I'd have preferred a situation where the on-track stuff provided sufficient diversion from another Red Bull misdemeanour to dissuade me from mentioning it! In the end though, I'm relieved that Bernie's bonkers double-points were able to be swept under the ever tattier carpet. I agree with the consensus that despite his opponent suffering gremlins beyond his control, actually, the best man won both the race and the WDC. Hamilton and Ricciardo have been the best drivers this season. Alonso is close; but to my mind – as much as it is possible to disregard the car – this season he sits roughly in third place with Rosberg and Button in close attendance. What a shame we have the unsavoury Marussia/Caterham scenario, eh? What a shame, also, that the FIA did not choose the one person who might have made a real difference to F1's grossly distorted playing field, who might have paved the way for greater balance: Ari Vatanen. Then again, in my view, that's precisely why he was never given a realistic chance; he fell foul of what one might – tongue in cheek – call a Ferrari/Red Bull veto. I hope most people enjoyed the season and that most are reasonably satisfied with the outcome. I want to say a lot more but I'm still recovering from Sunday night, so this will have to do for now!
[video]http://www.formula1.com/video/race_edits/2014/abu_dhabi/[/video] Viewer discretion depending on your allegiances Race edit.
Ricciardo made the HRT look half decent so it was obvious from the start he had what it took, I know some refer to him as a 'rookie', but this was his forth season. He also had the advantage of driving a car with similar aero to what he had driven the previous two years, plus far more track time early in the season to familiarise himself with it compared to Vettel, who had gremlins putting him out of practice sessions, qualifying and races pretty much every race weekend. All of that, of course, is usually forgotten in the quest to prove Vettel is not very good. I hope not, he matched Ricciardo well enough until he was put in the pressure cooker, I think he would make an excellent contracted number 2, Ferrari would be an ideal place for him IMO, he has no pressure other than to race and back up the other guy, he has the talent but lacks the mental strength.
What i find funny is that Ricciardo never beat Karthikeyan as team mates once they both finished.. I mean it was only India '11 but still, does that mean Karthikeyan is better than Vettel?
Not a crazy shout in the slightest, Vergne to me screams out as a "big team dependable 2", a french DC if you like. But Button is still perfect for the role with Alonso IMO, in a perfect car for him Jenson won't ever really blitz him in qualifying and their race pace is generally similar, would say Alonso has the edge in the dry, Jenson in changeable/wet conditions. With a less than perfect car, Alonso will always deliver more consistently than Jenson, basically on their day they are a good match but it's one Alonso should be ahead in over a season.
