[dim635csi]

Hamilton thought Rosberg had stopped

It was at this stage that on a giant TV screen Hamilton caught a brief glimpse of the Mercedes crew standing in the pitlane, the guys having dashed out 'just in case', as is the usual routine.

He knew he wasn't making a pitstop, so his immediate conclusion was that Rosberg had, and that quite possibly Sebastian Vettel and other top runners had too.

His first thought was that when the cars were released after the safety car he could find himself stranded on old soft tyres – with low temperatures and pressures – with Rosberg heading a gaggle of rivals on supersofts. At this stage there were still some 15 laps to run, and thus quite a long time for him to hold out.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/an...-so-very-wrong

[escobar929]

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

One of my favorite tracks

absolutely, sad what happened to HAM but certainly not the tracks fault

[EdM5]

Originally Posted by MrPrena

It makes sense.
My favorite is Spa, Monza, Imola, pre-2001 Hockenheim, Gilles Villeneuve Circuit

Agreed!
I remember watching F1 at the old Hockenheimring, the likes of Piquet, Prost, Mansell and Senna blasting full throttle trough the forest. Magic.

[six_timer]

Originally Posted by Petros

can any of you explain to me what is so great about monaco? it's the only track in the world where you can be several seconds a lap faster yet be unable to overtake. Every single year it's a boring procession. The only overtaking we ever see is in the pitstops, or when one of the cars breaks down. It says a lot that the only "excitement" in over an hour of racing came from a big crash and a terribly-timed pitstop.

Putting aside the fact that they're going balls out at 170mph inches from a guardrail, there are turns, hills, tunnels, and hairpins not found anywhere else. That they're on the verge of wrecking the car over much of the course, is what makes it the drivers' favorite. And for the home viewer, it conveys a better sense of speed than any other.

Every F1 track has only one good racing line, so passing's not good anywhere. With Monaco, there's always the chance that even the top drivers will crash out.

[954Stealth]

There's an interesting article on Motorsport.com by Chris Noble about why F1 needs more Verstappens...wondering what your impression is.


http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/wh...re-verstappens

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

There's an interesting article on Motorsport.com by Chris Noble about why F1 needs more Verstappens...wondering what your impression is

So far Max did alright, Sunday's crash with Grosjean was also due to the Lotus brakes earlier than normal due to fuel saving and more lift and coast.

He tried to do a dummy and went on the inside, but failed and rear-ended Grosjean cause the Lotus slowed down tremendously at the crossing point.

Rookies tend to make more benzai move. Like Perez did with Button a few years ago. But now many of them calmed down and fewer do-or-die moves.

However, I'd rather see higher-quality battles like Hamilton-Rosberg in Bahrain, or Button/Alonso etc. Or Riccairdo and Alonso last year in Silverstone. Those are clean and side-by-side fights.

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

So far Max did alright, Sunday's crash with Grosjean was also due to the Lotus brakes earlier than normal due to fuel saving and more lift and coast.

He tried to do a dummy and went on the inside, but failed and rear-ended Grosjean cause the Lotus slowed down tremendously at the crossing point.

Rookies tend to make more benzai move. Like Perez did with Button a few years ago. But now many of them calmed down and fewer do-or-die moves.

However, I'd rather see higher-quality battles like Hamilton-Rosberg in Bahrain, or Button/Alonso etc. Or Ricciardo and Alonso last year in Silverstone. Those are clean and side-by-side fights.

I agree with this. He did hit that wall pretty hard and I'm glad he is alright. There's a wild cockpit cam video floating around that gives a first person perspective on the incident:


I bolded the area of your post that I wanted to comment on though. Max is young (He'd only have his learner's permit where I am from) and, of course, a rookie so that zealousness and lack of experience are certainly going to have an effect on his performance whether its gaining critical WDC/WCC points or clipping a Lotus and smashing in to a protective barrier. His ignorance (from being new) had him tell the box crew his strategy. Lotus was, of course, listening and Grosjean locked him out of the corner. I don't want to editorialize what happened since we all saw it but he did receive that 5-place grid penalty for Canada. Grosjean went in on Max saying he "forgot his braking points" but I think GRO braked a little late and hard and messed up Max's

But the incident enabled an otherwise tame, forgettable race to finish with some excitement and some good duels with the MBZs and Scuderia. It closed up some BIG gaps.

re: the bolded part. It is true that many of them calm down more and more while maturing as a driver. It becomes less about lessons learned and more about tire/fuel/pit strategy i.e. less about racing and more about conservation and preservation. It becomes - and has become - less exciting as these drivers take less risk. The meta-strategy trumps the corner strategy (which makes sense in terms of total season results, prizes, rewards and contract kickers - and there is a LOT of money of the line) but this focus has diverted the focus and the fun off the track.

It is my humble opinion that Formula 1 needs more of an infusion of Max's, younger drivers who are willing to push the car to its limit, to take more risks, that have a whole career ahead of them and aren't just trying to coast through 70 laps to retirement.

If Verstappen is indicative of the next generation of F1 drivers, the kids coming up through the young driver programs and F1, GP2, etc., then I am optimistic that we will see a turn-around in the sport. It'll take a few years but new drivers, new teams, "better" engines are all on the horizon and I see the sun coming up soon again.

[E90SLAM]

Yup, there's a fine line between brave move or cock-ups. Maldonado is on another level totally! LOL!!!

Also the problem nowadays is with the huge difference on Power Unit, Aerodynamics, and Tires. Makes strategy govern race results more than those driver overtakes. Drivers could drive their guts out to overtake outside of a sweep, but then lost the place again from DRS, or pit rotation, or ridiculous tire deg. Then they learn what's the point of driving to the limit of their skill.

Also the problem was, the pendulum of strategy and race makes the difference had swing towards the pit wall in recent years. In the past, early 2000s, and 90's, various teams had closer match cars, where the drivers makes the difference.

What we need is not more stringent rules, we need more relaxed regulations for the teams can really close the gaps much quickly. The strategy group thought they tie the hands of major teams to slow them down and close the gap. But they actually hurt smaller teams of what they can do to close the gaps.

[KingOfJericho]

I was pretty shocked the FIA penalized Verstappen. Without even seeing the replay I thought GRO was braking much earlier than normal on that lap. It just didn't look right.

RE: Hamilton... I think he said it best himself during the race "I've just cost myself the race, haven't I?" No mention of "we" in there. I think he saw the screen and was blasting pit wall to bring him in. My question now is why nobody on the Mercedes pit wall knew that ROS hadn't come in or why they couldn't just use their eyeballs to see if VET had pitted. I think the only reason Hamilton is being so humble in this case is that he knows he was partially to blame. If it was exclusively a pit wall error, he would be the first one to tell you. He's much less of a team player than most on here are crediting him for.

For those ripping on ROS... I have a really hard time understanding how he should have celebrated a win. Lewis admitted to fucking up his own race on the radio so why should Nico be any less happy that the stars aligned in his favor? This is racing and strategy is a key component to winning. HAM and his team bungled the call on pitting and lost. People are talking like ROS slashed Hamilton's tires behind the safety car or something. Give me a break...

[Wills2]

Must be an utter rush every lap at Monaco for all the drivers, sometimes not the best for the TV viewer but they all seem to love it.

Plus I would imagine the parties afterwards are pretty good!

And Verstappen is a breath of fresh air for me, young, talented, clever and ballsy.

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by Wills2

Must be an utter rush every lap at Monaco for all the drivers, sometimes not the best for the TV viewer but they all seem to love it.

Plus I would imagine the parties afterwards are pretty good!

And Verstappen is a breath of fresh air for me, young, talented, clever and ballsy.

You should see the "talent" around the famous swimming pool

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

You should see the "talent" around the famous swimming pool

[IMG]https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.xooimage.com%2Ffiles96% 2F4%2F3%2Fa%2Fgp-monaco-2011_fu...os_large-4262214.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime =image%2F*[/IMG]



Ok, you get the point haha but this gives me an idea for a new thread!

[Timujin]

Monaco is great.

[E90SLAM]

‘Are you sure it’s best to stay out?’ Radio call which cost Hamilton victory revealed

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/05/2...tory-revealed/

The radio message which cost Lewis Hamilton a likely victory in the Monaco Grand Prix has been revealed for the first time.

Hamilton was leading the Monaco Grand Prix when a pit stop during a Safety Car period at the end of the race handed victory to his team mate Nico Rosberg.

As Hamilton admitted afterwards, his team had originally said he should stay out but he queries the call and was concerned his rivals would take the opportunity to switch to super-soft tyres.

The decision was then taken for Hamilton to pit, as Mercedes incorrectly believed he would be able to do so and remain in the lead.

The pivotal radio message was not broadcast during the race, but can be heard in the edited highlights of the Monaco Grand Prix video on the official Formula One website. It includes the following exchange between Hamilton and race engineer Peter Bonnington:

Peter Bonnington Safety Car, Safety Car. So we are staying out.
Lewis Hamilton Are you sure it’s the best thing to stay out? These tyres have lost all their temperature. Everyone’s going to be on [super-softs] now.
Peter Bonnington OK. Copy, copy. Box, box.

After the race Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff said “I’m sorry for Lewis that we made the mistake and I’m sorry for Lewis”. He described the decision as “a misjudgement in the heat of the moment”.

Other radio messages which were not broadcast during the race which can be heard in the video include Daniel Ricciardo saying “get out of my way” as he passed Kimi Raikkonen, in a move the Ferrari driver claimed deserved a penalty.

[ashtaron14]

^ Now I don't feel so bad for HAM

[MAN15H]

But to be fair from the car Lewis can’t see the whole situation and he was just questioning the decision to stay out when there was a possibility of the other drivers coming in for a tyre change. The race engineer shouldn’t have just said ‘yeah you’re right as you have all the information at your figure tips Lewis so let’s pit now...’ He should have checked the timing and at least looked down the pit lane which would have shown him that Ferrari were not out in the pit lane waiting to receive Vettel for a tyre change.
Mistakes happen... That’s life.

[MrPrena]

Although I love Canadian GP, I think MB-AMG Petronas has too much advantage there.
Unless there are some kinda excitement,it will be MB-AMG 1-2 again.

[UsualSuspect]

Originally Posted by acechardukian

Wow! Looks like you and I had the same vacation! Probably going next year too! I stayed in Cannes at Hotel Martinez. I'll post some pics in a bit.

[UsualSuspect]

[Kwando]

Honestly, living in Monca must be like living in a dreamworld. So desensitized from the outside.

[UsualSuspect]

Originally Posted by Kwando

Honestly, living in Monca must be like living in a dreamworld. So desensitized from the outside.

During any car event it's amazing there! I have plenty more pics if you want to see them!

[acechardukian]

Originally Posted by UsualSuspect

During any car event it's amazing there! I have plenty more pics if you want to see them!

PM me, I'd like to get a couple of your shots! They're awesome!