[Zoli007]

Im curious to see if anything ends up happening to Ferrari and Alonso for having Alonso's wing in the open position on a section of track not allwed.

It was only for maybe two seconds max, but it was up.


What a race indeed, very excited for the rest of the season. Its a bit crazy to watch but it makes for interesting results.

[jonasaurus]

Originally Posted by johanness

Great race! Congrats to Lewis. Right choice of tires/strategy.

While it's great that Mark Webber ended up 3rd and had a great run thru the pack... he sure isn't a team player. Did you catch his comment after? In his closing comments he said it was good because someone 'finally' dethroned Vettel and how good it was that bla bla bla. He caught himself 1/2 way through once he realized what he said and tried to smooth it out... but the slap to RBR was already done. Idiot

Idiot is a bit strong I think, whilst he is part of the same team as Vettel there is still obviously individual driver competitiveness present.

[E90SLAM]

.

[M_Six]

Best race of the year. Some awesome drives, especially from Webber. Kudos to Rosberg as well. He's almost there.

[inTgr8r]

fantastic race!!!
F1 is finally worth watching again.
I'm so happy to see the end of processional racing.

[pixelblue]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

I'm so happy to see the end of processional racing.

What do you mean?

[BTM]

I believe he's referring to 3-8 yrs back when cars were more reliant on aerodynamic rather than mechanical grip, making close following and wheel to wheel racing very difficult for the car behind as the air coming off the car in front was so turbulent, and races more or less finished as they started, most overtaking was a function of pit stops and race strategy, or an "external" element such as rain.

OT - best race of the year so far (and I'm not a Hamilton guy)...last 10 laps were awesome, but the entire race weekend was good.

[TK-421]

Originally Posted by kirkx5m

again, a miserable race weekend for the two Ferraris LOL

they've got fucking geniuses behind the pitwall -___-

[BTM]

Ferrari doesn't seem to have the pace yet this year. Their race pace is better than their qualifying pace, but they have a lot of catching up to do.

[E90SLAM]

Thank you Pirelli!!!

[BTM]

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

Thank you Pirelli!!!

In a tongue and cheek sense, the shortcomings of the Pirelli tires are providing us with more exciting racing. This isn't always a "good" thing though, I always liken the comparison to say, a basketball game which is very close and "exciting" but in actuality both teams are playing sloppily resulting in a lot of turnovers, missed shots, etc.

Pirelli has a lot of catching up to do. The rate at which a tire drops off is very great, and it is these differences which facilitate a lot of the passing we have seen so far. From a tire management and strategic standpoint, everyone is facing the same issues, and while I'm not contending that exciting racing is artificial, I would certainly like to see it be more centered around team/car/driver rather than how they manage a subpar mandate from the FIA.

This is not to discount the drivers at all, there have been some awesome drives (Webber today for example), but in the end, I think the 2 compound requirement is stupid, but they seem to be set on keeping that, as it inherently produces more passing as the differences in grip are more drastic between drivers on differing compounds. What I maintain, however, would be better racing, is two drivers, battling it out, being able to race on the optimum tires without having to run less suited compound for the day just because it's in the rules.

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by BTM

In a tongue and cheek sense, the shortcomings of the Pirelli tires are providing us with more exciting racing. .............,

I think the 2 compound requirement is stupid, but they seem to be set on keeping that, as it inherently produces more passing as the differences in grip are more drastic between drivers on differing compounds. What I maintain, however, would be better racing, is two drivers, battling it out, being able to race on the optimum tires without having to run less suited compound for the day just because it's in the rules.

I completely agree.

[EINSER M]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

I completely agree.

i agree too, the tire degrading is so artificial.

[M3_WC]

Only thing that is missing is refueling and fuel strategy. That would only add even more to the excitement.

[BTM]

Originally Posted by M3_WC

Only thing that is missing is refueling and fuel strategy. That would only add even more to the excitement.

I can live with the refueling ban, from a safety standpoint only, but I don't like it. Too many fueling errors / pit fires, I can see where it came from. Though I agree that it should not be up to the FIA to regulate this. If a team wants to refuel his car every lap, so be it. If one wants to go the entire distance, so be it.

I can understand putting a cap on the amount of gallons used per race or weekend in an attempt to spur technological development (and more effective IMO than capping how many gallons a car can carry), but on the whole, outside of car design regulations, I am an F1 de-regulationist. In the end though, such precaution is taken to driver safety, I won't begrudge them paying closer attention to team safety as well.

[UltimateBMW]

Not much to say that hasn't been expressed yet. 2 Mighty drives from Hamilton and Webber but Hamilton has to take the drive of the day. His overtakes were massive, and to result in the win just seals the end of a great race.

Hamilton, Absolutely fantastic.

Originally Posted by BTM

Pirelli has a lot of catching up to do. The rate at which a tire drops off is very great, and it is these differences which facilitate a lot of the passing we have seen so far.

I wouldn't blame Pirelli. They have done exactly what was asked of them. Even if they had made the tires degrade in a different way, say putting all that excess rubber down onto the pavement as grip instead of as marbles off the line. Then you would end up with people on tires past their prime that could still run decently. What we have now is near mandated pit stops because when the tires are gone they are done with.

On Vettel's strategy, as Horner said even if they had gone with a 3 stop strategy as soon as Vettel lost the place out to both McLarens at the start this put him off the race win. At lap 45 I remember seeing Hamilton closing on Vettel with the gap under 20 seconds. For Vettel to pit would have only served to make things worse. Red Bull went with the 2 stop to gamble their way out of Vettel's poor stop. I was surprised to see Button ~10 seconds at the end of the race, but it seems his last set of tires didn't serve him as well.

Hamilton and Webber proved today the benefit of having 4 sets of fresh tires and this will change the game in coming Qualifying sessions.

[UltimateBMW]

The next 3 weeks will feel like an eternity.

[EINSER M]

Originally Posted by UltimateBMW

The next 3 weeks will feel like an eternity.

it will be horrible. time to bust out the TIVO for some replays. see everyone for istanbul in 3 weeks.

[yakev724]

Just watched the race....wow

Definitely the most exciting I've seen of the past 8-9 since I started watching, (maybe aside from abu dhabi last yr); glad to see lewis at his best and webber

Speed is absolutely no way to watch a race. Commercials and commentators that make me want to mute the TV. From now on unless I'm watching live, I'll be putting in the effort to download the BBC cast as I've done a few times before.

Commercials? Seriously? No wonder they don't show soccer consistently on espn--it doesn't earn nearly as much as other TV!!!

[abisson]

I used to watch F1 on the Quebec sports network (RDS, the equivalent of TSN in French) but now that I am in Singapore, I am watching it on BBC, and my god, what a DIFFERENCE.

The quality of the comments, the amount of information, David Coulthard and Martin are funny, ex F1 drivers, they joke around. Man, I wonder what I have missed over the years.

[BTM]

Originally Posted by UltimateBMW

I wouldn't blame Pirelli. They have done exactly what was asked of them. Even if they had made the tires degrade in a different way, say putting all that excess rubber down onto the pavement as grip instead of as marbles off the line. Then you would end up with people on tires past their prime that could still run decently. What we have now is near mandated pit stops because when the tires are gone they are done with.

One of the main complaints of the Pirellis (namely in Malaysia) was the fact that they weren't rubbering in. The off-line pavement is as dirty with marbles as I can remember. I'm not necessarily blaming anything on Pirelli as much as acknowledging they have a ways to go to developing a race tire in the sense that Michelin and Bridgestone are able to and that the on track action is affected by this, without actually making the racing better, just promoting more overtaking due to external & mandated circumstances.

[VinnieAces]

Easily the best race of the year,

the Chinese grand prix may be my favourite race now